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redblockpowered converts from 240 to 940

That door is butchered, man what a mess to resolve

Elbert bos makes replacement harnesses for the cruise control if your looking for one, 50€ iirc. I did have to recrimp one of the terminals however, which bugged me for a while, since the brake pedal didn't always turn off cruise.

I have a couple of those washers btw, they are about 80grams, so I could get them to you for 15€ fresh from my last skandix order as I got 3 sets of 2;)
 
Changed the dipstick tube seal, which had evidence of allowing a pretty significant amount of leakage. The old one shattered across the garage when I tried to pull it off the tube. Would have been very fast but I tweaked the dipstick tube a little pulling it off without noticing and it took a bit to figure out why the bolt hole no longer lined up.

The door is a bit of a disappointment. The bottom is kind of rusty and there's a dent in the side so I figure eventually I'll just get another one. Shame there's a VIN sticker on the driver's door. I'll have to document the process well so there's plenty of evidence the car didn't get smacked into.

Luckily I found a local source for the washers. I'll get on that, and the cruise control and maybe the expansion tank, but school has been kicking my ass the past few days. Will have to wait a few weeks and get back to throwing money at the car.

Couple fun things planned soon. I'm volunteering at a trackday at Lime Rock this weekend so should have enough volunteer credit for a free trackday, plus I shelled out for an autocross on the 17th along with a few friends.
 
Went to Lime Rock, got about 20 minutes of (top speed limited) track time:

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It was good to get to test the car's handling at speed, thankfully felt about a thousand times better and more neutral than it does at autocross. I had no trouble putting it wherever I wanted on track, including on curbs. A relief, considering the car is generally pretty unruly and soft at autocross speeds. It didn't feel out of place on track and I was very pleasantly surprised.

I'm not trying to build an autocross car, though. Or a track car. Fun, comfortable, track-worthy daily driver.

After Lime Rock, went to another autocross. Was supposed to go with a few friends but they bailed since it was freezing and rainy. Seeing the opportunity for a more competitive result, I went anyway. In the freezing wet it slid around like a touring car from the 70s and I felt like a badass. I really had to be patient with it to keep the car behaving well.

https://youtu.be/jS6SarW07u8

My evil plan went well but it didn't stay wet for long enough for my nearly top half result to stand. Oh well. It's really just about getting out there and driving the car anyway.
 
Since it's warm here again I'm trying to commit to touching something on the car whenever I have the time. Tuesday's task was to patch up the peeling headliner, courtesy of a can of Krylon fabric adhesive I got from the craft store. The edge had become delaminated in the wake of the rear window install shortly after I bought the car and I finally got sick of looking at it. Not to mention the possibility of it getting worse with age.

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I masked off the rear window and some of the headrest area to make sure nothing was left tacky or weird and hard. Due to the spray pattern on the can I had to hold it sideways and closer than recommended to the work area. I sprayed both the headliner and the foam and worked from the middle of the headliner (where the peeling originated) to the left hand corner. I figured this would give me a place to hide any bagged out fabric, but it seems to not have stretched. I let the car sit in the driveway with the doors open while it dried. It was tremendously stinky and I figured I didn't want to huff glue and see stars the next time I needed to drive somewhere.

48 hours later it's dry, and you can't hardly tell I did anything. It doesn't feel hard or tacky anywhere where I repaired it. Proper masking is key and makes this a lot less miserable. I found it pretty easy to work with, you could get the material fairly wet with adhesive and still have some time to get it to cure in the exact position you wanted. I wish I had been smart enough to wear gloves, it took some work to wash off. Thankfully I at least wore some eye protection while looking up at the crumbling headliner foam.
 
I was there with NASA, then the autocross the week after was TCUSA.

I think they're not coming back to LRP until October and even then they're not doing HPDE1 at that event.

Would have gotten out there earlier but wasn't so hot on starting out without an instructor. He took me for a ride in his new GT3RS next session. Jesus Christ.
 
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I was there with NASA, then the autocross the week after was TCUSA.

I think they're not coming back to LRP until October and even then they're not doing HPDE1 at that event.

Would have gotten out there earlier but wasn't so hot on starting out without an instructor. He took me for a ride in his new GT3RS next session. Jesus Christ.

