the ultimate driving experience

[studabaker]

I have a diffeent idea of what this means than some people probably but i am interested in this subject. this is what i am building.. it does not have to be a bmw although i would like one i am building something decent for not very much. things i think should be considered: 1 clean electrical and safety when installing aftermarket stereo "tunes" but not too much to take up the entire cargo area. 2 reliability: meaning a well oiled machine that has more horse power than my old civic.. as fun as it would be there is a speed limit in california. 3 which brings me to the third thing is handling.. and 4 security ?
I like racing seats as well

I am about to work on my stereo electrical system putting in a power and ground line with distribution blocks for each which also help my cleaning up other electrical parts. remote door locks and edfc.

my brothers stereo got stolen the other day out of his 97 tacoma over night..
dsm doors dont have the slim jim problem? but this still scares me a little that those people are out there. my civic had the window broken to get to my subs but there was a trunk lock (i had locked) and all they could do was break the trunk latch and my window? 200$ point being dsm doors are not as slim jimable but windows can be broken. An alarm is good in he city.

stuart

 

[boostedjay32]

1 Sell it
2 Get a GST OR GSX
3 Leave it stock
4 Put your Music
5 Get an alarm and a kill switch
6 Have fun
7 DSM > Honda

 

[mindset]

^

 

[YOOOO]

Slim jimable?

 

[tragdor]

As far as security-try not to bang your music in your neighborhood. Keep it down when you are getting closer to where you are going. Don't have your setup all flashy and don't show anyone except the people that you know. Nobody will jack your stereo if they don't know what you got.

 

[fastmitsu18]

at boostedjay post.

Regarding the alarm. I had something similar happen to me when I had my mirage. I have a screen, 12 inch sub, amp, and som 6x9's. In the middle of the night, someone broke all 6 of the my windows and stole everything.

Now with the eclipse, I bought a 2 way alarm with pager called a black widow. When my alarm goes off, the control on my keys goes off too, letting me know that someone is setting off my alarm. That way I can come out swinging with a bat. .

 

[Rob10_99]

Here's a tip... strap bolt your shit down so crackheads can't be theivin' you.

Round the heads off or use security bolts, make it a pain in the ass to get anything out of your car.
FYI, get a couple kill switches on your car or they will steal the entire car.

 

[DevilsAWD]

at boostedjay post.

Regarding the alarm. I had something similar happen to me when I had my mirage. I have a screen, 12 inch sub, amp, and som 6x9's. In the middle of the night, someone broke all 6 of the my windows and stole everything.

Now with the eclipse, I bought a 2 way alarm with pager called a black widow. When my alarm goes off, the control on my keys goes off too, letting me know that someone is setting off my alarm. That way I can come out swinging with a bat. .

I had a friend that had one of these systems.

I drove my GTO with kooks open headers past that thing after revving it up his alarm would go off and he would come running... so much fun!

 

[studabaker]

too bad sirens cant just annoy a thief. i do prefer the prevention style of securing every thing but that doesnt mean some one wont break your windows and then find out your shits locked down.. i have remote locks right now but that happened at my apartment so im thinking about upgrading.

the two ways are cool. i might go that rout.

as far as the turbo i appreciate you guys love for turbo but i enjoy the curvy coastal roads. laguna seca style. at the speed limit.

next time 97 turbo talon 4wd, that was what i really wanted..

the rest still applies, custom seats, 10" subs, wheels and tires. no rattles or squeaks.

a slim jim is what tow truck drivers use to open doors for people who locked thier keys in the car. the person actually left a screw driver they may have used to get in. the passenger side door lock had some damage i did ot see.

dsm doors lock horizontally i know because i installed the remote door locks.

i hadnt thought of getting more than one kill switch. because that wouldnt stop someone unless there are two.. if they dont have the key.
stu

 

[Rob10_99]

I have never seen a locksmith(or van lockout guy) use a slimjim, I ALWAYS see them wedge the door and airbag it. FYI, your door get damaged yet they say 'no it doesn't hurt it'.
My mother actually lost her keys a few months back and I knew he was going to bag the door, so I took note of where/how the door sat esspecially at the top. Needless to say it sat out at the top by at least 2mm. So the door is now tweaked, you wouldn't be able to notice unless you knew what you are looking at.

 

[UnsafeAtAnySpd]

All you have to do to get into the car is get your finger in between the weather stripping and the glass and pull the window out. It give you/the thief enough room to put an arm in and unlock the car.

 

[nosdsm3]

I installed my rear strut bar over my subs. You have to take it out to get the subs out.

