Dan's 818C (Lightweight818)

[BigDanSubaru]

Interior rear window panel in place. The hinges for the hatch are assembled and bolted in. The frame clamps for the gas struts that lift the hatch are also bolted on.

interior rear window installed outside.jpg interior rear window installed inside.jpg

[BigDanSubaru]

Got a bunch of brackets painted last week. I was already hanging up a couple and figured I would paint the rest of them that were in the box while I was at it and the weather was nice. They were starting to collect surface rust in the box. Probably should have painted these earlier in the build, but was too excited doing other things.

brackets before paint.jpg brackets after paint.jpg

[BigDanSubaru]

As for the seat and harness mounting, it has been a real challenge. Once we placed the hard top on, we realized that we (my dad and I) were too tall and we hit our head on the roof. So removing the seat sliders was the only way to gain headroom we needed. This messed everything up.
1. The lap belt mounts now interfere with the seat and need to be redesigned.
2. The mounting bolt for the anti-sub belt in the middle interferes with the seat bracket crossbar.
3. The tension adjustment point for the lap belts bottoms out on the plastic opening on the side of the seat. It needs to be moved up where they can be accessed.
4. The seat brackets need to be redesigned because they used to bolt up to the slide rails and now need to bolt to the seat itself.

This project can really bring you down sometimes. You work hard on a solution and invest time into it, just to find out much later that it actually doesn't work out the way you planned and you have to scrap it all and start over. But I think everything worth doing has highs and lows.

I managed to come up with a few solutions to the problems I listed. I ditched the bulky lap belt mounts and went with a bent L bracket design similar to what is used to extend the harnesses on Jeeps. This solves both problems 1 and 3. I can drill a hole in the crossbar for the seat to clear the mounting point for the anti-sub harness which solves problem 2. As for problem 4, the rear seat mounts still line up with the holes on the brackets. I will need to drill new holes for the front seat mounts in the brackets. I can re-use the front bracket holes to mount to the chassis.
Sometimes you have a rough day or night in the garage and it nothing goes your way. It really can be demoralizing and make you want to shove the project aside. But this is my dream and I cannot give up on it. I think about the project all the time and how much fun it will be when I can drive, race and show the finished car. Every hard day or night spent is progress towards that goal.

shoulder belt clearance.jpg lap belt adjuster access.jpg prototype lap belt extension bracket.jpg rear seat mounting points.jpg

[BigDanSubaru]

It was a particularly sunny day out and I was determined to reignite my motivation after encountering the harness setback. I opened the garage door and brought up one of the front fenders. I clamped it roughly in place, stood back and just stared at the car for awhile. This really helped motivate me to keep progressing with the build. I also registered the 818 into a local car show which is in May and got accepted. I know I will not have it completed by then, but that didn't stop me from enjoying Boxerfest last year.

I think this strategy of maintaining motivation is really effective. There comes a time in the build where the "honeymoon phase" ends. From some 818 builders this may have been the wiring stage. Or the body (likely the doors) stage. If whatever you are working on now isn't very exciting or motivating, look ahead to something that is. Even looking at pictures of completed builds helps motivate me to reach that point and push through these challenges. Going to shows (even when your build isn't "complete") is another great way to collect some motivation. If you're at the stage when you can fire the car up, do it! Set small, achievable goals and knock them out one-by-one.

front fender test fit.jpg

[Bicyclops]

A little eye candy every now an then can do wonders for the morale. A friend let me drive his Cobra on Mulholland Highway late one night when I was slogging through wiring and I was buzzing for a week. Perseverance is every thing.

Ed

[Dave 53]

After blowing up my engine (that's a whole story), I reassembled a new long block and installed it back into the car only to discover it didn't have cam shaft seals. But I'm pretty good at cam shaft seals now because I replaced them the last time they were leaking. When they still leaked, I remember yelling out, "You've gotta ****ing be kidding me!" The leak was coming from a loose plug bolt on the head above the cams. The fix ended up being a simple 1/4 turn tightening of the bolt. I had to replace my throttle cable at the track. No big deal - I carry a spare. The spare cable was too short. I blew up 3 5 speeds before switching to a 6 speed. Then I broke an axle at Lagua Seca. I imagine we all have stories of such frustration. I just tell myself, "We'll get through this one just like all the rest and it will be worth it."

I'm thankful for advice (from this forum) that will minimize these stories and I hope others can learn from my mistakes.

PS I'd suggest painting the bracket at the bottom of the A pillar. It can get extremely rusty.

[Dave 53]

As for the seat and harness mounting, it has been a real challenge. Once we placed the hard top on, we realized that we (my dad and I) were too tall and we hit our head on the roof. So removing the seat sliders was the only way to gain headroom we needed. This messed everything up.
1. The lap belt mounts now interfere with the seat and need to be redesigned.
2. The mounting bolt for the anti-sub belt in the middle interferes with the seat bracket crossbar.
3. The tension adjustment point for the lap belts bottoms out on the plastic opening on the side of the seat. It needs to be moved up where they can be accessed.
4. The seat brackets need to be redesigned because they used to bolt up to the slide rails and now need to bolt to the seat itself.

