Self Isolation in the Garage - Post Your Car Projects

[280z-hab]

OK, I'll start. I had a few things things to work on in the garage and without the assortment of commitments and travel, I have some free time. Got the Z off jackstands to start with after changing the oil and bleeding the clutch. I also used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to take off all of the cone digs, tire rubs, some rust stains and other assorted patina. It worked great and was long overdue. I also put on some battery terminal covers to help prevent arcing. And I installed a new 2.5 lb ABC fire extinguisher because my old one had run empty.



The second owner of the Z sent me this really cool Fittipaldi Personal steering wheel. I looked it up on the interweb and its made by Nardi and designed by Emerson Fittipaldi who is a famous race car driver. Its got a great feel, leather-wrapped, etc. It had some rust but cleaned up nicely with some Simple Green. Bonus - it came with a Datsun center cap!



After monkeying with the adapter it came with, I didn't think it fit, so I ordered a MOMO adapter from Summit Racing thinking it was Italian so it should fit an Italian steering wheel. Their both from Italy, right? Wrong, it fit the Datsun, but the bolt-holes on the wheel were off center. Instead of rounding out the holes on the adapter to make them bigger so it would fit, I returned the MOMO adapter and tried the one it came with again...which ended up fitting perfectly. It also cleaned up really well with some Simple Green and WD-40. Im not sure what brand it is, but here are the numbers on the RIGHT steering wheel adapter:



Some test fitting, driving up and down my driveway to make sure it was on straight, and here are the results. It's a big improvement over my stock wheel, and I cant wait to try it out autocrossing and spirited drives after this whole pandemic thing passes.



I still have an L28 motor I am rebuilding and might post some pictures on the very very very slow progress I am making, but I will probably get further now. Also, me and my buddy bought a 1992 Toyota Celica STX to run the Grassroots Motorsports 2020 Challenge. If we don't start a thread here, I will post a link to it. It's going to be awesome and we are planning to do some testing at FAST events once there are autocrosses again.

[mymomswagon]

Got bored. Really bored. Saw a great deal on a rear bar. Now have a solid adjustable 22mm bar vs a hollow non adjustable 22mm bar. It's set to softest setting and is still noticeably stiffer.

Also replaced my oe filter with a pro dry s filter I had laying around. Bought a real fancy 2” wide hook and loop strap to replace the zip tie holding my piggyback to the airbox. woohoo!

[aw614]

I ended up replacing all my hubs + wheel bearings since one of my front studs had some messed up threads and was not grabbing enough threads when I put my spacers on my street tires. I put in 10mm longer studs on the new hubs and I was able to DIY my rears. Had a shop I know in Tampa do the fronts. Going to pull the race off the old original hubs and put in new studs and keep them as spares, from reading stuff online, most of people have had better experience with old OEM hubs than new non OEM hubs that are cheap. New OEM is like 130 vs 40...

Want to pull the head off the car to see why I am getting air hissing from a leak down test, but Im getting lazy to pull it off.

[Evil MS3]

Prepped the Miata to repaint the driver rear quarter since the clearcoat has decided to completely fail. It looks like it was repainted at some point and not very well. Pulled the soft top so I could remove the rear molding to get good coverage.

Tomorrow i sand and prime the entire panel.

[jev61]

I replaced the 1.8 brakes with 1.6 brakes on the silver Miata, hated the way they felt after bedding them. Swapped the 1.8 brakes back onto the car. Anyone need/want 1.6 brake rotors and pads? I replaced the steering wheel with a 320mm deep dish wheel, didn't like the way it felt, changed to a 350mm shallow dish wheel. Any one need/want a 320mm wheel?

I adjusted the rear brakes on the red Miata and changed its oil. I found the cause of its CEL too, a loose intake cross-over tube. I hope to get the FM springs installed soon.

I lubed the rear brake sliders on the Pilot, the brakes feel better now.

My to do list could get finished soon.

[Native]

I did an oil change and tire rotation on one car.


I put this Powerstop brake kit on my daughter's Fit:

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I put this tailgate support on my truck. Not impressed.

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I've been messing with the tune on the Miata. Nothing of excitement to report...




And Nicole picked up a sweet used carbon fiber and aluminum road bike (bottom in pic) that I went through top to bottom and cleaned up good as new. And built the dual wall hangers from stuff I had around. We've been riding a bit (gym's closed).

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[jbrannon7]

Changed the diff oil in the Corvette> After 10,000 miles and a few hundred AX runs it was black and had clutch disk particle in it.

[Evil MS3]

The panel is painted and cleared and looks fantastic. I had a friend that does auto paint come over, who's been coaching me through whole process, and help me clean up some of the base coat and spray the clear. For aerosol it looks great! It's got a little orange peel but he put so many layers of clear on that with a little wet sanding it will come out pretty damn good. I'm happy with it! Now to let it cure for a few days then wet sand and polish.

[Native]

[BrilloHeadBen]

I didn't think to take any pictures while I was working, but I finally put in the upgraded lower control arm bushings in the Lexus. These are some nice OE upgrades, as they're just the part# from the GSF/ISF/RCF which all share the same front design with the IS but use a firmer durometer rubber. After a couple of test drives, I really don't understand why Toyota wen't with such a soft design in the first place. The Dynamics are better, not huge, but noticeably better, with only a nominal increase in NVH (and frankly, I'm not sure if the average customer would even notice). Best of all, these fix the "dynamic toe" issue of the stock ones that cause you to eat a set of front tires every 15k miles.

The install was pretty easy, though I sliced the hell out of my hands at some point, so there's some unfinished metal somewhere, probably on the aluminum bushing housing. Only suprise was the large steel skidplate under the car. All of the install guides meantiond a plastic pan that you can simpley take 2 bolts out and bend out of the way. Not the case here, had the pull the whole thing, and needed a jack to help support one end just to get it back on.

