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Didn't do anything with the Corolla, but I had enough energy after work to do a little prep work on the RX-7. I noticed a bunch of surface rust after removing the engine and power washing the bay, particularly on the "frame rails". I want to take care of that before I put an engine back in. Here's what I'm talking about :      All surface. No scaling, flaking or holes. So out comes the die grinder with roll-loks:   (ugh, I can see surface rust inside the frame rail in this picture. Dammit. Now I know it's there...)   Painted with cold galvanizing (though I actually meant to grab the etching primer and brain farted):    There's some surface rust on the firewall and transmission tunnel, as well. Probably going to end up painting the entire bay, which means I need to just bite the bullet and strip all the removable bits out. Also noted that undercoating is falling off under the car, and there's surface rust there, too... Thank God I'm not in the rust belt. That would drive me to drink more. Guess I need to buy a quart of Joyful Red. And reducer. Primer. Hardener... Darchangel fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Jun 27, 2018 |
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May 15, 2018 16:23
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Darchangel posted:Guess I need to buy a quart of Joyful Red. And reducer. Primer. Hardener... And bourbon.
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May 15, 2018 17:04
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Larrymer posted:And bourbon. Got that already. And a spray gun and compressor. Aerosol bourbon!
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May 15, 2018 19:13
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Did somebody say flame thrower?
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May 17, 2018 03:15
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I would never waste bourbon like that. Cheap gin or vodka, maybe...
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May 17, 2018 21:15
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I just spent $250 on primer and paint for the RX-7. Epoxy primer + hardener, Acrylic Urethane high-build surfacer primer + hardener, Acrylic Urethane single-stage topcoat + hardener, and some reducer just in case. All from TCPGlobal. So we'll see how badly I can mess this up. I'm going to try doing this with the cheapest of cheap HF HVLP guns (the $10 special) which actually worked well when I shot Rustoleum satin black on my '90 RX-7, but I may step up to their not-quite-as-cheap gun, just so I can get a touch-up gun and another size tip. As I understand it, epoxy primer is pretty forgiving. It's the topcoat that I'll probably need to up my game for. Only bought a quart of each for the moment. That probably should be enough - if I don't have to repaint everything.
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May 19, 2018 00:23
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When I did a respray on my ute the only thing that pissed me off was the fan adjustment, and then later it was clogging up and either spraying dry paint or splashing it on with runs. I worked out it had a partially blocked strainer from when I painted etch primer and kill rust paint on my mazdas earlier. But still even with that fault on me, the fan still sucked. Cheap guns are great for primer, but generally suck for top and clear coats where it has to be quality out of the gun and there's no more rubbing back and nowhere to hide. E: though I found out with compound and a buffer you can fix anything as long as you put enough coats on to work through/with  My current thinking is cheaper gun = use more paint, and paint isn't cheap. For one spray job that's not much difference in cost between cheap gun and more paint cost over better gun and less paint, so it's about even - though you may miss out on doing as much as you wanted on the last panels you get to. But better gun = more paint coverage on your current project, and you get to keep the better gun for future projects so you save more in the long run if you buy a better gun and do more than one car. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 15:54 on May 19, 2018 |
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May 19, 2018 15:32
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I'll probably get a slightly more expensive gun for the top coat, but I can't swing $250 for evena bottom of the line DeVilbiss "StartingLine." Fuckers are expensive. I actually have an Iwata high-pressure siphon gun I picked up for cheap ($10!) because no one wants HP siphon guns. It works great, but of course being high pressure, also paints everything in a 20 ft. radius whether you want to or not, and wastes paint because of that. Only had one real working day on the cars because of this fucker:  Actually, that would have been fine. Since I was going to have the tools out, my wife pointed out that there was another limb from my twin oak touching the roof, and I should probably take care of that. I started trimming the ends of that and the limb started *moving*, so I got my rear end down from the ladder and gave the limb a tug from as much distance as I could muster, and this bastad came down.  edit: BTW, that little Echo chainsaw there has been a champ. It started on the third pull after sitting for months, and so far, always has. Tears through this stuff if you keep the chain sharp. That's after trimming it a bit and helping it down from being caught in the smaller tree there by the fence. Turns out it was wedged between where it broke from the tree and the roof, right by where the other limb came from (that one came down a week ago in the neighbor's yard, which house is for sale and unoccupied. The yard guys pulled it out to the curb, so I thought I'd take care of it since it's mostly my tree.) The limb I pulled down is twice as long, and about 8" at the large end. Took me three times as long to cut it up and bundle it. Results:  Sorry, trash guys. I tried to keep the bundles small. Between the two limbs, it took most of the day I had available. I only had enough time to do this:  Mower deck cracked at the chute opening quite some time ago. It started to annoy me. I don't like broken things. Started by using a couple of small c-clamps as anchor points to pull the crack back together with a bar clamp:  The wood slice is to get the two sections to line up. The left part has a rolled under edge that makes it talle, and is basically why it cracked right there. Not beautiful, but it works:  Flux-core does not make pretty welds. Back side:   Looking at these on a screen larger than my phone, I wish I'd have welded up the back side too. I didn't catch that it didn't fill all the way through top to bottom. Just a matter of wire brushing the paint off to hit it again, though. Grinder:  And paint:  Make me the welder I ain't. Sunday I was able to get some stuff done. Rotated the tires on the Crown Vic (one tire that was on the left front is worn on the inside edge and the center, which is worrying. The others are fine, though I did discover that all 4 had 40 PSI since they were filled when it was cold,) and also changed it's oil and wipers. Fortuitously, O'Reilly's had Bosch PureVision blades buy one - get one, and a combo deal for 5 quarts of Quaker State and a Microguard filter for $18.99. I opted to upgrade to Wix for $2 more. I would like to