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Thread: Confused's Long-Term Legnum Project

  1. #21

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    If you do decide on a different colour, can I suggest Infiniti Malbec black, colour code GAC, just repainted my car in it, looks stunning, google image it, I'll have pics up soon, maybe after the weekend, if I can find a nice sunny day.

  2. #22
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    Just had a look on Google, seems quite a nice colour! Not sure if it's what I'm looking for, but will certainly keep it in mind and try to find a car so i can see it in person

  3. #23
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    Not much done since the last update, but I did give the front bumper a *very* quick paint - I literally washed the car, let it dry, masked up lights, bottom edge of grill, numberplate and canards, and sprayed it with a can of Trigger Mauve.

    No other prep was done, no sanding, no degreasing, no nothing!

    2017-04-22 15.53.09.jpg

    It'll do for now!

  4. #24

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    Not too shabby, looks like it needs a lacquer though!

  5. #25
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    I did consider lacquering it the following day, but it was pointed out to me that that'll mean another layer to remove to properly prep for the final colour! So, it'll stay as is for now... (I actually quite like the matt look!)
    Last edited by Confused; 27-04-2017 at 07:47 AM.

  6. #26

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    loving this read up lpg and larger intercooler is the next mods i was thinking about.

  7. #27
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    @Confused hows LPG doing? all fine?
    His FL Legnum VR4 running 238.8 ATW HP and 500Nm @1.05 bar on LPG
    Hers PFL Legnum VR4 COTY see here for full story
    Looking for AMSoil? click here

    living in north west?
    would you like to meet with other VR4 fanatics?
    click here

    My recent and ex Mitsubishi's


  8. #28
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    Still got that misfire/shuddering at idle, but that's on petrol and LPG. Other than that, working well, and getting around 19 MPG at the moment - but I think I can lean it out a bit under throttle, I'm seeing AFRs going into the 9s!

  9. #29

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    great write up very interesting on the LPG fair play having a go yourself !!

  10. #30
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    I my opinion LPG should be the first MOD you do to VR4 it has saved me thousands on fuel bills since i had mine converted to run on LPG and petrol.
    if you are going to keep your car for a while and actually use your car on a regular basis then it is a no brainer choice.
    i just wish i had converted mne as soon as got it rather than waiting 2 years or so.

    you just need to work out what you spend on fuel in a year and half it to run on LPG.
    here are my rough figures.

    12000 miles a year
    20MPG with the tune ii have put in my ecu.
    using V power 1.20L ish (£1.28 for me at the moment).
    600 gallons petrol a year.
    600 gal * 4.54 to get litres 2724L
    2724 L* £1.20 £3268.80
    LPG is half the cost and i get the same MPG on LPG as i do on petrol
    LPG is a maximum of half the price of petrol but you can get it cheaper much cheaper if you know where to look i can get it for 50pL at the moment.
    £3268 / 2 =£1634 i save a minimum of year in rough figures
    so i have £1634 to spend on mods every year that i would not have had to play with.
    it's a win win for me as my car is my daily driver.

    you just need to do the maths on your expected milage to see if it is right for you from the cost perpestive.
    however from a performance point of view you can run muh more ignition timing with the LPG fuel than you can with petrol due to the extra octane of LPG protecting against knock/detonation.

    Bye for Now!

  11. #31

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    Little sample of the colour I got on mine, she's not polished yet, it will be finished one day...

    IMG_0907.JPG

    IMG_0892.JPG

    That's the Infiniti Malbec Black, looks black most angles, but comes alive at others in a deep purple spangle.

    Sorry about angle.

  12. #32
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    After fitting the intercooler, I had a bit of a boost leak (most noticeable when towing, as it's a prolonged load, which is more difficult to do under normal driving) - it'd get up to ~0.8 bar then hiccup and the gauge would drop to ~0.6 then back up to 0.8 again.

    The original clamps I purchased (74-79mm and 86-91mm), when tightened, ended up touching (as in the attached photo where I'm holding one).

    Now I've fitted one size smaller for each type, they've gone nice and tight but still with extra room for adjustment, which is how it should have been!


    I've also fitted a full replacement set of door pin switches, as none of mine worked (still 2nd hand but working as of time of fitting) and it was annoying getting in or out of the car in the dark, and replaced a couple of tie down hooks in the boot, as they had become a little twisted (by tightening up ratchet straps too tight!) and the plastic covers over the bolts had snapped off where I've had then off so many times for CarPC related stuff in the past.


