Well its been quite a while since an update. After the Ozvolvo meet i caught the flu which turned into a severe chest infection and long story short I was put into bed for 2 weeks. I'm nearly all sorted now and only have the constant cough which i was told i could have for 4 weeks :|
Anyway here is a catchup update of what happened before the Ozvolvo meet and where we are now.
After the paint in the engine bay dried I put the engine in. I continued wiring up the LH to the rest of the body.
Then the following night I re-assembled the front end and made it look like a car again.
The next morning I started the car to confirm it worked and then headed to Sydney to pickup the turbo. Brendan had put a rebuild kit through it and it was getting balanced. The guy noticed the turbo was a bit tight before putting it on the machine and stripped it down. He found the exhaust seal had failed during assembly. He said it might have just not gone in right or just been a manufacturing defect. Either way he fixed it all up. It balanced up fine and he made me a V-band kit so we could make a downpipe. Heres the seal.
The next part was definitely the craziest part of the whole build. I returned from Sydney with the turbo. The meet was the next day and I still had a bunch of work to do. Brendan called me and asked me if i needed help. He decided to come up anyway to make sure it got to the meet. He arrived at about 7 and we began work. We closed the garage door to keep the noise down for the neighbours. Brendan made this real sweet downpipe out of some bends and pipe I picked up in Sydney.
We kept working through the night and everything was coming together. I went outside to go to the bathroom and to my amazement i could see the sun coming up. We had worked all the way through the night and until the next morning. It was about 8am when the car was put back on the ground, pointed out of the garage and rolled out under its own power.
It had been about 8 months since it had moved further than the confines of the garage. We hadn't slept yet and it was the day of the meet. There were a few teething issues that were caught pretty quick and then Brendan headed home to pick up his car. We went to the RTA, got our new plates and were also on our way.
The drive there for the most part was really good. It was a little loud and rattly but as the k's rolled on it tightened up and quietened down. The drive was not without failure. I took off for a hillstart at a busy intersection on Pennant Hills Rd when there was a huge bang and the clutch went to the floor. I managed to keep momentum from 1st gear and roll into a side street. The slave had popped out of its holder and was now in pieces all over Pennant Hills Rd.
Rach and I managed to find all of the pieces on the road and luckily none of them had been destroyed or run over. There was a Shell servo across the road and we went there to pick up some more brake fluid. Brendan got news of our failure and he wasn't too far away. He turned up and with his help we got it all back together. It was lucky I decided to pack a trolley jack and a jack stand as a just in case.
Look at that determination!
After that failure the rest of the trip went well. It was boosting nice and was driving pretty well for a car that was slapped together overnight. We were late to the meet but we made it which in our book was a success!
Since then I've just been sick and now I'm well enough to work I've been driving it to work to see what doesn't work. Last week I fixed most of the instruments and now have a working fuel gauge, temp sensor, blinkers, alt light, oil light and high beams. These things didn't work because first time around the plugs were messed with to fit the later style dash when the plan was to run an M47.
Today I put in the rear King Springs and Sachs shocks I got from Ash. Ill get to drive it tomorrow to see how it goes!
Thats all for now.
