stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,960
Club RR Member Number: 174
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My Japanese Adventure!stealthstylz
@stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member 174
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Jan 27, 2020 23:36:29 GMT
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It's pretty clear to me that the problem with the car is that you keep trying to fix it. What you need is a louder stereo.
Case in point - my daily Saxo has a very loud stereo. So far in just under 2 years I've done 80,000 faultless* miles because once the stereo is cranked up my brain can't compute any other noise or vibration that may indicate a fault.
*around 6 weeks ago the engine decided to go full Deep-water Horizon and evacuate oil out of pretty much all of it. Most noticeably on the neighbours driveway. Last weekend I jacked it up to see if it was fixable in situ and the N/S front strut top mount had fallen to pieces, it had pulled the nut through the top washer and therefore as I jacked the car up the wheel and also complete front strut stayed on the floor.
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46 
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Jan 27, 2020 23:53:06 GMT
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A new day, a good day. Car parts had arrived!  Kettle on, my favourite fluffy hat and a big pile of optimism. I ran at my beloved sledge ready to crack on. I had the brakes stripped down relatively fast considering how rusty all the bolts were. I built them all back up again and bolted the wheels on and dropped it on the ground. Happy days! It's done, right!?  Turned the car on, stuck it in reverse and it was stuck.. It turns out that my new awesome wheels could only clear the callipers on worn brakes.. once I stuck brand spankers new pads and awesome dimpled and grooved discs.. it was a big fat no go.. .. Not to worry, I'll get some 5mm spacers! Now this DID work.. however due to how thick the wheels were I could only get about 2-3 turns on each nut which isn't enough to hold a wheel on for my liking... So, I now needed extended studs. I looked at ARP but they had to come from America.. and they were £50 … for 5 studs.. Realistically I needed 20. So I benched that idea for a while while I explored an option that Toyota supra studs are apparently the same! The Internet Said so.. .. The internet lies.. There was a helpful guy on the facebook forum who said that they can fit if you turn them down slightly on a metal laith ( Apologies if I butchered that spelling ) but I did not have access to one.. mainly because It won't fit in the boot. So.. I now have 24 supra studs if anyone is in need..  I then spent 2 weeks like this.. waiting for Murica. Between all of this I also managed to shear a calliper slider bolt so it was yet again another help request sent to my favourite breakers in Birmingham.. at this rate I feel as though this guy should get invited round for Christmas. Sadly time passed and I'd had enough, I just wanted my car back so.. I went down to my Grannys shed that I'd filled with my stupidity and fell out of it with 2 standard wheels that theoretically should clear the brakes! And Dey Doo! But then, the horse whispering started up again, this time I knew I wasn't crazy as I could feel it through the wheel! Both the Wheel bearing and the upper arm that had both been replaced had sh*t themselves.. Now I don't know if they were bad parts or user error. but they managed about 150 miles. At this point I'd had enough, I pulled the back cap off the hub and nipped the bearing up to take up any wiggle room it had then backed it off slightly which seems to have improved it but the Upper arm had Grenade'd itself!  Quickly decided that taking the arches off was a brilliant idea as the room for play time practically doubled!  Then I got to work! .. again..  |
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46
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What we're looking at in the above photo is a ball joint in the upper arm that decided it didn't want to be part of the car anymore.. By this point, I just feel like that car is trying to kill me off. For anyone who worries about Karma, I'm one of the nicest people on the planet and THIS is what Karma gives me.. soo.. be yourself.. even if yourself is a monumental giant a*s hat!  After all of this it was time to wash Team Danger Sledge.  And here! Is a picture of how the stupid thing sits now.. Finally up to date! As we are now I'm waiting for some Shorter spindles and Knuckles from Crest Motorsport which come with bearings in already. ( I trust these, the work those guys turf out is amazing! ) and the ARP studs have arrived however these are TOO LONG .. so I then needed open ended wheel nuts which they don't do in the wobbly nut format so... my fancy wheels are up for sale as they're a 5x120 / 5x112 fitment!  Once its all danger proofed I can start modifying it further which leads me onto the next issue.. NEW SHOES!! If anyone has any input on what wheels I should slap on this Sum-Bish let me know! And as ever, if you've read this far.. .. Sorry  |
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Last Edit: Jan 28, 2020 0:11:46 GMT by sambow
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46
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It's pretty clear to me that the problem with the car is that you keep trying to fix it. What you need is a louder stereo. Case in point - my daily Saxo has a very loud stereo. So far in just under 2 years I've done 80,000 faultless* miles because once the stereo is cranked up my brain can't compute any other noise or vibration that may indicate a fault. *around 6 weeks ago the engine decided to go full Deep-water Horizon and evacuate oil out of pretty much all of it. Most noticeably on the neighbours driveway. Last weekend I jacked it up to see if it was fixable in situ and the N/S front strut top mount had fallen to pieces, it had pulled the nut through the top washer and therefore as I jacked the car up the wheel and also complete front strut stayed on the floor. Yikes! you are more brave than I am! I just refused to modify it further or sort the bodywork out till I'd found the noise. I think I was more spurred on by the fact that nobody believed me that it was there.  |
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I can picture the day. Great storytelling!