This project can really bring you down sometimes. You work hard on a solution and invest time into it, just to find out much later that it actually doesn't work out the way you planned and you have to scrap it all and start over. But I think everything worth doing has highs and lows.

I managed to come up with a few solutions to the problems I listed. I ditched the bulky lap belt mounts and went with a bent L bracket design similar to what is used to extend the harnesses on Jeeps. This solves both problems 1 and 3. I can drill a hole in the crossbar for the seat to clear the mounting point for the anti-sub harness which solves problem 2. As for problem 4, the rear seat mounts still line up with the holes on the brackets. I will need to drill new holes for the front seat mounts in the brackets. I can re-use the front bracket holes to mount to the chassis.
Sometimes you have a rough day or night in the garage and it nothing goes your way. It really can be demoralizing and make you want to shove the project aside. But this is my dream and I cannot give up on it. I think about the project all the time and how much fun it will be when I can drive, race and show the finished car. Every hard day or night spent is progress towards that goal.

shoulder belt clearance.jpg lap belt adjuster access.jpg prototype lap belt extension bracket.jpg rear seat mounting points.jpg

That sucks having to redo everything.

I won't go into a discussion on the subject of harnesses on a non-broomstick complaint car, but I'd suggest investigating it.

Here's a good video on threading the belts.

[BigDanSubaru]

Dave,

Thanks for the video on the harness wrap techniques! I will revise the wrap on my harness bar once I get the seat position and rough strap length better determined. I know that it's not the safest thing out there. To be fair, the whole car is dangerous. Home-built tube chassis car with no traction or stability control, no ABS, no airbags, no power steering, no power brakes, poor visibility and RWD with a high enough power to weight ratio to get you into a lot of trouble. As they say "this is why women live longer than men".

[BigDanSubaru]

Wrapped the center tunnel in carpet. I did not use the pre-cut one from the FFR carpet kit because my shifter and ebrake are not in the same position as the directions call for. I bought extra carpet from FFR and cut this piece custom.
Center console carpet 1.jpg Center console carpet 2.jpg

Did a little CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) on an aluminum panel to cover the emergency brake. A lot of back and forth test fitting and trimming but I got the aluminum version to fit pretty nicely. I wrapped it in carpet to match the rest of the interior. I didn't want to spray adhesive the carpet to the ebrake trim because I wanted it to be removable. Ran out of industrial strength Velcro, so the top panel is just resting on there in these pics. Hoping the Velcro will hold it down nicely and it will help hide the edges.
ebrake trim prototype.jpg ebrake trim aluminum.jpg ebrake trim carpeted.jpg

I bought a little shifter extension off of Amazon for cheap. It was more of a test piece to see if I liked it, and I think I am actually going to keep it. It keep the shifter at a really comfortable height, adds more leverage for shifting, and keeps my wrist from hitting the ebrake handle when I shift to 2nd gear.
shifter extension.jpg

I finished installing the carpet under the seats. Now I can focus on getting the seats installed again.
under seat carpet 1.jpgunder seat carpet 2.jpg

[BigDanSubaru]

The driver seat and harness are bolted in! I can't even begin to explain the feeling of relief, accomplishment, satisfaction, and excitement that pulsed through my body the first time I pulled down on the shoulder straps and felt my body pull down snug into the seat. This was a huge challenge to sort out and I'm so glad I finally did it! I also rewrapped the harnesses around the harness bar the appropriate way following the methods shown in the video link from the previous post. Much easier to rewrap them with the seats out.

first time buckled in.jpg driver harness installed.jpg

Another long night in the garage with the guys, but we got the passenger seat and harness installed! Plus we torque checked a bunch of suspension components. Some of them we have to wait until the car is on the ground. I have a few more things I need to do before we can do that. Making progress!

both harnesses installed.jpg both seats installed.jpg

[BigDanSubaru]

I finally got the chance to take her out on her maiden voyage! I took the whole day off to prep things and get set up. My dad and my uncle came over on lunch to take video and go for a ride. I don't have any videos up on YouTube, but I posted some on my Instagram (links below). Sorry to anyone who doesn't have or can't see Instagram videos. In the future, I may create a channel where I post content about the 818. I am just too busy at the moment to do that.

first drive 1.jpg first drive 2.jpg

I didn't push the car much because the alignment is still a work in progress. Brakes are firm and the car runs and sounds great! It was an awesome day. Now onto the next phase....bodywork. (I've heard it's a blast)

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5jvmcss...RlODBiNWFlZA==

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5nwr...RlODBiNWFlZA==

[Ajzride]

Such an awesome day. I still remmember my go-kart. Congrats!!

[driveslikejehu]

Congratulations on the 1st drive!
The body can be frustrating. A couple of tips you might consider...
The front fenders are not of equal length (at least mine aren't) at the line that joins the hood. I spent a while trying to even everything up before finally figuring this out. Then I ended up measuring everything. The frame is pretty square and true, so I marked centerlines front to back for reference.
You can check my build thread for some pics on this.
Good luck!

