Donato's Track Rev3

[Donato]

That's not a bad shout with the non PAS unit, if it comes to it I may do that It didn't even cross my mind!

I can't wait for it to be done either. It's starting to become an expensive ornament now

[Donato]

In preperation for the car coming back on the road I want to make sure that's all the bodywork is straight and rust free. I've already removed the front wings and bumper and cleaned it all up with a coat of under seal. So it was time to do the rear!
Rear lights & bumper off. Snapped all fixings in the process too
It all seems intact under there, except for some rusty arches. not a sight I wanted to see!







All cut out;







I need to buy some metal and gas so my old man can weld it up for me.

I've also fitted my track rod ends from the geometry kit. Still need to purchase balljoints so can put the knuckles back together!

[Donato]

I managed to borrow some balljoints of a friend. So I test fitted the front RCA's as I didn't know what clearance was going to be like. Luckily it all fits!













Need to clean that rust up now!

[ashley]

Good progress mate- you do need to clear those hubs up though!

I've just gone through a similar decision process on the steering rack, I want to lose weight and improve steering feedback...so want to go manual steering. But I don't want to lose gearing (and increase the number of turns lock to lock on the steering wheel), which switching to a manual rack does....

So I've decided to keep the power rack, but drain the fluid and remove the "power" part of it...it does make the steering heavier at low speeds, but I'm happy with that

[Donato]

Good progress mate- you do need to clear those hubs up though!

I've just gone through a similar decision process on the steering rack, I want to lose weight and improve steering feedback...so want to go manual steering. But I don't want to lose gearing (and increase the number of turns lock to lock on the steering wheel), which switching to a manual rack does....

So I've decided to keep the power rack, but drain the fluid and remove the "power" part of it...it does make the steering heavier at low speeds, but I'm happy with that

That's a very unique idea I'll have to see how my steering rack is once it's back on the road. I've forgotten how it is it's been that long!



I had another 'tinker with the car' day and decided i may as well take off my coilovers to clean them up and re-grease them. Whipped them off and spent what felt like forever winding the collars and the springs off. What a boring job. Anyway, after removing the bits i've found out that my spring caps are fubarred not happy after only being used for 6 months or so. It's only the fronts that have them. One side has play in the bearing and the other has seized from moving up and down the piston as there is a build up of rust underneath!

Small video here;

http://youtu.be/lhS3RMl3vlE

Spoke to MeisterR on the matter and because i've had them longer than a year, i'll have to purchase 2 new spring cups!

[Donato]

I ordered up 2 new spring cups for the coilovers and fitted them. Re-built the coilovers back up greasing them up again. Nice and clean again.








And all fitted back onto the car so i can get me geometry kit fitted. Relatively simple on the front. New balljoints purchased from work;



And fitted to the knuckle with the RCAs.







Then it came to do the rears. New balljoints and RCAs fitted. Then i found out that the wheels don't move when fitted as the balljoint castle nut catches the inside of the wheel. So i'm going to have to man up and grind some of that away! So i've had to remove the RCAs for now till i get a chance to do so.



I had to spin the car around, so i had to roll her out onto the street to do so. I kind of like it like this





And now with most of the bodypanels back on. Except for the rear as i've still yet to have the arches welded.



I've also made a purchase of a nice Recaro bucket seat runner. Which will do nicely for when i buy one!

[Donato]

I've been a bit sidetracked recently, with a few purchased such as a GoPro!

A bit of an impulse buy, but they are so awesome! It didn't take long before i had it mounted in the car








I've also bought a few other things that i've not really got any pictures. I went to visit almostaverage to grab a couple of bits off his 3SFE he was breaking. Managed to collect the front bumper as i won't be re-installing fog lights, scuttle panel as mine broke, a door so i can figure out how to replace my broken window regulator and also both rear hubs as my ball joint bolt thread is a fu-barred.

Scuttle panel has been fitted with ease. It's black too (mine was faded) so brings it back up to scratch. I've also fitted the window regulator. What a xxxxxx pain in the ar$e that was! I've never had such a daunting task. Because my current one was broken, and the replacement was still attached the door it was a bit of a nightmare trying to remove it - i've got cuts and bruises to prove it!! But it's on now, i just need to adjust it to make it sit flush.

