Art's 818 build

[aquillen]

INDEX

107 Acorns in cooling system
102 Battery cable end crimper - DIY
29_ Beading tool for larger pipes
55_ Beading tool for smaller pipes
56_ Bending aluminum tubing
108 Body - Clamshell hood
168 Body - Clamshell hinge
195 Body - Clamshell lock
196 Body - Clamshell anti-drop slowdown device
197 Body - Clamshell motion control components
256 Body - closing the sides behind seats
254 Body - coupe roof intake air channels - fixing leaks
216 Body - doors - windows seal
253 Body - Headliner and Console
241 Body - Louvers - hood
249 Body - Overhead console from Saturn Aura
266 Body - Painted
274 Body - How much paint
276 Spoiler - wing
245 Body - visors and overhead console
67_ Carbon fiber intake
95_ Carbon fiber airbox details w/variable induction valve
136 Consol/Dashboard customization / vinyl covering
281 Dash area wiring layout
215 Cruise control lever on steering wheel
59_ Customizing Subaru combo meter
159 & 281 Ducts for airflow under dash
41_ Exhaust header clearance for EZ30D
46_ Exhaust curled up
258 Exhaust shields
314 Exhaust version 4 - finally no drone
195 Fiberglass - epoxy bonding tests
178 First drive
90_ First start
43_ Floor pan oil canning fix
34_ Fuel tank build
163 Glove box
239 Headlight buckets
287 Headlight cover lenses - no screws, no paint mounting
337 Headlight bucket and projectors - gaskets
238 Intake air filters - carbon fiber
283 Interior finished
40_ Motor mounts for EZ30D
151 Mounting/bonding parts into ABS plastic
2__ Polishing combo meter face
4__ Reset Odometer
205 Seats
116 Shifter - another design
188 Shifter - jack shaft details
320 Shifter - power assisted shift linkage
257 Steering wheel recovered w pigskin
143 Subaru dashboard switches - mountings
11_ Suspension - 2008 Legacy suspension into 818
200 Tail lights - custom
42_ Tilting motor/trans down in back
320 Trunk box
198 Upholstery - re-doing seats
244 Wheels refinished
218 Windshield wiper
106 Wiring engine harness
101 Wiring & fooling ECM/TCM auto > manual trans
5__ Wiring plans for 818C - 2002 JDM EZ30


818C after starting with an S

Took me 66 years to finally order an 818S. But then again had to wait for FFR to design it...

Booked last week. FFR said lead time is now 1 month. I asked for August 1 (still in parts prep stage, big honey-do list from moving last fall).

Although my inclination was to do this car since I first read about it 3 years back, I COULD blame it all on Mechie3 - last November he was kind enough let me sit in his project and chew his ear off about my life's history. Thanks for being patient with me! FFR should pay him salesman commissions on these (regular I think) visits he hosts.

Not sure I'll have a lot of posts - there is so much wealth here already - it's hard to imagine adding much more. But I'm doing my own wiring/schematics for the LL Bean US doner ECM for this JDM EZ30, and oddball suspension (below). So where I think I've something to contribute, I feel I should pay some respect to others before me by following their lead.

I'm an electronics tech (engineer wanna-be). Spent my life servicing medical imaging - CT scanners, MR, X-Ray NucMed and all the rest. Designed/built a lot of oddball stuff including thinkgs like miniature CNC machines for the R/C hobby-motor and other industries. Raised two girls to become nurses. Wife is an ultrasonographer. Medical life and on-call 24/7 has kept us all busy and a kit car just hasn't been in part of life's plans. Today I work full time as a medical data systems hacker - pulling patient data from recalcitrant systems that vendors want too much money to do it, and moving it to my employer's radiology systems (3,000+ employee nationwide radiology company).

Jan finally said last summer "let's move to a home with a garage where you can build that 818". Whohoo! Done. Found 8 acres in NW Indiana in the woods, but no garage. Even better = 24' x 40' done my way. By Christmas the garage was up.

A month ago I grabbed a JDM '02 EZ30 and all the rolling parts from a JDM '07 Impreza at Midwest JDM, Cincinnati. This started out to be just "get the 3.0" but the '07 stuff was just laying there in the JDM shop begging to become 818 fodder. Yup, that's right 07 Japan. Read that as '08 all aluminum arms and stuff in USA technology. Hey building a kit car doesn't mean it's all planned out for you right? I had the feeling in Scargo's early posts he was maybe looking into something like this, but his later posts show superb design work using other non-Subaru suspension exotica.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500495957/IMG_20160213_184615_osxteg.jpg

[aquillen]

While there are some posts out there (didn't catch a detailed one in the 818 topics) on restoring the instrument panel ("combination meter") face plate, I didn't see one that would instill confidence and show how easy this can be, so here is my way -

Picked up this 2002 Outback 3.0 instrument panel from the ebay. Since the motor is a 3.0 this takes care of the RPM's display easy enough. I'll fashion something to cover the auto-transmission info in the display as this will be a manual. But this post is about refinishing the clear faceplate. I didn't take a "before" shot but it looked like a rodent was trying to get in there through the front. Lots and lots of scratches all over the lower half. The scratches didn't show in the listing but sure was there when it arrived. For $40.00 it's about what I'd expect though. A tar blob like material gooed across part of the upper area. the tar came off easy enough with Plexus, but WD40 and any number of other "plastic safe" cleaners would handle that. And on that topic, I've had instances over the years of plain old alcohol causing damage to plastics, so I don't use that as a cleaning agent on things like this anymore.

The following process took 30 minutes and as you can see, the plate is pretty much like new except for a tiny crack at the left push button hole (was there when I got it). When I started on this, a person would have thought this one couldn't be revived. We'll see!

Carefully pry out the cover plate with tiny blade screwdrivers or similar tools - use 2 or 3 tools to keep the tabs loose as you move to the next one. After the first couple tabs are released the rest of the prying gets easier. Be gentle so you don't break them.

Use a clean towel on your bench - under the plate - so you don't put new scratches on the back side in the following sequence. In my case the scratches were not deep, although they certainly were plentiful. So I started with #400 wet-or-dry sandpaper. You could go courser if you had to, but work back through the finer grits without skipping grit sizes - each one takes out the grit scratching of the previous size. Keep applying fresh water to your paper so it doesn't build up with the plastic you are removing. Pressure is rather light - 2 to 3# - just enough to get the paper to "cut" into the plastic:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500496516/DSC_2295_01_zcvrax.jpg

Paper towel works fine during the sandpaper stage to frequently clean off the surface for progress inspection. Later on, you'll only want to use a quality cleaning cloth (microfiber or maybe well washed old cotton t-shirt) with suitable cleaning products on nice polished plastic. Sanding away, as soon as you see the mars and scratches removed you can start moving up in grit numbers. Here is the #400 - about 5 minutes of work to get the surface smooth and scratch free. I've found that circular vs long strokes makes little difference, at least to me. Circular does keep accidental new scratching more local - if it does happen. Keep rinsing your paper and new scratching is rare. Wipe and inspect:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500496699/DSC_2304_03_otjjwe.jpg

Moving to the next grit - #600 here. With each grit you should be producing a milky white debris in the water as you sand the plastic. As soon as it starts hiding your work due to the plastic debris, rinse your paper in a cup of water and continue. Keep inspecting often to determine when you have removed the heavier grit's patterns so that you can move up to the next grit. My next grit on hand was #1000. After about 3 minutes with #1000 I found an area with swirls from the #400 that the #600 had not yet removed. You can see that somewhat in this image:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500496765/DSC_2306_04_eipfoz.jpg

I fell back to the #600 for another minute in this area, using a straight motion so I could tell when the round shaped swirls were removed. Then on to #1000 again until it had removed the #600 grit patterns. If you change direction of your sanding on each grit that is the easiest way to detect when the previous grit patterns are removed. My next on hand paper was #1500 and I used that for about 3-4 minutes as well until the #1000 stuff was gone. I did not have anything finer and didn't need it at this point.

Over the years I've collected various compounds, and out of the whole bin I tried these. Some time back, the Mequiar's plastic products gave me high expectations when I got them to try and restore my '90 Vette's convertable top rear vinyl window, but it was more than they could handle, even with a polishing machine (never did really get a good cleanup on that figured out). The polish is the 2nd step with Mequiar,s but neither one works fast enough for this project either. The Show Car glaze was an experiment here but didn't "cut it" either. What does work great for this is the 3M Swirl Mark removers, and either the light or dark is good for this job. For some odd reason, I've had the dark blend seem to work just a little better for everything except a white car finish in the past.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500496827/DSC_2307_05_c6pvel.jpg

Since I usually used the black for projects, I had more white on hand, so it was picked this time, but in the end a tablespoon or less is all I needed.

This takes a good 5# of pressure, and long, vigorous rubbing. Overall about 10 minutes of work. Circular vs long strokes didn't make any difference in progress or end results, and I found long strokes to be the faster method. The towel I used first is actually a well used microfiber piece but of course a new one is probably the best plan. But it worked for me. At this point it is simply a matter of inspecting the results every minute or so until you are happy with the "view".

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500496882/DSC_2310_07_na3x8b.jpg

The backside will get a bit mucked up no doubt but when you are ready to tidy things up, just clean both sides with your favorite plastic polish and a new/clean towel. (Now the Mequiar's polish can shine... or my favorite - Plexus):

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500496938/DSC_2312_09_vpj6o6.jpg

[Mechie3]

:D I've had a fair number of people show up at my house just to see the kit. Glad you finally got one.

[aquillen]

RESETTING ODOMETER

2002 LL Bean H6 3.0L display. This was done on the 2001-2002 version, part number 85013AE64A.

Among the tasks and tidbits for my project is moving the odometer. The one I "inherited" sports 305698. Guess the Subaru is a pretty reliable beast in general. But, between the kit having zero miles and the motor being a JDM 3.0 with who knows what (40 - 60K... ya right) I figure a nice even number like 000002 is fair enough. I'm not doing a donor so the combination meter came from who knows where.

I ebaid some 93C56 chips for about 69 cents each. Only really need one - just didn't want to mess with the original. After some knocking around on the 'net and playing with my very old programmer, I'm enjoying 000002. It may well be more than a year before the odo sees live action, so I can't vouch for anything other than that odometer display. But, a study of info available suggests that I'm in a safe place program wise.

There is a fair amount of info available to figure this out, but even then you have to poke around. K3LAG was doing these for example. I'm not going to get into doing them for anyone, but if you can get a computer savvy/programmer type, and a bit of electronics assembly to setup a programmer you can get there. I think the only real hurdle is sorting the correct HEX number code to put into the chip for your desired number.

As others have done, I remind you, this is for legal purposes only - so know what you are allowed to do in your state and how to do it legally.

Some of the info I picked up on generating the right HEX numbers for the desired mileage didn't work. Eventually though, I hit on a working solution. I don't feel it's fair to just rip and post the program code here, but I'll say where you can find what you need, and how to simplify it so you can get your numbers without really understanding the code.

On the RS25 forum, I searched posts by orthomong where he (she?) lists 'Working C++ code' to calc the HEX code you want. I don't have a compiler for C++ so I chased out some WEB sites that will run it on line for you. Codechef was about the third one I tried and it did the job. But not without errors at first.

The input feature that orthomong wrote would not work on the Codechef site. I replaced the input section with the actual odo reading I wanted, then ran the program. It output the code that worked (after one more tweak)...

If you get orthomong's code the beginning of that code will start with this snippet:

----------------------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{

if (argc != 2)
{
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: mileage <mileage to encode>");
return 1;
}

int target_mileage = atoi(argv[1]);

printf("Encoding value: %d ...\n", target_mileage);
----------------------

To get that to work on the Codechef site I replaced the mileage input with this:

----------------------
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{

int target_mileage = 2;

printf("Encoding value: %d ...\n", target_mileage);

----------------------

Compare the above with the original above it and note that I removed a few lines and just put in the following instead:

--------------------------
int target_mileage = 2;
--------------------------

I used some other values besides 2 and they each worked fine, including a value for my original # 305698.

Depending on the programmer tools you use, this is where it gets confusing (maybe):

The HEX byte pairs offered by the program may simply need to be swapped. The program outputs the two lines of code you need in one format and you may need to swap every two pairs for a total of 16 swaps. For example, the first 00 FD given below, is a pair and so swapping would yield FD 00, before you write it to your chip.

Here is an example, for odo = 1395. The program's resulting calculation first and then what I wrote to the chip, by editing the pattern of numbers in my programmer's HEX editor, for a target odo = 1395

Encoding value: 1395 ...
00 5D FF A2 00 5D FF A2 00 5A FF A5 00 5A FF A5
00 5A FF A5 00 5A FF A5 00 5A FF A5 00 5A FF A5

the actual code to go in the chip would be:

5D 00 A2 FF 5D 00 A2 FF 5A 00 A5 FF 5A 00 A5 FF
5A 00 A5 FF 5A 00 A5 FF 5A 00 A5 FF 5A 00 A5 FF

And since no one seems to list a really low number, how about this, which I used and can vouch for:

Encoding value: 2 ...

00 00 FF FF 00 00 00 01 FF FE 00 01 FF FE 00 01
FF FE 00 01 FF FE 00 01 FF FE 00 01 FF FE 00 01

the actual code to go in the chip would be:

00 00 FF FF 00 00 01 00 FE FF 01 00 FE FF 01 00
FE FF 01 00 FE FF 01 00 FE FF 01 00 FE FF 01 00

ODOMETER READS... 000002

Have fun!

[aquillen]

818C now.

I posted my complete wiring plans for my project in the Wiring section. These are derived/based on the factory drawings but boiled down to the bits I'll use. This way factory documents can be referenced directly for changes/corrections, etc., but following the circuits is more straightforward.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?20814-Complete-wiring-plans-for-818S-2002-EZ30-factory&highlight=ez30

Here is a sample of what is over there...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1573052949/818C-3.0_W8_SIGNALS_auyngj.jpg

[aquillen]

Last Thur my grandson and I borrowed my stepdad's Silverado, rented a 6x12 U-Haul open utility trailer and by Saturday morning we're at FFR headquarters. After a great tour and load session we were on the way home. If you go, make sure to stop at the Nautilus Sub Museum - allow a couple hours. I'm a nuc sub guy from way back so was looking forward to my grandson taking that in. Back to the pickup - yes you can squeeze (as others have also said) the 818 into that biggest open U-Haul trailer. About 2-1/2 inches on each side of the rear fender flares clearance. Use ratchet straps on each side of the frame in the rear wheel wells, to the trailer sides, similar on the front frame to the sides, and pull the frame all the way to the front, with another strap. In the front, a collection of 4 peices of about 8" long 2x6 wood blocks keeps the steel frame front from hitting the trailer front wall. I've got pix of the straps locations if anyone asks - I'll post them. In the 1000 miles home, the frame never moved in the trailer. And believe me, especially in Indiana, the roads tried their best to move that baby around - some rough stuff went under us. FFR offered some used pallets to set the frame on but I brought some more of those 2x6 blocks and set it on 4 of those. (taped to the frame bottom).

If you can take anyone with you to pick up your kit, make it a kid (or more). The experience for all of you is multiplied and those memories are priceless. Jack, at 14, is already car crazy and anyway and all this just fuels the fire. I know he is thinking... hmm when papa gets old and feeble, this is mine - ahhaaa haa haa. It's all worth it, time and money. I don't think it could come and go on a better endeavor.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500497445/818_pickup_liznpy.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500497513/HomeOfThe818_2_n4tobg.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500497638/818_home_nvsekm.jpg

[Mitch Wright]

Congratulations Art, enjoy your build.

[Hindsight]

This will be a great project. Enjoy and post lots of updates!

I am envious of your awesome garage.

[aquillen]

Hindsight - hey thanks - and to all others here too, especially for the mountain of info. I've seen your help scattered all through the posts, know that you've given me lots of ideas and inspiration along with so many others. Hoping to give something back now and then. With luck you may see some pretty oddball things come out of my project... I see this as a starting point and excuse to design/modify. (But always with safety when rolling of course).

[ben1272]

Great intro Art, I am already looking forward to your posts! I have been at my 818 for 1 year now, pretty steady though not every weekend. I am having a lot of fun even though I get stymied from time to time. I have learned more than I hoped and have more to come! For a car guy this project cant be beat.

[aquillen]

I suppose the controversy over doing this will go on for years. Why? (1) because. (2) it was there. (3) another challenge. (4) I'm nuts. (5) there was all this shiny aluminum!

Take your pick.

I read about every thread I could find on the Legacy suspension (08-09) in particular. Some crabby stuff, other not so bad. But I have it and it's going (gone) in. We'll see how it drives someday. I can say it has been fun.

The front is done too. Simpler by far, aluminum - same arm except the rear mount is flipped. Pix later.

I went to Cincinnati last March 2016 to get an H6 motor from MidWest JDM. There was this aluminum rear end still assembled on a pallet. I knew it was a long shot but the price was too good, and it seemed like "get it now" or keep search for a full donor. I went for it, and they had the front up on a shelf - grabbed that too. Lock, stock and barrel for $600. No rust. Being from NW Indiana I liked that no rust piece a lot.

So how I worked this suspension onto an 818 frame - goal was to keep the Legacy configuration as close as possible given Subaru should know more about this than me, and FFR would dis-avow any knowledge of same... as in Mission Impossible, Mr. Phelps.

I bought this $120 suspension textbook too, but in the end copying the Suby setup seemed the only way to do it, book be not used much (although read completely).

One change is motion ratio, even corrected for angle - I'm more like 0.82 vs the 0.89, etc. I read somewhere in here a while back. Will deal with that when I see how it sits and rolls later.

Challenges: three bigger ones - (1) no assembled 818 here with all the designated parts on it, and no parts here of the proper suspension to relate to. (2) So had to use every picture in this forum almost to do some estimating on shock mount location more than anything else (that motion ratio thing). (3) angle of the 2008 Legacy swing arm - for-aft (i.e.) height of the front pivot point when axle and frame at target ride height (4.75" for me).

Process (sort-a):

I couldn't have done this had I not had the assembled entire rear carriage. This gave me the correct structure per Subaru to template from. Mounted on a leveled workbench. Visited a 2008 Legacy at local dealer, crawled under and measured some things for angles and dangles (yes I was a submariner way back). The bolted the frame to my workbench. From there I spent about 2 months on and off measuring, dropping plumb-bobs, etc., drawing reference lines on the work bench and so on. In the end I have a complete set of datum on each pivot location, axle heights and such.

One interesting thing popped up. The fact this was an aluminum rear arm (from Japan JDM stuff) is what really started the ball going. When looking at the US 2008 I discovered it was made of magnetic material - probably cast iron. Man that has to be some weight - it's pretty big.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500497768/01_-_rear_on_bench_kl1zaz.jpg

I clamped up the swing arm front pivot and then worked the axle through "normal" motion, to evaluate the camber, motion ratio, etc. Toe-in not determined but I'll go with FFR suggestions for their prescribed design and road feel later. Repeated on both sides. This is an S, not an R, probably never see a track on my watch.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498041/02_-_prep_rear_motion_tests_bcyclp.jpg

Eventually I have a book of measurements, X-Y-Z directions of each "pivot", axle locations and all which are mapped to this diagram. This gets transfered over to a sheet of steel marked with each target location (X-Y, not the Z vertical though) which I placed under the chassis. Allows magnet mounts to hold things later and so forth. Every mount point on the chassis is at some angle,not square to X or Y or Z, so I captured that info to. Did this using a mini-plumb bob I made up, fastened to modified pivot bolts, so it would come "from center" of each mount. Also determined each angle for the non-square pivot mounts.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498128/03_-_top_view_layout_xhche0.jpg

There are three radial arms to locate. On the Legacy, only the the longest (rear-most) arm is adjustable. Mine are all adjustable just in case.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498202/04_-_arms_to_determine_r0als8.jpg

Tried some "sanity checks" along the way (I'm still insane though). I set things up where I *think* the body should be and then placed the wheels where they look "right" to me from afar. Also looked at pix, instructions and dug up other forum members measurements where I could find anything. Finally decided where the axles should be from fore to aft (Y) direction in my plans. This becomes the axle reference for the transfer of the Legacy layout to the 818. Wanted to also get some idea how much angle would the CVJ deal with and so forth. Looks good so keep going.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498283/05_-_sanity_check_gjxeak.jpg

The steel sheet is under the chassis, layout begins. Process got easier because instead of measuring every little thing now, I used a mechanical copy and paste method to locate each mount bracket - described after this pic:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498358/06_-_layout_plate_r4fjuz.jpg

I don't a cutting torch and my portable bandsaws don't reach much of this. Sawzal away we go - teeth all fell out along the way I think...

First, physically capture the exact location, including height of a pressed out pivot bushing. Setup a jig aligned to the workbench plumb-bob center point, bring the jig up to touch the bolted in bushing, tack weld the bushing to the jig. God almighty that burnt bushing rubber stinks to high heaven, even with just a couple seconds of the wire feed.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498427/07_-_capture_pivot_point_dvvzkj.jp

[aquillen]

Now position the "jig" with the bushing on the steel plate, aligned to marks on the plate. This puts the bushing in place, angle intact, etc.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498658/08_-_place_pivot_point_xaa1sr.jpg

Another jig positioned. With the bushing located, I work up cardboard templates followed by thin scrap aluminum sheet templates that firmly hold shape, and finally fab steel mount parts. Eventually tack welding them in place.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498742/09_-_place_pivot_point_kntfnq.jpg

The Legacy swing arm removes need for the upper forward strut due to its solid swing design. But it is about 15% or so shorter from the front bushing/pivot. Motion ratio goes out the window sort-a. I went through three iterations of mount components to attach the shock to the swing arm trying to salvage the FFR motion ratio. I'm about 10% short and no doubt will have to contend with that eventually.

I've concluded that with probably 10,000 to 50,000 different suspension designs on the road over the years, it is not the end of the world if I don't exactly use someone else's design. Granted we don't want to be going sideways down the road as a result of my changes - just have to approach each step with due care.

In this picture, I was mocking up what I thought should be close to the FFR design setup, so I could see for myself what the M.R. probably amounted to, given the M.R.s mentioned in a couple threads came to us through emails, not FFR engineering drawings sent intact. Of course my estimates came from examining a few dozen images posted on the forum, also creating some fuzzy data. Close enough, moving on.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498812/10_-_examine_ffr_motion_ratio_v0vmut.jpg

"The crew" came in for a weekend, so I had the kids learn to do some brazing, lathe cutting, etc., and put together my own renditions of link arms / struts. Jack and Izzy took turns at everything but brazing threaded tubes inside the link arms. Jack - not afraid of the torch. Shore 80A urethane seems to be in the ballpark. We'll see later.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500498981/11_-_making_links_smhlk7.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500499036/12_-_making_links_bushings_w3aryt.jpg

The bushings on the Legacy for this lower rear link were larger than mine by about 3mm. Lathed up and pressed in some glass reinforced composite liners to work with the diameter of urethane I had.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500499107/13_-_link_parts_kciecf.jpg

[aquillen]

The crew, including "Grammy", without whom I'd be nobody, no-where and probably starved to death (one thing I don't do is cook). In November I finally put together one of those stove kits on a $10 drum. Worth every penny - hate cold temps 100%

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500499215/14_-_crew_zx8nwh.jpg

All but the shock was figured out - here. I wanted to see all the motions happening and work out how close to set the shock to the CVJ boot, etc., to hang on to as much FFR motion ratio as I could.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500499279/15_-_prep_shock_motion_ratio_tests_l42iob.jpg

Done. Next up I'll photo the front end setup and post a couple pix for that. And Santa got me a Rigid brand brake flaring kit. Should be fun...

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500499350/16_-_rear_susp_done_fcs6k8.jpg

[Mitch Wright]

Fun, this is what is great about watching others builds and doing something different because you can, nice work and looks great.
Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[phil1734]

Any reason you didn't leave a rod end on the upper out board point for easier camber adjustment?

And what exactly is left of the legacy other than the swingarm? ;)

With that said, you probably already have more time in suspension design then FFR put into it.

