Bringing an 86 back from the dead

[Subota Boy 402]

Wow Sam!  Good luck Mate!  Can't wait to see the Bunny fitted (for this year).  

 

You cost me some new rear lights so far, so don't go too mad!!   😉 

[Samwise 155]

It's been a rather long time since I updated this but I wasn't expecting things to drag on thiiiiiiiiiiis long!

I clearly have some sort of ill-omen when it comes to ordering expensive car parts as it never seems to go smoothly for me. The more I spend, the bigger the drama it is, whereas if i buy something for £5 I get it in a couple of days.

So my wheel order is hopefully going without hiccup, there were a few funny oddities when it came to ordering a set of 3 piece "Custom" wheels only to be told they don't actually make them to ANY offset and it seems to go in stages jumping from -8 offset to -21 with nowhere in the middle and that some offsets aren't available in some bolt patterns, etc etc. A small drama but once I sorted out my options hopefully they should be coming eventually and should fit fairly well.

But the biggest drama has by far been my rocket bunny kit. It hasn't helped that rather than get it delivered to my house I had planned to book a little road trip to pick it up from germany, go to bruges, etc along the way and do a couple of rental ring laps at the Nurburgring but clearly I just have the worst luck ever - don't ever ask me to come to a casino with you!
Having ordered the kit back in September (and paid for it!) the first trouble came in October when parts of the kit had to be re-made due to the moulds for the parts going bad. No big deal really as this happens with glassfibre parts and it just means my kit will come from a nice fresh new mould rather than one that's been through the ringer but at this stage I had already started booking and paying for things like eurotunnel, Nurburgring rental etc and annoyingly these things can't be cancelled so having to reschedule them is a pain.
Go on a couple of weeks and I hear that the kit is made and has been shipped from japan - Happy days!
So I had rescheduled my roadtrip for the end of November (next week) and would expect 3 weeks would be plenty for it to arrive via plane, get through customs and arrive at the Seller in Germany but back luck strikes again as the kit was routed to Brussels instead and customs there simply decided to Seize it due to a lack of paperwork either on the Sender's (Greddy in Japan) side or the receipient (seller in Germany's) Side. Having spent all week worrying about it I finally heard late last night that it's not looking good and they would have to speak to Japan to get them to produce and send another kit. Bummer..

So now i'm expecting i'll be lucky to see it this side of 2020. It's a real disappointment but i'm surprisingly mellow about it at the moment, I think with things leading up to Christmas and the fact that I don't actually have anywhere with sufficient space to work on the car currently it's dampened my urgency for things.
I guess the last update of the year will probably be a picture of the car sat on some rather rediculously wide looking wheels with no arches to cover them at this rate!


Also no progress on the engine I'm afraid, I was never really planning to do any work on it until next year as i'd rather order any parts I need from the US or such in one go 😴

[Scotty751 13]

Damn that’s unlucky. Importing stuff can be a real pain. Have a great time at the ring, it’s fantastic.

[James18 50]

It's unfortunate, I had to wait over 3 months for mine which was starting to get annoying. Would assume they had the same issue as it's the same version kit. Worth it though when you see it on the car!  

[Samwise 155]

Merry Christmas to me!

Just received my wheels and I couldn't be happier with them! They're a set of Work Meister M1 in 18x9.5 on the front and 18x11 on the rear.

 

Struggling to bring myself to put them away in the boxes for now but I haven't really got much else to say about them, I think the pictures speak for themselves really!

 

[Luke 193]

Wow, put them in a display cabinet. There too good to fit tyres to or get dirty. 

[Samwise 155]

54 minutes ago, Luke said:

Wow, put them in a display cabinet. There too good to fit tyres to or get dirty. 

Haha yeah it is a little like that I almost just want to keep one out on display until they go on the car but im worried about them being scratched in the house. Probably going to take the time to Ceramic coat them just to keep the extra protected, probably a bit over the top but it seems easy enough to do

[Samwise 155]

A few more goodies I got recently but i'll save the best for last!


Along with my wheels I got a full set of rear adjustable Camber, Toe and Trailing arms from Driftworks. There are loads of these on the market but some can be pretty wildly expensive as they're likely made from all sorts of billet aluminium or titanium and others come in some rather funky colours which im not fond of. These arms are made of Steel so a bit heavier than the various billet options but also a fraction of the price and are finished in a nice subtle black powdercoating.











As well as this to go along with my new wheels I picked up some tyres. it was quite tricky to find the exact combo I was looking for without breaking the bank but the Federal 595 RS-R's were the perfect size and an incredible price.

