Popular Post Truenotch Posted August 22, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 22, 2017 Took the bonnet out to @Archetype's place on Sunday to have a go at wrapping it. We'd used a bunch of vinyl samples to choose the colour "3m Dark Red" which seemed to match well. The 3m 1080 film is amazing stuff to work with. It seems almost impossible to get a bubble! After a bit of mucking around we had it finished with new vinyl eyelids and "grille" too. We used matte black for the eyelids and gloss for the grille to add depth. Got it home and chucked it on - looks nice: But... The colour is different to what we thought it would be. 3m obviously has a different colours for the 1080 wrap vs the standard 30 and 50 series vinyl. This is called "dark red" but it looks almost orange compared to the test sample. After a bit of research it seems like there probably isn't an option in this range that will match my paint... Dammit. For future reference - it's best to wrap your panels on or next to your car to make sure the colour matches as expected. Massive thanks to Brent / archetype / Doozi / MotoringEvents for making it happen. The job itself turned out mint. 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted September 11, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 11, 2017 If I could go back and talk to 23 year old Markku I'd give myself a good clip around the ears. There's untold amounts of messy work that I did whilst in a rush, half cut and on a university budget... Credit where credit's due - I managed to go racing with almost no income (thanks Studylink!), but I'm about to pay the price for it now. More on that later... Last Friday after work @Rhyscar, @mark105, @japawagons and I bombed down to Palmy for the weekend to go racing and celebrate a friend's 30th. It's been a while since I last raced this car at Manfeild, so I was pumped for a good weekend. I'm happy with the look of the red bonnet too - in the right light you don't notice that it's a different shade of red... It'll look really good when we re-wrap it with the right colour! Got the car out onto the track on Saturday and it was going REALLY well. It felt peppy and was turning well. The rebuilt front shocks have made a difference! The rear felt OK, but Rhys noticed it was hitting the bump stops on the way out of some corners which was unsettling the rear - big skids ensued! I played with the rear compression settings and it got much better - good bump compliance, good turn and fast corner speeds. It felt faster than ever through the Turn 2 sweeper and was easy to point around the last corner which is a great sign. I still had a few issues with it being a bit twitchy, so now it's time to play with rebound settings and get it dialled in nicely. I left on Saturday pretty happy with the car and was looking forward to Sunday. We headed off to do some drinking with the birthday boy: Started the car on Sunday morning to warm it up and there was a ticking sound. After a bit of revving and diagnosis it became apparent that the noise was big end knock. Bugger! We drained the oil and saw evidence of glitter - Sunday was done before it even started. Turns out I could have had more to drink on Saturday night after all! Pulled the engine out yesterday and dropped the sump to inspect. First thing I noticed was this: And there was some crap in the strainer. Inspected further - all 4 big ends look like this: And all 4 mains look like this: Crank: Took the crank to ST Automotive in Cambridge today to get the crank measured and inspected. Shane said I'd got away with murder! The crank measured up perfectly and there's no grooves. Win! He looked at the big end bearings and told me that the wear didn't look like oil starvation. Most likely cause? Not enough clearance on the bearings. He's suggested that I take the block out to him and he'll get everything right and reassemble it with ACL race bearings. Now that the engine's out I've got a front row seat to see all the terrible panel work I did 5 years ago.... So back to that conversation about 23 year old Markku's bad decisions.... 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted September 11, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 11, 2017 Back to those bad decisions... I don't really want to share these photos, but am going post them for the sake of good record keeping. I did all this with maximum haste and minimum care and it shows. First up, half assed tub job. From what I remember, I left the paint on for most of these welds. I also did the tubs and "wedge" sections before the front rad support panel was removed, so it was hard to get in there.... But never cleaned up the welds after removing the slam panel. Started by attacking them with a flap wheel to get rid of all the super high spots. I'm going to clean all the welds up as much as possible and will re-weld some parts. There will be grinding.... And welding.... And cleaning.... And filler. The inside is just as bad: Like, what the actual fuck 23 year old Markku? You didn't even cut the bottom edge straight! Oh well, just weld'er'up anyway I guess!?!?! Firewall - not finished and the welding at the back needs to be taken away and shot. Firewall notch to get the coil pack out - this was done at the track or on the dyno when we realised that the coil hit the seam: Started by cleaning up the edges and will weld parts of the seam: Next issue - engine mounts. The original idea consisted of pancaking a piece of Urethane between the engine mount and the pedestal with a bolt going