The 'Savage' build thread

[K3LAG]

Time to start my build thread.

Nothing really all that savage about it except we are building the car in Savage, MD.

Details:

Kit: 818S, scheduled for pick-up on Dec. 5th
Donor: 2005 WRX crate donor. Rebuilt heads and such due to radiator getting pushed back. Wayne should be finishing this up and shipping it as soon as they come to truck his car off to SEMA.
Builders: Larry G. (Me) and Dave R.

Current plans (subject to change, but 90% sure):
Exterior colors: Orange on Mojave Sand - updated 8/8/2018
Interior colors: Orange on Black
Wheels: OZ Alleggerita HLT in Orange 17x8
Tires: Yokohama AD08 F:215/40R17 R:245/40R17
Seats: Sparco Chrono Road
Kit Options: Powder Coat, FFR Steering Wheel, Street Splitter and Spoiler, Soft Top maybe some day
Engine: IAG built Stage 1+ short block. Engine built and installed by IAG - updated 8/8/2018

The car will be built in the left hand bay of this garage:

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As you can see we have some cleaning up to do. Actually we have already done a lot and the Charger will get moved to the adjacent bay.

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Me in the open house car:

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Dave in the open house car:

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[wallace18]

Welcome and good luck on your build.

[Frank818]

Ha, I see you'll get one of the best tire out there. :) I run these, awesome. :) Will order them for my 818 as well.

[K3LAG]

A minor update.

Wayne is still finishing up my donor, so it won't get shipped before he heads to Vegas. That's OK though as he's taking care of a few extra little things for me.

We did some more work prepping the garage and got the GoPro mounted for the time lapse build video. Here is a still of the view the GoPro has:

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We'll use the space in front of the Charger and the adjacent bay to work on donor parts until we are ready to move the Charger. Just before we go to pick up the kit we will move the Charger to make space for the build.

[Mechie3]

Is that the harbor freight parts rack? I saw that the other day and wished I had it for my donor teardown.

[K3LAG]

Is that the harbor freight parts rack? I saw that the other day and wished I had it for my donor teardown.

The rack with the colored bins is from Harbor Freight. It was a pain in the neck to assemble, but once you get it together it's pretty nice. It takes nearly 40 screws of various sizes to put it together.

The heavy shelves in the corner are for the big parts. That is from Costco.

[blueoval_bowtie_guy]

Have fun with your build! Hope the whole process exceeds your expectations.

[K3LAG]

Well, it's been a couple of weeks so time for a little update. My donor is making it's journey from Wayne's shop to us. It should be here on Wednesday. We will spend the long weekend un-crating everything and building the dolly for the chassis.

On Thursday the 5th we head to MA to pick up the kit. Should have it back here by the night of the 6th.

I'll post some donor kit pics in a few days and some FFR trip pics the week after that. Things will start happening now!

Larry

[K3LAG]

My donor came from Wayne yesterday. The Con-Way driver was a really nice guy. He moved the crate all the way from the street to the detached garage behind the house, over 100 ft, on his palette jack. There is a slight hill so he pulled and Dave's son and I pushed. I tried to give him a tip, but he wouldn't take it.

Here is what he brought:

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This is Dave's son, Zane, unbolting the engine and transmission from the crate. I expect he'll be around learning and helping quite a bit.

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All the parts unpacked, sorted and put on shelves. Took us about 2 1/2 hours to get it all unpacked.

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Engine on stand.

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This weekend we will complete the inventory of all the parts, get a dolly built and start doing some cleanup. We also have to get the Charger moved to make space for the build.

We head to Wareham a week from today to pickup the kit.

[K3LAG]

We picked up our 818 today. Plan to have it home to Maryland tomorrow.

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Larry

[68GT500MAN]

That is a well deserved smile in photo one! Congratulations on the pick-up.
Doug

[K3LAG]

Given the chassis number, 86, my wife thinks we should name it Max.

Larry

[RM1SepEx]

Max, "well" That would be pretty "Smart"

one of the best TV shows evah

I picked up #17 on August 1st! shipping quite a few!

[07FIREBLADE]

Doing the above math I should have a chassis in the mid 120 or low 130s. I can't wait to have that same smile on my face. Need to start cleaning and prepping the garage.

[K3LAG]

I may have to include a little homage to Max somewhere on the car.

'Missed it by that much'

[K3LAG]

We are official now I made the Vroom Vroom sound!

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Larry

[Mechie3]

Gotta make the vroom noises or it isn't official ! Haha

[Wayne Presley]

Talk about some big smiles Larry!

[K3LAG]

We have been prepping donor parts and taking care of other odds and ends since we got the kit home 2 weeks ago. Today I finally started putting some parts on. The panels will come back off to get powder coated so no riveting yet.

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Knuckles and backing plates painted. New bearings and seals will go in next.

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It's starting to feel like progress!

Larry

[K3LAG]

Front firewall is done. We decided at the last minute not to powder coat the aluminum. The 6061 is sufficiently corrosion resistant that I decided it didn't really need coated. Besides, I like the look of the aluminum. Also, not powder coating will save a few hundred bucks for something else. We will use some kind of coating on the wheel wells and bottom of the car, but not sure what we will use yet.

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I only worked long enough to finish the firewall today. Wanted to spend the rest of Christmas Eve at home.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Larry

[K3LAG]

Got most of the front suspension hung friday night. We are waiting on back ordered shocks, so we will finish that up when they come.

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Started working on getting the rack installed, but ran into some fit issues. We have a plan to attack the issues and will work on it tomorrow. My next post will include details on the problem and the fix, if it works out according to plan, in case anyone else runs into the same problem.

[K3LAG]

As I mentioned in my last post, we ran into some problems getting the steering rack installed. I am providing a fairly detailed description of the problem and how we solved it in case someone else runs into the same problem.

Our steering rack is different from both the '02-'04 and '05-'07 steering racks the kit was designed for. If you look at the following pictures, you will notice two differences.

1. The mounting ears on the gear casting are different heights
2. The line routing is different. The two fittings on the cylinder are on opposite sides of the rack

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Not noticeable by looking is the fact that the rack is 2.8 turns lock-to-lock instead of the normal 3.

We aren't sure how our 2005 WRX ended up with this rack, but it did. I suspect either an aftermarket replacement or for some reason the previous owner chose to put a Legacy rack on it. The reason I say it could possibly be a Legacy rack is because the placement of the fittings and 2.8 turns lock-to-lock seems to match what would be on a Legacy.

With the configuration of the mounting ears, the rack sits just a bit higher above the mounts on the chassis and no combination of the provided spacers and rack bracket would mount this rack straight in the chassis.

After a bit of pondering, measuring (and a phone call to Wayne ;))we determined that if we put a spacer under the shorter ear of the casting, the FFR provided bracket would hold the rack in the correct place if it were installed on top of the chassis rather than under it as specified by FFR. Here is the rack with the bracket under it on the bench:

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You'll have to excuse my hand in the picture.

So with measurements in hand I made the following parts:

1. A spacer to go under the 2nd bushing of the casting. Spacer dimensions are 1.4" x 1.4" x .325" It's the black square in the picture below. The 1.4" dimension isn't critical. The bushing is about 1.125 in diameter so it just needs to be a bit larger than that.

2. 2 spacers for the other end of the rack. One is 1.25" long and the other is 1.5" long. These were made from .75 rod since I didn't have any tube of appropriate wall thickness. The holes aren't perfectly in the center, but the wall thickness is more than the FFR provided spacers even at the smallest point so I didn't worry about it. These are the two parts at the right in the below picture.

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The bottom bolt on the passenger side mount needed a longer bolt. 2.75" would be adequate, but 3" was all I had on hand.

These parts, along with the FFR bracket placed on top of the chassis resulted in this:

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The rack is perfectly parallel with the chassis in both planes and appears to be well centered as well. We didn't pull the boots off to see precisely how well it's centered, but it looks pretty close.

We will trim the length of the one bolt to provide clearance for the bolt that is used to attach the radiator support.

If anyone runs into the same or similar problem, I hope this helps. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Larry

[K3LAG]

I've reached the end of my 2 week vacation and I am pretty happy with the progress. The front suspension is essentially complete and most of the interior aluminum is installed. We decided to hold off on the floor panel for now. Rear suspension parts are ready for install and that will be our next step. Then we will get the engine and tranny cleaned up for install.

No drama since the steering rack, so nothing technical to report. Here are a couple of progress pictures.

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Now that vacation is over, work will largely be limited to Friday evenings, so updates will slow a bit.

Larry

[K3LAG]

This weeks update isn't terribly exciting progress wise:

We got the lower portion of the rear suspension installed:
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I got the line on the steering rack installed:
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Removed the exhaust and alternator from the engine to prep for clean up and installation:
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And finally, got the transmission cleaned up:
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On Friday night we had a big birthday party for Dave and I. We both turned 50 in the last month so we had a big party with about 60 of our closest friends. Our wives did a great job taking care of the party.
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Larry

[K3LAG]

My birthday was two weeks ago, but I can't resist...

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...

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My wife is wonderful. She bought me these for my birthday. It looks like RAL 2008 is a really close match for powder for some of the other parts of the car.

Larry

[Frank818]

Nice lightweight OZs!!! Nice color too, what's your plan on the body?

And I love those tires! One of the best out there for the price, I think. Got them on my summer car and bought them for my 818.

[K3LAG]

... what's your plan on the body?

A light coat of orange pearl over white.

Larry

[K3LAG]

It has been a few weeks since I have posted an update.

We have been working on a bunch of small projects and most of them came together this week with some good progress.

We now have the engine ready to install:

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The goal is to install the engine, clutch and transmission on Presidents day (next monday). We are going to put a firewall/heat shield between the tank and engine. Hopefully we will have that in, in time to install the engine next Monday. We are only going to cover the height of the tank (10") rather than the full height of the engine as some others have done.

We finally got the pedal box and steering column installed after an aborted first attempt several weeks ago. If you get a pedal box that looks like this:

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It won't fit. That one was included with my crated donor, but it was not even close to fitting. Wayne sent me another pedal box and this one fit fine with the usual little adjustments that most people have had to make:

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Here is pedal box, column and master cylinders installed:

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I spent part of yesterday rebuilding the clock spring. At some point I got a bit carried away and spun the steering wheel and pulled the ribbon cables out of the inside of the clock spring. It took me a couple of hours to disassemble it, reconnect everything and get it rewound and reassembled. It was a bit of a pain in the neck, so I recommend you NOT give your steering wheel a good spin.

I will install the Works Bell short hub, Rapfix II quick release and FFR steering wheel soon. Since the Works Bell parts only come with instructions in Japanese, I will document the installation and post it here in case others need it.

I mentioned in a previous post the modifications we had to do to mount our steering rack. Although we had to do a little extra work, it turned out well. The rack is perfectly centered so I don't have to think about any of those issues.

While at an electronics store yesterday I found this flexible LED light strip. It is made by Velleman USA. I will drill a series of holes the same diameter as the LED's in the rear spoiler and mount this for my 3rd brake light.

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Overall, a good bit of progress in the last few weeks.

Larry

[Frank818]

While at an electronics store yesterday I found this flexible LED light strip. It is made by Velleman USA. I will drill a series of holes the same diameter as the LED's in the rear spoiler and mount this for my 3rd brake light.

That's what I'm doing.

[K3LAG]

As promised, here is my install write up for the Works Bell short hub, RapFix II Quick Release and FFR steering wheel. Since all of the instructions are in Japanese, I thought others might find this useful.

Products used:

Works Bell Short Hub 116S
Works Bell Rapfix II Quick Release
Works Bell Flipper for Rapfix II
Factory Five Racing steering wheel

First remove the OEM steering wheel. This picture shows the clock spring connectors. The Airbag wires are attached to clock spring. I cut them off. The horn connection is in the middle connector. The blue tape is just there to keep the clock spring from turning. Under the blue tape there are two small triangles that align when the clock spring is oriented correctly.
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The green connector is included with the hub. It provides the connection to the horn relay.
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Thread the wire through the opening in the hub and attach the hub to the column using the OEM nut. Be sure the hub is oriented correctly. The dimple (shown in the blue circle) should be on top.
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Attach wires from quick release base to the grounding ring and hub as shown. The grounding ring ensures a good ground connection between the quick release and hub and provides a tab for attaching the ground wire.
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Attach the base of the quick release to the hub with the provided screws. Again, the dimple should be on top.
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Snap the removable part of the quick release into place. Again there is a dimple for orientation.
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Trim one of the connectors on the FFR steering wheel horn switch so the connector from the quick release will fit.
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Attach both wires and install the steering wheel with the screws that come with the steering wheel. Then, press on the FFR sticker in the middle of the wheel. Stand back and admire your work!
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if you wish to test the horn button, you can check continuity from ground to the green wire on the 5 pin connector on the column. When the horn button is pressed you should have continuity to ground.

