The Start of a Journey - Metros Build Thread

[metros]

Windshield installed! *Check*


Molding was used to make it look great.


ECU now has a mounting location that will work with the new angles of the firewall.


New front nose design support pieces back from powder coating.


Booty glamour shot - Needs bigger wheels/tires.


Family shot

[Mechie3]

You probably have it mentioned, but what size tires? Any rubbing?

[metros]

265/35/18 in the rear. I haven't had the body installed when it was resting on the tires yet. As is the body is only clamped in place. I'm making little tweaks to it here and there before I focus on installing it.

As pictured I have a 10mm spacer in the rear. I know I can get it down to 5mm spacer at least and potentially be able to get rid of using a spacer with some further tweaking of the rear suspension.

[Frank818]

As pictured I have a 10mm spacer in the rear. I know I can get it down to 5mm spacer at least and potentially be able to get rid of using a spacer with some further tweaking of the rear suspension.

I have same tire size (although in real life for different tire brands of the same size the width may vary slightly) and no spacers, on a body that's never been fitted yet. I have a set of 5mm spacers I kept from my Corrado so it will have to fit with either no spacers or 5mm spacers.

[Pearldrummer7]

Frank and Metros- What is your wheel size/offset?

[Frank818]

18x9.5 35mm

[metros]

Mine are 18x9.5 +42 offset on the rear.

[metros]

Mini Update:
Time lately has been in short supply and limited forward progress. However, I now have all the body panels loosely hung on the chassis. I'm just starting the dance of tweaking here, pushing there, clamping here, taping there to try and get everything lined up. My main goal this past weekend was just to get everything roughly lined up and let it sit for the work week to adjust to its form. Fiberglass panels will shift and settle into position with time and weight on your side.

Pictures!








The fabled windshield/fender corner of the new front end. This is how I've trimmed it and it now fits very closely to the windshield without touching. I did cut around 1/4" off the bottom of the windshield surround as well.

[metros]

Homemade sealing ring for the gas tubes. Had a family member put a bead around the tube and then I ground them down to where they needed to be. Not the prettiest but they won't ever be visible when installed and will help keep the gas where it belongs.



The above means I could finally get some gas back in the tank and fire it back up. It's been months since I've run it and I've had a lot taken apart and put back together since then. Nice to hear it fire right up. My son now requests to 'drive the noisy car'.

For those builders who have upgraded to the Boyd fuel tank and re-bent the firewall to take advantage of the additional leg room - it creates an area that shows your sound deadening under the gas tank. I created a small aluminum panel that I can install there to keep everything clean looking. This will hide my silver sound deadening material and the first set of firewall mounting holes prior to upgrading everything.

I'm contemplating leaving it angled as is and finding a simple mounting solution to keep it in place or drilling all of the firewall/gas tank mounting hole locations and tucking it under all of that hardware.



Last weekend I was fortunate enough to participate in a 'Go Baby, Go' event. This program was created out of the University of Delaware and takes children's power vehicles and modifies them for children with mobility disorders (i.e. cerebral palsy, etc). Instead of a gas pedal, most are powered with a large push button. Then support systems are made for each specific child's needs with PVC tubing, pool noodles, etc. to provide whatever assistance the child needs. All of this program is based on the principle that children who have the ability to explore their environment have a greater ability to develop skills.

Overall, I can't explain how much fun it was to modify these little cars and then see the children's faces as they made the connection with pushing this button and making the car go. We're already planning a bigger and better event for Washington DC for the fall.

Vehicle example:

[metros]

A few more boxes checked off this weekend! Feels good man!

I drilled and tapped the air to water intercooler for inlet/outlet temperature sensors. Mach V offers this little gauge specifically for this purpose where you can monitor these temperatures or the difference from pre-intercooler and after intercooler air temps. Neat technology.

I laid a typical 3" extension underneath the gauge to show the size. Should look good installed!


Cut out the rear bumper exhaust exit. Currently the muffler is just spot welded in place and will be adjusted to be perfectly centered once the car is registered.

Also cut out the tail lights and turn signal holes as well as drilled the mounting holes.