Also, your x and y are flipped from industry standard, not that it matters.

[ben1272]

Nice methodical work and the quality looks great too! Good job!

I am really looking forward to the years after my build when I hope to meet many of you some time or another at the various possible FFR sponsored gatherings.

I will be paying attention to your build thread!

-Ben

[AZPete]

I've enjoyed studying your creative work and look forward to more. But, I'm not an engineer so it makes my brain hurt to figure out what you are doing, but I enjoy it.

[aquillen]

Any reason you didn't leave a rod end on the upper out board point for easier camber adjustment?

And what exactly is left of the legacy other than the swingarm? ;)

With that said, you probably already have more time in suspension design then FFR put into it.

Also, your x and y are flipped from industry standard, not that it matters.

Ha - ya my xyz are homemade params, had not bought that book on suspensions yet when did that part. There is a thread-end on each of the 3 struts, two on the rear bottom. The other two harder to see. The drawback is I only put thread on one end, so would have less adjustment (no super fine tune), and to adjust, I have to slide out the end-bolt so I can turn the end 180 degree steps.

I try to use what I have on hand where ever possible. So the links were made by cutting up the supplied FFR links, using part of the longest two intact on one end, then brazing the chopped off thread ends only into new 3/4 DOM tube to get required lengths. To get threads on both ends I'd have to buy more rods - then I'd have just bought finished stuff - but that's no fun. Since I do electronics repair and design work now and then for some local shops, and one is a steel fab joint - some raw materials are barter... almost free. Had to bore/shave about 1.5mm (.75 from inside the DOM tube and .75 from outside of chopped off rod ends to get a fit). Brazing - if you don't know, done right = excellent strength. I did (and will do) destructive testing here and there on any work that is new to me and when quite satisfied these would still be in one piece after everything else was torn apart, I go for it.

I figure if I have to get extremely small on adjustments, I can shim the front joint on the swing-arm and reset the lower rear a tad to accommodate partial settings on the other two. Hoping not to have to get that picky though. Toe in for example - either shim the front pivot in or out, and/or move all 3 rear links in or out - not a lot of room there but like 'nuff. Another "we'll see".

So what I got with the Legacy:

Complete (except shock/springs) rear suspension sub-frame with axles, cvj's, spindles, brakes, drum/disc, chopped off e-brake cable (still on my to get list). The front, I got the cross frame plate (not sure right name), front spindles on the lower arms, steering rack, brakes, disc, no upper parts here, no strut assy.

Using: All 4 spindles, lower front - a-arm (fab different mount for the rear bush which is 90 rotated from 02-07 ((done))), rack (I hope - not eval'd yet), CVJ - outer half, linked to some inner ebay CVJ parts from a 2002 and one of the FFR axle sets does fit to all of it...!, rear swing arm.

The various frame pieces that held all this together - maybe get a buck or two for them on CL, etc. hope.

[aquillen]

I oughta retire at 67 but still like my work - hacking medical systems to pull patient data where companies want too much and my company has the rights to the data. But that is just recent, my background is electronics, mechanicals, and a lot of stuff.

Keep in mind this is H6 motor and I'm dead set on meeting emissions with it - using OEM ECU.

So work still comes first and that's why I got that pile of parts in March, the 818 in July and am only now done with the suspension. In the meantime, I've torn down a freebie 2000 trans to find damaged ring/pinion. In the next week or so they should be in my inside workshop to go back together. All cleaned up and waiting. Repacked the wheel bearings (they say it can't be done - just challenge me with claims like that). Did up the CVJ/axles.

In the electronics shop: rigged up the 2002 ECM and also a 2003 ECM to see what is different, worked out complete wiring plans (which the posted ones are obsolete - should fix that soon). Connected a 2002 TCM into the ECM on my workbench, connected to them with FreeSSM (VagCOM), ECUflash (Tactrix); regular Diag (OBDII). Validated some of the conditions with those tools (is +12 or 0V really telling the ECM the trans is in neutral for example), figured out and reprogrammed odo to = 00002, tested the ebay instrument panel wiring and functions. And some other odds and ends.

If I do retire, I would have time to try and decode the ECU enough to work up a RomRaider definition. May not care though as I'm expecting to have it run just fine with the TCM tacked on, and fudging a couple signals.

HERE is my crazy list:

Fab two CF intakes with separate 50mm throttle bodies (just got a new $50 Nissan 2003 Sentra tb that should do the trick, to play with, along with a used Nissan 03 by wire gas pedal). CF intakes along the lines of what you see sitting atop Corvette engine on the Falcon sportcars. CF already "in stock", studying up on resins, epoxys, latest vac-infusion techniques, etc.

Above also requires designing a micro-controller based unit (will use my fav - PIC) to handle the throttle management. This will be one of the simpler controller projects I've done over the years.

Shifter - I've got this crazy idea I can cook up a hydraulic cylinder based shifter/link system. I've got some cylinders of about the right size (hacked gas struts actually). Going to see if (a) I can get the basic hydraulic behavior to work, deal with thermal fluid expansion, reservoir concerns, etc., and if so (b) cram the stuff inside the differential housing completely. Plan B is do electric motor (essentially a servo setup) shifting - that would be fun to design/build and would allow for paddle shifting even (well maybe - how that works with manual clutch seems goofy to me), but gear motors might have to be a little bigger than I'd like what with the weight, etc.

Fab my own aluminum tank. The local steel shop will do it for me n/c as they owe me some time, but I asked them to just tune up me TIG skills as I'd like my name on the thing.

Tank baffle, I'm wanting to mock up and play with a center partition that has essentially small gravity/flapper valves on each side of the "walls" so slosh can go into the center but not back out, on both left and right turns. Wondering where that is already in all the millions of brains that have thought about tank fuel collection/management problems.

Windshield - want to work on the pillars - maybe hard aluminum rods and then epoxy fill or something to make that frame "grab" capable when someone tries to pull themselves up from the seat using the frame.

Seats - on the fence but keep thinking why not fab my own CF buckets and sew up my own. Not leather, don't have the right machine, but may take a shot at it.

Wheels. Got these Rays Engineering / Campionato SS-6 Versus wheels down at the JDM place. Dinged up but apparantly very populate overseas and in Japan on the (of all things !!! Ricers). Will do what I've done with other mangy wheels over the years - sandblast, putty the dings and repaint.

Few other crazy plans still bubbling. - for later...

[Mechie3]

I haven't had time to read a lot of build threads lately. I certainly picked a good one to read this morning!

[Hindsight]

Wow, very ambitious. Looking forward to the results.

[aquillen]

Working on several things for this project that are ongoing - carbon fiber intake, hydraulic shift linkage in particular. Slow going with so many non-818 projects and day work. But did finish the front suspension assembly using the JDM 2007 Legacy parts. So here is how I worked out the front mounting. You can see I also moved the footwell forward about 1-1/2 inch. I'm moving the tank back some and between the two I'm getting nice extra footroom for my long legged 6-1 body.

Setting up chassis mounting for the newer style A-arm is just a matter of fabricating a U-shaped bracket that bolts into the existing rear A-arm mounts on the chassis. Unlike the rear which was a complete re-design of mounts, the front just bolts on to existing. Dimension, position not to hard to figure out because the A-arm turns out to have the same dimension/pivot points as the older aluminum A-arm the 818 was designed to use. The camber, etc., still awaits setup however.

What it looks like assembled:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500692731/Front_left_suspension_assy_d9opxh.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500692948/LegacyFrontLower-rear-Mounted_fix9r3.jpg

The left side bracket (right is a mirror of this):

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500693025/LegacyFrontLower-rear-Mount_x2vyrc.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500692998/Front_left_suspension_assy_2_tgzoxc.jpg

[aquillen]

The rear suspension now:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500694828/Rear_Susp_Left_Assembled_kbp7lk.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500694898/Rear_Susp_Right_Assembled_ganhbv.jpg

Hoping to minimize stuff going over the gas tank. Not sure why except it just bugs me with that clutter... One of the changes is routing the e-brake cables, in front of (not under like the picture) the tank to each side.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500695510/eBrake_handle-cables_area_xaevrz.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500695562/eBrake_handle-cables_area_2_ms6lcz.jpg

[aquillen]

A bit of stretch on the pedal box -

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1500695801/firewall_1_fdry8j.jpg

[fastzrex]

Nice work. Did you just like the Legacy components better than the Impreza bits?

[aquillen]

Nice work. Did you just like the Legacy components better than the Impreza bits?

I was getting a 3.0 H6 at MidWest JDM in Cincinnati, saw a couple pallets with the suspension of a JDM Legacy, marked '07 although I'm pretty sure it was mostly or all '08 parts. Saw the aluminum rear swing arm which looked interesting (and the aluminum front too). I knew it was different but didn't have my kit yet and didn't realize how different. Dealed for a price that convinced me to take a chance with it. I have as much or more fun cooking things up and modifying everything anyway, so it was another excuse to tinker with FFR's plans. I've since read both good and bad (Internet IMHO's are a hoot) about the newer Legacy suspension, so we'll see how it works out. Added at least 6 months to my build if not more, but has been all fun and that makes it worth.

Finally dragged the steering rack out of the pile to clean it up and shortly after got reminded they drive on the left in Japan. Off to eBay for an Impreza rack for 75$. Not likely to sell this JDM rack in the US... boat anchor?

Off this topic a bit - depowering rack - I used the steel pin/shim/wedge method to freeze up the torque rod valve "slop", and I think that is a perfect fix, no welding (I wondered if that wouldn't induce a bit of bend in the assembly anyway. Drive the link pin out at the top of the steering rod (right at the splines), then the whole thing comes apart so you can really get in the valve and fit a shim tight. Then pin it back together. I think this pin removal may only work on the 02-04 racks (not sure).

[Frank818]

Whoa that suspension is kick ***. However our rear upper trailing link isn't adjustable? How do you adjust camber? With the bottom links?

[aquillen]

On the Legacy only the inside of the longest rear arm has a cam bolt, everything else is fixed lengths. I can shim the front bush left or right a few mm, and then adjust any of the other arms, although my upper and lower "middle" arms are 1/2 turn at a time. Between the bunch I start with Legacy setup and will tweak from there.

[aquillen]

I'm about half way through putting an aluminum tank together - a bit more narrow, all across so passenger gets more legroom, taller to get capacity back. The fittings, ports, pump and sender mounts all worked up from scratch. Need to either sell the FFR tank or use it for target practice. (Will post pix of the new thing in about a week).

In the meantime - a tool to bead 2" pipe at home:

I cut up the supplied 2" stainless pipe into some 3+ pieces and tig'd it back together to reshape it to where I want the fill, on the top of my tank behind driver. Needed to get a new bead on one end, because the other beaded end is now part of the tank inlet's top fitting. Figured my HF press could do it with the right helper tool. This doesn't take a lot of press force, probably even a good vice could handle it. Darn hard to tell which end of the finished pipe I beaded vs the ends that came from FFR.

Be glad to loan the tool out if someone wants to do this. You could make one from these pix.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503793052/Pipe_roll_01_wwq3aa.jpg

Made from a couple 3/4" steel bars, a 45 degree groove cut 1/8" deep with 2" stone on drill. You want that groove to have the 2" curve, so work the stone and flip it end for end to get the curve shape. The bars are coupled with 1/4" steel scraps, welded to one bar and 3/8" bolt "hinge" on the other bar. A piece of 2" washer ( good thick one) welded on the opposing bar.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503793052/Pipe_roll_02_a5w4dl.jpg

My local Ace hardware sells these little grinder stones for a couple bucks.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503793052/Pipe_roll_03_ztobx4.jpg

C-clamp and scrap metal sets the ~1/4" deep guide for the bead crimp location. Square up the pipe end so your crimp runs even from the edge all around. Crimp in the bead about every 1/8" around the pipe. Test on scrap to learn the depth to press it nicely. On my tool, that depth is right when the two steel bars are parallel to each other.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503793052/Pipe_roll_04_rfn0b7.jpg

I was happy with the fit-up and weld penetration and wanted this pipe to "show nice", so sanded some of the bead down and polished out the weld between pipe sections. Will pressure test along with the rest of the tank later. On pipes with more stress - exhaust, etc., I'd leave the bead in place for extra strength and assurance. If this one ever does pin-hole and leak, my nose and the ECM's fuel system diagnostics are designed to find it, too.

Finished - which end did I do ?

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503793052/Pipe_roll_05_cidbu5.jpg

[Hindsight]

Wow, that's really slick.... I like it better than the modified wire crimper method I tried once before finally borrowing my friend's bead roller. Might have to try this next time.

[Frank818]

Finished - which end did I do ?

72200

Both. :)
Unbelievable, not only you build a car but you get to have the time to build yourself tools. :)

[aquillen]

I just like making things. Most of the time it almost doesn't matter what I'm making as long as that is what is going on here. But the car is a goal, for sure. I also detest buying if I can make, not always but typical 4 me.

[fastzrex]

Love that beading tool!

[aquillen]

I wanted passengers to have foot room too. I might be a passenger sometimes. Tight for 6'1" in my op. Had my local metal shop cut and bend some tank walls for me. This is my first TIG on aluminum so have pity. But after fixing just a few pin-hole leaks here and there (4# test pressure) it seems solid. Corners are typical leak spots it seems (for me at least).

Tank is 1/8" AL, 12"H x 7D base, x 5D top, x 46.5" long. Accounting for 1/8 walls and 3 inner partition walls it yeilds est. 13.7 gal capacity. At the bottom it is 1" wider on than the driver side of the new style (2016 vintage) FFR tank. But I pushed my firewall out a bit too, so not losing anything.

I have a flap valve near the fuel pump in that partition, expectation is it retains fuel gained from "slosh-right" going into the partition, when "slosh-left" is going on. Tests in a mock up tray seemed to work fairly well.

The FFR tank without fittings weighed 26.5#, this one 25.0#. So a straight trade on weight.

Some of the steps:

Making "bolt down" rings, 10-32 threaded brass rod, drill and tap into the AL plate, thread in the rods (with 271 Loctite just in case). The pattern was on paper, printed from a simple CAD drawing and drill points and such transfered to the AL plate.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798378/Tank_01_xk8f75.jpg

Using my press to "gently" crimp/swage each threaded rod's backside rather permanently into the ring. Done before cutting the circles out to prevent the swagging process from spreading the resulting aluminum ring. Then fly-cut the center out, didn't have a suitable sized hole saw, and they don't cut as nice as the fly-cut anyway.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798378/Tank_02_ev5tyd.jpg

Sawing the ring's outside, and back view of the swage on the 10-32 rods

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798379/Tank_03_nlbmez.jpg

One of the bolt down rings welded to the tank top. I tested these o-rings (McMaster Carr stuff I had around), and they passed a 1 month dunk in local gasoline, but eventually I opted for cork-rubber gaskets made as shown later, because replacements would be easier to procure down the road someday, should need arise. And I ended up opening the pump side hole to the inner bolt-ring diameter to make it easier to work that into th

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798379/Tank_04_fduymk.jpg

This 01 Forester (I think) was the plan but the top - no way - too big for my tank. I tore up a 2002 Legacy all-plastic unit for the pump, from LKQ scrap yard. Fabricated my pump and sender frame out of stainless steel. Some metal was in my scrap pile, the local steel shop always has circles laying in a pile they cut out of stuff. Had some SS circles that were just right. But I learned the hard way - thin plate like 3/32 or maybe 16 guage, warps beyond believe when welding or silver soldering it (but does ok at the low temp Stay-Silv from Harris). By then I had done TIG as well as the 1100F silver soldering and spent about 2 hours pounding and bending things back into shape. It's flat now though.

The connector is held in with a mount ring I made. The connector was band-sawed out of the plastic pump housing I trashed for parts. Cork-rubber gasket seals it nicely.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798377/Tank_05_nx0swj.jpg

[aquillen]

The fuel lever senders are both in there - the left and right tank senders from my scrap yard doner. Each arm-wire was cut and reshaped so that the two work together. One arm "reads" the bottom half of the tank and the upper arm gets the 1/2 to Full range. Solves the 100 ohm requirement, gets full coverage of the tank in the bargain. Took a long time to figure out the mounting, swing for each float, etc. Bending and working the wires to the floats - not exactly easy to do and a mistake could mean another trip to "the yard".

The last sillyness of this pump/sender unit - it won't drop in the hole intact. Each sender has to be free from the metal frame, and inserted after the frame is in the hole, then screw the sender bracket to the metal frame working from above the opening. Can do but drop a screw = start over. I just happened to have some 10-32 PEM nuts in my junk boxes left, so they got pressed into the frame, at least I didn't have to fiddle with nuts along with the screws...

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798377/Tank_06_u1tiim.jpg

A view of the tank with a couple of the dividers, pump, slosh trap valve.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798377/Tank_08_r1o0mb.jpg

The FFR supplied fuel fill pipe got cut up and reshaped to fit the top of the tank instead of the lower back side. I decided to put a (rather small - gulp - it's what I had on hand) vent pipe along with it to help with slow fill problems many have discussed here. A second vent on the plumbing will go to the charcoal cannister/vent "circuit". Between the two I hope fill venting will be sufficient.

By the way, when pressure testing the whole assembly I learned the lovely fill cap from FFR will only hold about 1 to 1.5 PSI. Then again I think the ECM only runs the tank up to about 0.5 PSI when it is doing fuel system leak testing cycles. Also the little keeper pin on the back side of that fill cap has a small set-screw to keep it from falling out by accident, should you release the spring tension. The screw was loose on mine as received. Someone fiddling with the fuel cap while it is not installed could/would maybe loose that pin for you.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798377/Tank_09_ftfied.jpg

This didn't come in a box...

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798377/Tank_10_w7ufdv.jpg

Making gaskets, from Fel-Pro 4 part sample pack (see later pix). Hobby brass tubing is always handy to have around. Use different sizes to do all sorts of interesting things sooner or later. 20T press is just a slight bit of overkill but makes punching the fiber-rubber sheet a whiz. The small fiber ring washers go under each of the bolt down ring's 10/32 nuts, just in case one of the swage/crimps should ever leak.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798376/Tank_11_ubhekj.jpg

[aquillen]

Drop in ready...

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798378/Tank_12_plyypz.jpg

Dropped in for a check fit, a bit earlier. I finally had an excuse to set the 3.0 in there - to make sure my fill routing would work before I cut and shaped the FFR "donor".

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1503798378/Tank_13_xnf9ot.jpg

[turbomacncheese]

Top notch work. This ride is going to be SWEET.

[frankc5r]

Really professional work!

[Frank818]

That is one hell of a fuel tank!!! You should sell some or maybe have someone build them for you so that you can spend time building the car while making money selling tanks. :)

[aquillen]

Still at it, just slow. Here is my take on tilting the engine/trans back a bit. Clearance just sitting the engine in the chassis off hand - about 3/16" from the cam chain cover - right bulge to frame. Seems a likely bump point. Also engine tilts forward a fair amount - puts oil constantly forward a bit, and the oil pan hangs maybe 1/2" below the frame and I can't stand having that hazard.
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517855920/Camcover_to_frame_03_ujy9wp.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517856462/Oilpan_clearance_01_fuduit.jpg

This 2002 EZ30D engine's mounts have a 30 degree vs the 20 degree angle on the 818's frame mounts. I was contemplating making angled shims, so there is a 1/4" flat wedged in there, just playing around so far:
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517856786/Engine_mount_shim_01_qkq9b6.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517856921/Engine_mount_shim_02_ejxwww.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517857015/Engine_mount_20_degree_4_cyl_a9t4ql.jpg

[aquillen]

What happened next.
A support tool made of square tube, thick end plates is bolted between the engine mounts, and the outer verticals of the mounts have been buzzed off.
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517857224/Engine_mount_bending_jig_03_rxh3hc.jpg

Additional support applied to the part to bend. All this to make sure the only change happens right on the existing 20 degree bend in that "ear".
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517857391/Engine_mount_bending_jig_02_xgvm2i.jpg

Voila!
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517857494/Engine_mount_30_degree_6_cyl_dutmiz.jpg

This new section is also not quite as far out to the side at where it meets the frame member, which also helps create clearance for the exhaust manifold (which was cut loose from the cylinder head mount flange and re-angled outward somewhat to also get clearanced from this mount ear - more on the exhaust soon).
Before changing the mount nor the exhaust header:
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517857863/Rt_exhaust_header_to_frame_blocked_02_b9uh3u.jpg

Revised engine frame mount and exhaust header tipped outward to the header flange:
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517857990/right_header_after_engine_mount_mod_03_expabq.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517858167/Rt_exhuast_header_04_fuggrg.jpg

[aquillen]

So far the engine went up maybe 1/10" from the 30 degree mounting change. Next I dropped the transmission mount about 7/8" into the frame, which also tips the engine, oil pan up nicely. Contemplated the cool pour-your-own tranny mount (John's EZ36R H6 818R Build - Hobby Racer), but I had a brand new mount in hand and for me the saw and welder was already in stock...
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517858683/Tran_mount_right_01_ho47se.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517858730/Tran_mount_left_02_adpikg.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517858839/Tran_mount_under_view_06_b7fumo.jpg


The bottom of the case now about 1/2" from frame - may be a problem. This one may have to be worked on when I go-cart:
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517859156/Tran_to_back_frame_clearance_02_qoty9j.jpg

Scalloped out the frame in front of that cam casing bulge. Probably overkill but it won't touch I'm sure...
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517858984/frame_scallop_01_knk12v.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517858990/frame_scallop_02_skehiv.jpg

[aquillen]

As supplied, my floor pan was popping like a "frog clicker toy" on both sides with almost no pressure. After a lot of YouTube movies and WEB searches I was armed with propane torch and cold wet rag. After most of the propane was gone, I had chased, solved and created more "warbles" and "bubbles" than I should admit. Definitely a skill that one must either be born with or bestowed with somehow, which was not happening in my case. Maybe I needed acetylene - ("Mapp pro" didn't work any better for me) - more power/heat whatever is always one solution to a lot of problems.

Anyway my friend over at the steel fab shop suggested just running a wire feed strip near the bobble - although he did include a disclaimer that it doesn't always work either.

In my case what you see here took about 15 minutes and worked like a charm. I could see it did pull some of the "warbles" out, some are still there, but regardless both sides are solid and will not pop even standing on them anywhere. Maybe a combo of the beads stiffening as well as pulling-shrinking the plates, either way I'm happy.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1517859425/Oil_Can_fix_dtqv43.jpg

While I'm at it - did you know "Mapp Pro" is not "Mapp" gas. But then the name is different, and in a tribute to advertising and making claims - "pro" is a con job in my view. You can research this but it turns out quite a few years back the patent holder on Mapp gas found the raw material makes them more money put in other products, so they stopped making the bottled Mapp gas for consumer use. I have a half bottle left from probably 1991 I think and it is indeed significantly hotter burning. Mapp Pro was trotted out to cash in on the Mapp fame, but it is essentially juiced up propane and while a bit better, is not what we had back in the "good ol' days".

[Hobby Racer]

As supplied, my floor pan was popping like a "frog clicker toy" on both sides with almost no pressure...

Anyway my friend over at the steel fab shop suggested just running a wire feed strip near the bobble - although he did include a disclaimer that it doesn't always work either.

In my case what you see here took about 15 minutes and worked like a charm. I could see it did pull some of the "warbles" out, some are still there, but regardless both sides are solid and will not pop even standing on them anywhere. Maybe a combo of the beads stiffening as well as pulling-shrinking the plates, either way I'm happy.

80459


I have the exact same problem. But I did not address it while the frame was bare. Now I am either stuck with it or I need to make a big mess to fix it.

Great stuff by the way. I love that there is another H6 build in process. It is very interesting to see how others attack the various issue involved with transplanting the H6 into the 818.

[aquillen]

I have the exact same problem. But I did not address it while the frame was bare. Now I am either stuck with it or I need to make a big mess to fix it.

Great stuff by the way. I love that there is another H6 build in process. It is very interesting to see how others attack the various issue involved with transplanting the H6 into the 818.

