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Old 18-11-2014, 03:07 PM   #1
Ice88
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Caboose 3.0

Hey guys,

Who Am I:
For those that don't know me, I'm Ice (Kris) I used to own a Blue BJ SP20 (Protege5). Im a bit of a NA nut, the challenge of getting power NA is what drives me. I'm well aware that boost is cheaper but a good engine shouldn't need copious amounts of boost to make power. An efficient engine is a good engine.

Unfortunately I had my first accident at fault and the Blue SP20 came to an end. I toyed with swapping my engine into a MX5 but the amount of custom fabrication, and potential changes to my circumstances in the future meant that a two seater with a small boot would simply not be big enough. Further, the amount of fabrication meant that it may not get finished, a risk I wasn't willing to take.

The reason that this car is called Caboose 3.0 is that prior to this I had a blue 1.8 protege which got written off when someone ran up the back of me. The second blue protege (the SP20 referred to above), I wrote off

While this car isn't Blue it has enough of the old car going into it that I conceded that it would be ok to call it 3.0.

Scope:
Build 2.0 is going to be a continuation of 1.0, I will endeavour to document more of this build. However I am quite busy and forget at times to update forums.

Aim is to reach 190whp on pump fuel. The excellent news is that down the road I now have a station that has Flex Fuel (e70-e85) and a little further away a station that sells race fuel. So that should be a nice little surprise to see how much I make on e85. Anyone wanna take a guess?

Only other consideration for the build is that it needs to last a while, I won't say uber reliable. But I don't want the engine turning into a tear down and rebuild every year. I don't have the coin nor the inclination to repeat all this work. If this engine blows up then another build will occur, on another platform.

Otherwise, if you have any questions regarding my build or theory regarding why I did something ask away

Hopefully you learn something along the way as well.
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Old 18-11-2014, 03:09 PM   #2
Ice88
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Found this fixer upper on the internets. So a friend and I flew down and drove it 12hrs back to Brisbane.


Sorry about the night time shots but I work late. Works already begun on installing the coilovers and MSP brakes:


Panel gap between quater and bonnet:


The bonnet in question:


The 6x9s the previous owner installed:

They didn't last long..

Crack in front bar:


Broken tabs on front bar:


Don't have a photo of it but the car actually has 1.8 headlights so they will need to be converted.

Also requires a new radiator support panel:

JDM Parts arrived today:


Infiniti RX7 steering wheel:

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Old 18-11-2014, 05:46 PM   #3
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is that the earlier nardi with later airbag? or didn't the rx7's get the nardi logo?
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Old 18-11-2014, 07:04 PM   #4
z100
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Pretty sure they did get the Nardi badged wheel, remember Dan mentioning it somewhere. Must say, that is a mint steering wheel!
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Old 18-11-2014, 11:57 PM   #5
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Hope you are ok mate. Good to see you are straight into another project.
Will follow this build as eagerly as the last, always learning something from you.
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Old 19-11-2014, 04:40 AM   #6
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Most earlier nardi's had the nardi badge on the airbag and later ones on the lower spoke with airbag like yours.
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Old 19-11-2014, 06:46 AM   #7
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Keen to see how this works out! Very similar to what I'm trying to achieve.
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Old 19-11-2014, 07:08 AM   #8
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The last of those wheels didn't get the Nardi logo, as they were made by Mazda.

Looking forward to seeing you get closer to the finish line with this one
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Old 19-11-2014, 10:50 AM   #9
Ice88
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bathtub View Post
Keen to see how this works out! Very similar to what I'm trying to achieve.
NA build as well or?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ghetto3 View Post
Hope you are ok mate. Good to see you are straight into another project.
Will follow this build as eagerly as the last, always learning something from you.
Fine. Was a lot of work to strip the car. Lot of work to reassemble too.

Won't do it again.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupewrecht View Post
The last of those wheels didn't get the Nardi logo, as they were made by Mazda.

