GM 2004 Build Thread

[Hodaka]

Engine dressing is quite low on my list of things to do tbh due to financial restraints, but I when I saw Bullet selling some left over front strut braces from a group buy, I couldn't resist. Apparently his wife was fed up with them sitting around the house, so he was selling them for £67.99.

 

It was delivered a short while later. Was very well packaged too

 

 

This was something I was unsure about, so I got my friend to install it for me

 

Before

 

After

[Hodaka]

Short one with a few bits & bobs.

 

I managed to find some replacement amber LED strips for the footwell lights, so I put those in. Not sure about this either, but it'll do for now

 

 

And found some rays on eBay for £150! Bargain!! A little kerbing & some bubbling, but I can't complain:

 

 

As my exhaust tips and strut brace are blue, I decided that the colour scheme of the car would be gun metal / black / blue. So I requested Chris@Tarmac for his best blue nuts:

 

 

I want to try refurbing the alloys myself (failing that I'll get a pro to do it) before putting them on the car, but here's a little test fit of the nuts in the alloys. Liking the look:

 

 

Annnd got some free eyebrows from Zeezeebaba, who lives nearby. Although I haven't fitted these yet either due to an issue with the headlight position (it's leaving too little room for the brows to fit nicely), here's a test fit:

 

 

Lots to look forward to!

[Davectr]

Nice write up Hodaka. But, why has it taken you so long? 😄

[Hodaka]

Keeping with my colour scheme, the next thing I wanted to do was darken the wing mirrors. I tried wrapping the wing mirrors in gloss black 4 times, and failed every time due to inexperience, heat gun and a helping hand (it's really awkward to try and do by yourself!!). Mainly due to my ineptitude though...

 

Here's what my last attempt looked like (I had given up by this point, hence the left over vinyl):

 

 

I was really liking the look. I got a quote from my garage, but as their estimate was £250, I decided to go for Tarmac's CF mirror / B-pillar covers instead.

 

 

And here it is fitted:

 

 

 

Pretty happy with the results! Now I'm just waiting for the B-pillars to arrive.

 

Notes to anyone doing this, from Tarmac:

 

These mirror covers fit over existing OEM mirror housing for a great look, 3M tape is fitted, a 3M promoter must be used to ensure a good stick, area must be degreased and dry, we also recommend silicon or super glue for extra security. Failure to do so may result in the mirror covers not staying stuck in place.

 

I washed the wing mirrors, wiped it with IPA and used silicon to stick it on.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Hodaka

[Hodaka]

Nice write up Hodaka. But, why has it taken you so long? 😄

 

Thanks!

 

And one word... laziness!

[Hodaka]

During my daily exploration of the forums, I noticed that GeorgeW was selling a pair of 25mm Torqen S spacers, which I managed to get for £55 delivered. These had only been test fitted, so were pretty much brand new:

 

 

I contacted Adrian@Torqen and ordered myself a pair of 20mm for the front as well.

 

Never having taken the wheels off myself, these sat in my boot for some time.

 

A little while later, Tuck posted about a group buy for rear LED indicator/fog/indicator lights. I loved the look of these, so contacted Car Lab to get myself a smoked pair for £103 delivered.

 

About 2 weeks later (well within their delivery estimate) these arrived:

 

 

 

The quality looked good! Annnnd again, into my boot they went.

 

Once again, I had to enlist my friend to help out! After washing the car, he started by fitting the spacers:

 

 

Before

 

After

 

And then started work on fitting the LED lights, using a wooden pole to support the tailgate as my struts are a bit weak (one thing I plan to replace in the near future).

 

 

Soldering in some wires for the running/brake lights

 

Comparison shot

 

While we were at it, we also carried out a bumper tuck

 

We also tinted the brake lights very slightly. I don't have the LED brake lights yet, so didn't want to go too dark for safety reasons.

 

Before/after comparison (tinted brake lights, LED reverse/indicator/fog lights & bumper tuck)

 

Lights functionality

 

Another close up (taken a couple of weeks later, when I washed it)

 

It was a pretty productive day!

 

Notes:

• LED light fitting guide
  
• Bumper tuck guide - Very easy to do, but definitely helpful to have a second pair of hands. I've heard that some people have an alternative approach using cable ties as well
  
• Fog light - The way I wired it above has running / brake lights. This means that I currently don't have fog lights. I will be rectifying this shortly, but tapping the brighter red to fog lights rather than the brake light. Another suggestion is to use diodes to combine that light for brake / fog lights, but apparently technically that's not legal. Worth taking a look and deciding what you personally want to do.
  
• LED light leak - A short while after I installed the LED lights, it rained a lot and I noticed that the passenger side light was filling with water. It still works, but it's obviously not ideal. As Car Lab is based in Taiwan, I expected a troublesome process of getting it sorted. However after a few emails back and forth, they agreed to send me a replacement unit. It was all sorted in a few days, and they were extremely helpful. Only tiny annoyance is I have to wait the 2-3 weeks for it to be delivered, but that can't really be helped.
  