I contemplated bonding a 1/10" or 1/8" aluminum plate over each floor pan, but mine wasn't coated yet so I had more options. Weight addition wouldn't be a lot but -ought- to fix the problem.

[aquillen]

Wouldn't be any fun if you could just buy this ready to bolt on. If you read earlier, I plan to use the stock ECM and I don't want codes. Would be nice to skip the third catalytic convertor but everything I've dug up on the WEB fails to say it can be done and NOT make the ECM crab. Have not yet found Romraider, etc., that will let me tweak the 02-03 EZ30D computer either.

The donor cat convertors - 2003 Legacy Outback 3.0. The 3rd cat has an O2 bung on the front bottom, just enough room to screw in the sensor with the exhaust in place.

So the cat's are staying, but where to put them, and maybe still have a tiny bit of trunk space to boot... here is my take on it.http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520449339/Built_Exhaust_01_oi7mtd.jpg

This can all be slipped on and off with the motor in the chassis, that's the reason for splitting it apart. The tips will be finished later when the body is in place, but I've rough checked it of course. I tried some other layouts, but this used the least pipe, bends. Squeezing the 3rd cat down on one side can work, but the other side has a longer flow up to that third cat - didn't seem like the thing to do.

For example:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520450379/left_exhaust_mockup_09_ya8qsn.jpg

Couple hangars from the transmission:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520449885/Built_Exhaust_02_hcywgb.jpg

Piled it all on:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520450032/Built_Exhaust_08_lqvlbm.jpg

[aquillen]

Just a few more pix - hangars:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520450563/Built_Exhaust_hangars_01_adccdm.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520450613/Built_Exhaust_hangars_02_vif7on.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520450657/Built_Exhaust_hangars_03_l5mqzw.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520450979/Built_Exhaust_hangars_04_kv63pw.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520450984/Built_Exhaust_06_q2ac4v.jpg

Another view:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1520450726/Built_Exhaust_04_hhog4m.jpg

[aquillen]

Hot pipe vs starter motor... In general there has been a lot of comments about heat problems in the engine bay. Even an N/A setup is likely to get pretty warm. I went out and got the Coupe add on last fall and no clue yet about heat with that. So I'm going after ways to manage it to some extent - using guesswork I guess.

Sneaking past the starter on the left, I worked out the best I could for clearance given there is frame there too. I have obtained an embossed ("dimpled") stainess steel in 0.2mm thick. Compare to extremely heavy aluminum foil. Only way I could find it was in factory quantity but I hope to use it in firewall and maybe other spots. Will pack in 2300F ceramic blanket wool between the steel and the plumbing.

Planning to make cement molds from the plumbing and then press the steel sheet in the molds to make shields not unlike the Subaru shields that were on the factory exhaust (those sure won't fit this octopus). Will post pix if it is a success, or hide in shame if it flops...

Oh - the carbon fiber intake is slowly creeping along. For that I next - need to rough cast the aluminum flanges and machine them down to fit the carbon fiber tubes that fit between the intake breadbox and the cylinder head ports. Got my CNC conversion done on Harbor Freight mill and learning to run that now, so the flanges will happen fairly soon.

I would be remiss in not sending out special THANK YOU to James Bowman - he is building an 818 over in Ohio and was so kind to bring me some scrap SS pipe for my little TIG project above...

[flynntuna]

"Will post pix if it is a success, or hide in shame if it flops..."

LOL!!! So true, I've thought this so many times I can't even count.

I originally thought I could route the exhaust between the engine and frame, but it's such a tight fit that it doesn't look good for me. I'd prefer that route, it's still up in the air though so that dicision is still yet to be finalized. I do like the way you used plumbing parts to mock up the exhaust, so a trip to Home Depot is needed.:D

[Hobby Racer]

Wow Art that is some great work. That must have taken a lot of planning and mock-up time to get all that pipe and those converters to fit!

[aquillen]

Couldn't afford it if I wasn't doing it myself. And thanks!

[AZPete]

Art, your creativity and skills are fun to see, even if I can't follow you in all your amazing fabrications.

Like Flynntuna, I have followed you with this plan several times:
"Will post pix if it is a success, or hide in shame if it flops..."

[Frank818]

This is some really gerat job you are doing there, Art!

[aquillen]

Just trying to keep up with you guys. Tons of great ideas flowing in this forum.

[aquillen]

The earlier version I posted works great for tough stuff like the SS tubing. For aluminum, and especially the smaller diameter stuff on my coolant piping, I decided to tackle designing a "hand" tool that could bead pipe nicer, and faster, here at home. This one will do aluminum tubing down to 1/2" ID as well as the 1-1/2" stuff in the 818 kit.

For those who can fab this kind of stuff for themselves, this one works nice. You clamp it in a vise with the tube caught in the jaws, rotate the tube and squeeze the vise every so often. I clamp just the "far" end where the hinge bolt is - in the vise - then put a small c-clamp closer to the tubing end and use it to do the fine tune squeezing.

You must anneal tubing first or it will be too hard to roll with this. How to anneal tubing follows this.

It makes beads that really do look factory, in about a minute or two. You do need to chase down some needle bearings and be able to form and weld some bits of steel tube and angle iron. Doesn't have to look just like mine - but you get the idea.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521937408/Tube_end_beader_1_qgvzi2.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521938780/Tube_end_beader_2_wi1dja.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521937414/Tube_end_beader_3_inpafh.jpg

[aquillen]

Plenty to learn about bending tubing. Old school pack with sand, new = fancy machines, etc. But if you don't expect the moon, this will do the job.

I'll be posting my EZ30 plumbing soon but here is how I bent my tubing this week. Being able to bend pipe for yourself opens new vistas. I did this with 1/2" and 1" ID 6061-T6 from McMaster-Carr supply. I see no reason this can't be done on the 1-1/2" stuff although it will take a fair amount of force. I used the cheapo press in my shop but this could be done in a vise for that matter.

Figure about 3-1/2 times the pipe diameter for your bend radius - measured to the center of the pipe. Bending tighter than that will invite kinking.

Practice on some scrap first - it doesn't take much to get the hang of it. Some of my bends look pro, others 85%, but in all cases the water will get through just fine.

From my experience, for a 90 degree bend, plan to do it in about 3 "bites" and only anneal enough for 1/3 - one "bite" at a time. That way you control the bend better and reduce chance of kinking. Aluminum (6061) undergoes "work hardening" so after bending, a change requires re-annealing, and you can un-bend if you are careful. Also as it ages it will harden naturally, so anneal again in the future to work the same area.

Sanford marker "burns off" at about 650 degree F, according to some WEB posters. The old school method is smoke the pipe with yellow acetylene flame, which burns off at about 650F too. Or buy and use temp crayons you can get at some welding supplies for accurate temperature for annealing (target is 650F).

Mark area to anneal:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521936660/010_Mark_area_of_bend_xngaar.jpg

About 15 seconds in propane torch and the marker disappears (sometimes completely, not always). I also mark beyond the heat zone a bit so I can tell where to bend later, but didn't this time.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521936666/011_Torch_until_marking_fades_gdzmeb.jpg

Immediately quench with cold water.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521936671/012_Quench_qqop27.jpg

Make a wood (or whatever) bending former - the inner curve fits to the pipe. The width is enough that later, in a press, the top and bottom plates will clamp the wood but just barely allow the pipe to move between the plates. Note the curve radius - to center of pipe - is about 3-1/2 X the pipe diameter. You'll need something at the "far" end of the pipe to hold it. I've got a bolt with some unistrut nuts back behind that wood former, caught in one of the press backing plates.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521936676/013_Bending_jig_woflq2.jpg

Bending the tubing. This 1" tubing is taking probably 70# of force at 12 to 16" from the bend. The press is just holding everything in place, so a vise could work too, just a bit harder to hold things in place during the setup of the parts. I'm doing a second bend here where the wood hits the pipe. Fancy round plates are something I just happened to get at my local steel shop's scrap pile, you could even use hardwood boards, or whatever plates came with your press...

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521936680/014_Bending_in_jig_hvkexp.jpg

The two bends are:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521936684/015_Bent_1_inch_h7x5dr.jpg

These pipes and my other bits are on the chassis today. I'm pulling them off and doing a photo-shoot any day now to post what the whole setup turned into for my EZ30 install. These two go up the right side, from the rear wheel right up to bottom of the radiator up in front. If you haven't followed the 6cyl EZ motors, the have two hot coolant outlets at the top front of the manifold area. Some guys combine these right away into a single and so can use the supplied FFR tubing, but I elected to keep them separate and use the two inlet donor radiator as well. These two pipes snake through the same route as FFR's 1-1/2" but are obviously longer.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1521936688/016_1_inch_lines_to_radiator_bq9zzw.jpg

[Frank818]

Not only you're an 818 builder but you're a tool builder! :) That's a different set of skills. And an electronic circuit builder! Is there anything you don't build? :)

[aquillen]

If I had to cook, I'd live on the 3 p's - pizza, pop-tarts, popcorn, with pop-chasers.

For you guitar guys, check this - I do really small electronics too:

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=23087.msg167801#msg167801

[aquillen]

I was going to put a Legacy dash panel in until I found out it was wider/bigger than the Impreza cutout that comes with the FFR kit. I decided to make my own version using the plastic frame from an Impreza.

- Needed the H6 3.0 electronics for the tach, or else get/make a pulse convertor
- Liked having the clock that was in the Legacy dash
- Wanted some extra gauges but keep them in the display "window", not out somewhere else
- Like making my own stuff and having it unique

2 months give or take. First month spent playing with graphics ideas, layouts, making test patterns, changing ideas. Second month making the things shown here.

Pictures don't come close to justice on this.

I used a China 40W laser to cut the plastic and graphics parts. Have no clue how to get the accuracy and make these without one.

The text displays, such as "High Beam", "Low Fuel" and so on, are made from small plexiglass squares (1/8" thick), with transparent graphic labels on one end, surface mount LED on the other end. Wrapped with chrome mylar hobby film (model airplane stuff) to keep the light reflected inside. That is wrapped with copper foil to make a big conductor/connector spot and resistors to each LED are connected to the foil as well.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615154/AQ818_combo_meter_01_u7cy39.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615159/AQ818_combo_meter_02_jdlvxs.jpg

The dial face plates are a sandwich of 3 layers:
back layer is clear acrylic that has the LED's mounted in tiny cutuouts (laser cut of course) so the light "shines into" the plastic from and edge. It bounces around and is kept inside the acrylic plate two ways. The laser cuts by melting the plastic so the edges end up shiny and smooth, making a very good reflector. Next I wrap each disc with chrome mylar film to reflect even more light back into the disc.

Since light is bouncing all over in that acrylic, if it hits white paint on the back it will be diffused and reflected off the white paint and angles such that light will exit "above" the white paint. So white paint can be applied in the spots where I want light to be sent out toward the front of the display backlight disc. By lighting the LED you can put paint at a location and see the lighting effect it produces from the front, and so decide how much and where to put more paint to get even backlighting. The further from an LED, the more paint is needed. You don't want paint everywhere because it uses up the available light, some of which would be wasted in areas that don't need any light.

Next a matching disc is mated to the clear acrylic, same size, same cutouts, etc. (except no more LED's). This disc is translucent, cut from 1/8" thick plastic from a
ceiling florescent light fixture. This creates the creamy white backing of tick marks, words and numbers that appear on the front of the display. Especially it diffuses the light so it is more even.

The blue vs red vs white LED lighted areas are segregated from each other by laser cutting sections of the two discs and fitting chrome mylar film in between to prevent light spilling or sharing between different parts of the discs. Getting the mylar in there was one of the more difficult steps. I am slowly developing benign tremors (hand shake) and all this tiny detailed stuff is no so easy anymore.

The face plate itself is 3M carbon fiber look vinyl film, again laser cut from my bitmap graphics images and simply stuck to the fronts of the light pipe assemblies. A coat of clear acrylic paint goes over all of it to help keep the incredibly tiny bits of vinyl from falling off later on (stuff like the little triangle that makes the inside of the letter "A" in the word "TRANS", for example.
http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615165/AQ818_combo_meter_03_xns7mb.jpg

[aquillen]

With all the dial faces and text displays built, they go onto the aluminum face plate, which is cut from 0.10" aluminum plate. I could CNC the round stuff and bigger openings, but the small squares I hand drilled and filed to size (ugh).

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615173/AQ818_combo_meter_05_ij5fjs.jpg

A lot of bits and pieces need to be securely attached so I tig'd tabs for 4-40 screws all over the back of the face plate. In the thinner locations the tig welding caused bowing and bending. At first I figured the whole idea was a bust, but ended up putting in a bunch of hammering, tapping, teasing and otherwise bending it all back down flat. Had you seen the mess before I started fixing it, you would have said... can't be done. At least that was my initial impression.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615176/AQ818_combo_meter_06_pesqr8.jpg

The front was powder coated with chrome and then translucent blue, for a cool candy-blue final look.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615179/AQ818_combo_meter_07_wvo0s2.jpg

The backlight dials get mounted and wiring begins:

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615169/AQ818_combo_meter_04_dlvovo.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615183/AQ818_combo_meter_08_kjnlwz.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615188/AQ818_combo_meter_09_cg1t9a.jpg

[aquillen]

The meter movements are exposed and dust would make them fail. So a fiberglass dust shield was made, along with small tabs to have it screwed down onto the back of the face plate. Rubber foam strips between the shield and the face plate improve the seal. Where the ribbon connectors fit, still needs some seal.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615192/AQ818_combo_meter_10_jcn1tb.jpg

By Murphy's law, of course the dial pointers on the MPH and TACH manage to contact the clear front face plate, so it had to be shimmed out a bit with more foam and some 4-40 screws.

The guages were all generally shrunk in diameter a bit (MPH and TACH a lot), in order to make room in the nest for all of them. Not enough room in there for all those dials in their original diameters. That was one reason all this happened - it wouldn't fit in the Impreza's real-estate with three more (JDM low cost) guages.

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615195/AQ818_combo_meter_11_gsfexs.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615199/AQ818_combo_meter_12_l6xvpd.jpg

http://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1526615202/AQ818_combo_meter_13_eb8arp.jpg

Calibration? While the original Legacy panel was still virgin, I setup test signal inputs and determined what needed to be sent to each guage to set a specific dial pointer's position. Since all the pointers had to be pulled off the guages to build this, that was essential to getting things back to known states at the end. The last step prior to putting the face shield on was to wire up the signals and then press the dials onto their shafts at the correct locations.

Unseen is tiny black paper rings bonded just under the centers of each dial to prevent the white light for each dial's backlighting from spilling around and spoiling the panel's nice appearance.

Resuming working on my carbon fiber intake manifold now.

[redbudrr]

Wow!! Very impressive!!!

[frankc5r]

All I can say is "WOW". All the hours to do that -not many people have the patience. Congrats.

[flynntuna]

Yes WOW, it's a big improvement over the WRX gauge pack

[Frank818]

Basically you built your own cluster?? THIS IS AMAZING!!!!!!!! And that blue is awesome. I like blue... as you probably know lolll

But... 120mph? :)

[AZPete]

I'm often impressed by what guys on this forum can do but this is WAY beyond impressive . . . awesome work!

[aquillen]

Some time back on 'How It's Made - Dream Cars' they showed the Falcon F7 build. A good part of that show detailed the CF intake being built by the company Performance Design. It's not likely they'll be selling an intake kit for the H6 motor any time soon, and if they did it would likely be in the neighborhood of $10K, just like the ones they build for the LS7, etc. But after watching that and then looking at the Performance Design's WEB pix, I just had to give it a go.

I know now to a small degree why they get that kind of money. This project has been a long haul and has by itself added probably 6 months to my build time. I'm almost afraid to tally the materials alone but it is somewhere North of probably $700 so far. It is made of high-temp versions of everything possible, and keeps all the emissions components to boot.

I finally bolted this thing to the motor (there are a few bits to be completed) so I finally have enough pictures to show decent progress. In a couple weeks I plan to post the build sequence from scratch (a how-to like some of my above posts). I don't have the test capabilities or background in air-flow, etc., to design lots of iterations and tests, but I have taken advantage of WEB resources to study engineering reports, papers and so on, to at least have excuses for what I put together. I'm pretty sure it will pass air into the cylinders, although I doubt I can compete with Subaru engineers for performance, but at least it looks different.

Reasons - the usual - something different to try to make. Cut the 37# factory intake down to 7# to help offset the penalty of a heavier 3.0 motor. Something to look at through the Coupe's rear glass.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922200/03_-_Intake_on_engine_2_skttpf.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922173/02_-_Intake_on_engine_1_w1pcvu.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922186/04_-_Air_Box_kit_2_xl3vot.jpg

The tubes-flanges got bonded permanently after this photo...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922146/01_-_Air_Box_kit_1_b5nz9s.jpg

If you're not familiar with the '01-03' intake, it has a variable intake induction valve which changes the airbox geometry at mid-rpm to improve both low and high RPM torque. The factory computer changes the geometry using a vane that splits or opens a space between the left and right intake airbox sections. The computer also changes the fueling at this changeover point. The engine will have a slight stutter if the airbox changeover doesn't happen, but the fueling change does. So I designed a -somewhat- similar splitter vane to emulate the factory function. Will it work? Check out the 2015 Porsche 911 variable intake design - not really the same as it has more vanes, but ballpark concept. There is a lot to building this including some details so it doesn't vibrate into trash with intake pulses, I'll get into my efforts on that in the later post.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922198/05_-_Air_Box_Var_induction_valve_u6hxcp.jpg

I even tried out some aluminum casting of the flange parts to reduce milling demands. The rough cast parts came out with more defects than I could work around, so in the end I machined the parts from bar stock, but I learned a lot and might give this a go for something else. It was an education to say the least. It didn't help to do this on one of the hottest days in July this year...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922200/06_Casting_aluminum_go9api.jpg

[lsfourwheeler]

I'm very curious how all of this was made, it looks amazing! I have some pre-preg carbon fiber that I haven't put to use yet. How did you mold and create the carbon pieces?

[turbomacncheese]

I put together a rig to melt some aluminum cans with my kids. Gets too hot for just about everything I could scrounge/find made of steel. Too cheap/stupid to spring for the ceramic crucible. I used the bottom of a gas cylinder, and I melted a hole through it. Couldn't figure out why the thing wasn't filling up. Now I have aluminum all over the bottom of it. I did manage to cast a lego before that happened, lol. Maybe one day I'll heat it up and clean it out, but I don't think I have any good reasons to cast aluminum, so until I do - it isn't worth the trouble to me.

That intake is sexy, though.

[Mitch Wright]

Beautiful work, not sure I would care if it was a few HP down because it looks so good.

[aquillen]

I'm going to post the build in some installments. First up the cf tubes. But re: comments -

Casting aluminum - I made a steel can from some pipe and a bottom plate welded to it. Gets mild red hot when the aluminum melts (~1200-1300 F). You would have to get well above that temp to melt the steel can. Have to be patient and keep the can at mild red, waiting for the aluminum to take heat and melt, and it takes quite a while. I dug a 2-1/2' deep hole in my sandy yard, with a second air hole angled in to the bottom and setup a house fan to blow down that second hole. Threw in some firewood scraps and had a furnace. But sand casting is all over the WEB to learn from.

I don't expect to gain HP but that would be a bonus if it happened. Probably lose some if anything. But looks win this time as you note, Mitch. And hey, I drop about 30# so that is next best thing to HP. I could lose at least 25# myself for that matter. :)

[frankc5r]

Beautiful carbon work and I see why it took 6 mo with all that mill work and the switching you are doing. Very, very nice.

[aquillen]

The airbox and tubes were first rough-mocked up using blue construction foam and a hot wire. Stuff I use now and then to make wings for model airplanes, so I'm used to it. I was looking for overall height and clearance to the alternator. I changed to a Geo Prism alternator, lower amperage, but it gave me a lot more room up front. I wanted to lower the whole manifold strictly for looks at first, then later for runner length as well.

Initially I wanted a pair of airboxes, one to each bank, just like the "big boys" do for those LS engines. But the stock ECU does that induction valve thing and while the story gets complicated, suffice to say it pushed me back to using one box after all.

The airbox and runner volumes/lengths I determined after studying various WEB materials on these subjects. Then with the height and width of the airbox decided and mocked, I was able to fix the length and shape of the tubes. For runner length I looked at a lot of tech data and at least a couple calculators on WEB sites, and decided the calculator at - http://www.velocity-of-sound.com/velocity_of_sound/calculator2.htm - was as good as any other, so I used it to decide I had a reasonable length for stock RPM range.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538955849/CF_tube_fab_01_yvuevm.jpg

(1) Diameter/shape at the engine intake port determined the internal shape and diameter of the entire tube. I made cardboard oval and tube profile templates to measure and check from and then using drywall patching plaster, sandpaper and body repair putty, worked the shape of the original rough tube into a final internal shape for the tube = tube internal mold plug.

(2) The tube internal mold plug [A] was then painted with some thin coats of paint (heavy paint coats run risk of softening the internal base foam = tube can collapse while being handled).

(3) With a finished plug looking glossy smooth and nice, it was painted with several coats of silicone mold-making putty [B], with cloth scraps embedded in the putty to reinforce the coats.

(4) A "mother mold" of plaster of paris [C] was put over the entire silicone and plug assembly, using food wrap film to split the plaster mold into two halves.

(5) The silicone mold [B] was removed and slit down one side and remove the mold plug.

(6) Transforming the internal mold plug to become instead the outer mold plug [A]: The mold plug was wrapped with 8 layers of 3K twill carbon fiber "CF" cloth. Ideally I'd do this with tubes of CF sock material instead of flat cloth, but I had a bunch of cloth already, so I made it work. The layers were put on with resin in order to build the mold plug outside diameter up to what would be the final OD of the tubes. The tube was sanded and painted to get the finished outer surface in preparation to making an outer "finish" mold.

(7) Cardboard "shields" were added to the sides of the outer plug mold [A] to divide the upper and lower halves of the plug.

(8) Using fiberglass cloth and low cost resin, the outer finish "female" mold [D] was made. The bottom side of these finished CF tubes will not be seen when viewing the engine normally, so I did not make a lower half mold, allowing the bottoms of the final CF tubes to simply have the hand shaped carbon fiber cloth. But the top side of the tubes need to be smooth and nicely shaped, so the mold is made to shape the top of the tubes only = somewhat simpler mold build and management of the tube builds later on.

[aquillen]

Beautiful carbon work and I see why it took 6 mo with all that mill work and the switching you are doing. Very, very nice.

I don't even count the hours converting a Harbor Freight mini-mill into CNC last winter and spring, specifically so I could do this CF project. But it has been so useful for other stuff too.

[aquillen]

With all the molds ready, the silicone mold [B] was encased in the mother mold [C] and then filled with molten paraffin wax. The solidified paraffin wax (which is the tube's internal ID former) [E] was hand wrapped with a length of 3K twill carbon cloth using a twisting action. My wifely partner painted high-temp rated laminating epoxy resin into the cloth during this step.

(the next couple photos are mockups - we didn't shoot while doing the messy stuff)

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538952948/CF_tube_fab_02_min6bn.jpg

The length and starting position of this wrapping process has to be tested and worked out so the finish of the wrap is on the bottom area for appearance sake. The CF can be cut with scissors even wet, but it is messy work.

The female outer mold [D] is prepped with several coats of mold release wax in advance, then the wrapped tube is placed in the mold.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538952947/CF_tube_fab_03_rsuiai.jpg

The assembly was then placed in a typical vacuum bag with polyester filler cotton, release cloth and so-on, lots of WEB stuff about this step. And setup with a vacuum pump overnight to cure.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538952939/CF_tube_fab_04_ylz1pq.jpg

My vacuum pump makes a racket, but a wrap of cloth cures it so we can sleep... and it gets HOT!

The cured tube is removed from the mold, the bottom is coarse finish but the top takes the nice finish FFR is sending us in their body panels... :)

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538952940/CF_tube_fab_05_wvbk1x.jpg

The tubes were baked at low temp in an electric oven rigged to melt and drain the paraffin forms. Next the finished tubes got baked at various increasing temperatures per the resin instructions, to condition the resin for high temp performance. The internal surfaces of the tubes were not perfect smooth, but a sander "ball" run through on flexible shaft quickly polished them nicely.

