Mechie3's 818S

[DanielsDM]

:) Congrats!

[Canadian818]

Congrats! This is your second right? A lot more work for dad when there's two, ask me how I know, lol.

[wmaurojr]

Congratulations!!

[wleehendrick]

Congrats, Craig!

[AZPete]

Very cute, Craig. Congrats!

Did it come with just the one wrench?

[Hindsight]

Congrats Craig!!!

[305mouse]

is it a 10mm?

[Bob_n_Cincy]

is it a 10mm?
No Craftsman 14mm, He lost it last winter. Must have fallen out of his pocket.

[Mechie3]

Yes, second kid. Still on my first kitcar but managed to make 2 kids in that time. Lol.

Just the one wrench. Bob was close, 1/4" craftsman. Perfect size for the wilwood caliper bleeder screws on my Fmod. ;)

[ben1272]

Nice job Craig! Some are born with a silver spoon....some with a chrome vanadium steel wrench! I hope mom and baby are resting comfortably.

[Frank818]

Craig, could you plz tell me how to make the hood hinges great again? lolll

How are yours working? Or if you haven't installed them yet, what am I doing wrong?

If I keep the little bolt in the middle hole, it hits badly the rad frame.

6077460775


If I decide to swap holes to clear the frame, it then hits the nose insert way before being stopped by the bolt.

6077660777



I know your design was based on the new nose but am I missing parts assembled or something? Are the C arms supposed to be on the inside (towards middle of car) or facing outside (towards headlights)? I tried swapping the arms but I get the same result.

Do you remember who posted details of the installation of your hinges?

Tnx man!

[Mechie3]

The little bolt is only a stop for opening, not a stop for closing. The stop for closing is the hood itself. Once you attach the brackets and hood the arm shouldn't be able to swing that far shut. If it does, then adjust where the hood brackets attach to the arm to effectively raise the arms up to stop them from hitting on teh down swing.

[Frank818]

Tnx so much! I knew you'd know your own design. :) I've installed them. They have one small flaw but otherwise they are awesome and WELL worth the purchase! :)

[brian b 36]

craig do you have any of your bell cranks in stock thanks brian

[Mechie3]

Tnx so much! I knew you'd know your own design. :) I've installed them. They have one small flaw but otherwise they are awesome and WELL worth the purchase! :)

Flaw? It's a feature. :p hahaha ;)


craig do you have any of your bell cranks in stock thanks brian

I have a couple. Let me verify they aren't spoken for. I'll have to do another group buy soon to replenish stock.


So...I uh....picked up another distraction this weekend. It's actually going to be replacing my current F500 autocross car. Flew to Minneapolis, took a taxi to a truck rental place, rented a truck, drove 40 mins NW, loaded up the car, then drove a little over 9 hours back home to Indy. To get the car up on the truck we had to put it on a boat trailer then ramp it up into the truck. We did put stacks of tires under the ramp so they wouldn't buckle and screws the ends into the trailer so they wouldn't slip.

http://i.imgur.com/tEmMjhZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6osLj8h.jpg

[Hindsight]

Congrats on the new toy!

[Frank818]

I'm not sure the aero is great with that front end loll, but I'm sure it's an easy fix! :)

What are our plans? Ditch the 818 and revamp that thing? BTW what is it called?

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Where do the 2 kids and wife sit?
Looks nice
Bob

[Rob T]

I am very impressed by the trailer loading skills. Wouldn't have worked too well at the plant.....from a safety leadership perspective. But in this case, all is well that ends well.

[Mechie3]

I'm not sure the aero is great with that front end loll, but I'm sure it's an easy fix! :)

What are our plans? Ditch the 818 and revamp that thing? BTW what is it called?

It came with two different nose cones. Plans are to ditch my existing F500 and replace it with this F600. I've had my F500 since 2010, so the 818 came after that. neither one replaced the other. Old car had an old suspension design with a rear swingarm. Came with a 440cc motor that I replaced with a newer 500cc motor. This new car has a modern 4 link rear suspension, aluminum front uprights, and a 600cc motor.



Where do the 2 kids and wife sit?
Looks nice
Bob

On the side pods. ;)



I am very impressed by the trailer loading skills. Wouldn't have worked too well at the plant.....from a safety leadership perspective. But in this case, all is well that ends well.

After this pic we stacked tires under the center of the ramps and then used screws to fix the ramp to the trailer so they wouldn't slide.

[brian b 36]

craig did you get my paypal payment

[svanlare]

Nice new ride. Impressive creativity for solving the loading problem.

[Frank818]

Craig, are you stalled?

[Mechie3]

Craig, are you stalled?

For now. I've gotten out in the garage 3 times or so since October 13. One time was to clean, another was to get the winch mounted inside the box truck. The other was to take body panels off my F600 to bring them inside and remove all the stickers.

Work has been really busy too. We just launched our new product that I've worked on for the last 3.5 years.

http://biomek.beckman.com/

[DanielsDM]

Work has been really busy too. We just launched our new product that I've worked on for the last 3.5 years.

http://biomek.beckman.com/

Workstation looks nice. I worked for Hamilton Company 10 years ago making similar products, automated liquid handling machines. Fun stuff.

[Frank818]

Craig? You still here? Still launching a new product that is not an 818? 5 months for a launch is quite long. lolll


Besides, since you live in the most live free or die state (sorry New Hampshire) and you know everything about Indy 500 (you gotta! You're in IN!), is it true a snail can compete to the Indy 500? :)

[Mechie3]

Frank asked me to update. Eli turns 1 in 11 days. That means it's been almost a year since I've really worked on the car. Most of the summer was spent getting my box truck setup to haul my new (to me) F600, working on the F600, traveling for weddings to east coast and west coast and at home in the midwest, and taking down and rebuilding my pergola (carpenter bees got to it). Designed a handful of new parts for polaris slingshots, corvettes, and other random bits. Popped myself in the head with a wrench, got a concussion and stitches, went to the ER, and lost out on the year end Tovey cup. Ha!

Autocross season is done, one more fun event this sunday. Probably going to park the truck and F600 for a while. Found a source for some LED projector lights that look to be good replacements for the halogen Hellas. They should arrive in a few weeks and then I'll start up on the 818 again.

[Frank818]

Tnx Craig, 1 full year is a very long time but yet you still managed to get it plated LONG before me! loolllll

Keep us posted on those projectors once you get back on the 818.

And Happy BDay in advance!

[Mechie3]

Hey...uh.....is this mic on? check...check? Anyone? Let's see. What has happened since the last post:

Work is still busy
Bought a real CNC (Haas)
Son turned 3
Daughter turned 6 (today)
Had knee surgery
Wife had knee surgery
Launched a few new 0dB parts
Got distracted with lego cars and machining parts
Spend most of my time not doing 818 stuff
Started doing 818 stuff, then the schools all close so I'm WFH while watching kids because my wife works in a hospital and can't exactly WFH.

But... I restarted. I probably won't post here much since it takes too much time to upload photos, host them, come here, post, write, etc. Trying to use what time I do have to actually work on stuff. Check out my Zero Decibel facebook page where I post most of my updates. They're not terribly in depth and skip lots of things. Such is life with two jobs, two kids, and too many hobbies. Made a transition from a "this is going to look great" to "I'll be satisfied with a 5 footer, but even a 10 is better if it drives".

:D

[AZPete]

Kudos to you for keeping up with 2 young kids and supporting your wife in her important healthcare challenges!

[Mechie3]

Let's see if I can just copy paste my FB updates here. Let me know if the pics show up. If they do, I'll continue to post here since I don't need to separately host the images. If they don't....well, I probably won't.

I guess this means I can add "familiar with fiberglass hand layup techniques and tools" to my resume? I probably did it in a way that will make some people cringe but... it seems to hold? Lol.

I had some louver fins from a rear louver panel I messed up. They were conveniently almost the same size as the wooden sticks so I cut them to length and replaced the wood sticks holding the two halves together. I taped over the gap on top of the the (former) top side inlets so it wouldn't leak and glassed the underside in a few strips. I couldn't get it all in one shot due to the location of the cleco's and not wanting to make them a permanent part of my cover. I plan to go back and put a small piece over the parts that weren't glassed the first time and then add a larger piece of cloth that covers the whole thing now that the clecos are out. I used some of the scrap pieces I had cut out to reinforce the area around the roll hoop cutouts a little. These parts are really thin with no vertical support and the gelcoat is cracked here. I'll add a larger piece later that extends a bit further.