speak to a Ford engineer, though. There is literally no way to not make a mess when removing the oil filter. For those that have yet to experience it, the oil filter on a 4.6L Forde V8 is at the front left side, oriented horizontally. Ford opted to not put any sort of catch pan or drain channel like my wife's 4-cylinder Sonoma had, so the filter just pukes oil all over the oil cooler adapter, steering rack, and crossmember when you unscrew it. Jerks. Oil was 7 months old , and had, uh, more miles than it should have on it. Whoops. I was bad. Finally, I had time to mess with the Corolla. I chose to replace the heater valve cable with one from the 4Runner. Disassembled the center stack, and wiggled the HVAC controls loose, which is a bit of a butt due to 4 stiff control cables attached to it. Cable goes from here (blue cable - the other one works the temp air door):  Back in there behind the center stack structure:  Then through that hole and then through and out the firewall:  You can already see in that last picture part of the problem. The cable isn't a cable - it's a single stiff wire, now going through those two bends, and has been for 30 years. You may note the bolt and nut acting as the pivot for the lever - that's because the original plastic retainer/pivot was broken when the forces on the cable got to be too much for it. It's ll the cable. The lever and the valve move pretty easily. Now, choose wisely:  (sorry about the sideways image. Since I made the post public, Imgur wont let me edit it, including rotation, and I can't be arsed to unshare or whatever. Asinine.) Note the permanent bends in the blue cable. I didn't choose wisely the first round. The shortest cable was too short. It pulled the jacket out of the retainer when I tried to work it. The middle one is really too long, but is flexible enough that it would still work. The glovebox ends up pushing on it a bit. Once you pick a cable, the white plastic retainer end from the 4Runner has to come off, and a new retainer groove made in the jacket.  Note retainer clip with matching protrusion. The groove is closer to the end of the sleeve because the cable sticks out from the housing a lot more on the 4-Runner cables, and I needed to take up some of that to make it work. It was either that or figure out how to put a new end on one end. You can also see the difference in the cables here. While the original is a solid wire just hanging out in the housing, the 4Runner cable is actually a twisted multi strand cable with a jacket of its own. Even unlubricated, that's going to slide better, especially around bends. Needless to say, I didn't leave it unlubricated:  You can also see one of the cast-on ends here. Cable goes in luber, with inner bit coming out the slot at the end sealed by the clamp. Jacke end has several stepped sizes to seal on that side, leaving the lube to be forced down the inside of the cable:  You may fire when ready!  It then makes a mess, but less of one than if you were just trying to spray inside the housing, and eventually lube dribbles out the other end, at which time you can stop, and the cable moves *so* much better than it did before. I also did this to the temp door cable that remained in the car. Huge improvement, there. Now, to attach the cable to the controls. Hmmm. Seems a bit larger then the original.  Needs to be this big:  Somehow I managed to not get a picture of the enlarged hole, but all I did was drill it out with an 11/64" drill bit, then clean up the edges. It did need a bit of straightening after fighting with the stiff cable for probably years:  Straightened:  (end-on view, from the knob end [keep your jokes to yourself]) And yeah, I wear water shoes when I don't feel the need for full-on boots. They breathe better than sneakers, and offer a tiny bit more protection than sandals. It's getting hot here in Texas. Was humid as gently caress on Sunday. No more pictures. I was getting hot and tired at this point, but almost done. It took a couple trial fittings and a little adjustment (and let's not forget the shorter cable not working at all,) but it works like a champ now. The lever doesn't travel all the way to the end of the slot because of the extra length of the cable, but that's purely cosmetic. The valve and the air door move to both ends of their respective travels. Now I just need to get a condenser and drier, flush the lines, and hope that the compressor has not shat itself. Will probably need to fabricate a drier mount, since that disappeared with the condenser, and I've not been able to find one.
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May 21, 2018 21:57
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That cable luber is a cool little tool. I can see a few applications for it on the bicycle I'm trying to bring back at the moment. Good job on the lawnmower deck repair.
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May 22, 2018 00:09
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Seat Safety Switch posted:That cable luber is a cool little tool. I can see a few applications for it on the bicycle I'm trying to bring back at the moment. Someone in another thread posted about the cable luber. I forget who and why, possibly was in relationship to bicycle cables. Motorbike guys came up with that, apparently. Motion Pro makes another version that requires the end of the cable to be free, but probably doesn't make as much of a mess: https://www.amazon.com/Orange-Cycle-Parts-Motion-08-0609/dp/B06XHLWLYB The one I got has the advantage of not requiring the cable to be loose, and is also cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/Motion-Pro-08-0182-Cable-Luber/dp/B0012TYX9W There are knockoffs of the original version, but they're barely any cheaper. I figured I could use it pretty much everything that has a cable. I'm happy with that mower. I've had it for almost 20 years now, and it just keeps starting every season. All it wants is a carb rebuild (a single gasket that incorporates fuel pump diaphragm and check valves) every few years. I upgraded it to the high wheels in back when I found the exact same deck with those wheels in my buddy's parts mower pile. In fact, I have the parts mower, which has an slightly larger engine and uses a carb with a hand throttle (rather than automatic) and actual float bowl, and a gravity-fed fuel tank. Only thing wrong is it needs rings. Runs great, but smokes like a chimney once it starts slinging oil about. I've never rebuilt an engine, so I should probably give it a go. Just need a bore gauge to measure it for the replacement rings. My only real complaint about it is that the (front) drive wheels are a bit expensive ($30 each), and I wore the tires off of them. Fortunately, the wheels on the parts mower were usable. Just cracked in the center of the tread at that point, so I filled them with polyurethane to make them solid. Seems to be holding up so far.
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May 22, 2018 23:44
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Darchangel posted:My only real complaint about it is that the (front) drive wheels are a bit expensive ($30 each), and I wore the tires off of them. Fortunately, the wheels on the parts mower were usable. Just cracked in the center of the tread at that point, so I filled them with polyurethane to make them solid. Seems to be holding up so far. That's easily fixed with a strip of tread from a MTB tire and some self-tapping screws.
