Ginger EF build

[Jaker]

You might already know this, but those slicks will dump you straight into XP.

[ginger]

Yes I did realize that, however, the opportunity to have so many slicks at my disposal to practice on was too inciting to pass up They will be used for me to learn how to drive with slicks until I can find/ afford some proper hoosiers for racing.

[ginger]

There hasn't been much big progress lately. I was having a trouble with the car running quite rough but after a valve adjustment that smoothed out significantly. Other than that its been all tuning tuning tuning. Every day on the way to and from work.

Small update though, decided to finally replace my tail light seals as they leak like all hondas do. Picked up some super high density gasket material and cut out the pattern from my old seals.

Lights out
IMG_20140602_210056

New seal in place
IMG_20140602_210201

and lights back in!
IMG_20140602_211000

Very quick and easy to do. Had to test them out but since were not getting much rain lately, it was a good chance to wash the car...
IMG_20140602_213848

So far they seem to hold up just fine! Time will tell though...

[ginger]

Decided to tackle the little things that have been annoying me with the car over the weekend.



Before I bought the car it was broken into and the driver door lock needed to be replaced, so I have always had a different key for the lock and the ignition. I went ahead and gave it a shot at rekeying the lock and it was surprisingly easy.

I took the tumbler out and with some rearranging of the keys, only a small amount of filing and a lot of lubrication i was able to get it working with my ignition key. Little things that make me happy If anyone is interested I can always do a small write up on how it was done.

I then went and resealed my doors as they were quite leaky during slush and on occasion I would watch water come out of my speaker vents on a hard turn.

Before:


after:


Ignore the tackyness of the tuck tape, its one of the better water sealing tapes around

[ginger]

Picked up some new slicks that will go on my current daily wheels so I threw some rubber on these bad boys I have been holding onto for a little while. They are 13x6.5" appliance wheels from japan, need a polish but I like them none the less



Whipped up some hubcentric rings on the lathe at work, why? because material was free and I like machining



Finally started on another project as well. I had designed some steering wheels a while ago, yes I like the Nardi design and im going to get them cut out of aluminum on the water jet at school and anodized in the near future.





For now I took apart a bent steering wheel to trace out the pattern of the fabric wrap. Hopefully I will be able to wrap the new wheels up nicely with some new microsuade

[ginger]

Packwood preparation time! Got my interior back in to stay SMF compliant, small update but makes me happy



also got my package from point roberts, new adjustable control arms and exhaust parts! Hopefully more pictures of this tomorrow.


Finally got my new tires installed, new old stock kumho v700's. Hopefully I can get them to fit under the fenders tomorrow for the sunday event!


Huge thanks to Eric at HBL for helping me out with the tires such late notice and derek at Aria for ordering the skunk 2 control arms!

[crazycanadian]

Looks great Kevin. I can't wait to see you run down at Packwood. Lots of Honda's in SMF this year..

[ginger]

Looks great Kevan. I can't wait to see you run down at Packwood. Lots of Honda's in SMF this year..

Unfortunately I made the call not to run my car this year due to some bad shaking on left hand turns at the last autocross I have some more issues to figure out before I drive the car down there and race. I will still be racing in packwood though and still am very excited!

Little more progress:
Finally got a new exhaust put on. I have been using the stock civic pipes for a long time so its a nice upgrade. Picked up a dynomax super turbo muffler to quiet it down a bit for the daily commute as well as some bends to mate to a 2" pipe ive had laying around for a while.

Bandsaw blade broke so had to cut the pipes by hand:


Over rear suspension bends, not the prettiest welds but they will work well for me!


Full system all assembled


Still a few kinks to work out, it hangs a bit low so I will need to make sure all my mates are square but that will happen after packwood

[ginger]

its been a while since I've updated anything, not too much has happened. Rewelded and adjusted my exhaust so it didn't hang so low and scrape on everything

Also grabbed some new engine mounts thanks to Aria for ordering them in! The yonakas had the main bolt holes too big and caused the engine to shift slightly under power. The innovate ones fit perfectly and was a pretty easy install considering the rear mount is a complete pain!

New mounts feel a lot more solid under power and less vibrations as well


Also picked this up tonight few parts to gather but snagged it for a good deal. Need some cams and gears as well as some conversion parts but i will piece it together slowly

[stelios]

Did the new mounts solve that shudder problem under cornering?

[ginger]

Did the new mounts solve that shudder problem under cornering?

Seems to have! I need to do a bit more testing but my roundabout laps didnt make the car shake badly like they used to

[ginger]

step 1 in my shifter project, planning on making a whole shifting unit but I started at the top



black delrin, little bit rough but was turned with etch a sketch on the lathe. Ill have the next one done on the cnc lathe

[ginger]

Little bit of playing around this weekend, started with trying to get my header to become slightly shorter. The header hangs too low so my plan was to chop it, expand the lower tubes and slide it inside each other to shorten it. Unfortunately the expander broke while I was working on the first tube so I only got this far



Spent a lot of time trying to get my 225/50/15 to fit on my car by rolling the fenders but it just wasn't enough to make it work without rubbing going to have to go back to these but desperately need new tires for them. Anyone have 225/50/13's with a race or two left in them per chance?



Side project as well, made some frames for canvases of pictures I had printed





Stretched!

[ginger]

small update, quite literally made some adjuster knobs for my konis, never did like the big bulky white knob plus i wanted to learn to use the knurler (quite a fun tool) They turned out quite nicely! going to make 2 more and hopefully have them laser engraved by a local company. more details to come when that pans out

[solorex]

^Nice!

[stelios]

Dude...I'm jealous of your knobs.

[ginger]

Its been much too long since Ive updated this thread, mostly due to school getting in the way of car work Anyways I finished up a project and got a good start on another so here we go!

A while back I picked up a 12 cell lithium ballistic battery for my car, at only 2.4 lbs it cut a significant amount of weight off my front end.

Started with a space mock up


Then sketched a design


Over to the water jet




Bent into shape


And finally welded it together. Unfortunately I have not welded aluminum in a while and the box was very thin material so it did not turn out too well




and installed in the car. Leaves so much more room!




Also got a good start on my steering wheel project. First jetted out the middle section and bent a strip of 1" aluminum to act as the rim


Welded the two together


and reused the foam from an old steering wheel with some alterations


I now just need to glue the foam to the wheel and re wrap it in suede then it will be ready to do some strength testing on. If all goes well then it will be in my car early next year!

[stelios]

Looking good dude, so much more room for activities with that tiny battery!

[thenorm]

you have a water jet now? ....... hmm, the wheels are turning in my head

[ginger]

you have a water jet now? ....... hmm, the wheels are turning in my head

The school has a water jet that I have limited access to