With the rear bumper bolted on, I can start adjusting the rear 3/4 position in order to get good gaps for the engine cover/trunk cover. I've found that both of those pieces have flattened out while being in storage. I have the center shimmed upward and taped/weighted the edges down to restore some of the shape. It'll stay in this position for the work week and hopefully retain the shape to some degree for next weekend's work.



Painted the headlight buckets with the dash/trim paint I've been using on all my plastics. The finish looks more uniform and nicer than prior to paint. All of the plastics on the car have gotten this treatment.



The cover for the gas tank gap that I created last week was re-created for rendition 2.0. I decided to add an inch of width in order to allow me to create a 90* bend on the front most side. That has made it significantly stiffer and will fit more tightly in the opening as well as mount easier.

I don't have a brake press in order to bend aluminum neatly and couldn't find any reasonably priced options to purchase for home use. I ended up using a long piece of 90* aluminum angle as the base and clamped another on top to keep everything on the finish side straight. Then used wide mouth pliers to start the bend and hammered to the angle aluminum to finish the bend. The bend side is a little beat up but won't be seen when installed. The practice was good for me and it really drove home that I'll need to take my aluminum template of my dash piece to a shop to get perfect bends that I'll be happy with.

[Frank818]

Rasmus' build thread has a nice way to bend aluminum. He's on page 3 of the build threads.

[metros]

The weekend turned out to be beautiful! The weather actually helped with my body fitment that I worked on over the weekend. I pulled the 818 out into the sun and let the heat warm up the panels to facilitate being bent and pulled into the correct location.

Throughout the weekend I would return to places I had twisted/stretched into shape and find that I could tweak them just a little more and hold tension with large stretches of painters tape. Then return to working on other portions of the car in between. The final results are below.

Passenger side sail to engine cover to trunk cover. The gap isn't perfectly consistent from start to finish, but it's getting much closer to that.





Driver side:

[metros]

This is the gap between engine cover and trunk cover, it's around 1/4" to 3/8"


However, that gap will be split between the trunk cover and rear bumper, which as seen below has been pulled very tight.


Previously I had questioned whether or not the panels will retain the shape I'm pulling them into once they cool off. I can't say definitively that they will. But when re-positioning the tape to pull the panels a little closer I can say that the tension required to do so was much less than when I first started.

My $.02 on what was especially useful. Prior to this build I had no experience with any type of body fitting or body work. I've now just scratched the surface with some mild cutting and block sanding here and there. I found that the 2" wide painters tape did an exceptional job in pulling things where I was happy. Plus it allowed me to make minor changes here and there to produce the final result, which was very helpful.

This weekend I also dropped the headlight lenses off at a sign shop to have them put a vinyl trim around the outer most 1". With the curves in the lens there is no way a beginner such as myself would get it to a place I'm happy with.

I also installed the rear lights, which is fun to see some finishing pieces put into place.

The best part of the weekend was taking it for a spin around the neighborhood with my son on my lap. We didn't do anything but idle down the street at 15mph but he was ecstatic and it definitely turned some heads in the neighborhood, most trying to figure out what it was I'm sure.



You'll also see that I bolted the door frames into place. I'm just starting to fit the doors but needed to get a start on it so I can envision how the pieces go together while I'm in boring meetings at work this week. Only a car guy plans mental projects for the work week while waiting for the next build opportunity.

[Hindsight]

Looking good! Why are you putting vinyl on the headlights?

[metros]

The lens needs a border to cover the double sided tape that holds it on. I could've painted but I think the vinyl will look better until I have the car professionally painted.

[Hindsight]

Ah got it. I haven't even taken my headlights out of the box, let alone tried installing them. Vinyl seems like a great idea.

[UnhipPopano]

Will the border be on the outside with the tape on the inside, or do you plan on both being on the inside?

[metros]

Vinyl will be on the outside surface in case I need to remove the lens. Otherwise it would get torn up when pulling off.

[metros]

I've been continuing to re-adjust the body lines little by little and repositioning the tape to hold the tweaks in place. Now I'm to the point where I'm pretty happy with the side sails, engine cover, trunk cover and doors.

