I've been working hard getting my Evo to a spec to be proud of, its still a work in progress and i'm slowly getting there, i thought i'd share it with you guys and girls....

I HAVE COPIED THIS FROM ANOTHER THREAD I STARTED ON THE MLR SO FORGIVE THE REFERENCES TO "TODAY AND "NEXT WEEK" ETC....

HERE'S WHAT IT WAS LIKE WHEN I GOT IT :

THE SPEC WHEN I GOT IT (OBVIOUSLY ITS GOT BETTER NOW !!).
Running 370bhp 350ftlb's

Engine
Fujitsubo Giken SS backbox
Janspeed De-cat Pipe
Apexi downpipe
Ralliart coil leads
HKS Airfilter
Apexi Ecu + Hand Commander
Exceedy Organic clutch
Ignition earthing system
Running 1.6 bar boost
SS Manifold Heat Sheild
Walbro Fuel Pump
Cooler Grade Denso plugs

Suspension/wheels
17 inch Advan Alloys
Annodised Wheel Nuts
Bridgestone Forenza Tyres
Front Wing Inner Braces
Tein Super Street Coilovers
Front and Rear Strut Braces
Grooved front discs




































So after spending all my money modding a Skyline, it was now time to spend all my money on modding my Evo 5.

SEPTEMBER 2008...

My 1st mod was a carbon bonnet.....

The Brembo's had gone pink so I treated them to a coat of T-cut which made them red again before I did the proper refurb which required removing all the old laquer, repaint, put some new stickers on and then re-laquer.

BEFORE :



AFTER :



( I painted the disc lip too in black, thats why there's black paint on the disc )

The door pillar trim started to go a bit grey, so i bought some carbon fibre sheet and made some pillar covers.
thanks to Stewart at Stewartsf1.com
http://www.stewartsf1.com/











OCTOBER 2008...

I fitted an HKS 60mm boost gauge and A pillar pod.

I also refurbed brake calipers..... properly



FROM THIS....



TO THIS.......











very pleased with the brake calipers, it took me 3 days to do them all but it was well worth it.

NOVEMBER 2008....

I was bit busy taking the car apart ready for bit to be painted etc, and a bit more besides...

firstly I sold my 17" Advans and got myself some 18" Rota Torques......






Then I started on the front bumper , I took it off so it can be resprayed to make it perfect again. Whilst it's off I cleaned and tarted up the intercooler - removed the std coupling hoses ready to replace with silicone hoses.







Next is the engine bay, i've relocated the battery to the boot to give me some room for my new alloy intake pipes and to make it look less cluttered....



i've removed the rocker cover and cambelt cover to be repainted, also taken the power steering off to be painted.



There's lots of silicone hoses on order to replace ALL the black rubber ones.

The rear lights and rear garnishes are off to be tinted a slightly darker shinier red to remove the orange indicator colour from the rear lights, the clear bits will be kept clear.



they will look like this - much better without the orange indicator bit on the top....




DECEMBER 2008....

I had a few things back from the bodyshop( www.innovationbodyworx.co.uk ) - thanks to Darren, and i got around to fitting them.


I relocated battery to the boot so i can fit my hard pipes and to de-clutter the engine bay.



















I've got to do a few more jobs to the engine bay yet :


Replace all bolts with Stainless items

Stainless fuse box covers

Fit Coolant hose kit ( RED )

fit silicone vac hoses ( RED )

Fit catch tank

Braided hoses in a few places

Fit carbon bonnet struts

Ralliart oil and rad caps

AND A FEW OTHER LITTLE BITS....

I fitted the Ralliart mudflaps but I didn't like them so I got rid.






Also tinted the rear lenses to get rid of the orange indicators...






Lastly but not least I fitted the 3 gauge pod on the dash with oil pressure, oil temp and water temp gauges...






ITS STARTING TO ALL COME TOGETHER NOW.


Also fitted my catch tank and all the rest of the hoses i'd bought. I used braided hose for the catch tank and anodised hose finishers.











Fitted the lower intercooler pipe from the turbo that I had made at powerflow exhausts, this removed the restriction in the standard pipe (crap pictures )....





Front and rear lower splitters were away for painting to make them pretty again.

I decided to have a go at tinting my rear lights on my Evo 5 to get rid of the orange indicator.

I loved the results as it looks so much neater....
(lights just need a polish with rubbing compound to give them a shine.... ).





(Rear spoiler and rear bumper splitter are away for painting...)

BUT, i wasn't happy with the colour of the light from the indicator, it was more RED than ORANGE, i removed some of the tint but it was still no good, I put an ORANGE bulb in the bulb holder but the light was still more red. I just know the coppers round here and they are just looking for an excuse to pull you over so i decided to remove all the tint and put them back to standard - WHICH I WAS GUTTED ABOUT CAUSE I LIKED THE TINTED LOOK.

So I had a think about how I could overcome this and I came up with an idea - so I retinted the rear lights with the red tint and set to work on my idea.

