southwind25 Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 At the moment, it all depends on what's in store for the next few days....I have found by trial error the last couple months "mothers" products seems to make some of the better polish-waxes. We had tried an aircraft polish but it wasnt giving that optical mirror quality. Yes we wash the exposed aluminum like everything else, but thats because it has about 3 coats of mothers wax on it. Before a show or such, after washing and drying,we do a quick repolish with the mothers metal polish and a very soft rag. then do a coat of wax on top. Yes the webers spit all down the side and rear wings-fenders so that seems to need the most attention. We can use the polish on the exhaust as well, and wax the suspension-wheels-lights-radiator etc.. we are sure most people use an easier method, but i need the excersize and time spent polishing-waxing has a theraputic value to me. and it's more fun that watching TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Agreed entirely on enjoying cleaning the car. unfortunately I've had to be careful on cleaning it lately as we are still in a severe drought condition from our lake hitting a record low last year. But I still do keep it clean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted July 2, 2009 Author Share Posted July 2, 2009 Thought I'd give a little update on the changes I made to my car over the winter/spring. The biggest improvement was the new Raceco silencer I bought from England. http://www.raceco.com/ I was originally going to get a Burns Stainless silencer but I liked the fact that you can get the Raceco standard with an offset/angled inlet and a side outlet with a real sturdy mount that fit perfectly on my car. The only changes I had to make were a slight bend in the rear silencer mount, and I had to make a new bracket that bolts to the frame to move the rear rubber mount/bobbin back about an inch to get it to line up. I ended up cutting off the last 4 inches of the collector and it slipped right on and bolted down with the supplied stainless clamp. The sound is much deeper and quieter, there are no more fumes like I had with the rear exhaust, and I haven't felt the need to wear ear plugs unless I'm driving on the highway or really having some fun! Yes, it was expensive and the shipping wasn't cheap either, but to me it looks better than the stock exhaust, it's lighter, it's repackable, the quality is top notch, it installs with minimal hassle, and should last a lifetime as long as I don't rip it off. It should also flow better than the stock exhaust that went from 2.5" collector down to a 2" silencer. The second and probably the smartest mod I made was installing driveshaft safety hoops. I ended up bending some 1.5" wide steel around an old Lucas generator I had sitting around, cut off the legs to fit closely against the fiberglass trans tunnel and welded it to the frame. I'm surprised that Birkin didn't come from the factory with them, but I'm sure I've seen some of the later models that have them standard. I've been very pleased with the Enkei wheels I picked up last year so I decided to sell the stock wheels to a guy who's going to use them on his BMW. I like having a spare tire for certain drives so I ended up picking up a 5th wheel/tire to mount as a spare. Well, since I'm running 205/50-15's instead of the stock 195/50-15's the spare wouldn't fit in the spare tire carrier. So I cut off the center mount and replaced it with a small piece of 1.5" round stock, drilled/tapped/welded/painted, and everything was good to go. I also sent my Emerald ECU back to the factory for the latest K3 upgrade. http://www.emeraldm3d.com/em_k3.html It has 3 switchable maps, adaptive mapping, and some other new features. I had to do a bit of rewiring and I had to mount a 3-way switch in the dash, but this should be a worthwhile upgrade to play with until I can get my car on a dyno. I still want to do something with the seats and harnesses and I still have to fix the trans leak and replace the clutch, but that'll have to wait until funds and time allows. Here's a photo of the new silencer: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnCh Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 Bruce, I think you’ll love the Emerald K3. In addition to the new features you mentioned, you can also move the load and speed sites to increase the granularity at low load, low rpm situations. This makes a big difference for dialing in drivability at city speeds that require minimal throttle openings. Although I haven’t enabled the switchable map option yet on my K3, an interesting thing you can do is create an antitheft mode. Set up one of the maps so the car will start and idle, but will die if someone touches the accelerator. You can also just zero out everything so the car won't even start, but with the other approach, they won't begin looking for a hidden ignition kill switch. Instead, they'll just assume it really is an old Lotus and curse the Lucas electrics -John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted July 2, 2009 Author Share Posted July 2, 2009 I think you’ll love the Emerald K3. In addition to the new features you mentioned, you can also move the load and speed sites to increase the granularity at low load, low rpm situations. This makes a big difference for dialing in drivability at city speeds that require minimal throttle openings. I agree with you John. That was one of the features that I thought would be useful after trying to adjust the sites just off idle last year. Instead, they'll just assume it really is an old Lotus and curse the Lucas electrics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiBirkin Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 Hi Bruce I really like you Birkin its quite diffrent with the red dash, also you wheels are really nice do you know what offset they are I know the stock Birkin wheels are about ET30 I have