Part of the new phase was to also up my safety gear game. My helmet has been fine for years and gotten me through all the events, however I wanted to start wearing a HANS device, which meant I had to get a helmet to suit. My Nismo gloves I bought from the Nismo factory in Japan on my first trip in 2013 are completely destroyed, with holes and each finger.

I was going to purchase everything locally, then a friend told me of Demon Tweeks in the UK and to check the price difference. Excluding postage, everything was $600 cheaper. The helmet was about $300 cheaper alone. The gloves and balaclava are OMP instead of our local RPM brand, both very similar products. Shipping was $200 on top and took 5 days to come. I'm gonna have to buy stuff from here more often!

We now have some new fancy kit, next piece to buy would be a race suit for when we come to do door to door racing.

• Bell GP3 Sport Helmet
• HANS III Device
• OMP First Balaclava
• OMP One S Race Gloves
• Demon Tweeks Helmet Bag

Misc prep to finish off the car

Just some random photos of the final bits of prep I was doing. Not necessarily in chronological order of being done. It was such a rush towards the end.

The EF9 bonnet has always had some funky thread issues on the passenger side, meaning the bonnet could never be tightened down completely. I've put this off for so many years, pretty much since buying the car. I decided now it was time to fix it. We tried to retap the thread but it was too gone, so opted for a rivnut solution. I had never used them before, but my brother has the kit for it. I was happy with the outcome but wasn't aware of it protuding the original surface.. Oh well, good enough for now. Enjoy the photos!

I decided to check the valves whilst we were here, especially with the valve history. It did seem a few got tighter but not too bad. I brought everything back within middle of the min/max gap spec, which was 0.17mm on intake and 0.19mm on exhaust. I did find after adjusting all the valves that the intake side all got tighter for some reason, so I readjusted all of them whilst double checking the exhaust as well. Also ordered the special valve adjustment tool after using Tony's one which made the process a lot easier.

The hood light by Milwaukee works a treat!

The half shaft seal looks like it's seen better days. I'll have to look to fix this in the future too.

Cleaned the starter motor, looking fresh!

Everything behind the dash secured in place for now, this wiring will get fixed in the future, definitely not a fan of it. Painted the dash bar whilst it was out of the car as well.

Whilst putting the 6ULs back on with the rattle gun (to then torque the last bit with the torque wrench) I noticed some metal shavings coming off of the wheel on each stud. Not sure if the Milwaukee gun was too strong for the rim against the steel nuts? As said, it was only to do up the nut on the extended thread cause their so long, and then 1 or 2 ugger duggers, followed by correctly toruing via wrench. Might need to keep an eye on these.

Whilst putting the front end back together, I decided to take some time to align everything correctly. The passenger side has always been off, looked like it was sagging down. I found a tab on the front of the fender was bent down and on the wrong side of a headlight tab. Bent it back into the correct place, allowing the headlight to be bolted to the fender, and that magically made everything align! Satisfaction guaranteed!

Wheel alignment

~ 19/8/23

Finally time for a wheel alignment, tomorrow we leave for Morgan Park in QLD. Having removed all the suspension and now sporting the Honed Development kit, I knew this alignment would take some time. It was a matter of get the coffees going and the 80s playlist pumping on the speaker.

I've gone for the Honed recommended alignment settings of:

• Front left: camber = -2.77 | toe = 0mm
• Front right - camber = -2.65 | toe = 0mm
• Rear left - camber = -2.1 | toe = -1.5mm
• Rear right - camber = -2.01 | toe = -1.5mm

First time using the steering wheel holder from BG, they are located in the UK and I purchased it along with some new strings online and had it delivered to my aunties, and brought it back. So handy this guy is!

Finally done & ready!

Finally, after a few months of hard work, the car is finished. Engine bay looks great, wheel arch area with all the new/revamped suspension components. Now it's time to go to Morgan Park to shake down the car and have some fun. And start a new list for further improvements to be made.

Lets go!