Of it makes you feel better, I'm just now getting around to installing the cruise. ..
Of it makes you feel better, I'm just now getting around to installing the cruise. ..
In reply to Dusterbd13:
Glad you're getting around to it! Let me know how it goes.
Finally got the booster off. Anyone that tells you it's easy is a liar, or a contortionist. Possibly both.
This is what came off with light scraping. I'm glad I did this - I almost skipped it, but I'd rather clean it up now.
Oh, and that bump right where the panel starts to curve? Yeah. More crash damage. I guess that's what I get for buying a car sight unseen, but it is 24 years old, so E36 M3 happens I guess.
cmcgregor wrote: Finally got the booster off. Anyone that tells you it's easy is a liar, or a contortionist. Possibly both.
Mine's getting kinda ugly in that same spot too. Going to have to do something about that this winter, maybe when I pull the engine. And be thankful you just have a small bump in a panel for crash damage, my car has had the whole front end replaced ahead of the shock tower at some point
In reply to NickD:
Yeah, seems to be pretty common that the master leaks. I'm happy the rust is very light, so it shouldn't be bad.
And you're right about the crash damage - it's not that bad, but the bump is probably caused by the frame rail on that side getting pushed over a bit. Not ideal. Paired with the replaced front control arm and bent rear subframe, it looks like this thing took a pretty hard hit. Not a huge deal, but would have been nice to know.
Cleaned up, sanded, masked, primed, and painted. This makes 3 shades of yellow under the hood, including the valve cover, but at least it won't rust. Reassembly starting tomorrow morning, once this is dry. I've been pretty good this week about getting in an hour or so of work before I have to leave for my real job - it's been nice. I still think all of this would be about 10x easier if I had a garage.
Put in my hour this morning. Booster is back in, header is back in after some serious wrestling, including having to jack one side of the motor up. Cut the crap out of my finger too. It seems like the new motor mounts are holding it more securely at least.
That crappy airhorn is going, in favor of supertones. I'm also relocating the ground under the master to a screw on the fender wall, in case of future leaks. I should have changed the brake master seals before I did all this work - they're the source of all this leakage, and it's very hard to get the reservoir off with it off the car. Oh well.
I skipped autocrossing on Sunday, in order to get this thing (mostly) done. Too busy to stop and snap pics, but a brief rundown:
Suspension and brake components are all bolted on.
Master cylinder seals replaced.
Ground relocated.
Exhaust is all on.
Interior is going back together.
A few notes - I spent a lot (way too much) time wrestling with the cat I bought, only to find that it really, truly doesn't fit. That's pretty obnoxious. It's a cheap Magnaflow, but it's not like I got the cheapest, no-name cat I could find. I was hopeful that exact fit really meant exact fit.
On the other side, the Yonaka exhaust that I bought almost a year ago for $220 bolted up perfectly, and actually looks pretty nice. It remains to be seen how it sounds and how long it lasts, but first impressions are pretty good.
Flush and bleed brakes
Source nuts for the rear half-shafts. No idea what happened to those, but I'm pretty sure they're nothing special.
Reinstall/securely mount the intake. For now, I'm using the cheapo aftermarket hot air intake the car came with. It will be changed at a later date.
Fill transmission - I tried to do this this morning and broke my 14mm wrench trying to get off the fill plug. Oops. Picking up a better tool after work.
Change oil.
Install Driver's seat.
Align the car - this will probably take the longest. We'll see how it goes. The wife would like to take it on vacation next week, as would I. Should be doable.
This is a pretty boring build thread, isn't it.
I got the transmission fluid changed, and the driver's seat in this morning. Hopefully tomorrow I can do the oil and brakes, and get started on the alignment. Hope to be driving it by this weekend.
Let's see - since my last post, I checked a few more of the small things off the checklist.
Intake is mounted
Not ideal placement but it will work for now. There is a heat shield in there. I also stole the (freshly rebuilt) shifter out of the orange car, and got the console back in, so the interior is more or less complete. The replacement cat came in, so i got that installed as well - this one actually fits, but is a little short, which makes the exhaust hit the subframe bracing mount. Annoying, but no going back now.
So, before driving it can happen
-Change oil
-Bleed brakes
-Bolt on rear axles
-Align
I have tomorrow off, then a wedding Saturday, then vacation. I'd love to drive it to our week on the cape, and it might happen, if everything goes smoothly (it never does)
Bled the brakes with the assistance of my brother in law last night, and today, this happened
Only bummer is one of the tabs for the toe bars seems to have gotten a bit bent in shipping, so it needs a bit of persuasion. Other than that, the stands are awesome.
We also fired it up when my brother in-law was here, which was great! It has a stuck lifter though, probably from sitting. I'm going to seafoam it before changing the oil, but we're very close to driveability.
cmcgregor wrote: This is a pretty boring build thread, isn't it.
Nope, loving it. Congrats on the near drivability! How do you like the alignment stands? I've been strongly considering them.
In reply to accordionfolder:
Hey thanks! The stands are really nice, very easy to access the adjustment points with them on. I need to set up some platforms on a more level piece of driveway to do the alignment though. We had it repaved last year, and the asphalt is a bit soft still. They'd be awesome on smooth concrete.
