So, I very rarely post photos, but I figured I'd post a couple just to show what I've been working on lately. She is an 81 242T that blew an engine and became John's parts car. I took an interest because the car is in very good shape and completely straight with just a couple rust bubbles under the rear bumper and almost perfect original paint (after killing the moss) except for one oxidation spot on the trunk lid.

Here is my new beast, in current glassless (except the windshield) and front clipless state:




I removed a lot of the under coating and set about sandblasting the shell and removed the PITA sound deadening. Dry ice or a cold day is awesome for that.
This is the really fun part...
mmmm burning undercoating.....


Somewhere there is a pic of the owner suited up to the gills covered in sand and 240 undercoating and grime...lovely.

This week I am re-arranging the brake split and installing the brakes. I will also bolt the front clip on just to see how it looks.

I wanted to thank Matt and Dale. They have been a huge inspiration pictorially in restoring their (now Matt's?) '75 242 shell. Dale and Matt also did me a huge favor materially in donating a heart for my beast, a part which saving money on can make this project possible. Thank you so much, I will struggle to repay you even as I send you more stuff from here. I think I've asked a lot of you more than anyone for the odd measurement here and there that has really helped me. Thanks!
More pics to follow as I install new suspension and steering and rustproof the shell in the next couple of weeks!

Here is a picture for Matt or anyone else with a 240 of the two types of 240 single diaphragm brake boosters:
http://i.pbase.com/g6/83/464483/2/78136968.vVvNTxnb.jpg

The black one is a 12" single diaphragm slightly slimmer heavier piece that comes on later 70s single carb 240s with the carb airbox. The unpainted 10" one often comes on 76 US cars with the cam cover mounted vac pump. We got the odd 77 with it and some 240 diesels seem to use it. Other markets often got the 10" for more years than we did. It is a good deal lighter than the dual 8" and I like its pedal feel better.

I am still organizing the gallery, but my progress of chassis prep and getting the car running before summer can be tracked here as I upload photos:
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/242restoration&page=all
Things are just in a sort of ascending order by date. I'll section it a bit better later.

Anyway, there is more to this story, but I know everyone loves pictures (though probably not mine), so I figured I'd start there for those that see me post once in a while but don't see anything I do.
-James

Uh-oh...pics no worky

Well...not all at the same time anyways...

It seems to be behaving itself now. Hopefully everything will show up as I stop moving it about.
-James

Cool James! Thanks for posting! Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Any goals in terms of power?

Power is last on the list after finishing the chassis prep, rust proofing, brakes, gearbox and axle. Goal is under 2500lbs. Probably would to have to weld up the sunroof, but I hate it anyway. Would be a shame to murder the perfect roof paint though.

So, no power goals whatever short of basically bone stock. The stock B23E will get warmed up by me disassembling the head and solvent tanking it and gasket matching it and checking tolerances and probably welding the pulse-air holes. Sump will be dishwashed and main bearing wear will be checked as well as bore wear of course. So, basically boring maintenance stuff. Throw some cleaned k-jets back in, do some head cleanup and a slight skim, throw the stocker k-cam back in and just enjoy a reliable cheap engine since cleaning and some minor head work isn't very costly. I've weighed and compared a lot of 240 parts, so I plan to focus on chassis weight and some choice wheel weight and gearing and just ignore the engine mostly. Wheels will be 15s for both auto-x/summer tires and rally tires. Snows are 185/65 hakkas that will fit under rx-7 brakes fine on my 740 15" steelies.

Cool. Keep us posted. I'm interested in the weight loss bit, and what parts you've chosen to keep weight down, so this sounds interesting.

Update!
Finally got some time and nights to work on the puke machine as I call it.
Thanks to athal it won't be getting either style e-codes for a good long while and will rock some hideous quad rounds or 75-77 dual rounds since John stole my mint 78-80 242DL front end.