Once that is done I'll tape up the bottom of the engine cover/trunk seam to prevent leaks there. I'll install it back on the car so it's held in the proper shape and glass the top in sections. When that cures I'll go back and glass the underside. Last step will be to fill everything with a resin/glass bubble/milled fiber mix.
While I think the idea of a trunk was a noble one, the engineer side of me can't help but think how much easier it would have been to eliminate the trunk. One less mold to make and maintain, one less part to stock, one less CAD file to manage, the engine cover would be simpler and easier to make (no need for the shelf at the rear end), no hinges to design, no complex interfaces between two body panels that, to be honest, are held to great tolerances. I think the coupe is a step up here in that the rear is one piece with a simple hatch. The coupe front end is definitely an improvement manufacturability wise over the original front end.

https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/94702517_2612455592316520_8225033208459165696_n.pn g?_nc_cat=101&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=25RB5DlMzcMAX_oITg1&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=7d75bc238d32e7c92c6c1efc718c8c27&oe=5EC6B6B8
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[Ajzride]

Pics look fine.

[Jetfuel]

That’s a cool idea...
Btw..how fast have you gone in the Porsche???

Jet

[Mechie3]

That’s a cool idea...
Btw..how fast have you gone in the Porsche???

Jet

Can't say it's my idea (combining the trunk and cover). Eric Treves who built one of the "non Beta builds" (it was a customer build after FFR, but before customers could get them, but FFR said they weren't beta builds...lol) did it. I should have done it years ago. Saved lots of headaches with things not lining up. I don't know of anyone who has done the side vents. I figure, if I have no clue what I'm doing with fiberglass, I might as well jump in head first and just become an expert one way or another.

I haven't gone in the Porsche yet. My legs are too long. I will hang onto the side while riding a skateboard while my kids drive. HAHA!

[Mechie3]

Got a little more done last night. Removed the clecos from the side inlets, put small patches of fiberglass over those holes so that when I put a large piece on it would have a flatter surface to start with. Covered it with one large section that curved up into the side wall to improve the rigidity in that section as there were lots of voids in the original fiberglass near the edge.

While it was upside down, I taped up the seam between the two parts so I could glass the top side. After the side vents dried I flipped it over and put two layers of glass down into the crack. I'll glass the back side later, but wanted gravity on my side when setting the initial position of these parts. After I glassed the top I decided to try my hand with resin, bubbles, and milled fibers. Probably made more sanding work for myself, but at least I got good coverage. HAHAHA:p Need to cover the other vent with filler and the seam between the parts. When that cures, I'll glass the back.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/95062591_2613234442238635_8665296935738933248_o.jp g?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=O4vLiJVwlL4AX-T04-u&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&_nc_tp=6&oh=d3afb57c03c62c8a1a1c05c0e2ced6be&oe=5EC6C468
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[Mechie3]

I've managed to get more done on my car in the last three nights/early mornings (1am always seems to arrive so soon these days) that I've done in the past 3 years. I still don't really know what I'm doing, but it seems to be working!

First, I snatched a pump from my wife's conditioner bottle. Shhhh (nah, she knows...it was almost empty anyways). Cleaned it off, let it soak all day, cleaned some more, soaked, cleaned....you get the idea. When it was finally pumping clean water with no residue I let it dry. The resin can is terrible to pour from. Looks worse than my three year old self feeding spaghetti. Now...pump, pump...nice and clean (and free).

Next, you might remember Bill's advice about the wax. I didn't take it. I'm not getting that deep into things. At least that's what I told myself. I should know by now I lie to myself all the time when it comes to cutting corners. In this case, I was trying to build up a corner, not cut it, because it was already cut (in more ways than one....oooooh!). Without the wax to make a mold I used multiple layers of tape with paint sticks as a gap setter (normally the wax would do this). I covered the engine with plastic in case anything leaked (it didn't!) and then covered the body with tape. I then put tape on the engine cover (sticky side up) and then put other layers on as needed to prevent it from sticking to the cover on the sides and top. I then taped this down to the side sails with sticks placed in between as needed. This way the side sails acted as the mold (in conjunction with the tape and spacers) and let me fill in the gaps nicely. The other benefit of this method is that the covers were in their desired position rather than being molded flat and force to conform later.

I got better with my mixing of milled fibers and glass bubbles and was able to get much thicker and voluminous (little pantene Pro-V conditioner bottle pump joke for you there) while also lighter (in weight) mixes. With the pump I even kept my hands clean. I filled in the entire crack and the driver side (former) vent. I'll probably trim some off the bottom later to reduce weight, but as a side benefit, the engine cover no longer sags in the middle. Good thing I have 5+ power/air sanding tools because there's certainly a bit of sanding to be done.

https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/94692333_2614073402154739_6136397003325702144_n.pn g?_nc_cat=103&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=ibQKXXFlSKkAX_ldlij&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=afd698d6fd9b8399fc040971ee10b6ef&oe=5EC8EF6B
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[Mechie3]

Twas a bright and dusty morning. Didn't even bothering showering before breakfast knowing I'd have to shower again later. Remember that big gloopy mess?! It was no match for die grinder, belt sander, and two palm sanders. A coupe low spots that weren't covered enough (mostly driver side vent) and some micro holes that will be filled in. The molding for fixing the side gaps worked out great. The sides are nice and straight and it fixed the offset between the engine cover and the trunk. After I sanded the top I turned it over, cut off the flange from the engine cover (see pic with part of the flange removed) and then used the die grinder to round the entire seam over. This cut off some weight and will let me lay a nice flat piece of cloth over this joint so it has more than homemade resin bodyfiller with a layer of cloth shoved in a joint to hold it together. Overall I'm happy with how it looks. It sits up against the rear bumper and side sails quite well and the area I had the gel coat crack filled in nicely.

Twas a bright and dusty morning. Didn't even bothering showering before breakfast knowing I'd have to shower again later. Remember that big gloopy mess?! It was no match for die grinder, belt sander, and two palm sanders. A couple low spots that weren't covered enough (mostly driver side vent) and some micro holes that will be filled in. The molding for fixing the side gaps worked out great. The sides are nice and straight and it fixed the offset between the engine cover and the trunk. After I sanded the top I turned it over, cut off the flange from the engine cover (see pic with part of the flange removed) and then used the die grinder to round the entire seam over. This cut off some weight and will let me lay a nice flat piece of cloth over this joint so it has more than homemade resin bodyfiller with a layer of cloth shoved in a joint to hold it together. Overall I'm happy with how it looks. It sits up against the rear bumper and side sails quite well and the area I had the gel coat crack and flake off is now fixed. Not bad for a noob.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/94636584_2614996608729085_3119841420358189056_o.jp g?_nc_cat=100&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=JunYaFaNTCEAX8PGSt-&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=8df96f8bd19e93a919c0d7b07ab9b8cf&oe=5EC87D3F
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[Frank818]

Man you're back! Can't believe you didn't post for 2.5 years on your thread!
Don't forget that F1 in your garage which is probably taking time too. :)

Hopefully you're here to stay this time, plz. :)

[Mechie3]

Man you're back! Can't believe you didn't post for 2.5 years on your thread!
Don't forget that F1 in your garage which is probably taking time too. :)

Hopefully you're here to stay this time, plz. :)

Well, I pretty much didn't do anything to the car for 2.5 years so........ lol. I actually moved the F600 so I could move the 818 out a little farther, be able to walk around both sides, have some work room, and not get it coated in dust. I hope I'm here to stay. Now that fiberglass isn't quite as much of a mystery to me and it's starting to look good, I'm excited about it again. Once the body is done I'll pull it off and go over the mechanical again. It's been soooo long that I think everything is good, but I'd had to have a wheel pop off while driving.

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[Mechie3]

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/94996917_2615996921962387_2141796716163104768_o.jp g?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=-inRXrnUO0gAX_-K5Sr&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=d7d980ce7c0ce5836c26777a3841d1d0&oe=5ECB7EFA
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[Shawn818c]

Looks great Craig, glad to see you're motivated again. I need to get motivated to work on mine as well, so many other demands on free time. I don't even have mine to a full roller yet :(

[Mechie3]

Looks great Craig, glad to see you're motivated again. I need to get motivated to work on mine as well, so many other demands on free time. I don't even have mine to a full roller yet :(

The new motivator for me is 100% saying "screw paint free". I was going to plastidip it and do minimal/no body work. It felt like trying to assemble a puzzle with pieces that didn't match and trying over and over to get them to match. Once I mentally decided to make the puzzle pieces fit, I was motivated again. Bought all the fiberglass stuff, haven't looked back. My hood never fit well. Chop chop. Now it does. Trunk didn't fit. Chop chop...it fits now too. lol. Now that I can see progress I'm motivated again.

