RX3UTE rebirth - throwback thing build

[shizzl]

Well the first order of bags was a fail. EBay cancelled the order at the border. Kent’s.

 

so ordered from elsewhere and 2 weeks later I have 4 bags for testing.

These bags are 230/65 with an internal bump stop, but I’ll add an external one as well. 

in the future I’ll plan to upgrade to slam specialty bags and accuair control.

but for now, I’ll go cheap to have a play.

will order the 4 link kit this week.

opted to go with an engineering firm that make them, 100% cert ready.

I’ve heard mixed results for the generic stuff with the welds not passing.

 

as Snoop Dogg once said, drop it like it’s hot

[shizzl]

This is as low as the factory uncut-anything will go without springs in it.

17s and 15s for reference.

 

needs another 1.5-2” to lay frame, not that I want it bellied, but why do things halfway right.

[shizzl]

My 4 link kit from Kruzin Kustons arrived.

quality is on point. Glad I paid more than the low budget imported gear.

have got a set of RX3 coupe flares coming from Andy Duffin that he’s dropping off next week.

it’ll check fitment to see how they look.

might even be able to run a spacer haha

so far I have most of the air ride stuff here:

bags

compressors

5 sensor gauge and switch unit

Fbss valve block

5 port air tank

 

just need to sort fittings, water traps and air line, and obviously bag brackets.

[shizzl]

Thoughts on these flares?

 

made for an RX3 coupe. Got these from Andy Duffin.

the rears fit the moulding lines damn near perfectly.

this allows for full tuck on the cragars with the 225s.

the rear can run a 25mm spacer to bring it out to the flare lip.

 

the front in the pic is slammed with no spring.

wheel will eventually go up another inch I guess with the bags after some rearranging of the upper spring perch.

the rear has stock leaves and 50mm blocks, so will drop Atleast 150mm, maybe 200mm from this stance

[shizzl]

Decided to lift the body off the chassis today.

 

so had to tack the 2nd guard together.

got it mostly done, then started with the upper fillers, but called it there.

pulled the guards and nosecone.

lifted the body up.

 

now I can figure out the front bag mounts.

looks like the only way to go is to cut the entire upper spring cup away from the chassis.

the upper A arm mounts to a bracket over the top of the rail, so doesn’t touch the spring cup at all.

the lower A arm will have the spring seat removed and a cup and plate fizzed in.

upper bag brackets will mount off the rails and be gusseted.

 

should be all G

[shizzl]

 Newest addition to the fleet is this b1600.

the body has been full rust deleted and epoxied.

rear tray floor has been deleted.

body wise I only have the engine bay to smooth off.  Have been considering deleting the inner tubs though which would make it slick as haha.

he has had a new tailgate skin made up and there are 2 other tailgates with it

 

interior: seat has been recovered, dash too recovered but is missing a corner piece to the forward trim.

needs a roof lining and carpet, new door cards cos the ones with it are just nope.

the hubs and axles have been received to 4x110 , I test fitted my 4x108 hotwires and freaking love it.

 

engine:

 

rebuilt 12a turbo block with turbo box

has a factory turbo manifold (rare af). New turbski. Another AR70 turbo which is more suited to a 13b. Has exhaust manifold flanges and a half made turbo manifold.

microtech ltx8 ecu set up and injection perfection minus injectors. Even has the turbo hat.

bunch of parts etc that’ll just go in the bin tbh

 

suspension:

dead flat rear leaves

cobra springs in the front, but Jesus what a lift!!! They’ll be deleted asap.

this is the 78 shape so has the early round gauge dash, originally column slam. My favourite.

 

oh and it has a gay Adrenaline R rotor shape muffler and a Gilmore drive kit.

oh oh oh and a soles lock kit for max winning.

 

so what’s the plans with this one????

well I’ll pull the 12at block out, drop in my 12a j. 
paint it and reassemble it, get it on the road.

the other one , I will continue with the air ride and 4 link. 
Manx once the body is tidied I’ll finish the rx3 front.

 

im thinking that I’ll sell the 12at, microtech , turbos etc.

