Blue Bastard 2.0

[stealthee]

Well for those who have not read my latest update on the Stealth, it is dead in the water. This has brought me to this new project.

I picked up a 91 3000GT SL about a month or so ago. It was complete minus the engine, trans, and exhaust. The car had actually been TT converted at one point too. I actually picked it up with the intention on cutting it up and making patch panels for where the floor had issues, and using things like the gas tank, fuel/brake lines, rear subframe, and even the roof.

Anyway after running into more issues on the Stealth I decided my best course of action was just to use the SL going forward. It came with a clean Georgia title so I won't have any issues there.

Here are some pics of it some time after I got it

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9480&d=1506825641

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9481&d=1506825643

The car was originally maroon, or whatever Mitsubishi called it in 91. The car was repainted black at some point. It looks like a Maaco job. They did the door jams, and the underside of the hood, but not anything under the hood at all. When I started stripping the interior I found that they taped off around the door panels and the door sills instead of taking them off too.

Anyway, the car is insanely clean. By going through receipts in the glovebox it appears it was a southern car most of its life. It was bought new by a doctor in North Carolina. I even found the original window sticker. After a lot of personal debate, all of those factors weighed in on me going forward with the SL.

Once I made that decision I got busy

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9482&d=1506825644

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9483&d=1506825645

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9484&d=1506825646

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http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9486&d=1506825648

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9487&d=1506825649


As for my plans, teh car is still going to be blue. I will be converting the front end to 2g and going back to 99 as originally planned. I'll still be repairing and reusing the Victory hood. Will use the amber corners and 2g center panel I had in the Stealth. Going with a 2g rear bumper and 1g Stealth side skirts all as planned. I'll be purchasing 99 sails. For the spoiler I may look for a AA spoiler as I think it looks better than the NA spoiler. I'll probably keep the 96 spoiler back for safe keeping or a possible future project.

As for the engine, I will be putting the SOHC and 5 speed into the car. I'm sure I'll have some things to work out putting a SOHC engine into a DOHC car, but I'll get it figured out. The main thing I know is the SOHC alternator wiring is in the engine harness and the DOHC is in the body harness.

As you can see from the engine pic I've already removed all the ABS crap and it won't be going back in. The ECS stuff is removed as well. I'm going to try to remove as much of the wiring of each that I can.

My next set of goals include getting the underside undercoated/bedlined and start bolting things back up under it. I'll be cleaning and painting heat shields and brackets before they go back in. I'll also be cleaning and bedlining the wheel wells. I seriously considered painting the entire interior blue, but thought better when I realized just how much paint it will take. I think I am just going to use the bedliner and do the floor up in it before I start bolting the interior back together.

If I can have it at least partially assembled. with the bay and jams painted and have it rollable before snow flies then I'll consider it a success. I've basically started over with this car so my timeline might not go as planned and having to 2g convert is adding an extra cost and step, but I'll take it as it comes.

[Unlogic]

I think you did the right choice here. That car looks like a much better starting point for your project.

[j2k4]

Hmm.

Beginning to look like Casa Mitoska. :p


You go, Brian...;)

[stealthee]

It looks like a Mitsu graveyard at the moment. The black.car is as pictured. The Stealth is as stripped, but at least it's under a cover, and I just got a 98 Spyder Eclipse dropped off yesterday thst is getting stripped for a few parts and junked too.

[j2k4]

I gotta shoot you a PM, after I check something out...

[stealthee]

So I got a few projects going on at once right now. As mentioned I got a 98 Spyder Eclipse dropped off yesterday that I am trying to get tore down and out of here as soon as possible. I spent a good part of the day on it and got a lot accomplished with it. I also got some things accomplished with the 3000GT.

First thing I did was remove the sail panels. I forgot how much crap has to be taken out just to get those things out right. LOL

Afterwards I pressure washed the wheel wells to knock any loose dirt and old undercoating off. I did the same underneath. While I let it dry I worked on other things but came back to it and started hitting it with bedliner.

The results

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9491&d=1506908368

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9492&d=1506908369

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9493&d=1506908370

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9494&d=1506908371

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9495&d=1506908372

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9496&d=1506908373

I got the rear subframe up on the saw horses and got it pressure washed and painted too.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9490&d=1506908367

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9497&d=1506908374

The only damage found on the car is in with the drivers headlight bucket and the area behind the drivers sideskirt

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9488&d=1506908365

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9489&d=1506908366

I ordered new 2g buckets and the area behind the skirt shouldn't cause any issues.

I took one last shot of the whole car

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9498&d=1506908375

I need to get more bedliner to do all of the interior. I might go get some paint this week to do the bay, jams etc. Once that stuff is done things can start going back together.

[Steve '92ES]

Damn glad to see you're still in this Brian!
I don't know how much I can contribute but if any of my odd 'n ends will help (mostly relays and such) they're yours.
Good Luck!

[stealthee]

Thanks Steve. I should be good in that department. I might run into some things on the electrical side that your expertise may help on though.

[stealthee]

So, nothing accomplished on the 3000 today because I was busy on this Spyder. Just to show you how much has gotten accomplished there.

Here is how it looked Saturday

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9502&d=1506993859

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9501&d=1506993858

And here is how it looks today

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9500&d=1506993857

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9499&d=1506993855

Only thing left in it is the engine and trans. Hope to get those prepped to come out tomorrow and then I will have help getting them out Thursday.

I think I am going to go get paint on Wednesday. This weekend is shot as I am going out of town for a wedding. Hoping to maybe get the engine bay, jams, etc done some time next week so I can start bolting things back together.. Might even take a day off to get the stuff sprayed since I am running out of nice weather.

[Beef6]

Yeah Buddy!

[stealthee]

So nothing done on the car today as I was running around getting things done, but I got a few things.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9503&d=1507168126

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9504&d=1507168127

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9505&d=1507168129

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9506&d=1507168130

[j2k4]

Love that blue, Bri. :D

[stealthee]

So finally able to get back to the car after a few day hiatus. I was able to get the Spyder cut up and it is gone. Today I started getting all the spot welds cut for the headlight buckets. I am 95% done, but was running out of light and I was starving so I had to call it a night. I think the only thing holding the 1g buckets in is 1 or 2 welds and some seam sealer.

Hoping to have them out, get the new ones welded in, then get the bay, jams, etc sprayed this weekend.

[j2k4]

This is like episodic TV, it's great! :D

[Tensecs2fame]

Badassery! Can't wait to see progress!

[stealthee]

So I was able to finish getting the buckets out today.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9522&d=1507772962

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9521&d=1507772961

I mocked up the 2g buckets and lights for a quick shot too

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9523&d=1507772963

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9524&d=1507772964

The headlights are filthy but you get the idea.

After looking things over I am thinking I am going to go ahead and paint the bay, jams, etc. Then I will put the engine trans in since I will have a little more room without the buckets and once that is done I will get the buckets welded in. Also being I am running out of nice weather, and this weekend is supposed to be gorgeous I figure time wise it will be better too. I can weld the buckets in when its 40*, but I can't exactly paint when it is 40*.

Looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow the rain should be moving out so, I should be able to get a lot of, if not all of, my sanding done. Hoping to spray Saturday.

[j2k4]

^^ The only documented - and constructive - 3S work currently underway anywhere in the country...:D

[stealthee]

^^ The only documented - and constructive - 3S work currently underway anywhere in the country...:D

LOL For now. Once weather runs out progress will slow way down.

Today's update is just a quick one. I was able to get some sanding done, but feel like I could have gotten more done.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9525&d=1507854876

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9526&d=1507854876

I also got the area behind the rear bumper sanded. I still have some detail sanding to do in the bay, and some in the door jams and under the hatch. Tomorrow will be a no go due to bowling. Going to try to get an early start Saturday to knock out the rest of the sanding and HOPEFULLY get the painting done.

[stealthee]

Been busy so haven't had a chance to post any updates.

I was a busy man Saturday and was able to get some stuff done. Once I got the final parts removal and sanding done I proceeded to get all the taping done and got set up to spray. Once I got the gun dialed in the primer went down.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9532&d=1508204002

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I got the gun all cleaned out and set the paint up.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9537&d=1508204006

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I then moved on to the clear. I started running out of light, but I proceeded to lay the clear down anyway. It laid down nice and I then tried to get cleaned up and get things put away before I couldn't see any more. I didn't get any pics of it that night. When I went to check things out Sunday morning I found that the hatch and the hatch jam had turned milky overnight, most likely due to dew. The door jams and the majority of the engine bay still looks good. I'm going to try to scuff and buff those areas and if they don't clear up then I will just scuff and reclear them Saturday as we are supposed to have a nice day.

I can start bolting some things back on the car now at least and start making it look like a car again.

[Beef6]

Lookin good Brian!

[Unlogic]

I have to say that your really picking up some speed with this build.

[j2k4]

Always loved the blue...

[stealthee]

Lookin good Brian!

Thanks Josh. Maybe once its "done" next spring we can try to get together for a little cruise or something.


I have to say that your really picking up some speed with this build.

Thanks, I'm trying. As you can see all the work is being done in my yard. I can at least go through and bolt things on as I have time. I can do that in 40* weather if need be. Once it's on the ground and engine and trans are in I can at least drive it up the road to work on it if I have to.


Always loved the blue...

Thanks Kevin.

[box]

Sucks to hear about your clear going milky, I had this happen once when I sprayed a bumper before sunrise. Mine seemed to clear up more and more as the paint cured, after a week it was looking OK. A wet sand & buff up seemed to get rid of any milkiness that was still there.

[stealthee]

I tried some wet sanding and and buffing on the hatch.

I forgot to take a before picture of it, but I snapped one of the taillight area and it looked just that this.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9542&d=1508372767

After
http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9543&d=1508372768

While it looks way better, it is still not up to what I want. I found some areas that were light on color anyway so I am just going to scuff everything that went milky and respray both color and clear on Saturday. I've got a decent amount of color left, but am considering getting another quart just to make sure I have plenty. It should at least leave me enough to paint the insides of the fenders too.

I really ended up getting nothing done tonight. I finished tearing my compressor apart to service it tomorrow. When I was airing some tires up yesterday I heard the motor running, but not the pump. The belt had stretched massively, so I took it off to get another one. I wont get the belt til tomorrow anyway so I figured while it was off I would take the motor into work and put new bearings on it, clean it up and check the capacitors. I don't think the motor has ever been serviced and it is probably at least 25 years old.

[stealthee]

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9547&d=1508461334

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9544&d=1508461332

As you can see if everything had come out like the door jams I'd be much happier.

The main part of the bay looks good

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9545&d=1508461333

But, like some of the other areas already pictured this is how the tops of the fender areas look

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9546&d=1508461333

Today I scuffed the entire hatch and the hatch jams. I also scuffed the top of the engine bay and a few areas where I got light on the paint. Tomorrow I am going to go ahead and yank the doors off and set them up so I can get in all the tight areas. Saturday I will spray the stuff that needs it again, only this time I will get a much earlier start. :p

[j2k4]

That blue is seriously stunning, Brian. ;)

[stealthee]

So I got the doors off yesterday and got them set up on some horses. I found some big, heavy sheets of bubble wrap I had stashed for some reason and used it to cover the hatch and the doors to keep dew off them so I wouldn't have to worry about that this morning.

Got up this morning and got everything uncovered and started scuffing the things that needed scuffed. I took my time because it was going to be awhile before the sun got over the trees and got some heat into the metal. The air temp was around 60, but the metal was probably 50. Anyway, I got everything scuffed and wiped down and proceeded to tape everything off, all the while assisting my brother with a project he was working on in my driveway. Once the sun was finally overhead and the metal was warm I got to work.

Where I resprayed the color went down great. I was finally happy with my color coverage, then got the gun cleaned up to prep it for clear. I had some clear left over from where I painted the bay on the Stealth two years ago, so I figured I would use it up first. Got it all mixed up and started spraying. Immediately I saw something was wrong. I was getting bad texturing so I started making adjustments to my gun. I adjusted the material screw, adjusted the air pressure, I adjusted the fan, nothing was working. I call my uncle hoping he is home and can come look over what's going on.

I get him in the phone, but unfortunately he isn't home, but he offers some advice. I hang up, do what he says and nothing changes. I suddenly have a hunch and open the cup to look at the clear. I set the gun in the stand and open the can of the clear I bought last week and I see it immediately. The old clear had a "milky" look to it, while the new clear was, well, clear. I dump the cup and clean it out, then mix up some of the new clear, adjust the gun back to where it was and start spraying again. The results were night and day.

I breathe a sigh of relief and go about getting everything that needs it sprayed.

Hopefully getting a much earlier start, as well as covering everything up after it was dry, will prevent any issues like I had last week.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9548&d=1508626043

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Tomorrow the main goal is to get the doors and the hatch back on, as well as the weather strip for each. Past that I think I am going to focus on the underside of the car to get it closer to be able to be back on the ground. I am so ADD that I am going to have to make a list and stay strict to it or else I will end up bouncing project to project, area to area. I'm definitely going to start losing the weather before too long, and once we move the clocks back I am going to be short on daylight through the week so progress is going to ultimately slow, but I am still going to focus on this as much as I can.

[j2k4]

You're making me feel like shit for not painting my car in the driveway, Brian...:p

[stealthee]

You're making me feel like shit for not painting my car in the driveway, Brian...:p

It's no picnic. :lol:

So I got up this morning and uncovered everything to find it looking as good as it did last night, so that was a weight off my mind.

I slapped the Cianci fenders and quarters on the car just for a visual before I got started on other stuff

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9556&d=1508722124

My cousin came down and helped me get the hatch and doors back on. After that I went back to work by myself. Got the 99 sails on, got the exterior A pillars on, as well as the weatherstrip trim and the weatherstrip. After that I did exactly what I was afraid I'd end up doing and started project jumping. Regardless of that I got the brake/fuel lines bolted back under the car, put the firewall heat shield back on as well as started putting underbody heat shields back on.

Got the rear crash bumper painted and back on and I set the taillights in place for the time being. I'm going to end up needing help remembering where I few things go, cause my memory sucks.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9558&d=1508722126

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9557&d=1508722125

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9559&d=1508722127

Can anyone tell me where this little heat shield goes? I've got the one long one that runs in the tunnel under the car, and the one that bolts up near the rear seat area, but for the life of me can't remember where this one goes.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9560&d=1508722128

[stealthee]

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all a washout. Finally got some decent weather to try to get some things done after work. I essentially got nothing done despite that.

I did get the front subframe out of the Stealth and proceeded to try to get it in the 3000GT. It refused to balance for me and when I thought I had it started on the studs good it fell and actually scuffed two spots on the bottom of the firewall. It wasn't too terrible but it pissed me off none the less. I actually grabbed the paint can and a small paint brush and touched up the scuffs. I finally found a balance and got it started over the studs but was unable to get the steering shaft to go onto the rack.

I had the same trouble when I put the subframe in the Stealth and my uncle and my cousin ended up stopping down to help me get it all aligned. I'll end up needing to do the same thing again. I also need to make sure the rack is centered.

Anyway, after my battle with the subframe my project jumping started again. I dug out the engine harness. I got the rear LCA bushing brackets out and resprayed them so they'll be dry when I install the suspension. I also grabbed one of my coilovers and went at trying to clean it up. I think I'll be able to clean them and make them look good while still assembled. They won't be perfect, but will look good enough for what you can see of them.

That's basically it. A few things "done" but no real progress made. Nothing will happen tomorrow due to bowling. The weather will probably be a factor this weekend, but looking at the forecast I should be able to get a few things done Saturday morning/early afternoon before the rain sets in. Hopefully I'll get enough done to make it worthy of a pic post. :)

[j2k4]

May as well get 'er buttoned-up for snow, Bri. :sad:

[stealthee]

Not quite yet Kev.

I did manage to get a few little things done in the hour I had after work and before getting ready for bowling.

I finished cleaning up the rear coilover and also cleaned up one of the front ones to see how good they'd look.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9561&d=1509158989

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9562&d=1509158991

I'd say for as bad as they looked, my clean up and painting of the springs made them look more than acceptable.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the interior floor cleaned up and bedlined and get the other two coilovers cleaned up and ready. If there is time I will try to get the rear subframe up into place. The weather will be my main factor on what I get done tomorrow. Rain isn't supposed to set in until around 2 according to the latest hour by hour forecast.

As I have mentioned, and as you may all have figured my progress will be slowing down drastically from the progress I have made over the last few weeks, but I am still going to spend as much time on it as I can as the weather allows.