[Jetfuel]

Craig if you need an extra hand let me know...you know I’m but a few miles away

[Mechie3]

Aymert, will do. Most of the time I work on it is random and unplanned. Whenever the kids go to bed and I don't need to machine parts or box things up or just do nothing is when I work. lol.

Another day, another post! This time I had to be more conscious about noise because I didn't get outside until about 8:30. Stopped sanding around 9 so my neighbors wouldn't hate me. I'm happy with the way all the filler turned out (one caveat). I used a die grinder with a sanding drum to quickly take down large protustions of the filler then cleaned it up with two different grits of paper (I have two palm sanders, makes switching back and forth easy). The thinner filler worked pretty well and there are only a handful of micro pores now vs being all over before. For the nose, I had a crease in my tape mold on the underside that created an undercut that needs to be filled. I'll fix that when I bond the studs for the hood hinge on. I only went about 5" from the edge but would go about 8 if I were to do it again. I'm much more pleased with how it looks. The tilted nose always bothered me. Now the left and right sides are even and symmetric. Used a large hand sanding pad to finish it up a bit. Still need to sand the corners by hand to get a nice rounded edge.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/94786564_2616767765218636_7610907847827652608_o.pn g?_nc_cat=109&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=OWxTpcqOtewAX-HKJSk&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&oh=9412b88cfe27a2a06e695419a177b9da&oe=5ECD66FF
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[longislandwrx]

welcome back! i'll have to check what new parts you've made so i can order them in case i ever take my car out of storage.

[Mechie3]

In storage as in "I'm not driving it right now" or storage as in "I parked it and I'm not done yet"?

[longislandwrx]

"I parked it and I'm not done yet"

current garage is full of lawn equipment and power wheels. the plan for the spring was to add a double car with loft to our single car... Covid put that on hold until we can shop some architects.

if we haven't broken ground by next year i'm just going to buy a temporary shed. it's been 3 years... i miss working on the car.

proud of you for getting back to it.

[Mechie3]

I'm proud of myself too! HAHAHAHA

it really was a shame it sat for 3 years, but life had other plans.

[Mechie3]

It's been one month and a day since I posted any progress on my own car. Between work, kids, and making parts to fill orders I haven't done anything... until last night! Sort of. I redesigned the base to my original hood hinge and machined a couple prototypes a couple weeks ago. I just never got the chance to install it. The original sheet metal base was always a compromise between cost and functionality. Now that I have my own CNC, I can make the parts how I always wanted. They're stronger, look better, more compact, and don't require rivnuts. Truth be told, it got tiring bending that many brackets! These are backwards compatible with existing hood hinges.
On to pictures! Try to ignore the mess of old rivetnut holes! Hardware isn't finalized, just used what I had on hand.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/p720x720/101192300_2640375769524502_8217983419074740224_o.j pg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=0W2KU_QrGRwAX8X1HFl&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-1.xx&_nc_tp=6&oh=a82e92fd3ffd4541e06c32639471cba5&oe=5EF3B7A3
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[Mechie3]

Pics aren't showing up for me right now, so hopefully they're still there. Had a few delays. Work got busy again, making parts got for zerodb got busy again, making parts for work at home got busy, I got appendicitis and had surgery to remove that, and the kid's school starts this week. All the good stuff!

I installed my hood hinge and made a how to here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RCpYeyFm02i7ZJJ9hdLpnUhyQHVxYXnP/view?usp=sharing

Took all the body panels back off so I could finish the bodywork on those and fix some mechanicals. Got my gauges wired up, made a bracket to hold some distribution blocks so I can easily add or remove 12V, ground, and two switched 12V connections. Installed an R style windscreen as well.

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/s1080x2048/109293131_2686303281598417_6592319015512190786_o.j pg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=3AfMdHhS0VMAX9oTOjE&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-2.xx&_nc_tp=7&oh=a4e91839a905e908a30da0c1dc4ad0f7&oe=5F46000C
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[Mechie3]

Looks like posting photos from facebook works for a couple weeks, then the URL changes and the link is broken. Great! -_-

[Frank818]

I never liked Facebook, but I do like your parts! Nice job again!

Will you drive the car on the road with the race windshield and no helmet?

[Mechie3]

I never liked Facebook, but I do like your parts! Nice job again!

Will you drive the car on the road with the race windshield and no helmet?

Maybe now and again. My main plan is to drive with a helmet. I'm not too keen on the safety aspect of the car in general and have decided to treat it like a motorcycle. Accept that an accident is likely to be much worse than if in a standard road going car, but a little better than a motorcycle. I have a friend with an MG that is about my height. An 18 wheeler kicked up a rock, went through the sun visor (it was flipped up) and popped him in the head and left quite a mark. Between that and not wanting my head near a roll bar, I'll wear a helmet.

[Pearldrummer7]

Maybe now and again. My main plan is to drive with a helmet. I'm not too keen on the safety aspect of the car in general and have decided to treat it like a motorcycle. Accept that an accident is likely to be much worse than if in a standard road going car, but a little better than a motorcycle. I have a friend with an MG that is about my height. An 18 wheeler kicked up a rock, went through the sun visor (it was flipped up) and popped him in the head and left quite a mark. Between that and not wanting my head near a roll bar, I'll wear a helmet.

echo that. head being close to the roll bar, not having full AS1 glass everywhere, and being so low makes me think the 818 is best treated like a convenient/safer motorcycle, rather than a car.

[longislandwrx]

at minimum some safety sun glasses and a heavier ballcap will keep the small rocks out of your face. but the helmet is always a great idea, having a spare for a passenger/ wife and kids is a smart investment.

[Mechie3]

Right now I don't even have the mounts for the passenger seat welded in yet. lol.

[Mechie3]

Well, since FB likes to move the location of photos I fired up the ol imgur account again. Looks like I can easily copy paste from google photos into imgur so I don't need to save to my harddrive first which is nice. It'll be good to not have my photos disappear after 10 days or so too. I haven't posted anything in a little over a month, but I've been plenty busy.

1: I got a puppy. Boba (my first Boston) got sick suddenly in May and passed away quickly. I still get misty eyed thinking of Boba, but I missed having a lap dog. I think Mochi (the new puppy) will fill that role well. The small photo book has a pic of Boba from May next to Mochi in August. Boba is a sweet, chewy dessert from China. Mochi is a sweet, chewy dessert from Japan.
https://i.imgur.com/S2aI9GD.png

Got her the day before the 500.
https://i.imgur.com/Uyfz6VH.png

2: I had to glass in the right rear side sail where the trunk was. The trunk wouldn't fit so I had to cut out a good sized chunk to make it fit which left a hole. I filled it and completed the rest of the body work. Of course, during sanding the vibration would often reveal where there were other pockets or hidden voids. This was after I beat all the panels with a screwdriver to find voides. Ugh... This one popped up the day before I was going to paint. What a PITA.
https://i.imgur.com/c24AHEo.png

3: I painted the underside of all of the panels with black paint or rubberized coating (front fenders only). This makes a huge difference in the visual quality of the body. The natural epoxy color looks cheap/DIY/homemade. I didn't want to pop the hood and have lots of yellow visible.
https://i.imgur.com/JuEHwQg.png

4: I build wooden stands for everything from wood I've been saving over the last 11 years from every project I ever had. lol. Then, I plastidipped. Color is Deep Sea Blue. I'm mostly please with how it came out. The dip itself and the gun worked great. I was just hoping it would fill in the small pits and whatnot a little bit better. It's kind of a double edged sword. If I was putting it on a real car I would want it to be thin and conform well. Since my bodywork isn't the best, it still shows a lot of the dimples and dips. Either way, I don't have the patience or time to do it over or better and it still looks 100times better than how it did.

https://i.imgur.com/RGPnU1I.png

[Mechie3]

My neighbors no longer question what I do. They probably didn't even give it a second look. lol.
https://i.imgur.com/pjeNFk0.png
https://i.imgur.com/KJsAri7.png
https://i.imgur.com/LDtSMsZ.png

The (now) one piece rear engine cover and trunk lid.
https://i.imgur.com/ll4bhZD.png
https://i.imgur.com/y5mBbxG.png
https://i.imgur.com/ZVx6HqI.png

[Mechie3]

The color is pretty cool. It's almost a WRB in sunlight, a dark navy in the dark, and changes to dark blue/black with curves. The pearl is probably a lot of why my imperfect body work still shows through.
https://i.imgur.com/LVYgCrh.png
https://i.imgur.com/olBQxua.png

Started to reassemble. I put painters tape and packing paper on it to protect areas that might get dinged up during assembly.
https://i.imgur.com/azE0H2L.png
https://i.imgur.com/UOvPB7s.png

[FFRWRX]

That looks beautiful! I really like the color (or as we say in Canada, colour). How durable is that stuff? It won't start peeling off, will it?

