Nuisance Build Thread

[nuisance]

Well, time to start a build thread! #154, an R. I am building it with the intent to autocross. I am hoping SCCA will be reasonable, so I'm building to X-Prepared rules.

Factory build date was 3/8/14. My fault, it was picked up late by Stewart, and finally made it out west mid April. In talking to Jolene, I learned that it was in a "railroad pack" (on a truck) to Phoenix, and then would be loaded on a truck for Colorado. Since I was in Tucson escaping the snow, I drove up to Phoenix and picked it up. Saved a few bucks, and had a trouble free delivery, loaded into my race trailer.

Now I have left Tucson for the summer, and I have the car in my barn in SW Colorado. Time to get to work.

29021

Face to face with the donor. After reading about the troubles people have with the wrecked, high milage cars, I bought a donor from a friend, a one owner Texas car.

Nice to meet ya'll!

Will fill in some details as I go.

John

[68GT500MAN]

I look forward to reading your build thread.
Doug

[longislandwrx]

welcome! did you weld a camera mount onto your main bar? that's commitment.

[STiPWRD]

Looks like a nice donor, good luck with the tear down

[nuisance]

welcome! did you weld a camera mount onto your main bar? that's commitment.

I did! I thought I would do other welding, like SixStar did, but I decided it was not necessary once everything is bolted together. I'm still thinking about a tow strap for the front for track days, and how I will tie the car down in the trailer.

Then it will be time to paint the frame.

[MrDude_1]

ok.. I know of another car guy that called himself Nuisance... He also lived in Colorado... and he hung out on 3GO.
I am still that guy... that uses ellipsies everywhere... (and I have the same username as 3GO...

[nuisance]

It has been a while, a week long trip, a two day autocross, but I have been working too. The donor is disassembled and the corpse removed. I am cleaning parts and putting together the axles etc.

As Rasmus wrote in his build thread, it would be nice to cut the CV housing off the front spindles. Easier said than done since the steel is hardened, not super hard, but harder than a normal axle to keep the wear in the CV down. Ideally a cut off saw with abrasive wheel could be used, but I don't have one. A band saw blade wouldn't last long, and even a carbide cutter in the lathe was going to take forever.

So, I chucked the spindle in the lathe, and then used a hand held die grinder with a cut off disc, and by spinning the spindle and cutting, it only took about 15 minutes per to cut the part through right behind the gears for the ABS sensor. Then I used a carbide cutter to turn the gears off and face the end.

From the pics in the manual, I guess this is approximately what Factory Five did.

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john

[RM1SepEx]

Mine look just like your's I cut them off with the lathe and faced them about the same amt

[nuisance]

Frame is painted. If you decide to paint it yourself, it is a lot of work. It took a lot to get all the mill oil off the steel, and then paint, rotate, and paint more.

But, I am happy that I got to do a little welding on it where I added some bracing (I always have to do a little engineering myself), and I didn't want black powder coat. The lighter color will show leaks better, and the thick powder coat hides small cracks (that can turn into bigger cracks).

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[nuisance]

I am going to move a couple things from other sections so it will all be in one place. First, my extra suspension mounts:

So I did it anyway. I do respect all you guys and your opinions, but when I had to drill the holes out to 5/8" because the spacing was off in the frame, I felt like that was too much slop, and I went ahead and made a top plate and welded it in.

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I am still on the anti-cantilever bolt campaign (I don't call it single shear with the spacers). These perches are OK when you're running street ride height, but throw in such thick spacers, and I see problems. So, I added some more bracing. Also, the lower perches have no triangulation to speak of, I imagine that is what led SixStar to do his welding.

If I had it to do again, I would use an 1 1/4" square tube across the front, and space the upper braces up, so I could adjust things a little with washers. Too late now though.

John

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[nuisance]

I have a 2002 wagon donor. I depowered the steering rack by turning down the piston, but still wanted to lock the slop out of the pinion shaft.

