oli8925's Car Diary - New JDM Arrival

Found a spare hour or so today to tick a few items off the list. Started off undoing the progress I'd previously made by separating the front bumper from the body again. A bit of a silly reason, the ends of the bumper have an 'ear' moulded into them, a metal plate with two captive studs sit against the front side of the ear with the stud protuding through it rearwards. The studs pass through a return on the front of the wings, an opposite return on the inner wing, and are secured with a pair of nuts to bring it all together. The plates are loosely held to the ears using three small plastic clips, in my rush to get the bumper on in Sunday's fading light I thought I'd lost the clips so used so trim tape to hold them in place (didn't work but not really needed anyway). In order to continue with the other remaining jobs I needed some other fasteners that I couldn't find but knew weren't lost, a quick rummage in the garage found them in a separate box for some reason along with the clips - so for no practical reason I loosened everything off again to put these little clips in that aren't really needed.

Sometimes I dislike myself

Following this, and with my newly found fasteners, I installed the clips securing the front bumper air guide to the front panel. I didn't really pay these enough attention on removal to notice most of them are completely stuffed, so will look at getting some more in the near future. The air damn itself was cracked, missing retaining tabs and the remaining fixings were seized, so this was replaced with a new Mazda part with stainless fixings.


Front tow hook reinstalled with 2 out of 3 bolts, the third appears to be crossthreading so I've left that until I can pay it some more attention. That'll be a fun job considering there is barely the space to swing a short spanner in this area.

Next were the arch liners and mud flaps - not much to say here except I soon realised I was missing a few fasteners and retaining clips so new items have been ordered to arrive on Saturday. Just annoying I can't stick it back together completely now to be honest. Still, nice that it's looking cleaner and more complete. (Sorry, camera exposure settings seemed to go haywire in the rain)


Had a bit of a head scratch about the mud flaps, not too happy with the fit at the top, wondered if they should go behind the liner and up tight against the wing but it wouldn't fit that way. Don't remember having the same issue previously but they were genuine flaps torn to shreds, these are IL Motorsport reproductions so maybe that's the issue.


Later in the day, thanks entirely to the sunshine, I came back out to try to do a bit more. I was feeling very concious that a headlight was still missing, exposing one corner to water ingress (stupid as it's exposed anyway being that the headlight lids don't seal against the body work, so all in my head). First job was to replace the sidelight looms while I still had one accessible. The connectors include a push clip that attaches to the inner wing, unfortunately that hole is over the chassis rail so you can't get to the underneath to press the tangs in and release it cleanly. What ensued was a considerable fight to get them out but evenutally I won, the new clips are included with the new loom so I could be a bit violent. Thankfully the driver's side I'd already covered up with the headlight didn't put up as much of a fight. Next the passenger headlight was fitted which went largely without issue althought it needed a bit of persuasive force. On removal the pivot bolt had seized so I had to bend the tang of the headlight out of shape to remove the unit from the car. I'd bent it 95% back into shape when I refurbished them but it obviously wasn't quite right so needed a bit of extra gentle persuasion. With the lids on it's still not quite right but close enough for now. Both still need some final adjustment, although I think the bonnet also needs some adjustment which doesn't help with trying to line everything up by eye.




Very glad that it's looking like a car again...I guess the neighbours probably are too!

Still remaining:
New brake discs to go on
Front arch liners/mud flaps to sort
Undertray back on
Final bleed of the brakes & set handbrake
MOT
Alignment
Few final cosmetic bits

I have thought about it but feel the orange a) helps to break up the monotony of white a little, and b) keeps it looking a little more retro. I may pick up a second set to play around with.

Or I keep thinking about vented TSIs, but can't find any I'm 100% set on aesthetically.

MOT booked for Wednesday morning!

The underside of your car looks so fresh. Really liking the button Allen key bolts. I might have to follow suit.

Maybe he'd had a row with his partner the night before & was being a d#ck to everyone. That does seem pretty anal to me.

I won't be using this lot again. They used to be pretty good, the kind of garage you could have a chat with and would use the rules sensibly. They were bought out a year or two ago and I think the old staff have slowly moved on. Funnily enough this has coincided with a heap of negative reviews (I now know) so it's probably not just me nor an isolated occasion.

Pedal rubbers ordered for £5 a pair, should arrive Saturday. In the mean time I'll clean my nice ones up (seem to remember they're something fairly sought after and worth a fair bit).

New number plate ordered from Halfords I'll pick up tomorrow. They only seem to do the standard oblong size so I'll stick that on temporarily and buy a more suitable size online, but still confirming to UK font and sizes etc. Online suppliers don't seem to be able to supply and deliver within a week.

Finally, I dug out the standard seat belts (because 30 year old inertia belts are far safer to use with a cage and bucket seat than 5 point harnesses!). It shouldn't take long to swap them over, just a bit fiddly with the cage in the way and having to remove the harness bar. I'll take the passenger seat out altogether rather than mess around swapping that side over.

On this subject, new harnesses were on the list just not a priority. There's nothing wrong or unsafe with mine, they're just a bit stiff and a real pain to adjust. So I got looking for some road legal 5 or 6 point harnesses, and to my surprise there is one that fits the bill.

Schroth make a 4 point harness with individual shoulder and lap belts, and with the latch functioning in almost the 'normal' way, but operated by a red push button to keep the MOT man happy (and they're ECE type approved), then you can buy crotch straps to convert them to 6 point. The only problem with these is a pair is going to cost in excess of £760 all in. That's more than I paid for the car! Still, do it right do it once I guess.

I think Luke only make 4 point road legal harnesses, with each side's shoulder and lap belt sewn together. I wouldn't feel comfortable using this on track or with my set up due to a lack of anti-submarine mechanism, and apparently the combined belts make releasing the buckle really difficult of you end up on your roof.

But I think it's that twist buckle that isn't type approved for the road. All road legal harnesses I can find have factory belt style buckle with a big red button to release, other than the Schroth. If I'm wrong would you be able to give the same as you have for sale and post a link, as I'd be interested.

FIA approved but not BS or E approved for road use unfortunately. Thanks for finding the link anyhow