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Wooders28

Full scale car projects?

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9 hours ago, Toolmaker72 said:

Yep, part of hobby.  To build a better car than standard so it’s not noticeable.  It’s like the hardest thing to do lol

I remember one of the guys getting grumpy, after he'd welded an inch to the wings of a mk2 Cortina, to fit a supercharged SBF, and completely handmade the inner wings, for a bloke at a car show to tell him, "that fitted in there easy" 🤣🤣 

 

9 hours ago, Toolmaker72 said:

wrapping the entire loom to look good again

I've started laying in the loom, kind of been putting it off as I hate wiring, but going to be a job I'm doing soon. What's the best to wrap it in? (Plastic flexible conduit, or just tape?) 

Then the connection issue. Crimp, solder or both!! 🤔

 

9 hours ago, Toolmaker72 said:

Came out really well I thought.

Well?

Looks better than new, as every rad I've bought, always had a shipping ding in a fin somewhere!! 

 

 

I've done a bit with the heater system, and the old vacuum lines. Modern silicone hoses are cheap enough, to replace all the old hoses, and test the system using a vacuum brake bleeder.

As I've deleted the air con, I've had to reconfigure it a bit, but alot easier out of the car!! 

 

2022-08-14_08-00-05

 

Did manage a bit this week. Couldn't find hose clamps the different diameters I needed, so had to use an expandable reamer, and adapt my own, hopefully tidy up the pipes to the heater. Not great progress, but chipping (well, scraping..) away 🙄🤣

2022-08-14_07-51-43

 

Strarted to dig out the new rear sway bar poly bushes, to hopefully get all nailed up, once the kids are back in school, although, somethings been making a meal of it...🤦‍♂️

2022-08-14_07-59-23

 

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Pesky mice chewing, always the new or rare stuff.  Never the stuff being thrown away 🙄.

Wrapping the wiring,  my car had a mixture of vinyl and cloth wrap.  The new cloth wrap is a far better finish that my vinyl wrap.  Originally the vinyl was the non sticky type but I will be splicing in an alarm once the car is running so thought regular black sticky tape as it will keep together when opened up for alarm wiring.

if you have a bench vice to hold one end of your loom to tension it as you wrap helps.  
with regards to connections I prefer to solder or crimp and solder.  Factory looms are crimped as it’s quicker to produce.   
 

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1 hour ago, Toolmaker72 said:

Pesky mice chewing, always the new or rare stuff.  Never the stuff being thrown away 🙄

Absolutely!

Made a wee nest using my Dark Impact manual too, in a chevy steering box, box! 🤦‍♂️

1 hour ago, Toolmaker72 said:

f you have a bench vice to hold one end of your loom to tension it as you wrap helps

Nice tip, cheers!! 👍

 

1 hour ago, Toolmaker72 said:

with regards to connections I prefer to solder or crimp and solder.  Factory looms are crimped as it’s quicker to produce.   

Seems to be various thought on this, I'm with you on soldering, but others have the view ,if it's good enough for the factory then it must be good enough. But I want it great, not good 😁

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Fitted some brighter led bulbs for the dial illumination.  Now I need to fit a voltage regulator so I can adjust the brightness once the dash is fitted to the car. 
The original bulbs barely produced enough light to see the dials when it was dark.  

4F9B6F40-16C8-45E6-8B93-074B333D17CE.jpeg

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11 hours ago, Toolmaker72 said:

Fitted some brighter led bulbs for the dial illumination.  Now I need to fit a voltage regulator so I can adjust the brightness once the dash is fitted to the car. 
The original bulbs barely produced enough light to see the dials when it was dark.  

4F9B6F40-16C8-45E6-8B93-074B333D17CE.jpeg

Great work!!

I've just painted the pointers on mine, managed to find a close nail polish match!! 👍

I had bother ,with trying to alter the brightness, as it was a very small voltage window with LED, between working and not working. I think most led brightness controllers use PWM?

