Blue Beauty from Malaysia

[wurlycorner]

Sounds like a sensible next step.

[simonc]

Thank God you said that Iain. I'm in the office tomorrow so I can't watch what's going on but Jason has assured me that he's used this guy a lot and there have been no problems. Just to keep a monitor on things, I'll give Jason my camera or if he's not comfortable with that, I'll ask him to take a series of photos of WIP so I can share.
Fingers crossed eh?

[simonc]

Brilliant news. The skimming worked a treat (I've also included this info on the "Brake Saga" thread) and now I have a car that stops like it should and not like a cargo ship.
Apparently the driver's disc was way off flat and needed 3 passes of the skim blade thing to get it flat. We've fitted new pads just to keep it all sweet and although I know it'll take a bit to bed them in the difference is utterly remarkable. Over the moon Brian.
Here's the skimming WIP and apologies if they're not in the right time sequence.
Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3


However, even more good news came out of yesterday as I'd asked Jason to look into the vibration when it's in reverse problem. Look what he found - careful, it's not pretty.



Above is not a scratch gentlemen, it's a bloody massive gouge in the strut brace where it's been walloped everytime I engage reverse gear and the engine moves a bit.

Here's a wider shot of the brace with all the other contact points.



Told you it ain't pretty. Again, since Jason took it off, reverse is smooth, no shaking, no horrible vibrations so there was the problem. Gordon Bennett, it just goes to show doesn't it? Honda built it right and Mr Average (e.g. moi) should keep clear of these aftermarket bits and just keep the bloody thing stock.
It's been a tortuous, expensive and humbling learning curve gents because as you can see, all those "performance" parts I've had fitted this year are now laying fallow in my office storage room.
I know I've been a pain in the derrière but thanks to your support I am just about back where I started and can enjoy my car once more.
Now all he dirty bits are out of the way (apart from the wire from Mr Wurlycorner ) and the air-con service, it's time to knuckle down and get her bodywork back up to 100% so I can snatch the LOTM victory she richly deserves.
Thanks so much to all of you magnificent people, Simon.

[simonc]

Got my one pieces cleaned up and coated in transparent film as a 'just-in-case'. Yes, I got the plate made up when I was back in Blighty earlier this year.
(Just a bit of blatant self-promotion for my company

Looking good and on stand-by in case the worst happens!

[Thebusofwoe]

Well done mate, I skimmed the discs on my track lude before fitting HP+ pads for coombe. Works a treat

[mercutio]

great work

[Doggo]

Just great

Nice going.

[simonc]

Thanks guys - I am a total convert to the school of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and keeping it utterly stock.
No more fancy-schmancy bolt-ons for this befuddled boy.
Thanks again.

[simonc]

The brakes have been giving off a grinding sound since the skimming and new pads. I told Jason about it last week so we agreed to give it a few more days to see if it was just a bedding in thing.
Anyway, it hasn't gone away so I went down to day and he looked at the pads and also the discs. I would have thought the discs would have been shiny but although the brakes are much, much better it seems as though the pads aren't gripping the discs to wear off the surface.
After a bit of thinking he recommended replacing the pads for Bendix ones. He showed them to me and they have a sort of light blue centre which feels quite rough. As I'm not exactly doing the Singapore run every week he figured the texture of the Bendix pads were more suited to my driving.
He's going to replace them either today (if his supplier delivers them before 6pm), if not he'll do it tomorrow. He'll replace them FOC so I'm happy about that.
While I was there I thought I'd ask him to replace the bulbs in the spotlights (we call 'em spotlights over here cos we don't have fog) I'd noticed they were practically next to useless, the beam barely dripping from under the bumper so I thought changing the bulbs would make a world of difference . After a quick look he took them off, handed them to me and said, "you're anally retentive about cleaning Simon, clean them". He was right, they were filthy and I had a good old time cleaning the outer glass, the focus lens and the reflector gubbins.
Here they are, post simonc elbow grease.

Also, just to confirm my OCD re; cleanliness, I took the opportunity to clean the inside of the wheel while he was looking at the brakes. Everything on my wheel (plus the inside of the wheel) looks bloody gorgeous.

He told me the bulbs were fine, which as it turns out was true so buying more would have been a waste of money.

Here's the driver's side lights post-clean.

And again, temperature outside was nudging 35 deg. C.


We fired up the lights and even though it was high-noon, Malaysia style, I really could see a difference. Now if only I could track down those covers...

[vanzep]

nice work
Im sure @Bartosz used to sell carbon fibre replicas from Poland- at least he sold them on USA forums - so might be worth looking on the one or two of the USA forums - you could always post up a wanted ad there - just a thought