been looking for some other mags for Grace but getting a matching offset is really hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted July 3, 2009 Author Share Posted July 3, 2009 (edited) Hi Bruce I really like you Birkin its quite diffrent with the red dash, also you wheels are really nice do you know what offset they are I know the stock Birkin wheels are about ET30 I have been looking for some other mags for Grace but getting a matching offset is really hard. Hi KB. I wasn't planning on changing the dash covering, but the previous owner melted part of the original vinyl when he was soldering a wire to the wiper switch! :banghead: I had some spare vinyl from the interior kit for my '64 MGB so I decided to use that. It's not the same color red as the original Sevens used, but it looks ok to me and the price was right! I also didn't like the thick foam used behind the vinyl so I replaced it with some dense 1/16" foam. The Enkei wheels have an ET35 offset which is the same as the TSW wheels that originally came with my car. In order to get the offset correct, I had some simple 5mm spacers made up. I ended up replacing the rear studs with some ARP studs and used 15mm spacers in the back. Here's a thread with a little more info on the wheels: http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2557&page=3 I know there's a few ET30 4 x 100 wheels out there. Team Dynamics, Rota RB, and I'm sure Panasport as well. Edited July 3, 2009 by 11Budlite spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R1 Seven Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Hey Bruce, The car is looking great! I really like the new wheels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiBirkin Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 How easy was it to redo your dash, its about the only part on my Birkin I haven't pulled apart yet to have a look at, it seems pretty easy to remove the scuttle only a few bots I think hold it on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 "The car is looking great! I really like the new wheels." - Thanks Jeff. I lost 8-9 lbs per corner in switching to the new wheel/tire combination! "How easy was it to redo your dash, its about the only part on my Birkin I haven't pulled apart yet to have a look at, it seems pretty easy to remove the scuttle only a few bots I think hold it on." Kiwi - It wasn't too bad to remove the scuttle. From memory, there's the (4) windshield bolts, (4) nuts on the sides of the scuttle, and 8 nuts/screws along the front base of the scuttle (I had to remove the battery to get access to some of the screws). You also have to disconnect the wipers/arms, the master cylinder reservoirs, and any other wiring/hoses that pass through the scuttle. Then you have to disconnect the wiring from the back of the gauges/switches so they can be removed. The worst part of the whole job was seeing how bad the original wiring was on my 2001 car and the time it took to completely re-wire the whole mess. :banghead: I'll see if I can find some pictures of the before and after wiring when I get home later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiBirkin Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Sounds like I shouldnt look Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caterman7 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Bruce: Did you have any problems with the CT DMV registering your 7? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 If everything's working fine you might not want to! This is not a photo from my car but one I borrowed from Gert (aka Slomove). It's typical of what you'll find when you remove the scuttle. My car was actually a bit worse than this, with soldered wires covered with tape, wires soldered to the switches, and wires that didn't attach to anything. The second photo is after the re-wire. Edit: Actually I have the photos switched and the 1st photo is the "after" photo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
11Budlite Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 Bruce: Did you have any problems with the CT DMV registering your 7? Sean - Check out your tire size thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiBirkin Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 (edited) If everything's working fine you might not want to! This is not a photo from my car but one I borrowed from Gert (aka Slomove). It's typical of what you'll find when you remove the scuttle. My car was actually a bit worse than this, with soldered wires covered with tape, wires soldered to the switches, and wires that didn't attach to anything. The second photo is after the re-wire. Edit: Actually I have the photos switched and the 1st photo is the "after" photo... I see what you mean by it being a mess under the scuttle, I had to remove mine in the end as I had a broken horn button and I also wanted to fit a power point so I could run a radar detector and charge my cell phone. I ended up moving the washer button to replace the horn button as I couldn't get one the same size from any auto electricians and it was the same size, then using the washer button hole for the power socket and drilling a new hole next to it for a new washer button, Birkins wiring was a real mess though but i'm not even going to attempt to tidy it up i'm just hopeing i haven't disturbed anything :smash: Edited September 4, 2009 by KiwiBirkin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7evin Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 Be-Ut-if-al... Rockin good job Cheers 7evin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 Edit: Actually I have the photos switched and the 1st photo is the "after" photo... Nice, very clean! Although....have another look 5 years from now. According to laws of thermodynamics something that orderly can not be sustained. Believe me, I know. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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