Since the last post most of my powdercoating has been finished, I built a differential, and seam welded the majority of the car.

TOOLS!

First - some new tool purchases.

Some hole saw cutters from Blair for sheet metal and spot weld cutting.  These are fucking awesome.

Spot-weld cutter arbor assembled.  The pilot is a spring loaded pin that merely keeps the cutter centered.  No need to worry about drilling all the way through and damaging your bottom panel.

Porter Cable 15" Drill Press

Mittler Brothers 4-pc Dimple Die Set (1/2", 1", 1-1/2", and 2").  Good for use in up to 1/8" mild steel.  They're made from 12l14 tool steel, with Rockwell 58 and 20-30 hardened deep case.

Got some new welding PPE too.  Got tired of how loose the headgear was on my old helmet so I bought this guy.

 

Also figured it wasn't good that my boogers were black at the end of the weekend so bought this guy to help keep that stuff out of my lungs.  Fits nicely under my helmet.  I've also got the 3M resiprator with the small 2091 pancake filters, but its a bit cumbersome to wear for extended periods of time.

Also pretty unrelated to the rest of this post, I've decided to rebuild my engine wiring harness pin-pin with milspec wiring.  So I've been depinning all my connectors - fortunately all it really required is patience and a safety pin to release them from the housing.

I also started playing with my tubing flaring tool again - Ridgid 377 for JIC flares in some 1/4" seamless stainless tubing.  The lingering steam vent hardline project I started a while ago and had since put on the back burner was starting to irritate me.

After a bunch of practice flares, this seemed to be about the best I could get it.  The whole process is extremely sensitive to how the tubing is prepared / deburred before flaring and it took me a few times to get it right.  I'd say surface finish is ok - it's not a mirror finish or anything but it's about as good as I could expect given the texture of the interior of the tube.  

I marked the sealing surface up with sharpie and pulled it tight against a male -AN fitting.  When I pulled it apart all the sharpie was gone, suggesting that I have a pretty broad sealing surface, but I'd still like to leak check some samples before I make the lines for real.  On a low pressure application like the steam vent, I'm not really worried.  But I'm also going to be remaking my brake and fuel hardlines with this same tool, and I'm not nearly as tolerant towards failures there.

I followed these guidlines for size:  http://www.hoseandfittingsetc.com/technical-info/jic-tube-end-assembly/.  Took me a couple times to get the depth set right, but it seems like .075" - .080" above the surface of the tool will provide me with ~.360" OD at the flare.  I might make myself a depth stop to make the process faster and more fool proof.

REAR STRUT TOWER REINFORCEMENT 

Moving on.  I have been working on reinforcing my rear shock towers to give me a footing to weld a strut tower brace onto.  I will be building that out of .120" wall DOM, which will also tie into my subframe mount reinforcements.

The sides are 16 gauge steel and the top is 1/8" plate.  I had tried to do the sides initially in 1/8" as well, but it was too stout to hammerform as I was welding in on.  Tacked in place below.

Welded

Top detail

TRUNK FLOOR, OR THE LACK THEREOF

During the above process, I got the brilliant idea to cut out my trunk floor, relieving myself of the capacity to carry a spare tire, in order to run a true dual exhaust - or dual mufflers should I say.  I originally wasn't going to do this to keep more of a stock-ish outward appearance, but I liked the idea of adding more flow capacity to the system overall while maintaining sufficient noise reduction.

After some cutting, I was left with this.

 Note that I also cut out the top layer of sheet metal that was covering the rear subframe mounts.

Since the spare tire well provided a good amount of support for the subframe mount tubular section, I decided to throw a piece of 1"x1" in there to help support it. 

Next I welded in this floor extension piece to bring it flush with the rear-most portion of the subrame mount channel.  I welded this in from the bottom side of the car, grinding it flush as I went to help ensure everything will be watertight. 

I then started laying out my first few patch panels to box this section in again.  Putting my dimple dies to work in some 16 ga sheet

Then broke out the bead roller and made this guy

Here's everything roughly laid out - you can also see all of my subframe reinforcement stubs that are tacked in.

Tacked

Bottom seam welded

Top panel welded in.  I welded the seam in front, then hammered the excess over rather than cutting if off.  I like to tell myself that it adds a little more rigidity to the structure, but it probably doesn't make a difference.  I ended up needing to cut the clearance holes for the subframe stubs bigger to give me room to get in there with the gun / torch when it's time to weld it out.

That's about where I'm at with this at the moment.  From here I have to decide how to construct the rest of it.  I have to find a place for the charcoal canister (which was in the spare tire well), but I also want it mounted such that I can actually use the trunk for some storage space when I need it. 

IN OTHER NEWS....

My carbon-fiber sunroof delete panel came in from S2R Tuning.  It's a nice piece - great finish on everything.  Fit is still to be verified.

My first decent real TIG weld ever!  I needed to weld a 19mm nut onto the end of my lug not tool for my fancy spline drive Mcgard lugs for the WRX.  In case of a flat, this will allow me to remove the wheel and reinstall the spare with the wrench included in the boot without needing any additional sockets or adapters.