Unlike some of the other hubs available, the Works Bell hub does cancel the turn signal lever.

As alway, if you have any questions let me know.

Larry

[K3LAG]

In addition to getting the steering wheel installed, we also installed a heat shield between the tank and engine.

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We plan to install the engine, clutch and transmission on Monday.

Larry

[longislandwrx]

Thanks for the detail on the quick release, that looks like a real nice piece.

I agree with your detective work, that indeed looks like a LGT rack.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Subaru-Legacy-GT-LGT-Power-Steering-Rack-and-Pinion-Oem-2005-2006-34110AG06A-/331033826603?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3ALegacy&hash=item4d1327552b&vxp=mtr

What fuel tank are you running? If stock, make sure you drill the hole in your firewall before installing that engine.

[K3LAG]

I agree with your detective work, that indeed looks like a LGT rack.

What fuel tank are you running? If stock, make sure you drill the hole in your firewall before installing that engine.

The rack worked out well. It turns out to be perfectly centered.

We are using Boyd tank, so no hole needed.

Larry

[Rodster]

Larry -
You going to do anything on your 818 for ham radio? I am building a Coupe, but will have only some additional power wires/Anderson PowerPoles going into the cockpit.

-wayne KH6WZ

[K3LAG]

Larry -
You going to do anything on your 818 for ham radio? I am building a Coupe, but will have only some additional power wires/Anderson PowerPoles going into the cockpit.

-wayne KH6WZ

I've been thinking about it, but no plan yet. The best place for the antenna is probably the roll bar, but I'm not sure I want it that close to my head. :)

Larry

[K3LAG]

As John "Hannibal" Smith would say "I love it when a plan comes together."

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Feels like another milestone has been met.

Westview, thanks for coming over to lend a hand.

Larry

[bompus]

That orange looks beautiful. I was thinking of having my intake manifold coated with Cermakrome and maybe a few other things as well. That orange is really beautiful though so has me thinking about copying you now :)

[Rasmus]

Nice work there. It's refreshing to see a new color on the same old parts I've been seeing for years. Don't think I've ever seen an orange. Bold choice.

[K3LAG]

That orange looks beautiful. I was thinking of having my intake manifold coated with Cermakrome and maybe a few other things as well. That orange is really beautiful though so has me thinking about copying you now :)


Nice work there. It's refreshing to see a new color on the same old parts I've been seeing for years. Don't think I've ever seen an orange. Bold choice.

Thanks guys. The color is RAL 2008 Hellrotorange (Bright Red Orange). It is the same color OZ uses on the orange Alleggerita HLT wheels, which I am using. It took a bit of experimenting to get the color of the powder coat to match the wheels, but we got it to match pretty well.

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Larry

[Frank818]

Never thought of painting the tranny as well? Orange or any other color.

[Rasmus]

Hell Rot Orange?! My eyes, Sweet, Flying Spaghetti Monster! My eyes!

[K3LAG]

Never thought of painting the tranny as well? Orange or any other color.

Thought about it. But if I was going to paint it, I'd have to tape off all the bolts or take it all apart because I'm not a big fan of a paint job where someone paints the bolts. Also, it makes it harder to remove the bolts later. Besides, getting it clean enough for a lasting paint job is a lot of work. I figured if it wan't completely clean, the paint would peel and it would end up looking no better than it does now in a couple of years anyway.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Hell Rot Orange?! My eyes, Sweet, Flying Spaghetti Monster! My eyes!

Hellrotorange is the German name for it. It means Bright (Hell) Red (Rot) Orange (Orange). 'Hell' is also used for 'light.' The RAL colors are mostly a European standard even though its commonly used for powder coat in the US. It's pretty funny to see all the color names in other languages. In german, Light Ivory is Hellelfenbein and Traffic Purple is Verkehrspurpur.

Larry

[RM1SepEx]

My 1991 BMW 325 IC is Cashmirebeige Metallic People call it Bronzit
Hellrotorange is a classic BMW color

[Westview]

Westview, thanks for coming over to lend a hand.


Larry, You are very welcome!

Having seen the orange first hand, I have to say that it looks even better in person!!

[K3LAG]

No drama this week. I like it that way!

Exhaust manifold and up-pipe installed:

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Coolant reservoir and other small parts installed on engine, still a few lines to run:

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Rear Suspension installed:

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All in all a productive evening.

Larry

[Xusia]

VERY nice looking! :)

[Mechie3]

Looks good. I like the bracket on your water tank. Hahahahaha! ; )

[K3LAG]

Not much of an update this week. We spent friday night going over all the work done so far to make sure we didn't miss anything and did a few other odds and ends. Not much to show pictures of, except this...

Just got these pictures from my powder coater. He still has one piece left to do.

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Larry

[Wayne Presley]

Looks awesome Larry!

[K3LAG]

Well, its been a few weeks since I updated. We had to acquire a few parts, took my wife out to a musical, and I hurt my back so not too much has happened. We will get back at it tomorrow night.

In the meantime I got the odometer back to 0

I win!!!!

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Plan B, reprogramming the eeprom did the trick.

This link, from STiPWRD's build thread gave me the clues I needed: http://www.rs25.com/forums/f105/t105267-diy-reprogram-odometer-your-swapped-dash.html

If you set the values in eeprom to 0000 with a check word of FFFF you get 15 miles. I did that first and it worked fine.

If you set the values to FFFE with a check word of 0001 you get 0.

I expected to get 999999 with FFFE which I would then roll over to 0, but when I plugged the eeprom in it was at 0 so there we go!

Next step is to change backlighting to orange/amber and the cluster will go back together.

Larry

[Frank818]

took my wife out to a musical, and I hurt my back

Obviously that's sad, but what on earth did you do to hurt your back at a "musical"? lolll

[K3LAG]

Obviously that's sad, but what on earth did you do to hurt your back at a "musical"? lolll

I guess that does sound kind of odd. I think I actually hurt my back shoveling snow. Been on good drugs this week and almost back to normal. It's amazing what a cocktail of Prednisone, Flexeril, and hydrocodone/acetaminophen will do.

Larry

[Canadian818]

Flexeril

And a glass of wine...good for a 14hr nap every time! "Alcohol may intensify the effect" is not a warning, its an advertising, ;)

[flynntuna]

For a second I thought you were in the musical. :rolleyes:

[K3LAG]

For a second I thought you were in the musical. :rolleyes:

No, went to see Man of LaMancha. It's one of my favorite shows.

Did a few odds and ends on the car this afternoon. Then this evening I finished messing with my cluster. Lighting now orange. This isn't a great picture. It looks better in person.

I didn't replace any of the bulbs. I removed the green film from the inside of the cluster and replaced it with orange lighting film.

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Oh, we also bolted the tank in.

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Larry

[Xusia]

Hi Larry, I'd really love to make my dash lights blue. Do they make that film in a blue tint? If so, do you know where I could get some?

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Hi Larry, I'd really love to make my dash lights blue. Do they make that film in a blue tint? If so, do you know where I could get some?
Xusia
I saw a Youtube where the guy changed the bulbs to blue LEDs.

https://www.google.com/#newwindow=1&q=sti+blue+led+cluster

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Subaru-Impreza-2004-2007-Blue-LED-Dash-Cluster-Lights-Upgrade-Kit-/181101663627
Bob

[K3LAG]

It's made by Lee Filters. It comes in lots of colors. I used CL158. It comes in 24"x21" sheets and cuts easily with scissors. I bought it from Adorama for $6.40/sheet.

Here is a link to the section on Adorama's web site: http://www.adorama.com/l/Lighting-and-Studio/Light-Modifiers-and-Reflectors/Lee~Diffusers-and-Filters-and-Gels

Here is a link to the Lee Filters site: http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/colour-list.html

To change the color you will have to remove the green tint from the backs of the gauges. It sands off fairly easily, but requires patience. Don't pull the needles off. Just work between the back of the gauge and clear plastic piece and take your time. Some people say to use acetone rather than sanding, but the acetone attacks it pretty fast and can make the plastic brittle, so after trying it on a corner I decided to use the sanding method instead. Be patient, it took me several hours.

Here is a thread that shows the process: http://www.scoobymods.com/showthread.php/diy-wrx-gauge-cluster-hvac-11003.html

Larry

[Xusia]

Thanks Bob & Larry. That gives me some options to consider!

[K3LAG]

We did a lot of odds and ends Friday night and got a table set up for the wire diet.

Today we went on a trip to OG Racing in Sterling, VA and came home with two of these...

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They are a little deeper front to back than I had hoped which will limit how much we can slide them, but they were the smallest seats that I found comfortable. I went planning to get R100's, but the back of them was too narrow for me.

Larry

[metros]

OG Racing is always a good stop. Those seats look to fit fairly tight in the car. IIRC those seats are on the narrower side. I may have to reconsider the Sparco Evo/evo2 seats I was considering.

Nice progress on your build.

[K3LAG]

OG Racing is always a good stop. Those seats look to fit fairly tight in the car. IIRC those seats are on the narrower side. I may have to reconsider the Sparco Evo/evo2 seats I was considering.

Nice progress on your build.

I tried all the Evo's just for kicks and grins even though I wasn't interested in racing buckets. The Evo II"s were a bit narrow for me. the Evo III's were pretty comfy though. That's the problem with being wide and short. I have wide hands, feet, and shoulders even though I'm only 5'8" tall. Makes it a pain to buy clothes, shoes and gloves. Heck, my feet are 7 1/2 4E, try to find those in stock anywhere.

Larry

[Wayne Presley]

We did a lot of odds and ends Friday night and got a table set up for the wire diet.

Today we went on a trip to OG Racing in Sterling, VA and came home with two of these...

27415

They are a little deeper front to back than I had hoped which will limit how much we can slide them, but they were the smallest seats that I found comfortable. I went planning to get R100's, but the back of them was too narrow for me.

Larry

What model are those?

[K3LAG]

What model are those?

Chrono Road, Medium size, Gray/Black. They also come in Standard size which is a little bigger.

http://www.sparcousa.com/product/chrono-road

Larry

[K3LAG]

I thought I would do something productive during the rain delay in the NASCAR race.

It still needs a bit of cleanup work, but I think it looks pretty good.

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Larry

[Xusia]

Kool idea!

[STiPWRD]

I got the odometer back to 0

I win!!!!


Glad you got this to work. Did you have to de-solder the 8 pin dip? I noticed it was in a socket in your pic. Also, did you have to build that circuit with the serial cable like in the other thread?

[STiPWRD]

One other question - did you try running up some more miles with the pule generator and then clearing it again to verify the odometer still works properly? Just curious

[K3LAG]

Glad you got this to work. Did you have to de-solder the 8 pin dip? I noticed it was in a socket in your pic. Also, did you have to build that circuit with the serial cable like in the other thread?

Yes I had to desolder the chip. I didn't have to build a circuit, I was able to use my PIC programmer to program the eeprom.


One other question - did you try running up some more miles with the pule generator and then clearing it again to verify the odometer still works properly? Just curious

Yes.

[K3LAG]

Not too much to report. We've been working on numerous little things. The long brake line and clutch line are installed. I have been spending most of my 'car' time dieting the wiring harness lately. I think I'm probably about half done with the dieting. Here is the pile of scrap so far.

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It's probably about 15 lbs or a bit more removed so far. I'm using an 02/03 harness. There are a few differences between the 02/03 harness and the later ones that are interesting. The harness is somewhat simpler than the later cars (don't get excited it's not a lot simpler) because there were fewer options available in the early two years. Also, the wiring diagrams are much simpler. Since there was no STi in 02/03 and fewer options were available there is less clutter in the wiring diagrams.