 

[studabaker]

i am glad to see things being mentioned like the strut bar over the subs and the double kill switch. I feel like every one is that much more inspired to not give up.

i just picked my car up from the shop
i had new transmission synchros and bearings done
i bought a sbr differential insert
i bought some new wheel bearings

I wanted to get rid of a wobble and an other noise with the wheel bearings that
did not work for the wheel noise maybe i should have paid more than 300
for a set of wheels. the wobble is gone from the transmission issue

i barely made it home because of a noise that was there before from the clutch
i am pretty sure because it is effected by pressing the clutch and it was worse when cold but today i pulled over because i was smelling a clutch like burning and a whinning and a short grind. sounds fed up. i dont think its the new stuff
i think the sbr insert may have pushed the clutch over the edge. i had a new clutch recently so its some ting in the clutch system. i know this should be in the other section but i thought it was kind of relevant.

i know you all would want to know information like that
it only takes one thing to make the experience not the ultimate driving experience and i appreciate your help to further enjoy the ride.
stuart

 

[studabaker]

so my mechanic did not take out pins in the insert that needed to be taken out and those got into the gears.. hopefully i can have them install a real quaife and be better off because of this..

 

[studabaker]

factoring in the price i have almost put toghether a decent ride in my opinion .
three weeks and three days for a transmission and a costly mistake for my mechanic and i. i decided to eat most of the differential insert because i read warnings about it on this site ..
it is like a reverse grenade if you dont pull the pins it sends shrapnel into your transmission. which could have a note or something from slow boy racing who i would have liked to sue for thier response to me in addition to not warning me about the potential damage. i am already trying to collect from a former friend 300 that i sued for and im busy and i think my name communicates what a cool guy i am "studabaker" i dont want to sue people. i was this close to sueing them for 2 grand. my mechanic and i worked it out between us.

at this point i am going to tackle rattles and electrical tie down and amp mounting.

almost the ultimate driving experience

 

[studabaker]

DSM is greater than honda
I had a civic
I needed more elbow room but not a 3000gt
(which takes up a whole parking spot)
and I am perfectly content with the nt eventhough
I was originally interested in the awd turbo
My Talon still has the same chasis as the awd turbo
which is an upgrade from the civic even if it weighs less
the Talon is worth the weight

The differential insert did not work out as planned
maybe its for the best that i am going to recover and
install a quaife.
(eventhough i wont have so much hp until i put
my moneys worth of miles on the engine.)

I am going for a quality experience
This website is a great thing which helps people
have quality running machines
and hence the ultimate driving experience

I am working on my stereo
and strut bars
and rear disc brake conversion
and quaife and
rebuilt transmission

what other things are people doing for a quaity ride
like eliminating annoying squeaks and improvements
(without spending more than the value of the car)

 

[nicho919]

A thought on security. Wire a LOUD horn to the inside of your car. No chance in hell a thieve is going to go through the pain of 150 db in his ears to get a stereo. I love my NT. Don't let the sell it and buy a turbo crowd dictate what you do. It gets SOOOOOO old. You never hear the Supra boys saying "Sell it and buy a turbo". In fact, the only group of people that say that aside from Eclipse owners (the 19% or so that own turbos) are Saab owners.

 

[studabaker]

Update on my car project. I have resolved my speedometer issue which was a broken gear inside my transmission which may have been a result of having my engine taken out and attempting the differential insert which lost a pin into my transmission and I now have a new one...

While fixing my speedometer I had my mechanic install the quaife differential unit that I got from boosted98 on dsm tuners. This thing is awesome. I am not sure if it is also the new axles that I had installed also at the time but I do not feel road bumps as much any more and the traction control is so much better.

Unfortunately my door poppers are not quite doing the trick. I had almost ten volts going to my door locking actuator but now when I put in the 40 lb solenoid is does not have enough to pull it. could it be that it is the position of the wire because if it was too tight nothing would happen so do i need just the right amount of tension? I have the wiring setup just the same as when i tested it getting almost 10 v . im pretty sure i have 12 at the battery ill check that later.

my popper is above the pull rods for the door lock now because i thought it was too low and not getting good leverage. ill take a picture. I am getting only 5v maybe if i fix that i can make it work. even if i can get 12v im not sure this is the right position for the popper?the position its in wouldnt let the window up. and also I am using the remote and relay from my keyles entry maybe the compete popper system puts out more?

for those electrically knowledgeable I had a power and another violet power and a ground and brown black and the negative of the popper to ground and the #30 green wire went to the popper.??

