[Sirnixalot]

Back in the saddle with an NB this time with some slight rust issues. Got it off a friend for cheap earlier on this year and I've taken it down to a bare shell to sort out all the rust and seam weld all the things.

It wont be quite daily status when it's back together since the AC has been ditched but my goals are to sort the chassis so it will handle well, get it as light as I can and put down 200-220whp.

In all it's former glory on some depleted uranium 16 inch wheels of unknown origin.

The tear down was immediate and the results were disheartening

Even the sound deadening looked like ass

Speaking of ass. Drivetrain pulled out from under the shell

Windshield base rust part 1

Part 2

Leaky clutch master = paint removal inside and out

I set to drilling additional spot welds in the windshield opening, door openings, jacking seam...pretty much everywhere there were spot welds. Stitch welding was done along other seams. I haven't finished this wonderful job yet.

Engine bay firewall and shock towers done

Rear firewall and transmission tunnel work

Inside fire wall & transmission tunnel work

Rocker panel & door opening spot welds

Jacking seam spot welds. By this point the Tennis elbow was in full swing.

Windshield repair

Interior starting to look presentable. I added some base plate re-enforcements for the Cusco 6 point cage I had left over from my old NA.

I welded in the main hoop and rear legs of the cage. The front half I will be leaving as bolt in but I'll be adding tabs to bolt to the A pillar.

Test fitting a V8R frame rail brace, aka bfh'ing the frame rails.

All the control arms have been painted a Ford gloss grey and Energy suspension bushings installed.

 

[Sirnixalot]

Engine wise not too much going on. I have a Haltech PS1000 left over from another project, some 550cc injectors from an Evo 8 and an S13 T25 with plans for greatness.

Prerequisite "Skou" reroute spacer & Kia water neck sandwiching a stant 180* thermostat

Flanges from www.turbo-flanges.com

weld el's & mandrel bends from acestainless

T25 with some Ebay inlet and outlet adapters

Installed the front coolant block off from Trackspeed & changed the front main seal & water pump. I have a gates timing belt and pulleys/tensioner waiting to go on

As of last night I have the manifold started

Other than that I have some bits coming in a container from Japan next week, coilovers below, a 3.9 Torsen & an ORC single plate clutch. I did get a hard top also but it couldn't fit in the container so it will arrive in the next one with some Autoexe under braces & a Mazdaspeed 3 point front strut tower brace.

Tein Monoflex & EDFC. Rates will end up being 12/7k

Might be missing a few things but that's where it's at currently. Sorry for the wall of text and pics on the first post.

 

[GreaseMonkey2000]

Wow you really tackled this head first, great work! :icon_cheers: Might want to check the clearance with the upper hose on the kia neck because Steve's first run spacers were a little too thin and made for a REALLY tight fit once the hose was on due to the 90* fitting coming out of the back of the head...of course may not be an issue on a 1.6. Keep up the great work!

It's really great to see such promising builds pop up lately instead of the not so unusual, 'yo peeps just picked up a roadster and threw some Raceland coilovers and super wide, stupid heavy with equally stupid offset on my stock body, mad skidz to follow, yolo!' :suicide:

 

[Sirnixalot]

Wow you really tackled this head first, great work! :icon_cheers: Might want to check the clearance with the upper hose on the kia neck because Steve's first run spacers were a little too thin and made for a REALLY tight fit once the hose was on due to the 90* fitting coming out of the back of the head...of course may not be an issue on a 1.6. Keep up the great work!

It's really great to see such promising builds pop up lately instead of the not so unusual, 'yo peeps just picked up a roadster and threw some Raceland coilovers and super wide, stupid heavy with equally stupid offset on my stock body, mad skidz to follow, yolo!' :suicide:

Thanks man. Definitely no garbage coil over's or 195's on 10" wide wheels here. :lol:

I got one of his "100% more 1.6 fitment" spacers. Zero clearance issues for me thankfully. I do need to pull the coolant nipple right near the spacer to tap and plug that spare hole. Only thing that is an issue is the coil pack doesn't clear the temp sensor anymore

I did forget to mention the 15x8 Konig Flat out's & 225/45R15 Toyo R1R's which came with the car. Don't see any reason to change those.

 

[Sirnixalot]

Got some more done tonight.

Managed to get a bolt stuck and had to cut it

 

[Sirnixalot]

Jumping all over the place. I ran the saw for a bit to make some pizza slices for the down pipe.

While the saw was running I setup the drivers side of the cage to weld on the A pillar tab. Used a step bit to open up an existing hole and welded in a 10x1.5mm nut. The difference is amazing. Before the tab I the front bar would shake separate from the car, now if I try to shake it the whole car moves. I need to do the passenger side and top of the A pillar.

We are having an Autocross meet in 2 weeks. I am hoping we spark enough interest to do them again regularly.

 

[eurojulien]

I will never complain of working on gravel again - lol. Why is there so much rust, was it parked by the seaside?

 

[Sirnixalot]

Down here everywhere is the sea side. Salt spray is everywhere. The major part's of rust weren't too bad and I'm glad I got to it before anything had a chance to get worse.

There is a concrete work surface there, it's just hard to see in the pictures. I wouldn't dream of putting a car up on 4 stands on gravel :lol:

 

[Sirnixalot]

Full day of work until the mig wire ran out :facepalm:

Finally finished the patches for the drivers side seat belt area

Welded on a mounting tab for the intercooler core. Rested the oil cooler above it. I figure if you guys can get results with it by the steering rack horizontal to the ground, I can get results in this location with some ducting.

