Author Archives: Chris

Daily Driver for Three Days

I’ve been driving the car for three days to work. The motor has 219,000 miles on it and the Body and transmission have 190,000 miles.

I’m happy with how the car is running overall now. I’ve been having a miss under load. Last night I swapped the used iPD spark plug wires for a known good set of stock wires. The miss is not gone but I’m still not getting full boost (only 9lbs) and I get a check engine light only under load.

Car is Aligned

I got the car aligned over the weekend. I also installed the roof rack and the grilles. I put on moose emblems that I’ve had for years and never got around to installing on the old car.

I’m still working out a small occupational miss in the motor and I’m only getting 9 lbs of boost. I swapped out the fuel filter which was clogged. I also swapped out the coil with a know good one. I’m going to try swapping out the used set of iPD plug wires with the set of known good stock wires. I believe I have a boost leak as well that I need to trace.

The Car is Running and Driving

I wet sanded the bumpers and did the initial buffing. I still need to do some final buffing but I’m going to wait, I’ve gotten a little impatient.

I got the bumpers and wheels installed. I was able to get the car out of the garage with its own power. I’m really excited. I had a friend weld up the hitch yesterday.

I still need to wet sand and buff the bumpers and wing. Install the grill, plastic under tray, roof rack, and rear mud flaps. As well as swap out the fuel filter. I need to build a front license plate bracket. I also need to get an alignment.

Brakes are installed

I was able to get the brakes done. The rotors, pads, parking brake shoes, and hardware have been replaced. The calipers have been cleaned and painted. I have stainless steel braided front hose. I purchased rear stainless hoses but I couldn’t get the old ones off without damaging the hard lines. I’m going to go back and change out the rear hoses in the future and I may need to replace the hard lines as well. The front brakes have the upgraded larger 302mm rotors.

The old brakes were really bad and the driver’s side parking brake wasn’t working at all. The old fluid was black.

I installed the rear iPD sway bar. I didn’t realize how flimsy the stock one was until I pulled it out and compared the two.

I also burped and pressurized the cooling system. I found two leaks, one was the water pump and one was the rear crossover pipe. I had to pull the timing cover and belt so I could reseal the water pump. THe leak at the crossover pipe was the upper little pipe with the two bolts. Neither was easy to take care of.

Interior Installation Complete and Motor Running

I made some serious progress over the last week. I have the interior complete and the car running.

The motor is running and I don’t appear have any leaks. I’m also making good vacuum. I still need to check all the fluids and finish burping the coolant.

I built a transmission cooler mount for the car out of 1″ X 1/8″ steel that I welded.

I also prepped and painted the bumpers and wing. I still need to wet sand and polish them before I install them on the car.

Worked on bumper repair

I started on the bumper repair using a product called Vicrez vzt106 Auto Body Plastic Repair Complete Set. The plastic repair worked really well but it wasn’t easy to work with because it was so watery and was hard to keep from dripping. Once dry it does fuse to the bumper and you can’t tell there was a hole or cut once sanded.I used the repair kit to remove the licence plat mounting holes and a 3″ cut in the bumper.

The rear bumper brackets were very rusted and needed to be replaced. I was able to use the brackets off of the silver car and I purchased new bumper bolts. The rear exhaust mounting bracket had surface rust so I pulled it, wire brushed it want painted it with epoxy chassis black paint.

I installed the hitch so I could take weld it. I still need to have the final welding done.

Continued Progress

I was able to make progress. I got the engine and transmission wired up. I installed the stock downpipe (hopefully later this year I’ll upgrade). The front suspension is installed. I struggled to get the steering column mated to the steering rack but I did eventually succeed. When I started to put the car back together, I noticed the Heater Hose Junction at the firewall was damaged so I went ahead replaced it.

I relocated and upgraded the horns. I moved them to under the battery where the SAS was.

The wiring of the PSB-1 Boost/Wideband Gauge Kit took quite a bit of time because I wires everything into the factory harness so it will never be seen. I still need to install the gauge itself once the dash is in.

You can see the failsafe relay in the box. The two wires sticking out of the firewall splice into the TCV wiring. I ran the O2 conection and the analog output wire out the passenger side of the firewall.

The Eurosport Tuning strut brace is installed. The upper and lower iPD polyurethane torque mounts are installed.

I was able to get the subframe and suspension installed on the silver car so I can get it rolled onto a trailer for scrapping.

Next on the list is getting the interior swapped over from the silver car. After that it’s brakes, radiator, intercooler, radiator support, intercooler piping, paint and install the bumpers, and paint and install the wheels.