Mazda RX-8, Series 2 - R3. Refresh Build Thread. **WARNING PICTURE HEAVY!!**

Build Thread Directory.


Page 1.-

Car Intro, Brief Plans For Car, Pictures On Day Of Purchase, Cleaning/Clay Barring, Headlight Restoring, Brakes Tear Down, New Brakes - Lines / Pads / Discs / Cailper Kit, Full Exhaust Replacment, Heat Wrapping, Wheel Arch Refurb, Engine Mounts, Coilovers And Fitting, Brakes Install, Spacers Install, Plastic Dip Wheels, Trim Refurb, Rooflining Retirm, Flocking Trim, Mz Style Rear Spats, Modded Front Number Plate Holder, Carbon Fibre Skinning, Coil Packs / Leads & Plug Install.

Page 2.-

Carbon Fibre Trim, Trim De-Chroming, Servicing, Exhaust Flaming, Engine Flush, Heat Wrap Removal, Service List, Boot Lid De-Badging And Smoothed, Carbon Fibre Trim Refurb, Carbon Fibre Piller Trimmed, Rear Spats Painted, Steering Wheel Re-Trim, Rear Parking Sensor Fitted, Rear Number Plate Lights Refurb.

Page 3.-

Rear End Completed, Rear Spats Fitted, Front Sensors Fitted, Centre Console Carbon Fibre'd.

Right, where to begin? So, quick history.

I owned a Grey (looks more brown colour to be honest.) 2009 RX8 R3 back in June 2011. Had it for about six months till I had enough of the gearbox problem that Mazda kept messing me about with and never got fixed so traded it in. Was all O.E. but had the wheels refurbish in Satin Black. Oddly enough, it's on the auto trader now for sale.

Now, to where I am today.

I've always kept an eye on the prices over the last couple of years and with the new tax system it makes having one of these as a second car easier. Now the R3's have gotten to a fairly cheapish price bracket now with what you get. I think they will problerly drop a little more but pretty sure these are certain to rise in price in a few years time.

Anyway, all that a side, I spent around three months looking for another R3 but this time in crystal white to which I found the one I have now. Normally I wouldnt have bought a car that was advised as this and turn out to be in condition etc to what is, but it was only because at the time I felt I got it at a good price and was within a resonable distance.

Now, this car was/is apparently a "no expense spared" car with all new brakes and tyres! This turn out to be just new pads on the rear which was fitted back to front and a full set of budget tyres! I'm pretty sure the guy had never washed it him self as the paint work feels like sand paper if you rub your hand over it along with a few other niggly bits that want putting right.

As I said, I wouldn't of normally bought a car that turn out like this, but it was purely right time and place for what I was looking for as my plan it take it apart and work on refreshing and replace where nessary with my little brother as a brother bonding project over the summer on his uni hoildays.

So here's the plan, do everything where possible our selfs, refresh to as new condition and or replace broken parts with O.E. or upgraded parts and give it some subtle touches here and there. No real plans on going crazy with mods or chasing power figures, but I wouldn't rule that out.

The car.

I owned this car for about three months, think it was 1st May? Drove it home and that's where it sat since. Mazda RX8 R3 Crytal White with 40,700 miles and full service history.

Since buying it, I've slowly been buying and collecting parts for the refresh. Things have started to progress this last month and I will start posting up what I done etc on this thread as things get completed for those who are interested.

Thanks for reading and il get some pictures up shortly.

G.

And here it is the day I bought it.

Don't let the pictures fool you, it does appear to be nice and shiny but trust me, close up in the day light its was far from that.

Here on this picture, you can see the brake pads on the wrong way, ie the low level warning indicator sticking out the calliper!

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First things I did since day two was going over everything and start a list on parts to refresh etc.

First up for a proper wash, I gave the car a standard go over then targeted the door shuts, bonnets shuts, boot and arches. It took me nearly six hours of a lot of hot water etc scrubbing. My hands were so score the next day from pressing so hard to try remove it all. It looked as if it has sat under a tree for a year? The green was so tuff, I forgot to get picture as was to busy getting stuck in, but here one of the petrol cap area! It was just like this but all round the whole car.

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Cleaning following on, my headlight and rear was covered in crap to that I couldn't get off so I used a Megiaurs headlight restorer kit, but instead of the sanding process, I just used the polishing parts and they come up really well. Forgot to snap the rears but here's the fronts.

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Next I moved onto stripping the car down. Removed the braking system for a refresh and replacements of discs, pads and brake lines.

Also, sanded and recoated the brake dust shields and made a start on wire brushing the calipers and rebuilding them with new internals.

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Following on my cleaning process, I noticed when arch cleaning that the drivers side engine mount had worn, so got my self a set of uprated one.

These are new, but fitted to a car project that got abandon, so bolted on and never actually used, so won them at a decent price I think.

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I bought a clay bar kit, never done this before and my god, it sounded like I was chopping wood with a hand saw the paint was that bad! I got a few picture, but as your see, I spent around ten hours clay baring this car well into the night, the neighbours must of thought I was mad as was still at it till 1:30am.

Sadly, no real good after photos as was dark then it rained the next day.

Recommend clay baring massively to anyone, my car looked amazing after! It still needs more going over in some areas though as there still some real stubborn metal swarf looking parts stuck on the paint, but mostly gone now thankfully.

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So, as I was busy taking things off the car which I might add, nothing seized or snapped on me as of yet, new parts had started to arrive.

First up, the usual ToyoSports exhaust system. Removing the exhaust off the car was pretty easy, all undone without a care in the world. Can't help but think it must of had something else on at some point as even the cat and manifold all undone. In fact, the hardest part was trying to get the rubber mounts off, what a pain in the a** that was!

