Thanks man, I appreciate it.

I plan on taking the whole front subframe out and repainting all of the components while I replace the steering components and bushings. That lower air panel is missing on this car and I need to find a replacement for it, and paint that as well. The headlight trim does need to be painted but I'm waiting on that until I have everything back together the way it should be.

Yeah, it's killer on the back and hips for sure. That Chef movie is great, I really liked it.

I have no idea what that meant?

New battery came in today! She's a tiny one, that's for sure.


So I started making this mounting bracket for the FPR/R, Main Relay and FC Fuse Box back by the battery.












Used that block as a grounding station that will have the best grounds in the whole car. I'm going to run individual grounds from that block all over the chassis with 12ga black wire I picked up from Menard's.


I was actually able to test the lighting system in the FB and that worked! So I was super happy with that. I started in on the FC wiring and got the Main Relay, Fuel Pressure Relay/Resistor and fuse box all wired in the way they should be. Need to start cracking on the FEM-02 and all 3 ECU Plugs next. The best part about doing this a second time is that I now know how to read the diagrams and my notes better than I did last time. Knowing where each wire should be going and that B/W all comes from IGN 1 is pretty helpful, I thought about it wrong last time. It's really nice doing it a second time to say the least, I feel more knowledgeable for sure.

 

This is what I mean .

 

Fixed

Hey, I like that dude - so I'm cool with that comparison

 

I ordered two transmission mounts to go today

 

You work fast! I like the relocation block on the battery.
Can you see the light at the end of the tunnel yet?

 

Making good progress man! I wouldn't say I'm the "pioneer" of the FC subframe swap. It had been done a number of times way before I did it, I was just one of the first to put a "complete" thread together about it, most of the other guys never indicated if they had finished the swap or how it worked out etc.

 

Thanks man, I'm trying to scoot right along with this build. The battery relocation mounting was pretty necessary in order to get everything to sit where I wanted it to. I think it'll work out well in the end!

I'm starting to catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still a long ways away and a few hundred dollars to boot.
1. Suspension decisions
---If SE suspension is swapped I need to refurbish it all with:
-----KYB shocks/struts
-----RB lowering springs
-----Re-paint it all black
-----Brake rotors, front and rear, with brake pads in all 4 corners
-----Refinish Epsilon wheels, mainly just the lips for this year
-----Install the poly bushings all around
-----New tires for the wheels since the ones on them are unusable
-----All this, among a whole list of other small things I'll need
2. Front Mount InterCooler FMIC and piping decisions
3. Finish fuel tank, fuel line and fuel pump installation
4. Get flywheel resurfaced and order a new clutch
5. Get a small order from Atkins with the thermal pellet, o-ring for front cover, Idemitsu pre-mix oil, etc.
6. Exhaust (need every gasket, 3" downpipe and I'll have to fabricate the rest of the 3" exhaust)
7. Tons of other small things

Well, you've got the oldest thread I can find on here for the subframe swap with good pictures and descriptions sooo...yeah

The biggest update here is that I was out working on the car and blew a fuse or something in the garage. All the lights and power went out in the whole garage except for the small back room. Luckily my great uncle comes over every Monday night and he is a retired electrician - so hopefully when he gets here in 2.5hrs he can help me fix the problem right quick. I need to get back out there and cracking away at the car some more! I'm in the middle of the FC wiring right now and want to get even further tonight so I can try and finish the wiring this week.

 

Decided to do something off-the-wall today and did the sound deadening.

I needed some mindless work for a change, was a nice change from sorting through vital engine wires.

 

So that's what the inside of a rust free panel looks like, huh?

Using fat mat I see. I've come to the conclusion that in the grand scheme of things, you really can't go wrong with any of the products available for sound deadener. Looks like you did a great job with it!

 

But... But.... It's heavier now! You made it slow!

Looks good man, and yeah that car is pretty damn clean!

 

Well in my opinion there will always be a faster car than yours, unless you have a Nissan GT-R.... So, if a heavier car turn your ride comfortable, then GO FOR IT!!!!

Look pretty damn cool!!!!

 

Looking forward to see your choice for deadening of the doors. I haven't decided how to do this on mine yet. Seems like a lot of work getting the inside of the out-side door panel cleaned and it put in there as opposed to just on the outside of the in-side of the door

 

Yeah, I was a little worried about the choice of deadener but it worked out great. The adhesion is amazing - there's no getting it off once it's stuck down. I used a heat gun to heat up the area a little bit, and then I heated up the mat before sticking it down so it's not going anywhere now. For it being on the cheaper end of the market I'm pretty happy with it and I'll use it again!

My neighbor got on my case a little bit last night (MR2 owner, awesome guy) saying, "Ah, don't add dead weight..." My response to that was that I'm removing the nasty carpet insulation stuff that came with the car so I'm wondering what the weight trade off actually is. It's 15lbs for 50sq feet of deadener and I'm guessing that huge back carpet thing weighs about that much. So there's none of that nasty rubbery carpet stuff in the whole rear end now which is really nice.

