chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
User status: Offline
|
we could of got that diffuser powder coated with your wishbones however, it looks like a decent job 
got someone dropping off their car for me to do a full suspension refresh late January.. so if you can get me your stuff by then i can send them all in together.. Im away beginning of Feb for 2 weeks so lets try get them in before then
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by anthcorsa
That rear diffuser looks a million times nicer black with all new bolts. Top job 
Cheers mate, well chuffed with how it turned out. Was a little unsure when I saw it sat so glossy in the garage before fitting it!
quote:
Originally posted by chris_uk
we could of got that diffuser powder coated with your wishbones however, it looks like a decent job
got someone dropping off their car for me to do a full suspension refresh late January.. so if you can get me your stuff by then i can send them all in together.. Im away beginning of Feb for 2 weeks so lets try get them in before then
Cheers Chris, I'm away for a week for the third week in Feb - so it would be really good to get the stuff to you prior to you going away otherwise it's going to be a mad rush to get done before the trackdays start 
Will you get my ARB coated too? In fact, can you send me a list of all the components that could feasibly be done up? For example, the hub upright - could that be powdercoated if I unbolt the hubs?
Also when you refit all the gubbins to a drive in/out job, do you use new bolts all round? If so - can you sort me some out too?
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Phew, just finished the big stripdown over the last few days. It's taken a while mainly due to me only having the patience for a couple of hours at a time, but also not having the right tools or technique... more on that later. As a reminder, my goal was just to get the bits off the car and then send off to Chris & Jon at https://www.jonsealsportscars.com/
I got started last Saturday, got the car undertray off and jacked up on to stands.
I thought I'd start with the rear passenger side, as it was closest to the beer fridge.
Wheel off, first hurdle failed - I had the wrong size impact sockets for the hub nut. Amazon Prime.
I decided to strip what I could from the corner anyway. I managed to get both wishbones off the car, and the caliper off - so the upright/hub was suspended just by the driveshaft and a wire coat hanger.
I think I fell over some tools whilst taking this 
Only difficulty to note so far was getting the balljoints out of the upright once the bolts were undone. The bolts were sticky and hard to remove, but not impossible. The tapered balljoints however were proper stuck, and my wedge/fork type splitter was too bulky to get into the joint to start putting appropropriate pressure on. I managed to remove the top one by whacking it with a hammer shit loads, and left the bottom one attached for Chris to sort out when he removes the bushes for me
I made a note to order a proper balljoint separator, a scissor type one. Amazon Prime
Sunday:
Amazon Prime man turned up with an impact socket, so whizzed the hubnut off. Next up, the driveshaft was seized into the hub! I tried whacking it with a hammer shit loads (with the nut on the end to protect it) and it just wouldn't budge. There must be a tool for it, so parked that for later. Amazon Prime.
I moved onto the front passenger side and got that completely stripped but it took HOURS. Balljoints were causing grief and even the TRE took an age to get out, again eventually successful by whacking it with a hammer shit loads.
TRE left on, as I don't have replacements yet so can keep my tracking reference for now.
With the front upright off the car, I then had to seperate the hub (which I'd be keeping to paint up) and the upright which would be going off to Chris. It's bolted in with 3x 19mm bolts which whizzed out with the rattlegun fine, but then it was seized to the face of the upright. The technique I finally landed on was screwing the bolts back in a few turns then whacking them shit loads with a hammer. Eventually the hub popped off.
Monday:
Amazon Prime man turned up with a collection of driveshaft/hub pullers. I bolted it on and started winding, eventually with a muffled pop - the driveshaft pushed out, yay!
That's the passenger side of the car done at last!
Tuesday:
Attacked the rear drivers side this time, started with the hub nut and driveshaft tool but my god I struggled to get that driveshaft out. I tried so hard, I actually stripped the thread on the largest of my driveshaft pulling tools. I was cursing my cheap £12 kit, and the poor Amazon Prime bastard so I stormed upstairs to complain. After reading a bit, I found that I was actually doing it wrong! You don't keep screwing it to force the shaft out, you just bolt it up snug and then guess what... whack it with a fucking hammer
After doing this, the other driveshaft came out a treat Unfortunately, I sustained hammer related injuries tonight.
Not only that but I broke my novelty hammer! The bottle opener (that replaces the claw) snapped off!!
Wednesday:
Night off...
Thursday:
I finished off the rear drivers side, my new balljoint tool working an absolute treat.
