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Patch's - Silver dream machine project #1055009
18/06/2010 08:28
18/06/2010 08:28

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patch234
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Okay, here's the start of my next project. Unusually, this one is starting with a mint example (makes a nice change)

I'll list below my initial plans, it will be interesting to see how much the plans change over the coming months

Car - Silver 1998 'S reg' 20VT LE
Mileage - 68,000

Project

(a) Put on full body kit
Originally, I wanted to put on the Italian PIU front bmper, having costed this out, it seems to get one over to me (not colour matched) it will cost £389.57, as I say, this is before fitting and paint.

I have also costed out the AutoDS PIU front bumper, zender skirts and rear bumper skirt and this comes in at £373.00 before fitting and painting.

(b) Change wheels - decided against the stilo blades now

(c) Fit Recaro interior
I have already purchased some sliding and reclining Recaro's in black and silver. I will be taking out the LE interior (panels, steering wheel, gear knob, handbrake et al) and replacing these parts with custom made black and silver parts.

The interior as it stands has already been sold

(d) Suspension & chassis
More on this later

(e) Engine & Turbo
Circa 350bhp, more on this later

(f) Tyres
More on this later

(g) Roof
Have some plans for this - more later

(h) Lights
Hids and LED all around, keeping the original lenses but making the bottom two rears more red

(i) Exhaust - Blue Flame with decat or sports cat

(j) Paint and engine bay - Refine until crystal clear and shinier than the worlds most shiny thing. Make engine bay as new

(k) Bits and bobs
As we go along

Some initial pics - as picked up on purchase day.
click to enlarge
click to enlarge

As you can see, she is not too shabby, but I did detail it about a two months ago smile


This weekend I will begin the paint refinement process and of course will be posting the results up in this thread.



COMMENTS THREAD HERE > CLICK




Last edited by patch234; 18/06/2010 08:31.
Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1055716
19/06/2010 19:58
19/06/2010 19:58

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Painted and fitted a red badge, fitted a Atmos dump valve and fitted some HID's last night.

Made a start on the body today. Spent about 6 hours on and off on it. Removed all scratch marks and a few bits of tar and road grime. Did not touch the wheels/interior nor the engine bay, that's for tomorrow.

Still have not finished the body work, one further treatment tomorrow and this aspect will be to my rather demanding standards.

Got to say, the paint on this one really is mint and in the sunlight she really glimmers.

Will take some of the metallic flake shots tomorrow once finished. Getting a bit dark now.
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Last edited by patch234; 19/06/2010 21:33.
Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1055981
20/06/2010 19:50
20/06/2010 19:50

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Okay, bodywork finished. Managed to get some good reflections (quite difficult to do with silver metallic paint), so tonight I'm a happy chap.

Didn't get into the interior or engine as family stuff needed attending to, i.e. spending time with them at the weekend instead of my car laugh

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Last edited by patch234; 20/06/2010 20:12.
Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1060798
28/06/2010 13:24
28/06/2010 13:24

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Fitted a Barnacle Widget and HKS dumper.

Widget looks like a great little piece of kit for the car so thanks to Barnacle for developing this, I like it.
click to enlarge

YES, I know the airbag light is on laugh

The HKS black was fitted with relative ease (with help from knight7660 thumb ) did not need the reducing pipe in the end, simply left a little of the old pipe on and sleeved over this with the 34mm one. Simples.

Had a slight accident with the rear. Reversed into a low wall and scraped the rear bumper n/s and dinted the wing. Removed 90% of the scraping. Will need to get this resprayed when fitting the body kit. frown

Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1063751
03/07/2010 22:08
03/07/2010 22:08

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Purchased and picked up a set of Silo Blade alloys this evening. Looking very nice in my garage. Will need to get them powder coated in a titanium type colour though.

Last edited by patch234; 05/07/2010 21:18.
Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1064794
05/07/2010 21:22
05/07/2010 21:22

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Here's the new wheels then. Cleaned up this evening, inside and out. They were in a right old state.

Noticed a dent on one of them on the inside rim. I don't mind this, but I wish the seller had been truthful about their condition.

I must learn to check things properly when buying!!!! Always in a rush and too trusting, that's my problem.

