Dave A. Rally CQ: Now in Seattle, sort of

[dalspaugh]

If you go over to the Rally Anarchy forum, John's info is posted all over the place, not hard to find.

[dalspaugh]

Got a little time with the CQ this past week. Started with tearing out a lot more of the interior including front seats, console, sunroof, headliner etc. etc.

When I pulled up the carpet under the seats, the sound dampening material was soaking wet... the car has been garaged for 6 months. but happily I happily I haven't found any chassis rust... yet...



Cleaning it out made a huge mess in the garage so I spent some time this weekend cleaning that crap up and installing these new (to me) free tables. Need to mount the vice still but happy to have some more work surface



Back to cleaning the coupe's insides this week, maybe getting to dropping out the rear end.

[loxxrider]

Nice garage space. So many cars have wet carpet padding and Noone knows about it for years. It sucks. Getting it out of there is nice!

[mr_aj_johnson]

The 20$ oscillating tool from harbor freight was an awesome scraper for all that interior crap. Keep a flap disc nearby for putting a fresh edge on the blade every now and again.

http://www.harborfreight.com/power-tool ... 62302.html

[dalspaugh]

Thanks for tip! I've got to swing by HF and pick-up some other cheap goodies soon anyway, I'll check it out.

And yeah, I hope the carpet/subfloor isn't like that on my DD 90.... I'll just try and not think about that.

Dying to get back at this project but had to spend all of Sunday working on my 90, I found a trunk harness that was mostly broken and I'm still working on some details of my RS2 Headlight Swap... Soon back at this!

[PRY4SNO]

In for more details on the RS2 headlight swap, my coupe came relayed with lights pre-installed but always had the bulb out warning.

[dalspaugh]

I have a thread on MG that covers a lot of my first time questions and snags along the way. I'll finish the project hopefully this weekend and will post up some details and the thread link here.

[dalspaugh]

I got a few hours in last night and again focused on the interior... or lack there of now...

I put my poor little shop vac to the test and it's still going! This is my first time tearing down an interior of one of these cars so it's slow going. I think one of the nice things about a car from the 90s though is that the engineers weren't too crazy about hiding fasteners - they were just starting to really get into that.

Anyway, I pulled the dash, steering wheel, airbag (wow there is a lot of componentry that go along with the airbag... which I left for now), Center stack ducting and other non-essentials. This is where I ended up:





Definitely some good progress, I Was dying to start decoding the wiring and tracing back and pulling more out at this point but I had to get home. Looking forward to spending some time cleaning up the wiring.

What are some of the failure points of this dash? I noticed my Tach when I turn the car "on" goes right to redline, is that a common failure? Anything else I should check out while I have this out?



I also pulled the driver's door panel off last night. Now, the previous owner had told me the window regulator was broken, but I wasn't really expecting this:



Yes, that's a couple pieces of wood (you can't really see one in that pic) held together by zip ties...

That brings me to a question though about what to do with these windows. I'd like to go to a polycarbonate anyway, but I'm wondering how I'm going to support it since it's a frameless window. I have some ideas, none that I feel all that confident in. Anyone else do this? ideas?

[Mcstiff]

Friends of mine, Fingers Crossed Racing, just used some aluminium along the back edge to set the curve. They've sold the car but I can ask if they have any better pics:



This one is pretty good:

[dalspaugh]

Ah, yeah that's about what I was thinking except I thought I might need two or three of those bars to keep it in place

[Mcstiff]

I don't recall if they had any issues with them flapping at speed, on Pikes Peak.

[dalspaugh]

Big weekend in the garage, both days.

Saturday was all about the interior. Continuing on the journey of wire and vacuum simplification.

Removing:
ABS
Central Locking and Aux Pump
Door Sensors
Airbags
and more...



I want to retain the Diff lock. Think I have to retain that Green vacuum reservoir?

