i-Manage to e-Manage.

it was like deciding between the red or the blue wire, with thousands of lives at stake. only this time, it was whether my car would start or not.

as i mentioned previously, i had purchased an e-manage and actually hadn't thought of fitting it till over the weekend, but being the impatient bugger i was, the moment i reached home from work, i started to tinker with the anodized blue box.

i shall let the pictures explain because people who surf love to see pictures and not words. if they wanted long winded paragraphs like this this one, they would've sat on a comfy chair and read a book.




















total install time about 2 hours due to horrible crimping tools that came randomly for free with useless household appliances people buy. wiring was hell for me too cause i had to contort to awkward angles. if only Beat was there to see how flexible i was. :D

time to go beddy-bye (shower first) and figure out how to tune it tomorrow or something. cause i've a long day ahead of me, what with the prospects of the cortina coming back home tomorrow.

next article would be the DIY cabling i'll be doing to pick the e-Manage's brain.

Prep Time.

guess who's got his dirty grubby hands on an e-manage?

ME!

one of the many things left to obtain before the new autocross season begins. just remembered i'll be in singapore taking part in another race, so, i won't be able to make it for the 2nd round of the KKS Autocross 2008 series. Oh well.

Bump!

the painter's putting everything he has into this car. he's gonna keep undercoating until the surface is near flawless! kudos to him. however, it has begun to rain unpredictably, again.










soon, it'll be this car's turn. unless i can get my hands on a very sound condition starlet KP61. :D




some parents just don't feed their kids enough, check out this kid.

Undercoated And A Hint Of Future.

got a call from Ah Long the painter who said that he'd just did the undercoat. excited as i was, the whole family went to the paint shop to view the transformation from 'granny-green' to 'toighty-whitey'.

as this is the first layer of paint, it would have to be sun-dried for a day or two (weather permitting) then sanded down to remove imperfections before another layer of undercoat is sprayed. Ah Long estimates I should be getting the car back by end of the week. so, come to think of it, this rebuild is considered faster than the cortina's, which is saying something. sigh.






















the future bit is about my next project car which at the moment would be:

1. nissan cefiro a31
2. nissan laurel c33 or c34
3. toyota starlet kp61 (3 door preferably)

ah, i'm reliving my childhood but instead of buying micro-machines, i'm buying 1:1 scale cars. :D

Washing The Car. Everyday Phrases Taken To Literal New Heights.

The car being given a thorough wash before it gets covered in paint.



may not be much but it's still progress considering the torrential rain we've been experiencing in Malaysia. real bullocks weather for painting if you ask me, but what can I do?

the guys at the paint shop say that I'm crazy for spending so much money on a car like this because usually, people don't bother with restoring it to this extent, but you've to look at it from my point of view. If you're going to do something like this and have some money put aside for it (i can see my money depleting), might as well do it to the best I can rather than paint the bloody car in a half-assed manner only to regret later on.




what do you guys think? should I use those rubber side trim bits that come with the car or leave the sides bare as it is?

here's some undercoat applied to the driver side doors and such.


oh, did I mention that the colour being used is called "Crystal Brilliant White"?

been thinking of going with bride style seats and bride fabric for the interior but have absolutely NO IDEA if it'll look good or not. time to scour the internet for ideas...

Quick Update.

Just a quick update regarding the progress of the bluebird. Surprisingly, not many places to weld unlike the cortina which consumed copious amounts of sheet metal.



looking good here. neat welds, but then again, nothing too major except to mould the piece of sheet metal to fit. notice the welder plug welded the centre section of the two mounting points rather than doing spastic spot welds along the edge of the sheet metal. good stuff.


as you can see, most of the areas were in need of some putty. the windscreens are due to come out by this friday. a quick check beneath the chrome bits around the windscreen reveal a slight surface rust which will be easily cured. what a relief that is, really.

the welder says that the car is '7-7, 8-8 complete' which directly translated from cantonese means that welding will be completed really soon so i will need to decide on a paint colour and whether to spend RM1300 for solid coloured paint or RM2000 for metallic/2k paints. i think the latter is a better investment don't you think?

will have the colour chart up by this weekend hopefully. need to decide fast because apparently the panel beater will have to call in a 'sifu' or master if you will should i choose the latter.

...

on another note, was mucking about the putra and was wondering if i should remove the rear spoiler as it weighs 2.8-3.0 kg.

with


without

thoughts and comments welcome as always. :)

"Bulu-bird"

That's how my welder/painter guy calls the datsun bluebird i sent like a month or so ago.

Welding and painting should finish in about a months time. very impatient because i've got two cars that are waiting for me to drive/drift/whatever in, if most of you remember, the other one is the mk3 cortina.

yes, the cortina is still alive and well and i've not junked it. head on to the cortina blog for updates and pics.

i digress.

it's always a dilemma when it comes to choosing a colour for a car since it's a specification that could make or break a car's character. in short, the current "Green de Grandma" has to go in favour of solid white all over the car except the under carriage.

why white? first of all, it's cheap(er) than going with some other colours and also because the interior can retain it's original colours (somewhat beige) therefore saving some extra bits of Ringgit here and there.

here's some pics to whet your appetite, you picture whores. :)


notice the new steel rib that will be welded into place. looks similar to the original so, it's good enough for me.

rib location

very nice bit of detailing by my welder. notice the folds that were done to give a neater almost factory look to it.

i'm on the fence with this bit of welding. why don't they seam weld the plates instead? could it be because of possible distortion of the original steel beneath it?

good patch work over here.

had to remove at least 1/2 the sheet metal in this area as it was quite rusted. good work here too.

layer of primer i believe just to keep it from developing surface rust while other parts are being welded.

until the next update, feel free to leave your comments on anything and everything regarding the car. maybe even help me pick a colour!