Anyways, here they are, can't wait to get them coated and new rubber on.
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
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Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1071556
18/07/2010 11:37
18/07/2010 11:37

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Okay, quick update before the GP starts thumb

Been a bit quiet lately on the Silver Dream Machine thread, two reasons

1. My Mac has gone off for repair (kept going into sleep mode), I need my Mac! This left me with only a Laptop (Advent) to use, no Bluetooth, rubbish operating system, crap keyboard, just generally poor laugh Oh! and everything looks and acts differently on the screen, this annoys me too. Rant over

2. Been concentrating on getting this little detailing business going.

So, what has been done?

The rocker cover was sprayed with VHT Metallic Red paint. It's rubbish, looks pink and I will need to redo this! Coil pack cover sprayed with VHT Metallic Black paint, this looks okay and I'll keep it. New Rocker cover gasket installed also.
click to enlarge

Sprayed the black parts of the wing mirrors in satin, came up a treat.
click to enlarge click to enlarge

Got hold of some 20mm hubcentric wheel spacers from Rob40 and have now put on the 17" blades with the help of Joe at FCSS. This turned out to be a bit of a mare as the front wheel nuts all needed 2 threads removed from the ends as they were fouling the hub preventing the wheels turning, then the locking wheels nuts needed modifying. Thanks to Joe, I would never have known what to do if he had not been there. thumb

Installed a nice Alpine CD player in the car, great matching colour (red/orange) to the rest of the dash lights and had handy USB and iPod connections to boot. Loving the USB one at the moment.

Next jobs will be to lower the suspension and she is riding high (always been a bit of a high one).

Going to recoat the rear calipers in red later today.

Work on getting the recaro interior installed.

No pictures as this [censored] PC has no Bluetooth connectivity.

Last edited by patch234; 22/07/2010 20:28.
Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1074509
22/07/2010 20:39
22/07/2010 20:39

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Pics of Stilo blades fitted below.

20 mm spacers on all around at the moment. The tyres are 215/45/17. I will change these for 215/40/17 as there is some rubbing on full lock on the front wheel inner arch. (Vented area).

I will need to get these wheels off again soon as they do need powder coating - going for a light graphite colour.

The suspension desperately needs lowering 30-35 mm as she is riding way to high at the moment. Will get this done soon.

Once lowered and the body kit fitted she'll start to take shape.

Here we are then...
click to enlarge
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Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1078165
29/07/2010 19:22
29/07/2010 19:22

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Had some work done on the engine on Sunday.

New radiator
New thermo & sensor
New oil & filter
New flowed and balanced injectors fitted
New heatshield - Sanded back and then sprayed with VHT paint (Metallic grey to match coil pack cover)
Cleaned an expansion tank and had this fitted
New coolant obviously wink
Auxiliary belt tightened.

All work carried out by FCSS, thanks Joe. Getting the engine bay prepped for MITCAR thumb

Just sprayed a Plus grill metallic silver tonight and installed that too. Looks very nice IMO laugh

Overall, my LE is running great at the moment. It's nice to drive a low mileage example, seems very tight and compliant.

Last edited by patch234; 29/07/2010 19:25.
Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1083877
09/08/2010 21:04
09/08/2010 21:04

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While I was at the MITCAR show, I met Mayzon for the first time (face to face), we got talking and it turns out he's a professional photographer. Anyone who was there would have seen his camera (the flash was probably worth more than my car alone).

Anyway's I asked him to take a few shots of my car, here is my favourite, it's Hi Res too, so I can get it framed thumb Nice, cheers Mart smile

Here it is then - what a shot!
click to enlarge

Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1089886
22/08/2010 20:12
22/08/2010 20:12

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Few more bits done to the car over the last month.

Bought a FMIC with all the pipes and clips (ex group buy jobby that was never fitted by the original purchaser)

Fitted some dash cluster rings

Stilo blade wheels are currently in Birmingham for powder coating (anthracite) so will have these on the car for the Gaydon meet.

