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Lowe

Lowe's Team Grey

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Fitted my smoked indicators. Having a few issues with one side hyper flashing, so need to look at the resistor pack in there but I'm pleased with the look. The fogs look out of place now though. Another job...

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Haven't had chance to do any painting of the tie rods, weather's been atrocious.

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I've not had much time recently what with work, Christmas, a holiday and also setting up a business so playing cars has had to take a bit of a back seat over the last month or so. That being said I did get a few little things for Christmas which were relatively quick installs, so I did a few things on lunch hours etc whilst at work. 

Firstly, the lack of interior lighting in the 86 has always been a bit of an annoyance. It's not the end of the world, but with it being a black cabin and at this time of year, the crappy dome light didn't cut it. I'd tried a couple of LED versions but honestly they were still pants. That was until I came across these:

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It's quite a large PCB with a number of RBG LEDs that respond to a remote control. You can have various colours etc or plain white. It pretty much fills the dome light and is way, way better. Plus, you get the cool option of colours if you so wish. Only 3 quid or so, bargain. 

I also had a cheap LED footwell kit which I put in. I initially had them running off the cig lighter in the glovebox, but quickly grew tired of that. I've now taken a feed from the dome light and put a female cig lighter socket on the end. Now I can choose depending on my mood - though in honesty I think they'll probably just stay on the 'dome' mode. Even better the remote control for the dome light also controls the footwell LEDs so the whole thing is easy to control and they remember the last setting used too. Big improvement, even if just running in white, though at the moment I'm partial to purple. ;)

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Continuing on the LED theme, a little while back I swapped out the foglights for LED PSX24's. I'd wanted amber colour, but the ones that came were a gold colour that wasn't too dissimilar to indicator orange. I kept them in a for a while, but recently came across some decent spec 6000K LEDs for cheap money so I picked those up to better compliment the DRLs and HIDs for the rare occasion that they're needed. Install was nice and quick one day before work. :)

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The headlight HIDs are still a little yellow for my liking. Anyone ever swapped the bulbs for something 5000K or 6000K?

 

Last mod was my main Christmas present. I've been eyeing up a Grimmspeed strut tower brace for a while, not because I particularly push the car hard but because of the benefits of making the front end a little tighter on bumpier roads. I was sceptical, but very surprised when taking it out for a drive after fitting. It's not a huge difference, but it's an improvement to the general harshness and ride. It's as if the bigger bumps don't hit as hard any more - difficult to explain really but I'm happy with it and it adds a little bit of bling to the engine bay anyway. I want the Grimmspeed cover for the pulleys now as well, tidy it all up a bit!

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I still need to get around to painting the tie rods but the weather is just not helping. I'm also considering taking off the rear louvers. Need to do some testing, but I feel that the fuel economy hit is a bit severe given the mileage that I do. 

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I've been meaning to get rid of the dash panel fake carbon, and with the weather being so bad it's given me an opportunity to do it. I ordered some black suede effect sticky back wrap, pulled off the panels and got to it.

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I've never done anything like that before and it took a few goes to get right, but I got there in the end.

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It's a pretty good match for the seats so I'm happy :)

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I reckon the silver panels either side of the centre console would benefit from that too, but I think they're a pain in the backside to get off. Dunno if I can be bothered. :P 

 

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To be honest I need to get the climate section out in the near future. Something in there is rattling away, even on smooth road surfaces so maybe that's a job to do at the same time. 

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I'm starting the "something is rattling in my dash but I don't know where" club.

£20 p/a, bi monthly newsletter with guest columnist, a membership badge and a yearly prize draw.

 

I'm also chairman of the "something is rattling in my dashboard and I've already had 99% of it out and stuck foam everywhere so how is the little twat still rattling" club.

 

Sent from my VFD 710 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

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Guest EB2429
On 1/18/2019 at 12:51 PM, Lowe said:

 

Last mod was my main Christmas present. I've been eyeing up a Grimmspeed strut tower brace for a while, not because I particularly push the car hard but because of the benefits of making the front end a little tighter on bumpier roads. I was sceptical, but very surprised when taking it out for a drive after fitting. It's not a huge difference, but it's an improvement to the general harshness and ride. It's as if the bigger bumps don't hit as hard any more - difficult to explain really but I'm happy with it and it adds a little bit of bling to the engine bay anyway. I want the Grimmspeed cover for the pulleys now as well, tidy it all up a bit!

HZ4qRnr.jpg

 

I still need to get around to painting the tie rods but the weather is just not helping. I'm also considering taking off the rear louvers. Need to do some testing, but I feel that the fuel economy hit is a bit severe given the mileage that I do. 

Nice review been looking at this bar myself as it has the least moving or connecting parts compared to some other bars, so simple but very rigid.  Was thinking about it for reduction in NVH as much as steering response.  I read it reduced movement by 4 mm approx which should help too, all things considered.  

FYI I think the mesh on the right side of the bar is designed to fit on the AC pipe just below it, so the cable tie holding the hose down doesn't chafe the hose.  according to the install vid anyway :).

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On 4/28/2019 at 7:49 PM, JohnM said:

Can i ask what the visibility is like with the rear quarter louvers on please??

Apologies for the tardy response - didn't see this. Visibility isn't actually that bad, yes it's restricted somewhat but it's still functional.

That said, I've just taken them off since they were starting to come away, and I'm convinced they add a fair bit of drag to the cars aero. 

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Gave the '86 a good wash over the weekend. The last couple of weeks worth of rain on the motorway hadn't been kind. Finished off with Soft99 Luxury Gloss QD. Very pleased with the finish especially in direct sunlight, really brings out the flake well.
 
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2 minutes ago, Lowe said:
Gave the '86 a good wash over the weekend. The last couple of weeks worth of rain on the motorway hadn't been kind. Finished off with Soft99 Luxury Gloss QD. Very pleased with the finish especially in direct sunlight, really brings out the flake well.
 
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resT3Z4.jpg
 
OqofqV5.jpg
 
XSDSBPl.jpg

Paint looks amazing! Shame to lose the louvres, always loved them on your car

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I might keep them yet. I’m going to get the rear windows tinted first and see how I get on. Need to check out the drag thing as well before making a final decision. I love the look but they are a tad impractical for me with the mileage I do. 

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Having removed the rear louvers I wanted something to make the rear end a little more aggressive, so put a carbon SARD style wing on. I used extension brackets to line it up with the TRD spoiler, which made it sit a lot better. Installation was nice and easy and it was a really good fit. :) 

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Car went in for recall at RRG Macc last week. 

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All sorted now. Had new plugs and clutch whilst everything was out, and treated her to a set of new Advan V105S on the front too. As ever superb service from the guys at RRG and the car's driving fantastic.

On a slight tangent but car related, I picked one of these up.

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It's a deionising water filter. You hook it up to your tap, then plug in your pressure washer to the outlet. On doing the final rinse of your car, you switch to the bottle, and it washes away all the impurities that would otherwise be left on the car. It means that you don't have to bother drying the car with a leather or drying towel. Saves a stack load of time, and further minimises the risk of adding swirls since you're not using any contact again. :) 

 

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Just picked up some angelwax self drying shampoo. Says that it has reagents that will allow the water to evaporate evenly and leave no water marks. Trying it today. But that seems like a good idea .


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Haven't really done much to the car of late. Did have a minor issue post recall which was all sorted out by RRG under warranty. Also my battery decided to die and no amount of charging would sort it. Luckily my door locks are nice and free so that got swapped out for another 65Ah Bosch.

Pic for the sake of posting :D 

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