Last few days I've been mostly picking up parts for the build. All the front nuts, bolts and brackets back from the platers



Probably my favourite part, new wheels curtesy of Mags at Ryslip Tires



9.75 these things are ooober wide


Picked up all the powdercoated parts except the the front sub frame




I went for blue on the wishbones, hoping they'll match the rear Hardrace stuff. Its a bit garish but we'll see



The guys at OBP have worked their magic again tweaked their baffled catch can with a AN8 union at the bottom so I can run a 'return to sump'



I've also ordered Darren/ABW's dummy headlights, they should be arriving later this week. A bit premature as I haven't done anything on the exterior but I thought I'd sold my headlights but buyer backed out anyway, still looking forward to fitting them.

Hopefully I'll be getting all the bushes and bearings sorted this weekend ready for re-assemble over xmas. Even though I've clean or painted what feels like a million parts, theres still a tone of parts to get sorted.

Getting there though

 

How do they do the coating mate on the bolts, do they use acid to get the crap off?

Wheels look awesome btw

 

It's called electro nickel plating Andy. They give them a rough clean buy hand and then different acid baths and then a couple of different stages to make the nickel.

I was gobsmacked when they said some of it is by hand, must take forever. They also individually wire them for dipping. A lot of places use large wire drums but apparently it's not the best methods.

Who knows, all I know is they look the business, rock hard finish and there's no rust

 

After spending most of the week either cleaning, stripping or painting it was pretty refreshing doing something different. Just spent a few hours over at Tim's sorting out the bushes and bearings for the front.

New front bearings all sorted



Wishbone bushes sorted, tricky not ruining the new powdercoat but we got there



Gear linkage bushes





Apart from forgetting the front caster bushes were pretty much sorted for the front to be put together over Xmas

 

All looking good Gez

 

Cheers frayz mate. Yours ain't looking too bad either

Have you removed all of the panel seem gunk as well as the sound deadening? Any tips? Sound deadening was easy but it took me ages to remove the seem gunk in my boot

 

No tips really dude, it's the same hard work for all of us I guess.
I'm using a sharp 20mm wide gasket scraper and wire wheel.

Sorry if I missed it, but did you weigh your spare wheel well? Can't decide if it's worth cutting or not :-/

 

All in the name of weight saving?!!

Try dodging the goose fat spuds Thursday Gez

 

Thought so mate, pretty much what I used mate.

I didn't weigh it mate, it's not as heavy as you'd think but defo worth cutting out if you want to save every little bit. Obviously depends on what you replace it with, I bet you use carbon

LOL no chance mate, I will be stuffing my face silly over Xmas

 

Sounds daft considering how far I've come, but kinda unsure about hacking the car up like that. If I could make it nice Id be tempted.
A carbon sheet that big would be a fortune. I'd probably use alloy or polycarbonate.

 

Sounds daft considering how far I've come, but kinda unsure about hacking the car up like that. If I could make it nice Id be tempted.
A carbon sheet that big would be a fortune. I'd probably use alloy or polycarbonate.

 

I know what you mean mate, tbh I was a bit nervouse when we made that first cut. But then I thought if I'm gonna do this I'm gonna do this as perfect as I can afford. I'm not sure if I've saved weight as I added a chassis brace abut I do know the back end will be stiffer and because of changing the fuel tank I've saved a ton of weight getting rid of the oem tank.

I needed the flat floor for the tank.

One thing just leads onto another

 

My cage will add all the chassis stiffness I'll need, I hope. Lol

 

I'm sure it will mate

 

just seen this for the first time and read it all, got some great ideas and tips off this, look forward to seeing more

 

 

Today was the day Tim is down and we get the front end back together one thing thats been bugging me is, taking tools between the garages and I never know where the stuff is. So I went a bit mad and bought a load more tools and got organised



I even prefer this to my tool cabinet at home, should of done this at the beginning

So the first job was to build the subframe with steering rack etc





Then the cradle with the new bushes and the gearbox to sort out. All the brackets from the gearbox were cleaned and plated, personally I love the silver against the new black gearbox









New beefy gearbox mount is huge and solid as a rock



We then got the subframe back on but before we got the gearbox under the car ready for mounting.











After a little swearing and a few hernia's we got the gearbox in and mounted

Then its was all the wishbones, hubs, shafts roll centre etc etc

I did originally have the powerflex black caster bush for the alk kit but we soon found out they weren't compatible with the whiteline. We were able to temporarily remove the metal inner sleeve so we could rotate the bush so could get the caster. The bush maybe a little softer but I didn't want to go back to the original flimsier alk.









As it was below freezing and the parts outside were getting frost on them last job of the day was to just re-mount the FMIC. Decided to flip it as it looked like new kinda miss the logo though.



Got to say Tim worked like a man possessed, I've only just got the feeling back in my toes god knows how he knew which bolts to use when we had a huge selection box from the platers.

 

Fantastic update Gez

 

thanks mate. Yesterday really felt like we made good progress

Keeping a close on yours mate looking forward to when I get onto the stripping/interior too

 

That looks mint 😎

 

Master class,Looks SUPERB!!! mate.SJ.

 

cheers guys

 

Since the last update a few things have happened. The wallet has had a pounding

A few brackets have been replaced or re-painted and some pipe work work has been protected. I also noticed a small section of the loom had got hot. Better safe than sorry.





As the engine is out, its had a little clean. No where near as good as before but a hell of a lot better without all that fury corrosion crap.



Sexy RCM headers arrived, love the look of these things. After a lot of debating I decided to just wrap them. Ignore the wire and cable tie waiting for the lock wire to arrive.





After a lot of calls and conversations with different suppliers only Alan at A.S Performance was able to supply front and rear Performance friction pads. Good guy and very helpful



My main man Maggs was able to supply and fit the new wheels and tires. I was really toying with the idea of black wheels but I ended up staying with what I know. Couldn't be happier with them and Maggs's service.






These pic's don't do them justice, they are huuuuuuuugggggggggeeeeee

We're gonna try and get the engine back in at weekend and map out the new exhaust system but in the mean time I've been playing around with the headlight shells.



As I'm no body shop expert these are gonna take a while. They need a lot of tweaking to fit but they're getting there.

I should have a nice little update after the weekend

 

Amazing amout of dedication to detail you are showing here, your car is going to be awesome when finished and last for many years!

 

Thanks mate, its taking its time but I'm sure it will be worth it

 

Had some good progress over the weekend, we got the engine in

But before we, changed the plugs and injectors, these should be easily capable of the power I've got in mind.




Also got the new mounts and headers fitted. Bloody threads for the mounts were goosed, luckily Tim was able to sort them out




Engine back in where it should be. Temp old manifold, new one will go on when everything is finished.





A big job we haven't started but I've been looking forward to is the new exhaust system. I've kept the milltek down pipe and centre section but we're planning on making the remaining pipe work bespoke.

We found the downpipe was now touching the new huge gearbox mount. We had to make a slight mod to the exhaust



We've got a good idea of what the new design is. I've now gotta get a load of pipe and hopefully we'll get back on it soon.

 

Looking good Gez. What's the plan for the system then? Going quiet downswept?

 

Cheers frayz. If all goes to plan we should be getting a small silencer up close by the rear brace where the old tank was and then with a few bends nice straight exit in the centre. Up nice and tight to the boot floor. That's the plan anyway

 

Sounds good mate. Watching with interest.