We also had a big ash tree taken down that required some clean up.  Emerald ash bores had its way with it and had compromised some pretty big limbs to the point that they were a liability.  The largest base of the tree eclipsed 40" in diameter.

 Ash sure does burn nice though.  Gonna have a ton of firewood for a while - this is only a fraction of what was split.

Not much to report through the week here.

Powdercoated a bunch of parts and I started researching what I want to do with my differential / transmission.

Rear springs, rear trailing arm brackets, rear wheel hubs, rear brake caliper brackets.  Everything blasted with ~300 grit aluminum oxide in the blast cabinet, primed with zinc-rich primer for corrosion resistance, then top coated with a weatherable flat black.

Rear trailing arm brackets pictures here with travel limiters bolted in.  They do just as their name suggests - limits bushing deflection to improve connectedness of the suspension as well as to improve the life of the bushing.  This was one area that I did not want to use a polymer bushing - they are good for single axis bending but not for joints that need to articulate / roll.  At least in these cars, they're famous for binding up through travel and preventing smooth articulation of the suspension through travel.  They're popular though because they don't require a press to install or remove.  But I have a press, so I'm going to use a proper bushing.

Still lots of parts left to do.  Hope to get the rest of them prepped this weekend.  I also hope to get the fusebox out of the engine bay so I can start seam welding.

Also got a bunch of new parts in.  Inner and outer CV joint boot replacement kits for my half shafts, front wheel bearing / hub assemblies, new collar nuts / dust boots for the spindles, front swaybar bushings, rotor hold-down bolts, front brake wear sensor, and caliper rebuild kits for all 4 corners of the car.  More on this stuff later.

As for the differential, I'm trying to find information on whether a 3-clutch upgrade would be of any benefit for me.  You get increased lockup (better traction) and more braking stability (poor man's abs), but with that also comes resistance to turn-in at the corners and more of a tendency for oversteer on sharp (on or off) throttle input.  I'm trying to get more information on how to compensate for this by reducing carrier preload, but have been frustrated in my efforts thus far.  I want a car that will rotate, but also put the power down - tuned to be progressive towards the limit of traction.  Lots of info out there on how to do it, but not much explanation as to why and what implications there are.  Might just do it and experiment with it myself. 

More progress over the weekend. 

Put the car up on jack stands and pulled the front and rear suspensions out.  Incredible how easy things came apart - the more I work on this car the more I love it.  Dare I say that it was actually enjoyable.  God bless the South.

Jack stand ballin 4 lyfe, yo.

It's easiest just to drop the whole rear suspension as an assembly then rip it apart with the impact once on the ground.  I had problems with it getting hung up on one of the mounting studs in the chassis but I just unthreaded it once I had clearance to get a wrench in there.  The only definite casualty was my driver's side e-brake cable.  The ferrule was seized in the trailing arm and I snapped a screwdriver off trying to punch it out, so I just cut it.

A little surface rust but everything is pretty clean in general.  None of these bushings had been replaced in 170k miles so this all needed to be done.  Everything is getting sandblasted and powdercoated.  The diff is going to be rebuilt / regeared and the half shafts will get fresh grease and boots.  Fresh parts have been sitting in a box ready to go for several months now - new wheel bearings, ball joints, and bushings.  I'd call it an OEM+ setup - it's a mix of stock hardware and polymer in areas I wanted to reduce the deflection (subframe and diff mounts).

I dropped the gas tank due to its close proximity to the front subframe mounts.  I have some welding I need to do in that area.  I've done that job before with the gas tank in and it's definitely a very hairy experience....not something I'm trying to do again.  Even when the fuel gauge reads "empty", there's still approximately 3 gallons in the tank - still plenty to warm things up considerably.

This also makes swapping in my fuel pump and replacing all the rubber fuel hoses an easier job.

Front suspension, subframe, and steering rack is all out of the car.

I then started disassembling the rear end, pressing out all the old bearings and bushings in preparation for sandblasting and powdercoat.  I had to get a little creative to fixture things up for pressing out the wheel bearings - a pair of old wheel bearing (outer races) came in handy for this.  I bought this HF 20 ton press for about $170 bucks and it's handled anything I've thrown at it so far.  I can't use it for everything on this suspension because you can't always center up the bore with the ram without some ridiculous fixturing, but it's nothing that a BFH and a couple sockets can't resolve.  I still need to upgrade my arbor plates though - these are cast pieces and sometimes things feel kind of sketchy when you really crank on it.

Not much left on the car except for the interior (which will be getting removed too!)

Aside from that, the rest of my time was bagging and tagging all the hardware and smaller components and reorganizing what I have stored in the garage for the time being. 

In other news - I figured it was time to invest in some PPE.  I bought cartridges for my 3M 6000 Series respirator:  acid / organic gas filters for painting and some 2097 filters suitable for welding fumes / organic vapors.  The discs are pretty small and I was pumped to confirm that the respirator fits under my welding helmet.  I have a lot of TIG practice to do, and intend to spend a lot of time under the helmet to get my skills up to par.  I'm welding in an open garage but figured it'd be better if I wasn't breathing in all of those fumes.