Now I'm working on the front fenders, hood and bumper. Today I clamped the front bumper together with the front fenders and then worked to get the hood to fit in between the fenders. I'm finding that the hood flattened out some just like the trunk cover did. I used paint sticks in the fender/hood gaps to get it to bow up some in the middle and hopefully it will massage into place in the next few days.



Last weekend I installed the door strikers and trimmed the door skin to fit with striker in place. It isn't complex work fitting/installing the doors, but it is labor intensive. There is a lot of installing/removing to make little tweaks. I have the door seal plates that sandwich between the hinges and side sail plates out to powder coating for final install next weekend.



Doors loosely in place - waiting for powder coated parts to return for final assembly.



I've also created my console panel that fits between center console and dash. This will house my dual gauges and Mach V intercooler before/after gauge.





From the above I've created a template for a carbon fiber panel to house the gauges. Then they'll match the switch panel higher on the dash.

It's always nice to have someone willing to help vacuum up all the mess in the garage.

[metros]

Almost forgot - I got the headlight lenses back from having the vinyl strip added around the outside edge. Turned out ok.

[Hindsight]

Coming together nicely. Have you enjoyed the body or mechanical portions of the build the most?

[metros]

The mechanical such as suspension and brakes has been my favorite. That's where my experience was prior to the build and so much of it went together very quickly.

I am enjoying the body fitment way more than I anticipated. I think it's because I've been fairly successful with it thus far and it drastically changes the appearance, which feels like progress.

[STiPWRD]

I like the vinyl on the lenses and your body is coming together really nice.

[Hindsight]

I liked the mechanical portion better because, like you, that is where I have most of my experience. The body stuff has been trying. A lot of fitting, removing, fitting, putting back together, then repeat a bunch of times. I don't like the removing and re-installing cycles so much. Lots of dust too. But, it's getting closer to being finished and on the road which I'm excited about.

[Mechie3]

Is the vinyl one piece with the center cut out?

[metros]

Thanks for the compliments. I think my success with body work is because of my over critical eye to detail. I paid for my s2000 turbo set up by detailing cars on the side. That was of course before kids came along and I could throw 20 hours at a job without batting an eye. You're right that there is a lot of fitting, removing, tweaking and reinstalling.

Craig - the vinyl is overlapped in one corner, not one cut out. I would think it would be very difficult to get it perfect with 1 cut out ring with the contour of the lens.

[STiPWRD]

So my new front end finally showed up yesterday and I was doing a quick test fit. I'll follow the way you trimmed the corners and windshield surround in post #368, thanks for the heads up. Also, where do you get your parts powder coated? I'm thinking I'll get the brackets all mounted first and see if I need to trim anything and then have them powder coated. I've used a shop in Gaithersburg before but they're a bit of a hike.

[metros]

I use Frederick County customs. They'll be quite a hike for you as well but maybe better than Gaithersburg. I would go ahead and get the nose brackets powder coated. I can't imagine a need for you to modify them. They have a ton of adjustment out of the box.

[Frank818]

Nice body alignment!

[AZPete]

Oops, all your photos dropped off.

Edit: Oops, oops, lots of other photos in lots of other threads also dropped. Not your error.
Edit 4 hours later: pics are back. I guess this was a problem on my end. Oops. Carry on.

[Frank818]

Metros, your driver's fender wasn't longer than the passenger's? Both fit perfect?

[metros]

Haven't finished fitting the front end. Didn't have much of a chance this past weekend.

[metros]

Sunday updates:
Garage time has been limited over the past several weeks with additional work obligations on the weekends. Now that the unimportant work stuff is over I can focus on what's really important!

-The aluminum panel pictured above was bent to shape by my friends at Mach V. I had the driver side bent a little less than 90* and the passenger side bent a little more than 90* so that in the end it's oriented to the drive slightly. The passenger can still see it but it's easier for the driver. My s2000 had every control in the cockpit oriented to the driver and I always like that feature.

Here it's pictured after I decided to make one side removable in case I need access and don't want to remove the whole thing.