Anyway, I had loads of heat wrap left from another build, so we decided to wrap it all with it. Before anyone pops up, I am aware about wrapping can cause the welds etc to crack, I'm not overly fussed about this as the system so cheap plus it a car for fun at weekends in etc.

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After getting all itchy wrapping the exhaust it was time to remove all the suspension and the old worn engine mounts and then get onto fitting the exhaust.

I since removed the second air pump that blows into the manifold on cold starts as now be running a decat.

So I quickly used the gasket to draw up a template on a sheet of metal to make a blanking plate then chopped, drill and gave it a coat of paint and away I went. Also, whilst I was at it, fitted the uprated engine mounts.

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Spent more time on the wheel arches, did some extensive degreasing and rubbing down followed by recoat of Black 3M Stone Guard, plus re done a few areas under the car to.

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Next up, more parts had started turning up, renewing the brakes. Nothing to fancy as this is just a road car, no plans on tracking it etc.

I went with straight grooved discs, prefer grooves personally and some average all round brake pads followed by a set of Goodridge Braided brake line and calipers rebuild kit.



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My first job was to do a bit of rust control on the discs. So I masked them all up, made the central area I'm painting slightly wider to make sure I get proper coverage, so that once they are on and I've done a few braking stops, the pads will wear the over lap off and give a perfect clean line minimising bare metal non contact area for the dreaded rust.

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:popcorn:

Going to read this when home !;)

More onto the styling side of things now. I wanted to lower the car, but couldn't make my mind up on how much and from previous experience, Spring kits can be a lotto with the stated drop and most of all I found never really sit the same height on each corner. So with this in mind I went with the coilovers option.

After a good look around etc there is a lot of choice, but after looking at install guides I soon noticed going with adjustable damping could prove to be a nightmare with the rear due to the rx8 chassis covering the tops which then lead onto looking at more and more expensive set up's only to then reality kick back in to what I'm really looking to achieve, freshen up fun road car fit, forget and enjoy.

So, back to basics, I saw the Tein Street Basic kit keep popping up and bargain price. Bearing in mind what I'm wanting, this seems a good deal for the price and being a big brand I know I shouldn't be having any quitiy issues. So I ordered this kit and my plan is to set it to slightly lower than my preferred hight then check drive way and my local roads with speed bumper etc for ground clearance and winding up till I get good enough clearance.

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So here wego, O.E. suspension off then dismantle as I need to reuse the top hats. Then new coilovers built up with the O.E. top mounts ready to be fitted.

The eagle eye will notice, the bump stops on the front shocks have been chopped, so my car must of previously had lowering Spring kit fitted at some point.

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Fitting time, it was pretty straight forward. I pre set them all so tension up and all matching and set about bolting them all on, then just nipped up all the nuts and bolts finger tight.

I then used my hydraulic Jack with a block of wood and went round one by one jacking up each corner to compress the spring/shock till it lifted the car slightly off the axle stand.

Whilst doing this, I then tighten up properly the shock bolts and wish bones nuts and bolts so all bushes etc around the car work out being set at the same angle, ie less stress/twisted bushes when the car sitting on the ground on natural form if that makes sense.

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Finally got round to fitting my new discs, pads and rebuilt and freshly paint calipers. Good bye old rusty looking brakes! On went the discs first, then started building up the calipers. Turned out really well in the end, pretty happy with the final result.

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I then fitted my new clear coated Goodridge Braided Brake Lines and gave the whole system a good bleed through flushing out all the old fluid. Was really dirty looking, by looking at it, it properly was the same fluid from new. This really should be refresh every two years which goes a miss by a lot of people.

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Last part on my braking system for now, I got some new drill bits so I could enlarge the eye hole on the c-clips to fix the front braided lines to the wish bones. Also, more parts had started turning up being a set of Eibach Pro Spacers. I'm now feeling like I'm actually getting somewhere with it now.

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Here's a couple before and after.

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I'm looking to get all four wheel professionally refurbish once I've decided on tyres. Usually I only fit Continental on my cars, but might go with something else this time, but il worry about that nearer the time. Anyway, I'm thinking of going satin black with my wheels again like my last R3, so I got myself a couple of cans of Plastic Dip and away we went for a preview. Please excuse the budget tyres.

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So now I got the brakes finished with for now etc and the spacers on, I could finally bolt the wheel back on and put the car on ground to finally see how it's all looks.

There is bits of trim missing here and there as you will notice, but this is just because I'm still working on things, so it will be going back on the axle stands in a week or two to carry on with some under sealing and few other bits I want to tidy up.

After that, once my wheels are refurbish etc, il put some locite on the threads holding the wheel spacers and touqe them up to spec also rase the car slightly for now as its dropped about 10mm since putting back on the ground, plus I left it sitting in gear without handbrake to help settle it a little before adjusting them properly later on.

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That last about ten minutes before I could get any proper pictures as then the rain started hammering it down.

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Moved onto doing a few interior details.

It really bothers me the annoying gray colour roof etc, so I set about removing it and some trim to bring it a bit more up to date.

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I got some foam backed faux suede to retrim my roof.

Anyone thinking of doing this, don't unless your very skilled, this isn't an easy task.

I stripped off the old lining, layed out the new one and trim round it and set about applying starting from the middle doing one half first being the rear, then onto the hard part being the front as there is a lot of tricky areas that need stretching and then shrinking to get it to follow the shape not forgetting how careful you need to be with the roof lining it's self as it's very fragile.

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So after a lot of pulling and shrinking, I got it on sitting to repeatable level. I was running out of adhesive when gluing then ends back when cutting the holes out for the light etc so duct taped round the edges once it had dryer to be sure although I doubt it was needed.