I prefer a raspy ear biting NA keg

 

thoughts???

[shizzl]

Pulled the motor and box out of the new ute.

removed the crossmembers and fitted them to the other chassis to check driveshaft compatibility etc.

required slight modification to get the mount angles a bit nicer and to drop the motor another 10mm.

 

Took some pics of the bits I’m likely to chuck up on trademe:

 

12a turbo block - freshly built and unstarted 

ida manifold-new

injection perfection throttle body

Injection perfection turbo plenum

12at turbo manifold

new 12at turbo ht18

microtech ecu mtx8

ar70 turbo something something whoosh whoosh

 

 

[shizzl]

Ordered a loom kit so I can rewire the new ute.

40 year old looms are a disaster and not fun to work with.

so my 20 circuit loom arrived yesterday.

massive spaghetti nightmare. Now I need to figure out all the connection for the switches etc, great.

 

in other news, I spent a couple of hours plugging a few holes that weren’t finished off in the engine bay. Then high filled it all and sanded it.

not going for a glassy finish, just tidier than a pin cushion. 
 

im not sure what colour to paint this one

 

would love to hear some solid options 

[shizzl]

Rear disc swap almost complete.

sourced a set of caliper adaptors to run the Primera calipers, and uses a s2 rx7 rear disc.

this fits the red rolled axles perfectly and gains all kinds of clearance to run the 13”s.

only have to machine down the axle centres to accept the rx7 disc.

Bonus is the rx7 allows the hotwires to fit really well.

 

just need to sort the front discs out to get vented discs on it.

not much point trying to go bigger, just more efficient 

[shizzl]

Oh and big thanks to @brocky41 for the calipers and handbrake set up.

what a star

[shizzl]

Picked up the new tailgate skin today

damn near perfect fit, just need to trim it to size and fizz it in.

also dropped my axles and discs off to get the axle boss machined down to accept the disc. Then that can go back together. 

[shizzl]

Put the chassis up on the table today.

then fired up the lightning scissors and whipped off the spring/shock pockets.

them found that the ball joint angle maxes out pretty quickly.

 

any ideas on legal ways to ease up on the ball joint?

 

by my calculations this limit only gets the frame 80mm off the ground. Weak as

 

pic is at the ball joints limit.

flipping and swapping upper arms doesn’t solve anything, thought about it, tried it, it failed.

[shizzl]

No pics but I’ve done a couple of small jobs on this.

4 weeks off work and not a single day available to spend in the shop.

 

so 1st day back to “work” I played cars.

 

finished the filling and sanding in the engine bay, coated it all in epoxy again as a cover . Still needs flattening off before primer and paint.

 

hit the crossmember with the grinder to smooth off the old engine mount welds.

just needs top coat painting now, left it in epoxy.

 

then set about untucking the tunnel.

previous owner went full cactus and cut a huge L shape hole on the tunnel.

250 long x 120 wide and dropped down the side 120.

no idea what he was up to.

 

cut the top off the parts truck and had a pig of a job stitching it in. But I got there. 
needs a bit of grinding to knock the welds flatter then seam seal under the tunnel before reapplying under seal and paint inside.

 

tried removing the steering box but I need to lift the whole friggin can to get it out. Dumb as.

[shizzl]

Just a quick stop in at the workshop today.

etch primed the tunnel, still want to clean it up some more before painting.

finally got the steering box out, had to lift one side of the cab to get it done by myself. Mega Kent.

sliced off the factory rad supports and mounted the radiator and oil cooler.

etched the cuts.

only have the tailgate to finish before I can start the final prep and paint.

 

i will remove the cab and deck for painting.

that way I can prep the chassis side of it before they go on for the last time. (Fit fuel tank back in, touch up the etch with top coat)

might even fit the engine and box onto the chassis and get the exhaust done with the cab off.

im not sure where I want the exhaust to run at this stage.

i have 2 flexi’s, 2 resonators, a 2-1 muffler and one of those ugly rotor shaped mufflers.

i will make a new set of headers for it for better clearance. 

