4k GT86 Gets a Rocket Bunny Kit & LS3 V8 Swap!
Discussion
st33ly said:
Love the overalls. Where did your brother get them?
Good question, I'm not entirely sure but i believe they're just generic DeltaPlus Mechanic's overalls and then the various patches are stitch on items.Hoping to find a workshop/small unit to rent to store and work on the car in very soon, not an easy task around my area it seems but once I've got that I can keep these down there to stop myself going through jeans, t-shirts, etc
Another couple of updates on the way.
First off, nothing overly exciting just a few more pictures of my new wheels.
Popped down to Fuel Coffee House just round the corner from me for their first Jap Vs German meet as it gave me a chance to take the GT86 out for the first time in the last 6 weeks but I had no time to wash the car, so I figured why not take the best looking bits of the car with me, the yet-to-be-fitted wheels!
Got to chat with a few people about the car and its little story and the journey it's had (For anyone that hasn't seen it at a car meet/show or PHSS I have a couple of laminated print outs showing the original pictures/state of the car and a few lines describing the project and a QR code that when scanned brings you to this thread!) and check out the wheels in the sun & rain and just gush over them a bit more if im to be quite frank.
And yes, driving to a meet with just a single wheel is a bit mad but it's a good laugh and look's just as silly as you'd imagine with it on the passenger seat!
Anyway i'll post the other update over the weekend when I get a chance
It's more shiny new parts!
First off, nothing overly exciting just a few more pictures of my new wheels.
Popped down to Fuel Coffee House just round the corner from me for their first Jap Vs German meet as it gave me a chance to take the GT86 out for the first time in the last 6 weeks but I had no time to wash the car, so I figured why not take the best looking bits of the car with me, the yet-to-be-fitted wheels!
Got to chat with a few people about the car and its little story and the journey it's had (For anyone that hasn't seen it at a car meet/show or PHSS I have a couple of laminated print outs showing the original pictures/state of the car and a few lines describing the project and a QR code that when scanned brings you to this thread!) and check out the wheels in the sun & rain and just gush over them a bit more if im to be quite frank.
And yes, driving to a meet with just a single wheel is a bit mad but it's a good laugh and look's just as silly as you'd imagine with it on the passenger seat!
Anyway i'll post the other update over the weekend when I get a chance
It's more shiny new parts!So the other update from this weekend is everyone's favourite, more new car parts!
Just before Christmas I ordered a set of big Front & rear brakes from PB Brakes and they recently arrived in this fantastic Anodised silver finish. I opted to go for the largest specs I would be able to fit behind my new wheels, 6 pot Calipers with 330mm discs on the front and 4pot calipers with 330mm discs on the rear complete with their sport pads.
I always love the look of a big set of brakes poking out from behind an equally nice set of wheels and with my future plans the extra stopping power will be very welcome (and my current brakes were getting close to limit! can you tell i've been justifying more purchases in my head?
)
When it comes to brakes there's of course plenty to choose from with the likes of Brembo, AP racing, Alcon which are often massive money but are proven to definitely be up to the job if your car sees race or heavy track use. Personally for me however as it's not my intention with the car so I was happy to explore cheaper options such as K-Sport/D2-racing (who i believe are one and the same) and that lead me to also find PB Brakes. They are a relatively new-ish brand I believe and as a result there isn't massive fountain of knowledge in regards to them however there are some decent reviews when you search around. Also having spoken to them in regards to fitment when ordering my wheels I can safely say their customer service is pretty fantastic so I decided to bite the bullet and go with the lesser known brand.
This is where the pictures do the rest of the talking
Just before Christmas I ordered a set of big Front & rear brakes from PB Brakes and they recently arrived in this fantastic Anodised silver finish. I opted to go for the largest specs I would be able to fit behind my new wheels, 6 pot Calipers with 330mm discs on the front and 4pot calipers with 330mm discs on the rear complete with their sport pads.
