CptTripps' Restoration 2 - The Grey Matter Build, Back in Doug’s garage Options

[bulitt]

Hey guys, I am the aforementioned Bill. Been reading for about 5 hrs trying to get up to speed on the 914's and its pretty sweet stuff your cranking out. Hot rodding at its finest.
Just wanted to say "hey" and I may have some questions
Later on if I cant find them myself but right now im full!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

take a look at SocalAndy and plymouth37 build threads!

[Chris H.]

Blast cabinet is one of my next purchases. Harbor Freight?

[76-914]

On another note...

Switched to different interior materials. Originally, it was going to be Black vinyl with black Alcantara. Now I'm thinking Gray/Gray. I think the Gray looks better with the brushed Aluminum. Thoughts?

+ 1 on the Gray.

Blast cabinet is one of my next purchases. Harbor Freight?

Hey Chris, I found that my HF blast cab fits my HF lift table perfectly. Nice to pick a good working height + the mobility the table offers.

[CptTripps]

Blast cabinet is one of my next purchases. Harbor Freight?

Yup! I got the "big one" this time. http://www.harborfreight.com/40-lb-capacit...inet-68893.html

There are a LOT of things in the HF catalog that can be considered "disposable" but the stuff with NO moving parts is normally a safe bet. This was a steal for $150. One thing I want to do is "Plastidip" all of the interior corners. Just to seal everything up so media isn't leaking out here and there. Wouldn't be hard and would help.

Here's a good coupon for you all. I always do a Google Images search in the checkout line for a coupon. They'll honor just about anything. This one is good until April 12th.

[Chris H.]

Nice, thanks for the info guys. Good idea on the plasti dip. I did hear you have to seal it up good if you're using soda. Saw a few complaints about it not sealing well with that but...it's SODA. Pretty small particles. It's gonna be messy.

[CptTripps]

Actually, the glass beads are small...and SLIPPERY!!!! Like 1,000,000 tiny ball bearings on the ground. They shimmer too.

[76-914]

Actually, the glass beads are small...and SLIPPERY!!!! Like 1,000,000 tiny ball bearings on the ground. They shimmer too.

Those things as slippery as greased Owl shit. Be careful walking.

[CptTripps]

While Bill makes progress out in the garage, I'm working nights on the interior pieces.

Stripped the seats to bare glass tonight. Hoping I can get them cleaned up enough to paint soon before the padding gets added back on.

After stripping everything, I found a SHIT TON of mold. Yuck!

Quick trip out to the garage for a meeting with "Mr. Soda Blaster" and I got the mold off. I need more soda, and will strip the rest of the glue and stuff off tomorrow.

Before:


After:

[rnellums]

Now is a great time to add to the bolsters if you want a slightly grippier seat. A bit of fiberglass, some sewing and voila!

[tdgray]

Then I started buttoning up the flares. I'd thought about AllMetal at one point, but McMark talked me out of that route. So I started the long process of filling about 200 gaps on two fenders tonight.

Use the AllMetal as pinhole or small gap filler... it can span fairly large gaps but I would not use it as a primary source.

Great product... its all I use.

[CptTripps]

So, Bill bailed on me. That's a bummer, because he was a real nice guy and I was looking to do a lot more with him. Better I learn now than later I guess.

So...I'm looking for another shop that can crank through the car for me over the next few weeks. HUGE set-back, but I'll make it work. My goal is still April 15th. 50 days isn't' a lot of time from this stage, but I gotta push on and make it work.

[CptTripps]

The trailer I bought was a piece of shit. So, I put it in Craigslist and a few hours later it was on its way to be the next guy's problem. Cost me $80 to own a trailer for 3 weeks. O-well.

FINALLY found someone that can take the car out to the sandblaster. $80 and he'll be here at 9:00am.

So I spent the evening getting the tub ready for the 18mi trip.

They're going to etch prime it too, so I should get a nice fresh looking tub back.

[CptTripps]

Do I get an award for "Coldest 914" today?

I was concerned for 1min about the snow and then I realized it's going to be sand-blasted in a few hours and then etch primed.

Let it snow! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/santa_smiley.gif)

[rick 918-S]

Don't All-Metal over gaps or pin holes. Although it is resin based it is not metal and will absorb moisture and bubble when it gets wet. Rust will form under it if moisture is allowed to get to it from the back side.

[CptTripps]

And she's off! Newbury Sandblasting is going to have it blasted inside/out, primed, cleaned and back to my house by Tuesday. They had a real cool Monte Carlo that they just finished yesterday. They spent a LOT of time going over everything with me to make sure it's as expected. I'm feeling good about this. Especially for $600.





The body shop that I was going to use had a death or something, so now they can't take me until June. Grrrr! I need to find a new one close by so I can check-in from time to time.

[CptTripps]

Spent the evening working on the engine wiring harness. Since there is a lot of it that is no longer needed, I can re-make the entire thing to the exact right lengths. Ordered a pin puller kit from Amazon and it should be here tomorrow. So I dismantled the entire thing, and washed all the connections. I'll have a LOT of crimping and soldering tomorrow, but having a perfect harness will be worth it.




Also worked on finishing up the seatbelt clips. I'm replacing the Orange with Green to match the rest of the theme. Stay tuned for the other cool part. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

[CptTripps]

Got one project completed today. Completely restored my seatbels...and changed "Press" to "Eject"

[CptTripps]

Spent the morning working on the ECU.

The Hydra EMS that I'll be using needed some extra wiring, so after getting the pin-map from the manufacturer, I started building out all the pins and organizing.

Figured the easiest way would be to build an Excel sheet to keep everything organized.




The last part of the day was getting the transmission ready. I finally had all the parts to convert it to 2WD.

After opening it up, I was confused on how to get the 27mm nut off. A quick call to Ian and I was set straight.

[CptTripps]

I needed to notch Ian's plate a little to get it aligned properly.

After that...it was all aces!

[CptTripps]

ECU Success!

I had to run out and buy a Windows computer to run the Hydra software. Ultimately it was cheaper and easier to buy an IBM Thinkpad with Windows 7 than it would have been to buy a copy and get it set up. So now I have a dedicated ECU machine. (For $150, I'm not complaining!)

Hydra sent me a base map for the 2003 WRX, so I have a good starting point. The guy that had the ECU before me had a custom map. Maybe I'll load that up and see how it goes at some point.

So now I can see where all the different aux ports are and map them to things like "Launch Control" and other coolness. It'll be cool to have a dial like the Ferraris do for "Street / Race" modes.