The airbox has been a huge pain. I took off the inlet cover and bolts, heater hoses, A/C lines and every visible bolt or clip from the interior but the two nuts on the firewall are causing issues. typical rust issues... they need to be buzzed off.



Lots of blue flags denoting what everything goes to. Like I said, this is my first time with one of these cars so I'm doing my best to stay organized.



Mouse Nest #5


The real fun an difficulty of the weekend came trying to remove the rear subframe. First trying to remove the allen head bolts going from the driveshaft to the diff... here's where the fun started:



This is why you dont buy cheap tools... THIS is why you don't buy cheap tools... But really the fun was just getting started. After going to buy another set, we turned attn to the tranny flange instead. we got all the bolts... except for one stripped one. Some careful angle grinding solved that one... for now... but after that, this is all we could get:



The CV would not let go off the flange... So we went out to make up some of this ATF/Acetone pentrating fluid I keep hearing people talk about - oh and to get some "Bolt-offs" from Craftsman. These bolt-offs were pretty cool but damn they were a PIA to use. But it did the trick on the bolt which contained the other half of my allen bit and another stripped one on the differential. After lots of hammering and penetrating fluids, It finally came out:



And that was enough for one day... this will be fought another:

[deaner]

Looking good! Isn't stripping a car down sooooo much fun? Ha. Lots of annoying, boring, tedious, messy work, but gets exciting when parts start going back INTO the car.
The axle and driveshaft bolts are actually 12pt triple squares, Allen's and torks bits will just strip em out eventually. For the uber tight ones, a vice grip with a small cheater(12" 3/8 extension with a 17mm(?) on the end, slid over the adjustment knob on the vice grips) seems to work well for me. Two lug bolts threaded in with a big pry bar wedged through those and wedged against the ground keeps everything's really tight and solid. Makes for less slippage and loss of torque on the bolts.

For those black tarpaper looking strips littered all over the place, I found the best way so far is with a little heat. Not enough to melt it, but just enough to goo up the glue holding it down. Then pry off with a screw driver. Mine would come off in decent sized chunks. Same goes for all the sound deadening on the floors and seam sealer, if you take it down that far. That's what worked on my car, seams they're all different though lol. Dry ice works too.

Keep it up! Looks good!

[dalspaugh]

Thanks for the tip on the sound deadening! I am dreading that part... but at least it's not dealing with rusty old seized bolts... I'll get the heat gun out and see how it goes

As for the chassis adhesive, I think I'll leave that for now. It would seam to me that everywhere that stuff is removed should be seem welded, no? (I'm not a welder... not yet - so all extra welding = extra $$$)

I'm almost certain those bolts on the drive shaft flanges were Allen... I have a triple square set for the half shafts and those have always (Knocks on A LOT of wood) come out without a fuss. I'll take another look.

And yes, I would've reached for vice grips but the pair I have were cheap (See lesson above about buying cheap tools - Craftsman Evolv = Fischer Price - but hey, I was a poor college kid!) and the teeth on the inside of the grips have been chewed off to a flat surface.

I'm overly excited to spend the $$$ and get new hardware... and reassembly sounds like a pipe dream at this point...

What are people using for diff fluid?

[PRY4SNO]

Nice work, way to keep at it!

What are people using for diff fluid?

Motul.

[mr_aj_johnson]

I went with my own mechanical doodad on the diff lock. Vittorio used some electrical actuators out of a mercedes something or other. Definitely keep it as it's fun!, but odds are good it will make you slower on stage. There is a good chance that the vacuum lines on the stock dealio will come in contact with rocks hence the reason for the modification.

[dalspaugh]

Ah that's a good point, slit vacuum lines are generally not a good thing. When I get the diff out I'll evaluate putting in a little 2 position actuator, A servo or something and figure out how to protect it. Good thinking.

Diff Fluid: 2 choices:
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B004LEWIBA/r ... SADF1LGTAO

http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B004LEZPGK/r ... SA4ZYRA5GD

I'm guessing I can do better on pricing than amazon but thoughts?