Wayne had pointed out that the front harness forms a loop when connected to the bulkhead harness at both ends. Once you remove the ABS, there is no more loop. In fact the right side bulkhead to front harness connector completely goes away as it only has ABS wiring in it.

I'll report any more interesting findings as I go along. Once I'm done dieting I'll post some pictures of my reduced harness.

Updates will be a bit spotty over the next several weeks as we have a lot of other things going on.

Happy Easter everyone.

Larry

[metros]

I would like to see in depth pictures of your harness when you're done and details of what yo keep an eye out for. I'll be using an early harness as well.

[K3LAG]

I would like to see in depth pictures of your harness when you're done and details of what yo keep an eye out for. I'll be using an early harness as well.

One thing I will tell you is to make sure to visually check the full length of the wires before cutting. I located both ends of one wire and cut them both off at the connector then went to pull it out. It wouldn't pull. It turns out there were two junctions in the wire and I actually shouldn't have cut the one end, I should have just cut it back to the junction. The junction wasn't shown on the wiring diagram because the other wires at the junction were for a different system and were on a different page of the schematics.

I had to repair the one I cut. No big deal to fix it in this case, but best not to do it wrong to begin with.

Larry

[07FIREBLADE]

Hopefully you will post details before I start my diet. I'm a few weeks out from that point as we speak and I am using the se harness as you.

[Kurk818]

I second this. Learned the hard way!


One thing I will tell you is to make sure to visually check the full length of the wires before cutting. I located both ends of one wire and cut them both off at the connector then went to pull it out. It wouldn't pull. It turns out there were two junctions in the wire and I actually shouldn't have cut the one end, I should have just cut it back to the junction. The junction wasn't shown on the wiring diagram because the other wires at the junction were for a different system and were on a different page of the schematics.

I had to repair the one I cut. No big deal to fix it in this case, but best not to do it wrong to begin with.

Larry

[indiana818]

thanks larry this is what i am looking for
great instructions here
kerry

[lsxsean]

Looking good!

[K3LAG]

And the pile continues to grow:

28271

I think I am going to post some articles on the methodology I am using to diet my harness. I'm not going to describe it wire-by-wire detail, but rather describe the process I am using. I'll probably start it next week some time so stay tuned.

Larry

[STiPWRD]

And the pile continues to grow:

28271

I think I am going to post some articles on the methodology I am using to diet my harness. I'm not going to describe it wire-by-wire detail, but rather describe the process I am using. I'll probably start it next week some time so stay tuned.

Larry

Sounds like a great idea!

[Triathletedave]

And the pile continues to grow:

28271

I think I am going to post some articles on the methodology I am using to diet my harness. I'm not going to describe it wire-by-wire detail, but rather describe the process I am using. I'll probably start it next week some time so stay tuned.

Larry

Yes, great idea. I'm at the point of doing the wiring harness, and I dread the very thought of it! Anything you can add would be helpful!

[K3LAG]

Look what my wife got me for our 28th anniversary:

28398

We completed the brake and clutch lines today. Didn't have time to fill the systems and bleed them. That will be our next building session.

Harness diet is still under way.

Larry

[Wayne Presley]

She did? I didn't know :cool:

[FFRSpec72]

Look what my wife got me for our 28th anniversary:
Larry

hmmm, my wife says 28th is Orchids and the 85th is shifter

[Frank818]

lolll, a wife who really understands her man. :)

[AZPete]

Good one, Tony.

[RM1SepEx]

My wife of 30 yrs just let's me buy whatever I want! :) She's freer with the checkbook than I am so she pushes me to spend more on the 818

[Westview]

hmmm, my wife says 28th is Orchids and the 85th is shifter

That's just cruel!!

Larry, Congratulations on 28 years with a wonderful wife!!!

[K3LAG]

Here is a quick post on disassembling an instrument cluster. It's fairly simple, but a bit of thought and care will make the job a little easier and reduce the likelihood of damaging something. These instructions apply to 02-05 WRX clusters. Most of them will work for 06-07 clusters and STi clusters, but the EEPROMs are different in these clusters so the step that shows the EEPROM will not match.

You might want to do this for any of the following reasons:

1. Replace your EEPROM to reset your mileage. EEPROMs for 02-05 WRX clusters should be available soon. ;)
2. Change lighting colors.
3. Change the bezel that surrounds the gauges. There are several aftermarket ones out there.
4. Simply clean accumulated dust or dirt from inside your cluster. (You probably only need to remove the front pieces to do this)

2 notes of caution. Treat the gauge assemblies with care. Any damage to the needles is difficult if not impossible to repair and work on a clean soft surface to prevent scratching and provide some cushioning should you drop one of the gauges while disassembling the cluster.

Step 1. Remove the back panel of the cluster by gently releasing the white plastic clips highlighted in the below picture. Once the clips are removed, set the back panel aside.

28599

Step 2. Carefully bend the 8 small metal tabs that hold the gauge assemblies to the circuit board. Bend them just enough to straighten them. This is done now because we still have the front of the cluster in place to protect the gauges from damage while straightening the tabs. The gauges will be removed in a later step.

28593

Step 3: Carefully release the highlighted clips to remove to front clear lens from the cluster. Set the lens aside in a safe place so it doesn't get scratched.

28592

Step 4: Carefully release the clips that hold the front black portion of the cluster on and set it aside. Not all of the clips are shown in this picture. There are a couple on the opposite side.

28600

Your cluster should now look like this:

28598

Step 5: Use a small tool to gently press the gauge assemblies off the circuit board from the back. Have a hand ready to catch the gauge when it drops loose to prevent damage.

28602

Your cluster should now look something like this:

28597

Set the gauges aside in a safe place.

Step 6: If you are replacing the EEPROM in your cluster. Desolder the 8 pin DIP shown in the two photos below. If you don't feel comfortable doing the desoldering and resoldering yourself, find someone to do it for you.

28590 28591

Step 7: Install the reprogrammed EEPROM in your cluster, reassemble the cluster by reversing the above steps and test it. Be sure to re-bend the tabs that hold the gauges in place after you reinstall them.

28596

More info to come on EEPROM availability.

Larry

[Wayne Presley]

great write up Larry

[K3LAG]

Here is my series on how I am attacking dieting my wiring harness.

Note: This is certainly not the only way to do it. It may not even be the best, but it's working for me.

This first portion is on preparation. Preparation and organization is key to be successful in this endeavor. Patience helps as well. I suggest you not work on it when you are tired, distracted or otherwise in a state where you can't pay full attention to what you are doing.

Note that I am only crimping most of my splices. I'm comfortable doing this because I am using high quality connectors and the proper crimp tool. If you don't have high quality connectors and tools, I suggest you solder your splices.

1. Tools:

Wire cutters (both large and small)
A couple of pairs of pliers to hold wires, pull out pins, etc
Various probes, picks and other small pointy instruments to release pins from connectors
Good crimpers. Be sure they are the right type of crimpers for the connectors you will use.
Scissors, knife, etc for cutting off insulation
Multimeter for testing connections and continuity
A label printer. Preferably one that will print on cloth or other industrial labels. I use a Dymo Rhino 5000. The labels stick well even to dirty things.
A heat gun or other heating device for the heat shrink
A cable stretcher ;)
A large table/area to work. We built a temporary 4'x8' table.

2. Supplies:

Electrical tape
Butt and splice connectors. I prefer the type that have heat shrink to seal them after crimping
Wire loom/covering of your choice to replace what you will cut off
Paperclips - more on this later
Plenty of paper and ink/toner in your printer
A PDF version of the wiring section of your year of donor (or harness if different)
Zip lock bags

Step 1: Print the wiring section of the factory service manual for your donor. This will be 180+ pages depending on the year, but you will definitely want a hard copy.

One you have the wiring section printed up, we are going to divide it into sections that we will use as we go through the process.

The first section of the manual contains a bunch of general information about the wiring. There is a bunch of useful information in this section and it is good to read it, but you most likely won't need it on hand during the dieting process so just put it someplace in case you need to refer to it.

The next sections of the wiring manual are the details of each system. The first section is Power Distribution and the second is ground distribution. Take each of these two sections and put a paperclip on them.

The next bunch of sections are the various systems in alphabetical order. Some are single pages, some are several. Divide them up and put a paper clip on each section. We will diet the harness system by system so it's convenient to have these sections of the diagrams separated this way.

After the wiring diagrams you will find a few sections that show the harness routing for each of the sections of the harness. We will be using these sections for the next step.

2. Making labels

The first page of the harness part of the manual looks like this:

28892

Use this section to familiarize yourself with the harness sections. Plug the various sections of your harness together so you can see how it all comes together. This familiarization will pay off as you go.

Next, for each section of the harness, you will find pages that show the harness routing and connector locations and a list of all the connectors for that section of the harness. For example, here is the Front Harness section for an 02-03:

28893 28894

Use the list of connectors and make labels for EVERY connector. Put the connector number (like F6) and description on the label. For connectors that connect harnesses together I listed them with both connector numbers for instance one of the connectors from the front harness to bulkhead harness was labeled as "F74 | B200 Bulkhead wiring harness". The mating connector would be labeled "B200 | F74 Front wiring harness"

Once the labels for a section of the harness are printed, put them in a zip lock bag. Also, fold up the connector list and harness diagram pages for that section and put them in the bag as well. You will end up with about a half dozen bags of labels.

Do this for each section of the harness.

3. Put the labels on:

Using one bag of labels and diagrams at a time, label all the connectors with the labels you made. There are a few connectors that are so small its easier to put the label on the harness right by the connector.

You may have some left over labels. The later cars are more likely to have more left over labels as there were more options on those cars like Automatic Climate Control.

You may find cases were it is hard to identify which connector is which because there are multiple connectors in the same area with the same number of pins. In some cases, you can figure out which they are by finding the device that plugs into them. If you can't do that, look in the wiring diagrams to identify the wire colors for those connectors.

At this point you may have as much as 5-8 hours of work into your harness and we haven't removed a single wire yet. Don't fret, the preparation will make the rest of the job manageable.

In the next episode, we will begin to actually remove some wires!

Larry

[K3LAG]

Now for the fun part. The actual dieting. This step will result in a big pile of leftover cable. Don’t throw it away! Some of it will be used for splices and extensions in Part 3.

In this step we aren’t so much focused on the arrangement of the harness. Our primary goal is to get rid of all the stuff we don’t need. Once the harness is slimmed down, we can do some rearranging and tweaking in Part 3.

There are some layout differences between the different years of harnesses and different years of wiring diagrams. For instance the 02-03 wiring diagrams show the airbag circuits, but the harness diagrams in the back don’t show them or list the connectors except for the one connector that connects all the airbag ‘stuff’ to the bulkhead harness. Fortunately the Air Bag stuff is all yellow and easy to find and remove. In fact, I recommend it be the first system you remove since it’s easy and gets rid of a bit of bulk.

Use the technique I will describe below to remove each system. You may find as you go that you can take some shortcuts as you learn how things are layer out. That’s fine, but be careful that you don’t get in too big of a hurry and cut on the wrong side of a splice.

On my harness, I removed the following systems:

Air Bag
Air Conditioning
Anti-lock Brake
Audio
Clock
Compass Mirror
Cruise Control
Door Lock
Front Accessory Power Supply (Partial) - I cut it back close the fuse box so it’s there if I want it for something
Keyless Entry
Front Fog Light
In Compartment Light (Partial)
Parking Brake and Brake Fluid Level Warning (Partial)
Power Window
Rear Accessory Power Supply (some of this wiring is there even for the Sedan)
Rear Window Defogger
Security System
Wiper and Washer (Rear)
Rear Doors
Front Doors (all but mirrors)

There are other specific devices or wires that I also removed, but that was done after the above and will be covered in Part 3.

Now, the dieting process itself. I have found it best to pick the systems that are the most independent and will remove the most wire first. The air bag system is a good choice as mentioned above. The ABS, at least on cars that don’t have DCCD, is also a good independent system. I will use the ABS system to talk through the process.

Step 1. Layout the harnesses and remove most of the covering. You can keep it in places near individual devices that you know you won’t be removing. I didn’t do this at first and removed it as I went along. It wasn’t long before I had it all off anyway. As you remove the wrap, your hands will get sticky. Wash them when you are done, it comes off easy.