I then moved to the final corner and stripped it all down pretty quickly, leaving myself with just the ARB to detach. The ARB brackets are held on with 6mm allen bolts, I can access one with a ratchet but the other needs an actual 6mm allen key through a little hole:
Both of my allen key kits were missing just the 6mm key, brilliant  I'll delay the finish line one more night.
Friday, Tonight:
Halfords on the way home, 6mm key bought and whipped the brackets off. I then needed to drill out the rivets holding a little ally plate over the gap to allow me to wiggle the bar out.
The final result:
Pile of shit for Chris:
Stuff for me to clean/paint:
...and a garage that looks like it's had a bomb go off in it!
Off to see Chris tomorrow to dump my stuff, then I'll get on with the fun/therapeutic stuff of cleaning
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
User status: Offline
|
like mine... but messier lol
|
Darryl H
Organiser: South Central
Premium Member
Registered: 19th Nov 09
Location: Camberley Drives: Porsche 944
User status: Offline
|
I want your garage space! Good work Kyle
|My Corsa|SC|My Instagram|
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Cheers Darryl, got some more updates to post up this week - been tinkering most nights!
I only wish the garage space was part of my 'forever' house. We're only renting this place whilst I pay off the money I lost on the last mortgage we had ( ).
Should be ready to move about this time next year, and finding somewhere with a similar amount of garage space without 9 bedrooms and 4 acres of land seems to be a challenge. We've also fallen properly in love with our village, which is a shame as we live in the cheapest house probably by a margin of 100k - so unless we can convince the landlord to sell up, we've little hope of staying here 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Whilst my wishbones and uprights have been away with Chris, I've had a few hours here and there just tinkering and cleaning stuff up and preparing myself for the big re-assembly.
First up was to finish the damper/abs unit bracket modification off. Just swapped the little nuts/bolts with some epoxy and some rivets:
I've since painted them, so it looks slightly less horrible.
Next up, all my plastic arch liners got some loving. Just scrubbed them down and then cheated a bit with some tyreshine on a rag
Discs got a rubbing down and then a light coat of VHT silver... no finished photo for some reason, but they'll pop up later!
I was cleaning up the Gaz dampers and I noticed that on one of the units, that one of the bearings seemed a lot free'er than the others. Upon inspection, it was missing a rubber o-ring to protect the bearing from grit/dirt. It probably fell out whilst I was messing with the shocks, so I headed to Amazon to find a replacement. It cost me less for a kit of hundreds (£13) than it did to buy two of the specific size I needed!
My Calipers have been treated to a good scrub down, then some VHT gloss black. Also added new fittings (nipples and crossover pipes) to finish the job. I had one drama (as usual when I'm messing with brakes) in that one of the nipples seemed to drag with it half a thread on its way out Maybe cross-threaded in a past life, as it didn't really stick when I was undoing it. I managed to clean the top couple of threads up with an appropriately sized tap, and the new nipple has hopefully seated nicely. I'll obviously check for leaks when refitting, worst case scenario I can get it drilled out and an insert stuck in.
Post man has brought a steady stream of bits and bobs, still waiting on some parts from Lotus but I got the bulk of the fixings ready for the refit.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Finally some progress to report!
It's been a quiet few weeks due to holidays, waiting for parts from Lotus etc but finally I've been able to start attaching stuff back onto the car
The big arrival of course was the suspension components back from Chris @ Jon Seal Sportscars after the powdercoating, rebushing and new balljoint treatment.
Before
After
Also got the hub uprights done in black, they look lovely. Oh, the ARB is red too.
With regards to the actual hubs, they've been bothering me for a few weeks. At least one is feeling VERY rough but I wasn't sure what kind of tolerances these things have got. The last thing I want is to button the car all back up, then have a hub bearing fail... so I've put an order in for four new hubs to rule that out!
I got some bits of progress done this weekend between various other things going on. I've pretty much got all the wishbones connected, bolts not done up tight yet (need to torque at correct ride height) and got the track rod ends swapped over, Oh - ARB fitted twice though... upside down the first time 
Hopefully I can get the hubs early this week, get those put together onto the uprights then I'm ready to get some brake fluid in.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
boylers11
Member
Registered: 27th Jul 06
Location: Shropshire
User status: Offline
|
Good progress Kyle, I'm doing the same with the Chimaera at present. PITA to do, but it'll be well worth it once we're done!
