Its worked out reasonably well, the pipes sit around 1/4" lower than the SFC's I made.
Finished wiring inside the car, nothing more to do other than run the cables to the rear of the car.
Installed the shifter so I could sort wiring for reverse lights etc and found that the shifter cable wanted to go through the floor and not the
existing hole. Some gentle persuasion with a big hammer soon fixed that. Need to repaint that section again now though. Also had to modify the bodged
shift lever on the transmission. However it's now all fully functional.
Pulled the x pipe off to extend and fully weld. Simple job, just need to get the hangers sorted for the mufflers now. Going to run without tail pipes
for the time being, might stick some turn downs on it. Tail pipes are a nice easy addition at a later date.
Dug the core support out from the corner of the workshop and bolted it up. Dropped the radiator in and made a top plate/bracket for it.
Made a start on the subframe braces, need to bend up a couple of bits of tube to finish them off. Needed to get these bits in as I plan to use them to
run the fuel feed and return, and I don't want to make up the braided hoses twice!
Need to reroute those heater hoses as well.
I'll finish all the fuel line plumbing off tomorrow, and then run some pressure tests. I also need to make an oil system priming tool as
well.
Finished the braces off, just need to paint them at some point. Ran the fuel lines front to rear, finished some more wiring and plumbed in the
transmission cooler. Not too much more left to do other than fill it with some vital fluids and some final checks...
Decided to plough ahead and get the chevy fired up. Didn't want to play for various reasons. Turns out my Volvo battery isn't man enough
for a 10.5:1 V8.... Soon solved that with a massive 950CCA battery I had
Anyway, couldn't get it started at all, dodgy tach input signal, which ended up causing the engine to spit back and smash 2 teeth of my new flex
plate. So got to pull the transmission out tomorrow ready for a new flex plate later in the week. Solved the problem in the end, got the engine
started up and proceeded with the cam break in. Running really nicely, so grabbed a video.
After that it didn't want to play at all. Started hunting really badly, like it had a massive air leak. Pulled all the inlet manifold off and
resealed it all, still the same. Then noticed my fuel pressure was over 100psi oops. Turns out the return line was too restrictive, so had to drop
the fuel tank and add another return line into it. Will use the original as a breather only.
Now got a decent steady 3 bar fuel pressure. Haven't been able to get it running since the change though as the flexplates completely FUBAR now.
I am not dead certain this was the problem, but it can't have been helping at all.
Did some more body repairs today. Sorted that drivers side quarter panel and sill out. Just a few bits to do around the boot, rear window and the
front of the driver side sill now.
Photo Archive
Building: Rebuilding FR 2.0 which I crashed
posted on 31/12/12 at 08:36 PM
Looks great, David! You're building a car that used to be extremely common around here, and I've built one fairly known over there...
(although there aren't a huge amount of SR20DET's I'm sure...) Keep up with the pics!
Ran the main battery cables to the trunk today (50mm^2 should do it...). Neg cable runs through the car then out the floor and onto one of the
transmission tail hosing bolts. Sorted the transmission fluid leaks at the dipstick and speedo drive. Will see how long that lasts, but in a somewhat
rare occurance, I have a car that retains all of its fluids (!), if only until its been used for a while.
After that thought I'd see if the transmission and brakes actually worked so drove it around the garden a few times :lol: Need a bigger yard!
No problems to report.
Thought as it was outside I'd get my decent camera out and take a movie with some reasonable sound (for a change) and some full HD.
Crawling aruond underneath checking for leaks I notice my mini starter is having a good go at bashing the teeth of the flex plate in a couple of
places. Lets hope that doesn't continue. Rechecked pinion clearance in several places, all good. Engages halfway across the teeth as it should.
So dunno whats going on there really.
Took ages to make the panel under the quarter, was determined to do it in one piece. And also wanted the top of it to look right.
Spotted a 700r4 and converter sitting on a truck at the NSRA swap meet, bloke didn't seem to know what it was, and the result was a box scored
for £60. After selling some of my own junk, I came out even's for the day
The date code on the box makes no sense at all. But the dates on some of the castings all point to it being a late '88 box. Its also got the aux
valve body inside, which definately makes it an 87 or later box.
I'll probably give it an overhaul anyway. And take the opportunity to learn a bit more about auto boxes.
Pulled the oil pan and its clean enough inside. But whether it all works or not, who knows?!
No immediate plan to fit it yet, need's more work than I've got time to do currently
The last bit of the main body shell that needed sorting was the trunk hinge panel. There was nothing much left of it under a few layers of silicone
sealer and paint. I set about cutting it out and making good what lurked beneath. The supporting structure was well rotten on the left hand side and I
patched it up enough to make it good. Scraped all the old loose paint off and gave it a coat of Jotun.