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May 23, 2018 00:04
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Dagen H posted:That's easily fixed with a strip of tread from a MTB tire and some self-tapping screws. Not really. They're "semi-pneumatic", meaning: "hard, hollow rubber", and the rubber crumbled after the tread split, as much from age as actual wear. Kind of like the old Big Wheels from my youth, once that tread is compromised, it goes downhill quickly. The used ones I got were split, but hadn't started to crumble yet. Polyurethane arrests that (so far). I looked after I posted, and the prices have come down a bit. I found a Troy-Bilt (also made by MTD, like my Yard Machines) tire and wheel that should be compatible, looks better than the original (less plain) and appears to have a bronze bushing rather than just riding on the plastic. $25/pair(!) on Amazon and eBay. Ordered. This mower was free (permanent loan from my brother in law who decided he never wanted to mow his lawn again shortly after we bought our house) so it owes me nothing. These wheels are the most money I've put into it. I would like to figure out how to put a better muffler on it. It's loud even with a brand new muffler. Possibly just a side effect of being a flatty.
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May 23, 2018 18:02
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Update! On the '79 RX-7, at least. So, last we saw, it looked like this under the hood:   plus a little rust removal on the passenger side: Tuesday after work I got up the gumption to start stripping it for paint, and got to this:      (Sorry, it was dark, and the phone was getting confuded by the garage lights.) (I see the typo, and I've decided to leave it, because it made me chuckle.) Wednesday evening, I had some more time:    Pile of parts removed:  There are literally parts of my car I've never seen. It's kind of scary. The header panel definitely needed to come out because they didn't prep parts of it properly and the paint is flaking off just like on the underside of the hood. You can see the yellow under the leading edge of the hood in the earlier pics. There was a goodly pile of leaves and junk in the panels that close out under the headlights. Fortunately no significant rust, though my 1/4" cordless impact driver did twist the heads off of 3 of the bolts. Thankfully all super-common 10mm head M6 body bolts. I have a stash already. A few little bits left, like the hood bumpers, then the fenders and bumper come off next. Will remove the transmission, probably the steering box (which is annoying because there's no coupler. The shaft goes straight from the box to the steering wheel,) and shortly before I paint it, I will probably drop the crossmember and struts. Going back together, I will most likely use the steering box and shaft from the donor GSL-SE, since it's power-assist, and therefore has a u-joint and coupler. Will probably clean and paint the crossmember while it's out, as well, along with any steering and suspension bits within reach. I'm going to have to add another hole in the firewall on the passenger side to accommodate the EFI harness. I'm also going to have to cull both harnesses to just what I need, and do some repair work. Guess I can remove the choke knob and cable, too. The harness has already been, well, not modified, but unused plugs tied back, when I converted to electronic ignition and internally regulated alternator. I'll see if I can just remove those wires and pins from the main plugs and such. I'd prefer not to cut anything, but I think at this point that the car is never going back to stock. I try not to hack original stuff up too much, but I think I'm moving into hot rot or restomod territory now. I will have to research the emissions-delete, AKA "rats' nest removal" mods, and see what I actually need for the GSL-SE EFI. Eventually I'll have a MegaSquirt on it, and probably won't need any of the solenoids. Won't have the air pump and associated valving, for example. I would like to get ti running on the stock ECU first, though. Starting from a running position is much easier than troubleshooting an engine transplant *AND* a new, untuned EFI.
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May 24, 2018 22:57
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They're fuel only EFIs right? Remind me because the last EFI rotary I had was a long time back (12AT with no emissions running on a baby haltech f7 fuel only ECU). I got the engine on a crate from jp sans everything and stripped it down to nothing but a bare rotary like all my older weber carbed 13bs. The only thing you want is brake booster, oil metering pump, oil breather and dizzy vacuum. I've never had to deal with the rats nest of later model rotaries but I know what mazda rats nests are like generally due to dealing with 323s What I would do in your position is not remove anything wiring wise during testing with the efi, but buy a bunch of vacuum line blanking condoms, and just start blanking off while testing, and only remove the ones that don't upset the mazda efi for now - or for when you do get it running. I get the feeling these days you might have to custom make blocking plates and gaskets for the back of the manifold and the centre plate on top of the motor ? Back in my time that stuff would be available off the shelf or in kit form or already done in the cheap mazda I just bought. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 15:24 on May 25, 2018 |
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May 25, 2018 15:22
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Yeah, fuel only for the 84-5 GSL-SEs. They still run a dizzy, though with the MegaSquirt, I can use it to drive ignition triggered by an FC CAS if so desired. If the engine was actually a SE 13B, it wouldn't have the EGR on the top of the center iron, but this one is actually an FC engine fitted into a GSL-SE. It's already got an EGR blockoff on it, and I have an ACV blockoff set for the intake manifold. Initially, I'll most likely do as you say, and just get it running as standard, then pare it back. Primer came in:  Got the right fender off:  And discovered some body work I didn't know about :  Also don't know where this dent came from.  (It was worse - I popped it out somewhat with my palm.) Probably got bashed into while in the backyard under a car cover. Nekkid on this side:  Note the pile of leaves and junk that was in the lower rear of the fender.  Dammit.   Made that discovery while under the car unbolting the bottom of the fender. Noted that the undercoating was flaking, and poked at it. That's the drain plug in the driver's footwell. The seals on the door are dried up and useless, so the car's been taking on water a bit. Still nothing like NE cars, I guess. I should take pics of the mangled frame rails, though. Previous owner apparently either jumped curbs a lot, or didn't understand how to place jacks and jack stands. DAMMIT.  Funny thing is that isn't sealed. I guess the car was leaning just right to retain water there. I'll probably just grind out the rist and seal it. No need to weld in new there. It doesn't penetrate the cabin. Checked the passenger drain plug after I found the rust in the driver's side. No problem there, thankfully:   Passenger fender off:  LEAVES :fist:    Bumper off:  Bumper shock (retaining bolts already removed):   LEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAVES  Here's a mod I made many years ago. The '7 has fixed hood bumpers, but mine wasn't exactly lining up. I noticed that E30 BMWs had these nifty hood bumpers that screwed in and were adjustable, not with a threaded rod, but with the bumper itself, so I nabbed a pair from the wrecking yard and fitted them:   (iPotato phone. Didn't realize it was blurry until I uploaded) All nakey:    Stuck the fenders back on with 2 bolts each fro safekeeping:  Next up: lots of sanding, I guess. Good thing it's a 3-day weekend, eh?