    LPG wise, getting around 20mpg with mixed driving, and around 14 when towing (was getting 17 towing on petrol). In order to get it on the LPG register, I needed to fit a fixed bayonet filling point, which has gone onto the tow bar. It's actually quite convenient, so I've left it, rather than using the hidden one. (If I didn't have a tow bar, I'd be using the hidden one and would have removed the visible one!)


    I've also fitted a facelift front grill.

    My boot load cover was rattling, so I've put some new fuzzy felt stuff on the ends where it sits into the car - in fetching pink for now, until I can get hold of some black fuzzy felt!
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Confused; 01-07-2017 at 08:11 PM.

  13. #33
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    I'm not too happy with the bluetooth stereo I fitted - yeah, it does the job, but it's purely there for volume control at the moment - it doesn't display the song, it kind of works for hands-free, but... it's a bit rubbish.

    I used to have a CarPC fitted - but I stopped using it a few years ago when mobile phones became better. I had music and nav on tap, and they pretty much just worked.

    But, I'm a techie at heart, so wanted something a bit different. There's plenty of Android-based head units out there, of varying quality, and varying prices, and it's a bit of a minefield.

    So... I'm going down a slightly different route to that, and am going to fit a tablet instead.

    My weapon of choice is the 2017, 7th generation Kindle Fire 7".

    61h4Gjx2TfL._SL1000_.jpg

    Just the baby 8GB one, as I don't expect to be storing much locally (and it's at least got expandable storage with a MicroSD card). Oh, and it only cost £40 during Amazon's recent Prime Day... yeah... I fell for their marketing techniques, I wasn't even considering going down this route...

    There's plenty of people who have fitted tablets into their cars, but many have used iPads or Google Nexus 7 - which have great support out there. The Kindle... not quite so much, so a lot of this is going to be trial and error.

    There are two most important things I need to consider:

    1) It just works
    2) It just works!

    This will involve a lot of things, not least of which is the power situation. I don't use the car daily, it can sometimes sit for nearly a week without being used, so it needs to still have some charge in the battery when I come back to the car. This will mean disabling stuff I won't need when the car isn't in use, and enabling them again when I need them. This will also mean making sure that I'm very careful with the applications I install - poorly programmed software could drain the battery in hours.

    When I turn the key, I'll apply power - this will need to wake the device up, enable everything it needs to, and set the music playing. When I switch off, it will need to disable everything, and put itself to sleep.


    As a pure music player, it'd be quite simple - throw some music onto an SD card, and let it play. Simples. However... I use Google Play Music currently, and it's set on my computer to automatically upload any new music I add - and as I listen to music mostly in the car nowadays, I want this newly acquired music to be available to me ASAP, and on-demand. This means the tablet needs an active internet connection.

    It's got WiFi, but no 3G/4G connectivity, so this means it'll be reliant on my mobile phone to provide the internet access it needs via a WiFi hotspot. This will need to happen automatically on my phone when needed - but most importantly switch itself back off and re-enable WiFi so I'm not using my mobile data on my phone when I've got a WiFi connection! I won't be buying another device to provide internet access to the tablet - I don't want an additional monthly cost to maintain this solution.


    With music sorted (in theory), the next thing is navigation - with that lovely screen in a prominent position, it seems silly to not use nav! However... the tablet has no GPS! Another way of saving an extra couple of pennies on the manufacturing price - so this will need to be sorted. There's three options I will investigate:
    1) Bluetooth GPS receiver
    2) USB bluetooth receiver
    3) Feed the GPS signal from my phone to the tablet

    I'm linking the two for internet access for music, so I will go down route 3 to start with, as that requires no additional hardware purchases - again, keeping the cost down!!

  14. #34
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    There's two aspects to this - getting the hardware physically installed, and getting the software side right. I'm still tweaking the software, so I'll save the details of that for later, and instead show off the hardware side of things, as this is now complete!


    Two additional purchases were required to fit:

    A power source:
    micro-use-left-angle.jpg
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00U2DGHP2/

    And a way of getting audio from the tablet:
    audio-cable.jpg
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01K3WXJI4


    First off, though, was removing the dash panel and the headunit I'd put in a few months ago, and figuring out how to hold the tablet in place.

    I thought about trying to use a couple of the existing cubby trays and modifying them to support the the tablet in the dash first, then putting the fascia back on afterwards.