I always love the look of a big set of brakes poking out from behind an equally nice set of wheels and with my future plans the extra stopping power will be very welcome (and my current brakes were getting close to limit! can you tell i've been justifying more purchases in my head?
)When it comes to brakes there's of course plenty to choose from with the likes of Brembo, AP racing, Alcon which are often massive money but are proven to definitely be up to the job if your car sees race or heavy track use. Personally for me however as it's not my intention with the car so I was happy to explore cheaper options such as K-Sport/D2-racing (who i believe are one and the same) and that lead me to also find PB Brakes. They are a relatively new-ish brand I believe and as a result there isn't massive fountain of knowledge in regards to them however there are some decent reviews when you search around. Also having spoken to them in regards to fitment when ordering my wheels I can safely say their customer service is pretty fantastic so I decided to bite the bullet and go with the lesser known brand.
This is where the pictures do the rest of the talking
Finally the time has come!
The update i've been waiting since September to finally make, the Rocket bunny kit is finally here!
but before I get on to that I'm going to turn this in to a bit of a double whammy as I forgot to make an update about another part that arrived recently, i'll keep it short and sweet to get on to the big bits!
I've always been a big lover of ducktail wings/spoilers rather than alot of feeble OEM wings or huge boot/chassis mounted ironing boards (BGW for short!) but i'm a bit picky when it comes to them and truthfully alot of the offerings for the 86 aren't to my taste but I found one that fit the bill.. (duck bill?.. i'll get my coat.) and ironically it turns out to be the Liberty Walk wing. The rest of the kit looks tragic but the spoiler is perfect to me and i'm sure i'll have someone tell me its sacriligous to mix Liberty Walk with Rocket bunny but who cares, it'll look epic!
However the fact that what is essentially just a fairly simple glass fibre piece was eye wateringly expensive and comes with it's own certificate of authenticity says more about Liberty Walk and their Target audience than me I think..
Now to get on to the main attraction..
Had a rather fun start to the week as I took a 700 mile round trip to Germany and back over Monday/Tuesday to go get the kit. A bit unnecessary but it was my own fault for organising it this way with the supplier all the way back when I raised the order in September. I had the idea to turn it in to a week long road trip holiday, visit Bruges, Nurburgring, etc on the way but after the headache of not knowing when it would show up and various delays I decided just to forgo it and just make it a simple there and back thing and put off making a holiday with it until the spring (I still have a booking for a track car hire and Eurotunnel trip i couldn't cancel!)
Anyway so here was the route, pretty easy in reality for my first time driving in Europe and surprisingly fast on the way home.
When I finally arrived on Monday evening this was waiting for me. I just about got the 200cm x 75cm x 55cm box in to my Dad's X3 which I had borrowed for the trip and set off to my hotel for the night.
The next morning when it was a little brighter and less windy/rainy in the Hotel car park I had to get the bits out to well.. Have a look of course! but also to fit them in the car a bit better so I could actually see where I was going!
And finally after a quick trip back home I was able to get the obvious pic of the bumper sat infront of the car.
Now I just have the next monumental task of trying to find a decent Garage/Barn/Unit to rent to store and work on the car. It became painfully obvious just how undersized the old single garage is when I tried to move the car about taking me a whole 15 minutes just to inch it down the drive way backwards, turn around and then inch it back up backwards again to get these pictures. The car will be milimetres at best from the walls either side between the houses with the arches and wheels are on and I think it will have 15-20cm at most between the car and the walls of the garage once it's in there so a bigger area to play is needed! but then again it feels as though I may be wishing for a lottery win instead with how difficult it's proving to find somewhere in my area...
Hopefully i can get back on to giving more regular updates now that I have all the pieces to crack on but I don't really want to start any drastic work without the space available. Fingers crossed to finding somewhere SOON. I was even thinking of making a few youtube videos of my progress as it was something I wanted to do alongside this Project thread when I started but chickened out of the idea down to lack of space again and being a bit of a wuss
The update i've been waiting since September to finally make, the Rocket bunny kit is finally here!
but before I get on to that I'm going to turn this in to a bit of a double whammy as I forgot to make an update about another part that arrived recently, i'll keep it short and sweet to get on to the big bits!