The new panel came from Auto Metal Direct and was a pretty good fit...other than I had to cut it in half to get it in the hole. It threads in under
all the other panels, and due to its shape there was no way it was going in in one piece...
Popped it in and spot welded it up. Hope the back window still fits.
Did a 250 mile round trip to pick up a driver side door. The frame is really solid, skin has a scrape/dent, but no problem as I have a new skin
anyway.
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Started with the door shuts and finished off with the main panels.
Didn't find any nasty suprises under the old paint, just a couple of small pinholes that were easy enough to fix. Reckon there was about 15
layers of paint on the car. Not easy to strip it off at all. Ended up using some of these things:
Block sanded the whole shell again, getting there with it now, a few areas still need attention. Took most of the day to get it all done.
The new LH rear spoiler corner arrived from the USA so I thought I'd drill some holes in my nice quarters. Only had to elongate one to get
enough adjustment so it all lined up. Quite pleased with how it turned out for only 30 mins messing around, seen them a lot worse.
After I'd finished sanding, I thought I'd have a go at skinning one of the doors. Didn't turn out too bad for a first attempt. Got a
few dolly marks in the skin. Hopefully the next one will turn out better.
Another couple of days work on the bodywork. Primered the inside of the door, trunk lid and spolier centre section.
Finished off a few bits of filler and finished with a final coat of epoxy all over, including the cowl panels this time. Also prepped and primed the
spoiler side pieces.
I spent another morning blocking the car again. Well happy with the result now.
A day of playing with the drivers door fitment and the last day of working on it for this week I reckon.
Took all morning to get the alignment nearly right, pretty pleased with the gaps in the end. Reckon I've got about 5/16" between the
bottom of the door and the rocker, and about 1/4" between the rear edge and the quarter.
It did take a bit of beating into shape, and I'm still not sure that its quite right around the bottom of the A-pillar. And a few hours with a
sanding block again. Final job was a v. light coat of epoxy to seal it all up properly. Nothing more to do on the main shell now. It's just all
the bolt on panels to fit....
Not sure this is quite right, it all fits, but not sure about the alignment.
Final results after blocking and another coat of epoxy
Was a bit worried about how the front fender was going to fit with the re-skinned door. So figured it was worth spending an hour trying to make it
fit. Doesn't seem to be too bad, the gap isn't perfect, but only varies by about 2mm. Also doesn't quite sit right along the top
curve, but sure I can fix that with a minor adjustment to the door skin with a large hammer!
The '80 Z28 fender vents also arrived, only 5 days after they shipped out of the USA. Not bad.
Took the fenders in for blasting. A lot worse under the paint than I thought they might have been. Rotten along the top and rear edges too. The inner
reinforcement is also fairly rotten.
Skinned the other door, giving it a coat of epoxy inside and out and then fitted it up. It didn't go quite as well as the other one and needed a
bit of grinding on the back edge to even up the gap. Nothing too serious though. Eventually got it somewhere close enough, needs a little skim of
filler here and there
Spent a couple of days repairing the driver side fender. Wasn't too bad but I've had enough of grinding and welding now! Painted the
inside with silver Jotun epoxy so its just filler and the outside to do. Cut the hole in for the fender vent as well, was fairly strightforward.
Fitted it up, not too bad. Gap at the door is a little bigger at the top than the bottom and I've run out of adjustment. So that will have to
do. The overall shape of the door is fairly good though, which was a relief.
This is what the OS fender looked like before making a start this morning....!
Repaired worse, just don't like doing the work that's all :lol:
RH fender fitted well, much better than I had expected given the amount of cutting and welding it needed.
Then thought I'd throw the rest of the panels on just to see what it would look like and to get an idea of if the mismatch of panels have any
chance of working together. Had to make up various brackets and reinforcements to fit the GRP nose panel. But it seems to fit reasonably well. Not
quite the right shape around the lower extensions but it will blend in OK, have seen panels fit a lot worse in the past...
I need to remove the spats from the GRP wings to make it look right, but thought I would see how low the front sits with the splitter on. Low enough I
reckon...
Hood needs a lot of work to make it fit properly. Too wide at the back and slightly too narrow at the front. Scoop is functional and the air cleaner
sits right up inside it. Need to modify it slightly inside to clear the coils mounted on the bulkhead. The rad filler cap also touches at the front.
Think thats more an issue with the rad than the hood though. It also needs quite a few repairs and some stiffening adding along the front edge as
it's so light weight it doesn't hold its shape properly. Also going to add brackets to use the stock hood hinges, minus the springs. All
doable though just need to get on with it.