I decided to reconfigure the rear lamp unit so that the reverse lights were now the indicators, the original indicators now became the brake lights and the stop/tail light now became the tail/fog light.

This left the reversing light to sort out, I decided to use the boot garnishes and put a bulb in the clear part to become the reversing lights. I had to dremmel out the rear of the lens so i could put in a bulb holder.

I did a proper job by taking out the pins in the plug from the wiring loom on the tail lamp unit and repositioning them in the block to activate the different lights, the retro fit fog lamp wire that was fitted when it was imported was soldered into the loom plug to activate the fogs, and the reverse light wire was re-routed along the cable on the boot lid (for the 3rd brake light) into the garnishes, so you cannot tell its all been rewired.

All I need to do is put some chrome indicator bulbs to get rid of the orange in the lens.

Here's the results......



So now I have the red tinted lights i wanted, with indicators that glow orange, AND 2 fog lights instead of the 1 that was originally there, I put red bulbs in the new brake light position and this gives the new brake lights a really bright red look thus helping with safety .....:

JANUARY 2009....

In the new year the car was finally ready for the road again, it was all back together and ready to be MOT'd and taxed, I had the front and rear bumper splitters painted as they were a bit scuffed.

The front splitter i had the centre section painted black to compliment the carbon bonnet.

Also fitted the fog light covers - i love the look of them....

I also fitted my white LED sidelight bulbs and my HID 4300k Hi/Lo kit.








Also had the rear spoiler blade painted satin black....






FEBUARY 2009....

Fitted my BLACK mudflaps, happy with the look of them, I used to have red ones but i didn't think they suited the wheels.







also fitted my Black sunstrip...




Another couple of jobs crossed off the long list.


I got round to fitting a little bit of Carbon too

I got myself a set of rear arch covers and an exhaust heat shield.










MARCH 2009.....

Plans changed again !!!!

Swapped the Carbon bonnet for a white standard bonnet.....

Also fitted my Ganador mirrors, I had them sprayed black for no other reason than I like them in Black - they are electrically operated too.










Got some new wheels fitted and i'm dead chuffed with them, pics don't do them justice, they fill the arch out perfect, the tyres have the stretched look and look perfect.

They are Rota G Force 18x9's with 235/40/18's fitted.











well chuffed...

Also fitted the 1 piece lights which i'm ultra happy about, also fitted the HID's and fit a couple of relays so the low beam stays on with the high beam.










PS : here's another view of the wheels to give you an idea how well they fill the arches and give the car a wider track.





NOT A LOT HAPPENNED FOR A WHILE, I JUST DROVE THE CAR......


JUNE 2009....

After yearning for the pops, flames and bangs back I needed to re-fit my SAS which i removed in order to tidy up the engine bay and fit my polished intercooler and turbo hardpipes.

I didn't want to put the standard pipework back on, which was a good job since I gave it away....

I borrowed some standard pipework, just to check i could still get some pops and bangs and good news is that i could with the SAS re-fitted.

So I put a 22mm outlet onto my polished hardpipe.

So its been re-fitted with a piece of silicon hose and it looks a top job with the pops and bangs returned....

here's a couple of pics of the SAS re-fitted....










SEPTEMBER 2009....

SORN'D the car so that I can start on the refurb of the underside and the front end.

Once that was done then I started on the removal of the dash etc for flocking.

Here's a few pics of what its like underneath now, i've got a fair bit to do.
I'm cleaning, removing surface rust, sealing and then painting Scotia White, i'm powdercoating whatever can be powdercoated and painting everything else.

The ARB's are being powercoated along with the front crossmember / engine mount, not sure what colour yet.

The whole of the underside of the floor will be cleaned, sealed and painted white so i've got a fair bit of stripping down to do yet.

There's a couple of oil leaks that need sorting out, the rear diff has a leak so i'll sort that out when i change the diff oil. There's a leak from the aftermarket oil pressure sender so that'll be sorted when I change the engine oil and there's a leak from the power steering pot lower pipe which will be done when i replace the pot with a spec-R one.




































Stripped some more off the front end and engine in readiness for painting etc.

This is the plan for the next couple of months on the front end and engine.

(everything will be cleaned, stripped and treated before painting, then painted with Epoxy Mastic 121 before painting with the relevent colour).

Repaint front end back to white as well as the engine bay.

Paint gearbox top to bottom Gloss Black & do gearbox oil change.

Refurb & Paint lower crossmember

Refurb & paint lower H Brace.

Remove ARB's and repaint

Fit Alloy Radiator

Move washer / intercooler spray resevoir into the boot to clean up that area of the engine bay.

Remove carbon canister.

Replace FMIC with aftermarket bigger one, not sure which one yet.

Completely re-route and tidy up the looms in the engine bay as they look very messy, i'm going to try to hide them as much as possible.

