Daedalus Winter Update '06 Photo Thread *No 56k*

[daedalus]

Winter Update '06 is upon us. This is the official photo thread that will be updated as progress of the car continues. I'll try and resize everything to 800 X 600 for faster loading speed.

Build Plans: (Updated 1/14/06)
- 13" 6 Piston Wilwood Big Brake Kit (Custom Color TBA)
- Full Stainless Lines
- Gemini Composites Reverse Cowl Hood (Uber-Secret Paint Scheme)
- AutoEXE Grille (Painted)
- 626 Intake Manifold (Ported and Polished)
- ApexR1 Radiator Plate
- AWR MP3 Rear Sway Bushings
- AWR 22mm Rear Sway Bar and Endlinks
- Test pipe
- 18X7.5 5Zigen GN+ Pro Racers (Mat Silver)
- Toyo Proxes 4 (168mph Rated!!!)
- Alpine MRD-M300 (Retro into stock location)
- 8" JL W0-4 (Retro into stock location)

I'll update this thread as the parts start flowing into omaha!

 

[daedalus]

AutoEXE Grille in Fiberglass

You should've seen how big the friggin box was for this thing. I barley fit it in my backseat. (boom07)

And the AWR MP3 sway bushings got here today... Not exactly mesormizing, but it is an addition that is being done.

 

[daedalus]

Update 1/13/06:

Okay, today was devoted to getting a majority of the little pain in the ass small things done to the car before it goes to the paint shop, and over to Transonic for the Brake installation, test pipe, and possibly, 626 intake manifold.

I spent 10 hours working on the Banana today! My hands are bloodied and bruised, but it was all worth it... I made some very good progress today.

Today's Objectives:
- Full Engine Bay Detail
- Replace Catch Can Lines
- Fix Catch Can Leak
- Re-Polish All Engine Alluminum
- Install Supercharged Millenia PCV valve
- Re-Align HID's
- Install AWR Rear Sway Bar Bushings
- Install Sound Deadoning to combat Rear Hatch/Sub Box Rattle

And the entire process got documented as only I can do it!


Millenia PCV Valve straight from mazda... good for boostin!

After 1 and 1/2 years of searching i finally scored a 03 MSP Shift Knob in MINT condition! I couldnt be HAPPIER!!!

Freshly washed, ready to go under the knife...

Nasty ass winter worn interior to be tackled tommorow! I didnt have any engery left to detail the interior today!

Before shots... Dusty, dirty, nasty, oil everywhere...

My catch can had been filling up, and leaking oil EVERYWHERE... It was the main reason everything took so long to clean. Everything had been stained with dirty oil, and every crevaced had to be cleaned!

Didnt belive me that oil was everywhere? Look at the nasty tranny! It got cleaned to!!!

I didnt mess around, i tore the entire garage apart for this project!

I look happy for two reasons. (1). I hadnt gotten ******* filthy yet, and (2) i was drinking dangerous levels of redbull...

Tranny Before!

And After 45 minutes of scrubbing!

If you'll recall, we powdercoated EVERYTHING on the engine, the oil pan included... It looked so sad and dirty, unloved for so long. I couldnt let that stand. So i cleaned her up good! I wiped down the downpipe too for s**** and giggles.
Before:

After!

What the engineers at Crest never imagined their toothbrushes would be used for...

Starting to shape up... No polishing done yet, mostly the oil had been cleaned up, the catch can and lines removed for repair and replacement.

Polished (you cant really tell, but they were blingin! More pics in the daylight tommorow!

I caulked the catch can again to prevent leakage anymore. The mess it caused was a b****... i want no more.

Catch can reinstalled after polished...

New ventilation lines ran... Some of you were curious about how i was running my ventilation off the crankcase to the catch can... Now you know. Millenia PCV valve installed... All new hardware on the catch can lines.

"Done". DG Oil cap cover to be installed tommorow... I'm sure i'll wipe on it a little more too, but i could eat off it now...

Rear up in the air for sway bar bushing replacement... Me still not quite fitting underneath.

Stock crappiness...

Thats your clunk right there... its wearing off the damn paint off the bar due to its inate crapiness...

Stock V. New. New wins.

New installed with LOTS of Suspension Techniques Sway bar grease...

