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Captains Log 07072020;

The adventure continues. It feels like nothing has really been done since my last post, but I realize that was over a month ago - its time for an update whether I like it or not. Lets start at the very front of the car.

I was making bash bar to go under the bumper - to support it correctly, hold the intercooler, some ducting, the new horns, and oil cooler. A friend helped me bend the parts, its a bit more complicated that an I anticipated though because the bottom of the intercooler actually sits lower than the bottom lip of the bumper. I don't have a good work space for this type of thing, so that is progressing very slowly and for now I'm sticking with the crappy solution that I had before. At least its sturdy.

The front subframe is installed, the new front passenger suspension (OE Spec) is installed. Nothing is torqued down, though, as its still mostly in the way while I continue to work on the wiring. Speaking of wiring, I'm still working on that, deliberating taking my sweet time due to how important it is to be done right. The driver side suspension is down, still. I have some surface rust to knock off in the fender well before proceeding.

The rear brake lines that I f'd up .... are replaced. What a job. A good friend of mine came over and helped with that. We ended up removing the exhaust, the drive train, disconnecting the suspension and dropping the rear suspension to get them installed correctly. Much more work than I wanted. During that work, we found that my rear subframe bushings are shot - big surprise. Also, the few ball joints in the rear are bad, some bolts are seized in their bushings, and my struts/shocks are in a deathly ill state. What luck. I'm already working with GSX_Dude to get the rear diff bushings, waiting on them is my biggest blocker. A rear poly-bushing kit from extremepsi is around $100. The arm with the ball joints are $45 each, need two. And I think RIX Racing has a pair of coil overs with a price tag I can afford - which will be my first set ever.

Some of that will have to wait until Friday to be ordered, because that sh** adds up fast. None of it does me any good until the diff bushings get here. This does give me ample opportunity to finish running my fuel lines correctly, which is a work in progress. Speaking of works in progress, I've made some headway on rewiring the main input jumpers on my fuse box in the bay. I wanted to relocate it, but I'm not sure I actually will. Other things I'm waiting on:
  • SS 2.5" 45 degree elbow - for intake. Ordered a 3" because thats what I was told it was - wrong.
  • Several various sized fittings for vac/boost
  • Several hose ends for fuel and oil lines - need a final count after confirming angles and clearances
  • The will to repaint all the parts that have been chipped due to butterfingers, like the CAS, t-stat housing, VC, and such.
Well, that is all for today. No pictures this time.
Roll credits.
Don't you just love how one project turns into 20 nearly every time you dig into something? The wiring and the brake lines aren't going to be an improvement you feel, but the suspension and subframe bushing updates will be. The car will feel so much better because of that. I bet your fab skills are improving every day with all of the custom work you're doing.
 
Don't you just love how one project turns into 20 nearly every time you dig into something? The wiring and the brake lines aren't going to be an improvement you feel, but the suspension and subframe bushing updates will be. The car will feel so much better because of that. I bet your fab skills are improving every day with all of the custom work you're doing.

Yeah, the rear suspension was really unplanned. I wanted to do the bushings and coil overs... in 3 months. The rear diff bushings actually looked okay from afar - 100% misleading. The wiring and brakes may not help how it feels, but it will definitely help how I feel - as in I at least know that its safe and right. Add the OE brake hardlines to the list of things I'll never do myself again. Ever. When this thing blesses the ground it touches, I expect it to be a truly amazing experience.

My fab skills are definitely growing, and I love that. I'm able to hook that into so many other projects now, too, and have no intentions of slowing that down.
 
Captains Log 07202020;

Any one notice how hot it is outside? Its really hot outside. And it is slowing me down. Looks like the #6 rigid fuel line I'm using for the return is in the best place its going to get. Hoping to re-flare it today and mount the afpr. I'm going to have to lower the front subframe a little bit, my #8 send line has a permanent kink at the fitting due to poor bending technique. Not mad about it, plenty of line to work with, just need to pull it through and redo the flare.