Just quickly read some info on it.....seems pretty good. Have to be very careful filling up the car with gas though.

[Ajzride]

Looks amazing, great job for your fist dip. The blue and gold looks great, are you an Irish fan?

[Mechie3]

Blue and gold is a Subaru thing. For years the street cars and the rally cars were blue with gold wheels.

The stuff is pretty durable. I did scrap some off the side sail putting the fender on when a sharp corner snapped up against it while trying to get it aligned. Not too surprised that happened as it was only a couple hours after spraying it, so it wasn't fully cured, and it was a very sharp corner. Thankfully it's in a hidden spot. I have to remove some from around the headlight area so I'm going to do some testing there. I did try scraping it off with my finger nails. It made some light colored marks, but didn't come off.

[aquillen]

That is a great color - glad to see you getting it closer, considering you had a car I could sit in before I bought my kit... :)

[Jetfuel]

Fantastic color combo ...awesome looking one piece rear deck ...can't wait to see it.
Glad to see you straightened up the garage..lol

Jet

134686

Just a reminder of your page one goal...
Get'er done

[Mechie3]

The garage mess ebbs and flows. lol. I did get your VM about hood hinges. I finally have more parts made up, just need to assemble them. There's a cars and coffee in Bburg this Saturday at The Car Vault. I'm going with Chuck in his 818.

[Pearldrummer7]

oh man, this looks fantastic. I like your stands, too

[mikeb75]

That looks really good, congrats! I've found that Plastidip isn't super durable - my worst spots are where the front hood and fenders rub during opening/closing because of the tight tolerances/slight left/right offset.

[Hobby Racer]

How does the pallet jack work for moving the car around?
Do you put blocks or something on the legs to give you clearance for the side skirts so you don't crack them when lifting the car?

[Mechie3]

How does the pallet jack work for moving the car around?
Do you put blocks or something on the legs to give you clearance for the side skirts so you don't crack them when lifting the car?

I actually bought it to move my CNC around. I have't had to move it since putting it in but when I first got it I needed to move it so I could access the electronics cabinet and get it wired up. I can put some 2x1 on the legs and it does work to pick up the car from about where the gas tank/seats are. It's actually quite handy as for a while I pushed it up against the wall and then when I worked on it I would slide it out. Nice to not have to go forward and back 20 times.

[Frank818]

Finally some color on that old under-#100 chassis! And WHAT A COLOR MAN!! :D

[Mechie3]

Finally some color on that old under-#100 chassis! And WHAT A COLOR MAN!! :D

I only bought the plastidip about 2.5 years ago. :rolleyes:

[Frank818]

Is that how all Indiana's backyards look like? Lots o' space, pond (frogs certainly), quiet... how much for a house around? :) No snow ever ever, right? I know I'm wrong. :(

Your plastidip has sparkles?

[aquillen]

Indy - not much snow, but 120 miles North where I am - lake effect snow coming off Lake Michigan can spoil a trip with no warning.

[Mechie3]

Is that how all Indiana's backyards look like? Lots o' space, pond (frogs certainly), quiet... how much for a house around? :) No snow ever ever, right? I know I'm wrong. :(

Your plastidip has sparkles?

I think Indy averages about 12" of snow total in a season. Getting 3" at a time is considered a big deal, lol. I grew up in Rochester and lived in Syracuse, NY for a bit where 3 feet at a time was "well, better give yourself extra time to get to school". Not all the yards are like this, but many are. Land is plentiful here, though the first ring of suburbs are filling up quickly. We bought our house in the middle of the recession and got a smoking deal. Brand new, never lived in, 3600sq ft, 3 car garage, half basement, $255k. It's appraised at around $340k now as similar houses are being built for around that. Taxes are capped at 1%. There's a pair of bald eagles that nest nearby too that I've gotten great photos of and an Osprey that fishes in the pond too. Decently quiet except for when the topfuel drag cars are running 1.3 miles away, lol.


The plastidip has a black undercoat with a blue pearl topcoat.

[flynntuna]

A house like that here in San Diego would sell for nearly a million dollars. One of my rentals, a 2br 2ba condo 850 sq ft is appraised for more than your home is worth . Its no wonder why people are leaving Ca in droves.

[STiPWRD]

Great choice on the color combo and I'm really liking the single piece engine lid! I see you kept the hood pins - any plans to design a hinge for the rear? I'd definitely be interested. Maybe adapt the trunk hinge parts?

[Mechie3]

A house like that here in San Diego would sell for nearly a million dollars. One of my rentals, a 2br 2ba condo 850 sq ft is appraised for more than your home is worth . Its no wonder why people are leaving Ca in droves.

Yep. The company I work for is headquartered in OC, CA and I used to go there a lot. My co workers told me stories of how you can't afford your first house until you're 35 and you'll still have an hour commute one way. I really liked to visit CA, but not sure I'd do well there long term.


Great choice on the color combo and I'm really liking the single piece engine lid! I see you kept the hood pins - any plans to design a hinge for the rear? I'd definitely be interested. Maybe adapt the trunk hinge parts?

A hinge is on the bucket list. For now, I already had holes for the pins and it didn't require more work.

[Mechie3]

Didn't get a ton of work done on the car, but I managed to do a few things in between family events (like backyard camping).
Chuck came by and picked me up in his 818 to go to a Cars and Coffee that was 5 mins from my house. My kids liked sitting in his car. Chuck came and saw my kit in process before getting his and now he's been driving for a year or two. lol. We met up with Aymert who has a fantastic white painted 818. The body on his was lined up really well.

https://i.imgur.com/mejwLKK.png

I did get the other side panel, door, and rear bumper hung so the parts aren't hanging in the garage risking getting banged around. Got the headlight lenses painted too. I got a 1/2" wide 3M 471+ tape. First I made a stripe around the outside, then a second stripe on the inside. The outside part helped me to get a consistent 1/2" spacing for the inner stripe once the outer part was removed. Covered the rest in standard painters tape and sprayed the back side. I haven't pulled the front tape off yet, but from the back it looks good. I used a razor blade to round the edges. Just a light kiss cut to score the tape and not the lense. In the taped up pic, the top one has the outer border removed, the lower one has both layers of tape.
https://i.imgur.com/wBJYXQ0.png
https://i.imgur.com/G7EkQpD.png
https://i.imgur.com/JFFeU92.png

[Mechie3]

Nothing much to report this weekend either. Between a few family activities, two indycar races, and having to watch the kids myself all day Saturday, this is all I got done.

My headlights are some aftermarket 90mm LED projectors. They are not powered directly but have a little electronic module that drives the LED and controls the shield for high/low beam. Here's the problem. The car, as wired with the iwire harness, turns off the low beams when high beams are on. There are 4 wires in the harness (low, hi, two grounds), but the led module only accepts 3 inputs (low, hi, ground). To make it a bit more challenging, I believe subaru uses a switched ground setup, not a switched hot wire setup. Worse case, I can have low beams and wire in high beams through a separate switch. Not like I'll be doing much night driving most likely.

The LED itself is really nice. Bright, nice clean cutoff, and a sweet blue transition line. It doesn't look like it, but it matches the side DRL led's quite nicely. In person they're all a bright white with slight blue, but it's hard to capture that with photos.

https://i.imgur.com/Ik2pxDl.png

Cutoff as seen across the garage:
https://i.imgur.com/BTCq2U1.png

Cutoff as seen 24" away to show color:
https://i.imgur.com/j7DUudg.png

[SnyderJD]

What body prep if any did you do for the plastidip? Which brand did you go with? Im torn between dip and a single stage

[Mechie3]

What body prep if any did you do for the plastidip? Which brand did you go with? Im torn between dip and a single stage

I did a lot of body work on the panels. This was mostly filling in holes, combining the engine cover and trunk and deleting the engine cover scoops. The holes need to be filled no matter what you do (dip, paint, wrap). Other than that, I sanded it to remove high spots (not well enough, didn't use a fine enough grit and it shows in couple places), and then used the predip surface prep stuff that dipyourcar sells. It was DYC brand using their pro dip sprayer.