Spec-R power steering pot

Spec-R header tank

Remove Air conditioning and fit RS pulley belt
and much more...

here's the pics of the progress today, more stripped off...










Its coming along nicely....


Stripped a lot out of the engine bay ready for cleaning, sanding and the rust prep and painting.

I've managed to re-route a lot of the engine loom to hide it as it gets on my nerves !!!

Here's the current state ready for paint preperation......








I'm getting the angle grinder out and chopping off the old battery tray mounts as the battery is in the boot, it'll tidy up the bay a little, also removing the bracket that held on the carbon canister as i've ditched the canister (a small part of the bracket will be left because the ABS attaches to it). - I've put black marker pen on the bits i'm removing.





Took off the scuttle panel and its going to get a good clean underneath before painting as its got 11 years of grime under it....




Made a start on painting the engine bay, my fingers were worn down to the bone with all that sanding !!!!

Put 3 coats of primer on, and rubbed it all down....








Took off the brackets that held the batter tray on, what a job that was !!!

BEFORE...



AFTER...



Then tested a bit of the Scotia White to see how it goes on, looks like it goes on ok.



Painted the bonnet hinges as they were manky...

BEFORE...



AFTER...



Lastly painted the bit that goes on the front infront of the radiator, its a pipe that carries power steering fluid.... its gloss black but doesn't show up very good in pics.

This is the part i mean....



PAINTED...






Decided to get off my fat arse and get the dash out, i've been putting it off for ages so seeing as the weather was good i'd thought i'd sort it out.
Its not a bad job, it took me 3 hours from start to finish including taking the door cards off and re-routing some of the loom and generally tidying things up as the bodger who put in the rear fog light and turbo timer needs to go on a course to learn how to wire things in safely, no fuses were used and the wires were just twisted together and covered in black tape !! - so its all sorted now, nice and safe and tidy....

I've also moved the alarm control box and all the wiring so that once the dash is on it will be very difficult to access it without removing lots of bits of dash, so this prevents a thief getting to it to disable the alarm....

I was going to do a "how to" but to be honest its easy to do, its just a matter of removing panels and the screws / bolts are pretty self explanatery, I did identify each plug though so I know where it goes when i put it back together....

I'm getting it all flocked as soon as i get the cash together and it'll look brilliant !!!

here's some pics....

























I'm really looking forward to getting the flocking done as its looks the dogs !!

I'm removing the rear fog light switch that the importer put on to pass SVA and i'm wiring the rear fogs into the original front fog light which as i don't have front fogs anymore, it'll look a lot neater plus it'll get rid of the naff switch thats there now.

I'm removing the turbo timer too as i never use it, i just drive sensibly the last few miles home to cool down the turbo.

I got rid of the Kenwood Double Din as its jap spec and I want a decent stereo in its place, I might get a double din DVD player ?

Then i'm changing the bushes in the gear change linkage, by the gear lever, for skateboard bearings, i've already done it to the linkages in the engine bay, it'll make the gearchange crisper along with some brass bushed to mount the linkage box to the chassis, get rid of the rubber mounts.


OCTOBER 2009....

I've collected some bits from Autoflock that have been flocked and i'm VERY happy with the finish and feel of the parts.

I'm collecting the main body of the dash soon once its been flocked and modified slightly to incorporate my Apexi hand commander.

Here's some pics of the parts that have neen done....

AIRCON FACIA...







GLOVEBOX....



RADIO / ASHTRAY SURROUND....





and the AIRBAG COVER that Raj at Autoflock has modified too, I LIKE IT !!!!

(and before anyone comments on the airbag not working now correctly, I am aware of this - airbag has been removed ).









Can't wait to get the rest back now, main dash and centre console and A pillars.


I sorted out my apexi hand controller so that the screen is now detached and seperate from the keypad.

The reason behind this is because the hand controller is being custom built into the dash before it gets flocked, there wasn't anywhere for the hand controller to go before except on a mobile phone holder attached to the dash.

As soon as its fitted to the dash i'll put up some pics, here's the screen seperated from the keypad.....

FROM THIS....



TO THIS.....








HERE'S ONE SOMEONE ELSE DID, SO YOU CAN SEE WHATS GOING ON....





Mine isn't going by the radio though, its going in a custom jobbie...

Started to paint the engine bay....

I sanded all the primer with 1200 wet and dry, cleaned with panel wipe and painted the 1st coat of Scotia White.

Leaving it overnight to dry properly and then another quick sand down ready for another coat of the white tomorrow night.

Then its a couple of coats of laquer to make it nice and shiny and hardwearing.

Next job is to take off engine mountings, and H brace and get them powedercoated, whilst the engine mountings are off I think i'll put some polybush engine mountings in to replace the standard bushes.

Here's some pics after the 1st coat of white.....looking much better.


























I look forward to getting the shiny bits bolted back on, oh and i've got to spray the underside of the bonnet Scotia white too as its a bit grey at the moment due to never getting polished...