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1 hour ago, Wooders28 said:

Great work!!

I've just painted the pointers on mine, managed to find a close nail polish match!! 👍

I had bother ,with trying to alter the brightness, as it was a very small voltage window with LED, between working and not working. I think most led brightness controllers use PWM?

I have a dc power supply I use for re-plating small metal parts.  To adjust current mainly but I can also adjust dc voltage and the leds responded between 5-13v for brightness.   So I’m assuming a motor speed controller using variable voltage should do the trick.  Current won’t be an issue as my power supply showed only 0.2amp for the dash lit up as in the picture.   
pwm, is that pulse width modulation? 

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36 minutes ago, Toolmaker72 said:

the leds responded between 5-13v for brightness

Brilliant, makes life easier, if you can do it with a suitable ohm, variable resistor.

The ones I had for the red rear lights, have an operating voltage between around 2 and 3v (eBay specials), I was trying to use stop & tail off the same array of leds,( something I need to revisit, but on the back-burner, until after its MOT'd and any other bugs ironed out...)

 

40 minutes ago, Toolmaker72 said:

pwm, is that pulse width modulation?

Yes,

I believe alot of modern LED lights are run off pulse width modulation. It's why car led headlights look to flash ,when on TV, and if you film on slow motion with your phone, the lights look to flash (one in my kitchen does, as do all the ones in work).

 

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Replaced the rear main seal on my truck, turned out a previous owner has had the gearbox out and replaced the front bushing and seal with the wrong one, so this was leaking too. I don't mess with gearboxes (funnily enough got offered an apprenticeship through an auto gearbox shop when I was young, and turned it down), and had it sent away.

Probably would've been a great time to rebuild the whole unit (didnt have the money) but replaced the front bush and seal, the bands, servo (corvette) and boost valve and oil and filter. Runs strong, shifts nice and sharp, and doesn't leave a wet patch on the carpet 👍

Hopefully will do me until I can rebuilt it properly, or find a 4L80e. Unless a LT4/LT5 and 10 speed falls into my lap 🤣

0dfgdcS.jpeg

 

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16 hours ago, berman said:

Probably would've been a great time to rebuild the whole unit (didnt have the money) but replaced the front bush and seal, the bands, servo (corvette) and boost valve and oil and filter. Runs strong, shifts nice and sharp, and doesn't leave a wet patch on the carpe

Should give you many years trouble free motoring!!  (although, I've maybe just given you the kiss of death....😬).

I got a rebuild/shift kit for mine, but after finding it's one of the first 27 spline 700r4's, I'm just going to look for a built 4l60e or 4l80e (but the transtunnel needs hit with a heavy stick ,to get to fit) , as GM swapped to a 30 spline a year later, seemingly because of the amount of warranty claims...😳

 

16 hours ago, berman said:

Hopefully will do me until I can rebuilt it properly, or find a 4L80e. Unless a LT4/LT5 and 10 speed falls into my lap 🤣

I believe the logic switches are exactly the opposite for a 4l60 as they are for a 4l80..

First in a 60 - on/on .....80 - on/off

Second - off / on......80 - off / off 

Third - off / off ......80 - off / on

Fourth - on / off.....80 - on/ on 

Would hope the ecu can be programmed?

I think the 10 speeds are a different animal, and have their own ecu built into the box, which need to talk to the engine ecu. So if you're going that route, you'd need the full wiring harness too.

 

Found an old hard drive,  when I was having a clear out, which had an old vid if mine running with the old z28 ecu / maf etc (just to make sure it ran, before rewiring for Megasquirt)

 

 

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Bit of progress recently!

Took @Toolmaker72 advice, and took one of the gauges around the beauty places, and bought some nail varnish, close to the pointer colour, so that's that done 😁 (don't think the lady in the store, had had a match request for a fuel pressure gauge before though...) 