Step 2. Grab your paper clipped ABS system pages and look them over to get familiar with them. Identify which portions of the harness are involved. In this case, it is the Front, Bulkhead and Rear harnesses. Here are the pages for reference:

29027 29028 29029

Step 3. I find it best to start removing stuff starting at the points furthest from the fuse/relay boxes. In this case that would be the 4 ABS sensors and the G sensor. Start with the rear harness and remove the sensors all the way to the connector (R3) that attaches the rear harness to the bulkhead harness. You can cut the wires at the connector if you want, but recommend you remove the pins instead. Next remove the wires that go from that mating connector (B99) to the connector (B200) that connects the bulkhead harness to the front one. Next remove the G. sensor from the bulkhead harness up to the same connector (B200). Now you can remove the wires from the front harness connector (F74) to the ABS controller.

It turns out that on the 02-03 cars, F74/B200 only has ABS wires in it. If you unwrapped the entire harness you will have seen that all the connections from F74/B200 go to the ABS controller. This means you don’t actually need to remove the wires from these two connectors since the connectors will be removed entirely.

Now, work your way back from B200 toward the center of the bulkhead harness and remove the wires that go to the data link, check and diagnosis connectors. Be sure to trace these wires back carefully. Some of them have splices. Only remove the wires from B200 to the splice. You can also remove the wires going to the fuse box, ABS relay, etc… Again, watch out for the splices. You can actually remove the power wires back to where they go to the main fuse box on the other side of the front connector. Did I say ‘watch out for splices’? Watch out for the White wire with black stripe that goes to the stop light switch. It has a splice in it that includes the wires that actually go to the stop lights. That one was my first lesson in watching out for splices.

On the 02-03 cars, some of the power wires for the ABS, as well as the front sensors are in the portion of the harness that wraps around the front of the car. Trace these wires from the ABS controller around to the drivers side of the car and remove them. At this point, the entire right hand portion of the front harness will be gone.

There may be one or two things left in the ABS system that I didn’t mention. Obviously remove them as well.

Step 4. Now that the entire subject system has been removed put the pages of wiring diagrams from that system into a ‘finished’ pile and move to the next system. Once you get the hang of it, it will go pretty fast and you will have a big pile of wire and a big pile of 'finished' pages before you know it.

Once you have removed all the systems as described above, it is time to take stock of what you have done and get ready for Part 3.

Stay tuned…

Larry

[K3LAG]

It has taken me a while to get to this post. As I've been trying to think about how much to describe here it has become a bit problematic because this step is going to be very different depending on how much work you want to do and what year your donor is.

You could choose at this point to wrap up your slimmed down harness and install it and the fuse boxes as described in the instruction manual. You will have removed some weight and bulk from the harness and gotten rid of a lot of unused connectors and this may be enough to satisfy many people. If this is your option, then you can skip to Part 4, which is to clean up the harness and finish up some details.

On the other hand, if you are a glutton for punishment like me, you have an unwrapped harness sitting in front of you and you may have noticed the following things:

1. There is still some miscellaneous connectors and circuits you can remove.
2. The harness has an awful lot of wire in it as some circuits seem to go from one end of the car and back again.
3. In a 02-03 harness you have this great big gray, SMJ, connector that connects the bulkhead harness to the front harness. If you examine it further you will realize that everything that goes through the SMJ, plus one other wire, all go directly to two of the engine connectors. And finally, with the exception of about 5 wires all of the wires that run from the bulkhead side of the SMJ run all the way to the other side of the car toward the ECU. If you lengthen those 5 wires you can largely separate that bundle of wires from the rest of the harness. This may sound a little confusing, but the result is that you can separate the part of the front wiring harness that you want in the front (lights, fans, etc...) from the part of the front harness that goes to the engine. This means you have the option to put the main fuse box in the front of the car if you wish, with all of the engine wiring in the back where it belongs. This results in needing to extend fewer wires.
4. I think this may also work on the later harnesses, but the SMJ is replaced by 2 connectors instead of the one big gray one.

At this point, you might also want to remove any extraneous circuits you don't need. For instance, I am not implementing the evaporative emissions, so I removed most of those connectors. I did keep the purge solenoid so I can purge the vapor canister connected to the tank vent. I removed the drain valve solenoid, pressure solenoid, fuel temp sensor wires and pressure sensor.

I simplified the light wiring and terminated it in some weather pack connectors in the front and back that will later get new light harnesses connected to them. This will allow me to remove either the front or rear facia by just unplugging the appropriate light connectors.

I removed the fuel pump controller connector from the rear harness and connected to shortened wires near the ECU connectors since it will mount near the ECU. I also rearranged the wiring for the Main and Fuel pump relays to put them by the ECU as well.

This is much of what I did in this step, and I'm actually not quite done yet. As I said before you can really do as much or as little of this as you wish. I will say that if you think you are going to do a lot in this step to really minimize things, I would stop at this point and consider taking the approach that Bob_n_Cincy, and others, took and just rebuild the harness. If you take this step to the extreme, you will end up doing just as much work.

Here is a really rough diagram of what I will have when finished:

29528

1. ECU (fuel pump relay, controller, main relay and connections to tank are all here as well)
2. Dash Fuse Box
3. Main Fuse Box
4. Battery
5. Connector to front light harness
6. Connector to rear light harness
7. Rear light harness
8. Rear 02 and Trans connectors
9. EGT, Front 02, boost control, MAF
10. Engine harness connector, starter and alternator
11. All the dash connections
12. Fans
13. Front light harness

No section of the remaining wiring harness is more than 1" in diameter because I drastically reduced the amount of wiring than ran from one end of the car to the other just to go back the other way again.

Again, the amount of work you do in this step is up to you. My description above, covers a lot of what I did, but not all. This is probably the most time consuming step and requires the most patience.

In Part 4 we will cover the easy stuff. Re-covering the harness and finishing up. I hope to be at that step soon.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Reserved

[Triathletedave]

A question about supplies for the wiring harness:

Did you purchase a selection of wire spools to use for splicing wires in the numerous places required? If so, how much wire, and what guages of wire would you recommend? I'd like to have all of my supplies ready and on hand before I start dieting and retrofitting the harness, rather than running out to the local shops every day to get yet another spool of xx guage wire in color yy. Any wire supply kits available that include a variety of colors and wire guage together, or should I be buying individual spools for each type?

Cheers,

Dave

[K3LAG]

A question about supplies for the wiring harness:

Did you purchase a selection of wire spools to use for splicing wires in the numerous places required? If so, how much wire, and what guages of wire would you recommend? I'd like to have all of my supplies ready and on hand before I start dieting and retrofitting the harness, rather than running out to the local shops every day to get yet another spool of xx guage wire in color yy. Any wire supply kits available that include a variety of colors and wire guage together, or should I be buying individual spools for each type?

Cheers,

Dave

The dieting process has resulted in the removal of a lot of wire. Any splicing or extending I do will use wire from those remnants or from the FFR provided wire.

Larry

[Kurk818]

Ive been able to extend most of the wiring with the dieted wire. Ive been extending with pretty much the exact color wire if not very similar as a result. The supplied additional wire are enough to do pretty much everything needed.

[Triathletedave]

Ive been able to extend most of the wiring with the dieted wire. Ive been extending with pretty much the exact color wire if not very similar as a result. The supplied additional wire are enough to do pretty much everything needed.

'Supplied additional wire'? I don't have any in my kit. Oh well, no biggie. I'll see if I can use dieted wire to complete any necessary extensions. Thanks.

[Kurk818]

Yea, there's a spool of "trailer" type 4 wire roll. Approx 25'. Also 2 rolls of blue and purple single wires. All appear to be 12ga

[samuel]

Thank you Larry. This is perfect timing. I just finished removing the yellow airbag wiring and am moving down the alphabetical list but I am unsure about some things whether or not to I'll need them or not. Is there a list out there that suggests what I'll need and what I won't?
Thanks again.

[GhibliCup]

Unfortunately us 'Canucks' don't get the spare wire... Or the gas tank, or coil overs, or brake lines, or upper A-Arms, etc. Keeps the local NAPA busy though...

[K3LAG]

I spent several more hours on my wiring harness yesterday and today. Probably close to 10 more hours. I'm probably 80% done. It definitely slows down as you go. I'm doing a good bit of rearranging of the harness, which is the slow part.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure I would go this route if I had it to do over again. I think I'll probably have close to 60 hours in it by the time I'm done.

I will have a good result, but with the number of hours I will have in it at my pay rate, I could have bought either Wayne or iWire's solution.

I plan to work on Part 2 of my process write up this weekend.

Larry

[Xusia]

Maybe. But then you wouldn't have the satisfaction of "conquering" it! :D

[K3LAG]

Maybe. But then you wouldn't have the satisfaction of "conquering" it! :D

That is certainly true. My wallet also appreciates it. However, the engineer in me still finds the dieted harness a bit messy. Even dieted it has more wire in it than is needed for the 818. The only way to fix that would be to cut out and shorten a lot of the wires, but that is more work than I'm willing to do at this point. With the harness rearranged the way I did, there is just way more wire than is needed between the ECU and engine. It will all be hidden and fine when done, but it doesn't please the perfectionist in me.

Once I finish up the 4 part series above, you'll see what I mean.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Part 2 of my dieting process is now up in post #91

Larry

[MrDude_1]

That is certainly true. My wallet also appreciates it. However, the engineer in me still finds the dieted harness a bit messy. Even dieted it has more wire in it than is needed for the 818. The only way to fix that would be to cut out and shorten a lot of the wires, but that is more work than I'm willing to do at this point. With the harness rearranged the way I did, there is just way more wire than is needed between the ECU and engine. It will all be hidden and fine when done, but it doesn't please the perfectionist in me.

Once I finish up the 4 part series above, you'll see what I mean.

Larry

Having done this before with engine swaps... you have a couple choices for shortening them to length. All of them are extremely time consuming.

When I put an LS1 in my 91 Camaro convertible (back around 2003, before it was as common of a swap) I also had several extremely long runs that needed to be shortened to accommodate my OCD.
Most of the pins went to either the ECU or a couple other large connectors. I realized that instead of cutting/soldering/heatshrinking each wire (at separate points so its not a big bundle of heatshrink joints)... i could just de-pin the connector, one wire at a time, cut to length, and crimp a new pin on the wire.

since most of what needed to be shortened was a "run" of a set length, I took one bundle, and shortened them all the same. always just 1 pin/wire at a time though.

Also, before removing wires, I had a 3 ziptie system.
I put green zipties on the wires to keep... red on the ones that will be removed, and yellow on the "I dont know, but I need to look this up" ones...
put the zip ties on REVERSED (aka inside out) so that they do NOT ratchet.. then they hold the wires, but you can add/remove as needed.


in anycase.. I took out 30 something pounds of wire out. lol.

[K3LAG]

i could just de-pin the connector, one wire at a time, cut to length, and crimp a new pin on the wire.



I considered this, but don't have a source for the pins for the Subaru connectors. I found one possible source, but they wanted a ridiculous amount of money for them.

Larry

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Larry
take a look at my thread.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?12534-MRG-MotorSports-818S-Build&p=146406&viewfull=1#post146406

I pigtail out each of the connectors and the splice them together at the correct length. Here is a sample schematic of what I ended up with. Each small circle is a splice point. The big circles are terminal post there multiple wires terminate. (see picture of my ecu triangle) The double arrow is a wire going to the front of the car. I eliminated the connector altogether the went through the diver side fender. A good splice is much more reliable than a hand crimped pin in my opinion.
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=29056&d=1400013978



Bob

[K3LAG]

Bob,
I like how you did yours. In fact, although my wiring won't be as neat, I plan to copy your triangle idea. I plan to mount the ECU, Fuel Pump relay, Fuel Pump controller, and main relay on a similar plate.

I could easily go back and do the wiring similar to the way you did at the point I'm at, but I think what I have will be OK. As I mentioned a few posts ago, if I was going to do it again, I'd take a different approach and yours is certainly one I would consider. I probably only have a few hours more work to do to have mine done and since I only work on the car once a week, I'm not currently in the mood to do a bunch more work.