When I took it apart, I saw that there are flats on the input side of the shaft, and flats that the shaft fits into on the output side. I measured them and there is .030" slop, ie the output side is wider than the input side. So, the input can turn a little before the output turns, and that is when it unports the holes that send hydraulic pressure to the rack.

It was pretty easy to cut a couple of .015" shims to put between the flats on input and output to stop the slop. No welding necessary.

Here is a picture of the shims required. I cut them from an old feeler gage rather than ordering stock.

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Here is an end-on view of the shafts, the input is on the top, and you can see the flats, and how they fit into the output shaft.

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The next view shows how the shafts go together. I have one shim on top of the input shaft, and the other (hard to see) inside the end of the output shaft, so I can slide the two back together.

31041

Finally, the shaft is back together, and ready to reinsert into the rack.

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Since the shim stock is fairly hard, and the shims fill the entire space, I think this will last a long time. When I clamp the pinion gear in a vise, and turn the spine end, there is zero slop.

Good luck! John

[nuisance]

And now, some new progress

First, a KillerB pan installed...

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And today, a new timing belt, modified TGVs are also visible...

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Lots of little stuff too, I guess it will get there eventually.

john

[nuisance]

I had some qualms about aluminum rubbing on steel, so I used some leftover firewall insulation I had to pad between the beautiful Boyd tank and the frame.

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My timing belt kit came with some very exacting instructions for torqueing the bolt for the crankshaft pulley. I made a bar to bolt to the flywheel so I could torque it now.

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And, I was able to get the pedals mounted. Finally. If the rest of the kit takes this long I will never make my October deadline.

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Have fun, John

[Mechie3]

Just wait till wiring. Bleh

[Boog]

First, a KillerB pan installed...

31043


I love your DIY engine stand. Too often I get swept up in the "how its always been done" mentality to realize that there is often a faster, cheaper or more effective way to do things without much sacrifice. In this case losing some portability and bench space seems well worth saving a couple hundred bucks.

[nuisance]

Thanks Boog. I like that when I am finished with it, it won't take up much space.

Definitely not looking forward to wiring.

[nuisance]

It is nice to have a chain hoist

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Drill'em and fill'em!

[nuisance]

As Wayne said, the cumulative effect of coloring outside the lines...

31379

A couple of hours work and it will be good a new. The hours do add up though.

[nuisance]

I took a slightly different approach to fitting the firewall farther back. I cut the overlapping part of the upper piece, and then riveted it back on top after trimming.

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[AZPete]

John, I can appreciate your out-of-box methods for the rear firewall but hanging the chassis like a dead fish to rivet the belly pan is just plain cheating!

Your penalty should be 3 hours on your back with drill chips in your face.

[nuisance]

Well, I had to go back 3 pages to find my build thread. I guess I should update it more often, but I feel like I am just saying "yeah, me too". I will just post a few pics, and maybe it will help someone, or maybe someone will have a suggestion for me.

First, the type R frame does not get along with the type S sheet metal that is supplied. Here is how I solved the dead pedal area, with some scrap diamond plate I had.

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Here is a top view of the engine, a lot of the plumbing is done, I am waiting for the redesigned mounting parts for my Very Cool AWIC.

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Here is the exhaust I fabbed. I have been using the muffler for a couple of years on my S2000.

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And, here is is the passenger side panel. I thought it would be cool to see the tubing from inside.

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Happy building!

[nuisance]

I've been trying the body on for size. Hanging the nose showed me I needed to drop the intercooler radiator down, so it has been helpful.

Here is the rear with the exhaust. I am not seeing a reason for all these vents in the bodywork given that the engine and the intercooler are water cooled. Any opinions out there?

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[nuisance]

John, I can appreciate your out-of-box methods for the rear firewall but hanging the chassis like a dead fish to rivet the belly pan is just plain cheating!

