My New Car >>>> Lopez's

Lostkat · 3 Aug 2007 at 06:08

ShiWarrior said:
oh golly heck yet another 200SX owner!

Welcome to the club (S13 here)

by the way Lopez, what U driving now?

Why thank you :cool:

SXOC member too? Leon wants an S13 now, but they seem to have shot up in price recently.

Leon's current "motor" is a garden shed made in Sweden... HA HA HA

Since the rain stopped, I've been experiencing the utter joy of driving it in the dry. I also love the fact that most of the people I work with (mostly blokes) have absolutely no idea what it is and asked me uninformed questions like "so which engine is in it?" and "is it the hatchback or the saloon"

Gaijin · 3 Aug 2007 at 09:21

Lostkat said:
Why thank you SXOC member too? Leon wants an S13 now, but they seem to have shot up in price recently.

They have indeed, I have a friend who has been after a decent example for ages. But what with the rust and bottom end knock issues, finding a good cheapun is a task and a half.

Lostkat said:
Leon's current "motor" is a garden shed made in Sweden... HA HA HA

Has he still got the Supra? He seems to have had more cars over the last year than i've had hot dinners!

Lostkat said:
Since the rain stopped, I've been experiencing the utter joy of driving it in the dry. I also love the fact that most of the people I work with (mostly blokes) have absolutely no idea what it is and asked me uninformed questions like "so which engine is in it?" and "is it the hatchback or the saloon"

Shame on them. Now can you please convince my sister to buy a fruity car?

Pebbles · 3 Aug 2007 at 10:52

Only just seen this, Kate it's loooovely! You'll be flinging it around in no time :cool:

I hope you're making Leon jump through lot of hoops to be allowed to play too

playworker · 3 Aug 2007 at 13:50

Lostkat said:
Since the rain stopped, I've been experiencing the utter joy of driving it in the dry. I also love the fact that most of the people I work with (mostly blokes) have absolutely no idea what it is and asked me uninformed questions like "so which engine is in it?" and "is it the hatchback or the saloon"

Haha, it's great being able to totally floor the throttle in a straight line without worrying about what the back end is going to do

I hate telling people what my car is, normally goes something like this:

Random person: So what do you drive then?
Me: Erm, an old Nissan
Random: What kind of Nissan?
Me: Umm, a 200SX
Random: A what? What's one of those then?
Me: It's a crappy early 90s sports car
Random: Oh right, my [insert random relative]'s Friend has a Subaru Impreza
Me: Great...

Not sure if it's better or worse than the random petrol station conversations though:

Random person getting fuel at next pump: Hey mate, how many brake's that pushin' then?
Me: What?
Random: What's kinda power's it pushin'?
Me: Umm, I don't know, I've never had it tested
Random: Yeah but roughly, y'know?!
Me: Erm, probably around 250?
Random: Oh *turns away with disappointed look*

What? Why the disappointed look - what did you expect?! Next time I'm going to tell them it's 450bhp and see what they do then

ShiWarrior · 4 Aug 2007 at 10:02

Gaijin said:
They have indeed, I have a friend who has been after a decent example for ages. But what with the rust and bottom end knock issues, finding a good cheapun is a task and a half.

Has he still got the Supra? He seems to have had more cars over the last year than i've had hot dinners!

Shame on them. Now can you please convince my sister to buy a fruity car?

How can it be a Supra, when she said "sweden" a Supra is Japanese

Lopéz · 4 Aug 2007 at 10:06

ShiWarrior said:
How can it be a Supra, when she said "sweden" a Supra is Japanese

I've got a Volvo as well as the Supra

ShiWarrior · 4 Aug 2007 at 10:11

Lopéz said:
I've got a Volvo as well as the Supra

oops I gave it away

NickK · 4 Aug 2007 at 11:58

I'd be tempted to take a claybar to the paint/glass work. Although it's already looking shiney

Lostkat · 4 Aug 2007 at 18:29

NickK said:
I'd be tempted to take a claybar to the paint/glass work. Although it's already looking shiney

The paint looks great from a distance, but the bonnet and front bumper could do with a re-spray because of all the stone chips, and the bubbling on the rear arches needs sorting out too. She's a pretty shiney car though

Thank you for easing my boredom today. Had a quick read up on how to use a clay bar, took note of some recommended products, went out and bought a Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit. It came with some Meguiars Cleaner Wax, so I finished it off with that and the car now looks about a hundred times shinier and the paint feels lovely and smooth

Just off out to take some pics!

