Mechie3's 818S

[Mechie3]

Endless ideas...too little time.

[Mechie3]

Cable clamp mount for the mr2 shifter. The bolts not only clamp the cable housing but they're inset into the through hole enough to capture the groove on the housing to doubly secure the cables.

[RM1SepEx]

Just can't help yourself! Very nice job, my clamps look like poo and come from McMaster Carr

[Mitch Wright]

Very nice

[Scargo]

Very nice. Think more 3-D. You have ball end, end mills don't you? Mo' fancy!

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Hi craig
the cables need to be offset.
Bob

P1050234c.jpg

[Mechie3]

Scargo, I'm using the free version of hsmworks CAM software which doesn't support 3d. :/

Bob, my cables are short (6') since no one had 7' cables in stock. I need an extension shaft between the cables and shifter so those will be two different lengths to get the offset. I might run into problems with ebrake mounting though.

[Mechie3]

Some fun updates:

MR2 Shifter:
I wanted to make my own shifter, but after designing 1/2 of one from scratch I decided it wasn't worth the effort and design time considering my car still isn't finished. Instead, I bought an MR2 shifter and rebuilt it. I retained a lot of the guts and the parts that won't be seen (pivot shaft for bell crank, plastic cup and steel holder, spring, E-clips, and the large steel ball) and made the rest out of aluminum and titanium. It'll mount on top of the center console with the guts hanging beneath. I'm happy with how it turned out.

This is what happens when you're designing parts while holding a baby, watching F1, and trying to prevent the baby from grabbing the computer. Mind reverts to Left to Right mode and you end up with weird transmissions. Doh!


Take 2. Little better.


The steel plate gets replaced by this billet plate plus the cable mount I showed earlier. Cable mounts has a base that still needs to be made.


Remember this guy I made for the plastic FFR shifter? I took it all apart, machined down the end of the titanium shaft and pressed it into the steel ball from the FFR shifter which is the same as the old ball from the MR2 shifter. It's cool to see a part get designed in the 80's and get used for decades! I still need to make a collar for the cable mount on the shaft.

[Mechie3]

Put it all together and you get this:




Undershot showing the original guts:

[Mechie3]

Now, onto the hood hinge. First proto is complete. Two test fit protos are 75% complete. I'm happy with how it came out. Lots of adjustment, quite strong without being heavy, and doesn't block airflow.

Hood closed:



Hood open:



View looking into radiator inlet with hood closed (sorry for the terrible photo, it's supposed to show that except for the 1/4" thick arms, everything sits up above the opening.


Also, not exactly "post your awesome welding on the internet" quality, but I'm excited about this nonetheless. I welded together 4 pieces and didn't scrap a single one. Previously my scrap rate was about 1 out of 3 which was a huge waste of time and material.

[STiPWRD]

Put it all together and you get this:

Custom!

Your MR2 shifter redesign looks killer btw.

[Aero STI]

Put it all together and you get this:

That's damn cool!

[Mechie3]

Thanks

Fixed a small issue with the shaft mounted block and got it all back together with the springs and such.




Finished my hood hinge prototypes. Sending them to opposite ends of the country (California and Maine). I have preliminary quotes for most of the items so pending no issues from the testers I should be able to get parts within 1-2 weeks from the time they give the A-OK.

The entire assembly weighs 2.4 lbs. Not bad given the overall size of it. It's decently beefy too so it doesn't flex all over the place while driving or opening the hood.

Employee of the month performing quality control on my welding. I was pumped...I welded 8 pieces without scrapping one. Huge improvement for me.

[svanlare]

Outstanding!

[Hindsight]

Looks very slick, as always.

[Scargo]

Where's the "LIKE" button?

[bbjones121]

Where's the "LIKE" button?

More like where is the "Buy Now" button

[AZPete]

Beautiful. Take my money!

[nkw8181]

Ummm awesome! Like like like like like!..........!

[07FIREBLADE]

Away for the weekend and I come back to amazing work again. Just in time for the upcoming open house. Looking forward for the buy it now post.

[Mechie3]

The good thing is, these are all designed to be laser cut sheet metal which means quick turn around on parts. I heard back from the shop making the trunk bases. Supposedly he farmed them out and they made them 2/3 scale. Never heard of that happening. Frikken 5 month delay. These? Should be no delay once I order them beyond typical 1-2 week turn arounds.

The plan is to sell a base model kit that is what you see here. The upgrade (which can be retrofit to base kits) will include the gas struts, a mount, and necessary hardware.

[508wrx]

The good thing is, these are all designed to be laser cut sheet metal which means quick turn around on parts. I heard back from the shop making the trunk bases. Supposedly he farmed them out and they made them 2/3 scale. Never heard of that happening. Frikken 5 month delay. These? Should be no delay once I order them beyond typical 1-2 week turn arounds.

The plan is to sell a base model kit that is what you see here. The upgrade (which can be retrofit to base kits) will include the gas struts, a mount, and necessary hardware.

Have you mentioned how much you think the hood hing kit would run?

[Mechie3]

No, not yet. I'm still missing 1 quote and need to have another quote updated. Haven't put together the full list of hardware I used yet either. Maybe by tomorrow? I owe two or three people quotes for AWIC parts that I didn't get to yet since I was busy trying to finish up the hinges so they could ship out today for weekend delivery.

[Mechie3]

I put some quick nubmers together. I had to guess on one part as I don't have it yet. They'll probably be around $200-$225 depending on what the final quotes come back as. The number of pieces required drives up the cost. Same as the louvers, I'll probably offer some type of deal if you buy the front and rear hinges (assuming the shop ever delivers the last part for the rear....).