I follow a bunch of crazy TIG guys on instagram, and picked up a set of gloves that a lot of pros really seem to like.  For a while I had just been using mechanix gloves, but they don't really offer very good heat insulation or spark protection.  Other welding gloves that have good protection are way too thick and not very flexible, so you lose a lot of dexterity.  The ones I got seem to strike a balance between the two - basically leather mechanix gloves. They're made by Torchwear and are supposed to be extremely durable.  We will see - but first impressions are good.  They fit really nice and seem to be constructed with quality materials. 

I'm working on powdercoating a bunch of the smaller parts this week and will be starting on the bigger stuff after they're all done.  I need to use the big oven for the bigger parts and it takes a lot more time to get up to temperature.  For the interest of efficiency I want to get all the bigger parts prepped and ready to go at one time.

Another week.

Still have the engine/trans boxed up waiting to ship out.  Supposed to be getting payment this week so hopefully that means it will be getting out of my hair.  For the time being it's taken become a temporary work table.

Couple new tools / things.  Our old Milwaukee corded drill finally stopped working after 20 years of service - thinking the brushes might be bad in the motor.  So I decided to head up to Lowe's and pick up a new one.  I've had tremendous luck with Dewalt power tools so I bought a boss-hoss 10 amp 1/2" chuck model.  Enough torque to rip the cape off of Superman and enough left over to break all the drill bits I own.  Also got a grease gun, some 3/8" drive standard and deep well 16mm sockets (since they seem to be missing for some reason from "complete" metric socket sets), and some 6/3 direct burial cable for running 220v power to the garage for my TIG welder.

Figured I'd post up a better picture of the steering shaft from last week

Test fit all of my ABS pump adapter fittings.  M10X1.0 - 3AN and M12X1.0 -3AN adapters.

Made my steering shaft from a Borgeson 27" telescoping DD shaft, and 2 chromoly u-joints from Flaming River.  I had to cut the shaft to length, drill spotfaces for the setscrews and drill/tap a hole for the grease fitting.  Came together nice.  This steering shaft gives me more header clearance on the driver's side, and also eliminates a rag joint that was present on the OEM shaft that would have been extremely close in proximity to header heat.

On Friday, I picked up a bare LS1 mockup block for use with setting my driveline angles / building my mounts.  It only weighs ~90 lbs so it's easy to move by hand.  It's going to make one badass coffe table after this project.  Hauled it around back and couldn't resist throwing it in the bay.  Not everything is on it yet obviously but there's tons of room - much more than the iron heap I pulled out of there.

I continued work on the engine bay - shaving all unnecessary brackets and I also started removing the seam sealer in order to stitch weld all the seams.  A lot of work - but I'm doing it once and I'm going to do it right.  With all the extra power and a stiff coilover suspension going into the car, I figured it'd be a good idea to stiffen the chassis up in critical areas to prevent deflection and reduce fatigue.

Once I finish welding, my plan it to coat all bare metal in etching primer, followed with epoxy primer.  From there I'll do all the filling work, lay down some seam sealer to cover all the seams, then shoot paint on it.

The shitty part is that to get into anything near the trans tunnel, I need to pull the entire interior out to prevent carpet fires and from pulling paint through the backside of the weld.  Carpet needs to come out anyway because it's being converted to black (along with the dash and the rest of my interior!).

The only other thing I did on the chassis side this weekend was rip out the OEM fuel lines / filter / regulator from the tank forward.  All of that is getting replaced.  No pics of that though.

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Other work - as I mentioned earlier I'm converting my shitty-as-fuck-kill-me-now Dove Grey interior to black.  Instead of buying all the plastic pieces I decided to try converting it with SEM products.  This will also be used on the top of my intake manifold shell, as the paint on it did not survive the torque sequence.

I'm working with a variety of materials so needed to get a bunch of surface prep products - a good bond and ultimately durable finish is all in the prep!  (Also pictured are my accessory drive belts).

This center console piece was the first part I did.  Scrubbed it with SEM Soap and a scotch brite pad, wiped off with a clean rag, then wiped with IPA and allowed to dry prior to painting.  I did a bunch of light coats and it turned out really nice I think.  Pretty much a spot on mach to the OEM black vinyl in hue - maybe a tiny bit of difference in gloss but you have to really be trying to see it.  The portion of the console below is two parts - see if you can guess which one I painted.

(Answer:  I painted the lower/outer "surround" piece).

Durability wise, it seems to be extremely good.  After a couple hours it was standing up to me hitting it / picking at it with a screwdriver.  Should handle light abrasion just fine - just have to keep it clean.

This is the piece that holds the arm-rest, coin tray, etc, in its original Dove Grey.  Looks like shit, right?

I sprayed that and the kick panel tonight as well, no pics of that though.

While I was working it felt like I was getting nothing done - in retrospect I guess it was a pretty busy weekend.  Looking forward to more progress this week!