bits and pieces

Injectors, fuel pump, fuel rails, throttle body, etc. I think I was waiting for the fuel rail ancillaries to arrive before I bolted in the intake manifold?

Finally, the real annoyance has been resolving the ECU issue.

1. Topcoat went on, but is a bit rubbish. I did a bad job applying in thin, even layers because I was concerned about only doing a max of 3 layers - I think this was a huge mistake, and caused much running in the paint. I’ve got some more top coat, and will try to take the runs out with high-grit sandpaper, before re-masking and doing a few more layers.

2. Fender guards arrived - these fit with no issues, just screwed them straight in.

3. The rest of my turbo kit arrived - kinda. The BOV is missing - bit of an unfortunate pattern with the company I went through, after the annoyance of having to go to Bunnings for capscrews to make the intake manifold fit.

(Now that I think of it, I’m not sure I mentioned sourcing capscrews and finishing the manifold install, but I did…)

So, I do think I got my fitment calculations a little wrong…

I wasn not anticipating any tyre poke. Shame it’s illegal, ‘cause it looks kinda mean.

Oh! I guess I didn’t mention that my rims and tyres came in? They look fantastic, I’m beyond stoked.

I also had a crack at sanding and priming the key dents I’ll need to bog. Guess it’s a good thing I haven’t started to layer the body filler on yet, since it looks like I’ll need to roll these fenders - time to invest in a fender roller, I guess.

Also got some hectic overspray on my glass, but, y’know… it’s all a learning lesson, right? That’ll probably come off in a few minutes with a razor…

Keen to do more bogging, sanding and priming this weekend. With a bit of luck, I might have the body work and a full respray done by the time I use up my leave!

These new headers are almost pornographic.

Such a shame to cover them in exhaust wrap - these are the things we do for performance…

On the other hand, working on anything to do with exhaust on these boat anchor VQs is torture, and makes me want to spray brake cleaner directly onto my optic stems.

It took many, many hours to pull the stock exhaust manifolds off - the rusted nuts didn’t help, and many layers of Rost Off, rust remover and WD (plus the biggest breaker bar in the arsenal) were required. Putting the new headers on is almost (but not quite) as bad, though there’s a bit of fighting with the exhaust wrap to try and get the nuts back on - clearance is not good, and those few mm are sorely missed.

Beeg radiator :D

I had to get a bit creative with the radiator mount to get it to fit - nothing a small mountain of fibreglass putty can’t fix!

I’ve bought new wheels! This is very exciting, since I’ve never bought wheels before, much less brand new ones. And I’ve ordered drag radials for the rears - definitely overkill for the moment, but they won’t go bad that fast so what’s the harm?

Excited to take the wheels and radials to a tyre shop - ask them to fit the radials on, and put something cheap on the front. I’ll show off the wheels when they arrive, rather than spoiling the surprise!

Truth be told, there’s not a great deal of car left to improve - still to build the engine, ofc, and the diff will probably blow up and need a rebuild, but aside from that it’s mostly body work and panel straightening.

I’m actually quite looking forward to it - I know I won’t be able to get showroom quality, but bog and paint is just another new skill set I have yet to learn.

Installing the suspension was… challenging.

I don’t think I’ve ever peeled up as many fingernails in as short a timeframe before, nor hammered my own hand as often.

Probably a signal I was doing something wrong, but I guess that’s what you get when you do something for the first time. In the end I gave up, put spring clamps on tight, and chopped the existing coils with an angle grinder. Job done!

Mixed progress this time around, but mostly headed in the right direction. I tried to drive the car home from the workshop to my house, but ended up breaking down and needing a trailer ride back to the workshop. I initially suspected trans issues, but it turned out to be power cut - something I had heard the car did while in neutral, but which hadn’t actually been happening. Was able to solve this by requiring the transmission harness, and hooking the drive signal wire up to switch power instead of the park wire. Car still cranked and started fine, which was my concern with setting it to drive.

Following this, I’ve been pretty busy with the interior - mostly trying to strip out surplus wiring that’s no longer connected. This has been a bit of a mission so far, and I’m not sure it’ll be any cleaner when I’m done, but there’s no turning back now-

Separately, I’ve spent a fortune (again!) on more car parts :)

Kind of jumped the gun and grabbed a pile of stuff that I was originally going to wait for. The crown jewel is the turbo kit that’s on its way, but I’ve also splashed on an intake manifold, coilovers, headers, throttle body, fuel rails, trans mount, ally core radiator… and more bits and pieces. The coils and throttle body are in (though the TB will have to come back out when the intake manifold is fabbed up, but never mind), and I’ll be able to install more as parts arrive. I’ve also picked up some body repair items and will get stuck into that if I run out of other things to do.

Just a little update this time - had a chance over the long weekend to go sort some of the electrical gremlins.

Still very please with the progress, there’s just a bit more work to go before it’s properly streetable. Need indicators to work, brake lights to not be on constant power (they stay on even if the car is off), and need to install the seatbelt buckles. I also wouldn’t mind tidying some of the cables under the bonnet and around the bumper area.

There’s a long list of other work needed, ofc, but we’re pretty close to having something to take cruising…

I still kind of can’t believe it drives.

By rights, so much more should have gone wrong, but basically nothing did - yeah, I reinstalled the clutch like 4 times because I don’t know what I’m doing, but nothing broke or didn’t fit, and I was barely missing any parts - and anything missing, we managed to find a solution (e.g., I bought a clevis pin and clip for the clutch pedal, which went missing - we sorted that with a bolt and and nut!).

It’s loud AF of course, I didn’t bother to reinstall the exhaust just yet. But by gum she drives and makes noise, and as far as I’m concerned that’s a win.

The clutch pedal is kind of (read: very) stiff, but I guess that’s to be expected with a drag-spec late engagement pressure plate, 6-puck sprung hub friction disk, and granted that I removed the clutch assist spring from the clutch pedal.

The shifter is VERY stiff - reverse is a two-hand job lmao. At first I thought I might hate it, but honestly I’m kinda into it- shifting feels like you have to MEAN it, and I’m not nervous about putting the wind up it.

Honestly, it was annoying to have to reinstall the clutch 4 times in one day, but mostly I’m glad it was on right and that nothing was broken. We’ll chalk that up as a win.

Except for the bit where I accidentally tilted the gearbox back and poured gear oil all over the floor, that was definitely not a win.

Oh well. We’ll figure out how to refill gear oil tomorrow…