The clock is ticking, and this car is kicking my ass. Lets just dive in, fuck it.
Thursday after work I stopped and grabbed some fluids for the car
Unfortunately I had to work on WORK stuff on Thursday until around midnight, so that was all for the car that day. However I did take off Friday and got right back into removing those damn diff bushings.
One down
Second one was even worse
But in the end I got it!
Both diffs side by side after I installed the driveshaft adapter
I got the diff installed, always a pain in the ass solo, but not as bad as taking out those fucking bushings. Then I installed the drive shaft safety loop that I have had around for years.
I ended up having to take it off and install it with the driveshaft. But it fits nice and is in, so thats that.
After that I got the fuel lines done and the flex fuel sensor fully mounted.
Then I had to hand clean the bolts for the axles since they had locktite on them still.
Got the axles done, and called it a night
The next day I pulled the car out, and the almost immediately tripped over the push bar and went down hard in the driveway. For anyone who doesnt know, I am a pretty big guy, so a fall onto concrete was rough. I was barely able to get back up and get into the house, but I more or less just walked it off. My knee took the brunt of it and its pretty painful still, but the show must go on. I popped some ibuprofen and went back to it. I started by figuring out what I needed for the harnesses and seats. Once that was sorted, I temporarily mounted the seat so I could figure out where things should be.
Starting with the switch panel.
I had to power it up, and my OCD was immediately triggered.
I get why its lit up like that, but it does bug me LOL. That is the only switch that stays lit all the time, the others are only lit when on.
With that done I moved to the trunk and fixed the leaking fuel line setup back there. This is much tighter and cleaner.
I did some other boring stuff like run wire, tried to mount the radiator overflow, etc. At some point I decided to check my trans fluid. I have some weird adversion to changing the fluid, so I gave it a look before I just drained it.
Looks pretty clean! Im gonna run it, and just bring fluid with me incase. This also reminds me that I took down both fuel filters and they were basically spotless which was nice.
Just a nice view of some wiring on the front of the car
So I putzed around some more on things Saturday night. At one point I lowered the car down, and apparently I did that onto my stool which bent the fuck out of my intercooler and the mounts, and fucked up my stool. I wasnt really feeling like working on the car much after that.
Today I got started on exhaust. Well kinda, fist thing I messed with was the steering. At some point the rack moved in its mounts. Only slightly sketchy right
I assumed it was because the set screw had come out. I losened everything and then decided to look up if there were any torque specs from the guy who makes it. That was when I found the instructions to tighten the passenger side first to make sure it is tight. OK no problem, lets do that...
Well fuck. After a lot of searching it seems that usually the SC rack is 51mm, and sometimes the Supra rack is 47mm. This is a brand new poly bushing, for an SC. Tomorrow Joel Grannas is going to check to see if he has some of the correct bushings in stock to send over. If not, I am having a hard time finding some that are in stock for sure. I have found them NOT in stock, and then some that are questionable. If I cant remedy this, thats the end of the trip. BUT onward and upward, lets work on some exhaust.
I nievely though this would be simple... First up, its a pain in the ass trying to see how things land under the car or whatever while also holding things in place. Secondly, its a bitch holding everything to weld it on your own.
It came out decent though. I wish I was less joints, but I was working with what I had around.
Also ignore the well placed hole to the left that very much did not work out. It landed close to how I wanted it.
I would have liked it to be shifted toward the back of the car more, but that has some issues as well, so I left it where it was. I started with a tight cut 90 that is swedged over the stainless.
I didnt get pics of figuring out the rest, but here you can see a bit more of how I dealt with the suspension.
You can see that its pointing down some in this last pic. I figured that was going to happen which is why I left that last pice just tacked in place. I will break those tacks and rotate it around some so that its more aligned with the mid section. I also didnt realize that the trans cooler lines are lower than the other stuff down there, so I had to massage that piece a bit as well.
OH, I also fully welded the stainles side.
I need to add some supports to both of these sections, and then wrap them to try and keep temps undercontrol as much as possible.
That was all. Besides the injuries to myself and the car, my wife also got me sick, so I have been dealing with that since Friday as well. I am REALLY hoping that it doesnt get worse because I have a shit ton of work to do, and work on the car as well.
BTW, its a long shot, but anyone have some mustang fitment front runners they are willing to let me borrow for the week? My co-driver actually has a set, but I would need to get tires and they are a bit spendy after everything else.
speedhut.com