[j2k4]

Yeah, that was a bit premature for your area.

Up here, though...:rolleyes:

[stealthee]

Accuweather was not so accu for Saturday so it was another wash. Was able to get the other two coilovers cleaned up and painted up today. When I grabbed the other front coilover I noticed a lot of play in the upper mount so I put in a request for some replacement parts with Megan Racing.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9564&d=1509413407

I've finally started a list so I can try to get little things done in the evenings while I still have light and try to prep getting a bunch of stuff done on the weekend.

[stealthee]

The last two days I haven't gotten much done. Yesterday I started cleaning up my steering knuckles to get them ready to go in the car. In the process I decided I was better off going ahead and ordering wheel bearings for it, so I put them off to the side until the bearings come in. I also ordered my brake caliper rebuild kits so I can get them ready.

I pulled the pump from the tank and found out it was actually a Walboro TTP277 which is apparently a 180 lph pump. I tried researching to verify what the NA pump is supposed to be but have come up empty so far. If I'm going to change it I'd rather do it before the tank goes back in.

Today the weather was a little crappy but I decided to try to organize a little and go through bolts and the like to see where I was. The rain stopped so I uncovered the Stealth and went through some stuff I stashed in there. I also managed to get the steering shaft onto the rack. The first try I was off by at least a half turn on proper alignment because when I turned the wheel and attempted to go full lock to the right I heard the wires on the clock spring stretching. I dropped the rack and spun the steering wheel over either a half or full turn and reattached it. Now I think I am off by a half turn, but it started raining again so I covered it back up and will tackle it again tomorrow.

I went ahead and ordered a new clutch master cylinder. I figured I'd hate to have to go back and change an old one I threw in there just to save $30.

I'll be ordering new adjustable LCA's from Terry too. Once the parts come in a lot of assembly will start to happen.

[j2k4]

Your project makes me miss Don Langlois, Brian. :sad:

[Tensecs2fame]

Going to need to call this the Phoenix build! Can't wait for more

[stealthee]

Well I didn't make a lot of progress today. I did come to realize instead of trying to center the steering shaft on the rack over and over again that I can just pull the wheel and clock spring and recenter them.

While not a lot of progress occurred I did get some staging done. I repainted some subframe pieces, LCA's etc. After sitting in my basement they got a little surface scaling. I got the front bar mounted. I was going to start mounting the rest of the crossmembers but realized I wanted to clean up the bolts before I did so. I put them in the sonic parts washer and some Evaporust and they are looking great. Hope to get them mounted tomorrow before I have to get ready for bowling. We'll see if I can get the LCA's up there too.

Lastly I got the 1g Stealth door caps mounted on the doors.

Sorry for the blurry pic. It was getting dark on me.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9567&d=1509676413

Front crossmember in

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9568&d=1509676414

After not hearing back from Megan Racing, I sent a message off to Terry. After talking to him I think I am going to just throw the coilovers in for now. I'm either going to be waiting on parts for 6 months, or I might just bite the bullet and replace them all together. I also ordered more parts today. 99 turns, the outer door weatherstrip, front wheel well plastic. I got the rear adjustable LCA's ordered last night like I said.

I know I keep making plans for what I want to get knocked out, but I have a major issue keeping focused, so for now on I am going to just keep knocking out what I can to make whatever progress I can. Honestly, whatever is in my way will be my next goal to get done. LOL

[stealthee]

So today being a Friday means bowling, and the weather is kinda shitty anyway so no work will really be done on the car today. However, when checking my email at work I saw that my wheel bearings and caliper rebuild kits were delivered today. Wasn't supposed to come til Monday so I was stoked. I had nothing to do at work so I grabbed the steering knuckles, which I took with me today, and started the disassembly process to prep them for the new bearings.

Other than fighting the damn snap ring just finding the right stock to set the knuckles up level in the press was the hardest part. Got them all disassembled, cleaned up and painted so they'll be ready when I press the bearings back in.

Before

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9566&d=1509676412

After

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9569&d=1509742052

As you can see I have two sets, but I only cleaned up the one set. I may clean up the other set and swap bearings in it too in the future. I also think I am going to go ahead and change the wheel studs while its apart. What's another $20 at this point?

If I can get the studs, and the weather goes to shit this weekend I may run back up to the shop and go ahead and assemble them to knock another thing off the list. I'll probably also try to get the brake calipers assembled.

[stealthee]

Weather cooperated for the most part today. Unfortunately that didn't equate to getting a ton of work done. I got the crossmembers installed and moved on to the LCA's. The passenger side was first. The new bushings caused a fight. After a long battle I finally got it in place. Unfortunately, the one bolt hole that holds the clamp over the rear bushing got stripped.

At that point I had to walk away. I was hungry anyway so I went and grabbed some lunch and stopped over my uncle's to talk to my cousin. After that I stopped at the hardware store and got a tap. I tried to retap the hole but the bolt still doesn't want to hold. I'll likely look into helicoiling it.

Moved over the driver's side at this point. It fought me worse than the passenger side. After a LONG battle I finally got it all bolted up.

Once done there I proceeded to get the interior sprayed with bedliner.

I bolted the rear coilovers in and was going to put the rear subframe in, but decided I'll wait til the control arms show up from Terry and put them on before I bolt it up.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9572&d=1509849701

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9571&d=1509849700

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9570&d=1509849699

Weather looks iffy for tomorrow so I am not sure what, if anything, will get done. I may try to stage more things, or may just get the caliper rebuild done. I have the camber plate bolts soaking in Evaporust so I'll also see about getting them bolted back on the front coilovers and put them back in too. I still need to bedline the hatch area, but it needs a good cleaning since it looks like some Lucas or something was spilled in there. With the rest of the interior being done though I can try to run the engine harness and then I can put the carpet and seats back in.

In time, it will all be done. I can only get done what the weather and daylight allows. My time will be really short to work on it after work now.

[OhioSpyderman]

Looking REAL good Brian :)

Any chance you can find someplace indoors to work?

Can't wait to see it finished!!!

Bob.

[stealthee]

That's kind of why I'm trying to get it on the ground. My uncle lives 2 miles away and has a garage with a wood furnace so we can work in the cold months. I can only take it a day at a time though and get done what I can get done til I can get it to a garage.

[stealthee]

Not much, anything really, accomplished today. I did get the old wheel studs out and new wheel studs in the spindles. Tomorrow I'll get everything pressed together. Also after talking to my machinist at work he offered a better solution to my stripped subframe hole. He advised tapping it with a 1/2-20 thread. He said the 29/64 bit will just barely knock out the threads that are left from the old hole and the new 1/2-20 will be just slightly bigger and will give a way better hold than a helicoil.

Also got a few parts, thats part of the reason nothing got done. I stopped to see a guy I got some stuff from before and got a rear center garnish and BSed with him for a bit. After that I stopped at my uncle's to get a 99 turn that I had shipped there and to see how he was doing, so I BSed with him for awhile.

I got home to find a box from Amazon with my new clutch master in it. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line the wrong master was put in the box. It was the right box, but the wrong part. After some Googling I figured out I had a master from a 626. I called customer service and got it all sorted out, so I should have the right one in a few days.

Fingers crossed I can get a few things knocked out in the coming days.

[j2k4]

Knock it off with all the damned BSing = getting shit done. ;)

[stealthee]

Got a few more parts today. The right master cylinder showed up as well as my Maximal control arms. I installed the control arms with the subframe on the ground. After that I proceeded to attempt to install the subframe. Key word, attempted. It was a nightmare to try to do myself. I got the trailing arm bolts in place and the rest of it kept twisting in a way to where it refused to line up. I ended up getting the bolt started in the bottom of the passenger coilover to at least get it somewhat hung. I was in the dark by this point and my ass was wet and cold from laying on the cold, wet ground so I grabbed a cinder block to support the other side and put all my tools away by flashlight.

In short, it wasn't as productive as I would have hoped, but with a fresh mind I'm hoping tomorrow goes better. I might go at it from a different point of attack. If it still doesn't work I will have to wait til Saturday when I can get a second set of hands.

Finishing up, Once the rear subframe is in I can actually put some wheels/tires on in and set the back on the ground. I should have my knuckles ready tomorrow and once I get the control arm bolt situated the front can go on the ground too. After that I tackle installing everything I can into the engine bay.

[stealthee]

I finished getting my steering knuckles assembled today so they are ready to go in.

As for the rear subframe, long story short, I am a dumbass.

I came home and tried again and getting the rear subframe up in. I managed to get the studs aligned, but then the trailing arms were fighting me. I tried a few different things and got to the point where I had all four studs aligned and one of the trailing arms but the other refused. Finally it hit me, I grabbed the control arm that wasn't locked down yet and twisted it and watched the trailing arm move.

So yeah, I spent around 3 hours, over two days just to get the damn rear subframe in when it should have been a 1 hour job tops, all because I thought I was saving time and effort by putting the control arms in first. The weird part is I measured the length of the old arm and made the new ones around the same length.

Oh well, it's in and I can move on to the next projects over the weekend. I might attempt to get the ebrake cables bolted up under the car and back into the cabin tomorrow before I have to go to bowling. I'm just going to play things by ear past that. I need to find a fuel pump that was given to me awhile back. I know I stashed it somewhere, I just can't remember where. Once I find it I'll get the gas tank up in and put the rear tires on. I do still need to put the brake calipers together and get them mounted, but one thing at a time.

I'm rambling so I will just stop here.

[stealthee]

Well, of course nothing ever goes as planned. I didn't get to touch the car yesterday due to mapping a harness I need and helping my cousin hang a deer so he could get it skun.

My plan for today was to get started on it as soon as the temperature got above 40. That was changed when plans to go with my brother changed from tomorrow to today. All we were supposed to have to do is change some broken studs, mount another wheel, load the car he's trading, and go. Long story short, nothing went as planned and instead of leaving to go up there by 10, we were still running around trying to get the right stuff and going back to our original plan of doing the trade tomorrow.

Anyway, enough backstory that has nothing to do with the car, LOL. I finally got to get started on stuff around 3:00. Firstly, and most importantly, I fixed the issue I had with the control arm clamp bolt. I took the 29/64 bit and it barely even touched the original threads, so I grabbed the tap and started slowly running it in. Put the clamp back on and the new bolt bit tight. After that I got the rear caliper brackets mounted. I put the steering knuckles on. I threw the stock struts on the front to keep the control arms from sagging. Went ahead and cleaned some of the rust off the rotors that were there and put them on and the caliper brackets.

I spent too much other time looking for things that I should know where they are. I'm getting incredibly frustrated that my memory is so bad and that I have "put things in a place so I would remember where they are" only to be like, where the fuck did I put that?

Ugh. I'll get there eventually.

[stealthee]

Another long list of things not going as planned today. Without going into detail I wasn't able to get started until around 2:00 today.

On the plus side I was able to get a license plate light harness, a heated driver's mirror, and an AA wing picked up today along the way.

As far as the car goes I got the license plate harness installed which allowed me to install the rear bumper cover. I swapped the heated driver's mirror out with the non heated someone had installed on the car before I got it. I got the rear soft brake lines mounted and hooked to the hard line. Also bolted up the front brake line bracket.

Other than that I was able to go through a few things and get them out of my way. I'm at the point now where when I grab something it is either going to get installed right at that point, or it will get staged in another spot. I think this is going to help me find some of the things I have been in search of, as well as get things organized so I am not climbing over things or moving them everyday.

Snapped a few pictures. Sorry for the blurring. I was losing light and wanted to try to get a few since I hadn't taken any in a few days.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9577&d=1510535225

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9578&d=1510535226

[stealthee]

Today there wasn't technically any progress made. I did pull the cover off the ass of the car and finish putting the bolts in the top of the rear bumper cover, fixed a stud on the driver's taillight and bolted them in too. So I am technically at the same spot I was yesterday.

After that I just went about moving some things around. I did pull the pump assembly from my old tank and got it out of the way too.

My progress will probably be nil over the next few days while my plan is to continue just going through parts and pieces. I need to pull everything I have stashed in the Stealth out and figure out what the hell needs to go back on the 3000, what is junk, and what can go in the to be sold pile. Maybe that is tomorrow's goal.

[stealthee]

I did go through the Stealth today and didn't really decide on any to be sold stuff, but I did move some things out that need to go on the 3000, and made a small pile that is garbage.

While it wasn't super productive toward completing the 3000 I did find the fuel filter bracket I have been in search of. The fuel pump still eludes me though. :lol:

I purposely put some things in my own way in the shed so that I will get the engine harness installed as well as the clutch master, brake master, etc and I can slowly figure out what I am missing from the firewall. Also once a few things are installed I will get the carpet and seats out of my way as well.

[OhioSpyderman]

Get the WHEELS on!!!

Only way you will get any work done this winter...

Love you :)

Bob.

[stealthee]

Yeah, I know.

I need to get the calipers put back together and get the tank in before I put it on the ground. I'll put the tank in as soon as I find the damn fuel pump, and the wheels will go on as soon as the calipers are back together and on the car.

I want it in the ground bad, but as long as the weather cooperates I will be doing work outside. I can rebuild the calipers any time, and will do so on a shitty day.

[stealthee]

Not as much progress happened today as I would have liked. I got the fuel filter in place and the engine harness is through the firewall. Other than that nothing got done due to helping my cousin with a part he needed and the fuel filter line fighting me on lining up.

Hoping tomorrow to bolt down the harness cover on the floor and put the carpet in. Then from there I am going to work on my firewall stuff.

[OhioSpyderman]

Not as much progress happened today as I would have liked. I got the fuel filter in place and the engine harness is through the firewall. Other than that nothing got done due to helping my cousin with a part he needed and the fuel filter line fighting me on lining up.

Hoping tomorrow to bolt down the harness cover on the floor and put the carpet in. Then from there I am going to work on my firewall stuff.

Boo.

Get some of those cousins and uncles to help you get that thing on the ground! They owe you.

You know I'm right. If you don't I see this thing dragging into next summer/fall/winter....

Bob.

[stealthee]

My uncle is unable to help for the time being unfortunately. He has been on oxygen for a few weeks now and can't exert himself til they get his breathing sorted. My cousins work such sporadic hours it's hard to catch them when I'm available.

Trust me once I get it on the ground I'll have no choice but to get help. I might even tow it to my uncle's to drop the engine in at that point.

[stealthee]

The interior wire loom hold down is in, and I put the carpet in. After that my intention was to get the front brake lines in and bolted to the prop valve and to the firewall, then move on to putting in the clutch master, brake booster, etc.

Long story short the passenger front brake line fought me to the end on threading into the prop valve. I bet it took 30 minutes before I got it started. I ended up having to undo the other lines I already had started to get it started.

Ugh. I don't know why the simplest things have to be so difficult at times.

[OhioSpyderman]

As hard as I've been on you Brian (only because I want to see this project succeed), I empathize with you today.

I needed to replace the TPS on my Stealth today (wacky surging in the last few weeks, several opinions accepted) which I thought would be a 20 minute job.

An hour later I was cursing the A$$hole that put the bottom screw where it was (I got it out only after removing all three of the Plenum mounted plugs and the "radiator" cap.)

Got it done, but with WAY more effort than I thought was necessary.

(I damn you Mitsu engineers!!!)

Bob. :)

[stealthee]

Due to crappy weather nothing got accomplished on the car today. I basically sat around disgusted at the weather, watching football, and watching the minutecast hoping to see a long enough break in the rain to get something done. Unfortunately, it didn't happen.

After awhile of doing nothing I ran out to the shed and grabbed my calipers and some brake fluid and brought it into the house to get the calipers reassembled. After A LOT of cussing I got them all together. For those that have never disassembled the NA calipers (and possibly TT ones too) there is a pain in the ass spring clip that holds the dust boot in place. They refused to cooperate and go into place easily.

Whatever, they're done. I need to touch up the paint a little and then they are going back on the car.

[j2k4]

Watching your progress reminds me of rebuilding two Toyota pick-ups in my driveway several plus several years back.

Just remembered I was right in the middle of that project on 9/11. :sad:


This is much more enjoyable, Brian...;)

[stealthee]

It was cold today, but I was determined to get some stuff done, so I bundled up and went to it. I put the fuel pump from the Stealth on the 3000GT fuel pump hanger. I set the tank up on some saw horses in the basement and scraped some of the grime from the top of it, wiped it down, and sprayed some paint on it.