I don't know how FFR gets these harnesses in without dieting or rearranging them. I didn't try it before I started dieting, but I don't see how some things even reach where they need to go. FFR has you extend some wires, but I think there are others that probably need it as well. If mine all works out the way I plan, I will actually have the main fuse/relay box in the front of the car so the high current carrying headlight and fan wires don't have to be lengthened. Long skinny headlight wires just drops too much voltage for my taste.

I won't start a crimp vs. soldering debate. They always go on forever. I will say that you should only crimp if you have the ability to do it right and most home mechanics don't. So for most people you are probably right.

Larry

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Hi Larry,
I'm only using the main fuse box up front. There are enough fuses and relays in it for everything I want. Here is the first page of my schematic. My fuel tank is up front. Everything orange in in the main fuse box. PS: I only crimp with non-insulated lugs and adhesive lined shrink tubing.
Bob

29060

[K3LAG]

Bob,
You are evil. Now you have me talking myself into shortening up those wires between the ECU and engine. I think I'll probably stick with the rest of my plan as is though.

Larry

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Bob,
You are evil. Now you have me talking myself into shortening up those wires between the ECU and engine. I think I'll probably stick with the rest of my plan as is though.

Larry
I did all that work inside this winter while it was to cold to work on the car.
Sorry about being evil:mad:.
Bob:o

[K3LAG]

I took a break from the wiring harness this weekend.

I got the brakes and clutch bled. Also, got the engine and tranny all buttoned up and ready for fluids.

Not much else to report.

[K3LAG]

I finally wrote Part 3 of my wire dieting methodology. It's in post 92 above (http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?12055-The-Savage-build-thread&p=152340&viewfull=1#post152340).

Larry

[K3LAG]

View from first three nights hotel room. We leave Lucerne tomorrow to go to Interlaken.

29974

Larry

[Mechie3]

Reminds me of my inlaws place in Bellevue, WA. I grew up in upstate NY with trees, hills, and water close by. Now I live in flat Indiana, but there's plenty of motorsports around and housing is cheap. I miss the scenery other places, but at least cheap cost of living lets us travel.

[K3LAG]

View from near our hotel in Interlaken. The snow covered area is Jungfraujoch, if the weather holds we will take the train through the Eiger to there tomorrow.

30060

Larry

[K3LAG]

Here is the view from our third hotel. We are now in Brig, half way through our trip.

30101

Larry

[K3LAG]

After close to a month not working on the car, we finally got back to work. Last friday we got the electronics panel installed as well as some panels to complete the interior that were needed due to moving the firewall back. The harness is nearly finished and will go in soon.

30808 30809

Larry

[K3LAG]

Between sessions down in the garage, I bring home projects to work on at home.

Here is this weeks project:

31516

It still needs a little minor filling and sanding before being ready.

On the rest of the car. Nothing exciting to report. Wiring is about done. Working on details needed to start the engine. The last major thing to do before starting the car is the cooling system.

Larry

[apexanimal]

so much awesome there

[Tamra]

I love the ipad. Are you going to have it set up with any data logging apps? Or what is your plan for it?

[K3LAG]

It will be used for Audio, Navigation (Navigon), and OBD II monitoring/logging/etc (Dash Command) plus anything else I might want to use it for. It will connect to an iStreamer D/A which will in turn be connected to an amp. I will probably put a AudioControl Overdrive + between the iStreamer and Amp. I am using a PLXDevices Kiwi for the OBD II connection.

The iPad mount is from Fifield Fabrications.

I did the final sanding last night. It just needs a final coat of primer then it will sit until we are ready for paint. The dash will be painted orange to match the other trim on the car. Unfortunately I dropped my orbital sander on my right middle toe and broke the toe. Will be off my feet for a couple of days. :(

Power tools and bare feet not smart.

Larry

[wleehendrick]

Unfortunately I dropped my orbital sander on my right middle toe and broke the toe. Will be off my feet for a couple of days. :(

Power tools and bare feet not smart.

Bummer, Larry! Hope you heal quick.

When not at work, I pretty much live in shorts and OluKai sandals. I try to change to jeans and closed toed shoes when doing auto work, but not always. This will be a reminder to me.

[Westview]

Unfortunately I dropped my orbital sander on my right middle toe and broke the toe. Will be off my feet for a couple of days. :(

Power tools and bare feet not smart.

Larry

Och!! Hope if heals quick! The dash looks awesome, can't wait to see it person.

[Mechie3]

I've done metal working at home in sandals. Usually end up with hot chips on my toes and then I say to myself "well, that was dumb" and I go inside and put on shoes. (sometimes...). :)

[K3LAG]

Here it is, ready for paint. Also a couple of pictures showing the Dash Command and Navigon screens.

31820 31819 31821

Will see the podiatrist about the toe on Monday. It's feeling better already, but being careful not to do anything to make it worse.

Larry

[K3LAG]

This evening we reached a major milestone. I buttoned up the final grounds and plugged in all the connectors on the harness and methodically started applying power and testing. It's alive and everything seems to work as expected. I was able to communicate with the ECU and married my AccessPort.

I'll still have to complete the light wiring once the body is on, but I have connectors installed for both front and rear light harnesses so that will be easy.

32532

Here is the final pile of discarded wire and connectors:

32533

All we need to do to start the engine at this point is finish the cooling system and add all the fluids. Should be running soon.

We still have to complete e-brake, shifter, seats, install rori's column mount to shorten the column, torque suspension bolts and do rough alignment before we can go-kart. Maybe we'll go-kart Labor Day weekend but probably a little later than that.

Now that I've finished the harness, I'll complete part 4 of my diet process, which is earlier in this thread, in the next few days.

Larry

[thall818]

Nicely done. I like where you're going with this. I am going down a similar road, but looking at an ipad mini in the center console. I'm looking at Out of Sight Audios Mark 3 bluetooth receiver

http://www.outofsightaudio.com/mark-3.html

It's only 14 oz. I'm not much past that, but starting to think about the small self powered bazooka tubes, and running 2 speakers off that internal amp. If I can get it up under the dash and do a quick disconnect, then I'm only left with 14oz and 2 speakers on track days. I can live with that.

I am also looking at dash command and using it to monitor air intake temps after the AWIC with the addition of an additional sensor. You definitely have a better setup as far as being able too see the interface. Again, I like the direction you are going, can't wait to see the finished product.

Travis

[wleehendrick]

Good job, Larry! I haven't decided if/what I'll do for a sub; I'm also thinking a small, removable bazooka tube like Travis. However, for main speaker power, I already bought an Alpine KTP-445U Class D amp. In bridged mode, it's a solid 90W to 2 channels at 4 Ohms from a 1.5 x 2.5 x 8" package! Thought I'd throw it out here for anyone that wants a decent amp is a very small/light package. Being a digital switching amp, it doesn't throw off a lot of heat, so you can tuck it away without worry. Perfect for a weight conscious 818 audio system. I'll be running a single DIN headunit and have a smartphone cradle.

[K3LAG]

Nothing particularly exciting or technical this week, just an update.

We have 8 things on our list to get accomplished this long weekend:

Install Group N motor mounts
Install Group N transmission mount
Install upper radiator mounts from Mechie3
Install steering column spacer from Rori
Complete cooling lines
Modify rear firewall and install
Install Lokar E-Brake Handle
and install anti-corrosion felt things on the battery posts (gotta include the easy stuff, makes it easy to cross things off)

As of quitting time last night we have 5.5 of them done.

Motor and Trans mounts installed:

32999 33000

I'm very glad I decided to put these on. They are substantially stiffer than the original old mounts from the donor. It would have been a lot easier to put them on before installing the engine, but I just decided recently to do it. Even at that, it only took a bit over an hour to do all three. Things are much more solid now.

Upper Radiator Mounts installed:

33001

Steering column spacer installed and column shortened:

33002

This is a big improvement for us comfort wise. With the hub and quick release installed the steering wheel was really too close. It should also look a lot better. Here is a picture before Rori's spacer as a comparison.

33003

The firewall is only half done. It is cut and riveted back together, but not yet installed. That will get finished on Monday

33004

The picture of the firewall looks pretty bad with all the hand/finger prints on it. I'll clean it up for the installed picture. ;)

No picture of the felt things on the battery terminals, nothing too exciting there. I do find they work well on every car I've used them on.

We should have no problem finishing our remaining 2.5 items on Monday. Fingers crossed :D.

We are really close to firing this thing up for the first time.

Larry

[K3LAG]

For anyone wondering, we didn't finish the planned list this weekend. All got done except the cooling lines. Had a couple things pop up that took time away from garage. I'll post some pics of the finished firewall and e-brake sometime soon.

Larry

[K3LAG]

A few minor issues to resolve, but it's alive!

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A4G4TcsmGYpJUI;6BDA2F83-E6BC-4FF1-8B3B-163EA633FDB6

Larry

[Tamra]

Congrats on the 1st start!

[Wayne Presley]

Love all of the orange, congrats on first start

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Way to go Larry, I hope to be doing the same in a few day. I started wiring today.
Bob

[K3LAG]

Last night was a productive night. The goal was to get the leaks fixed and tidy up a bunch of things. My Dad, step mom, and mother in law are all coming to visit next week so we wanted it to start, not leak and look decent for them.

First the leaks. We had 3, one of each fluid. The transmission was leaking from the passenger side axle seal. Got the seal for $8 from the dealer, dropped the passenger side suspension, popped the old seal out and new in, then put it all back together. Took about an hour. The oil leak we first though was drivers side valve cover, once we eliminated that we thought it was coming from the front seal on one of the cams. Turned out to be much simpler than that, the bolt/plug next to the drivers side upper cam was very loose. Cleaned it up, put a dab of sealant on it and reinstalled, problem solved. The final leak was from some of the joints in the cooling system. We got all of those stopped but one which is still dripping a tiny bit.

Once all those mechanical things were done, we moved to cleaning up the center tunnel. Attached all the cables and tires and cut a slot in it for the handbrake. Once that was done, we put the tunnel aluminum in and reattached the rear firewall and cleaned things up. I think it's ready for people to see it now. :cool:

33504 33505

Maybe we'll bolt the wheels on for good measure.

Larry

[K3LAG]

One of the minor issues I had once we started the car was a very high idle and trouble code from the IACV. Each time we started the car the idle actually got higher. I found directions on NASIOC for cleaning the IACV and followed them. My IACV was so crudded up the valve wouldn't move at all. After a thorough cleaning I reinstalled it and all works as expected now.

If you have any problems with the car idling properly, check your IACV. Be sure to get a new gasket, because apparently used ones don't fit or seal correctly.

Here is the NASIOC thread with the cleaning info: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1704762

We also worked on the throttle mounting a bit. Like some others I didn't quite have full throw of the throttle. We modified the FFR provided bracket to move the top of the pedal mount closer to the firewall to give us a bit more throw. We also took some of the flex out of it while we were at it.

We continue to work on minor stuff to prepare for go-karting while I finish my welding class. In a couple of weeks I'll make seat brackets and we will get the seats and seat belts in. I hope to go-kart before Halloween.

Larry

[Rasmus]

Nice diagnosis and fix on the IACV.

[K3LAG]

It's been a few weeks, so here's the latest...

We had been feeling like we hadn't gotten a lot done in the last few weeks, but last night we finally feel like we are making real progress again.

Seat belt mounting is pretty much done and floor is temporarily installed. Seat brackets should get finished up in the next week. After that I think we will be ready to get it down off the dolly to prep it for go-karting!

34790 34791

We also temporarily installed the dash so we could get the wire routing finalized.

Larry

[metros]

I can relate to the ups and downs of feeling like you're progressing toward a final product. Looks like it's really coming along though. Keep plugging away and you'll be fitting the body in no time.

[K3LAG]

Last night was very productive. The floor, seats and seat belts are all installed now. Oh, and a nice orange shift knob.

I'll post a more detailed post on the seat install next, but here's some pictures of everything in place and a few grins to boot.

35092 35093 35094

Should only be one or two building sessions away from go-karting now.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Here are the details of my seat install.

Sparco Chrono Road Medium size with Sparco sliders
Boyd Tank and firewall moved back accordingly

Goal: Mount the seats as low as possible in the back and a few inches higher in the front for a comfortable slightly bent leg position. Since Dave and I are several inches different in inseam we need the seats to slide a couple of inches.