Edited January 12, 2016 by Hodaka

[Hodaka]

Phew... nearly there in terms of catch up. I'm so bad at writing so it's been a bit of a struggle!

 

A few months after installing my DIY DRL, the LEDs started failing, as you can see below (it's meant to have 5 LEDs on each side):

 

 

I believe the failure was due to the fact I didn't know that the battery voltage fluctuates, and used resistors that have too low a resistance.

 

Anyhow, a week ago I finally removed the reflectors. By this time, it was down to 1/5 on one side, and 2/5 on the other. I even managed to take it off without anyone's else! Definitely learning, so proud of myself

 

 

Here's what the reflectors looked like after removal.

 

 

I started by cutting away the silicon and old components. I noticed that there was a little bit of water getting in where the wires came out of the reflectors. Makes sense really, as the silicon hadn't completely sealed this off.

 

 

My vision for "version 2" of the DRL was to try and get the entire reflector to glow evenly so I bought some wide-angle LEDs. I also decided to add more of them, as I thought it wouldn't be as bright as the previous LEDs. I increased the number of LEDs per bumper from 5 to 11.

 

I therefore had to mark where the other 6 LEDs would go. I didn't have a ruler I could curve, so I decided to use a piece of wire. Very "accurate"

 

 

With the half-way points marked up, I then used another piece of wire to try and keep it equidistant from the front edge of the reflector:

 

 

Which then allowed me to drill the pilot holes:

 

 

Which in turn allowed me to drill the 5mm holes. Beware, the plastic is very soft so you need to be really careful:

 

 

Next up, I sorted the power supply. I know there's a lot of electrically minded people on here (cs2000, flyboy etc...) so they'll probably tell me otherwise but after some research, I found that you can use a DC/DC converter to stabilise the voltage / current. I found one on Amazon that looked ok, at least to me (everything I know is from researching, so don't hold me to it!). Here's a link in case anyone's interested.

 

So I got one of those, some spacers/screws and a waterproof case to put it in.

 

I firstly drilled some holes for the wires, and marked what they are with permanent ink:

 

 

I then used a piece of paper to mark up the distance between the screws:

 

 

Then placed the paper on the back of the box with the DC/DC converter on top. I aligned the paper with the DC/DC converter, and then aligned the DC/DC converter so it sat roughly in the middle of the box in line with the wires (the below picture is before I aligned it). Once I was happy, I taped down the piece of paper and drilled the 4 holes:

 

 

Now that the holes were drilled, I stripped the wires:

 

 

And secured them to the converter. I also screwed the converter to the box:

 

 

Now back to the reflectors. I had read that using sandpaper on the LEDs can help it diffuse, so I decided to give that a go:

 

 

Then stuck them into the reflectors. I used a bit of super glue to stop them from falling out, as some of them were a bit loose:

 

 

I then prepared the reflector wires:

 

 

And stuck the LEDs through them:

 

 

A bit of soldering later, it was all connected together. You may have noticed I didn't add resistors this time, which is because I could set the current output from the DC/DC converter. In the specs it said the optimum current for each LED was 20mA. As there's 22 of them in parallel, I needed a total of 440mA from the converter. It's my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong!) that as long as I don't have more than 440mA coming from the converter, I wouldn't need any resistors.

 

 

Bullet connectors were fitted to all the wires, and I tested it using 2x 9v batteries in series. The voltage and currents were set on the converter using a multimeter. I decided to set the current slightly lower than the 440mA I mentioned above, just to be on the safe side. I believe in the end, I set it to around 380mA.

 

 

Here's what I ended up with, prior to covering it with silicon:

 

 

The day after once the silicon had been added / dried:

 

 

 

Annnd finally fitted them back in. Here's a shot of the sidelights + reflectors on (headlights off):

 

 

 

I have no idea of how correct my thought process behind the circuitry is. Hopefully it'll last this time, but if not, no biggie. For now, I'm glad I have a full set of LEDs.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Hodaka

[cov350z]

this builds coming on very nicely. your doing well with your little experience of modding you've now done more than a lot of the people on here.

well done on just giving things ago.

also i see your like to add all this late at night when most are sleeping haha i just added a load on my build too

 

look forward to seeing what else you get up to next

[Bodyboarder81]

Well done mate , cars coming along very nicely

[veilside z]

All looking great. Well done

[mattross1313]

Great read mate, good heap of updates made there

 

 

 

 

Loving this way of wiring up LEDs. I have done things in the past and used a separate wire for each one and it took forever!! Good effort.

 

Sound of the exhaust (should have taken it in landscape...)

 

Don't let Ekona see this

[Hodaka]

this builds coming on very nicely. your doing well with your little experience of modding you've now done more than a lot of the people on here.

well done on just giving things ago.

also i see your like to add all this late at night when most are sleeping haha i just added a load on my build too

 

look forward to seeing what else you get up to next

 

Cheers man. Yeah I'm really enjoying the DIY & learning process. It's really satisfying seeing the end result after putting in the effort. There's a lot more I want to learn!

 

Cool, I'll check out your thread.

