Rolling.

New Zealand.

Is doing it right.

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Ali | SeventeenbySeven from Taupaki Productions on Vimeo.

Now that I have it.

Well I've had the car for almost a month now. I kept meaning to update but just didnt get round to it, ive actually been super busy and spending alot of time doing bits to the car.

It got off the boat on the scheduled day, Friday 24th of April and I was able to pick it up the following Tuesday, would have been sooner but my customs agent was was a bit of a failure to say the least. Picked the car up and took it for its MOT the next day, which it passed with nothing mentioned at all - result.

After sorting a split intercooler hose and a few other niggles I started swapping bits around. I fitted my Bride seat, although the Bride recliner that came in it is absolutely awesome. Was planning to sell it but it's definately staying and will be in the passenger side once I find the rail for it. 

Removed some stuff too, boot interior, rear seats, complete aircon system, EGR stuff, carbon canister etc.

Then I swapped out the HKS coilovers that were fitted in favour of my low mileage HSD HR's. Wound them down completely. Then removed the locking collars up front.

While this was happening I was waiting and waiting for the customs clearance form to turn up, which is needed to register the car with the DVLA. I was hoping to take the car to Norfolk Arena practice day on the 9th of May, but the form still hadn't come though in the week. I contacted HMRC who issue the form and they had no record whatsoever that my car had gone through customs at all! Turns out my piece of shit clearance agent hadnt even sent the relavant stuff from his end to them, meaning id never get to Norfolk arena in time. I went with friends in their cars anyway and it was awesome, i'm gutted I couldnt drive it though.

After that weekend I set about getting my wheels fitted. But realised that after slamming the HSD's, there was no way the exhaust system would last 5 minutes on the street. So I forked out got some parts from Japspeed, parts being - Tubular manifold, high flow elbow, superlow twinpipe frontpipe and a decat. Also got some Driftworks camber arms/RUCA's.

Much better, sounds awesome. Really happy with it, it gives a fucktonne more clearance than the standard stuff, and actually sits so high that it vibrates on the exhaust tunnel, which is actually really annoying haha. No SR drone here, kakimoto makes it sound pretty raspy.

So yeah with that sorted, next on the list was getting the wheels fitted. I ordered some Falken Ziex ZE912's from Camskill. I was going to get Falkens for the fronts and Nankangs for the rears, but typically they ran out of Nankangs in that size a day before I ordered.

Was such a mission finding somewhere to get them fitted though. First off we needed to find somewhere man enough to have a go with a bead blaster/cheetah, after spending an hour or two driving around, we found one place, but then discovered that the valve holes were huge and they didnt carry the correct size. So we ended up in ATS trucks, who had the right size valves for the wheels. Truck valves! They also had a bead blaster but needed convincing that the tyres would fit. In the end, every tyre went on first time with the blaster and im really happy with the stretch.

Got home and test fitted them, my calculations seemed to be pretty accurate luckily, as the tread was flush with the fenders with no archwork.

Looked so cool seeing it down on the wheels. Although it needed more low, as the rear lip was sat on the top of the tyre stopping it from going any lower. 

So I was in need of an arch roller, which I managed to source from a local guy (DanDan) who just lent his to me, which was awesome. So me and my homeslice set about pulling and rolling my arches, which turned out ace.

With the clearance from the pull at the rears, I maxed the coilovers out back and its tucking a decent amount of tyre which I wanted. Stoked with how it looks, so much better than I thought it would!! 

So Japfest was coming up and id finally got that customs form through the post on the Friday 7 days before Japfest. I really wanted to take the car their and was pretty confident id have it on the road in time. Had gone to my local DVLA office the day I got the form and was told it would be 4 working days before I recieved my V5 with the reg on.

Typically I had nothing by the Thursday, so went down to the office again, only to find that they hadnt even started processing it yet!! SO pissed off, you cant rely on anyone. Kicked up a bit of a fuss and they said id get it through earliest on Saturday, the day of Japfest. So I missed it, but my V5 did actually turn up, and I got the plates made up that day. 

So I went out that night, but broke down. Fuel return line had split at the hardpipe as it runs along the floorpan. Got some pictures while waiting for my mate to come rescue me with some tools.

Easily fixed. Then I went out and did some streeto with friends, and lost alot of power, finding my manifold glowing! Worrying, as it would be normal for a manifold to glow, but loss of power means there's something not right somewhere. I fitted a Walbro 255 lp/h fuel pump and installed an s14 lambda as I was running without one. Not entirely sure what caused the high exhaust temps, potentially wrong timing or lean mixture. The pump and sensor will help anyway until I get the car on a dyno find out whats what. 

Slapped some stickers on and went out for a photoshoot with friends. Although I removed all the stickers up the side of my rear window, as it just didnt look right. Less is more y'hurrd!

So yeah, thats how it stands now. I love the car, looks awesome, drives well apart from being a bit violent with harsher roads and it slides real nice! 

Cant wait to get stuck into things and take the car to some practice days, should be a good summer!! Dan Bridle from Motormavens - http://www.motormavens.com/, has been in contact with me and has mentioned a potential shoot/feature for the site which is really cool. Hopefully it goes ahead, sweeeet!  Check out his blog too - http://danielbridlephoto.tumblr.com/, nice.

Quail from Okishima program - http://www.okishimaprogram.com/ , invited me along to the next meeting in late June, which is awesome and i'll definately be going if im not away working. Cool cars and like minded people. Been following OP for a while now and definately agree with what its all about, so im pretty stoked to be a part of it and to also add stuff to the blog aswell - so thanks dude! 

Thanks to my mate Dave "Daze" Cooper aswell for the pics.
 

Yet another big ass update! When will I learn to post more regularly haha.