S13 - Over 14 Years

[s13n1]

Another little update.

I replaced both ball joint boots, that wasn't as difficult as I imagined. Having purchased a ball joint tool for the Hicas bar it was actually a breeze. 

The exhaust had a couple nuts missing, so I replaced those and while I was under there removed the old front pipe shroud that had become rusted and was loose. The car no longer makes this awful rattle noise on first start. Awesome. 

Eye level stop light and licensed plate bulb is fitted.

Brand new rear struts are ordered and should arrive by Monday. 

The car has had a much needed wheel alignment. Thank f**k!

My odometer wasn't working. Pulled it apart and discovered a bit of blue plastic was stuck in the little gears. Looks like the same blue plastic that covers the light bulbs, but can't see any that are missing it. Strange. Removing the plastic got the trip Meyer going, but the odometer is still stuck, will have to have another look. 

Popped into a local smash repair place and chatted to the lovely husband wife owners about the "structural report". The guy was under the impression it should never have been on the roadworthy to begin with and after looking under my car he just shook his head and agreed that it was just light damage from a trolley jack and is nothing even close to structural damage. It's booked in next week to have it fixed and he'll give me a structural report saying there's nothing at all wrong. 

So.. if all goes well, I could potentially have a roadworthy car next Wednesday afternoon!

[s13n1]

Managed to get my odometer working today! This was SUPER satisfying! After discovering there was blue plastic stuck in the gears of the trip meter the other day, after close inspection today I noticed there was some slack in the odometer dials allowing them to shift to one side and not make contact with the gears from the trip meter. This was quite the pain in the arse to get fixed as I had to remove them and insert a little spacer I made from plastic. Then I had to rotate all the dials to read correct and get the gears all aligned and put it back together so it was all aligned with the cutout in the Speedo face.  Not difficult, but not fun. 

So now all that remains is installing the new rear struts when they arrive and having the jacking points fixed and the structure report done on Wednesday. 

I forgot to mention while driving the car to the panel beater to enquire about the structure report, I got pulled over by the cops. As soon as they went past I knew they were gonna stop me cause I didn't have the permit receipt printed and taped to the windscreen. They did a U-turn and put the lights on, chasing me at close to 100 in a 60 zone, over taking about 3 cars to get me. The cop was actually really good, but I was surprised at how aggressive they were to pull me over. I suppose the possibility of pulling over an Unregistered car and dishing out a $900+ fine is too tempting.

[s13n1]

Well, it's been a long time coming but today my car is roadworthy!

The rear struts were fitted Monday. If anyone's interested you can get brand new gas struts from Repco. I got a super discount and only paid $106 each. The back left strut was so bad it could be fully compressed with one finger. I'm amazed I couldn't feel it when driving. 

The front-end still feels weird to me, but it could be that I'm just not used to the car. It feels like the front right wheel bearing, it has that kinda sound to it. I'll have to get a second opinion.

I had my sills and jacking points repaired to factory new condition today. The roadworthy guy wanted a structural report, so for $350 I got the report and the sills done. They did a really good job, it really does look like new.

It was annoying it had to be done cause it wasn't structural damage at all, but now my cars body is essentially perfect and I've got a structural report if I decided to sell it.

Priority one is club rego hopefully next week. After that the first thing is to have the air con re gassed, now that the heat is on the way.

I dunno how long I'll last before fitting the tanabe coil overs back in, not long I'm sure. I just can't stand how it looks and handles with the standard struts. 

[s13n1]

So this happened yesterday..

Freshly washed this morning before the heat arrives. My son's going to my parents and the wife and I are off for a days driving!