Suby-engined rustoration, 21-Sep-2024 update: more racing-related carnage! Options

[charliew]

If you use the primer for a sealer try to thin it with dt reducer and that will keep it thin and reduce the orange peel that will add to the top coat orange peel.

[Justinp71]

Looks awesome Geoff! Must feel good to have the body all ready to go. Can't wait to do some autocrossing with you.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Maybe next season?

[roadster fan]

Holy !@#$ Geoff! I have been missing all these updates. Your progress and work look awesome. Keep it up!

When we are done we are both gonna have Phoenix Red Flared Frankenstein cars with water cooled motors........THE HORROR!

Jim

[strawman]

As shown in the pics below, I have completed the air-to-water intercooler heat exchanger mounting, and wrapped up the mounting of the clutch master cylinder.

Here is a pic of the exchanger, which is actually an oil cooler that came out of a Ford Crown Vic. I'll be running 3/4" hoses back to the engine compartment, where a Bosch heater booster pump will ensure a good flow between the intercooler and the heat exchanger.



A good tip: the heater booster pump out of a mid-1990s BMW 5- or 7-series is the same unit used on the Ford Mustang Cobra that came with a factory air-water intercooler; tell the guy at the Pick-n-Pull counter that it is a "heater control valve" and you'll get it for under $10. You'll need a 6mm Allen wrench, 10mm socket, flat blade screwdriver and wire cutters (be sure to get the pigtail and the entire assembly so that it indeed looks like a heater valve!) and about 5 minutes to get one these. They're $100 new from various aftermarket vendors; I picked up four of them for under $40.

Next up are pics of the clutch master cylinder setup. This one came of of a 1993 Honda Civic hatchback, and has the same 5/8" bore as the one that came out of the Suby (a 1998 Forester)... so I'm confident it will mate up with the Suby clutch slave cylinder. The Suby unit has the reservoir incorporated into it, and it won't fit in the front bulkhead area; the Honda one uses a remote reservoir that I'll mount up by the stock 914 master cylinder reservoir. I built a custom "rod extender" to mate up the 914 pedals and the Honda master cylinder input shaft. Basically, I welded a 7mmx1.25 nut to a piece of 1/2" x 1.8" strap, and I'm using a 3/8" OD bronze bushing (which fits perfectly into the 914 clutch tab) over a 1/4" bolt that I welded to the strap to ensure smooth operation. The pictures don't show the outer bronze bushing/washer or the cotter pin that I'll add when I'm ready to install it "for reals." I've also included a pic of the brake and clutch master cylinders sitting comfortably side-by-side (the former is a 19mm unit from a 1976 911 that I scrapped, but I installed an ATE rebuild kit that I found on Ebay to freshen it up).







I still need to bend up and install the FedHill cunifer hardlines for the brakes and clutch systems, which I hope to mock up this weekend. I also hope to mock up the radiator and intercooler hoses. Stay tuned!

[Andyrew]

VERY nifty clutch solution!!!

Will most likely use it! Thats been one of the area's of possible expensive purchase (cut off the stock clutch and use a racing pedal). But this is perfect!

[Britain Smith]

Good tip on the heater booster pump.

-Britain

[charliew]

Good ideas Geoff. I took me a little bit to undestand the original honda pushrod screws into the metric nut you welded to the strap for the final length adjustment. The pump is great info.

[strawman]

I remember posting once that stripping the underside of the floor was the worst job ever... but I stand corrected. The worst job is stripping the interior of the tub. I probably spent 25 hours scraping, sanding, wire-brushing and spot sandblasting the remnants of the paint, glue and tar in there. PITA.

As always, I cleaned with Marine Clean, used Metal Prep to abate any remaining surface rust and then painted two coats of PPG two-part epoxy primer. Below are a couple of pics. I actually completed the primer work about two weeks ago, but I've been too busy with our 24 Hours of Lemons Opel GT project (Team Tinyvette) to post these pictures.





Next up is a close-up of the hydraulic clutch master cylinder area.

[strawman]

The big news is that I've finally got the tub off the rotisserie and in its natural habitat (on jackstands!). My A-frame and cherry picker setup permitted me to lower the car slowly by myself, and the whole process went swimmingly. Here are a couple pics of the prep stage (before a burrito-n-beer).





Here is the tub on the 'stands. Yeah, yeah I know -- these type of jackstands are unsafe. I plan to stick piece of wood in the "triangle" to prevent a complete deck-out; I'll look for the "correct" ones in the coming weeks and see if the War Department will free up the necessary cash...





Did I set a record? My car was on the rotisserie for 27 months (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

My plan is to mock up all of the mechanical parts so that I can weld on tabs/mounts/brackets before I begin to tackle the aesthetics. I might even get it fully running to make sure everything is kosher before I commit to the final paint...

[Hontec]

Wow, very nice progress and the car looks amazing!

[computers4kids]

Geoff,
I'm loving your build, but most of all your ingenuity & graveyard finds. Seeing your tub makes me want to do another project...I just don't think I have it in me right now though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)
Mark

[strawman]

My teener is on the ground for the first time in over two years! I've put it on "roller skates" so that I can maneuver it easily while I begin the assembly process. Gotta say that I'm excited about this milestone!

It is obvious that I'll need to clearance the passenger side rear flare, as there is practically zero clearance between the lip and tire (junkyard 225/50-16 on 16x9 BBS wheels). Of course, once the engine/trans is in and the suspension is compressed, the camber might suck the top of the tires a bit. I haven't installed any shims yet, either. But there is more clearance on the driver side than the passenger side.

I've mocked up the fiberglass front hood and a spare rear hood, just for giggles. Stay tuned!











