boost monkey

Miss it :cry:

Early July. Was gonna stay out here longer, but gotta find somewhere to live and get resettled before last year uni starts in September.

I miss you guys. I miss my car. I miss England :cuckoo: :shock: Have I had too much rum? Is that even possible? :lol:

So, I haven't updated this for ages cos i am 4000 miles from the car...but I am doing some other cool stuff like designing mounts for rally car suspension... And yes, there are real mounts, bump stops, shock, coil over plates, and screw threads on everything! I fill all 3gb of ram if I try to cross-section the entire assembly... stupid vista :/ Another guy who works on an Evo 6 approached me after seeing these and said he would have some work for me soon, which will be cool. Until tomorrow good people, I have an Evo 3 to help reassemble....

The Plum is undercover until I am home... Thanks to the g/f for buying the cover, and to ProdigalSon (plus wife!) for the labour :D Now you see me... Now you don't!! :eek:

no probs :-) my heatshield lost a clip so used to rattle like a mofo, i took it off shortly after!

Yeah, he lives at the same place I do :) Currently running a WRX STI and missing his 500hp Mazda! ;)

Hey Rob :D my auto notification for when someone replies doesn't seem to be working :/ Yeah, picking up some real good skills.I'm actually considering sourcing an engine down here to fully rebuild and then ship it back next year - i could do all the labour myself, and parts are pretty cheap through the caribbean / US. Still getting used to the crickets! I'm using ear plugs atm cos the A/C is pretty loud, so they help to drown out the crickets too :) Walking out of that front door to 20C before 8am is still something i need to get used to.... summer is going to be :eek:

wow, no updates for a while. You must think I hate you :-o couple of quick things: @Toad, white VR is looking GOOD! I noticed your sig update when I was showing a guy here my build thread. Very cool dude! :clap: @dirtytorque, do you know a guy called TPSRETARD on the MS forums? He recognised your username on here! Used to have a silly powered 10second red Mazda 4wd? Here's the current pics, all 200 of them. Feel free to browse :-) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=118176&id=277002994&l=059c65e84f It's a shame shipping costs so much - I could have finished my car in a week so easily over here. I've been working a lot on Toyota 4AGEs which are the weapon of choice, and generally dumped into very light 1980s Starlets :D I've been lapping valves, skimming heads, shaving shims down ten thousandths of inches to adjust cam lobe clearance :D all hands on, and really good. I've been able to keep up a little bit of my CAD work too - the boss is building a 400rwhp rally car based around the Nissan SR20DET engine. I've been asked to look at the rear suspension design which ties in perfectly with some of my course aspects. Really interesting stuff how they're planning to run it - the car is an old boxy Datsun 120Y and has been fully framed and reinforced by one of the engineers. Plus, being a machine shop they can literally make ANYTHING. they're making up a subframe for the engine out of 2" chromoly tubing! It's awesome :D I'm hoping soon I'll be taught how to MIG/TIG weld so I can join in the fun :D Anyways, hope you're all good. Sorry I have been so absent, I'm doing 9 hour days in the heat with a lot of lifting and moving of gearboxes/engine so I'm cram crackered at the end of the day! Look forward to catch up on some of the projects soon! Went to a race day a few weeks ago and saw a 20vt powered Elise running about 500hp - that was awesome :D Catch you all soon I hope! Jon :salute:

Sounds like a party trick! I've lost my phone now, hope the rottweiler hasn't chewed it up

Ahhh Rob, did you call me on your mobile? Thought I recognised the number, but didn't come up with your name due to being +44. Yeah, St. James, circa Lion Castle Polo Estate and Duke's Tenantry? Barbados isn't that big really is it!

I am due east of Holetown on the west coast, in a little area known as Content. I'm about 1 mile from the machine shop, and I have a little automatic Hyundai Matrix for bombing around in. left foot braking fun!

Ad the best blag for engineering placement goes to..... :wave: i'm crazy tired, been learning how to MIG weld today on aluminium. Really interesting stuff! My steel toe boots are giving me blisters though... my life is so hard.... :nuts: p.s. @Mods, what do I need to do to keep my project thread alive in my absence - post it in once a month? Can it be set to a non-expiring thread in exchange for a twix?