Didn't find any rust except under the rear bumper shelf and a little bubbling in the bastard 242 spot between the sills and rear quarters. Got to seam that soon!

So what has been done? Here is the list more or less in order:

I labeled all of the wiring and removed it. I was intending to separate the interior harness from the engine harness, but I realized that the battery wasn't going to be up front, so that whole rail of relays in the front is now in a lousy(ier) location. I also realized while labeling much of this stuff that much of this crapola won't be staying. So far, power mirrors, locks, windows, overdrive, bulb failure circuit, A/C everything, brake failure crap, e-brake warning lamp, steering lock and ignition switch are all gone. Electronics don't make me enjoy the driving experience anyway, so I am rewiring the car! The car will be started from some collection of my 240 dash switches and the only plugs specific to a 240 is the wipe stalk/relay and turn signal stalk. Everything else can be eliminated or simplified, which is good for what I did to the car in the last 5 nights.

I stripped all the sound deadening out of the floors. Not so much for the weight, but partially for rust prevention and to prod what parts I should weld and gusset. Volvo didn't paint very well under the sound deadening, so if the windshield ever leaked or cowl didn't drain, the sound deadening traps water and hides the rust. Bad news.
I bought 20lbs of dry ice for $15 and set it on different parts of the floor in bags. Worked like a charm. Just smacked the floor with a mallet and most of that crap just jumped off and I scraped the rest off. Not using chemicals or heat was nice there. Liquid nitrogen would work even better, but in fortress amerika, it is difficult to get over the counter.

It still left some glue residue, which regrettably only comes off with gas/paint thinner/other scary solvents as far as I could tell. Still, I got all the glue up without too much solvent fun, which is good since I can't deal with that stuff for very long.

The car no longer twists around as it is lifted from the front of one of the front frame rails after welding everything from the front seats forward basically. Now I get a slight creak out of the windshield when load is applied vertically, but the results are promising. Without much of the undercoating and all the sound deadening gone it does sound much like slamming a trashcan lid when one shuts the door. . Adrian gleefully added that my car will resonate as his 16V honda contraption passes it, since all my cars have quiet exhausts and his has a glass pack and is an N/A 16V thing. Remaining welding includes reinforcing the rear trailing arm mount points, rear jack points and front a-arms.

Since the welding on the front is finished I sliced out the rusty battery tray, acid washed that bit of the engine bay, then solvent washed all of the monkey tape/glue/top layer of paint off. Then hit it with plenty of scotchbrite and ground some of the welds. The engine bay paint won't look great, but if the color matches then I'll know if it is close enough to paint a spare 85- and 86+ front clip for it. The paint is unfaded enough and looks close enough to my test sample that I think I might be able to paint some spare parts for it, which would be fantastic for a car that is flogged. Lots of seam sealing and rustproofing is in the works, since I want to use this car all winter and through wintercross here.
Pics to follow of the puke machine! Engine drivetrain to go in probably next weekend as the finish details on the chassis and rustproofing I want to only do once and get done, and that is taking a while.

Also scored a lightweight flathood for it!.
Tomorrow is paint, sunday plumbing the brakes, sunday night the dash and heater goes in and so on.
I'm exhausted from doing much of the paint prep today and throwing torque rod and trailing arm bushings in john's 242 tonight.

Cool James! Its great to hear about your progress! Looking forward to the pics.

When you say "lightweight flathood," are you referring to something other than the factory hood?

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136165/large.jpg
Hey! There is a car under there!

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136167/large.jpg
Not terrible for paint from 1981!
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136179/large.jpg

Sanblasting the seams is much easier on an 85-. The stock undercoating is paper thin. A little solven ont and some sand and it comes right off generally. Of course, I now I have 240 grime in my blood. Some further probing of that panel and removal of it revealed fatigue on the stock tack welds on it, showing much evidence of the ever dreaded flex in the hood hinge area in a 240. Mine was just a stock 81 242 with 160K that hadn’t been hit that I could tell, so I definitely will inspect that on future 240s. The hood hinge area has thee panels directly from the strut tack welded together pretty badly in a 240 with the major structure tying the strut to the cabin being a bit thin and attached all in one plane.



