Barely Bearable

Having driven The Dog back and forth Lampung-Jakarta by myself quite often lately, i realized she could use some improvement on the driving pleasure department. I decided some audio would make those long drives just a bit more bearable. Nothing fancy, just to make sure i have some sounds to accompany me.

First thing that needs to be done is to reduce that Bosch pump buzz coming into the interior, hence the wooden cabin-trunk separator. It may look simple but this was the most time consuming part actually, with all those pipes from the roll cage, careful measurement was needed.

After that, the head unit. This is just a cheap Chinese one with USB drive, memory card and DVD playback capability.

The first question that pops in your head must be why is it at the back?! Well, with all the gauges taking up valuable space on the dashboard and with the help of the remote control, putting it there seems to make sense.

Last thing going in is this little guy here.. No AC? No problem. LOL.

The cable gets routed inside one of the rollcage tube. Still messy but i'll get to it later.

Subtle Precautionary

Chassis strengthening, regulation abiding and extra safety.. all covered in flat black to appeal less to nosy police officers.

Although it's only bolt-on, i tried my best to keep the frame strengthening part as effective as possible. I'm no expert in roll cage but i believe that the most important part of a roll cage when it comes to frame strengthening is the tie-bars. I don't know this is the actual term for it but i'm referring to the bars pointed by the arrows below.

These bars ensure the frame doesn't flex by keeping the main bars in their place. It's hard to explain but i'm sure you get my point. In the simplest way to explain that i can think of, two vertical legs won't spread out easily with one rope tied across the legs. This is the function of those tie bars. That being said, when it comes to frame strengthening, i'm sure you can deduct yourself that 4-point roll cage is useless. It only strengthens the part behind B-pillar to the strut mounts.

Kitchen Panel

My new favorite item for DIY projects: plastic kitchen chopping board! These stuff are sturdy yet soft enough to cut easily, heat-resistant and can be quite flexible when needed. Love it so much, girlfriend was laughing at me for piling up so many of these boards.

I used one to mount the engine cut off switch for the EFI system, as shown below. As a reminder, when doing DIYs, always "measure twice, cut once", never the other way around. These pictures are self-explanatory enough, i won't put any write-up to clutter this post.

Notice the space above the panel where the audio head unit was? Will use another cutting board to mount some gauges there.

Just a note on lovely boards, the thinnest i could find was 7mm and this is still a bit too thick to mount switches or warning lamps. If you could find one of 5mm, get it. Usually, the thinner the board, the smaller the size as well.

Bride Pair

Driver's seat is Bride Pro and passenger's seat is Bride Ergo replica. The red color slightly mismatch since Pro uses leather and the Ergo uses soft fabric but i don't mind.

Bride and Groom

After a long time of hunting, found another red Bride seat. This time is the Ergo model. Albeit a replica, this will look sweet paired to the Bride Pro S already on the driver side. Can't wait to put this in. Finally i have a pair of red Brides.

This is the Bride Pro S already installed.

In other news, The Dog has finished her intercooler installation. Now i just gotta find some spare time to swap the injectors, put the BOV on, find a safe map to drive to Jakarta and dyno tune.

Cusco LSD and Bride Pros Seat

My Cusco LSD has finally been delivered.. Glad to see that i got what i ordered: part number 130 L2. Now let's hope that it fits my Corona T130 axle.



Installing the LSD will have to wait until my engine starts. Will need to do more research on LSD oils, but most probably i'll go for Motul 90PA LSD Oil. I heard they perform well and help reduce LSD noise.

Meanwhile, just acquired my driver's seat today! Seeing that red Bride seats match my black Charmant on my photoshop wallpaper, i decided to get those. Recently, a used Bride Pros seat was for sale. I waited until the seller finally uploaded the pics and when i saw that it was red, i hurried made an appointment to see the item. Dad helped me check the item in Jakarta and with one quick glance, the seat was mine. One minor defect on the back but overall, the seat was in excellent condition.
Looks like someone beat me on the race to drifting.. Cute hat mom..
More pictures of the seat below.



