PaulF's Red NA6

[hks_kansei]

I also pulled the driver's seat out to get a better look underneath the seat cover. The plot thickens... There's fabric in the main back section and the main base section but none in the bolsters:

IMG_2038 by Paul F photos, on Flickr

IMG_2039 by Paul F photos, on Flickr

IMG_2041 by Paul F photos, on Flickr

LOL.

It's like CSI Mx5 with the staged zoomed photos.


I keep expecting the next post to be "after microscopically analysing the stitching, we found out that the previous owner was named John, and owned 2 dogs. and that when he was 12 he accidentally broke his mother's favourite vase and blamed it on his sister"

[PaulF]

Hahaha! I do feel a bit like a detective, except my mystery is trying to work out what the hell the previous owner was thinking.

[marty085]

semi "leather" seats are all the rage..

[KevGoat]

my mystery is trying to work out what the hell the previous owner was thinking.

.... or smokin' .....

[PaulF]

So last night, a lifted 4x4 run up the back of me at literally WALKING PACE. In a carpark. I guess the moron just didn't know where the front of his car is, which suggests that he shouldn't have been driving it in the middle of the f*cking city.

I got out and had a look at the rear bumper and didn't see any damage. "Gee, that's lucky", I thought.

The light of day, however, revealed this:

Argh by Paul F photos, on Flickr

I guess the 4x4 was too high to actually hit the bumper. This makes me even more pissed off because if he'd hit the side of my car, his bullbar would have been in my face.

Anyway, it looks like all the lights work at least. I'm still pissed off though, because I will have to replace it at some point and I don't have his details. Lesson learned: Check more thoroughly for damage after any incident.

[Dweezle]

DUDE!!!!! NASTY

I have been rear ended a few times without any obvious damage.
I learnt my lesson to always take details no matter what.

BUMMER

[Jeo]

Sad face.

[PaulF]

And now for some more positive news... what's this?


IMG_2071[1] by Paul F photos, on Flickr

[dimarg]

One awesome packaging job ;)

[PaulF]

IMG_2072[1] by Paul F photos, on Flickr


IMG_2073[1] by Paul F photos, on Flickr



Bought these Gaz coilovers from Giuls, AKA dimarg, who was very helpful, honest and prompt in his communication. Thanks mate. And yes, very impressive packaging haha.

Looking forward to getting them fitted. With my exhaust getting built soon as well, things are really starting to come together for this car.

[PaulF]

It's been a productive couple of days. On Friday I helped (read: watched) Dann build and install my exhaust. Dann's workmanship really is top notch and this looks and sounds amazing. It's a 2" (i.e. correct size) mandrel bent stainless system with 4-2-1 extractors sourced from Wozzah, high flow cat and 2 resonators. No muffler, so it's loud but not ridiculously loud. It's been built so that if I want to, we can cut the rear resonator off and weld in a high flow muffler like Goonie's setup which Dann built today (which also sounds amazing). Dann posted this in his own garage thread:

Paul Fs new setup.

So much awesome it distorts his face.








Tacked.

Welded. Face distortion due to awesomeness.


Didnt realise this photo was of the start/finish of the weld when I took it.

I've been asked to make a video of how it sounds so I will try to do that in the next few days.

The other development is that I went down to Sydney yesterday to pick up an NB8B driver's seat which I got off a forum member for a great price. It has had the famous "foamectomy" on the base and I'm really happy with the difference in seating position. It also should offer some head protection from a roll bar in future and it makes my interior a much nicer place to be IMO. Money well spent.

[PaulF]

So the little red beast passed blue slip today on its first try. Tomorrow I will go and get the rego transferred and hopefully get an oil change done as well.

[PaulF]

In the last week the car has been blue slipped, gained NSW plates, had an oil change and I finally got to install my coilovers today!

Installation went really smoothly. Because they had never been installed before, they hadn't been set to a height so we had to basically go with and arbitrary shock length and then adjust from there. As a result, I got a 5-minute taste of what it's like to drive a car with 80mm of clearance or there-abouts. This was more than enough time to confirm that it's not for me.

This is the height that it's currently sitting at:

IMG_2099 by Paul F photos, on Flickr

So far I've only dríven probably 30km on these, but at the moment I'm pretty happy with the way they're performing. The car really hugs the road now rather than wallowing around above it.

At the moment I'm running the stock airbox because I needed it for the blue slip. Considering the amount of heat on modified cars in Newcastle at the moment, I might stay with stock for a while longer. Looking forward to getting the muffler installed so the exhaust is a little less obnoxious, and then once the intake is back on the overall sound should be a bit less exhaust-biased.

[KevGoat]

If I remember rightly, these were around the 6KG & 4KG spring rates? Should be quite a comfortable set up I would think and matches the 3:2 ratio for good handling that I've read about. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I was so tempted to get those coilovers. I'll be interested to read your thoughts on them over time.

[PaulF]

Yeah, they're 250 and 350 lb which equates to roughly 4.5 and 6.3. So they're slightly rear-heavy but in my experience so far the handling is still pretty neutral. It understeers if you tell it to understeer and it oversteers if you tell it to oversteer.

And yes, so far they're quite reasonable comfort-wise.