Tornado's Unwanted Harem: Ayeka... IV?

[Tornado]

Gotta get all the dust out of this thread.

lmao they cost a small fraction to get that they do in New York but here they actually stamp them out.

Begone stupid 180° thermometer.

Begone incandescents tasked with pretending the headlights are circular when it's dark out.

What can be done here?

Begone terrible factory head unit and stupid factory button placement.

Begone crappy Bose paper cone speakers.

Begone terrible factory shifter assembly that changes geare like a pickup truck.

Begone stupid looking amber marker (but confusingly not turn signal) lamps.

(Ignore the wheels being dirty I can scrub them down completely and after five minutes of driving they look like that anyway).

Begone factory CHMSL assemblies.

Now, this is good so far but... Hmmmm. What if we... go deeper with the two-tone?

Neat!

(Also I wired in a spoiler switch like a 996 Turbo)

We can go further though.

Nice.

(Also I bought and successfully wrapped the B-Pillar and the A-Pillars, the latter in a darker grey like the outer gauge cluster; but apparently for the 996.2 Porsche redesigned all those parts so the ones I bought and spent hours preparing didn't fit!)

Cabin air filter is perhaps a bit dirty.

Engine air filter is perhaps a bit dirty.

Begone intake resonator.

In fact, I'm going to rip the hole box out of the intake:

(This surprisingly did smooth throttle response from 5-6k a bit)

Now it's still burbly burbly below 2l but howls when you get on it past 4k or so.


Also I put better headlight bulbs in it.






And yellow foglight bulbs.


​

Anything else?



Well...

There we go.
​

Would have been a lot easier to this point if I had just bought a damn WRX, honestly.

 

[Tornado]

I can hear you already. "You mean you've spent 8 months and not even touched the other car?"


Well.

First all of the fuel lines had to be replaced, and it took me forever to fix all of the things that they screwed up in the process of changing them (still not quite done until I can get help to pull the rear bumper off).

Then someone ran over the front of her (which I'm still waiting to be fixed)

​

But notwithstanding I've been working on some things...

Get a used up set of these.

Go to the junkyard and get some of these (sure is strange how many BMW SUVs there are in this junkyard near Spartanburg)

Do some custom stuff here...

Now I just gotta shove them in there...

And there. New, significantly higher-quality lumbar bladders with replaceable individual chambers for both these new seats to replace the ones that had disintegrated for uh...

$20.

Instead of...





$260.

Get them installed and hooked up to the correct plug after swapping the newer pump system from the original seats...

Now I have a seat that provides significantly more lateral support, gets your head further from the roof, provides much better neck support and is much more comfortable on your back. The best seats I've ever sat in in anything.

All controlled by the much more logical seat controls from the 1994+ cars.


(I still need to figure out how to wire the bolstering to the seat switches since it doesn't work the same way).

(Also I built another gaming chair)

​

But this color combo is terrible, and I'll need to get these seats reupholstered so...





What about red?

Going along nicely.



​

And that's where she stands. Interior partially converted to the previous, vastly superior seat design. Interior partially converted to Flame Red, like the first C4 I drove was. Front end partially damaged and awaiting repair. Clutch partially fried and needing replacement.

This is the end goal:

Except with these doors (hopefully):

Assuming I can successfully paint the doors and don't need to buy a used set of Flame Red 1993 doors (there is a set on eBay right now, so I have a safety valve of sorts at least).


​

At this point I'm already approaching saturation of things I can change relatively easily without spending a ton of money (carpet, new seat covers).


(Well, beyond the not-insubstantial money I already spent on the seats that were trashed and which I will in the end barely use any parts from)



I also lowered the rear about an inch and got a new slightly stiffer front spring that I modified to lower the front. Need a lift to change it out though.










No I still don't think I can get rid of the crappy Buick steering wheel for the earlier one.

 

[wfooshee]

Begone stupid looking amber marker (but confusingly not turn signal) lamps.​

Those still light up amber, right?

 

[Tornado]

Yes. Sequentially, from front to rear.

 

[wfooshee]

Oooh, flashy!

 

[Venom800tt]

Hey, North Carolina means lots of great driving roads on the NC-TN boarder lol

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Love the micro suede interior mods. Might have to steal that for my center bezel on my 986...though I'm not sure what color. Where did you get the shifter from? I've been considering upgrading mine.

