Project Del Sol K24

so here’s part 2 of 3 of my weekend installment.

Password sent me a nice little present that arrived just in time

sure its not hard to guess what’s inside

so on saturday I was luckily able to use the lift at the shop. wasn’t 100% necessary and could of done it on the ground with jacks but this was a lot easier.

don’t know why it took me so long to put on my 4pt and sway bar when its only a few nuts and bolts. longer than i expected anyways. maybe i’m rusty from not working on my car in a while, or i’m just picky and took my sweet ass time to get things the way i wanted. I did have to clean out the shit out of my trunk first which took a while lol

spent forever trying to cut the carpet perfectly. right side is better than the left since i did that one second. but i’m not too disappointed. can always get another carpet and redo it if it bugs me enough. one nice things is i’m able to adjust my D2s easier now since its right there in the open
not that i’ll need to since the rear end is so stiff now haha

after that was done I started the sway. what took me so long with this was trying to figure out how to properly bolt on the endlinks. search online and could find any good pics or write ups with adjustable endlinks and s2 lcas. But i did read that the key thing is to try and keep them perpendicular to the sway and the ground when its lowered as much as possible. thats basically whati tried to do. i even used a tranny jack to put load on the car before i adjusted and tightened everything so theres no “preload”

crappy pics since it was dark by the time i was done:

took it out for a quick spin after everything was done and must say its a lot stiffer. I’m not the best at testing these things out and being able to tell how much difference it made. Maybe because i don’t push it hard enough to actually tell since i’m too afraid lol. But all in all i’m impressed and hope it can help me out when i finally start to auto-x.

and finally some random pics i took:

So, last friday I turned 21 and couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than driving/working on the sol all weekend. Some might say consuming alcohol instead of consuming gas in car would be better. But as far as I see it drinking = no driving = no sol so in a choice between the two I think its clear which wins at least in my case lol

Best present was being able to finally drive the sol topless for the first time this year

Liked how they caught they sunlight:

After first going to the DMV to renew my license since it expired I headed to the track. Out of all the street nights this was definitely one of the better ones and worth the price of admission. My buddy put on a good show and ran a 10.2 @ 144 in his EG hatch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-rXnzDPizw

Anyways that was friday night.

Got more stuff for ther rest of the weekend

So as you may know I was lucky enough to end up second last months passwordjdm moneyshot contest and my previous blog was all about it.

Well now with the aftermath I’m thinking of what to do with my prize/coupon/voucher I won.

Had all sorts of ideas at first but then realized it was exclusive to only passwordjdm brand products so limits or almost eliminates the choices of what I really want to use it on.

Basically the only thing I see buying for myself is the password rear 4pt strut bar. Even though I obviously wanted a mugen and have been looking for one for a while now (only been able to find mint or rare gen1 which I don’t want to pay that much for…a beat used gen2 would be perfect for cheap) Ideally someone would want a 4pt or planned to buy one and would offer to trade me a mugen one or at least cash so I could get one.

Password Del Sol Rear 4 point Strut Bar:

Link to page:

http://passwordjdm.com/PasswordJDM-4-Point-Rear-Strut-Tower-Bar-EG-93-97-Del-Sol-Bronze-P2533C0.aspx

Mugen Rear Strut

Expires within a month so have to make a decision relatively quick.

And now to add to the rush, I just got an e-mail from password giving updates on the results from the contest as well as announce they are having a 10% sale off all tower strut bars!!!
But only until next week, the 10th.

So I’m a sucker for discounts/deals/special and really gets me convinced/motivated with incentive like that. I’m thinking I might do it unless something comes up or manage to convince myself otherwise.

Only other thing is that a few of their strut bars come in “limited edition black” which I really like. However the del sol one I want only comes in bronze which is alright but like the black better.

Anyways I was going to ask if they would make a special black one if I wanted to buy one. Like if they had one raw metal welded but unpainted and I could just choose black over bronze. That would also be added incentive to buy. I know I could also just buy it the way it is and paint it myself, but wanted to see if I could get it professionally done instead by password themsleves so its legit/”authentic”

On the other hand. bronze would match my full sized MF8 spare, which the 4pt would essentially “cage” in my trunk LOL. So maybe a 2pt mugen would be better cause it wouldn’t be so “restricting”

Does it match? lol

I don’t know.

I do know that this isn’t as big of a deal as I make it since it will be in my trunk for no one ever to see. So for a del sol anyways, function should be more of an influence than form when buying a rear strut (and yes I do plan on actually putting which bar and the car to good use). But still I know about it and will see time to time.

I mean before I was considering a spoon, tein, cusco rear strut but I said, no… if there is a part that mugen makes I have to opt for that instead of any other ones. i.e. wheels.
I mean the mugen one would match my front I already have which would add/further my collection and keep to my theme.

EDIT: JUST RECEIVED AN E-MAIL FROM PASSWORDJDM AND THEY SAID I GOT 2ND PLACE !!!!

Thank you to everyone who voted and for your support. Glad the least I could do is represent the del sol community in a good way and get some recognition for these cars that usually get overlooked

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I don’t know HOW I managed not to post this earlier. Perhaps getting used to the blogging aspect I guess

Anyways, here’s the story

Toward the end of February I got an e-mail from PasswordJDM (I’m on the mailing list after buying one of their products) about a “Moneyshot” Contest they have going on.