I got the slider dust boots installed on the calipers and the calipers installed on the car. Of course it couldn't have went easy though. The driver's front caliper would not bolt up properly. I've never had the problem I had with it, but after more cursing I got it all together.

I was starving at that point so I broke to fix something to eat. Some precipitation came in and at that point I decided to call it a day.

I really wanted to get the tank up in the car, because I could have put some wheels on it and had it on the ground today, but the cold and damp had (still has) my back in a vise, so I figured there was no point in hurting myself more or getting sick when the weather is supposed to improve this week.

[stealthee]

Tank, heat shield, and filler neck are in place. I tightened down the nuts on the Maximal control arms and got the rear brake lines hooked up that I forgot to hook up before I bolted the calipers up.

I need to find, or buy, the clamp that holds the filler neck to the tank. Mine fell off somewhere along the way. I also misplaced the gasket that goes between the filler and the body, but it is bolted up there for the time being.

For some reason the tie rods do not want to go into the steering knuckle. I'm not entirely sure what is happening there. Hoping to get it figured out soon, because as soon as I do, the car should be able to come off the jack stands.

I don't think anything will get done tomorrow. I need to get my Lancer inspected and get the winter tires mounted so that is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Other than that I am going to keep doing whatever I can do.

[j2k4]

You're a hardass, Brian.

I have no doubt you could survive, prosper, and work on your cars outside here in the Great White North...:D

[stealthee]

So as mentioned I wasn't able to work on the car Tuesday, due to having to get the Lancer inspected. Wednesday I left work early, but between the temps and me feeling like absolute crap I didn't even think about the car. Yesterday the temps were still in the low/mid 30's, which I could have dealt with had I still not felt like crap.

I'm not 100% today, but I feel way better than I did the last two days. I got up this morning and did some online Black Friday shopping while I waited on the temps to get into the 40's. I kind of just went with the flow of things. I did project jump a bit, but I'm getting to the point where that is going to be necessary anyway. I'm slowly finding things that I have doubles of that are already on the car so I can put that stuff out of my way.

Got the clutch master, brake booster and master, wiper assembly and motor, clutch line, power steering reservoir, power steering cooler, and probably a few more small things installed. I started gravity bleeding the brakes until I can get a second person to help push the pedal.

I'll just continue playing everything by ear to see what I can get accomplished until I run out of parts to put on the car.

I snapped a quick pic to show that it is actually starting to look like an engine bay again.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9582&d=1511560443

[OhioSpyderman]

Wheels.....

Bob. :)

[j2k4]

Wheels.....

Bob. :)

Yeah, bolt up those Villains!! :D

[stealthee]

It will be awhile before the Villains get bolted up since they don't have any tires. Just to get it rolling it will end up getting the 1g NA wheels bolted to it.

Once I get the brake system bled out and the rear sway bar bolted back on the wheels will likely go on and it will be on the ground.

[stealthee]

It's been awhile since I posted an update. That is mainly due to frustration. For those that didn't see my other thread I ran into an issue with my proportioning valve and was getting no fluid to the right rear caliper. After a few days of messing with it I found that my only solution was to order a new one. I ordered it last Monday and was hoping to have it by this weekend so I could get it all changed out and bled out over the weekend. Unfortunately it didn't happen, and I won't have it til tomorrow or Tuesday.

I did already put the front wheels on and set the front on the ground. It almost looks like I am making progress. Unfortunately, I'll have to jack it back up once the new prop valve is in.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9592&d=1512354908

That being said I did get some other things bolted up. Cruise box is on, AC fuse box, power steering lines, AC drier, wiper mech and motor, and I threw the battery tray and washer reservoir in while I was at it, even though it will have to come back out when the engine/trans go in.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9591&d=1512354907

I also cleaned up the hatch area so I could get it bedlined.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9590&d=1512354906

The one thing I did get on Friday was my transmission shims. Yesterday I got it assembled. Today I torqued everything to spec, did a quick cleaning, and painted it up.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9593&d=1512354909

While waiting for paint to dry I went ahead and pulled the prop valve back off so I am ready for the new one. I also cleaned up the master cylinder and threw a coat of paint on it so it didn't look so dingy.

Cold weather is coming, but I still want to get the car fired up soon. Tomorrow if I'm still waiting on the prop valve I'll pull the engine out of the corner and go over it and bolt a few things to it and prep in pulling it off the stand.

[Beef6]

Great progress Brian, I wish I had your motivation!

[OhioSpyderman]

Shit weather is supposed to hit here later today, and then get colder than a witch's T!T.
I recollect that you may have another day before that hits you (maybe less). Say goodbye to 50°F weather!

Good luck!!

Bob. :)

[j2k4]

Shit weather is supposed to hit here later today, and then get colder than a witch's T!T...

I was married to a witch with two large tits.

You could have parked her face-down on top of a keg and kept it chilled...

[stealthee]

Great progress Brian, I wish I had your motivation!

Thanks Josh. My motivation is the fact that I have thousands of dollars of parts sitting around collecting dust. :p


Shit weather is supposed to hit here later today, and then get colder than a witch's T!T.
I recollect that you may have another day before that hits you (maybe less). Say goodbye to 50°F weather!

Good luck!!

Bob. :)

Thanks Bob. I'll deal with the cold as I can.

While I was at work today I tracked my prop valve. It showed delivered so it got my wheels set in motion for planning my evening. I decided to leave an hour early to try to take advantage of the weather and use as much daylight as I could. When I got home not only did I find my prop valve there, but also the fir tree zip ties I ordered to reattached the wire loom bundles for the body harness to the inner fenders and along the front of the lower rad support.

I also found a note that a signature confirmation package was attempted to be delivered and it was from Megan Racing. I knew it was my coilover top plates. I ran to the post office, but unfortunately my driver had not returned yet.

I ran back to the house and started installing the prop valve. I got it all bolted up and started the bleeding process. I decided to run back to the post office and my driver had just returned, so I was able to get the top plates. I think I'm going to try to get the coilovers put together tomorrow.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9596&d=1512441350

I went through and finished bleeding the system and I now have fluid to all 4 wheels. YAY. While I was in the midst of bleeding I went around the wire loom and reattached it where it needed reattached, so now the body harness wire loom isn't hanging loose everywhere. The only place it is loose is the parts that attach to the back of the headlight buckets.

The pic is not the best because it was basically dark when I took it, but it is just to show the harness is all ties up now.

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9594&d=1512441348

I decided to go ahead and bolt the rear wheels on since everything was all bled. The car is officially on all 4 tires

Again, shitty, dark pic, but yeah

http://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9595&d=1512441349

[stealthee]

No work on the car itself today. The weather was pure shit, plus I focused on a vehicle I'm getting paid to work on. Lol. I'll be doing work to it tomorrow and Thursday as well so I can get it out of here and get paid.

While I didn't work on the car itself I did tear down the coilovers. It didn't go as smooth as I'd hoped. The locknuts were a little stuck. I was able to get a little preload off though and got them apart.

I soaked the locknuts in wd40 and when I mess with them again I plan on getting all the nuts moving freely and setting everything up when it goes back together.

[OhioSpyderman]

No work on the car itself today. The weather was pure shit.

Hrmm...I kind of remembering telling you that might happen....

Just messin with you Brian, keep plugging on!!!

Bob. :)

[stealthee]

:p I knew the rain was coming, and I really had no intention on getting anything done tonight anyway.

Hoping tomorrow to get the driveshaft "rebuilt", and installed, and get a window motor installed in this Grand Cherokee. Once that is done I'll proceed to hopefully getting the coilovers put back together. Thursday will be more work on the Jeep in the way of installing another window motor and some hatch shocks. Once that is done I can get that out of my way and get paid. I wish all the parts would have been able to be delivered by tomorrow cause then it would be done one day sooner, oh well.

I'm going to get the coilovers on this weekend. That should sit the front of the car down another 3+ inches making installing the engine and trans easier as soon as that comes..

[mcshooter]

Stealth I have not been on for quite some time but glad to see what you are doing ,, can't wait to see how it looks when you get the widebody fenders you got from mike on, mikes vr4 has been garaged all summer as he is restoring a 1957 dodge custom royal, it is the exact car as my first car.. keep up the good work and good luck.

[OhioSpyderman]

Any new updates Brian?

Bob. :)

[stealthee]

I wish. The sub-freezing temps of last week left me unable to do anything. If the weather forecast holds true I might be able to get something done over my 4 day weekend coming up.

[stealthee]

Well the weather still sucks so the car and my progress are stuck in hibernation for the most part. I did finally acquire all the parts needed to refresh my front coilovers thanks to Terry and Maximal Performance.

I went through and followed the directions on Megan Racing's site for assembling (with basically no preload) I cleaned them up a little better while they were disassembled too.

https://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9604&d=1518480193

If the weather starts cooperating soon then I can start making bigger process.

I do have plans to go ahead and get the hood fixed up, maybe even this weekend, so it is ready to go on the car.

Hopefully I can sell some more of my parts to make more room and a little more money to get more things done.

[OhioSpyderman]

Well the weather still sucks so the car and my progress are stuck in hibernation for the most part. I did finally acquire all the parts needed to refresh my front coilovers thanks to Terry and Maximal Performance.

I went through and followed the directions on Megan Racing's site for assembling (with basically no preload) I cleaned them up a little better while they were disassembled too.

https://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9604&d=1518480193

If the weather starts cooperating soon then I can start making bigger process.

I do have plans to go ahead and get the hood fixed up, maybe even this weekend, so it is ready to go on the car.

Hopefully I can sell some more of my parts to make more room and a little more money to get more things done.

Brian did WAY more than that...

He packaged and sent some front suspension parts that my middle son needed after a slide on collision with a curb.

Thanking you here, Brian.

Bob. :)

[stealthee]

I actually did the coilovers last week. I just now remembered to upload the pic. :p

[alexw3000gt]

If you want an AA wing, there's one in my garage you can have.

Also good to see a blue bastard V2.0!

[stealthee]

Dangit. I already bought an AA wing. Wish I knew you had one.

You still planning on making some splitters?

[alexw3000gt]

I have a slew of parts in my shop... shoot me a text any time you need something, I probably have it lying around ha

Yes sometime this season. Spent the last 4 months doing some fresh pearl yellow... came out fantastic!

[OhioSpyderman]

Brian, what the hell is going on with this car?

Bob. :)

[stealthee]

Well I have gotten a few little things done here and there. I was going to post some pics with updates but there were problems with the forum album uploading, so I never got the updates done.

Also, a bunch of random things kept holding up the progress. We were going to get my car in the garage after doing a turbo install on my cousin's 8th gen Civic. That ended up taking longer than anticipated due to some hiccups, then another round of bad luck led to him deciding to pull the turbo back out so that delayed things further. Once that was done my other cousin needed the garage to prep and paint his wife's car.

That's now done and we are going to try to get the car into the garage this week. Once its in the garage progress should increase due to being indoors.

[OhioSpyderman]

Running by the 4th of July or this project dies....

You CAN DO EET!!!

Bob.

[j2k4]

Running by the 4th of July or this project dies....

You CAN DO EET!!!

Bob.

Agreed...but Bob - you, with a Spanish accent? :rolleyes:

[DocWalt]

Brian, get on it

[alexw3000gt]

Shootout is coming

[stealthee]

Yeah, about that...

[Vrfury]

wats hapin wit ur car?????? also I hav tha stealth running bt somtins wrong......
https://youtu.be/S7X8g62frdw

[stealthee]

You sure you didn't seafoam it? Lol

I'll try to post an "uodate" tomorrow. I'm asking getting ready to head up your way. Going to Keystone for a Street car test and tune or whatever.

[Vrfury]

wheres tha update??????

[TajMan]

Project looks good!

[stealthee]

Miracles, they happen.

https://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9679&d=1543198179

[DocWalt]

Holy crap, it's inside!

[TT4ME]

Cool, finished in a month. Go Stealthee!

[OhioSpyderman]

It's a trick, done with mirrors!!!

Bob. ;)

[stealthee]

LOL. We got the car to the garage on Friday and got the engine, trans, hood, etc up there yesterday. There are a bunch of the new parts or parts just waiting for engine install to go in already inside the car

I'm going to try my best to get up there after work a few times through the week to get some little things done in prep of getting the engine in. It's hard to say how much time I will get to spend up there though with how much I have been working late lately. I'm hoping an hour here or there through this week will allow me to get the engine installed this weekend. It probably won't be ready to fire, due to other things, but it will be in.

Fingers crossed.

[Beef6]

Brian, even if you are working 12 hour shifts that leaves you 12 hours of car build time a day. I do not see an issue... :biggrin2:

Glad to see some progress!

[Alan92RTTT]

what , what? wow!

[j2k4]

Miracles, they happen.

https://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9679&d=1543198179

The Bastard will never let you take it outside again...:lo5l:

[stealthee]

LOL. If I have anything to do with it it will be back outside later in December.

I worked a little late (like I do all the time) then came home and ate dinner, then went up to my aunt's to try to get something done. I took the pan back off the engine because I wanted to lube things up from it sitting so long. Getting the pan off was pretty much all I got done. I knocked a little ding out of it and sprayed a oil/Marvel Mystery Oil mix around the rod caps and down along the cylinder walls. I even squirted a little assembly lube near the rod caps, though I doubt that is actually going to do much.

I made some notes of a few things I need to grab from my parts and tools, then put away the tools I got out, shoved the stand back behind the car and called it a night.

I hope to get back up tomorrow and get the a few brackets cleaned up and repainted and touch up the block where it needs it and also get the pan back on it. If I manage to do that I'll flip the engine back over and lube up the valve train similar to how I lubed the crank. I'll probably shoot some oil down each spark plug holes too.

If I can get that far then I'll turn the engine over a few times with a breaker bar on Wednesday. I need to figure out something with my exhaust studs as some of them need to be changed over to bolts.

I just need to pace myself because I can't make to many goals at once as it will just lead to frustration if those goals aren't met.

[j2k4]

Understand that last.

Not messing with the car right now - thinking of selling it - but I have so much stuff going on I can't keep track. :sad:

[stealthee]

Didn't get much accomplished tonight, because, again, worked late, and also had to gather up a long list of tools and other supplies to take with me to the garage.

All I managed to get done was to get all the old silicone off the oil pan mating surfaces and get the pan repainted. I threw all the pan bolts and some other bracket bolts in some Evaporust. I went ahead and started disassembling a DOHC alternator to clean it up and I'm going to install it on the SOHC to get the better amperage.

Not sure what I'll get done tomorrow because I got all my stuff for building my new PC and I really want to get it done. If anything I'd like to get the pan on and get the top end lubed. If I do get that far I'll be happy.

[stealthee]

Pan is on and top end is lubed up. Not sure what is on the agenda tomorrow other than turning it over by hand a few times. Might clean up and paint a few other things but didn't plan on spending much time on it so I can get my PC build finished up.

[stealthee]

I did get the engine all cleaned up. It had gotten a little dirty after sitting in the shed the last two years uncovered.

https://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9682&d=1543673695

https://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9683&d=1543673707

https://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9684&d=1543673736

https://www.3sgto.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=9685&d=1543673747

Cleaned up pretty good without a whole lot of work. I've still got to get a better oil cap. I had that one sitting around and needed one to plug the hole.

I might actually try to get the engine and trans set down in the bay this weekend....

[stealthee]

I really need to sit down and upload photos and write up a nice update, but busy life is busy.

[DocWalt]

yup. get unbusy

[Steve '92ES]

Does this mean progress??

[OhioSpyderman]

Thread started 15 months ago.
And this is not the first of its kind.
No running car will ever come out of this....

Bob.

[OhioSpyderman]

I am going to take this one step further (because I can, it's my Birthday tomorrow!)

This thread is like a potential blowjob...

She says she will, but the only time she opens her mouth, is to spout BULLSHIT!

Love you Brian!!

Bob. :)

[j2k4]

Brian loves you too, Bob.

Why, just the other day he was going on about what a great ass you have. :lo5l:





Happy birthday, bud. ;)

[OhioSpyderman]

What happened to this car and this thread?

UGH.

Bob.

[stealthee]

Still trudging along in the car. I just don't have much extra time to try to upload pics. I do need to make time though.

[stealthee]

So time for some actual updates with photos.

I do apologize for the lengthy delay. Life hasn't been the same since last February (2018). My uncle passed away suddenly and it put a damper on things for awhile. He was like a dad to me and he liked to be a thorn in my side and always give me a hard time about getting things done to the car. It seemed like every time I tried to accomplish something on the car after he passed I hit a proverbial wall.