Imagine this all over your clothes and in your hair:
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136178/large.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136172/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136169/large.jpg

Getting decent welds on even sandblasted metal with the flux core welder can definitely be a challenge. It is a bit welding with a toothpaste gun. Still, with a little patience and hand steadyness it can be done.

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136176/large.jpg
Here you can see where the firewall panels (which are really 3 panels rolled together and tach welded) and cowl/a-pillar structure come together. At the top there is normally seam sealer and no welding connecting them together.
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136173/large.jpg
And here after much heat and building up a weld with the flux machine we are able to get everythign all connected here.
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136184/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136180/large.jpg
And me slowly welding up the hood hinge area. Almost one solid bead, but with small gaps to allow for one weld to break without the whole seam cracking apart (not good), but mostly solid in that area to strengthen it.
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136196/large.jpg
And here we have the trademark nasty flux core grime left over from flux core welds, even with decent welds on clean metal.
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/78136193/large.jpg
Ahh the smell of burning undercoating. Many panels come together in the wheel well and are simply tach welded. Still, I could have used more heat here, but still burned through it. It drips on your clothes often a squirt bottle is welcom. I suggest wearing lots of layers you don’t care in the slightest about and burning your clotches afterward.

Sometime around this time I found that it was just too difficult to weld with the big window 11 shade helmet. Granted, it was generiously loaned, but it is too clunky to flip up-down under the car, and the shade was way too dark to weld under the car. I went out and bought a medium size wide-window. For under a car, try to get a wide window 2 or 3 sensor one that has a battery powering it so it doesn’t always rely on the solar panel when you are in crappy light (like under a car). Still, ir works fantastic and let me fix floor welds over my head, which are a bit finnicky.

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83248023/large.jpg
Explosion of the primer gun resulted in what I like to call the “battleship” finish. Still, time was limited, so much of my ever awesome prep work went wasted. Still, it is epoxy primered, painted thick as a battle ship and shouldn’t rust. The worst parts are atleast covered up by the major engine componants. I did learn a lot however. Mostly, wire wheel a lot, never delete the battery tray in a 240 unless it is rotten, and don’t spend too much time sanding the lower parts. Rattle canning it would probably wise due to space and laziness. Less is more with worrying about engine bay finish.

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83248025/large.jpg
I don’t have many good pics of the inside on this camera, and only this blurry one. Basically, in a 240 the welds have to be welded down to where the 240 seat bracket bends and joins the sill panel.
To get the sound deadening off on a warmish summer day was much harder than a 0F night in february. To solve this, I bought a 20lb bag of dry ice for $20 and just moved it around. Smacked the floor with a mallet and most of it just jumped off. Some places sell liquid nitrogen which would be even faster. Keeps me from using chemicals or heat. Some solvent was needed to dissolve the glue.

Stock 240s often suffer from the fact that the floor is unpainted under the sound deadening. The driver side floor pan is the lowest point in the car and the early windshields often leak. Combine this with unpainted floor and waterlogged sound deadening keeping everything and they rust incredibly there. With some por-15 and seam sealer I have some defense there.


I plumbed up the brakes. Converted it to the ABS split. Basically, the non-ABS 240 master cylinder is a diagonal master. A diagonal doesn’t allow for fluid volume differences/pressure differences on either side. I wanted to simplify the plumbing with the RX-7 single line calipers, eliminate the stupid leaky junk-shun block, and I really don’t mind the ABS for daily driving, which comes out of a 240 complete easy enough. Getting the lines off a cali 240 was much easier than any I’ve ever tried. I also installed the thin booster since I like having a bit less assist.