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May 25, 2018 16:20
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Didn't get near as much done over the Memorial Day weekend as I'd hoped. Other stuff and family stuff, coupled with my tendency to stay up late gaming and sleep until noon intervened. Got a little hot, too. Ignored the AE86. I'll get back to it eventually. Outsmarted myself buying new wheels for the lawnmower. I liked the look of these Toro wheels, and they had the right drive type:  One minor issue:  How it's supposed to go:   I guess the Toro uses shouldered bolts. e: nope. They use a stud and a nylock nut. Hmmm. I guess I could thread the axle and do the same. I can NOT figure out why the Troy-Built wheels I bought, which appear to be a bit higher quality, with a nice actual metal bushing, cost less than the el cheapo MTD/Yardman wheels that are specced for my mower. Also changed the oil, then cleaned out the gas tank, because I suspected that the junk in there was clogging the feed, causing an issue where the mower will just slow and die occasionally, like it's running out of fuel. Well, the fuel tank was filthy:  (1/4" nuts are what I was using to slosh around in the tank.) That was just with gas. I eventually decided to dump a pint of so of Chem Dip (carburetor dip) in there and let it sit overnight. That got it clean, but man, that stuff is nasty. Smell stays on everything it touches. That didn't fix the problem though. It started dying when I was almost through with the front yard, then got worse and worse (that is, started occurring in shorter intervals) while doing the back yard. It may be related to heat. The tank, and fuel, were piping hot when I finally finished. Pumping the primer gurgled a little, but didn't actually shoot any gas out of the priming jet, which still sounds like a fuel pickup issue. I'll have to look at it again. Ran great when it ran, though! Got a little further on stripping out the engine bay of the RX-7. Removed the brake master and booster, clutch master, brake lines, washer hoses, wiper assembly, throttle cable, and choke cable, and removed the clips holding the fuel and rear brake lines in place. I'm going to have to look at where the brake and fuel lines are next joined under the car. I may have to remove the entire line back to the rear axle, or I may just remove the clips under the car and let them droop until they are far enough away from the firewall to work around them. This is after hitting the bay with purple cleaner and hosing it down again, mainly to clean up the spilled brake fluid, but also to clean up where some stuff was still mounted when I washed it last.  (brake fluid + purple cleaner ate the cold galvanizing paint. I've since hit that spot with self-etching primer.)     Lovely pile of leaves under the cowl vent. This, despite having window screen in the cowl vent slots:  After a scrub and rinse:   (there's normally a windshield wiper mechanism in there, BTW.) I tried to pull the wiring harness back through the hole into the interior, but it's so damned stiff that it's just not going to happen without removing the dash and unclipping other bits of the harness inside the car. I may still do that, since there's a nice big crack in the dash vinyl to repair, but current plan is to bag and tape the harness, and then suspend it out of the way somehow. I did that with my Cutlass, and it worked out fine. Just a bit more labor, and something to work around while painting.
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May 29, 2018 19:33
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Paint came in! Here's a neat comparison of what color it should be versu what it was, versus what it is:  The inner ring is the original color. The orange is apparently what it faded to after years of neglect. The outer red is what it is now, but as can be seen, was cheaply done, and the pigment is oxidizing out of the paint. That greyish color you see isn't primer. It's the red paint without the red. The whole hood is almost white because of that. The new paint seems like a decent match for the original color:   With a little water to gloss up the original paint:  Since all the good toys seem to be made for 4-1/2 grinders, and my little Makita is a 4", I bought a new 4-1/2" "Porter Cable" and a couple accessories:   It was $40 at Home Depot. The Harbor Freight cheapie is $15 and their "Hercules" is $40. I figured this would do. It's actually got a 3 year warranty. My Porter Cable contractor's saw managed to build my shed and is still going, so I feel good about it. I rather like that it's designed more like a 7" in terms of the grip and switch. They had a smaller 5A version (this one is 7A) built more like my Makita and the HF ones, with the side switch at the front, but it was only $7 cheaper. I shall now flap disk the hell out of all my ugly welds. Hopefully, some progress will happen on one of my shitboxes. 'Sposed to get close to 100 degF, though.
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Jun 1, 2018 19:34
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Darchangel posted:Since all the good toys seem to be made for 4-1/2 grinders, and my little Makita is a 4", I bought a new 4-1/2" "Porter Cable" and a couple accessories: I have that grinder! I managed to cut a chunk out of my fingat within an hour of owning it but that was because I'm dumb. It's a good tool.
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Jun 1, 2018 19:54
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Magnus Praeda posted:I have that grinder! I managed to cut a chunk out of my fingat within an hour of owning it but that was because I'm dumb. It's a good tool. It didn't make any untoward noises when I test fired it, and it didn't immediately leap at my throat, so I'm inclined to agree. We'll see how it feels after doing a bunch of grinding and cutting.
