Spent some time in the garage this morning and have the pass side inner door panel mostly trimmed to fit around the door bars. Need to install the door bar verticals before finalizing the door panel fit.
Spent some time in the garage this morning and have the pass side inner door panel mostly trimmed to fit around the door bars. Need to install the door bar verticals before finalizing the door panel fit.
Picked up a set of Toyo R1Rs from a local guy that should work as "Rains" on track.
Removed the Halo headlights that came with the car as they did not seem to fit the bumper cover very well- they seem to be for a 94-97 front bumper when I have a 98.
Cleaned the headlights up with headlight cleaner and then installed the yellow Laminx film:
Also started to install the vertial bars between the passenger side door bars in the cage. Went much easier with the tubing notcher I was able to borrow from a guy at work- thanks Ryan!!
Bar one is in....
Bar two is installed...
Spent a couple minutes in the garage tonight- removed the front brake rotor splash shields. Pretty quick work with a small vice grips to loosen the bolts and then cut out just enough of the spash shield to remove it from the hub. I want to be able to possibly reuse these in the future if I can design up a way for the brake duct outlets to be integrated into them somehow...
Calipers appear to be in great shape- still have some of the yellow zinc coating on them and the bolts are still very rust free...
It is sooo nice to work on rust free cars....
Installed the window net the other day. The kit I used on my old CRX worked so well I picked up the same kit and a net from IO Port. I used their telescoping upper mount.
Started out by welded the release handle to the rod...
Could not make their mounting tab work in the rear so grabbed a short chunk of tubing from the locost pile'o'parts and used that for the rear mount.
Was able to use their mounting bracket for the front mount.
Looks pretty good- everything is fully welded now.
Then I cut the upper door bar out so I can straighten it just a bit so I don't have to trim the inner steel door panel- I want to retain the window for now..
When we welded the A-pillar tube to the floor, we forgot to put the wiring harness to the outside of the tube.
I could not find an easy way to unplug things at the front so ended up disconnecting the rear wiring from the taillights and everything. Pulled the wiring up to the front and around the tube and then reinstalled it. Much better...
Then finished bleeding the brakes with the help of my junior fabricator..
Put the car back on the ground and I think I need to raise the car some. The lower of the front jack point is 5" from the ground and the rear is like 4.5".
Made another pile of Integra parts this weekend...
Entire AC system is out except for wiring and the silly dryer that I cannot yet figure out how to remove- I think I need to remove the front bumper again..
Also gutted the evaporator and taped over the resulting holes to keep the rest of the air in..
Anyone need any AC parts from an Integra???
The Acura Motorsports graphics and class letters and numbers arrived late last week so spent some time making it look like a racecar...
Was hoping the blues would match a little better but it works.
Also drilled the hole for the inside lap belt mount and installed the eye bolt for that.
Pulled the front bumper again to remove the intake resonator and think that will be a great place to install the transponder so that will be tonight's project.
I love Integra builds. Especially ones done to clean cars. Every Integra I've owned has been a rusty beater. I long to find a(nother, clean) '98 RS.
Seem to fetch a premium a week before racewars though.
In reply to beans: ROTFL!
Nice progress on the build.
Big progress today....
Removed the AC tensioner assembly...
Did get the transponder bracket fabbed but have not painted or installed it yet...maybe tomorrow and add some pics.
Following this intently.....need more details and pics!
Good work!
The transponder is installed and the wiring is run but not connected yet. Going to wire it into the stereo power since this is switched with the ignition switch. The wiring is not connected yet since the wiring harness plug is in the dash that is not yet installed...
Also installed the front tow strap- was going to use an existing hole in the bumper beam but this location would be in the way of one of the ribs in the bumper cover so drilled a hole about 6" toward the center of the car.
Had some time today so welded the pass side door bar verticals into the cage. The welder was not behaving at first for some reason.
Then touched up the paint on the cage and the new bars.
Installed some clear shelf contact paper on the tail lights to keep the plastic together in case of an on track incident. Looks pretty good but there are a couple wrinkles when the lense turns toward the fender.
Then took a couple minutes to install the rear view mirror- not sure I like this installation but it seems to work for now.
Thanks Minimac- let me know what other pics or questions you have.
Got the car on a set of borrowed scales (Thanks Jon!!) this weekend and found the car weighed less than I was thinking which is a good thing...
With the car in pretty much race ready trim (dash is not yet installed but sitting on the windshield, my weight in the driver's seat, unsure of how much fuel is in the tank), the car weighed in at 2536 #. This is also with the power windows installed.
Note: this is going to just get me in the ball park since this is on my garage floor with the typical slope toward the door, etc...Just trying to get things close...
Then put a Miata spare tire in the hatch and it was up to 2555 #.
Added the stock brace parts that normally reside behind the driver's seat and was up to 2578 #.
Then added the pass seat and it was up to 2612 #. Min weight for this car in ITA is 2620 # so that is probably close enough for now..