Your penalty should be 3 hours on your back with drill chips in your face.

Ha Ha Pete. You came back four days later and gave me that sentence? Trust me, I have already served it many times over.

[Mechie3]

I'm not sure how air tight the rear is and if you'd want to open up the rear vents just to prevent drag.

[FFRSpec72]

I took a slightly different approach to fitting the firewall farther back. I cut the overlapping part of the upper piece, and then riveted it back on top after trimming.



But the angle where the upper and lower meet will be off now since you pushed it back

[nuisance]

I'm not sure how air tight the rear is and if you'd want to open up the rear vents just to prevent drag.

That is a good observation. I think I will wait until I have the fender skirts done and take another look.

[nuisance]

But the angle where the upper and lower meet will be off now since you pushed it back

I did not do a good job of explaining. What I did, after I set the lower piece back a couple of inches, was to lower the upper piece until it intersected the lower correctly. It was about 4 inches lower then. I then cut the overhang off so it would look right, and then I used the cutoff piece to extend the top of the upper firewall piece.

So, really, the difference is that the flat shelf is about 4" lower than before, and the lower part around the fuel tank is not so deep.

Thanks!

[nuisance]

Here is my version of a wing support structure. I tried to make as much use of the existing frame as possible. It is aluminum and weighs very little.

33211

[nuisance]

After looking at the wing brace some more, I added a couple of diagonals to support the middle. They roughly correspond to the front of the wing mount, and APR says some of the wings can produce 1650 pounds of downforce at 160 mph. I am not planning to go to the salt flats, but...

Also, the plan was always to use the brace to add support to the middle of the engine covers, so I clamped something there to look at that. It was always a requirement that the flap brace be low enough to not interfere with the forward engine cover as it swings open (the ends of the spider humps swing down 4 inches or so).

And, aiming for autocross, E-mod only allows a spoiler, and not a wing. But the spoiler can be 10 inches high, so that will put some force on the brace.

33324

[nuisance]

I decided such a fine automobile deserves some hinges instead of pins...

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34007

34008

[nuisance]

34581

[mikeb75]

That's pretty good! Looks like it swallowed a WRX (python style)

[longislandwrx]

are you going to merge the pieces you cut off the hump piece onto the quarters?

[nuisance]

are you going to merge the pieces you cut off the hump piece onto the quarters?

Yes, exactly. Picture will come next time it is together.

[metalmaker12]

Cool stuff

[longislandwrx]

Yes, exactly. Picture will come next time it is together.


Cool, I was thinking about doing that myself, pretty flimsy otherwise.

[nuisance]

Here is a picture of the quarter panel with part of the engine cover. It is attached with epoxy resin, and I added an extension to fill in the gap left by factory five under the roll bar brace.

35173

I will take another picture when it is together, I am wiring now.

I went this way because the piece that I cut off the engine cover had not been trimmed correctly by factory five, and would not fit over the roll bar. It took me a while to realize that it was simply trimmed wrong, and meanwhile I decided to hinge the engine cover so I could check oil and water, etc. More pics to come.

[nuisance]

Interior is coming together. I made a center panel and mounted the control panel from iWire.

35375

Wiring is about done. I couldn't have done it without Brian at iWire. He finished the harness on budget and a few days earlier than promised! And you can see from the picture, it is as tidy as can be.

I am doing a lot of filling and sanding these days. I hope to be able to post some pictures of an assembled car soon.

[wleehendrick]

Interior is coming together. I made a center panel and mounted the control panel from iWire.

Looks nice. I have the original fiberglass console, which I'll probably ditch for something similar. You don't, by chance, happen to have saved your template?


Wiring is about done. I couldn't have done it without Brian at iWire. He finished the harness on budget and a few days earlier than promised! And you can see from the picture, it is as tidy as can be.

Nice, I've talked to Brian about a harness for my S. I'm going to give it a shot myself first (since I'm over budget and like a challenge :p), but if it ends up being too much of a hassle, I'll have him do his magic.