10 months. I've been out here 2 weeks now and it's SO HOT. I hear the UK is turning frosty... The Corrado didn't get any further before I left, but it's with Prodigal now so it's in good hands. I've been thrown in at the deep end here, did a 10 hour first day and an 18hour second day! We just had race weekend, and one of the cars (Toyota Starlet converted to RWD with other toyota parts, plus a 4AG on carbs) had a TON of problems. One of the things was changing the differential at 11pm friday night. Ho boy. Apart from that they do other car stuff - block decking, crank grinding, liner replacement, head overhauls, plus all general machining facilities like lathing, drilling, some CAD work etc. Today I have been working on replacing the seals in the mother of all hydraulic jacks (think somewhere between an engine crane and a crane crane!) the shaft was 3" diameter and the whole jack was about 8ft long and VERY heavy. It was actually from a 4-post lift which is kinda cool. SO, I'm keeping my hands dirty and it's fun. And it's hot and i'm tanned. And there's a pool and the food is free. So it's kinda cool. pics up in a while :)

Cheers buddy :D Finagle is an awesome word by the way! :grin:

:lol: yeah, still alive and kicking! Good to hear from you matey, must catch up on your thread sometime. Placements can be hard work: :norty:

Cheers guys. I'm just sorting out placement at the mo - got the flights booked for 1st October so I'll be off in 5 weeks time. Not taking the Plum, as much as I want to! :( Hoping Prodigal will let me leave it on his drive for 10 months :nuts: else I gotta find a lockup asap. I have managed to source some nice new rear calipers, which means I have 2 hammerited ones going spare (one without piston, LOL!) I'll try to get cracking with this. Jon.

Ok....so updates have been few and far between. The Plum is now resting on the gravel drive (as per last pic) next to the mighty G. Unfortunately it's O/S is right up against the hedge which means no access to wheel arch for doing the brakes, and the gravelly drive bit means moving the car by hand is a bit of a mare. Humm. So, until the car is movable (get lots and lots of boards???) I think I will start work on the front of the car: front cross-member and new rad support to go on (with new engine mount) possible new coolant hose set (engine lost all its coolant whilst the rear beam was being put on) sort out PAS system and possible new pump definite cambelt change - still has a nasty score in where it was run without the belt cover on and the removable hoist loop thing swung down and made contact for god knows how long. Also, potential remove head at same time and do piston rings. should be enough to get on with for the time being.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: awesomez! keep it coming.

omg, I actually thought you meant rear beam for a second then. :nuts: :cuckoo: :help:

4 weeks later, here is teh update :nuts: I had moved out of my old house where the Plum has been resting since October 08 (almost 9 months!! omg) so I started geeting ready to move it. I thought, I'll sling the rear cals and handbrake cables on - that at least would mean it's towable and could stop by itself....ish :roll: Being 105% amazing, I lost not one but all of the 3 rear caliper pistons that I had saved up for the currently dismantled caliper from 3CM (he even sent 2!!) :pale: so towing was out of the question. In the end, I hired a man with a trailer to come and transporter it the *ahem* 1 mile *ahem* from my old house to Prodigal's (where I/we am/are residing for the mo). He charged me £50 which was flat rate. Sounds quite a lot but it was £30 for a towbar, and towing was out of the question with a car with zero brakes (one front hard l ne is still fubar and the rears are venting to atm. obviously) so I decided it was quite reasonable. Pics:

Awesome! The self-made carriers working a treat then?

So... ProdigalSon picked up the carrier bolts for me this week, and so I think I have everything I need to get the rear brakes finished. I am trying to move out of my student house by the end of the month (Tuesday) so as not to incur extra rent for staying longer than I need. Plan is to get the handbrakes working at least and then use a towbar to tow the Plum over to Prodigal's house where I am staying for now, andhopefully get the rest of it sorted before I go away for placement. I'm not planning to take the car with me, so I'm hoping big bro will be able to run it for me, providing it's got MOT else I'll just try to find a cheap lockup for a year. So yeah, updates shortly all being well!

by top hat you mean brass coloured plates? They're called spring plates in the Bentley, I would go with that. The rubber bit on top is just the top mount. :salute: p.s. sorry to hear about the engine, just gonna go back and read it through... :pale:

I still think it's worth bringing a little science into this whole fiasco: working out corner weights, and subsequently centre of gravity to see where things lie. Lose weight above the CoG and you're golden as far as handling is concerned (although I don't recommend cutting off the roof if you want to maintain structural rigidity...)