[spacedcowboy]

This winter I decided to sort the Fozzie out, it's taken a lot longer than I thought it would and I'm beginning to forget what I've done to the car so I'm posting this as a photo blog for me to keep track of the things I've done before I forget them!

Sorted the saggy butt out for good..

Looking tired

Low flying Fozzie

Bump!

Replaced the ageing Bridgestones for some Hankook Dynapros.. these are slightly larger than the standard fit but seem to fit okay.. It was a toss up between these and the General Grabber AT2's, I thought the tread on these looked like it'd be better on tarmac.

New vs old

Should last a while

Cleaned up and resprayed the tired looking steel wheels, I even tried electrolysis but didn't have enough power to treat the wheel as quickly as I wanted, so ended up scraping them with a wire brush and a drill..

My attempt at electrolysis, really you need a 12v 10-20Amp power source

Ripped out the interior looking for an annoying leak..


Changed the lighting from green bulbs to red leds..

Put led accent lights in the interior door handles
Pics to come!

Put puddle lights on the underneath of the doors and footwell lights.. I've still to get this working, I need to wire them up to the dome light circuit, I've replaced all the incandescent bulbs with leds.
Pics to come!

Upgraded the audio system, from factory to Infinity Kappa 65.9cs components driven by an Infinty Reference 5350 5 channel amp with a JBL GTO 8" sub in the boot (yet to be fitted..) all controlled by a Pioneer DEH-3100 head unit.

This job took longer than I could ever imagine, if you have a family/life don't do this at home ;-)

I wanted a stealthy install, and one I could listen to at above comfortable listening levels with no noticeable distortion and so far I've got what I wanted..

A thieves eye view of the amp

My heels view of the amp

All the wiring went under the carpet

I epoxied mdf blocks to the floor to screw down the amp

I wanted to use the factory locations for the tweeter and driver, I had to make some custom speaker mounts to hold them, it was very very tight..

Test fitting it all..

Now you see them..

Now you don't..

It's loud.. so loud that after test fitting everything for rattles etc.. I got out of the car feeling battered and slightly nauseous.. ;-)

Aero wipers, though I don't think the car goes fast enough to test their claimed efficiency they do look pretty good.. I also repainted the wiper arms.. here's a tip.. don't use paint stripper on these..

Tidied up the chrome badging..

Cleaned 12 years of crud out of the carpet with a wire brush, the pics don't really do it justice

I've got to say a big thanks to everyone who has contributed here and to the moderators that keep the site running, I'd never have done it without reading everyone elses experiences and how-tos.

 

[spacedcowboy]

Here's the car today, just got to add the front struts, fit the sub and put the rest of the trim back in.. should be easy peasy ;-)

 

[fpan]

Good work!
What springs are you using and where abouts in Portugal are you?

 

[spacedcowboy]

Thanks.. it was a lot of effort.. but I can't help grinning now the car is that bit more sorted and knowing I did it all myself ;-0

I ordered the King Springs from Australia, I ended up having to pay €90 import duty and charges, if you're considering them it would have been cheaper to order them from the guy in Spain, he wanted €130 per pair.

As for my whereabouts, I'm down in the sunny Algarve, I've managed to sort the car out and get a tan to boot ;-)

 

[mdg]

Looks great. Would have chosen the Grabbers though.

Post more pics please.

 

[spacedcowboy]

Okay I tried to take a shot of the puddle lights last night but my camera can't handle the dark very well.. they look blue in the photo but they're actually white.. I haven't wired them up to the dome light circuit yet.. the one piece of trim I can't get off is the drivers A-pillar.. argh...

 

[-RC-]

Nice project

 

[spacedcowboy]

Well it's been a while but I managed to fit the sub and add a few more LEDs to the interior without it looking like Blackpool Illuminations!!

mdg - I would have gone for the Grabbers, they were an extra £40 over the Dynapros, I've read that everyone on here seems to recommend the Grabbers and all the locals seem to favor them so I thought I'd swim against the tide ;-) oh and the extra dosh went on the sub ;-)

 

[spacedcowboy]

Seeing as I had the centre console out after lifting the carpet I thought I'd have a go at blinging it up a bit..

I added two red LEDs to the rear cupholders and a white led in the lid.

Wiring it up is pretty easy, just gotta take the whole thing apart.. wash it in the kitchen sink while the girlfriend is not watching and drill a couple of holes.. I soldered the resistor and taped up a few LEDs before I started taking anything apart.

Also got a pic of the door handle LEDs, they are too subtle to for my camera to pick up at night

I also added a couple of red LEDs into the upper console to get that genuine brothel effect ;-) I've seen this on some Audis etc and it looks pretty good. Mine shine a bit too bright at the moment but I'll fix that… later…

And finally the sub went in, it took ages to shape the mdf right and to be honest I'm not too impressed by the sound, I need to do a version 2 of the job and get everything as tight fitting as possible, but right now it works and helps a little with the really low bass.

Just testing the fit...

I've got some templates if anyone wants them, they are not too accurate though but can be used as a starting point to custom fit your sub. I cut the bottom panel too narrow and didn't drill the speaker mount into the bodywork so it's not as loud or punchy as it could be.

If you've got an SG I'd heartily recommend buying the kit that some guys are selling on here.. to save your time, let alone your sanity.. it must have taken me about four hours to install my sub! Which I managed to get all wrong, on really bassy tracks the speaker will hit the trim.. doh.. back to the drawing board.. I need to inset the sub mounting even more.