 

Well done mate , cars coming along very nicely

All looking great. Well done

 

Thanks guys! Still a lot to learn / do, but definitely slowly getting there

 

Great read mate, good heap of updates made there

 

 

 

Loving this way of wiring up LEDs. I have done things in the past and used a separate wire for each one and it took forever!! Good effort.

 

Sound of the exhaust (should have taken it in landscape...)

 

Don't let Ekona see this

 

Thanks and yeah, I decided to put them in parallel as I didn't want loads of cables running everywhere. Plus I wanted to wire in the LEDs in parallel, just in case one of the LEDs failed.

 

Also about Ekona, how come? Should I be scared?

[Stutopia]

Ekona's on a personal quest to eradicate portrait oriented video footage from the interballz

[Hodaka]

Ekona's on a personal quest to eradicate portrait oriented video footage from the interballz

 

Aha! Makes sense!

 

I totally agree - I absolutely hate it too. I just couldn't get my phone to prop up against the wall on it's side so gave up.

[mattross1313]

Ekona's on a personal quest to eradicate portrait oriented video footage from the interballz

 

If you stop doing this, and run matched tyres all round you will be fine

[parello9]

those rear led lights look great! never seen them before makes it look alot newer as i do think the 350s need led's to bring em more up to date

[SHEZZA]

Looking good, might have to tuck my bumper now.

[Hodaka]

If you stop doing this, and run matched tyres all round you will be fine

 

Got it, thanks for the pro tips!

 

I have MPSS on all corners so I can mark that off the check list!

 

those rear led lights look great! never seen them before makes it look alot newer as i do think the 350s need led's to bring em more up to date

 

Yeah, I totally agree. Super pleased with them

 

Looking good, might have to tuck my bumper now.

 

£5 or so + 10 mins of work - would definitely recommend. Just make sure you get a friend to help as holding the bumper up while trying to drill the holes wouldn't be fun I'd imagine!

[DarmoZ]

Wow are you sure you had little or no modding experience before?!?

My build thread is probably gonna be a long list of thanks to who i paid to do XYZ lol

Edited January 28, 2016 by DarmoZ

[Ricey]

I have to say I'm well impressed with your efforts and for reference re 8 hours on the console sanding........you did nothing wrong. It's Hell on earth to get that stuff off!

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

 

[Hodaka]

Wow are you sure you had little or no modding experience before?!?

My build thread is probably gonna be a long list of thanks to who i paid to do XYZ lol

 

Haha yeah, zero experience with anything car-related other than driving it.

 

I like the satisfaction you get from DIY when you see the final result. Plus, I don't have the funds to pay for people to do it anyway!

 

I have to say I'm well impressed with your efforts and for reference re 8 hours on the console sanding........you did nothing wrong. It's Hell on earth to get that stuff off!

 

Thanks and yeah it was an absolute nightmare!!! Was worth it in the end, but I was feeling pretty fed up near the end.

[Hodaka]

Been a little while since I last posted, so a very quick update of some more minor stuff I've done.

 

380RS Pedal

• Purchased - From Torqen
  
• How to - Followed this guide by BulletMagnet
  
• Time spent - 30 mins or so, but mainly because I was being inept and couldn't get the clip off behind the pedal
  

Clutch pedal adjustment

• How to - Followed this guide by D4XNY
  
• Time spent - Around an hour? It's very difficult to find a comfortable position to work with!
  

I did both of the above in one session. Here's a few pics!

 

 

Comparison of the pedals

 

 

Before installation of pedal

 

 

After installation of pedal

 

 

I didn't get a consistent angle on the next couple of pics so it may be hard to tell but:

 

 

Before clutch pedal adjustment

 

 

After clutch pedal adjustment

 

Was pretty happy with the results. The 380RS pedal made it much easier to heel-toe (which I'm still practicing tbh) and the clutch pedal felt much nicer as I wasn't "kneeing my face" each time I needed to use the pedal.

 

Last bit of quick update is that I purchased the D1 Spec GT Throttle Controller from Torqen as well. Lovely piece of kit which is a lot of fun to play with. For me, it really is more of a toy than anything else, but very happy with the purchase.

 

In case any of you decide to get it, I wrote a little guide which'll hopefully come in handy.

 

 

Boxes

 

 

The bits inside

 

 

Fitted (top right of wind screen)

 

 

Aaaaand I lied! The actual last bit of quick update is that I received my CF B-Pillar covers from Tarmac Sportz. Not really much to say, other than I took the B-Pillar cover off, cleaned it with IPA, and stuck on the new CF covers. They have an adhesive tape on the back side. Quick and easy way of covering the knackered plastic

 

How to - Used this guide to learn how to pull off the B-Pillar covers

 

 

Side by side

 

 

After sticking them on

 

 

And a bad pic of them back on along with the CF wing mirrors

Edited April 7, 2016 by Hodaka

[Stutopia]

380RS loud pedal is one of my favourite mods. CF pillars looking good

[Dicaprio]

great thread Hodaka!!

[Hodaka]

Cheers guys!