This thread is awesome. Thanks for sharing your progress.

Damn I wish I was 10% as industrious as you are!!

 

Let's see if somebody can shed some light on this.I managed to remove the rusty nut and bolt from the exhaust tips, but it turns out the mufflers I restored are from a Carrera S, which have 60mm diameter tips. The regular Carrera (mine) uses smaller tips, about 50mm, and an internal clamp.

I removed the clamp and left the tip as it is (you can see it on the ground, on top of the tip):
And I managed to get the internal diameter to be approximately 54mm.

On the other hand, where it needs to be fitted, at the muffler outlet, there’s an external diameter of 59mm:
It's not much of a difference, but it doesn't fit at all.

Does anyone have any idea how I could solve it? The tip has a slit where the external clamp goes, I suppose to allow some flexibility, and to allow some degree of tightening with the bolt and nut. I was thinking of cutting another similar slit on the other side, and somehow enlarging it a bit manually.

The other option would be to weld a piece of 60mm pipe, but the difference is so small that it seems pointless.

I could buy Carrera S tips, but I really like how the regular Carrera tips look:

 

You have to buy an adaptor from FVD. They're on sale now for $50.


https://www.fvd.net/us-en/FVD111997A...-pse-tips.html

 

No, I need the other way around. The tip size is smaller than the silencer. That's why I was asking for ideas

 

ok 🤣

 

Teeny-weeny update as I've been enjoying the car and getting used to the new exhaust. I was holding on this because it spoils a bit the direction of the project, but oh well.

I replaced the gauges and got a set from @gaugefaces .

















Issues:

I broke the connector when I removed the cluster. It was very brittle. I've ordered a new one and will be swapping it as I don't want the cluster disconnecting when I go over bump. Also, the oil temp gauge is not working. I think I pressed the needle too hard when reinstalling it. When I remove the cluster again to change the connector I'll fix that too.

 

New update

I installed Bilstein B16 Damptronic coilovers together with a Cargraphic nose lift kit and Elephant Racing camber plates. It went more or less OK, a couple of rusty bolts that required some blow torch treatment, but all in all it wasn't too bad.





I have mixed feelings with regards to the Airlift kit. The kit is very well made and everything looks like quality, but the instructions were terrible, to the point I had to email Cargraphic 5 times to ask about stuff that was not clear in the PDF they sent. And the worst part is that they ignored the emails and stopped answering altogether, so we had to figure out how this worked. I hadn't seen anyone that had this combo (B16 PASM + Airlift kit + camber plates) so there were a lots of bits and pieces from the 3 different parts that were either required or not, and it was like a big and expensive Lego.



In the end we didn't use these:


The whole assembly:



In the back I kept the original top mounts but changed the OEM squishy bump stops for some Powerflex ones, which are stiffer.


Reaching the rear top mounts was a bit of a nightmare:


With that done, it was time for routing the electrical connections and the air lines. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of the assembled thing, but I'll do soon as I'm not quite happy with one of the lines and want to redo it. But you can't see almost anything, I'm quite happy with the routing.





By the way, thanks to @Petza914 for uploading the instructions PDF to the forum. I wasn't sure of how to connect one of the cables and the instructions didn't mention anything about it, but I came across another thread in which he had uploaded an earlier version of the instructions which included more pics of the electrical installation part and I could figure out how to do it.

I routed both the PASM cable and the airline through a hole that I found next to the coilover in the wheel well, and I added a rubber grommet in order to not destroy them when driving. I think it came out pretty neat.



Now for the part I don't like as much:

I'm pretty sure the kit shouldn't work like this. I thought air would be pumped either for a fixed time (45 seconds according to Cargraphic) or up to a specified pressure in the system. It doesn't. It always runs for 45 although maximum height is reached at around 15 seconds, so the pump is running for 30 more seconds and there's a pressure relieve valve that at first thought was a leak in one of the bellows, but after asking Cargraphic they say is normal. I don't think it is but they won't send a replacement:



Also, maybe a minute after having raised the front, and without moving the car, you can clearly hear how the air is escaping, and without airing out, the car reaches the original height at around 3.5 minutes from air having escaped. It's clearly noticeable with ignition on and engine off (listen to the sound of the suspension compressing little by little):



Again, not really happy with how it works and the response I've received from Cargraphic. According to them it is normal operation and it does indeed raise the front of the car to be able to go through bumps, but if I had known this I would have either bought the Stanceparts system, which is 800 euros instead of 3000, or looked into another solution. So if you are thinking on buying this kit, be aware of this.

Apart from that, I love the Bilstein B16 kit. It is indeed harsher, but less than I expected, and I plan to pair it with a DSC controller soon. The camber plates did their job and I'm now running -2 camber in the front with stock LCAs.

 

By the way, I've started an instagram account for the car and everything being done to it prior to the RWB transformation in case you want to give it a follow: https://www.instagram.com/rwb_barcelona

 

Nice work. My older version doesn't work like what you describe. It runs the compressor and pump up to a certain pressure, then shuts off the compressor (usually 3-5 seconds). If I'm driving and I accelerate a little, it unweights the front and the compressor kicks on again for a second and adds more air, then stops again. It stays in this active mode for some period of time - maybe 45 seconds where it will add air when needed but not constantly run the compressor until it either times out (releases all the air) a certain speed is reached (releases all the air), or I press the lower button(releases all the air).

Mine definitely does not continuously pump for 45 seconds while continuously releasing air. It sounds to me like maybe one of the AirLift assemblies may be leaking so the compressor keeps running. When you hear the air escaping, is it from one side of the car (like one shock) or from the release mechanism like when you hit the lower button?

 

It's clearly from one of the shocks (driver side), in the video I actually put my hand where I can feel the air escaping. That's what I told them in the email and this is their answer: