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**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 08:03 AM

February 2015: One day driving to school in the morning on my normal route through Bronte, my mate spots a Cuore for sale. We stopped to have a quick look joking about me buying a third one. Then we see inside and the clock shows just over 40,000KM. I could not believe it. Then we proceeded to the back to see the for sale sign expecting somewhere around $4-5K asking price. He wanted $1,600 ONO. Obversely too good to be true.

That afternoon I gave the guy a call and organised a test drive. He said it was previously owned by a elderly women who he got it off a year ago and it had only 29,000km on the clock, which explains the ultra low millage. The next day I took it to my mechanic to get the car assessed and just check that there was nothing wrong. I offered him $1,250 cash and he took it, I truely could not believe my luck.

The only thing that I was not looking forward to was the slush box 3 speed auto. The car uses around double the fuel of the manual when doing 100kph+ on the highway. This is due to the car revving so much higher thanks to the gear ratios.

Here the three cars the day I bought the blue one which I have named Kelly. The name Kelly is somewhat of a reference from a South Park episode.

The first thing to do with the car was swap over everything from the second white car. That included suspension, audio gear, facelift front and rear seats, lights and more. While I was sorting everything out I got the tyres switched out front and rear. They actually had heaps of tread left on them. I am actually fairly sure they are the original tyres that were fitted to the car over 15 years ago. They had to go though as they starting cracking and one was bound to explode.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 08:39 AM

April 2015: I decided I wanted to hear more of the mighty 3 cylinder power! So I had the original and absolutely massive rear muffler cut out and a hot-dog resonator installed in its place. While I was there it was a good time to also have a nice and larger rolled end, chrome tip. All the work was done by Tuffy Mufflers and they did a great job on everything. All up it only cost me $180 and for the smile it gives me every time I drive the car it was well worth it.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 08:41 AM

APRIL 2015: After a long wash and wax it was time for a drive through La Perouse for some pictures.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 08:53 AM

April 2015: Time for the first ever MCM Nations. Man what a day this was, there was so much madness in one place. It was incredibly well organised with so many activities. The drift car passenger rides were great fun. Drags were the highlight for me!

My brother and I woke up at the crack of dawn to get the two cars ready for the event.

The brothers SS also got some love in front of the camera.

The best of course were the drags. First time I have gone on the strip and I could not have done it in a more inappropriate drag car, The Cuore. I suppose something to be happy was I was not the slowest. Rather second slowest beating a Holden Astra. Getting a chance to have a legal drag with my brother was also heaps of fun.

I managed a best of 19.387 at 69.11MPH. Slow? Yes. Fun? OH YEAH! My brother managed a much faster 13.342 at 108MPH.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 09:08 AM

July 2015: Next thing on the list was power windows. Something I have been wanting to do for quite awhile. Reason being is its not so much because of having to wind up the driver window its the passenger one, its just a massive effort while I am driving and at times can be dangerous. Plus I am lazy

Got the kit directly from Rapid Electronics and started to get my head around everything.

This is the exact same kit that was used in the Electric Window Conversion episode from the show and funny enough basically the same car. The instructions provided were rather vague but I suppose the fact that it is a universal kit its fair enough.

While working on the car I hear what sounds like a crash, I was keen to investigate. Turns out a lady with a alcohol reading 0.147 drove straight into the house down my street. You might have seen this on the news.

Regardless, I returned and continued on the install. The door times came off, despite my frustration with that stupid clip to hold the window winders on they finally came off, happily something I will never have to deal with again. I then mocked up the positioning.

After getting everything mounted I proceeded to hook it up to a battery and test it all out. I was pretty surprised at the speed of the windows especially after some silicon spray.

The next thing which I was most worried about was wiring power in. Again the instructions were not any help. The video did help but I just started thinking of places where I could get switchable power from. Cigarette lighter came to mind but of course wires were not up to the task and blew the fuse for it and the stereo. So after many tries I decided to call it quits for now as it was already the early hours of the morning and it was a school night. PS those keys on the left are my Mums, jumper leads were in her car.

After a nice phone call to Myles, which if it was not for him I would not have got it working and a trip down to Supercheap Auto to get a multimeter and test light, I ended up getting everything working perfectly. I picked up power from behind the key barrel for those wondering. A massive thanks to Myles again, He was so helpful and understanding my lack of knowledge.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 09:44 AM

July 2015: Something that has also been long on the list is tints.