Shot of the core from the front

Extended the upper radiator brackets. I am going around the radiator for the intercooler piping but wanted to minimize the cutting of the body

Dem mounting tab tacks

Shot of the captive nut/plate for the cage to bolt to

All of your map light are belong to this. The cage cross bar at the top of the windshield now bolts to this.

-16AN hose/fittings leftover from a different project is the perfect length and the fittings work perfectly. I'll need/want Turbo_tims adapter though

I beg of you be gentle. I ground down the welds because I have little consistency on round thin material so please ignore what I could not reach with the flap wheel. It will be covered in exhaust wrap :cry2:

I am DONE for the day.

 

[Grumbles]

This is going to be greatness. All of the work gone into it seems awesome thus far. Call me a fan.

 

[Sirnixalot]

Thanks

Such JDM packaging tape, many cr.net points wow torsen. Going from a 4.3:1 to the 3.9:1 on this poor 1.6 will need the turbo. Wonder if I should swap the diff onto the 4.3 gears

I have to wait until tomorrow to get the coilovers and clutch

 

[Sirnixalot]

Awwwwww yisssss mothafuckin coilovers. Tomorrow I'm clearing the 12k springs to swap onto the front coilovers and move the 7k springs to the rear. No bump stops are on these so I'll need to get some.


The small boxes hold the edfc stuff. I'm going to have to reset the damping to the middle and spend some time playing with it when it's time.



24.2lbs on my bathroom scale for the ORC 309 clutch. Supposedly holds 250lbft so Ill be ok

 

[Sirnixalot]

12kg/mm springs.....looks like the springs will be color mismatched, oh bother


I am seat mounts away now from being able to sit in it while turning the wheel and making car noises


Some OEM nissan turbo gaskets and turbo nut locking things. I am hoping these will tide me over with regular studs and the copper colored lock nuts until I get the FM hardware.

Also traded some tires for all the lines and fittings to plumb the turbo so that's sorted too

 

[Sirnixalot]

Passenger side rocker seam


Passenger rear firewall/fuel tank area


Lower part of the rear firewall/floor


Front part of the cage coated in Rustoleum Ford gloss grey


Shot of the down pipe. I may add one small pizza slice near the front to bring it a little to the left. I still need to add a flex section


Another downpipe shot


Finished welding up the manifold and reclocked the CHRA


-16AN bung welded to a shortened mixing manifold. Tapped the throttle body coolant port for a 1/8NPT fitting to use for the turbo coolant. Have to weld the next one onto the Kia water neck then order 2 more for the radiator


Swapped the 7kg/mm springs to the rear and installed the new 12kg/mm springs on the front. Tomorrow I'll order some bumpstops from the Honda dealer.

I am off on tuesday so I'll get back on the seams and hopefully have that finished to get the underside painted

 

[Sirnixalot]

Another full day of action and I am pleased to announce the seam welding is finishedarty:arty:


Drivers wheel well


Passenger fender area space



3M 5200 marine adhesive/sealant. It ain't pretty but it will stop rust from getting to the frame rails.



Temporarily put in the dash and steering rack to get an idea about seat placement. The sparco evo 2+ is not feasable. I have another smaller unknown brand seat that I'll use


Before I am tarred and feathered out autocross events are pretty low speed and tight and the handbrake will come in .....handy


Catch can, no name red seat in background


One coolant line


I need a 1/8NPT to -6AN 90* adapter and some fire sleeve and the coolant lines are done


Sprayed manifold with some muratic acid, washed it off with water and wiped it dry then gave the manifold a coat of VHT flame proof. Instructions call for last curing temp to be 600* but my lowly oven can only muster 525*. Will be wrapping it soon

My brother will be tackling all the seams with 3M seam sealant and then taking the car as is to paint. Got a gallon of BMW A30 Interlagos Blue metallic to have him spray on. Letting him choose if it will be gloss or matte.

In the meanwhile my to do list stands as
Drop motor/trans/front subframe
Clean up & paint front subframe & control arms
Clean up & paint front brake calipers
Get all 4 rotors resurfaced
Put motor on stand
Pull oil pan to weld on -10AN oil drain bung
Pull cylinder head to degunk (valvetrain is covered in whats best described as tar)
Reinstall cylinder head with new Cometic gasket
Install timing belt & ****
Install rear main seal
Install new clutch/flywheel

I need to order
Intercooler piping & couplers
Turbo oil feed fitting & drain adapter
Oil cooler lines & fittings
Innovate PSB-1

 

[Sirnixalot]

Resealed all the seams on the underside last night. I ran out of sealant so I still have the front passenger wheel well to do


I scrubbed the entire trunk and rear shelf areas and everything in between with degreaser and a scotchbrite pad and painted everything.

Other **** I got done
Installed pedals/master cylinders,
Gas tank and rear subframe back in
Swapped the diff housing with the ES diff bushings onto the 3.9 torsen.

Today I'll finish the sealing and painting.

 

[Sirnixalot]

More boring paint pictures.









Rear subframe/hubs/control arms put back on. That energy suspension grease is the devil

I got a front fender rolled (brother should be rolling the rest this week) and started to depower the steering rack. I got my engine hoist and engine stand back from a friend who was borrowing them so I'll make that my focus next day off.

It's starting to look like a car again :mrgreen:

 

[jaymx5]

I really like where this is going!! Awesome project so far

 

[GreaseMonkey2000]

You are making excellent head way, congrats!! :icon_cheers:

 

[Sirnixalot]

Thanks guys.

Slight change of plans....I'll be getting the car running sooner than planned sans turbo. We finally started back auto cross events after a year and a half so I have the bug again.

I finished the steering rack depower this morning as well. Should have it rolling again by next monday.


My son helping me with the time keeping for the event we had yesterday:mrgreen: