100mm fmic, game over!

well i was out in welshpool saturday morning with a mate so we decided to swing past Jshop, run by aston and raheem. great guys and really happy to have a good chat with you. Decided to pick up a front mount intercooler, bought the 600x300x100mm version for $200. Great value.

Spent sunday morning removing my front bar and installing the fmic, fits up perfectly, snug up against the headlight brackets and intrusion bar. i found some 'L' shaped stainless steel lying around in the garage and cut it up to spec and used is to mount the intercooler to where the horns used to be mounted. I'll find another place for them later...

For those that usually remove the intrusion bar when they get a fmic, i really do urge you to simply take a dremel to the part that gets in the way of where the fmic sits (i was lucky enough to already have a space cut for this). As i am running a stock front bar, any further hacking for airflow will result in next to no performance gain except make the front end of the car substantially weaker. It's not called an 'intrusion bar' for nothing, and it does a damn good job in an accident.

Anyway, here are some pics, overall im really happy how well its mounted, very snug and stable fit. the only movement is when you grab the bottom and used a bit of force to swing it back and forth. apart from that there is no play. And once i have the pipes connected at the bottom they will eliminate that movement anyway.

Painting Engine Bay - Finish

after about 4 cans of black spray paint and a coat of clear finish, then a polish up with some turtle wax, this is the end result. Looks really good! It may not be a mirror finish, or perfectly smooth, but there are no obvious runs. Many of my mates that have seen it have commented that it's come up very pro, which is good to hear. Unfortunatly the photo's are really good at picking up detail in the darkness that is really hard to see to the naked eye. None the less, i'm happy with it, and it has had about 2 weeks to set now while i waited on the new engine to arrive, so hopefully i can't scratch is too badly putting everything back in.

Painting Engine Bay - Second & Third Coats

A few more pics of the engine bay after it's second or third coat of paint, it looks exactly like the first coat, only somewhat blacker, shineyer, and has a better finish. Amazing that...