Ok I might do a quick run thru of whats happened over the last few months like most people are doing on here to combat the loss of a bunch of posts..
---------- The Kit ----------
During the big chunk between now and my last remaining post I have finished putting the kit on, pictures from the following day after I got the car back from the panel beaters should be in the introduction post.
Big thanks to the boys who did the kit for me! There wont be any shameless plugs however, but if someone wants a good panelbeater to do one of the group A or 3 kits drop me a PM (there in Melbourne's eastern suburbs).
They did a top job at fixing the GRP A front skirt to the aftermarket bar (these are trickier to do than the GRP 3). Most jobs I see have had the centre suport cut and left hanging, with mine they modified the original support to include 2 tabs which folded under the new skirt, then glassed and filled around it. Result was an extra strong bar that looked factory.
Rear bar was pretty strait forward, they used nice big rivets inside the arch to hold the skirt to the bar so hopefully they shouldn't ever crack thru. Sides were fitted to the car and then sprayed, aswell as all the door moulds receiving a fresh coat of Asteroid Silver, they only used 3 flat screws to secure the skirt along the top inside the door jams and the flex of the skirt does the rest (it doesn't even really need screws!).
The grille, bonnet scoop and rear wing where sprayed and left for me to fit to save a bit of time and money. From memory I used 8 or 10 screws to hold the scoop, and 4 to hold the wing.
---------- The Motor ----------
In my attempts to get the car starting properly again (never been good since the Microtech went in) I decided to replace the balancer which had slipped some 30deg with a new Powerbond Steet one. I'm told these are much stronger than the original holden ones, so after one bent bearing puller and some 1000 hits with a mallet a mate and I had the new balancer on. 1000 hits? Seemed like it! We did it with only the radiator removed and there wasn't a whole deal of room to work with.
So I could then get the timing spot on 10deg and let the Microtech do the rest (adjusts timing to around 20degrees over most of the rev range and allows for variations each 500rpm). However it was still a pig to start, before this I'd tried nearly every part of the ignition system, even the starter, battery, alternator.
I ended up hitting the wiring diagrams and tracing each wire in the custom loom we'd made some 5 months before, everything checked out fine. I got desperate and decided to fault the +12v ignition send, jumper from back of alternator to coil, cranked her over and she roared into life within a second. So it was the ****en ignition send all along...
Whether its a contact in the key barrel or in one of the old loom plugs I don't know. I put together a quick circuit and used the old ignition to switch a relay and supply a healthy 12v back to the coil and dizzy. Problem solved.
---------- The Stereo ----------
Got cracking on the stereo at about the same time I fixed the starting issue. I wanted something that sounded good and went loud when it had to, but didn't want to loose all my boot space. So I settled on a false floor with the amps under 6mm safety glass, a couple of crossovers and a 200A breaker are under glass too, and theres a removable panel allowing access to the battery.
Components are:
- Sony CDX-M8800 Headunit
- Response 4x50wrms (looking at the digital 4x100wrms model up)
- Response 1x800wrms monoblock
- Boston Acoustic Pro60 Series fronts
- Pioneer rears (came with the car, might upgrade)
- Digital Designs 3512D (Dual 1 ohm)
- 480cca Century battery
- Aerpro 200A circuit breaker
- All cabling in bay upgraded, 0gauge from battery to bay
---------- The Blower ----------
Initial plans involved a SC12 a friend picked up for me for a steal at $70 delivered from NSW. But I've since changed to a SC14 (a couple hundred extra cc's of displacment), I'll be getting it from the post office tomorrow bright and early. Then work will start on brackets, that will be the hurdle. Piping and machining a pulley will be easy, I'll be starting with a 7psi pulley and see how things go.
Cheers for reading, stay tuned...