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Jun 1, 2018 22:53
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Progress! On the RX-7 at least. Saturday was predicted to be 100 degrees F and sunny. gently caress you Texas sun:  That and a couple of fans, plus plenty of hydration stops kept me from dying out there. There was a decent breeze, which helped a lot as well. Mostly the canopy, though. I swear I'm going to get the garage to actually fit an entire car in there at some point. then: lift. 'Cuz I really wanted one this past weekend. First thing: I need the steering box out of the way. Got it all unbolted fine, but the steering shaft wouldn't come out of the tube. You'll see in a minute why that's important. I figure the collapsable bits inside are hanging up on the step where the two sections of the tube come together to make it collapsable as well, so I figure the hole in the firewall is big nough to slide th whole tube out as well, if I remove the ignition and combination switches. Hurdle:  Security screws. Well, Mr. Dremel has something to say about that.  No problem. They loosened right up with a flat-blade screwdriver after that.  Also seen in that picture is the mounting bracket, which also conveniently comes off. Smooth naked tube.  And this is why all that. The steering shaft is permanently attached tot he worm gear. No rag joint on this year/model. The 84-5 GSL-SEs had a rag joint, possibly all power-steering equipped models. The one from the donor SE will be going back in on this one, I think. Big gaping emptyness, like my soul:  And then, another 20 bolts/nuts and:    Next I got the exhaust out of the way.   I was going to leave the driveshaft connected to the transmission and just lower it enough to get it out of the way, since I'm only painting to the pinchweld at the firewall to floorpan join. The transmission jack rolled forward a bit and started the process, so I went ahead and let the yoke slide out.  Oh, yeah, right. Transmissions make a mess when you do that.  ...and I forgot to take the shifter out. RIP the shifter seal to the body (it was trashed anyway. Nearly 40 year old rubber.) Pretty much cleared out.  Shortly after this photo I undid the clamps under the chassis fro the fuel and brake lines and let them droop out of the way. At this point it's just the wiring harness, heater core fittings, and evaporator fittings that are the only things in there not getting painted. The wiring harness will get masked and supsnded out of the way, and the heater and AC fittings will have the rubber grommets removed and be masked. Full speed ahead! Helped a friend install speakers in his Sunfire (it was free, and in surprisingly good shape. Did you know that GM was using a cam-in-block OHV 4-cylinder as late as 2002? I didn't,) so this is as far as I got on Sunday.   I'm probably going to need to break out my pressure blaster to media blast some of the harder to reach nooks and crannies like those brackets by the round cross bar, but I'll get as much as possible without scattering blasting media all over my driveway. Need to pick up some scotchbrite pads to scupp up the factory paint, or maybe just 320-400 grit. I have some phosphate solution to prep the bare metal, and then the epoxy primer goes on. Lots of sanding and scuffing first, though. I did do a little thing on the Corolla. A friend with access to a laser cutter (same one with the Sunfire, as it happens) cut me some replacement mirror glass from 1/4" acrylic for the passenger side mirror (mirror housing fine - just no glass at all.) I put that in to replace the thin acrylic one I had in there that resembled a funhouse mirror. Nice to have a useful passenger side mirror.
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Jun 5, 2018 00:45
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How do you laser-cut a mirror? Sounds dangerous. 
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Jun 5, 2018 03:12
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I just gave a class this morning on laser safety. I hope there was a safety cover or coating on the acrylic 
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Jun 5, 2018 14:36
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Acrylic mirror cuts from the back side, you goony goons. Got these from eBay yesterday:   Those are releasable cable ties that mount in a hole. I broke the mounting posts on a few when removing everything. I have PDFs of the parts fiches, so was able to look up part numbers for them. There are several sizes. Thankfully, Mazda continued to use this size, which is the largest, at least through the Miata, and, according to the listing, Honda uses them as well. These were a lot cheaper than directly from Mazda (best price was from Tasca online.) Also broke a few of the non-adjustable cable clips. Some of those are still available from Mazda as well, so I'll order a few of each that are available, maybe. I also found these things:  https://www.delcity.net/store/Push-Cable-Tie-Mounts/p_801513.h_27610 Which I could use instead with a standard zip tie. Del City sells on eBay, and had a sale start right after I added them to my watch list. $6 off of the usual $18 for 100, so I pulled the trigger. I figure that they'll be useful beyond this project. Frankly, I'd love to have the $$ to just spend a few hundred bucks at Del City for a bunch of cable, sleeving, and connectors.
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Jun 5, 2018 17:14
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Darchangel posted:Helped a friend install speakers in his Sunfire (it was free, and in surprisingly good shape. Did you know that GM was using a cam-in-block OHV 4-cylinder as late as 2002? I didn't,) so this is as far as I got on Sunday. Yeah, in the base model with the LN2 (2.2). 2002 was the year they started transitioning to the L61 (Ecotec DOHC 2.2). You could also get a LD9 (2.4 DOHC) up until they fully transitioned to the Ecotec lineup; it was basically a somewhat more refined Quad 4, but well known for timing chain failures. I'd argue the LN2 was probably the most reliable of the 3 engines offered for that year. The L61 had timing chain tensioner issues (hell all L61s did eventually, but the tensioner just screws into the timing cover, so it's an easy fix if you catch it early), the LD9 had timing chain issues too. Both the L61 and LD9 have a timing chain driven water pump. Water pump poo poo itself? Have fun yanking the engine. 
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Jun 6, 2018 10:14
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Oh, it's no doubt a reliable engine. Not particularly refined or powerful, but it's a cockroach that will run forever, somewhat like a Jeep 2.5 or 4.0. A pox on engine designers who put water pumps anywhere that is not externally accessible. My wife's Kia has one driven by the timing belt. I'm torn between replacing it next belt service, and just leaving it the hell alone. I feel like leaving it alone is the best course unless I'm replacing it with an OEM part. I don't trust aftermarket water pumps, new or rebuilt, in that sort of application.
