In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
We'll see how it holds up. I've tracked a bunch of Miatas with that sort of mileage without too many issues, so I'm hoping this Toyobaru won't be that different.
In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
We'll see how it holds up. I've tracked a bunch of Miatas with that sort of mileage without too many issues, so I'm hoping this Toyobaru won't be that different.
No photos tonight - car is going to the bodyshop tomorrow, so I made sure that all of the important pieces are in the car itself. I also got myself a heat gun, so I made some more of a dent into the sound deadning in the trunk. Fortunately it's the cheap stuff and wasn't installed very well, so it's coming out about as OK as these things tend to come out.
Quick question, however - what's the best way to remove the remaining sticky residue? Goo gone?
In reply to BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) :
Odorless mineral spirits
Following. I have the feeling I'll own one of these someday.
Thanks!
And now I wait, for the body shop to get back to me.
Still waiting to hear back from the bodyshop - talked to them on Friday afternoon (car was dropped off Wednesday night) and they hadn't had time to look it over yet. Anyway, I should hear back from them tomorrow. I may already have made their annoying customer list...
USPS continues to cover themselves in glory - after delivering a "2 day priority" parcel on Friday that had been sent out on 2/17, one of those "shouldn't have looked at an FB parts for sale group" purchases was supposed to arrive on Saturday. Tracking information has now gone from Saturday to nothing other than "your item is running late". Yeah, I know. Oh well, it was last seen around Orlando FL, let's hope it'll eventually exit that vortex and make its way further north.
Just before I sent the car to the body shop, I had to make another minor "fix". I'm just not cool enough to rock this kind of interior light:
Once I figured out which bulb it needs - I don't have an owner's manual (yet) - I managed to replace it with a bulb that I actually consider useful:
Silly color led bulbs drive me bonkers.
I genuinely thought the car didn't have a working interior light.
Well, the "unnecessary purchase" did end up getting delivered yesterday after all. Still haven't heard from the bodyshop, I'll give it another couple of days and I think then I'll have to drop by in person.
I know, small town running on the local equivalent of Island Time, but I need to know if I can book the PCA track day at the end of the month or not, stat.
Went to visit the car at the bodyshop yesterday after work. They reckon it's going to be a fairly easy job and that most of the damage should just pull out. There's a very shallow dent in the side of the wheelarch that may or may not come out, but I can live with that being present. Very likely they'll only have to paint the bumper, which also cuts down on the effort (and thus cost). The main unknown factor is time - it's a really small shop and they were very open about having to prioritise insurance work over smaller jobs like mine. Either way, we'll know more in about a week or so.
As to the box with the unnecessary purchases, I got to open it last night, too. Anything to avoid working on our tax returns. Do I spot a little yellow here?
Indeed, there were a bunch of yellow parts in there:
Full set of Konis with stock BRZ springs. Seller claimed that they have about 5000 miles on them and came off his autocross car. Based on the condition of both the shocks and other parts like the top mounts, I'm pretty sure that that's accurate. They're should definitely be in better condition than the 148k stock suspension on the BRZ.
Today was DMV day. You're supposed to make an appointment at the DMV at the moment instead of just showing up, so I had made one as soon as I had agreed to buy the car. When I rocked up at the DMV, there was a huge line, but it was the walk-in line. The appointment line was empty, so I ended up only having to wait a couple of minutes before I was called in. About quarter of an hour later, I had paid the sales tax, had a plate, registration and a freshly printed title in my name. In my book, that's pretty dang impressive.
I also found an owner's manual wallet with pretty much pristine BRZ owner's manuals on the bays of flea. As the owner's manual was missing from the car or so well hidden that I haven't found them yet, I figured that $25 with free shipping was a worthwhile investment.
Oh, and because I can't resist a bad pun, the BRZ will sport a WV "Protect Pollinators" plate with a yuuuuuge bee on it:
BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:Oh, and because I can't resist a bad pun, the BRZ will sport a WV "Protect Pollinators" plate with a yuuuuuge bee on it:
Love it!
ha, love the plate. that actually looks really cool!
I hope you got the custom plate "RRRZZZZ" to go with it.
