PhilMeUp

Photos: here they are. They are a bugger to photograph - black paint doesn't like cameras. The mounting for the seat adjuster switch doesn't make sense, which is why I haven't put this stuff in my car yet. Will get around to it soonish. Been a bit obsessed about Brembo brakes and suspension bushes lately, so now that I've got all that figured out I'll need to move on to getting the Recaro seat project sorted out. Then I can start lobbying politicians to change legislation to allow me to carry such items as a taser gun and bazooka to deal with certain passengers and other drivers that require application of such items (ie full moon weekend that we just had = more than the average quantity of d*ckheads and bimbos). Dimensions: if anyone is in Perth and has the resources to duplicate these things (and create measurements for future use) then send me a PM and we'll organise it ASAP. I'd personally be interested in getting between three and five sets made up for myself (ie one for passenger side, two for girlfriend's taxi and two for spares and future use).

I'm running Hawk Performance ceramic pads on my 6/4 Brembo setup and am getting plenty of brake dust. I keep a 6 litre Hills weed sprayer bottle on my front porch with CT18 degreaser in it. I spray degreaser all over the rims and rub the dust off with a brush. Then I hose it all off. I do each wheel one at a time, so that the degreaser doesn't have time to dry on to the wheels and leave streaks. It's obviously easier to do if the car hasn't been driven for a couple of hours because then there isn't the heat in the wheel area to bake the degreaser and brake dust goo onto the rims. I generally wash the wheels two or three times each week, and they need it each time. I'm hard on brakes - if lower control arm bushes had civil rights then I'd be up on war crimes charges every day. This week I didn't get around to cleaning the wheels all week, so I had the entire week's worth of brake dust on the rims. The car gets a thorough wash/clean/vacuum every Sunday night/Monday sometime (ie after each weekend). So, there was quite a coating of ugly brake dust on the rims this afternoon. It's been bugging me all week, so I've just cleaned the rims in the front yard. Photos - taken a few minutes ago:

With 17" rims, your option is the BA Premium Brake front calipers. They're fairly hard to find, and are expensive at wreckers ($800). Finding them on eBay can be done. I bought a set for $300 on eBay a few months ago, but the guy didn't know what they are. As soon as you go Brembo, then it's going to be 18" rims. BA XR8 18" rims clear Brembo calipers if you want to look standard. Golden rule: if you are going to go Brembo, then do your homework on wheels before buying rims! Very few rims clear Brembo calipers. I've got the 6 piston front/4 piston rear setup on my taxi. It's nice. Was having some fun giving braking demonstrations to some passengers last night. With the Brembo setup, there's not a huge distance with just general stopping. It's when you want to brake hard that you notice the difference - there's a lot less pedal pressure required. One thing that I have noticed is my confidence in the car and brakes when I do long, hard stops (ie at the end of a looooooooooong downhill). I know that the brakes are working damn hard, and I know that at the bottom of the hill the car will stop perfectly well. The standard stuff gets bloody hot and fades quite easily.

You need to get an adaptor plate to go between the Recaro base and the Falcon seat rails. I've got one on my kitchen bench that I paid the stupidly overpriced $220 for. Need get to get off my arse and take it to a fabrication place to get another one made up for the passenger side. It's on the "will get around to that someday soon" list.

Yep, did the whole lot on my car. Figured if the front end was going to be apart then might as well replace everything. Did upper control arms bushes, lower control arm bushes and the ball joints. Was at a workshop yesterday, talking to a mechanic. He had some brand new lower control arms in boxes. Says he's paying $270 each for them. Damn...

Some day, if mankind ever invents a time machine, we will be able to go back in time and belt the living daylights out of the idiot that decided that American cars had to be left-hand drive. (I think it was Henry Ford)

New Recaros are way overpriced, and they haven't changed in decades. Over the years, various cars have come with Recaros standard from the factory. All the retail Recaros, and most OEM (ie fitted to new cars) use the same base. There is the occasional one that doesn't use the standard base (as I found, one of the Suzuki Ignus Sport models). I have a pair here, but haven't fitted them yet. Mine came out of an early 2000s Proton Satria GTi and cost me $350 for the pair. They're in pretty crap condition, but I'm going to have seat covers on them in my taxi anyway. I did come across a pair in Sydney that were in perfect condition for $500 for the pair, but I'm in Perth so freight was going to cost a bunch. So, one tip would be to make some phone calls and find a Proton Satria GTi wreck. This Wikipedia article was useful in finding out which car wrecks to try for seats: http://en.wikipedia....ed_Recaro_seats For parts, Recaro in Australia is bloody expensive. Getting stuff from the UK is the way to go: http://www.capitalseating.co.uk To make sure that my stuff is kept 100% legal, I actually paid $220 for an adapter plate from Recaro to go between the seat and the Falcon rails. It's just a flat bit of metal with a few holes in it, so how the hell they can justify $220 is beyond me. I'll take that plate to a metal fabrication place and get a couple more made up, so that I've got a set (driver and passenger side) for my girlfriend's taxi for when she gives up on the standard seats. Her weekend day driver is bloody huge, and sitting in that seat now is like being a small child sitting on an adult couch.

Wow, $3,000 for a pair of seats is a hell of a lot of money. If you want to start looking at other options, check out Recaro seats. I posted some info about them a while ago: You could find a secondhand set and get them recovered in your choice of colour and trim for a lot less than three grand. Just an option to consider...