Basically you submit 3 of your “best” pics of your car along with a short bio/mod list

Entries can be submitted from the first to the 14th of the month. Its open to everyone too btw

Then from the 15th on toward the end of the month its open to public online voting.

Then the ones with the most votes moves on to phase 2 of jugding where password employees pick and announce the winners. 1st, 2nd, 3rd place.

So I figured I give it a try and had nothing to lose. Entered early and wasn’t a lot of entries at the time but they slowly flooded in and some pretty stiff competition (specially those s2ks). Now upwards of 80 contestants going for the top 3 spots.

Also voting has been going on for the last half month and today should be the last day and results should be announced tomorrow. However, they have been a day late or so on all the deadlines, posting the entries, making voting available and maybe the same case will be closing the polls.

So that said there may be one day or a few hours left for last chance votes.

Link to voting:

http://passwordjdm.com/moneyshot

Link to my submssion (of course they used a pic of the engine bay because it features my only passwordjdm product: cf rbc im cover)

http://passwordjdm.com/moneyshot/contestants/2009/03/11/index.aspx

Kind of regretting the pics I chose and think I have better ones but oh well

Should of asked earlier and probably here first since the del sol community is the best and supportive, and has proven so thus far from other sites, which I appreciate very much and means a lot.

Anyways, getting nervous waiting to hear the results and would be at least nice to see the breakdown of the votes in like a pie or bar graph or something. I mean like I said, in it for the fun and got nothing to lose. At least I can say I tried my hardest and if it isn’t enough then nothing I can do about it.

Who knows, maybe this is all a joke since its April 1st and all and got me all worked up for nothing.

I’m just looking forward to stop having to plug and promote myself like a politician.

This FINALLY arrived at my doorstep this morning:

only took over a month (paid for it on the 21 of February) to arrive, but at least its finally here and safe.

I find it hard to buy parts for my car in the winter despite it being the perfect time. Got time think about what I need, time to shop for said parts, and great time for deals floating around.This is the best time for builds to go on or just minor changes/upgrades to get ready for the next upcoming season.

But having the car hibernate in the winter seems to create a lack of detachment. I get caught up in whatever is keeping me occupied and entertained at the moment like my car does in the summer. In the winter its usually electronics and this year it has been blu-ray movies and ps3 games. Most of my budget has been going toward this because its something I can use now rather than later in the spring when I can finally bring my car out and start driving it and working on it. Guess it comes down to the psychology of procrastination, waiting until last minute when its important, and immediate over delayed satisfaction aka i want something i can use now versus later.

ANYWAYS…basically what I’m saying is as hard as it is to try and find time and put money aside to buy parts for the car that I haven’t gotten much use or enjoyment out lately, I still managed to in buying my latest purchase… an ASR 24mm Rear Sway bar:

reason 1 I wanted it was for the name and to match my subframe reinforcement brace I already have

reason 2 I wanted and waited to get this over an OEM JDM ITR 23mm, which I passed up on several, is for the nice machined brackets they come with and same with the endlinks (seen in the backgroun), not just the 1mm+ difference

One of those things I’m finallly glad to get after a long time of being at the top of my want to buy list and feels great to cross it off. Also glad to get the people off my back for hassling me for having and ASR brace w/o a sway and explaining,

a. I planned on getting one since day one but wanted to wait until I found a good deal on an ASR (or Mugen which is what I really wanted but couldn’t find a 26mm for a “reasonable” price I was willing to pay and the only one i would settle for is the ASR)

b. Last season I was only drag racing so didn’t need it but still put the other stuff on first, LCAs and brace in preparation for the sway and different racing I may or may not be doing this season (auto-x)

Can’t wait to finally put it on and feel the difference/improvement although I am the worse for noticing these kind of things. Don’t know why and maybe its just me and lack of experience with other cars (drawback of having one and only car for 6 years i guess). All performance mods I have trouble justifying how they really helped besides concrete evidence like dyno numbers and track times, but most of it varies on driver skill so its hard to say.

Oh and I also picked up this pretty little thing with it as well:

obviously don’t need it since I already have one and it won’t fit anyways being that its for an EK…so doing my best to sell it, get some money back and put it toward other parts

but in the meantime I decided to do a little mocking up to see how it would look:

Well thats my first update

So I figured its about time I give this blogging thing a try. After a failed first attempt from being too used to forum style commenting/quoting/posting within a thread and being discouraged I think I’m over it and ready to give it a second try.

Being my first time blogging and all, I figure I start with what I know and good at which is talking about my car, usually in excessive excrutiating details from being indecisive, overly dramatic, and generally OCD.

I could easily spend hours and days reaccounting all the progress I’ve made on my build/project that I’ve been keeping track of since I first began the swap in summer of ’07 and since then have been actively posting on various forums to share with the world.

However, I figure there is no better place to start then the present and back track if necessary when time allows along with keeping up to date with new things that come.

Reason why I still refer to it as my “project” is the fact that it is still and has been an ongoing process since the day I got it ($100 from the junkyard when I was 15 but will save that story for another time ). Always changing things to keep it up to date with the times, finally getting parts I’ve been trying to find for years, and just generally not being satisfied or near completion of my goal.

Welcome to my Project Del Sol K24