I've taken the rear hubs into work to have the bearings removed so i can hopefully get them powdercoated with replacement bearings. One side was fairly simple to remove, the other not so much

Whilst my dad has been busy occupied his own stuff, he's not had chance to finish off welding the arches. So i took the chance to remove the exhaust and heat shielding so i can under seal the back end of the car.

I've not done a bad job i don't think!






I have however been spending some good quality time with a fellow turbo, putting my GoPro to some good use



And a video from the Cat & Fiddle;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DeMpI4-pfA

It flames!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkw2Wdjwt_Q


And some GoPro shots of my own car

[mattm117]

Some good updates there, lots of progress!

[Donato]

So the car has changed a fair bit since last time I updated this.

A friend was breaking his Turbo so I picked up a few bits off him. Quite a few goodies!

First up were some staggerd 17" Rays GramLights with a spare set of 235/45/17 Federal RS-R's.





A lovely Cusco front strut brace



A set of Greddy Gracer Skirts






Also an Abflug front splitter



And some Raybrig headlights




Finishes off the car nicely. I just need to roll my arches a touch now to accommodate the aggressive wheels!

[craig]

Nice, the kit should look rather tasty when all sprayed up. What rear spats are you going for on the bumper?

[Donato]

Nice, the kit should look rather tasty when all sprayed up. What rear spats are you going for on the bumper?

Cheers! Yeah, it should look good I hope. As for rear spats, I'm not too sure. I quite like how open the rear is and how you can see the girth of the rear wheels

[Donato]

It's time to piece the car back together now, ready for the road.

First up was to fit the headlight covers and surrounds. Done!

Then i had to roll the arches a bit to accommodate the 8.5J wheels and 235/45 tyres.



Then i had to tinker around with trying to figure out how to fit the bucket seat.



Think i need to get some metal bars ordered and go from there..

[ashley]

Yep- these cars are a biatch to run decent rails in...keen to see how you solve it, I'll have to show you how I did mine

[david123]

Just sat and read from the beginning did it take long to remove all the sound deadening?

why cant you use the recaro rails pictured in the posts above?

[dazzz]

I had a Cusco front brace likes yours. Turns out it's just an ebay spesh with a Cusco sticker.

[Donato]

Yep- these cars are a biatch to run decent rails in...keen to see how you solve it, I'll have to show you how I did mine

The metal is in the post, so i'll post pictures if I can put thoughts into practise.

Just sat and read from the beginning did it take long to remove all the sound deadening?

why cant you use the recaro rails pictured in the posts above?

It took a long time! A really daunting and time consuming task. Probably about 10/12 hours. I did over a couple of weeks in free afternoons. The first Bride rail I didn't suit the bucket seat I had and the same for the Recaro rail.

I had a Cusco front brace likes yours. Turns out it's just an ebay spesh with a Cusco sticker.

I bought one of them! Soon got rid of it though..

[Donato]

More progress.

I had my T-Bar glass vinyl wrapped. I mainly did that for 2 reasons, so if I crash they don't shatter ontop of me and also because I've binned off by T-Bar shades





Also fitted new steering rack boots as my old ones were pretty much non existent.



Whilst having a poke around under there, I noticed how close my wheels were to the coilover struts. Quite close!



So I had to remove the wings and take a look at clearance between the top of the wheel and the arch.



Not much their either!





Then all fixed back together.
I think I need some new wings however as mine are in a very bad state. Maybe it's an excuse for fibreglass ones?

[ashley]

From memory the fg wings come out slightly heavier than stock

[Donato]

Harness & Bucket seat update!

So after weeks of head scratching, various mounts, different metal & lots of trial and error i've finally managed to mount my Cobra Suzuka Pro in the car to a point where i'm happy with the position of how low and well it sits. I've used a mix of MX5 bucket seat mounts and some custom metal bars.











And then finally time to mount the harness eyelets and harness.





So happy with the results!

[synXero]

Brilliant and well done for not cutting a corner and bodging it.

Seat looks killer, if not comfy, and I bet it'll hold you in proper