Chippyhawkeye 818SE build thread

[wallace18]

Well I am lucky enough to be building another 818S soon. This one will be very different in that it will be all electric. Chip out of Atlanta is having me build the car for him. It will be ready for me to pick up the kit on 9/15/15. I am going to be in NY,NY on the 13th and 14th so I just will go up to FFR and bring home the kit. It will be an S with GTM seats, padded interior parts, powder coated frame, adjustable lower lateral links, trunk kit, wiper kit, soft top& windows, leather steering wheel and adapter, carpet set, alum shift knob, Wilwood pedal box assembly, race mirrors and LHD. We are getting a donor pallet from Wayne at Very Cool Parts as well as a Legacy GT transmission. Power train and batteries will come from EV west who helped E. Hansen on his 818SE. Chip will fill in most of the electrical data on this thread. I will post photos like I did on all my previous threads. I am super excited to do this build. Hope everyone will enjoy the ride with us. More details will come out as we have them. I am getting my truck and trailer all ready and hope to be back starting on it by the 19th. My wife Marsha and dog Gracie is coming along for the ride. We will visit family in NC, PA and NY along the way. Pretty cool combining vacation and a FFR kit pick up. Wallace18

[Frank818]

Awesome! You'll be able to compare building an petrol engine vs electric, just like Bob.
Why do you mention LHD? Is RHD legal in USA?

What kind of donor pallet Wayne provides? Everything but the engine? Or you get an engine and you sell it afterwards?

[wallace18]

I said LHD because you have to check that box when ordering the kit. Pallet will have only what we need. Wayne is great to work with. VCP is one of the best aftermarket parts places I have ever dealt with.

[wallace18]

Had a slight scare put in me. I have planned to be at FFR on 9/15/15 morning for pick up of kit. Got an email last night saying kit would not be ready till the 19th. Lucky for me the order was accidently put in the wrong pile of kits for the 19th. Kit will be ready on the 12th. Thanks Sally and FFR.

[wallace18]

My computer still has some issues from updating to windows 10. I am leaving it at my computer guy while I am away this next 2 weeks. I will take photos of the kit pick up and such but will not be able to post them while I am on the road till I get back. We are heading out Monday morning and should be at FFR on the 15th. Wish us safe travels. I will follow the forum on my wife's IPAD some. Maybe even post a little too. I am very excited about this build . Should be really cool stuff. Take Care and God Bless. TW

[wallace18]

Hitting the road. Should be at FFR on the 15th. Going to visit family.

[wallace18]

Well we had a great visit in Waynesville, NC, Got soaking wet watching the Penn State Football game at State College, PA, LOL. then had a nice visit in NY with Kelly and her husband Jacob. We made it to Wareham last night. We will be at FFR at 9AM to pick up the 818SE kit. I hope I can post pics later tonight. If not I will when we get home on Friday.

[Frank818]

Any insides of the new nose?

Availability, orders, etc.

[Kurk818]

Any insides of the new nose?

Availability, orders, etc.

I called this morning about the nose. I was informed it was 4 to 6 weeks out.

[Frank818]

Hopefully I'll get mine no later than this winter. There is no way I will fit my body with the old nose/fenders and then change 2 weeks later. loll

tnx for the info!

Anyone else going to FFR in say 3-4 weeks?

[wallace18]

I called this morning about the nose. I was informed it was 4 to 6 weeks out.

They have quit producing the old nose & fenders. This kit I picked up is the last of the original style. I will personally miss it. 818C was all apart. They are still working out the kinks. I'll post pics on a differant thread. I want to keep this thread about this build.

[wallace18]

We made it to FFR by 9:00 AM Tuesday. It was great to see all my friends at FFR. Everyone is so nice, kind and helpful. We loaded up and left by noon. We are in Milledgeville, GA tonight. Hope to be home by noon tomorrow. Here Is a few pics.

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[Rasmus]

So exciting!

[STiPWRD]

Tom, what chassis number are they up to now? Just curious. Congrats on starting the new project btw, you are certainly living the dream!

[wallace18]

Tom, what chassis number are they up to now? Just curious. Congrats on starting the new project btw, you are certainly living the dream!

#355.

