Christopher
Member
Registered: 14th Oct 10
Location: Eastbourne
User status: Offline
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Got small stones all in mine  pooh! Looks great buddy! Soooo clean
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Pebbledash arches, all the rage in Japan. 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
User status: Offline
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not really no.
there is in the centre tho..
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Simon_16v
Member
Registered: 14th Aug 06
Location: Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Yeah if you go back towards the city centre there is loads of little ones, I accidentally wheelies my bandit through one
Was revving the engine but dumped the clutch by accident and next thing I had the front wheel to deal with
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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I put a post on GC a week or so ago asking about component speaker options. It seems that popular opinion is that I should try amping my existing coax speakers first.
With that in mind, I've won an Alpine PMX T320 on eBay. It's only a cheap amp, about £100 brand new I think and I got it for £50 - so it's a fairly cheap experiment. The specs/reviews seem ample (see what I did there?) for my requirements.
I'll get the amp wiring sorted once it arrives, and see how my existing coax speakers manage. If I'm still not happy I'll look out for some components to match.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Couple of under-the-hood jobs for this afternoon.
First up to fix a pretty serious oversight from the lads at Richard Henry from my coolant change...
Better...
Second up was a bit of an eye-sore which you can see on my "engine bay cleaned" picture from t'other week:
It's that steel tube which is bolted to the back of the engine bay. I understand this tube to carry compressed air from the inlet manifold to the brake servo.
It came off easily enough, two circlips on the hoses and then two 10mm bolts. Once off the car, I attacked it with my dremel and a sanding attachment; this made light work of the surface rust.
50:50:
All Done:
My plan was to black hammerite it at this stage, as it'll only rust again quickly I guess. I really liked the brushed ally look it now had though, so decided to polish it up with Autosol and get it back on the car. Removing it is only a 2min job so if/when it rusts up I'll paint it at that time:
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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chris_uk
Premium Member
Registered: 8th Jul 03
User status: Offline
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It wont stay like that for long, give it a coat of laquer.
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Ben G
Member
Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
User status: Offline
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I hate it when caps aren't put back on correctly too. Good job on that pipe, looked awful before.
Like the red bits in the bay, makes a change from black plastic covering everything.
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by chris_uk
It wont stay like that for long, give it a coat of laquer.
Aye need to find something which will keep the rust away. I'll lacquer it if I decide to keep it steel colored, but might opt for a coat or two of black.
Cheers Ben, I love the engine bays on these cars - they got character 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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AndyCorsaSport
Member
Registered: 12th Feb 06
Location: Horsforth, West Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Come down M1, then 62/621, come off at Elland Road, 3rd exit on roundabout, there's a tunnel there, then RS Tuning is after the giratory then.
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Perfect 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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AK
Member
Registered: 5th Jul 00
Location: Aberdeen City
User status: Offline
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whens the first trackday planned 
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by AK
whens the first trackday planned
The urge is getting stronger. The local B-roads are too bumpy for me to enjoy the car enough and I dare not push it anywhere close to the "edge".
There's about 4 guys that make up my local Subaru owners club ( ) who have previously rented out a Mintex test track (basic airfield coned circuit) which is a few miles down the road, so I'm keeping an eye on their forums to see if they arrange another one - though I think I'd be better off in the company of a properly arranged day/track to start with.
Always keeping my eye out for some scruffy track wheels with some more track orientated tyres on, but other than that I think my car in it's current state could give me decades of track experience before it starts capping my potential
Do any of the tracks offer an outside tap and some electricity to run my power washer on? Would be nice to keep it clean between sessions. 
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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AK
Member
Registered: 5th Jul 00
Location: Aberdeen City
User status: Offline
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keep the tyres 'ungrippy' - that will help prevent any issues with oil starvation.
Lots of tracks have jet washes kicking about, free use
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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I've heard that these cars have problems with fuelling occasionally due to being flung around long sweeping bends, I guess oil is similar too.
There's a lot of money that can be spent on safety and reliability for track use before performance is even looked at. If I "get into it" I would imagine my Impreza wouldn't be involved and would most likely look at something slower and cheaper until I feel that my skills could justify the Impreza... then its party time
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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I've been buying junk from forums!
First up, an oil filler cap - marginally more attractive than the yellow plastic OEM one.
Second, a metal coolant header tank. Slight function purchase, as mine has got a plastic one (history of the Impreza suggests that all the early ones had metal ones, then they tried plastic, realised they snapped too easily then reverted to metal). Mine has already been snapped and replaced already, so I'll get this one cleaned up and painted then swapped over. Probably means another coolant change though unless I can get away with clamping hoses etc, either way no rush to get it done.