Vix · 4 Aug 2007 at 18:40

Lostkat said:
The paint looks great from a distance, but the bonnet and front bumper could do with a re-spray because of all the stone chips, and the bubbling on the rear arches needs sorting out too. She's a pretty shiney car though

Thank you for easing my boredom today. Had a quick read up on how to use a clay bar, took note of some recommended products, went out and bought a Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit. It came with some Meguiars Cleaner Wax, so I finished it off with that and the car now looks about a hundred times shinier and the paint feels lovely and smooth

Just off out to take some pics!

Get Leon to buy a Porter Cable. You will get your use out of it with the amount of old sheds he buys

I can't stop stroking the paint when Phil clay bars one of ours!! (He does it cos he doesn't trust me with it!!!)

Lostkat · 4 Aug 2007 at 19:38

Vix said:
Get Leon to buy a Porter Cable. You will get your use out of it with the amount of old sheds he buys

I can't stop stroking the paint when Phil clay bars one of ours!! (He does it cos he doesn't trust me with it!!!)

I didn't find it too bad to do at all. You just have to keep spraying the stuff on to keep it wet, and kneeding the clay until you get a clean bit. Seems to have worked pretty well anyway

Leon's got an industrial polisher thingy, which he bought second hand. Apparently it's the sort that they use in body shops for buffing paint. It looks a bit powerful and mean to use on my baby though!

Pics coming up shortly..

Lostkat · 4 Aug 2007 at 20:15

Drove over to our local nature reserve to take some pics. Unfortunately, I forgot about the gravel carpark, and the car quicky got covered in a layer of dust, hehe. Don't think it's affected the pics though.

Took this when we got home to show just how shiny it is at the moment. Dead pleased with myself!!

Next step?.... Removing the swirl marks. ERK! (they were there before I started, so shhh)

NokkonWud · 4 Aug 2007 at 20:19

Vewwy Pwetty!

Lopéz · 4 Aug 2007 at 22:13

Needs to be lower and stiffer, I'm sure I can hear one of the rears scrubbing the arch when doing hard launches sideways out of a junction. Do they all do this? Are they a bit soft at the back?

thefullcollapse · 4 Aug 2007 at 22:24

Lostkat said:
... So tonight we went and picked up my new baby from Slough. Goes against just about every single one of my criteria

not picking it up from slough is a good criterior

Bear · 4 Aug 2007 at 22:29

Lopéz said:
Needs to be lower and stiffer, I'm sure I can hear one of the rears scrubbing the arch when doing hard launches sideways out of a junction. Do they all do this? Are they a bit soft at the back?

Cant say mine ever did that. I cant see how they could scrub the arches as the standard wheels are in set qute a bit as they are so narrow. :confused:

Unless you are saying the car squats down so much it hits the tops of the arch ?? Perhaps the suspension is very tired.

Standard suspension is very soft, handling is improved considerably upgrading them.

Lopéz · 4 Aug 2007 at 22:54

Bear said:
Unless you are saying the car squats down so much it hits the tops of the arch ?? Perhaps the suspension is very tired.

Standard suspension is very soft, handling is improved considerably upgrading them.

Yeah that's what I mean, it feels and sounds like the wheel is touching the arch, either that or the exhaust is pressing against the body at some point, I can't really tell which to be honest.

Otherwise, it doesn't feel sloppy to drive, it's only under hard launches in first.

Bear · 5 Aug 2007 at 07:32

Lopéz said:
Yeah that's what I mean, it feels and sounds like the wheel is touching the arch, either that or the exhaust is pressing against the body at some point, I can't really tell which to be honest.

Otherwise, it doesn't feel sloppy to drive, it's only under hard launches in first.

Axle tramp or worn subframe bushes ??

Lopéz · 5 Aug 2007 at 14:19

Bear said:
Axle tramp or worn subframe bushes ??

Could easily be. That's the trouble with intermittend noises, they're very difficult to pin down.

Just fitted a K+N taken from a Sierra Cosworth to it this afternoon, doesn't make a huge difference to the induction note but the car seems an awful lot more urgent to drive! Do breathing mods really make that much of a difference to these or am I getting sucked in by placebo effect?

Gribs · 5 Aug 2007 at 23:56

Loads of difference. Get a descent exhaust on there and it'll feel much quicker. You'll need a new fuel pump as well though.