Lighter = Faster (N/A build thread #2)

[Silver86]

yikes!

i do like the cluster ideas though!

[infernosg]

Originally Posted by Silver86

yikes!

i do like the cluster ideas though!

So far it's the worst part on the car. The driver's side is pristine except for that black crap, which I've also discovered is even inside the doors! I'll just treat that section like any other accident damage; drill out the spot welds and replace.

Back before the holidays I finished swapping the front subframe. Empty red car:



Removed with steering rack:



In its new home:



Though it's heavier I decided to keep the tilting steering column from the red car in case the lower seating position warrants the use of the tilt feature.



I don't feel like removing the ignition switches so I've been working on swapping all the locks on the cars. It works out in the end since the locks from the '89 are in better shape.

Been focusing on stripping down the red car. Someone wants the chassis so I need to get everything off I intent to keep so I can get rid of it. This is how the interior looked Monday night:



It's a bigger mess now.

[scarsofcarma]

Originally Posted by infernosg

Last night I realized I have the line reversed. The feed line should be on the inside and the return on the outside. Shouldn't be too hard to swap already on the car.

Did the same thing with a friends car once after a motor swap... couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start for a while lmao

[infernosg]

Okay it's been while since I've been in here.

The red car will be gone this weekend. I finished stripping and removing the wire harnesses last weekend and I've just got to wrap up a few items.

Empty engine bay:



Wire-less interior:



Harnesses sorted (front, rear, and ECU):



The front subframe from the silver car is installed because the buyer originally wanted it. He didn't want to pay my asking price so it's no longer included and will be coming out. Fortunately I may have a couple other people interested.

I've gotten some work done on the silver car but no pictures. I decided I wanted the non-tilt steering column after all because it's 4.4 lbs lighter than the tilt column (see title). Swapping the lock cylinders and ignition switches was easy enough. I also got the fuel tank cover off, but I had to grind off all the screw heads. Now to figure out how to remove them. Turns out the S4 and S5 fuel sending units are different so I can't reuse my modified S5 one. It shouldn't be too hard to redo everything on the S4 unit.

Other than that I think I've found my new instrument cluster setup:



Speedhut gauges. 3-3/8" dual oil temp/pressure, 4-1/2" tach (mine will be 10K RPM) with inset 120 mph GPS speedometer and indicator and hi-beam LED's, and 3-3/8" dual water temp/fuel level. The voltmeter will just have to be separate in the console with the wideband. If anyone's interested I will be selling my Marshall Instruments gauges.

[Tanj!]

Were on Speedhut's site are you finding that tach/speedo combo? All I can find is the speedo being the primary with the tach the secondary. I'm really liking the looks of this so far btw.

*EDIT* Never mind. I found them shortly after posting this. *SMH*

[infernosg]

Holy hell it's been a long time since I've updated this!

Sold the red car back in February, moved the silver car into the garage at home, and promptly started pulling it apart:









Removing the engine wiring harness is pretty easy the third time around.



Removed the purple tint from the windows.



Interiors from two FC's (I still have the S4 dash if anyone needs one):



Down to the bare interior:





Goofing around/trying to clear up some space in the garage by installing parts:



The fitment is a little funny, which makes me wonder if there was a rear-end collision at some point.

No radio means no speakers so the rear towers aren't needed anymore:





Got a little over-aggressive on the driver's sides so some welding will be needed (what little did I know...)

Bought a bunch of dry ice and went after the sound-deadening material. The floors and hatch area were pretty easy but I couldn't hold the dry ice to vertical surfaces so that was removed the hard way.







In process I noticed this redudant piece of metal. I'm not exactly sure what its purpose was but it's gone now.



Turns out Goo-Gone and Scotch-Brite pads work really well at getting the leftover adhesive removed. I didn't worry too much about the stuff stuck to the seam sealer.





Sounds like a hollow tin can now...



Almost filled a 5 gal bucket with the sound-deadening material...



...and the total weight was a whopping 10 lbs. IMO, not worth it, for future reference.

Switched gears and pulled the gas tank (with no broken bolts/studs) to try to get it cleaned and attempt to remove the broken studs.



Started cleaning off the outside with a wire wheel when I noticed a bunch of small pin holes that quickly turned into .125"+ holes. Time for a new tank. Found one on eBay in CA and picked it up. Bottom was dented underneath the fuel sending unit but a few whacks with a hammer and everything is sorted.

Weather's started to warm up, which means the lawn tractor needs to be pulled out. Threw all the interior pieces in the car (where they still are today) until I can get a shed built to house the lawn/garden equipment and get back to work.

I haven't touched the car in ~4 weeks due to work and doing other stuff around the house. The last thing I did was strip the padding material from the back of the carpet.



Hard to believe this all weighs 10 lbs.

Cleaned up the carpet with a vacuum and cut away the driver's heel pad that was already torn up. I'll eventually die this black and attach a metal plate for a new heel pad.