I tried to get it together before vacation but couldn't get the alignment done. I did manage to seafoam it (which freed up the sticky lifter, score!) and change the oil.
Brother in law is going to help me align it this weekend. I'm looking forward to cruising around in it.
I remember you saying you were going to be in Geneva area the weekend of the 23rd. Are you bringing this? If so, you should totally swing over to Cherry Valley Motorsports Park in Lafayette on July 24th. CNY SCCA chapter is going to be running their enduro event there.
Undecided if we're going to bring the Miata or not. We're going up for our baby shower, so we were thinking the Focus might be better for bringing gifts back. But, the Miata would certainly be more fun! I'll run it by my better half, might be nice to make a stop on our way back eastward.
Took another crack at the alignment today. With a helper and a real plan, it was a LOT easier.
Then this happened
It's alive! And smelling terrible as it burns off whatever it is in header wrap that burns off every time. Now it's just small stuff, then getting it inspected before autocross next weekend!
It made the 25 mile commute to work today! Got a little unhappy in stop and go traffic, so I'm going to have to go through the cooling system. Other small issues - there's some vibration on lift at highway speeds, think it could be the driveshaft since the joint felt a little notchy when I put it in. The horn is not working at the moment, which is probably related to all the wiring I pulled out from the aftermarket cruise control, and I need a way to mount the front license plate. But, it's running great, the suspension feels good, and my driveway alignment seems to be pretty decent. Chalking one up in the win column!
Figured out the horn issue - just a blown fuse. Although, that does mean that I didn't have brake lights when I drove it the other day. Oops.
After I got that sorted out, I was going to drive it in again today but realized that I never installed the battery tie down. Double oops. Should be able to get the kinks worked out before autocross Sunday though.
Guess I haven't updated this in a while.
Dragged (not really) my wife to cars and coffee at the Larz Anderson on the 16th, which was really cool. Tons of interesting cars. It was extremely hot and we had my company picnic to attend, so we didn't stick around too long, but I did take one picture. You can juuuuust see my hood in there haha
Then autocross on the 17th
I had a rough morning, but got more used to the car in the afternoon and ended up 5th of 9. The car ran great, but I think my front swaybar is hitting the control arm, and I really need to get the seat and wheel in it. I was sore for a few days after from hanging on. I've been traveling a lot for work, so immediately after the event, I dropped it off at the (somewhat) local garage I use to get the leaking exhaust (at that stupid cat flange) fixed, and to get an alignment. I didn't trust my driveway job, and it's a good thing, because the caster was screwy and the thrust angle was a bit off too. It's all sorted out now and driving well.
Still to do
-Install better horn
-mount front plate somehow
-get it inspected (yeah, that should be pretty high on the list)
-install seat and steering wheel
-other odds and ends, like a stereo, changing the slipping A/C belt, etc etc
Let's see, where were we...
Made a front license plate mount out of some scrap sheet metal
That'll do.
Before autocross on the 7th I got it inspected, then this happened too
Steering wheel went in as well. I still did pretty poorly (4th of 6), but at least I fit in the car and didn't have to hang on as hard. When I got there, I discovered that one of my front swaybar end links had decided that it no longer needed to be attached, so I had to borrow a bolt from the rear bar and run with a front bar only. I'm blaming that for my slow times.
More recently, I picked up a nice set of light tan leather surfboards that are now mounted for DD duties. This way, my wife can drive the car if she wants. I also got the roll bar out and for sale, since as far as I'm concerned it's just extra weight. That was a bit of a fiasco, but I managed.
In the near future, I have to swap the headlights for the set from the orange car, and replace the soft top, which should be a learning experience. Then, it's more or less done for the season.
cmcgregor wrote: When I got there, I discovered that one of my front swaybar end links had decided that it no longer needed to be attached, so I had to borrow a bolt from the rear bar and run with a front bar only. I'm blaming that for my slow times.
Your excuse is not valid. I ripped the rear sway bar off my car entirely and it made the car so much better to drive and much faster.
In reply to NickD:
Yeah yeah, lots of people run no rear bar but it didn't work well for me. The VMaxx Sports I have work pretty well with both bars on. Mostly I think I was pretty flustered by scrambling to get the front reconnected.
In reply to cmcgregor:
When I put the VMaxx Classics on this year, I struggled with them the first couple events, the back end never felt settled. Then RedGT suggested I remove the rear bar and I've done way better since then. But I think part of it is that there's something up with my tires.
What tires are you running? I'm on 2 year old non star-spec Direzza ZIIs, so they're not exactly "pointy end of the field". Those are being replaced next season. I have the VMaxx Exxxxxxxxxxtremes, so I might switch to the race springs next year too, they should be a bit better. Depending on if my wife has a job by then, I might just go all out and buy Xidas (or the Fox stuff from FM).
In reply to cmcgregor:
I'm running 2 year old ZII Star Specs. But I think they're no good, because when they get hot, they don't get sticky. It did sit outside all last winter on them, so I don't know if that screwed them up or what. I was going to get RE-71Rs, but then someone reminded me I can run R-Compounds in C/SP, so the plan is to put the Star Specs on some nice wheels for street tires and then some Hankook Z214 C51s on the Jongbloeds I have on the car for race tires.
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