 

[studabaker]

I got 12v and i put it more inside the car where the door panel wont fit on but I got it to work but 40lbs doesnt seem strong enough. Maybe if I took the door latch off and connected it directly to the lock mechanism it might pop but barely and so i have ordered a 75lb solenoid from amazon made by autolock for the price of their 50lb onebut theres only one left on amazon.

 

[psx]

i took mine out yesterday on a sunny day

its been awhile
makes me not want to sell her

 

[studabaker]

trying to do my brakes and found this missing nut. I had some movement in the right side and thought it was my suspension loose that i had installed but this is probably the culprit. crazy my shit didnt fall apart. by chance would any one have an idea what size nut that is?
or suggest treatment like clean and locktight or will that ever have to be taken apart.

so i tried to get a nut for this and the one i got i thought fit but it spins freely and wont tighten down an theres no back to it.
i guess im going to the junk yard tomorrow. theres a place by me but the parts stores closer.

 

[studabaker]

I got a new swing arm link and a 75 lb popper from autoloc. cleaning up my wires and then mounting my speakers and completing my music. The rear discs may not ever happen im thinking about getting new drum pads which i have never done maybe theyll start to work ok then.
swapped that link out for a noticeable difference.

 

[studabaker]

got the door poppers working and to my remote but the door panel is going to be modified to fit the solenoid. The headliner was old foam stuff that glue would not work on because the surface was deteriorating so this time i am going to epoxy one layer of carbon fiber onto the original foam backing. i have done a practice corner and im about to lay on the carbon fiber in the morning. I have spray painted the foam black so no yellow shows through. I am already happy with the pray painted fiberglass. that would have been decent option to the more expensive carbon fiber is just regular fiberglass fabric spray painted black. the epoxy is about $45 and the fiber glass would have been about $20 plus some odd supplies, it could be done for a hundred dollars. the carbon fiber for one layer is another $40. The real solid carbon fiber uses multiple layers which is like $60 a layer. the headliner does not require the same strength as the hood. It will reflect the sound differently than the fabric would have. I plan on putting either dynamat or a similar type of thing on the metal. With no headliner it is clear that the large piece of metal vibrating is is a source of noise when vibrated by sound or door closing. the door panels as well are a source of noise as well as heat loss in the winter. may be a good thing in the summer?

 

[studabaker]

done
step one spray paint foam so no yellow shows through
step two mix 200 ml with 50 ml hardener put down base coat
step three lay on carbon fiber carefully press into indentations
step four second layer and let cure

side notes :
I did not do the entire thing and might be harder to install if the back was not able to be shoved into pillars. I did practice with fiber glass on the front corners that turned out to be a good idea but be sure to sand that down before applying carbon fiber over because fiber glass unfinished made carbon fiber lumpy in passenger corner but no big deal. huge improvement and should never fail again. A little irritating to the skin especially after trimming edges of cured resin and cf. remember to thread the power cord through the metal of the dome light so that is seats properly and hitting it might break the dome light. it should go in front first then back. reverse to take it out. press it forward and drop the back down. that it the only thing holding mine in place. i am not replacing the sun visors. the sound might still need insulation to be a pro job but already an improvement on saggy headliner.

 

[studabaker]

it has been up for a few days now and it less tinny sound in general from nothing and the dome light is quieter and it feels cooler in general. the only problems im having is that i skimped and only did the front majority of the headliner with cf and the back is some fiberglass pieces that i thought would be good support which was not a good idea. the fiber glass should have been sanded down and covered over in a clear coat of resin.

the cf is far less irritating than fiber glass especially the cheap stuff i bought to practice and reinforce the back art that i was not going to see due to the fact that i dont use the back seats except for my sub box.

My headliner never lined up along the edge of the door and where it was foam before is now stiff cf which is probably going to scratch me on the head.. my clothes have already caught on it a bit.

over all very much happier with new headliner.

polished my headlights which was simple and awesome well see tonight how much improvement however the passenger side has yet to be removed which i am not going to do and just use the drill to resurface. I did the drivers side by hand and it turned out fin except i was also going to replace the bulb which turned out to be the wrong thing i think because there are Mitsubishi stickers all over the engine bay i just figured before the engine was my Mitsubishi or something now i understand that this thing has had the bumpers swapped. what a pointless thing to help confuse me. I had a battery relocated to my trunk in my old car and i bought it that way and the color code was backwards. W T F. I blew a fuse in my datsun because of that trying to jump it.