Plans A, B, C and D had fallen apart pretty quickly, at this point i was being guided down a path of logical decisions that seemed to end up in a totally illogical place. I had gone from 'will I really need that?' to 'I'll need everything' in a few short weekends.
*shrug*
Buying stuff is the easy part, any idiot is a few clicks away from a JDM blinging body kit or a new set of wheels. The way the trends are going with the car show crowd is hardparking a GT inspired car at a car show. Basically just form imitating function- goal of adding a splitter and dry carbon parts is no longer lap times or an enhanced driving experience, the endgame for these types is Instagram exposure or a feature on some booby ass blog. Whatever. I can type a length about how irritated I get seeing canards and winged s2000's with 35lb cast wheels sitting in a krispy kreme parking lot.
I only say this here because even though I was going through the realization that this was no longer a cheap beater; my intention to track it like it still was had never wavered.
All it did, really, was up the ante on what i was wanted to do. I have seen a very small handful of ae86's done right that are actually used. Now, its true, this is one of the only cars on planet where they look as cool missing body parts and bouncing off of each other as a full race build. But again anyone can do a boro build- and that just not my style, I want to build something that looks the business without being flashy about it then actually go and use it forits intended purpose
Now I had a blank canvas where as before stuff like "eh, i dont wanna repaint it" and "Its already got a cage" were out the window. Now that it needs media blasting, I would HAVE to get paint, now that it needs paint it opens the door for after market body panels. You see? Now that the cage was verified as crap I had to find a cage builder...
I had a coupla people come over to take a look and give me price and time estimates. They were respected cage builders and were saying similar things. Thats when I remembered a cage in my friends 911 that i had seen and really liked. I remembered following the progress pics of it when it was being built but I couldn't remember the builders details. I reached out him and a couple hours later I was talking to Art, the guy who had built it.
It turns out that he himself is a fellow ae86 owner and enthusiast. He had spent quite some time in Japan and understood what I was going for, right away we were on the same page, and it was nice to not have to explain to someone why the hell I decided to build this as a trackcar especially when I already had something like the NSX. Better yet it turns out that we're basically neighbors so he zipped over to have a look at it in person.
Long story short Art is just setting out to start his own fabrication business a project like this was something he was amped on doing. Cool.
Now that ideas were transforming into reality focus shifted to two areas.
1) Find everything on the chassis that would need metal work so Art could know what he'd be doing
2) prep the car for a full medial blast.
I had contacted a couple places that do soda blasting and media blasting. I had researched and found that acid dipping a chassis like the 86 will weaken to a point of only lasting a few years of hardcore abuse. I also didn't like the idea of residual acid getting trapped in the frame rails and trashing it in places I wouldn't be able too see and fix. I found a place that was reasonably local and willing to do the entire car. i spoke with the owner and got a list of things that would drop the price if i did them myself. This basically meant removing everything; I was pretty much halfway there already so whatever.
I wanted to take the motor out to have a better look anyways so I rented a hoist. It was fucking MASSIVE and heavy but did the trick.
Ended up being able to get the motor and trans out together. it involved some tweaking of the rad support, you can see where the PO had the same idea.
Within a few hours with some help from Arman and Mark we had the motor and trans separated and on a stand.
No I could get the first real look at the 'trans tunnel' and bay. I had seen a spot where the sealant had been eaten away from the strut apron and noticed what looked like rust underneath. Sure enough, now that I could get in there i was able to push a screwdriver straight though it. that was yet another spot that would have to be patched and fixed.
The picture bolow is looking down the tunnel, you can see the top quality welds (guh.) Art and I both took one look at this and agreed with a nod that this would have to be fixed too. So far not so good, but hey- at least the chassis is pulling itself part like my old one.
Actually its surprisingly straight, never even a fender bender. Good thing too had I found any previous damage I would've had to have a long hard think about scrapping this chassis all together for new one. I'm not happy about the rust spots on this car but fixing and keeping it JUUUST edges out getting another shell on the pain-in-the-ass meter.
Also now that the motor was out I was able to really see how the motor was held in. I had plans to keep the notched subframe and mount set up that came in it sense they were 'working' (and free) but after seeing them naked it seemed like a bad idea and added a JSP f20c mount kit to the list of stuff id need to get. What I don't know is if the driveshaft that came on the car, which at least looks decent and usable, will need to be altered and rebalanced since its length was made specifically to match the boo-boo mounts that are now going in the trash. This is yet to be seen but a small price for not having the motor exit the engine bay under hard braking.
As seen here the sub frame is obviously another issue. Other than looking like shit a quick google of a non altered crossmember shows that mine is missing a good 2/3s of its structure and therefore is 2/3's weaker. Since im running about triple the power output as intended even for the stock piece. Then on top of that adding modern day R compounds tires it stands to reason that the energy it needs to deal with warrants doing it correctly. Add it to the list.
Back on the inside the mystery spot was looking uglier and uglier. To paint a clearer picture Art brought over a spot weld drill bit and I went to work.
Better, but will definitely need some attention
I removed a few no longer necessary cross braces and hinges for things like the rear seats. The rigidity will be more than supplemented one the 8pt cage is in place. It also adds to a cleaner more straight forward interior one its all painted and finished.
You can see here too I was experimenting with aircraft remover on the floor pan before I decided on the media blast. I had even spend a ton of time and removed the majority of the seam sealant on the trunk.
In addition to the braces that were no longer needed I remove the sunroof tray and accompanying bracketry. All together i saved about 40+lbs removing stuff that was no longer going to be needed . better yet the majority of the stuff were things that raised the center of gravity. ill figure out a sunroof plug when its time, not so urgent at the moment.
More brackets for the rear sunroof...
gone.
Last few steps i needed to do was remove all the glass and trunk. Of course I got about 95% through removing the front windshield before I cracked it. figures.
All the other glass came out for good and will be replaced with lexan to further lower the CG. Doors stayed on but have no guts since the cage will be running inside them. side windows will also be lexan with dzues fasteners so I can pull then off for track days but still drive the car if I need.
once all this was done I loaded up the car and shipped it off to the blaster.
Next episode.....Did someone say spending spree?
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