I wanted to go with 245/34/18 on the front and 285/30/18 on the rear to keep the rolling radius of the wheels almost exactly the same as stock and exactly the same front/back. The rear size is quite rare with any form of performance tyre as most are made for 20 inch porsche wheels, etc and being able to find these Federals at £400 for all 4 corners was a great price for so much rubber. They're also a light semi-slick track tyre in essence as well and i've always heard incredible things about them along with the Nankang NS2R's when searching the web for good track tyres as they always come up in conversations as a good budget alternative to tyres such as the Toyo R888 and Yokohama AD08R's which we previous ran on our VX220. I Don't really plan to do loads of track days in the 86 but it should be good to see how these handles and later down the line i'll most likely need the extra grip when i've got a few extra cylinder's up front!








Another small one as it was a Christmas present was a set of TGR Motorsports wheel nuts.

I had met these guys previously last year (2019) at JAE Festival and it was good to have a chat with the owner and check out his products. I've always quite liked fancy wheel nuts but i've never been fond of their price tag. Alot of lesser wheel nuts can rust pretty quickly after use or even be made from Aluminium (definitely not what you want!) and previously i've used Muteki SR48 which are a high quality, well priced product from japan however these TGR nuts are made of a durable steel construction finished in gunmetal with an internal drive and a small aluminium beauty cap to finish them off, i went for black in this case to keep things subtle but they come in all kinds of colours. One of my favourite bits about them as well is they also feature a free sprinning collar at the bottom of each nut which should prevent any damage to the wheel nut seats in the wheels, this is quickly becoming quite a big feature of alot of wheel nuts brands but i've not found any so easily available in the UK or at this price (£45) with this little feature.









And finally.. but by no means (or all means!) least..

Another christmas present, this time modelled wonderfully by Yours truly.

My brother bought me a set of Overalls for christmas to wear when working on the car and kitted them out with a few custom patches, i particularly like the custom name tag!

[Lauren 2259]

I think with the difference in width front to rear, your car is not going to handle, it's just going to be tedious understeer everywhere. It's massively over-tyring the car really. 

[Rich196 103]

2 hours ago, Lauren said:

I think with the difference in width front to rear, your car is not going to handle, it's just going to be tedious understeer everywhere. It's massively over-tyring the car really. 

They are RSR's its not going to handle anyway. That aside you add enough power you wont understeer anywhere!

[Samwise 155]

😂 as dumb as it might sound i'm happy to wait to reserve my judgement as to whether the car handles or not or understeers or not.

The fact of the matter is i've not built the car to set lap times and im not trying to be a racing driver so it's neither here nor there. Currently with the power output of the car it's definitely not going to spin the rears unless its major standing water and I also don't see it pushing the fronts any time soon.

Anyway!

Another couple of updates on the way.


First off, nothing overly exciting just a few more pictures of my new wheels.
Popped down to Fuel Coffee House just round the corner for their first Jap Vs German meet as it gave me a chance to take the GT86 out for the first time in the last 6 weeks but I had no time to wash the car, so I figured why not take the best looking bits of the car with me, the yet-to-be-fitted wheels!


Got to chat with a few people about the car and its little story and the journey it's had and check out the wheels in the sun & rain and just gush over them a bit more if im to be quite frank.
And yes, driving to a meet with just a single wheel is a bit mad but it's a good laugh and look's just as silly as you'd imagine with it on the passenger seat!

 

---

[Samwise 155]

So the other update from this weekend is everyone's favourite, more new car parts!

Just before Christmas I ordered a set of big Front & rear brakes from PB Brakes and they recently arrived in this fantastic Anodised silver finish. I opted to go for the largest specs I would be able to fit behind my new wheels, 6 pot Calipers with 330mm discs on the front and 4pot calipers with 330mm discs on the rear complete with their sport pads.

 

I always love the look of a big set of brakes poking out from behind an equally nice set of wheels and with my future plans the extra stopping power will be very welcome (and my current brakes were getting close to limit! can you tell i've been justifying more purchases in my head? )

 

When it comes to brakes there's of course plenty to choose from with the likes of Brembo, AP racing, Alcon which are often massive money but are proven to definitely be up to the job if your car sees race or heavy track use. Personally for me however as it's not my intention with the car so I was happy to explore cheaper options such as K-Sport/D2-racing (who i believe are one and the same) and that lead me to also find PB Brakes. They are a relatively new-ish brand I believe and as a result there isn't massive fountain of knowledge in regards to them however there are some decent reviews when you search around. Also having spoken to them in regards to fitment when ordering my wheels I can safely say their customer service is pretty fantastic so I decided to bite the bullet and go with the lesser known brand.

