inflatablepets

It is now time to start my topic as I am nearly finished with the latest project FC. This will be sort of a "blog" if you will. I will post all issues I have in this thread and will occasionally ask for help. I can also answer questions pertaining to the project. I will update occasionally as to how the car is doing. To begin the story, I must start back on a previous project car. I was aquainted to the FC when a close friend of mine bouught one for $500. It was an 88 GXL. It had a fresh remanufactured engine. It also had been T-boned. That's why it was so cheap. My friend had plans for the car, SCCA, ClubRally, etc. It was also his "playtoy" It survived many off-roading excursions including getting it stuck in a ditch. He did doughnuts in various parking lots sometimes for five minutes or more. To sum it up, we flogged that bitch. It took everything he could throw at it, and it was also reliable enough to loan out to people while their cars were broken down.

Fast forward to about a year later. My friend determined it was time to get rid of the car as necessary repairs to pass saftey inspection were going to exceed the value of the car.

I began my search for my own FC as I was impressed with the reliability and fun of his. After many weeks of searching, I came across a 1989 GTU. It was $500 and had terrible paint issues, and was also bought with "fuel problems" These fuel problems ended up being, no compression on the rear rotor. At that point I decided to purchase my friend's FC and perform an engine swap. This swap proved to be successful and was drivable until 1 year later when my wife was driving the car, she was hit by another driver. The insurance company settled after 30 days for a grand total of $2600. The insurance company was also upset for having to pay for a rental car during that month. We could've got by without it but I figured the added cost of a rental would speed up the settlement process.

Now with a $2600 check and the wrecked car, I was in the market for a rolling chassis. I looked at a couple with only disapointment. They were worn out and too expensive. Then one afternoon, a fellow forum member gave me a phonecall. He wanted to sell an 89 GXL chassis with 52,000 miles on it.

I met with this person and settled for the car for $600. It had no engine, cut wiring harness, automatic transmission and was missing the aero mirrors. I also got him to include a set of S4 TII wheels with decent tires on them.

I went to also speak with the person that bought the engine from the car as he was willing to sell it for around $500. I declined after I found out the front iron was cracked and had to be replaced. He still insisted the engine was in great condition and was insulted that I said the engine was a nothing more than a core engine as I would have to replace at a minimum, the iron and the soft seals. Not a cheap or easy fix.

About a week later I rented a U-Haul car trailer and proceded to get the car onto it by myself. At the time I had back problems and could barely move. It even hurt when I would turn around to look where I was backing the trailer. The place where the car was next to a farm that had several Mexicans working there. Thank God for those guys. They didn't know a word of English, and came over and pushed the car onto the trailer for me. They were rewarded with cold drinks, as it was a hot day.

I then get the car home and begin work on it. The first project was cleaning all the junk out from inside the car. There was fast food trash, empty cigarette packs, mystery parts and even a large butcher knife.

The second project addressed was the re-assembly of the interior. When the engine was pulled, They took most of the dash apart trying to find the ECU. They were un-successful and left me a mess to straighten out.

Next, I drained the fuel from the tank, as I wasn't sure when the car would be running. I also removed the exhaust system and heat shields, so I could remove the automatic transmission and the driveshaft. Later on, it was time to drop the subframe to remove the 3.90 diff. I now had a pile of junk to get rid of. Luckily a local forum member wanted the trans and diff. I gave them to the person, as I was glad to have them gone.

I then cleaned, prepped and installed the diff that was in whe wrecked car, as it had 4.10 gears. At this point, My project was put on hold because a local garbage man snagged some overhead power lines, snapping five poles, which one of went through my master bedroom. I then moved my wife and I into my mother's home during the repairs. At this time, I also deceded to remodel my home, as it was empty. New paint, doors, carpeting etc. The contractor that the insurance company hired was a bit less than honest and was upset at many aspect of the project. I made them replace my electrical panel since t had been hit by the pole and also had been rained on. He tried to get out of it until I asked, "Would you trust this in your home with your family?" He agreed. I also had insisted the furnace be replaced as well since the pole also struck the flue pipe enough to bend the cap. The furnace was over twenty years old and I was worried the heat exchanger might've been damaged. Again it was a matter of my family's safety. These cost big $$ and the repairs ended up costing about $15,000. We also had almost $2500 in additional expenses that we were reimbursed for. Sorry to have gone on a tangent, back to the FC project.