I've always been a big lover of ducktail wings/spoilers rather than alot of feeble OEM wings or huge boot/chassis mounted ironing boards (BGW for short!) but i'm a bit picky when it comes to them and truthfully alot of the offerings for the 86 aren't to my taste but I found one that fit the bill.. (duck bill?.. i'll get my coat.) and ironically it turns out to be the Liberty Walk wing. The rest of the kit looks tragic but the spoiler is perfect to me and i'm sure i'll have someone tell me its sacriligous to mix Liberty Walk with Rocket bunny but who cares, it'll look epic!
However the fact that what is essentially just a fairly simple glass fibre piece was eye wateringly expensive and comes with it's own certificate of authenticity says more about Liberty Walk and their Target audience than me I think..
Now to get on to the main attraction..
Had a rather fun start to the week as I took a 700 mile round trip to Germany and back over Monday/Tuesday to go get the kit. A bit unnecessary but it was my own fault for organising it this way with the supplier all the way back when I raised the order in September. I had the idea to turn it in to a week long road trip holiday, visit Bruges, Nurburgring, etc on the way but after the headache of not knowing when it would show up and various delays I decided just to forgo it and just make it a simple there and back thing and put off making a holiday with it until the spring (I still have a booking for a track car hire and Eurotunnel trip i couldn't cancel!)
Anyway so here was the route, pretty easy in reality for my first time driving in Europe and surprisingly fast on the way home.
When I finally arrived on Monday evening this was waiting for me. I just about got the 200cm x 75cm x 55cm box in to my Dad's X3 which I had borrowed for the trip and set off to my hotel for the night.
The next morning when it was a little brighter and less windy/rainy in the Hotel car park I had to get the bits out to well.. Have a look of course! but also to fit them in the car a bit better so I could actually see where I was going!
And finally after a quick trip back home I was able to get the obvious pic of the bumper sat infront of the car.
Now I just have the next monumental task of trying to find a decent Garage/Barn/Unit to rent to store and work on the car. It became painfully obvious just how undersized the old single garage is when I tried to move the car about taking me a whole 15 minutes just to inch it down the drive way backwards, turn around and then inch it back up backwards again to get these pictures. The car will be milimetres at best from the walls either side between the houses with the arches and wheels are on and I think it will have 15-20cm at most between the car and the walls of the garage once it's in there so a bigger area to play is needed! but then again it feels as though I may be wishing for a lottery win instead with how difficult it's proving to find somewhere in my area...
Hopefully i can get back on to giving more regular updates now that I have all the pieces to crack on but I don't really want to start any drastic work without the space available. Fingers crossed to finding somewhere SOON. I was even thinking of making a few youtube videos of my progress as it was something I wanted to do alongside this Project thread when I started but chickened out of the idea down to lack of space again and being a bit of a wuss
SeanEP3 said:
just read the thread from start to finish. certainly come a long way, and heading in a very different direction from the start of the thread. Wheels look amazing! i bet that original budget has crept up a fair bit!
good luck, will enjoy the progress
Thanks! glad to hear you've enjoyed the read!good luck, will enjoy the progress
It might sound weird but even i've re-read my own thread from start to finish a few times
i've never been one to take many photos or anything like that so it's been good fun to have the last couple of years of my car hobby all documented to look back on when I want It's funny you say it's going a different direction from when I first purchased the car. Ironically this has actually been part of my plan since before even buying the car and was part of my reasoning behind buying a crashed one (why cut up a perfectly good car, etc etc) as well as absolutely falling in love with the Rocket bunny kits when they first came out.