    IMG-20170717-WA0000.jpg

    (Is this the rare 'poverty spec' car?)

    But, in the end, I decided the better option was to fit the tablet securely into the fascia first, so that it will be a square fit. So, out came the Stanley knife, and very carefully, removed parts of the little "fingers" that go around the headunit - just enough to hold the tablet firmly.

    IMG_20170718_094701.jpg

    The top fingers were removed completely, and the top of the tablet rests against the metal support. The bottom ones were shaped so that the tablet "clicks" into place slightly. The side ones cut enough to centralise the tablet in the opening, and prevent sideways movement.

    An additional small amount taken off one side allows the power and audio cables to be connected and sit flush without any stresses.

    IMG_20170718_094749.jpgIMG_20170718_094757.jpg


    With the CarPC screens, I had always tried to secure the screens to the fascia, but with limited success (they often used to fall backwards!). As the tablet is much thinner than any screen I've ever used, I had another option this time, as I didn't need to remove the original mounting brackets - so I gave the tablet something to push against to prevent it falling backwards - a nice bit of 6x2 timber!

    IMG_20170718_094643.jpg

    I cut this to the width of a standard headunit. You'll notice also that the headunit is back in shot - I wanted to keep the headunit for volume control (no access to the physical volume buttons on the tablet, and not wanting to rely on software buttons which may not always be responsive, and the ability to feel for the volume button without taking my eyes off the road), and I also wanted the headunit for bluetooth connectivity to my phone for hands-free calling.

    This is simply suspended by making up two steel brackets which affix to the side of the headunit on the standard mounting screws, and into the radio support bracket, where the bit of timber is screwed. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of this part as I was putting it together - if I ever take it out again, I'll try to remember to take a photo - but it's two flat bits of steel with 4 holes drilled in each... use your imaginations!


    I could now finishing wiring everything up - the power for the tablet has been spliced in to the accessory power feed into the stereo, and the audio lead into the back of the stereo I used a 3.5mm extender, and a separate 3.5mm to RCA cable, rather than a single cable, as I couldn't find a low-profile right-angled 3.5mm jack with RCA in a single lead. I'm glad now I went for this combination as the 3.5mm plug and Micro USB power lead sit together very nicely, and a larger 3.5mm plug would have interfered with the power cable.

    With all of this plugged in, it was time to put the dash fascia back in!


    Some of you may have guessed already - the headunit is where it is, because it sits just right where the sunglasses holder is!

    IMG_20170718_100159.jpg

    I've never used the sunglasses holder in the 8 years I've owned the car, and I'm not about to now, so it really isn't an issue to lose it, and be replaced with a headunit! This headunit's front panel is a few mm narrower than standard, so it fits without any additional cutting! For other headunits, I may have needed to trim the mounting points for slightly to give a little extra width.

    The power and audio cables slotted nicely in the gap between the standard mounting bracket and the outside edge of the dash, they were made for it!



    As I said earlier, the software side still needs a small amount of tweaking to get it right, so I'll leave that part for now!

  15. #35

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    Looks good.

    How well does the screen work in strong sunlight and also at the angle you'll be seated at? I had a PC and screen in my old MR2 and it was awful in any kind of sunlight (this was 12 years ago now though)

    From the picture only, it looks like a strong reflection in the glass, Are you going to add a screen protector to reduce that?

    I've been thinking about doing something similar for a while just haven't got off my ar5e yet so I'm looking at you for inspiration... No pressure

    Stuart

  16. #36
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    Looking good bud. I need to spend some time on my car pc but I need the car running again first!

  17. #37
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    It doesn't seem to wash out too much on direct sunlight, and there are a few reflections, but for mostly music (and occasionally nav once I sort it) it won't really affect me too much I don't think.

    Time will tell

  18. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by Confused View Post
    The first VR-4 with *real* wood in the dash?!
    October 2023 fleet status: 100% operational


    | Legnum VR-4S | Fiat Panda 100HP !! | a blue one! | Avensis T-180 | VR-4 parts van! |

    Why not become a full member of CVR4 and enjoy the additional benefits membership brings?! Information here.

  19. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by elnevio View Post
    The first VR-4 with *real* wood in the dash?!

  20. #40

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    Quote Originally Posted by elnevio View Post
    The first VR-4 with *real* wood in the dash?!
    🤣🤣 good one

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