Mocked up in position:


It has since returned from powdercoat and been affixed with a carbon cover. I wanted it to match the control panel that sits above this from Longacre racing.

Final Install with bling rivets: Gauges to come.


Received a bunch of parts back from powder coating. The door strikers and inside door panels for the end of the door between panel and shell. Among other things.


That allowed me to work on final fitment of the doors over the weekend. I have finished 1 of the doors with interior panel, interior weather shield for end of door, strikers, and hinge adjustment. I'm still messing with the hinges to get it exactly as I'd want it.

I'm pretty happy with the fitment but the edge of the fiberglass keeps catching the side sails just a touch when opening/closing the door. I've used larger than the 1/8" spacers when aligning the door but it seems like the fiberglass sags a little after the spacers are removed with hinges tight. The bottom edge of the door sticks out just a hair too much as well, haven't figured out how to keep that where I want it as the hinge adjustment doesn't make any difference on that.





Looking forward to next weekend. I've secured Friday off and we're closed Monday for Memorial - 4 day weekend!

[Frank818]

Working on the doors, cool I'll follow that closely. Nice console. I kept the FFR alu one, slightly moded, hopefully it'll come out good enough.

[STiPWRD]

I love the carbon fiber on the console, did you lay that yourself or was it a pre-made flat sheet? I was thinking of doing a carbon fiber overlay on the stock 02 center console except with gauges in place of the HVAC controls. The CF would also cover up the smaller unused buttons.

I had the same issue with my doors as well, the edge of the door would catch on the door sil when opening/closing. I fixed it by doing 2 things. First I trimmed the edge of the fiberglass door around the striker area where it meets the inner door card but this did not solve the rubbing. The issue is that the door frame pushed the fiberglass door rearward towards the side sail and you can only adjust the door forward so much before you can not longer engage the striker. I had to carefully sand down the thickness of the fiberglass from the inside around the striker, which did the trick. I used the sanding wheel on my angle grinder.

[metros]

When you say sand the fiberglass on the inside, does that mean on the side sail surface or door surface? I started sanding the edge of the door where it was catching but then left it for the day.

[STiPWRD]

When you say sand the fiberglass on the inside, does that mean on the side sail surface or door surface? I started sanding the edge of the door where it was catching but then left it for the day.

I sanded the inner door fiberglass surface where it makes contact with the door frame latch area. Right where the 3 countersunk bolts go through the door fiberglass, through the door frame metal and into the latch. It essentially reduces the thickness from the door latch to the outer skin of the door and gives more clearance b/w door and side sail.

[metros]

Had beautiful weather over this Memorial day weekend and really got to put in some time in the garage.

I finished up both door installs and interior door panels. Initially I used 3/16" rivets to attach the skins to the door panels. But I've already found out that they're a PITA to drill out. The small aluminum rivets drill out in a cinch. But these larger ones seem harder to drill out with the bit perfectly centered. Looking for better alternatives.

I used 2x1 box and a layer of alumalite to build up the door handle pull. I smoothed the backside of the door handles and they sit perfectly flat when everything is installed. The alumalite is countersunk to allow a perfectly flat surface for the door handle to mount to.



Installed: Used the same gold rivets as the center console.


General interior shot:


I had the guys at Mach V reinforce my e-brake bracket with some additional bracing. I was worried that over time the aluminum would fatigue.



Also installed these side mirrors - which have added a lot to my drives around the neighborhood with my son. Took him around the development today and he's happy as a clam to sit on my lap and putter around the block. Fun times.



Finished this cover behind the seats. This takes up the space that is freed up with using the Boyd tank. It also covers all the bolts for the lower firewall to floor junction.



Next weekend I'll be able to focus on aligning the front end then start bolting panels in place.

[Hindsight]

Yeah, we do have the same mirrors. Nice.

Do you have the padded door panels? I see you riveted your aluminum trim covers to them.... my trim covers won't even fit into the recess of the padded door panels - the trim piece is too big.

[metros]

My interior panels don't have any padding, just regular plastic. I actually had the forethought to test fit those aluminum pieces prior to powder coating. They required minor trimming to sit in place nicely.