Justin's '85 UrQ'd 4000 20vt Project - Tuning Help?

[90Quattro]

Brill work. Love to build one of these projects

[autoholic]

Nice flares. looks like a lot of time went into that body! Body work takes forever.

[Twintowers]

Paint the dam thing already! :pics:

[A20V200]

Looks good. Sanding filler is a pain, it gets everywhere...kinda like sand.

What's your "estimated" completion date for this hot rod?

[Hank]

a lot of work for a race car!! I feel your pain!

[Mentosman42]

Looking amazing can't wait to see it with a coat of primer!

[jretal]

Thanks for the kind words, all!!!

I was hoping to have it in primer by the end of April... that obviously has come and gone. I'm in weak hopes of having it primered by end of July, but we'll see what June/July has in store for me. I'm getting hitched in August, and my time is slowly being eatten up by house, wedding planning (or supporting the fiance as she plans things - let's be honest here), and working on my dissertation for my PhD... so yeah, I'm going 10 different ways right now... plus a full time job (that I'm currently swapping to a different position, or trying to at least, that's a new program and a lot more responsibility and also maintaining my current job in the mean time).

At this point, I have a ton of little things to do. I will start at the back of the car and work my way forward and see how I can progress. Need to finish cleaning up the interior so I can tape it off before I start sand blasting. I haven't touched the car since snapping those pictures, so hopefully I can make time to get back in the garage and go to town for a few nights a week.

Hopefully by the end of the year it'll be painted, but that all depends on budget. I've done the most expensive things I can think of in a single year (bought house Sept '11, engaged Nov '11, paying for wedding Aug '12, etc), and the car's paint is sadly low on the priority list.

Oh, and Hank, this is far more than a race car. I will never go bumper to bumper racing with this car. It will be tracked, and maybe time trialed, but it's far from competitive in current state. This is my project - a test bed, if you will, of finding my limitations... I haven't hit them yet, so keeps me pushing for more I guess... lol.

[WAUG0806]

:bump:

[jretal]

motivation, time and money requested

[WRC]

I'm guessing that it will likely be after the wedding before we see any updates.

[WAUG0806]

I'm guessing that it will likely be after the wedding before we see any updates.

[Highlander]

Looking great Justin.

I can't wait to see it in primer.

Good luck

Cheers,

Craig

[ringbearer]

Sweet build already :wink:

Congrats on the wedding, will your honeymoon be in the garage?

[WAUG0806]

My wife and I visited 034 Motorsports on our honeymoon...

[HeartlessNomad12]

then there will be kids, so thats 18 years till an update

[nismo]

My wife and I visited 034 Motorsports on our honeymoon...

*Like*

Eric

[jretal]

LOL, nice, Wiley.

There is progress being made, just very slowly. There will be no painting prior to marriage, I can promise that. But currently taping off car and prepping to start sandblasting spots. Once that's done, and I do whatever touchup needs to be done w/ the filler, I can start really prepping for paint.

Only other hold up now that I'm having also is getting the car running again. I sold my Ib ECU and upgraded to a Ic ECU (sick of the external boost controller that was only allowing me to get 14psi max). I had bought the 60-2 crank pulley from a fellow MG'er, but failed to realize that there's a difference b/n the 20v and 20v crank pulleys :(. And yeah, you guessed it... I bought a 20v crank pulley for my 20v motor. So that's sort of delaying things slightly as I don't really have $$ laying around to buy another pulley. Sucks, but not much I can do about it, unfortunately.

Unless someone wants to buy my brand spanking new 20v 60-2 crank pulley... in all seriousness. Give me a wedding present by freeing up money that I can go blow at 034

[audifreakjim]

I don't want to buy it, but would entertain trading you. I have this damn 20v pulley on my car that puts the TB in the wrong spot. PM me pictures of yours.

[jretal]

Ok, JUST so you know that I am doing SOMETHING on the car.... I've finally prepped the 'ol girl for sand blasting.

