Joel's Kyusha inspired Laguna Blue na8

[—atank—]

Dirty Carpet is bad!! Good work on the carpet Joel!

[Joelioooo]

Dirty Carpet is bad!! Good work on the carpet Joel!

Thanks!

--

The carpet was installed today, it took about an hour and a half to remove the essential pieces blocking installation, cut up the carpet for better fit and bolt everything back in. Overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome, some holes had to be cut for the feet of the main hoop and the seatbelt assembly which differs from the Japanese imported car this carpet is from. On top of that I also cut out the entire piece that goes below the center controls on the dashboard, this means that I didn't have to take out the dashboard and it means when I find a better conditioned set of carpets I can easily remove it and use it as a template.

Here's a birds eye of the nearly complete interior



The lighting wasn't very good so I didn't get any close ups or specific shots but this is the only visible imperfection, it has been folded over many nights and has a bulge here on the transmission tunnel, I'm hoping it'll flatten by itself over time but as I've stated above this isn't the carpet I'm going to have forever and I can live with it now.
(by the way I love the way the floor mats compliment the tan carpet hehe)



Still on the hunt for the elusive tan driver seat..

[Joelioooo]

I had ordered in a replacement license plate for my car as the front one isn't government issue but an illegal plastic DIY one. When they arrive i realize that they included a matching pair! So i figured what better use for the spare plate than to bend it.



This is an old school Kyusha trend where the plates were bent to make it difficult for the characters to be read, presumably for cops.

[—atank—]

^^Good ideal if your breaking laws..........hehe!

[WASABI]

They came out pretty good! Here's the thing, once you put in your seats, center console, and your floor mats, there won't be a whole lot of carpet left showing. In fact, I have tan rug, but darker floor mats, and I love how it looks.

[Joelioooo]

^^Good ideal if your breaking laws..........hehe!

Exactly my thoughts ;)

They came out pretty good! Here's the thing, once you put in your seats, center console, and your floor mats, there won't be a whole lot of carpet left showing. In fact, I have tan rug, but darker floor mats, and I love how it looks.

I know exactly what you mean now that everything is back in, looks fine to me now. My biggest issues are the parts that you can't see though, under the driver seat there are small holes and under the floor mat there is a big tear. Thankfully everything is covered but I would still like to know that the interior is in the best condition possible.

----

This coming week I should be getting a number of new parts, so please look forward to the coming update/s ^_^

[Joelioooo]

This past Sunday was set up to be a cruising kind of day until this happened.



I have had radiator and thermostat problems before but Not knowing how to diagnose it I had my Dad take a look, yep, it was the water pump.
With all laid plans cancelled and my Dad off to get replacement parts i set off taking apart the engine.
Only being my second time doing this i managed to get up to taking off the crank pulley and timing belt.



Parts arrived, water pump, timing belt, crank and cam seals and bearings, given that the water pump is a PITA to replace we might as well replace other pieces.



Everything off



The culprit



Back on with seals

Everything is running nicely again.

Yesterday I went and picked up my wheels which had been sent over by Rod, the auction said they measure up at 14x7.5 -5. The offset is definitely in the range of -1 to -7. I think they sit quite nicely on the front.



The longchamps will be sold since they are too narrow and I've decided that i should run a minimum width of 7.5 as they stretch the 185/55s nicely.



14x7 +1 Longchamps

[Joelioooo]

New gear and handbrake gaiters from TopGaiters came in today! These don't look as orange as the pictures make it look but they don't match the worn tan in the car, however, they will stay

[—atank—]

Maintenance is very important with these older Roadster's, very good job on the water pump, timing belt, crank & cam seals, and bearings!!!!!!!!!

[Ihatecars]

Looks so damn good. Sorry to hear about your water pump though.

Btw, I started following you on IG. Just in case you hadn't made the connection yet.

[Joelioooo]

Maintenance is very important with these older Roadster's, very good job on the water pump, timing belt, crank & cam seals, and bearings!!!!!!!!!

Especially with the roadster clocking just over 225k KMs I definitely expect these things to happen, just sucks when they do

Looks so damn good. Sorry to hear about your water pump though.

Btw, I started following you on IG. Just in case you hadn't made the connection yet.

Followed back, clicked pretty much straight away, the BRG on RPF1s and the filters you use are unmistakable ^_^

---

I have already posted this in the mail call thread but I have a small haul of parts I got today from a guy parting out a complete Zoom frog eye(?) conversion to be replaced with factory parts for an MX5 race series that is almost identical to Spec Miata.



The things that caught my eye I bought which was the cluster, the Zoom fuel lid, the vents (pictures made it look like they had vent rings) & the side markers. He let me have the lot for 60NZD!
The cluster is a DIY job by the looks of it but I've got it in pieces and plan to paint the panel a wrinkle black or satin black, something more subtle. The fuel lid needs just some sandpaper and some polish to look good as new. The vent rings just ended up being silver painted OEM plastic body but I'll be using them since they don't droop like my current ones. Lastly the side markers, I have no idea of the origin but they look cooler than OEM.



Nearly forgot, I picked up a wood handbrake lever for cheap.

[bogaut]

ooh you shouldd bought that 3 window soft top. how much was he askin for the front bumper?

[Joelioooo]

It's not a bad conditioned top but i want a tan one, I'm not sure about the price of the bumper i can ask if you wanted to know but he may have had a buy for the whole kit.

[— fwdtamiya —]

Also curious about the front/rear bumpers

[Joelioooo]

Will get back to you both about the bumpers through a PM if he still has them.

---

Bought what seems like the ONLY driver seat in this country that costs less than $100 and isn't torn, it has a lot of cracks though which is only slightly better