The original plug was made extra long on each end, so the final tubes come out with some excess end material (and the ends are crummy since I didn't design the mold to make pretty ends). I made a crude jig from wood to use when trimming the tube ends to the desired length and shape for their final size when mounted into the end flanges later. I found that about the best thing to cut the CF ends with no fuss is an oscillating saw.

Next up I'll go through the CF airbox build.

[cgundermann]

Art ~

I also love to watch the "How it's Made Dream Cars" series and was so impressed with the fab/design of the Falcon's LS carbon Fiber upper intake.

I have romantically thought about designing and building my own supercar like the Falcon. You my friend have closed on that notion; from your custom made trick gauges to your carbon fiber intake and integrated blue anodized aluminum and accents. Bravo my friend!!! Love carbon fiber...did a real carbon fiber overlay on my MK4, but I got nothing on your mad skills...

Super, super impressed with your home fabrication skills and ingenuity. Although a Cobra guy, I'm following your thread because it is so interesting and motivating...

Chris

[turbomacncheese]

I don't even count the hours converting a Harbor Freight mini-mill into CNC last winter and spring, specifically so I could do this CF project. But it has been so useful for other stuff too.

Anything you'd like to share about this? I see a bunch of mentions all over the place about people doing it and how easy it is, but I haven't seen enough about projects people actually complete with them. Might get me motivated to put that on the list after the CNC router, which is only on the list because of my 3d printer (Thanks Redfogo....)

[aquillen]

There are some kits out there, but not cheap, they cost more than the mill itself. I bought lead screws, motor drives, interface board, power supply off ebay. Made my own motor mounts and lead screw mounts, limit switch arrangments then stuffed a box with the electronic parts. You don't have to but I also put a game controller on mine which makes for easy moving things around (and easy to mess up). Using LinuxCNC on an old Dell computer, and even that can be fussy - pick the wrong computer (a lot of Dells reportedly won't work for example) and you will have issues with clock timing in the CPU causing stepper motors to miss-step.

I didn't take pictures so that means I can't show you the bottoms of the lead screw mountings into the X & Y slides, but that stuff is really a matter of try-fit and make some aluminum shims.

I will look through the orders for parts I made though and post up what I can without taking the thing apart. I also put about 40 hours into scraping and tweaking the "ways" on the mill to get it smooth - and tight. If you don't put time in doing that you won't have a machine that can do proper work, IMHO.

If you are good at working through problems and designing odds and ends you can convert one without buying a kit, if not, I'd suggest get a kit. It's mechanical, electrical and computer stuff throughout. Snooping WEB info is invaluable.

Oh - and - a working mill is just the beginning of spending $. Milling cutters, milling vise(s), collet style tool holders ("chucks"), center finders, lubricants, measuring instruments, a place where cut chips can go flying, and more. I've had some of it around already because I've had a mini-lathe for years, but it is real easy to "need" one more tool today and another tomorrow, etc., etc. Just like this car kit I guess.

But FUN.

[turbomacncheese]

Sounds like I should put that on my list of stuff to do....later!!!! Gathering skill with modeling for the 3d printer will help out a lot, I'm pretty sure, in the meantime. But I also need to spend some time/cash on the 818, the kids, and especially the wife!! If you get bored or just find yourself looking for things to do on the computer instead of the garage, I'm interested in the things you've done with the mill (vs how you got the mill to CNC). You know, first find a reason, THEN build the tool!

Thanks.

[STiPWRD]

Art, you really inspire me to challenge myself. That carbon fiber intake looks insane!

[aquillen]

... I'm interested in the things you've done with the mill (vs how you got the mill to CNC). You know, first find a reason, THEN build the tool!

Thanks.

Since it went CNC:

holes in plate for dashboard
steering wheel adapter parts for NRG
mount plate for cruise control with NRG
parts for intake induction valve & airbox backfire blowoff parts
3 different "flanges" for intake: airbox, engine ends, bellmouths inside airbox
adapter/converter plate for throttle body to airbox

Prior to that I used the mill (have had it about 5 years) every so often for something for my telescope, gun parts, model RC car/planes and lately the 818 - milling pipes to fit for strut building, etc. Adding CNC got me two things - more accuracy when parts are made that must fit together, and especially more complex operations and especially X10 where you need to make several of the same thing.

[aquillen]

Thanks all so far re the carbon fiber. There is just something about carbon fiber parts that gets a lot of us interested. High tech, lightweight. This manifold if I didn't say it - 7# vs the 35# Subaru. That alone is just cool.

[turbomacncheese]

holes in plate for dashboard
steering wheel adapter parts for NRG
mount plate for cruise control with NRG
parts for intake induction valve & airbox backfire blowoff parts
3 different "flanges" for intake: airbox, engine ends, bellmouths inside airbox
adapter/converter plate for throttle body to airbox

See, NOW you got me thinking!! Thanks!

[QUOTE=aquillen;342683]Thanks all so far re the carbon fiber. There is just something about carbon fiber parts that gets a lot of us interested. High tech, lightweight. This manifold if I didn't say it - 7# vs the 35# Subaru. That alone is just cool.

You deserve every last bit of that praise, too!

[Mechie3]

Nice work!

For the transmission being too close to the frame, you can cut off much of the back end if you weld a plug into the hole you can see from the back side.

[Frank818]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922200/03_-_Intake_on_engine_2_skttpf.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922173/02_-_Intake_on_engine_1_w1pcvu.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922186/04_-_Air_Box_kit_2_xl3vot.jpg



No!! You did not! Unbelievable! And the finish quality looks like that of Koenigsegg's!
You built yourself a home-made autoclave, impossible but you made it! I don't know what else to say, I'm frozen in time!

What's next? Copying the ENTIRE car frame in carbon fiber?

[aquillen]

Nice work!

For the transmission being too close to the frame, you can cut off much of the back end if you weld a plug into the hole you can see from the back side.

I have been contemplating that, in my back pocket if needed. Thanks!

[aquillen]

No!! You did not! Unbelievable! And the finish quality looks like that of Koenigsegg's!
You built yourself a home-made autoclave, impossible but you made it! I don't know what else to say, I'm frozen in time!

What's next? Copying the ENTIRE car frame in carbon fiber?

I wish it was an autoclave, just vacuum bagging so far. Would be a cool thing to have though. Frame in CF? Hmmmm... :)

[q4stix]

Color me impressed with your work - and I've done a bunch of design requiring CNC and carbon hand layup and machine layup (CTLM, ATLM, etc) for my job every day
Nice job!

[e-rue]

I really enjoyed your build up.

Thanks

Eric

[aquillen]

Got the ECM/TCM parts wired to the engine enough to try starting. Happy to say it fired right up. Don't have any other wiring yet, so fuses and jumper wires were used today.

I rather expected a vacuum leak with all the component parts involved with my homebrew CF intake, but it settled into a proper idle immediately. If there was a leak I'd think it would idle way high.


https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/video/upload/q_68/v1546984265/Arts_818_First_Start_sqt1ms.mp4

Took about a week to wire the engine components to the ECM/TCM. I never had a harness, so just connectors with pigtails. Next step will be to bundle and tape my wire groups to clean up what I've wired so far.

Started making cylinder/piston parts for hydraulic shifter I'm going to try next.

[redbudrr]

Way to go!! Always exciting when they start!!

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Great Job

[DSR-3]

Great day, congratulations!
Let's see some pics of the engine/intake now that it's in the chassis.

[aquillen]

Great day, congratulations!
Let's see some pics of the engine/intake now that it's in the chassis.

Workin' on it now. Got some more intake info to post 1st.

[aquillen]

Some of the steps building the airbox. The carbon fiber tubes were covered above.

The initial tube and airbox shapes were roughed in using blue construction foam, carved with a knife and hot nichrome wire knife. The airbox in foam was easy to damage, so I made a better one from balsa wood (still flimsy but easier to sand, shape, paint).

First a profile pattern for supporting ribs was drawn, in Microsoft paint no less... Then this was resized and saved several times, each one "lower" in profile but same width at the bottom. The profile changes created the slight taper where the "front" of the box is lower than the back (throttle body goes at the back).

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546996408/AirBoxFrame_01_taa00s.jpg

Paper templates were printed, then balsa formers were cut from each template. Like building a model airplane airframe, planks of balsa were glued. The whole box was filled with some "Great Stuff" to help keep the wood from changing shape with humidy, etc.:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546996883/airbox_plug_02_m5l1ck.jpg

The outer form is sanded, sealed, painted. It was nicer than this pic but has been bumped around since used:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546996998/airbox_plug_01_aknk0y.jpg

A fiberglass mold is prepared from the plug.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546997057/airbox_mold_01_xktrwo.jpg

No pictures of building the actual shell in the mold, but it was 10 layers of CF cloth. Vacuum bagging was used as well. The resin I used for the tubes, vane parts (detailed below), and this box is Fibre Glast 3000 which gets oven treatment once the parts are removed from their molds. After oven curing, the 3000 epoxy carbon fiber parts are good for 309 degrees F, per Fibre Glast.

I selected this resin because it can be oven cured AFTER removing from the supporting mold. Some epoxies must be kept in the mold during curing or they change shapes.

End result, sitting on the aluminum frame bottom (next):

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546997910/08_Airbox_bottom_-_bottom_plate_rough_fit_02_i09hp7.jpg

[aquillen]

The aluminum frame is made from 0.1" sheet, cut in strips and tig welded. I did hand form a U-shaped frame the first time around but after hours, it was nice, then needed an adjustment that damaged it. Decided to make the U-shape frame by welding strips together - faster and stronger. Either way, get it right or start from scratch each time. 'Lot of time here.

The U shape creates a cup that the bottom lip of the airbox CF can be bonded down into. Vacuum/air tight, and strong to handle intake-backfire. (I know of arguments over the term intake-backfire, but I suspect you know what I mean). I can't say that I would put a boost into this airbox, but it SHOULD handle backfire's. Heck it did on the test start - notice when I jumped in the video above just as the engine caught?

The bottom plate is 1/8" aluminum. Two of the three strips are higher profile.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546998259/01_Airbox_bottom_-_bent_parts_to_weld_ytkybi.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546998496/03_Airbox_bottom_-_bottom_frame_to_plat_fit_ehs375.jpg

Tack welding the frame around. Later the seams were welded in longer sections. High performance epoxy eventually fills the U-channel bonding the CF box bottom into the U-channel and sealing the assembly to be air-tight. Bits of metal were inserted to help heat-sink the welding area, TIG outfit was near its lower limit and was on the verge of burn through most of the time.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546998674/04_Airbox_bottom_-_welding_screw-seal_plate_to_bottom_touq17.jpg

The back lip - for the throttle body mounting plate, is made the same way:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546998838/09_Airbox_bottom_-_end_plate_parts_to_weld_lhownd.jpg

Eventually the parts are welded together. Has to be jigged and just right, the aluminum doesn't like being bent to adjust afterward (cracks).

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546998993/11_Airbox_bottom_-_end_and_bottom_welded_zy8hae.jpg

The carbon fiber airbox is set into the frame, and bonded with this single part epoxy, which is heat cured. And costs a bundle.

3M™ Scotch-Weld™ Adhesive 2214 Hi-Temp New Formula are aluminum filled, deaerated products for use where higher strengths are required between 180°F to 350°F (82°C to 177°C).

[aquillen]

The throttle body is spaced away from the CF frame to make room for cables, etc. And to allow for a funnel shaped air inlet that enlarges as air leaves the throttle body and flows into the main airbox space.

So a 1/8" aluminum plate fits directly to the back of the airbox, it is welded to a 1/10" aluminum funnel shaped part, and that is welded to a 1/2" aluminum plate fitted to the throttle body itself.

Milling the port in the 1/2" plate, to fit the outlet bore of the throttle body:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546999340/14_Airbox_air_input_-_milling_throttle_adapter_plate_lxudl1.jpg

Experimenting with cardboard templates eventually defines the shape needed to make an oval-shaped funnel. The aluminum is cut and then formed by bending it in increments in a make shift jig in my press...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546999473/12_Airbox_air_input_horn_-_bending_funnel_01_xytclw.jpg

Jumping to some of the bottom detail. I'm trying to keep the emissions control functions. Other than adding weight, a study of these systems suggests that other than catalytic converter exhaust flow restriction, the other components should not have significant affect on horsepower. For example, stomp on the gas, the EGR system should "disengage" to not reduce power output.

OK - so coming in the bottom (under computer control) is exhaust gas from the EGR. Also arriving, again under computer control, charcoal cannister fuel vapor to purge temporary gasoline vapors stored in the cannister. These two systems typically flow into the intake under steady state highway speed driving.

Next, I have concern for an intake-backfire rendering the entire assembly back to nature. Studying other plastic intake designs, some employ various types of duck-bill or other flapper type valves to vent the intake chamber. You can find plenty of pictures, including Cadillac and other engines. Not much in calculations, but I worked out my own dimensions and pressure plans for that part. (semi-educated guessing... what else?). I have two spring held poppet valves. Each is 120% open area compared to the area of one CF intake tube. They have high temp Viton o-rings in machined grooves to seal when closed.

During my first test start, just as the engine "caught" there was a backfire. It's pretty loud, because the valve(s) opened. Well they worked at least once...

The aluminum plates have passages to ensure gas flows to either/both "sides" of the airbox regardless of the induction valve (detailed next) is open or closed.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1546999550/15_Airbox_bottom_cover_-_ports_01_ldpgq8.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547000374/17_Airbox_bottom_cover_-_ports_03_rybg6w.jpg

I worked out the flex tubing for the EGR by visiting my local LKQ-Upick yard, and snooped around all kinds of engine compartments to see what I might adapt and use. They didn't even charge for the 5 tubes I came out with....

[aquillen]

Induction valve....

The 01-04 H6-3.0 motors emply a "variable induction valve". It was about as simple of this sort of valve used, and was an early adopter of the scheme. A great number of engines now employ variable induction schemes because they take advantage of "ram air" type airflow. Loosely stated, resonant waves of airflow "slam" back and forth between the engine's cylinder intake valve backside faces and the airbox interior, flowing up and down through the intake tubes. With the right geometry, more air can be moved down the tubes and into the cylinders. But as RPM's change, the air shock wave travel speed being rather constant (~speed of sound~) the length of the tubes ideally should be changed to keep getting the best air-flow-cylinder-fill performance.

Whew. Better stated by others, but close enough for my discussion here.

The Volkswagon - Vanagon guys and gals, and some Subi fans have been transplanting the H6 into their favorite underpowered ride. Some have described that when they have removed the functionality of the variable intake control, the engine has a rich fuel "hiccup" at the point where the valve would normally be switched by the engine computer (~4300 RPM if I remember right - not looking it up again). So I wanted to try to keep the function, and hopefully also get the slight performance improvement that the variable intake valve gives.

In the bottom of the OEM intake manifold are two "belly's" or chambers, with three intake tubes to one chamber each. A brass plate (the valve) on a pivot axis can be opened or closed to spit or combine the two chambers. The computer opens or closes this valve to change the overall volume of the two chambers, and mostly, to let the intake shockwaves travel across from the left and right intake halves (or not). = more power at certain RPM ranges.

So what the heck, I made something along the same lines. Probably this time more of an uneducated guess, but hey, I'm trying at least.

Biggest concern really is the shock waves (and there are a lot of them at X RPM, non stop mayhem in there) could tear up the parts I put inside. Then the parts go where they will REALLY mess things up - cylinders.

Carbon fiber to the rescue? First, an end view of what is inside the box.

Vane closed:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547001776/10_CF_intake_vane_installed_tu1hpx.jpg

Vane open:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547001832/var_induction_end_view_01_ejgxni.jpg

The vane is operated by an oil-filled gearbox at the front, inside, with operater shaft extending out the bottom of the airbox. The original vacuum motor, computer controlled, operates my version of the "variable intake valve".

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547002243/under_intake_plumbing_31_kmb9og.jpg

[aquillen]

Fabricating the induction valve.

The frame parts, valve plate itself, has to be stiff to avoid flex. Of course that provokes a resonant frequency problem as well, and resonance is what brings down airplane wings, span bridges, and big windmills, etc.. The best hope then is just make it as stiff as possible and roll the dice. I just don't have the finite analysis stuff, etc., to play like a big boy.

Forging ahead then,

The vane started with 1/2" hard aluminum rod, with 1/8" slots milled on opposite sides, to support bonding perforated aluminum plates. Perforations allowed the epoxy resin to mate throughout the assembly to bond the CF better. The curve induced in the CF overlay increases the CF bend resistance immensely. (Immensely = a very scientific amount...):)

Milling the slots -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547002322/01_-_Air_induction_valve_-_milling_slot_in_vane_core_rod_rwfh2f.jpg

The perf aluminum sub-frames, bonded with good'old JB Weld. All oven baked to drive out contaminants, then sand blasted and cleaned in prep for carbon fiber overlay.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547002692/02_-_Air_induction_valve_-_cf_vane_inner_perf_aluminum_qocwip.jpg

This 10 layer carbon fiber vane was laid together and then vacuum infused to get as much strength as possible given home-brew.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547002760/03_-_Air_induction_valve_-_vac_bagging_cf_vane_assy_01_m0gpeh.jpg

These pictures I posted before, but for continuity:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922146/01_-_Air_Box_kit_1_b5nz9s.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1538922198/05_-_Air_Box_Var_induction_valve_u6hxcp.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547003747/Airbox-Bellmouths_01_ytt00d.jpg

[aquillen]

Great day, congratulations!
Let's see some pics of the engine/intake now that it's in the chassis.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547004061/eng_rdy_01_kpdsht.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547004298/engine_lift_28_aohzp7.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547004894/engine_in_01_td4iv9.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547004894/engine_in_03_ji7jd6.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547004894/engine_in_05_or0cqm.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547004893/engine_in_04_jyvro1.jpg

[aquillen]

I decided to get enough wires together to try that engine start posted earlier today. Once I'm pretty confident in the connections, I'll wrap the harness, then post some pix.

This was about a week ago when I started splicing things together.

First, to keep the engine computer happy, and not end up with an aftermarket computer control, the ECM needs the "TCM" - transmission control module. That computer is also a busy little beaver, just like the ECM. They talk to each other constantly. My TCM is getting tricked into thinking it is connected to a real automatic with some resistors and a couple transistors help with toggling between neutral and 2nd gear "pretend". My little adapter board to do this is stuffed inside the TCM. All this is an effort to improve engine idle behavior in particular, as reports by others indicate no TCM = idle problems come and go.

With FreeSSM and an adapter cable, my little cheapo WindowsXP laptop connects to and runs diagnostics just fine on both the ECM and the TCM. I used it to verify my resistor setup in the TCM does what I want.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547005496/tcm_adapter_board_04_ihbgs4.jpg

It takes some digging on the Internet to locate the pioneers who worked out auto transmission delete for the EZ30. Eventually I arrived at this design. For someone wanting to do this it should all be sorted in these drawings. The first one is posted here but to tie in the I/O details you would probably want to download and examine the surrounding schematics that connect. Links are posted for the related drawings to save space here:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1573048039/818C-3.0_W17_TCM-ECU_balxhs.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1573049074/818C-3.0_W1_ECM_l77pdi.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1573049075/818C-3.0_W3_IGN_START_vweomh.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1573049075/818C-3.0_W4_COMBO_METER_2001_wub3kf.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1573049068/818C-3.0_W12_DATA_LINK_V2_y6gghm.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1573049072/818C-3.0_W18_CRUISE_front_mounted_nkoisg.jpg
Drawing W5 where referenced is simply ground connections.

Next the TCM is piggy backed on the ECM can. And they are high enough in the frame I trust they will survive reasonable abuse. (thinking I should fab some splash shielding, jic.) There is also a fuse/relay box piggy backed on the ECM above the TCM (not shown here).

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547005496/ecm_tcm_mount_01_erxalb.jpg

Just gettin' started:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547005497/ecm_tcm_wiring_01_pxoyzo.jpg

[aquillen]

Ever price a Greenlee crimping tool for larger splices and connectors? Ouch.

Bum a 1.5" cube of steel at the local metal shop, get your hacksaw lubed up. You can make reasonable crimps on a shoe-string.

Now, it is true you don't have that .00001" calibrated crimp depth that the factory spec'd. But with some care you can make crimps that work. They should be pretty deep, a massive pull should not pull anything out or shift the cable in the terminal. Just don't mash the terminal until it is crushed completely. I have the advantage of having done a lot of larger crimps in past life, so I know what to look for but I think common sense would get you decent results.

To make the tool:

First drill the through hole, then the half hole. Size them for the larger cable you will make. Smaller cables, within reason will still crimp perfectly fine in this one tool. Then saw the block in half.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006526/diy_crimper_01_o2c8jv.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006527/diy_crimper_02_qdelup.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006527/diy_crimper_03_gd0bm7.jpg

Water resistant too:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006529/diy_crimper_04_ihh6cs.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006529/diy_crimper_05_pmtrut.jpg

A bench vise will do:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006528/diy_crimper_06_gwvgtd.jpg

Or a press...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006528/diy_crimper_07_nlcgrn.jpg

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006528/diy_crimper_08_ncjzxh.jpg
"only her hairdresser knows for sure"...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1547006529/diy_crimper_09_u5r9fn.jpg

[Frank818]

Woa, there's nothing "ok" in your build. Every single part, as small or big as it is is "awesomely off the chart"!

[sgarrett]

I truly am blown away by the craftmanship. Wow....

[aquillen]

Since I didn't use a donor, my parts came from here and there, LKQ yards, friends, eBay. The Subaru engine harness bugged me, a jumble of tape, plastic guides, corrugated sleeving, tape, tape and more tape. It seemed to me the carbon fiber intake deserved better below it, not this stuff:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557192805/Subaru_engine_harness_01_nj2hw5.jpg

My "first draft" reworked harness is the one that I started the engine on back in January (vid above).

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557192802/First_harness_on_jig_01_bvtux0.jpg

BUT it was made with more splices than I could count, and after changing lengths here and there mid-build, the splice count doubled from there. Also I used a bunch of new wire that ended up with insulation way thicker than Subaru uses. My final harness was thick and bulky. Especially right in the neighborhood of the alternator when installed...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557192785/First_harness_on_jig_01A_g95wxb.jpg

So, it ended up be a "proof of concept" harness. But now, with good lengths to all the connectors on the engine and such, I used it to setup a layout board with connector lengths marked up on the board. I snagged an under-dash harness super cheap on eBay and it had the ECU, TCU connectors I needed plus a mass of wires in the color codes matching everthing I needed to build a visually better looking harness, even if electrically it was just a re-run:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557192806/Second_harness_on_jig_02_sjldqu.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557192787/Second_harness_on_jig_02A_rdym4u.jpg

I've run the engine a number of times on this one and now wonder how I made such a mess the first time around :confused:

[aquillen]

A recap of some plumbing, (H6 3.0 engine) -

Return to engine:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1530321847/AQ818_coolant_lines_engine_lt_01_h4nyfh.jpg

Hot to radiator:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1530320350/AQ818_coolant_lines_rt_side_03_ylbynf.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1530320749/AQ818_coolant_lines_radiator_06_mbgwfs.jpg

Sitting in 8 acres of mostly oak trees, last fall was a bumper crop of acorns. My brother lives in the city but likes to feed his local squirrels. He was coming for a visit so I blew an hour collecting a couple tubs for him. Put them in my garage like a dumbo. I also occasionally trap a mouse out there. Connect the dots?

About the time he got here the acorns had sprouted worms and got thrown out. But that's just the beginning. I have the feeling they would have fermented and exploded given a few more days...

I started finding little collections of acorns in strange places. A cardboard box inside a cabinet my band saw sits on. Behind bottles of oil and lube in another cabinet. Behind the tig welder that has sat for several weeks dormant.