I try to laugh about it a little now, because my car is in his garage, and I know he is giving me shit for the length of time its been in there. :)

I'm going to try to stay chronological for the most part. I'll also try to keep the descriptions short and sweet and let pictures speak for themselves.

I'm going to start off with many of the things that I got done to the car prior to it getting moved up to the garage.

First off is the shifter base.

Before

https://i.imgur.com/6WPMhdc.jpg

After sandblasting

https://i.imgur.com/iTrnZHx.jpg

Primer

https://i.imgur.com/OVD6G84.jpg

Painted

https://i.imgur.com/Ol1J9EC.jpg

Assembled

https://i.imgur.com/LMpviG2.jpg

The brackets on the headlights had seen better days so I took them off for the same treatment

Before

https://i.imgur.com/ADc7x97.jpg

After sandblasting

https://i.imgur.com/x9tWIt5.jpg

Painted

https://i.imgur.com/SubeFir.jpg


Next up is the brackets that go along the front of the bumper cover as well as fog light brackets.

I can't locate the before pics, but you can imagine they looked similar to the other before pics

After sandblasting

https://i.imgur.com/O3hGI9a.jpg

Primer

https://i.imgur.com/ulP4A4n.jpg

Paint

https://i.imgur.com/c3XDwkL.jpg

I went back over these brackets too. Not pictured is my fix for one of the studs breaking off.

https://i.imgur.com/9YqNP3H.jpg

[stealthee]

Next up is the fog light assemblies

Again for some reason I don't seem to have before pics.

After sandblasting

https://i.imgur.com/naRoBxU.jpg

Paint

https://i.imgur.com/VmHN9ij.jpg

Assembled

https://i.imgur.com/gl7tnoO.jpg

I even cleaned up and painted the fog light shrouds

Before

https://i.imgur.com/YNGYw2G.jpg

After

https://i.imgur.com/Psj5jGz.jpg

I pulled the headliner to paint it since I swapped in my true black leather

After a few light coats

https://i.imgur.com/193yK5D.jpg

All done

https://i.imgur.com/iMMf4tS.jpg

Weather was nice one of those days so I grabbed the intake manifold and cleaned it up and prepped it for paint

After

https://i.imgur.com/ia8XDjs.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/f6AijDq.jpg

Another day I installed the rear hatch trays, spare tire and spare tire cover

https://i.imgur.com/zKJuDYM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/idvx1FQ.jpg

I know the carpet doesn't look all that good there. I have another one I will install.

[stealthee]

I think the previous two posts pretty much catches you up on things that happened prior to getting the car to the garage. Now this should catch you up on things that have happened since then.

One thing of "humor" first though. After we moved the car I went back to the house to grab a few things and noticed something interesting where the car was sitting.

https://i.imgur.com/Nlp7NpV.jpg

I know people say the 3s has womanly curves and this just proves the point. :lol:

Anyway, onto the rest.

I have already posted pics of the engine on the stand and cleaned up so I'll move on from that point.

One of the nights whilst working on the car we had a blue Mitsu night

https://i.imgur.com/Xw1IR9f.jpg

Ok so from there and the last pics of the engine on the stand this happened

https://i.imgur.com/7O715vu.jpg

That there was the last pic of the engine on the stand...

Sorry for the smoke. We had just stoked the fire and it got a lil smoky in the garage

https://i.imgur.com/lUIFmOF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3hgYDjZ.jpg

Clutch and pressure plate mounted

https://i.imgur.com/hlZWvK4.jpg

Trans mounted

https://i.imgur.com/YLO78MJ.jpg

What's this?

https://i.imgur.com/6xDgFHe.jpg

[stealthee]

After the engine went in I made a scary discovery.

I installed the axles and was trying to "guesstimate" the torque on the axle nuts because my torque wrench didn't go high enough. After I tightened it I tryed to spin the axles and they were almost locked solid. I tried loosening the axle nut thinking I had the bearing locked up and it didn't really help, so I went to pull the brakes off and found this

https://i.imgur.com/HZ3vD2G.jpg

All four calipers looked like that or similar. I don't know what happened or why. Either I sucked really bad at my rebuild of the calipers or the car sat too long after I did the rebuild and the pistons just pushed past the boots. The reason this is super scary is we flat towed the car the two miles to the garage with my brother's Equinox and a chain. I don't know how I didn't end up slamming into him or possibly even worse.

After discovering that I decided to bite the bullet and just order "new" remans.

Anyway, in the process of fighting the engine in place the front valve cover got scratched up and it wasn't perfect in the first place anyway so I repainted it, as well as the intake tube

https://i.imgur.com/xPDzKHb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eoQCGzb.jpg

Then we did this

https://i.imgur.com/p1f5TGl.jpg

Back on the car with nice stainless hardware

https://i.imgur.com/pHfsbjW.jpg

[stealthee]

There were random delays along the way but I still tried to make progress so I moved on to the nasty radiator fans

https://i.imgur.com/K6A7bED.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7P7MQoc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CiQrPfq.jpg

After some elbow grease, cleaning and painting of the fan motors along with new mounting hardware for said motors

https://i.imgur.com/K8RXimn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6Yz0yqo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2LCbv3k.jpg

Mounted to the Mishimoto rad

https://i.imgur.com/RGRE6CY.jpg

I took another day and installed the cat back

https://i.imgur.com/modmaPJ.jpg

I don't have a picture of it but right after getting the catback installed I remade my "custom cat" (with welding help from my cousin) that I've had for years. Once it was cooled off it was bolted up completing my exhaust.

I purchased a brand new Mitsubishi 5 speed shift knob too since mine was trashed.

https://i.imgur.com/FVZq9w5.jpg

[stealthee]

I had to do some figuring on wiring along the way. I knew there would be a few differences but one snuck up on me. I didn't realize that the SOHC has the oil pressure sender wiring in the body harness, whereas the DOHC has it in the engine harness. I know the stock gauge isn't all that accurate, but I wanted it to function so I ran my own single wire from the sender, along the lower rad support, up the frame rail, then outside the inner fender with the body harness. From there I ran it inside the car with the body harness.

I pulled the glove box and had access to the plug for the center cluster. I unplugged it, depinned the oil pressure sender wire, and I plugged my wire I ran into its spot using a pin I had cut off one of my spare dashes. It plugs in just like OEM with no splicing so I can put it back like stock when the next phase happens with the car....

Have I mentioned what the next phase will be??? ;)

[stealthee]

Before I move on...

This is what is left of Blue Bastard 1.0

https://i.imgur.com/mli2sWM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DOM3GZF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vJLNnMO.jpg

The hatch isn't even there any more either. I sold the glass from it to my buddy after someone threw a brick through the back window of his.

[OhioSpyderman]

WOW Brian, I am impressed!

VERY nice work on everything...

The car runs when? (you know I am a hard ass..)

Bob. :)

[stealthee]

After checking, and double checking, and triple checking things it came time to crank the car for the first time. I pulled the coil wire from the distributor and tried to crank the car over a few times to build oil pressure and fuel pressure. After a few cranks I started smelling fuel so I figured I had enough pressure to start the car. I climb out and take a peek under the car to look for leaks, and I see a puddle of fuel back next to the tank.

Upon inspection I apparently had one of my "oh, look a squirrel" moments when I hooked up fuel lines. I must have gotten up to get the wrenches to tighten the soft line to the hard line, gotten distracted by something else, and never went back to it. The fitting was so loose I spun it in by hand several turns before needing the wrenches.

After fixing that I went back over things a few times and gave it a few more cranks before hooking the coil back up.

So, now, the moment of truth has arrived


https://youtu.be/nqL4mcTN2bI

I didn't run it long, due to no coolant, but other than slightly loud lifters (to be expected) it sounded great. My oil pressure gauge fix worked and all my electrical seems to be working as expected. On that note one of the things I forgot to mention I did along the way was completely depin and repin and fix the drivers door harness. Everything there worked like a charm (well after I seated some plugs that weren't plugged in.)

The one thing I did notice not working was my alternator. I knew the alternator wiring was an issue from the beginning and I thought I had it figured out, but I only had it half figured out. Upon digging I found out I didn't have 12 volts going to the exciter (I think thats the right term) in the SOHC harness. I did have 12 volts going to the DOHC exciter harness that I had taped off.

So, I acquired another alternator plug in, and made a jumper harness. I jumped from the DOHC exciter plug and ran the wire around the engine and was able to plug it in like factory, with the SOHC wire now taped off. Another quick start up showed the alternator now charging.

[stealthee]

My next step is the core support. My cousin and I put our heads together to figure the best course of action to weld the new buckets into the car without use of a spot welder. I contemplated buying one, but couldn't justify spending $180 on a tool that would likely never get used again.

To make life easier I took the old bucket assembly I had removed and measured distances across common points that the 2g buckets have. From there we used vice grips to hold the core support together and onto the car

https://i.imgur.com/01L0kNx.jpg

I made a list in the dust on the windshield

https://i.imgur.com/2UJfQK6.jpg

[stealthee]

This weekend was a slight wash, but we did get the buckets welded to the upper rad support. I had to order some weld through primer and seam sealer so we can finish that job. If all goes to plan the buckets will be welded to the car this coming weekend.

If that happens then I can really move forward on assembling the rest of the car. I guess I should finally put it in my name.

[j2k4]

I like the sound...

[Steve '92ES]

That update was worth waiting for!
How did you do the intake? Was that dipped?
Looking good!

[stealthee]

Yes sir. The black base paint was a "teaser" of sorts. It was just in prep of the hydrodip. Christmas day my cousin and I had a few minutes to burn so we set up our "dip station" and it came out great. This was, of course, after a few failed attempts where we were experimenting.

Thanks.

[stealthee]

No pics, but the buckets/rad support are welded on....

[stealthee]

I sure as hell hope I have time to knock some things out this weekend. I haven't gotten home before 7:00 one day this week. I'm going in early again tomorrow and I'll be on OT tomorrow afternoon and still have all day Friday. It should make for a good paycheck, but it isn't allowing me to make any progress. :/

[stealthee]

Very little progress this weekend. As stated I worked a ton this week. Was at work for over 60 hours, was in the truck for over 8 hours on Friday, which killed my back, which had me down on Saturday.

I intended on getting things knocked out today, but my cousin had come in from Philly and needed his car looked over because he had to stop and fill the rad along the way after he overheated. Finally found a seeping radiator to be the culprit.

Stopped to eat at that point, then rode into Home Depot to help get 1000 lbs of decorative gravel.

So yeah the only thing really accomplished was putting on some seam sealer. I brought the bumper cover, fenders and fender liners up from my house but that's about it.

I'm going to paint the underside of the buckets and do touchups before I install the bumper or fenders. I need to locate the brackets that go between the fenders and bumper cover too.

[stealthee]

So, as always life gets in the way a lot, but things have happened.

This is after the buckets were officially welded in place.

https://i.imgur.com/NDsyctv.jpg

Yesterday I started drilled the fenders. Once I got the driver's side done I started a loose mockup with the bumper, fender, headlight and marker light.

https://i.imgur.com/2BhLfXv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AbWN208.jpg

Before I even got the passenger fender drilled I mocked it up with both headlights.

https://i.imgur.com/he3U354.jpg

Once I got the passenger fender drilled I fully mocked both sides.

https://i.imgur.com/8SXQqpw.jpg

After that I putzed a little. I bolted up the horn/hood latch mount. I routed some other wiring and stuff.

I called it a day at that point.

I managed to get off work on time today so I stopped at the garage before I went home to putz some more. I filled the coolant system and fired the car again. I let it come to full temp and it seemed to do great. I did notice a small coolant leak around the coolant sensor. I'll have to address that another day. I noticed my digital climate control has an issue too. Its like the temp down button is stuck. Every time I raised the temp it lowered itself as soon as I let go of the button.

I did one other mock up before I went home to make dinner. I had brought one of my Villains up to see how it sat with the fenders.

I took some pics looking straight down the fender. Not 100% sure what the thing is on the ground almost center of the fender so pay it no mind.

Stock rim

https://i.imgur.com/hfJw1ye.jpg

Villain

https://i.imgur.com/juX74uK.jpg

And another quick shot of the Villain just reminding me of why I liked these so much

https://i.imgur.com/kDLnIeB.jpg

I ordered some nice hardware to mount the fenders and bumper cover. Hoping to see them by the end of the week because the car has to come out of the garage this weekend (at least for the weekend) because of a family picnic. I might actually take it for a quick ride.....

[DocWalt]

Looking good, man

[j2k4]

After all this time...:)

[stealthee]

Looking good, man

Thanks Kenny. She's still got a long way to go, but I'm getting there.


After all this time...:)

Seriously. I'm getting to the point where I am getting nervous. I already know she runs good (at least at idle with some revs), but all the little things left have my nerves about shot. Hoping everything goes to plan and I can take her on a short jaunt this weekend.

[stealthee]

So despite the lack of updates due to work and just life in general, shit has happened.

I got my hardware in and mounted up the bumper, fenders, and headlights.

https://i.imgur.com/iokz2bN.jpg

I even threw the hood on for looks.

https://i.imgur.com/1vfFuAJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0aaaOBn.jpg

She's a dirty bitch, but whatever.

Things didn't go to plan over last weekend due to a nightmare strut change on a car we are sure sat in the ocean, but with a picnic occurring with the garage as its base the car needed to come out of the garage.


https://youtu.be/9wegT2u-td0

Apologies for the vertical orientation of the video.

When I took it out of the garage I had no power steering and the gas pedal seemed really stiff. I also couldn't shift so I couldn't really take it for a ride. I just went around the garage, then put it on the side of the house to get it out of the way.

I figured out the power steering. It was because the reservoir got sucked dry. After refilling and working the wheel, and refilling, and repeat I got power steering. I'm pretty sure I just need to bleed the slave again to get it working. I probably will recheck my pedal free play.

For the gas pedal I need to figure out if it is just me not being used to it, or if I need to lube the cable or the cruise mechanism.

Once I get those things figured out I'll take it out for an actual ride.

No pics but I got new tires in today for it. Can't wait to get them mounted.

I'll post more updates when things happen and when I get time.

[j2k4]

It Lives!!!

[stealthee]

I had hoped to get some things sorted last weekend so I could take the car for a ride, but it didn't quite happen. Was just super busy, but some things did happen.

I ordered tires so I figured it would be a good idea to get the wheels out of the basement and get them cleaned up.

https://i.imgur.com/PKrjlVB.jpg

Tires came in a few days later and I loaded everything up on Saturday so I could take them to my buddy's shop to get mounted and balanced. Once I got back to the house I wanted to check the brakes out on the Lancer anyway so I pulled the wheel and mounted one of the Villains to see how much the tire/wheel combo would stick out on it.

https://i.imgur.com/pLIg19e.jpg

As you can see it wouldn't work well. :lol:

The day was shot and I had evening plans so I took the wheels up to the garage and left them for another day

https://i.imgur.com/MJYe5iz.jpg

Next day I made my way to the garage once I recovered to get some stuff done.

Got the wheels all mounted up.

https://i.imgur.com/fye4ITt.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6dnwrsn.jpg

View from the rear

https://i.imgur.com/5JieabE.jpg

I'll have a little poke once I correct the negative camber, but the poke should be all but gone once I get the rear quarters in place.

Next photo is kind of dual purpose. You can see that the tire/wheel combo is pretty square with the widebody fenders. You also see I was doing some testing with my fog lights.

https://i.imgur.com/XieJNUu.jpg

I got a few more goodies in the mail today. I'll actually have center caps for the first time ever on my Villains, and I have had them for probably 13 years.

I didn't have a second set of hands to help try to get my clutch bled, but I was attempting some other diagnosis of things while I did other things. I need to TRY to focus on just making the car drivable, then move on to other little things. We'll see how that goes.

[j2k4]

Looking real good, Bri.

Glad to see another set of Villains again...;)

[Tensecs2fame]

It movessss!!!!!

[stealthee]

My updates have slacked because my progress came to a crawl. I have been trying to diagnose some electrical issues before I moved forward, even though I said I was going to move forward anyway, but now I am glad I waited because I have disassembled much of the car all over again trying to figure out the reverse lights.

The headlights and marker lights are out, the fenders are back off, the glove box is back out, the taillights are out, gauge bezel is out, etc.