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Jun 6, 2018 16:33
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Weekend was hot, and I decided to see Solo (good fun) on Saturday and Won't You Be My Neighbor (just plain good. You will have feels) on Sunday, so time-limited, but got a couple things done. I needed to remove the EFI wiring harness from the donor GSL-SE in order to measure the size and location of the hole in the firewall, so I can reproduce that in the '79. Got to do it *before* I paint the engine compartment, or I'll feel stupid. First, a few shots of the EFI wiring harness in situ, for reference:   That little dingus mounted just above where it goes through the firewall is a vacuum switch and related to the two vacuum solenoids that are supposed to be on the firewall nearby, All three of those items will be eliminated - they all relate to the ACV (air control valve) that directed air from the air pump into the intake and catalytic converter. This car won't have an air pump or a cat, and thus won't have the ACV. These things, but as you can see the rubber in the shock mounting studs fatigued and broke:    Harness routing going forward, and a few needed brackets. The nearest bracket is fo the windshield washer. I may need to relocate the '79 one, because I think it's where the second bracket with the little gizmo, there. The little gizmo on the bracket is a potentiometer that influences idle, called the "variable resistor"in diagrams, and the bracket is for one corner of the air filter box which also supports the airflow sensor. You can see another of the airbox brackets in this picture, just behind the headlight motor.  The third and final airbox bracket is this one mounted to the radiator support, and also integrating the radiator overflow bottle mount.  I removed all three of those brackets, and the radiator support side panels, since they are all unique to the GSL-SE. It'll be fun drilling holes and putting in threaded inserts for all those. The EFI harness all unclipped, and ready to pull through the hole:  OK, the ECU and harness are in the passenger floorboard which is...well, poo poo.  There, under that plate.  Thankfully, those wheels were easy to get out, and that gave me plenty of space to work. Speaking of, does anyone have a need for a very nice set of 81-85 12A (4 x 110mm) 13" factory "plus" alloys? They've been polished and repainted. I've had them stored in the car for 10 years or so, and already have another set on a different car.   ECU exposed after the floor plate is removed:  Something on the lens there. Sorry about that. These images are mainly for my reference. I have to cut out the mounting points for the ECU and cover, and weld them into the '79 chassis. Right lower cover mount:  Left lower cover mount:  Upper mounts with ECU in place:  Inside of firewall harness entrance (lower wire bundle):  Note that the HVAC blower and evaporator housings are not present. The grate at the top right of the picture is the outside air entrance from the cowl area. Overall pic of ECU and wiring:  Large tan/yellowed connector at the lower left (not the one on the relay - the big multipin one) is where the EFI harness ties into the rest of the car harness for power, ground, fuel pump control, etc. I'll have to replicate that in the '79. ECU and harness out.  All four lower mounting points. Upper two are for ECU, lower two are for the cover plate.  Upper mounting points. The ECU and cover plate share these.  Almost useless closeup of the upper left mount:  Upper right mount:  Lower left ECU mount:   Lower right ECU mount:  All of the mounts in one picture:  Fun thing to note: if you look closely, only ONE of those mounts is actually spot-welded. the other 5 are tack welded, meaning I could only use my handy-dandy spot weld cutter on one (which it worked a treat on). The rest I had to work at with a Dremel cutoff wheel, which was annoying. Firewall hole is 2-1/2", or 65mm.  Confirmed:  General positioning:  All the mounts removed:    (Got a little happy with one of the drill spots for centering the weld cutter and went all the way through)  All the removed bits and pieces went into their own tote so I can keep track of them. Beyond that, I cleaned up my tools and put a bunch away (I had just been throwing them in a bucket at the end of the day), and I changed out the glass beads that were in the media blaster with a more aggressive black beauty (coal slag) since I'll be doing paint and rust removal on a lot of steel soon. Maybe I'll have nough energy after work this week to do a few small things. I *really* need to clear out the garage so I can keep this thing in the shade, at least. Darchangel fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Jun 11, 2018 |
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Jun 11, 2018 22:03
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Will the ECU harness grommet play nice with a sawn hole that has no lip?
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Jun 11, 2018 22:21
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Dagen H posted:Will the ECU harness grommet play nice with a sawn hole that has no lip? Not sure. Going to look at it a bit before I make a giant hole. I have some plastic edging for grommeting large holes like that. Might be the solution. I have no idea how to put a lip on it if that doesn't work. Reeeeeaaaally don't want to cut it out of the donor and weld in. My welding isn't good enough yet, especially with fluxcore. Need to get some C25 and .020 wire... I decided after work yesterday to tackle mounting the airbox/air flow meter. Here's a comparison of the '79 radiator side panels/supports versus the '84 GSL-SE panels:  Primary differences on the right hand panel are the cold air intake provision, threaded inserts for the combination airbox and overflow bottle mount, and reliefs at the bottom for AC hose routing, rather than one hose at the top, and one at the bottom, as on the '79. The left panel is a little different, too, mainly at the bottom to allow for different oil cooler hose routing. First up, some measurements for the height of the mounting holes for the airbox brackets. Strut tower (rear bracket):  Forward right bracket:  And then, for reference, some measurements of the wiring harness hole location:     After a bit of fiddling about, the airbox temporarily mounted with self-drilling screws:     Brackets removed, ready to drill holes for the threaded inserts:  Installing threaded inserts.  The proper tool makes this so easy, ther than the lever arms sometimes being a bit cumbersome.  All mounted up:   I did actually make sure that the hood closed properly before installing the inserts, BTW. A look at where there will soon be a big hole:  Hmmm. Maybe I can tack weld a narrow strip to the hole to replicate the lip on the original. Fill in between the tacks with epoxy or seal sealer.