[Mechie3]

Got ahold of iwire and they already had a fix for the headlights. I just need to repin a connector on the light stalk. Should be pretty straight forward. Also started on my brakes. My original intent was to use factory 06 WRX brakes. Well, turns out the driver front was bad. I'm not surprised. Years ago when I sand blasted it and washed them off I forgot one of the silicone plugs in it overnight. I tried honing it, but I couldn't really do much for the square o-ring groove. After sitting for 3 years, there was a small dried up puddle of brake fluid. Step on the brakes, there was now a not so dry puddle. No big deal, I'll upgrade some day but for now I'll buy a reman. It said "original finish", but it came clear coated bare steel (factory was red). I had ground down all the casting marks and dips on the original calipers and PC'd them red but, whatever. Go to install it. Top bolt, good. Bottom bolt, pop. Try again.... tiiiiiight....pop. Let's switch bolts. Top, tight. Bottom...pop. The caliper is stripped. Oh well. I just happen to have these ATS Brembo's lying around with an adapter too ;) Originally I wanted to try it with OEM brakes to have a comparison but, I'm over it. I bought the adapter kit from BWC. Two things I liked about it: 1, it was only $190 so wasn't really worth my time trying to design my own bracket. 2: Instead of drilling out the knuckle and tapping it (meaning you can never undo the mod) they supply new inserts for the caliper. Press out the old one, press in the new one, done. Using OEM 04 STI front rotors. I pulled all the dust boots, pistons, and seals and ground down the parting lines in the casting mold for a little cleaner profile and dropped them off at the PC this morning.

https://www.bwcfabrications.com/store/p2/Subaru_ATS_Caliper_Bracket_Kit.html#/

https://i.imgur.com/Ks3gJIR.png
https://i.imgur.com/L7t0PvI.png

[Hobby Racer]

Your going to love those ATS Brembos. If you really want a well balanced brake system, run them on the rear as well.

It makes for a fantastic, inexpensive brake system.

[Mechie3]

My wife has said for years, "There's nothing to do in Indiana" and yet, every weekend we have family things we do that prevent me from working on the car so, I'd say she's wrong. lol.

Got the SPA mirrors mounted finally. Nothing too fancy about it, drilled some holes, bolted it on. I was going to make a mount for the rear view mirror as I didn't think the center SPA mirror was worth the $160 they were asking for it. I found an open box one on ebay for $60 and sprung for that instead. It's worth $60 to not spend a couple hours programming and machining a part.
https://i.imgur.com/BHykCHC.png

Got my headlights to work finally too. There was a mod I needed to do to the steering column plug that iWire sent instructions for. After that, I had to add in a relay. The hellas use two separate plugs for low and high beams. My LED lights use a shared ground, 12V to the low beams, and then a signal wire for the shutter that actually pulls the 12V from the low beam side. Problem was, the four wires on my harness couldn't do that. No combination was able to create a separate low beam and a 0V to 12V switch as the two ground wires weren't common ground. I ended up using the high beam to drive a relay and simply pass through the 12V on the low beam side through the relay into the signal wire. The little box got quite warm, but I guess that's not too surprising. I'm glad I bought all these test wires. Makes it easy to hook things up to check without wasting time and crimps or fighting poorly twisted wires together.
https://i.imgur.com/rte525T.png

I got this battery charger on amazon. It has the nice feature of being able to act as a 10A 12V power supply. Hooked it up to the car to make trouble shooting easy as the battery kept dying on me before and the relays didn't have enough power to turn on.
https://i.imgur.com/ONJqLSi.png

[Mechie3]

Finished up the headlight wiring last night. Switched all the temporary alligator clip leads over to crimped and shrink tubed connections. In hindsight, I could have cut the high beam leads down to a 3" pig tail instead of leaving it full length just to have it terminate at a relay. Oh well. The black box is the LED driver module. I wish it had more than a 3" pigtail (plus a 3" one on the light side) for more mounting options. Needed to add an adapter plug in the middle. The blue crimps are water tight so I didn't have to add more shrink over the top.

https://i.imgur.com/EykxaAD.png
https://i.imgur.com/bHzibqP.png

[Mechie3]

Fixed a couple electrical issues last night. AWIC pump wasn't turning on when it should, but turned on when I pressed the engine start button. Followed a phone pic of my hand written diagram (since I lost the actual one) and I had switched the signal wires for the starter and the awic relays. Easy fix. Gauges weren't turning on either. I had missed getting the switched power line from the on/off switch to the gauge distribution block (this lets me turn the gauges off if they're being bothersome). The center mirror showed up several days early. It was worth the $60. Still don't think it's worth $180, or whatever it is they're charging. It's nice it matches the side mirrors and it saved a bunch of time. The post is oval shaped for better aero/stiffness which was a nice touch, but the base is a bit lackluster. I supposed it's lightweight, inexpensive (to manufacture) and functional. For now I'll just bolt it on. Later I'll machine a nice aluminum cover for it since it sits in the open on the dash and I'd like for it to make a better impression. lol.

https://i.imgur.com/xYcN3Ti.png
https://i.imgur.com/CG4SkQS.png

[DSR-3]

After living with the "free" rearview mirror option for few thousand miles, I'll have to look into that $180 option because it may just be worth it... Thanks for posting.

[Mechie3]

After living with the "free" rearview mirror option for few thousand miles, I'll have to look into that $180 option because it may just be worth it... Thanks for posting.

This is the one I got https://www.spatechnique.com/store/itemDetail.cfm?prodID=797&catID=7

[Mechie3]

Got my ATS brembos back from the powdercoater. One layer of superchrome followed by two layers of lollipop.

In the shade (DSLR):
https://i.imgur.com/k2WCDO6.png

In the sun (DSLR):
https://i.imgur.com/TAPNpc2.png
https://i.imgur.com/3eA0eVY.png

In the sun with a cellphone:
https://i.imgur.com/FmD7Vpb.png

[DSR-3]

Big and sexy!

[Jetfuel]

That looks fantastic...was that a local powder coat shop?

Jet

[Mechie3]

That looks fantastic...was that a local powder coat shop?

Jet

Random guy in Whitestown. He works for Cosworth doing telemetry stuff. He has a small shop behind his house with a sandblaster, spray booth, and an oven. Found him in the facebook classifieds.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/3206637312791145

[Jetfuel]

Thanks...I’ll check him out for sure

Jet

[aquillen]

You two know, if it will fit in my garage - kitchen oven, bring it up here and DIY in an hour. You blast, you powder, you kook and go.

[Mechie3]

You two know, if it will fit in my garage - kitchen oven, bring it up here and DIY in an hour. You blast, you powder, you kook and go.

Thanks for the offer. I'll keep it in mind for future stuff. For now, it was partly a matter of equipment, mostly a matter of no time.

[Mechie3]

Well, I wish I had a better update. I took some of my larger parts to a real powder coating shop (ie, not a guy who does them at his home shop) because they wouldn't fit in a standard sized oven. Right now I really need the front fender support wings. I'm waiting on those so I can actually move forward on the car.



Sep 8th: When do you need these? "I don't want to give you a ridiculous request, what's reasonable?" I can have it done in 3-4 days. "ok, cool, but a week or two at most would be fine" yeah, I can have it done by the weekend.

Sep 17th: "just checking in since I have tomorrow off" silence...

Friday the 25th. I'll have your parts done Monday afternoon. "ok, thanks, let me know when they're done so I can pick them up".

Oct 1: Sorry, I've been appt only, sorry if you tried stopping by, le tme know when you'll be by and I'll make sure I'm there.

Oct 2: I call and set an appt for noon. I get there at 12:02 thinking I'm late. He shows up at 1. hey, I'm not done with your parts, I brought this guy by (motions to his friend) to help me out since I'm backed up. Can you come by in a couple hours? "I'll come by after dinner" ok, I'll be here until midnight. Go back at 7pm. Walk in the door, a bunch of his buddies are at the table smoking and eating, he's at a sand blaster. Guy asks if he can help me and goes and gets the owner. Hey, sorry man, I don't have them done yet, can you come by tomorrow morning at 9am?

Oct 3: I show up at 9:05. His truck is there, door is locked. No one answers the phone, messages, or knocks on the door. Backdoor is shut. I stick around for a little bit and try again. Call and leave a VM saying I'll be back after lunch. Go back after lunch, rinse, repeat.

I sent him another text saying I don't really care if he can't finish them. Supposedly they're already sand blasted so I said I'd pay him for whatever he's already gotten done, I just need them back so I can move on with my build and not sit on my *** for another 3 weeks.