[PRY4SNO]

https://www.motul.com/system/product_de ... 1290086772

https://www.motul.com/system/product_de ... 1290086772


Just a casual glance says to me that one is better for cold temps than the other... planning on any special stages on ice/lakes?

[dalspaugh]

Ah yes, 80W-90 stuff has a relatively hight "pour point" @ only -11F. Whereas the 75W-90 oil is much much lower so I would agree with that assessment.

For anyone interested, ASTM defines the "pour point" as: "The pour point of a petroleum specimen is an index of the lowest temperature of its utility for certain applications."

[dalspaugh]

Originally I was thinking I would run the OEM coilovers with beefier upper strut mounts. Audipete mentioned that using Bilstein HDs would give me the best bet for this application and even an inch more clearance but it looks like its going to be $600+ for 4 corners of these... It seems like a steep price to pay for something that will likely get replaced by a proper Rally Suspension within a couple years.. no?

I had a lead for slightly used rear Bilstein HDs on MG but they're gone...

I haven't pulled apart the struts yet (maybe tonight actually) to see what condition the struts are in, but any thoughts on this? Are the Bilsteins worth the extra cash? Should I just stay OEM and save the money for a proper rally suspension later? decisions... decisions...

[mr_aj_johnson]

Back in the day, KYB GR2's were the go to shock for cheap beatings. Now, I don't know. But at that kind of money may be enough to get you a deposit on a set of Johns stuff. And if you start pestering him now, you should have struts in hand by the time you paint the cage. Rumor has it the bilstein universal kit's will run you 1200 or so a corner to have someone weld ears and steering arms etc on them. Nameless is supposed to be bringing up some Australian struts here in the near future that will fit the universal bill as well...

My .02 is save your change and buy something you'll be happy with.

[dalspaugh]

I had a pretty free weekend and didn't get nearly as much done as I expected, but that may be due to the fact I spent most of Saturday riding Demo Ducatis... a solid attemp at trying to bankrupt this project!

Anyway, Sunday resulted in 0 suspension being left on the car - (I finally feel like I'm turning the tide against these rusty bolts... sort of)

The rear-end is broken down to a component level now I just need to spend some time removing bushings, ball joints, end links etc. etc. etc. and continue the fights against rusty hardware...

Can someone please recommend a proper tool for bolts that have to be pressed against the arm while installing/removing (ball joints, tie rod ends, etc.)? Maybe something like this?
http://smile.amazon.com/Lisle-41970-Hea ... arm+puller

I'm getting sick of cutting bolts off... and need a proper solution for install

Obligatory shot of disgusting old control arm bushing, removed using the classic pipe and threaded rod method:


I did manage to pick one of these up today:


Need to spend more time on the interior cleaning that up. The Climate control box fought me pretty good but it's out now too.

[Peters]

you are going to have to either wrap that header or get the heat shield, otherwise the heat might melt the stock plastic airbox

[dalspaugh]

you are going to have to either wrap that header or get the heat shield, otherwise the heat might melt the stock plastic airbox

I was wondering about that... Seller has the OEM heat shield, I'll pick it up next time I'm there. But I will likely try to wrap it - although that looks like it will be a puzzle....

[dalspaugh]

Back in the day, KYB GR2's were the go to shock for cheap beatings. Now, I don't know. But at that kind of money may be enough to get you a deposit on a set of Johns stuff. And if you start pestering him now, you should have struts in hand by the time you paint the cage. Rumor has it the bilstein universal kit's will run you 1200 or so a corner to have someone weld ears and steering arms etc on them. Nameless is supposed to be bringing up some Australian struts here in the near future that will fit the universal bill as well...

My .02 is save your change and buy something you'll be happy with.

Looks like I can get some GR2s for 180 all four corners so I'll probably go that route just so I have something fresher than whatever is in there now.