There's 195 seconds of my life I'll never get back...

I knew that would turn you on, Dale.

Edit - what I didn't expect was that you made it to 195!

OK, now back to the fun…I'm sure that's what my neighbours say all the time. Anyway, got the arms and wheel mocked up this AM and it all fits and clears just like it should. I've even got the parking brake passing through the sub frame now. I'll have to figure out how to hold the cable, as the original metal sleeve ended up inside the frame. A U-bolt will work fine.

I've tested the suspension through 4" of bump and the tire just hits the inner fender a little. So I've got to be sure that my bump stops are effective. The trunk shelf area can drop 4" and still leave 1" clearance to the subframe, so I'll probably cut all that floor out as there is no sense loosing all that trunk space for no reason. It may be better to cut it out to start with a clean sheet for the new metal instead of trying to work around the mess that's there right now.

Monthly update…I'm struggling with the amount of damage that I'm doing to this car, but things got serious this weekend. The photo's tell the story.

Broke the paint and removed the front nose section. It's very damaged, so I'll have to repair it before using it again (or find another one). It joined the pile of parts at the back of the garage.

Here we are…pulling the engine.


Then it was out and still looking clean (despite the battery acid damage).

It really is too easy to pull engines without having to work over top of the nose section.



I made an engine stand as the B20 will be used in a project to be named later.

The project is getting rolling now that a bunch of random engine building and other projects are cleared out of the garage. I've got to make a few important decisions about things like how I'm going to mount my rear coil overs etc. I won't post all that stuff until I get it more formalized. In the mean time, I've been testing methods of removal of sound deadening and undercoating. I coated the inside of my car with a Dynomat type material. While it worked great, it's a tremendous PITA to remove. The old stuff's no treat either, but the new materials hold so much more aggressively to the surface. I've got to take it all off to allow the fabrication to continue. I'd also like to remove the undercoating. It's a mess under the car and I'm sure I'll find stuff. I'm going to use bed liner so that I can have the protection and also be able to clean it and keep it looking nice.

Here's my took review - I splurged and bought a Fein FMM250Q. All removal was cold with just the scrapper attachment.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR7vDMUWDt8&feature=share&list=UUa6eis9EioAwO61xOrbxfiw[/youtube]

Well that's pretty cool! I never knew such a thing existed!

Oh sweet mother, where was this tool a few months ago?

Good to know, thanks for the review.

Well, it has been a very long time since I've updated this tread. Things are progressing. Sometimes progress is defined as just looking at the car for me, but lately measurable progress has been made. I've also made some really epically bad decisions that I thought were worth sharing. While my car is relatively rust free, it's got some parts that are a little rough and others that have about 3 coats of paint, so I decided to take the easy way out and sandblast those parts. I went to Consolidated Compressor in Calgary and it didn't go well. The spare "good" fenders I had were cut to shreds and are now junk...the rest ended up very distorted and dented.



This is the load that I took to the sand pit!



Just about to destroy perfectly good parts because I didn't want to strip the undercoating!



I stopped, but not in time. What I found was that my trunk lid was completely packed with Bondo, it's junk (I have a spare).



Here it all is blasted...looks good from a distance. Found some rust in the usual places and was (am still) kicking myself for blasting these panels. I always thought that they were thick enough to take some blasting. I was as careful as I could be, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone.



Here's a spot that I thought was light surface rust...turns out that it was a little thin and the blaster cut right through!



Got them cleaned and epoxy primed.





OK, so I've moved on from the bodywork. I am not going to be moving on that part of the recreation of the car right now. I was just filling in time before the snow flies. The real fun is that I've been waiting for a retired race engineer who is a suspension specialist to work out the 3D model of the suspension for the car. I've finally got my report, and there is more work to do here.

I've got the new front doors hung and they are much better than the previous ones. It's making a turn for the better now.

These are the front upper control arm brackets on the shortened Corvette C4 suspension. They are in relatively stock locations, but won't work optimally on my car - I need more caster and that requires new brackets. So more fun is yet to come up front.



The Toyota Supra IRS that I shrunk, turned out to be just fine as it was and close to optimal without further modification. So I can weld up the frame and get that coated when I get a chance. Still lots of work on things like a floor for the trunk and mounts for the coil overs. Anyway, I'll get that sorted out and the front chopped off the car by this Christmas (fingers crossed) then start to work on the drive train.

Love this project thread. Was reading for hours last night and can't wait to see the updates.

Thanks,

It's been a long time - but I'm out in the garage working almost everyday. The current progress will all be revealed when done. In the mean time, I have been working on some of the mechanicals. The front suspension has been sorted out with new upper control arm brackets to give more caster and consequently a better camber gain in turning/braking.

Matt took my goofy drawings and made some revisions and checked my dimensions. Then it went in for water-jet cutting and is ready to weld onto the new frame when I get it installed. Here you can see the issue - this front suspension was not designed for this car (obviously) - so it needed to grow and change.



I picked up a couple of piles of much needed fab parts as well.



Here's the new brackets.



Next up is the radiator - the old custom rad is now finding a home in Matt's car and I need a non custom, off the shelf racing part for this car with an intercooler for the turbo. Not much room...here's the fan shroud in the stock position - way to tall (20" tall) but the width is OK (19.5").



So I've got to drop it below the height of the front cross member (which may have to move). Won't work with the stock suspension as the drag link would hit the rad (and this is a pretty small generic part).







That should work. Now I've got to check clearance for an intercooler in the front nose cone. Looks like there's around 13" in the hole - I need around 10 so that'll do.

I need some thoughts - debating between working around a stock racing radiator and a custom radiator. Custom is more pricey, but exactly right. There are a few off-the-shelf options in TIG welded aluminum for racing. I can even get them without tubes and just add them where needed.

Thoughts.

I wouldn't worry about them until your inner fenders are roughed in. That whole area is going to change in width once you get your frame rails built, no?

True - I guess I can just do a rough mock up and buy it later. I've only got a few more expensive parts to buy, just as the dollar goes to the dogs. Hmmmm - I'll have to think about this. I will contact Ron Davis Racing and see what they want for one.

Minor update - sort of took a week off work (long story) and so far we've got some progress. I've finally got around to fitting up the rear cross member so that the IRS can be installed for keeps. This is necessary as in a few weeks, the front of the car is being cut off.

Stance is a word none of us serious people like, but here's how she'll sit when done. As I'm just installing brackets, I can move the body up or down over the suspension.



Look at the front tire - about level with the fender opening.



The rear doesn't have any weight on it...there's about 3/4" of wheel to opening clearance. A bit less when loaded.



Here's the cross member (it's now been internally reinforced and will get further bracing).



Can't complain about the fit here. The bracket ready to be welded in place.



More to come as this week progresses. I should have the coil overs in place and be able to finish weld up the frame by the end of the weekend. Fingers crossed guys.