I love the final picture; reminds me of the immortal words of Sir Mix A Lot -- I Like Big Butts! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[arkitect]

Geoff,
Missed your update, did a search on your build to see how you were doing. Glad to see it's off of the rotiesere. You do excellant work, great to see the progress. What color are you going with? ...and where and how much did you pay for the front fiberglass hood?

Dave (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[strawman]

Geoff,
Missed your update, did a search on your build to see how you were doing. Glad to see it's off of the rotiesere. You do excellant work, great to see the progress. What color are you going with? ...and where and how much did you pay for the front fiberglass hood?

Dave (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Hi Dave, thanks for the compliments. I am a huge World Champion San Francisco Giants fan (man, that sounds great!), and I am hoping the Giants front office will share the CMYK or other color coding scheme for my own "tribute" orange-n-black car.

The fiberglass hood came with a crazy $50 deal that included a Saab wagon FULL of parts a while back on Craigslist. It is an A.I.R. unit and it needs some small 'glass repairs on the underside and at one rear corner, but it is uber light. The deal also included the orange rear steel hood shown in the pics and another steel front hood that I'll cut up as an experimental radiator air exhaust setup. I'm trying to avoid cutting holes in the front fenderwells...

[AgPete139]

Good job on your build.

I don't when I'll have a Saturday to do my tank, but when I do, I'll be referencing your Page 3. Looks great!

[strawman]

When I welded the stiffening tubes in the trailing arms and moved the parking brake cable mounts (see post #98), I knew I would have to construct some parking brake cable extenders.

I ended up buying a couple stainless steel eye ends from West Marine that I crimped onto the leftover factory parking brake cables that I cut to length. The ends accept 1/8" cable, which is close enough to the factory cable outer diameter. West Marine permits you to use their cable cutters and cable end crimper on-site; see pics below for details.







As you can see, I had to build two different cable extender lengths. I prolly coulda ended up with the same length extenders had I measured better when I welded on the cable mounts... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

I will open up the holes in the SS ends to match the factory pins, and then sandblast/powdercoat them in the coming days. I took today off and hope to button up the braking system; I'm in the process of bending up new lines right now. Stay tuned.

[strawman]

Just finished up replacing ALL of the hard lines on my teener. Trivia: it takes 24 brake line nuts to replace them all, and roughly 22' of hard brake line (not including the lines and line nuts for the hydraulic clutch system). All told, I have one 30" piece leftover from the 25' roll of Cunifer brake line that I bought from FedHill. Since I adapted 911 rear brakes and lost a few of the factory hard brake lines, I ended using brazing rod to make templates for the custom and/or missing pieces. Below is a pic of the powdercoated proportioning valve and the copper-looking Cunifer line.



I like doing this type of work -- measuring, cutting, bending, flaring. It has a Zen-like quality, and it sure beats rust repair. Now I gotta bleed the whole brake system -- which I don't anticipate will have a Zen-like quality... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

I also hooked up my steering system and finished off the parking brake system. Below is a pic of the parking brake cable and extender. It seems to work flawlessly, although I would probably build shorter extenders if I had to do it all over again -- probably 0.5" shorter on each side. Regardless, I can now sit on the floorboard, make engine noises and stop my rearward progress on my sloped driveway using the brake handle. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif)



I hope to install the Suby engine & trans later this week so that I can measure the axle lengths and send the 911 axles off to be shortened & splined for the Suby inner CV joints. If my measurements were correct, the axle lengths should be the same on both sides, so I'll probably have one extra axle from my stash cut/splined as a spare.

[strawman]

Alrighty then, I had a chance to work on the car today for a couple of hours. I was able to install the engine/trans, and to mock-up the axles.

As shown below, I built some boxes out of scrap 2x10 and plywood to rest the chassis on while I slide the engine under the tub. The home-built A-frame, and Harbor Freight electric hoist and 1000 lb. strap easily lift the engineless tub. These boxes are 19" tall and provide the 34" clearance necessary to roll the engine underneath on a homebuilt dolly.





I found that I can not bolt up the engine U-bar until the engine is pulled up into the engine bay; otherwise the bar hits the rear trailing arms as I try to raise it. Once the engine dolly was slid underneath, I lowered the tub from the boxes to some standard ramps. Then I used the hoist on the engine and a floor jack on the transmission to lift it in place.

Here are a couple pics of the engine in the bay. It looks like there is plenty of space for my Vortex air-water intercooler and assorted plumbing.

[strawman]

I also had a chance to mock up the axles. First, I cut the inner end of a Subaru axle and the outer end off a Porsche 911 axle (actually, the splines are the same on both ends of P-axle). Then I slid the shortened Suby axle on the transaxle output and bolted up the Porsche shortened axle on the trailing arm hub. I then used a piece of scrap angle iron and two Vise-Grips to lock them in place, making sure they were centered in their range of travel and could still be removed. I then spot-welded everything together and re-tested for length; the good news is that this mock-up fits both sides perfectly. Once I confirmed that everything works, I welded the angle iron to the axles to get it ready for machining. The end-to-end length is exactly 18.5".

Here is a pic of the mocked up axle:



And here is a pic of the mocked up axle next to an uncut axle. I will send the mock-up and the remaining three axles off to get shortened & re-splined (that'll give me one spare axle). The SF Giants slippers are included for all of you baseball fans out there... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/bootyshake.gif)

[BIGKAT_83]

Is your Subaru joint a tripod or a ball and socket type joint. The axles I did with the tri pod joint came in a inch shorter. Did you center the transaxle up with the swingarms or do you have the engine mounted farther foward for turbo. clearance???



Bob