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Left it a day to fully cure (not really needed as was a very hot day.), then popped it back in the car.

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Now I have a lurxy roof lining it was time to sort out the now extra nasty looking pillar trims etc.

Ordered a flocking kit and away we went. This is very messy, if your thinking of trying this, do the flocking part outside, as it goes everywhere, tiny tiny parts in the air that you can't see followed by two/three days of still cleaning the spare room and hallway even though we was doing it into a big container etc.

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Few close up's.

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Then started clipping parts back in. Before anyone points this out, il just note now that the front light console isn't fully in because I'm waiting on some LED replacement bulbs. It started to get dark so only got a couple pictures for now, but I'm happy with the out come.

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I then got my self a ignition upgrade kit being the almighty R969 Coil pack kit with plugs.

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Also, I got some MZ style rear spats from Essex Rotary.

Not sure how I'm going to go about fitting these yet, might bond them on then shape them for a factory look?

They need a go over to smooth them out a little anyway but I'm looking to get the bumper resprayed as will be adding parking sensors and the spats will need painting once sorted, so might as well have it all blown over.

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Few test fit shots with bit of tape and cable ties.

Complements the factory kit/styling so well.

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Just another small upgrade but makes a big differents, I renewed all my bulbs. Got some fresh 6000k headlight bulbs along with complete set of CREE LED bulbs, no pictures as just bulbs, but I did take short few second video of the indicators to show the differences it has made on them alone.

On the left is standard bulb and on the right is CREE LED. See how it's a sharp on/off aswell as good bright clear flash. Pretty happy with the result from these.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIwsRuJIKto

I assigned my personalised plate to my R3, since it has a couple number less I decided to get chopping.

Measured out the legal spacing etc and marked around the edge and away I went.

After that, I then cut up the OEM plate holder to match, test fitted then body filler and smooth it out, just needs coating.

Now the plate so small it makes it look like I've got giant letter/numbers.

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After modding my number plate holder, I was looking to wrap it in carbon fibre vinyl.

But then after a bit of thought, decided why not go full on one off custom and actually skin it in real carbon fibre!

So basically, this happen.

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Measured it up, chopped off the sheet what I need, mixed up the base coat resin, applied, wait, lay carbon fibre, wait to cure, trim edges which then let with with this.

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Next was to lay the first gel coat and leave to cure.

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Now I had a base to work on, I set about properly trimming the edges, cutting out the holes followed by flatting down the main high points ready to start laying down/building up the coats.

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So here we are after a few layers.

Just need to flat it down with some fine grades followed by a go over with the cutting polish compound and we have a full one off modded OEM number plate bracket.

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After chopping about my plate holder, it got me thinking, so basscaily off came my grill and this happen.

Rub down, mask, base coat and stick!

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Once the base coat had set, I then set about trimming out the tow eye covers before building up the gel coats.

I purposely did it this way so the carbon fibre pattern will match seamlessly across from end to end.

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Applied a few coats, fine trimmed round the edges and here is how it now stands. Just needs one more coat, then will flat it back and polish.

Should look good once back on the car matched with my custom plate holder etc.

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More Carbon fibre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_z_E53VSss&sns=em

More things ticked off the todo list.

Finally got round to fitting my R969 (D585-R) Coils pack kit.

Out with the old.

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Old Plugs, leads and Spark plugs off.

As you can see, the coils have got the white marks appearing, my R3 so far covered 40,859 miles, by the looks of it they must be the originals.

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First up, I fitted the plugs and lead.

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Then on with the base plate/bracket and so on. The whole job was pretty simple, no stuck bolts or broken clips, pretty much was straight forward swap in the freezing cold. Here's with it all fitted. Will be doing the twenty brake pedal press trick and firing it up later as now working on my exhaust system.

More to follow...

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ffs goobs give ya a inch and you take a mile picture heavy aint correct 😆😆😆

As your about to see, started getting more and more involved with customising parts in carbon fibre.

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More.
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Resin layers build up.

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As my last posts has been body parts stuff, il quickly add a little more on that for the minute.

I've been nosing around for spare trim and managed to pick up a pair of complete front and rear bumpers for a reasonable price, and for future use.

Meanwhile, I've stripped them down and stuck what current trim is missing back on my R3 for now while I'm still playing around with the carbon fibre only to start messing with that too.

So basically for now, I've started rubbing down and de chroming bits of trim.

Here's a few picture for now.

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De-Chromed.

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Fitted, not a 100% colour match, but personally prefer it over the chrome.

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I've also rubbed down and painted my spare bottom rear bumper trim that goes round the fog light area. Once it's on, should give it that little extra defuser look matching the rest of the kit trim.

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Now, enough about bodywork for now and onto more mechanical things.

When I bought this car it had apparently just been serviced around 6/7 weeks ago. There was a can of oil in the boot, pretty sure the wrong stuff to, I forget what it was now, anyway no biggy as plan on changing it.

I've turn my attention more onto servicing and replacing and ordered the following.

Bosch Window wipers
Pollon filters
K&N Oil filter
Air con Belt
Crank / water pump Belt
Motul 90pa Rear Diff Oil (2 litre.)
Castro Syntrans 75w-90 GL-4 Gearbox Oil (2 litre.)
Fuchs Titan Syn Mc 10w-40 (Two lots of 5 litre.)
And a GReddy Magnic Sump plug that was a freebie from Essex Rotary, thanks.

That's it for now I think? I also got a s****y tool for the diff and gearbox oil, see picture below. (Only got one snap of my work list above.)

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I got fairly stuck in draining etc, no real pictures to show, just oil dipping into a drain can.