The budget however has definitely skyrocketed a bit. Although I did have a rough idea of how much I might have spent on the car in year 1, 2 and 3 as with alot of things my original projection was clearly a bit short in reality
I'm with you on the spoiler issue - I dislike the stock one but mine is a road/track car and so I don't want a massive Ironing board or a lump of fibreglass doing nothing but adding weight and drag.
The best option seems to be a ducktail but finding a decent one at a decent price is tricky. I like the one you chose but I'm a Yorkshireman and forking out Liberty Walk prices makes me break out in a cold sweat.....
The best option seems to be a ducktail but finding a decent one at a decent price is tricky. I like the one you chose but I'm a Yorkshireman and forking out Liberty Walk prices makes me break out in a cold sweat.....
So after what's felt like a lifetime of Searching i've finally managed to find a space to rent to make in to a decent little workshop to work on the car!
Luckily it's really local to me as well, about 5 minutes up the road.
It's not much at the moment but it was previously a donkey shed so has had a brand new concrete floor done and will soon have a new door install (as you can see it, greatly needs it!)
Once it's nice and secure i'll be able to move all my more expensive bits and the car, set up my nice new set of Quickjack and get cracking for an update bonanza!
I've got a whole week off work planned just to crack on with the car and i've been really looking forward to it. I'll probably also start uploading some bits to youtube as well as updating my project threads so keep your eyes peeled for some terribly produced jumbled up videos loosely resembling car content!
Luckily it's really local to me as well, about 5 minutes up the road.
It's not much at the moment but it was previously a donkey shed so has had a brand new concrete floor done and will soon have a new door install (as you can see it, greatly needs it!)
Once it's nice and secure i'll be able to move all my more expensive bits and the car, set up my nice new set of Quickjack and get cracking for an update bonanza!
I've got a whole week off work planned just to crack on with the car and i've been really looking forward to it. I'll probably also start uploading some bits to youtube as well as updating my project threads so keep your eyes peeled for some terribly produced jumbled up videos loosely resembling car content!
df76 said:
Good space that. Just make sure that there's decent ventilation (with the structure being metal and a new floor condensation could be an issue).
Thanks, i'll keep my eye on it! there's a side door that doesn't seal particularly well and if I need more I suppose I can get a grate installed in that or the top/back wall of the workshop.Another small update for anyone interested in the workshop.
Been spending most evenings after working going round there to tidy/sweep up, build myself a workbench and set up some new lighting all while waiting for the landlord to get a proper door installed - Eletric roller shutter being installed tomorrow!
Just in time too so I can get the 86 moved to it's new home, set up my quick jacks and start working away. Not going to have much else to do over the next month or more thanks to our impending doom cutting me off from work but atleast i've spent all the money for parts already! (silver linings and all that)
Anyway pictures!
So Another update and another youtube video.
So I hadn't driven the 86 for a little while, banning myself from doing it in a way as there was a bit of an issue with it that It a little embarrassing to be honest.. the rear tyres are totally bald!
And that's not to say i've been going out to my local roundabouts to hoon about but that since my rear toe has been out of alignment as a result of lowering the car it's totally eaten away at my tyres and I had no idea it was so bad, these were brand new in July!
So i'm finally going to get this sorted by installing a new set of rear suspension arms and by getting a proper professional alignment once all is said and done!
but it wasn't quite so easy as while I was installing my lovely new arms I ran in to a problem with the trailing arm.. they didn't fit.
You can maybe see from those pictures that the arms were making contact with the hub before I was able to get a bolt fitted fully.
I reached out to driftworks who got back to me within Minutes and although they weren't able to offer some immediate advice as they've not had reports of any issues from other kits they've sold they agreed to open a return for the parts to investigate and offer a solution. I'll be getting those sent off when I can but for now i've re-fitted the original trailing arm.
it all looks so much better under there now. I can get the toe aligned nice and easily with the new toe arms and I can even dial out the infamous amount of negative camber that was on the rear as a result of being low.