[wallace18]

Made it home today at 11:30 AM. Logged over 3K miles and 65 hours of seat time in the last 10 days. Very tired. I will inventory on Monday. I need to rest and catch up on the home stuff, grass, etc. Here is the rig home in front of the shop safe and sound.

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[wallace18]

I had time this afternoon to empty the trailer. I thought I would share how I do it. I do the whole thing by myself in about an hour. First I remove all the body panels from the chassis. Then I unhook all the straps and place a HF furniture dolly under the center of the frame. I use a floor jack to raise the rear to allow the dolly to be placed. Then I just roll it out the trailer and onto my lift. Then all the boxes come out. I took a picture of all the panels laid out on the grass. Reminds me off model car stuff on the plastic trees. LOL. Just a note. Before I remove the rear bumper from the side panels I mark the area of the rear trans mount. This has to be cut out and it is so easy to mark it now for trimming later. Monday I will do inventory.

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[wallace18]

I had time this afternoon to do the inventory. Only a few items missing. Not bad at all. Looking forward to getting my donor stuff from VCP soon. Will start to paint bare steel parts this week. I see manual is rev 1I. I look forward to seeing the changes from early kits I built.

[K3LAG]

I had time this afternoon to do the inventory. Only a few items missing. Not bad at all. Looking forward to getting my donor stuff from VCP soon. Will start to paint bare steel parts this week. I see manual is rev 1I. I look forward to seeing the changes from early kits I built.

Downloadable manual is up to at least rev 1o.

Larry

[wallace18]

Downloadable manual is up to at least rev 1o.

Larry

Thanks I will ask for it.

[wallace18]

Had 4 hours to work on the kit today. I first cleaned and painted several of the bare steel parts for the car. I use Eastwood rust encapsulater followed by Gloss chassis black. This has work well for me on 5 previous builds. I also mounted the Willwood mounting plate and mocked up all the front aluminum. Tomorrow I have a guest coming to see the kit. Then after that I will clean the aluminum, rough it up some and coat the outside with black truck bed coating. This is an excellent covering that keeps the aluminum from getting damaged by road debris. On the interior side I will use Eastwood thermocoustic for sound and heat insulation.

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[wallace18]

Today I was able to get in a few hours on the kit. I had 3 people come over to look at the kit and ask questions. I'll post about that in the general area. Today I cleaned and coated the front aluminum and mounted it as well. I also mocked up the side aluminum with cleckos. Just a tip , if you have 2 panels that are mirror images like the side ones. Drill your holes in one and use it to mark the holes in the other. That way both side look alike. I also painted the door frames and the rest of the bare metal stuff for now.

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[wallace18]

Today I did the inside aluminum of the interior and fitted the firewall. I also made some block off plates at the front since we won't have cooling tubes running up front. I also silicone sealed up any gaps in the front and side areas. I also mounted the Willwood pedal box and master cyl's. The donor pallet should be here on Friday. I may start of some front suspension stuff tomorrow. We decided to go with the 818 FFR wheels.

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[Frank818]

Again nice stuff, continue your work like that and you will finish another build before I complete mine! lolll That's how great you work.

[wallace18]

Frank it is not how fast you do it. But how much fun you have doing it. LOL.

[wallace18]

Had a lot of personal stuff to do today. But I got a few hours in this afternoon. I drilled and coated the 2 under the car aluminum plates. 160 3/16" holes drilled over my head with the chassis on my lift as high as it goes. Talk about an arm pump, LOL. Worth the effort though. Coated with truck bed liner on the bottom. Just as a note: FFR has modified the 2 under car plates. They now cover all the holes to the interior floor.

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[Frank818]

You're right! Frustration often takes over everything else. But still, you get to do them with fun AND fast, now that's a miracle.

Just a reminder, are you retired from "normal" work or you still have a 40-50h/week job?

[wallace18]

You're right! Frustration often takes over everything else. But still, you get to do them with fun AND fast, now that's a miracle.

Just a reminder, are you retired from "normal" work or you still have a 40-50h/week job?

I retired from GRU about 3 years ago. I do what I want when I want. That is what I worked hard for and saved for over the last 30+ years. Retirement for me is the best thing since sliced bread, LOL.