I started with my rear diff as had that down as the hardest, but turn out to be very easy. Much to my suprise, it poured out looking like new! Was just as clean and fresh looking as what I was refilling with. Took some time using my syringe gun to refill, but was simple enough.

Next up I moved onto the gearbox, undone the filler bolt first and oil started dripping out, had clearly been over filled plus is was pretty much hand tight! I had the car up on four axle stands so was sitting level to. The oil that came out was really black, guessing same oil from new maybe? I actually managed to get my little one litre oil pack in enough to squeeze about 75% out straight into the gearbox which saved a lot of time, I then used my trusty syrine gun to fill the last of it.

Right, now onto part one of double engine oil change. That came out pretty much pure black! Then getting the oil filter off was another story in its self. Never had to much trouble removing a oil filter before, even with the right tools. In the end I had to go buy oil filter plier tool and even with that clamped round it I spent a good twenty minutes trying to get it off and completely destroyed it in the process.

After removing that, I left it for a good drain with plug off, no filter and the filler cap off and when onto fitting new wipers and pollen filters.

Back onto engine oil, put the oe plug back on, filled the oil filter and hand tighten on, loaded the engine back up. I'm thinking as it was so black, a double change won't be enough, so I'm going to run it up to temp then drop the oil again and repeat for a third time and change the oil filter again to.

Ref to black oil, I can only imagine where ever this place was that the previous owner took the car must be scammers, can't see why engine oil that's done few hundred miles would be pure black and an oil filter literally super glued on, I guess it would explain the rear brake pads being fitted back to front!

Lastly, swapped out my old belts for fresh new ones.

The "todo" list is slowly getting smaller.

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I've gotten a little ahead of my self here and missed this part out, the exhaust saga!

Here goes.-

Well, after a lot of messing about with my stupid Toyosports exhaust, I.e. cutting and rewelding to get the tail pipes to sit in the right place, I just ended up scrapping it as without a proper ramp and jig tools it's just not going to sit how I want.

So, basically now with the exhaust side of things being an R3, choice is limited some what and for a decent option I'm looking at £800 which isn't what I want to be spending right now when I've got a whole list of things with one of them being proper tyres thats around that price alone.

Short version, I've still got my old standard system, luckily not thrown it out yet. What I've done is polished the tail pipes up to bling effect again and got a full genuine gasket set and refitted it with my silenced de-cat and tubular manifold as a temporary solution and so I can finally start up the engine for the first time in seven and a half months!

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Anyway, winter time and hours and hours of fitting parts, battery check/charge etc etc finally got round to the moment of turning the key and bring it back to life in the dark.

Now, being winter and the fact it's 5'c with old fuel in the tank, you could imagen how much I was prepared for a troublesome start!

But no, it fired up within two seconds and run fine as if I've just pit stop'd for fuel then got back in to head off again. To say I was very happy would be a understatement.

Also, much to my surprise, the exhaust note is awesome. Wasn't expecting it to sound like it does let alone shoot some flames with a standard massive rear box. Sounds stock on idle, but once the revs are up and over 3,500 point, it really does have a nice rasp sound.

I got a very short clip, not the best, as the neighbours wasn't as impressed as much as me.

Flame shooting sound clip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSuztqX_CFA

Wheels back on and off the axle stands, woo...

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More serviceable items and work done today. Decided to join everyone else with the Varta E23 battery, so I ordered a fresh new battery.

Made sense really, as no idea how old mine is plus as I've renew pretty much everything i.e. coil's, leads and plugs, this was now the only real weak link in the ignition system.

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Also picked up two Mazda five litre FL22 Coolent and genuine correct R3 oil filters.

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So today consisted of fitting new battery followed by Coolent drain from the engine block then the rad. It all come out as new looking, no funny bits or any corrosion looking parts floating about in my drainer, so caps back on and refill, run up to temp and bleed.

Action shot! Haha.

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Lastly, whilst I had it running for so long bleeding, checking heaters and fans work, I then did another Oil and filter change swapping out the K&N filter for the genuine mazda filter. I'm looking todo a third Oil and filter change, but this time il be leaving that till I've done 100 miles.

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Meanwhile, I got few more hours in yesterday on the car.

After putting it off for so long, some of you will be happy to know I finally got the heat wrap off the manifold.

Wasn't to bad of a job whilst still fitted to the car. Now that was out the way I got on with putting all the wheel arch lining back on followed by the under trays and air ducting, it's now starting to look like a complete car again.

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Right, just thinking mechanical/service side of things what I've done.

So il use this post as a service list statement for future use.

Current Mileage at point of work carried out/completed. - 40,859.


Replaced.-

R Rev R969 Coil Packs.
Magnecor R-100 Leeds.
NGK Spark Plugs.
Oil & Filter (double change.).
Coolent.
Air filter.
Pollen Filters.
Gearbox Oil.
Rear Diff Oil.
Pulley Belts (water pump / air con.).
Steering UJ Regreesed.
Engine Mounts.
Front & Rear Brake Discs.
Front & Rear Brake Pads.
Brake Lines.
Brake Fluid.
Window Wipers.
Indicator Cree Bulbs.
Reverse & Fog Lights Cree Bulbs.
6000K Xenon Headlight Bulbs.
LED Side Lights.


I think that's it, il update this post with anything else I may of missed service wise.

Got some more body work progression, following on of my dechroming, I never really like the badges on the rear and annoyingly Mazda has put pin holes for the logo and branding purely to stop people like me from taking them off.

Well I'm not going to let that stop me, badges removed, holes welded up and smooth, bye bye badges!

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Holes welded.

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Filler and primed.

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No more brake light or holes!

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I popped down to the body shop Saturday to drop off my parking sensor I bought last week for colour coding and whilst I was there I got couple snaps of my rear spats they made a start on, picture below is them in high build primer waiting on being flatten down before paint.

