Replaced all of the petal covers on my SE today. I believe they were the originals and the clutch petal cover was worn through to the metal.

 

For valentine's day, my hubby ordered new brake pads all around, jacked her *** up, removed the wheels. I pulled the rear drums (1 resisted slightly). Noted bad wear from misalignment (non-alignemnt?) totally worn at top, barely worn at bottom. Replaced drums after assessment and am waiting on RockAuto package......
Someone named "Cathy" is calling about buying...??? I guess I'll have to talk to her.

Cathy turned out to be a craigslist generic hoax reply... just needed all our personal info to send payment...

 

Replacing rusted inner panel...currently taking a break. This will be my first welding job as well.

Here are the pics:

 

Went for a $7 drive today (about 2 gals of gas); running this backup ICU, the car is noticeably performing better; much smoother idle, easier pickup just off idle, and I can clearly hear the trailing ignition kick in at Cali-appropriate times.

Now I just need to set a date for the smog check.

 

Dropped off my RIMS to get refurbished. Over 30 years old they were pitted and tired and chipped - They needed a refresh.

Just got a call stating if they try to polish - the pits will show

If they try to lathe off a little to get rid of the pits they would need to go too deep and it would thin out the rims to the point of dangerous.

NEW PLAN - I need to SANDBLAST / PAINT / POWDER COAT -

Will post pics when I get them back in a few days.

Going to bring the car up to 2014 by giving it "NEW" shoes.

 

Are you going to update your thread with this progress? Very interested to see it done again. I have this same project in my near future!

 

This evening, I got my 14x7" wheels wrapped in some 205/55/14 Nitto NT01s, got my newly machined lower link bushings in, and the car back down on the ground. The offset of the 14x7 wheels pushes the wheels out far enough to really give the car an aggressive stance. I like it a lot. Will post pics in the morning.

fm

 

Here are the new bushings I had machined. These go in my adjustable lower links. I had watts links bushings machined as well, but I made a mistake in my measurements and will have to have them made again. :p The new bushings take up *all* of the slop in the heim joints, so it's as solid as a rock where it needs to be, but still allowing plenty of pivoting around the heim joint.



Once the lower links were retrofitted with the new bushings, I put the 14x7s on:

 

Yeah buddy! loving it!

 

Took her for a drive for the 1st time in I Can't remember.

F U WINTER!!!

 

Began welding in new drivers floor pan. Ran out of wire but I got it all tacked into place!

 

Ordered some 15x8 +25 wheels, 1" 4x110 to 4x114.3 lug adapters (roughly 25mm thick to make my wheels a zero offset), 205/50r15 kumho ecsta's, clutch master cylinder, clutch slave cylinder, hatch lift struts, and some fancy valve stems to go with my fancy new wheels.

Once all that comes in on or around the 24th, I'll post up pretty pictures, and add my wheel/tire setup to the wheel thread, because I could never find that size/offset combo.

Should also just need a battery picked up locally to make it 100%, before getting it registered to replace my Protege5 as my daily.

 

Disassembled the highback buckets I plan to use eventually, once they are fixed. Little problems like gaping holes, headrest frame busted off, etc.

Starting now on RE the 80 ICU. Trace, trace, trace....

 

Took her out for a quick spin to test out the new lower link bushings and new set of shoes. The links are quiet quiet quiet! w00t! I may have to roll the fenders...they rub in the back with someone in the car with me. Alone it's mostly OK unless I take a hard corner...which I'll be doing this weekend.

After the shakedown cruise, my she showed my buddy what she does best...

rotary fireball - YouTube

I have a new idle jet that I hope will help. But fireballs are still fun so...

fm

 

If the new jets I have don't help with the hard starting, I'm going to have to figure out a reliable way to simulate a choke so I can start her solo. Cranked her several times earlier today trying to get her to start. My friend came over and I had him crank her... as soon as I completely covered the trumpets on the carb with my hands, she kicked right over. I don't want to have a second person around just to start her every time.

fm

 

Fungus, a shot of choke cleaner down each throat will do it.

 

First thing I tried...no joy. Only thing that helped was completely choking off the venturis. I must have an air leak somewhere, but I'm having trouble locating it. Will keep looking.

fm

 

Fungus, what ignition are you using?

 

Current rely using stock ignition. I have an MSD setup I was planning on installing soon. Wanted to do the carb first. I made no changes to the timing at all. Not even sure what it's set at.

fm

 

Direct fire will help starting, but I think you know that.

 

Yeah, but I don't think it will help with the high idle, which may or may not be related. I need to troubleshoot and eliminate one system at a time. I don't want to just dive into a direct fire ignition install hoping it will fix a problem that which I'm not sure the root cause is.

I'm going to check my timing, then scour the manifold and carb for leaks. It could also be something like twisted throttle shafts...just don't know at this point.

Yesterday, I noticed that my throttle would stick open if I mashed the pedal down to the floor really hard. The cam was sticking on the brake booster bung so I got out a file and filed it down. Now it doesn't stick. Would have sucked to have been going WOT at auto-x this Sunday and have the throttle stick.

I also removed the vinyl tape IMSA mockup on the car.

fm

 

Not today but, yesterday me and my dad finally got a chance to put the rear brakes back together. First time for me so took about 2hrs total we were going to bleed um too but it started raining so we had to pack up and go inside. Hopefully we can bleed the rear brakes, get the 83 flange put on the 82 rear, and then I can FINALLY drive her again in time for spring!

 

Today I tidied up the loom for the wire tuck, got some more lengths wrapped in tape. Sheathed the amp cable up to the fuse, which will live under the battery tray.



Installed

 

I really like the look of that clear pickup cover, ioTus. Hopefully the lack of shielding over the top doesn't cause you any RFI grief.

I'm still plugging away at reverse engineering the 80 ignition. I'm about 80% of the way through creating the schematic for the ignition control unit, & it's starting to make sense how it works. Also correcting the factory wiring diagram, which is quite famously wrong (or at least incomplete) in the connections surrounding the "Ignitor" legend on diagram B.

One of the complicating factors; most of the discrete transistors & diodes in common use in 1980 are no longer made, and trying to find data sheets for them is a pain even when the markings are readable. The web is near-useless where electronic component data from the age before the internet existed is concerned.

I used to have electronic component reference books for this period; tossed them a dozen or more years ago, once they became obsolete and I got out of the electronics hobby.

At least resistor color codes haven't changed.

 

You should start a thread on this research so we can help you out. Sounds
interesting, at least to SA owners anyway.