Nice!
Nice!
Mostly just been working on my truck recently which isn't worth its own thread but Forscan is pretty neat, I feel like a hacker. Disabled the blinky TPMS light, and am going to enable the OEM brake controller and cruise control once I install the new wheel and button module. Also, people really understate how hard it is to get the water pump off a ford 4.6. Everyone says its a couple of taps with a hammer, but it took about 45 minutes smacking it and spraying it with penetrating fluid, and then hammering a wedge behind it before it popped out.
Finally sold the chassis from my parts car so I now actually have room to work in the garage. Excited to get some momentum back on this. On a different note, I've got a bunch or stuck on headliner foam and some jute backing from the old carpet stuck on with glue. any recommendations of chemicals to remove it without damaging the fiberglass? already got as much of it as i could with wire brushes and scraping with razors.
Installed the steering wheel on my f150 and they LEDS are lit up. Gonna have to take it to the dealer to get cruise control enabled apparently that's one thing forscan can't do on this model year. 
before
after
Did manage to install the OEM 7 pin connector and brake controller and enable it in forscan.
now all that's left is to figure out if the CEL is actually a bad cat or if it's just caused by the classic f150 cracked manifold. Plus maybe do a simple vinyl martini livery just for fun
Working on fiberglass. The previous owner cut some pieces of the engine compartment in order to fit the different coil over mounting point of the Spyder chassis. Took some molds off my dads twin cam to repair it.
used foil tape behind the mold. Got that tip from a classic Motorsports video.
finished product
fits well, trying to decide if I'll actually use it as a mold or just use it as the part itself and glass it in
got the original gas tanks out, kind of a pain. Going from these to a single, larger, aluminum cell will save about 15 pounds or so. They're in much better condition than most of the Europa tanks, as they tended to rust on top, due to the lip and flat top. I'm gonna give them to my dad to replace his.
Modified the original dash and skinned it with carbon fiber. Still needs a clear coat. Haven't decided where the main gauge cluster is going so I haven't cut the hole yet. My first time ever working with carbon
Nice! The dash in mine looks awful! Curious to see how yours turns out!
yeah i decided to do this because my dash had the veneer flake off (like all of the europas) and i figured if I was gonna work on it anyway I should make it a bit custom
got a run I need to fix but turned out decent so far
fixed the run, buffed it, and stuck the gauges in to see how it looks. There will also be the gsxr dash behind the wheel, and a bunch of switches in the middle
Looks good!
What brand are the gauges?
In reply to TurboFource :
They're jegs retro muscle. They were on clearance for a good deal, and they didn't have a huge jegs logo like the other ones did
got around to starting the fiberglass in the engine bay. Used spray adhesive to hold the first layer of glass on base on a tip from a boatbuilding YouTube channel. Made it a lot easier on the upside down portions (trimmed it back a bit after this pic, hard to see but everything behind the patch is actually sanded down to bare fiberglass)
used chip clips to hold the glass to the mold so it didn't fall while curing. took them off halfway through one it was semi firm, so they didn't stick too much.
Turned out decent, will need additional shaping and a free more layers of glass. Not going for concours, just want to regain the structural rigidity lost due to the previous owners hack job. Already feels less floppy in the rear. So I'm happy
Also, I'm really liking working with the various composites. I'm thinking I'm gonna get a vacuum bagging set up and make a Kevlar sports car nose for my F600
Also, chassis should hopefully arrive beginning of next month, and I need to burn a lot of PTO in December. So I'm tentatively saying it'll be at least drivable if not finished by new years
Been super busy with work lately so I haven't managed to get much done
however, I have decided on a solution for forward and reverse selection, I'm going to do something like this mounted in the dash, to keep it away from the shift lever
Nice job; keep up the good work! Composites can be fun, other than the fumes and the dust...and the itching...but rewarding when it works well. I'm still enjoying following your progress.
I was thinking, with how easy it is to remove the body from a europa plus the pretty decent suspension and steering, seems like the perfect base for any sort of fiberglass kit car. I guess the issue is availability vs a beetle. But i can imagine a europa based GT40 type car would work very well, plus it makes sense when you consider the history of the europa and GT40
In reply to gixxeropa :
Yes, the body removes easily, but I don't think it would be a good basis for a kit car. They are rare, expensive, have no floor pan or rockers/ sills (which makes lots of fabrication and safety issues), most of the chassis, drivetrain, and suspension are all made of unobtainium.
Most VW based kit cars can be assembled with zero welding, the core car and parts are plentiful and cheap, and they have strong after market support.
If I was writing a business plan for a company that manufactured kit cars, I sure wouldn't choose the Europa.
In reply to SV reX :
Valid points. I wouldn't exactly call them expensive, though. Plus a lot of parts are either Renault or triumph, the hard to get stuff is mostly aesthetic parts
In reply to gixxeropa :
All the stuff that would be used for a kit car is the same stuff you have abandoned and replaced for this build. Chassis, suspension, engine, trans, etc.
Just saying... 
In reply to SV reX :
honestly the stock stuff is all fine, especially with the twin cam engine, this build is just mostly a tale of scope creep that i have done nothing to curtail lol.
this is a new one for me, I finally got the correct document requested from the probate court and got my car registered. Then a few days later I noticed that although the address was correct, the receipt for the registration had a name i didn't recognize, and so did the title when I received it. I took it in to the tag office and they were just as confused as i was. I was able to get it corrected, but It took a total of 3 trips to the tag office, which is very inconvenient when you're employed. the person at the tag office's theory was that they typed in the wrong drivers license number on the original title application, saw it had the wrong address on file and then changed the address in their system, because they thought it wasn't updated, since i moved recently. This then caused my title to have that person's name on it but the correct address, and then that person then had their legal address changed to mine without their knowledge. Hopefully all this is resolved now, but this whole process has been a comedy of errors.
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