Also ref about my parking sensors, I've got myself a front and rear set of Cobra flush mounts. It made sense to get matching front set with low seating position and the shape of the front with the big hooped wings can make visiblity 50/50 to judge when pulling out of a tight spot, plus with them being flush mounts they should be fairly discreet.

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:goodJob::popcorn::popcorn:

Been a tad busy with this then! 😄

I've heard that the con rods on these engine are the weak point. :D

Ordered up some more parts, I'm going to be swapping out the factory head unit and few other tweaks here and there, more to follow.

Got myself an adapter plate, bypass filter lead for the bose amp, standard connection lead and a matching steering wheel control link lead.

Also some of my interior trim is looking a bit scruffy, so starting stripping it out for a refresh.

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Couldn't resist, so out came the carbon fibre.

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Trimming.

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More progress for the centre console area, got the top and bottom parts of the original trim out to work on.

The top part was very tricky, I knew it would be harder trying to only cover the vent area with all the mix shapes it got going on instead of coating the whole part, but I do like a challenge so away I went doing it that way.

Disclaimer, all these parts are only at the first main stages and nowhere near the final product.

I'm slowly getting through parts I want cover'd, then il move onto the next stages as then I can go through the next process one by one.

Anyway, here's few pictures.

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Trimming.

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Placed together for pattern match check, coming along well so far, more to follower later as just main stages done so far.

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Now and then, I've bagged myself random bits of trim off eBay for pocket change.

So basically this happen, A pillars!

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Looking really good, loving all this custom carbon :-). Fancy doing anything for a GTT

Quote:

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Originally Posted by James5

Looking really good, loving all this custom carbon :-). Fancy doing anything for a GTT

---

What did you have in mind?

Back from paint, colour match is spot on.

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You may of noticed my steering wheel is missing in one of the picture. Can't say I was a fan of the skinny round wheel and had lost its visual appeal, so I removed it and sent it off for a professional refresh.

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So here we have my freshly retrimed factory steering wheel done by,- Royal Steering Wheels.

My retrim spec I had done was.-

2mm Thicker.
Thumb Grips.
Squared Flat Bottom.
Black Alcantara Top.
Black Leather Perforated Sides.
Black Leather Nappa Bottom.
Red Stitching.

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Finally got the boot lid back, no more holes etc.

Looking super smooth and declutter'd now.

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Had some time today to get on with some jobs.

Now I got a few parts painted, time to go get fitting. As above, boot lid was first on, next I got on with removing my rear bumper to fit my parking sensors.

Also got a proper paintless hole puncher tool for the job.

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Bumper off.

Bash bar not looking to pretty, will have to get that blasted and blown over.

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Then onto working out where to pop my sensors, mark and drill my pilot holes.

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Out come the hole puncher.

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Lastly, rear sensors fitted!

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Turned out fairly well, just got the fronts todo next.

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This tool is awesome, so simple.

Drill a pilot hole, then used a cone cutting drill bit to enlarge it for the bolt thread, pop it through and tighten the nuts on each side which pulls it through cutting a perfect correct sized clean hole like so.

Attachment 31455

Hole punch tool in action.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjcuHGEvneo

Loving the tunage on the vid's:D

Right, after nearly two months progress can start again now I have my R3 at my house. As it's still mostly in bits and not road legal I decided to just get my car trailered, so off to new home and then gave it a bloody good wash.

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Today I finally had some time to get round to wiring up the rear parking sensors. I used the rear fog light loom gromit to feed them through.

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Then got on with finally refitting properly my rear lights, fog light and all rear bumper trim screws from the rear inside followed by rear wheels arch trims to and at last my new rear number plate after a lot of measuring the centre point and getting it level, haha. Bumper nice and solid now with no flex, forgot just how many screws there was to fixing on completely.

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Also gave my fog light and number plate light lenses a good clean, turned out rather well, good as new now. Then replaced the old bulbs for some fresh Osram 6000k LED.

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What an excellent thread!;)

Number plate light test.

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And again but now with the garage lights off!

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Finally, got my MZ Style rear spats fitted! Used 3M tape and locking nuts and bolts. See how the tape holds, got tiger seal at the ready.

So the rear end is finally all coming together now. Once I've finished with carbon fibre bits and bobs, all the rear trim that's black will be switched back round to carbon fibre, woo...

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Other side.

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Split pic.

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Next up I finally got round to sorting out my front parking sensors.

Off came the bumper and then lots of head scratching on working out where to place them and to get them in the same spot each side.

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Next up, the dreaded drilling.

Pilot hole, then hole punch and relax, perfect clean matching holes.

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Fitted and then back on the car.

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Finally got back round to working on my interior trim again, first main coat is on, three more to go...

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Short pre view vid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYHb8cYZsMc

Left the centre console parts to fully cure over night, removed the masked off parts and now ready to start trimming back all the edges and get on with smoothing the resin out, so proberly another two to three hours left in them yet.

Anyway, here's a quick couple pictures in the sun with them fully harden from last night.

More to follow after I've done the above obviously.

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Upgrading my suspension components some more.

I went with the Racing Beat front and rear anti roll/sway bars with a full set of adjustable drop links to go with them.

Now got my eyes on bushing kits etc...

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More suspension upgrades!

Tein Mono Sport Coilovers.

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I also got the EDFC Active Pro GPS kit to go with this lots.

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Well here's my suspension saga, il explain a little to whom interested or for any future reference if someone is using the search function and finds them self here reading this post.

When I first got my R3 I was only looking for some fresh parts and to get my car lower without the issues that can be had with a spring kit. Since then slowly over time what I want from the car has changed some what and for what I have in mind and working towards. So a change out now sooner rather than later will help with what I'm building up to and be more suited later on.

