Jaime's Western New York Build

[Jaime]

I'm pretty happy with my panel fitment. Now it's on to finishing all of the accessories that are connected to the body. Here's my rear panel nearly ready to go.



I'm still trying to figure out how to use the license plate lights with the license plate bracket. The bracket has holes toward the center for mounting, but the lights replace the plate screws. If you put the lights where they are supposed to go, the wires are on the outside of the car!

[Jaime]

Close up of wiring:



Braided split loom cable sheathing zip tied on. They are mounted to the body with Home Depot self adhesive wire tie mounts. I removed the double-sided tape and epoxied them on.

[Jaime]

Missed on one of my side-to-rear mounting holes. It's really difficult to get a drill in there, even with a 90 degree attachment and a stubby drill bit...

[Jaime]

All the rear lights work, except the license plate light, which I haven't figured out yet. Unfortunately, here in New York, it's required to get it on the road.

[Jaime]

I'm currently trying to get it ready to pass the state inspection and get on the road. Here's what I need to do:

• Third brake light (don't have one yet)
• License plate light (need to figure it out)
• Front lights wired up
• Passenger seat installed
• Dash installed
• Doors installed
• Windshield installed
• I need to figure out my last two CEL codes. I can't seems to get EcuFlash to get rid of them
• Front license plate mount
• Front bumper bar under fiberglass
• Rear bumper bar under fiberglass
• Exhaust (I have a donor with a cat, but I have to cut it up and get it routed right, I also need a muffler)
• Wipers figured out and installed
• Horn installed

[metalmaker12]

You can run the license plate light off the rear lights, it the factory harness as you know there was one, that's what I used.

Extend wiper wires and just make the wipers work to pass, unless you want a permanent solution

What codes do you have?

[Jaime]

I have the wiring in place for the license plate lights - I don't know how to physically mount them. Factory five supplies lighted fasteners, but the fasteners don't fit in the supplied brackets. Even of they did, the bracket is offset from the body just enough so that the nut won't go between the bracket and body (not enough room) or inside the body (not enough threads). It's not the end of the world, but I was wondering how anyone else made this work.

I'm looking to do the wipers like Eric did, but it's still on my list to actually figure out. I know there is a few brackets to be made at a minimum.

I'm getting P0447 EVAP VENT CONTROL CIRCUIT OPEN and P1446 FUEL TANK SENSOR CONTROL CIRCUIT LOW. I have both tuned out in EcuFlash, but they won't go away. Neither are marked as memorized, so I shouldn't even need to reset it (although I did anyways).



Ignore the O2 sensor codes, those are because I didn't have those hooked up at the time.

[metalmaker12]

They won't flash out huh, what software you using, I will look into it for ya.

Not exactly sure what your talking about with plate bracket, but I prob just made it work if what they provided did not seem to work out.

[Jaime]

I tried to remove the codes in both EcuFlash and RomRaider.

[Jaime]

They won't flash out huh, what software you using, I will look into it for ya.

It turns out I didn't actually have a problem. If you turn a code off and flash the ECU, it will prevent a standard OBD-II reader from registering the code and will turn off the check engine light. But, ROMRaider Logger will display the code even if it is turned off. The only way I found to check if the flash worked is to use a cheap OBD-II reader.

[Jaime]

Exhaust is almost mocked up.



Muffler should be coming tomorrow - hopefully it doesn't get held up by the seven feet of snow in the Buffalo area.

Slightly off topic - the weather is here bizarre. The official snowfall at the Buffalo airport was 16.9 inches. I work across the street from the airport - the office had about 6 inches. I live 12 miles north - we had two inches. Two miles south of the airport had five feet.

[Frank818]

You're in Buffalo area?
Don't worry, in a couple of days everything will be melted... and flooded!

[Jaime]

You're in Buffalo area?

Yes.

Here is a picture of the view out of my office window on Tuesday:



That's not an incoming storm, it's a stationary band of snow. It looked exactly like that all day. Everyone under the dark part of the cloud got at least 60 inches of snow.

[Lumpyguy]

I am building a snow plow attachment for the 818! I will bring it down so you can demo it!?!

[Lumpyguy]

Oh and where did you get the braided wire covering for your harnesses?

[metalmaker12]

It turns out I didn't actually have a problem. If you turn a code off and flash the ECU, it will prevent a standard OBD-II reader from registering the code and will turn off the check engine light. But, ROMRaider Logger will display the code even if it is turned off. The only way I found to check if the flash worked is to use a cheap OBD-II reader.

Oh, I thought you were reading it with a obd scan tool also. The codes will always show up on a ROM log to just let you know what you have changed from oem settings. So whatever to tune out will show up in the logger, but you won't have cels because you are in fact bypassing the code. Great build bro, keep pushing!!

[Jaime]

Oh and where did you get the braided wire covering for your harnesses?