This is back in October mind you. Late December I'm getting to the engine wiring, installing the engine and looking forward to first start fun. The acorns fiasco has been long forgotten, or so I thought.

With the engine out of the chassis in the fall, the coolant hoses closest to the engine, on each side were removed but all the piping from the back of the chassis to the front was in place. After putting the engine back in the frame, I was moving one of the pipes while putting the first hose back on and an acorn rolled out. OMG.

Did I say OMG? Not exactly, more like O-S and other sailer's words I thought I'd left behind when I shipped out of the Navy in the mid '70's...

In the end I found both hot side pipes and the return packed full and get this - acorns clear up inside the top plastic runner across the radiator. Used a flexible bore scope to make sure it was all cleaned out. Had to flush and rag-drag the insides of the pipes. Also water flushed the whole piping system. Plan to dump a complete load of coolant before this goes on the road, although for now I have it filled for testing.

I set more traps. My brother is on his own. There were acorns in the muffler and exhaust pipes piled over in the corner. I hate mice. One got run over when I was backing out of the garage a few weeks later. What a mess, but I grinned.

[aquillen]

Got bit by another "do it different" bug. Work in progress, might take a while to finish this so I'll come back to it later. Given issues others have had with body part alignment, I'm taking a chance not having the whole coupe and such installed, but I'll just cut and 'glass as needed when the time comes.

So far -

First, assembled the hood and front sides, guided by the rear fender's - running board's - front corners to the back-bottoms of the front left and right fenders. Made up some clamps here and there and marked boards and stuff so it could be removed, installed repeatedly in the same locations each time. Goal is to define where the hood to fenders should be. This is because next the fenders and hoods mating lips will be ground away and all obvious means of alignment would be lost.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557197188/Clamshell_hood_jig_04_hssvdy.jpg

This is a little further along picture wise but shows what I was getting ready to do for alignment with no guiding hood-fender interface lips. Boards at the bottom front used to get the bottom back in place after pulling the fenders off for the cut/grind step coming up.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557197200/Clamshell_hood_jig_08_v3odkl.jpg

Some scrap 2x2 wood blocks were profiled to match the curve of the hood/fender mating lines. Band-sawing these blocks roughly in half created pairs of top-bottom "alignment" blocks that will hold the hood to fender positions later when the "lips" have been cut off the fiberglass edges of each piece.

The sides and hood come off the chassis and the mating edges are changed from lips to flat sheet. Repairing/mating fiberglass edges are feathered by the standard rule of a 12:1 ratio where the feather-taper is 12 times the thickness. In this case for the 1/8" thick glass/gel coat I ground about 1.5 inches in from the edge to down to paper thin at what used to be the mating "lips":

A "multi-tool" type vibrating saw is easy to control and works well for this sort straight cutting (on fiberglass and carbon fiber composite too). I'm rough cutting the lip of one of the pieces here:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557197183/Clamshell_hood_cut_lip_01_yjq8pw.jpg

Next we grind. Always a mess. Tape line guides the 1.5 inch from edge. This had to wait for good weather here in NW Indiana so I could go outside.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557197190/Clamshell_hood_feather_lip_02_yyxud6.jpg

Back together again, the wood blocks, bottom side only are pasted with some body panel adhesive, and screws are run through from the top to clamp the block pairs. Once the bottoms are bonded, the top blocks can be removed so glass can be laid into the seams. All the block pairs are in place in the picture posted above. Later, a chisel easily separates the bottom side block from the body adhesive and excess left can be ground away. I may add some glass to the bottom side later, depending on how things look/feel.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557197187/Clamshell_hood_guide_block_03_kdkm0u.jpg

Several strips of glass are laid in with vinyl ester resin, each strip is wider than so the highest strip spans nearly to the un-ground surface about 1.5 inches in from the edge. Since I didn't setup underlay to fully support the new glass, it sagged down the open seam and will need some filler work. Should have setup a support from underneath to prevent this. Live and learn. Kitty-hair to the rescue...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1557197200/Clamshell_hood_glassed_09_sffbfv.jpg

More on the work to follow, including the hinge structure I have in mind.

[Hobby Racer]

As always, amazing work! Can't wait to the see the hinge mechanism.

[Kurk818]

Amazing amount of work and quality. Checking in daily for hopefully more updates! keep at it :)

[Ajzride]

I've been considering a clamshell as well, eager to see how this turns out. Thanks for blazing a trail.

[Frank818]

The finished product of this build will be worth almost as much as a 250 GTO...

[redbudrr]

I cannot wait to see how this piece of the vehicle compares to your gauges, airbag, etc. Great work!!

[aquillen]

The finished product of this build will be worth almost as much as a 250 GTO...

$15-20K is a bit short of $35-45M but appreciate the thought. You've got a great build yourself!

[aquillen]

I cannot wait to see how this piece of the vehicle compares to your gauges, airbag, etc. Great work!!

I did consider the airbag but decided not to push my luck. Engineering on that, even just transplanting it, would require some crash testing - a bit beyond my budget/time limits. :)

Oh, and the only crash test dummy I have on tap is... me. So it might be a one shot test.

Currently engaged with building a shifter setup. My planned hydraulic shifter got built, complete with custom hydraulic cylinders and vent device, but I didn't like the stiffness that comes from seals tight enough to not leak under pressure (and I used top quality stuff for my cylinder design). So went back to building a more traditional sort of linkage. Pics probably next week, tested last night but need to finish some tweaks.

[aquillen]

"yet another shifter design" -

Fiberglass went on hold while we dealt with three down trees. Then weather didn't fit to sanding outside (refuse to make a garage mess unless I have to. Way too much log pile to be split now, but some of that is done. 818 of course goes on hold when these things come up. You all know how that goes. In fact tomorrow we start on a bathroom remodel... Oh well :rolleyes:

When the package says "do not open, no user serviceable parts inside", that's when I go to work.

So I've managed to shorten the kit's supplied cables. I also obtained a Teleflex TFXtreme Marine Control Cable and shredded that to see what is so special about something that "cannot be repaired, no serviceable parts". This same process can be used on them if you have nothing better to spend time on.

I put this shifter setup on the car a couple days back, but no pics as I was making parts and getting the linkage working. All apart now awaiting some parts from McMaster-Carr to wrap it up. But here are some bits of my take on the shifter so far.

the blurry goal:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310610/Shift_cable_mod_-_done_01_bwbvht.jpg

Going to cut off one end of the cable and that peice won't get used, but the flex-nozzle thingy on the end is valuable and gets used again. Cut the cable back a little bit from one end (use a metal cutting grinder - hacksaws and band saw blades will be ruined by the spring steel in the sheath and cable core). Pull off the rubber boots. Pull out the cable end and insert a screwdriver or steel rod that fits snug in the nozzle that limits cable bend angle. Rock the screwdriver in a circle, prying against the limit of angle the nozzle affords. In short order this opens the end of the cable end so the nozzle falls out.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310607/Shift_cable_mod_-_parts_00_bjylti.jpg

Create cable end parts: aluminum barrel about 2.5" long, threaded inside for about 1" for 1/2-20, drilled through the rest of the way for snug slide fit over the cable sheath. Six offset locations around this barrel threaded for 10-32 set screws that will clamp the cable sheath. Next a 2" length of 1/2-20 "all-thread" steel rod, with the center drilled through with 1/4" drill. A 3/4" long piece of aluminum 5/8" rod, drilled to 5/16 then drilled and tapped almost clear through for 1/2-20 rod. This makes an end cap to trap the nozzle on the end of the 2" hollow steel rod, allowing the nozzle to wobble like it did before it was molested.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310619/Shift_cable_mod_-_parts_02_hfjwhl.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310608/Shift_cable_mod_-_parts_01_yghxb7.jpg

[aquillen]

Once the final length is known, work out the length to cut the cable sheath and outer steel jacket back, accounting for how long you actually made the parts listed above. The inner cable liner was 1/4" diameter and needs to go clear to the end of the 1/2-20 rod that was drilled through with 1/4, so it supports the push-pull inner core as far out as possible. You can work out the length by examining how the original cable end was built, out to the nozzle starting point.

Slice around the sheath down to the cable's outer spring steel jacket (a collection of many steel rods between the inner and outer sheaths) and cut the sheath away to expose the outer steel rods.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310591/Shift_cable_mod_-_cutting_01_g6bmhu.jpg

With a moto-tool nick each steel rod about 1/3 to 1/2 through, so you do not cut into the inner liner. Bend each rod and it will break clean until you have the extended 1/4" liner beyond the rods.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310598/Shift_cable_mod_-_cutting_02_jqptjv.jpg

The supplied cable provides about 2.5" total usable travel - actuating the rod ends back and forth. In an ideal configuration I believe you would want to use almost all this available cable travel to work the shift mechanism. Consider that the (my '98 Forester) transmission shift lever moves about 9.8mm in or out from neutral to select a gear. Total travel for it is less than an inch. But the cable can move about 2.5". I may be mistaken but I think that if a mechanical lever ratio is setup between the two motions so the cable moves nearly 2.5" to move that shift rod through it's lesser range, then "felt" slop in the cabin shift lever that is injected by the cable slop itself can be reduced by the ratio of the cable motion to transmission's shift shaft motion. Setting up a 1:1 motion ratio does not reduce that "felt" slop, etc.

I'm discussing the above for 2 reasons. First if your setup will not need 2.5" of motion in the cable, you might just cut off the end of the left over factory threaded 1/4-28 cable end rod, drill it out in the next step and re-use it. So you don't have the challenge of putting threads on a new piece of rod. The other reason will get covered later when I get pictures of my linkage which is setup to use the mechanical advantage of the longer cable motion vs shorter shift shaft motion.

To get the full 2.5" motion in the modified unit, the end rod needs to be replaced with one you make from 1/4" steel rod, 4" long. Drill/bore into the end with 1/8" x 1/2" deep (helps to have a lathe for this). Thread the other end for 1/4-28 with a threading die. This is one spot where you need to jig up the rod in a lathe for example so that you force the threading die to stay on center. Usually running a threading die by hand onto a rod will end up running it off center unless done with some forced alignment. The threads may work but will be crooked if not forced to center while cutting the rod threads.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310593/Shift_cable_mod_-_crimp_01_htcy5s.jpg

In the above picture from that tapping handle, I used the hardened steel black jaws as a crimping tool in my press. A strong vise would probably be able to crimp the 1/8" cable end inside the 1/4" steel rod but a press is a better bet. It needs to be a good hard crimp which you can probably judge against the crimp on the factory end for appearance. Granted this one is "seat of the pants". The real trick to being able to "build" your own cable end is you can access this cable end and crimp it by not having the nozzle installed yet.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310599/Shift_cable_mod_-_crimp_02_faeeon.jpg

Another tap handle I had on hand was used to do the other crimp, just to see if either one would hold up to the job.

When I do something like this in my press, I wrap the whole mess in a couple big bath towels just in case the parts explode in the press.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310618/Shift_cable_mod_-_crimp_03_qdv3io.jpg

Finally the 6 set screws are driven in pretty hard into the sheath (greased up with "Right Stuff" sealant to improve water seal at the back) and the rubber boots can be worked onto the new parts.

I found this interesting - the aftermarket xTreme cable had the plastic sheath cut back and the outer steel sheath pins were exposed and physically crimped deep inside the housing barrel by part of the steel housing = crimped steel on steel. But the FFR supplied cables are crimped from the outside onto the plastic outer cable sheath, not steel on steel. For this reason I've built my cables trusting set screws driven into that (very tough) plastic sheath. I run them down until very tight but also testing that they do not cause binding of the inner cable. Another WAG on my part that remains to be proven out.

If my kingdom crumbles I'll have to buy the aftermarket cables you can spec by the inch for about 90$ each...

[aquillen]

Decided to see what I could make for a shifter. Thanks for all the pictures you guys, gave me ideas for this one -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310616/Shifter_01_zuq4vi.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310619/Shifter_02_w66ekj.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310593/Shifter_03_vvazih.jpg

And fresh from the oven, for the back end, I baked these other cookies:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1558310593/Shifter_04_y2dze4.jpg

The shifter is made from a couple spherical balls as used in ball links (main ball is 1" though). Boots I had obtained for my hydraulic shifter cylinders but since I'm no longer pursuing the hydraulic shifter design the boots ended up here. Grease in, dirt out. This thing has about zero detectable slop now. Will be interesting to see if it holds up, but the parts are pretty robust in size so I'm hope-full.

QUESTION - I thought I saw in a thread where someone machined letters "818" into the shift arm. That is what I'm planning to do but not if there is one already out there. Wouldn't steal that thunder on purpose. Anyone see that?

[AZPete]

Thanks for this, Art. Your skills are amazing; only surpassed by your courage. The next time I see "no serviceable parts inside" I'll think of you . . . then likely open and destroy it.

[aquillen]

When I was 4 I found a music box that was made like a jukebox. Wind it up, put a coin in and it would play. Was in my Dad's closet. Took it apart and couldn't get it back together. Dad came home from work, said "I don't care what you take apart but you better be able to put it back together"... then spanked me. I've tried to follow his advice ever since.

He was a tool and die maker, took me to his work at several different jobs over the next few years and I saw and learned quickly about machinery, mechanical stuff from him.

Unfortunately, like me, he liked fast machines. When I was 12 he totaled a his new 1961 T-bird at full speed after running in a ditch and hitting a cross road embankment. His car was launched up and it clipped a telephone pole upper half off leaving maybe 10' or more of the pole still standing, the car was unrecognizable, it took him with it.

The Daily Chronicle from De Kalb, Illinois, October 16, 1962

So SLOW DOWN.

[UnhipPopano]

Art, is your shifter design based off of the shifters found on some Honda's?

https://picclick.com/1994-1997-Honda-Accord-Manual-shifter-cables-shift-linkage-263915929677.html#&gid=1&pid=5

[aquillen]

Art, is your shifter design based off of the shifters found on some Honda's?

https://picclick.com/1994-1997-Honda-Accord-Manual-shifter-cables-shift-linkage-263915929677.html#&gid=1&pid=5

Hadn't seen that. But I didn't really invent any wheels here, just adapting from looking at lots of build pix and shifter mechanisms on Google images.

Mine is the ball and socket for the all way motion and the rocker arm for the conversion of L-R to front-rear motion. This is really the same thing that I see in most of the different K-tune designs I browsed on their site and for that matter the 03-08 Toyota Corolla plastic shifter FFR shipped with the 818 kit.

K-tune sometimes mentions advantage of using custom designed Delrin plastic bushing in their L-R to F-R conversion arm. For mine I used a very slippery hard nitride treated steel rod there (from a scrapped gas spring's strut rod) riding in a hard steel rod end ball, packed with grease inside the rubber boot - no noticable friction there.

Elsewhere I am using Delrin bushings I made for connection points inside the cabin, because I had it already and it is great for this and then some bearing bronze for bushings I needed at the rear. Will post the rest soon.

[aquillen]

The jack-shaft idea was provided by Lance Corsi's shifter design. (See https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?27766-818-shifter post #7 and later) He used rods and bars, heim joints to setup a really solid link configuration all the way through, with no cable. He mentioned raising the engine and showed how he ran rods through the engine mount ears. I really like that setup but my engine install is in and settled on.

By using a pair of jack-shafts similar to Lance's, I sneak the shift motion from center console over to the left of the driver's rump. From there via cables to the back. The inner shaft is 1/2" steel rod running on Torlon bushings, it is heavy, but titanium is expensive. The outer is tubing running on 3/4" needle bearings. Some parts are welded, others are mild pressed and bonded with Loctite 638. I tried pressing one test "crank" assembly apart and the 638 does what it is supposed to - I bent and broke the metal parts instead of freeing the Loctite bond. I trust it 100%.

This configuration minimizes the cable run (but still uses it) and also uses motion leverage changes to reduce the cable slop apparent at the shifter. The travel "slop" in the cable can be looked at as a percentage of the total travel the cable moves to select a gear. The cables can provide about 2.5" of travel but also have approximately 1/8" of slop (in my configuration). If you use less than that full 2.5" of travel, the percentage of slop relative to the shift "system" motion gets higher. So my goal was to arrange the levers/linkages to use most of the cable travel.

Since I have to have levers to do this, it does not matter which way the outputs of the shift selector in the cockpit moves, because the levers can be oriented to reverse (or not reverse) the final motion made at the transmission shift rod.

My total slop at the top of the shift lever (currently 8.5" without a knob) is 1/4" in any direction. The feel of the shifter is very good and gear selection is not vague although I'm convinced the cable still introduces a little bit of softness in the overall feel.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784568/Shift_setup_01_og3t4l.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784574/Shift_setup_02_vpgcia.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784568/Shift_setup_03_tkqqwm.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784567/Shift_setup_04_maxnkg.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784581/Shift_setup_05_wixidn.jpg
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The links at the left end trap each other in place with a slide plate caught between them (scrap printed circuit board - very durable stuff).

[aquillen]

Most parts are of 1/8" steel plate. 1/4" links are used on the cable ends but 5/16" links for the rest. Also using longer cable motion reduces the force in the cable and end links, again by the ratio of motion. i.e. about 1" of motion cable gets from neutral into any gear, which is about .37" of motion at the transmission shaft. The shaft needs about 20# of force to select a gear so the force experienced in the cable = 20# X (.37" / 1") = 7.4#. The cable and 1/4" rod ends are not worked as hard as a 1:1 ratio setup requires.

My custom fuel tank leaves 1/2" clearance on the left side for the cable ends-
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784581/Shift_setup_06_l1bqcq.jpg
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The cables will need small bracket to force clearing the driveshaft boot.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784583/Shift_setup_07_x2645r.jpg
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I used one transmission case bolt at the front and the bottom of the transmission mount to hold the cable end bracket -
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784571/Shift_setup_08_qp8v8p.jpg
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Neutral-
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784586/Shift_setup_09_neutral_atprgu.jpg
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First-
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784575/Shift_setup_10_first_gear_iebc8c.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784585/Shift_setup_11_first_gear_wnhzwk.jpg
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Reverse-
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1559784581/Shift_setup_12_reverse_fhxd0y.jpg

[Jetfuel]

What a nice setup you've created there..
Just stunning

[Zach34]

Those transmission brackets are super slick. Great job!

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Very Nice job on the shifter.

[redbudrr]

Great work, innovation.!!

[Hobby Racer]

I like the fact that you put grease fitting in the joints AND thought it through enough to cut holes that allow you to actually get a grease gun in there! I would have had to go back and drill the holes after the fact. :o

[AZPete]

Stunning innovation! Again, I LOVE this forum.

[aquillen]

Thanks everyone -


I like the fact that you put grease fitting in the joints AND thought it through enough to cut holes that allow you to actually get a grease gun in there! I would have had to go back and drill the holes after the fact. :o

... there are a few trial parts in my scrap metal box, it didn't all come together in one round ...

[lance corsi]

I think you did the best you could with cables. I thought about doing mine this way but after studying the situation I decided I had room for the shafts. I intend to manufacture some shifter mechanisms for sale after I finish my car. They’ll require some welding but could be bolted in place as a last resort. Of course, I’ll become a supporting vendor before that point. Great job!

[STiPWRD]

Very nice shift setup and very intuitive once you see it. Makes me think, why didn't I think of that? Great work!

[ben1272]

Nice job. I need to redo my routing and your scheme has me thinking I might want to try something similar. Thanks for sharing!

[Frank818]

This is worth a million bucks!
Again...

[aquillen]

Maybe I'm supposed to be working on that clamshell, but since I've been anxious to see what I can do for the interior lately the shell is still in a holding pattern.

By the way Jetfuel came up last month and took me for a ride. We had a great visit talking ideas and comparing notes. He is driving a fantastic 818 and really charged me up to get mine on the road. For now it is still about the build process.

My dashboard goals:

0) Wanna-be OEM look while keeping the FFR dashboard as the core (thanks AZ, you pushed me).

1) Get it together so I can move forward with wiring in that area - need switches and such finalized so I can customize the wiring to fit right where it needs to go.

2) Incorporate some air flow options for occupants including fresh air from nose of car. No air conditioning, but I do have a Vintage Air blower in there for heat and defrost. I once enjoyed a '69 Vette that was a bare bones engine and wheels, no power anything else, no air conditioning. We called it the "log wagon" as it rode like one. Was great fun but you earned it in the summer. Since others have described the 818 as a warm place in the sun and I'm not doing cold air, I want to have airflow options of some sort, whatever I can come up with, so I don't live that dream the same way again.

3) Two tone vinyl dash with character like carbon fiber look, etc. Morbern Hexx turned up on a sample card at one of the local shops, I liked it even better than CF look.

4) Easy access to fuse and relay blocks behind the dash.

5) Easy access to connect/disconnect of the air flow ductwork.

6) Use Subaru switches where possible.

It is close to done, although the door cards are still in the attic waiting to get sync'd up with the same materials. I'm going to post in "installments" as I finish getting the dash together for now.

[aquillen]

Transmission tunnel (?) as FFR calls it. Lower console in my notes:

FYI my wiring is routed in the left and right sails. The hand brake cables run left and right outside the tank. I want to be able to pull the tank without wrestling obstacles, should that need arise.

Pretty much everything in this console build starts in the infamous cardboard aided...CAD (Pete / Frank ??):

Left and right sides worked up then traced onto 18 guage aluminum sheet. This guage is easy enough to hand-shear without power tools but has acceptible strength. Cheap to buy. I have at least three metal shops around here and they all have it on hand, size is 4' x 10' I think. They'll bite you to cut it up to fit in your trunk if you have to go that route, but not a lot.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565712606/Console_tunnel_01_mw78z9.jpg

I love these Boelube machining/cutting products, they make liquid, paste, solid stick forms, and all make for very smooth cutting. I use this liquid one for drilling, taping, cutting. WD40 would be good for this too. Cutting aluminum sheet dry with shears is a battle, lubed it is almost like butter, just smear some down the cut path and go for it. Don't ever skip wearing decent work gloves.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565715783/Cutting_-_Boelube_b_uofxnw.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565712601/Console_tunnel_02_mmuxbg.jpg

I've got a couple "home brew" brakes for bending, but one is way big and takes a while to setup on my workbench, the other is for really small stuff. Just bend things this way on your bench, quick and easy. Not 100% pretty but gets the job done.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565712601/Console_tunnel_03_mm4oaw.jpg

Making some cross-braces from the same aluminum sheet. These will span the left and right sides to stiffen them. They really add a lot of strength for the simplicity and low weight. Kind-of free since they can be made from scraps of the aluminum cuttings already in my junk bin. Pop-rivet together in my case.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565712602/Console_tunnel_05_r3zyx2.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565716332/Console_tunnel_07_gggswj.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565712604/Console_tunnel_08_jo61sn.jpg

[aquillen]

Braces added between the sides. If you have to re-make or carve one to fit something (like a shaft going by) it is not the end of the world. Easy to make another, only costs time.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565712604/Console_tunnel_09_cbrl4y.jpg

Some places need to be stronger. I'm happy to just use some 1/4" luan plywood, bonded to the cleaned and sanded 18# aluminum. This "composite" is fast to build and pretty strong when done. I'm using some contact cement I found out about at the upholstry shop. The guy has been at it for a long time, knows his stuff and said "this is what you want". He sold me a quart out of his 5 gallon jug. Eventually I bought a gallon myself. Landau cement = car tops out in the sun, etc., etc. Using it on all the vinyl, but cool for this here work to. OMG get that sprayer too, I went without at first but it is a gotta-have cool tool. Just leave the glue in it and plug the vent and nozzle with masking tape for days on end between projects.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565717015/Contact_cement_aeqzqn.jpg

The armrest/storage box was figured out then wood bandsawed and glued together using 30 minute epoxy. This makes the basic design/build of the shape very easy and fast. Next aluminum clad with the contact cement. Clamped together for an hour or so to really stick. A floor was glued in. Next all wood was "painted" with a coat of fiberglass resin to seal it. Eventually black felt is glued (same glue of course) inside to make it nice for the mice and their acorns. The ends of the aluminum wrap were also riveted where I could hide or dress the back side of the rivets to not bug a finger when digging inside the box.