[shizzl]

Was just about to leave the shop and decided to look at the 2nd chassis.

nek minnit 

decided to put some extra strength into the crossmember as it utilises the swaybar mounts.

i added wings that pick up the bump mounts, 8 bolts in total now.

will send it out to powdercoat along with the gearbox crossmember 

 

 

yay for plasma cutters

[shizzl]

So much for working today. First proper day back and had a mad case of CBF.

had a site meeting, made a plan. Went to the workshop for more ute shenanigans.

 

this time I decided to stitch in the new tailgate skin. Mainly so when it comes time to lift the deck it doesn’t just fold up without the floor.

 

turns out they built up the lower corner a fair bit with filler. Don’t know why. There are no dents. 
 

 

[shizzl]

Now it’s time to get the axles back in to get it rolling, and sweep underneath it. 
it’s become a bit of a tip under there.

 

im actually pretty keen to make this one RX3UTE the more I work on it.

and make the 2nd ute mongrel as. Or an RX4UTE???

[shizzl]

Well well well, another day of progress, well , a couple hours anyway.

knocked the nubs off the welds, etched, then set about throwing mud at it.

actually hasn’t taken much except where the previous body guy has just filled instead of pulling the corner out to align with the other side.

not much left to finish the filler off, used about 400gm of filler with most of it going the floor after sanding. 
 

almost ready for paint. Just need to see if I can “delete” the inner guards before I lay colour. No pint going back and doing it after paint.

[shizzl]

Tailgate 99% done.

only have some minor fiddling to do on the concave fold line. Might need to make a shaped sanding block for it.

then sand out the 80g scratches ready for a filler primer.

 

i also played with spacing the balljoint to achieve a better angle.

tried a 9 degree wedge (achieved by washers).

this got the crossmember to 20mm clearance.

id be happy with that, but still don’t like the idea of the bj being close to maxed out.

 

so I decided to pie cut a set of arms (I have a spare set on the parts ute). 
cut it to gain a 10 degree change.

balljoint sits neutral at ride height and very nice at full lift and full slam.

crossmember is on its tits. 
 

Now it’s time for some c notch action.

with the frame currently sitting at 90mm with the diff on the frame, a 6” notch should be sweet. 
 

I will set bumpstops to max out to the legal scrub line or whatever it’s called. 
think it still equates to 50mm clearance “legally”. 
 

doesn’t need to be smashing the frame into the ground. 
 

I needed to get the body into final prep before I head to Japan next week. So pretty stoked so far. 

[shizzl]

Not much of an update really.

 

i ended up ordering a set of air ride nz’s notch kit that he had in stock. Listed as an 8” notch.

i roughly sat one side in place, I figure it allows for a 70/80mm bump stop on the diff in this position.

Had a play around with the air system layout on the other ute. It will all sit below the deck floor. And each compressor will have a water trap before the tank.

the valve block can mount to the factory spare wheel mount. Looks quite good like that

however, a deal came up on marketplace that I thought was pretty good. A “showtime” bag fitting kit for $250.

this included everything in the photo below. Chrome 9 port tank, pressure switch, compressor, 2 gauges, solenoid, 10 switch controller, 3/8” and 1/4” air line, 8 x 3/8” bag solenoids, a bunch of air line fittings and a full set of bag mounts (cup type).

 

I will use these solenoids, fittings, airline and tank.

i won’t use the switch block and compressor, gauges and upper bag cups.

this means my valve block, switch panel will be redundant ( this is a full kit minus bags). 
I can potentially buy 4 more bags to make another full kit (single pump). 
 

the air management system I will use is an air command air8000 system that has 8 presets with a digital display.

 

i only need to figure out a way to lock out the system while it’s driving. 
maybe a wheel speed sensor somehow, this will be wired through the air8000 alarm circuit which locks the system when set/armed. 
I’m sure that will work.

 

i slapped the tail lights in the tray for max visual, so stoked. Just need to finalise that concave line now.

 

 

i fly out to Japan in 4 days, so nothing else will happen until after nats.

i would like to hunt down a nice steering wheel while im over there.