Track Car Project Thread - Eventually

[fai17]

Looking gid m8...i'll be up the hill again this year to see ya.

[arch]

Well the rear end is staring to come together again, thought I better get cracking as the clock is ticking towards March and there is still so much left to do.

The rear is now pretty much complete just got to do some initial adjustment to the adjustable top mounts and the camber bolts to get the car sitting correctly.

The exhaust back box is now on and the new drive shafts slaved in pending the diff returning from being set up.

Once thats done its onto the front which wont take long and then it will be time for the engine and gearbox to come out

Edited January 28, 2009 by Arch

[RA Dunk]

comming along nicely i see with no stones left unturned

[arch]

comming along nicely i see with no stones left unturned

It is progressing but not as fast as it should have. I must admit I did lose a bit of motivation over Christmas and was away a lot before that so I am not where i had hoped to be at this point.

I was at the East Ayrshire Car Club annual awards dinner and picked up the remaining awards from The Lowlands Competition which added to the Class win I achieved in the overall sprint championship, that was really due to John winning the road car shield and as such being inelligible for the class win.

This has given me the motivation that will probably be needed to finish the rest of the work required to get the car ready for the middle of march and perhaps the SIDC track day at Knockhill

Edited January 28, 2009 by Arch

[RA Dunk]

ohhhh, a nice collection of silverware there well done!

wouldent mind seeing some of stevensons collection, im thinking he must have an extension built onto the back of his house as a trophy room!!

will be seeing you at some point over the comming season as ill be doing some sprints etc myself, just for fun though ive no intention of stripping the car to the bare shell!

[arch]

ohhhh, a nice collection of silverware there well done!

wouldent mind seeing some of stevensons collection, im thinking he must have an extension built onto the back of his house as a trophy room!!

will be seeing you at some point over the comming season as ill be doing some sprints etc myself, just for fun though ive no intention of stripping the car to the bare shell!

You know you want to strip it out its a natural progression, this comfort thing is well over rated. I had heard that John was melting down his silver ware and using it to make a light weight flat floor. Him and craig have hired a roller from Jewson to roll it

[RA Dunk]

i like my comfort too much to strip it out and as i live myself and spend over 6 months of the year afloat i cant justify the expense of another car, so the interior stays!

[st3ph3n]

Nice collection of silverware Arch. Paul tells me there's some test days at Kames in march so you aiming for that?

I was doing my bit for the cause last night helping him fit a carbon scoop onto the bonnet of the new car. Cutting holes is easy, working with strong adhesives isn't!

[arch]

Nice collection of silverware Arch. Paul tells me there's some test days at Kames in march so you aiming for that?

I was doing my bit for the cause last night helping him fit a carbon scoop onto the bonnet of the new car. Cutting holes is easy, working with strong adhesives isn't!

The Kames days are the plan Stephen they are 14th and 15th so will need to up the effort a bit

Glue mmm so you are floating about at the minute

[arch]

Well the rear end is pretty much completed just the diff to fit when it comes back from being set up. I am having some clearance issues with the rear coilovers but will hopefully sort that out pretty quickly.

Next its time to pull the front suspension off and give it the once over and a few upgrades

I have removed the coilovers, hubs, brakes and alloy arms so that I clean up and paint the wheel well and surrounding area and fit new front bushes to the alloy arms and the new front brakes and coilovers.

Once cleaned up the inner wing area is actually in pretty good condition which is a theme with this shell there is virtually no rust on the car. After a rub down with a green pad and a clean over it is ready to paint.

One thing I did find when I removed the front hubs is that both front wheel bearings are totally gone I am amazed that i didnt feel this at the last event but just shows how important a winter strip down is as the amount of movement in the bearings is scary

[arch]

Well more of the same really At this point its hard to keep motivated as things are going backwards and it seems there is so much still to do.

Yesterday I painted the front wheel well areas which really tidys that area up and protects it as I wont be refitting the inner wheel well plastic guards.

I also removed the intercooler in preperation for its change of mounting and removed a bit of the panels that wont be required and may get in the way when it is refitted later.

Then I attacked the dash, it was a bit of a nightmare to get out but after it was persuaded it seen sense and came out

I have removed the dash to move some wiring and remove some wiring that will no longer be required. I also want to change the dash as it has faded badly and looks terrible. It will alos give me a chance to change the routing of some of the wiring so that the dash can be removed quickly in future. There is also still some sound proofing in there that I couldnt reach before so it obviously has to go

[st3ph3n]

It'll be worth it in the end though Arch. Still got a while yet to get everything ship shape.

[~ ~ Cal ~~]

Good work fella - you must be baltic out in that garage ! I have contemplated a rub down of the underside of my Rex and then some undersealing but it's freezin' out there !

Nice to see my old gear knob being out to good use

[arch]

Stephen I reckon I only have 5 weeks left if I am going to make Kames but that is looking optimistic at the minute. I actually dont mind the cold to be honest, I am used to working outside so probably just used to it, most of the time I work with the garage door open anyway, Cal your correct your gear knob is still there at the minute .