The rear subframe has new bushings, rear diff has new bushings - the POM's that GSX_Dude sells. The k-sport coil overs are lightly mounted to the body, for now. I'm so damn excited to see how this feels. But wait, there is more! My box of rear toe-arms from Rock Auto arrived today and I'm waiting on USPS to deliver the poly-bushing master kit from extremepsi, ETA is about 2 hours on that. So damn excited to see how this feels. Not excited about being in the heat to replace all the bushings, but meh. Slow and steady.

I've also started running the wire I have for my battery relocation. I haven't spoken much about that, there is nothing really special about it, except I'm running the wire much like the fuel lines while the rear subframe is out. It feels like I'm counting down the days until "The Crankening" but it also feels like its never going to arrive.

That is all I have for now. Roll credits.
 
Captain's log 07282020;

Work on the suspension is so slow. I've received all of the bushings and arms that require replacement. I've got the bushings in for the sub-frame, diff, rear passenger side knuckle, upper control arm and .... what I believe to be called the rear toe arm? Its the rear arm with the ball joint. I actually have both of those with prothane bushings in them.

Today, I've already started trying to remove the lower control arm from the sub-frame, so that I can replace those bushings as well - they're certainly bad though not the worst. While trying to remove the passenger side, the sway bar link fell apart. Another $50-you-to-death punch to the face. Already got replacement Moog's on the way from RockAuto. While this journey is exhausting in itself, the heat is certainly not helping. Even though its only 8:30am, its already too hot to handle more than 30 minutes out at a time. It feels like I'm never going to make progress on this and I'm becoming discouraged.

I'm going to try to keep chipping away at this, so that maybe one day this year I can get things reassembled back there.

Roll Credits.
 
Dealing with old bushings and seized up bolts in 90 degree heat and high humidity can't be much fun. I remember burning out my bushings with a torch in the rainy (yet very mild temp) winter and it was a pain in the ass.
 
Dealing with old bushings and seized up bolts in 90 degree heat and high humidity can't be much fun. I remember burning out my bushings with a torch in the rainy (yet very mild temp) winter and it was a pain in the ass.

Its soooooo miserable. I'm spending 20 to 30 minutes out at a time, coming in completely soaked and exhausted. Looks like I finally got all of the old out of the passenger side. I may try to video the driver side, dont know yet. It shouldn't take as long with the 'more right' tools. Sway bar links appear to want to arrive on Thursday - that is pretty decent ... and should conclude the adventures of a 'built rear suspension'.
 
Captains log, 08032020;

This week, I struggle to get back into a routine of updating on Mondays. Mission success... this time. I spent most of my weekend exporting a migraine stimulating amount of effort from my back, shoulders, and arms directly to the remaining rear bushings. In addition to that work, I spent a lot of my week also doing the same. We're in a mostly good place now. The subframe is virtually ready to go back in. The lower control arms are really testing me, as pushing in the new bushings causes the end of the arm to deform slightly - easy enough to bend back into position. Would not recommend to friends and family, will likely look for something that isn't stamped metal for the future. Also .... keeping 3G eclipse rear end open as a possibility. Until then, we move along.

While prepping everything to go back together, I took off the sway bar to install those bushings - they are the last ones to do. I'm not sure how to go about it just yet - the old ones are cut or split, making it easy to get on/off - new ones are solid..... and look like they slide on. Meh. I'll figure it out, I'm sure its documented here some where. The sway bar itself is pretty rusty. We're going to run it, for better or for worse, until I figure out what I'm doing next. Replace it with a larger one? Or again with the 3G rear? The future is uncertain. The new sway bar links are here, and MOOG isn't disappointing. They're looking quiet strong compared to what ever was there. OE? Autozone? Ebay? Who knows. I bent the bar trying to get them out. Don't think I'll be doing that with these replacements.

