Hi All,
This post is pretty picture heavy, but is mainly about miscellaneous odd jobs I've done on the car over the past two days - and I guess we could call it the fifth installment, although I haven't made much tangible progress.
Roof Rack:
I bought this 245 rack off EBay a while ago for really cheap - paid more in fuel getting there than I did for the rack! It was galvanised and had rust and only one of 9 wooden slats remained. I wanted to refurbish it eventually but got scared off when it was going to cost $600+ to chrome the metal parts of the rack!
I went to Bunnings and it was going to be super expensive to buy the correct shape dowel for the roof rack slats (like over $150) and they wouldn't have even been the exact right shape (I needed 32mm x 11mm and they had 30mm x 10mm) so they would've been a loose fit.
My solution to this was to paint the steel and mill up the timber myself from a big beam.
4.8m long beam of structural hardwood from bunnings ($40):
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With the help of my father I cut 9 x 1.8m lengths of 11mm x 32mm timber from the big beam:
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we then ran them through the router with a 6mm radius on top and a 3mm radius on the bottom:
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A bunch of sanding:
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Gloss varnish with 20% thinners through the spray gun:
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Removing rust:
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Sanded and primed:
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Epoxy metalsheild aluminium paint with 20% thinners.
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It was at this stage I mucked up. I had used the whole tin of paint and it felt dry to touch. I took them all down from hanging and the paint was still wet so they now have fingerprints all over them! Super bummed but not bummed enough to start over.
Used heatshrink over tape. Might last a while:
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Assembled with all stainless steel fasteners and replaced the traditional washer-lockwasher-nut with just washer-nyloc nut. Looks pretty mint from far away enough not to see the prints in the paint!
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Wheel Spacers.
Not much to it, installed 30mm hub-centric adaptor style spacers to 115nm
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may rub on the guards over speed bumps...Anyone rolled 240 guards? Apparently it's hard?!
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Intercooler Final Mount:
mounted the horns and made a kind of cradle for the IC to rest in. It is this shape \___/ and the intercooler bolts to the bottom and the sides bolt to the chassis rails using existing bolts.
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Spark Wiring:
Wired up the coils. Not really confident in this wiring as I think I should've made a separate ground for each coil rather than splicing them in.
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For anyone interested, each coil has a positive power source, ground to body/engine, sensor ground and signal wire. MS3X has a signal wire for each coil, and a sensor ground on the MS3. The positive is fused (maybe 10 amps?) and then the ground is self explanatory.
@A_Volvo_Driver Shifter:
I have no idea if this will work but I'll let you know!
Idea is to extend the bottom part of the shifter below the ball so as to change the top throw vs bottom movement ratio. Most people are super dodgey and just extend the shaft but this makes the linkage bend down on an angle and can hit the top of the gearbox/has a bad load path. This way is different and should maintain horizontal linkage/has more room for even shorter shifts.
Mark it out:
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Cut Cut:
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Spot weld level and square:
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I brought out the gasless mig for this as spot welding is quicker with migs, even though I can't get my settings dialed. I don't know if it is me or the welder or if this is normal for gassless wire. Probably me.
Make some braces out of 3mm mild.
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Do some dodgey welds and convince yourself that this part takes no load so it doesn't matter:
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Measure amount raised:
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Mark shifter:
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Cut shifter and use a section of similar sized bolt shaft of the same length that the bucket thingo was raised.
Cut shifter far away from ball so welding doesn't munt it and cover it while welding.
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Hope for the best:
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Also give it a lick of your favorite flat black rattle can so it doesn't rust
DSM CAS:
Find top dead centre:
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Install with half of crank sensor window to the right of the sensor on the trigger disc
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Battery Relocation:
Used bicycle tube over the cable and ran it under the car, and heavy duty nylon reinforced hydraulic hose where I cable tied it where the brake/fuel lines were clamped:
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Flywheel and Pressure Plate:
Torqued down flywheel using 450,000km old bolts.
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Couldn't get the stupid clutch alignment tool to work so I took the $32 bit of plastic back to Supercheap.
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Tried to centre it by hand and then torqued down pressure plate bolts. Will it be an issue if the clutch is 99% central and not dead on?
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That brings us to the end of the fifth post!
I still need to do the following:
- Oil+water lines
- Exhaust
- Wire Loom
- Offer up M46
- Fit Pedal box
- Tune MS
Other non - vital things to do are as follows:
- Rear sway bar mod
- Final fit and wire of Alfa seats
Cheers,
Sam