The rear of the fixed rail of the slider are bolted directly to the side-to-side bar of the frame. Since the front of the seats are elevated, I made shims to go between the frame and sliders and between the slider and nut so the nut and slider would be fully supported even thought the slider is mounted at an angle.

With our planned rise of about 2 inches, the front the shims needed to be made at an 8 degree angle. Here are the shims:

35095

The wider ones go between the slider and frame and the narrower ones go between slider and nut.

I made brackets to support the front of the sliders about 2 inches above the frame. The brackets are made from 1" thick walled tubing. The thicker wall probably isn't really needed, but since the ends are unsupported I opted for the extra strength. The top plates that the slider bolts to are 3/16" thick x 1" bar. The top plates are also angled at 8 degrees. Here are the brackets that support the front of the seats:

35096

Here is two views of the brackets and sliders installed:

35097 35098

In the top view you can see how the back of the sliders is attached to the frame with the shims and how the front is bolted to the frame. The view from the foot well shows you how they are inclined in the front and how it fits with respect to the frame.

After these were taken I shortened the slider handles to provide a bit more clearance with the diagonal bar.

I hope this helps someone else trying to figure out how to mount their seats if they are in a similar situation.

Larry

[Frank818]

Better welds than my mech, hey? lolll

Nice seat belt color! Did you ever mention where you got them?

[K3LAG]

Better welds than my mech, hey? lolll

Nice seat belt color! Did you ever mention where you got them?

I've always wanted to learn how to weld so I used this as an excuse to take a welding class from the local community college. It was a bit expensive but well worth it. About 36 hours of training over 6 weeks. Those are my first welds other than the practice plates we used in class and some practice I did with some of the scraps from the bracket parts.

If you have the option of taking a class like that, I recommend it. It's certain possibly to learn on your own and practice, but the engineer in me like to know the right way to do it. The hour long lecture on welding symbols probably won't be all that useful for me, but it's interesting nonetheless.

The seat belts are from seatbeltsplus.com, the same place aloha818 got his.

Larry

[Frank818]

Larry, which model you got? 3-point non-retracable with 6in buckle?
Thing is I can't find one that has a black latch like your. They are chrome.

[K3LAG]

Larry, which model you got? 3-point non-retracable with 6in buckle?
Thing is I can't find one that has a black latch like your. They are chrome.

I got the 3-point retractable with contoured sleeve. However, the sleeves kind of got in the way so I pulled the short section of belt and buckle out of the sleeves. If I were to order them again I would probably get the ones with the 12" cable on the buckle side.

Larry

[Frank818]

Ok I see. Surprisingly, they don't seem to retract on your picture, they are loose on the seats and firewall.

I'll check how long I need for a cable buckle and I'll order a set, I like the fact I can get them in electric blue to match my car, just what you did.

Did you have to order the 5 bucks installation hardware?

[K3LAG]

Ok I see. Surprisingly, they don't seem to retract on your picture, they are loose on the seats and firewall.

I'll check how long I need for a cable buckle and I'll order a set, I like the fact I can get them in electric blue to match my car, just what you did.

Did you have to order the 5 bucks installation hardware?

The retractor springs aren't real strong so the friction of them draping around the seat and the fact that they are buckled makes them look that way. When they have a body in them, the belts are pulled out further and the retractor pulls a little harder.

I ordered the hardware and used much of it. I used the L brackets to mount them to the frame and all the nuts and washers. I wanted some of the bolts to be different lengths so I bought a few. I think I had to buy a couple extra washers and nuts too. 7/16 bolts aren't cheap so $5/set isn't bad.

Larry

[Frank818]

Good to know. So with a body under, their retractable feature felt pretty much the same as OEM belts? I guess yes as they are certified for road use, according to them.

[K3LAG]

Well, technically it was yesterday. What great fun. I haven't driven a stick shift in about 22 years, so my shifts were a little sloppy. The sound in the video revealed a rattle that neither Dave or I heard while driving. I had temporarily wire tied some things to the frame in a few spots to keep things from floppy around and I think something was hitting the frame. Probably a connector.

Here's the video: https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A4G4TcsmGYpJUI;B68FC8F2-E1BE-48C6-A707-39C90877C230

Larry

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Great Job Larry,
What's your plan for the tablet screen?
Bob

[K3LAG]

What's your plan for the tablet screen?


Stereo, Navigation and in theory Obd2 based display using dash command. Dash Command is causing me some trouble though. About half the time it gets OBD2 protocol errors. I have heard both that it's a Subaru issue or that it's an issue with Cobb tuned Subarus. Still looking into it.

Larry

[AZPete]

Congrats, Larry, on the smooth go-kart trip . . . no smoke, flames, dropped parts nor tow strap! I'm planning on a tablet also so I'll be watching your OBD2 solution.

[wleehendrick]

Hi Larry,

I just starting to tackle my wiring harness, and have found your tutorial invaluable. Do you plan to finish Part 4 (http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?12055-The-Savage-build-thread&p=152341&viewfull=1#post152341)? I think the 4 part series would be useful enough that you should copy it over to a new thread in the Electrical section and have a moderator sticky it up top, so everyone will benefit from the effort you went to to document it.

Thanks,

Lee

[K3LAG]

Hi Larry,

I just starting to tackle my wiring harness, and have found your tutorial invaluable. Do you plan to finish Part 4 (http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?12055-The-Savage-build-thread&p=152341&viewfull=1#post152341)? I think the 4 part series would be useful enough that you should copy it over to a new thread in the Electrical section and have a moderator sticky it up top, so everyone will benefit from the effort you went to to document it.

Thanks,

Lee

I should do that one day. I've just been busy with other things. Maybe I'll try to do it over the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Nothing major to report.

AWIC installed and system filled an bled.
New wheel studs and spacers installed.
And we have started to install the body.

Here are a couple of progress pics:

36488 36489 36490

Larry

[AZPete]

You'll want to cut the flat excess off the front of the side body panel (sail). When the manual say to place it 5/8" back from the front of the frame tube, they mean after trimming it so the front is perpendicular to the frame - see the manual photo. I'll try to postbag photo later if I have one.

edit: here's photo. I guess leaving some of the flange on would be good, just measure from the right place.
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb180/AZPeteCobra/sidesaillowerposition.jpg (http://s210.photobucket.com/user/AZPeteCobra/media/sidesaillowerposition.jpg.html)

Dan (RM1Sepex) found that when properly positioned the side panels are 8 inches from the rear door opening to the frame, as pictured:
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb180/AZPeteCobra/sidesailupperposition.jpg (http://s210.photobucket.com/user/AZPeteCobra/media/sidesailupperposition.jpg.html)

[Bob_n_Cincy]

You'll want to cut the flat excess off the front of the side body panel (sail). When the manual say to place it 5/8" back from the front of the frame tube, they mean after trimming it so the front is perpendicular to the frame - see the manual photo. I'll try to postbag photo later if I have one.
Pete'
would it hurt to leave 5/8" of that flange?
Bob

36517

[K3LAG]

We took the flange into account when we measured and positioned it. We will trim it off after we determine it's final location. We need to trim the door opening too. Once it is all in place we will mark all the areas where it needs trimmed with a sharpie then take it off and trim everything. I don't think we are going to cut it all the way back as is shown in the manual. I think we may leave a bit of that front edge, but it won't overhang the firewall and probably will be just a little short of it. It looks like Wayne left a bit of that flange on his. I haven't dug through the threads to look at others to see how much, if any, they have left.

Larry

[AZPete]

I should have thought about leaving some of the flange.
Larry, can you see the Ipad in bright sunlight? I'd like to put an Ipad into my console but I'm worried it might be hard to read the screen.

[K3LAG]

On our one test drive it seemed like the iPad was going to be a problem reflection wise. However I had polarized sunglasses on which can be a problem depending on orientation and direction of polarization. I will probably put a matte screen protector on it which will help some, but I don't know if it will be enough. I may have to fabricate a visor to reduce the glare, but I'm going to wait to figure that out. I'll let you know when I have more data, but it might be a while at this point.

Larry

[Frank818]

Polarized sunglasses are hard to counterbalance. I have a pair that I use when it's sunny and my matte screen on my old laptop cannot get through. I don't think the finish type of the screen will make a difference. Unless there exist screen made for polarized sunglasses.

[K3LAG]

Polarized sunglasses are hard to counterbalance. I have a pair that I use when it's sunny and my matte screen on my old laptop cannot get through. I don't think the finish type of the screen will make a difference. Unless there exist screen made for polarized sunglasses.

I agree, I don't think any screen film will fix the polarized sunglass problem. I was just trying to say that I had polarized sunglasses on, so I couldn't tell how bad the glare was or wasn't. At best, if you can get the polarizations lined up to about the same angle you could keep the polarized lenses from making it worse, but that's not too likely to happen.

In my Grand Cherokee the built in NAV/Audio display nearly completely disappears when I have my sunglasses on. I think they are both polarized and in opposite directions so it just turns into a black rectangle. With my sunglasses on I can only read the display if I turn my head enough for the two polarizations to line up more closely, which is awful hard to do while watching the road and probably looks really goofy to other drivers.

All that being said, I wouldn't give up my prescription polarized sunglasses to solve the problem.

Larry

[wleehendrick]

FYI... a quarterwave retardation film will do the trick to making a linearly polarized display visible through poalrized glasses. It circularizes the output polarization making the glasses absorb 50% of the light regardless of orientation... the difficulty is laminating it cleanly.

You would think automakers would get this right by now, but the display polarization of the stereo lcd in my wife's 135i is oriented improperly... Frustrating in this day and age, especially since all the other displays are circularized. You have to twist your head to read it if you have polarized glasses on (which I prefer for driving).

[wleehendrick]

PS the retardation axis needs to be at 45deg with respect to the linear polarataion axis of the lcd to properly circularize it. PM me if you want to try it.

PPS... Heres how it works:

http://www.apioptics.com/quarter-wave-retarders.html

[K3LAG]

PS the retardation axis needs to be at 45deg with respect to the linear polarataion axis of the lcd to properly circularize it. PM me if you want to try it.

PPS... Heres how it works:

http://www.apioptics.com/quarter-wave-retarders.html

I read that web page and, to the degree that I understand it, it sounds pretty cool. I'll have to keep that in mind as I get closer to getting it back out of the garage in the spring.

Larry

[K3LAG]

We have been rethinking color lately. We are sticking with all of the Orange trim, it's mostly all completed at this point anyway. However we are leaning toward changing the body color. The original plan was to paint it white with a light coat of orange pearl over top of it. The thought was the orange pearl would accent the orange trim nicely and it wouldn't be just 'plain' white. On further reflection I started to think the bright white paint with the bright orange trim wouldn't look right. The best way that I can describe it is that the brightness of the white would kind of obscure the orange trim.

So, I think we are going to drop the pearl and go for a more subdued color. Right now we are leaning toward 2009 Porsche Cream White.

36548

Everyone I've bounced it off of so far likes the idea. Also, it will be cheaper to paint and easier to match if ever needed.

Larry

[wleehendrick]

We are sticking with all of the Orange trim

Right now we are leaning toward 2009 Porsche Cream White.

Orange and Cream? Yummy...

36549

Just kidding; I think it'll pop!

[K3LAG]

Finished trimming and mounting the side pods today. Will mount the rear bumper tomorrow. I pulled out the aluminum pieces that block off the back of the front fenders and test fit them. For them to fit properly you do have to trim the flange on the front of the side pods all the way back.

36709 36710 36711

Larry

[Frank818]

Interesting dash, completely different than the one I have. Mine is one piece.

Second thing, was there a gap between your passenger side dash bracket and the dash itself? Or the dash slides right under the bracket?

[K3LAG]

Interesting dash, completely different than the one I have. Mine is one piece.

Second thing, was there a gap between your passenger side dash bracket and the dash itself? Or the dash slides right under the bracket?

I have the older fiberglass dash rather than the newer plastic one. I didn't know the new one is one piece. Mine came assembled, but remove three nuts and washers and the two parts come apart. My brackets aligned fine.

Larry

[Frank818]

Ok there are 3 versions of the dash then. The FB (which I wasn't aware of), the plastic one-piece (40 bucks at FFR) and the padded dash (450 or so?). I believe the latter is also one-piece.