-_-

[Frank818]

Not cool.

[aquillen]

Brings back unpleasant memories of stuff like that. Hoping you get past him real soon either way.

[Mechie3]

Yeah, I'll be glad to be done and over with. His entire shop (and him, shirt, tattoos, etc) are covered in Hell's angels logos. He seemed to have a bunch of motorcycle parts in process so either he really is backed up or he'd rather just hang out with his friends/do his friends work. Being late doesn't bother me as much as the constant bait and switch and lack of communication.

edit: Reminds me of one of the first machine shops I worked with when starting the biz. At least now I'm not dumb enough to pay 50% up front like that shop had requested. It's just disappointing that people running a business don't have enough sense to be honest and open and are trying to hustle people. I wish people put some pride into their work and business. Funny side story, I made a bunch of inlet restrictors for the F600 crowd. The inlets can't be more than 28mm dia. Go over, and you get disqualified. Go under, and you lose power. I made 56 of them all with .0004" of each other, and all .0002" under 28mm. They went to the guy who asked for them (he was reselling them, I was just a contract mfg who happens to also own an F500/600). He said his customers came back to him and said "these things are all spot on. We took our old ones and sent them back to the mfg and asked for a refund". I asked how the other ones were. They were all +/- .030". They said "we can tell someone cared about these and their work, we want to buy some more". :D That put a smile on my face.

[Mechie3]

I did finally get my calipers mounted up. They fill the wheel quite nicely.

OEM 06 WRX 4 pots:
https://i.imgur.com/Og1pbpQ.png

ATS Brembos:
https://i.imgur.com/UKkimYj.png
https://i.imgur.com/F6cTZ4W.png

[Frank818]

The rears are slotted but not the fronts?

Those 6-pots look really nice, didn't know OEM had 6-pots!

[grabera7]

The rears are slotted but not the fronts?

Those 6-pots look really nice, didn't know OEM had 6-pots!

My 2020 STI is factory with 6 pots. I think he meant 4 pots on those WRX calipers.

[Mechie3]

The rears are slotted but not the fronts?

Those 6-pots look really nice, didn't know OEM had 6-pots!

I mean 4 pot. My mind got stuck on the number 6. Both are shots of the front. One is a before (the 4 pot) the other is the after (the larger 4 pot brembos). The slotted ones are DBA 2 piece rotors that I used to have. They got swapped out for plain old STI rotors. Can't really justify $400 rotors at this point to get 2 piece STI rotors.

[Mechie3]

Powder coater called me last night and (allegedly) has the parts done. This is the first time he's called me without me calling him first so, maybe?

Either way, I figured if I didn't really have a ton of other stuff to do, I might as well work on some ideas I've had in my head for a good 5 years or more. I swapped out the multifaceted LEDs in the headlights with some eagle eye ones. The multifaceted ones just looked a bit chintzy to me. However, the eagle eye ones are only forward facing and it's hard to see the blinkers from the side. Insert the side scuttle. It would have been easy enough to just stick another eagle eye LED right on the fender, but that just wasn't me. I'm not sure what the final colors will be. Gold anodize would match my wheels well and then machining off the 818 after or filling it with black paint. Maybe just leaving it aluminum and then filling it with black paint, but that might look a bit unfinished. I originally intended for the LED to be on the leading edge, but of course I machined a driver side version and only have the passenger fender partially on. lol. It doesn't look bad in reverse, but would look better if the angle was cut to match the round of the wheel well.

https://i.imgur.com/mehLmDA.png

Driver side emblem on the passenger side:
https://i.imgur.com/wrHxsR1.png

Amazingly clear and focused photo of the driver side emblem held up next to a driver side fender hanging from the garage door track.
https://i.imgur.com/Jsb6p52.png

[Ajzride]

Matching the curvature of the wheel well would probably be determined by how low on the fender you mount it. If it is high enough no need to match the curve, but if you are getting close to the flare, then you would want to match it. Like you have it held in the picture, I don't think it needs to be curved.

[Jetfuel]

That looks cool
Match the piece to the fender line...you got the tool ...heck you got tools to fix tools

Jet

[Mechie3]

I plan to mount it with the LED on the front, so the wing points towards the back of the car so I won't need to make it match. It was more of an interesting thought I had if I did decide to turn it around.

[AZPete]

Embedded flush?

[aquillen]

Definitely want it curved to flow with the fender. Also I think fill the lettering with a background color then mill off the top surface. That way lettering "pops".

[Jetfuel]

Light forward...818 ...slant to the door
It will match awesome

Jet

[Mechie3]

Embedded flush?

No. It'll mount to the outside of the fender.


Definitely want it curved to flow with the fender. Also I think fill the lettering with a background color then mill off the top surface. That way lettering "pops".
That's the long term plan. This was proof of concept. I went into the office today and found an 18x18 black anodized plate in the scrap bin so that'll be proof of concept 2.





Light forward...818 ...slant to the door
It will match awesome

Jet

Right now it's slanted to be parallel with the wing trailing the last 8.

[Mechie3]

Picked up my powdercoat parts! Immediately went and installed the hood louvers to see how they came out. It's a flat black metallic. It looks good against the blue.

https://i.imgur.com/u6HKHrI.png

[ben1272]

They look nice. I was just looking at my stock mesh inserts the other day, thinking they needed to be different....

[Mechie3]

worked on my 818 a few times this past week. Nothing terribly exciting. Got the fenders and fender supports put back on. Mounted the ballast for the LED lights. Originally I was able to share a screw for the fenderwell sheet metal that tied into the front radiator support bar. Then I went to install the front fender well piece (which didn't fit well anyways...) and it was right in the middle of the ballast. I moved the ballast forward and now it's mounted only to sheet metal. It's lightweight so shouldn't be a problem, I just liked having it mounted to something solid. Got all of the rest of the fender well sheet metal in place and secured with rivnuts and screws. Several pieces required massaging because the bends didn't line up with the other parts.

Finger = original location
https://i.imgur.com/Hw3LNvy.png

I didn't like how floppy the headlight mounting flange was on the buckets. It has three heat staked parts, but they're all on one half. The bottom half was unsupported and flexed a good 1/8" just by turning it over. I made a simple L bracket with a bunch of holes in for the epoxy to get a mechanical bond along with the chemical bond. Used some 5 min epoxy to stiffen up the buckets. Also put some epoxy around the rivet nuts I had in the bucket. One popped out when a screw started to cross thread. I heat staked it back into place before adding epoxy. It's an L because the small part the headlamp actually attaches to has less surface area for bonding. The L gives it more area to hold.

https://i.imgur.com/ygupsFZ.png

https://i.imgur.com/bDiRfk4.png

[Mechie3]

Did a little more last night. The steel brackets designed for the front fender support and front hood pins never quite fit under the fender (about 1/4" too tall even at its lowest setting), and I didn't need the front hood pin mount. I had these 1/8" aluminum plates that were just about the perfect width to fit in where the steel bracket used to be. I didn't want to waste time measuring, making a CAD model, and machining to match the profile perfectly, so I used the CNC like a manual mill and just make square edges. Cut out a tab, bent it at an angle. Perfect! Used a flat head 10-32 to secure it. It's quite a bit lighter than the steel piece and actually fits. lol.

https://i.imgur.com/TDkiCko.png
https://i.imgur.com/gHmM43Z.png

Mounted my headlights and got everything wire up. Having them screw in has been nice for the multiple test fits I've had to do, but I'm not sure I'd do it again. The rivnuts don't quite fit on the flange and even with them epoxied in, one broke free last night. It's a little useless too as it will get siliconed over and the screws inaccessible with the clear lense on. Bill's method of hanging screws with weights so they all faced the same direction and function as studs is much better, but also a lot more time consuming (and I already had the rivet nuts in place). Whatever. I can already tell I'm still not a fan of the overall headlight implementation. One of my DRL's isn't lighting up. Not sure why as it lit up before. Glad I caught it before I siliconed anything in place. I still have to cut off the connector, remove the LED, get another one and either solder on the pigtail or get more pins to crimp on. I just imagine these dying after a while and needing to cut silicone to get to it and what could be a 5 minute bulb change is a multi hour clean up and silicone job.

https://i.imgur.com/qYXaF7J.png
https://i.imgur.com/gQ216FV.png

[Mechie3]

Ugh......

Tonight was one of those nights that makes me remember why I took a three year break. I hardly ever swear but there were plenty choice words flying tonight.