Yeah, this car is crazy clean...I'm trying my best not to ruin how nice it really is!

Yeah, I tend to think this way too. If I wanted a track car, then I'd build a track car! This is intended to be a daily driven summer car with full A/C, sound system, and a few other aftermarket add-ons as well. I'm not looking to cut weight and make it into a complete racer. I want this to be a car I can just go out, turn the key and have some fun on the way to work this summer. Then when I feel like it I'll go up to the track and have some fun with it. Eventually I'll build a ~2,100lb track beast...

I have actually heard that the spray-on deadener works the best in there. Use some black silicone between the crash bar and outer door skin to prevent that *clang* of the skin hitting the bar when closing the door. Then use some good undercoating in a spray can to cover the inside part of the door skin. There's a guy who gave me those hints who did that to his FD and it completely changed the noise inside the car as well as making the door shut with a satisfactory *thud* instead of *clang*.

 

That's an awesome tip! Thanks for passing it on.

 

No problem, thought I'd help some others out by passing along the information. I'll be doing it to my own car and seeing how it goes so feel free to watch for that in the near future!

I got some more done here today, here's the mess that I had to clean up in order to get some more stuff done in the car:


/START RANT
So the genius engineers at Mazda decided one fateful night on how to install an automatic transmission to make the car more appealing to women. They figured that since it was going to be a woman's car, they could make it complicated - in order to match the creatures they were focusing for in the sale. In order to try and match the sophisticated nature of the future women drivers of the auto cars, they decided it would be a good idea to install the automatic transmission gear lever mechanism before the dash. This decision was an effort to confuse and frustrate future male mechanics who might get the idea to mess with what they had decided was right (not dissimilar to arguing with the normal female occupants). You see, performing a change from auto to manual would require something monumental - removing the dash. This was most likely done in order to change the mind of a determined man who wanted to change the nature of the original form of the car.

You'd literally have remove the entire dash in order to get that auto gear lever selector out of its home. You'll also have to weld in the manual transmission mounts or make a big long flat piece of steel to cover the distance difference from the auto to the manual.

Automatic woman cars - never a good idea.
\END RANT

Stupid auto gear selector referenced:


I made four cuts in the selector in order to get it out without taking the dash out:
1. By back left bolt
2. By back right bolt
3. From selector to front left bolt
4. The left side of the bolt that the selector rotates on, this separated the two parts


Lastly, I drilled out the spot welds in the right side manual transmission mount and separated it from the sheet metal. Before I do the left side I'll be using a bit bigger of a drill bit in order to have to pry on the sheet metal a lot less.

 

Those trans mounts look like manitee noses lol.

 

And they're THICK too... Takes a little more effort cutting those spot welds than in other areas of the floor.

 

LOL yeah that auto selector looks terrible to remove. Glad you're doing this swap the right way though by welding on the manual mounts etc. Will be a nice clean setup when you're done.

 

its funny how beefy Mazda made those, and then BMW just uses a nut and bolt through the floor pan. the BMW way is better, because it starts perfect, and then there is a kit to fix it.

 

They really do!

Isn't that the truth...those mounts have to be 3x thicker than the sheet metal they're welded to that makes up the transmission tunnel. It's crazy how thin that metal is in the tunnel, quite scary in some ways. Drilling the spot welds went easily enough - used a tap to center the bit so it didn't walk all over, drilled a small pilot hole first and followed that with a big bit. The only thing I'll be doing with the next mount is using a bit bigger of a bit in order to get more of the weld gone so I'm not peeling the sheet metal off so vigorously (stabbed myself a few times, whoops).

That auto selector is so stupid! I'm glad I have some saw experience and both my arms work well, only took maybe 15 careful minutes to get the thing out once I decided to cut. Compared to the hours it would have taken to get it out removing the whole dash...yuck.

When I see guys who do the auto to manual swap by making a big metal bracket to span the distance, it really makes me worry. I don't want my driveshaft rotating over a big metal plate that's holding my transmission in the car. Not to mention flex and shearing, among many other scary things that could happen there.

Crazy! I'd love a BMW someday, always loved their coupes since I was younger than 16.

 

BMW does things really weirdly. we raced an E46 one year, and the front of the hood has like 6 layers of steel pressed together, and the rear suspension is just literally bolted to the trunk floor. so just to reiterate, the structure of the car is a washer from the hardware store, and the hood is built like the prinz eugen.

but chicks dig it

 

Sums up BMW to a T...

 

we stopped racing it because we couldn't afford to fix all the stuff that fell off when it was sitting in the garage between races.

 

hahahaha that's awesome

 

I'd love an E46 M3 coupe...or a 3-series coupe...or a 3-series in general...

Haha falls off in the garage, I can see how that would get really annoying!