[K3LAG]

Been working with some weight, strong duck tape and heat from IR lamp and the body is slowly taking it's shape again.

In the mean time, I got the rear lights wired:

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A4G4TcsmGYpJUI;B8339512-DE7E-4ABE-A1E7-9A0F10866775

Also, I got a 3D printer for Christmas. That should make for some fun.

Larry

[K3LAG]

We worked on the fit of the front engine cover the other day. We had to to trim quite a bit around the roll bar to get enough clearance. Much like Wallace18 did on the orange car he built.

We were disappointed that it didn't fit better, but once we had it all trimmed it actually looked pretty decent.

37163

With the cardboard tube removed, we have about 1/16" clearance between the cover and roll bar.

Also, we discovered that the right and left humps on the engine cover are not completely symmetrical. These two pictures show the template we made on the drivers side held up to both sides. As you can see, the passenger side hump is shaped differently than the driver side one.

37190 37189

Larry

[K3LAG]

It's been a while since I posted an update. We have been slowly working on the body. Things are basically fitting in place but we still have to do some more trimming and fitting to get nice gaps.

The passenger side door is done and the driver side in about half done. Next week we will finish the driver door. Once the doors are in place we should be able to finish up fitting the rear panels since they have to match the height of the doors. Then we move to the front.

Here are a few progress pics...

38488 38489 38490

Oh, the rear lights are working too...

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A4G4TcsmGYpJUI;B8339512-DE7E-4ABE-A1E7-9A0F10866775

Larry

[K3LAG]

Nothing too much to report this week. 2nd door is installed. Next we will get all of the rear panels lined up with the doors and each other.

38759

Larry

[K3LAG]

We have the rear panels and doors pretty much all in place now. We will still need to do a bit of sanding and filling to clean up the corners and gaps, but we are happy with the fit now. We will move on to the front end this week.

39327 39328 39329

Larry

[Tamra]

Looks great!

[K3LAG]

Thanks Tamra. Alway nice to get some positive feedback.

Here are tonights pictures. The windshield is mounted and the front body panels are sitting in place. Nothing is really fit yet. It's all just clamped in place so we could figure out how to attack it.

39366 39367

The only trimming we've done so far is the trimming the nose to fit around the radiator support.

Played with the new air saw for the first time. What fun. It's going to make things a bit easier than the tools we used on the back.

Larry

[metros]

Looking really good! I'm surprised they're fitting that well without much trimming.

[K3LAG]

Looking really good! I'm surprised they're fitting that well without much trimming.

The distance from the car hides a lot. There is plenty of trimming and work to do yet.

Larry

[metalmaker12]

Looking good!

[Wayne Presley]

Looking great Larry!

[Mitch Wright]

Very Nice

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Hi Larry
Body look good. I started working on the headlights today.
Maybe we can compare notes, when you try them.
Bob

[K3LAG]

Thanks for the compliments everyone.


Hi Larry
Body look good. I started working on the headlights today.
Maybe we can compare notes, when you try them.
Bob

I tried figuring out how to fit the buckets with the front off the car, but nothing seemed to quite fit. I'm hoping that having things more in place will provide some additional context for how to get stuff mounted.

Do you have plastic or fiberglass light buckets? I have the plastic ones and all the write ups on the forum so far seem to be with the fiberglass ones. I'm not sure if it makes much difference in fit.

Larry

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Thanks for the compliments everyone.



I tried figuring out how to fit the buckets with the front off the car, but nothing seemed to quite fit. I'm hoping that having things more in place will provide some additional context for how to get stuff mounted.

Do you have plastic or fiberglass light buckets? I have the plastic ones and all the write ups on the forum so far seem to be with the fiberglass ones. I'm not sure if it makes much difference in fit.

Larry

Larry
I have chassis #21 and 22
I have one set of each kind. Tony at FFR says the plastics works better.
The FG are 10x stiffer, headlight fits in it better, but very difficult to manipulate things to get to fit the car..

The soft plastic can conform to the car much easier.

Both types hold the headlight pretty high requiring a lot of trimming to the eyebrow.

John G said he was going to try without buckets. I might try the same.
Bob

[K3LAG]

Did more work on the front end last night. Still a good bit to do.

We were having a hard time figuring out how high the hood should be compared to the windshield surround so we were a little perplexed as to where and how much to trim. We noticed that the amount of arch in the hood effects where the corners of the hood land but we didn't have a reference for how much it should be arched. I knew that the wiper kit supports the hood so I decided to go ahead and get it installed so we could use it as a reference for the hood height.

So the bottoms of the fenders are now attached and things are trimmed enough to get it close. We still need to attach the wiper kit trim piece to the hood then we will trim things to fit. Once that is all squared away we will do the headlight area.

39629 39630

Larry

[Wayne Presley]

Center the hood on the windshield, hold back edge of fender against edge of hood on each side, check how the fenders relate to the doors, slide hood/fenders to make door fitting the same right to left, make fender mounts to this position, make hood mounts/hold downs to match.

[K3LAG]

Center the hood on the windshield, hold back edge of fender against edge of hood on each side, check how the fenders relate to the doors, slide hood/fenders to make door fitting the same right to left, make fender mounts to this position, make hood mounts/hold downs to match.

That's the plan. The issue we are dealing with is that the top corners of the fenders and hood hit the windshield surround before they come together. So, we just have to work out how to trim and fit that area so it looks nice.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Things are progressing slowly lately. It seems we just have a lot of things going on Friday evenings which is our normal 818 time. I had hoped to have it on the road this spring, but I don't think it's going to happen.

I have gotten a few small things done.

Dash top is wrapped in vinyl:

40814

And exhaust from Breeze is installed:

40815 40816

The exhaust fit perfectly. Every bolt hole lined up, all the clearances are good and it's well centered under the car. I wish everything fit this well.

It's hard to tell how loud it is in the garage, but I think it's louder than I hoped. Once we have the car back on the ground I'll get some audio of it outdoors for those that are interested.

Larry

[Tamra]

Looks great!

[Kurk818]

That is a serious exhaust hanger bracket :eek:

[K3LAG]

That is a serious exhaust hanger bracket :eek:

It is indeed. It's a good thing it fit perfectly as it wouldn't have been any fun to try bend it.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Got engine cover hinges from Mike today and installed them this evening. They fit and work well.

41570

It looks like I am going to have to move my AWIC forward about 1.5" for the FFR trunk to fit. I will report how that works out once I get it done.

Larry

[matteo92065]

do you have the trunk yet? Please update us with your AWIC and trunk solutions and how they all fit. It looks like I'm doing the exact same set up as you.

[K3LAG]

do you have the trunk yet? Please update us with your AWIC and trunk solutions and how they all fit. It looks like I'm doing the exact same set up as you.

FedEx guy should be bringing my trunk today.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Trunk installed:

41814 41815

The mounting brackets with Mike's hinges work well.

We have the AWIC moved forward but are still working some plumbing issues. We have a plan, but need to get a few parts before finishing that up. I'll post the details once we complete it.

Larry

[K3LAG]

As promised here are some details on the moved AWIC. We have the AWIC setup from Very Cool Parts so it may be a bit different if you are using Zero DB's brackets/setup.

We were able to achieve about 3/4" clearance between the back of the AWIC and the trunk.

Here are the modified front brackets. They were re-bent and shortened a bit.

Passenger side:
42576
The bottom bolt is a difficult to get to because of the tight space and the way the bracket is bent.

Drivers side:
42577

Rear bracket and clearance:
42578 42581

Since moving the AWIC this far forward really reduced the space between the manifold and AWIC we had to move the BPV from between the two to the end of the AWIC. Wayne sent us a 2.5" metal tube with the connection for the BPV and a replacement 2" tube without the connection for the BPV. We ended up shortening the 2" tube by a couple of inches to make it all fit nice.

Here is the completed installation and location of BPV:
42579 42580

We have also been working on the inside door panels. Quik Latches for both rear covers and the headlights. Should be more to report on all those soon.

We are picking up a new right front fender when we are at the open house this weekend so hopefully that will fix our headlight problem. I'll report the results of that both here and over in the body sub-forum.

Larry

[Tamra]

Looks good!

[K3LAG]

It's been quite some time since I posted an update. We have been working on various miscellaneous things, but most of our time has been on the headlights.

I have been working on my design for the front of the center console I will build. One of the things I am installing in the center console is a ham radio. Ham Radio Outlet had a sale on Kenwood TM-D710G radios that I could pass up so I removed my older 710 from the Jeep and installed the 710G in it's place. The older 710 will go in the 818. I wasn't liking the idea of the display head stick out of the dash or center console so I wanted to find a way to mount it more flush. I designed and 3D printed a 'socket' that when flush mounted with the face of the console will only show the front 1/4" or so, plus the knobs, of the face plate. Here is one of the prototypes of the mount:

44003

I want to print the final version in ABS instead of PLA so it will withstand the heat in the car better so I've been working on some upgrades to my printer to make it perform better with ABS. You will all have to wait to see the center console when it's done to see the final result. :cool:

I posted an update to the thread I started over in the body subforum and here is most of the same information:

After two months of fiddling, fitting, refitting and changing a part or two, plus a week in Ireland, I finally have the headlights fitting to my satisfaction.

My initial problem was definitely the shape of the top of the fender above where the light mounting tab is. That point was too low and wouldn't allow the light and fender to fit because of the lack of clearance. After sharing a bunch of pictures with FFR and having a few phone discussions with Vinny, FFR decided that the best course of action was to make me a new fender. We picked up the new fender at the open house (sort of, but that's another story)

Once we got the new fender, we started fitting the passenger side over again. The new fender had the same clearance problem that the first one did. In fact it might have been a bit worse. However, since the fender was just out of the mold a few days, we were able to use a bit of heat and clamps to get the fender into the shape it needed to be and we ended up with about the same amount of clearance above the mounting tab on each side and had pretty good gaps around the lights.

We weren't able to get the inside corner of the fender down as close to the front bumper as we wanted, but the application of some more clamps and heat, plus a few adjustments and we ended up in a happy place. Here are some pictures:

440044400544006

A few tricks we learned along the way:

1. It's important to get the light far enough outward so that the 'tip' of the fender clears it to get the gap as small as possible. You may also need to clearance the back of the fender tip if it is thick there.

2. If you can't get the 'tip' where you want it double check your fitting of the two bolts where the fender meets the nose at the wheel well. We removed those two bolts and adjusted the 'tip' to where we wanted it. Then we discovered that if we adjusted the bolt locations for the fender to nose connection by just a little it improved the fit of the 'tip' quite a bit.

3. Also, you can make slight adjustments in the position of the light by loosening the bolt in the top bracket of the light and moving it around a little since the hole is a good bit bigger than the bolt.

4. Wait to drill the bottom hole that attaches the light to the bucket until after you are happy with everything else. Small errors in the location of this bolt can significantly effect the fit of the light.

Now that is all is fitted. We have no need for any trim at the top of the lights and a fairly small gap at the bottom. The bottom gap varies from close to 0 to 3/16 at the worst. The headlights aren't wired yet, but I'll let you all know how the aim looks once I get to that point.

Larry

[K3LAG]

I got a bit of work done last night.

Charcoal canister installed:

44256

And, front lights wired:

44257 44258

Larry

[Frank818]

Nice blue color!
Oh, that's the tape making them look blue. Sorry. loll

[K3LAG]

Nice blue color!
Oh, that's the tape making them look blue. Sorry. loll

I thought about taking the tape off, but we have re-taped them about 3 times and I didn't feel like doing it again.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Another month has gone by and we have made a fair bit of progress. We now have all the body panels fitting to my satisfaction. We agonized over how to get the hood to fit and how much trimming it seemed like we were going to have to do for quite a while. I decided to try spacing the the fenders up a little and that made all the difference in the world. I put a 3/8" tall delrin spacer between the rear fender mount and the fender. With that done, the tips of the hood only needed minor trimming.

Here is how the corners ended up. The drivers side fender had a hunk of gel coat pop off the corner so we will have to fix that.

45303 45304

I wasn't happy with how the hazard switch sticks out so much the way FFR recommends installing it so I 3D printed a mount for it and am installing that in the dash.

