New guy? Back to race in Lemons. Now a build thread! (Page 4 of 6)

Next up on the project that never ends. Lets finish up the interior.

Crow harnesses. Quite a bit of effort making sure to get the anti submarine belts placed correctly. I also used 2x4" 1/8 inch plate on the underside, instead of the supplied washers.

Fire extinguisher

I needed to get the cage padded. I used the SFI stuff from Jegs. My installation process went like this.
1. Cut padding to a relatively decent size and shape.
2. Use the supplied adhesive backing that is now covered in padding dust. 
3. Press the adhesive backed padding as hard as possible to the roll cage
4. Pray that it stays there for 23 seconds.
5. Wrap electrical tape around it every 4" as fast as possible.
6. Curse, throw padding and drink when that didn't work as planned
6. Rinse and repeat
7. Then go back and ziptie around the tape. All zipties are flush cut and positioned were you can't feel the tails climbing in and out.

Dome light for night time driver changes

And my daughter should have never shown me how to use the Cricut.
Column cover, again scrap plastic is getting used up everywhere.

So I started scouring the internet looking for a suitable candidate. Searching "oil cooler" and looking at overall shape and size. Then I mainly use Ebay and Rockauto because they both do a decent job at list dimensions. Then I go to the local junkyards with a tape measure and some tools. I ended up paying $8 for an oil cooler form a 2004 VW Phaeton 4.2L.

Now remember that left over plastic we are using for odds and ends in the interior. We are now going to start using it again. At this point we've only been using the scrap pieces and I still have scrap and 3/4 of a sheet left. So, in the interior there was nothing that counted against us using that plastic. But I'm not sure if leftovers hit our budget or not in the Engine/Body. If so, here is how we are going to math it.

$100 for 2 sheets
2 sheets is 64 sqft
100/64= 1.56 sqft.

Location of choice. I removed the oem battery support.

Here comes the cardboard, cutoff wheel, multitool and torch.

Mock up

Here is the 3rd suppression nozzle. This one covers the fuel filter, fuel lines and battery.

So next on the list of dealing with stock parts that are old and failing, is the radiator. Stock one was seeping at the core to plastic tank connection. I didn't know this until I stripped the car down. So more budget money. Local parts store was $225+, Rockauto was the cheapest @ $80 plus shipping.

So I hit the interwebs to find something used. I came across this Koyo that seemed to be okay except for it had a hole in it. A lower bracket that was no longer attached to the radiator. He dropped it and bent one of the lower brackets. And trying to bend it back it pulled off, I guess. But other than that it looked to be in decent shape, fin wise. For $40 it was in fine shape.
I knew I could weld up the bracket. I'll have to crawl under the car and snap a pic of the welded bracket.
Here it is in the car getting ready to pressure and vacuum test the system. I bench tested the radiator after welding.

I managed to loose my ground while welding on the bracket. And arced a hole in the upper tank that I had to weld up.

While I was at it I moved the radiator forward about an inch to make up for the condenser gap. I used some weather stripping/foam on the top and bottom of the core support to help seal the radiator to the support. This was just leftover stuff from the car. Run channels, doors, glass, trunk, etc. I have tons of weather stripping from the car, might as well reuse it.

So I think that wraps up everything I've done to the engine. Next we'll move on and finish up the exterior.

So back when I took the engine and trans out to weld up the firewall. I crawled over the core support to enter the engine bay. After doing this multiple times over a couple of days the, rusted to crap, spot welds tore off the latch support. This in turn made me bend the top of the radiator support quite a bit. After much hammer and dolly work I got the top core support back into position. I removed the remaining torn metal with a spot weld remover. This left me with 2 issues. I need to find a way to support the upper brace and I now need a way to keep the hood closed.

This is what I'm referring to.

And this is after straightening.

Before I can solve the core support issue, I need to break out some plastic, again. So I want to duct the bumper to the radiator. And the only way is more ABS plastic! Once again cardboard, cutoff wheel, multitool and torch.

I don't have any pics of the template but I had one. Here are some bending and shaping pictures. I left enough gap to install leftover weather stripping at the radiator and the bumper ends.

,
Here I'm starting to heat and shape the ends to contour the bumper opening.


I ended up tearing the plastic a little bit in the corners. I had to use my old soldering iron, along with some zipties to do a bit of plastic welding.

Back to the core support brace. I just ended up using about 2.5' of 3/8 tubing I had laying around. I cut to length, hammered the ends and center flat, bent it, added some holes for bolts. And then that Snot color again.

I got the rear wing back together and did some rudimentary bodywork. There were about 5 layers of paint on this thing. I pretty much just sanded it as flat as I could and painted it. Drilled some new holes in the truck lid and attached it.

I added the rain light, drilled some bumper holes, heated up the bumper and dimpled them.

As of now, we are getting pretty caught up on the build. So, I started this project last April/May. With the hope to get to the Lemons race in Sept '23 @ HPR. But as August ended, I had just completed the wiring, dash, roof was still off the car and in no way would I have the car ready in a week. So I continued working on it in Sept and Oct but really throttled back in Nov, Dec and Jan. Actually the only thing I did in those three months was gut the doors in Nov, I didn't touch the car otherwise.

This was always just an evening/weekend project for me. And, up until now, it was all I was focused on. So it was a nice hiatus to get back to doing some family things. That is until Lemons racing becomes the new family thing. LOL

I resumed with the fenders, above, Feb 9th of '24.
Radiator was installed in March of '24.

I'm not sure if anyone is interested in this or not? But it's keeping me on track and over budget, apparently.

Couple more posts and we will be present day.

Here are the side skirts and spats painted up and installed. And you can also see the lower fender vent I cut out when I did the upper vents.