Project Hagane - Back in White

After about two long weeks of waiting, I finally received a long awaited call from LTM Performance.

Hagane was ready.

Without waiting any further I quickly made my way there and when I saw her my heart skipped a beat - gone was the over-common grey car, Hagane was now wearing a gorgeous white gown. The fenders, widened and properly smoothed looked perfect and promised to be nicer on my tyres with little to no rubbing. The black highlights on the lower part of the rear bumper, roof, side mirrors and front grille brought a tad of differentiation and confidence to Hagane. 

I had the cold air intake revised and instead of having it stick out of the fog light cover, it was now integrated in the front bumper. The only mishap I found was that the funnel was sprayed white instead of black, but this would be rectified soon.

Inside, the three gauges on the A-pillar complemented the tone set by the tachometer with white numerals and red hands. I will now be able to keep an eye on the all-important temperatures, especially in sunny and hot Singapore.

As a final touch, I added a black sunshade covering the top of the windscreen, underlined by a red line, acting as driver recognition (mine is red, 'cause I like red!).

Following this, I right away went for a little night shoot, loving every aspect of my white Hagane.

Project Hagane - Workshop Time!

Time for an update!

It's been a while and a lot has happened since the cold air intake; I'll try to follow the timeline and give you every step of what happened since...

So yeah, the last update was about my DIY cold air intake. Fun. Could do better, though.

Let's do better then!

 

I started off by buying three NRG gauges to keep my engine in check in view of the abuse of gymkhana. The set consists of the basics: water temp, oil temp and oil pressure. This should give me enough info to keep my engine within normal operating temperatures and anticipate overheating.

Following this, I acquired a 4-2-1 exhaust header to improve on the low end power I will need for gymkhana.

While I would have loved to install all this myself, I opted to ask for LTM Performance's help to make sure the gauge sensors were installed properly, as well as the headers.

Dropping off my car at the workshop, I felt it was about time to address my hammered out fenders and the chipped paint on those. I gave the instructions and gave my keys, leaving my car in LTM Performance's hands for a long two weeks.

 A few days after dropping Hagane off, I swung by LTM Performance to check out on the progress. The gauges were being installed, with the sensors finding their place under the hood while the a-pillar cover was removed to install the gauge emplacements.

The fenders were still bare metal, but this time they were properly stretched and smoothed. As Hagane was jacked on one side so that the mechanic could access under the engine to install some of the sensors, I was given a preview of how much more travel the wheels could do under full compression, and I was now sure that rubbing was not going to be a problem anymore.

 

I then left the workshop not to come back before Hagane was finally ready... Stay tuned to see the gorgeous result!