Some of the other issues I managed to figure out were the rear defrost and the horn. I tested the horn and had nothing at the relay. Crossing the relay over got me nothing too. Long story short, when I was testing horn with the horn buttons I didn't have the airbag grounded, so therefor no relay, because the horns are ground activated. Thankfully I got a second set of eyes on it and my cousin figured out my oversight there, however even with the relay clicking I had no horns. I even tested power and ground and they worked as should, but still no horns. Somehow, some way, the horns were bad. I purchased new oem-like ones and installed them Sunday. I have horns now.

Other issue was another oversight by me. I thought the rear defrost was not working, but after looking over the electrical manual I realized I was a moron. I tried to start the rear defrost with the car in the accessory position. ETACS needs to see voltage from the alternator. I started the car and the switch lit so that works. Don't know how healthy the defrost lines are, but I'll get to that at a later date.

Thankfully Steve and Larry are both in my troubleshooting thread on the reverse lights. If I can get that fixed I can actually start reassembling things and go forward. Once progress resumes I'll take more pictures and post them.

[mcshooter]

Brian I have not been on forums for a long time but did you ever get the wide body kit on you got from mikes 2nd

[stealthee]

If you look at some of the recent pics you'll see where the front fenders were installed. They are back off at the moment but should be put back on this weekend, unless I decide to go ahead and do some other painting while it is back apart.

Thanks to Larry (Real McCoy), we were able to figure out my (hopefully) last electrical issue and I can resume progress.

Posted this in my diagnosis thread, but

https://i.imgur.com/8ofye4F.jpg

[DocWalt]

looking good, B

[stealthee]

So not many photos but actually got a lot accomplished this weekend.

I was able to fix the reverse light issue "correctly." What I did was depin the switch wires from C30 on the engine harness. I grabbed my extra body harness and depinned two of the correct size pins and a length of wire. I had to depin one random wire from C29 because it mated up with the signal wire going to the reverse lights. I'm not sure what it correlates to but I'll loom into it later. Anyway, I inserted my wires I had depinned into the harness in their proper spots and crimped some male spades on then inserted into the two female spades I depinned from the engine harness. Did a quick test and it worked as it should. I installed some heat shrink over the spade connections and breathed a sigh of relief.

Once I had the reverse lights fixed I commenced with putting stuff back together. I reinstalled all the hatch plastics, spare tire, etc. I reinstalled the glove box. I reinstalled the clamshell plastic around the steering wheel, which BTW fuck that thing. I reinstalled the gauge bezel.

I moved outside the car at that point and started wiring in New plugs for the fog lights. Since I have a 1g car and 2g fogs the plugs didn't match so I bought some insulated ones off Amazon.

Testing after wiring

https://i.imgur.com/4MOoQtf.jpg

Mounted them after testing

https://i.imgur.com/WyEn2qK.jpg

Called it a day at that point because the heat and humidity was wearing on me. Had a few things I wanted to accomplish today but due to bad back spasms and again heat and humidity I only got one thing done, but it was another "big" thing. I got the headlights wired for 5he 2g lights.

No pics there because I can't put the headlights in until fenders go back on. My list in starting to dwindle but there's still plenty to do. All I can do is keep chugging along.

[stealthee]

Got the car most of the way back together over the weekend after having everything torn back down to track down the electrical issues. Refilled the coolant and started the car only to find I still had a leak around the coolant sensors in the radiator. Drained the coolant again and did another R&R of the rad and sensors. Put it all back together and finally was leak free.

Once I was leak free I took a deep breath and checked things over once more and took the car for its first road test in way too long. It was only about 3 miles round trip but I have the vids, just haven't gotten them uploaded yet. I'll post them tomorrow when I get the time to get that done.

Main things left now are to finish fixing the hood, get some interior stuff straightened out, and a few other odds and ends. The rest of the body stuff will probably wait til fall.

[stealthee]

As promised.

The vids are nothing special. They are also in vertical orientation because apparently my cousin hasn't gotten the memo but


https://youtu.be/vXgwWlNXagw

After I turned around in my own driveway he shot a quick drive by vid. It was only about 1 second so I just turned it into a gif instead

https://i.imgur.com/Nxw459d.gif

And lastly when I returned to the garage he got a shot of me backing it back into the garage.


https://youtu.be/77yAGGHS7CU

[j2k4]

Move to see movement. :biggrin:

I haven't asked, though you may have said at some point what color you gonna do it...oh, duh.

Why Blue, of course.

Never mind.

[Steve '92ES]

Could just call it the Piebald Bastard....

Made my day Brian! It LIVES!!!

[stealthee]

Thanks guys. Next big project is the hood repair. Once that is done I'll probably get it road legal.

[stealthee]

TL;DR I did some wiring and am now using the SOHC alternator wiring instead of the jumper I made previously.


Well, due to a ball tournament and a car show I got nothing done last weekend. I spent a good part of the day getting things done around the house yesterday, but went up to the garage in the afternoon/evening. My goal was to go back and figure out a way to use my SOHC alternator wiring so I could do away with the jumper harness I made, because I just didn't trust it. I also didn't like the way it looked.

Anyway, I started back tracing continuity and found where it was lost. The large plug on the other side of the underhood fuse box is where power is supplied to the field coil harness. On the DOHC the slots for the pins are empty, so I pulled my extra body harness out and went to depinning the wire. That in itself became an adventure. The pin WOULD NOT depin. I fought it, tried different tricks and tools, I even stopped to look up videos to see if there was something I was missing.

Long story short I finally got pissed enough to literally cut the plug open to get the wire out. Once out I I routed it to the fuse box, added an eyelet and hooked it to power. Checked continuity back to the plug and (thought) I was good to go. Tidied the wiring back up, put things back toghether, started the car, and it wasn't charging.

Looked back at the factory DOHC wiring and the schematic and realized I was a dumbass and the blue wire was switched power. Went back the plug by the fuse box and after a quick continuity check and confirmation realized I needed to do the same thing for the other wire.

I was already ready to go home, but I was determined (and stubborn) and wanted to have it charging before leaving so I dissected the other harness to get another wire and pin out. I pinned it to match up with the other side of the harness and for the time being shoved the wire under the alternator relay (after confirming it was switch power, and it was the same wire providing power to the DOHC field coil harness) Started the car and voila, it charges.

Went home at that point. All I got done today was routing the wire properly and hooking it up. Wanted to get more done, but helped out with a project my aunt has been wanting to get done for probably 8 months now.

Goal is to get the hood taken care of next weekend. Once it is done I am bringing the car home and most likely getting it legal.

I was hoping to have it ready and take it to the Shootout, but I just don't think I am going to have enough miles on it to know if its trustworthy or not. I am still going, but just won't be taking the Bastard just yet.

And to finish my rambling I snapped a few pics before I left. My cousin had cleaned his wife's car up for the car show last week and it was still in the garage.

Sorry for the wash out. Sun was right at the top of the roof

https://i.imgur.com/WmwDP4R.jpg

Another angle (less washout)

https://i.imgur.com/We3aR8S.jpg

[j2k4]

I like the one on the left. ;)

[Mikes2nd]

Those wide body fenders look good :crushed::crushed::crushed:

[stealthee]

They fit really well. I was super nervous about drilling all the holes, but it went good. The only thing I ended up doing to modify them owas cut off the tab that bolts inside the door jam. It just didnt seem to work right, like it was too thick or something. It still mounts nice and solid though.

Cant wait to get the rears on.

[stealthee]

I took pics, but haven't uploaded yet, but the hood is back to being one piece, instead of 3. I could technically have bolted it on the car, but decided to hold off because there is still more finish work that needs done before I go that far. It's actually looking better than I anticipated it would, and that is with it still being rough.

Once I get it bolted on the car I'm going to do that angry eye mod. Hopefully I got enough glass to do it.

[stealthee]

I still haven't gotten pics uploaded but I got some more work done to the hood today. It was more of a chill day as the whole crew (both my cousins and their wives) was all together for the first time in awhile. I put a few more layers of resin on and put glass down where needed. I had to stop sanding at one point because we got my cousins Mustang out from under the cover and fired it up and my work area was next to it so I didn't want any fiberglass dust to get all through it.

Excuses, excuses, I know, but I made some nice progress on the time I spent on it and once I post pictures you'll see it almost looks like I know what I am doing.

I'll get the pics up tomorrow. I'm beat so I am headed to bed now.

[stealthee]

Ok, lots of pics, about not a lot of stuff.

As some may remember my Victory hood got messed up years back when it came up after I forgot to latch it.

The top only really received damage on the driver's side. The bottom had both hinge area torn off. Not suffered in the fly up, but happening over the course of removing the hood and using the scoop as a handle the scoop has some issues too.

https://i.imgur.com/le8aSpe.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EIYnJY9.jpg



https://i.imgur.com/qUCQ4kf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/euu6n20.jpg

I started repair on it and here are some progress pics. I spent most of my time on the bottom side so far so that I can get it bolted back to the car, and that is where most of the damage is concentrated.

I started off by hitting some of the areas with the angle die grinder to create a "vee" for the resin to go into and start a repair.

https://i.imgur.com/mEwo8Cc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1ei2nDF.jpg

After that I mixed up some resin and just dumped it into the cracks then placed some glass mat over it to start the repair.

https://i.imgur.com/DJWgJM6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wMvK8mn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XDNLwfR.jpg

I let it all set up and sanded it down and applied just a coat of resin with some minor spots of glass in some thin spots.

https://i.imgur.com/D0xVtif.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dI0diDy.jpg

After it set again I sanded it back down to take any high spots out

https://i.imgur.com/c4SWnad.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Scusog9.jpg

I put another coat of resin down and put a little more mat where needed then called it a day

https://i.imgur.com/BdRMWys.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gaNN59R.jpg

I want to try to get back to it to do a little more work and (hopefully) finish the bottom one day this week. Won't get anything done next weekend due to attending the Shootout.

As soon as the bottom is where I want it I will concentrate on the top trying to make it perfect.

As I said in the last post it almost looks like I know what I am doing. I've never considered myself a body man. I helped my dad prep a lot of cars for paint when I was a kid, but never really did any finish work and I am honestly just kind of winging it.

[stealthee]

Well, nothing got done between 2 weeks ago and this weekend.

I was able to make a little progress this weekend though.

I did some more building and sanding and building yesterday. When I had to clean up to get ready for my draft I put a heavy coat of resin on the repair areas to try to fill some low spots and let it sit overnight

https://i.imgur.com/Pfuu7fL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YI5yNai.jpg

Today I got to sanding the entire hood to prep it for some paint. I got to a point where I just didn't want to put any more work into "finish work" at this time. I have other finish work that needs done before final paint any way and trying to get it perfect right now is just delaying getting the hood on and the car legal.

So with that said I sanded the entire underside, wiped it with lacquer and shot it with some single stage black I had around. I was fighting my paint gun at first because my cousins had both tried to use it and both had issues and tried making unnecessary adjustments throwing it further out of whack. Of course as soon as I got it adjusted to lay down a nice glossy coat I ran out of paint.

Anyway

https://i.imgur.com/Oya2kMJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/gv1Nt7K.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pXycA6A.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JNGXxen.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IkyvXlh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nFDUaVi.jpg

As you can see I still have some work to do to make the drivers side "perfect" Part of the reason I sprayed it black though is to make it easier to see the imperfections. I need to get some lighter sanding discs for the little 2" die grinder to make it easier to knock down the high spots in the tight areas without getting too aggressive.

Again, I'm not an expert on body work (no where near it) but I think I did a decent job so far.

The top is going to be fun....

[Steve '92ES]

That's A LOT better than I could have done... ! :encouragement:

[stealthee]

And my inexperience came through tonight. My cousin was at the garage so I ran up and we bolted it to the car. Started closing it and saw it looked good, but needed a little fender adjustment. He went to lift the hood back up and we heard a pop.

The passenger hinge was a little stiff so it flexed and popped part of the repair on that side. After thinking about it I didn't put much glass on that side and it was mostly just resin holding it together. Hindsight it 20/20 though.

I'll pull the hood back off (hopefully tomorrow). I'll then sand the paint back off of that area to expose the repaired area, then vee out the original crack, apply some mat and more resin and finish the repair back up. I'm off work on Friday and hoping to get a lot accomplished but am getting some art work done on my arm on Thursday so we'll see how it feels and how well I can protect it to do some work on Friday.

EDIT: I think I am also going to dig out another set of hinges and swap them out too. LOL

[OhioSpyderman]

You're not using the stock struts, are you Brian?

Bob.

[stealthee]

No, no struts on it whatsoever. The hinge was definitely stiff. I didn't really think it would cause an issue, but being my repair wasn't super sturdy on that side, coupled with the stiff hinge is what caused my issue.

[OhioSpyderman]

Ryan at Cianci wasn't smart enough to make his hoods have the necessary adaption of mounts for struts, but I was.
If you are interested, I can try to dig up my post on how I did it, with 3SX low pressure struts.
I got sick of the broom handle...

Bob. :)

[j2k4]

What did you do with the broom handle, Bob?

You retired it, didn't you?


















DIDN'T YOU?!?!?

[stealthee]

Ryan at Cianci wasn't smart enough to make his hoods have the necessary adaption of mounts for struts, but I was.
If you are interested, I can try to dig up my post on how I did it, with 3SX low pressure struts.
I got sick of the broom handle...

Bob. :)

I appreciate it Bob, but I have an idea for how to hold the hood up in a non-intrusive way. I still have my broom handle until then. :lol:

[stealthee]

Its been a month since the last update. I've hit roadblocks, both mental, and flat out not being able to get to the car, but I have gotten a few more things done.

After the last issue with my repair breaking I did another repair by veeing out out the crack and applying several layers of glass to build up the area

After some work and sanding.

https://i.imgur.com/I11xSzM.jpg

Another layer of resin

https://i.imgur.com/AfKyKC1.jpg

I didn't get back to it the following weekend, but I worked it some more last weekend.

https://i.imgur.com/5Q0vvcf.jpg

I actually worked both sides to try to make them both better

https://i.imgur.com/VRk2d3R.jpg

I sanded the entire underside to prep it up for a coat of paint for a finished look for now

https://i.imgur.com/AP3p8gJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Z0bLniK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kmRjbX9.jpg

It was way too hot to spray any paint last weekend so I let it sit til this weekend. Had no motivation yesterday, but got up at a decent time this morning and got a good start on it

https://i.imgur.com/ve5AKm4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4dRN276.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Y0UgZXx.jpg

After the paint dried up I got a second set of hands and we put the hood on the car. I started on the top side repair and got it looking half way decent.

https://i.imgur.com/hWEVKP7.jpg

It still needs a little work, but its close.

Unfortunately I cracked the damn thing again on the underside (this time on the drivers side) when I lost a my grip on the hood and I kind of bounced it. Its not terrible, and I think I am just going to fix it while its on the car by doing what I did on the passenger side when it recracked.

Lastly, I actually took the car home. I think I can get more done with it at my house, even though I don't have a garage, just because I can actually putz with it after work on days I'm home in the evening. I need to do a few things to the interior, but I do plan on getting it road legal, if not this week, then over the weekend.

https://i.imgur.com/2eBpp7P.jpg

[stealthee]

Well the car is officially in my name, has insurance, and plates. I need to sort a few things then I'll get an inspection sticker and start driving it a little.

[OhioSpyderman]

Well the car is officially in my name, has insurance, and plates. I need to sort a few things then I'll get an inspection sticker and start driving it a little.

Any chance this BLUE Bastard will be BLUE before the end of the year?

Proud of you Brian, I know how hard you work (not on the car), and how hard you have worked on THIS car....

Can't wait to see the final product..

Bob. :)

[stealthee]

Thanks Bob. Speaking of working hard, I got a late start on getting everything legal because I got called into work yesterday. I had to make some oilfield hoses and take them to St. Clairesville yesterday morning. I didn't get back till after 1. I had been hoping to have all my running done by that point, but didn't even get my running started until after 2. If things had went to plan I probably would have made other progress on the car. I did take it for a drive last night, another short one today.

I don't think paint will happen by the end of the year. I want to sort all the little things out and just drive it for now. With the weather starting to cool off I'm probably better off waiting till spring to shoot it anyway.

[Steve '92ES]

Can't wait to see the final product..
+1! :eagerness:

[j2k4]

Brian, why do the 1G Stealth skirts look perfect on your car and not on mine?

I've got 2G 3KGT skirts stashed for the repaint I'll likely never do.