Looking forward to seeing you get closer to the finish line with this one
Thanks Rupe. Not really a whole heap more to be done, the rest to be done does add up $$$ though
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Old 19-11-2014, 10:56 AM   #10
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Yep! Plan isn't really nailed down at this point but I'm looking at going FS-ZE with itb's and more compression.
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Old 19-11-2014, 02:53 PM   #11
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Yep! Plan isn't really nailed down at this point but I'm looking at going FS-ZE with itb's and more compression.
Let me know if your in for ITBs, I have plan in the works for painless way to get a setup for F series motor.
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Old 19-11-2014, 06:10 PM   #12
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[QUOTE=Rupewrecht;336061]The last of those wheels didn't get the Nardi logo, as they were made by Mazda.

so a bit like the p5 wheel where the casting's concerned?
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Old 21-11-2014, 06:56 AM   #13
bathtub
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Let me know if your in for ITBs, I have plan in the works for painless way to get a setup for F series motor.
Definitely in for ITB's. My plan was to use 4AGE 20v throttles and have an adapter plate made, but I'm all ears if you have a simpler solution!
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Old 21-11-2014, 02:17 PM   #14
Ice88
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Definitely in for ITB's. My plan was to use 4AGE 20v throttles and have an adapter plate made, but I'm all ears if you have a simpler solution!
Not sure how much the adapter would set you back. But this will be cleaner and added bonus of having the correct port spacing.
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Old 22-11-2014, 11:29 AM   #15
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The last of those wheels didn't get the Nardi logo, as they were made by Mazda.

Looking forward to seeing you get closer to the finish line with this one
that is true, but not on the FD
the series 8 FD never came with a non-nardi wheel... all of them came with a Nardi in some form

the Nardi wheels have better quality leather than the Mazda made wheels, and the stitching is also somewhat finer
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Old 14-12-2014, 09:38 PM   #16
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OK photo update this time

Unfortunatley I dont have a photo of the radiator support panel that came with the car, but it really was rippled (picture surface of the moon). As such it really needed replacing, I purchased a Non OEM panel, which frankly didn't cut the mustard it was all out of whack and was quite floppy. When the panel didnt line up, was worried briefly that the car wasnt square till I realised logically that it wasnt possible (the rad support was too short between the fenders).

A OEM radiator support purchased a friend welded and fitted for me. Unfortunatley the radiator on the previous panel was held up in the panel by a set of drive shaft nuts. This really didnt work, the previous owner had to bend the bracket to sort of get it to fit (you can sort of see in pic 1 on the left). Further, the spair bushings that we had lieing around where for a BA 323 which funnily enough are the same height as the drive shaft nuts used previously. As i wasnt about to bend my CR3 brackets out of shape, you can see my zip tie action in the first photo:




Prolly the worst part of the car after the repairs:


This is what the car looks like now. Check out the custom faded paint job:


The other work that I have done is to clean out the car, the rear of the car was full of rusty nails, electrical supplies, zip ties etc. Couple of buckets of water and lots of small cuts to the hands from sheet metal and the car is pretty clean. Unfortunatley quite a few nails had rusted to smithers. End result is that its attracted(?) rust into the car. This is after hitting it with a steel brush attached to a drill:


Just needs a bit of prep and then a coat of rust kill primer to seal and prevent further rust.

I've had this rear strut bar for about 2 years, but having to cut interior plastic pieces etc to fit and potentially stuffing it up means it was never done before now:


Bonus the sub even fits between the seat and the strut bar:


Fitted the front strut brace:


Bought some GC8/GF8 WRX Cloth seats. They fit like a glove, are incredibly comfortable. Only complaint is that for tall people (I'm 188cm or so) you might run into head room issues sitting up very straight or when trying to wear a helmet.


This afternoon got a bit of time so installed my DG Carbon Fibre Interior pieces:




Also did a few other things such as flushing the power steering system with new fluid, flushing the radiator to get rid of the grime (always always use distilled water + appropriate concentrate).
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Old 14-12-2014, 09:55 PM   #17
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Needs some four throttle action in there mate.
Keen to see what you're planning here
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Old 15-12-2014, 06:37 AM   #18
Mad Mat
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Needs some four throttle action in there mate.
Keen to see what you're planning here
Agreed
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