How competitive are guys at those type of events? I want to get out on the track this year and my dad wants to run his new CTS-V wagon but neither of us want to deal with any a-holes overdriving their cars because they think they are racing. Track night in America was pretty chill.
 
Seemed pretty chill to me. The only HPDE people I saw that really got into it were the instructors in the instructors-only group. All in all I'd strongly recommend it.

For HPDE1 you have to have an instructor onboard and they decide when you're ready to move up so things are kept pretty well under control.

Edit: They're also very strict about passing in the novice groups. Don't defend (it's a trackday, not a Grand Prix) and don't go until you get pointed by (since it means they probably don't see you). Not that it means you only get to pass if your car makes good power.
 
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It's been a little bit, let's catch up on some stuff. First off I'm waiting on 1) a throwout bearing and 2) a fancy Ferrita exhaust from Sweden. The bearing has been in customs for nearly a month and the exhaust seems to be made to order (I got it from VP Autoparts, who have been very helpful and transparent) and missed the first shipping container it could have been. Might be another month? Who knows. Then it's back to the dyno for a retune.

I posted a thread here about a peculiar boost control problem I've been having (boost tapering down by gear across multiple actuators, seemingly regardless of boost controller settings) and I'm thinking the tiny stock exhaust may be a contributor.

Tried to delete cupholder armrest, because it is bulky, worth money, and I don't use it. Was left confused instead. Doesn't seem to want to come out, like the rivet is supposed to be a screw. The armrest was installed when the car was new if it makes a difference. I have the paperwork.

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It's a little mangled here on the front but all the cupholders are intact and I took the cupholder cartridge apart like a year ago to rebuild/lubricate it. Buy now!

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Got sick of the reverse rake, figured the car would benefit from a little more negative camber+front spring rate+steeper roll axis angle so cut half a coil off the front springs. Feels a little pointier. Probably in my head. Definitely looks better.

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Consult earlier pictures for comparison. I measured the difference in ride height at 17 mm before and after, both sides.

Decided to drive to Philly to see friends now that we can go places again. Some prep ensued.

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Figured a good Grand Touring™ machine such as this needs air conditioning so my passengers don't complain about it. Best guess based on earlier disassembly when I replaced all the seals and the broken line was that the compressor was junk, so I gambled on a used one.

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Packaging in this part of the car is a pain in the ass. Everything is hard to get to. I put some oil in the compressor and some in the accumulator, like I read to do. 7.8 ounces as specified for the Seiko Seiki 1993+ compressor. Then I didn't have time to get it charged and it never cracked 80 degrees on my trip anyway. It's the thought that counts.

Ended up being a little bit of a thrash to get it all together in time. I am a time management expert.

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Also put a very nice used turn signal stalk in there, assuming that the broken wires in the stalk were impeding cruise control capabilities. They were but there's still something wrong. More diagnosis is needed.

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Drove down without issue and saw this 245 looking somewhat worse for wear:

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And some construction debris fell on/was thrown at my car:

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I found it on the base of my windshield. Irksome, for sure. I was parked under a tree so it could have fallen on it but the trajectory/impact tells me maybe someone wasn't happy a car with out of state plates was on their block.

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Here was the view for about an hour on the way back:

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Some ~40 minutes away from home the tension bolt on the alternator broke (rookie mistake, clearly I was hasty with reassembly) and glazed the hell out of the already pretty worn out alternator belt. I squeaked home (embarrassing) after a small field repair.

Always check your work!

Oh, and also:

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First tank (well, half tank) with regear, driving like I just installed an LSD in my car: almost 28 mpg!

I took pictures of the install but keep forgetting to put them up on imgur.

Big takeaways from the install: 1031 backlash spec is a little looser than 1041, and pinion bearings are a pain in the ass. Factory stuff is made pretty damn well. Took a couple tries to get everything shimmed up right, and without the factory tools I don't see how it wouldn't.

I'm really surprised how little cornering effort it takes to feel a difference.

Bought oil, will have to do that and put the Motul in the axle like Wavetrac says to do on the included piece of paper now that I've done the break-in.

I took it up to Maine last weekend in search of breweries, lunch, and good roads. Whiffed on the first thing, had mediocre lunch at a diner, but had a great time driving around. It definitely feels like it's set up a little too soft, but do I really want to do anything about that?
 
The Wavetrac is set up soft or the stock suspension? Hah!

What was the rear end gearing before?
 
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