2006 Deep Black Track Shed BudgetBoltOnBuild

[Helpimonfire]

It's entirely possible. I swapped over to 5w30 over winter so I guess this is the first hot trackday I've done. But then it was hammered all day at Croft and that was probably around 18 degrees or so.

I'll order some 5w40 and see what happens. I've got a new pressure sensor on the way from RPD anyway so fingers crossed that'll solve it.

 

[NickD]

My oil pressure switch looked like it had come from the Titanic when it decided to scare me on the wat home from Brands last December. That would be my first port of call.

 

[tcw]

My oil pressure switch looked like it had come from the Titanic when it decided to scare me on the wat home from Brands last December. That would be my first port of call.

Haha, mine looked like the titanic with an oil leak, I don’t for the life of me understand how it got so rusty relative to everything around it.

 

[Helpimonfire]

So I did some interior yesterday as it was a complete mess of broken clips, bits of sound deadening and other crap. I started the day by dropping the exhaust off to pull the shifter out to fit the Wheeler Motorsport relocation tower. After drilling multiple hole in the exhaust tunnel to try to route the shifter cables, it was obvious it wasn't going to work out, the kit is fairly poorly made too and the supplied hardware is absolute trash. Thankfully the kit is only £75. I highly doubt I'll get any money back as Josh seems hesitant to even reply to messages regarding fitment issues, let alone sort out a refund

So... Wheeler shifter relocation kit? Avoid like the plague. Absolute rubbish.

Anyway, decided to fit the SW Motorsports foot plate which thankfully fit perfectly and went in an absolute dream.


Only ended up refitting the drivers seat as the passenger side still needs a purge of clips and other stuff. Original shifter is back in and with the lower seating position it feels pretty good to be fair, the eBay special gearknob and adapter fits a treat. I think I'll end up getting a PMS or ZPO shifter eventually. Also ordered a Disklok steering wheel protector to stop those grubby mitts ruining my suede wheel, fits perfectly!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Some of you will know I've been having loads of issues with the towpig. Big Silver Twat. However you want to remember it. Limp mode, auto box issues, constant repairs and just generally costing loads, £340 a year tax, MINIMUM of £400 a month in diesel to get 30mpg and that was just my commute. So it has to go.

In steps the replacement. 2013 Ford Mondeo estate. It's a Titanium X Sport so it's got the nicer bodykit, all the luxuries inside and 55+mpg. Along with £135 a year road tax, it pays for itself in no time.


Previous owner removed the backboxes but it's a proper job so that'll stay. Plans are for a remap to bring it up around the 200bhp mark and a wheel refurb as the previous owner loved hugging kerbs.

Happy days!

 

[RSRowe]

I really want one of these!
Epic. Big tow weight on them too which is always a bonus

 

[Helpimonfire]

So the Mondeo had to go back to the dealer as I had a knackered injector seal. They replaced all 4 and it's back! Typically the courtesy car they gave me had no working aircon on the 2 hottest days of the year! On top of that it only had 1 working window. Oh, it was also a Beetle TDi. I felt sick.

So the Mondeo got treated to a quick wash. Needs doing again as it's now brown with dust. Gross.

The Clio on the other hand, was neglected until the weekend. It got a fresh oil filter and the correct oil this time! Plus I finally got around to changing the oil pressure switch, it wasn't as bad as expected but still fairly crusty.


Had a PROPER 'oh shit!' moment when the switch wouldn't budge, so I gave it a bit more oomph.
"CRACK!"
Followed by "OH F..."

Thankfully it was just the rust letting go but it genuinely felt like it had sheared off in the block. That would have been a big problem!

Roll on Cadwell on the 4th August!

 

[Helpimonfire]

So. Cadwell.

Cadwell has always been an odd circuit for me as bizarrely it makes me feel sick, even when I'm driving! So the plan was to do short sessions and try to keep the nausea at bay. This went out the window once I got tagged on behind a few other Clios, Civics and Minis. This was also the first time I'd driven the car after stripping all the carpets, plastics and other trim out.

Nothing has changed otherwise, it's still a bit of a dog to look at and those are the same MRFs I bought last year, I think this was trackday number 14 now! I did manage to get another set of MRFs after being let down on a set of AR1s and a set of Direzzas, that's Facebook for you

Car felt spot on all day, no warning lights, no unusual noises and nothing broke. Only thing I need to look at now is the fuel gauge which has gone funny again, showing half a tank and then showing nothing so I relied on the on board fuel usage on the trip computer.

Enough of that. Have some photos.
Had a great tussle with the 330 Clubsport you see in the last photo, he had the legs on the straights but I was better on the brakes and slightly quicker through most of the corners!

 

[Helpimonfire]

So I had a bit of a water feature in the car... Turns out the drains were massively blocked to the point the water level in the scuttle was level with the plastic cover!


That's better.

Had an hour cleaning up a set of calipers for a full front brake replacement, my current calipers have sprung a slight leak now, so replacement calipers, new discs and pads and a set of Mr Pink pins. That's the weekends job I guess ready for an alignment and rear beam shimming on the 21st, just in time for Croft!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Today was a fruitful day and much needed judging by the state of my front discs!

Also my calipers had spring a slight leak, both fronts had minor damage to the bleed nipple threads through poor packaging when I had them rebuilt. The paint had also burnt and blistered, the whole thing looked shit.


So. Luckily I'd squirreled away a set of front calipers from @Big Ben . Realistically I'd forgotten I had them until a garage tidy up found them! Coupled with a set of DSUNO pads, we should be good to go.