[iWire]

Interior is coming together. I made a center panel and mounted the control panel from iWire.

35375

Wiring is about done. I couldn't have done it without Brian at iWire. He finished the harness on budget and a few days earlier than promised! And you can see from the picture, it is as tidy as can be.

I am doing a lot of filling and sanding these days. I hope to be able to post some pictures of an assembled car soon.

You're quite welcome John! Glad to be of service.

Is the foot rest on the right in the way of mounting the fuseboxes further to the edge?

http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag204/tekbroker/BRANDON-ALIEN/Pictures/818/P4170239_zpscb236133.jpg

[nuisance]

Looks nice. I have the original fiberglass console, which I'll probably ditch for something similar. You don't, by chance, happen to have saved your template?

wlee -- I dug the template out of the trash...I will try to use Sketchup or something to do better, but this gives an idea of the shapes. My fiberglass original resides in the county landfill.

35475

Brian, there is room there, but I didn't put it there...no particular reason. Is that bad?

[wleehendrick]

wlee -- I dug the template out of the trash...I will try to use Sketchup or something to do better, but this gives an idea of the shapes. My fiberglass original resides in the county landfill.

35475


Awesome... I wasn't asking for you to go to that much effort, but if you don't mind doing so and sharing your design, it would be greatly appreciated!

[Tamra]

Wow, considering you got your donor and your 818 in May... you're making pretty fast progress. We got our donor in May and spent all summer just working on it and cleaning up parts.

[nuisance]

Wow, considering you got your donor and your 818 in May... you're making pretty fast progress. We got our donor in May and spent all summer just working on it and cleaning up parts.

Thanks Tamra, its nice to be retired, and though I have many irons in the fire, I have been able to spend quite a few hours on this project.

[nuisance]

Is, if you live on a dirt road, wait until you can haul the car to pavement to try out the go cart routine. I have gravel in my ears, shoes, and every possible nook and cranny of the car.

But, it was fun!

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[Bob_n_Cincy]

Is, if you live on a dirt road, wait until you can haul the car to pavement to try out the go cart routine. I have gravel in my ears, shoes, and every possible nook and cranny of the car.

But, it was fun!

35582

Great picture,
Do you mind sharing you wheel and tire information.
Thanks
Bob

[iWire]

Is, if you live on a dirt road, wait until you can haul the car to pavement to try out the go cart routine. I have gravel in my ears, shoes, and every possible nook and cranny of the car.

But, it was fun!

35582

Awesome!

[nuisance]

Great picture,
Do you mind sharing you wheel and tire information.
Thanks
Bob

All are Hoosier A6
Front - 225-40 R17 on 17x8 +40 offset
Rear - 275-35 R17 on 17x9 + 40 offset

I have 10mm spacers on the rear.

None of them actually fit.

In the front, the tires are spec'd to be 23.8" in diameter, but they hit the front fenders quite badly. I made 1.5" spacers for the shocks to stop that for now, but eventually I'll have to flair the fenders. I think this is what we saw on factoryfive's video of the red race car when the front tires smoked under heavy braking.

In the rear, the spacers make it so the tires hit the fenders and the frame at the same time. So, I made 1" spacers for the shocks there.

Long term, I will have to do the fiberglass work, but right now I would like to autocross and track day the car a little.

[nuisance]

So, back to itchy fiberglass...

Here are pics of the engine cover, and the way I cut it , and added to the rear quarters so that it would open easily.

I didn't like the gap under the roll bar tube, so

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Then, the engine cover swings up on hinges

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And finally, just showing off a minimal interior

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There is just a little gravel here and there for character.

[thall818]

Nice. Pretty work!

[nuisance]

Awesome... I wasn't asking for you to go to that much effort, but if you don't mind doing so and sharing your design, it would be greatly appreciated!

