My 6 year FC project

[vex]

Can't wait to see it!

As soon as my wife gets a job I'll be able to pick up some new parts to finish up the engine bay/get it where I want.

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by WE3RX7

As with the entire project, every bit of hardware was inspected, cleaned and recoated as needed. I also modified the stock brake dust shield as you can see in the last pic. The new brake rotors will measure almost 12" and the stock cover is for 10.2" rotors... Once the new brakes come in, I'll have to find a handy tig welder to make my new dust covers. I want to integrate a cooling duct into it as well...

What the hell man! Did I tell you my plan for the brakes over the winter?

[WE3RX7]

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

What the hell man! Did I tell you my plan for the brakes over the winter?

I dont believe so, lol. Let me guess - wilwood 4 pot?

I actually spoke to Wilwood about 5 months ago about designing a kit for my car, then fastbrakes.com released their kit but in 5 lug. I contacted them and they said as long as wilwood makes the rotor hat in the 4 lug, they can supply the kit to me and it was a few hundred less than wilwood wanted direct, so yea.. it'll be good.

I am going to run FD rear brake calipers and custom wilwood rear brake rotor... that will probably all happen over the winter...

[WE3RX7]

Originally Posted by vex

Can't wait to see it!

As soon as my wife gets a job I'll be able to pick up some new parts to finish up the engine bay/get it where I want.

I thought your wedding was later this month! Cool man - we'll definitely have to catch up again and see how the cars are coming along...

[WE3RX7]

Its been a month and no update - wow. With guys like Brian (and his buddy's T2) and Sean building sick FCs, I feel like a huge slacker now, lol.

With my wedding a week away, I knew I wouldnt have time to get any large projects started on the car until late October, so thats where I am. In preparation though, I've been collecting parts and they are slowly trickling in.

My steering parts from URAS and SuperNow are in so I can complete the front end rebuild (the steering rack was the final step), some odds and ends here and there (tow hook, mirror plates, etc). I've got lizard skin ready to be laid down, my buddy is checking out a car in GA for me that will hopefully have the clean black interior I'm looking for and deposits have been paid for the new hood and bumper, etc.

IF this car makes it to DGRR 2010, this is how its going to happen. If any part of this timeline should fail, I will not make the deadline.

End of October - steering rack rebuilt, installed with new Supernow & URAS parts

End of November - completed undercoating of the entire car and lizard skin on the interior

End of December - car bodywork completed and painted

End of January - new interior from donor car installed, along with new roll cage

End of February - engine torn down and rebuild begins

End of March - engine assembled and in the car, accessories installed and EMS wired


Realistically, I'm doubtful this project goes so smoothly... its been almost 7 years now and every time I build the car, the engine rebuild drags on due to bad parts or something goes wrong with the bodywork! It should be ready for DGRR 2011 though

[WE3RX7]

Just some shots of the parts, nothing too exciting... I'm just glad they showed up now versus while I was away on vacation since they MUST be signed for.

URAS inner tie rods with built in spacers. These guys are BEEFY! I'll compare them to stock ones when I pull the stockers out.


Another shot of the spacer... very well built IMHO.


SuperNow adjustable outer rods


SuperNow titanium tow hook. It was hard to find one that I liked and wouldnt involve much interference with the front end for the FC chassis. The pics dont do it justice either, its actually a really nice part - just doesnt come with hardware which would have been an added bonus!


Finally, in this box at least, some mirror mounts from SuperNow. I love the F1 style mirrors and these brackets should do the trick to get some mounted to the body for me


The of the stock pile is just supplies (por, lizard skin, etc) no glorious shots for ya!

Cant wait for the wedding and honeymoon but the fact that I get to work on the car again in October makes me happy!!

[TitaniumTT]

Lay down the car law EARLY. As soon as you get back from the honeymoon, drop the bags in the front hallway and say, "Hun, I need a sammich and some time alone with my mistriss." And just walk away. Maybe let her catch you in the garage with your pants around your ankles

Congrats Bill.... on the upcoming nuptuals mostly. The pile of parts looks pretty badass too. Digging that towhook

[FC3S Murray]

Yeah Congrats man!! I wish you two the best.