By the way, I've probably gone through a few gallons of 30 to 60 different brands and formulations of epoxy adhesives over the years, for all sorts of things. I don't believe in trusting fast set epoxies for high strength. Five minute epoxy I would personally never use for anything I want to trust either long term/rough duty/high strength. Use 24 hour set for that kind of stuff. The faster it sets the less I would trust it for demanding jobs. In addition to that, I often try to use two different types of assembly when I want more reliability - i.e. glue and screws and other sorts of "mechanical" and "adhesive" pairs.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565717299/Armrest_01_ojrnp6.jpg

The box gets fastened at the back each side with screws and at the front down inside with an extended aluminum "nose". Eventually each part of the lower console gets assembled into the car "from back to front" one piece at a time so screws are hidden by the next installed piece = almost no screws visible when the console is in the car. But you do have to take it all out front to back to get the the last piece.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565717301/Armrest_02_wdz59m.jpg

Sneak peek at the Morbern Charcoal Hexx. Cobalt Blue Hexx you'll have to wait to see :cool:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565717301/Armrest_03_g2iw9j.jpg

The armrest spec is "strong enough to be used to get in and out of the car"...

[aquillen]

The floor plate under the hand brake, and a storage box forward of the shifter, in the making -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565718992/Handbrake_console_01_fcjink.jpg

Felt inside the box -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565718992/Storage_console_01_noxphb.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565715417/Console_tunnel_12_bczcd8.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565715417/Console_tunnel_11_uuhemt.jpg

Dress it up

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565718993/Storage_console_03_pgruak.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565718993/Storage_console_04_dynwbg.jpg

The lower edges of the sides of these parts have room to slip over carpet when it is finally assembled.

[sgarrett]

Wow....I'm sort of working on the center console myself right now. I'm going to be embarrassed to post my pictures in the future! Nice work!

[aquillen]

Inching forward from the shifter & storage box, comes the "switch/control panel", left and right panels.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251118/Controls_console_01_u0dsat.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251121/Controls_console_02_bkehr7.jpg

Carpet and vinyl scraps get the spacing setup so they fit right later on.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251127/Controls_console_03_ovfv7c.jpg

This panel fits between. The radio looks crooked but when it's all in place it lines up.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251235/Controls_console_-_front_0_hdbgp5.jpg

The smaller black face plate is a Tire Pressure Monitor System. Originally solar powered, I converted it to recharge from a tacked on 12V to 5V regulator. Also the push buttons that belong in that TPMS's case have been relocated into a modified Subaru switch, located to the right of the TPMS, that now has 3 buttons on its face. To the left of the TPMS is the clock/odometer switches since I didn't build those into my custom dash, they've been extended to here. More on the switches coming up...

All the knobs are for the heater/blower and outside air vent controls. I'm just wrapping up the last parts of building the air vent stuff, so a few days to go then pix.
.

[aquillen]

The switch panel is another wood/aluminum composite for fast build, decent strength. Like the others, soaked with resin to improve its longevity. The wood was pre-cut into slats to follow the curve put in the metal (not real visible but it curves all along top to bottom).

I wanted to use the Subaru switches, and wanted them to snap in/out like they do in the donors. The metal frame clips to do this are shown below. Still using 18 guage aluminum sheet.

These little airsaws are perfect for this kind of work. Once you find a steady way to hold the work and the saw you can follow lines very close. I tried a Hazard Fraught saw but took it back. This one WORKS. I did undercut just a bit then dressed openings out to my lines with files.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251122/Cutting_-_airsaw_02_jccdss.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251129/Cutting_-_airsaw_03_z4xwen.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251125/Cutting_-_airsaw_01_vzoztb.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251124/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_01_px70zh.jpg

[aquillen]

Subaru switch mounts:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251128/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_02_jjnr6e.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251127/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_07_hlqhu1.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251125/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_03_hwvahq.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251134/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_04_xit8n7.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251126/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_06_r4awq4.jpg

The insides of my switch lamp holders look odd... I soldered in surface mount LED's replacing the factory lamps (most of which I found were burned out from the LKQ scrap yard stuff I brought home). LED's - last longer than me, but tedious work getting those massaged into the switch bodies.

[Jetfuel]

That looks soooooo good.....
Question time....what seat belts are you going to use?
I ask because with my console which is lower than yours and the 4 point harness it is hard to store the buckle .

[aquillen]

Those bends are short and tight. A way to do it with simple tools but reasonable precision.

Sandwich clamp the part over one steel plate with desired thickness to allow a down bend, then a top steel plate over it...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251135/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_clip_01_ejcvmq.jpg

Then the far right, clamp a "top" plate of steel with one vise-grip or c-clamp to it can't move left or right. Leave just a bit more than the guage thickness between the left and right steel plates so the material can be bent down later. The material is not getting bent much just yet.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251129/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_clip_02_fk244k.jpg

Squeeze the left end of the right side steel plate down to the work bench using another vise-grip/clamp in the middle. The aluminum gets bent neat and tight:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251135/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_clip_03_mug1mj.jpg

Do the remaining bends then cut the part free from long scrap.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251136/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_clip_05_hwd390.jpg

[Ipassgas]

Art, you are a magician!

[aquillen]

That looks soooooo good.....
Question time....what seat belts are you going to use?
I ask because with my console which is lower than yours and the 4 point harness it is hard to store the buckle .

For now I've just got standard belts, came out the back seat of an Acura I think, then I replaced the webbing with new blue stuff. Seats are made for 4 point though. Then again I may recover the seats and change them to standard as well.

[Frank818]

Art, you are a magician!

Trust me, he's better than Criss Angel or David Copperfield!

[aquillen]

Some dimensions, in millimeters, if someone wants to make these switch mounts...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251133/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_clip_08_e0nzto.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251132/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_clip_07_yy0kkf.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251130/Controls_console_-_switch_mount_clip_06_bdha2d.jpg

The Subaru switches typically have 6 pin connectors. That makes for interesting possibilities using the body to carry other tactile surface mount (SMT) switches at the top. In my case 3 switches riding on the donor switch body. I used 12mm square switches that support a two piece (switch cap & clear cover) 11.7mm square snap on cap. I have a box of these left from a repair project I did about 7 years back so I don't have the part numbers. But you can find similar if you search I'm sure.

The top of the donor switch gets a little copper circuit board scrap, soldering the new switches on top. Then run wires from the switches down inside the donor body and solder them to copper bars you find inside the switch body (pry it open to get in there). Now you can use Subaru connectors at the backs of these just like the big boys do over in Japan or down in Lafayette (Indiana)...

To create instant circuit traces on copper printed circuit board material.... first work out what the circuit connections are that you need, in this case just separate trace runs that the SMT switches can be soldered to. Next with a sharp knife (#2 hobby blade works great) score the copper (doesn't even have to go clear through the copper). Pry up a tiny corner of foil with the knife, catch the corner with a small diagonal cutter tool and peel the copper up from the board - it usually be peeled off in one long strip. Practice a bit and you'll find you can make circuit board layouts this way super fast and even get fancy to some extent. Been doing this for probably 50 years now. (I do make complex boards using traditional methods but this is so fast it is hard to resist sometimes).

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251119/Controls_console_-_multi_switch_00_rrvhrp.jpg

Make your legends using a computer/printer then simply insert between the switch topper and the clear cover plate. Backlight... not these, maybe somewhere else?

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251121/Controls_console_-_multi_switch_02_b04ehg.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251123/Controls_console_-_multi_switch_01_yomv8f.jpg

[aquillen]

The vinyl was glued on then thin metal trim plates were put on top with a bit of contact cement. The trim plates - gotta make them yourself. I used my old AutoCad 2000, then generated the G-Code to run my CNC mini-mill using a program called HeeksCAD. Painting plan is wheels, trim stuff, dash trim, etc. will all get painted with one custom batch of Duplicolor paints I blended from black, gold and graphite, then coated with prism powder of sorts. So these trim bits are all that bronze that is the result. Must post some pix that show the glitter soon (wheels are done so probably show those).

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566251135/Controls_console_-_switch_trim_cnc_01_erg1rh.jpg

Next up coming soon is the main dashboard butchery

[aquillen]

I've converted the plain plastic dash into a complicated mess of pieces. Now it has a removable face, a bunch of air ducting built into the underside, servo motors controlling air flow butterfly and flap valves for inside/outside air selections. Two color vinyl covering. I've had it in and out but haven't taken a final "installed" picture yet. In the meantime since there was a lot to fab, here is another installment:

To get the vinyl covering in two colors, have a nice parting line between them, make the "faceplate" removable so I can access all the relays and fuses behind it, etc., I decided to cut the faceplate out of the kit's plain dashboard. But it would fall apart if that happened, so first I added struts to keep it shapely. First what I cut out (after the struts were in place), using a multi-tool saw:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566522948/Dashboard_struts_01_nduepi.jpg

The struts are u-shaped 18 guage (what else?) aluminum. The ends of each strut are mechanical bonded to the dash. 16" x 16" mesh stainless steel screen squares are pop-riveted to the ends of the struts then the screen ends are melted into the back of the plastic dash and then reinforced with epoxy glue.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566522945/Dashboard_struts_03_ucitpo.jpg

Strut screen ends are positioned against the plastic. Two copper probes are pressed hard against the screen. They are wired to a large 120VAC transformer that I had custom made for a miniature 1000 ampere welder I used to sell back in the late 20th century. This transformer was made with no secondary winding so I could add whatever windings I wanted. I went through a lot of them back then but saved just one for strange needs like this. This transformer now has 5 turns of #8 wire for about 6 volts output at an easy 100 amperers or so, with a footswitch so I can control it. Anyway I'm ready to make things turn red and smoke out a bunch of hydrochloric acid and other very nasty fumes:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566522945/Dashboard_struts_06_qriivc.jpg

I warn you. Don't try this without tons of ventilation and a carbon filter respirator (not even want to smell this stuff from a distance).

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566522954/Dashboard_struts_07_mywncr.jpg

When done correctly, this takes about 1/4 second. The screen instantly melts into the plastic and becomes entrained in tiny mushrooms of plastic squirted through to the top of the screen. At 1/3 of a second it bursts into flames but that blows out easily. Maintain pressure for about 5 seconds while it cools. It ends up incredibly strong. The top side never even gets warm and the top shows no evidence of what is below. I still put epoxy over these just to keep fingers from getting snagged on the edges of the screens, and as backup strength. The epoxy also supports the screen/aluminum pop-rivets and it binds into the mushroomed plastic too.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566522946/Dashboard_struts_08_npyozn.jpg

[Jetfuel]

OMG....the mad scientist is at it again...;)
I think is time for another visit...but this time you can drive
Let’s keep the fire going..

[AZPete]

Stunning skills. My brain hurts. Thanks, Art, for showing the details of your work.

[aquillen]

Assuming (!!?!!) someone wants to do this screen bonding - what about a power source? I checked out a spot welder on hand but it only put out about 1.5 volts - not enough. A radio control race car battery worked perfect, although you need someone to be the "contact man" to turn on and off your connection to the battery - you need to keep pressing on the screen while it is hot. A footswitch would likely fry at the amperage needed to quick heat the screen (and if you don't go fast you will melt through to the front).

If you go the battery route, use a six cell Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMh) or Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) battery pack. DO NOT use a Li-Poly battery which is at high risk of being at least damaged if not set afire at the typical high current this draws. A 6 volt car battery would work but then you have somewhat a hazard of hydrogen explosion when you are making sparks near that, and a 12V car battery is way too much voltage. I did this test with a 7.2 volt 6 cell NiMh and it was just right:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566528124/Bonding_plastics_01_e0lw1j.jpg

The struts, positioned to clear the fuse & relay boxes I have mounted to the right of the combination meter, space for left and right air vents and a glovebox.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566523103/Dashboard_struts_02_k86lqs.jpg

Epoxy added and the cutout was done.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566522951/Dashboard_struts_09_hklbfs.jpg

In order to have the face plate work as an "insert" that can be pressed into the opening it was cut from, I needed a lip in the main cutout that would be deep enough for the face plate to sink back into. When cut from the original dash there is only a tiny bit of lip in the main dash itself, in the area of interest. With out a "sink-back" lip I don't think it would be possible to get a two-color dash to look very nice, other than by sewing the materials with double-stitching, which is not the look I wanted to have.

To create a nice deep lip that the finished vinyl face plate can fit into, I permanently pressed a long strip of 40-mesh screen into the existing lip, using a large soldering iron. This is another way to bond screen into plastic that has high strength when done with practice.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566527031/Dashboard_lip_02_lco6oj.jpg

This is on the outside facing surface though, so next this screen is puttied with body filler to build it up and stiffen the screen which is flimsy by itself. The putty gets sanded to final shape for a good surface for the later vinyl covering

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566527030/Dashboard_lip_03_dfzg3z.jpg

There is some (a lot of) measuring and trimming involved to keep the meeting edges of the face plate & main dash straight and matched in contact, with all the final vinyl added. But eventually the main dash got covered with Morbern Hexx graphite/charcoal vinyl. I used that contact cement discussed above.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566522952/Dashboard_struts_10_ujjh6c.jpg

[aquillen]

The face plate was wrapped with scraps and test-fit into the main dash.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566528984/Dashboard_vinyl_-_housing_01_h3qpga.jpg

Clearance was tweaked using a band sander to get an even but snug fit when pushing the face plate into place:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566528986/Dashboard_vinyl_-_insert_01_w3liwc.jpg

As AZPETE notes, there is no way one piece of vinyl will do the face plate and also wrap into that cutout area for the combination meter. You're asking it to stretch about 2:1 if not more to do that. But it will curve in there a little bit. My solution instead of stitching a seam was to curve it in a little until it threatened to pull away from the adhesive, then cut it. Then black felt was glued in to finish the inside of that cutout. It fits nicely against the combo meter, makes the meter viewing nice and cozy with fuzzy black surround, and looks pretty trick if I might be so bold.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566528984/Dashboard_vinyl_-_insert_02_vbi2dz.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566528984/Dashboard_vinyl_-_insert_05_snuuxj.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566528984/Dashboard_vinyl_-_insert_04_dyxqje.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566528984/Dashboard_vinyl_-_insert_03_zouxne.jpg

[aquillen]

Here is the first of the duct work, of which there is a lot to show...

Cutting and fitting donor ducts I found in some Subie junker at LKQ a couple years back, a forstner bit makes for nice neat holes (the corners of the cutouts). If your looking close, yes, I sanded too much off the face plate and had to glue a wood strip back in to get back on track. Same contact adhesive, lovin' it.

The trim plate was mocked up in wood first to make sure of the fitup, then:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566529639/Dash_vents_01_midfi7.jpg

The Subaru vents have mounting holes, I bonded screws with melt-in screen over the screw heads, into the back of the panels so the ducts can be bolted in for removal. The right side vent is a shortie face plate since that area is cut out for a glove compartment somewhere in the car's future.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1566529639/Dash_vents_02_jrfepy.jpg

[Frank818]

Remind me, is it going to be an 818C?

[aquillen]

Remind me, is it going to be an 818C?

After the first year, 2 summers back I went out and grabbed the C add on kit. Price being about the same as the ragtop add on, but power windows and all, it seemed the thing to do. That's also why I never started this as an 818S thread, I wasn't sure which way I'd end up going.

[aquillen]

Started as an S but bought the coupe add on parts.

Outside air source:

Fresh air will arrive from the nose of the 818 via a duct routed into the bottom of an "AirControl Box". This box is mounted in front of a glove box, on top of the aluminum dash block off plate.

Floor air:

From the AirControl Box left and right outlet ducts pass air to the floor areas above driver/passenger's legs. Airflow is adjusted by one knob on the control console directing radio control type servo gearmotors. The control unit is built using a PIC 16C71 microcontroller which I programmed to "watch" two control potentiometers, one for fresh air to the legs, the other fresh air/recirc air to the blower inlet. The unit is encased in epoxy. If an occupant moves either control pot > 1% from previous position the servo motors are actively driven to their new positions for 5 seconds. The servo drives are then shutoff to prevent stall/overheat damage should a servo to air door linkage bind or break for some reason. The servo motions are linear - i.e. - users can set any amount of available airflow.

Defrost and dash vent air:

The Vintage Air Gen II Universal heater module has 3 controls: Temp, Blower speed, Defrost only / Defrost-LowerHeat / LowerHeat only.

The left side of the blower always draws air from inside the cabin. The right side draws air via a duct from the AirControl Box.

The second pot on the control console adjusts a "flapper" valve in the AirControl Box which adjusts the blower air source between any amount of the outside air section of the box or cabin inside air.

The Vintage Air unit has its own control which adjusts outlet air between two round defrost air outlets, or the entire rectangular bottom cutout on the unit. An "Air Collector" was added to the bottom of the Gen Air to create round left and right coupler fittings so duct hose can be run from the Gen Air to the left and right dashboard vents. Small openings in the Air Collector allow some air to exit to the left and right floor areas.

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364306/Air_duct_01_ylgbtw.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364306/Air_duct_02_exumkn.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364310/Air_duct_03_o1flhc.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364306/Air_duct_04_bq019e.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364310/Air_duct_05_xn3e8j.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364311/Air_duct_06_mqdiht.jpg

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364312/Air_duct_07_qnw2ap.jpg
. Yah its a mess but that is mesh screen.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364311/Air_duct_08_ngqpcb.jpg
.Hope my work is not as sloppy as my typing. Those side outlets are for the dash vents, not bottom outlets.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364310/Air_duct_10_ac6v0h.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364623/AirControl_Box_01_gbay0d.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364625/AirControl_Box_02_h7yjch.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364625/AirControl_Box_03a_lgx1gn.jpg

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364623/AirControl_Box_05_rthqco.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364625/AirControl_MicroChip_module_01_zjxwye.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364872/GenAirUnit_01_d4lovn.jpg
.
GenAir collector:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364873/GenAir_Collector_01_avlceu.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364871/GenAir_Collector_x_lxyzef.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364976/Air_flow_parts_02_qaweqa.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567364976/Air_Flow_parts_03_krf1nd.jpg

For install / removal each flex duct section is very short between fittings.

[aquillen]

Glove box riveted from simple pieces of 18guage aluminum, bent up with my homemade mini-brake. Inside is glued in black felt. The parts of the box were made from several pieces instead of a single shell and two ends, to make gluing the felt in place much easier. Also pre-drilled all holes so drilling would not snag and ruin the installed felt. The door was to have no visible handle or knobs. From my junk box came a stereo cabinet glass door push-push magnetic catch. The hinge for the door is piano wire inside some brass tubing, all held in to the original plastic cutout plate using my "melt in screen" bonding. The box sits on the steel box frame behind the dash, using velcro.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365237/Glove_box_DIY_Minibrake_01_bgo7tb.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365236/Glove_Box_02_bbv3c4.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365236/Glove_Box_03_nfvdbi.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365236/Glove_box_04_tucyou.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365232/Glove_box_05_v299bu.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365236/Glove_box_06_oycwqq.jpg

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365233/Glove_box_07_jo6odn.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365236/Glove_box_08_ut0ybx.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365237/Glove_box_09_aysb25.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365237/Glove_box_10_srlhqn.jpg
.
A surplus store nearby sells lots of flashlamps and worklights cheap. $2.00 flashlights that have a nice LED front end. I cut them down into a small lamp "module" that still has enough aluminum to act as a heatsink (~3 Watts is enough to get very warm without some heatsink/ventilation). I will run 3 lamp modules (left, right, glovebox) in series from a 9V step down postage stamp sized power circuit for efficient and cool running.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365231/Floor_lamps_01_vuaevh.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567365972/Floor_lamps_02_pofhgr.jpg
.

[Rob T]

You are a wizard. This is amazing stuff.

[aquillen]

Thank you !

Tried putting it all in there - happy so far. Blower collector is hanging loose, dash mount hangers will disappear up inside the bottom of the console when screwed together. Looking forward to carpeting which will tie it together more.

So my wife looked last night at the whole thing in and said "you should have used blue around the shifter and under the hand brake/cup holder". I can tell you even heated up that contact cement is hard to pull apart. I stripped those cover pieces this afternoon and changed to blue. She was "correct as usual, King Friday"...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567383409/Dashboard_rvcigw.jpg

Going to work on that front bonnet hinge next.

[Ajzride]

Going to work on that front bonnet hinge next.

I was thinking of trying to retrofit a clamshell viper hinge, but I don’t have your fab tools/skills

[aquillen]

Too bad it's not front engine... or should I cut up the back half of this 818C and clam that too? Just kidding.

Here is the front hinge. I will be doing a dimensional drawing for my notes, but hoping to not need them someday. If someone needs it I'll post. Also pending is some internal alignment guide/latches most likely with an internal pull latch release for the works. And gas spring assist although lifting is very easy.

After a lot of ideas including some complex hinges that lifted the whole nose as the back went up, I instead worked out a way to hack up and use the original front lower fender brackets. This made a really simple conversion from what was potentially a big challenge. Considering I cut up the hood before I had any design for the hinge, it was about like diving into a pool without checking where's the deep end.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904097/ClamHinge01_r3bj1i.jpg

Chopped off the front most ear that mounts the fiberglass nose-insert, and get rid of the lengths of square tube from this:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904098/ClamHinge02_rk0ugy.jpg

to this

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904098/ClamHinge03_bregiv.jpg

A couple short tubes for the hinge housing, with grease zerks are trapped on the long steel cross tube. Then the left and right wings are put on the fenders which are setup on the front of the car. Square tubes were added after working out a suitable angle to make sure there is clearance for these parts when moving the hinge upward. All the parts are temporarily put on the car/frame and tack welded.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904104/ClamHinge05_qt1nyq.jpg

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904108/ClamHinge06_dnwszk.jpg

An extra gusset added to the original FFR bolt plate - to each short tube -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904105/ClamHinge07_dwbnba.jpg

The long tube rotates of course, so both sides of the hood will rise "in sync". And a couple tabs will get added to the front of the long tube to support the bottom lip of the fiberglass nose insert. The bottom lip of that insert will go down about 1.5 inch as the hood opens. No where near what an XKE does when you open that bonnet. I will be adding "vertical" struts from the larger square tube that the left and right wing square tubes weld to. The vertical struts will go up and fasten to mount points on the bottom of the clamshell. These will stiffen the hood, transfer the lifting force and gas spring forces, without stressing the lower side wings etc.

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904109/ClamHinge13_dntxx5.jpg

When the hinge is raised:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904104/ClamHinge14_qg03pz.jpg

The front hinge assembly so far, which bolts to the original slots on the radiator frame, and keeps the vertical and horizontal adjustability

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904098/ClamHinge04_bfkec3.jpg

I know it's not needed, but ever since I built a model of the GT40 when I was a kid I've loved this style hood. Not sure how I'll finish out the inside but you sure can get at whatever is in there easy enough...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904114/ClamHinge17_p1n6ua.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904116/ClamHinge16_i1twjv.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1567904113/ClamHinge15_gzmixf.jpg

[Ajzride]

Very nice, I hadn't considered having a bracket that ran all the way across the front, I was thinking two separate brackets on each side.

Have you mocked up the splitter to ensure that there is no conflict? Looks like it will be good, but from the angle of the pics I can't tell if the tip of the nose might rub it on the way by.

[lance corsi]

Very nice Art! Now clamshell the back, cause that’s where the goodie basket is!

[aquillen]

Very nice, I hadn't considered having a bracket that ran all the way across the front, I was thinking two separate brackets on each side.

Have you mocked up the splitter to ensure that there is no conflict? Looks like it will be good, but from the angle of the pics I can't tell if the tip of the nose might rub it on the way by.

The under cover aluminum can run right up to the cross pipe, and I used those two FFR brackets to keep the mount holes there for that. Immediately in front of that pipe will be the back side of the nose insert - just touches at the left and right in try fit. But the true add-on splitter that sticks out past the nose would be a problem here. If short enough it could go down with the nose but hmmm?

[Frank818]

Nice idea! As always. :)

Totally off topic question, are those 2 rad fans from your Subaru donor?
I'm looking into a dual fan setup flowing more CFMs than the rubbish Frozenboost Chinese fan I got.