 

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With the heater box done and working, I've decided to paint the metal part of the dash, the colour the car is going to be, Audi Sepang metallic blue. This then will allow me to fit all the heater ducting,  heater box, and then all the engine water hoses plus start with the dreaded electrics over winter....😳

 

I've been phoning / emailing about looking for quotes to get the body painted, but with a 2yr+ backlog because of covid, no one is willing to commit, so, decided to have a go at spraying the dash with a new HVLP gravity gun I bought years ago, learn how to paint a metallic see how I get on ,with the view of doing the whole car myself.....

So started with taking off the paint, I figured I'd hit it with modern day zinc primer, as once the windscreen is in, it'll be hard/impossible to get to, so attacked it with a wire knott brush on an angle grinder....of course ,SURPRISE!! 

 

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And a little spot of rust on the pillar.....

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Which looks like someone has had a go at before! 

 

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So, only option, was to drag the welder out...

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Ground down the welds with a dremel, amd a bit of filler, as the dash pad goes over anyway.

 

Onto the painting...

Figured sheeting everything, was easier than moving everything (would need to find somewhere to put it for a start!), effectively splitting the garage in two, meant I had a ,clean zone, at the back of the garage, to put the compressor, so drawing in clean air.

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The Audi colour requires a grey primer ,so once that was layed down, and slightly scoured, I layed on the blue. 

 

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 Loving the colour!, (speaker grills required a plastic adhesion promoter primer),

Oh no!, had a couple of splatters....🤬.

 

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This I've since found out, is mainly because the spray gun I'd bought, is a 1.7mm nozzle (seemingly good for rendering the house....🤦‍♂️) and way too big for what I need, so a 1.3mm has been ordered...

Decided to give it a wee rub down, and a blow over, turning the pressure up slightly, and the paint feed down, leaving longer between light coats, which actually worked well! 

But, I'm presuming ,with the base coat now blue, not grey, the paint is looking purple (if any painter's are out there, let me know if it is that? ), so now it looks wrong ,and the speakers don't match.....

20220913_165742

 

Live and learn, so once the new gun arrives, and I get more primer , paint and matt clearcoat (to try and take the shine off, to reduce glare in the sunshine), it's back to metal again, and start over....

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On 9/25/2022 at 12:57 AM, Willy iine said:

2 down one to go..

IMG_2022-9-24-185804.jpg.e627b0a599b24bdd9f809042b44d774c.jpg

 

The garage envy is real with your garage mate!!

It's positively surgical!

Even drops for power, 😳

How do you resist the urge to fill it full of, stuff...?

I thought I was doing well, after having a massive clear out..

2022-10-03_04-58-47

 

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1 hour ago, Wooders28 said:

The garage envy is real with your garage mate!!

It's positively surgical!

Even drops for power, 😳

How do you resist the urge to fill it full of, stuff...?

I thought I was doing well, after having a massive clear out..

2022-10-03_04-58-47

 

Thanks!   :lol:  

I think when most folks think “car guy” they imagine something like your garage with all sorts of parts and a car or two being worked on, etc, so you’re definitely doing it right.  :D 

In my case, working on cars is in the past and I am more a weekend bolt-on guy at most these days.  I do my own maintenance, but nothing significant needing permanent lift and cranes.  Also I only buy new cars and mod it just enough to add my flavor.. (typically  intake, exhaust, tune, wheels, suspension, some dress up aero bits, vinyl, clearbra, etc.) so the work being done is quite simple.

My shop is more a car lounge to hang out and enjoy looking at and detailing cars.  So with that in mind, cleanliness and organization is its priority.  

I think next season I am going to get a new GR86 (MT).   

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4 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

The garage envy is real with your garage mate!!

It's positively surgical!

Even drops for power, 😳

How do you resist the urge to fill it full of, stuff...?

I thought I was doing well, after having a massive clear out..