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Kron
Part of things
Posts: 260
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I am so sorry for your car related woes, but I do love your writing. Haven't chuckled as much in ages.
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recarouk
Yorkshire and The Humber
Posts: 435
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Jan 28, 2020 13:49:04 GMT
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brilliant thread keep it up |
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lightyearman
Part of things
GYJDM - Grimsby based Japanese car club - Find us on Facebook
Posts: 639
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Jan 30, 2020 20:51:21 GMT
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nice wordsmithery my man! And lets face it, we all like a horror story to make us feel a wee bit better  Check out my S13 thread if you want cheering up through my agony... |
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'89 Honda CRX siR Glassroof Flint black fully restored track beasty
'90 Nissan S13 Pignose - pass the mig wire
'86 Mini - matt orange, 13" Wellers, Project 2018
'97 LDV Convoy home built camper/tramper van
'04 Saab 9-5 Aero HOT. Anyone want it?
'91 Honda VFR400 NC30 17,000 km from new
'87 Honda XR80 4 stroke baby crosser
'03 Mini Cooper S - honestly, they are fun...
'15 VW T5.1 LWB daily brick
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46
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Jan 31, 2020 11:11:32 GMT
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nice wordsmithery my man! And lets face it, we all like a horror story to make us feel a wee bit better Check out my S13 thread if you want cheering up through my agony... I'll take you up on that  |
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Am I missing something? - chop the end off the wheel studs or cut the end off the nuts, if you're feeling posh, get a machine shop to put the nuts in a lathe and drill the closed end out to just break through and clear the studs.
An interesting read, like your writing style.
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46
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So.. explanation required maybe? a) No I'm not dead b) No the car isn't dead c) Yes we fell out.. It had a minor hickup and required an ABS sensor and a O2 sensor, but I had a bad day and decided to be a princess so I parked it under the tree of shame as per usual! Now, I thought I over reacted but the tree - EVEN IN THIS WEATHER - Produced enough sap that made my car look like a Kardashian's back! This only fortifies my belief that my feelings of hate were just as even the tree decided to pee on it. I decided to cure the ABS issues and the running issues that I'd been having by buying new wheels.. which I need ASAP as all 4 of my tyres are shagged.. gone flat and left to stand for a while.. not good.. So realistically these wheels should be local.. and not coming from Poland.. because that would be dumb. .. So they're coming from Poland! The modified knuckes should be here soon which should also stop the issues that makes me more worried about my MilesPerUpperControlArms rather than my MilesPerGallon.. MPUCA < MPG . So with all that in mind I should have a fully driveable and happy car again, so when that's done I'm going to cut it up with a grinder!  At this point, I should be able to bolt on the rear arches and fit the new wheels that hopefully come from Poland super fast preferably without a Covid-19 love letter attached. So assuming all these parts arrive, you should have an update soon.. ahem.. |
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Last Edit: Mar 17, 2020 9:47:55 GMT by sambow
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mat88
Yorkshire and The Humber
Posts: 1,542
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Mar 18, 2020 13:58:20 GMT
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Looking forward to seeing what these Carlos fandango polish wheels are.. I need to figure a set out for mine but finding anything in size and spec to fill my arches for not stupid money is proving more difficult than buying a 6 pack of Andrex at minute haha
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46
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Mar 19, 2020 12:09:02 GMT
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Looking forward to seeing what these Carlos fandango polish wheels are.. I need to figure a set out for mine but finding anything in size and spec to fill my arches for not stupid money is proving more difficult than buying a 6 pack of Andrex at minute haha I feel your struggles, i've been AGONISING over what wheels to get for literally months before I made the informed decision... and to be 'frank', I'm only 93.2% Happy. The only way to be 100% happy would be to make my own as I'm not sure my perfect wheels exist yet.. with that in mind I feel like I'm as close as I can be!