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Jun 12, 2018 17:32
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Progress! This past Wednesday, I felt the urge to brave the heat and work on the RX-7. I decided to work on the mounts for the ECU and cover plate. Realistically, this meant getting parts of the HVAC out of the way, as well as the carpet and padding, of course. Starting out:  Oh, hey, forgot I had stashed the crossovers up in the original 4" speaker location.  I don't even remember what brand the speakers are. I do remember that they don't match the crossovers.  They appear to still be in usable shape. Tweeters are up on the dash. Dang it. Guess I'll be getting new carpet.  poo poo's tearing like tissue paper. The padding is holding up better than the carpet.  Floorboard is OK.  Need to remove the glovebox to get to the bolts for the blower and evaporator boxes. I forgot I had a Tenacious D CD.  10-year-old throat lozenges. Nifty. Most of that went into the trash. Glovebox removed:  This is part of the temperature probe for the AC control feedback. It cycles the compressor off if the evaporator gets below freezing to prevent icing.  HVAC boxes out. Evaporator on the left, blower on the right.  And vice versa:  A look at the inside of the firewall with the boxes removed:  And with the insulation peeled back:  Approximately where the cover will sit:  That was it for Wednesday. It was dark, an hot, and I was tired.
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Jun 18, 2018 18:54
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Now on to Saturday. Gotta measure about where those tabs were before I can put them in the other car:  About 5/8" down from the AC drain hole. Horizontal location to be determined by the mounting holes in the plate. Locations marked out by bolting the tabs to the cover plate and lining it up with the vertical mark.  Remove oversized chunk of asphalt sound deadener. This chunk came off remarkably cleanly.  The others were pretty clean, but required a bit more lacquer thinner to remove the remains.  A little whizzing with the wire wheel on a die grinder:  Little bit of extra rust up at the top, so I hit that with the wire wheel while I was at it. Then we re-mark the tab locations.  Tabs were bolted back to the cover plate, then the exposed ends were tacked. Remove cover plate, then tack the other end, and viola!   My welds are still poo poo (but solid). Only caught the asphalt on the lower left tab on fire once - the tab got a little askew, and closer than it should have been to the sound deadener. Same procedure for the ECU mounts:    It fits!:   I gave all the exposed metal the Rust Off phosphate treatment, etching primer, then a coat of semi-gloss black. 
Darchangel fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jun 27, 2018 |
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Jun 18, 2018 19:26
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Sunday, after Father's Day stuff, I got a little ambitious. The rust that I couldn't reach or wouldn't come off easily with a wire wheel was coming off. As it happens, I have a Harbor Freight pressure-pot media blaster. Here we go. This is our starting point:   I think I've highlighted the trouble areas before, but to recap, there's a rust colony at the top of the driver's door in the cowl, and surface rust in pockets where the bumper and the sway bar attach that I can't reach with a wire brush, and the area under the battery tray doesn't want to brush down to clean metal. I could just hit it all with the phosphate treatment to kill the rust and seal it, but if I can get the rust off, I want to. And with a media blaster and Black Beauty (coal slag) I can. I forgot how incredibly messy, dirty, and generally annoying blasting without a cabinet is. Well, not forgot, exactly, but cognitively distanced myself from how nasty it *feels*. I put down a tarp to collect what I could. The poo poo still went everywhere. I might should have use a little less pressure. This was after spending some time and effort tot get the blaster working correctly. It was set up for glass bead (you can see a pile where I made a mess emptying the pot.) I needed a larger orifice, and that meant swapping the nice dead-man style gun out for the original ball-valve gun, because I didn't have a large tip for the dead-man, for some reason. Will have to stop by HF and rectify that at some point. It still like to clog up, but only at the tip, which was fairly easy to remove and clear. Thankfully, coal slag isn't near as sensitive to moisture as glass bead, because there was a lot of moisture even with water traps at the hose reel and on the blaster itself.  That was about a gallon of media collected on the tarp, which was under the car at the time I was blasting. poo poo went everywhere     But the rust is gone.      I'm not happy about that spot. I'm going to have to epoxy those holes up - that's straight into the passenger cabin, and probably assisted with the rust hole in the floorboard, along with the dead door seals. I did find some crash damage ont he right side frame horn:   Not surprising given that the bumper, hood and the panel between the hood and bumper are different colors under the red. It's not enough to throw the bumper off kilter. I forgot to tape the AC drain hole back up after I painted the mounting tabs inside, and even got some grit inside the car as well:  I did make a mistake. I wore a long sleeve shirt, gloves, and blasting hood. I did not, however, wear long pants, and friends, let me tell you, coal slag is *sharp* and bounces off sheet metal at high velocity. I had little blood spots all over my legs. Burned like nobody's business later in the shower, too. In retrospect, I also should have used my welding gloves. The shorter cuffs on my work gloves still let a bunch of grit into my sleeves. That shower after was lovely. I hit all the newly-bare areas with Rust-Off to keep them from rusting up, and called it a night. I need to hit all the remaining paint with 320-400 grit sandpaper to rough it up, and smooth out some of the transitions, then I can spray everything with epoxy urethane primer, after which I can spray the engine compartment areas with the catalyzed urethane color coat. Should only take a couple more
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Jun 18, 2018 20:05
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Saturday, I decided to do something about this: Filling the tire with expanding foam kept it alive a while, but the rubber was just crumbling. I posted earlier that the wheels were a bit expensive for this mower ($30). Well after posting that, I actually went and looked again and they'd come down a bit. I was also able to cross reference some other wheels from other models made by MTD that use the same drive mechanism, and found some from a Troy Bilt that I liked better, style, tread, and, oddly enough, price wise. $20 for the pair, on the right: Can you spot something I failed to take into consideration? Maybe this will help: Yep. I forgot that mine uses hairpins to keep the wheels on. The Troy-Bilt uses self-locking nuts. Argh. OK, fine. The axles are 1/2" rod. A couple of 1/2"-20 nylon locking nuts and a 1/2"-20 die, and I'm good, right? 