VIP GT-BBB

[dr20t]

Nek minit - cd destroker with 35psi

[bigBADbenny]

That would be nice but I'll settle for a timing belt service, then HD clutch and STi front diff install

Thats the big stuff.

For the little stuff, an interior/exterior update and alloy rear trailing and upper arms are all pending.

[bigBADbenny]

Massive weekend on the spanners!
I finally levelled out the mystery muff tips by making wedge shaped gaskets from 4x stock 2.25" gaskets, 2x thick washers per side and exhaust cement in the sandwich.
Took one hour and did the job, full writeup with pics soon

Then I fed my seats with Autoglym and Perl...
And eventually washed the car and the BC's which are headed to Shockworks soon for a new top hat bearing and a pre sale checkup...

Betwixt all this I restored and painted a very nice Gumtree find: a period correct tuner mod for the Baur. It's an ANSA header-back chrome tip twin zorst, very stock-like but with just slightly bigger everything. It came from an Alpina 333... Basically an E30 with a 7 series 6cyl barely fitting the engine bay.
Since the forward junction was custom, it will have to be fitted up by a pro: probably AEM in Alphington that did the mystery muffs

To tide Her Ladyship over, I bogged up the crapped out Baur stock mid muff with the leftover zorst cement, if it holds for a week: awesome. Pics l8r...

The Shockworks continue to impress: their best work is swallowing up huge bumps without drama meaning newfound confidence in the lib and no particular rush to put my touring 17"s back on.
In fact if I were to reccomend one single mod to make on a Lib... A set of these coilovers would be it. Done and done, oh and a tune of course...
Massive satisfaction on all fronts

[shav]

Nice report Ben.

[bigBADbenny]

Tbh, I'm as much into mods for the diy fun as meeting and befriending the people selling the mods. Worldwide

The Baur certainly delivers on that front as well as the lib
As a medium weight stock example, I'm hoping for it to be accepted as the Shockworks e30 development car

[bigBADbenny]

What delightful weekend.
My passenger side headlight lowbeam socket crapped out which prompted a visit to Brainy where I received a complete lesson in what to do, and what not to. And some more spare parts, and some more, more spare parts I hope to buy pending funds actually being available. Thanks Brian and I hope sharing the pain somehow makes the burden lighter. Your generosity is most appreciated.

More soon, but I hope to document the headlight baking process and, as my confidence improves, and the rest of the HL mods I have planned for the spares I now have on hand, using that set as a template.

This bit, a D2S low-beam socket is completly shagged on my HL's, no idea why. Please let me know if you have a spare.


Then I caught up with forum buddy Dom aka GTBSTi, where we appraised his car for an overdue detailing session. He's a trustworthy guy so I let him have a test drive of my car so he could have firsthand experience of the Shockworks. They got the BIG thumbs-up of course, indeed they make the car.

He asked for permission to boot it in S#: "WOW it pulls hard! Whats that smell? And whats that noise?"
We are both more or less stock with Matt's tune, but my car has a 3" tbe and midpipe and the WRX STi sedan mystery muffs, which could explain the extra punch.
The smell is my 220K clutch slipping and the noise is the race pads in my cruisn polished Brembos

Realizing the front end of the car was coming apart at last for HL's, I hastily manned up and fiberglassed the STi lip I'd had prepped for months if not years... First attempt at this, used about 50ml of resin, (which turned out to be clear, Dom) and about 1/3rd of the fiberglass mat in the hobby-sized kit I bought. Of course the weather turned during the process so I feared the worse but next day it had cured anyway! Here's a pic after I cleaned it up with the Dremel.



Sunday morning I broke out my new (s/h) portable strobes and made some photos of a mate's tarmac rally car at the wonderful Escort Club 40th anniversary display at Seaworks Shed in Williamstown. I had no idea of the amount of awesome Esky's and other classic Fords here in Melbourne.
Teaser iphone pic of some VERY nice rides



Then I cleaned up the STi lip and feeling the roll of achievement, I fitted a prototype KAP Industries drivers side fire extinguisher bracket to my car.
With some bending of the mount it fitted great over the 3D mats, the extra length allowing the seat to be moved almost all the way forward.
I'm sure Russ will follow up with a revised mount for the passenger side too.



Then my lovely wife made sensational quiches for dinner, celebrated with an affordable robust Italian red, yes Woolies have Montepulciano d'Abruzzo in stock! We used "tree eggs" from the family farm: those bird brain hens are nesting in trees, meaning a ladder is to be used for collecting their eggs! The trick is to blind bake the crusts on Multix baking paper, a tip I'll be sure to use on the headlights


Note: dinner is not tiny, that's a 1.5L bottle of plonk!

[shav]

Never heard of that vintage. Any good Ben? ?/100 points?

Other than that, interesting weekend. lol

[bigBADbenny]

I'm a firm believer in drinking affordable vino, so I can tell when I'm drinking true quality

I really like lighter dry reds like Montepulciano and Sangiovese, they drink well young too.
So that drop is currently in stock at Woolies FTW

I'll let the lip cure for a few more days then get bogging and painting it.

[shav]

I'm a firm believer in drinking affordable vino, so I can tell when I'm drinking true quality

I really like lighter dry reds like Montepulciano and Sangiovese, they drink well young too.
So that drop is currently in stock at Woolies FTW

I'll let the lip cure for a few more days then get bogging and painting it.

Fair enough too. I tend to have a palate which ranges between everyday reasonable wine, to quality reserve wine only brought out for special occasions. Living at the back of the Mclaren Vale region just makes it harder to lower the standard. haha

[bigBADbenny]

And so many cellar doors to explore!
Next time I'm over we will make the time to catch up for a glass

[shav]

And so many cellar doors to explore!
Next time I'm over we will make the time to catch up for a glass

Let's do it mate. Happy to show ya around.

[brainy]

Super productive weekend BBB!

[THE SpecB]

Great achievements Benny !

[bigBADbenny]

Hey cheers. I really took it very easy this summer, and this is the tip of a literal iceberg of procrastination

[HardwareBoB]

Hey, at least you got something done! My wife doesn't drink wine, so when I open a bottle I need to drink it all myself, although I'm usually partial to a bit of whiskey.
I have spent most of my spare time recently fixing up our backyard so we can enjoy it over summer, which should eventually come, right?