2022-10-03_04-58-47

 

When rebuilding you need an awful lot of tools.  Also restoration makes a lot of mess removing 40-50 years of hidden dirt and corrosion.   Having a white floor isn’t ideal for that sort of work.   As long as the work space is dry and well lit, then it’s a good work space.    👍

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20 hours ago, Willy iine said:

I think when most folks think “car guy” they imagine something like your garage with all sorts of parts and a car or two being worked on, etc, so you’re definitely doing it right.  :D 

I'll take that as a compliment! 😀

 

20 hours ago, Willy iine said:

My shop is more a car lounge to hang out and enjoy looking at and detailing cars.  So with that in mind, cleanliness and organization is its priority

I think that's what I'll be wanting, once this is finished, although, with the fuel system and MS3 ECU set up for easy transition to a SBC gen3 engine (gen4 -5 have the DOD ,VVT etc ,and require more headaches) , when it'll ever been actually 'finished' is debatable .....😬

(If the pound ever gets strong enough again, to make it affordable...😔)

 

16 hours ago, Toolmaker72 said:

When rebuilding you need an awful lot of tools.  Also restoration makes a lot of mess removing 40-50 years of hidden dirt and corrosion.   Having a white floor isn’t ideal for that sort of work.   As long as the work space is dry and well lit, then it’s a good work space.    👍

Rebuilding an American car, has had the extra twist of actually getting parts! 

Parts aren't readily available (well, they can be if you've deep pockets), so when parts , I think I'll need, come up locally, they get purchased , just because... 

I've even purchased a full roller Firebird (base model of the TransAm) , as it was cheaper than buying and importing parts I needed, so I've a tonne of duplicate parts, which actually served me well, when rebuilding the heater box ,as I could make one decent one, out of the 2 etc.

The painted white floor, although wouldn't have been my choice, actually works quite well, as you can clearly see any oil/fluid and it doesn't soak in like a concrete floor, so easy to mop up. Same with and rust / dirt, it brushes up with ease.

I ended up having to rent a 40ft container, when we moved,  to store everything in. Then suddenly when you're paying £200 a month, to store 100's of old car mags in boxes, spare welders , spare large compressors, large hydraulic press (same as we have in work), bandsaw etc , you have to have a stock take and clear out....

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Not a car, but just getting ready for winter, I did the oil change on the snow thrower and Honda generator. 

My super high tech funnel oil draining system.. :ph34r:  :lol:

IMG_2022-10-5-115829.jpg.e35961c0b4c3f1bd3026bc8f4a21128a.jpg

Inside looked good, just lubed the gear and hex shaft thingie..

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And since the weather was so nice this am, decided to do the WRX’s brake fluid change outside.  :D    .. and took her out for a test drive and cleaned the interior glass when I got home.  brakes feel good. 

IMG_2022-10-5-115904.jpg.1d6686a5fd02dd72da62b16e0f810e32.jpg

 

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On 10/5/2022 at 6:03 PM, Willy iine said:

Not a car, but just getting ready for winter, I did the oil change on the snow thrower and Honda generator. 

My super high tech funnel oil draining system.. :ph34r:  :lol:

IMG_2022-10-5-115829.jpg.e35961c0b4c3f1bd3026bc8f4a21128a.jpg

If it work, it works! 😀👌

 

On 10/5/2022 at 6:03 PM, Willy iine said:

decided to do the WRX’s brake fluid change outside.  :D    ..

On my job list and probably sooner rather than later....

I've 2 tins of ATE 200 brake fluid , one yellow and one blue (super blue) ,but I think the latter is now illegal for road use, which is a shame, as it made fluid changes soooo much easier, seeing the colour change.

I bought a set of brembo discs and pads, fitted the rear after I managed to get a code reader with the electronic handbrake service mode (actually made the job an absolute doddle), 'just ' the fronts to do, but got beaten by the weather....

That vac pump looks the daddy!! 

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3 of 3 .. will pull them out again next Spring.   B) 

My RC season officially starts today.  

