Nathan's Road-Legal/Track BB4

[NafemanNathan]

I had considered it, but being my only usable car I needed the boot space to remain practical So i thought I'd pick the NS for obvious reasons

Looks a lot better with that bumper by far the other was so tatty. I fitted it and a mint set of Black jdm headlights on saturday . I took pics of the whole job, but haven't had time to post them up yet. I'm hoping I'll have time on wednesday

I also took advantage of having the bumper removed and I now have a ram-air set up .... And, BOY can I feel the difference!

[NafemanNathan]

Had another busy day saturday The plan was to remove the existing tatty old metallic green-painted red bumper off and replace with my newly refurbished one.

This is what she looked like before hand...



You can see from this picture how bad a fit it was, and a couple of the fixings had broken, so it had been bodged in place with screws ...



I also wanted to replace the headlights as the internals had broken and I wanted black instead of chrome Both lights were like this...



I didn't realise how bad the damage was until I'd removed them tho (The cracks go all the way around) ...



So anyway, with the bumper and lights removed, I was left with this...



Which then made it blaitantly apparent where the car had taken a shunt once upon a time. I don't know whether you can notice it, but the wing is quite out of shape where it fixes...



At least the original owner had left me this to make up for the damage... Should come in handy ...



So anyway, kinda on a whim, I decided to remove all the oem induction set up...



Shaped the fender back into place as best I could. And then primed...



Then "kurust'd" the metal work from underneath the battery tray and left it for some of the recommended 3 hours ...



Meanwhile... I made up this baby!...



Using a classic ebay duct courtesy of the "Floyd", I chopped it up into the appropriate lengths and assembled it with electrical tape (lots of) I can't be forking out too much more on the car at the moment and silicone joiners are ridiculously expensive! The pipe work butts up almost perfectly with the CDA and the whole thing is solid, so I think I'll just leave it as is

The end of the ducting was gonna tally-up with this...



... I call it "Crappy flexible ducting from Halfords, which is no stronger than the Asda smart price kitchen foil, all for (in consideration with it's quality) the overly expensive price of £8.99!) ... This is temporary!







Then mint black JDM 1-piece headlights put in position...



And then bumper offered up ...



And nostrils!!! ...



Then the temporary ducting was arrange as so, though not before putting the indicators back on and crushing the life out of it! ...



No picture of crushed ducting tho sorry ... I've got an idea to convert the side reflector into indicators instead now actually. That'll give me enough room as the reflectors are a lot shallower than the oem indicators, and it'll be something subtly different

I decided not to fit the front fogs back on. I didn't want to cut into my new bumper, didn't want the added weight, I still don't have the correct connector for the switch anyway, AND... my new headlights are a hell of a lot brighter than my original ones were anyway (Actually by far the brightest set I've ever had on a lude )






And now for the glory shots (These are the first pics since the rear end has been lowered as well i think ) ...





Excuse the thumb




















In time I'll replace the OSF wing as although the line is a lot better than it was, (there are no gaps now) the wing by the headlight kicks in and also there's a slight flat spot up on top, that not many people would notice, but I know it's there

You can see the bonnet doesn't sit perfectly above the headlight's, but that's no biggy as I hope to eventually get a CF bonnet as well

[NafemanNathan]

You're doing a lovely job, mate. Vast improvement with those headlights!

Looking good... loadsa work being done, fair play to ya

i love reading through threads like this, great work

Nice one Nathan!

Me old bumper looks right at home.
Glad someone has made good use of it, and a very good job of it from the pics.

You can clearly see all the usual signs of the knock, and whoever had it before has repaired it on the cheap. Glad you've put the large part of it correct again.

I did wonder about your ducting to the front bumper being crushed. When I had that bumper I put a cold feed to the undertray. Not ideal picking up air close to the floor, but I added a few sheets of fine mesh to stop any crap going up. I wanted to duct it like yours but didn't think there was enough, if any room??? Some people use the bumper light insert to the side of the indicator.

Keep up the good work bud.

Fantastic work mate, looks like it was a late finish though! Wish I had the time and patience to attend to jobs in that manner.

[NafemanNathan]

It always gets dark before I finish

[quote=nucleustylz lude]I did wonder about your ducting to the front bumper being crushed. When I had that bumper I put a cold feed to the undertray. Not ideal picking up air close to the floor, but I added a few sheets of fine mesh to stop any crap going up. I wanted to duct it like yours but didn't think there was enough, if any room??? Some people use the bumper light insert to the side of the indicator.[/quote]

I think removing the indicators and converting the reflectors could do the trick and I plan on getting some more of the BMC flexible ducting as that's solid! I was going to put a funnel on the end with mesh as well. I can certainly feel the difference from having it at the front of the car though so I think I'll stick with it up front... I'll just invest in a long flexible chimney-sweep type instrument to clean it out now and again

I forgot to mention the whole point of me shifting the CDA forward was to be able to fit my strut brace! It's amazing the difference it makes to the handling! And it looks pretty to!

Cheers guys for all your comments

[NafemanNathan]

great work buddy, this car is really coming along nicely.

[NafemanNathan]

Ok, I definately don't recommend the halford's flexible ducting now! I thought I'd just check on it... after all it's been what?... 4 days since I fitted it? And look what's happened...





I wasn't expecting much, but seriously?! It's obviously happened due to vibration, but I wobbled it myself and it was still pretty secure.

Anyway I decided to salvage my old BMC ducting which is solid as a rock... just not long enough, but it'll do for now. I squashed the end as once squashed it just so happens to fit perfectly into the oem rubber seal from the air intake...







I then fed it into place...



and then "circlised" it again to form the connection...

[NafemanNathan]

well done mate your doing very well

can i come and stay with you for a cuppall of days you get a hell of a lot done in a day =D> =D>

[NafemanNathan]

I get enough grief from my dad for using his driveway as it is... but I guess it would be quite nice to share it

[NafemanNathan]

Ok, meet at Nathan's.... all welcome

[NafemanNathan]

The drive only fits about 15 cars, so it'll be on a first come first service basis