Simoto

So, time to pop the leads and new spark plugs in. Nice and simple job, especially when you have a good wiring diagram to make the job nice and easy. Little note with the leads. They are thicker than the originals, which does mean you need to modify the original guiding plastics to accommodate. It does come with a set of cable separators, and because of the thickness and the silicon quality they don’t move much anyway, so no worry’s of moving and touching moving parts. plus, I have included the wiring diagram to help anyone who needs it.

Don’t we all haha. i know compared to the mark1 but was never sure if it was different between countries or not.

Bit of a picture overload but, i love to try and show as much as I can, not only for future reference but for everyone else too. so no filters on these pics, so you can see the big reveal of what colour I chose, and also the fitting of the left hand side rocker cover.

So il start with the first note, thanks I do appreciate the interest what keeps me wanting to keep building even more. As for the brakes, don’t worry that’s all done and will put up in a later post, and yes I do agree. yes they are radiator hoses, the one on the left is the down pipe, and the one on the right is the top hose. The magnecore lines are 8mm so the only problem is they don’t fit in the original plastic holders, but they do supply the cable separators so it’s not so bad, and because of the thickness, and the fact it’s silicone too means they don’t move. And reinstalling the rocker cover’s was fine, no snagging issues, as I found that I could took most of the wires out of the way, and with having the old ignition leads on at the time I wasn’t worried as they were going to be changed out anyway. and the blanking plate is the perfect shape and covers fine and allows for the original bolt holes to be used too. the two blockers?..... I’m not sure what you mean, I did use to Allen key bolts to put the blanking plate on with if that’s what you mean. And I agree, the powder coat works great and gives a nice long lasting Finnish too, when I took the old covers off they did have a lot of pitting but no signs of flaking which is good. hope this helps, any other questions, I will answer as best as I can, because I’m still trying to figure out what some things are myself. thanks

Got the gasket and also, new air filter has arrived too, everything’s coming together now. And yes I’m expecting the power to more than likely be down, but, it’s all a trial and error curve now, as there is no set patterns for tuning or tuning parts. We shall see.

So, got cracking on doing the valve covers, well until I realised I forgot to get a throttle body gasket. So got the right side done and also plugged up the PCV hose too.

So got the TRD stickers on there to just to bring the rocker/valve covers to life. now time for cleaning and new gaskets.

Sorry it’s been a while lot of things happening. so updates. a few things to add to the project for the long term, goals.

So finally received my Magnecore leads and ordered An fittings and hose and also the blanking plate For the valve delete, and also because the wire coatings for the wire harness have turned to brittle dust I thought not a bad idea to address that too.

I also needed to change the front seat belts as they had long gone, and couldn’t hold much of anything anymore, I tried washing the belts and re greasing but didn’t do too much and was a disgusting colour that came from them so yeh sweaty lovely ness. Oooo and the drivers side belt clip bolt looked like this when I came to it, let’s just say it was a fun job to get off with a few choice words chucked in to help with the job.

So it was time to upgrade the pads as the brake warning light had come up on the dash which also meant a new sensor which I found on eBay for £10 genuine parts can’t complain. And also some bonnet struts because my head was getting fed up of loading the 20 tone thing up while I worked on the car. And some parts numbers for you guys in case you need to get parts.

So I went about killing too birds with one stone, changing the look while also refreshing old rubber and curing small oil leaks, so after a bit of searching online and a few contacts I found and got these, Powdercoated and fitted with AN10 fittings ready for future proofing the build, I’ve pretty much at this point decided what I want to do engine wise and power wise too. And because things are gett8ng done more now I took advantage of the Halfords sale too.

Had a few pics that kept giving me inspiration, always loved the the rat rod look as long as it was age related, and the look of that engine bay in The first Transformers movie, that point where they lift the bonnet on the seemingly rough Camaro and there’s this amazingly detailed and clean engine bay.

So a few pics of the engine bay to get a before and after, while I thought about what I really wanted to.

Ok so at this point I decided, after a service the next step is well, drive your car about 250 miles for a test drive to Torquay, so with the kids and all the baby stuff, and bags and spare wheel and tool kit ( just in case) the boot is huge as you all know. So off we went, trip there and back and driving around for the week was amazing, car ran like a dream, just parking was interesting, the turning circle really helps but the length of the beast is crazy. Anyhoo so lots of driving with it being stock and just enjoying the car for a while. Then I got going with my plan. Remember I said I was a bit of a fan of NASCAR’s, well I purchased these and spaces because the four pot callipers are too big for almost every other 16” wheel. So yeh again sorry about the pics, honestly they are the last ones on the phone, promise.

So as promised, a realy bad picture of a picture from my stupid old I phone, plus a couple of the boot or should I say swimming pool.

I do like a look of a good engine, no one should have a Lego engine bay. It’s the don’t work on your own car bring it to a dealer world we live in with finance up the eyeballs.

The craziness of the newer shape gets me every time with the extras, I mean I have the multi disk changer and original head unit and antenna is in the rear window, but I think I have a base model, I do like how the seats are full electric even down to the headrest, and the seat belt height adjustment is electric too, and heated folding mirrors, it’s still beyond what most modern cars have now. Always makes me chuckle when I tell people. Love all the models, but just fell for the old school look of mine.

To be honest i haven’t really looked at the differences other than the seats, I did like that I found some Yen in the car under the rear seat. what sort of quirks do you mean?

Yeh they are so comfortable, and no seat burn in summer or freeze until your heated seats kick in, and it was imported in 2005

No it’s the alternator belt, but I know the rule of sorting the water pump while your there just makes sense.

Ok, so first things first. I obviously purchased the car. And this was the first part that would make most including me cringe. I purchased it unseen from a dealer down in London. Now yes I though I’m mad doing this, and even after doing lots of checks and my favourite, the DVLA MOT history checker as I think it gives more detail to its life than sometimes a fake service book that you ring the first dealer stamp and they say, we have only seen this car at purchase. Believe me I’ve had a few of those. And because the price was low and the mileage seemed to check out with the condition of the interior I though, give them a ring on the Mobly phone and get them to start it and walk round it for me. To be fair they mentioned all the things that were wrong that you can’t see in the pictures and I thought I want to save her regardless of the condition, because if someone doesn’t do it and only buys perfect, what’s going to be left. So anyway I get the car delivered like a takeaway to my house, on the back of a small car lorry that looked smaller than the car itself, now I did get a pic but it’s on my ancient I phone and I can’t even drag the pics off it anymore, but il have to do the worst best thing and take a picture of a picture so quality will be bad but anyway. So £165 pound takeaway delivery later, which I thought was good for London up to me, the cars off the lorry and I’m trying to now figure out what an auto is as I’ve never even been in one let alone driven one. That’s when the Nice delivery driver tells me as funnily enough he has an ls400 back in Poland, what are the chances. So park her up and let’s have a good look, and yep it’s smells of woolly jumpers, and yep the car is so quiet I thought it was electric, and ooooo the boot smells like someone died, so it’s either damp or it realy was a Sopranos mob car. But yeh everything seemed good. Took her for a quick drive and wow I wished I hadn’t waited to buy one, gearbox was smooth, acceleration was surprising for saying I had a sti scooby at the time and an Audi TT and an mx5, yeh I have a problem..... but as always it’s service time to see what’s really going on.

Haha, I’m going to be a bit of a sod, as I’m planning on doing some daily updates as not to spoil too much. And I’m still working on her so there will always be updates.

Yes it is, and I have struggled to find anyone else with the same. I’m not sure about how the japs would regard it realy, depends if it’s harder to get sheep or cows made into seats, well at least one doesn’t have to die I guess,