1/2" nuts and washers:  Axle:   Problem #1. In an effort to be frugal, I bought the $15 Harbor Freight tap and die set. It had the size I needed, and was lifetime warranted. Plus, 20% off coupon! Well, the die didn't break, however, it's not made with enough of a starter taper to, you know, actually *work*, and once I did get tit to start threading (by grinding a bit of a taper in the axle), it either stripped the new threads, or jammed, then hosed up the set screw on the die handle:   I finally got it to put a few threads on the axle, but this then confirmed that I didn't have enough axle sticking out from the wheel to get a nut on. Fine. I have some 1/2" rod. I can loving MAKE axles. Back to the same problem with the cheap die set:  OK, done playing. What I should have done was just eat the cost of the wheels and buy the proper ones buy a single die and handle at Northern, but I decided I'd use and bought the full SAE tap and dies set, the matching set tot he Metric set I'd bough a few months ago:   That bad boy worked great.  (sorry for potato pic. Those are actually threads.) So, this is what I have to start:  Those are just mushroomed in:  Grind that sucker off:   and dink it out with a hammer and drift:  Thread and cut new axles to length:  Weld in place:     I'm not proud of these welds Grind down the terrible mess I made:  Tah-dah!  5/8" washers were the perfect size to replicate the shoulder on the original axle, when 3 are stacked. Just needed a 1/2" hole:  Axles back in place:  They were a bit of a pain to get back on, by the way. There's a snap ring behind that gear, and they used a spring washer on the back side to keep that all tensioned. I realized on the other side that I could remove the entire assembly and clamp it in the vice to compress the spring washer so I could get the snap ring on. This side I brute forced it with Channel Locks and hammers and stuff. Greased everything up. tightened the nuts until the wheels started dragging and then backed off a 1/4 turn, and it's all ready to go:   One of the reasons I picked those wheels is that they have a metal, rather than plastic, bushing, so should last some time. My old wheels, besides being bald and coming apart, were wobbly due to the bushings wearing out. This took me 6 hours on Saturday. I'm stubborn. Now the engine will explode next time I mow.
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Jun 25, 2018 18:47
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Darchangel posted:This took me 6 hours on Saturday. I'm stubborn. hahaha holy poo poo, talk about reinventing the wheel. I would have stopped once I tried mounting the wheel and payed a little more for the other wheels. I've only ever used cheap and lovely taps though. I don't know what good ones are even like. 
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Jun 25, 2018 19:12
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Sunday I got back on the RX-7. More de-rusting. Just wire wheels and sandpaper this time. Started with the front fenders - there was some rust on the bottoms, and inside. I think a lot of what was on the inside was mainly just staining, but I want to be certain. Just surface rust at the worst, though.       After some quality time with a wire wheel and a roll-lock abrasive pad:     I guess there's a little bondo on the other side of this. Looks like a wrinkle from the accident that claimed the hood, bumper, and header panel:  There's also a pulled crease further back on that same fender:  Oh, look, more blasting abrasive:  <sigh> I decided I didn't want to work around this bracket for the windshield washer bottle, so I decided to make it bolt-on, like on the '84 I'm using for parts. No idea why they decided it needed to be spot welded on, given the obvious bolt holes. Still less, why it needed four spot welds at varying heights.    Missed one of the spot welds when I center punched them the first time. Also punched locations for the threaded inserts to be added after the bracket is removed. And off!  Got a little too aggressive with the cutter on one weld, and still somehow missed part of the actual weld. Had to chisel that one loose:  Good thing I pulled it off. There was some rust hiding back there. De-rusted, and threaded inserts installed: The fruits of my labor for the day, besides the fenders. The right half of the engine bay is smoth and rust removed:     I still need to do the core support, and get more down into the transmission tunnel, as well as the other half, of course. To finish up for the day, I applied Rust Off phosphate solution to all the bare-metal areas. Shortly after I finished up for the day and had a shower and some food, I realized that I could have probably used my oscillating tool for a bunch of this. The engine bay is too lumpy and convoluted to use a disk/DA or jitterbug sander, so I was doing all this by hand. I can cut triangles from the rolls of PSA sandpaper I'm using easily enough. I was cutting strips and folding them in half, sticking them to themselves as it was. Will try the oscillating tool next time. Man, I just want to paint the thing, but I know if I don't do a good job with prep, it'll suck, and I'll hate it (and myself for doing it.)
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Jun 25, 2018 19:12
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Hah, missed your comment, since you posted while I was typing up the next chapter in my saga.Larrymer posted:hahaha holy poo poo, talk about reinventing the wheel. I would have stopped once I tried mounting the wheel and payed a little more for the other wheels. I should have, but I decided that a) I liked those wheels, b) this would give me the flexibility to use any of the wheels available for this drive system, and c) I didn't think it would take as long as it did. I've been meaning to get that tap and die set for a while, but was attempting to be fiscally responsible. Besides, tools never figure in the cost of things, right? I had everything else on hand. Best case would have been the original axles would have been long enough to thread. When they weren't long enough, that would have been the point I should have stopped, but, as I said, I'm pretty bloody-minded. I *can* fix it, so I did. Also, I couldn't really screw it up too badly, because I have a parts mower with the same drive system. I'd already stolen the slightly better wheels off of it for my working mower - those are the ones that came off, but they were identical to the old wheels. The parts mower had the high wheels in back, though, which I swapped to my mower. Maneuvers much better. Cobbled together longer handlebars, too. Basically, what I'm saying is I've modded and hot-rodded my lawnmower. Give me some time - I'll end up porting and polishing the head or something.
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Jun 26, 2018 20:26
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add boost. 
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Jun 26, 2018 21:07
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sneakyfrog posted:add boost. Lack of a pressurized oil system make the easy method, turbocharging, really annoying to do, not to mention the lack of really small turbos in the US. Wonder if I still have an emissions air pump sitting around to use as a supercharger...
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Jun 26, 2018 21:24
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put a skull on it too
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Jun 26, 2018 21:28
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The plastic top cover *is* getting a bit ratty...
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Jun 26, 2018 22:46
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Jun 26, 2018 22:47
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