My aim here is/was to put together a fast road but yet slightly competitive track ready combination, i.e. drive as if near stock ride quality but yet can instantly be race ready apex killer without any real need to go messing with anything bar wide open throttle. After a lot of research and few pm's and calls to people in the know how, I think I've got just about the right combination I've been looking for.

Il start with my roll bars, after a fair amount of researching roll bars are one of the best upgrades going so was a no brainier. After looking at various options it was a clear choice going with the Racing Beat bars, mainly unlike other brands because these was developed on the car rather than just a duplicate thicker bar.

Following on, drop links was my next issue. Known for being a weak point and usual MOT failing item it was a clear upgrade choice. There is a couple of options but I went with the Racing Beat adjustable drop links, mainly just for the extra strength I will get from them and also because unlike others adjustable links the Racing Beat ones aren't spherical steel on steel joints.

Next up was choosing what coilovers to get, which I changed my mind a few times. I was originally considering the Tein Flex with the EDFC 2 as it's a handy time saving feature, but then I was thinking how offen will I actually end up tweaking the damping with the EDFC?, l then decided to up my budget which then moved me to a lot more option and had me eyeing up the almighty Ohlins DFV coilovers.

Then when working out pricing I stumble across the EDFC Active kit which I don't know how I missed it first time round over the usual EDFC 2 kit, which now had me back at looking Tein. Futher to this, only Tein offer this Active feature and the fact I could get the coilovers and acvtive kit combined for the price of the Ohlins kit where I would need to manually adjust each shock dampening kinda had me sold.

So again I was back looking at the Tein coilovers options and after a lengthy call to Clive (Mazda Rotary Parts.), I decided on the Tein Mono Sports coilovers. With the triple tube structured shocks I can get near factory damping right through to race mode hard so to speak, so ideal for what I'm after.

Last piece of the puzzle was easy from here, the EDFC Active kit. There is a couple of versions, in the end I went with the full all singing all dancing top spec kit, Active Pro GPS. This thing is amazing, packed with features. It can adjust each corner dampening individually if needs be, also depending on things like speed it can automatically soften the ride to full soft for town driving then all the way up to full hard instantly should I go full throttle or suddenly sharp turns or hard braking even, and all without me needing to touch anything. It will work out for its self over and over again stiffness level on each corner depending on things like accelerating, speed, braking and cornering g force for example. Also with the GPS, it can learn the track and pre determine the best setting for up and coming corners. This is pretty much super car technology, especially when it's all paired with the already very intelligent factory DSC (traction control.).

Il just add, il be sticking with the factory rear arm links and front wish bones etc as to be keeping things like day to day road use smooth and quiet, where as replacement upgrades are generally spherical steel/polly bush joints resulting to what can be kinda explained as dry bone on bone feeling.

Attachment 31775

YouTube clip of the Tein EDFC Active Pro GPS in action for those who's not seen it or are interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGtTxaHhZi4

Pretty much finished my centre console trim.

I’ve run out of the flatting compound, just waiting on some more and cutting pads to finish flatting back polish for the final finish.

Meanwhile here’s some pictures and of it trail fitted.

Ignore the few marks here and there as that’s just the compound residual.

Flatted/smoothed out top layer.

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Rinse off.

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Dryed and masked up.

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Final resin coat going on.

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All done and left to harder.

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And here we are after some cutting compound and test fit.

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And again, a pillars base black coat, carbon applied, first layer then sand, trim edges, apply top coats, sand again, final coat, fine grade sand.
Sounds easy when I write it out like that doesn’t it, haha.

Just waiting on cutting pads and compound, flat and polish them and then we’re all good to go.

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Getting there slowly.

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Dude this is awesome your skill is unbelievable great attention to detail, think you need to start doing gtt turbo parts now lol pretty much full interior A Pillar,s door tops, front door cards identical to std just in carbon would love a set, rear door cards, gtx centre console, etc...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by James5

Dude this is awesome your skill is unbelievable great attention to detail, think you need to start doing gtt turbo parts now lol pretty much full interior A Pillar,s door tops, front door cards identical to std just in carbon would love a set, rear door cards, gtx centre console, etc...

---

At some point next year I’m hoping to be able to completely reproduce parts in pure carbon, things like the door cards you mention should actually be fairly easy as such a simple design shape.

Reworked my centre trim, not a fan of the silver plus was fairly scratch and chipped in areas.

Sanded down all the silver.
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Primer’d.
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Sanded the Primer.
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Applied gloss black.
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Finally, 1200 grit wet sand and lacker.
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Er, more carbon fibre anyone?...

Gear stick surround, rear part of the sliding arm rest and rear section flip up cup holder.
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After some trimming.

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Bit of flatting.

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Final trim up and coating. Getting good at this now, haha.

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Great quality :agree:

So this happen, split my glove box open for some magic! So magic in fact, that I no longer have a hole to open it.

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More.

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And here’s some more carbon! Still waiting on cutting/polishing compound then these will be the finished article after a good going over, that said, there looking pretty good as they are so after the polish they should look pretty amazing.

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Two parts lined up.

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Because, well, why not, lol.

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Quick trim.

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Then out for a test fit.

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Here’s a picture to see how it looks from outside.

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Also, back on the glove box lid.

Chopped out the opener hole, just got to give it a good polishing now and should be good to go back on the car.

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I didn’t stop there either.

Disassemble one perfectly good retrimed steering wheel.

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Trim up some carbon fibre fabric and start to wonder if this is a bad idea...

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Next apply top section.

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Following on, the three front insert sections, chop and cover.

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Trimming it all down the size.

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And here we are ready for the final flat and polish and clean.

