[bue car]

Nice. I am using an aftermarket unit, no AC for me.

 

[181stLeader]

Nice. I am using an aftermarket unit, no AC for me.

With A/C defogging the window works so much better. My girlfriend bought a 91 Honda CRX and it has no A/C from the factory and defogging the window in the front takes forever. And it seems when you use the heat it just makes it worse by blasting warm moist air on a cold windshield. My forester has A/C still and it defogs in about 2 seconds.

Also it gets damn hot in socal! I will be installing A/C in the GC8. Now that we have the ability to weld aluminum via the TIG I am gonna mod the A/C condenser and or lines to fit the 98 RS/GC8 turbo style radiator.

The condenser was the only thing stopping me before because 98 RS A/C condensers are nearly impossible to find

 

[bue car]

I'll take my .02 seconds faster without it :lol:

I'll probably be hating life, oh well.

My wagon will have A/C. Rally and race will not....for now

 

[181stLeader]

Midget escape hatch installed!

I had the primitive racing roof vent cover before but I didnt like how tall the opening was:

I decided to cut about a half inch off the front:

I could probably do another 1/4 of an inch as the vent has bout 3/8" more clearance under the cover. Much better height tho, much closer to the WRC car.

As for contouring it to the roof my brother had the idea of using some sticky backed sand paper and stick it to the roof and use the roof as a sanding template. it worked awesome!

it might need a bit more sanding to get it perfect, and I will have to add some materiel to the back corners because for some reason they curve upwards.


I also seriouly thought about doing the earlier 97 style dual vents.

The OEM factor of the nice trim of the type RA vent cant be beat tho. If I didnt have a headliner as in full race car I'd do the 97 dual vents for sure!

 

[181stLeader]

Next I decided to get the S5 hood vents going. I decided that I wanted the vents to sit below the surface of the hood and make them bolt on much like the OEM hood vents.

Nothing like cutting into a $600 OEM aluminum hood! :noes:

Rough it out with the dremel and carbide burr.

Then the filing and sanding, lots and lots of file/sand some, check the fit, file some more Wash rinse repeat until you get it just right:

The plan is to bond some mounting tabs the underside of the hood skin for the vents to bolt to just like OEM. That Aeropoxy I bought previously should work great on this as it will be bonding aluminum tabs to an aluminum hood.

 

[181stLeader]

I also think that I'm gonna use some very thin weather stripping around the hole in the hood to make the edge look more OEM. If anybody has a good source for weatherstripping I'm all ears!

 

[bue car]

LOVE it

 

[Spec R]

nice progress dave.

i think you can buy rolls of toyota weather stripping for their tacoma fender flares for rather cheap. its called "toyota wheel opening pad". PN 53851-35061

 

[George.of.the.Jungle]

when/if i ever decide i want those vents, i'm doing it the exact same way. awesome work!

 

[CO671]

ouuuu loving the vents and loveeee the trimming on the roof vent cover (which i never really liked at all until now)

when/if i ever decide i want those vents, i'm doing it the exact same way. awesome work!

I was going to go this route too but will opt for Yuriy's bolt-on vents and paint the inside black so it looks like these S5 vents.

 

[181stLeader]

when/if i ever decide i want those vents, i'm doing it the exact same way. awesome work!

Yeah, glued on top of the hood method is ok, much easier, but I wanted a more OEM look. Hopefully I can pull it off.

ouuuu loving the vents and loveeee the trimming on the roof vent cover (which i never really liked at all until now)



I was going to go this route too but will opt for Yuriy's bolt-on vents and paint the inside black so it looks like these S5 vents.

Yeah it really needed to be trimmed, I really didn't like it before.

 

[181stLeader]

Made a bit of progress, not as much as I had hoped as I needed to help out my brother with some railroad ties for flood abatement on our street. It was the least I could do since hes been helping me a ton!

Trimmed the front pin stand, needs a bit of kitty hair filler and should be good to go. I'm hoping the 4130 chromoly tube will be stout enough to not flex very much when lifting the car. It wold be a shame if it cracked the paint around the pin on the sideskirt.

I started the rear pin stand boss as well. Still needs to be welded, I forgot my infrared thermometer at home so we couldn't weld it in as the chromoly should be pre-heated before welding to mild steel.

I spoke with Renner Racing Development about who they use for paint and some tips on installing the kit. They are awesome dudes over there!

 

[remski]

Have you thought about jackstands ?
Pin length is non-standard so I couldnt find anything out there...

Remski

Made a bit of progress, not as much as I had hoped as I needed to help out my brother with some railroad ties for flood abatement on our street. It was the least I could do since hes been helping me a ton!

Trimmed the front pin stand, needs a bit of kitty hair filler and should be good to go. I'm hoping the 4130 chromoly tube will be stout enough to not flex very much when lifting the car. It wold be a shame if it cracked the paint around the pin on the sideskirt.

 

[181stLeader]

Have you thought about jackstands ?
Pin length is non-standard so I couldnt find anything out there...

Remski

My plan is to make some, shouldn't be too hard. thanks to SpecR I have a pipe bender now so that should help.

My pin bosses in the car fit a 3/4" bar perfect.

 

[bue car]

Triangulate with a bar going perpendicular. Get fancy with square tubing, but they would be heavy

 

[Spec R]

My plan is to make some, shouldn't be too hard. thanks to SpecR I have a pipe bender now so that should help.

My pin bosses in the car fit a 3/4" bar perfect.

:sunny:

nice progress!

 

[181stLeader]

:sunny:

nice progress!

Thanks! And thanks again for the pipe bender! Also that's a great tip about the Toyota edge trim, that looks like it will be great for a lot of stuff, like the old rubber trim around the rear windows.

 

[181stLeader]

I started new job this week at Metal Crafters in Fountain Valley. I worked as much as I could on the car the weekend before I started my new job.

My girlfriend encouraged me to make a book of all the custom fab work I did on this car and go down to Metal Crafters and talk with them(they had a potion available for Fabrication Assembler) They took one look at the stuff I had done on the car and offered me the position. Easiest interview ever lol!


Made good progress on the drivers rear quarter.

I also finished hacking up the stock fuel filler neck and made sure it would still work properly.

The angle is a bit funky at the top as the angle is changed due to the angle change in the rear quarter since the filler neck is attached to the aerofiller cap on the carbon skin. Shouldn't inhibit fuel flow to the tank when filling tho, there aren't any kinks in the hose.

Most of the welding is done, I still have to make the side skit supports and weld in the pin stands on the drivers side. But that is pretty much it, then I prime the bare steel and start bonding the carbon skin.






Also here is a couple of the girlfriend's bugeye after the 5x114.3 hub swap:

I keep trying to convince her to do the 01/02 SWRT WRC Livery on her car :lol:

 

[181stLeader]

I also have been thinking about adding a rear X to my autopower roll bar. I saw on of the FRS guys over at FT86.com did this on their FRS:

My bar is uncoated so it should be pretty easy to make. I'm not really a big fan of the gussets as its not helping all that much there and blocks a lot of the rearward view. I wonder if an Autopower roll bar with the legs bolted on would be able to be installed in the impreza coupe... If it does then I can make the X permanent by welding it to the main hoop and also weld the legs onto the main hoop as well.

 

[bue car]

Just get a real cage