Both Sides done...

Does your back window area rattle with the radio or exhaust noise? MINE DOES. Its annoying, and the fix is to remove the plastic clips on the plastic, and pull it away from the metal underneath and run weather stripping in between the plastic and the metal. I only did the back, but i'm gonna pull it all up tommorow and put more in. Its allready made a dramatic difference in eliminating sub rattle. More pics tommorow...

At this point, i was 10 and 1/2 hours into the work and decided to call it a day. I'll be shampooing the interior carpet, floormats, and detailing the interior, installing the shift knob (i dont know if i can manage that by myself, i may need help) and test fitting the AutoEXE grille.

As for the rest. The wheels shipped out yesterday, but i've yet to recieve a tracking number for them. The hood is delayed, and i have to call on it tommorow. All for now! (thumb)

 

[daedalus]

Update 1/13/06:

Allrighty, we left off with my garage tore apart, my car halfway done, and many projects left to be completed.

First Note. Last night I went ahead and purchased a AWR 21.5mm Rear Sway Bar for my MSP. Which means, my brand new bushing installation will never be used. If any of you P5/LX/DX boys are intrested in a Racing Beat Sway bar and New AWR bushings off my car let me know.

On to the days events.
- Finish Rattle Fix in Trunk
- Mount Amp/Sub into Stock Box
- Shampoo Floormats
- Shampoo Interior Carpets and Seat Upholstry
- Install AutoEXE Grille

When we left off I had kinda remided the rattle, but there was still noise coming from the rear window. So i went back at it.

How it was left with just the one part of the plastic deadened.

I removed all 5 clips holding it in and pulled the entire top portion off to reveal the problem. The noise comes from the plastic rattling against the metall underneath. MORE WEATHER STRIPPING!

Before:

After:

After fixing the rattle and getting everything put back together I got a crazy notion. I had a Alpine Amp out of my old car that had been siting in a closet for a year. Why not try and add some more boom to the MSP? I wanted the only use the stock Rack because i value my trunk space and i dont want a huge box back there being thrown back and forth while i slide through turns.

Alpine vs. Stock. Alpine wins!

Test Fit! PERFECT!

Then i needed to get a subwoofer so i put the amp/sub on hold and shampooed the floormats so i could set them out to dry while i ran out to buy a sub. The mats were filthy... Just look at all the dirt i sucked out of them, and the rest of the interior!

Before:

After:

Then it was back to the Amp/Sub project. I didnt really plan on doing this, but everything was working in my favor so i just rolled with it. I bought a Kicker 8" sub from a local stereo place. It was a dual voice coil and i picked it up for 100 bucks. List was 149.99, but they wanted it out of the store, so i bought it.

Wiring it up:

FITS PERFECT!

Amp and Sub Mounted... I just had to tap the old screws back into the rack in the new holes for the amp... fits like a glove. I had to extend the +/- wires to get to the new location on the amp.

Snug up in her new home:

You cant really tell, but my garage is all ******* dirty, messy, and looks like a dyslesic child just had a tantrum in it.

Its all in the details... DG Oil cap... woot woot!

Stock grille out, I also removed the horn after this shot, so it wont show through the mesh in the AutoEXE grille...

Grillin' it up yo. The only fitment issue is that it wants to push out a bit to far on the front nose. Can be easily fixed with some good ole 3M tape. Other than that, i was pretty impressed with the fitment.

I got bored and compared my new rotors to my wheel size... WOW. (boom07)

Thats all for now. I couldnt finish the interior because the seats were wet and it needs to air out overnight. Tommorow we do the rest of the interior, shift knob, and call it a day.

Side note. Wheels will be here on Tues. the 17th! Woot Woot!








Update 1/14/06:

Well i went back at the rattle in the trunk and got it completly gone. I also took the car for a drive, and there used to be a resonance and buzz from the rear window/hatch area at certain rpms and it has been completly eliminated... Now i can just enjoy the sound of the engine!

Also, the car feels completly different. The sway bar bushings worked miracles! Not only did they eliminate the clunk and squeeking i had been hearing, but the car felt soooooo much more responsive! The weight transfer from side to side was soo much more fluid! It really was a different car to drive.