Finally, a new URABUS badge. I'm really not sold on the debadged rear yet - so got these incase I decide to revert.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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SXI - Matt
Member
Registered: 8th Jul 07
Location: Leicestershire Drives: Corsa C SRI
User status: Offline
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You make me chuckle, sound nearly as indecisive as me I often de badge then regret it then want it de badged again. Also used to buy stuff for the sake of it and convince my self there was a reason lovely car though mate
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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To be fair, the old badge was knackered anyway so needed replacing - I just wanted to try the look for a bit. Every time I see the car, I change my mind though - so it may remain debadged yet.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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CORSA NUT
Member
Registered: 3rd Aug 01
Location: Wirral
User status: Offline
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Personally Kyle I think dark coloured cars look better debadged.
On yours I think the badges would look good especially spangly new ones 
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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I'm inclined to agree Mr Nut.
I've been studying old pictures and I think I've got a plan of action for alignment of the new lettering. Just need to make sure I don't make an oRbbo of it.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
User status: Offline
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Time to get my amplifier in today. It's a pretty basic two channel Alpine amp, cost me £50 on eBay with no cables/instructions/etc.
As ever Simon_16v was on hand to help, cheers mate
First up was to choose the position for the amp, and the route for the power cable from the battery. I originally had intended for the amp to be in the boot, but the wiring kit I got from Halfords had 5m of power and speaker cable, I felt this was cutting it a bit fine so opted for an under-seat install.
Positive terminal on the battery had space under the cover to attach the ring terminal with no drama:
Getting power through to the cabin was pretty easy, found a gromit up in the drivers footwell, well clear of all the pedals/steering rack etc. The gromit was clear of any moving parts in the engine bay, a bit close to the turbo/downpipe but clear enough from the uber hot zone. I may look into some kind of heat wrapping for that section of the wire... but it's probably overkill.
To get through the hole, we used a straightened wire coat hangar - shoved it through with the cable tied to the end:
In place with the grommet:
Underseat install meant we needed to remove something... four bolts, dead easy.
Simon is a pretty tall fella, so removing the seat allowed him to enjoy the Impreza like a normal person...
Under the seat was disgusting, chips, burgers, hair... no viagra this time though...
Seeing the mess only meant one thing...
With the McMess cleaned up, much better
The power and remote power cable were run from the amp position under the driver seat, into the door sill trim, up the corner kick panel and navigated away from all moving parts in the footwell. The power cable obviously then splits off into the bonnet via the grommet and the remote cable goes into the back of the head unit enclosure.
Next step, out with the head unit:
The whole centre console was popped off enough just to run the RCA and speaker cable through:
The RCA cable was 5m long, so coiled up a load of it behind the handbrake in the centre console. The speaker cable went the same way, then split off in the headunit enclosure, passenger side fed up behind the (now removed) glovebox and the driver side under the steering wheel trim, as far enough as I could get away from the power which was also in that area.
Next step, more interior to come out:
We decided to get the speakers off, and do a power test to make sure our work so far was good. We used one of the driver seat bolts as the earth to the amp.
Everything worked a treat, our polarity was all right and we even guessed the L/R channels properly!
To connect the speaker wire to the speakers, I opted to splice into the loom before the door, as getting into the door looked like a fucking nightmare. Used bullet connectors and crimps:
Speakers back in:
Got all the trim back together, and did some finishing touches such as terminals on the wire at the amp end:
I then used heavy duty velcro to hold the fuse holder onto the washer bottle. Not the dryest place I concede, but pretty secure and out of the way:
Between rain showers, we got the seats back in the car and everything back together:
The amp was velcro'd onto the carpet, I may see about fabricating some kind of bracket instead which uses the seat bolts - but I reckon this will be pretty secure:
We did the sound config as follows:
Turned off all amp "assistance" and all the headunit settings to 0. We then played a track, and cranked the HU volume up till we got distortion (stupidly loud before that happened, way louder than before).
Cranked the HU volume back a touch, then snuck the amp assistance up until the distortion returned. Cranked it back a bit, then added a bit of the bass boost.
End result is clarity all the way up way beyond volumes which I'd normally listen to. Got much more bass too, nice tight clean bass which doesn't rattle the car.
Massive improvement, I could probably manage with these speakers now - but may opt to replace for components if I get the itch.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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taylorboosh
Member
Registered: 3rd Apr 07
User status: Offline
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good job
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djgritt
Premium Member
Registered: 1st Nov 07
Location: Dorset Drives: Focus ST / Hyundai i20N
User status: Offline
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Tidy work
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Chris C
Member
Registered: 2nd Jan 05
Location: Hemel Hempstead
User status: Offline
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This is something I always wanted to do to mine, standard stereo/speakers are shocking lol !
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Wrighty
Member
Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
User status: Offline
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knew what was coming soon as i saw the state of the carpet nice work
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