[BigDanSubaru]

I have seen a few builders apply truck bed liner to the inside of their body panels to protect them from the elements and debris. I also like the way it looks rather than just the raw fiberglass on the inside. So I scuffed up the inside of all of the body panels and washed them out with dish soap to remove any contaminants.

Panels scuffed and washed 1.jpg Panels scuffed and washed 2.jpg

I let these dry overnight, then flipped them all over to apply Herculiner. It is a roll/brush on product and it applies really easily. I only needed one coat to get good coverage. It took way longer to dry than the directions stated, but I let them sit for the entire day in the sun, then brought them into the garage overnight to dry. They turned out really nice. Plus I am getting way fewer fiberglass splinters handling them.

Herculiner1.jpg Herculiner2.jpg Herculiner3.jpg Herculiner4.jpg

[BigDanSubaru]

I had way too much negative camber at the rear. As in more than my magnetic bubble scale can read (over -6°). I thought I had the camber link about as long as I felt comfortable in terms of thread engagement. However, after talking with another coupe builder. He has 24mm of thread showing on either end of the camber link suspension tube. I had less than 20mm. I didn't think that adjusting it just that little bit would make such a large difference, but it seems to have done it. See before pics below.

CamberBefore1.jpg CamberBefore2.jpg CamberLinkTooShort.jpg

After adjusting the upper camber link to 24mm of thread showing on each end of the suspension tube my camber is much more reasonable. But there is not much thread engagement. I may order a longer suspension tube from Summit just for peace of mind.
Looks like it would be this part. Which is available in various lengths. I will measure my current tube and get a replacement that is about 1" longer so I have an extra 1/2" of thread engagement on either end. I will feel a lot safer knowing it's not right on the edge (or close to it).
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/aaf-all57158

CamberAfter1.jpg

[BigDanSubaru]

Okay [takes a deep breath], here we go with the body install posts. I have been doing a lot of thread reading and there seem to be a few good ways to approach this. The method that I am choosing is to set the side panels in place 5/8" back at the lower front of the panel from the vertical frame member behind the front wheel like the instructions suggest. These side panels will be my reference points to line up the rest of the body. Having too many degrees of freedom to adjust things sometimes makes the process of achieving fitment excruciating. Especially when the clamps are slipping or popping off which throws everything out of whack. I am not saying this is the best or the right way, but it's the way I am approaching the challenge.

Before attempting to install this panel, I hooked up the fuel filler tube and bolted on the door latch mounting bracket. I would recommend doing that before you install this panel, otherwise it can be a pain to get in there. You may have to adjust the location of that latch mount to get the correct body panel positioning.

For the driver side panel, I started by clamping the panel against the frame at the door sill like the instructions suggest. I made sure that the bottom of the panel was touching the bottom of the car and set the 5/8" distance back from the front frame tube as stated in the instructions. I riveted the bottom of the panel in place, then moved onto the top. The aluminum C-channel panel that wraps around the door sill does not allow for the additional thickness added if you install the FFR carpet on the inside. You may also have to file or sand down the fiberglass to the same level as the door sill frame so things are flush. To solve the carpet thickness issue I took a simple approach. I did not want to cut the carpet back, because I did not want to see the seam, or any gaps where I may have overcut by mistake. Instead, I dry-fit the panel as best I could and taped off an area of the carpet to be shaved. Yes, I mean that literally. I used my beard trimmer to shave the carpet almost down to the backing, and the metal panel fits great now. I drilled, siliconed, and riveted the top in place. I will probably wrap this panel on the car later, but that is a detail that can wait. The rear shock tower mounting point is just resting on the mounting tab for now. I will not worry about that until I get the passenger side panel and read panel on, then I can center everything on the frame.

DriverPanelClampTop.jpg DriverPanelRivetUnder.jpg DriverCarpetTrim.jpg DriverPanelClecoTop.jpg DriverPanelRivetTop.jpg

Onto the passenger side!

[lpmagruder]

I recommend using just a few self tapping screws to start, until all the panels are fit up. Fully riveting them in would be frustrating if you need to bump it like 1/8in or so. I definitely had to fine tune the side sails a little once I got all the rest of the parts on.

[BigDanSubaru]

Oof, well they are riveted on now. I measured back from the firewall to the back edge of each side sail and they are dead even, so hopefully they are good where they are. I am working on the rear panel now. Once I get it ready to mount, I'll know how things are looking. Dropping the hardtop on after I install the rear panel will also really tell me if I have them in the correct place.

[Dave 53]

I recommend using just a few self tapping screws to start, until all the panels are fit up. Fully riveting them in would be frustrating if you need to bump it like 1/8in or so. I definitely had to fine tune the side sails a little once I got all the rest of the parts on.

I agree and suggest drilling only the minimal number of rivet holes and only using clecos or tapping screws until everything is fitted.

I'd also suggest triple clamping any coolant system hose clamps or using Gates PowerGrip clamps in any locations that will be difficult to access after the panels are mounted. Because if you're ever gonna have a hose clamp leak, guess which one it will be...

And perhaps run the hoses for an AWIC now. Maybe you'll never use them, but if some day you want an AWIC, you won't have to take the car apart to install it.