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I picked up a cat back exhaust system the other day.

This is a Pettit Racing cat back made by Milltek. 3 inch bore which then splits into 2.5 inch divide between the two rear silencers with angled 4 inch tail pipes.

It’s rather rusty for a stainless system, was in two minds about actually fitting it or selling it on as I usually only buy new parts when it comes to performance upgrades and obviously I’m slowly working my way through the whole car inside out to as new condition.

One tail pipe was rusted on solid, clamp just snapped on its self too, the bolted joint was totally seized and the nuts rounded them selfs off, so after getting my serious man tools out, it didn’t take long to dismantle to get on with cleaning it all up.

Anyhow, this is how I it got before working some magic.

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Right, here’s a few of one side vs the other after a couple of hours scrubbing.

Still a long way to go yet, but vast improvement.

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It’s actually starting to look fairly good, but I’ve now run out of polish etc.

There is still more to go yet, but I’m toying with the idea of maybe going for a mirror finish on the pipes?, although I’ve spent way to much time on this already.

Anyhows, here’s how it looks as of now.

Looking back at the before pictures, it almost looks like I’ve just bought another one.

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Picked up another boot lid last week, my plan is to build my own duck tail style spoiler all moulded into one piece. Im going to build it all up in sheet metal, smooth it all out and coat it then make a mould from it. Anyway, more about that as I progress.

So, made a rough template out of cardboard and then got the sheet metal out.

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Then back to basics with putting some bends into it.

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Then more bending to build up curve.

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Few clamps for some test fitting.

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Few clamps for some test fitting.

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Chopped and more bending.

This is about as far as I could go with it today as gotten fairly late to be using an angle grinder and hammering into shape out in the garage.

So this how it looks as of now, long way off yet, but more to follow.

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Got another hour or so in on my boot.

After some more hammering and clamping I got my mig welder out and started adding some tack and spot welds to slowly work some curves in.

Also trim more around it so it flows better with the factory designed shape of the car, ie curves with some right angles so to speak.

The lighting fairly bright in my garage so hard to really show up the bends from one angle back out on its self.

Your see from these pictures how it’s starting to flow the O.E. shape.

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Here’s some more of the rear, slowly added spot welds along the bottom from the centre out to get the shut line to follow curve.

It’s hard to tell, but if you look closely you see the shut line match the O.E. shape.

I spot welded the top to, so now that’s all held in il be doing some more panel beating and rolling to persuade it into the shape I want then il get onto boxing in the ends and start smoothing it all out.

Anyway, here’s the rear shots to give you an idea.

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:popcorn:

This thread is great. It reminds me of the one of the white Clio. Where the guy was super meticulous and had endless detail all the way through the car. Keep posting Goobie. :agree:

Decided to test fit the Pettit/Miltek System despite the minus weather and light snow this past week.

Much to my surprise the old cat back slipped off easily, ie the rubber hangers. This I wasn’t looking forward to but them remembered when I refitted it last year I covered them in copper grease before sliding them on, result.

Bolting back up the spring bolt parts to the cat on the other hand was not as easy.

Anyhow's, after the neighbours wondering where the swear words was coming from between 7-9pm in the dark, I had it on to then I realised it had slipped my mind to order new clamps, rear gasket and bolts, darn it.

Couple of snaps for now, as no update is an update without pictures!

Ps, Just want to add, I kinda ordered something rather expensive this week for my build. You could say easily the most expensive single item upgrade to date for my build, can’t wait, till then these couple of picture will do, haha.Attachment 32117
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Finally got round to ordering fresh exhaust clamps, nuts/bolts and proper ringed gasket for the exhaust.Attachment 32120

Bolted it all on and fired it up to see how it sounds, got a slight leak from the donut joint, but just a case of tightening it up some more.

Well what can I say, erm, I can’t drive it with this setup as it’s LOUD! Really loud.

Couple of clips, not to bad on idle, but as soon as the Revs rise it wakes the dead. Current combo in these clips are ToyoSports mani and silenced de cat with Pettit cat back.

I do have a on the go video, but won’t play every time I upload it.

More updates to follow later.

https://youtu.be/f4erKCMcdUI

Revving.

https://youtu.be/k-pno9t0d_Q

Well, continuing on with the refresh upgrades slash future proofing the reliability items so to speak, I took delivery of my new oil lines yesterday.

Not much choice out there to honest as we know, I went with the Race Beat kit in the end over the Mishimoto.

The Racing Beat kit cost is a bit more, but I just wanted a fit and forget kit as have seen couple of people complain of a slight hiss sound with the Mish kit? Possibly just a fitting error maybe as only couple people had stated it, so who knows.

Anyway as I know the Racing Beat stuff always under goes serious R&D before they sell their products, it made sense to get this kit.
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More parts!

I’ve been after a short shifter kit for some time, they seem to be a bit of a marmite mod on the owners club forum.

Although I’ve always been a fan and like the more positive mechanical gear shift feel personally.

There has been lots of talk about weather they do or don’t damage the gear box, but that’s really more down to people using excessive force via gear slamming, but that’s all covered in another thread so il leave it at that on the subject as want to keep my build blog, a build blog.

So I got the Axial Flow shifter, and here it is.

Attachment 32124

And again, more parts.......

Well well, can’t have a project build or a performance car without gauges can we!

I’ve built a few projects over the years you could say and this will be no different, so for any real performance car it’s a no brainier to add some proper monitoring equipment of some sort and I’ve gone with the AEM brand.

I’ve used these before and the quality is top level as well as the accuracy they give and all fitting hardware too.