I needed an engine hoist so I bought one from Cummins tools for around $170. I was impressed that it has a double action ram, meaning it lifts on both the up and down stroke. I then removed the engine and transmission from the wrecked car and prepped them for the installation in the new one. Extensive cleaning was in order for me. I fixed some leaks and small problems. I sent the fuel injectors to Cruzinperformance.com to be reconditioned. This cost around $60.00 I portmatched all the intake parts and enlarged the intake runners to gasket match and went as far as my die grinder and bit could reach. I also made sure everything was in order since I am using a S4 shortblock in a S5 car. I checked the compression before pulling the motor and still pull a strong 125 p.s.i per face. I also had the predicament of mounting the manual transmission into the automatic chassis. After extensive research and a great deal of meauring, I had a set of brackets made from 1/2" mild steel. The cost me nothing since I was working on a job at a local machine shop where I had built a restroom and a utility closet. I then approached them with a set of drawings I made. about twenty minutes later, I had a set of brackets in my hands.

I had acquired another transmission for parts,(freebie from local forum member) so I could replace the shifter centering spring that had broken in my transmission. I flushed the fluid as well. It was at this time I located a set of used engine mounts to replace a broken one. Since I'm trying for a low budget build I found a good set for $15.00 shipped. Now, the shortblock and transmission were set into place. This was to be the test of the custom mounting brackets I had made. Some minor adjustment to the auto crossmember was necessary to make it fit.

It was at this time, I discovered that one of the brake calipers was missing, so I located a set of the rear calipers for around $50.00 (ebay find) Then I flushed the old brake fluid and replaced it with DOT 4 Synthetic fluid. I also flushed the clutch hydraulics at the same time. I installed the S4 TII wheels and installed the locking lugnuts that were given to me.


I have more to add, however I am sick of typing and you are probably sick of reading by now. I will post some pictures of the project and parts cars.



This was the birth of the project. It's the S4 GXL that was flogged. She donated her heart for the next car.

This was also the car that got wrecked.

This is the latest project. You can even see the power lines that the garbage man snagged.

The Wankler

iTrader: (14)

ok........

inflatablepets

This was a pic of the crash damage from the donor car.


This is the engine the wrecked will be donating.

inflatablepets

I was told the car was quiet. Here's what I found when I dropped the exhaust from the white car.

91mazdarx7

sounds like you were buisy and ran into some bad luck along the way looks like your doing good though so far is there any big plans for your 7 other then a restoration

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

well I only got to chapter 6 page 87 of the story before I gave up.........sorry

inflatablepets

I recently went into a performance parts store and was going to get "Redline Fluids" for the trans and diff. For 4 quarts of the MT 90? They charged $79.00 Why???? I didn't get any Redline. Work had been slow recently, so I wasn't going to get raped that day. I went to Autozone and bought synthetic for about $20. I then had to go to a small local hardware store to get a pump for 1 quart bottle. It took forever to fill the trans, but it wasn't messy at least. Now the trans and diff are filled.

daten

Do you have any pictures of the project or your progress?

inflatablepets

Now the car runs, but I still have things to wrap up. I found I need to deal with the oil cooler line leak, a small coolant leak and a small amount of wiring. I forgot in the auto to manual swap that I needed to jumper the park/neutral switch. Hmmm, That might make a good immobilizer for extra security. I still have to wire up the reverse lights. I need to hook up the temp gauge, run the air injection tube to the cat, hook up and charge the A/C, replace the lower shifter boots, hook up the cruise too. Then I have the broken auto belt on the pass side. I will remove all plastics before taking it to the stealership, since the broke the a pillar plastics on the last car.

inflatablepets

I want it fixed up really nice first, then we'll see. I was tossing the idea around of the N/A turbo but I might go J-spec instead. I haven't decided.