If you PM me an email address, I will send you a PDF

[longislandwrx]

I didn't think that front aluminum attached to the front assembly, I believe it attaches to the bottom aluminum. I could be wrong though.

[nuisance]

I didn't think that front aluminum attached to the front assembly, I believe it attaches to the bottom aluminum. I could be wrong though.
hmmm, not sure what you mean.

[nuisance]

Here she is, on the scales. 1872 lbs. I will have to rename it the model 851. One seat and one gallon of gas.

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See Jerome's signature as far as being done goes.

[Mechie3]

Painted or wrapped? How much body sanding/filling did you do?

[STiPWRD]

Wow congrats! I wasn't so sure about the baby blue frame but it all comes together with the body on. Great job!

[Scargo]

Very nice! Please share your corner balance numbers.

I see others are discussing finish. It talked to a guy about that this weekend. He suggested that for racing I use Plastidip paint.I'm wondering if that would be heavy finish?

[FFRSpec72]

Here she is, on the scales. 1872 lbs. I will have to rename it the model 851. One seat and one gallon of gas.


Looks fantastic, great job, nice final weight also, is that paint or wrap on the body ?

[Santiago]

One pic!! One pic!! Are you kidding me?!? :o

She's too pretty to be treated so crudely. We respectfully request more. Lots.

And I love the door treatment - THAT is how you do it (or at least that's the direction I was also thinking; good confirmation of concept). Very nice indeed.

Best,
-j

[wleehendrick]

Love the Gulf Oil livery!

[nuisance]

Painted or wrapped? How much body sanding/filling did you do?

It is paint. It is Sherwin Williams single stage, and I think I have about $800 in all the materials. I did what seemed like a lot of filling and sanding, but really, I think I got a pretty good set of body panels. I did have to build up the corners. The panels are not all that flat, but I left them that way. I can sympathize with those (like Honalulu hana ) who were looking for OEM, but this is pretty good for a race car. I still need to do some wet sanding and buffing.

I don't know anything about Plastidip.

Corner balance -- I was able to get very close to equal cross weights. Front to rear about 42/58.

Thanks all! More pics coming.

[nuisance]

Here are a few new pics. Going to the tuner next week, track soon I hope.

36427364283642936430

[Tamra]

That car definitely makes a statement. Great job! I bet you can't wait to really drive it.

[icky]

Let me know when you track it, I want to come watch.

[Frank818]

I never realized how awesome a job you did on that car.
And your deck lid shocks are making me jealous!!!!! Which post mentions details about what they are and what you did to make them fit?

[nuisance]

First, thanks for the nice comments. Frank, I will put together a post on the engine cover system.

So yesterday I drug the lil' monster down for a tune

Dyno results (Mustang dyno at PSI Performance in Tucson) 296 RWHP. 252 ft-lbs torque.

On E85
internally stock 2.0L (he offers to build me one like Tamra and XXXguitarist ... you guys must have made a good choice!)
Stock headers with Perrin up pipe
16G turbo
home made exhaust (minimal muffler)
homemade short ram intake
Very Cool Wayne's AWIC (115*F after numerous pulls at 70 degrees ambient)

The DAM showed the ecu was not completely happy...pulling some timing at times. The knock sensor showed 0, injector duty cycles around 70%, 17.7 psi. The tuner was unsure why the DAM problem...any ideas?

It runs and sounds really good, and the tuner feels it is safe to run, so as soon as I get my datalogging working I will take it out and see what happens.

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[nuisance]

Well, back on page 3 again... It is time to end this build thread (I guess I'm in maintenance mode now). On Sunday I ran my first autocross. I was very tentative as a driver, and didn't do well, but it was a ton of fun. After the first couple of runs I took a second off my time each run. I could easily break the tires loose in second gear unless I was careful. Brake bias needs some work. The Boyd fuel tank seemed to be fuel starving at 1/3 full, adding fuel fixed it.

