Bastard!!! I was gonna buy that carpet from Colin but you beat me to it 
Unified - what are you using to tune your car? I just got a hondata s300 setup. I’ll be tuning this week 
My car isn’t tuned, currently. Its on a NepTune basemap that Cortney made for me.
Once spring rolls around I’ll be having him put it on the dyno.
yeah I just went over to his house today to pick up a hondata s300… I’m so excited for my car man
So I mentioned a few pages back that I had an oil leak coming from the oil pump/front main seal… Well, it had gotten to the point where I was adding a quart of oil every two days… Yeah, not good. So i finally decided to get it handled.
No progress pictures as I just wanted to get it done.
Though, the one picture I took is:
The spring had come undone from the seal, allowing oil to seep past the rubber and down the face of the oil pump.
After making sure of a good install, my brother and I buttoned everything up.
I let the car warm up for a good 10minutes… then drove it for a good 15min. After coming home, no leak.
I let the car sit for 45min, checked again, no leak.
While I was in there I replaced the oil pan gasket (naturally) and tightened up the timing belt.
If after a day or so of driving no leak is visible, I’ll go ahead and re-install the lower timing belt cover and call it a day.
MAN it feels good to have that issue solved… Crosses fingers
good news. that seal looks bad, no wonder you were going threw oil so fast.
Indeed… I’ve driven the car a few more times since replacing the seal and it doesn’t leak a drop. It’s finally a leak-free motor. An awesome feeling for sure.
Well, the local ‘spring meet’ is on the 25th, which means about 200+ cars that will be showing up. Naturally, I’m trying to use that as motivation to get my car sanded and buffed. If everyone knows I painted my car, and it looks all textured and orange-peeled, I’d feel kind of silly.
I went in this morning around noon and got busy. An hour went by, and my brother came through with lunch, a welcomed surprise. After a quick bite, he helped wet-sand the car. We got the driver fender, driver door, driver quarter panel, trunk-lid, rear bumper and part of the passenger-rear quarter panel.
I figure one more good day of sanding will finish the passenger rear quarter, then I can move on to the roof, pass. door, pass. fender, and hood. Then a quick buff and wax and it will be looking good.
I buffed a spot by hand just to see what the outcome will look like, so trust that it will look better (and I’ll try to get some shots with a decent camera on the 25th) but for now:
Before: The reflection of a light-fixture on the ceiling… also part of a 5th-wheel trailer. Bad reflection and ‘textured’/orange-peel
After: You can now actually see the light fixture, along with the 5th-wheel in the back. And this is in poor shop lighting with a hand-buff.
Once I actually finish sanding and get the buffer out, it’s going to shine up quite nice.
My hope is for a clear and sunny weekend, this overcast shit is not conducive to my efforts. Anywho, just checking in with a preview of what’s to come I suppose.
paint looks great. fancy yourself a perfectionist eh?
question; was that seal always leaking since you got the car? usually the spring pops out upon installation. happens when you don’t dab a bit of grease on the lip to hold the spring in place while the seal is driven in. which i’m sure you did during replacement 
Yeah… It always leaked a little bit, and it just got worse and worse. And even when re-installing the oil pump, its easy to see how the ‘lip’ of the seal can be caught or not seat 100% perfect… But having my brother up top and me under the car, we were able to get it to seat just fine.
There were a few leaks on the motor that I had to fix. Which was annoying being that I paid someone to build the block… in my opinion it shouldn’t have had a single leak. BUT… I got over myself and just fixed them as they arose.
Yes I kind of have OCD about certain things.
After the sand/buff, I need to adjust the ride-height, as everyone tells me it looks like its a 4x4.
yea, it’s not about the seal getting caught really. the spring pops out when the seal gets driven into the housing. i like to dab a fair blob of grease at 12, 4 and 8 o’clock of the backside of the seal where the lip is to hold the spring in there while you’re hammering in the seal. the spring usually only pops out during installation of the seal into the housing and not after. so whoever installed it last probably bunged it up.
and i feel you on the ocd thing. i’m pretty much the same way, bud. almost to the point of being that guy standing below the undercarriage of the car with a toothbrush. slow and steady. gotta keep it that way and enjoy your work
hope to see some updated pics some time soon. it’s a great color
Wanna finish my build lol, your car is soooo nice man
Impressive as always man! I really like the before and after pics on the reflection. Wish I could see it in person. I need to do this to my rustoleum car lol.
Ok so… Last Sunday was the first meet of the season. Naturally I had some work cut out for me so I had to get a few things taken care of. First and foremost, the sand/buff… It really didn’t take as much time as I was imagining, nor did I go-through in any places. w00t!
Fully sanded, ready to be buffed:
Before buffing the door:
After buffing the door:
Reflection of a co-worker washing off his truck:
Close-up of the metallic flake:
Reflection of the sky after the 1st stage of buffing:
Reflection of the diesel in my shed… I couldn’t stop obsessing over how smooth the surface now is lol:
Outside my shop gate, on my way to the meet!
Parked:
Me, a buddy, my brother and his gf:
All in all, I’m happy with the way the car came out. Just need to go through and track down all the rattles and try to cure them… The damn Hasports shake the car to pieces lol.
I need to lower it still as well, but simply didn’t have the time this past weekend. Now the car is back in storage, under car cover.
do you have any tips on removing the trim around the side windows? i really don’t want to risk breaking mine when removing them.
Honestly, I broke my rear window trim on the drivers side… The lower window molding simply slides forward (with the door open) and that’s it. However the very rear molding has about 6 plastic legs attached to the molding… its quite difficult as you have to pull those legs from under the glass, so you have to pull the entire molding back/away.
yeah, i remember i pulled those mouldings for my paint too. broke a couple of the clips. i think you have to kind of pull down and out. something like that. took a couple broken clips to get it right. that’s all i remember haha.
just hit the junk yard and scoop some up. they’re old and brittle. you’re bound to break some of them
Car looks real good man! Now time to lower that bish a tad more
Hah… Moar l0w indeed…
I actually am waiting on an O2 that (hopefully) will cure my CEL43.
It still needs a lot, quite honestly.
Man, that code 43 is a tricky one for sure. It always popped up on me randomly and once it was time to diagnose, nothing, lol. Glynn had it pop right before his car went under the knife, and it was intermittent for him to. It’s such a vague CEL
Just a few photos that a buddy took at the meet we had… the first high-res shots I’ve had! He was unhappy with the outcome and says we have to do a proper photoshoot soon.
Still no other real updates.
I fired up the car the other day and my CEL43 decided not to come back on… bastard!
Once I get some motivation (and my O2 gets delivered) I’ll be lowering the car and hopefully curing any potential CEL43 causes.