Other things to update you on: I had to order new swaybrackets for the AWR bar because the one i purchased was the "ES" version, and not the mazdapseed version. Grand total after shipping? 84 dollars. Yikes. I also took the subwoofer back out. The sub itself was making a noticable rattle on every hit, and i determined it was the speaker posts vibrating against the stock enclosure. So i returned it and ordered up a JL W0-4 off ebay. Put the stocker back in for now... sounds soooo quiet compared to the Kicker.

Okay, and there wasnt much to do today, after all i had been going at this for 3 days now. Basically I finished up the interior by treating all of the plastic, cleaning all of the glass, replacing the floormats, installing the shift knob and going for a drive because it was 48 degrees today (In january, in nebraska, thats unheard of.)

Anyway, i cant do anything else until the AWR stuff gets here, the manifold shows up, etc.

So basically... Finished Shots of Interior and the Engine Bay:

WHEELS ARE HERE ON TUESDAY!!!

 

[daedalus]

Update 1/17/06:

Allright, today the wheels got here so we put them on. And another part showed up, so i snapped a pic of that for ya.

What is it? A bird? A plane?

Nope! An ApexR1 Radiator Plate!

Okay, and for the wheels...

Now, a couple of things. 1. This is the "Hyper Silver" color which is a lot darker than i thought, but in all honesty, the finish of the wheel isnt really ot my liking. However, i still cant imagine stomaching the extra 400.00 for the Hyper Black finish. Enough is enough. 2. The pictures dont do the wheels justice. They really look nice and make the car look sooo much more agressive. They are growing on my slowly, but really they are not my favorite wheel. So in some respects i'm a little dissapointed, and then i catch myself going out into the garage and saying "DAYUUUUM" because they look good too. Anyway, i know there not the best, but they are reallly UBER lightweight (really suprised me how much ligher over the stock 17" they were) and i could tell acceleration was definatly improved. I am liking the polished lip though... The people said the car looked badass rolling.


The pictures DONT DO THEM JUSTICE. Better ones tommorow when they get cleaned up and the tires get glossified! (thumb)

 

[daedalus]

Update 1/18/06:

Took a little photoshoot today, just for s**** and giggles. YES I KNOW THE CAR IS DIRTY. THE EXTERIOR HASNT BEEN DETAILED YET!

I just wanted to give you a better view of the wheels. Yesterday didnt really do them much justice. Everyone that has seen them, and seen the pictures from yesterday has remarked "they look sooooo much better in person!" I would have to agree. They are growing on me HEAVILY.

Went for a drive today too, the car tracked staright and true, though i think i'm running too much toe on both sides in the rear. The stance of the car is noticeably wider. Anyway, i'm just trying to get them scrubbed in so they start gripping good. Right now its all squishy new tire!

High Res Available upon request! Enjoy! Hood should be here by friday, along with the sway bar!







Update 1/19/06:


Hood arrived today, and we put it on. Loooks sooo hott! I'm actually considering leaving the entire hood unpainted, but i have to make up my mind by monday. Car is supposed to be dropped off for paint!

Update 1/21/06:

Well the AWR bar got here today, as well as the new Mazdaspeed specific brackets from Tony at AWR. Perfect timing! We didnt have install instructions, and to be honest, this thing was a b**** to install. Took like 3 hours, and its a basic install. It was just hard to get the new mounting brackets on (we had to compresss and raise the suspension while the car was in the air, we couldnt break loose the 17mm bolt holding the control arm, so we had to improvise, if you've installed one of these, you know what i mean)

Other than that, things went smoothly, it just took time. I also added grommets on the new Rear endlinks to avoid the dreaded metal clunks that come from them. Tony at AWR provided these specifications that I thought I would share with any of you current or soon to be AWR owners.

Gromet Dimensions:
1/2" Inner Diameter
1" Outer Diameter
1/4" Thickness

You will need 4 per corner.

I could only find these at an actual hardware store, none of the 3 auto parts stores i visitied had these in stock. Go to the electrical section. Thats where they should be.

Anyway, on to the pictures.

New Sexiness... this bar is BEEFY!

Getting everything ready...

What happens when your just TOO strong for your own good:

Starting to come together... note gromets on endlinks..

Couple random shots of the hood...

And that beautiful weave!

All done!