 

This is where the pictures do the rest of the talking

 

 

 

[Luke 193]

When I look at those brakes I have a real urge to pull out a torque wrench and start checking all the bolts are tightened. That's just my ocd though. 

[Samwise 155]

Finally the time has come!
The update i've been waiting since September to finally make, the Rocket bunny kit is finally here!


but before I get on to that I'm going to turn this in to a bit of a double whammy as I forgot to make an update about another part that arrived recently, i'll keep it short and sweet to get on to the big bits!


I've always been a big lover of ducktail wings/spoilers rather than alot of feeble OEM wings or huge boot/chassis mounted ironing boards (BGW for short!) but i'm a bit picky when it comes to them and truthfully alot of the offerings for the 86 aren't to my taste but I found one that fit the bill.. (duck bill?.. i'll get my coat.) and ironically it turns out to be the Liberty Walk wing. The rest of the kit looks tragic but the spoiler is perfect to me and i'm sure i'll have someone tell me its sacriligous to mix Liberty Walk with Rocket bunny but who cares, it'll look epic!
However the fact that what is essentially just a fairly simple glass fibre piece was eye wateringly expensive and comes with it's own certificate of authenticity says more about Liberty Walk and their Target audience than me I think..









Now to get on to the main attraction..


Had a rather fun start to the week as I took a 700 mile round trip to Germany and back over Monday/Tuesday to go get the kit. A bit unnecessary but it was my own fault for organising it this way with the supplier all the way back when I raised the order in September. I had the idea to turn it in to a week long road trip holiday, visit Bruges, Nurburgring, etc on the way but after the headache of not knowing when it would show up and various delays I decided just to forgo it and just make it a simple there and back thing and put off making a holiday with it until the spring (I still have a booking for a track car hire and Eurotunnel trip i couldn't cancel!)


Anyway so here was the route, pretty easy in reality for my first time driving in Europe and surprisingly fast on the way home.







When I finally arrived on Monday evening this was waiting for me. I just about got the 200cm x 75cm x 55cm box in to my Dad's X3 which I had borrowed for the trip and set off to my hotel for the night.







The next morning when it was a little brighter and less windy/rainy in the Hotel car park I had to get the bits out to well.. Have a look of course! but also to fit them in the car a bit better so I could actually see where I was going!






And finally after a quick trip back home I was able to get the obvious pic of the bumper sat infront of the car.
Now I just have the next monumental task of trying to find a decent Garage/Barn/Unit to rent to store and work on the car. It became painfully obvious just how undersized the old single garage is when I tried to move the car about taking me a whole 15 minutes just to inch it down the drive way backwards, turn around and then inch it back up backwards again to get these pictures. The car will be milimetres at best from the walls either side between the houses with the arches and wheels are on and I think it will have 15-20cm at most between the car and the walls of the garage once it's in there so a bigger area to play is needed! but then again it feels as though I may be wishing for a lottery win instead with how difficult it's proving to find somewhere in my area...






Hopefully i can get back on to giving more regular updates now that I have all the pieces to crack on but I don't really want to start any drastic work without the space available. Fingers crossed to finding somewhere SOON. I was even thinking of making a few youtube videos of my progress as it was something I wanted to do alongside this Project thread when I started but chickened out of the idea down to lack of space again and being a bit of a wuss

[Luke 193]

Okay so first of all. A tip of the hat to your dad letting you take his car over to Germany even though you'd never driven in Europe before. 

Secondly the body kit looks fairly subtle in the unpainted black with a carbon bonnet. Que lairy paint/wrap colour reveal? 

Thirdly can you actually see the easily copyable serial no. on the spoiler? 

Reverse the mould and make a pretty penny for a liberty walk "Style" spoiler. Sometimes I think the duck tail boot lip spoilers cost more than an actual chassis aero GT time attack scaffold attachment. 

Fourthly (if that's a thing) kick the car out in front of the garage and then you have loads of space to work on the body kit. Then all you need is a nice Spring weekend to fit it all up. That would make a good time-lapse '12 hours of body kit mounting'. 

Then wait for a dry day to slowly travel down to the fabrication shop for some bigger wheel arches to be welded in. 

Brakes and wheels fitted later on and before you know it your rolling to japshow in May. 

Engine swap over the Summer, burning tyres quicker than fuel by Autumn. 

You best get cracking Sam. 