So I’ve got four AEM X-Series (these are programmable with warnings should needs be.) gauges being,-

Oil Temp, usually over looked, vital to know when it’s up to proper operation temp before going crazy.
Oil Pressure, obvious reasons.
Air/Fuel Ratio, well worth while investment with these engines, will catch on straight away if Coils etc start playing up and for future planned use.

Lastly, an OBD11 gauge! Mainly for 2008 cars onwards. I went for this over a dedicated water gauge for a few reason, mainly to try keep how many gauges I have to a min. But, this reads the ecu and can show and clear fault codes as well as display any info a normal reader can, ie it will show water temp, volts, Maf reading etc etc and more, so made sense.
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When I ordered my gauges I originally was only getting two being the oil temp and oil pressure, but that soon went out the window as seen above.

Anyway, I order two with the plan of getting a twin air vent pod to which I did but as above ordered another two gauges a week later, whoops.

I got a twin air vent pod in 52mm size from “Block8head”, he custom makes them to order in the USA.

It’s not perfect, but I’m fairly happy with it and price, I plan on rubbing it down and giving it the magic touch anyway.

If anyone interested in getting one? Mine for twin pod in 52mm worked out at $144 dollars including post to the uk, which at the time of order worked out at £106.54p GBP.

States around three weeks post, mine turn up today via standard Royal Mail delivery and took 28 days (4 weeks.) with no extra tax charge etc, result.

He has a Facebook page, but here a link to his web page I order’d from for anyone who interested. -

http://www.block8head.com

Here’s some pictures and test fit.

The fitment is spot on, clips in place nice and tight to.

Overall happy purchase.
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Couple more parts pop up today, nice shinny smooth gear knob to go with my Axial Flow Short Shifter.

This is for an MX5, but the thread pattern is the same for my shifter. Not really a fan of the standard one, just don’t get on with the shape plus was rather worn out from previous owner wearing a ring. I like this one as it screw all the way down as seen in the pictures below, so helps keep my short shifter feeling like a short shifter, lol.

Also, got the Lockwood Oil Cooler and Rad vent hole grill mesh kit too. A lot of lose gravel on our rubbish uk roads from all the pot holes, plus I’m considering getting a alloy radiator possibly so made sense anyway.
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Upgrades............ We all love them!

For those who are following me on my build journey, your really going to like what’s going to be popping up over the next few weeks!

So here we go, todays delivery's are from “Ryan Rotary Performance”, and Carl sure does design/make some top quality parts.

https://www.ryanrotaryperformance.com

Got a set of his engine mounts, I do actually already have upgraded ones, but prefer the build quality and look of the ones he sell.

Here’s some pictures, as your see the quality speaks for its self.

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Obviously I didn’t stop there, also got a bit of bling whilst I was at it being one of his 4 peice Pulley kits in red.

Yet again, Carl out did himself and yet another top quality product.

Picture overload...
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The “MONEY” shot!

Overal, very happy, going to look great once I get them on.
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What had started out as a bit of banta with friends about my car build had turned into a reality!

I would of owned this car for two years come next week and had not heard the end of jokes about how everyone had labelled my R3 a “ghost”!

This is mainly because it’s white and no one ever see’s it along with it making all my spare cash vanish.

So last weekend one of my friends looked up personalised registrations to send me the link trying to be funny only for me to actually buy it and sent back a screen print of my receipt thirty minutes later! Haha.

Paper work and fresh plates turn up today. The official plate display is GH05 TOE, my “show plates” I’ve had made up read - GH05T OE.

Obviously the OE is for O.E.+.

Luck be have it, I couldn’t of actually asked for a better combination, it’s bang on in every way and suit my car.Attachment 32155Attachment 32156

So finally after a long 12 week wait, what I ordered back at the beginning of February which you could say cost a little more than 50% (Once added brake pads.) of the price I paid for my R3.

Somewhere in this thread I did mention a change of direction with my car build and you may be thinking why such serious brakes? Well as stated at the top of this page, sit back and keep following my build journey because I’m not even halfway to where I want to be with this car and I’m waiting on a whole load of fresh parts to be delivered still...

Now, less about the hype and more about these brakes!

Jesus, they really are car porn!, and well worth the wait. I very nearly paid the extra £280 for “express delivery” which would still been 4/5 weeks.

So here we have my new full front and rear big brake kit by K-Sport.

I got 8 Pot Mono calipers on the front and 4 Pot on the rear with the handbrake feature.

Discs are matching two peice directional vented, grooved in 356mm dia, they are big!

The kit includes all fixtures and fittings along with braided lines to suit and even a pair logo’d towels.

I was a bit worried they might have some damage as the boxes look like they taken some beating while being shipped, but after opening them up everything is mint and extremely well packed from start to finish.

They was rather pricey, the wait was long, but now there here and I’ve had a good look over them I’m very very happy with them.

Anyways, here’s the pic’s!

Enjoy.

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Front 8 Pots and 356mm Dia Discs.

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Rear 4 Pots with Handbrake Feature and 356mm Dia Discs.
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Moved onto upgrading my cooling system!

I ordered a Pro Alloy S1 radiator. The quality speaks for its self, plus I like the way the end tanks are built a-posed to other ones available. “Apparently” these have a better flow design due to the shape of them and with inlet and outlet pipes being properly curved unlike others it makes sense.

Being the S1 radiator, I got the extra bonus of now being able to get and fit the bling bling Mishimoto fan shroud kit instead of putting non fancy looking factory shroud over my beautiful Pro Alloy Rad!

The fixing tabs on the fan kit ain’t the best, one not qute straight but easily bent into place, you can see the weld not great on that one too.

I fixed it to my radiator just to see how it fits and for the pictures, I got some sealing foam tape with the kit which needs to be put on and then il bolt it all together properly after that when I come to fitting it.

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