Tim's Mystic Blue ZHP Coupe

[sillieidiot]

you mean stole from work lol cause iono how you would return it after you used it

[t.er]

you mean stole from work lol cause iono how you would return it after you used it

shhhhhhhhhhhhh

[t.er]

Well we’ve had rain for most of the week, then today was a nice & sunny warm day. Then rain again forecasted for the next 4 days or so, so I decided to take the opportunity to install my reverse camera. The previous owner had actually given it to me, so it’s been sitting around for 5 years. I actually can’t judge backing up for my life – regular backing up into spaces is fine, but it’s when you have to parallel park and it’s very tight, I’m always paranoid about bumping into other cars and end up with a gap that you can park a bus in. I don’t parallel park very often, but thought I might as well install this since I have it anyways.

My plan was to have the reverse signal at the MK4 Nav power a relay, which switches to the reverse cam input at the TV module when it is grounded. I did it this way initially, but nothing was working… then after looking at wiring diagrams, there is another connector between this pin and the front of the car, which wasn’t connected to anything. Truth be told my car didn’t come with nav from factory, the whole lot was swapped from an M3 partout under previous ownership. So wiring is a bit of a jumble, and I really couldn’t find the matching connector. So I took one of the reverse light positives for the relay, and grounded on the TV module chassis.

Messy wiring:



Not sure why, but there was a random wire (shoddily) tapped into what is the rear left wheel speed signal:



Relay mounted and harness taped:



Man, this was fun (not). Routing through the elephant sheathing. There was 1 wire with broken insulation, but none of the conductors were severed, so I just taped it up:





Then I took off the trunk handle assembly and found some rust. Uuuuuurgh I’ll have to go back and address that. Also, I seem to be missing this gasket – does anyone know if some cars didn’t come with one from the factory, if not then someone has definitely been here before. The missing gasket and the rust probably correlate. As of right now the wire comes out of the centre hole before going right, and it is pressed tightly against the trunk, which ever so slightly pushes the whole handle up. Not a fan of having the wire pressed against the edge of that hole (as it is sized specifically for the trunk handle wire housing), so I’ll have to think of something that doesn’t involve notching the hole. I’ll also address the rust once I have a new gasket to install.







Man I really should’ve taken better pics, but I was in a bit of a rush as I had other important things to do that day. But in the trunk I basically routed it following stock routing to the elephant sheath:



Tapped into the reverse light power for the camera:



I really couldn’t find a good spot to route wires from the left to right of the trunk, as it seems that any junction in the harnesses are forwards of the trunk. There wasn’t any place I could route up top, and I obviously didn’t want to drill holes in the body for harness clips or ziptie holders. So for now I used Gorilla Tape, and taped the harness directly to the sheet metal. Unfortunately I have no pics, but it basically runs alongside the left frame rail, under the trunk sill trim, then joins up with the right tail light harness and makes its way up to the elephant sheath. Definitely not “proper” harness routing/strain relieving methods used here, so I guess I’ll run this for now until any issues pop up, or if I think of a better way.

Camera working:



Truth be told, I’m not sure the eyesore is worth the added convenience. It’s pretty ugly – I’ve essentially added a permanent pimple to the back of my car:







I guess I’ll leave it for now and see if it really adds value in day to day use. If I don’t think I need it I can always go to the wreckers and grab another trunk handle, then just swap the underside plastic bit over (because I drilled the original one).

[t.er]

Placed an order with the dealer for a trunk handle gasket, and the 4 plastic screw inserts (cheap insurance in case I break any taking the original ones out). But the trunk gasket is backordered for another 15-20 days, hopefully I don’t see a heavy downpour before I can get to it.

But I did get a chance to install the new-used passenger’s door seal. I was pretty happy to have taken care of this, as it was missing ever since I got the car.

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



Not sure why, but the felt liner seems to be too long, as it extends under both the front and rear of the interior sill garnish. I don’t think there’s a whole lot I can do about it unless I attempt to trim the excess liner off:





I also placed an order for Fujiwara Tofu Shop stickers about a month ago, and it finally arrived, so I applied it on my rear passenger’s window. Having grown up with Initial D I wanted to show my appreciation for the series, but I’m not sure how I feel about having Japanese writing on a German car:



I bought 2 stickers, and each of them was $1.00 and free shipping from China, so not much loss if I decide to remove it.

[sillieidiot]

lol funny you mention Initial D. I went back and re-watched it like a couple of weeks ago. Well, I only watched the Legend movies cause they were in HD. The story changed a bit, but it was better. I did re-download the whole series in HD too. Well as HD as it could be anyways.

[t.er]

lol funny you mention Initial D. I went back and re-watched it like a couple of weeks ago. Well, I only watched the Legend movies cause they were in HD. The story changed a bit, but it was better. I did re-download the whole series in HD too. Well as HD as it could be anyways.

lol that's so true, those old animations were so bad, yet the original anime was by far the best. But I think my fav episodes were from Season 4 (god-hand and god-foot) and those animations were already so much better.



On another note I took my friend car-shopping for his first car (exciting!) and on the 300 km round-trip I unfortunately chipped my windshield:



Not worried since the windshield already had been previously repaired in another spot:



But I gotta stop by Crappy Tire tomorrow morning to pick up a resin repair kit before it spreads.

[sillieidiot]

lol that's so true, those old animations were so bad, yet the original anime was by far the best. But I think my fav episodes were from Season 4 (god-hand and god-foot) and those animations were already so much better.

Yeah, loved those 2 episodes. The other one in that same season that I like is Blind Attack. Seriously, how can he see? I've turned off my headlights on a mountain road before, I couldn't see shit even following another car lol

[t.er]

Yeah, loved those 2 episodes. The other one in that same season that I like is Blind Attack. Seriously, how can he see? I've turned off my headlights on a mountain road before, I couldn't see shit even following another car lol

Yeah, I've driven mountain roads in the SF bay area at night and even with headlights had nowhere near the guts to go as quick as I would go in daytime.


Fixed the chip/small crack in the windshield today:



Don’t mind the scratches on the plastic, that was from using the razor blade as a squeegee. You can also see how pitted my windshield is:



Not perfect, but a whole lot better than before. Hopefully it will last the test of time:



Not bad for $17 CAD! I did have to buy razor blades though, would’ve been nice if one was included in the kit.

[Galapolis]

Yeah, loved those 2 episodes. The other one in that same season that I like is Blind Attack. Seriously, how can he see? I've turned off my headlights on a mountain road before, I couldn't see shit even following another car lol

That's probably because you weren't blasting Eurobeat, which is known to give you supernatural driving capabilities, as well as +50hp.

[sillieidiot]

That's probably because you weren't blasting Eurobeat, which is known to give you supernatural driving capabilities, as well as +50hp.

I figured driving the ae86 in the same paint scheme (without cf hood) would have transferred his skills to me Honestly, that thing was hard to drift (unlike the anime). I had an easier time drifting an mr2 or s13. The only thing I could do in that car was J-turns.