Granitsilber Coupe: x-country warrior kicking it in SoCal

[JinormusJ]

Granit coupe: THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM

Hung out with Simon earlier this week. His attention to weight distribution destroyed the canyon we ran on that night. I personally wouldn't have chosen the SSRs, but I'm a form-guy when it comes to wheels (although, I do take wheel weight into consideration most times)

I can see the attraction though. Super light cars are a blast to drive. I want to pick up an 84 early 318 just because now


PS; you going to the SD BBQ? I'd love to see this color in person!

[Benjamin_Button]

Clean starting point. Had a similar ordeal with my water pump. Installed it 3 times and leaked every single time. Turns out the PO used a wrong bolt and put a hole in my block.

[2mAn]

Function > Form

[thatphysicsguy]

Clean starting point. Had a similar ordeal with my water pump. Installed it 3 times and leaked every single time. Turns out the PO used a wrong bolt and put a hole in my block.

Yeah luckily it was just a bit of old gasket that I didn't scrape off the first go around. Now I can do a timing belt really fast since I did it essentially twice last year.

When is the BBQ?

[JinormusJ]

8/24

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=327855

[thatphysicsguy]

8/24

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=327855

I'll be back in NY by then, unfortunately. I will be going to Cars and coffee whenever I can before I leave, though. We should have a mini r3v meetup if you guys want to wake up that early...

[2mAn]

I'll be back in NY by then, unfortunately. I will be going to Cars and coffee whenever I can before I leave, though. We should have a mini r3v meetup if you guys want to wake up that early...

Im down. When are you leaving again?

[JinormusJ]

Im down. When are you leaving again?

Same here, just gimme the date and time

[thatphysicsguy]

I leave August 9th or 10th

August 2nd or the 9th would work best. We could go for a spin down some twisties afterwards too. By then, hopefully the 5speed will be in and good to go.

I'll post something up in the socal regional too when I make up my mind about which weekend ha.

[2mAn]

Im still in Washington on the 2nd, so lets go for the 9th. Also, the autox in San Diego is on the 10th!!!

[thatphysicsguy]

Im still in Washington on the 2nd, so lets go for the 9th

And Sold! to the gentleman with the M52

[thatphysicsguy]

Some progress:

Got the front driver's shock, drop hat, and spring on:

Then wrestled with this SOB for hours:

Finally got the fresh stuff in along with a reinforcement plate:

MMM GURRRL lookit yo fresh brakes


Topless Pic:

New starter went in:

And the head is off to the machine shop tomorrow for cleaning/inspection/resurfacing:


Slowly but surely coming along.
Still need to put springs and shocks on the passenger side along with the new brakes for all the corners but the front driver's

After that, a dash to reassemble the engine, then off to castro's for a 5speed swap. I just hope I have enough ATF to make it: the trans has been leaking like a sieve lately.

[JinormusJ]

Looking good so far. Get stuff done!!

[thatphysicsguy]

So it's been a crazy couple of weeks...
I'll post the story later along with some photos but here's the low down:

Pros:
-Car is back together and running okay
-5speed is in and I pick it up tomorrow morning (squee!)
-The new suspension and brakes are awesome! and I'm loving my new sparco driver's seat: it's like driving a whole new car!

Cons:
-I got royally screwed by a shitty shop because I hired them to finish assembling my car while I was out of town. they took four days longer than quoted, put me way behind schedule to return to school, and charged my close to $400 over the original estimate for the privilege! WTF? they only had to order two parts which was a new thermostat housing and a new hose (was about $80 of the new cost) but they took forever and did sketchy work (more on that later).
-The same shop most likely dented my pristine (not anymore) hood causing the paint to split. even though they vehemently deny it (I don't rust them any further than I can throw them at this point though, and who else is going to dent it? sure not the incompetent people opening and closing the hood all day /sarcasm). Seriously fuck those guys.
-Since they delayed me so long it means I could've done the work myself at that point since I returned from being out of town
-I'm like a week behind in starting my drive back to school.

Seriously fuck that shop so hard...

[thatphysicsguy]

So I got the car back from the shitty shop and castro's (who did a great job by the way!)
And I'm now in Vegas! Here's a couple photos from my trip:
The day I got it back from the 5speed swap


Shifting Raw dawg because I couldn't get my hands on a shift knob


At 2Man's place the night before I leave


Golf Pride! Used an old golf club grip for my shift knob lol. Gonna get some country club-esque plaid for the boot


Stopped in Barstow. The water temps stayed below the halfway mark even with A/C on in 105 degree heat! fuck yeah...



At the hotel in Vegas let's gooo I hope the valet can drive stick...