OZ Racing Centre Caps Replacement

I've acquired a new set of wheels for the Starlet, they are quite an old school wheel that was used on the Lotus Esprit Turbo in the 90's, they are a set of OZ Saturn wheels in 15". I'll be putting the Sparco NSII Racing wheels back on the EG6 once these new wheels are ready.

They are a little tatty and in need of refurbishment, so I'll be getting them powder coated in Gun Metal Grey I think which should sit nicely against the Red.

Obviously with the wheels being tatty the centre caps have also suffered pretty badly, after a quick look on eBay I found a set of enamel replacements from Thailand which have done the job quite nicely.

Before and After

New Photo Location

I came across this pretty smart looking location in Halifax, once the car is complete and tidied up I'll go back and spend some more time here.

Standard Air Intake Refit

The weather has been very hot in the UK for the last week and having an open cone filter on the Starlet made it drive a bit jerky to be honest, I think that is mainly due to the air intake sensor being exposed in the engine bay with all the heat. I cut out a portion of the bottom of the air box and created another cold air feed directly to the filter to help feed it fresh air. The car responds and picks up better now and drives smoother overall and I'm sure the fuel consumption will be back to normal now I've put the sensor back in its original place.

50% Glanza

Well the conversion is nearly there now, picking up the Glanza bonnet next week then getting it all painted then hopefully it will look rather smart and fool some people into thinking it is actually a Glanza.

Glanza headlights

My Glanza headlights arrived the other day, as with most Glanza headlights the plastic lenses have gone a funky colour and rather cloudy so I set about bringing them back up to their former glory. I used a bit of elbow grease and some T-cut formula I had and gave them a good polish, they turned out pretty good but I think I'll take them to work and use a bit of compound and a polishing wheel to get them to really shine again.

Before

After

Lowering, Service and MOT

It was turning out to be a potentially expensive month for me and the Starlet. I hadn't really planned on modifying this car but after the accident and converting the rear to a Glanza one it has spurred me on the complete the rest of the conversion. Since I installed the Sparco Racing NS-II wheels it looks seriously jacked up like a 4x4, so my first port of call was a set of Pi Lowering Springs -40mm drop, these springs have always given a generous drop from what I see on the forum so I decided to try them out, they really do look good and for only £110 you can't go wrong.

Another reason for installing the springs was that 2 of my shock absorbers were leaking badly and were totally dead, I bought a full set of KYB shock absorbers all round the car to help with the new springs and the lower ride height. Whilst I was carrying out this work I also gave the car a full service and replaced the cambelt as I had no idea when it was last done.

Overall the car looks really good now from the rear end at least, I've sourced some Glanza headlights fairly cheaply and I just need to source a bonnet and scoop then it'll be nearly complete.

Sparco Racing NS-II Wheels

Been a very long time since I submitted anything on here. After being very busy with a new business and not having time for either of my cars I decided it was time to give the Starlet a bit of loving and a decent set of wheels.

These were taken from my Civic but they are in top condition and still have loads of tread left on the Yokohamam Parada Spec-II tyres. Bronze on Red isn't the best of combinations but somehow it actually looks pretty good.

I've ordered a set of PI lowering springs and I'll be changing them over along with a few leaking shock absorbers to get the car through the MOT.

I guess the next logical step is to install the Glanza front bumper and source the bonnet and headlights to make it look like a complete car.

Before

After