Auctions: http://www.pickles.com.au http://www.manheim.com.au Auction is the cheapest way that you'll get a car. There is even a warranty sometimes as well. Even if you end up spending a few hundred patching up a few things (eg machining brake discs) the few grand that you save on the purchase price will offset that. The trick is to do your homework on pricing. And, at the auction, set yourself a limit, and stick to that limit. The big auction places also broadcast the auctions via web site as well. Useful for watching and getting values without blowing off a day sitting around getting bored.

Hookers. Brothels. Mail order would be a tad tricky though.

This thing followed me home yesterday, cost $350: The Aprilia SXV550 is the main two wheeled toy at the moment: Haven't ridden the GasGas FSE450 in ages:

Name: Phil Age : 39 Sex: Male Location: Perth, WA Occupation: Personal Relocation Specialist Description: I assist individuals with particular transportation and relocation requirements, often involving a degree of personal individualised consultation to assist in determining the objective that needs to be arrived at. Translation: taxi driver Drive: 2007 BFII LPG Wagon (taxi) Next Drive: Same thing again. Married: Not a chance in hell. Would get my vasectomy checked and re-done every 12 months if I could.

From an accounting/financial point of view: Keep the Hayabusa. It will lose a bit of depreciation each year, but it's still an asset that you can sell, if/when you have to/want to. If you cash in the bike and spend 10 grand on the car, you'll pretty much get none of it back when you sell the car. It actually can make it harder to sell the car as buyers won't be familiar with the modifications and possible reliability problems.

Replace your brake fluid.

I'm going to get a Tyredog setup for my taxi. For pricing, search eBay or try: http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=tyredog&catId=0

If you really want to get carried away, get a Tramigo T22 fitted (ie GPS tracker). I bought four secondhand ones on eBay UK a few weeks ago and they arrived today. I want something that I can use to locate my taxi if I'm not in it, and disable the car if I get attacked and kicked out of it at night (that's happened to other drivers a bunch of times this year). You send one SMS to get the location, and another SMS can disable the ignition. eBay listing: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130567343653

Most taxis in Perth have moved to a computer system called MT-Data. One thing that we've had to learn with this system is that it drains the battery much quicker than the system that we used to use. I did a bunch of homework earlier this year and ended up getting a Supercharge Gold MF50 (600CCA, 105RC) for $145. This is the same battery that is used in police cars in WA (ie they also have computers that drain the battery quick). When I set up my girlfriend's taxi in April, we put a Delkor battery in. I can't remember the CCA and RC but they were higher than my Supercharge MF50. Go find a taxi workshop and see what they have. Ask what they are using in taxis with the MT-Data system.

Accelera is a company that is part of the YHI International group. They also have Achillies, Nexen and Neuton. I used to run Accelera Alpha tyres on my taxi last year in 235/45R17 size last year, but had to find something else when I went to 18s a few months ago (ie to fit Brembo calipers). The Alpha doesn't come in a suitable 18" size and the Accelera Phi doesn't give good traction in wet conditions. So, it was time to see what else I could use. I used Accelera Alpha tyres last year and early this year after reading this review: http://www.carpoint.com.au/news/2008/tyre-test-2008-6873 I'm now running Neuton NT5000 tyres on my taxi in 235/40ZR18 size. These things have amazing grip on wet roads, which is what I was after. I've been paying $160 a tyre at Eurotyres in Carlisle/Welshpool (ie Perth). I put Brembo six piston brakes on the front of the taxi a couple of weeks ago. It rained all weekend, and I did numerous demonstrations to passengers to show how damn good this stuff is for braking in wet conditions. With the good front brakes and grippy tyres I was doing sudden stops easily without even using the ABS. The four piston rear Brembo stuff went on tonight, so I've got the best setup I can find right now. The Neuton NT5000 tyre was recommended to me by Jimmy, the owner of Eurotyres. I hadn't ever heard of them so went home and did a bunch of web searching. There's the occasional critical feedback, but the overwhelming majority of people that have used that tyre have written very positive reviews. One site that I referred to a lot: http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk Particularly: http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Neuton/NT5000.htm

What is this "not working" that you speak of?

Picked up a spare set of arms from a taxi workshop - I've got the option of either taking the originals back or paying $200 to keep the four arms as spares. I'll probably go looking through the Quokka for a BA/BF wreck and getting some arms for bugger all. I took the spare set to Pedders in Osborne Park, with a bunch of new bushes. Cost me $110 to have them fit the bushes to the arms and they paint them as well. Pedders have heaps of their own arms - if you're going to do the job at home then it would be worth talking to them first - it might be that you can get some arms of them first (with new bushes fitted) and return your old ones later. I dealt with Lex there, he was very helpful.

For a syringe, go to a place that sells stuff for horses. They have heaps of 60 to 70mL syringes. Speed bleeders make it a lot easier to flush brake fluid and bleed brakes. I've got them on my and my girlfriend's taxis. As posted earlier... have a look through this previous thread: Brake Nipples - Speed Bleeders And Brembo & Falcon Standard Brakes How to make brake bleeding VERY easy! www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/topic/75252-brake-nipples-speed-bleeders-and-brembo-falcon-standard-brakes

Yep, it's a full inspection.

Mouse tubes: http://www.dirtbikeworld.net/forum/showthread.php?t=84173

Use Loctite 222 on everything. If you don't want any flats, then look into fitting Bib Mouse tubes (ie solid rubber). Expensive, but no more flats. Otherwise, check with Ballards to see what the thickest possible tubes are and get them. If you're using tubes, there is no reason to go below 15psi. If you're game, then only work on your bike at home with the tools in your bumbag (ie not your toolbox). Then you'll learn what tools to carry and you'll be able to do any repairs on the trail easier.