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by boylers11
Good progress Kyle, I'm doing the same with the Chimaera at present. PITA to do, but it'll be well worth it once we're done!
Cheers mate.
It doesn't feel like the car has been off the road for 3(?) months, but now that we're getting some nicer days - it really feels like I'm wasting it! Going to aim to have the car MOT'd on saturday morning this week...
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
SteveoBC
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Feb 07
Location: Bucks
User status: Offline
|
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Bit more progress last night, popped back through to see Chris @ Jon Seal Sports Cars to pickup my hubs and a couple litres of brake fluid.
Once home, I didn't have much time (as usual) but I got 3/4 hubs assembled and attached the rears to the wishbones. Everything that's not a wishbone pivot (or driveshaft nut) was torqued and locktite'd where required.
Assembled hubs:
Rear side looking something like:
I'm going to have about an hour at best again tonight, so I'll aim to get the fronts similarly hooked up and get the calipers bolted on - then Friday it'll be brake fluid, handbrake cable and get everything torqued up at rideheight.
Saturday morning hopefully I can finish off any odds/ends - and get it MOT'd... which I still need to book/find somewhere with availability.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
Wrighty
Member
Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
User status: Offline
|
oh aye, suspensions looking good n what not
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Unfortunately had a little set back.
I got the car to a state in which it just needed to be torqued up really, but when torquing down the balljoints I noticed they wouldn't fit flush in their tapered holes.
I had a quick chat with Chris, and he verified the same issues at the workshop with another set on another car... so looks like a dodgy batch of balljoints
Because of that, I then had to completely strip the car down again. Jon (Chris' boss) drove to my house to collect my wishbones, they're going to press the BJs out and probably re-powdercoat as pressing them out will probably scuff them up to shit.
Really annoying, big thumbs up to Chris and Jon for getting onto the fix ASAP though. Hopefully I can get them back this week, and finish the job at last...
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
User status: Offline
|
Stripping yours down first thing in the morning. :/ such a pain in the arse!
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Nice chunk of progress this weekend
First up, Chris turned around my wishbones really quickly - I had those back on Friday night and was ready to get cracking again.
I started on Saturday morning immediately following the F1 Qualifying - so got to work at around 7am.
I tackled the fronts first, as the caster shims are the only real difficult/fiddly part but they didn't resist too much... I've got a bit of a technique now involving a hammer
As per before, everything was done up with barely any torque - as the bushes needed to be sat at their "normal" rideheight before being nipped up.
By mid morning I was ready to get some brake fluid in, so gave it a preliminary bleed. These calipers are a bit of a PITA to bleed properly when they've been emptied completely as the inside piston seems to hold an air bubble. I need to bleed again before it's MOT time.
I took almost no photographs during the process as I just wanted to crack on - but by lunch time I was ready to drop the car on its wheels for the first time in three months!
My plan was to roll it out of the garage, get the suspension settled in and then roll it back in to get everything torqued up. As it happens, it was very sunny and the car was very dirty... so I couldn't resist giving it a quick wash
It was good to be doing something other than spannering the car for a change...
After a lunch break, the car was back in the garage and I took measurements hub to wheelarch at each corner. That allowed me to jack the car back up, back onto stands and then jack each corner in turn up to the appropriate rideheight, and then get torquing.
The torquing was all a bloody farce. Once the suspension is back on the car you can't bloody access 90% of them with a torque wrench... so it turned into a series of best guesses tbh 
I managed to get the drivers' side of the car all done up and part of the passenger side.
I got dragged out of the garage at 17 0 on Saturday night as it was time to go out... I'd be back on Sunday.
Immediately following the GP on Sunday morning, I was back in the garage to finish off. By 110 I had the car back on its wheels, floor was back on and front undertray all done up.
The front toe angle is hilariously out, but went for a drive anyway. No nasty noises, in fact it's much quieter than I ever remember... so good news there. The car obviously drove like crap with my front wheels being all cross eyed, so I won't judge it yet.
I've got MOT booked for Friday this week, so I'll get the brakes fully bled properly on a week night and then it's ready for geo. MOT place will sort my front tracking out just to stop me from smashing my tyres, but want it properly seeing to before I go for a proper drive.
Happy days!
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
Wrighty
Member
Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
User status: Offline
|
nice one fonz, il have to pop across and show you the soup, its also due an MOT and a blast out.