As I covered all the openings around the car with plastic, it really dawned on me that I should have done this from the get go when I started on the body work. The interior of my car would have remained a LOT cleaner, that's for sure! Oh well, live and learn, right?

But after a few hours of quality time with some masking tape, plastic drop cloths and a razor... she's sealed up!





Since I didn't have a sand blaster, and was leery of buying a cheapy harbor freight gun, I decided to get a little creative. I spent the money and picked up a gun that ran on low CFM (my compressor is a little on the small side). From there, I could have just stuck the hose end in the end of the bag and go, but something told me that wouldn't work out so well. So instead, I built myself a little hopper out of a home depot 5 gallon bucket and 2' of 3/4" PVC. Worked out awesome!



I can pour an entire 50lb bag of mix in this puppy, and other than the dryer I have for my compressor not being able to keep up with the humidity/heat in the air and eventually squirting out more water than sand, it worked like a charm!

But before diving in... safety first!



I've heard too many stories of taking the sand to the face when doing non-cabinet sand blasting. Figured it was worth the $20 to pick up this little blasting helmet. Honestly worked like a charm! With this getup, I didn't even realize I was getting covered in sand! Once I shed all the layers, other than soaked with sweat, I was clean as a whistle! So it did it's job. I also was able to wear a ventilator under there w/o a single issue. Worked great!

But dear lord, what a mess:



Was able to get everything around the rear trunk lid area cleaned up. Took about half a bag of grit. Good thing it's only $7 a bag!

So things are good and shiny:



Slow and steady. I rubbed everything down w/ acetone to hopefully help cut any of the water that came out of the gun. I'm sure I'll find some surface rust, but not much I can do about it right now.

Hopefully as time allows, I'm going to blast around front/rear windows, door sills on both sides, and then behind the rear bumper/wheel well to kill off any rust that has developed as it sat. Once that's done (and I get the motor back together of course), I can get things rolling w/ cleaning up the garage bay and getting it back in and ready for paint.

Won't 100% happen before the big day on the 17th, but will at least be making baby steps in the right direction!

But no, it's not done yet :p

[my2000apb]

little by little:)

[jretal]

Trying to stick to Dave Horde's "1 hr a night" rule... he's almost going to become a saying if enough of us are doing it

Only my 1 hr stints end up turning into 2, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. All doors jams and window surrounds are blasted. Blasted the driver's rear wheel well last night (still have sand in my ears despite my bee keepers hat). Need to do the pass side sometime this week and then time to pull the front fenders and finish off up there.

Slow and steady for sure!

[mr_aj_johnson]

Trying to stick to Dave Horde's "1 hr a night" rule... he's almost going to become a saying if enough of us are doing it

Only my 1 hr stints end up turning into 2, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. All doors jams and window surrounds are blasted. Blasted the driver's rear wheel well last night (still have sand in my ears despite my bee keepers hat). Need to do the pass side sometime this week and then time to pull the front fenders and finish off up there.

Slow and steady for sure!

The Dave Horde Rule! It's alot tougher to live by when your car is 30 miles from the garage.

[jretal]

All the window surrounds, door jams, rear bumper area, front fender area, rear wheel wells, etc... done.

Went through 75lbs of blast material (ended up sweeping it up and reusing a lot of it as I was blowing through it like no other!!), and made an ungodly mess in the garage, but this step is complete.












Actually didn't take as long as I thought! Granted I spent about 8-10 hours this week doing this, but who's counting, right?


Next on the docket: Final body filler fixes on the rocker panels as well as a couple touch up spots under the rear bumpers (fill pin holes from patch-work). Might be able to get that handled before the big day next Friday... maybe. So who knows, maybe primer by Labor Day? At least on the body... not the fenders/hood/trunk/doors. Those also need some work... but making progress slowly but surely!!!

[ringbearer]

Love seeing it done right, this should hold up well.

[WRC]

Paint that Biatch