through. In other words, it was basically solid mounted... Until the bolts snapped from the torque, vibrations and bumps. This was the situation when I removed the engine: On top of that, 3 out of 4 of my gearbox mount bolts had disappeared! So the engine and box would have been flubbering around like a kitty on crack. The best solution is a set of Land Rover engine mounts as seen in @DAD's KP build thread. These are 10mm taller than what I had before (26mm vs 36mm), but I've got another solution in the works to get the height right. Old: New: I'll also need to re-set a captured nut into the pedestal. I'm currently trying to decide on the strongest way to do this... The pedestals are welded onto the crossmember, so the only way in is from the top... I can either drill a big hole and weld a flange nut in there from above OR drill a bigger hole and weld an extra plate on top of the pedestal with a nut welded from underneath. I'm open to ideas - what have you got? So I'm taking the run bearing as a blessing after seeing the sum total of issues that need to be sorted. I'll be spending the next few months getting this right and am taking ti as an opportunity to learn some new skills and will take my time to get it looking good. Luckily I work for a company that sells flap wheels, grinding discs and linishing belts! Here's a pic of @nothingsfree's engine bay for inspiration: 27 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted September 15, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 15, 2017 Everyone should have one of these. They make it super easy to get into tight spaces to clean up welds etc. They're on special for $99 at the Toolshed this month too. Got stuck into the engine bay with the powerfile and a flap disc. Still a bunch of finishing work to do, but the powerfile did an awesome job of the radius on this weld: Also bought myself a set of step drills. Their first job was to make the correct sized holes for the new engine mount threads: The nuts sit in there really nicely. It's a slight hammer fit to get them below/even with the surface and they can't drop any lower because the hole steps down as it gets deeper. The nuts need to be tigged in and tidied up, then that job's done. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted October 1, 2017 Author Share Posted October 1, 2017 Pulled the head off and will send the bottom end to the rebuilders this week. And I noticed this very strange bit of damage while inspecting the head: I have no idea how this would have happened, but there's a substantial piece missing from the face of the bucket. There's no signs of damage on any other buckets either. The cam appears to be fine aside from a small wear pattern visible in the above picture. I'll get a DTI onto it to make sure the cam is straight and will replace the bucket. Has anyone else ever seen this? 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted October 1, 2017 Author Share Posted October 1, 2017 A bit of further investigation shows no signs of stress on the underside or the valvetrain. This chunk obviously decided it'd had enough... But it's hard to know why. Also had this massive box arrive from Amazon: Which contained my new muffler. It's no wonder their shipping was so expensive! I chose this because it's 3". But also because my neighbour has the same on his K24A DC5 Integra and it sounds great. I've also got the matching 3" resonator that I'll probably make removable so it can be added if the car's too loud at Pukekohe etc. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truenotch Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 Picked up a front panel last time I was in Palmerston North. I like it more than the one I'd made out of rectangle tube and alloy sheet. The standard gap is the perfect width for my radiator and air filter together. The plan is to install this panel with rivnuts and keep it as a removable piece. I'll need to add some steel to a few places and fill in a few holes. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted November 11, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 11, 2017 Made a bit more progress today thanks to @Rhyscar who brought his Tig welder around to do a couple of jobs. First of all we welded these nuts into the engine mount pedestals. Then we took the alloy engine mount brackets to a friend's place to mill 10mm of the face of each mount. Luckily there's heaps of meat on the brackets, so we were able to remove enough material to make the engine sit at the right height. And now there's plenty of thread engagement: That's another job ticked off the list. More to come tomorrow. 16 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted November 30, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 30, 2017 New member of the team: 16 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted July 2, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 2, 2019 September will be two years since I've driven this car... So I've decided that I should get it going and try to race it at the final round of the Manfeild winter series. I've not done a whole lot since 2017 due to general slackness, but have cleaned up a bunch of welds around the tubs. This was about a year ago: Fast forward to this week and I've started doing things again. More weld removal, a few holes welded up, paint removal etc. A bit of filler and the first coat of etch this evening to see how it looks: The underside is still a bit wrinkly, but it's good enough for an inner arch. Now to get the other side. to this level.. I always forget how long it takes to sand filler! It's a pretty painful job . Once both sides are in primer I can give the rest of the bay a good clean up, sand and start thinking about paint. 