Day 25: After taking a couple weeks off to get my family settled back into a routine after my wife gave birth to my son, I was finally able to get back out to the garage. I got the first rocker panel hole patched. I also got some of the undercoating done on the wheel wells and under body. Next up is the bigger patch, then some underbody patches and then it'll be time to prep for paint.

 

Congrats on your son, make sure he grows up loving spinning triangles!

 

congrats on the son!

 

So it's been a while since I've updated the thread. Over the last few weeks I've been working on cleaning up the interior to prep for paint, cleaning up the underbody as well, and ordering parts.

I picked up new competition spec bushings for the front and rear control arms, rear subframe, front sway bar, and rear hubs. I also picked up braided brake lines and Hawk HP+ brake pads. All but the pads were sourced from Mazdatrix. Pads came from Corksport.

With the long weekend I plan to complete the undercarriage paint, swap out all my bushings and have the car back down on the suspension soon. I want to paint soon as well, since the weather here is getting decent...you know what they say about making hay.

 

Making babies? what?

 

LOL, yeah. I think of it as creating garage assistants from scratch, LOL.

Tonight the car really beat me up. I decided to try to break down the front brakes the rest of the way. I used my compressor to function check the calipers. Turns out my odd feeling brake pedal was probably caused by 5 of my 8 pistons being seized up. Also, my front rotors are seized on the hub. I'll probably have to break out a torch to get them off.

Drained a bit of my motivation.

 

Managed to snag both calipers for $17 ea...only crappy part is the $40 for shipping cause of living overseas. They always find some way to rip you off. Should have them next week...also got the clips and guide pins. Still got two "new" calipers for less than $100.

Also, finalizing the deal on a APR 200 wing for half of retail.

 

sounds great! don't let the motivation drop. I just started my engine/tranny swap on my vert, I need to see you finish so I don't lose the faith!

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I have finished the under carriage repairs. The only remaining welding work is the roll bar and the antenna shave. Tomorrow I'll spray bomb the under carriage with white paint and finish cleaning up the front suspension parts. I can't wait to finish putting it all together, it's going to look pretty cool.

 

Today marked 33 days of working on the car (non-consecutive). I spray bombed the undercarriage, pressed on some front bushings, and painted a few suspension components. Unfortunately I forgot a few of the rear suspension bushings and I already blew my budget for this paycheck on a APR 200 wing (remember the purpose of the build is for the 'Ring.) So I'll have to wait to order them, which pushes back the time line a bit of getting the car on it's own 4 wheels. I still feel pretty good about the progress of the whole build though.

Here's some pics:

 

looks great

 

yea,looks really good...make more money so i can see more pics soon..lol

 

Oh there's plenty of parts to still be put on.

Tonight I'm going to depower my steering rack and paint it. I also need to clean up the steering knuckles.

 

subscribing...

 

Received my $16 rebuilt calipers today. Need to get some caliper paint, so I can match em to the paint scheme. I also de-powered my steering rack last night. Only took me 2 hours (as opposed to the 4-5 suggested in the DIY archive thread). It was pretty easy...I'm pretty sure I have the 17:1 rack though, so if it's too rough then I'll just buy a 15:1 rack. I don't think it'll be bad though.

Tonight I'll be painting the rack and prepping/painting the spindles. I'd like to have the whole front subframe assembly together and the rear taken apart this weekend.

 

Looks awesome. Subscribing.

 

Define "too tough" .... You do realize that a lower ratio its more difficult to turn

I have the 15:1 power rack and its great, I replaced the rack and lines and rebuilt the pump about 3 years ago and I've had no problems. Its light in the parking lot and heavy in the twisties...perfect. Tthen again I'm notpushing 10/10ths on a race track w/ slicks, so perhaps the additional feedback from a manual rack has more value in that circumstance.

My first fc had the 20:1 manual rack and it was awful, like 3.5 turns lock to loc, felt like I was driving a bus. If I were going to de-power a p/s rack (the only way to go imo) I would go 17:1 for a street car (50% or more street driving) and 15:1 for a race car.

 

Well according to the archived DIY, I should have the 17:1 and the 15:1 is supposed to be the most livable one. Only time will tell. I do pretty minimal steering input while driving anyway.

Tonight I painted my brake calipers (since I only had an hour to work anyway). I used red high temp and white high temp. I used the white for the lettering.

Here's a pic before baking them:


BTW, the calipers have no problem handling the 160C bake, but the little plastic plug that they put in the threaded hole for the brake line to keep dirt out...not so much. Luckily it stayed in one piece and left only a small amount of residue. So, in the future, I'll be making sure I remove that before the bake, lol.

Tomorrow I should get most of the subframe assembly put back together.

 

Day 37: Tonight I got the front subframe partially reassembled. I'm waiting to put the hubs on till I get a chance to really clean them up. The rotors had seized onto the hubs and required a press to separate the two. I also need to get some anti-seize to coat the inside of the rotor hats. I also started to shave the factory spoiler holes and the antenna hole. Tomorrow I'll do the bondo and start looking into filling the sunroof hole.

Here's some pics:

 

Tonight I completed 80% of the bondo and power washed the rear subframe. Tomorrow I finish the bondo and prep the subframe for paint.

 

hurry up and then come work on mine, i am lazy

 

This weekend I cleaned the garage, stripped down the motor a bit and got the sun roof 90% welded in. I ran out of gas (as usual) so I couldn't finish the welding.

I need to get a new wire wheel so I can finish prepping the rear subframe for paint. I'll try to finish breaking down the rear control arms tomorrow so I can prep them for paint and get the new bushing pressed in.

Here's some pics:

 

lookin good! hey, how much did you pay for your rotisseries, and where did you get them?

 

150 for the rotisserie. Got it from a buddy in the Czech republic.

 

nice work, similar to my project, thanks for the inspiration!