Body fit perfect before plastidip. Lots of cutting, trimming, glassing, filling, retrimming, sanding, refilling, glassing, cutting..... you get it. Hood had great clearance, didn't rub, opened and closed smoothly. Took it all apart. Put the hardware in bins labeled with where it came from. Everything is back on, just need the hood. Hood pins haven't moved, hood hinge hasn't moved. Both are fixed to the chassis and quite rigid. I can see where I mounted the hood before from the washer marks on the bracket. Should be a quick 10 min job right? 2 hours later it still doesn't fit. Somehow the entire front end has shifted. I even undid the entire hood hinge bracket at the adjustment points, removed the rear hood pins, centered everything. Tightened the brackets, it was still centered. As soon as it opens it goes "pop" and it's a good 1/4" overhang on the passenger fender. The holes for the fender to the mounting points are plentiful and close tolerance, so there really isn't any adjustment to be had there. Still, I loosened the mounting screws and tried to shove everything over. It won't budge. Right... this is why I took three years off before. Every single 10 minute job became a 2 hour ordeal. Hood still doesn't fit.

[Jetfuel]

Go to bed...tomorrow is another day and everything will fall into place

Jet

[Mechie3]

Nope. Checked this morning. It's still off. HA!

I went and machined out the slots in the bracket to give it lots of extra adjustment, but it still interferes. I'm going to unbolt the entire front end and see what I can get done. I even double checked this morning that I had things in the right holes. Only thing I can think of is that it was first assembled under stress and when it was disassembled it relieved and by not assembling it in exactly the same way, it's not lining up. That doesn't speak much for the robustness of the setup. Things should be able to be unbolted and reassembled easily, imo. The odd part is, especially on the front, the fenders bolt to the center insert across multiple planes, so there isn't really multiple ways for it to attach. The top screw pulls everything down and the side screws pull everything in. Unbolting those and redoing that shouldn't really affect anything.

[Mechie3]

It was nice out today and my scheduled work for my day job was done so I decided to make up for working half the day when I took PTO. Spent another 3+ hours on the hood. It still drags, but at least it doesn't pop over. It rubs on the front edges. I measured and there's only 1/8" clearance total, divide by two, add some flex... you're gonna rub. I decided to be a little proactive (maybe too proactive?) and cut off a little square of plastidip where it was starting to fray. Put some clear packing tape over the rubbing spot on the fender and the hood. Now when it rubs it won't cause a peel that propagates and it's just plastic tape on plastic tape rubbing. It's pretty unnoticeable until you get too close and see some white peeking through. Whatever. 6+ hours later and I kinda stopped caring, though disappointed the plastidip job isn't perfect anymore.


Meh. lol

[Jetfuel]

Still off...that made me laugh
Do you have a hood support fwd of the windshield and aft of the louvers?? The hood will bow downward if not supported there and push the side edges outward.
It needs that center push up support to prevent flutter at speed too.


Jet

[aquillen]

Yah - fit. I never mentioned it after I was down at Jet's shop and painted my body parts, but when I put it back together the entire front didn't seem to fit anymore (and I have that clamshell with a lot less stuff to adjust). I thought for sure it was the oven bake cycle to the paint that must have altered the cowl. In my case at least, just loosening everything from bow to stern and fiddling around for a day and it ended up as it was when it all fit before the paint. Reading other threads this has been described more than a couple times. I think you just have to keep at it and at some point the fiberglass finds its way back to what you once had. I'd say don't give up. Now, paint staying perfect? hah - mine already shows dings and rock chips and I've only managed 1100 miles in the month since I got plates on it.

[Mechie3]

I undid the whole front end and ended up making two holes into slots to pull one part further out and making a new hole in another place. Seems like having them uninstalled for a month or two made them warp.

I do (did, need to reinstall it/make it better) have a center hood support. My contact with the fenders occurs before I even get to that point. The front rubs while the back is still a good 6"+ off the fenders.

[Mechie3]

Got my center hood support updated from a rough hand cut sheet metal prototype to a fancy smancy machined bracket. It has a red rubber stopper on top that provides cushion and is nice and bright so you don't whack your face on it if you lean over to do something down low. lol. Of course, I needed 2" screws to attach it and I have every size 1/4-20 up to 1.75 and then 2.25, but no 2". Doh! Forgive the odd looking mounting screws for now.

https://i.imgur.com/r3s4iKd.png
https://i.imgur.com/MfNIBf2.png
https://i.imgur.com/acIIhp7.png
https://i.imgur.com/jcg5ufa.png

I also installed some no name amazon aerocatches. They were $27. I like the clean look better than the FFR hood pins and installation was pretty straight forward.
https://i.imgur.com/Ezg9wSm.png
https://i.imgur.com/UZAoCGG.png

[Hobby Racer]

Of course, I needed 2" screws to attach it and I have every size 1/4-20 up to 1.75 and then 2.25, but no 2". Doh! Forgive the odd looking mounting screws for now.


Story of my life. I could purchase an entire hardware store and somehow in the middle of any given project I am always missing the right size bolt!

Looks great :)

[AZPete]

Everything you make is art, even a lowly hood brace.

[Mechie3]

Lol, thanks guys. I probably shouldn't say how much time I spend designing that part, making the fixture (twice, because I messed up the first one), and actually making the part.

[Quiny]

I need something like that for the back hump piece. it could really use some center support

[Mechie3]

I'll have to take a look at that.

One thing I did learn last night, reciprocating air saws do a good job of cutting plastidip. Drill bits tend to just twist it and pull it up. The saw cleanly cuts it.

[Mechie3]

Cut some holes in the fenders and installed my fender vents. Powder coater forgot to mask off the studs on one side so I had to run my die over them. That PC sticks pretty well!

https://i.imgur.com/zEOnXhF.png
https://i.imgur.com/coHseJt.png

[Mechie3]

Someone said I should submit my car for the calendar. Knowing the car can't move under it's own power to get to a cool location, I spent about 8+ hours cleaning out the garage. Also installed a few more parts. Got my rear mesh panels in place, the engine cover vents, and the trunk vent in place. I'm really happy with how the lights look. I might make a new mount for the backside. The current sheet metal design is functional and not half bad looking, but not what I'm going for. I won't share the pics I took with a real camera until I find out what (if any) will be used for the calendar.

https://i.imgur.com/RnuHeqP.png

[aquillen]

If you're still taking visitors, I'm of a mind to come down soon and see that in person. In my 818C. I'm finding it does very well in cold weather, at least with what we've had down to 40 so far.

[Mechie3]

If you're still taking visitors, I'm of a mind to come down soon and see that in person. In my 818C. I'm finding it does very well in cold weather, at least with what we've had down to 40 so far.

Sure. I'm going into the office tomorrow, but should be home this weekend and working from home most days next week. The big garage door is currently broken (spring popped this week) and it weighs 300lbs! I'm having a high lift kit put in sometime early next week.


I saw the calendar photos and this wasn't one of them so I can share this one.
https://i.imgur.com/ber70S2.png

[AZPete]

That garage pic with all the artwork and tool boxes should be in the calendar! Beautiful.

[Jetfuel]

What Pete said...

jet

[roadrashrob]

When was the last time your garage was that clean?? If only they'd stay that way. Looks great!

[Mechie3]

That garage pic with all the artwork and tool boxes should be in the calendar! Beautiful.

I took several photos and sent them in. This was one that was not chosen. You'll have to wait to see the others. :D


When was the last time your garage was that clean?? If only they'd stay that way. Looks great!

7 years ago right before the kit was dropped off. lol.

[Jetfuel]

OK...take a pic from the car to the other wall...we want to see how high the pile is ...lol

Jet

[Mechie3]

OK...take a pic from the car to the other wall...we want to see how high the pile is ...lol

Jet

uhhh......

It was pretty bad. I did throw away a LOT of stuff, but I had to pile all the kids toys, move a work bench, took a shelf off the wall so the pic would look better. Plus, there's a CNC, lathe, compressor, welder, and a saw already crammed on the other side. lol

[FFRWRX]

uhhh......

It was pretty bad. I did throw away a LOT of stuff, but I had to pile all the kids toys, move a work bench, took a shelf off the wall so the pic would look better. Plus, there's a CNC, lathe, compressor, welder, and a saw already crammed on the other side. lol

OK, now I don't feel quite so bad about my garage. Of course I still don't think I could move enough stuff around to get a nice clean picture like that! Beautiful car and picture.