I've gone for 9J et 25 which gives me 50mm of poke over standard and I should be able to run a nice square tyre wall.
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mat88
Yorkshire and The Humber
Posts: 1,542
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Mar 19, 2020 13:47:42 GMT
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Yeah. I was going through wheel sizes with my mate other day. He was using will it fit.com or summat like that. I need about 50 mm over the standard width, as that's what the wings and rear arches of the btcc kit add on. But obviously stock wheels don't fit flush either. To get them flush you need about 10/15 front and 20mm ish rear. By that reckoning I'm going to need some fairly horrific width and offsets to fill em (no point running the silly wide  kit, and having the wheels tucked in) Problem with that is by time I've specced the wheels, and a nice set tyres with 265/35/18s for the rear and I'm talking decent not Ching Chong china tyres (not a lot of point with 500bhp) it starts getting very very very expensive haha. Tyres on the car are about dead, so using man maths a set of £1000 wheels and 600 quid in tyres make perfect sense hahaha |
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tom13
Part of things
Posts: 571
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Mar 20, 2020 13:02:05 GMT
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Love this thread mate.
Recently bought a manual 6speed IS200 Sportcross and absolutely love it. I'm just hoping I don't encounter your bad fate at times. ha.
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Davey
Posted a lot
Resident Tyre Nerd.
Posts: 2,348
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Mar 20, 2020 15:43:24 GMT
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Love me some Japanese tat. Bookmarked for the story telling alone.
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K11 Micra x3 - Mk3 astra - Seat Marbella - Mk6 Escort estate - B5 Passat - Alfa 156 estate - E36 compact
Mk2 MR2 T-bar - E46 328i - Skoda Superb - Fiat seicento - 6n2 Polo - 6n polo 1.6 - Mk1 GS300
EU8 civic type S - MG ZT cdti - R56 MINI Cooper S - Audi A3 8p - Jaguar XF (X250) - FN2 Civic Type R - Mk2 2.0i Ford Focus - Mercedes W212 E250
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46
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Mar 24, 2020 15:33:33 GMT
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Thanks for the kind words! I love the BTCC kit and it is a basterd to try and figure out what wheels you need size wise. Can't wait to see yours when it's nearing being driveable! ( Hope the op went okay too ). Hopefully mine will be back terrorising Chesterfield again soon with its looks only a mother could love. tom13 , They're really reliable to be honest if you don't buy a nail and then mess with it. If you start to tinker with a billion pound companys research and development because you think that you in your shed knows better, thats when things like whats happening to my car occurs. But - onwards and upwards  |
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46
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So.. if anyone is still here. -I still own the car -I've since bought other projects. -I've since either sold or "finished" those projects. -I have been doing bits on #TeamDickSledge. Reason for not updating is that there isn't really anything to update other than my lethargic ass not doing much with my beloved pain in the backside!! Update time.  Decided to drop the rear subframe with the intent of starting to build a Wish.com show-car with a wire brush, some cans of etch primer, budget powder-coating legends local to my lands and a dream... In Hind sight.. the effort to just remove the ABS sensor should of been a red flag as to what was to come as this alone took an hour!  which turned into dropping the subframe, snapping a heap of bolts ( Including the big chunky subframe bolt.. somehow ) , having a minor but manly tantrum and getting a glass of milk.   So.. I had a break for a bit.. Until Yesterday! |
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sambow
Part of things
Posts: 46
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Chapter 12 ------- The Enema After my 3+ year sabbatical, I thought I'd have some friends over which went well. Started talking about cars etc and that moved onto the big silver b****** looming in the back garden.. One of said friends agreed him and his mechanically minded wife would come and lend a hand cleaning up and stripping the rear subframe ready for powder coating in an effort to get me back into love with TeamDickSledge and get it back on the road ... which went well up until the point where he "tripped" and fisted my car which has made a handy access hole incase you ever want to sand your balls off on a budget ditch finder tyre while trapped in the boot!  Which kind of.. did the opposite of making me fall in love with it.. as the removal of the subframe meant we could try and fist other parts of DickSledge and found some possible areas around the subframe mount and the other inner arch to be condemned too!  More Milk Required.. |
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Last Edit: May 4, 2023 16:20:59 GMT by sambow
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