Monday, January 16, 2017

Some Increased Publicity... Plus Photos From the Cutting Room Floor

As most of you probably noticed, during the last couple of weeks I did a Speedhunters post where I described my multi-month "clean-up" of the engine bay.  Also, my friend Alessandro did a very nice post on the car as he had come over to help during the light bulb replacement project.

But there were several photos that didn't make the cut. So, I decided to post them here.

First, in preparation for the Speedhunters article, I actually had considered re-wrapping the HKS oil cooler hoses in black plastic spiral wrap.

First, I had to cut this zip tie away.
You can also see the SAMCO radiator hose on the bottom and the weird white spots on it that eventually convinced me to replace it!
It's too bad I couldn't use this in the end. Cheap and easy!
Here's how it looked after I finished the re-wrap. Looks OK, but a bit odd at the same time...
So what do you think? Should I have stuck with the black wrap or did I do the right thing with the clamps?

Speaking of clamps:
Mysterious package from China. And yes, Japan Customs opened to inspect it!
Since I wasn't sure if I should go for anodized silver or black, I ordered both!
 Did I make the right choice by going with the black clamps in the end?

Yes, that is probably 20 years of accumulated gunk!
 As mentioned earlier, when I had Alessandro come over to help, the first thing we decided to do was to replace the silicon SAMCO radiator hose with a new one.

But, SAMCO pricing in Japan is ridiculous, so I went ahead with this one from SARD
Here is Alessandro helping with the clamps.
Incidentally, he later went crazy with metal polish on the Koyo radiator. Thanks Ale!
I was researching new clamps for the radiator hose and a friend told me about some good ones made by Mikalor. So, I went ahead and ordered some.
While nice Stainless Steel, the ones that arrived were scratched up.
They also seemed to not be as shiny as they should be.
Maybe I need to polish them in my free time?
So yes, I gave up on these and went ahead with the ones included in the SARD kit.  We then turned our attention to trying to remove the front bumper, for the headlamp bulb article I did recently.

Here is a close up, looking up from inside the turn signal space, one we removed it.
You can see the ballast for the Xenons.
And of course, having removed the undertray I had to clean it. Simple Green is the bomb!
Rusted license plate stay
 In removing the bumper I thought we might have to remove the license plate stay. So off it came, and we noticed it was quite rusty.

I've resprayed it with anti-rust paint, this will have to do until I get a new one.
So that is one more new part to have to reorder!  Anyway, I am now working on my next Speedhunters post, and will of course provide some more behind the scenes coverage to appear here on the blog. Stay tuned! And thanks everyone for the comments made on the Speedhunters post!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is worth mentioning if you are using the normal Simple Green it is highly recommended to switch to Simple Green Pro HD for general purpose cleaning. The Pro HD version is aluminum-safe. Normal Simple Green will corrode aluminum quite quickly.

Ken said...

I think there is a minor typo error on one of the photo captions above.

"You can also see the Sparco radiator hose on the bottom and the weird white spots on it that eventually convinced me to replace it!"

Should be Samco instead of Sparco isn't it? Hope you don't mind me pointing this out.

Aki said...

Hi guys,

Thanks for the comments! Didn't know about Simple Green Pro HD, so will have to see where I can find that here in Japan.

Ken - WOW, sharp eyes there! Thanks, I've already corrected it!

Aki

Anonymous said...

If Simple Green Pro HD isn't available you can try looking for Simple Green Extreme. As far as I know it's the same thing with a different name.

UncleStasiu said...

The little white spots are coolant. Silicone hoses are the tiniest bit porous, so coolant seeps out over time.

(Awesome blog, and beautiful car btw)

Aki said...

Hey Uncle - wow thanks. Yeah makes sense when you think about it. And thanks for the kind words!

Aki

Unknown said...

Hi Aki,

Keep up the great work! Little off topic but I was just wondering which Optima battery you've got in your car? I need to buy a new battery :(

Thanks,

Yas

Aki said...

Hey Yas,

Thank you for the kind comments!

Optima - 925SL Yellow Top. The blog has a search function - I stuck in "optima" and got several links, like this:

http://www.r33gt-r.com/2010/10/sunny-three-day-weekend-means.html

Good luck!

Aki