Maybe I missed it, but has that thing had the valve spring recall performed?
CAinCA said:I hope you got the custom plate "RRRZZZZ" to go with it.
I actually would've, if it WV would allow to personalise special plates. Unfortunately they don't, so there is a boring number on the plate.
FMB42 said:Maybe I missed it, but has that thing had the valve spring recall performed?
I may have mentioned it in my pre-purchase thread but not here. Yes, it's had the valve spring recall about 7k miles ago, and the engine doesn't make funny noises.
One of the nice things about Covid is the DMV here now takes appointments. So when I bought the KTM I made one, which I then was able to use to register the Xterra too. In n out in 15 minutes.
Unfortunately they're backed up for vanity plates for a few months, so I'll have to request those on line...
In reply to docwyte :
I'm hoping they keep the appointment system post COVID as well. It's certainly made the whole registration process much quicker if you have an appointment.
In WV they don't currently seem to accept applications for vanity/personalised plates at all. My wife is thinking of changing hers and I was told at the DMV that they don't accept applications for new personalised plates right now.
Aaaand...
We have the first video featuring the car.
Just got "the call" from the body shop. No, not the one where they tell me they had to have it carted to the junkyard...
I foresee a lot more cleaning, poking around and ordering parts this weekend.
If you like actual data instead of it totally adds 50 horsepower, bro anecdotes, Moto IQ has/had a project FR-S. The COBB power blocks, basically intake runner spacers, added a surprising amount of power u der the curve. They have dyno graphs to prove it. I think this is Mike Kojima and/or Dave Coleman's deal.
In reply to Appleseed :
Thanks, I'll definitely check that out. I vaguely remembered Mike Kojima bought an FR-S when they came out but hadn't thought about checking their site. And yes, I noticed there is a lot of "bro science" and "Gran Turismo Tuning" going on.
Just picked up the car from the bodyshop, very happy with the results. Apparently it only took one pull to straighten out the damage, and even the shallow dent in the wheelarch popped out. Colour match on the bumper is good as well, and they even repaired the damaged vent using plastic welding.
Poked around the car today after it had warmed up enough that there wasn't much danger of me turning into a popsicle in the garage.
First annoyance is that the jacking points are slightly too far apart to work with my QuickJack. The front jacking points are also pretty mangled, looks like someone wasn't too careful jacking this car up a few times. That's a tad annoying because I may have to work out how to get it on jackstands without doing additional damage to those areas[1].
Other than that, it looks like all four brake calipers are dragging, with one of the fronts being the worst culprit. Given how that worked out with the S2000 when I thought I had freed up the pistons properly and almost cooked the brakes on the first track outing, I'm not going to chance it this time. Which of course means either rebuilding the calipers or finding rebuilt ones. That was a tad unexpected and does unpleasant things to the schedule. The brake rotors actually aren't in that bad a shape, but the issues with the calipers appear to have contributed to uneven pad pressure issues, and the closer you get to the edge of the rotors you go on the rotors, the more corrosion is remaining. So they're also good for recycling.
I also discovered that the coolant was a tad low and the expansion tank was dry (someone *cough* apparently mistook the deposits in the bottom for actual coolant) so I topped that up. Fortunately it looked like the coolant didn't need bleeding, but I get to do that anyway when I swap out the radiator.
Rest of the day was spend trying to clean up the interior a bit more and scraping aftermarket sound deadening out of the trunk. Yuck. Oh, and one of the rear shocks makes rude noises even when I try to push the suspension up by hand, so I'm guessing that fitting the new used struts just climbed up the to do list.
I've got a few more hours of scraping for tomorrow and need to spend some time cleaning the interior. It's not that it's massively dirty, but it's smells wonderfully like air freshener (gack) and given that I pulled out old pasta (used) from under the drivers seat I think I'll better pull the seats for a more thorough cleaning. Not too fond of the fact that the seat bolts appears to be external Torx, but I think I have the correct socket for them.
[1] Edit: Poking around on YouTube suggests that I should be able to lift the car using the pinchweld blocks even if I put those blocks a little ways away from the reinforced jacking points. Oh well, the pinchweld blocks were on the shopping list anyway.
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