Set the ride heights at about 5.5" to the jack points in the front and about 5" in the rear and started checking the corner weights. After about 10 adjustments and removing the spare tire so we are back to 2592 # with the following corner weights:
LF 803 RF 805 LR 539 RR 445
For reference: Miata spare tire = 19# Stock Teg pass side seat = 34#
Will mess around some more tomorrow to see if I can get the rears a little closer.
Some little updates-
Was able to get the cross weights pretty close to 50:50 for now but lots of smaller parts to put back in the car.
Remounted the rear view mirror with some wink mirror brackets I found in the spare parts box. This allows some more distance from the mirror to my helmet..
This looks a lot better.
Took some time to finish grinding the stubs off the old, upper door bar. I cut this bar out to adjust the bend slightly so it does not go into the door cavity quite so far.
Got things close with the grinder and sanding disk on a die grinder but had to finish up with a hand file to get between the main hoop and the side of the car..
Took the car back to the cage builder last week after work and got a new upper, driver's side door bar bent and welded in. I lost less than an inch of space to the drivers seat which I am pretty happy with. Thanks Dave!!
Broke out the tubing notcher tonight to start working on the door bar verticals. Hopefully I can weld these in this weekend and then finish painting the cage and then reinstall the dash..
I like the position of the rear most vertical tube. I need to think on the front tube a bit- I was initially thinking of running this one a bit farther forward (another inch or so) but may leave it here to better protect my upper thigh/torso area.
Getting the car ready to shake down at a local parking lot autocross this weekend so will have to add pics to this later but....
The dash is back in the car and the HVAC and cluster fit and work!!! Took a lot more time (probably 15 hrs) to trim the dash around the a-pillar downtubes and dashbar but it is done and seems to fit fairly well. I ended up removing the exhaust and steering column to make it a lot easier for the dash install and removal but these are back in now.
Here is the pile of dash trimming...
Driver's seat is in loosely and starting to get the harnesses installed and adjusted.
Planning to shake the car down at a local parking lot autocross this weekend...
Seat is in and the harness is adjusted. Need to temporarily mount the ECU and check the wheel alignment before Sunday.
Made some progress- actually had the car ready enough for an autocross shakedown but came down with something the night before so bailed on the autocross. Got this list all done:
Made some progress on the sunroof cover panel also.
Placed the panel on the roof to get it centered in the hole.
Then started drilling holes. Started in the center of the front and then worked my way out on both sides. I left a loose rivet in each hole to maintain the alignment.
Finally found some time to keep the garage closed up and prime the sunroof panel. Picked up some spray primer at the same place where I got the custom matched spray bomb.
Looks decent and after it dried, did a quick wet sand on the top surface and after that dried, sprayed the top.
The first coat was a little light so added a second coat and then put a quick coat on the underside.
Now to find a block of time to rivet it down in one shot with the seam sealer.
Installed the sunroof cover panel last weekend- installed a little 3M seam sealer on the roof and then started rivetting...
Looks pretty good and should seal up well. I may put a small bead of seam sealer along the leading edge but not sure yet. The 20g material seems to conform to the contour pretty well but there are some small gaps along the leading edge.
Still want to shake the car down at a local parking lot autocross this season but will have to see...
A window of time opened up a couple weekends back so I loaded the car and some painter's tape up and hit a local "parking lot" autocross at a stock car track nearby.
While I did not set any records, I did not totally embarass myself either. The car handled as well as could be expected on the rock hard Bridgestones from my old Integra streetcar. The power level seemed reasonable for a stock engine with a header and lighter exhaust system. The other bright side is that nothing fell off the car or rubbed on course so that was a success!!
Cannot wait to get this beast to Blackhawk in the spring!
Been thinking about how to plug the hole in the dash where the passenger side airbag once lived. Dug it out of the garage and noticed these nice bolts that appeared to hold the airbag bits onto the back of the dash cover but did not think I wanted to try to flex the cover enough to pull these off and then noticed the main mounts would come off also. It would probably stay in the dash with just the little clips but wanted it to be held in a little better.
Started to cut the perforated bracket that attaches the airbag to the cover but that would not have worked either. Punted and tried to drill out the rivets holding the airbag bracket to the cover but the rivet heads started to spin as soon as the drill but started to cut....drat...
Then grabbed the angle grinder and nervously started to grind the rivet heads off. After a couple minutes, no worries. The tabs popped right off and apart it came.
Cleaned the tabs up a bit and bolted the side plates back on
It is ready to pop back into the dash when the weather warms up a bit....
Finally nice enough outside Friday to break the race car out of storage so it is back in the garage to finalize the track prep. Got the used Toyos mounted onto wheels so those are ready to put on the car.
Today I reinstalled the passenger side airbag cover panel- seemed more difficult to reinstall that it came out but it is in.
Then mounted the fire extinguisher- put it on the horizontal bar between but behind the seats. The access seems decent in this location.
Then put some padding on a couple parts of the cage and put the window net into the car. Need to shorten the lower rod a bit. Added some roll cage padding to the lower door bar to keep the straps from sliding around when the net is down.
Then installed the new Centric front brake rotors and Hawk DTC-60 front pads so that can be marked up the 'to-do' list. Sure is nice working on non-rusted cars...
Your car is looking great. Thanks for taking time to show it to us.
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