Took the car out... and DAYUM. The backend used to feel kinda twitchy in the corners and now it just feels soooo much more planted, turn in is even more instant than before, no understeer, not too much oversteer... just very neutral. I'm loving it!

Car goes to paint on monday, brakes on thursday-ish... Were resetting the rev limiter on the microtech to 3000rpms when we drop it off at the dealership... ******* bastards.

 

[daedalus]

Update 1/23/06:


Car got dropped off at the paint booth today on TIME! Turns out the connection to the microtech for the ignition timing had popped off, so we plugged it back in, she fired right up and is now running on all cylinders again (was running on two, which caused the obviously rough idle conditions).

At the dealer dropped off...

Should be done by Friday at the latest. (thumb)






Update 1/27/06:

Only with my luck could this happen. Got the call from the dealership saying the car was ready. I was excited as hell and ran down there as fast as i could. Upon pulling up i saw my car and HORROR came over me. THEY PAINTED THE HOOD THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANTED. I was literally speechless for about 5 minutes.

I'm taking the hood back to them on monday to have it redone. The manager tried to convince me that this looked better. I literally told him to shut the **** up. I'm pretty sure the hood cant be salvaged regardless of them sanding it all down again and redoing it. If thats the case the dealer will be purchasing me a new hood or they will be sued. I mean, i gave them photos of bigwoofers hood to show them exactly what i wanted, and this is how it turned out... I'm still in disbelife over the situation. ONLY COULD IT HAPPEN TO ME!!!

Heres pics of the magnanamous **** up.

Update 2/1/06:

When i dropped it off he said they were going to use some type of solvent that would eat the paint and not eat the gel coat to remove the paint instead of sanding it... Whatever makes you horny i guess... If they screw it up, its their ass so i'm not that worried about it. If i have to yell and scream and be a dick, i'll be justified in my actions.

I took the car out for a "Fun Run" through the hills and wasnt happy at all with the handling with the new bar... The backend just felt nasty, and there was very apparent understeer, something i really dont like at all. I took the AWR back apart and tightened it up and pushed it about 1 3/4" in from the end and re adjust the endlinks for clearence. Yup, that fixed it. Car is back on edge with instant turn in, slight oversteer at the limit with throttle fluxuation. I like a FWD car that i can throw the back end around on. Now its much better!

Other than that there is a slight update in plans for the car...
- 3" Y-Pipe with electric cutout where cat is on the GHL DP.
- Sparco Pedals
- HKS CAMP System (Havent figured out where i'm putting a screen yet...)

Picked up the car today, the paint truly did look spectacular and matched 110%. They put 5 layers of clear on the entire hood and it really shines. I did notice a crap ton of overspray on my lip but i took it back to them and they took it all off. Car looks great to me now! SOOO much better!

Brakes get dissassembled and powdercoated starting tommorow!

Update 2/2/06:

Two quick shots to tide you over until the official photo shoot in a couple weeks.

The lighting was hella crazy reflecting off these clouds tonight at sunset so i had to snap a few pics. Car is hella dirty, but just ignore that fact. Hood grows on me everyday. And having a front lip that actually matches the color of the car IS CRAZY COOL!

 

[daedalus]

Update 2/9/06:

Ok, so its been awhile guys. Not much has happened yet because i've just been waiting on parts, and waiting on the increasing delays at the shop to get my car in and worked on. Basically, the shop is moving locations, and still has to full builds (Taking a stock '87 Supra to a fully modified 600HP Beast, and a 500HP Fully Built WRX) to get done for various car shows by the end of the month. And then there is me.

The other bad news is that i'm going to be unable to attend HIN Chicago as originally planned. Basically, i've run out of money to take the trip and really need to keep a little buffer amount in my accounts for the next couple of months until i return to work. So i will be showing the car at the World of Wheels even at our Qwest Center March 11th for its "Debut".

So Basically, the only thing I can show you is pictures of the varoius parts that have arrived lately and tell you whats going on in the next two weeks with the car.

