Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

GvidoR

It's nice, but I'm happy enough with this one. Nice having the gear pattern on it as well.

In other news, I am picking up new set of metal plates for Escort tomorrow. (I know, me? plates? wow! :pac:)

Toyotafanboi

new plates will take years off of it! use double sided sticky to attach them to save yourself that screw problem again

Noccy_Mondy

Get the old ones off?

GvidoR

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Get the old ones off?

The screws didn't even budge with an impact driver today. I'll just rip them off and hope for the best.

Noccy_Mondy

GvidoR wrote: »

The screws didn't even budge with an impact driver today. I'll just rip them off and hope for the best.

Yes!! Butchery at it's finest.

CIP4

When I was replacing the plates on my focus the old ones were actually riveted on I can't remember how I removed them but I'm 99 % sure I just drilled out the heads. It was mad if never seen riveted number plates before and they were sh!tty illegal faded plates hence why I was changing them in the first place.

GvidoR

I pulled one screw on each side. Both came out cleanly, hoping the other two will do too. I just don't want to drive without plates, you know. :P

Noccy_Mondy

Seen a jetta today out on the roads with DasWeltAuto on both plates. The 06 onwards shape. Thought it strange that a dealer would bother putting them kind of plates on the older shape.

Foxhole Norman

New parts



Out with the old broken crap



In with the new!



Will throw on the Grills when it's not lashing rain outside. Waiting for my Crankcase system to arrive and I'll tackle that and the Rocker Gasket which is currently pissing oil out the rear of the engine :P Probably take me a day or more to change those but I'll need to learn somewhere!

Also picked up one of these on Sunday, couldn't say no at €90!

morritty

GvidoR wrote: »

It's nice, but I'm happy enough with this one. Nice having the gear pattern on it as well.

In other news, I am picking up new set of metal plates for Escort tomorrow. (I know, me? plates? wow! :pac:)

New Plates?????

eringobragh

Failed the NCT on the nearside "cancer bar" as its affectionally known as in the MR2 world

Its basically a bar the stiffens the chassis and corrodes to bits on most MR2s I'm actually surprised mines lasted 15 years

Need to repeat the below process on the passenger side as thats fine when the weather gets better!

Reason it failed NCT is I was lazy and didn't get one of the undercovers back on yet as I was planning on a slight handbrake adjustment

€28 retest lighter

Before (The bar below the rusted one is the replacement)








Bar I got from an MR2 member (Cheers ) had a small bit of surface rust but was good otherwise








Bit of Deoxgel but a wire brush probably would have done the same (had it anyway)













2 Coats of Hammerite Black



Old vs New(ish) - the bar is coated in Dynax UC hence the waxy like appearance

Noccy_Mondy

Hello strictly fabulous.........

GvidoR

Looks like the new one is ready to go on a Christmas tree. :pac:

Also I'd like to see that insurance article in the newspaper. The title got me interested.

eringobragh

GvidoR wrote: »

Looks like the new one is ready to go on a Christmas tree. :pac:

Also I'd like to see that insurance article in the newspaper. The title got me interested.

haha lads that wasn't deliberate - also the story behind the xmas decoration string is I suspended it from one of the handles of the kitchen presses putting on the second coat of hammerite after the failed effort of using the screwdriver .... much to the horror of Mrs.Eringobragh (should have taken a pic :pac:)

GvidoR

New pressed metal plates and green side repeaters (yes, they flash amber).

Noccy_Mondy

Thought places don't do plates like them anymore?

What about castleview car sales? How will they get their publicity!!?!

(They closed a few years ago :pac:)

GvidoR

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Thought places don't do plates like them anymore?

What about castleview car sales? How will they get their publicity!!?!

(They closed a few years ago :pac:)

Plates like which?

Hah, there's still this sticker, so no worries. :pac:

Noccy_Mondy

GvidoR wrote:

Plates like which?

The ones you got. Isn't there 2 layers to them, a white one, and the numbers are bet out from the back black layer.

Hal1

Was they previous owner a smoker. The glass has a green hue to it or maybe it's just you're potato :P.

GvidoR

hue hue hue :pac:

I am not a potato. Also, there doesn't seem to be a green hue in real life, or I just haven't noticed it.

Foxhole Norman

New grills fitted last night, much better then the matte:

pudzey101

looks way better with gloss grills must order a set myself

Foxhole Norman

pudzey101 wrote: »

looks way better with gloss grills must order a set myself

Well ya know who to order off now!

jprboy

GvidoR wrote: »

Looks like the new one is ready to go on a Christmas tree. :pac:

Also I'd like to see that insurance article in the newspaper. The title got me interested.

Here ya go:

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-reviews/television-review-can-an-eejit-get-car-insurance-34259463.html

I've always liked Declan Lynch's way with words.

bmstuff

Foxhole Norman wrote: »

Well ya know who to order off now!

Where please?

keano25

Car passed its NCT today.. Happy out!

Had that sick feeling it may fail even though it's in good nick.. But I think we all get that feeling!

GvidoR

I got those bulbs



and installed them. Looks very good, imo.

YbFocus

Some might remember that I got a DA from D+D detailing in cork before christmas along with some of their pads and products.

I spent an 2 hours tonight doing a quick wash, de-tar and clay of the bonnet and polished half of it for the craic. It was full of swirl marks and etching!

For my first time I found it easy enough to get decent results but it's probably harder to get it bang on.

This is one pass with a medium cut and one pass with a finishing polish.
The difference is incredible!

wonski

I washed it

shietpilot

My modified ELM327 arrived today so I finally completed my cruise control retrofit.

The first step was modifying the radio control stalk to add cruise control buttons.

The Focus mk2 has the cruise control buttons wired like this:


I decided to skip the OFF button and I only added ON, RES, SET+ and SET-. CC can be turned off by pressing RES or pushing in the clutch/brake pedal anyway and 4 buttons will look better than 5 buttons on the stalk.

Drilled out the holes for the buttons:


I didn't get pictures of the circuit because I built up the circuit before ripping the stalk apart but I had to do it again as the wiring was too long to fit inside the limited room I have :pac:

I put the circuit together AGAIN with all the resistors and buttons and hot glued it into the radio control stalk:


Stalk finished:



I'm quite happy with the end result of the stalk. The "aftermarket" buttons cannot be seen inside the car as they're behind the stalk and it doesn't look like it was modified at all, unless you know

Before I installed the stalk I decided to enable cruise control in the ECU with the modified ELM327. I had to read and re-flash the PCM (Powertrain Control Module), GEM (General Electric Module) and HEC (Hybrid Electronic Cluster?).



I took 2 hours to read and write to the PCM. The PCM was erased before writing which meant I saw this on the dash for a good 50 minutes :eek::


I soldered up the connections under the steering column and put the trim back on. It was quite hard to solder the connections at 8:30 pm in complete dark :pac:

Took the car for a spin:


YAAAAAAY :cool:

I also changed the odometer to the metric system from imperial. The miles were converted to kilometres. My range is now in kilometres and instead of miles which is much better.