I'd always been using the cheap pin and spring sets from Kam Racing and they'd never seized or caused any issues, but I decided to give the Mr Pink Pins a go. Impressed so far apart from dropping one of the R Clips and struggling to find it again!

This was one of the best tools I bought last year, worth every penny!

Car is now Croft ready. Suspension lowered another 10mm on the front and kept the rear a little higher. I was going to fit new lower arms today but the current ones seem fine for now, so I'm going to cancel my upcoming geo setup as I don't think it's worth trying to shim the rear with no change up front, to then have to do it all again when I change the lower arms over winter!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Treated myself this week to a machine polisher. It's not an overly expensive one but it seems to do the job. Also picked up some Renault Sport plates from Taylor Made Decals (on Instagram). Great service and really good quality plates.

Fitting these required taking the old plates off. They basically fell off because there was about 15 years worth of double sided tape that had gone hard and crusty.

Ended up ordering a tool off Amazon known as a caramel wheel (or toffee wheel). It's a shaped rubber puck that goes in a drill and takes glue residue, tape etc... Off without damaging the paint. £12 well spent.


I did this when the Amazon man arrived this afternoon, I was mid way through the second pass over the car, I had to do a heavy cut with some proper harsh cutting compound, the paintwork is fairly crap so it needs a lot of love.
Second pass was with 3M fast cut which is a bit finer, 3rd pass was with some Farecla G10 finishing compound. I still have to run over the car with a final coat of polish but I ran out of daylight.

Car looks good with no plates on but I had to fit the RS plates.


Still a few bits to do before Croft but I'm pretty much there now. Just need to swap some tyres around onto the Wizards and then we're there!

 

[Big Ben]

Bloody hell mate. Come do mine

 

[LiamP]

And mine! Looks awesome, that diffuser is letting the side down now!

 

[Helpimonfire]

And mine! Looks awesome, that diffuser is letting the side down now!

It looks worse because I'd just blasted all the polishing dust and crap off it and hadn't dried the diffuser properly. But you're right, it needs something.

I may take it off and try to do something with it, I've seen that a heat gun can get rid of the greyed plastic so we'll see! I don't really want to paint it as I've never seen one that looked good and I'm not interested in spending £300+ on a 200 diffuser

 

[strell]

Get some of this:

Solution Finish Black Plastic & Vinyl Restorer

Solution Finish – Black Trim Restorer Solution Finish Black Trim Restorer is an incredible new product that restores originally black surfaces to a deep, rich black without the usual horrid ‘wet look’ shine that also dries quickly with no greasy residue. The unique formula utilizes advanced...

www.in2detailing.co.uk

Amazing stuff. I prefer it to GTechniq C4

Paintwork looks mega!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Croft. Where do we begin?

Loading up for the trackday we'd all seen conflicting weather reports, some saying sunshine all day, some saying rain, others unsure and I decided that with the distance I'd be travelling, I wasn't taking any chances so they all went in.

So we had the Rotas with a set of Eagle F1s incase it decided to rain and a set of MRFs for when mine eventually die (Spoiler alert: They didn't.)
Hit the road and the Mondeo did well, it doesn't have the self levelling rear suspension of the BMW, nor does it have the power/torque but what it lacked there, it more than made up for in fuel consumption. 33.3mpg over the course of 850ish miles (more on that later). Got to the hotel in pouring rain which kinda set my mind thinking the road tyres would be needed!


Rocked up to Croft and it was a bit damp but the skies were clear and the forecast was set for sun all day. For once the forecast was right!

The car was basically flawless all day long other than an odd noise coming from the front left pulling out of the final corner, Iain pointed out that there was grease all over the inside of my NSF wheel so that means a CV boot has split. clip failed etc... Hopefully the joint itself is fine but we'll see.

Got loaded up and got home late that night, 400 miles down.

Saturday morning saw another early start, 6.30am and I was busy upsetting the neighbours by unloading the Clio ready to head north on a rescue mission. Got onto the A17 and before I knew it, I'd smashed into a monster of a pothole. Thought I'd got away with it but I'd gained a noise that sounded like a collapsed wheel bearing. Pulled into a layby and had a quick look around the car, by chance I'd parked perfectly to see a MASSIVE bulge on the inside of the sidewall of the NSR tyre. Luckily I didn't unload my tools so the wheel change was nice and quick and even better than that, the Mondeo has a full size spare so I didn't have to abort the journey.

Absolute carnage.


Seems that Ford make strong wheels and there doesn't seem to be any rim damage, just an absolutely shagged tyre. Oh well!

More on the rescue mission later. I actually took my GoPros too so there should be some footage at some point.

 

[RSRowe]

Be bent in half if it was a 5 series wheel

 

[Helpimonfire]

Be bent in half if it was a 5 series wheel

Would have made Simmo's bent wheel look like a minor inconvenience.

 

[jimmybell]

Did anyone escape croft without some form of incident?!

 

[Helpimonfire]

Off to AW Motorworks today to see Alex.

After Croft I had CV grease everywhere, so I bundled a few other parts into the car along with a replacement driveshaft and headed Daaaaahn Saaf.

Made a new friend while the shed was being worked on, the replacement driveshaft I bought was wrong, thankfully the one on the car was salvageable as it turns out the original CV clip had broken and emptied the joint. While it was up in the air, Alex and Nick changed the lower arms as the ones on the car were 124k miles old and past their best.

Alex also fitted a rear shim to bring my 3 degrees of camber in the rear down to a more sensible 2 degrees.

This is laid out oddly but basically you want to read the inner measurements. Ended up with more front camber too.

Ready for Snetterton!