45306 45305

I still need to do a little final clean up work to finish this, but I'm pretty happy with it. I'm glad I have the older fiberglass dash, this stuff would be a lot harder with one of the newer plastic dashes.

We have begun installing the aluminum splash guards and working down our punch list of things to do. I had hoped we would have the car registered before the weather turns cool, but I don't think we will make it. I was hoping to shake it down for a few weeks before we took the body back off for painting over the winter. We'll have it ready for the spring though.

Also, I picked up some parts from the powder coater today. I decided to change the mesh on the vent openings to something that would let more air through and look a bit more unique. The frames had been previously powder coated with the mesh FFR provided but when I decided to switch to the different mesh I needed to get it coated to match. I also had my hood hinges coated at the same time.

45307 45308 45309

It feels like we are in the home stretch, but we still have a lot of details to work on.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Oh yeah, Dave finished most of the Dynamat in the interior as well. We still have to decide if we are going to do the tunnel or not. We probably will.

45316

Larry

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Oh yeah, Dave finished most of the Dynamat in the interior as well. We still have to decide if we are going to do the tunnel or not. We probably will.
Larry

Hi Larry,
The Dynamat looks great. They are a local company for me. I am using some dynamat and some of their thermal barrier on my firewalls.

My car has 1/4" of standing water under the seats right now, as I got caught out in the rain yesterday. I am going to add a 3/8" hole in each corner of my floor aluminum.
Bob

[K3LAG]

Hi Larry,
My car has 1/4" of standing water under the seats right now, as I got caught out in the rain yesterday. I am going to add a 3/8" hole in each corner of my floor aluminum.
Bob

I was considering doing something like that as well. I must have pulled the drain plugs in my Wrangler at least once or twice a summer. I might consider making them a little larger and sticking a rubber plug in them.

Larry

[RM1SepEx]

What color PC is that? I'm using RAL2008 IIRC

[K3LAG]

It is RAL 2008. OZ confirmed for me that RAL 2008 is the color they use on their Alleggerita HLT wheels which I am using. Parts in that color so far are:

Intake manifold
Cam covers
Alternator
Coolant expansion tank
Door aluminum and handles
All the vents
Front hinges (I may do the rears some day)
Hella horn grills

and to be painted to match: Dashboard, mirrors, rear spoiler and trim around wipers.

The splitter and side skirts will not get painted as they are the newer carbon pieces and I figure they'll just get chipped up anyway. The spoiler is the original fiberglass one and needs to be painted.

Larry

[Westview]

I really love your paint scheme Larry! If I didn't live so close, I would probably copy it.

[K3LAG]

I really love your paint scheme Larry! If I didn't live so close, I would probably copy it.

Thanks. Are you making much progress on yours?

We'll have to have you over some time soon. We have learned so many things that we can show you that should make your life easier.

Larry

[Westview]

Originally I figure it would take me 2 or 3 years to build my car. At this rate I may not live long enough to see if finished. Right now I'm getting ready to see if my air compressor is up to the task of sand blasting my brake calipers.

[K3LAG]

It's been a productive few weeks. The body is essentially completely installed now. All that is left to do is cut the openings for the vents and install the quick latches for the trunk. All that will be left will be body work and paint on the body.

The windshield frame is being painted and we should get it back from the shop this week.

We have installed a lot of the front aluminum and the rest is ready to be installed.

Tonight we finished the hood install. We used Mechie's hinges. Ignore the black tape. It's just left over from holding the hood in place while the epoxy set up for the stud plates.

46257 46258 46259

One extra step we did was to fill the area the hinges attached to the hood. I didn't really like how the flat hinges sat on the curved hood. Without doing some filling it put all the stress on the four small areas that the stud plates are attached too. Also if you over tighten the nuts you take a chance of deforming the shape of the hood a little or popping the stud plates off the fiberglass. I mixed a batch of thick epoxy using West Systems 105 with 404 High Density filler. I put a good size pile of epoxy on the hood under the hinge then bolted the hinges into place. I put tape on the hinges to keep the epoxy from coming through all the holes. Once the epoxy was cured we cleaned up the edges and reinstalled the brackets. Now the brackets contact the hood over a much larger area and the forces aren't all on those 4 points. Here is a picture of one of the brackets in place.

46260

Larry

[Frank818]

The gaps on your body are an absolute perfection. I just don't know what to say other than having my jaw opened to the floor.

Do you have pix of the moments you preped the epoxy, with tape and filling it? I'd really like to see that!

[K3LAG]

Frank,

I don't have any pictures of that. That much mass of epoxy with the filler in a relatively small cup cooks off pretty fast so I didn't have time to mess around.

I just took some blue painters tape and covered the bottom of the brackets so the epoxy wouldn't ooze through the holes or stick to the brackets. Then I dropped a big dollop of epoxy on the hood roughly between the two studs and put the bracket in place and put the nuts on. Then I shoveled some more epoxy under the edges of the bracket to fill it as much as possible. The epoxy and filler is mixed to about the consistency of peanut butter so once you get it where you want it, it doesn't flow on it's own. Then I just took a plastic stick with a rounded edge and smoothed the edges a bit so it would look good.

Once the epoxy was set up, but not cured, we took the brackets off. Once fully cured we cleaned up the rough edges, where the epoxy flowed around the brackets a bit, with a die grinder before final assembly.

It's a similar technique to what I use to bed rifle stocks except when I'm bedding rifles I don't take anything apart until it is fully cured. I also use a different kind of epoxy for that, usually Marine-Tex gray.

46305

Larry

[K3LAG]

Picked up my dash top from the upholstery shop last night.

46423 46424

Larry

[Canadian818]

Picked up my dash top from the upholstery shop last night.

46423 46424

Larry

Wow! That looks fantastic!

[Frank818]

Where on Earth did you get something as awesome as that dash?

[K3LAG]

Where on Earth did you get something as awesome as that dash?

The early dashes are two parts and made from fiberglass. When the two parts are assembled, they look basically the same as the current plastic/padded dash. But since it's two parts it's a lot easier to have some fun with it. The top portion is covered as shown and the bottom part will be painted the same orange as the rest of the trim on the car.

The downside to the fiberglass dash is that it needs more work to make it look good before it can be installed.

Larry

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Larry
what are the 2 knobs on the end of the dash.
Looks Good
Bob

[K3LAG]

Larry
what are the 2 knobs on the end of the dash.
Looks Good
Bob

They are the tweeters for the component speakers. The Low/Mid drivers are mounted in the kick panels just in front of the doors. You can see the hole for the left one in this picture just to the left of the clutch pedal.

46435

Larry

[K3LAG]

We are working through lots of miscellaneous jobs now. It got a bit more orange today!

46608

Larry

[svanlare]

Given I've settled on Orange as well, watching your build closely :-) Those panels are great, I assume powder coated like the rest or your orange parts.

[Frank818]

We are working through lots of miscellaneous jobs now. It got a bit more orange today!

46608

Larry

Cool!! That looks just like my KTM superbike colors! :)

[K3LAG]

Given I've settled on Orange as well, watching your build closely :-) Those panels are great, I assume powder coated like the rest or your orange parts.

Yes, all of the metal orange parts are powder coated. The mirrors, dash, rear spoiler, and hood/wiper trim piece will be painted the same orange to match. Eventually the body will be painted Cream White.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Tonight we painted the dash and other non-metal parts that match the powder coated parts. We got the paint from lowvolumepowder.com and it perfectly matches the RAL-2008 powder used on the metal trim parts.

47025 47026

Larry

[AZPete]

Nice. The holes in your spoiler are for LED lights? Can you show how you are putting them in?

[K3LAG]

Yes they are for LED's. I'm using this Velleman LED strip: LDB1-HS3018AR (http://www.vellemanusa.com/products/view/?id=524090
)

47031 47032 47033

Larry

[AZPete]

Great idea for 3rd brake light. Thanks, Larry.

[K3LAG]

Great idea for 3rd brake light. Thanks, Larry.

The hardest part is getting the 18 holes drilled with just the right spacing.

Larry

[RM1SepEx]

Tonight we painted the dash and other non-metal parts that match the powder coated parts. We got the paint from lowvolumepowders.com and it perfectly matches the RAL-2008 powder used on the metal trim parts.

47025 47026

Larry

www.lowvolumepowder.com no S on powder Larry

[K3LAG]

www.lowvolumepowder.com no S on powder Larry

Oops, thanks. I knew that, just typed it wrong for some reason. Fixed now.

Larry

[AZPete]

Thanks for the warning. I'll make a steel template with the holes spaced exactly on a drill press to avoid screwing up fiberglass.

[Frank818]

Very nice orange!

[svanlare]

very much looking forward to seeing this together!

[K3LAG]

Thanks for the warning. I'll make a steel template with the holes spaced exactly on a drill press to avoid screwing up fiberglass.

Make the holes a little oversized to account for the paint thickness if you are painting your spoiler. Normally I forget that kind of stuff but I remembered in this case. I can't remember how big I made them. I think I found a bit that made a hole that the LEDs fit snuggly into and then went one or two letter sized drills bigger. I drilled those holes a LONG time ago.

Larry

[K3LAG]

We have been poking away at our list. Not a whole lot to show as most of it is not obviously visible stuff.

However, I did wire the under dash lights today:

47835

Plan is to install the carpet and a lot of the interior over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Larry

[K3LAG]

Interior is shaping up nice.

48399

I think we have a good chance of finishing everything except bodywork and paint by the end of the calendar year.

Larry

[K3LAG]

We didn't get done by the end of December. Looks like it will take us a few more weeks. We are working through a list of odd jobs to get done before it can go to body work and paint. In the mean time, here is a picture of the prototype of the front plate for my center console. I've made a couple of changes since this one, but I'm waiting for my new 3D printer to come so I can print it as one piece.

49412

Larry

[K3LAG]

We've been getting some good work done. Thought I'd share one fun thing and one that might be useful to folks.

1. Since Wayne neglected to include a cool VCP sticker with my AWIC, I decided to make my own.

49757

Since I got chassis number 86 I had to include a Get Smart reference somewhere on the car. :cool:

2. There has been a few discussions about the fiberglass vs. aluminum tabs in the back used for the hood pins or latches for the rear cover. I didn't like the stiffness in either of the included options so I made some plates that hold Quik Latch buckets. The plates are attached to both the rear and side fiberglass so they are much more stiff than the tabs. Here are some pictures of what I did:

49759 49760

Our punch list is getting shorter by the work session. I think we will be done with the exception of bodywork and paint with just a handful more building sessions.

Larry

[Mechie3]

I like your quick latch mounts. I have several trunks and was planning to do something similar asy first one used pins.

[K3LAG]

I like your quick latch mounts. I have several trunks and was planning to do something similar asy first one used pins.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm really happy with them. Now I need to find someone that likes the brushed quik-mounts that doesn't have theirs yet so I can get some of the new orange ones. ;-)

Larry

[Frank818]

I am about to order 8 sets of quik latches, but I cannot figure out the use of the buckets? A simple flat bar fitted to both side and back FG like Wayne wouldn't hold the pins? Or is it cuz the pins' threads are too long and require to recess the pin which means a bracket that goes much lower?

At 10-11 bucks per bucket, I really want to make sure I understand what problem they are meant to fix. :)

[Wayne Presley]

My set up works fine.

[RetroRacing]

we used a flat piece of alum bar between the fender and rear, worked fine. The buckets are for panel to panel mounting I think.

[K3LAG]

As Wayne said, his solution works fine. The bottom of my latches barely go into the buckets, but they do go in a little bit. I personally think my solution looks more finished than just using a piece of bar,and since I have a trunk that mattered to me. My solution is certainly a little more work and costs more. The trunk is the only place I used buckets.

Sometimes I just can't do it the easy way.

Larry

[Frank818]

Larry, ok I understand! Makes a lot of sense. :)

[K3LAG]

I haven't posted any thing in a while. We are working on a bunch of odds and ends but are nearly done. Here is a few pictures.

51875 51876 51877 51878

Next update it will probably be on the ground with a completed interior. At that point it will basically be done except final bodywork and paint.

Larry

[K3LAG]

I used my new dual extruder 3D printer to make a custom 3rd brake light.

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Larry