Quick Update

My black silicone rad hoses came in and are now installed. I’ve also ordered a couple of these 1-1/4 clamps to go on the ends of the top hose.

I’ve also ordered my new leather shift boot, e-brake cover and armrest cover from Redline. They will be charcoal with light gray stitching

I’ve figured out my grommet situation and how I’m running the wires through the firewall.. I’m actually running a cut piece of my old rad hose inside the grommet to act as a sleeve

Wayne, I have an extra grommet and some spare rad hose that I’ll bring up today to see if you like the solution too

Pulleys have Arrived

Unorthodox Pulleys came in and they look great… the not so great thing was the UPS $53 brokerage fee plus $23 in taxes to bring them into Canada 😦

On Friday I pick up the remaining powder coated items. Frank has ordered the intercooler piping and hopefully will get started on that fab work soon.

I found my 2″ grommet for the firewall, brass fittings to connect all the hoses, and all my remaining fuel fittings. Power steering components are all ordered and on the way.

Alternator wiring, fuse box to starter wire, EGT wiring and fuel line measurements are all complete.

I’ll be dropping off the power steering pump and throttle body for media blasting to clean them up tomorrow morning.

Things are starting to come together

Mocking up the Engine Panels

I made some more progress today. Finished running the 4 gauge wires to the trunk for the battery re-location, finished some grounding points and the removal and re-install of the back seats and trim.

My Dad was down so we tackled making some templates and completed some initial work on the panels that will eventually cover the sides of the engine bay. These panels will all be covered with fiberglass as well as the wheel well arches and the strut towers. They will all be one piece that will be held in place by the strut tower bolts, fender bolts and one bolt on the frame.

Once I have them all fiberglassed I’ll be paying a visit to Vince to have them covered in carbon fiber. The hole in the pictures below that is on the side simply needed to be cut out to make the piece sit flush on the side. It will be fiberglassed over top of so that there will be no holes on the sides.

I’ll also be able to use the same templates and plastic for the passenger side. We made sure that there was going to be enough room under the panels to tuck away some of the nasty passenger side wiring, boost control solenoid etc. so that both sides will be symmetrical.

On the drivers side I’ll also be cutting away the washer bottle holder brace on the wheel arch and the two mounting points on the strut tower. These will all be covered in CF.

Now enough gabbing and a couple pics to get a glimpse of what it will end up looking like

It fits up nice and flush to where the headlights come in. I’m using some Styrene plastic to use as a stable flat base for the areas that need to be flat.

Battery and Power Steering

Had another good day today. I managed to finish off my battery tray in the trunk. I have a nice 100amp breaker that I’ll be using to make a quick switch so that I don’t have to disconnect cables, just flip a switch

I have some plans for some junk in my trunk, but you will have to wait and see. The fuel filler cap is a bit of a teaser. BTW, I have 3 more of those caps if anyone is looking for some.

I was also able to finish up my power steering tank mount as well as my wiring for the alternator and the lead coming off of the starter to the fuse box. I’ll end up having the bracket polished and some -AN fittings welded onto the tank

I drilled and tapped the PS tank tabs so that I can just fasten it onto the bracket without a nut.

I was also able to put a new barbed fitting on the turbo for the coolant line and picked up some more coolant lines for under the intake manifold. I managed to order some new black silicone rad hoses today too.

Alternator Assembly

Well I had lots of fun putting the alternator back together as well. I’m not sure if it really had to do with the powder coat but let’s just say I had a lot of “joy” putting it back together

I ended up grinding out the front housing so that it wasn’t as tight of a fit. After I had everything back together and that bad boy spinning freely, I realized that I messed up the threads on the shaft for the pulley nut

Good thing I had a bunch of spare parts, because after about 1 hour of trying to correct the threads, I pulled it all apart again and replaced the shaft with one from my other alternator.

Oh.. and it took forever to realize that there was a pin-hole on the back housing that is used to hold the contacts back out of the way so that you can get the shaft in. Let’s just say there were some choice words being used in the garage

And another fun fact. I realized yesterday that the bracket that holds the 06 power steering pump is different than the 02.. Not just the pump is different. So the new 06 bracket is going to have to go off for powder coating.

Here are a couple of shots of it all installed in the car with all new OEM bolts/screws.

And one of the heat shield:

Powder Coated Pieces are Back

Finally I have my powder coated pieces back! They are powder coated with a chrome finish and the heat shield is finished in a polished ceramic coat. Hopefully tomorrow I can do some re-assembly.

Back from Vacation

After a long time away from the car (work and vacation) I was back at it yesterday and today. I was able to get quite a bit done. The main project was getting the fuse box mounted and my front and driver’s side wiring harness all taken care of.

I also was able to pick up more -AN fittings for the fuel system… 3 of my 45’s are still on order… grrrrr..

Part of my order was some more -10AN and -12AN easy seal fittings in chrome finish. I was able to get these on my valve breathers, the “T” where they meet and both of my coolant lines going to the passenger compartment. I was also able to put on some rubber guarding for where the braided line snake through the intake manifold.