As said I documented it all in my latest youtube video which you can check out here
So I hadn't driven the 86 for a little while, banning myself from doing it in a way as there was a bit of an issue with it that It a little embarrassing to be honest.. the rear tyres are totally bald!
And that's not to say i've been going out to my local roundabouts to hoon about but that since my rear toe has been out of alignment as a result of lowering the car it's totally eaten away at my tyres and I had no idea it was so bad, these were brand new in July!
So i'm finally going to get this sorted by installing a new set of rear suspension arms and by getting a proper professional alignment once all is said and done!
but it wasn't quite so easy as while I was installing my lovely new arms I ran in to a problem with the trailing arm.. they didn't fit.
You can maybe see from those pictures that the arms were making contact with the hub before I was able to get a bolt fitted fully.
I reached out to driftworks who got back to me within Minutes and although they weren't able to offer some immediate advice as they've not had reports of any issues from other kits they've sold they agreed to open a return for the parts to investigate and offer a solution. I'll be getting those sent off when I can but for now i've re-fitted the original trailing arm.
it all looks so much better under there now. I can get the toe aligned nice and easily with the new toe arms and I can even dial out the infamous amount of negative camber that was on the rear as a result of being low.
As said I documented it all in my latest youtube video which you can check out here
Edited by Samjeev on Wednesday 13th May 01:18
Edited by Samjeev on Wednesday 13th May 01:21
Bright Halo said:
I wonder if that is a manufacturing fault rather than a design issue. Maybe there is just too much weld in there restricting the location?
Yeah that's my thoughts as well. I did order them last october which is when they just about released on to the market. I might have just been unlucky but i'm not too fussed as Driftworks are happy to take them back an investigate, in theory all they'd need to do is swap out the end as that's the adjustable side of course so it just un-threads and a new one can thread in.Another Week and another 86 update!
Been installing my big brake kit on the car this week. Only really managed to get the front end done however as it was a bit of an up-hill battle against Siezed brake flare nuts, a lack of penetrating fluid and flare nut spanner (which I eventually resolved) and tiny little <£1 parts in the hand brake assembly braking on me when I tried to remove the rear disks.
As you can see I got the front installed and they look fantastic! Should be able to get the rears finished in the next few days, the whole system bled and I can move on to installing my new wheels! Can't wait.
Made another video which you can check out below covering the first half of the brake install and the woes I had with it.
Been installing my big brake kit on the car this week. Only really managed to get the front end done however as it was a bit of an up-hill battle against Siezed brake flare nuts, a lack of penetrating fluid and flare nut spanner (which I eventually resolved) and tiny little <£1 parts in the hand brake assembly braking on me when I tried to remove the rear disks.
As you can see I got the front installed and they look fantastic! Should be able to get the rears finished in the next few days, the whole system bled and I can move on to installing my new wheels! Can't wait.
Made another video which you can check out below covering the first half of the brake install and the woes I had with it.
Edited by Samjeev on Wednesday 13th May 01:18
ZX10R NIN said:
Great work the vids are decent don't beat yourself up over them.
I've had some nightmares with brake upgrades so much so the last set if 8/6 pots I decided to get them fitted by a company that makes them & still had drama.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers, glad to hear people are enjoying them!I've had some nightmares with brake upgrades so much so the last set if 8/6 pots I decided to get them fitted by a company that makes them & still had drama.
Keep up the good work.
It's my first time installing aftermarket calipers but I always seem to have drama when it comes to doing any more than a pad change. Had the exact same handbrake pin issue on my old Subaru and before that I had a retaining screw in a brake disc of my Vx220 which used an allen head but quickly rounded off. You'd think it would be a pretty easy task to drill it out seeing as it rounded off so easily... No way! that screw was made of harder material than the brake disc surrounding it. Many drill bits were sacrificed that weekend..
Either way im glad to hear im not the only one! hopefully i'm on the home stretch now, going to be fitting the rear brakes on monday and bleeding the lot!
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