I did get to spend some time away from the suspension drama long enough to work on the fuel system. Another test of mental, physical, emotional endurance. I had to cut my -8AN rigid send line at the front subframe because I kinked it not once but twice. I then had to lower said subframe enough to get the line back to where it should be. Looks like my next best course of action is actually to go braided from this point to the filter. I wanted to avoid that... but it'll be fine. There is no gain or loss in either direction. I picked up a 90 degree -8AN fitting for the sending unit. Guess what. Too tall. Doesn't clear the metal pan/cap under the seat. No surprise and because I expected that, I only bought one of them. I think what I'm going to do with this is cut a small hole in that metal plate around the 'working area' of the fitting, and weld up a slightly higher spot that clears the unit ... yet still hopefully large enough that it doesn't interfere with the seat. Honestly, I don't like a lot of passengers, but my kids do ride back there. I need it safe for them to be back there. At the end of the day, none of these are show-stoppers, just more work. More unexpected work. More delays. Sigh.

Picture time.
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Roll credits.
 
I dig the perseverance. Keep at it, sometimes you'll beat your head against the wall, then turn around with raised hands of joy on the DSM roller coaster of love/hate.

It's all worth it in the end if you asked me!
 
Captain's Log 08102020;

Waiting on parts. This is the story of my life. Not a lot to update with today.

The eccentric bolts for the rear arms with ball joints are also seized in the bushing. I've torched them, I've hammered them. I'm sawing them. It sucks. Also waiting for new bolts, which should be here this week.

In other news, my figure skating coach has me learning my basic jumps and spins. Jumps are terrifying, spins are fun. I photographed a wedding on Saturday, which left my arms and shoulders sore and in muscle failure. Guess I need to lay under the car with more tools for more hours. Bleh.

Roll Credits.
 
Captains Log 08132020;

The week just doesn't seem to end, not sure if that is a good thing or a bad. I got my bolts for the rear end, thankfully. How ever, I did have to take a saw to the old ones to get them out. Using a carbide blade and some cutting fluid, I cut as close as I could to the inside parts. Arms fell out, as expected. I had to take a torch to the sleeve and light'er up to get the rest of it apart. Easier done than said. I put a short video together the most of that work, as well as me using the jack as leverage to pop some other bolts loose. Seeing that it worked, I both chuckled and felt proud at the same time.

So today, I'm spending the most of my time putting the subframe back in. At the time of this post, I have the driver side to completely re-assembly, and I need to bolt up the the u-joint of the drive shaft. Then add exhaust. I'm feeling pretty good about this, finally. Just in time to see my shopping cart crying at $300 in fittings just to finish the fuel system, oil and coolant lines. Whoops. Yeah, we'll have to see about all of that.



Roll credits.
 
Captains Log 08242020;

Made a bit of progress over the last few days - mostly over the weekend. Skating has taken up a great deal of my time outside of work. Its a double edge sword because I spend too much time in the car due to only having one car to do any work to the second car. But I'm getting stuff done.

I spent virtually all day Saturday in the garage. I decided that instead of trying to source some second hand grade 10 bolts for the suspension from donor/parts cars, 1g parts I have sitting around, and so on - I would be better off just ordering some new ones. They're bolts. They aren't expensive. And they hold wheels to cars. It was important enough to me. I ordered 3 total to account for the three that I rounded off from the 2 sides. I ended up taking all of my original bolts and using them to go ahead and assemble the passenger side, used the new bolts on the driver side.

Re-assembly of the driver side wasn't really 'easier', but it went by in less time. I do still need to toque everything to spec. For the passenger side..... well I was trying to mount up the brakes. Once I got everything mostly together, I tried to push in the piston to get it to clear the last tiny bit of brake pad. No go. Totally wouldn't move. I assumed that the reason for this was that the way the line was pinched off, perhaps there was a vacuum on the it and I could just release the bleeder valve. Lol... just release it, eh? I released it alright - into two pieces, only to have a ball of rust staring back at me. motherf*r. Turns out, both sides are f'd. Lucky me, RockAuto was running a special on powder coated stoptech's, and they arrived today.

