SineWave
03-09-2009, 12:13 AM
My name's Adam, I'm 24 and in my final semester for a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering mastering in Wireless Communications at UWS. I've been working full time and then weekend manager whilst at uni at Jaycar Electronics in Campbelltown and various other stores since 2004.
Never cared too much about cars until I realised I need a car once I finish uni. So my brother gave me his manual Kia Mentor '97 silver hatch earlier this year which had been sitting for nearly 3 years unregistered. I set out replacing all the fluids, filters, belts, cleaning tree gunk, degreasing the engine bay and repairing damage to the passenger door and mirror. One major problem with the Kia's of this age is the top of the dash. Even when using a dash mat, they curl up and even burn! Talk about cheap plastic crap. Will see if I can replace it at some point. :mad:
I learnt this car was using the Mazda B6 1.6L SOHC 8V engine. All the auto parts houses seem to stock parts for the B5 1.5L or BP 1.8L engines, so I had to get equivalent Mazda 323 parts. When flushing the clutch fluid, it gave one press and then went soft, no more pump action! I was quite pleased with myself by removing the master and slave cylinders and re-boring them using fine grit sandpaper to remove the rusty sludge build up. The clutch now feels better than ever!
Always loved the look of the BA astinas, so will be selling my Kia at the end of the year and looking for two (a manual for me and an auto for my girlfriend assuming I can convince her to sell her '95 Camry ;) )
I'm into a lot of electronics, and have a few projects and mods up my sleeves. In the middle of changing the interior lighting to red and white LED's, only done the power window buttons and door mounted foot lights so far. Thinking of drilling holes every 10cm along the 'bump guard?' on each door and putting orange LED's linked to the indicators. Dunno the legalities of such mods yet but will look it up before proceeding.
Still on my L's (too lazy, second time having them since 2004) but too busy with uni and work to go for my P's, but will get around to it soon. Looking forward to the insurance drop when I turn 25. :p
Also very much into audio, design my own speakers and amps. Leaving the original Clarion tape deck and 4" fronts, 5x7" rears in the Kia as they sound fine for the moment. The Astina will be getting my Nakamichi MB-VI 6 disc stacker and Alpine MRV-T757 V12 2x100W/1x400W which have been repaired and modified ( ;) ), and a 12" Alpine Type S sub which is waiting to be re-wound after someone burnt the dual coils out. I'll be rewinding it with one main voice coil, but the second will be only a few turns to act as a velocity feedback coil to allow me to create a servo'd subwoofer which will be built into a sealed box. :D
Hoping my 6" kevlar splits will fit with an adapter plate into the front doors, but will try using active crossovers and small 25W amp modules per speaker. I've had a look at the price of professional active speakers for cars... :eek: We'll see (or hear?) when we come to that hurdle. :p
My girlfriend's been bothering me to put a sub in her camry as well after I installed a new cd/mp3 head unit and the Venom 4" and 6x9"s we sell at work. They're pretty acceptable for the price, but need a bit more bass. Thinking of trying those fiberglassed boxes people build into the sides of their boots and using a spare 8" polycone or 10" carbon fiber driver.
So, glad to be a kind-of Mazda owner :o but will keep learning about these beautiful machines, how to mod them, and give you guys any advice I can. If you're ever in Campbelltown on a sat or sunday, pop into Jaycar and say hi. :)
Cheers,
- Adam
Never cared too much about cars until I realised I need a car once I finish uni. So my brother gave me his manual Kia Mentor '97 silver hatch earlier this year which had been sitting for nearly 3 years unregistered. I set out replacing all the fluids, filters, belts, cleaning tree gunk, degreasing the engine bay and repairing damage to the passenger door and mirror. One major problem with the Kia's of this age is the top of the dash. Even when using a dash mat, they curl up and even burn! Talk about cheap plastic crap. Will see if I can replace it at some point. :mad:
I learnt this car was using the Mazda B6 1.6L SOHC 8V engine. All the auto parts houses seem to stock parts for the B5 1.5L or BP 1.8L engines, so I had to get equivalent Mazda 323 parts. When flushing the clutch fluid, it gave one press and then went soft, no more pump action! I was quite pleased with myself by removing the master and slave cylinders and re-boring them using fine grit sandpaper to remove the rusty sludge build up. The clutch now feels better than ever!
Always loved the look of the BA astinas, so will be selling my Kia at the end of the year and looking for two (a manual for me and an auto for my girlfriend assuming I can convince her to sell her '95 Camry ;) )
I'm into a lot of electronics, and have a few projects and mods up my sleeves. In the middle of changing the interior lighting to red and white LED's, only done the power window buttons and door mounted foot lights so far. Thinking of drilling holes every 10cm along the 'bump guard?' on each door and putting orange LED's linked to the indicators. Dunno the legalities of such mods yet but will look it up before proceeding.
Still on my L's (too lazy, second time having them since 2004) but too busy with uni and work to go for my P's, but will get around to it soon. Looking forward to the insurance drop when I turn 25. :p
Also very much into audio, design my own speakers and amps. Leaving the original Clarion tape deck and 4" fronts, 5x7" rears in the Kia as they sound fine for the moment. The Astina will be getting my Nakamichi MB-VI 6 disc stacker and Alpine MRV-T757 V12 2x100W/1x400W which have been repaired and modified ( ;) ), and a 12" Alpine Type S sub which is waiting to be re-wound after someone burnt the dual coils out. I'll be rewinding it with one main voice coil, but the second will be only a few turns to act as a velocity feedback coil to allow me to create a servo'd subwoofer which will be built into a sealed box. :D
Hoping my 6" kevlar splits will fit with an adapter plate into the front doors, but will try using active crossovers and small 25W amp modules per speaker. I've had a look at the price of professional active speakers for cars... :eek: We'll see (or hear?) when we come to that hurdle. :p
My girlfriend's been bothering me to put a sub in her camry as well after I installed a new cd/mp3 head unit and the Venom 4" and 6x9"s we sell at work. They're pretty acceptable for the price, but need a bit more bass. Thinking of trying those fiberglassed boxes people build into the sides of their boots and using a spare 8" polycone or 10" carbon fiber driver.
So, glad to be a kind-of Mazda owner :o but will keep learning about these beautiful machines, how to mod them, and give you guys any advice I can. If you're ever in Campbelltown on a sat or sunday, pop into Jaycar and say hi. :)
Cheers,
- Adam