...and nothing else has been accomplished since Easter. Started building the shed in the back yard so that's taken all my free time, which wasn't much to start. Looking to get back into it in a couple weeks starting with welding up all the exposed holes in the floor and firewall. Also, decided to change direction with the ECU and upgrade to a PS1000 and ditch the stock CAS for FFE's trigger wheel w/ Hall effect sensor. Probably going to go with the IQ3 digital display dash as well. So if anyone wants an unused Sprint RE (need to find your own harness though) and some extra gauges, I'm your man.

[Silver86]

Holy smokes!

[infernosg]

I really need to start working on this again. A busy Summer means no time to work on the car. Since it doesn't look like the workload is going to let up I've outsourced some of the work. It's currently at a local shop getting the exhaust remade because I was never really happy with it. Same Racing Beat stuff but with better tube and layout. They're also going to make the radiator ducting for me since I don't have a sheet metal brake or bead roller. I've reached out to Chris at LMS to get an engine harness made although I'll still have a lot of chassis wiring to do myself. Finally, I still need to locate a body shop to fix the front end and some rust spots. The latter keeps getting worse with each inspection and now I have 5 or so holes in the body

The only recent picture I have is this of the fan shroud ready for primer.

[infernosg]

Got the car back last Wednesday.



The duct-work is clean, but not complete:







I need to make plates to seal up the sides around the oil cooler and I may try to change the inlet to take full advantage of the opening in the bumper cover (conservation of mass and all that). It's still better than what I could do without having a metal brake.

Mocked up the engine to start figuring out where all the wiring's gonna go. Chris Ludwig of LMS Motorsports will be handling the engine harness while I'll be doing the chassis side.





Looks like I got a little carried away with the fan shroud. Depending how I orient the shroud it can be as little as 1/2" away from the front swaybar and about a 1" from the main pulley.

[infernosg]

Bought some stuff: Iron Canyon Motorsports fuel sending unit (converts resistance-based senders to a 0-5 V signal), Speedometer Solutions digital speedometer converter (Hall Effect sensor that screws onto the stock transmission take-off), and a pair of Sakebomb Garage IGN-1A mounts.

I've been trying to get back into working on the car. So far I've only manage to take apart more stuff (side mirrors, window trim, wipers, etc.) and work on the fuel tank cover. I decided to keep the current cover so to combat the rust I soaked it in Evapo-Rust and gave it the POR-15 treatment. As with before I cut out the stock fuel lines and drilled holes for the AN fittings. I don't remember everything being this cramped on the S5 cover. This is basically as it sits now:



The through-cover electrical connections are different on the S4 so I had to come up with a new plan. After drilling through some sealant-type stuff I discovered the exterior connections are essentially ring terminals. Instead of being secured with a nut they're crimped onto a top post. The post is very close in diameter to a #10 bolt so I took a #10 ring terminal, soldered it to the post, and filled the rest of the "boss" with epoxy.



It's not pretty. Hopefully the epoxy will keep the contact from corroding and/or failing. A quick continuity check showed no voltage drop to the nearest .01 V across the post and ~24 in. of wire.

[infernosg]

Some updates...

Finished the fuel tank cover a while back.



Been racking my brain on mounting locations for the ignition coils and vacuum manifold. Got the latter sorted But the coils are an issue. Most people put them on the driver's frame rail but with my side-mounted alternator this is difficult. It's possible, but tight. I toyed with the idea of mounting them like FDs do:



...but obviously I forgot about the clutch master cylinder so that doesn't work. The only way this setup work is if the coils are split in groups of two with two on the fender side and two on the strut tower.

...and I bought I bunch of stuff. Iron Canyon Motorsports fuel level sending unit (coverts resistance-based signal to 0-5V):



Speedometer Solutions digital speedometer conversion:



SakeBomb Garage IGN-1A coil brackets:



Haltech PS1000 (old Sprint RE is for sale):



RacePak/Haltech IQ3 display dash:



Too much money spent; not enough progress...

[diabolical1]

this is good stuff. working on and off really sucks.

between the red car and the work you've done to this one, how much time have you spent building this thing. i'm just curious ....

[infernosg]

Originally Posted by diabolical1

this is good stuff. working on and off really sucks.

between the red car and the work you've done to this one, how much time have you spent building this thing. i'm just curious ....

I have no idea - way too much time. Most of it's my fault due for changing plans or increasing the scope. I made a lot of progress initially in 2011 but things kind of fell apart mid-2012 and I haven't been able to keep the same rhythm.

[infernosg]

FFE trigger kit:



Turn signal and high beam indicators for the new display.



They're incandescent but at least they have the typical arrow and high beam shapes. I think they're aftermarket OEM parts for a Harley Davidson.

Two 2' x 4' sheets of 1/16" ABS for the door panels and a small 12" x 24" sheet of .040" aluminum to finish off the ducting.

[infernosg]

Got the door panels completed. I bought some knock-off Recaro fabric on eBay and covered the ABS and picked up some red nylon straps to use as pulls.



I had enough leftover fabric to cover the headliner, which turned out better than painted ever would have.



Got my custom-made harness from Chris at LMS-EFI.



I've got a few more things to take care of and the body will be ready for paint. Trying to work out a plan with a local body shop to get that done in early 2015.