[stealthee]

I dunno. It is always the vision I had in my head when I started this creation.

I can't wait to drive it to work for the first time. Hoping I can get the windows cleaned up, wipers installed, and a few other things done this week, but with inventory fast approaching it might not happen til the weekend as I might be pulling some late nights through the week. We will see, but one thing is for sure, since I am paying to have this thing legal now, it will get more progress to make it more drivable.

[stealthee]

I've took it for some short trips a few times this week. As expected I didn't get anything done through the week, and was busy yesterday with finishing up some household projects, then I ended up buying a new mattress set, and my mom bought a new chair for herself so I was busy with getting the old stuff out and new stuff in.

Anyway, I went out today and started on getting all the old window tint glue off the windows. I started off with ammonia and it was working, but not well. I decided to try some 91% rubbing alcohol and it worked like a damn charm. All the windows are clean, I pulled the front seats out and vacuumed everything, then installed and bolted in the seats. I adjusted the door windows and installed the door panels too. I pulled the rear view from the Stealth and installed it in the 3000. I need to get a new one though because the Stealth mirror is deteriorating.

I still need to install the wipers and discovered I need to investigate the rear defrost. The switch lights up but none of the strips are heating up. I would like to have that working properly before I start driving it regularly. Other than that I need to go over my alignment and tighten the steering wheel down and install the airbag/horn.

It's getting there. :)

[stealthee]

I worked 7am to 10pm yesterday so nothing was touched, but got off after only working 7am to 6pm tonight. :lol:

I grabbed the wiper arms and wiped them down with lacquer thinner, then hit them with some black spray paint. Installed them and the wiper blades. I intend on driving the car to work tomorrow. I'm totally nervous, even though I have driven it well over the distance that I am from work, but you know.

We'll see how it goes.

[stealthee]

Well, I drove it to work, and the morning drive went well. We've been doing inventory precounts this week so we've had a few late nights. We decided we were staying late tonight so the boss asked me to go to the beer distributor to get supplies. Got the supplies and headed back and as I pulled out from one intersection I heard something that sounded hard and most likely metal hit the bottom of the car. It was only another 1/2 mile back to the shop so I just listened for additional noises and made my way back.

After I pulled in I looked over my lug nuts and didn't really see anything so I took the alcohol on in. A minute later I realized I left my gloves in the car so ran back out to get them and thats when I saw a puddle forming under the car. I laid on the ground and finally saw that somehow the driver's axle was partially out of the transmission. I'm guessing the bolt (note singular because IIRC one bolt was broke off when I got this engine) for the carrier bracket fell out and that was the noise I heard.

I thought about it and knew I couldn't do anything about fixing it there, or tonight, so I thought I could baby it home. I didn't even make it out of the business park before it came out enough to lose total engagement. I whipped a U-turn and tried to get it to move under its own power to creep back to work. Luckily my buddy saw me pull the U-turn and called me to see what was up. He turned around and helped me push it the 1/4 mile back to the shop.

The worst part is he said as we were walking out the door "Why don't you just take the truck home?" To which I said "I should be okay to get it home."

I was wrong...

It will probably sit there til Saturday, then I'll get it in the air and try to get the axle back in and baby it home. I might try to make sure someone is with me in case it goes south and then they could just flat tow me with the truck.

FML

[j2k4]

Crap. :mad:

[stealthee]

Yeah. Car is still sitting in the spot where we pushed it to. I'm going to grab the jack, stands, a block (to chock the back wheel), and some tools to get everything back in place. I'm hoping I can just slide the axle back in and bolt the bracket the bracket back up, but we'll see how it goes. I'll probably grab some oil to throw back in the trans to keep it lubed, then I'll get some more Redline and drain and refill.

[stealthee]

So I got up yesterday morning, grabbed up some tools and headed to the shop to to try to fix the car. Got it in the air and on stands, then crawled under it and verified my original diagnosis of the bolt falling out of the jack shaft. I tried wiggling it back in place, but just didn't have enough play, so I decided to just take the axle nut loose.

This is when things started to go a little south, because I realized somehow in my rush I had forgotten the 21mm socket for the lug nuts. Luckily I had my shop key with me because I knew we had a socket set in there. Got that off and then realized I made another two mistakes. First, I forgot my side cuts to pull the cotter pin. Again, I grabbed a set from the shop. Then I realized I grabbed the wrong socket for the axle nut. Instead of a 32mm, I grabbed my 36mm.

I tried to call my brother, since he lives just down the road, and of course, he doesn't answer. I go back in the shop and find a 1-1/4" wrench. I figured I could just block the rotor and stand on the wrench to get the nut loose. Wasn't really working out, but in my next trip back inside I grabbed another tool set and luckily there was an 1-1/4 socket in there.

So I got the nut off, crawled back under and wiggled the bracket back into place, and started one of the bolts. The other one is stripped, so I'll fix that later.

This is when things got interesting again. I had a hell of a time finding the right combination of socket and extensions to tighten it up. First try I slightly arced off the alternator, so I had to get out and unhook the battery. Then I realized the way the headers drop down made it to where a short socket was too short, a long socket was too long, a short socket with extension was too long, a ratchet wrench just couldn't get the right angle on it, etc. I finally found the right combo of things to get it tight. Got everything back together, crawled out from under the car, rehooked the battery, started the car, and released the clutch. All is wel
l.

Obligatory parking lot repair pic

https://i.imgur.com/rtt02Ku.jpg

After that I went to my brothers, then waited on my cousin to call me so I could take it to get the inspection done.

Headed out to my buddy's shop hung out for awhile, got the inspection done, then I asked about a powdercoated blue intake he had sitting there. He said he'd sell it to me and to make an offer. I was like I don't know, what do you want.

Anyway he himmed and hawwed a little and basically said we'll work it out. I went to pay him for the inspection, which was $30, and handed him $40. He put it in his pocket and told me that I just bought the manifold.

I tried to argue with him, but he was like "You're always hooking me up with fittings and hoses, so we're good."

So I got a powdercoated blue intake for $10

Its not 100% perfect but hell.

https://i.imgur.com/ekoqbbK.jpg

[OhioSpyderman]

:thumbup2: :rockon:

Bob.

[j2k4]

Good things come to he who needs an inspection...;)

[stealthee]

Not a lot done today, but got the Aerocatch hood pins installed.

https://i.imgur.com/fk5UBFn.jpg

[stealthee]

I've been driving it occasionally. I've got around 100 miles on the clutch now.

I have a rattle in the rear that I can't track down. At first I thought it was a spring, like my lower perch came loose, but after inspecting it it is fine. The exhaust is all tight but looks like it might be really close to the lift block on the rear subframe so I need to try to hold it away from that and try again.

Other than that still sorting little things out as I go. With the time change and the weather change can't really get much done through the week, but I'll make progress as I can.

[DocWalt]

Glad you're driving it B. Get it sorted out then paint :)

[stealthee]

Been a little leery to drive it after the axle fiasco, but as mentioned have been going on short drives here and there. Took it up to the garage today and removed the solid trans mount and installed a OEM trans mount to help with some vibration and drone. I also made some more adjustments to the rear alignment.

This rattle in the rear has me completely annoyed that I can't find it. The rear control arms are really close to the sway bar end links, but I don't think that is the issue. I just want to get the damn thing sorted so I am not "afraid" to drive it.

[Blue91SL]

I haven't been on these forums in a LONG time. So long, in fact, that the Blue 91 SL is gone, and I'm working on completely new projects. It's nice to see you're still kicking around and making progress. Car's looking great, can't wait to see you finish it in the spring.

[stealthee]

So its been a little while since I posted anything. Between the holidays, the weather, and life I haven't been able to do much. A few weeks ago my cousin and I tag teamed the rear camber and got it 100% dialed in, only to see that the toe was now way out of spec. I babied the car the 2 miles home and ordered toe arms that day. They came in a few days later and my intentions were to put them on over that weekend, but I was a little sick and slept most of that weekend, then the temps have just been all over the place and/or its been raining a lot.

Anyway, since it was above 40* and it wasn't raining I decided to work on the toe arms this afternoon after I did some running around. Driver's side took a few extra minutes due to stuck camber bolt, and stuck tie rod. Put the new arm up in place and moved to the passenger side. It came right apart, and then I had an issue putting it back together, caused by my own forgetfulness.

Along the way though I discovered something. I found the caliper bolt on the passenger rear was loose. Immediately it hit me that that almost has to be my rattle. I made sure to tighten it before I put the car back on the ground.

I ran out of light, and warmth so I didn't get the toe dialed in, but I still went for a quick (sketchy) ride and it seems the rattle is gone. Hoping to get the alignment all dialed in tomorrow.

I was to the point with the rattle that I was about to strip the entire interior back out to see if something in the car was rattling. Hopefully I don't have to do that now. LOL

[Vrfury]

Glad to hear ur making headway, especialy wit this weather weve been having. Didnt see the pics above until now. Loookn sexay......

[stealthee]

Well, I did some running around this morning, and got a few things done around the house, then I decided to try to get the toe adjusted. Got both sides looking good by eye, but after setting it down and taking it for a ride I now have positive camber. I was going to jack it back up and get it all dialed in, but it started raining. The good thing is the car is drivable if an emergency would arise. It is not sketchy to drive. I put a few more miles on it and it definitely seems that the rattle was indeed that rear caliper. Once I get that alignment all sorted it will definitely start seeing more drive time.

[anyonebutme]

You have 4 jackstands, some string, and a ruler?

[stealthee]

Yeah, just trying to get it close for now.

[anyonebutme]

Tip #1 is to set max neg camber as first adjustment. On a 3s you physically can't get too much of that, lol.

[stealthee]

Weather was nice today so I got the car back in the air and made some more alignment adjustments. Camber is way better.

I went for a ride and was hanging out with my cousin and I noticed the rear toe still needed a little adjustment.

After got back to the house I went back over the toe and adjusted it. Using a tape measure to the best of my ability on my own I am very close on the toe now. Also while I was at my cousins I noticed the passenger front toe was way out. Again using the tape measure to the best of my ability by myself I got it really close. I tried to set about 1/8" toe in and that's about what I got.

Took it for a ride and its straight as an arrow. Steering wheel is straight. Hopefully next weekend I'll get it in the garage and get my cousin to give me a second set of hands and eyes and get it really dialed.

[stealthee]

After going back over the alignment with a second set of hands we found that I am about as close as I can get without using actual toe plates. I'll probably take it to a local shop to get it 100% dialed in.

The Bastard actually got forced into action this week. Long story, short I hit a chunk of concrete with the Lancer and it busted the tire and bent the wheel. I put another wheel on it, but have been driving the 3000 to work all week. I've got about 250 miles on the clutch and everything now. Will get it to 500 then I'll change engine oil, trans oil, and adjust the clutch.

[stealthee]

I drove it all this week too. We got hit with a snow storm yesterday and I ended up driving it to go hang out with my cousins in that snow storm because the front tires on the Lancer aren't the best. I have brand new tires for it in the car, just not on it yet.

Its about a 30 minute drive. The roads weren't bad, but I still took my time and actually was closer to 35-40 minutes due more to visibility than anything. On the ride home I heard a TON of salt hitting the underside. I think the state was trying to use up surplus and put it all on the road. I need to spray the underside off to get any excess off.

I've up to 455 miles on it now. Finding a few more things that need sorted along the way. My digital climate is going to end up needing looked at. It had random issues when I first got the car going, then those issues stopped and another one popped up. I also need to figure out why none of my rear defrost lines work. I know the circuit is good because the mirrors defrost just fine. I just need to get the multimeter out and see what is happening back at the hatch. The passenger seat back "rattles" at times when I am driving and it ends up squeaking while its rattling. I need to see if I can tighten something up to help, because that gets annoying.

Other than that I need to get a head unit in the car so I can stop playing music just on my phone, or sitting my bluetooth radio on the passenger seat. I need to install seatbelts and the airbag/horn. Got an issue with one seatbelt though and may have to procure another. Still got a few cosmetic things to do to the exterior to get it ready for paint, but I may put paint (at least the actual whole paint job) on hiatus until I find out what is happening with the industry. I'd rather have the extra $1000 if I would happen to lose my job. I may just put a cheap $100 paint job on it to get it all one color for now. Once things stabilize, or don't, I'll make the move toward getting it done right.

[stealthee]

Drove it back and forth to work a few days this week. It's only 4.5 miles so it didn't add up much but I'm sitting right at 498 miles on everything now. Going to do the oil and trans oil change this weekend. I got a steering wheel in today that's in far better condition than the original. Also got hid's for the low beam so its not so dangerous to drive at night. Got both put on after work. Still need to install airbag, but I'll do that tomorrow after I unhook the battery for awhile.

Not sure what else will get done but progress is progress.

[Steve '92ES]

progress is progress.
Progress is awesome....

[stealthee]

Oil changed, trans oil changed, steering wheel taken back off, reinstalled, removed, installed, removed, installed. LOL

I don't get it though. The original wheel was dead straight. When I installed the replacement I thought I had the wheels straight, but when I went for a ride today it was turned to about 1 oclock. I pulled the airbag, pulled the wheel and reclocked it. Went for another ride and it was off by a tooth or two. Pulled off into a parking lot and pulled the wheel again and reclocked. This time it was off the other way. I literally went back and forth several times and it seems like I can't get it dead straight. I'm too the point where I am just going to adjust the tie rods to be straight to the wheel.

[DocWalt]

turn the wheel back and forth and see if one side has more travel than the other. Center the wheel based on that then set the tie rods to make the wheels straight to the steering wheel.

[anyonebutme]

Also while doing that make sure the clock spring is set correctly, easy to break them. I center the rack by measurement first, then lock the wheel down when doing alignments, though once you verify the rack is centered you can put a dot on the steering shaft end and never have to center it again and just put the dot at 12 o'clock and know it's centered.

[stealthee]

Yeah, I know about centering the clock spring. I think I checked that 20 times. LOL

[stealthee]

Last weekend I counted lock to lock and IIRC I got 1.5 turns to the left and 1.75 turns to the right, so I need to make some adjustment there.

Also, due to oil and natural gas prices being in the basement as well as COVID-19 slowing business even more I was furloughed today, for at least 30 days. My boss wasn't happy about it, but he had zero say.

That being said I am going to have some extra time on my hands. I need to make a list of things that I want to get accomplished while I am off. Not everything being done will be done to the car, but there will be work done on the car.

[stealthee]

With my free time today I ran into Harbor Freight to get some allen head sockets. Yesterday I had torn the car apart to try to diagnose why the drivers door light wouldn't come on and with the bolts I used to mount the fenders and bumper cover removing them with just a regular allen key sucked. When I got back I mowed the second lot next to the house, then grabbed some lunch.

I tore back into the car starting more diagnosis and getting further frustrated.

That led to the car looking like this

https://i.imgur.com/6VrmAbx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pGoSbW7.jpg

I had zero continuity between the door switch and the yellow wire going to the harness in the door jam. I started pulling the yellow wire out of the body harness to try to find the break. I got caught up in the harness where it goes up under the dash so I depinned the wire from the jam harness to try to pull it out that way. That's when I found it. The wire had no copper wire inside it for about 4 inches. Once I stripped it back far enough to find wire and rigged it up the door light worked like it should.

I took a piece of wire from the Stealth door harness and made a new end and wired it back up. I then went and put all the wiring back and cleaned up for the day. Seat is just sitting inside and the fender isn't back on yet, but at least I got that off my list.

[stealthee]

It was a little rainy today so I didn't do to much to the car. I did get the carpet vacuumed and seat bolted back down. Before I put the door panel back on I also adjusted the triangle up some more and now it looks like the window should seal without any air leaks. I didn't take the car for a ride to verify though, because one thing I didn't do yet was put the fender back on.

I ended up doing work around the yard after that and just called it a day as my motivation dwindled.

I'm going to try to get some things done tomorrow because it looks like nothing will happen for a few days after that with some bad weather coming.

[stealthee]

Weather kept me from getting anything done on Thursday and Friday. I spent the day yesterday getting things around the house done. Had Easter dinner with at my aunt's house but after I came home I did get the fender on and headlight back in. Took the car for a quick rip since I hadn't driven it in about a week. Weather was starting to change about that time anyway, and I was going to run out of light so I called it a night.

Looking at the forecast I might be limited on any car progress for the next few days, but that will probably let me get some part sorting done anyway.