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
quote:
Originally posted by Wrighty
nice one fonz, il have to pop across and show you the soup, its also due an MOT and a blast out.
Yeah let's make it so
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
User status: Offline
|
Wait for me to be finished! Lol
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
MOT Day 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
MOT passed with no advisories, but all a bit of a farce really as the garage couldn't inspect the majority of the car since everything is covered by either the flat floor or the maintenance panels on the front
They did a quick £17.50 tracking on the front too and the car drove a million times better than it did in the morning. Went for a wee blast on the way home, what a car Whenever
Proper Geo booked for the 10th April, will get it on the scales and have the rideheight properly setup and a check over that everything is done up right
Want to get the car to Chris @ Jon Seal for a service too - but that might have to wait until after April... all my weekends are evaporating and work is getting a bit mental so I'll do an oil/filter change at home for my two April trackdays, then will get it serviced after that.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
I've done about 100 miles on the car, no drama anyway but the brake pedal was still a bit spongy and the car didn't quite feel as "on it" which I was expecting pre-Geo.
I also did the oil/filter change at home as promised and gave everything one last check over.
Today I went to Track Torque to get my geo properly checked out including rideheight tweaks on the corner scales.
Car weighed in at 849kg with half a tank of fuel and the roof still on - which is a little under what I expected! The lightest version of the 111R was 860KG and the heaviest with A/C and full carpets way up to 916KG. Mine is a non-A/C car but does have carpets.
The TD wheels may be a bit lighter, and I saved 5KG when swapping the exhaust... so maybe that's enough, or Lotus book figures include a brimmed tank.
Pretty much bang on 50:50 weight distribution left to right and around 40:60 front/back.
My readings, BEFORE:
Caster:
L: 4.56'
R: 4.33'
Front Camber
L: -1.06'
R: -1.00'
Front Toe
L: -0.05'
R: -0.02'
Rear Camber
L: -3.24'
R: -2.30'
Rear Toe
L: -0.02'
R: -0.05'
...and afterwards:
Caster:
L: 4.30'
R: 4.12'
Front Camber
L: -1.06'
R: -1.00'
Front Toe
L: -0.01'
R: -0.01'
Rear Camber
L: -2.34'
R: -2.30'
Rear Toe
L: 0.16'
R: 0.16'
Ride height was tweaked slightly, just to reduce the rake angle that I'd put on DIY - and that was that, no massive changes at least according to the numbers.
On the drive home, the car felt much "heavier in my hands" whilst doing motorway cruising speeds, whereas previously it felt a little more skittish. I pushed on in a couple of b-road corners close to home and the car feels much nicer than before.
Nothing left to do now mechanically before my trackdays start, so time to relax - and maybe give it one more clean
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
boylers11
Member
Registered: 27th Jul 06
Location: Shropshire
User status: Offline
|
Looking good Kyle. Do you ever do track days at Croft?
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Cheers, yeah I've been there once - would like to do it more though, really nice track.
It tends to be more expensive than Cadwell or Blyton, the other two local ones.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
|
Quick pre-trackday update.
I went to Malton on Easter Sunday for the annual car meet, great weather and good turnout as usual but I had a slight drama en-route as my drivers side front indicator flew out, till tethered by its wiring it then started smacking into my clam 
I pulled over on on a shoulder-less dual carriageway and quickly unclipped the wiring and carried the indicator the rest of the way, inside the car.
Mercifully the clam sustained no damage, not even any marking. The indicator is lined with a plasticky rubber trim which I'm guessing took most of the contact. Either way, happy boy. The cause was known to me before I even pulled to the side of the road, the indicators are infamous for snapping a clip and flying out. I knew my passenger one had previously come out and been bodged as it has a makeshift clip on it from a previous owner.
There are a few documented workarounds involving home made clips and tethers, the clip closest to the camera has been snapped off:
...but there is enough of the stub left to drill a hole into:
I then used some particularly hi-tech string to tie it to part of the clam mounting... hopefully preventing this from happening again but without resorting to less temporary fixings such as glue/sealant which some people use...
With a small amount of tension on the string, the indicator actually sits better into the clam than it ever has before - so I may replicate on the passenger side when I have time!
Other than that, the car has had a clean and a final spanner check before Cadwell tomorrow. GoPro mounting has been tested (got a new GoPro over winter, with 4K capabilities this time...) and everything seems to be good.
Hopefully nice weather tomorrow, some good pictures/footage and a safe drama free day.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
|
