Monday, December 29, 2014

Rear bumper repair & Tow bar install

Yeap i derped and smacked my bumper up a bit




Well now i get to have a go at fibreglassing



Also a good time to install the tow bar from my other Liberty




One of these tabs that attach the bumper to the inner support broke off



 I also done the clips that hold the sides up as after so many years they have started to sag and leave the horrid gap that the gen 2 is known for.



When the resin has set a little i trimmed the over hang




 I put some pop rivets in just to be sure



This is as good as i can get it for now.

Sorry i don't have a before and after but this is a great improvement as it was sagging about 15mm and bulging out about 10mm before.



I had the bumper off about 5 times and each time it got a little better so when it's not so hot i might pull it off again and do some more fine tuning.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

New bumper

My mate was browsing facebook and found this bumper, I think it's off an RX and loots a lot like some of the BG5 bumpers.


I pick it up after Christmas sometime and will be painting it along with the spoiler!

Or, i could keep them both white, swap the white doors and bonnet from my donor car and go full white?

JDM Climate control hacking Part 3

A small update ,

I've glued the LCD in place and also done some testing in the car, I found the LCD is not bright enough to shine through the tinted plastic so i pulled the plastic off and am currently looking for a replacement.




I also replaced the hot glue after it melted in the car, Derp! i'm now using silicone.

I got the temperature sensors and have them working... Kinda, well they read the temp and i can display it on the LCD but i am experiencing a strange freezing issue were the arduino will completely lock up... After some testing i'm thinking it could be the RTC so i'll just have to wait till the new ones come to find out.

I also cut open the top of the casing so it's easier to work on, My original idea was to have a board that would slide in to the original slot but would turn out to be too difficult.

To Do list


This is a really rough list of my To Do's that i would like to do in the future

If you have any suggestions i would love to hear them!

I will update it from time to time. 


Engine
Auto oil & filter                                                        Don’t need to, installing manual
Knock Sensor                                                           Tested ok
Power steering hose                                                  Done! $90
Grimmspeed Lightweight Crank Pulley                   $115 + P&H - risk of engine damage
Paint valve covers                                                     $18 - Done!
Paint belt cover                                                         Use same paint as valve covers
Manual running gear                                                 In the works! Just need to put box together
Upgraded fuel pump, Relay, Wiring                         got a walbro - came with turbo kit
MSD Ignition 8239 coil pack                                    $130
Varex                                                                          $300 - $400
Header wrap                                                              Came with turbo  kit



Suspention & Handling
Whiteline Heavy Duty sway bar links.                                        $100 – Done!
22mm Sway bars & mounts                                                         Tribeca front will fit
Fast power steering rack                                                              $100 - $200
wrx front crossmember + Borla                                                   Came with turbo kit
Cusco Front Strut Brace with Brake Cylinder Stopper               Only if cheap
Front & Rear Strut braces                                                             $200 Done
Fender Braces

Brakes
Red calipers                                                                                  $18 - use same paint as valve covers
Braided Brake lines                                                                      $150 Done
WRX brakes                                                                                 got 2 pot RS brakes with turbo kit



Interior
Door cards                                                                                      $20 Done!
Roof lining                                                                                      $100
WRX seats                                                                                      $375 Done!
Carbon fiber cluster                                                                        $10 Done!
JDM Climate control                                                                      $45 – In the works!
Map lights with sunglasses holder                                                 Won’t fit
Subaru STi MOMO Steering wheel                                              $40 Done!
Dye carpet                                                                                      $15 Done!
cargo cover
WRX pedels                                                                                   $80 - $180
RGB led dash lights                                                                       $30 Done!
RGB led interior lighting                                                               $20 Done!
Manual boot and shifter                                                                 $0 Done!

Audio
Fiberglass sub boxes     
4 ch amp                                                                                         Just needs hooking up
High output alternator                                                                    $180 + P&H
DC Power alt                                                                                  $400
Better Battery                                                                                 $300 Free P&H
Capacitor                                                                                        Might not need one
BLACK LABEL DYNAMAT 36 SQ FEET                                  $180




Aesthetics

Paint                                                                                                  $400+
35% Tint                                                                                           $80 In the works!
GT-B Front bumper & fog lights                                                      $200 Found an RX version
Gun metal grey rims
Honder ODYSSEY rear wiper                                                         $13 Done!
JDM folding mirrors
JDM rear spoiler                                                                               $200 – needs to be painted
Steel Red lug nuts                                                                             $60
WRX scoop?      

Saturday, December 20, 2014

JDM Climate control hacking Part 2


I received the LCD and have been coding like crazy! and i now have a working prototype :D 



As you can see i've gotten the basic menu system and some back end stuff working like switching relays for the fan speeds. 

I have a nice default display that shows the time, inside and outside temperatures. I don't think i showed it in the video but if nothing is pressed for a few seconds it will default back to this screen.

RGB LEDS

I've decided to change the way i control the RGB Leds, at this time i'm using IR and an off the shelf controller to control the Leds but I want to control them directly from the arduino which will give me more control and be more reliable, the only down side is i will use 2 more I/O's per group but thats ok as i am now using the Arduino MEGA2560 which has ample I/O's.

Keypad

The keypad originally had two flat flex, One to run the lights and LCD and the other for the buttons

I ditched the light & LCD flat flex and just kept the buttons as Subaru have already made it super simple to interface the buttons to an Arduino.

The buttons are laid out in what is known as a button matrix or keypad matrix, This ensures that the design and manufacturing process is incredibly simple and also uses less I/O's than each button having it's individual I/O.

I don't want to go into details about how Keypad matrix work, thats why we have google :)


I'm still waiting on some components:
  • Precise RTC (My current one is loosing a few seconds per day)
  • Transistors
  • Relays
  • Temperature sensors
  • Regulators

21/12/2014

More LED MADNESS!




I could of bought something that would be easier to install but i have tons of the RGB strips left!



I only needed one RGB LED so i removed the remaining two from the segments.

Because the power passes through the led i had to jumper across the pins for the single LED to work.




I insulated and folded the rest of the flex over itself to make some compact units




A bit of hot snot to hold it all together





  And the wiring was easy enough



You might notice that i didn't populate one of the light holes, this is because the up and down buttons are Red & Blue and don't react nicely to any one color so i am going to put a white led in this one.


More to come!