[stealthee]

Had a little scare today. I headed into town to grab a bottle of brake fluid so I could do some brake and clutch bleeding, then over to Harbor Freight to grab a new blow gun. After that headed over to my buddy's shop to talk to him about getting some gravel delivered as well as about the rear wide body fender installation.

He wasn't around so I headed back towards town and was cutting through the HF parking lot when I started hearing a clicking noise. It stopped when the car stopped so I knew it was something to do with the axles, transmission, or tires.

First thought was the axle that I had trouble with back in October, but it checked out. I went to the other side and it looked good to. Nothing was leaking. I checked fender liners to make sure they weren't rubbing. Couldn't see anything wrong there.

I went ahead and babied it back down to Advance and went in to grab my cousin to have him have a listen. He agreed it sounded like the axle. When he reached his hand down in he said he felt a gap between the trans case and the axle cup, but didn't know how big the gap normally was. I reached my hand down in and confirmed the gap felt bigger than it should be.

He suggested babying it home. He said worst case I could call my brother to go grab the truck to come get me. I got on the bypass and was listening intently. I got to 55mph and put it in 5th and weirdly the sound went away. I started thinking maybe the sound was 5th gear nut and was waiting on it to pop back out of 5th. It didn't. I got off the very next exit to take side roads home anyway and when I downshifted to 4th, the noise was still gone, and gone in all other gears.

I stopped at the gas station to fill up, and popped the hood again while I was there. Reached my hand down in again and it felt like the gap closed back up. It was good the rest of the ride home too.

I think I am going to pull that axle anyway. That is the one I had trouble installing the first time anyway. I need to probably change that seal again, and I might end up just getting another axle while I am at it.

On a lighter note I think I have heard it all now. I went to help my brother straighten up his "she shed" after those massive winds we had Sunday night. Stopped at the store on my way home and as I was walking in some older guy asks me, "Is that your Vette?"

I'm pretty sure my brain fell into a stupid vortex for a second, but then I snapped back to and explained to him that it wasn't a Vette.

[DocWalt]

lol...

C-clip on the axle maybe? I forget if the FWD trans has those.

[stealthee]

It does on the passenger side. That clip is part of what caused me issues the first time I pulled and reinstalled that axle.

[stealthee]

Haven't done anything to the car in the past few days. Between weather, spending a day playing homework God with my niece and nephew, getting gravel delivered and spread, restoring a set of headlights, etc I just haven't been able to get to anything. I did get word that I am going to be off until at least the beginning of June now, so I still have time to get things done.

If the weather can cooperate I am hoping to get a bunch of things knocked out in the coming weeks. I'll be sure to post more pics and update as it happens.

[stealthee]

I pulled the washer tank today because I had lost almost all of the washer fluid when I got it all set up. I was thinking I had a crack in the tank or something. I decided to test it before I pulled the pump and installed in another tank so I filled it with water and proceeded to the next project.

The other project for the day was to install a headunit. I picked up a cheap $20 bluetooth headunit to put in it for now. I soldered and heat shrinked everything up now I can listen to music when I go places in it.

Back to the washer tank it was still completely full of water. I think what had happened is it was gravity feeding to the y connection I have and leaking at that connection. I zip tied the connection to make it tighter and it doesn't seem to have leaked anything since reinstall. I have to loosen the battery back up though because I realized after I buttoned things up that I forgot to plug the damn pump back in.

Other than that I ordered the "temporary" paint for the car. I should have it by the end of the week. I just need to finish up the last of the repairs on the hood and fix a few mounting points on the side skirts as well as finalize the mounting holes in the fenders. I also need to install the rear wide body fenders. That will be the biggest amount of work needed before paint, other than sanding the whole car.

I'm probably going to take the whole front end off the car and paint it off the car to try to keep overspray from getting on anything under the bay. When I paint the rest of the car I'll just wrap up the the whole front end really well.

I'm excited to get this stage done. Once the paint is done I am going to focus on a few finer details I have planned, then on the the next big project...

[stealthee]

All I really managed to get done today was getting the pump plugged back in. My nephew had called and asked for help with his math homework, which we ended up doing all his lessons for the week, so that took longer than expected. Then I stuck around and watched the kids while my brother went and transferred the title on a car he sold. For most of that time the weather was crap anyway, but it got better, and I was stuck not being able to do anything.

Might run and pick up a few supplies tomorrow. I need to get on this and stay on it so I can get it done.

[stealthee]

Of course, nothing goes as planned. I got up and ran into town this morning to pick up a few things. On the way home my brother called me and needed my assistance, so I lost about 2 hours with that. I finally get to go home, grabbed some lunch and went out to start on the car. I mixed up some resin to get a few areas fixed up a little more and go to work. Got the DA out and started sanding the rest of the hood while the resin dried. Sanded the roof too while I was at it. Was getting ready to hit the resined areas when my brother called again and needed help again.

The wind and the rain came in after that so I didn't get anything else done.

Once I'm able to get the resined areas sanded up I'll probably throw a coat of short strand fiberglass bondo to finish it out.

[stealthee]

While updates have not been posted, I have been (trying to) getting stuff done. The problem though is I have been dealing with tedious things and experimenting along the way which has made some progress really slow down. Weather has also been very unkind to progress, but whatever.

I worked the hood a little more. I said it before, I am not a body man. I am just kind of winging it with the little bit of knowledge that I do have. I threw some heavier fiberglass mat on the areas that were still weak and then hit it with some fiberglass strand bondo

https://i.imgur.com/46VXCcJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uE8sCnd.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BuxWlmM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cuBtP9F.jpg

I don't have any pictures, but I also needed to do some repairs on some of the mounting tabs on the side skirts. As anyone who has dealt with removing 3s side skirts knows there are a few bolts and if someone doesn't know that and just yanks, then the tabs break. I attempted to repair these so the skirts mounted properly. It took some trial and error, but it ended up working out with a combination of fiberglass bondo, 2 part epoxy, and fiberglass and resin.

I also had to notch the fenders with the proper holes to mount the side skirts. This was painstaking in the amount of tediousness I went through to make sure everything was properly cut. I made 2 or 3 different patterns and measured and remeasured before I went at it with a dremel.

I set the drivers skirt up in place to verify everything lines up.

https://i.imgur.com/6VK63f3.jpg

I did a little more work on them to make sure the tabs were strong enough and set both skirts on the following day

https://i.imgur.com/Z1dvZUZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ft7gFtI.jpg

While they were on I threw the rear quarters on to get the full effect

https://i.imgur.com/Ft7gFtI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CKrKgqX.jpg

I pulled the skirts and quarters back off then went to town on the drivers side with the DA after that. Went ahead and pulled the door cap too

https://i.imgur.com/qsnNRrb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Htl424L.jpg

Lastly, a low low shot

https://i.imgur.com/vW1M0r5.jpg

I really need to get a splitter to finish the look. I found a universal one on eBay and it may fit, but I'd hate to spend $100 and have it be too narrow, but it seems like it is one of the widest ones available. I sent a PM to Toni to see if he could measure his Skillard splitter just to ease my fears before I go buy something.

I picked up the Fusor today to adhere the rear quarters. If weather cooperates they may get attached over the weekend.

[stealthee]

Nice weather today and I had a second set of hands and eyes to help so I moved onto the rear quarters. No pics of the first part but I marked off about 1 inch all the way around and trimmed it off the wide body over fenders. This will allow me more room to work and smooth the transition. I also pulled the filler neck out of the way and marked the backside of the overlays with a sharpie to give me a reference for the filler door.

Next I set the quarters up on the car and aligned everything then put some self tappers in to old everything in place so I could check, double check, and triple check alignment. Once I was happy with how everything was sitting I traced around the overlays to give me a reference on where to sand/grind. I pulled the overlays back off then proceeded to grind away the paint at the adhesion point. I tackled the passenger side while my cousin took on the driver side to help speed things up.

Once paint was ground away

https://i.imgur.com/qgpEpZ4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/13xI5aD.jpg

After that I hit the areas with some etching primer.

https://i.imgur.com/Su6kRqN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DO2YAS9.jpg

The purpose of the paint removal it to make sure of proper adhesion and no reactions with previous paint. The product I used was Fusor T21. I already had the applicator gun, else I may have used a difference system, but I know the Fusor line is good. The T21 is made to apply to bare or primed metal. I chose to prime the bare metal to help prevent future rust/corrosion problems.

The stuff I used has a 45 minute working time, but I didn't want to try to take pictures along the way during adhesion to save as much of that working time as possible. Before we set up for adhesion I used the die grinder and sanded the back side of the overlays where the T21 was going to be applied. Once I was happy we set the tube up with a mixing tip and started application.

Once happy with the bead we set the quarter up onto the car and aligned our previously drilled holes and put the self tappers back in, then applied more along the edge to assist in clamping the quarter in place with the epoxy dried.

https://i.imgur.com/OM85YPx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/My3gxpb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EQ7teVH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1GxNSBd.jpg

That is basically how she is sitting right now. I could have already taken the screws back out, but I am going to wait til tomorrow to do that. Once all the screws are out I will feather the edge in to make the transition less drastic, then start working it with fiberglass bondo to make the transition disappear and make the overlay "one with the car"

When grinding the paint off the driver side my cousin found some bondo/filler right above where the top of the side skirt would be at. That doesn't shock me as I had found some in the driver door, and other small things found along the whole ride with this car. Its not a huge deal since I will be using filler to mold these in anyway. Only thing is if they would have fixed it right back then, then I wouldn't have as much filling to do. It is what it is though.

Obviously I still have to work the fuel tank door opening too. If I have any gaps in there, or near the wheel wells the nice thing about the T21 is it can be used as a filler as well. I still have a good bit left as well as mixing tips.

I just hope I can make these quarters look presentable. I have said before that I am not a body man in the least and I am pretty much just winging it based on things I have seen or assisted with over the years. Worst case is I can take it to my friend and let him do the final finish work before paint goes on.

We'll see how the weather goes, but I'll post more pictures as updates as I get them done.

[stealthee]

The weather was utter crap on Monday. We had a high of like 41. Tuesday I ran into some roadblocks that slowed me down on the rear quarters. Long story short I got almost no adhesion on the areas below the sail panels on both sides. The fact that it happened on both sides leads me to believe it had something to do with the sharp body line right below that. I was able to create a gap to apply more adhesive and rescrew the panel down. So because of all that I wasn't able to do any work to the quarters, but I did get some sanding done on other parts of the car.

Today I didn't get started on the car til after 1 due other obligations. Once I got started I got sidetracked on some tedious work, like on the gas door opening. After getting it close (for now) I figured I needed to really push on the big projects and leave the tedious stuff for the end. Hit another small road block when I found another non adhered spot on the passenger side that I didn't get taken care of yesterday, but I got that taken care of, screwed down and moved on to the driver side.

First I feathered in the entire edge.

https://i.imgur.com/j58QyBX.jpg

After that I decided to hit the whole thing with 180 to help smooth the overall transition

https://i.imgur.com/XLNztxg.jpg

Next I mixed up the fiber glass filler and applied a coat around the entire edge. Don't mind the "messiness" of it. I tried something on the first layer and it didn't quite work how I liked

https://i.imgur.com/kEReYtE.jpg

After it set I smoothed it out with 80, then 180

https://i.imgur.com/REcWFa0.jpg

Hit it with another layer of fiberglass filler. This one went on way smoother

https://i.imgur.com/vWe07gE.jpg

Once set I hit it with 80, 180, then 320

https://i.imgur.com/yaFcxpq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cXv0VFu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NEkQH4V.jpg

Next I mixed up some regular bondo filler and went to trying to make it all smooth

https://i.imgur.com/tnkVmul.jpg

And once again after it set I went to sanding it down

https://i.imgur.com/ctAcCle.jpg

Seam, what seam?

https://i.imgur.com/1gv3lzo.jpg

I did all this without a regular bondo squeegee. I am picking one up tomorrow. I am going to remove the rear bumper cover so I can clean the lines up there properly. Other than a few other small areas the driver side is almost good to go.

I should also remind you all that I am in no way a body man. I have NEVER done any major body work other than sand what my dad told me to sand when I was a kid helping him.

[j2k4]

All that and VILLAINS, too...;)

[stealthee]

Villains on everything. Don't know if I ever said anything, but I got a set of Villains on my Lancer too.

As for today we had a steady drizzle this morning putting a damper on my progress. I was also dealing with some really bad back spasms, probably due to being hunched over the car working the quarter yesterday, so my motivation was limited anyway. It finally cleared up and I decided to see what I could get done today.

While I didn't get anything done to either quarter panel, I did do some straightening up of some things that had gotten piled in the shed to make room for parts getting taken off the car. I also got the rear bumper cover off, and took the headlights out. I had the front bumper cover 90% of the way off the car, then decided to wait til I got as much sanding done on it as I could while it was on the car. After that I'll take it off and do the rest of the sanding on some saw horses.

Back still wasn't feeling great so I made it an early night. Weather looks good for tomorrow, so hoping I can get the other quarter worked in and try to get some more finish work done on the driver side.

How I left the car today

https://i.imgur.com/XvX2Mpn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2grYJKD.jpg

[stealthee]

I paced myself today so as to try to avoid dealing with back issues tomorrow. Also had a few random rain showers interrupt me through the day. We then ended up with a little bit of company this afternoon/evening for a few hours so my progress got halted there too.

I won't bore with details of the passenger side, just pics and quick description.

Tapered edges

https://i.imgur.com/q5VCTE5.jpg

Scuff whole quarter

https://i.imgur.com/zPSuHZg.jpg

First layer fiberglass bondo

https://i.imgur.com/jeySLOm.jpg

Sand

https://i.imgur.com/vsaDQUI.jpg

Second layer

https://i.imgur.com/35cRXSw.jpg

How I left it at the end of the night after some additional work

https://i.imgur.com/9PHuolH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3sNkmhI.jpg

I still need to get my layer of regular bondo down before I decide how much additional work it needs to satisfy me. Also if you look the gas door is back on. While my brother was here we did some tweaking to get it closer. Still needs just a little bit, but once done I hope it will look like factory.

Weather looks good for tomorrow so my main goal is to finish the quarters to where I am pleased with the blend. If I manage to get that done I will get some more work done to finish the hood repairs.

Once those two projects are out of the way all that is left is sanding and final prep before paint.

[stealthee]

I had already intended on today being a day where I really took my time, because I could feel my back tightening up. I got interrupted just as I was stopping to take lunch too. My brother was having a fit trying to get a universal joint changed for his truck so I ran up to help get that done. We ended up having to use the 20 ton press to get it apart.

Anyway back to the car. No point in details, just working the quarters some more.

https://i.imgur.com/uDTIvUd.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UpVbtLl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hpCQjeq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/j3SlxOj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/07JJWD4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/07JJWD4.jpg

The last two pictures are how I finished the day. I'm not quite happy with the transition by the drivers door. I am going to sand some more filler away and see how it works, and may end up sanding most of it away and skim coating it to make it good. Other than that I just need to do a little more work near the wheel arch bottoms, and then I think I will be good with the rear quarters.

[DocWalt]

Looking good, dude!

[stealthee]

Thanks Kenny.

No real progress today per say. I did work on my transitions but it was a slow tedious work today. I am really close to happy with them now. Just minor details to finish the quarters and I'll move on to the finishing up the hood, then the rest of the car.

Starting to get excited as the finish line is nearing. Then a new "race" begins.

[Kurton]

This weekend I will finally travel to my property in Italy here (https://tranio.com/italy/) and will see a car in a garage that I need to fix for a while. It needs a transition box fixing and really good paint. I miss working on it, due to the virus situation couldn't go there for a while.

[j2k4]

This weekend I will finally travel to my property in Italy and will see a car in a garage that I need to fix for a while. It needs a transition box fixing and really good paint. I miss working on it, due to the virus situation couldn't go there for a while.

Start a thread and post some pictures...

[stealthee]

I had to take a break from the car. The last week of May I was dealing with helping my niece and nephew get all their school work done and by the time we got done every day I had lost my mojo. I was also very much in my head about my lack of knowledge on body work and afraid of failing so I didn't even want to touch it. Ironically watching a YouTube video of someone else having the same mental struggles with the same type of job actually motivated me. The fact that an experienced body man was doubting himself and then came to the realization that he could in fact do it helped me realize that I too could get it done.