[Hobby Racer]

Very nice work. Can't wait to see the latching mechanism.

[aquillen]

Nice idea! As always. :)

Totally off topic question, are those 2 rad fans from your Subaru donor?
I'm looking into a dual fan setup flowing more CFMs than the rubbish Frozenboost Chinese fan I got.

The fans (and rad) I pulled from a 2003 Outback - LL Bean 3.0 H6

Note: the ECU controls these fans for 3 different speeds by varying the connections of 2 grounds and 2 power connections. You can connect them to run any of those speeds but need to understand the wiring required...

[STiPWRD]

Great front hinge design, nice and simple!

[Zach34]

Incredible work! Love the creativity for the front hinge.

[aquillen]

Low res so you can't see all the defects.... :)


https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/video/upload/v1571009141/It_runs_depart_zvfkpz.mp4

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/video/upload/v1571009130/It_runs_return_i3zfvs.mp4

[Frank818]

OMG there are so many defects!!! lolll
But it runs!

Love the deep smooth sound, something tells me I'll be jealous once you really drive longer and rev it. Did I go wrong with the VR6.......

[Jetfuel]

Well...well...well...I can tell you've been busy
Congratulations are in order....sooooo glad to see it off-roading...

Jet

[Hobby Racer]

Another H6 makes it to driving status. Congratulations, and welcome to the club!

[aquillen]

One thing surprised me already, that 3.0 engine can lug down to what seems to be literally stopped running and pull back out of it without complaining, no lug level valve train chatter or anything, without stalling.

Seems to be easy to happen so far because the throttle cable/pedal action is stiff and sluggish. I want to find a good smooth & low friction cable setup, definitely not liking what I have in there now, which is a very long sweep curve in the cable to minimize drag as it is. Suggestions?

Clamshell front is making some progress but a dining room addition we started about 6 weeks back has put the kybosh on my garage time lately.

[Hobby Racer]

The H6's have great torque down low. Ideal street motor. I have an electronic drive by wire throttle so I can't help with cable suggestions.

I do however run Teleflex Xtreme cables for my shifter and they are very smooth and low drag compared to the ones the kit shipped with. They might make them in smaller diameter sizes that would work for a throttle cable.

[frankc5r]

Congrats. It does have a nice smooth sound.

[aquillen]

You remind me, I have a couple of the smallest dia. Teleflex Xtreme cables. Experimented with them on my shifter briefly. Must get one out and see what it does.

[Frank818]

When is the next video coming in? :)

[aquillen]

When is the next video coming in? :)

Probably be a while before I drive it again although of course I did determine that it will scoot if asked.

I need to build my carbon fiber airbox / airfilter before any more excursions. Don't want to keep running that motor without protection, might get pregnant with who knows what getting in there.

[aquillen]

Got a request for some details on the shafts that run behind the driver to transfer the shift motion to the left side of the car. Here are some pictures and a bit of detail. I used some needle bearings in the pillow blocks but that was overkill (I already had them on hand). For the 1/2" shaft I used a Torlon plastic I also had on hand, but that stuff is overkill too (and way $$$). Delrin or other plastic would be just as good and easier to use, so I drew up what it would be if I did another one.

About using the Loctite to bond the shift levers' tubes to the shaft/tubing. I ran calculations using some Loctite engineering data for this 638 retaining compound. It came out that the bond would support 640 Lb-Ft of torque. I also put an arm and 1/2" shaft assembly in my press and tried to push it apart without heating the Loctite bond. The arm was mangled and the outer tube it was welded to was crushed several percent before the Loctite gave out. A driver shifting like a guerrilla will not break the Loctite bond if it is installed correctly.

Note that the steel plate "arms" are welded to their tubes and those tubes are Loctited to the respective tube or shaft. At the far left side of the car the shift arm is welded to the end of the 1/2" shaft as drawn.

The bearings could be made from any of several plastics, but it helps to have a small lathe to cut these parts.


Sequence: weld arms to their short tubes. Weld far left arm (left side of car) to 1/2" shaft end. Slide trapped bearings onto tubes and insert 1/2" shaft from end. Test fit parts onto pillow blocks and bolt into car frame. Shim the steel top plates holding the pillow blocks until parts rotate smoothly without binding. Test fit all arms and tighten set screws to test and verify good operation. Properly clean and Loctite the arm-tubes to respective shafts, tighten set screws to keep parts secure while Loctite cures. Do not use accelerator/primer on the Loctite in order to maximize cured strength. Allow 24 hours to cure at room temperature before further testing.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572967714/Shifter_jackshaft_unit_eh2xe9.png
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572839128/Shift_detail_01_tsv7zm.jpg
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572839123/Shift_detail_03_fqrmnz.jpg
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572839130/Shift_detail_06_bg0lyj.jpg
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572839133/Shift_detail_07_np9dve.jpg
...

[aquillen]

The legend again for reference...
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572967714/Shifter_jackshaft_unit_eh2xe9.png
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572839128/Shift_detail_04_zzppyt.jpg
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572839121/Shift_detail_02_debrp9.jpg
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572839132/Shift_detail_08_dzmdyk.jpg
...
Foam to seal air flow around the shift linkage shafts running between fuel tank and left cockpit aluminum:
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1572839134/Shift_detail_05_tuukkc.jpg

[Frank818]

What the...??
What kind of person are you? Got a 400 IQ or maybe you're working for Porsche or Ferrari or some place like that? This invention of yours is absolutely off the charts! Mind boggling and blowing.

What's your Patent # on this?

[Jetfuel]

What the...??
What kind of person are you?

..not from this planet Frank...not even sure if he's from this galaxy...
...very nice work and tutorial Art...

Jet

[Brd.Prey]

AMAZING! Love it!

[aquillen]

Thanks for the fun guys !

[aquillen]

Added index to build post #1

[aquillen]

After some unsatisfactory results improvising hood latches from Hyundai and Honda latch parts, I scrapped all those hours and rolled my own. I had a pull release setup under the steering wheel with cables to those OEM parts, which worked ok, but I didn't like how the latches allowed the hood to move around. Long story not worth pictures and details. Here is what I did instead. This holds the hood left to right and up and down in a specific spot. Front to back is taken care of by the hinge. I will be adding some alignment pins at the rear bottom of the hood each side where it touches the side sails. And some rubber bumpers up underneath to support the hood here and there - later.

Pull on these lanyards (they will hide just under the hood lip with magnets). The lanyards are from scraps of accelerator cable, covered with heat shrink, looped through a wire splice crimp.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576114903/Hood_lock_03_alnkcz.jpg

Which pulls these 1/2" dia. spring loaded pins back to release each side hood latch. Lift the hood slightly and it rests on top of each latch pin, then with both released you can fully open the hood.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576114887/Hood_lock_01_hyonye.jpg

From these catch loops which are bonded to the hood with body structural repair epoxy compound. My original catch hoops for the OEM style catches were made by bending 1/4" rod and welding it to plates, glued where these catches are glued. An accidental (short distance) drop broke one of the loops where it met the steel plate. Brittle failure due to the weld altering the steel rod temper. Hence stronger designed hoops, and later on I'll detail the hood drop slowdown device I made to prevent dropping the hood and breaking things in the future.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576114903/Hood_lock_02_goad8h.jpg

The original plates I glued in and then had to remove later were released from the hood by toasting them with a heat gun. Somewhere around 300 degrees the epoxy let go and I could pry the plates free.

The epoxy I used was available at my local CarQuest store, ordered through their Crest product catalog -
Ashland Pliogrip Impact Durable Structural Adhesive
GM OEM approved for body repair.
#C5770P

I made up 1" x 3" scraps of 6 layer fiberglass with econo Bondo - 3M polyester resin. Cured about 2 weeks. These were bonded together into T-shape sections along the 1" edge. About 6 different epoxies were tried, including Crest Panel Bonder 3500 (#CEPB), JB Weld original, Devcon "2 Ton", and some Royal flexible epoxy bonds (from McMaster-Carr) that I had on hand. During bending tests using weights, the Crest 3500 panel bonder and the C5770P above both tore the fiberglass apart instead of the joint/bond. All the others failed in the bond = not as strong. Either of the Crest products I would trust with the toughest jobs on this car.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576116701/Bonding_epoxy_xqa8im.jpg

[aquillen]

It became obvious the hood needs control when coming down. Sooner or later it would get dropped and something would get altered. I looked for a while trying to find a device that would do the job on the cheap with no luck. No doubt out there (Viper hood device, etc.) but I didn't get a hit before I gave up and made my own motion damper from a cut open gas spring or "strut". Local surplus store had a collection of struts for $2.00 each a couple years back. I grabbed several just because you never know. Don't say I told you to do this, but I take them out back and slowly cut a slot at one end while it it tipped down to keep oil at the other end. They vent suddenly but my face shield never seems to get oily and so far the 5 or 6 I've done were without violence or mishap.

So my motion damper runs about $2.00 and a day's work...

I can change the oil in it in about 5 minutes, in order to alter the viscosity and damping behavior of the unit. 20W jack oil was way to fast, household mineral oil was decent but I wanted slower. Lucas oil additive is SLOW, but still in there for now, taking about 30 seconds to lower the hood automatically. Waiting to see how it works in the summer, then may tweak again.

"Drop damper" design:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576118039/Drop_damper_01_dwozcg.jpg

The original gas seal piston on the end of the shaft is cut off, replaced with this piston and valve I cut on my lathe. The shaft has a smaller diameter section near the end so the bronze piston just slides on there, bonded in place with Loctite 638 retaining compound. The piston is a close but slip fit, some oil can get around it and that is fine. The silver (steel) "slide valve" can move slightly to open or close the group of oil passages drilled through the brass piston. A washer was welded to the end of the rod to trap the assembly. Looking back, it could be made with just the piston moving against the washer, but this is how it came out.

When extending the cylinder's rod, the slide valve moves open, allowing oil to quickly move through the piston and the rod can extend rapidly. When closing the rod into the cylinder, fluid motion and pressure cause the slide valve to close against the piston, sealing almost all the holes (a very slight part of the holes are exposed to allow oil flow). This slows the piston/rod travel to create the damping function.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576118038/Drop_damper_02_epawgl.jpg

Back side of the piston. And all the parts. An aluminum cylinder couples the sawed off end of the cylinder back onto the main cylinder, using 4-40 set screws at 120 degree increments around each side. An o-ring seal on the end fitting into the main body keeps the oil in. A screw and nylon seal on the end of the aluminum coupler can be removed so oil can be pumped in or out to change the performance. Since pulling the cylinder open does not require much force, the small 4-40 screws will do nicely. Pushing the ram rod shut does involve a lot of force, but that pressure is trying to push the split cylinder parts together which already are in contact with each other - the little screws are not challenged. To change oil, remove the three far end 4-40 screws, remove the small cylinder "end cap" then the nylon screw, push fluid out or pull the rod to pull fluid in.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576118045/Drop_damper_03_zg5itl.jpg

Eureka - how much oil can you put in this? I was just going to fill it full with the piston fully out. But it can't be filled all the way, because when the rod is going into the cylinder it must displace some volume. At that point I thought it was a total failure. End result is it gets oil filled about 70% with air/vacuum for the remaining volume. When you pull the rod all the way out a slight vacuum is created (the rod actually goes back in some if you let go). So the actuator doesn't function until you move it closed about 30% from full open. At that point the oil gets involved and it controls motion consistently from there on. I setup a bit of angle on the installed cylinder in the car so oil is "running down" toward the "back" end of the cylinder, although it seems to work fine in any position. Installed on the car it works well.

[aquillen]

The hood has a slowdown cylinder now so it won't slam down, and a hold open arm to keep it open until released. This is full open:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576119925/Hood_lift_parts_00_swptdw.jpg

Under the hood...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576119924/Hood_lift_parts_01_grrvua.jpg
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576119923/Hood_lift_parts_02_q53r2b.jpg

The lock-open lever is held flat by gravity - and prevents the hood from closing once it opens to this "flat-extended" position. It also stops the hood from opening further. The cylinder is also capable of holding the hood open but the lock-open lever stops short of the cylinder being fully extended to prevent the cylinder from having that duty:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576119922/Hood_lift_parts_03_zgusma.jpg

To close the hood, lift the lock-lever slightly while moving the hood back, then it can be closed further. After a short travel the drop-damper action takes over.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576119923/Hood_lift_parts_04_din9dc.jpg
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576119924/Hood_lift_parts_05_geqomk.jpg

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1565717301/Armrest_02_wdz59m.jpg

So I bought these econo APC racing seats from Pep-Boys a couple years back when they were on super sale. They don't have them anymore, probably due to the low quality. Actually the steel and foam under there is decent. The cloth was not so great. The blue cloth in the back and bun areas is pulling apart at the seams. And then there was that little meteorite that flew across the room from some wire-feed welding that put a hole right under the driver, front and center. But they recline, fold down and slide, and they are low. I actually like them a lot.

So looking at the hex pattern in the vinyl I put on the dash, I decided I just HAD to get that same vinyl on these seats, then I'd like them again. But vinyl gets hot, so I want cloth in the back and bottom, blue to coordinate with blue in the dash inlet. The bolsters to be the dash's gray hex pattern vinyl. I got the idea that the cloth should be sewed to have a hex shape pattern to compliment the pattern in the vinyl. Went looking for an example in August at the "Art of Automobilia" car show in Carmel, Indiana. I found an example just like I was thinking of. No I did not copy the Lambo Hurican on purpose, it was my idea first. Not the Audi RS either... pure coincidence. That is my story, I'm sticking to it.

So next - how much? If you have to ask you can't afford it (either the Hurican, the Audi, nor the upholstery guy). But I found a local shop and turns out the guy needed his monster 1970's Miller Tig/stick welder repaired. We struck a deal. I fix the welder and he teaches me the ins and outs of re-doing these seats. I do the work, cause I'm building my car, not him. Oh and the sewing machine is a big old Consew production machine - goes fast. I installed a digital speed control motor system on it so I can run it at my snail pace. We're both happy so far.

First "practice" on vinyl, a curved peice that would go on a bolster. He said if I can do this I have promise:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576121310/Test_sew_Morbern_hex_02_syy7bw.jpg

I made a stretching holder tool like an embroidery hoop of sorts and a cardboard pattern tool then traced it onto a scrap of my blue cloth with fine line marker, and sewed this little test. Need a little practice but after that I'm going sailing with the sewing. I commented that "he" would probably get me for about $1000 to do this sewing, he said that's not even close. Good thing I'm retired, this will eat some clock!

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576121308/Test_sew_cloth_hex_01_ogqgxe.jpg

The herringbone pattern is from the low res image = artifacts.

I found that tracing the pattern was almost more tedious than the actual sewing, and fine sharp consistent lines are essential to getting the thread put in the right places. The tracing just wasn't the best way. After a sleepless night I dreamed up, tested and determined that laser cut stencils, which will be spray paint dusted onto the cloth are the way to get a perfect pattern. Then the seamster can be blamed for final work, not the template work. I layed out the pattern in CAD and transfered it to my cheapo laser cutter. Paper sheets are to be layed over the stretched cloth, pulled down snug over a piece of window screen using vacuum from a shop vac. Then dust with white spray paint. I've tested it and it all works, the paint is a very thin line and thread hides it, so next I'll be doing the "production" run...

Laser cutting stencils:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576121309/Laser_cut_hex_stencil_01_swligk.jpg
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576121308/Laser_cut_hex_stencil_02_ehrlcs.jpg

[Jetfuel]

...oh my Lord...warped minds think alike...
...doing my seats with the same hexagon...but...only with 3 large ones down the center and butt rest...
...drew it on pencil on painters paper...

Jet...

[aquillen]

Another project is the tail lights. Several threads about this got me to thinking in 2017 about going off the rails with this one too.

I had a couple ideas, influenced by what others posted. My mock-ups included:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123441/Slant_tail_lights_01_pfoehu.jpg

Wife said no.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1577058909/Horiz_tail_lights_02_onisjt.jpg.

And first of all thank you to the owner of these pictures of their white 818. One of the builders posted these and I don't remember who, but they are in here somewhere still.

Wife likes the 4x, not 5x lights. (The five bar would be hard to do now that I've been "at it", anyway)...

Goals: have DOT markings as required by DOT section 108, also have the sizing, intensity, etc., also per same. Did you know there is about 700 pages to read there? After buying some bits and pieces of lenses and not being encouraged, I visited the LKQ pick your part again. 2004-2019 Impala 3rd brake light got me the raw material for red lenses. And people wreck those poor things a six-pack at a time I think. There are lots of them. The sad thing is the yards jam a crow bar through the 3rd light to pry open a trunk if they don't have the key. So not every car "gives". But between the Ft Wayne and South Bend lots I got 10 at $9.00 each during a discount day (a couple for experimenting). At about $150 new per unit I trashed about $1500 worth of tail lights for this little project !!! For my back-up lights the clear lens is from the back of some Caddy Escalade license plate surround.

The Impala are LED based, power is so low it is laughable. My electronics for this are designed and will convert the standard signal controls from the Subaru circuits into combined control so:

running lights - all red on at normal intensity
stop - all red on at full intensity
turn - top and bottom row blink normally at full intensity
turn - center row pair "sweep"
hazard - all blink at full intensity

The lenses and housing are cut on my mill of course after layout in CAD. To get the DOT markings in the right orientation it actually took 8 different CAD sets and matching CNC runs to cut each different lens correctly.

Chevy donor:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123424/Horiz_tail_lights_03_ac4dzu.jpg

Getting violated:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123437/Horiz_tail_lights_04_yjjwpa.jpg

How to get a curve in the main clear acrylic sheet (1/4" thick) to match the Impala's lens curves and a bit of curve to compliment the 818 rump area:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123443/Horiz_tail_lights_05_j7ssqn.jpg

... that is a satellite dish, vacuum fed in the bottom center via pinhole, then cook the plastic with a heat gun. The curve is a near match to my need, what luck!

Milling the curved main sheet. Lube for all this plastic is WD40, lots of it. Cutter is a 1/8" down cut two flute plain steel endmill.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123443/Horiz_tail_lights_06_kadkah.jpg

[aquillen]

Additional "trim" rings cut on a bandsaw, and the back plate too. The trim rings give purchase for a perimeter of aluminum sheet (lets the tiny bit of internal heat transfer out easier than a full acrylic box would, and easier to construct). The aluminum gets screwed to the perimeter rings with 4-40 flat head machine screws (drill and tap the plastic).

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123431/Horiz_tail_lights_07_rgxhcv.jpg

Gluing a trim ring to one of the upper or lower sheets, in this case uppper (out facing one):

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123446/Horiz_tail_lights_08_eesigl.jpg

Not to be left out, the reflector and LED parts of the donor are chopped up, rebuilt with a piece of printed circuit board, and so on, to create a new reflective and functional light module (one of 8 to be constructed). Top is original, bottom the new part:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123431/Horiz_tail_lights_09_qz6jen.jpg

So far:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123436/Horiz_tail_lights_10_aa4rs1.jpg
.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123439/Horiz_tail_lights_11_h33i4i.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1576123442/Horiz_tail_lights_12_lyuymv.jpg

[Hobby Racer]

All I can say is WOW!! Your skills are as varied as they are amazing. Thanks for sharing!

[aquillen]

Thanks!

I've mostly been sewing upholstery for my seats, where I bartered for sewing machine time & expert guidance at a nearby business, for the last several days so finishing the tail light circuitry is going really slow, but I got some time on it this weekend...

The curved parabolic chromed plastic reflectors from the original Impala brake lights created "hot spots" with a crescent shape light pattern, because I shortened the distance between the LED/reflector and the red lens. I solved this by replacing the Impala's reflectors with curved stainless steel sheet that has a dimpled surface. This is the same stuff I got to make heat shields for my exhaust (have made some but not completed yet - no posts yet). Now the lights have a good even appearance.

Studying a 2013 Impala on the street the other day, I could see that the brake light on that car has best intensity at about 5 feet height at about 100 feet back (= a driver in a car following from behind no doubt). So I setup the angle of my internal parts to mimic that.

6 LED's from the Impala third brake light on my printed circuit board. I put chrome mylar film on the circuit board unused area. This bounces incoming light back out = reflector mode when tail light is not on at all.

Curved stainless steel reflector waiting to be fastened to the board -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1577057159/Tail_Light_led_board_and_reflector_ujikct.png

The curved SS reflector gets soldered along the top edge to the back side of the LED circuit board (which is copper plated on both sides). Soldering these parts together cuts down on things inside the overall assembly that will rely solely on glue which I always have a little distrust for.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1577057160/Tail_Light_led_board_back_and_reflector_g8u2ne.png

A "light module" and the housing it will go into...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1577057154/Tail_Light_housing_and_LED_module_gxpsky.jpg

The four light modules glued into the housing. They get tack glued in spots with a Locktite plastic bonder "instant" adhesive which does hold to acrylic with excellent strength, but not a high strength bond to stainless. Next I will run a bead between all mating edges of each module to the housing using JB Weld's plastic bonder. At least one acrylic supplier reports this is an excellent and trustworthy adhesive (and it tests pretty good on the stainless too.)

The collection of wires will be used along with a chip I will program to have sweeping - sequential turn lights on some of the light bars.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1577057163/Tail_Light_LED_modules_in_housing_q7tjfl.png

Camera doesn't capture "on" appearance very well but it is something like this - looks great in person happy to say -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1577056170/Tail_Light_On_cycn0m.png

[Kurk818]

Wow....

[aquillen]

Upholstery rework on the seats in progress. Now I know why they get a lot of money to do this kind of stuff. I have a pro holding my hand, otherwise this would not be happening. Just sewing the hex patterns on the back and butt cloths has taken hours (about 4 per)!

But I'm getting there. Tomorrow I'm doing the French top stitch seams on the lower bolsters which I peiced together this morning. He said that will be the hardest thing to do and have it look good. So we'll know soon -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1577987703/Half_way_upholstery_ef3ore.jpg
...
on the upper seat backs I'm hoping these will look good. CNC cut from 1/8" steel plate, aluminum back pan routed from 1/4" plate. Fun to make too :)
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1577987702/Seat_back_818_smknvu.jpg

[aquillen]

Silk purse from a sow's ear. My Pep-Boys closeout seats were downright cheap, but had terrible cloth, seams pulling apart just from test sittings. The gentleman at the upholstery shop that walked me through doing my own seat recoverings says they look close to pro, he'd get about $1500 each to do this. He also said he would never do the "hex quilt" by hand - would farm it to a computer sewing shop. Took me about a month of 1/2 day's each week day to complete both. Oh and a good chunk of one weekend to make the 818 emblems. It was all worth it. Much gratitude to Winston at S&S Upholstery in DeMotte Indiana.
...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1579399510/Finished_seat_byj2ph.jpg
...
And for sure, prices you pay for custom upholstery work are worth it. This involves a lot of detail, careful work, know-how and physical labor.

[Ajzride]

Looks fantastic Art, your patience and perseverance is staggering.

[lance corsi]

Nice work Art! I think we all could learn a lot from you! You’ve built an 818 berlinetta.

[redbudrr]

Wow!!! They look Great!

[aquillen]

Seats are in - yea!
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1580426152/Seats_in_818_cjiz1r.jpg

Doors and windows roughed in, working on upholstering & controls going into the door cards.

[Jetfuel]

..way to go Art....you'll be sewing your own Hawaiian shirts in no time at all..:cool:

[Santiago]

That's straight up stud work. Wow! I've always wanted to dabble in upholstery (it was my father's trade as a young man), but I never thought an "amateur" could get these results. Inspiring...dangerous ('cause now you have my head spinning)...but super good looking work!

Best,
-j

[ben1272]

Art, inspiring work! I've been thinking about selling my 818 project, but your creative solutions are making me want to re-tackle all the little things that have been bugging me about the build! I will be checking in more often now to see what else you come up with!

[aquillen]

Thanks guys ! ben1272 - hope you get back into it - think back to when you were first getting the project, resurrect that excitement. Worth it, not everyone builds a car.