In other news, I got all of the new bushings installed on the front components. I waited as long as I could to not move on to that buts time. I also got some TorqueSolutions carrier bearing bushings for the drive shaft. The ones that came off weren't 'bad', but they looked tired and definitely didn't have the firmness that the bushings have every where else. It made sense to just do it now. I applied my final rust treatment to the inside of the driver wheel well to protect the welds I had to make. Undercoating goes on tomorrow.

Lastly, I did something that I hope I don't beat myself up over later. I spent $120 out of pocket on some evilenergy AN kits on Amazon. These things are cheap. I mean, really cheap. I'll have to check several times for leaks once everything is together. How ever, that is really a problem I have at the moment. The -8AN rigid send line is just kinking up every time I try to route it to the filter. I've decided to have a short run of cheap line there to fix that issue. I got the 8AN and the 4AN kits which included several fittings. The best part of it is, as long as it holds for a while, I can always replace it with quality one section at a time if/as needed.

No pictures today, I want to save that for when the tires are reinstalled on the rear, which I'm aiming for this week to do. We'll see. Roll Credits.
 
Captain's Log 08302020;

Whew. What a weekend. If it were a battle ground, I would be marching home, victoriously drinking mead from the skulls of my enemies. But it wasn't that and instead, I sit on my couch enjoying a milk shake. The past few days have been hyper-focused on getting the car ready to roll out of the garage, running or not.

Friday night, I managed to get the driver suspension assembled. I wasn't able to get everything snugged down until Saturday - which is also the day I tightened up everything on the passenger side too. I spent the major of both days trying to locate bolts and nuts since they've all run away since being freed.

Saturday, I also got everything on the brakes correct. The rear brakes had been on for a few days, but I realized that I reversed what sides they were supposed to be on. I thought the bleeder valves should point down - it would make perfect sense so that the fluid would drain straight down, not hurt anything. How ever, I didn't account for the bleeder valve being the highest point of air collection and that should be closest to the bleeders. Easy fix, simple swap. I also got the clutch slave cylinder on today. Not a lot to talk about there.

Today, I actually put the wheels on. Dudes, the wheels are on the car. The circus isn't over yet, though. I had used some lift extenders to raise the car off the life a little higher than normal. The lift has these and they lock into to place to prevent an unsafe situation from coming down. Once off the jack stands, I got the exhaust some what in place, also. Things are looking great - time to lay it down.

Or so you'd think. As the lift folded into itself and lowered the car, the wheels started to hug the ground. Once all the way down, the lift stopped moving.... but the car still has weight on the arms. :| :| :| :| Because ..... the coil overs are lowering the car too much. Now, I think its actually at ride height, or pretty close, but there is still enough weight that it's stuck. Maybe best described as a 'docked' position. I think if i were to raise it up and place a 2x4 under each tire, the lift would clear, and I could remove the extenders - allowing the car to roll free. Even off the 2x4's, i think itll (barely) clear the lift.

So what is left?
Plumbing the rest of the fuel system
Plumbing oil cooler
Plumbing the vac/boost lines
Plumbing the coolant lines (Yep, all of them)
Assembling the power steering lines
Some work on the upper intake piping
Finishing the main lines of the battery relocation
Secure shifter linkage and bushings
Bolting up the down pipe.

With the car officially being on its own weight again, at least mostly, all of these little things feel super manageable. There is my update, picture time.

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Roll credits
 
Glad I'm not the only one that wire brushes old bolts LOL. Nice catch btw OMG:thumb:
Thanks! Its hard to see the grade stamp if the head is all caked in grease ... and you can't get a good thread lock if the threads are dirty - So I chased every threaded hole I could find, I brushed every bolt I used LOLoLOL Hoped you like the video!
 
