Let the progress continue!! Monthly paychecks suck - just going to throw that out there. Like I said in my last post, a lot of money has been spent recently on acquiring parts (which are still arriving). It unfortunately means that until my next paycheck, my options with what I can do to Stacey are limited to cleaning and prep work... not glamorous but necessary none-the-less, especially when the sum of a whole heap of small things can make a big difference. Not like I've got anything better to do =P
In light of that last comment, I started working on the engine bay. Looking at the above photos, it's pretty crazy to think that this car is supposed to be white. It's not even close to off-white, or beige for that matter!!! A massive build-up of road dirt, actual dirt, oil residue and general grime over the years has not been kind to the factory white finish... So to start this whole process I began with degreaser and a gerni (high pressure sprayer) to try and remove the solid gunk. The 2 photos above are a before and after... while there is a bit of a difference it really isn't as much as I would've liked.
I also found a few concerning areas of interest, like this here. The metal has cracked or torn thanks to the stresses of track shenanigans combined with super stiff suspension and solid engine / gearbox mounts... not good. Not good at all. I guess I'll just add it to the list of things to do before the engine goes back in.
I decided to do a spot test to get an idea of what I was trying to accomplish here by sorting out the rad support first. First it was attacked with a stronger degreaser and a rag to remove what the gerni couldn't. Then ground down / sanded where necessary, and finally a coat of paint. I must admit, I am very happy with the result, and can't wait to see how the whole engine bay looks when it's done! That said, I'm really sceptical as to how this paint will wear... I have a feeling it will end up dirty before too long. At least she'll look good when she first goes back together :)
In the spirit of cracking the sh*ts at various stages of this build, I decided to move onto another project before doing more to the engine bay. After watching a couple of YouTube videos on turbo rebuilds, I decided to take a closer look at the turbo (again). I figured out how to pull the core apart, and whilst doing so found a lot of 'coking'. Coking is the name given to a process where the oil doesn't cool properly and solidifies... Similar to mixing flour with water, you end up with a substance that doesn't do anything any favours. It's quite a common problem with turbos, especially when they aren't cooled down properly. I initially thought that by just getting a clean seal, it would fix my oil leak. I then thought that it would be great to have a rebuilt turbo just to be sure, so I put it back together after cleaning it just so parts didn't go missing - the end goal here will be to get a rebuild kit off of eBay and sort out all the bearings and seals to hopefully kick the oil leak for good.
After I finished with the turbo I ended up back in the engine bay, go figure. I decided to continue on with the task of prepping, and the next logical step was to remove both the Brake and Clutch master cylinders. These are basically responsible for translating what you do to the pedals to their respective components. While they are fantastic pieces of equipment to have in your car, they do hinder painting quite significantly, so they had to come out... once again something I've never done before.
In order to pull them out, you have to disconnect them from the pedals. Whilst doing so I found that one of the bolts had been purposefully notched (see above). It seems that the further I dive into this car, the more stuff I find that is concerning or I can't explain!!! I mean seriously, what benefit would be gained from doing that to a bolt? If it was designed to help with pedal feel, how would you keep the notch in the same spot for the sake of doing whatever it is it's supposed to do?? I dunno... in that regard I guess I've just stopped caring. It certainly does make for an adventure though.
Anyhow, I eventually got both those cylinders out and started cleaning some more. You can see on the firewall (top of the picture) the difference that some good old fashioned elbow grease can make!!! It really gives you an idea of just how far gone this engine bay was. I've still got to clean the rest of it, sand and paint it all, but it's certainly steps in the right direction. I also took the liberty of grinding out some brackets and what was left of the battery tray to tick some more boxes, more on that in a later post.
From here I moved on to the rear guards. I'm not sure if you'd remember, but I did comment on the fact that the rear guards needed a lot of work just to tidy them up and re-seal the wheel wells.
I began with removing the original cancer... nothing an angle grinder can't fix! I must admit, it is incredibly liberating being able to hack into panels and not care at all if I mess it up. That said I still wanted to do a decent job of it, because at the end of the day, the less sharp edges the better for everyone :) Safety first!!! I was also taking lessons from past experience and making sure that I myself had the proper PPE on - nearly took my foot off once from being careless with angle grinder, plus the use of my eyes, ears and hands are something I don't want to miss. I can certainly appreciate the safety features that PPE can make, I just wish that it wasn't such a big issue in the workplace! I mean come on, working on a finished building site that hasn't been handed over yet with steel caps, long sleeve shirt, high-vis vest and a helmet? What's there to protect me from!! Got to protect the stupid from themselves, seems no-one is capable of taking responsibility anymore... and those that are sensible about it have to pay the price. Way to go idiots. #endrant
Here you can see the end of stage one - it's already a hell of a lot cleaner than it was before, and this made me very happy.
It did leave quite a gap though - normally the wheel well seals to the guard. In this picture you can look through and actually see the transmission tunnel on the inside of the car as well as the gearknob... this made me very unhappy.
And so began the task of making the two meet. Quite simple really, just bash away with a mallet. I began with a rubber mallet as I didn't want to damage anything too badly. Unfortunately it required a hell of a lot more hits to get pieces of metal to where I wanted them, and then I realised it didn't really matter if I damaged anything - it was all getting covered up anyway!! I moved to my 3 lb dead-blow mallet and voila! Metal meets metal :) I must admit though, my wrist is a little bit worse for wear after swinging such a heavy mallet in such a restricted space for so long... ah well, life goes on.
The final step was to throw on some Sikaflex to seal up the remaining gaps... it was an incredibly messy and sticky job. It's also not the prettiest job I've ever done (that I can openly confess) but despite my best efforts with the mallet I still had a couple of areas that weren't as close as I would've liked. The result was a requirement to throw in a heap of Sikaflex to get it to seal properly. At least I can cut off the overlap once it's set :) and even if it's still not tidy? At least it's all properly sealed and will stop unnecessary dirt and water getting into the car... winner winner, chicken dinner.
And so concludes part 5 of this epic series... Stay tuned for part 6 to come out whenever I feel I've accomplished enough to warrant a new entry ;)
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