[aquillen]

As always I jump around on my project - otherwise some of the longer items get me bored, or I just let the wheels turn for some days to come up with ideas while I tackle something else. So here come some short subjects (some took a long time).

I have an NRG steering wheel, but made the adapter for it instead of buying. I want cruise because it helps me keep from getting tickets for a certain behavior (13 over the years). Since I made my adapter it wasn't so bad "making an adapter for the adapter" for the control lever. There is enough wiring in the horn clock spring to handle the cruise.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584754988/Cruise_control_04_mwzkqt.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584754986/Cruise_control_03_eoajwy.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584754986/Cruise_control_02_duix3a.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584754986/Cruise_control_01_fx382d.jpg

I'll have to add an image of the wheel installed, the lever peeks out just below the right spoke between the wheel and center.

[aquillen]

The coupe kit's window seal strips (hard flocked) that go on the upper window frame seemed too hard - and with the less than ideal window curve and travel behavior this compromises getting a good seal, at least in my build. I found this particular seal on Amazon seller "Seal Rubber" (after obtaining several kinds from multiple sources) that seemed to work well. Also the thickness of the frame has to be ground down to fit the supplied seal. Some grinding still has to happen with this alternate seal, but not as much. In addition, I'm using this same seal around the door frame to body, and some other places on my build.

Trim Seal with Side Bulb | PVC Plastic Trim with EPDM Rubber Bulb Seal | Fits 1/4” Edge, 3/8” Bulb Seal Diameter

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757257/Body_trim_seal_01_ijxxb9.jpg

This is a fairly soft rubber and when a side window is traveling upward it deforms this a lot during the first couple inches of contact along the rear edge of the window. To help prevent tearing the rubber, I will wrap just the affected area of rubber with Steele Rubber Products' Bowdrill tape 70-1175-65. This is old school stuff used way back in the day to help make tough but flexible seals for windows and such on cars.

There is plenty of forum info on the window fit, so I'm just listing a couple points on my build, this bit and a piece further below on the bronze regulator sliders. First to set the window to frame clearance I made some 1/2" thick wood blocks and just taped them in place to space the window from the frame while I played with the regulator mounts:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757320/Windows_-_alignment_00_xhqkbj.jpg

To use the same seal around the door frame to body, I bend open the u-channel part of the seal to become a flat piece that fits/traps between the inner plastic door card and the fiberglass door skin.
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The next area to seal is a big open area just in front of the mirror mount steel plate.This area is a gap between the door inside wall and the outside wall of the dashboard, dash close off aluminum and the windshield frame. I made these aluminum pieces that fasten to the FFR parts which get mounted near to the sides of the dashboard. These extend the kickplate walls upward so the seals on the doors can contact these parts to seal all the way up the door sides...
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Rubber seal supplied with the kit (or my version above) can now seal against this lower part to the body (the facing arrows in the below picture), But there is nothing to seal in the upper area (circled):
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757779/Door_-_seal_front_inside_00_xlnbcz.jpg
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next post shows the fix

[aquillen]

Made left and right versions of this after some CAD (cardboard) work:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757780/Door_-_seal_front_inside_01_i0aye0.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757780/Door_-_seal_front_inside_02_z6kj97.jpg
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I spot welded my parts to the supplied FFR parts, but rivets would do.

Tough spot to photograph but if you study this you can see the fit-up. A little bit of goo-seal will wrap this up later.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757783/Door_-_seal_front_inside_05_crcdqg.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757782/Door_-_seal_front_inside_03_kzxgzg.jpg
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757782/Door_-_seal_front_inside_04_pvhga4.jpg
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A scrap of the seal being tested -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584757783/Door_-_seal_front_inside_06_qchrxl.jpg

I finished these parts with power coat so they would slide against the rubber seal better and not corrode to a rough finish some day.

[aquillen]

There is a wiper thread but I have a lot of pictures to post so rather than clog that thread I'm keeping it here. Will put a link on that thread. More wiper threads -

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?20818-single-wiper-solution&p=403556#post403556

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?19834-single-wiper&p=243868#post243868

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?16437-Lumpyguys-818S-build&p=222064&viewfull=1#post222064

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?12534-MRG-MotorSports-818S-Build&p=211202&viewfull=1#post211202



I could imagine someone wanting to make up a compact unit this same way - so lots of pix for U. Also, almost every thing from donor parts (my "donor" is the random Subaru parts pulled a my nearby LKQ yards). And so nearly every part I've pulled I have torn down, rebuilt the internals. In this case the wiper motor/gearbox was opened, cleaned, greased. The wiper pivot shaft was pulled, cleaned and greased, and I'll show how to get that apart if you want.

I wanted to use a donor unit, but fold it as small as I could. I've got a coolant air catch burp bottle, washer fluid bottle, remote reservoirs in there and want to move the battery in and out through the gap front and center without taking other things apart. So the motor/wiper guts needed to be compact. I also wanted no-cut on the hood and fully closed hood to boot. Some others have posted their wiper fits without cutting the hood, but not sure how they pull that off using the thickness of the wiper arm lower part. I only have 1/2 inch between the hood and glass.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758890/Wiper_01_r6xopi.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758890/Wiper_02_swjsdq.jpg
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A donor arm was chopped off a couple inches up from the pivot mount bolt. My new arms are of 1/4 x 1/2 aluminum, a very stiff version of alloy from McMaster Carr that I had in the junk box. The new arms are trapped onto the original arm via a pressed in place steel box I welded up.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758893/Wiper_07_pvqeev.jpg
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Up top I have this -
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758895/Wiper_05_sfwoiz.jpg
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A donor arm was chopped and bent to fit. Then welded to a flat plate, that was screwed from underneath with 4 alloy steel screws. The got cut flush to the aluminum bars then peened in place.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758894/Wiper_06_f4pn1w.jpg
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After all the fab a bit of powdercoat dressed it nicely
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758893/Wiper_04_np686l.jpg

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758905/Wiper_14_mewmwh.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758901/Wiper_16_wetxu9.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758904/Wiper_17_ujhnek.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758909/Wiper_18_ml7xpl.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758908/Wiper_19_qlmgum.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758907/Wiper_20_xhocjz.jpg

[aquillen]

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758911/Wiper_21_glacf1.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758915/Wiper_22_juelja.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758919/Wiper_23_vpmasq.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758919/Wiper_25_kusjgv.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758918/Wiper_26_fglyif.jpg
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This plate protects the fluid hoses from the link arm should it separate and flop about. I changed to the rough and ready ball links since the Subaru ones do wear and fail, and pulling them on and off of the old parts isn't the best treatment either.
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758923/Wiper_30_ed7xnk.jpg

[aquillen]

There is a tiny clip ring at the top of the pivot shaft. Pry this out with a small knife tip, etc. Pull off the trapped washer, then push the entire shaft down and out of the housing. Use a long screwdriver to push out each of the plastic bushings (or leave them in place). Clean old grease out of the internal housing. Wheel bearing grease or waterproof motorcycle grease such as Belray (my fav) should work fine for another 20 years...

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584758919/Wiper_27_nvwtjf.jpg

[aquillen]

Recall I have a duct system with controls that can select fresh air or recirc air. This is the duct I made up to get air from the nose into a port in the bottom of the dash close off aluminum plate. I won't add the final pieces of flex hose to this until I finish painting the car and have put the hood back on. So I don't have pix of the hose pieces. Use your imagination...

Air comes in at the far right of the nose trim:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761060/Fresh_air_inlet_06_j621md.jpg
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Making the fiberglass composite collector for that opening:
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761050/Fresh_air_inlet_01_lfrhzf.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761053/Fresh_air_inlet_02_ebvio0.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761055/Fresh_air_inlet_03_m0l97i.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761057/Fresh_air_inlet_04_gihojh.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761057/Fresh_air_inlet_05_klkykq.jpg

[aquillen]

A cabin air filter was selected from NAPA for it's small size. Then a pair of air boxes were made to fit on each side of the radiator close off aluminum plates -

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761060/Fresh_air_inlet_07_ub9jcm.jpg
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The air duct at the nose is routed to the front part of this outside box. These boxes are also fiberglass layed over foam that was covered with packing tape. The tape allows the foam to be painted with polyester resin without melting the foam, and later the foam can be easily pulled out and discarded.

A couple screws hold the outer cover in place at the top, it swings out on retainer clips and then can be removed to service the filter...
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761060/Fresh_air_inlet_08_hj4q26.jpg

Aha -here is the filter:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761062/Fresh_air_inlet_10_hzneo0.jpg
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The inner air box gets riveted in place.The filter is installed and removed from the outside. Inner box is ready to install. Some paint will dress these later. The inner box outlet points downward and is plummed along the bottom of the front and then up into the bottom of the dash close off aluminum plate. Once the air gets in there it is directed by my air control box mounted on top of the close off aluminum plate. Clamshell hood makes this rig possible with such easy access !

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584761063/Fresh_air_inlet_09_skzjpn.jpg
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[aquillen]

Lance Corsi devised an improvement to the window track guides by adding bronze slider shoes. He is right, this really tightens up the windows so they feel like you can grab them and not break something immediately. I guess the only drawback to doing this is they are stiffer and move with authority against the rubber seals - i.e. harder on the seals. So you have to work carefully on the exact positions of the regulators since you can't rely on slop letting things "fall/flex" into place.

Corsi's info is posted here, posted by Bob_N_Cinci, starting on #14:

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?27468-Discoveries-spleen-venting-amp-818C-side-windows&highlight=bronze

I did the same thing but happened to have some 1" round bronze on hand. Much smaller but certainly strong enough for this task. Brass would work but bronze slides better. Cut with bandsaw, hacksaw, moto-tool, etc. Screws are hardened 6-32. These may seem small but the original stuff is plastic, still there for backup, and these are actually pretty tough.

Since this is 1" dia. bronze rod you can work out the dimensions from looking at images. I got 4 sliders from each 10mm thick disc that I cut from the rod.

I suggest using a calcium based slider grease such as Lubriplate.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584796005/Windows_-_bronze_guides_01_qeydhc.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584796011/Windows_-_bronze_guides_03-_drilling_t2gckt.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584796009/Windows_-_bronze_guides_04_bgy07u.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584796007/Windows_-_bronze_guides_02_dgjwnw.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584796010/Windows_-_bronze_guides_06_mwf9sv.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1584796014/Windows_-_bronze_guides_09_axexvt.jpg

[Zach34]

Incredible work, Art. If anything, these cars are pulling the creative juices out of us.

[Hobby Racer]

Great job on the custom fiberglass work. I really want to try making fiberglass paints like that. What type of foam do you use and what type of release agent?

[Newkitguy]

hey art you interested in making another set of those bronze window guides? id be interested in a set

[aquillen]

Great job on the custom fiberglass work. I really want to try making fiberglass paints like that. What type of foam do you use and what type of release agent?

Foam was scraps from some packaging of furniture we got a while back. White super light weight is handy for this. On curvy stuff, I paint it with 5 minute epoxy - hobby shops have larger bottles of that. It cracks away from the fiberglass resin (polyester or vinylester) with ease. Once the 5 minute is hard then I lay on the glass (or carbon fiber) and resin. When all is done I remove the inside foam and tape/epoxy leaving the finished item.

Epoxy painted over foam might not peal away from an epoxy type laminating resin such as Fiberglast's epoxy products. But if it stays there it doesn't hurt either for many designs, or you can put a few coats of carnauba(sp?) wax on the epoxy/foam form for a mold release. The foam can be chewed out with tools or very easily dissolved away with acetone or several other solvents (takes very little solvent). Sometimes I use an econo can of brake cleaner.

Another release agent method is wrap the foam with either cellophane packaging tape or electrical tape. Either one will pull away from the hard resin with little effort. I use electrical tape for curvy stuff. Look for econo wide rolls of electircal tape at discount stores for example.

When you get fancier than the above it is time to look into real mold techniques using plug molds, female shells and wax/spray in mold release agents. The above are one-off items that need very little in prep nor high quality finish. I will soon post my airbox/airfilter in CF parts using the above technique and you'll see even the above can produce very nice looking finish parts.

[aquillen]

hey art you interested in making another set of those bronze window guides? id be interested in a set

I've helped here and there some other tiny items for guys. Payback-forward - either way... You can have these for the postage - 15 minute job for me. PM me.

[lance corsi]

Art, you are a master builder! I’m flattered that you found my window excerpt worth emulating. I don’t know what you did as a career, but you are truly gifted!

[Newkitguy]

I've helped here and there some other tiny items for guys. Payback-forward - either way... You can have these for the postage - 15 minute job for me. PM me.

Art shot you a PM thank you so much i appreciate it so much you are super gifted I would probably end up hurting myself if i tried emulating some of your work!

[Ipassgas]

I've helped here and there some other tiny items for guys. Payback-forward - either way... You can have these for the postage - 15 minute job for me. PM me.

Tiny? TINY?

I'd hardly call the help you provided me tiny. You, sir, are a giant among men.

[aquillen]

I really just enjoy helping you guys out. It's the way I've always done for family, friends, neighbors and work partners. Somehow it has always been rewarding to me just as much. I recommend the method to anyone.

[aquillen]

J Bowman over in Ohio is building his 818S with an H6 and automatic. We trade ideas and sometimes parts (mostly him to me)...

He finished his engine wiring and had his first start over the weekend. And when he called me was he ever stoked and happy - it fired up on the first try.

So here is another 3.0 build running on the factory ECM, first start:


https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/video/upload/v1586211293/videomp4_0_i8i6gc.3g2

It's a cell phone format video so may not play on everything, but does work in (some ?) Windows Media versions, VLC players, and on my Linux it is fine...

Congrats Jamie !

[bow2091]

Art thank you so much I couldn't of done with out your help. you are brilliant and a great friend

[RD911T]

Art, I just spent several hours reading your build thread. This is amazing stuff. BTW, Ian says hi! That goofy Canadian lives across the street from me and we are good friends and constantly golfing together and giving each other sh*t by text.

[aquillen]

Both of you should get into the 818 builds..... ynot? Ian and I go back a ways.

[aquillen]

Finally got around to the air filters. A pair of K&N conical filters using twist locks on the big end - fit into these housing/tubes. Connect to the 818's side ports from the overhead intake. Not a small amount of work to make these but really came out nice. Rubber boots from (I think) a Subaru something, or maybe a Honda (?) I forgot to take notes at the scrap yard. Haven't put all the hose clamps on just yet.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587694790/Intake_filters_02_x3xpde.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587694789/Intake_filters_01_roncgi.jpg

[aquillen]

Here is my take on setting up the Hella's so they can be removed easily for service or whatever reason. I'm probably going to make some halo rings for the front, but still mulling that over... white SMT LED's embedded in transucent white plastic rings. When I get bored with the other items I'll probably go4it.

The Hella snap-in mounts go into my aluminum plates, mounted on studs. Can adjust the studs and of course the Hella adjusters too. I lost one of the bags of plastic Hella ball-snap thingies for a week. Chasing those on the Internet was a fiasco. Almost called Hella / and or / make my own then found the bag which had fallen into my throttle linkage scraps box. What a relief... I'm sure you all know that drill.

To get the low beam shutter cutoff pattern to be "level" to the road the lamps must be rotated. About 0.3" additional cut in the original plastic snap in holes gets the rotation needed for my build. In the original positions, the lamps are rotated so that the outside edge of the beams are higher on each side than the inside. I think it was 12 degrees give or take, but didn't write it down.

Still have some seal work to do, but there is no glueing of the lamp parts in this setup.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587695313/Headlight_bucket_05_j6vkje.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587695311/Headlight_bucket_01_xupkhj.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587695311/Headlight_bucket_02_gceb7n.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587695313/Headlight_bucket_03_eez77k.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587695313/Headlight_bucket_04_grl2cw.jpg

[aquillen]

The buckets will be held by clamps that are trapped under studs epoxied from underneath. The buckets will have foam weatherstrip (plan as of today, subject to revision) between the hood and bucket top. The topside lens will be mounted to the top of the hood using an optically clear UV resistant silicone sealant which is designed for assembly of solar cells (hence high trust for this job, sold by McMaster-Carr). I don't plan to paint the lenses at all. The body paint will show up through the lens and from rough testing with some spray paint it should look fine. I'm halfway through making plaster of paris molds from the supplied lenses. I will then replicate those lenses so I can destructive test as necessary to heat and bend away at my replica lenses with abandon until I get a pair that fit the body line better.

I cut a circle at the nose for one of those nice FFR badges, where you see the backing plate I put under the cutout. The other plates are resting pads for under-hood support bumpers. The strip at the bottom is a teflon slider pad for the wiper arms - they just brush this location when the wiper is at rest. Allows me to keep the 1/2" clearance between the hood and window glass and sneak my wiper arm in between.

If you look close over on the right you can see a 2016 Camaro side marker mounted. I'll have to post some pix of all that later.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587696238/Cowl_underside_01_dabkf9.jpg

[aquillen]

While we're in the vincinity, I tackled getting more air out of that hood. The 3.0 engine is known to need more cooling than the four bangers, at least in Internet lore. Having looked at the market options, and as always hoping to DIY, I dropped back to a memory of louvers I always liked. Ferrari 308 over the front wheels. So I cut a bunch of.03 thick aluminum strips, bent them in half to make 15mm wide strips with nice curved surface along the edge (via the bent side). Milled slots in side rails on the CNC machine. Aluminum soldered all of them into place (with the flea market variety of 700 F degree solder sticks). And of course powder coat. Had a big goof in my powder coat "box" whereby previous white powder fell from the inside top of the box onto the grills. Made each one look like it was dusty.

Holy cow !!! sand blasting off powder coat takes a LONG time - at least if using new 80 grit coal slag media.

Anyway they are sexy enough for my taste:

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587697230/Hood_grills_03_pwa0ab.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587697230/Hood_grills_02_c2y0lq.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587697229/Hood_grills_01_aod5ol.jpg

[aquillen]

With the hood work pretty much done, time to finish up the front close off aluminum. I worked these parts over by adding material wherever needed to get a close fit to the hood, etc. Then made some extra parts to help close the gaps and omissions. I started with the cheap spray on underbody stuff (Duplicolor), but already knew it would not bond really well to raw aluminum. Cleaned it off the initial couple panels after a few days and not in the least impressed, and it is messy crap going on and off. Got self etch primer from TCPGlobal and completely sanded, cleaned and primed all. Then got cheap again and just painted it all with Rustoleum. Probably not my first choice since it is gloss, but I had lots of cans of the stuff and it's one of those "good enough, let's go" deals. But at last I can put them all back on with the zillion screws I previously established and move on... hooaaa!

Everything that contacts the hood is setup to use rubber bulb seal too.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587697965/Front_panels_02_kjmjyd.jpg

[aquillen]

So way back when Rori's build showed his Kia Soul rear fascia adaption I took note. LKQ let me have this for $12.00 on sale day. How can you go wrong for that? Except it gave me ideas on a split exhaust instead of my original 2 into 1 setup. That ran up the bill a little bit, but still happy here.

With just a little careful moto-tool work you can get that fascia to fit like a glove to the rear of the 818. And here is a look at my custom tail lights. The turn signal sweep function works :D, and someday I'll get a video of it and post.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587698562/Kia_Soul_rear_fascia_01_pq9niu.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587698562/Kia_Soul_rear_fascia_02_vy4nvn.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587698563/Tail_underside_01_rhygc3.jpg
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The exhaust tips are SS flat plate formed to fit inside the slots in the Kia grille. They have air flow between the steel and the grill plastic, and then the front of the steel ovals have funnel shaped bellmouths that each muffler flows "out-into" the mouths. This lets air come in through the inside of the steel ovals along with the fumes. My 2014 Chargers have this same setup to prevent melting the rear bumpers.

I only have about 12" of room for mufflers unless I hack up the entire exhaust system. So on my first search I only found some 12" magnaflow glass-packs. I put it all together and then when I ran the motor it was "ooh-ohh - they'll pull me over for sure" ... THAT LOUD.

On a new search for solutions I found the Thrush Turbo's in 11" body length. Those are going in next and... don't laugh too loud ... I duct-taped them in place the other day and ran it. Still pretty loud but now sounds good. Plenty of bark, but not likely to get pulled over by even the nicest guys like the previous setup. Very sporty-porchey.

Gotta get rid of the glass-packs. In the way.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587698561/Mufflers_upmj2x.jpg

I'm thinking CNC up some nice 'Factory Five" letters to fill out that empty real-estate on the back between the tail lghts. Sort of Ferrari like again.

[aquillen]

I got a good deal on these banged up wheels back when I got the engine and suspension parts. Came from a Japan car via JDM Motors in Cincinnati. Actually by the time I cleaned them up, painted them, then decided to get them powder coated a couple months back, not such a good deal. About the only work I farmed out as they don't fit in my oven. But I always liked this style wheel and they did turn out right. Fixing up the hubs was no small endeaver but worth the effort. The wheels had Japanese in marker on the insides, don't know what it said but guess they probably did come from over there. Looks like these were made by a division of Ray's and were pretty popular outside the US. The scuffs either just cleaned up by sandblasting or a bit of JB Weld in some spots (powder coat sticks to JB just fine in my experience). Powder coater charged $75 per wheel to strip my new paint and then coat them.

Before -
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587699890/Vesta_wheel_before_01_wvpat9.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587699887/Vesta_Versus_hubs_01a_ateskj.jpg
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After -
https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700158/Vesta_wheel_powdercoated_ryvsfm.jpg

[aquillen]

2007 Saturn Aura donated these parts. Based on - small enough center console to fit in the 818 space. Visors small enough to fit, and can extend out to cover sun in the side windows. Next to nothing at LKQ Pick your part :cool:
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I recovered the visors by popping out the mirror frame, pulling the cloth out, and putting my vinyl on. The neat thing is the split line around the perimeter which the covering tucks into, and this makes it easier to do a good job of fitting the cover with a good look.

The mounting is tricky for the visors - needs to be just right or they won't swing to the side correctly - hanging goofy instead of straight. So I made mount plates trapped inside tubes that I could rotate. Those tubes will get epoxy bonded next time I have the top off and upside down.

I haven't fiddled with the helper clips that go on the ends of the visors, but expect that will be easy.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700523/Visor_01_nfyb7e.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700525/Visor_02_hphtor.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700526/Visor_03_tyvb03.jpg.

[Rob T]

I am in awe every time I see your work. Amazing.

[sgarrett]

Wow. Very impressive. You keep me inspired to make progress on mine.

My favorite part was that you use lots of tape too! Now I know it is ok. Just went out and taped on my exhaust pipe like Art did :cool:

[aquillen]

Just remember to keep your drive times under 30 seconds. After that the tape cooks off, exhaust falls off.

[aquillen]

The overhead console from the same 2007 Saturn Aura, was just the right size too. Everything else I looked at in the scrap yard was bigger. These have 4 frame/rings which get bigger and bigger. I used the main body and first trim ring. Chopped the second ring down to just the part that holds the lamps. My favorite thing about this is it has a built in universal garage door remote. For fun it also has "ambiance lights", small LEDs that shine down onto the shifter console area to light that up a bit at night - whoopee ha.

I made a skirt first from cardboard then with the shape figured out, made a flimsy one from scrap aluminum flashing. That piece hot glued & epoxied into the frame, then a couple layers of fiberglass to give it some backbone. Will cover with cloth eventually. I'm thinking maybe a couple strong magnets will hold this up there, but open to other ideas that come along.

I'm trying to resist the presence of that sun roof control switch. Making it functional is an interesting prospect.

https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700524/Overhead_console_045_qsqenm.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700523/Overhead_console_03_hnwfbu.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700523/Overhead_console_04_b1w56g.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700519/Overhead_console_02_kwwdjo.jpg
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https://res.cloudinary.com/aq007/image/upload/v1587700520/Overhead_console_01_wfbboc.jpg

[Jake From State Farm]

Hi Art,

If you find yourself needing to sandblast tough finishes like powder coat, Menards sells a fairly aggressive black blasting media for $8 per 50lb bag. The SKU is 1891331. It tends to chew right through those finishes in a hurry.