[07FIREBLADE]

Now that you've seen the new coupe do you think your hood hinge will have any problems with the new front end? If you need a beta later down the road Im more than willing.

[svanlare]

I'm definitely in for both when you are ready...

[Mechie3]

It'll have issues with the new front end. The hinge uses the current center opening as clearance which allows me to have the arms swing forward. With that whole middle section filled in the arms will need to have a much longer right angle section to clear it, move the hinge point, make cutouts in the front section, or change the hinge design completely. I'll put you down as the first tester for the coupe hinge.

[07FIREBLADE]

Sweet sounds good. Looking forward to it if your willing to do the coupe hinges. I thought it would cause a few issues but wanted to see your perspective since you designed them. I couldn't find the pics I wanted to see your hinges in action. I'm in a cell dead zone and away from a computer.

[Mechie3]

I swear I'm making progress!


It certainly doesn't look like it as I took the entire body off now. Funny thing, it's almost comforting because I'm make to doing mechanical stuff, not wiring, not body stuff, and it's stuff I'm comfortable with and can solve with my skills. Body stuff....sometimes I just stare at it and say "this isn't right...but I have no idea what I'm doing". Haha! I mostly took the body off to finally do my harness mounts. There's pretty much zero room so I figured the best location was on the outside of the cockpit aluminum. I'm making steel brackets (using the FFR seat mounts) that will mount to the large lower frame member and but up against the cockpit aluminum.

Mocking up my shifter. I have a design laid out on cardboard for the rear. I think it'll work out nicely. Going to need to make some extensions for the shift cables.

[Hindsight]

Such a nice looking shifter.

I hear you about staring at the car. I feel like half my time I spend just staring at it trying to figure out how I'm going to do this and that (usually things I don't even need to currently focus on).

[Frank818]

Well Craig, I noticed 2 things: First, you finished building your Audi kit car that you want to show us on the first pic (too shy to have it on foreground, hey?), congrats on that. Now you can move on the 818. Second, by moving on to the 818, if you want to make it a one seater, plz fit the seat on the driver's side, otherwise you won't go anywhere.

But that shifter is really looking awesome! Nice work again!!

[Mechie3]

The audi has made smaller appearances before. Don't worry, I bought it used. It's a 2010 I bought in late 2014. In the first ~5 years it depreciated 43% and was cheaper than a same model year WRX. I also sold my 02 WRX in 2014 for almost double what I paid for it in 2012. It's funny, guys at work were all "oh snap! You bought an Audi? Give me some money!". I replied "I paid less for that than you paid for your Civic new. Hahaha!

Some of you might remember that I had mounted my fuel filter on the frame before putting in the hump aluminum block off plates. I had to shift it down so I took some angle bracket and made an adapter on a manual mill. Reused the original clamping rings.




Took the tunnel aluminum and cut off the top. The sides end up being 1/8-1/4" too tall so I sheared these at work on a big shear. My thinking was with wiring, shift cables, ebrake cables, and AWIC lines all running through the tunnel I might want easy access. The sides will be permanently riveted in place while the top will be bolted on.


I had to grind down one of the inlet tubes on the HE as it was tapped too deep and the fitting was bottoming out on a flange instead of on the tapered thread. The hole inside was also slightly offset so I ground this down with a dremel. Took about 2 minutes to do that.

Material inside:


Gone:

[RM1SepEx]

I cut the top off my tunnel about 18 months ago Craig! Much easier to deal with everything. I'm going to make my entire tunnel taller too with a custom dash to tunnel interface. I have FFR's original fiberglass one and the aluminum one and neither really fits...

[metros]

Great idea on the tunnel cover! Going to have to copy that now. I need a job where I have access to big tools like you do.

[Mechie3]

I copied it from Dan.

[Mechie3]

Home internet is acting up and I'm not about to type much on my phone, so just pics.

[matteo92065]

yet again, nice work!
I worry a little about how the cables are going to bend around/over/under the bell-housing/motor. It took me three iterations, on my shift linkage, to minimize cable bend.

[RM1SepEx]

really not much different from my setup except you vent vertical vs horizontal. You will be able to get your battery about 2 inches closer to the center of the vehicle. I didn't want to rework the shift arm after flipping it and rewelding it... If I had your machining capabilities... as always, very nice job! Pretty too!

I don't like how my 7 foot cables have to bow up under my fuel lines beneath the intake but I didn't realize how short 6 footer would be!

[Harley818]

At the beginning I read Mechie's thread because I was learning about the 818 and WRX's. Now I read because Mechie has a new flavor every day!
Who knows what he will carve up next??
I'm definitely interested in the shifter mechanism, and I've been thinking about a similar hood hinge for the front.
I've been bitten by the bug!!! I am now re-doing stuff I already completed, just because I can. I guess we all are.
I had my stock intercooler all set up.... now discarded and I have the AWIC hooked up.
I had my shifter all set up and adjusted... but now have purchased the MR2 shifter and am going that way.
Lots of fun.
I really wanted to have it driving this summer, but I've readjusted to having it done when its done. I'm having too much fun building it.

And if you have been following Mechie's thread...... he sets a high bar on the fun factor of the build.

[Hindsight]

VERY slick linkage setup Mechie!!! I think there is definitely a market for those parts.

My only question is: Is there enough room for the cables to clear the inner CV joint? That forward most bracket looks a bit low which may cause clearance issues, and may also force the cable to be bent up at a tight angle to clear the top of the engine block, but it could be just the camera angle.

I love the ball bearing in the bell crank... very professional.