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On 10/9/2022 at 5:24 PM, Willy iine said:

3 of 3 .. will pull them out again next Spring.   B) 

My RC season officially starts today.  

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I do like that. RC Season. Seems you're always doing RC stuff already!

 

I have some serious garage envy there.

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On 10/5/2022 at 6:03 PM, Willy iine said:

 

And since the weather was so nice this am, decided to do the WRX’s brake fluid change outside.  :D    .. and took her out for a test drive and cleaned the interior glass when I got home.  brakes feel good. 

IMG_2022-10-5-115904.jpg.1d6686a5fd02dd72da62b16e0f810e32.jpg

 

What make is that vacuum brake bleed kit?

 

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15 minutes ago, FoxShot said:

 

What make is that vacuum brake bleed kit?

 

I bought it long time ago like over 15 years ago from GriotsGarage, but it's a rebadge of West Marine (I think).  It's the revised version of the original which had issues.  I am sure their current models are all based off the revised pump.. (?)

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Love your garage @Willy iine, but it's a bit too clinical for me. I love cleanliness and order, but I'd be afraid to get a dirty mark or stain somewhere. I certainly wouldn't be using angle grinders and other such power tools in there 😅

A long time ago I chopped off the rear section of my exhaust, right behind the cab. As it was riddled with holes. Put a tip on it, as the sound was getting amplified by the bed, so put a mandrel down turn on it. Doesn't drone now.

Also last week had a guy over the road (engineer) reset my rear springs. Over here, when you modify a car, it gets checked by an appointed company that certifies the modifications and the info gets stamped on a plate and attached to the car (it's now going electronic). Aftermarket suspension gets checked for travel and the ride height documented (+/- 5%)

When my truck got hit, the insurer had a 3rd party mechanic outfit replace the left rear spring pack as the eyelet was spread open when the diff got punched forward. The circus that replaced it didn't check that the new spring matched the old one on the left and the whole right rear was sagging, making all four corners incorrect when measured. Also the overload spring was damaged which wasn't fixed.

Now I have a truck that sits flat, is the correct height, and rides much better.

Also spent some time tidying and fixing loose ends, (literally, as I replaced the rag joint) as it is going for its inspection on Tuesday.

fuNGEhE.jpeg

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, berman said:

Love your garage @Willy iine, but it's a bit too clinical for me. I love cleanliness and order, but I'd be afraid to get a dirty mark or stain somewhere. I certainly wouldn't be using angle grinders and other such power tools in there 😅

 

 

Thanks, man.  I understand what you're saying about keeping the space clean.  I am the same way.  Honestly speaking, with my aching body, this worked out well for me as I have no will to do heavy lifting kind of work any more. :lol:  Maybe 30+ years back, I would want more a work shop kind of garage, but those days have long past for me.

My pretend RC shop follows the same theme.  The work space is part of the display.  I have a workshop in the basement where I do most of the dirtier work for the house and it is not very pretty.. but that's fine because it was never meant to be. 

 

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19 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Thanks, man.  I understand what you're saying about keeping the space clean.  I am the same way.  Honestly speaking, with my aching body, this worked out well for me as I have no will to do heavy lifting kind of work any more. :lol:  Maybe 30+ years back, I would want more a work shop kind of garage, but those days have long past for me.

My pretend RC shop follows the same theme.  The work space is part of the display.  I have a workshop in the basement where I do most of the dirtier work for the house and it is not very pretty.. but that's fine because it was never meant to be. 

 

I feel the same, I want to get away from heavy lifting as I can feel it's taking its toll on my body and the recent spat of injuries I've had is showing I'm not a spring chicken any more.

But we have a big warehouse at work and a 2 post hoist, so I make the most of it and my truck lives there 🤷😄

Tonight, put the spare back underneath, pulled the steering shaft out and tightened the bolts for the rag joint I installed (no idea how tight those are supposed to be, but obviously tighter than I had it), and greased all the steering/suspension.

a8QzWsg.jpeg

 

 

 

 

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