[wallace18]

Had some time before I go watch the Florida/Tenn. Football game. I made some seat brackets for the GTM seats. I used 1" square tubing and modified the kits Subie Brackets. Then I painted them with Eastwood rust encapsulater. Came out nice IMO. I highly recommend you mock up your seat brackets before mounting the aluminum floor and side panels. It makes it so much easier IMO.

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[wallace18]

Wayne dropped by about 2PM with the donor stuff. All looks great. Legacy trans is very nice. He even added some new parts as well. This was so much better IMO than getting a donor car and having to deal with the leftovers to get rid of. I had to show Wayne my Type 65 Coupe. He gets in and out better than me for sure, LOL. VCP donor pallets are a great way to go IMO. New builders should think about doing that for sure. Here is a few pics.

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[wallace18]

Did not have time to work on kit today. However these very nice tires came UPS. FFR wheels to be coming soon.

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[ninjanick]

Today I did the inside aluminum of the interior and fitted the firewall. I also made some block off plates at the front since we won't have cooling tubes running up front. I also silicone sealed up any gaps in the front and side areas. I also mounted the Willwood pedal box and master cyl's. The donor pallet should be here on Friday. I may start of some front suspension stuff tomorrow. We decided to go with the 818 FFR wheels.

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The last attached photo shows a much different rear panel than I have. Is this new? From the looks of it, that rear section would fit rectangular batteries much nicer than the angle 2 piece panels that I have.

[ninjanick]

Had a lot of personal stuff to do today. But I got a few hours in this afternoon. I drilled and coated the 2 under the car aluminum plates. 160 3/16" holes drilled over my head with the chassis on my lift as high as it goes. Talk about an arm pump, LOL. Worth the effort though. Coated with truck bed liner on the bottom. Just as a note: FFR has modified the 2 under car plates. They now cover all the holes to the interior floor.

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I noticed the underseat aluminum sheet is oversized for the opening. When you say all the holes to the interior floor you are talking about the holes present underneath the foot well areas (area just forward of the seat)? When I fit up that piece the front section overlapped that area by a good 4". Did you just rivet into the frame as usual and cover the rest in silicon RTV? I imagined placing rivets to secure the forward section, but thought I'd have to reverse them so as to not get a protrusion through the floor. Looking at your pictures, it looks like you opt'd to push the panel farther back towards the rear and not rivet the forward "tab". Is that the correct method of mounting?

[07FIREBLADE]

That's what I did. But it felt really strange having such a big piece that clearly didn't fit right.

[wallace18]

I covered all the openings and used 1/8" rivets in the tab area. I used 3/16" on the large area. If you line up the tab to just cover the 2 small rectangle holes the rest just falls into place IMO. The front part just line it up with the front frame rails and it covers the small holes up front.

[wallace18]

Busy day today. I had to order some parts as well as I started cleaning up donor stuff. I descaled, and ran some stuff through the Blast cabinet. Then I painted with rust encapsulater then chassis paint. I did the same to the brake calipers but used high temp. caliper paint. I also painted the steering column stuff black to match our interior.

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[Frank818]

I see you used vinyl spray on the column parts. That might work better than plastidip, I tried plastidip in blue and was so hard to get the color out of it. Plastidip is supposed to work on all surfaces, maybe it requires more coats. That vinyl spray is only available gloss and there are in matte (no matter the color)?

[wallace18]

Today was all about cleaning and prepping donor parts. Rust is just something you have to deal with on donor parts. I wire brush, blast cab and then coat with rust encapsulater. Then Chassis paint. I had to replace the lower ball joints up front with new ones. I also got the Door hinges, rear hood hinges, rack, steering knuckles, rear knuckles, Front lower control arms, rear lower control arms and steering coupler. It took 2 hours to get the long bolt loose on one of the rear knuckles for the lower rear lateral links. I wish Subaru would use anti-seize there, LOL. Here is some pics.

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[RM1SepEx]

The last attached photo shows a much different rear panel than I have. Is this new? From the looks of it, that rear section would fit rectangular batteries much nicer than the angle 2 piece panels that I have.

Tom, the new gas tank allows for more seat room, requires a different rear panel

[wallace18]

Tom, the new gas tank allows for more seat room, requires a different rear panel

Dan it still does not give as much room as the boyd tank IMO.