Captain's Log 02012021;

Oh dear. It has been far too long since my last update. I had to actually go back and see where I left off. How ever, I have made a very specific point to upload some kind of content on my youtube channel ever Wednesday - that is working out for me. If you haven't subscribed to that yet, you're missing out on so much. I can't recall what knocked my typical updates out in September and I guess in so many ways, it doesn't matter any more. So lets talk about where we are today.

A few weeks ago, I started working on making the adjustments I needed to my UICP. I had gotten a new BOV flange and needed to adjust the length to compensate for no more GM MAF. I also wanted it to stop touching my lower radiator house. I totally f***ed the whole thing up and had to send it to a friend who welds for a living. Its been there 4 weeks now and that is in no way a compliant but rather a testament to my inability to arc weld stainless. Every time I would try to seal a leak, more would pop up. Bleh. In the mean time, I've worked on my wiring quiet a bit. I've got the hard parts over with and now just dragging my feet to terminate the rest. There is a video coming out this week about specifically that - so again, you should subscribe.

I've also spent a little bit of time working on the EBC plumbing, which is coming along well but low priority. There, there is the rest of the intake plumbing. I never tightened down the rest of the fittings and sensors on the intake manifold, so I spent an afternoon working on that. An afternoon? Yes. Because I took my time and had to take things apart to get to various parts. Not hard, just time consuming. Last week, I also took out the wiper motor and associated hardware so that I could spay some black paint in that area - matching the rest of the color scheme in the front. Nothing fancy, either. All of the above, and more made it to a list of to-do's that I can keep up with. I'm glad I made the list because right now ... I can't even think what else is needed to get things running.

Although a short update, I think this is where we stop for today. I leave you last week's video update and an invitation to catch me there. I'll try to keep weekly updates here as well. Adios.
 
Oh no, hopefully you won't be trailing off on the updates here and putting them only on Youtube. Even if you just updated this thread with all the Youtube videos, even that would keep this thread as the central location for all the updates. :)

Thanks again for keeping us in mind as you work through the project. And I've been there on screwing up an UICP. LOL
 
Oh no, hopefully you won't be trailing off on the updates here and putting them only on Youtube. Even if you just updated this thread with all the Youtube videos, even that would keep this thread as the central location for all the updates. :)

Thanks again for keeping us in mind as you work through the project. And I've been there on screwing up an UICP. LOL
I certainly have no intention of staying only on YouTube. I’m not sure I could ever say there is one medium to contain everything, so like in this case, I elaborate a little bit more here than I do on that particular video. At the same time, I am going to try to make sure that I am not repeating myself and basically typing everything I just said in a video in several different places. There’s no fun in that
 
Captain's Log 02112021;

Thursday. My 'day off' from my personal life and projects - not my day off from work. I've spent virtually the whole time since my previous post working on one video, which was posted yesterday. I thought I was getting ahead of the curve by filming a week out. How ever, I found that I fumbled over my words so much that I sounded like some one I wouldn't take seriously. To boot, I got some godly unflattering footage of myself and had to work around it. The strain of all of that slowed my content creation to a halt, calmed only by ice cream and napping. But, it was posted on time. Link is below. Enjoy.

How ever slow that was, things continue to move on. I've already got a few planned items for next episodes. Work is getting done on the car. Things that are not worth filming.... aren't being filmed. This includes basically... tightening bolts and nuts, some times fittings. Specifically, I needed to tighten all of the AN fittings for the fuel system under the hood - done. I also needed to seal up all of the intake fittings - done. With the intake sealed, sensors installed, lines run... I can pretty much do a boost leak from the throttle body elbow and ensure that I'm good there. I also went ahead and pulled out the nipples from the throttle body's top side. They're nipples... barbs have that weird flare thing at the end that these don't. I used some vice grips and a mallet to pull them out. After that, I used the paired bit from a set, made the holes with the drill press and then tapped each hole with a 1/4-20 tap. I thought I might be able to do something a little smaller.... but I didn't want to have to do it twice. Because my practice pieces show that my hands like to 'egg out' the holes, I put the tap into the drill press but rotated the chuck by hand. This gave me a perfectly straight start and it came out great. Whats left on that? Just some stainless plug/set screws with thread sealant on them. And LOTS of cleaning, to ensure that shavings dont make their way into the engine. With all 4 top ports plugged, I have nothing left to do there except install the UICP ... which is still out for repairs. *win*