 

[Tornado]

It was a standard 997 shifter. Was like a 130 bucks. Throws are only slightly shorter but it has a snick quality like a decent Honda box now. It also, most importantly, eliminates that horrible 1 -> 2 vagueness. I know I'm used to a shifter that has throws about 3 inches long but Porsche should have been embarassed by the shift feel in the 996.



997-424-010-00

 

[Keef]

You're an animal for this. I love seeing sports cars do jobs people don't think they should do.

 

[ICEYOU3]

Ryoko!!! <3

My first Waifu!!

 

[Keef]

Ryoko did it for me too. Middle school was weird. At least the tail thing didn't stick with me.

 

[Tornado]

Look at this:

BORING.




​

GM, for the only C4 that's actually worth anything, trotted this out for their red interior option of the big send off of the generation? Is this some sort of lame-ass C6 red colored interior (not: This hubris will bite me in the ass later)?

It's a long way from the glory days...

​

But wait. Ryoko is Admiral Blue Metallic. Ryoko has a 6 speed. Ryoko has 315 rear tires on black ZR1 wheels. Ryoko was repaired and then repainted like a 1996 model year:

Instead of how she was originally painted:

(It only took 5 months)


​

Why can't Ryoko be a Grand Sport? Remember the goal:

This is the end goal:

Except with these doors (hopefully):

Assuming I can successfully paint the doors and don't need to buy a used set of Flame Red 1993 doors (there is a set on eBay right now, so I have a safety valve of sorts at least).​

So what do we do?

Yes.

YES!







What do you mean they keep rubbing against interior panels and pulling the paint off?

​

Okay. Have to buy the earlier door panels I guess, since red ones of the final style don't outside of NOS ($700 per side). Fine. And hey, they are way higher quality than the... molded piece of hard vinyl that they went to in 1994 anyway; with a difference even more stark than the awful 1994 dashboard and the cool 1993 one.




They're padded.


They're carpeted.


They're multipiece.


They are actually adhered to the door with more than nylon fasteners, friction and a prayer.


The switches actually fit in them (because apparently redesigning a door card to a obscenely cheaper design to cut costs on your flagship car and then making it so the carryover switchgear fits is a step too far for 90s GM).

Yeah, whatever. I'll hand-fit the 1990-1993 inner door skin and custom fit it to fit the 1994+ door mechanisms.

Oh. Immediately after I solved the question of how to adapt the previous seats to the later seat controls, I fried the controller under the passenger seat? Oh. They are basically unobtainium.





That's... fantastic.

Hooray?

Well, I... uh... managed to make them fit. They're not the correct red, and they honestly simply are not as good as the C4 seats, but I can work with these. I can change the covers later. Maybe try and go to the later C6 seat design; which are supposed to be much more supportive:

​

Since the lower frames are much more self-contained than C4 seats, maybe I can even try to mount C4 seats to those frames. Who knows. They are also much quieter, much faster and one of my motors was failing anyway. And hey, they're the sport seats. That means they are heated! I'm sure I can figure out how to wire them! And red seatbelts! And red handbrake cover! Coming right along!

​

What the is this wiring diagram? Why the hell is the wiring nothing like the equivalents from contemporary heated seats from other GM cars? Why is the switch 4 inches deep with a harness that's impossible to mount?

The hell with it. I'll do aftermarket.

​

Since I'm gutting the seats anyway, I'll replace the seat springs with the nicer C4 trapeze style instead of the similar springs that the C4 originally had and GM went away from that squeak and cut up the foam.



I'll beef up the sides of the foam on the bottom cushion, but instead of buying the laughably priced kit I'll just cut shipping foam to the correct shape/size.

5000 steps later

(I still need to find a do the rear speaker covers)

​

I think it came out great. I wish it hadn't taken 7 months.


Or cost... so much.




But I think in the end it was worth it. I'm much happier with this color scheme, and the new carpet (while definitely not being quite as high quality as the original OEM stuff would have been) is much nicer and fits much better than my worn out shrunken old carpet. I also by and large avoided the horrendously annoying parts (the kick panels, the driver's side hush panel) because I just bought used Flame Red ones so I wouldn't have to bother.






"But what about Ayeka, you're asking."



Well, I bought this:

(No I don't drive with it on all the time)
​

And changed the driver's side window regulator 3 times:

 

[Darla Starch]

TIL the heated seat buttons for a C4 Corvette are located in what appears to be a change bin in the center console

 

[Tornado]

LAME

​

Why not set some more money on fire?

​

Another 8 pound per corner weight savings!








Front brakes are looking might small tho...

