2012 Challengers. Procrastinator or Not...

With less then 2 weeks till the event where does everyone stand with their respective builds?

I amazingly have the car pretty far along. I am taking it to the local autocross tommorow to work out any bugs before the challenge. That will be a first for me out of the three challenge cars I have built.

I have some detailing and minor paint work to finish up but I am mostly done at this point. How is everyone else fairing?

Interior almost done...

Wow. That's one clean-looking interior! I need to figure out what I'm doing with the suspension on my Neon, but that's really the only mechanical thing left. Well, it's more of a shopping thing than a mechanical thing: I either need to swap the springs on the struts that are currently on the car, find one more unblown stock strut for the front and throw some coilover sleeves on them, or find something else to buy for cheap and go with that.

I blame the preparedness of the car on my wife. She's been nagging me to work on the car ever since I got back from the $2011 Challenge and told her I was thinking about bringing the car back for its redemption tour.

Oh, and I guess I should wash it or something. Would I do better or worse in the concours portion if the car was still caked with mud and dust from a couple seasons of being a Rallycross beater?

Ha Ha... I'm finishing up putting my engine in tomorrow evening, finish up everything else Monday and give it a shakedown for a few days then I'll be Challenge bound!

Just ordered struts/shocks, bars, tires and purchased NOS today. Drove car 300+ miles today. Much to do.

Originally I was going to turbo the integra motor, I even have 90% of the parts for it, but I am erring on the side of reliability and autocrossability vs outright power and a mad scramble to get it installed. I just need to do well in the autocross and then hope for rain...

The drivers will figure it out on course. If you have the parts, do it. You can finish it up in the parking lot at the hotel if you don't get all the way installed.

Mine has moved under it's own power but has not received paint yet

Been driving mine for 3 years... Have a laundry list of things to do anyways.

Lols Ben

Mine sputters and stumbles when driving, the brakes don't currently work, it needs some cosmetic work, and the suspension sits a little too low. So to sum it up it is just about ready... ohh and I was able to rip the exhaust off pulling it out of my driveway the first time, yes all the neighbors proceeded to come outside to see what was going on.

So I took the civic to the autocross today for a shake down. I am glad I did, running it on course revealed several problems that I need to address before the challenge. Fisrt of all my brakes are horrible. I didn't bench bleed the master cylinder before installing it and I have had a bitch of a time bleeding them. They felt pretty good until I got on course where aparently all of the gyrations knocked loose some airbubbles. I will bleed them again tommorow and hopefully resolve this.

The next thing I noticed is my fan does not work. The car got hot idling in the sun, it cooled down immediatly after I drove it. It has never run hot before and I don't think the lack of a fan will be a problem at the challenge.

The biggest problem I ran across is a weird electrical gremlin that reared its ugly head once the car was driven for approximatly 30 minutes. The gauges would jump around and the car would randomly bog down. If I gave it gas the problem would go away... weird. I think it could be the main ground which is scetchy and was on my list of items to take care of before the event. Once the car cooled after sitting for awhile it runs perfectly gauges work etc.

I also think one of my shocks is blown / sucks. The car kind of skips when you try to put power down in a corner.

Despite all of this the car is freaking fast. I now know why they refer to these things as "gods charriot" on the RRAX forum. Even with ragged out RA1's, practically nonfunctioning brakes and my lackluster driving skills I threw down several consistent fast runs. The results are not posted yet but as best I can tell I had the 6th fastest time of the day. The car has no reason to be as fast as it is, and based on how my times compared to my regular competitors is quicker around the local autocross course then either my STU M3 or my B13 SE-R track car.

Now I just need to get the details taken care of before the challenge.

I thought I was ahead of the curve until today's first test run.

I have a lot of work to do.

Mine fired up today, finish buttoning it up tomorrow, and time to give it a few shake down days around here to see if any issues arise.

We just ordered paint for the Jeep which should be here by Friday. Hopefully we can get it prepped and painted Saturday in addition to all the other small things that are not done yet. If the paint does not work out I think we have a backup plan. At least it’s boosted and tuned before getting to the hotel this time.

I'm currently feeling like dead last in the concours is in the cards for me after seeing that civic.

Can i pick you brain on that interior next weekend? That's exactly what i had in mine for my car but i ran out of time.

Also: took a drive on 23psi in 60 degree weather. berkeley me!

working on bribes

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I'm currently feeling like dead last in the concours is in the cards for me after seeing that civic. Can i pick you brain on that interior next weekend? That's exactly what i had in mine for my car but i ran out of time. Also: took a drive on 23psi in 60 degree weather. berkeley me!

Carpet kits are $100 and look like a million$. If the interior is stripped, paint it a bright gloss color. Sign shops have tons of scrap 1/8" plastics perfect for "delete" panels. The first 90% takes 10% of the effort. The last 10% takes 90% of the effort, and is what seperates you from 95% of the field. If you're polishing bolt heads at 3AM on thursday morning, ur doin it right.

Pimpm3: Trade your madtytejdm marker for a signal lense. And shoot your wipers flat black.

Yeah, no time for that shizz. Definitely wondering how he did the rear carpet stuff though. Plywood base?

Mine will be there next year. Is that enough procrastination for you?

pimpm3 wrote: So I took the civic to the autocross today for a shake down. I am glad I did, running it on course revealed several problems that I need to address before the challenge. Fisrt of all my brakes are horrible. I didn't bench bleed the master cylinder before installing it and I have had a bitch of a time bleeding them. They felt pretty good until I got on course where aparently all of the gyrations knocked loose some airbubbles. I will bleed them again tommorow and hopefully resolve this. The next thing I noticed is my fan does not work. The car got hot idling in the sun, it cooled down immediatly after I drove it. It has never run hot before and I don't think the lack of a fan will be a problem at the challenge. The biggest problem I ran across is a weird electrical gremlin that reared its ugly head once the car was driven for approximatly 30 minutes. The gauges would jump around and the car would randomly bog down. If I gave it gas the problem would go away... weird. I think it could be the main ground which is scetchy and was on my list of items to take care of before the event. Once the car cooled after sitting for awhile it runs perfectly gauges work etc. I also think one of my shocks is blown / sucks. The car kind of skips when you try to put power down in a corner. Despite all of this the car is freaking fast. I now know why they refer to these things as "gods charriot" on the RRAX forum. Even with ragged out RA1's, practically nonfunctioning brakes and my lackluster driving skills I threw down several consistent fast runs. The results are not posted yet but as best I can tell I had the 6th fastest time of the day. The car has no reason to be as fast as it is, and based on how my times compared to my regular competitors is quicker around the local autocross course then either my STU M3 or my B13 SE-R track car. Now I just need to get the details taken care of before the challenge.

You are right it is plywood base. I basically used several scrap pieces I had left over from flooring my attic. I didn't want to spend $100 on a carpet kit so I bought a 6x8 piece of indoor outdoor carpet from lowes for $18.00. several hours of carefully scissor work later i was done. I am really happy with how it came out. I am not going to do so hot in the drags so I figured I would concentrate on things I could do well in.

The wiper motor was not in the car when I bought it. This made for an exciting ride home from the paint shop in the rain. At any speed greater then 50 the wipers slowly rise up the windshield. They are no longer on the car. Jdm weight reduction yo!

Good call, wipers mess up the look of your car in photos.

We have another new concours judge this year. One of the main guys at eBay Motors has volunteered his services. I am sure he knows quality when he sees it.

I am in trouble then...