Gregory the NA8

[smy0003]

So I've been holding out on everyone while I thought of the best way to show you all Dann's build photos. I've tried to make them into loosely related collages to cut down on the photo dump. Anyway, here we go.

The exhaust:
It's a 3" system from the turbo all the way to the rear subframe where it steps down to 2.5" to dodge everything and meet up with my RS*R Power muffler.
It's quiet.
Like, really quiet. Quiet as in probably 40% more quiet than it was NA with just the RS*R Power muffler. This is something I really wanted Dann to achieve, and he pulled it off almost magically. It's quieter than a stock MX-5 at idle. Almost all you hear is wooshy turbo sounds which are actually quite soothing, like automotive Whale songs. The BOV only goes PSHHT when you're giving it some, at all other times it's very non-invasive.
The most interesting part of the exhaust is the manifold and dump, turns out it was one of the very first few manifolds that Dann ever made years ago. It's pretty cool that it travelled all the way down to VIC, then all the way back to Dann, now it lives in VIC. Full circle.


Moving on!

Intercooler Piping:

I gave Dann a challenge for this one. The NA8 is notoriously hard to build intercooler pipes for due to the TB and IACV orientation, so he went a bit freestyle:


Silicon joiners? Pfft, aluminium elbows welded to the cooler look absolutely fantastic, and keep joiners and clamps out of the mouth of the 5. No drift-spec intercooler set-ups for Gregory.

Hotside Plumbing

Here's some pics of how the turbo was packaged, in the bottom right pic the wastegate actuator location wasn't finalised. It sits on the back of the compressor housing as seen in the first two pics:



Blooper reel:

Here's some shots of things that I sent up to Dann to die, some of it was eBay junk like the clamp, however the oil block fitting and manifold stud were reputable brands bought locally from reputable shops. As Dann said, 'Welcome to Cars.'



I have more pictures handy, so I'm happy to post up more if anyone would like a closer look at anything :beer:

[NCGreasemonkey]

It's your build! Post it all!

[smy0003]

Started a cool little project, I knew the soft top latches were aluminium so I wondered if I could strip and polish them. So I picked up a non-serviceable set and went about finding out.

Stripped with the belt sander and then buzzed with 100grit:


Then through 150, 240 dry and 340 wet:


Then through 800 wet and metal polish:



Then reassembled:
Old:


New:


Installed:




Couldn't be happier with this mod (refurbishment?). Only cost me a crisp $50 note, but now I have latches that look awesome and Actually lock.
Seriously, how many latches actually still lock with a reassuring *click*?
I fixed this with metal epoxy putty on the locking tab, the idea is to build it back up to its original shape:

[NCGreasemonkey]

Ok, I almost nutted! Nice mod to the latches!

[BRGNA8]

That looks very neat indeed! THe polished latches look awesome!!!!

[Greasemonkey2000]

Great work! Found my next inexpensive mod but i will stop at about where you took the second pic.. ....wonder what the latch bases are made of......

[RustRat]

I think they are aluminum too


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HarryB]

Confirmed, aluminum as well

[smy0003]

Thanks guys. Yep the bases are aluminium as well, but it took me six hours to do just the latches and the bases would take far longer so I abandoned that idea pretty quickly.

[★ revlimiter ★]

Okay, those latches are fantastic. My hat is off to you sir.