The good news is that the data logger showed no change in oil pressure during a run. This with a Killer B pan and pickup, but no Accusump or dry sump.

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Wrap up: specs--
'02 WRX donor
aluminum LCAs
Front - 225-40 R17 on 17x8 +40 offset
Rear - 275-35 R17 on 17x9 + 40 offset
16G turbo
ACT lightweight flywheel and street clutch
Very Cool Wayne's AWIC kit
iWire harness
stock brakes
Perrin up pipe, stock headers
homemade intake


Overall, I feel that at the price, the Factory Five kit is an OK deal. The quality level is abysmal, but with enough work a builder can make up for that and build a decent kit car. It will never be any more than a kit car however. I do believe that the most used expression around Factory Five is "good enough".

Best of luck to you all, thanks for all the tips and support. You feel like family!

John

[Mitch Wright]

Nice Build John

[AZPete]

John, nicely done. Do you have a photo of the bottom (body side) of your front hood hinges? I have the photo you posted of the hinges where you attached them to the hood but I can't figure out the bottom part. Thanks! Again, nice work!

[Tamra]

Any videos from autox?

The car looks great.

[nuisance]

John, nicely done. Do you have a photo of the bottom (body side) of your front hood hinges? I have the photo you posted of the hinges where you attached them to the hood but I can't figure out the bottom part. Thanks! Again, nice work!

Thanks Pete. Here is the pic I have, I'm not exactly clear on what you're asking. The bottom of the hinges bolt onto the wing support (see post 28)

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Thank you Tamra too. My camera battery died halfway through, but I will look and try to get some sort of video up.

[Brando]

The Boyd fuel tank seemed to be fuel starving at 1/3 full, adding fuel fixed it.

I am having the same issue. Kind of sketchy having sudden oversteer as your throttle cuts out cornering hard in 4th. I found that if I start a 20 min session with a 1/2 tank i'm going to have issues.

Sick build. I was curious about your front fender rub. Are you still limiting the shock travel with spacers? My fender rubbing went away with -3* camber.
Best of luck with your future track days.

[Scargo]

Interesting that you have no openings cut in the body other than the hood. Autocrossing with a KB pan should be fine. I think it's only when you see ten seconds or more of high Gs that you might see oil starvation.
Nice build. Good luck!

[nuisance]

I am having the same issue. Kind of sketchy having sudden oversteer as your throttle cuts out cornering hard in 4th. I found that if I start a 20 min session with a 1/2 tank i'm going to have issues.

Sick build. I was curious about your front fender rub. Are you still limiting the shock travel with spacers? My fender rubbing went away with -3* camber.
Best of luck with your future track days.

Yes, I still have the blocks on the shock shafts. Even with 3* camber, when I took the springs off and swung the wheels, they hit the fender hard. Without the blocks, the only thing saving it is the stiff shocks, and the potential is there, as we saw in Factory Five's last race video.

[FFRSpec72]

So, back to itchy fiberglass...

Here are pics of the engine cover, and the way I cut it , and added to the rear quarters so that it would open easily.


We were playing with the lids last night and came to same conclusion that it needed to be cut and then Mechie3 pointed out you had already been through this, so what is holding down the cut piece around the roll cage down tube? Is that just bonded to the fender now ? Also what is holding down the front most lid (the one you added hinges) ?

[Kurk818]

Do you mind filling us in on what adhesive you used to attach the hinge to the fiberglass?

[nuisance]

We were playing with the lids last night and came to same conclusion that it needed to be cut and then Mechie3 pointed out you had already been through this, so what is holding down the cut piece around the roll cage down tube? Is that just bonded to the fender now ? Also what is holding down the front most lid (the one you added hinges) ?

Yes, it is just bonded to the fender. The front of the engine cover is held on with a piece of piano hinge (stainless, with a 3/16" pin, from Aircraft Spruce).

Kurk, I use West System six-ten adhesive for all of this