Your timeline makes me smile. That looks like what I had one paper when I got back from Iraq. Those damn hic-ups slow you down but also seem to educate. I hope you get it all done bro.

MAN those Supernow parts are sweet ass sweet.

[TitaniumTT]

So Bill......... you gonna cut the honeymoon short?

J/K - congrats man.

[WE3RX7]

Ah - I'm back already... and hating every minute! Water was 84.9 degrees in St. Thomas!

I spent a bit too much on those damned duty free islands, but I should still be able to make my October goal, I'll get back into the swing of it this weekend and post some updates

[FC3S Murray]

Now get to work!!!!

[WE3RX7]

I'm really due for an update.

First off. The honeymoon was good, minus the flu I caught on the way down. After recovering from that, I came home to a shit storm at work (hate being the only one who knows how to do anything!) - once I caught up on that I had minor surgery and then of course, holidays.

Putting it kindly - I'm behind. There were some issues during the work being performed that have put me a back a bit too.

I'm roughly one month off from the timeline I set in the earlier threads.

For my update though, I have accomplished October's tasks and SOME of novembers, not done undercoating yet and havent started the lizard skin interior.



For starters... I've rebuilt my steering rack following mostly what I got from flyin miata's writeup and Brian's thread in the FC section.

Some snags along the way would be the c-clip holding the quil cover down broke... had to order one since they dont stock a 44mm c-clip anywhere!

Secondly, dont have a TIG welder. Needed some m12x1.25 set screws to block off the holes left in the quil housing. Again - they dont stock those, they had to be ordered.

Other than that - it went smoothly. Here are some shots (sorry not as many - but the work was fast and messy). Busted out my old digi cam for these, so the pics arent great.

Here's the URAS inner tod rod comparison to stock:

I pulled the old ones off w/ outer rods in place (later removed but kept old inners for "extras" just in case)


Here is the big different between the URAS and stockers. Note the extra height in the URAS version on the left (adds additional steering angle) and the material is much stronger.


Just another angle (sorry, I know they are terrible pics)


Steering rack ripped open, bushings removed, line connections cut off and welded shut.


Rack during painting/cleaning. Still hadnt received the set screws yet:


New steering dust boots:



Putting it back in the car (still hadnt received new c-clip yet, so this pic isnt a "finished" shot).


It was around that time I smashed my hand in the steering linkage and stopped taking pics... lol.

I'll get some extra shots tomorrow. Hope to have interior completely out next weekend for lizard skinning and the rest of the rear out to finish the undercoating...

[TitaniumTT]

Nice progress Bill. Timelines are lame, even though I always impose them on myself and pull all nighters on a monthly basis when I'm elbow deep in a pj. Glad the write up helped.

How are you doing the undercoating and what product are you using? I need an undercoating.... for a roof rack of all things... and the Herculiner is pretty aggressive and has more of a gloss than I would like for my rack. I'm thinking I remember the Rhinoliner being less aggressive in grit and the finish more of a flat black. So, which are you using and how are you applying? Rotisserie and a shutz gun I hope

[2gslse]

LOL... Hey Bill looks like good progress BTW I'm looking into the cabins for DGRRX this weekend

[WE3RX7]

I'm undercoating the Herculiner w/ a foam roller (2") from Lowes

I'm havent started the lizard skin yet but plan on using a gun for that one... I dont have enough room under the car unfortunately to get accurate/clean sprays using a gun so I'm going at it nice and slow


I'll have some better updates soon. Work gave us a week off between xmas and new years so I plan to get some things knocked out. Unfortunately, I have some garage things I need to do - like get a better/larger heater and clean up some old boxes that I dont need any longer. I would like to have the rear section undercoated and done by then and start cleaning on the rear suspension in preparation for new bushings/paint, etc.

Looks like the bodywork wont happen until late january going into february now! Ah well. I'm just siked to be two months from getting an engine in the garage! That alone will be a long awaited step!