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83248038/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83248047/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83248049/large.jpg


Getting ready for some cleaned goodies. I should mention, heated pressure wash your car before you do any work under it. Hindsight is 20/20 and I didn’t have a pressure washer around to make me think of it right away.


http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83264982/large.jpg
This is why 242s suck. No quarter panel/rear sill drainage worth anything and an exposed seam on the outside==teh uber rust. I have a little flaking there.
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83264986/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83264987/large.jpg
The doors are clean and now ready for re-rust proofing….242 doors don’t drain that well (surprise surprise!) so keep em clean in the winter!

Some ass cheek rust on the driver side where it was dented. The ass cheeks are seam sealed and lightly tacked in. Some further rust paint after I pull the rear fender lips will be done.

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83265004/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83265195/large.jpg
Non-A/C heater box in all pressure washed off. Make sure to clean your sills and cowl and foot vents with all the plugs out…pressure washer FTW!

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83265220/large.jpg
This is the lovely 9 year old gas! Dropping and cleaning the tank has to be right up there with sandblasting and welding under the chassis as one of the most godforsaken tasks on a 240.
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83265231/large.jpg
Almost as funny as the gas is john’s donated “yard art” N/A exhaust to live behind the stock low mile B23E to get it running.

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83265227/large.jpg
ABS 240 stuts, bils, diesel springs, stainless lines, new CAM ’93 style 240 steering rack all in. Still needs bushings. Manual steering for now.
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83265229/large.jpg
Something is missing? I had no idea…

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/83265240/large.jpg
The insane builder!

http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/85004823/large.jpg
The state in which I drove it to portland in…nothing went wrong. As Sam once said of Isaac’s car, “Isaac’s car shouldn’t run, which is evidence that there is a god.”
http://www.pbase.com/945ti/image/85004824/large.jpg

Further updates of how it drives will follow. It is fun. Doesn’t buzz like most 240s or flex at speed…or over jumps…bwahahahaha

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I recently picked up a T5 trans. It is a non world class, but it has the 2.95-.73 ratio spread and is recently rebuilt. I paid more for it than I have for any other gearbox in my life ($250), but I reasoned that since a decent conversion cost me ~500 just for the conversion in the 945T, that $250 was justifiable to get the one with the good ratios, even if it is a NWC (not that it matters a ton).

The ABS stuff is nice. I still have to make adapters for the freshly rebult and beadblasted RX-7 calipers since I dislike the ones offered. Basically, I don't want to use the 740 rotors. Stock 240 brakes work absolutely awesome in good repair, and fit under a wide variety of 15" wheels, and I never want to go bigger than 15 really. The 740 rotors sit farther "outboard", making really any caliper crash into a virgo wheel, as well as being a little bigger and the ones I have scoop air from the outside inward...how stupid if you want brake ducts.

I have never had problems with 240 rotors not being able to dissipate enough heat with the stupid dust shields installed in the trash can and and some 240 preheat hose ziptied to the control arms directing air to the center of the rotor. Basically, I just want my RX-7 brakes to work like a 240, but be lighter and since they are alum and have so much more finned surface area, they should exchange heat better too. So anyway, I or someone else needs to make adapters for the calipers that don't suck. The 2nd gen RX has a rotor more akin to a 240 rotor than a 740 rotor.

I am almost done powder coating my galvanized strut tubes and installing the ~180lb measured 1979 242GT front springs. Wagon overloads will probably be used for now. The ABS 240 uses a larger front wheel bearing..which is good for a pukey car one wishes to abuse. I HATE undercoating. It is the devil to take off. I added a ton of degreaser to the dishwasher, got the water in the bottom literally boiling and set the timer for 2 hours and still had to scrub it a bit.

I stole some bilstein HDs out of the '78 GT parts car as well as the upper and lower braces and strut plates. The car had TME springs, so I sold those to help pay for the bils.

Pics of the latest hotness to follow.