Well spent 2 1/2 hours removing the front bushes from my alloy arms they were well corroded in but they gave in eventually I think they sensed a full blown temper tantrun coming on

Spent the rest of the day removing some wiring that is no longer required, removing the alarm and generally checking the wiring for any signs of chaffing or loose pins. I did find one broken wire which I reckon is the reason I was getting no RH indicator indication on the instruments so result there. Some of the wiring was secured to the underside of the dash, that is no use, so I have also spent a good bit of time securing the wiring to the chassis under the dash, it was hard enough getting the dash out the first time so dont want that issue again as it will no doubt be out again in the near future

I have also removed most of the remainging sound proofing but without removing the heater pack its impossible to get it all out but whats left is minimal.

Edited February 7, 2009 by Arch

[J.C.]

I actually dont mind the cold to be honest ........

........ but without removing the heater pack

More weight saving to be had there Archie

[arch]

More weight saving to be had there Archie

agree quite a bit of weight to be had there but there are a few good reasons for leaving it in at the minute

[arch]

Its been a while since I updated the thread with some progres. The time available on the car has been severely hampered by work comittments which included nearly 3 weeks away working in Budapest. Nice city, well the pubs are nice anyway especially the ones where it was only 90p a pint - result this, however, didnt help getting the car ready.

The suspension is pretty much now all in place with the rear drop links to fit and the Geometry to be set up by John at Progrip.

I have spent a little bit of time tarting up the inside as it was a bit of a mess last year so I have stripped everything out and painted the inside and the boot. I have also fitted a new dash as supplied by Stevenson Motorsport spares and repairs.

Its not perfect but looks a lot better than before and it really isnt worth spending a great deal of time on this side of things anyway.

Next it was time to remove the gearbox and Engine which were removed in quick time.

With the engine out an hour with a green pad and some elbow grease cleaned the engine bay up a treat. At the same time I removed the battery tray and washer bottle bottom mount which are both surplus and just getting in the way and adding weight so they had to go.

The new engine is now sitting waiting to be fiitted Its another quality product from Chy at Pennine Subaru really looking forward to seeing what it will do this year although i know I will not be using the engine to its full capabilities

First I need to finish painting the new inlet manifold and then swap the required sensors wiring and fuel pipework across to the new engine as well as the sump and headers. I am also going to fit a 71 deg thermostat just to keep the engine a little cooler as I had a lot of over heating issues last year. The inlet manifold turned out really well, the wedge was supplied by Carl Davey, top work as usual Carl thanks for the help and the welding was done by Les Mutch from near Ellon up in Aberdeen. Les also competes in the Scottish Hillclimb and Sprint Championship and owns his own business doing lots of welding amongst other enginerring things. If anyone is looking at rotating their phase 1 or phase 1.5 manifold drop Les an email he is a top guy and will sort you out and knows what he is doing as he has rotated a phase 1 and a phase 1.5 for me .

http://www.carldavey.co.uk/index.php

http://www.mjengineeringscotland.ltd.uk/

There is still a fair bit to do and time is rapidly running out. There is some fabrication required to completely change the routing of the intercooler pipework, change the radiator to an alloy one and fit smaller fans in a different location as well as have some new power steering pipework made up and ........ the list goes on and on

Just waiting on a some goodies arriving from AS Performance so I can carry on, I think Alyn down at ASP has a bigger alladins cave than John as he always seems to have everything in stock as well as some obscure things that I just couldnt find - result.

http://www.asperformance.com/

Edited April 11, 2009 by Arch

[~ ~ Cal ~~]

Great news - hope to see her in action this year

Keep the pics coming too

[st3ph3n]

Good news that you're making progress Arch. Manifold is looking nice.

[jac]

Looking good Arch, only 22 day's to go

[fai17]

Loving the work Archie...speak soon

[arch]

Well a combination of work and some problems along the way have resulted in progress being painfully slow.

The inlet manifold is painted and the fuel rails etc all fitted. I have also cleaned up a phase 1.5 throttle body and ICV and fitted them to the manifold.

I have also fitted a new set of headers supplied by Stevenson Motorsports for all aspects of Subaru tuning, spares new and used

These have been heat wrapped and sprayed to protect them from water ingress and fluid spills.

The engine is now in the car which is the easy part getting everything to fit and work together is the hard part.

One problem I have found already is that the ICV hits the bonnet and stops it closing properly. I have already cut a section of the bracing out but it still touches.

The manifold spacers i have fitted are 18mm thick so I am sure that fitting a set of 10mm spacers will buy me the room I need. Thanks again to Alyn at ASP for saving the day again with a set dispatched in double quick time

JUst need to get the manifold off and get them fitted. I will also have to change back to the phase 1 ICV as the angle of the ICV pipework just wont work but that is not an issue.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Arch

[cullenmin]

Looking good Arch,

you could put spacers/washers to raise the back of the bonnet by a few mm's. That could give you that extra bit of clearance for the ICV and also helps let that heat out the engine bay. (as long as regulations allow of course)

Rich

[RA Dunk]

looking very nice indeedy, suspensions got a very bling gucci look about it you must be running out of days now before the start of the season though

[arch]

Looking good Arch,

you could put spacers/washers to raise the back of the bonnet by a few mm's. That could give you that extra bit of clearance for the ICV and also helps let that heat out the engine bay. (as long as regulations allow of course)

Rich

Rich never thought of that like your thinking