WOW. C5 brakes look great. Too bad the brackets I bought weren't for the C6 Z51 brakes like the seller said!

​

But wait.

Those are the exact same brakes (albeit on different bolt sizes). What about... the Cobra R Brembos?

No. I think not.







Wait, what!?

Those things felt phenomenal on Ayeka II, and that weighed at least 500 pounds more than Ryoko did. These are also the same brakes that the base C7 uses, just painted differently.

Like they were made to go there. And they are... uh... quite a bit cheaper than C5 calipers + C6 Z51 caliper brackets + C4 knuckle adapter brackets.
And the just bolt right onto the knuckles. whereas C5 guys need to grind them because the C5 knuckle spaces them so far out that they need to use 14" C6 Z06 brakes (that don't fit under the caliper as is).

And lighter.

Since I can't change the rear brakes on a later C4 let's fiddle with some brake pad type differences.

There's also this:

And this:

And finally this:

(Also I pulled the airbags out of them)




​

But what about the Princess of Jurai, you say? Well...

Now, this is good so far but... Hmmmm. What if we... go deeper with the two-tone?

Neat!​

lol I changed my mind

Rinse wash repeat about 7 times, but...

​

And:

Begone crappy Bose paper cone speakers.​

lmao I never actually liked how these sounded. Way too bright.

​

 

[ImaRobot]

What did you use for the caliper paint? Saw a company called G2 pop up on my instagram so I saved it because I eventually want to swap from red(or the red + black overspray/grime combo I have currently going on from the previous owner.)

 

[Tornado]

I ultimately just used POR-15 off Amazon and like a dozen cheapo paintbrushes I got from Wal-Mart when I decided that rattlecan caliper paint made far too much of a mess and damaged too easily. I would suggest buying a dozen cheapo paintbrushes at the same time and just tossing them every 15 minutes instead of trying to even bother cleaning the paint off of them. There was enough paint to have done all 4 if I hadn't changed my mind halfway through the job and switched to different calipers; and the process was far less fussy (and cheaper) than the G2 kit with what seems to be comparable results.









Oh and I forgot to say but Ryoko needed a clutch and I assumed a flywheel so I just had both done with an aluminum one.

 

[ImaRobot]

I ultimately just used POR-15 off Amazon and like a dozen cheapo paintbrushes I got from Wal-Mart when I decided that rattlecan caliper paint made far too much of a mess and damaged too easily. I would suggest buying a dozen cheapo paintbrushes at the same time and just tossing them every 15 minutes instead of trying to even bother cleaning the paint off of them. There was enough paint to have done all 4 if I hadn't changed my mind halfway through the job and switched to different calipers; and the process was far less fussy (and cheaper) than the G2 kit with what seems to be comparable results.









Oh and I forgot to say but Ryoko needed a clutch and I assumed a flywheel so I just had both done with an aluminum one.

Thanks, I might go this route then. Only reason I was considering G2 was the fact that they match Manufacturer colors, and saw that Porsche had this really nice dark purple that I thought would look great on the Abarth. Expensive as hell, though. If I end up managing to convince myself against G2, I'll probably go for the yellow in the link you posted.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

@Tornado

So you sanded the texture off the center console rather than filled in with some sort of compound? I've been wanting to do a similar project with a spare console, color matching it to my artic silver paint color. Did you pick that one up from ebay or something?

 

[Tornado]

Yeah I bought a second center console for super cheap, repaired the broken tabs and then sanded it down and repainted it with some silver I got from the automotive section at Wal-Mart.


Anyway...

Little known fact because the IP was always anime first so rarely did the manga even get distributed outside of Japan, but Ayeka's true hair color is actually blue.

She did goofy space science stuff to genetically modify herself so she would think she's more attractive. I feel like dying it would have been easier, but with this knowledge we can apply the transitive property to real life:

4000 pounds.

3500 pounds.

3000 pounds.



And, without further ado, Ayeka IV:

2000 Pounds.
​

Or, put another way:

The trouble is that I won't have a car payment soon and that will need to be corrected.

Or, put another another way:

How the hell did Lotus design a targa top that's even worse than a C4's, even though it's not structural.
​

 

[homeforsummer]

Well, I did not expect this. The American stuff? Sure, that all made sense together. The Porsche? Bit of a diversion, definitely throwing some variety in there. The Lotus? Mad brilliance. Only a matter of time before I buy one of those myself.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Any updates on the harem roster?

 

[Tornado]

Any updates on the harem roster?

Soon™