After that I spent a little time watching other videos for other techniques and things I could do to get these quarters and hood finished out. Another motivating factor is that my cousin took this week off and is finally getting his Laser painted. He told me to bring the car up and we could help each other get things done. He has a little more experience on body work than I do and I think I just needed another set of eyes on things because I worked the driver side more today and got it REALLY close. He had mixed up some high build primer to spray a couple things on the Laser and mixed a little too much so I grabbed the gun and sprayed both rear quarters as well as where I had done a little more work to the hood in the past two weeks so I could try to block them out tomorrow and get them straight.

I only got to work on it about 3 hours today so all I really got done was making the drivers quarter look better (and got my clutch adjusted a little more because its been driving me crazy)

Pics aren't the best because the sun was right at the wrong height but

https://i.imgur.com/38shsdl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iFuU0U7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/deFCDMt.jpg

Once the primer laid down I could immediately see a few areas that needed a little more work on the top of the drivers quarter. The passenger side looks really close and needs only minor work. I'm a lot closer on the hood than I thought I was. Plan is to lay a guide coat tomorrow and finish blocking out the drivers rear quarter, block the passenger rear quarter, and if I get to it get the hood and where I fixed a ding in the drivers door closer.

Once I can get through that its just sand sand and sand some more. Then a little more disassembly, then sand a little more then clean and paint.

[stealthee]

I didn't feel like I made a ton of progress today, but I know in reality the amount of progress I made is subject to the steps I got through.

I hit everything I primed with a guide coat and started hand blocking it and realized how much it sucked and how slow the progress was so I used my own knowledge of how to use a DA properly and started "blocking" with it. I made a few other repairs with the fusor in between things and honestly took it kind of easy today because of temps in the 90's and me being in the sun. Tomorrow the plan is to get my cousin's Laser in primer, then pull it out into the sun to "bake" while he hand sands some things and I can pull my car in out of the sun so I can fly through some sanding without being in the blazing sun.

We called it an early day and as I was walking back to the car I noticed something funny.

I guess my car is a "Spider" now

https://i.imgur.com/2KSEgDl.jpg

I worked the hood a little more and it is incredibly close

https://i.imgur.com/IEibxRj.jpg

Rear quarter after "blocking" it out

https://i.imgur.com/jttazau.jpg

And finally as we were cleaning up my buddy texted me about a hydraulic hose. Even though I am still out of work I told him I could get it and bring it out. When I get there he is working on an insurance job and we are talking paint and body work as I am telling him what I've been dealing with. He says to me "Hold up a minute. I was literally thinking about this this morning." He goes over and picks up a can of primer and hands it to me. He said I'm not using it and I don't want it to go to waste so take this and use to finish up on your car.

I look at the can and start laughing. He looked at me like I was mad then I showed him the can.

https://i.imgur.com/QYGGIao.jpg

I knew Duplicolor had the 3000 on the can, but what are the odds that that is the can he gives me?

Lastly, I haven't been able to get a good shot of the GTR because he doesn't drive it often, but his brother decided to get it out today since the weather was so nice

https://i.imgur.com/zOnlhJz.jpg

[stealthee]

Today I mainly did more sanding. Our main focus was to get the Laser in primer, but I worked my car as I could. After we got some lunch I started the rest of the disassembly.

Pulled the front bumper, fenders, crash bar, window trims, a pillars, spoiler pedestals, etc.

Tomorrow I am going to hit the low spots that I know are there with a skim coat and and sand them. Need to remove the taillights, taillight caps and sail panels and that should be it for removal, unless I decide to take the hood off.

Then plan on sanding the core support and a few other areas on the body by hand and maybe, possibly, priming the car with the high build primer. After that finish hand sanding the bumper covers, side skirts, door caps so I can get them ready for primer. Maybe, possibly get them in primer Friday.

I don't know, we'll see. Saturday is paint Laser day so I probably won't get much done on mine, but if I can have it all prepped I may shoot it on Monday

Anyway, how things were left when we called it a day. Almost looks like a body shop.

https://i.imgur.com/wewUj4c.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/R23flAs.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zUBb7aj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tfY5DaC.jpg

[DocWalt]

Looking good, dude.

[stealthee]

Thanks Kenny.

Its been a few days since my last update. I was sharing the compressor with my cousin but was giving him first priority because he only had last week to get his car done. When I didn't have the air hose I was doing what I could by hand and taking more stuff apart. I was also helping my cousin any time he needed just to speed his project along to keep the time frame.

The car is in 1000 pieces again. LOL I took the door weather stripping out to take the a pillar out to take the sail panels out. I took the door panels out to take the triangle out to take the door belt strips out. I took the fenders off too.

Pics of stuff shoved inside for now

https://i.imgur.com/WsewkVN.jpg

Pics of the car stripped even further down and parts sitting outside out of the way

https://i.imgur.com/3NdUXxO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9hIhyeb.jpg

I moved the car away from the garage a little while primer was being sprayed and snapped another stripped down pic

https://i.imgur.com/ToE9AES.jpg

I stacked all the loose parts off to the side of the garage to keep them out of the way for paint (on my cousin's car) the next day.

https://i.imgur.com/4qz3ib9.jpg

I snapped this one when we quit on Friday with my cousin's car ready to spray on Saturday.

https://i.imgur.com/PjBsRAo.jpg

Saturday was a crazy day. The plan was to be there at 10, he had to resand a few spots then we'd do a final reclean and prep of the garage so he could spray and I would assist. Long story short we were delayed by about 2 hours because his wife (who is pregnant) had an issue and they had to go to the ER. Thankfully both her and the baby are fine, but it put us a few steps behind to get him done. While I waited on him I did some hand sanding and other things I could do without making a mess in the garage. Once he got there he got done what he needed, then we got everything clean and ready and set up all his parts, got everything taped off and was ready for color. All was well til the second coat then on some of the rubber parts he starting getting reactions so we stopped there and called it a day. We unmasked everything and I helped him organize a game plan to fix it, but unfortunately it won't happen for a few weeks.

Sunday again I didn't get a lot done because I helped him out by getting some broken bolts out while he worked on reassembling the car enough to get everything out of the way for the time being.

I went and got a few supplies this morning then went and started on some final things for mine. I spent the better part of the day shaping the gas door opening and the gas door. Other than that I did some final hand sanding and sanded whatever bondo I had laid in random spots from what I had left when shaping the gas door opening. After my cousin got off work I got him to help me remove the hood so thats another thing off the car.

When I called it a day the car and the garage looked like this

https://i.imgur.com/3xS4ZFA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/b8jm0IE.jpg

The plan is to spray high build primer in the morning. It won't take long to dry so I hope to have it all sanded back out by tomorrow evening. If I do I shoold be spraying color on Wednesday then spend the entire day Thursday reassembling the car. I'll probably then spend the entire weekend cleaning the inside of the car and the engine bay because they are FILTHY.

[CleanSOHC3/s]

lol So you pick out a turbo for that built SOHC? :D

[stealthee]

lol So you pick out a turbo for that built SOHC? :D

More on that at another time. ;)

As for the paint job I slept on it and rethought things a little. Rather than try to rush to get everything done today so I am ready for paint tomorrow I decided to push the paint back til Thursday.

Today I got started by sanding the rear bumper where I did some repairs yesterday. Went around and looked over things and hit areas that looked like it needed it with the DA. I pulled the car out of the garage and hosed it down and wiped it off to get any heavy dirt/dust/grime off. I let it sit outside while I started setting up all the loose parts that were getting primed.

I blew all the loose dirt and dust out of the garage pulled the car back in and wiped everything with lacquer then taped/masked off the car. Then I wiped everything down with wax and grease remover then took lunch.

https://i.imgur.com/zKXVc2Y.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tOchusb.jpg


After lunch I mixed my first cup of primer and started adjusting and spraying as I went. Two cups later and everything was covered. Cleaned the gun and everything up, unmasked the car, and had to make a run to town to get some other supplies.

https://i.imgur.com/JzM8C3a.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cmxOBWB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SIeaVGF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/erzydpn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OczSKBH.jpg

After I returned I started sanding everything with 320 til I had to quit and get cleaned up for bowling.

https://i.imgur.com/YwivgCt.jpg

I got most of primed stuff resanded. I'll make sure everything else it hit with the 320 and time (and arm) dependent I may go ahead and do some 500 grit wet sanding. Once I'm happy with the sanding I'll clean the garage (AGAIN) and try to figure out my set up for paint since I have so many loose pieces. If I can get done then all I will need to do is tape, mask, and paint on Thursday.

Probably won't post any updates tomorrow since it will be more of the same and just a few more sanded parts.

[stealthee]

I'll probably just wait to post pictures til I have a completed project. Unfortunately that won't be til Tuesday or Wednesday. I laid the sealer down then proceeded to start laying color and kept having minor issues. I would have been fine with a few minor issues but then I got a massive run in the front bumper cover. That pretty much caused me to quit right there. I've got way too many hours into prep to not get a nice smooth finish so I am going to go ahead and (mostly) reassemble to car since I already have good coverage, then give it a few days. Then I'll wet sand everything out and make sure there are no other defects, then I'll try again.

I'm a little disappointed, a little frustrated, and a lot sore. My back is friggin killing me. I'll get it done though.

[j2k4]

Christ, when I think of the last time I handled a spray gun, I know damned well I'd have to have a rotisserie set-up to even think about it, anymore...but, nevemind - I can't see what the fuck I'm doing anyway. :lo5l:

[stealthee]

I think with having most of the stuff back on the car will make life easier on me. It will also help with making sure the paint is laid evenly between pieces. Sure there may be small areas that have paint but no clear, but chances are you can't see them anyway.

I think the plan is to wet sand on Monday. Knowing how long it took me to wet sand yesterday I am confident I can have that done in 3 or 4 hours. It will actually be easier with things being on the car. I may find a few areas that need further repair to make it smooth and if I do I will fix it at that time. If all goes well I'll reshoot on Tuesday as long as I can get the extra paint needed by then.

[DocWalt]

Keep it up :)

[stealthee]

Thanks Kenny. I did get the car back together yesterday. Spoiler is sitting on it, but will be painted off it. Mirrors and door handles won't go back on until afterwards. Haven't 100% decided if I will put side skirts back on ahead of time, or just wait.

Only other issue I am watching is weather. I may actually just get things ready and get an early start on Wednesday. Trying to avoid painting in the heat of the day. When I was spraying on Saturday it was about 85* in the garage, which didn't cause my issues I had in its own right, but it didn't help either.

[stealthee]

Got a little wet sanding done today. Not a lot. Glad I am doing this because its letting me find all my issues and hopefully I can have a glass like finish when I am done.

[j2k4]

It had better be better than glass - if not, put bourbon in the glass and drink it.

Repeat as necessary until the finish is flawless. ;)

[stealthee]

I had probably 4 hours just in wetsanding the hood and roof today, and that was after sanding them some yesterday already. I hope to have the sanding done tomorrow, but we shall see. I am playing everything by ear right now.

[stealthee]

Sanding still not done, but much closer. Hope is to have everything finished up and prepped tomorrow, then maybe, hopefully respray on Friday. Again, we shall see.

[OhioSpyderman]

Today is FRIDAY.....let's see that BLUE!!!!

YAY!

Bob. :)

[stealthee]

Things didn't feel right today. Something was just off and I went further with wet sanding and prep. I am all set up to spray tomorrow though.

[j2k4]

Brian, hurry up - Bob is about to lose his mind...:lo5l:

[OhioSpyderman]

Brian, hurry up - Bob is about to lose his mind...:lo5l:

That would imply that I have one to lose....

Bob. :stupid2:

[stealthee]

So things have been so all over the place I have lost track of what happened when. As I mentioned previously I initially sprayed last Friday but I wasn't happy with the results. I spent an entire week wetsanding and doing further prep.

Before I did that though since the engine bay was already painted I masked things and painted the headlight buckets.

https://i.imgur.com/ci2ORrH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/POHeV6M.jpg

So back to this timeline. I did lots and lots and lots of wetsanding. The pictures might be confusing because the car is already in color before I start, but remember it wasn't up to snuff. I took pictures when I first painted it of it in sealer, but my phone freaked out and I never uploaded them. I have access to them, but figured there isn't much point.

Anyway, I spent several hours for final prep this morning and started like this

https://i.imgur.com/gbc7VSP.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hIsBYso.jpg

Once finally ready I mixed up a cup of sealer to do some spot sealing.

https://i.imgur.com/CRQfJ3i.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4HiBbpm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YJCIngY.jpg

I let the sealer flash then started laying more color. Everything was going really good, until it wasn't. I started to fight with the gun on the second coat (which is more like the 4th coat when you include the paint from last week) I wasn't getting hardly any material, just air. No adjustment was helping so I dumped the paint back in the mixing cup and tore the gun apart thinking something hardened inside. Nothing looked bad, but I cleaned it anyway. Put it back together and it was fixed.... for all of 30 seconds, then same thing. I tore it down again and changed the cup filter, and it was working again.... for like a minute. My frustration levels were starting to rise. I found the regulator was on a different PSI than I started so I adjusted it back. It was still being finicky and I finally swapped to my regulator because it locks. I battled some more, but I finally finished the paint.

https://i.imgur.com/TyDjBjv.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/E7ArwQZ.jpg

I tear the gun down again to clean it well before clear. Walk inside to take a break and let the paint flash for 30 minutes. Come back out and am starting to feel good about things. Mix my first batch of clear, get everything set on the gun and move to the front to start. First few passes look great, then same freaking issue. I kept getting it work, then it wouldn't. I am fighting so hard and I am so frustrated at this point. I finally decide I am going to swap guns and just use my cheap HF gun. I dump the clear into my cup and start doing a quick clean on my cousin's gun. I dumped lacquer into the cup then put my finger over the tip as I pulled the trigger to pressurize the cup and push any material in the tip or on the needle back up through and the cap goes flying off....

This leads to a moment of clarity. I grab the cap and sure enough the damn vent was plugged. I cleaned the vent out, put the clear back into my cousin's gun and it sprayed beautifully again. I probably lost over an hour fighting with the issues, but we'll call it a learning experience. I called my cousin to tell him what happened so he knows if the same thing happens to him.

Anyway, clear laid nice. Of course as soon as I sprayed the last coat of clear a bug landed right in the middle of the spoiler...

https://i.imgur.com/MWqFHQH.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ibbpshh.jpg

I let it tack up for a few then unmasked everything so I could finally go home

https://i.imgur.com/RmKpIW3.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VanUauW.jpg

It is not a perfect paint job. I found a few things I am not 100% happy with, but for the most part things like the bug and few pieces of dirt should buff out without issue when it comes to that. This has been a LONG, LONG process and today was a LONG, LONG day. I probably spent 12 hours on this today (including breaks and waiting for flash time).

This was definitely a learning experience. One thing's for sure if I ever do another 3s I'm probably going to buy 6 qts of paint if it is a transparent color like blue. Also learned to CHECK THE VENT when everything else checks out. Lastly, learned you have to have patience, and you have to go slow sweeping motions. Trying to move too fast will give you a dry finish.

Tomorrow plan is to get it back on its wheels and assemble it enough to drive home. The interior is still stuffed full of parts, but I can go through that at my own house and slowly reassemble the inside. I still need to paint the "vents" that go in the side skirts so they can go back in, but that may wait a few days so I am not as worried with handling the side skirts.

I'll probably try to do a "photoshoot" once its all back together.

EDIT: You may notice I didn't finish the center panel. That is because I got a weird reaction so I am going to sand it back out and hopefully get the paint to lay on it.

[OhioSpyderman]

I think it is PRETTY DAMNED SPECIAL!!!!!

Great job Brian :)

Sorry if I was a bit hard on you over the years, but I knew you could do it and wanted to see it done as much or more than you did.
Had I lived closer I would have offered to pitch in now and then, but then again, who needs an OLD guys help?

Looking forward to more pics of the progress.

I LOVE the BLUE....

Again, great work, you should be proud....

Bob. :)

[j2k4]

The. First. 3S. To. See. Paint. In. Here. In. YEARS.

Way to go, Brian! :bigthumb:

[stealthee]

She's about 90% back together

https://i.imgur.com/pOPKjHx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zyULX8O.jpg

Probably try to respray the center panel tomorrow so I can get it back in the car. Will get the headlights back in, make sure the sail panels have nuts on them etc. I'm going to have to respray the spoiler. The underside is really light on paint and that is 100% my fault. It's fine for a few, but I don't want to leave it that way.

[OhioSpyderman]

WOOT!

:thumbup1:

[j2k4]

Looks fantastic, Brian! :bigthumb: