Hi everyone,
*edited - I just like to point out random words that appear when I posted this "blue ovral rust bag) seems to pop up and I don't know why, Moderators? Help me out here lol. So if you see it then it's not a typo it's something else
Ok so i have a 1992 Jap Import d15z vtec with auto trans and manual roof. I picked up my Sol about 3yrs ago. It came about after I had my first modified car the VW Golf Mk4 1.4 (almost converted to 2.3 V5 but thats a long story). Heres some pictures of the Golf (take note of the rear bumper and side skirts as I mention them later).
I then decided to take the Golf to another level so took it off road and began more body modifications, louder ICE (yes that's a 25" Magnat sub
and no I never got round to hear it sadly), orange under car neons as indicators, white neon sun strip, install a bigger engine and lots more.
So as I took the Golf of the road I needed another car (only for temp use, or so I thought). I picked up my Sol from a mate for £1500. The paint work was in reasonable a condition compared to what it is now.
I decied to tart her up and spray some parts black and replace the rusted exhaust system. I took a carbon fiber back box to Zex in Cardiff and got a cat back system. I then traveled up to Nottingham to buy alloys, induction kit, buckets and strut brace from a Sol that was breaking. I bought some lexus lights too from Ebay.
Had a bit of a bump
Donor car
I bought and fitted some black front headlights. They didn't have indicators in them so had to rewire the front fogs t and use them as indicators instead.
I made a quick boot install consisting of -
1x Alpine Amp
2x Fli 400w Amps
2x 12" subs
2x Vibe SEK 6x9s
Liquid Edead (sound deadening)
So after the slight mods to the Sol I continued work on the Golf, until the tradgic day when someone decided to steal all four chrome rims. The car was left decked and all the sils were bent and it was a complete write off :/.
RIP
I went to Modified Nationals in 2008 with the Sol. Her radiator and thermostat were shot so. Had to pull over twice on the way up to top up oil and water. Remarkably at one point I completely ran out of oil and water and the engine began to fry, u could hear all the internals banging away and the nearest services were 40miles away :/ and I had ran out of top up supplies! This was the true strength of a Honda engine. After Mod Nats on went the new parts
Back to the Golf. I completely striped it down, sold parts and weighed it in. Kept the body kit (its a Reiger kit fited by AB Styling in Pontypridd) and randomly decided what it would look like up against the Sol. After much hacking of the kit, I took the curveyness of the rear bumper away along with the number plate recess. Placed it on the Sol and WoW did it look fat!
I choped the side skirts down by 2 1/2" either side but didn't want to fit them until I got a front bumper (they are still not fitted yet! But I did spray them Kawsaki green with glitter
).
I bought two back boxes from Spares World and took them to Pro Speed in Cardiff and got a twin cat back system (now it resembles the Golf
).
I revamped the old boot install and beefed it up -
1x extra car battery
2x 12" Subs
2x Fli 800w Amps
2x Fli 400w Amps
1x Vibe RCA Line Driver
1x 1 Farad Power Cap
2x Fli 6x9s
2 x Fli 5" mids
6x Vibe Tweeters
I removed all the plastic trays and panels from behind the seats and thought this would be a great place for my Golfs 15" Vibe Space sub along with the 2x Vibe SEK tweeters, 4x mids and 2x 6x9s.
I installed a Car PC behind my seat, swaped the a/c controler round with the air vents and put a motorised 7" touch screen lcd. Put two 19" lcd pc monitors in the boot. One 7" lcd in glove box.
With this new sound system it was hard to tell if you could hear the music or the exhausts before you seen me
. I was going for the most trebble because of all the cruses I've been to everyone has so much bass it's hard to tell what they're actualy listening too.
After all this I never got round to finishing the body kit. The paint started to fade and holes appeared from ..... you guessed it, both the rear quater panels :/.
I moved away to Hong Kong for 4 months and came back to find this wrong with the Sol. Lots of water damage :/.
Before xmas 2011 i wanted to get rid of the Sol so put it up on ebay. I was going to get either a Pug GTI6 or Skyline. No one was interested in buying it and I got pissd off and thought enough was enough let's just go balls out on the damn car and maybe I'll try keep it for as long as I can.
Went to a local cruse down Kenfig Hill and found the best hiding place ever! Found an illegal imagrant too lol
I got to work by trimming down the rear bumper, fiber glassed it, body filled it and sanded it. Looking better already
The vents on the side of the golf bumper where sticking out so some nice arches from a blue oval rust bag Fiesta RS Turbo would do nicely.
Before fitting the arches I had to sand all the rust down and fiberglass them to protect the body. Then some hacking later they go on like a treat, not to wide either.
Ok now the fun part of trying to blend the arches into the rear bumper.
Job done
. The green blocks in the picture are florist foam blocks (from your local flower shop or Home Bargins) that you can buy for a £1. They are very easy to cut with a knife, mould with your hand or just give it a light sanding. Fiberglass filler was used to stick the block on and then pasted all over it to seal the block in. I cut through the fiberglass where the bumper meets the quater panel. More fiberglassing then.
Xmas time I had to stop work due to no light in the afternoons after work
, cold, wet and oh look snow.
Who face planted my car?
Bloody white stuff and lack of light hampered work on the car till at least febuary, Got a new front bumper from Poland off Ebay (gotta love this site).Also got a new universal Shogun spoiler.
Attached front arches. My mind boglled for a while trying to work out how to blend the arch into the front bumper. I knew I was going to use the foam blocks but couldn't work out how to match the curve in the arch. Then it came to me, by using an aerosol can lid i could put it over the center of my alloys. Punch a hole in the lid and tie some string to the center of it, then from the center of the lid to the top of the new arch would be the length needed. Move the end of the string in a half semi circle action and make a groove in the foam. Cut foam to shape, fiberglass and your done.
Stoped work on Sol as I got side tracked by some nice 15" Audi A3 rims that would fit on my Taxi (Skoda Octavia). £60 bargin! No tyres though. I decided they would look better in black and white
so sprayed them.
Finished alloys now back onto the Sol. Started to blend all the arches into the body haven't finished them yet.
Fitted a blue oval rust bag KA bonnet vent using rivets, Serious Stuff and fiberglass. I'm still sanding this at the moment it won't look perfect because it's not being sprayed.
I sanded the whole car (apart from the black bits and I've still got both bumpers to do) with wet and dry 800 ready for spraying.
FUTURE PLANS
I picked up a bargin from a friend who was breaking a Sol. I got all the pieces for a Transtop conversion
(got the all important four brackets from his boot by grinding them out. Also got the two floor boxes), black lexus lights, standard seats and lots of panels and another dash board all for £150. Unfortunitly he already sold gear box and b16a engine.
If your thinkin of doing a Transtop conversion you won't need to buy the boot lid with the mechanism. As I found out your standard boot lid has all of the holes already for bolting to it. As I found out when I took my mates boot lid of and place it on the ground away from all the cars yet somehow his mate reversed and still ended up driving over the corner of it :/, I looked at mine seen the I had the holes already and shouted "don't worry I don't need that anyway mine will bolt to it" haha.
I won't be installing the Transtop until after I get an MOT. I think it will be a case of welding the four brackets into my boot, cut two holes in the boot floor to put the boxes in. Bolt and wire everything up (not so simple). Will put pics up as I start it.
Hopefuly the bottom half of the car will be going Kawsaki green with glitter. The top half of the car will be wraped in black Carbon Fiber vinyl, I say black because I'm puting some custom decals on the car which will have green Carbon Fiber vinyl on. I don't know if they have ever been done before so I won't show pics until I get them Patented (aplication for new invention) incase I want to make more to sell on, shhh top secret :p.
I am taking the bucket seats out and replacing them with the standard seats. The buckets are worn and I can't get anyone to reupholster them. So the standard seats along with the interior and also the snap off steering wheel will be reupholstered. Got a quote of a guy near me for £40 a seat not including material. I have had lots of samples sent to me from America, Australia, Germany and here in the UK.
So I've got sparkle vinyl samples in black and two shades of green. These are about £12 a yard and postage is really expensive!) The big piece of Carbon fiber is from Saxon Seats in UK fo £35 a yard! I've found a site called Metro restyleing who have Carbon Fiber fabric for about half the price
so awaiting a sample from them. Decided to try and find some bog standard lime green vinyl as well then I can decided on a colour scheme.
List of more things to do:
- I've got to dress the engine bay up by spraing the rocker cover and the inside of the engine bay. I will be getting some green universal piping that clips over my pipes (like fake Samco hoses).
- New induction kit, intercooler and supercharger hopefully.
- Change the lexus lights over for the black ones.
- tint front fogs
- mesh bumpers
- leds and neons
- refurb alloys
- flip flop bonnet conversion
- maybe NOS purge kit as I already have a stainless steel tank
- upgrade car pc to a dual processor
- bigger memory
- sound card
- new multi media center (which I already have this will. replace the car head unit).
- usb to OBD car port
- many more usb devices to many to list
- turn car windscreen into an interactive touch screen
- replace car aeral with wireless wifi antenna
- custom dashboard with the pc buttons and everything on, all buttons will be in japanese
- custom dials in japanese (already started this will post pic another day)
- maybe a Heads Up Display on the windscreen
- xbox in car
There might be more but I can't think of anything else. As soon as I finish preping the car for spraying I'l be geting it MOT'd shortly then off for spray job
Thank you for reading hope you liked my project write up. I will keep you updated on this thread with my progress