Retro inspired RS-ltd

small amount more of progress



bumper is getting there, made some new lenses to cover the fogs and tinted them. still some more repair needed on the bumper before it can be painted.





put rivnuts in the bootlid and using some nice stainless bolts to hold the spoiler on. this will be painted along with the bumper







played with the inter cooler and odd bits of pipe work. none of its the right size, just mocking up so know what i need to order. want to try and use as much metal pipe as possible really. decided i want to make a new frame to hold the inter cooler and radiator. not sure what material to make it from, thinking of some tubing like a space frame? also removed my hks manifold as that is now sold

Really nice 
just read your thread nice work 
i did like the splits thou 👍

excuse me while I lust after your car

Such an awesome looking car man, hats off to you!

so whats been going on? just been enjoying the car. lots of roof down driving, actually havent had it up once so far apart from washing it. meeting up with mates as well.

first taxed day, met up with a few mates aka the hairdresser squad. although its getting less hairdressery as there is now a brz and s14 in the mix



mates boosted nb in the background and a stancey gay na on expensive wheels haha



couple of nice sunny photos









pretty damn happy with how the car looks atm. what with paying for a wedding not a great deal will happen to it this summer i dont think. but some things i want to try and do are, splitter/undertray/airguide as the oem one doesnt fit the m2 bumper. new centre console/tombstone, the one ive done atm can be improved on i think. door cards, want to try and simplify the interior a bit not that is very busy anyway! haha



went to another meet, this time with my bro (vx220) a friend of both of us (mx5) and my sis (abarth 500)





lastly, had something pretty special come in at work. not for us to do anything too, but a customer checking progress on their 930 built

Long time since i last posted anything, not been too busy with car have done a few bits.

Been wanting to make something like this for a while and decided just to bite the bullet and experiment. Best way to learn is by doing. I already have/had a short console, but wanted one even shorter and that looked cleaner rather than having the radio hole filled in. 




started with this, idea was to make a mould i could work off



after applying mould release, draped some ck, applied some clear resin, did some trimming. then it didnt release and things were not going well. managed to save what id made with the ck but the mould was pretty ruined



so what id made in ck was bonded to another tombstone and hey presto. it certainly isnt perfect but i am happy with the result. if it bothers me in the future then i can always make another.





need a new hvac panel and some slider knobs to finish it off, had to get rid of the chrome as it clashed a bit. ive already replaced the boots.



next up, exhaust. going turbo soon so thought i could get this out the way now. there arent any off the shelf exhausts i was keen on and instead of paying someone to make one that i could? how hard could it be? so after an order of pipe work



now im not in any way experienced at welding and im only using an arc welder so no comments on it please



all going so well



cheeky action shot







and all done, its only tacked together so far, my plan is to use the mig at work to finish the joins. the rear can is second hand, not decided if im going to polish it up or paint it yet.

Now time for some serious content. Turbo content.

I've gone for the kraken manifold. I think having the turbo sit a little lower is going to suit my setup the best. I was deciding between this and the g19. One thing I had noticed looking at peoples cars that had the kraken manifold is they start to get some surface rust quite quickly. So to over come this I looked into ceramic coating, well that was too expensive at this moment in time so went down the paint route. Seen people use this stuff on turbo exhausts, I have used it on a v8 exhaust manifold and a 3.0L straight 4 manifold before and it has held up really well. So we shall see how it lasts on a turbo manifold and the exhaust turbine housing.







Clocked the turbo to where it needed to be and got it fitted in the car.





Next up was getting the intercooler on. I made a new frame out of the same aluminium box that I used when doing the civic rad. It's going to do the job for now but my skills have come along enough that I can and should make something better. So when I've finished turboing I'm going to look at making a tubular frame that will be welded together. 





Think I already said this, but want this to look as oem/tidy as possible. So went for making my own oil feed. It's a ptfe hose, SS braided, then coated in a nylon sleeve. Finished with black an fittings I think it looks pretty good. Have made it a little too long so that will have to come off again and be shortened a little.





Pretty sure everyone knows there are some clearance issues with the kraken manifolds. I binned off a lot of the PAS pump bracket/adjuster and modified some of it so that there is still some adjustment on it and it holds the belt at a decent tension. We shall see how this goes when the car is all up and running, if it doesn't go well then I think that I will try and use something like a rose jointed drop link. Gives me enough space to retain the PAS pump, run the boost pipe over the top and the water lines between them.





Now I know where everything is definitely going I can order all the joiners and pipes I need to finish that off then it is on to making a down pipe.

That's all for now, hopefully the next update will be a bit sooner. Want this finished before the spring!