Plans over the next weeks:
- Fully Detail engine bay again (Dealership washed car against my specific instructions and allowed all of the water from the Reverse Cowl hood to drain down onto my freshly detailed bay. Its deystroyed. 11 hours down the drain.)
- Car is getting dropped off at Visual Perfection Detailing (Bling BLing Ferrair/Porsche/Lambo detailers in Omaha) for a complete buff job of the new paint to help blend it and remove the swirls from the winter, so i can get started on the numerous coats of Zaino to put on it myself.
- The brakes have been dropped off for dissasembly and powdercoat, however i dont know when that will actually happen.

So... the various parts. Nothing much to get too excited over.

Two random photos i took the other day... no point to them... i was trying a new function out on the camera. The second one really shows the quality of the hood so i thought i'd post it up.

Pointless update, sorry its not better. Soon guys, soon. (rockon)


Update 3/12/06:

Its been awhile... Not much has happened.

Brakes should be going on soon. Nothing has happened with them yet, they remain purple. Were waiting to do the exhaust cutout with the manifold. But the manifold has yet to arrive, so its on hold for the time being.

So i thought i would post up some pics from my trip to Kansas City for the street races last night. It was a good time, and they have some real cool cars down there.

I made it back from KC to Pulling in at my dorm in 1 hour and 40 minutes exactly. Normal drive time at speed limit of 75mph is 3 hours, 10 minutes... teeehehehehe.

The scene is pretty cool there. Some of the fuckers down there are ******* crazy. Driving from place to place requires about 25 minutes of interstate driving form venue to venue. Then factor in that the KCSR guy were following is doing 100-120 mph in and out of traffic (at one point Nick in his STi and I were doing 150 to catch up with him) with a caravan of 100+ cars draws some attention. Then the guy we were following got nabbed by the cops so we had to pull over a regroup.

We went to three different spots that night and finally got racing in at the last venue for about an hour before the cops rolled through. They have some sweet ass racing spots. ******* perfect.

Anyway, it was a real nice trip, and i want to go down again.

Sorry the pics are blurry. I forgot the tripod, and didnt have time to get decent pictures because we were running from the cops or from venue to venue every couple of minutes. These arent good pics or anything, just kinda a bad documentation of random parts of the trip.

The QT pics are because our entire caravan tried pulling into the parking lot 100+ cars and we thought this was crazy so we parked across the street and just watched. We thought the police were gonna bust it, but apparently that doesnt happen in KC.

The tape held up like a champ, and its a good thing. At 100ph, with the highways how they are, it would've been a sandblaster to the front of my car. I was amazed at how much sand and gravel was embedded in the tape.

All cleaned up today after the trip... bling bling!

More to come soon! I PROMISE!!!

 

[CitizenPro]

and for you Daedalus.........(bird)

My car is going to end up looking like yours cause you get to it first, u son-of-a-beech (glare)

 

[anarchistchiken]

Joy.

 

[03orgspd]

daedalus pics = always fun

 

[lsdeater]

so wait, you're 100% keeping it now? or are you going to sell it after this round of mods?

 

[pluto316]

Nice choice on wheels.

 

[daedalus]

so wait, you're 100% keeping it now? or are you going to sell it after this round of mods?

Keeping it... i had one intrested party for 26k, who popped up after the 1800.00 order for wheels and tires. I'm not gonna lose 20k on this thing just to get rid of it and move on. Too much money, and the car is very quickly turning into something to be proud of.

 

[lsdeater]

good!

 

[Jaysanooch]

What size tire are you getting? 35 series or 40?

 

[CitizenPro]

I'm not gonna lose 20k on this thing just to get rid of it and move on. Too much money, and the car is very quickly turning into something to be proud of.

Well said.........im glad your keeping it (thumb)

 

[Ryoga28]

Is that a replica autoexe grill? Where did you order that from?

 

[03orgspd]

Keeping it... i had one intrested party for 26k, who popped up after the 1800.00 order for wheels and tires. I'm not gonna lose 20k on this thing just to get rid of it and move on. Too much money, and the car is very quickly turning into something to be proud of.

Turning into something to be proud of?? I would crap my pants if I were able to drive that thing..let alone OWN it! Can't wait to see some more pics dude.

 

[daedalus]

What size tire are you getting? 35 series or 40?

35 series... The car is damn low on K-Sports.

Is that a replica autoexe grill? Where did you order that from?

It does appear to be, but i wouldnt know the difference between the two to be honest. I bought it off of bigcc63 on here.