Amazon. I used 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch for the wires in the picture.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Amazon. I used 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch for the wires in the picture.

I used similar stiff from McMaster
http://www.mcmaster.com/#1459t23/=upfvvq

http://www.mcmaster.com/#wrap-around-sleeving/=upfx2p

[Jaime]

Fabbed up an exhaust last night.





It's not as close to the ground as it looks. I still need to make some hangers for it. It's made from a catted downpipe donated by a friend, some 3 inch stainless bends, and a Magnaflow XL 14-inch muffler.

It's on the louder side for a street exhaust, but not too loud.

[Jaime]

Oh... here's where the O2 senor goes:

[Frank818]

Jaime, I was under the impression that anything lower than the tranny support (piece that goes on the rear bumper) would be under the diffuser and body parts. Or maybe cuz the exhaust tip is on the side there is more space and it doesn't go outside the body part?

[Jaime]

The tip is five inches above the ground, so it should be at the lower edge of the side of the bumper. I'm trying for a no-cut solution, but there is a chance it will look funky. If it does, I'll cut the pipe at the lowest point of the bend and rotate it up to where it looks better.

Right now, my constraint is that I have to take the exhaust to my friend's place with the equipment to weld stainless. As soon as I get it registered, I can drive it over there and make adjustments much more easily. Fit, mark, drive, weld, drive, test is a difficult way to build an exhaust.

[Boog]

I've seen it posted that the oxygen sensors have a longer life (or maybe just don't prematurely fail?) if they are pointed horizontally or downward. I think its so they don't collect water when not in use. Any concerns?

[Jaime]

That's pointing straight back, maybe 30 degrees down. I hadn't thought of it before, so I'll ask around a bit - thanks.

[Jaime]

Got some pre-Thanksgiving work done. I finally have the headlights where I want them, so I wired the front end up. I made a separate harness for the front so it can come off easily.



Here's the 8 pin connector that feeds the entire front end.



The wires go under the bumper to the right side:



Right side:

[Frank818]

I have a bunch of 10-32 rivnuts and button head screws. I'm also hoping I can make these work:

Jaime, what are these called?
I would want to use them in the cockpit area for every part that I plan on removing someday, like the console and tunnel.

[Jaime]

Body clips. There is a huge assortment at Clips and Fasteners

[Frank818]

I found also "door trim panel plastic retainers", it pours on ebay as well, it's a mess! But on McMaster it doesn't seem to. I'll check on Clips and Fasteners and ebay. Tnx!

[Jaime]

I re-did my parking brake cable mount. I was at the end of the adjustment range so I needed to tighten the cables by another 3/4". While I was at it, I flipped the cable mount to the bottom.

[Jaime]

Haven't done a whole lot of work lately, it's been too cold in the garage. I did get my wagon seatbelts finalized:



I had to flip the webbing on the spools to get it to sit right.

[Jaime]

I'm almost done with a third brake light solution.

I started with a card board template of the area under the trunk lip on the rear fiberglass:



I cut some 1/8th inch steel using the template and curved it a bit.



Tapped three 10-32 holes in it:

[Jaime]

Glued the steel under the lip with Devcon 14340 adhesive. The Devcon applicator is less than $30 at McMaster-Carr.



I then cut a thin slot just below the steel to start the opening.



And opened the slot up the fit some acrylic sheet I had lying around:



Inside view - the slot is right under the steel:

[Jaime]

Used the same template to cut out a chunk of acrylic:





Rounded the edge of the protrusion:

[Jaime]

Did a test fit, made sure the opening was right and trimed the protrusion close to where it will end up:



Here it is screwed in place:

Inside:

Outside:

[Jaime]

Sanded the surface of the acrylic flush with the body and polished the front and back surfaces:



Sprayed the top and bottom with mirror finish paint to minimized light leakage:



Siliconed on an LED strip from eBay:

[Jaime]

Went over everything except the front edge with another layer of mirror followed by a rubberized coating:





Here it is lit up with a 9V battery:

It will be brighter powered by 13.6V, but it's actually not that bad in person at 9V.

[Hendow]

Hi Jamie,

Looks like we are jumping through the same hoops, just on opposite sides of the planet...!

Just some food for thought for you with respect to the wiper installation. Below are some photos of mine, which uses a standard WRX mechanism that has been chopped and remounted onto a custom bracket, which also doubles as a bonnet (sorry 'hood') riser. As a result, very little of the flange on the rear of the hood needed to be trimmed for clearance.
818 (1).jpg818 (7).jpg

and a vid:

[Jaime]

Thank you very much. I will be tackling wipers very soon.

[STiPWRD]

Jaime, where did you get your wiring cover? I remember you posted a link a while back, just can't find it anywhere. Thanks

[Jaime]

This stuff?

41WlT1khC0L._SX425_.jpg