My RS2 tribute

Crenshaw said:

Where are you driving around in Southern CO at the end of the month?  I like driving around in Southern CO....

The Z clubs of New Mexico and Colorado are meeting on the morning of the 27th in Trinidad, then staying Friday and Saturday in Durango and doing all the passes we can in that corner of the state.

Anyone's welcome.  Last year we had a '68 Firebird, some Datsun Roadsters, and a BMW come along with.  This year, I think we're anticipating more roadsters, some Subarus and Toyotas.  I'm undecided whether I'm taking one of the Zs, the GTO, or the Audi as yet.  Depends on which of my friends comes and which of my kids comes.

From the event organizer: "We will leave Trinidad Friday morning between 9:00 and 10:00 am. Lunch in Alamosa, Onto Durango for dinner and site-seeing. Leave Durango at 9:00 am. Arrive in Silverton (1-1/2 hr site-seeing), Head for Ouray for lunch and site-seeing. Head to Ridgeway where we work our way back to Durango via US HWY 145. Back to Durango for dinner."

Jehannum said:

Yeah, I curate a wide variety of old slow cars.  Currently: '67 GTO, '69 Datsun 1600 roadster (kiddo's project), '71 240Z, '84 Eldorado Convertible, '92 300ZX, '95 Audi S6, '15 VW GTI (kids' car), and '17 VW Alltrack (wife's car, starts most days).

You really need to post some of the Z's.  We have several threads with builds of the early ones floating around, but I dont think I have seen a Z32 around here

Mr_Asa said:

Jehannum said:

Yeah, I curate a wide variety of old slow cars.  Currently: '67 GTO, '69 Datsun 1600 roadster (kiddo's project), '71 240Z, '84 Eldorado Convertible, '92 300ZX, '95 Audi S6, '15 VW GTI (kids' car), and '17 VW Alltrack (wife's car, starts most days).

You really need to post some of the Z's.  We have several threads with builds of the early ones floating around, but I dont think I have seen a Z32 around here

I'll get to it, but the Z32's story runs from 2005 to 2024, so it'll take a while to organize my thoughts.  Same with the 240Z, I started dicking around with it in 2008.

The GTO is even worse, since it starts in 1999, lol.

In reply to Jehannum :

Oh for sure.  Just saying they'll be well received 

Jehannum said:

fidelity101 said:

safety sandals please but LOL

 

and NICE job!

I hate shoes.  But yeah, if I'm on the lathe, working with the plasma cutter, or welding, I'll wear them.

I'm with ya there, I have permanent birkenstock tan myself 

Another problem I had to overcome because the turbo wasn't in the same place as it was originally:

Hell, the Stromung didn't even have a flange that mated to the V-band on the G25.

3D printing to the rescue!

Then I carefully built a stack that worked.

Then I cut pieces from a mandrel bend of the same radius as the 3D printed parts, and tacked, then TIGed.

That's one of the first times that I've prototyped that way, and it actually worked out pretty well.

I keep looking at the three gauges on the right hand side of my dash (an analog clock, an oil temperature gauge, and a battery voltage gauge) thinking that they'd be much more useful if they showed data of value.  The oil temp and voltage as displayed on the dash are pretty much pure fiction.

So I went online and ordered some stepper motors.  The EMU Black already dumps out a bunch of stuff on the CANBus, which I can read via bluetooth and show on my phone now, but I can put any number of things on the network, so I thought maybe I could use a stepper motor for some relatively slow-changing data (like the *real* battery voltage, flex fuel percentage, and oil pressure), so I got my arduinos out and started playing.

My program flow is: read data, calculate needle position, reposition needle, rinse, repeat.  Since I don't have it hooked up to the CANbus (I don't have a CAN receiver right at the moment), I substituted "read data" for a function that returns a random value between a min and max value.

It doesn't yet read CANbus, but there's a library out there, so once the CAN modules arrive from Captain Jeff of the Amazon, I'll be starting at that.

I have a spare dash in the attic, I'm going to go get it soon and figure out how I can get these mounted up with some nice ribbon cables to the arduinos (the stepper library blocks on movement, so I can't feasibly run three gauges on one arduino) and have better data at hand.

The Audi rewarded me for spending $700 to register the MR2 yesterday by breaking the clutch master cylinder linkage on the way home.  I had to limp it about 5 miles shutting it off at stoplights and starting in gear.  My starter probably hates me now.

Ordered a LuK clutch master cylinder, as the breakage this time happened on the pushrod that actuates the master cylinder (and is sold as a part of it).  I'll either make a beefier rod, or make a sleeve that slides over the pushrod and acts as the jam nut for the clevis that attaches the pushrod to the clutch pedal.  But hey, I get to use my remote bleeder point!  Neat!

A guy has an clutch again.  The master cylinder hangs down inside the cabin, sort of under the dash.

Not pictured: the tears, swears, and back pain from fitting the pin blindly through the pedal and clevis, or the additional finger pain, swears, and additional disassembly of the HVAC running across the bottom of the dash so I could fit my fat hands up in there and get the pin retainer on.

I'm a bit glad I pulled the manual down from the shelf, because I wouldn't have known that it's supposed to be 109.5mm from the mounting flange to the center of the hole for the pin in the clevis.

Followed that up with a gin and tonic.