[Samwise 155]

11 minutes ago, Luke said:

Okay so first of all. A tip of the hat to your dad letting you take his car over to Germany even though you'd never driven in Europe before. 

Secondly the body kit looks fairly subtle in the unpainted black with a carbon bonnet. Que lairy paint/wrap colour reveal? 

Thirdly can you actually see the easily copyable serial no. on the spoiler? 

Reverse the mould and make a pretty penny for a liberty walk "Style" spoiler. Sometimes I think the duck tail boot lip spoilers cost more than an actual chassis aero GT time attack scaffold attachment. 

Fourthly (if that's a thing) kick the car out in front of the garage and then you have loads of space to work on the body kit. Then all you need is a nice Spring weekend to fit it all up. That would make a good time-lapse '12 hours of body kit mounting'. 

Then wait for a dry day to slowly travel down to the fabrication shop for some bigger wheel arches to be welded in. 

Brakes and wheels fitted later on and before you know it your rolling to japshow in May. 

Engine swap over the Summer, burning tyres quicker than fuel by Autumn. 

You best get cracking Sam. 

Haha I think there's optimism and then there's "Lukeism"

Yeah with the car out infront of the garage I could work on it but it's hardly ideal jacking it up on that slope and also gives me no option of leaving it and walking away if I can't progress for whatever reason aaaand i'd likely have to take the arches off every time I wanted to get it up and down the driveway.

Also I think i've shown you the colour i want to go for my wrap? It's not that lairy, Google "KPMF Black Red Iridescent"

 

There's a serial number sticky on the bottom of the spoiler and that's it, could very easily copy it! i'm surprised no one has actually considering how many "Style" spoilers and body kits there are but i'm pretty sure there's only one Liberty walk GT86 in the UK and that's the one they made to market the kit over here as no one else is mad enough to spend that much on it 🤡

[MartinT 514]

I reckon you've chosen a better-looking spoiler than most I've seen.  I made a mistake looking at the price, though!

[Samwise 155]

1 hour ago, MartinT said:

I reckon you've chosen a better-looking spoiler than most I've seen.  I made a mistake looking at the price, though!

Cheers!

Yeah it is a bit rediculous, it's not even the best bit of glass fibre work the world has ever seen either. I had a similar spoiler for my subaru that was a 3rd of the price and a much better bit of kit.. Ohwell!

Never ask to see my spreadsheet with all the costs of the car on it! ☠️

[Luke 193]

Lukeism = Nothings impossible but miracles take a little longer. 

KPMF colour. Wow I look forward to seeing that in the flesh. Looks a little bit like the the red GT86 on the brochure. Are you wrapping yourself? 

[Samwise 155]

I need some more Lukeism in my life then!

Yeah the KPMF colour looks pretty good, can't wait to see it myself either. Definitely won't be doing the wrap myself, there's a skill behind working with the stuff to get a decent finish, so i'm just going to take it to a shop to get done Been doing my research as there are plenty of shops out there who still do a pretty shoddy job, think i'm going to go with a company called Monster Wraps in Southampton

[JohnM 25]

How are the TGR wheel nuts holding up?? 

[Samwise 155]

So after what's felt like a lifetime of Searching i've finally managed to find a space to rent to make in to a decent little workshop to work on the car!

 

Luckily it's really local to me as well, about 5 minutes up the road.

It's not much at the moment but it was previously a donkey shed so has had a brand new concrete floor done and will soon have a new door install (as you can see it, greatly needs it!)

Once it's nice and secure i'll be able to move all my more expensive bits and the car, set up my nice new set of Quickjack and get cracking for an update bonanza!

I've got a whole week off work planned just to crack on with the car and i've been really looking forward to it. I'll probably also start uploading some bits to youtube as well as updating my project threads so keep your eyes peeled for some terribly produced jumbled up videos loosely resembling car content!

 

[Stutopia 158]

Soooooooo jealous, been looking for similar for ages.

[MartinT 514]

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You'll be wanting one of these in there next.

 

[Samwise 155]

30 minutes ago, MartinT said:

You'll be wanting one of these in there next.

 

 

On 3/14/2020 at 11:14 PM, Samwise said:

Once it's nice and secure i'll be able to move all my more expensive bits and the car, set up my nice new set of Quickjack and get cracking for an update bonanza!

 

Way ahead of you there Martin 😁 I've laready got myself a set of quickjacks exactly the same as what you pictured. I'm itching to get them set up and the car up in the air on them! Hopefully next weekend I can do just that. new wheels on, new brakes on, the lot!