22 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted July 7, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 7, 2019 I’ve made good progress on the right hand tub now. Got most of the finishing and a coat of primer onto it. Then @Rhyscar came around with his tube bender and we started on the new radiator support: This bolts in place on the sides and will have a couple of vertical stays for the radiator and ducting mounts. Popped the guards and bumper back on for a visual inspection: And the new radiator will mount like this: With ducting to take the flow out the bonnet. Woohoo! Now back to body work in the engine bay. 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted July 21, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 21, 2019 My new radiator turned up on friday from @nick_m at Motorsport Fabrication Services in Christchurch. He made this to custom measurements with custom mount bosses, tags to attach ducting, angled inlet/outlets and a 12" fan mounted in place (not pictured). It's a really nice bit of kit! I highly recommend MFS if you're in need of a radiator or intercooler. We got to work mounting it this weekend. This is what we came up with: And with the radiator in place: The angle of the outlets worked out almost perfect: I think it's starting to look pretty good: .... Hmm, looks like it has angry eyes? Again, huge thanks to @Rhyscar for the fab work and extra brain. I wouldn't have achieved much without him. Next up for fab work is to figure out how to mount the oil cooler and to start thinking about ducting.... But for now it's back to sanding . 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted August 27, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 27, 2020 Posting these here for future reference. These photos are a year old. I spent a bit of time playing with bump stops, spring hats and keepers to make full use of my shock travel. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted September 24, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 24, 2020 I’ve now made the move to Palmy and have spent this week sorting out the wee workshop I’m renting. I’ve set up a bunch of shelves, built a bench and added a tyre rack along the back. It’s about 40m2 (10m deep, 4m wide) and has a decent high stud so I can hang junk from the ceiling if needed. The unit number will make @kpr jealous: #unit4A Unwrapped my fresh bottom end for the first time... really keen to get the head built now... Then I finished the rear suspension guff from the previous post, removed the springs and dropped it on the ground to see what rubs. The front LCA angles are pretty bad at this height. This is on bumps and I don’t have roll centre adjusters yet. At full compression the front lower arms just touch the chassis and the tyres rub on part of the inner guard (I’ll remedy this before finishing the engine bay tidy up). The lowest point of the chassis rails are are at 35mm or so. That’s with 225/45/15 tyres... probably safe enough to not scrape ripple strips at full compression? It will never run this low, but it’s good to see what the suspension will do over big bumps. 19 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted October 8, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 8, 2020 Into the fun jobs now. Welded up my firewall notch, removed the whole seam along the back and have now removed the suspension, crossmember and swaybar/castor arm mounts. 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted October 13, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 13, 2020 Re-mounted the radiator today. I decided that I didn't like the position, so have moved it to the middle. Ordered a new k&n air filter to fit the space which will mount on the side. I'll make a new transition piece to feed the air box. I'll figure out the ducting once there's an engine in the hole again. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted October 23, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 23, 2020 It’s getting very close to paint time! Please remind me to visit the sandblasters if I ever decide to paint an engine bay again... I have some more cleaning and sanding to do before we lay down some epoxy primer on Monday. Hopefully we’ll see colour in the next week or so! 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted October 23, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 23, 2020 Quick degrease and rattle can resto for the crossmember and castor arm brackets. All coated in epoxy black which should stick well. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted October 25, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 25, 2020 The front is now in epoxy primer. I have a couple of areas to rub back and then it’s time for colour. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Truenotch Posted October 30, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 30, 2020 Got some colour onto the front end today. I’m stoked to be past this stage and am getting ready for reassembly now. The red is darker than the body, but I’m not too worried that it’s not a perfect match. Theres a few speckles of dust, which is to be expected of a shed job. The actual paint finish came out really nice, so I’m happy. 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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