It's little things like this that seem to take all the time. Spent a whole day making the brackets to fit the headlights in the GRP bumper. It
had all been previously fitted to a track car and the lights simply held in with seam sealer for aesthetics only.
Lot of measuring, grinding and cutting and this is what I came up with, a piece of 1/8" plate. Works just like stock and all hidden as it should
be. Will eventually end up with the plates bonded in rather than just relying on the rivets.
Need to adjust the fit of the bezels, think the moulding is slightly off so may have to just make do...
Spent most of the day yesterday repairing the bumper with new GRP, then today prepping the front bumper for primer. Got it done in the end, still
needs a bit of work before fitting it, so doesn't look like I will get it on there this weekend. But I can still crack on with other things.
Does look better in one colour though.
Then spent a couple of hours prepping and finish painting the mirrors. Seemed a good part to test the colour on anyway. Pleased with the colour
choice. Varies from orange to red depending on the light. The base coat looked really red before I applied the clear. Spent a bit of time dialling in
the mix and gun set up and and just for a change I am pleased with the results straight out of the spray gun.
Finished off the filler on the bumper/nose today and squirted it with Green Ti. Just needs a quick rub down and a blast with epoxy tomorrow night then
it can be fitted back up.
Spent the rest of the day messing around trying to get the body lines right. With so much new sheet metal, and a lot of patching it took a while.
Fairly happy with the results. Looks a bit patchy where I've blown over the new filler with epoxy. Sharpened up all the lines and sorted the fit
of all the panels. Next thing to do once the bumper is on is fit all the flares so I know they go on ok.
Rather busy night again and it's got it's nose back.... needs a couple of little tweaks here and there when I take it off for final paint.
Shouldn't be a problem. Got mixed up with primer colours somewhere along the line.
Doesn't fit too badly for a GRP repro
Have a new repro standard Z28 style front spoiler as well, so thought I would throw it on and see if it fitted. Amazingly, it's not too bad.
Could be better on the RH spat, but there's little I can do about that really. Again a few minor adjustments for final fit will get it good
enough to make me happy.
One question. Your megasquirt video shows the fuel load at around 40% under fast idle conditions. I'd guess your req_fuel has been set on the
low side. Probably not a problem but you might run out of headroom (i.e. above 256) in the fueling table.
The vents are stock yes. That style was only used on the 80/81 though, earlier had a louvred type. They are bigger than they look though, cut out is
7" high by 10" long.
Not sure about the MS set up yet. Having problems with sync loss, but have a couple of modifications to look at. I have 8 injectors at 315cc/min each.
Should be more than enough. Req' fuel was calculated to be 15, upped it to 17 already. Will see how it goes when I get it on the road.
Little more progress. Spent most of the week prepping and re-painting the trunk lid. The only panel I didn't strip to bare metal and the primer
cracked, presumably reacted with the old paint. Pleased I did strip it as it had been at least 6 different colours!
Prepped and painted a load of trim parts this morning, along with the rear bumper bar. Lots of messing around to get it all sorted. Got there in the
end though. Grilles will be body colour and the headlight and marker bezels black, same as stock Z28.
Then spent a couple of hours trimming up the hood so it fitted between the wings and over the air cleaner and coils. Still needs some minor adjustment
and straightening of the edges, but I'll deal with that once its mounted. The aim is to have it on the stock hinges, and then 4 pins along the
front. Might need more just to hold it in alignment though. Firstly want it on the hinges so it's held in position properly, then I can make
reinforcements and adjustments as needed. It's going to take a good few hours to get it right... so thats the rest of this weekend and next
most probably accounted for...
Well, lots of progress made. Spent a good few days getting the hood to fit properly. It's not perfect, but I think it's about as good as
it can be given the fact it's quite flexible. I added a lot of strengthening underneath, and built up all the edges properly to even up the
gaps. Needs a little bit of finishing off when I take it off to hi-build and block it.
Then spent a good few hours prepping and painting all the spats and grilles. They still need a flat and polish to finish them off, but that's a
job for tomorrow.
Spent this afternoon starting to fit the tail pipes from Summit. Due to using a 'universal' x-pipe front section they needed a little
modification to get them to fit properly, so it took 3 hours or so to get the first one fitting. Just needs cutting to length to finish off.
Once the other pipe is done it's time to strip the car back down ready to paint the inside of the panels and the shuts.
Solved the problem in the end, got the engine
started up and proceeded with the cam break in. Running really nicely, so grabbed a video. 
oops. Turns out the return line was too restrictive, so had to drop
the fuel tank and add another return line into it. Will use the original as a breather only. 
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