Video of how soft the OE bushings are

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[Loren]

Man, I love suspension porn.

[rrath]

First, a quick background: The first owner of this car had built it into a road rally ca. 1998 - 2001 (from what I can tell). I bought it from the second owner with a lengthy build list and some broken, unlabeled switches. So I knew it had an oil and diff cooler, but didn't know which switches ran which - and when they came on themselves, I had to improvise to turn them off.
During a fantastic Endurocross in January, I figured I'd turn on what I could. While unloading from the trailer after a fantastic Endurocross in January, I noticed a loud engine tick.

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Throughout February, I slowly worked my way through replacing x32 lash adjusters. I developed a great way to keep track of which ones had been replaced, while staying motivated.

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I didn't really want to get into a big project, so I'm using the isolation time to work on some quality of life stuff in the interior. I've also figured out what switches go with what - and have determined that during Endurocross, I had turned on the oil cooler pump, but not the cooler fan (whose switch was completely gone.)

The further story on this car is: It sat in a toy hauler up north for several years. At points during that time, the car became home to rodents and the hauler developed a leaky roof. I gave it a good cleaning when I first bought it, but it seems every event loosens a few acorns from various nooks and crannies. So I pulled the seats and harness out and am working my way through the project:

• Deep cleaning the entire interior (and behind the dash since I'm back there)
• Refinishing and re-padding the rollcage
• Refinishing the footwells with black bedliner
• Removed a rally computer, intercom and antiquated tire management system
• Replacing and labeling switches
• Replacing the shifter boot and the knob with something a little taller

[Evil MS3]

Fender repaint complete! Did the final wet sanding (1200/1500/2000) then hit it with two varrying stages of compound and then a final polish. It looks phenomenal for a rattle can job. Got rid of almost all orange peel. It's probably 98% which is a win I think.

[mymomswagon]

Finally decided to replace my front struts. Koni yellows were on sale for around 160 each.

Install has been slow going. The body diameter of Konis is ever so slightly larger than stock, making the process of seating into the knuckle sleeve a bit tedious. Got one side to finally slip in, but fatigue / red mist took over on the second side and the result was chipped paint.

Also installed a set of Whiteline adjustable end links for the new adjustable bar. The stock links offered no hope of reaching the inner arm holes.

[aw614]

Did your strut tab fully seat into the spindle?

This was the mk6 issue I think I sort of mentioned on Monday's chat:
https://www.golfmk6.com/forums/index.ph ... ll.297520/

Mine hasnt sat all the way in for over 40k miles...

[mymomswagon]

Got both of them to seat, 2nd one about an hour ago.

Sanded the chipped paint area first, that might help get ut started. Used a piece of conduit pipe (over the shaft, with a piece of plastic to protect the top of the strut body). Along with wedging the sleeve channel, plastic hammer 'taps' on the conduit got the strut partway seated.

Once I had the spindle / strut on the car, I tried every tool in the garage going in the sleeve channel, including wedging a round file, which eventually snapped off inside the sleeve channel

I thought I could get by with the makeshift stuff like turning a socket adapter, crobar etc. Just ordered a VW special tool clone for next time.

Since I don't have enough camber up front, I also ground down a corner of each strut top nut to allow more travel should I slot the strut towers. That went smoothly

[twistedwankel]

Since I don't have enough camber up front,

Didn't you tell me once you were running neg 5 degrees camber? I could easily eyeball that it was a lot. But that was a year ago.

My isolation project is selling my C5 to daughter tomorrow. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the stock 17x8.5 and 18x9.5 wheels (sans tires) fit perfectly in the trunk of my Vert. Saves paying shipping and provided 4 deep storage bins for stuff on their drive back to MA

Filled up tank with premium for listed $2.20/gal too. PLUS Got 5cents off w/Shell card and used Publix discounted gas card so in reality only paid $1.71/gallon. That is cheaper than I paid for leaded Clark premium in 1970. Not even adjusted for inflation. I read yesterday they might actually have to pay for people to store crude soon.
Kids should be able to drive 1300 miles home on about $112 of fuel. Cost $129ea to fly down here. This will be the year for a road trip!!! Spend that free government money.

Looking for an abandoned salt mine to fill with oil.

They opened all the parks in Hernando County today or tomorrow. Is that significant? I never go to parks other than the FAST picnic.

[Jamie]

Having finished building the back patio I've talked about for the last year, Milo and I installed a trailer hitch on the Suburban...more involved than it sounds, because in comparison to the same vintage pickups, the frame on the '60-'66 'Burbs is almost a foot longer and drops down 2-3 inches to accommodate the rear bumper (rear bumpers weren't standard on pickups then). No one does a hitch for that vintage 'Burb, so found one designed for a pickup, and shimmed it to reach an acceptable compromise between being level (it tilts 3/4 of a bubble down) and structurally sound (it's not coming off).

The goal is still to be able to tow the car to Valdosta next year, so if I break it again, I can get myself home....

[jev61]

After re-loading the tune on the ECU three times over the past two weeks, I think I am finally happy with the closed loop idle on the silver Miata. I found a set of youtube videos that explained the settings better than anything I have seen in nearly three years of trying to get the closed loop idle to behave.

I take Sara's red Miata in for an alignment Friday morning. She now has FM springs, Tokico Illumina shocks, and 36mm bumpstops. The car rides better now than on the OEM suspension.

[Evil MS3]

Will have a new box of project arriving for the Miata shortly. Spent waaaay too much on a new suspension setup this week, but it will be fantastic!