Progress is coming along pretty fast now, we had a meeting and really threw down gauntlet on the time-line. A game plan was laid out and Art has kicked it into high gear to hit the targets.
Jumping right in..
If you'll remember I had some apprehension about cutting into the cross member for necessary motor clearance. Generally you'll need to take out about 30% of the material from the cross section to clear the oil pan. This leaves you with a much thinner and less strong support member that you're now putting a hell of a lot more power through. I decided pretty early on that reinforcing it as much as possible now would pay off in replacing it down the line.
After discussing the best way to accomplish this Art welded on 3/8th" rolled steel plating along the cut section. After that he then created a template out of 16g plate
and tigged that to the bottom of them member. Seeing more room for beefing he stitched along the factory stamped creases and folds.
What it feels like now is MUCH more substantial piece than even before it was cut. It added weight; but its all down low and exactly centered between the wheels, which is the best place to have it.
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| 3/8th plating |
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| Tig detail. |
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| Stitching |
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| Plate reinforcement. Drain holes still need to be drilled. It'll also get a clean up and a fresh coat of enamel |
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| Plating weld detail. |
All the firewall holes that'll no longer be needed will have to be plugged before painting. These holes came from factory and allowed things like heater core hoses, wiper motors, wire harnesses, master cylinders, ect interface through the firewall. I'll be deleting everything but a small hole for electronics, one for fuel, and two provisions on the lower wells for the brake lines too hook up. Since I wont be needing any thing else I measured them and sent off an order too the water jetter for some plugs. The blue tape marks the specific sizes of the holes, strangely they were not all a uniform sizes. Once these come back they will be welded into place to seal off the cabin form heat, fumes and some noise.
On the other side of the firewall the factory puts all sorts of tabs and brackets to affix everything these econo-box needed. Wiring harness, ECU, sound deadening, dash board hangers all have their own spot. Again, here, im not going to use any of these so the tabs do nothing but clutter up the interior. Cleaning up stuff like these go a long way for the 'finished' feeling when everything is back together.
Before:
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| All the tabs and brackets marked with and X for elimination |
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| passenger side |
I grinded the remaining nubs smooth but forgot to take any pictures. Once the firewall plugs are welded and the interior gets a fresh coat of paint you wont be able too tell they were ever there.
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| All in all maybe about a pound of weight saving, not a lot but it all adds up |
Remember the rust hole in the rain gutter under the wind shield? I dont think I ever took a close up picture but it was UGLY. Art dug a little deeper and found that it was actually worse than we'd originally thought
Basically the entire 8 inch piece had too be cut out to stop the cancer. It had even gone all the way through into the cabin of the car.
template was made and patched tacked in...
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| rough fit |
and sealed
Patch work from the inside..
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| This hole would have been dripping directly onto the OEM fuse block and causing all sorts of problems |
Next thing to go was the fuel door. Since I'm going to use a fuel cell in the trunk, I'll no longer need an OEM fuel door and filler neck port. I wanted a clean solution instead of just shutting it and removing the pull wire.
First thing that would need to be done was sealing off the circular provision that the filler neck used to pass through. If we left it, the high pressure air from the wheel well would be constantly trying to equalize itself with the low pressure inside thereby blowing dust and grime into the cabin.
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| hole to be blocked |
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| Tracing tool connected to a plasma cutter |
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| Clean and cut |
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| block off welded into place. |
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| building the hang frame |
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| detail from the back side after riveting into place |
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| and from the outside |
Its a bit difficult too tell but the rust was between two layers of sheet metal, upper part of this picture is the wheel well (car is on its side)
After figuring out the best plan of attack Art started rebuilding the structure that had been cut out, especially difficult was making sure that to reenforce enough that I could retain usability of the upper perch if I wanted too.
This shot is up into the wheel well, you can see the frame rail and the OEM spring perch cup, some of the perch surround was affected and had to be cut out too.
Templates were made to patch these holes with new healthy metal
Here you can see the other gaping hole to the left is the old roll cage mount that Art had cut out.
After:
rebuilt and patched
And from the bottom:
new metal welded into the perch surround
Old drag bar cage holes Cut pounded down and patched too
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| Once fuel cell and lines and paint are added these will blend in with the rest of the interior. |
In other parts news the 4-link boxes FINALLY showed up.
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| Before |
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| Plates made up before being tigged on |
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| tigging them on |
Mocked up the seating position, albeit a little premature I was curious too how much helmet room and leg room there'd be for the pedal box, good news is.. theres a lot.
There's a bit more but some bigger updates coming soon so ill save it for then.
Ending this entry with Kyle's awesome JDM EF hatch. Love this thing..