[Mechie3]

All right... who wanted to see the other side? It was actually worse than this because I already put my kids bikes and one workbench back up against the wall with the flags. Side note, FFRWRX, is that a Tesla Roadster (the original one) in your avatar?


https://i.imgur.com/2SDoIP1.png

[Jetfuel]

Thank you so much for being a great host today for Art and I as we crashed your garage to look at yout project....we had a great time sharing ideas and hope we gave you that extra push to get it done....it was fun.
Thanks

Jet

Ps...naaaah...it's not that bad...we saw it today...you don't want to see mine...

[aquillen]

And hoping that little spin in my buggy will get you pumped to get on the road. I still don't know how you'll get away with straight pipe on any roads around here...:confused:

[Mechie3]

Yeah, now that I haven't been able to drive this OR my F600 in a while I really want to get it done. We'll see how that straight pipe does. lol.

Now that you've all seen the clean garage, the hidden dirty side... how about the front yard on Saturday?
https://i.imgur.com/czFXfyO.png

[FFRWRX]

..Side note, FFRWRX, is that a Tesla Roadster (the original one) in your avatar?


Good eye there! Most people, even having a close look at it, think it's a Lotus. Of course they are pretty rare anywhere and very rare in Canada. But I just sold it so I'll have to update my avatar.

Rick

[FFRWRX]

Now that you've all seen the clean garage, the hidden dirty side... how about the front yard on Saturday?


Don't feel quite so bad about my garage now. That is a really nice picture. Great comparison of the 2 versions.

[Mechie3]

Don't feel quite so bad about my garage now. That is a really nice picture. Great comparison of the 2 versions.

Yeah, that garage pic, like many things in life I've found, are shams. lol. It's like one of those clickbait articles "top tourist attractions that are a waste of time", or that photo of the great pyramids taken through the door of a KFC. You think they're in the middle of nowhere, and yet there's a KFC. lol. Same with the garage, it CAN be made to look nice, but it's not realistic.

[Mechie3]

Not a car update, but I had my garage door fixed today... and upgraded! The spring broke 2 weekends ago. I figured I might as well upgrade and not pay for two springs and labor twice. Priced out a high lift kit and it was about $440 for parts. A local guy quoted me $530 for parts AND labor. Boom..done. Plus, I don't need to worry about dying when a spring lets go and a 1/2" rod whacks my skull. I gained about 36" of additional overhead room with the door and got a side mounted opener to eliminate the track and opener in the middle (which cost extra). It's pretty awesome with the door open having a full 14' of headroom in most of the garage instead of a door than limits the ceiling artificially to 9' when open.

Previous opening spot:
https://i.imgur.com/1DHpSmV.png

Current opening spot:
https://i.imgur.com/TuWn3HB.png

Good comparison of the original vs new height (single bay door wasn't raised, just the double):
https://i.imgur.com/vtNxcHh.png

You can see here the opener in the far corner and the difference in shaft/spring heights:
https://i.imgur.com/qeoBAz5.png

Opener came with a powered lock too which is pretty cool:
https://i.imgur.com/5U3lGFp.png

[Hobby Racer]

I switched to those jack shaft style openers and I love them. So quiet and smooth!

[FFRWRX]

Plus, I don't need to worry about dying when a spring lets go and a 1/2" rod whacks my skull.

Not sure what you mean by that. Don't both of those opener systems use the same sort of spring arrangement? I did a similar thing with my door by modifying the tracks and moving the opener up into a cutout in the roof of the garage to move it up higher, still keeping the chain drive system. One garage door supply place wouldn't sell me new springs because he said it was too dangerous to do them yourself. I bought them from another place that basically said they can kill you if you don't know what you are doing, but I'll assume you do.

[Mechie3]

I meant, that because it wasn't that much more expensive to pay someone to do it, so I did, I didn't have to worry about winding springs and dying. lol. If I did do a total DIY I was going to wear my helmet.

[Rob T]

When we built our house and shop last year, our builder suggested those openers. All the tracks are right up next to the ceiling and no center motor, etc. As Mechie mentioned, the deadbolts are an extra perk.

[Mechie3]

Got around to making a few parts I designed almost a month ago now. Driver and passenger sidemarkers and a mirror mount. The SPA mirror mount is very functional, and looks very bland. Steel triangle, three through holes. This hides all the hardware and makes it fancy. The pocket underneath is slightly shallower than the mount thickness so that when I bolt up into the aluminum it will clamp down on the steel mount. With the R windshield, this will be quite visible. Going to paint the wings on all of these parts.

https://i.imgur.com/PXgp8Wa.png

https://i.imgur.com/9sD1gKv.png

https://i.imgur.com/PPbh3bQ.png

https://i.imgur.com/qHDuVT9.png

https://i.imgur.com/e7WYlZk.png

[Mechie3]

Haven't done much to the car (err...anything?). Made some Xmas ornaments for friends on the CNC and...oh, yeah. I got a lift and assembled it. It's a bit challenging to assemble a lift by yourself in a single bay, but it can be done! After I do some repairs and maintenance on the Mini and my A3 I'll move the 818 out, move the lift over, and the 818 on the lift. It'll make finishing up the underbody stuff so much easier. I have enough headroom to be able to put the lift up high enough with the mini on it and almost be able to walk underneath without ducking (I'm a little over 6' tall).

https://i.imgur.com/StEhtPj.png

[Mechie3]

Had to do some maintenance on two of the DD's at the house (leaking transmission oil cooler on Mini, DSG oil change on Audi). Then I pushed the 818 out of the garage. It was an overcast day but it still looked fantastic (IMO, lol) even though it was dusty. The lift has caster adapters so it can move. I pushed it to the side, rigged up a winch to a 4x4 which I strapped to the uprights so it wouldn't shift. My power supply couldn't quite get enough current for the winch to haul it back up the driveway so I had to put a breaker bar on a lug nut to give it a little assistance. I got it on and then lifted it up AAAAAAAALLLLL the way. There's a couple inches of clearance with the flange on the garage door. If I backed it in I'd have more room. In this position I have about 8 inches of clearance between my head and the bottom of the lift. The best part? I have tons of room to move things around, I can finish up the bottom of the car quite easily, and my wife can park the van in the garage those 2 weeks a year we get super cold weather.

https://i.imgur.com/dWgRLjp.png
https://i.imgur.com/vvcukvd.png
https://i.imgur.com/qmZqBgF.png
https://i.imgur.com/xbSq6eh.png
https://i.imgur.com/ZPBRP6E.png
https://i.imgur.com/tWfU8Yq.png

[Hobby Racer]

Lifts are the bomb! BEST tool I ever bought.

[Ajzride]

Lifts are the bomb! BEST tool I ever bought.

I'm so sad I have a 8' ceiling.

[aquillen]

Lucky!

[Mechie3]

I'm so sad I have a 8' ceiling.

A lot of homes (most really) in my neighborhood are built with the garage in the house (if that makes sense). Ours stands in front of the house. It came with added benefits of more living space, a round floor plan (vs an L shaped plan with dead ends), no bedrooms above the garage which means less noise to wake kids and the ability to have 12 foot ceilings. I didn't build the house, but whoever did had me in mind. lol.

I'm hoping this makes some of the upcoming tasks a bit easier like, finishing the underbody, rear diffuser, etc.

[Mechie3]

Almost 4 years later.... Hi! :D

I've decided to sell this. Details can be found here. I'll make a FS thread in a bit.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KQHmOxbMVLa54_mwlJVTqL-QbwIUoBkV

[Shawn818c]

Almost 4 years later.... Hi! :D

I've decided to sell this. Details can be found here. I'll make a FS thread in a bit.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KQHmOxbMVLa54_mwlJVTqL-QbwIUoBkV

The end of an era.

[longislandwrx]

wow no way. I just lurked on as I'm finally about to bring my 818 back to my garage. Sad to see you selling... I wonder how many of the first 50 still own their cars.

is the FFR registry still a thing?

[driveslikejehu]

I wonder how many of the first 50 still own their cars.

is the FFR registry still a thing?
I thought to refine, reenergize the register, but with lack of skills and with waning interest in 818s, I didn't pursue it. While I'm enjoying the "final" stages of my build and driving the car, I'm bummed that 818s seems a dying thing. Lots of folks selling, with a few?/a lot? still driving tracking and racing. Though prices are falling, that means there is still a market and folks are getting pretty interesting cars for good prices.
I see more activity on the FB groups than forum. Maybe that's the place to grow the 818 "second wife club" so to speak.
Sorry for the "old man story time," only one cup of coffee so far...
But I'm interested in keeping the flame alive.