Keeping my eye out for the passenger's seat. My target would be similar colored Bride seat, only this time will be recline-able. Red Bride Ergo II replica looks good and budget-friendly. Let's see if i can find green Takata safety harness to match.

My Current Wallpaper

Yet another photoshop n00bness from me.. Edited one of the photos i have in my folder and came up with this. Added Work Equip 03, Bride Ergo seats and Japanese license plate. I am currently using this as my laptop wallpaper. For now i only have it on 1280x800, my screen resolution. If you want other size, just tell me in the comments and i'll update this post.

Right click on the link below and click "save link as":
1280x800

Bucket Seat Hunt

It's good to be home! Flew back to Jakarta yesterday evening and went to do some work on the project today. First i went to check The Dog's bodywork progress. I won't focus on it cause honestly it's getting boring.. They are working on the front windshield frame now..
F*ck knows when they'll finish the work! Starting to get pissed off with how slow they are. Sorry guys if it's kinda boring. Promise you a more exciting progress when the bodywork's done.

Anyway, after checking on the bodywork progress, me and dad want to this small street in Jakarta called Kebon Sirih where car seat makers gather in one area. There's quite a few makers there but dad told me there used to be more. Guess the recession got to these guys also.. Anyway, i was looking for a bucket seat (or a pair, depending on the price) for The Dog. As i am planning to drift The Dog, a good one for me is one that has tall side supports so as to keep me in place when doing sideways. Now the problem is that i couldn't decide on taking the fixed or reclining type. I know that bucket seats are a pain in the back on long drives so the reclining type could be better but today i tried a fixed one and it was so comfortable that i doubt it'll be that painful. A shop called Maju Jaya had it on display. Here's the seat i tried..
and here's some more seats on display in Maju Jaya.
Not quite the designs i was looking for. I am more into classic looking bucket seats. Pretty much like the ones you can find in classiccarseats.com below.
Then it struck me, why not make a custom one? Thankfully they take custom orders (with extra pay of course.. ) and so i got the owner's email address. That way i can send him the design i want. Now it's off to the net to find me a good design to copy. Got any suggestions?

After i got home today, i took some pics of my 4A-C and 4A-GE and did a research to answer some questions i had in mind for some time like "Can a pilot bearing from a 4A-C fit to a smallport 4A-GE?" Well, answer to that is on another post along with other valuable stuff i learned today. So stay tuned!

From Indonesia to Israel (and Ireland?)

Remember the post about Yohann, a fellow Charmant lover from Israel? He asked me to help him pull out a pedal box and dashboard gauge cluster from a scrapped Charmant in Indonesia. Well, i did and just recently he got the stuff! Wow.. It's my first time sending stuff overseas and knowing that it reached the destination successfully surely is relieving.

Here are pics of the stuff, fresh from Israel sent by Yohann himself!
The only damage i can see is that the speedometer pointer needle fell off. Hopefully it would be easy putting it back. If you notice, the mounting holes are now fixed and painted where it used to be rusty.. Yohann can thank my mom for that! Hahaha.. She felt bad for sending rusty stuff overseas so she had the pedal box fixed before sending it, without informing me! I just found out about it from Yohann!

Yohann told me the stuff was previously being held by Israeli customs. The customs officer asked for an invoice for the stuff so that he can calculate the import tax. I never sent him any invoice so Yohann came out with this himself..
Nice work Yohann! Now i have my own auto service station called "Edgar's Auto" thanks to Yohann.. LOL..

Now, Yohann is not the only one who contacted me asking for Charmant parts.. Paul Breheny from Ireland read my post about the stuff i bought new from an Automall in Jakarta. He was interested to get similar stuff like headlights, taillights and turn signal lamps and contacted me. Yohann and Paul are members of an online forum for AE86 lovers in Ireland,ae86irl.com. The forum discusses not only about AE86 but also KE70 and, yes, Charmant. Paul got info about me from Yohann there.

Long story short, now i have the stuff for Paul ready to be shipped and knowing that Indonesia's local post office has done their job well, i am confident to send Paul's stuff using their service again..