Ketchup to the Current

Ok, I'm gonna get right to it.  The holidays are a tough time to work on cars, ski 4 days a week, and family time. 

So, yeah, it's been like 2 months since my last update, and not too much has happened to the car since.  BUT, we have some plans this winter, so let's dig right into it.

Back in the fall, I finally got off my butt and did something about finishing up the front fenders.  Behind the wheel was... well, unfinished.  So let's build something to finish it.

Moar carbonnnnnnnnnn!  I've always said, "never mount carbon parts close to the ground."  Well, rules (and carbon parts) are meant to be broken.  These sheets are relatively inexpensive (I think I paid $90 for both), so let's whack em up.  I built a homemade cutting table utilizing a dremel to cut these to shape.  It immediately broke.  The dremel fried, and the cuts weren't of the precision I dreamt of.

So, out came the airsaw.

Which worked really well!

After some cutting and sanding, the pieces were starting to look presentable.

Using some aluminum angle (remember the extra crap from my front splitter?) I started riveting them together.

Ta-Da! (jazz hands)  Needs some mounting brackets though.  These will attach to the front of the sideskirts.

Figured out how to mount the top portion... more angle and rivets!

Cut.  Apply rivets.

Now we can drill some holes in the top of the carbon panels to rivet it all together.

All done... for now.  I do need to tweak it a bit, add another mounting point, but overall the panels really tie the car together (Lebowski).  It helps with the wide fender-to-sideskirt connection and really completes the look.  

After that... I needed to fix something that was bugging me.  The last time I had the turbo off, I snapped the bolt holding the exhaust manifold heat shield to the manifold.  I tried getting it out with an extractor, drilling, hell... I even swore at it!  So.  I gave up and came up with plan B.  

The heat shield is originally a TCS unit, it looks nicer than the OEM shield, but I'm not sure it functions as well.  Oh well, lets weld up the holes, and add tabs to mount to the head.

I tacked some backer tabs, filled in the holes topside, then ground these backers off.  I also added some 1" beads to stiffen it up the back wall of the shield.

As always, build out of cardboard, then metal.

A buddy at work TIG'd up the new mounting tabs.  My other welds are actually stick welds I did at our union hall where I'm learning the craft (pipe trades still rely heavily on stick welding).  I should really pick up a MIG machine...

Test fit successful!, time to paint and install.

With that job done, let's go get some fall touge before winter sets in.

Car was dirty, but who cares.  This road is one of my favorites, it's the Middle Fork road, which dead ends about 12 miles up deep into the central Cascades.  What's best, they just finished repaving it this fall concluding a 2 year project. 

I know I'm missing a BBS centercap, they're tough to replace!  The new fender panel looks pretty good!

Yeah, it's a nice road.  Right in my backyard too.  After a weeks worth of hard touge driving (you probably saw all my #tougetuesday posts on IG: Apex_Attack), I noticed a "clunk" when rolling from a stop in the car.  What now?

Well, after a lengthy diagnosis with a buddy, we still couldn't really figure it out.  But, when I left from a stop, the engine moved far too much for my liking.  Years ago I had filled my front and back engine mounts with window weld.  Looks like that was failing now.  I cruised on over to Prime MR2 and picked up a little care package from them.

The polyurethane bushings completely replace the middle parts of the OEM mounts.  According to their instructions, get a hacksaw blade in there upside down and cut the out metal ring of the OEM mount, and the rubber comes right out.

It worked!  The total installation took about 2 hours with me puttzin' around.  When pulling the front mount, I noticed the bolt going through the mount wasn't totally tight, meaning it could slip just enough to allow the engine to shift more than necessary.  That was my "clunk," just a semi-loose bolt!  

Shaking my head, I finished the insert install, and fired the car up.  First impression, pretty "racecar" vibrations at idle.  It's not unbearable, but definitely noticeable.  Once I got out of the neighborhood, the car felt much more "tight."  Most notably, the shifting had improved significantly!  Easier to get in and out of gears, and a much more solid feel. 

I pulled out onto the highway to let er rip.  WHAM!  Everything goes black.

Some idiot forgot to lock down the front aerocatches from the trickle battery charger.  Facepalm.  So.  Stupid.

The damage: windshield is destroyed, wiper cowel shattered, and carbon hood cracked to hell.  Live and learn.  Only one guy to blame, me. 

The hood isn't too bad, but I will likely paint it now.  I've already got a new wiper cowel and hood hinges in, and started repairing the underside fo the hood.

We'll finish some halfass repairs in the next installment.

What else is up my sleeve this winter?  Well, I finally weighed the car at a garbage dump (I know, very accurate), and drum roll.... 2840 pounds with me in it and full tank of gas.  Not too bad (2600# dry)!  But, it can always be lighter.  If the car can drop another 100 pounds this winter, I'd be stoked!

This winter we will get pretty serious about weight reduction, downforce, reliability (while adding a few ponies of course), and safety.   Stay tuned, the next post will be sooner than 2 months!

As always, support the people that support us!

- Wilhelm Raceworks - Track essential parts, developed and tested by Alex.  

- RacerX Fabrication - Some of the highest quality SW20 products out there.

- Rat2 Motorsports - Swaps, new and used parts.

- Campos Sites - All the cool MR2 aero parts, he still makes them.