2008.05.18 The airfield

I will edit this post, when I manage to get videos from my DVR. However it seems that on board footage was screwed up. For some reason (fog on the lens?) camera recorded everything in blur, like car was full of smoke.

EDIT: Onboards are really screwed. Here are few static photos of the car (click on image, to zoom):



Driving (testing brakes, suspension, steering, gearbox) with stock boost (0.9 bar) was real fun. I like torsen and new flywheel. Also the taller gearing for 2nd gear. It was worth all the hassle.

2008.05.18 Pleasure starts :)

So after failing to attempt yesterday's event, everything went back from banzai! to normal working with pleasure - now it started to really feel like vacations. Cut few corners from glove box assembly:Pushed the wires on to the shelf, and vuala - it fits nicelly. No more spaghetti mess at the passenger's legs:

2008.05.17 The D-Day

Got up early, went to the garage, and continued to work with the car. It started to rain (to make things more complex), so I needed to cover areas, where holes were made for roll cage to connect to the front struts... It was quite a rush to connect, fix, bolt everything that is needed for car to run. Speedo was not working so managed to borrow GPS unit and make loom for it to work, etc.

When the time for the meet has come - I have noticed, that I have lost registration documents for the car... That was final hit, which put me down. Three weeks of "Go go go!" type activity, and that's it, FIASCO!

After few hours of searching - managed to find them (they fell out of radiator area in the car), however motivation was lost, event sports part has ended already, etc. Went home, and tried to relax and rest. It was too much for me.

In the evening, few finished touchings, and tried to go around the block. It was magnificient. Impressions are hard to describe (car with sound insulation vs car with roll cage and many holes to outside). It runs and feels like racing car (what a surprise). It was worth all the pain I've suffered in past three weeks.

2008.05.16 Struggling with time...

Less sleep, more work! Trying hard to finish car until 05.17 (per4m forum meet). Managed to put glasses (hardcore story, no pictures) not mentioning that roll cage - was not allowing to put them in). Somehow managed to assemble everything outside the car. Also put driver's seat, racing harness'es etc.Started to feel and think like zombie. Working for 8-10 hours per day for two weeks - started to bring the results, almost finished car, loads of cuts and bruises on the arms, legs, head... The PAIN in every muscle. Started to use weak analgetics to help the progress...

2008.05.14 It's alive! ... and leaking coolant ;)

Not much pictures, but managed to bleed cooling system and start the engine. Oh, how nice it sounds, and revvs happily. Very satisfied by change (of flywheel). Rolled the car out of garage on it's own engine:
After a while it started to leak coolant from everywhere - I forgot to tighten few clamps. Starting to get very tired, thus making stupid mistakes. Not good.

2008.05.13 Putting everything back - part III

Day was completelly spent on fixing some old engine swap mistakes, and assembling everything around the engine. Some wiring for radiator fan and alternator was rewired and properly fixed:
Also eliminated dead end for activated charcoal valve (was leaking boost and doing nothing):
Replaced oil pressure sender (one contact VDO to some noname two contact). Reason for this is employing oil pressure check unit fom KV engine. It is using two pressure sensors to operate properly. So I put two contact sender (gauge and warning), and found plug in the block where I managed to put old pressure switch from KV.Put the radiator in, connected everything on the driver's side:

Putting everything back, part II

So after yesterday's disappointment - needed some time to rest and think. It gave a result, went to local autoparts store, bought newer clutch slave cylinder (dirt cheap, hope it will last for a while), put it in the gearbox, bleeded, and SUCCESS! Clutch is working. So started to bolt everything again. Propshaft (not visible in a picture, but believe me - it's bolted already):Bolted driveshafts (took a while , because my measurements were wrong, driveshaft flanges from typ44 are bigger, and I forgot, that I had typ44 flanges on my spare gearbox, which was used as reference - they were given to my friend some years ago). And if you notice, turbocharger went from the floor into engine bay ;)Also wrote more blog entries with past dates. Had no time to do this before, because my schedule for these two weeks was - eat, sleep, work in the garage, or search for the parts. Enjoy...

2008.05.11 Trying to put everything back

First, old clutch was inspected. It had no obvious signs of damage, however it was visible, that it had contact with oil (which is leaking from valve cover gasket), and was burned somehow. There were a lot of copper and feredo debris inside flywheel. Also pressure plate was looking suspicious. Old:New:There's visible difference of leaf spring height. So decided to use all the stuff (release shaft, bearing, etc. from apropriate type).

And the fun started. New gearbox requires different type of clutch slave cylinder. So after few hours of grinding, I came with somewhat which can be called as typ85 type clutch cylinder adapter for newer gearbox. We pulled engine back in, bleeded the clutch. And the result was soft and spongy pedal. Inspection showed, that hydraulic fluid is leaking from gearbox. That was a disaster :(. Pulled slave cylinder - it was too short, and spitted a rod under pressure :(. I hated all world and had no strengths to work further...

2008.05.09 Engine pulled out

After many hours of fighting with oil cooler fittings, cutting some bolts, badly injuring my right hand, and many dirty words - engine was successfully pulled out and gearbox was separated.

2008.05.09 Painting finished, dismantling starts

After hard work, roll cage is finally painted. It looks not bad, not good. Assuming circumstances, I personally think, that result is very good (no time to really work on it, no light, no expierence with two component paint, HVLP spray gun and high performance compressor). From objective judgement side, I can tell that result is about 6 from 10. Some shots of finished result:
Closer look:So now its time to pull engine out (to change gearbox, flywheel, clutch). Like always, I will do it by dropping engine and gearbox to basement. To achieve this - you need to dismount everything, and leave bare engine. So it started like this:And in the evening all the hoses, and fluids were out:

2008.05.08 Spraying black paint in the dark...

As I have mentioned, I was painting in lack of light. This is no go if you want to spray paint anything. Especially roll cage. White primer helped a bit, but not too much. After first paint layer, deeper inspection (without goggles) revealed, that covering was too terrible event for me. So took virutally every light source I had, and put it into the car. Results:It is obvious, that I have sprayed paint somewhere, but not on tubes. Especially in the places where shadows like to be:

2008.05.07 Filler for paint

As weather outside garage went from bad to worse (wind, rain +10), I was forced to work in a closed garage. After doing spray test of black paint on black/dark brown epoxy primer, I saw nothing, so it become obvious, that I need different color to see what I'm spraying. Also filler fills some surface imperfections (which tubes have). However you need to sand it for that. I've been too lazy to do this (this is roll cage, not the bling bling). After some experiments with thickness, thinner and air pressure, it started to go well :). It looked really nice (and matt surface hides all spraying mistakes).

2008.05.04 Painting started

First sprayed the cage with anti-rust epoxy primer. This is not the best choice for thing like roll cage, however it does not require any surface preparation (I had no time and patience to prepare anything). So it ate all the rust, and coated everything. Now nothing will rust there (tested on rusty garage elements ;)). It was just about 1000 times harder to spray that stuff on a tube, than on somewhat flat with no obstructions...

2008.05.03 Preparation for roll cage painting

So, roll cage is in place, we can proceed to painting. But how to mask the car? Usually I cover area with old newspapers, but this time I haven't had any. What if to use old supermaket bags which I have plenty of :).After few hours it started to get shape, and look like el cheapo rally car:Also covered the intercooler

At last!

At last I've got my baby back! Now it is grown up, with FIA homologated roll cage installed. I haven't seen my car for ages (50 days to be exact). Isn't it beautifull? More shots of the roll cageElectricity is all messed up, and fuse box is teared apart (roll cage goes through it now). It will be quite a challenge to start the car again...