I have been super keen to learn tinting. Its been something the car has really been missing and it was long overdue. I decided to go with Johnson Films 20% VLT. I did both mine and my mates Bugeye WRX. Did my car first as the last thing I wanted to was screw his car up. Especially as the person that did his on the car before he got it, looked like arse. He was happy to seem them come off. Its funny because on my car after each window it looks better of getting in the practice. Cutting it was the hardest part. I am going to at some point redo some of my side windows but certainly not something that has bothering me at the moment. Both cars cost around $350 which included purchasing the tools needed for the job.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 09:54 AM

July 2015: Something I have been meaning to do for awhile is chuck central locking in the car. As I am sick of always tell my mates Did you lock the door, because they never do.

The kit I decided to go with was a Radio Wave kit, mainly because its got a nice key fob. Got my head around everything and with a careful read of the instructions I got started. Laid everything on my desk.

Started to mock and measure everything out and then proceeded to the install. Measure twice, cut once!

Everything fitted up quite nicely. One thing is the wires for the left side of the car were quite short but due to the fact that I was not needing to use the wire provided for rear doors I could use the left over wire from simplifying the loom as pickup wire. It means that I can also use the left over actuator for a boot release as my car is a 2000 and do not get a boot release cable, win!

I have yet to wire up the boot release as I just have not had time. Something I also have not done yet is wire up the horn and indicators to the unit as it has the feature to trigger when locked and unlocked which is neat. Soon. Also this is the key that comes with it.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 10:04 AM

July 2015: Next up was to chuck on the weather shields that I got from Japan. For those wondering they were $105 to my door. Not to bad as you cannot exactly get then in Australia. They say Mira on them which makes me extra happy.

Getting all the old shit off them was tough but eventually got it all off! New 3M tape went on.

They come as this like almost purple clear plastic which I really do not like. Nothing a bit of Plasti-Dip cannot fix. I will paint them a nice glossy black at a later point but it will do for now.

Really happy with how they look.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 10:16 AM

July 2015: Another thing was a few finishing touches witch just included some blue lighting around and in inside the car.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 10:20 AM

July 2015: Went to Supercheap Auto today to grab some paint and ended up spending WAY more than I intended lol. At least I can do my major service this weekend.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 10:23 AM

October 2015: Something we also did was have our recent L700 meet. Our group is slowly growing with more and more people getting really into Cuores, and interestingly enough quite a few people converting to Ginos which is MADD!

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 10:25 AM

October 2015: Unfortunately the car is not running at the moment. Issue seems to be the alternator. Had a big drive with lots of subwoofer action the day before it ran out of rego and the next say when I went to start it, nothing! Threw a charged battery in it and it was perfect. I have already gotten another alternator which I will fit at some point, most likely in the next month when I get rego back on the car. Luckily I have another car to drive, finally got my Subie

What I had done is got some personalised plates for the car, I was really wanting to get rid of the old yellow plates and it wasn't much extra to get some custom.

Excuse the car being so dirty its been sitting the spot looking sad for about a month now

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 10:27 AM

June 2016: It is crazy to think that the cuore has been sitting in the garage without rego for almost a year. It came so close to rego so many times but something always came up and it just never happened.

That is, until now. The car needed a good wash and a quick go through. That started with going through the car and removing the central locking, it was getting in the way and really is not needed. Maybe I will replace it with something in the future.

**applegeek897** · 09-02-2017, 10:29 AM

October 2016: After a months of daily driving the car has it has been completely flawless. Couple things that have been on the list is some JDM style plates and some new tints, this time 15% with a nice large windscreen strip.

Something I thought I would do more for a laugh is after a walk through a new recently opened Supercheap Auto in my area is some sexy new clip on hub caps, I actually think they look really nice. I am still yet to restore my 15s but I have many other things on the list before that, plus the current tyres on the car are basically new so it will be a bit of a waste.

My mate has been using the car for the last month as his trusty 80s corolla finally kicked it. He replaced it was a nice WRX powered Gen 2 Legacy wagon once owned by The Mechanical Stig himself. That and my Subaru also got a nice bath today.

Announcement

James' Daihatsu Cuore "SKD555"

James' Daihatsu Cuore "SKD555"

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