Stuff done!

Well a lot has happened in the past week. Got the brakes and drop link sorted and it passed the MOT retest! Yay!

However my rear brake locked on again causing lots of smoke and heat. Grrr! Looking for some rear calipers now!

Today I gave the whole car a good clean, removed the "Hiltingbury" logo from the rear, and also installed the front struct brace!

Took it for a drive and took my camera, ended up at a carpark nexto a large lake but you can't see it in the photo! Tomorrow im going to be cleaning the interior so it should feel a bit nicer. I think I might try to get some rings to make the dash look a little nicer I just need to find some cheap ones!

Its a new year ...

... and its been ages since I posted so I thought I had better write something! A lot has happened to my car but not too much that I had on my list and not too much thats good! :)

Good things first:

I did pick up the sport front bumper & grill but its sitting in the spare room now waiting for me to find the rear bumper skirt to go with it! Then all I need is the little bits like clips etc.

I also picked up an AEM cold air intake, fitted that myself which was fun. Makes the car pick up better and is definitely much better sounding! At the same time I got a cusco strut brace but I haven't fitted that yet!

Bad things second:

My timing belt tensioner broke about a month ago - made the engine make funny noises. Had to get it fixed at great expense but got the belt itself changed at the same time.

Last week it failed the MOT on the anti-roll bar drop links and the rear brakes. Same rear brakes that have giving me hassle. Changed the offending drop links and brake pads with the help of a friend. My suspension is much quieter now which means the anti roll bars were knocking on something so at least thats something good sorted! However im not sure the new pads have made a big change in the brakes, will have to see when it gets re-tested in a couple of days.

For the future:

I've made lots of plans to do stuff to the car - for instance I need a new alloy and at least one new tyre. Thought I might get a whole new set if I was going to change anything however its expensive!

I've also thought about maybe making the interior a bit better by spraying and re-trimming on the cheap but im afraid I might make it look crap so im after some second hand interior parts that I can try with first!

Also I want to remove the garage badge on the back and polish up the other badges but not sure how to go about it yet. I might just clean them and paint them with silver paint! :)

The car also needs a damn good clean inside and out! And I still want to try to clean the engine bay but it might be downhill struggle if I ever start! :)

Phew thats it for the moment, im sure there will be further updates at some point soon!

Its Been a While!

Its been a while since I last posted! I've since got all the stuff I need to sort the rear bumper but im being slow on actualy getting round to do it!

I also managed to pick up some 323 FL Sport sideskirts in the same colour as my car! I do however need to get a new front bumper and rear bumper skirt before I can fit the sideskirts otherwise it will look a tad strange!

And I can't afford to do those just yet! But I had to pick up the sideskirts as they were a bargain off ebay seeing as I won't have to get them sprayed!

Also it looks as though my handbrake issue isn't the calipers as I got a friend to take a look at the calipers and they are fine. I'll just have to replace the handbrake cable which should cost me about a quater of the cost of the calipers! Yay!

Little by little ...

Ordered myself a touchup paint kit and some bumper repair stuff so I can sort out the scar in my rear bumper and all the other little scratches on my car. After that I can give it all a nice clean and it should start to look a little more looked-after!

Little steps but at least its getting there slowly! I really want to clean my engine as well but I don't want to break anything and I am really not sure where to start as its all so grimey!

Not sure what to do about all the bits that have rusted as well - I shall post some pics up soon (as I keep promising!) of what is rusted! I might have to replace each bit which is not going to be fun!

Wipers

After reading some recommendations of wiper blades on http://www.club323f.com I decided to get myself a pair of PIAA wipers for my front windscreen. My old wiper blades did more smearing that clearing which meant that I tried to use them as little as possible as they tended to decrease visibility in the few seconds after using them!

I fitted them yesterday and its not rained .... yet .... so I will do a proper write up when I have had a chance to use them in anger!

Well ...

I have fitted a K&N panel filter into the factory airbox the other day. Didn't seem to make too much difference, but then again it never was going to as its not an induction kit! Might be a bit smoother or it could just be the placebo effect of having bought something new! ;)

Just ordered myself some new wipers, hopefully they will last me a while as I decided to get some reasonable ones as you need good wipers this summer in the UK. My current ones are rubbish to the point where I try to use them as little as possible as they smear rather than wipe which doesn't tend to help visibility ....

Next up I need to sort the scratches and scuffs on the paintwork.

Yay for me! Boo for Hellfrauds!

First the bad news. I went down to Halfords today. I was after some new windscreen wipers, and some touchup paint to sort my various scratches and scuffs.

Apparently Halfords only stocks 323BJ wipers in their bog standard Halfords own style. Which I refuse to buy. The Bosch wipers they would have to order, no matter what store I went into to get them! Sigh!

So I thought I would get the touchup paint. Turns out they stock a whole 5 different colours for Mazdas, and that their paint mixer was kaput! So I ended up leaving the place with just some windscreen wash fluid! Least it was cheap!

Thats the end of the bad news onto the good news. While browsing round the Club323f forums I noticed a a topic about modifying the standard air intake system. The stock system has a really really bad location for the open end of the air snorkel.

So this afternoon I took my front bumper off, cut a hole into the bumper reinforcement below where the snorkel sits and reattached it all. Hey voila! My first ever mod! Not really tried it yet but I think throttle pickup is a bit more responsive! But thats not the bit that im happy about, its because I managed to take the bumper off and put it back on all by myself! Im so pleased about it because I have never done anything like that on a car before!

I'll try and get some piccies posted up here soon!