I also took out the wiper motor and mechanisms so that I could get the inside of that area sprayed with some black paint. Nothing magical there, for sure. I do need to hit it with some paint though once it warms up. I should probably go ahead and fix the spark plug wire order, I just tossed them together to get them situated. These are those mundane tasks that just won't make it on film. Anyways. That is all for this weeks update. See ya next week.

 
Last few weeks have been long. I mean, really long. I missed a week's update .... and went to the Mitsubishi Owners Meet 2012 in Orlando. Lots of fun. Too much fun. Will have to turn down my personal boost level next time. Upon return, allergy season back home in NC sent me to time out. A whole week with out voice, tons of sinus pressure, and feeling like ew. Even canceled my skating lessons, because I just couldn't. Eventually .... I managed to get to a point where I could make a video update on the channel. It was okay .... well received I guess. This was about the same time I started feeling like myself again. I managed to get to a point where I could continue some home projects that impact my DSM life.

For instance, the washer and dryer are in the garage. Taking up valuable DSM parts real estate. My skating coach is gifting me a new set, because she got new stuff. We decided to turn a large, and useless, linen closet upstairs into a laundry room/area. I've been working on trying to get the plumbing right for that. Drain and vent are cast iron 3" pipe. Ridiculously heavy. I may have to make or weld a handle to the segment and use a scissor jack to move the section up enough to install the tee piece I need for the drain.

Second to that .... those loud ass servers that pollutes my audio in my weekly videos. Ugh. They're costing me about 450+ a month in power, in addition to the rest of the house. Mari said that I could build a mother-in-law suite/studio in the back yard, with an area just for the servers .... but I have to finish the living room renovations first. Sigh. Even with them having their own space, I'm not making money off of them at all .... so I'll likely install them but power them off until something changes. I do use them for a lot of personal stuff but .... downsizing sounds great to my bank account. We'll see.

Both of the above projects add a lot of room to do work and store stuff. Should result in better videos too. I am planning on buying a secret surprise in the next month or so... but I have to have a place to put it. No spoilers, you'll have to keep up with me to find out what it is.

Speaking of spoilers, or lack there of. I just posted this week's video covering all the of this weekend's/yesterday's shenanigans on the 2G. That is the real reason you're here, right? I found that even though double and triple checked my wire harness ... some things just can't escape a dyslexic. I also was really worried about two 12ga wires that went to the coil pack and PTU. I had installed 18ga wires there .... and I don't think I like it. I purchased new 12ga wires for that part of the harness ..... I am waiting on Mouser to get back to me regarding what terminals I need to put them in the Ford connector housings I'm using. Since it's not road worthy yet anyways, its not really an issue. I have the fuel pump and wideband wiring to do anyways, so I can do that while I'm waiting on parts to arrive. This video was a bit different from the others because Mari held the camera(okay its a phone) for some parts ..... and I shot selfie-mode for some parts alone. Did not use any mics, so the audio is ..... not what it usually is. I did use some guitar records that I shot with my phone a few weeks ago for part of the video. A lot of times, when I'm writing stuff on guitar, I record it on my phone so I can come back to it later. I found a piece I was playing with back on March 6th was appropriate for this. I hope every one enjoys this episode. It was something else. No pictures today. Just video, in the link.

 
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