Had the oil changed (just because) - the old oil was only 1500 miles old

Joe at FCSS experimented on my springs! I wanted the car lower, so we decided to employ Joe's blacksmithing skills. Basically, joe fired up his forge, and heated the springs. He then reduced the height of these by hammering the bottom coil to meet the next one above. These were all then left to cool naturally.

Springs fitted to car, and the drop was probably only 10 mm. Not really as much as we thought it might be, but a drop nevertheless. The car is definitely firmer and the springs have lost the 'rolliness' going into corners.

It was worth a try, but I will be purchasing some springs to fit in the near future. Actually, the rears are spot on, it's the front we are not happy with.

I now have my eye on a new turbo, and will be purchasing this, fitting the FMIC, fitting a Walbro, 3.8 FPR and fuel feed modification and finally getting it mapped.

Firstly though, once the springs are done, I will be sorting out a body kit, front bumper and changing the interior over to Recaro.

Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1093671
29/08/2010 20:36
29/08/2010 20:36

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patch234
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patch234
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Springs experiment didn't really get the desired results so new lowering springs put on car last Friday evening and newly powder coated alloy wheels put on. Colour of choice - Dark Anthracite

Sprayed the hub caps myself using a close match spray paint mixed by Halfords.

Here's a few shots taken at the Auto Italia Gaydon event

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Here's the comparison with none-lowered and lowered
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Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1096657
05/09/2010 16:17
05/09/2010 16:17

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patch234
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Big plans are in motion! Next weekend my car goes away for a week to have some work done that will change it's look significantly and make her a one-off with regard to the LE models. It's a bit risky what is planned, I hope it comes off! More on this in a few weeks.

Once the car is back in my possession it will be the first to be treated to the latest technologies with regard to paintwork protection (applied by myself) and I hope to show the benefits of these new products to interested parties at the cars@thecourse show in Windsor for the end of September.

This time next Sunday, she'll be being dropped off .........

Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1103193
17/09/2010 20:39
17/09/2010 20:39

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Well now, I've only gone and done it again Rodney! Can someone please photoshop me a steel grey roof on a steel grey LE? Cause I've just had my roof re-sprayed dark anthracite to match my wheels laugh

Pictures tomorrow hopefully, as I'm still in the process of putting here back together smile

You gotta love those coloured roofs. thumb

Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1103446
18/09/2010 15:33
18/09/2010 15:33

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patch234
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patch234
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Okay, having had a good look at the car today and put all the bits and pieces back on (in and out). I have most definitely failed to get the results I was after frown So, back to the spray shop she must go. Basically, the lines are not where I really want them to be.

To compound my sadness, I had a major brain fade event and ended up gouging the new paint while putting in the rear window seal. Nice!

So here's the pics, as I say, bit of a fail this attempt, but you learn by your mistakes...

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Here's where it starts to look a bot odd!
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Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1104567
20/09/2010 19:35
20/09/2010 19:35

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patch234
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Happy days. Car re-booked into spray shop for this Thursday, I'm helping out to quicken the process (little do they know wink ) so I can get the car done and dusted in one day ready for the cars @ thecourse show.

Thanks to Mr FCSS for organising this and helping me out in general with these guy's.

Fingers crossed, it'll be my design this time, no pressure then!

I'll also be applying some hi-tech/spec detailing laugh products to the car, first stage of my new (more expensive but worth it) additional service.

Last edited by patch234; 20/09/2010 19:46. Reason: spelling
Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1106194
23/09/2010 19:22
23/09/2010 19:22

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Spent the day in the spray shop today having the new lines put in the roof. We now have a set of great lines that suit the look of the car. I just need to mop the new lacquer and replace a few bits and she'll be ready for the Windsor show.

I also sourced a drivers side rear light from FCSS this morning (indicator and fog unit) and replaced the passenger side (indicator and reverse light) so now I have a nice arse laugh Both lower lights being orange and red and it looks great. I'll be putting in a new reverse, on another part of the rear later this month.

Happy days then. Pics tomorrow.

Re: Patch's - Silver dream machine project [Re: ] #1107008
25/09/2010 20:17
25/09/2010 20:17

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Gave the car a mop today and blended in the resprayed area. Here's a vid and some pictures of progress to date...
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The new lines can be seen in the video...

Click here to view




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