the pile of sway bars is actually nice. Gives me some options to make my own again.

Thanks for the feedback on the rest! I really, really appreciate it. The extra pipe is a fuel rail, that was apparently controlled by the early extra ecu to add fuel as needed for boost. Im debating seeing if i can reuse it as meth injection....

 

For sure, if you have any more questions about the setup feel free to shoot them my way or checkout my build thread.

I was curious if that was a fuel rail. I'm surprised to see hose barbs on the ends considering the NB uses those pre bent nylon hoses. Also strange that it's so far from where the stock fuel rail sits. Was it just sitting there for the photo?

 

Nope. Welded bungs and mounts into the intake with what appears to be ford injectors. Not sure how it was plumbed back then, as i don't remember the details from tne old voodoo kit documentation i found. It was just odd, but i have it now, and with the aem fic6 its better than the voodoo anyway!

I need to get caught up on updates. Just hasn't been enough hours in the day.....

 

In the olden days, you'd run a factory ECU and factory injectors, which all stayed happy. When an aftermarket MAP sensor saw boost, it'd add fuel with the secondary injectors on top of the factory ones. It's overly complicated and standalones and larger injectors are far superior, not to mention they're injecting in a terrible location, but there ya go.

OP, you've got way more time on your hands than me if you're tackling that project, the mani/turbo/dp are about the only thing that wouldn't be thrown away if it were me, but my interest is peaked, I'm excited to see how quickly you turn this one around.

 

After unloading the turbo donor, and taking stock, I went ahead and cleaned it up before doing much. I hate getting dirty. It actually cleaned up nicely, and fairly easily. Little Castrol Superclean and a garden hose took care of the worst of it for round one.

20240527_085544 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I then went ahead and pulled apart the megasquirt to see what it actually is. Still not quite sure, but its ms2 based with the sequential injector driver. It was am assemble it yourself setup from DIYAUTOTUNE. Other than that, not quite sure how to proceed with it, or if I even want to, honestly. I’ve had horrible experiences with megasquirt in the past, so I’m more than slightly hesitant. And the AEM FIC-6 that’s in the car works well so far.

20240528_072228 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

After that, I decided that I needed to get this thing running/driving/making boost for testing purposes. To that end, I cut off the really jagged metal up front down to the bent, rusty and twisted frame rails. Then, pulled my scratch and dent mishimoto radiator out of storage (bought for the green car as that one has finally sprung a leak after all these years) and hooked it up. Mounted via zip ties to a 1x1 tube welded to the frame rails. Then, used some 1 inch flat stock bent and tapped into holes where the fans would mount as additional support to the zip ties. Hooked up the original radiator hoses, filled with water, and pressure tested. One turbo line leaked under pressure, so it was shortened and everything held pressure.

20240531_183222 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

For the intake tract, I used free range ebay 2 inch tubing and couplers to a fiesta st intercooler I had kicking around. Held in with zip ties no less! Outlet side is 2.5 to the throttle body, and the recirc valve teed in properly. Had to order one reducer and one t coupler. Otherwise, had all the stuff on the shelf in parts that had been given to me over the years by other $2000 challenge competitors during garage cleanouts. The whole works is stupid ugly, but its functional enough for testing. Which I did.

20240531_072723 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240603_073152 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



Lastly, I grabbed a fan from a wrecked dart, wired it into the headlight socket so I could turn it on with the headlight switch, and retained it with more zipties.

20240605_193113 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

The first test spiked boost pressure to max on the gauge. It was then that I realized that the wastegate wasn’t plumbed to anything and the recirc valve is not the same thing as a blowoff valve or wastegate. See, I’m still very new to turbos (only other was that turbo baja I just fixed and sold). Gently drove it home, t-d into the vacuum line to the gauge and ran one to the wastegate. Next drive around the block showed 10psi max. according to the PO, its tuned for 15. The 10psi lap showed some nasty vibrations, a misfire, very darty and twitchy chassis behavior, and glass flecks blowing in my eyes. So the alignment was eyeballed (seriously toed out in the wreck), taped the windshield, and swapped on my k1s and rivals to eliminate wheel and tire issues for vibration (didn’t fix it. think I know why I got a driveshaft with the car), I also ordered a set of spark plug wires.

It drove shockingly well for a balled up parts car.


there’s some noise in the alternator drive, and the power steering leaks from the return side, but she’s healthy enough. And faster than the v6. And just brings my fat *** some joy. So, it checks all the boxes of being worth it to swap.

Next up is the start of a WHOLE lot of work.

 

Damn, you're not messing around with this build. Props!

 

So the next order of business was listing the things I wasn’t going to need, and starting to remove them. Things like the boss frog roll bar, v6 drivetrain, red car convertible top, black interior, etc. I will only not below what counts as challenge budget recoup, not everything I made money on. Reason being, I don’t want to confuse things for this challenge run. I aim to keep my budgeting and documentation above reproach.

The red car had the top and center console sold for 300, the seats sold for 300, the 13x8 wheels sold for 75.

20240609_104036 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240619_181227 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



Green car had the boss frog rollbar sold, the seats sold, the projector headlights sold, and the v6 drivetrain sold. None count for budget.

20240609_125830 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240609_130229 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240609_130404 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240622_103403 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240623_084636 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240623_134732 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240623_134738 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240623_135752 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Theres a LOT of work, both in the creation of and removal of parts in these pictures. Its definitely bittersweet to see that many years of effort go, but I know its for the best long term in what I want to own.

So, I now have the running and moving under its own power parts car, and the seam welded and stiffened roller of a green car. The green car needs a lot of cleaning before I go any further, and I will repaint the engine bay and underside, patch the trans tunnel and floors where the rollbar lands, and probably repaint the shell as well. Then I can swap the turbo drivetrain over. After cleaning and painting of course.



Anyway, lets discuss budget. As it stands, we are here:

budget by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



I have most of what I need for a challenge run, and recoup left to gain, as well as money left to spend.

Until next time, friends.

 

Budget update first

Previous total:1220.87 with 1625 recoup

New money:

150: Na fiberglass widebody kit that I traded for damaged nb2 bumper and headlights, front k frame, ppf, old Kenwood head unit, and a strut tower bar.

100: (rough estimates) ½ gallon epoxy primer, ½ gallon clear, ½ gallon 2k primer, ¼ gallon Bondo, 1/3 can reducer

100: nb2 surfboard seats I had bought at the challenge last year

10: heavy and ugly ICW 15x6.5 wheels from wheelsmithy with tires old enough to drink

Sold woodgrain ebrake for 30

Sold spindles and suspension arms to wheelsmithy for 75

New totals: 1325.87 with 1880 recoup



Since we left off, I’ve been a bit busy. Like a cat scratching for a place to crap on concrete.



First and foremost, I did a paintjob on a 1959 tr3a while rehabbing an 87 suburban. These were the last two OPC’s I had agreed to, and I’m glad they’re done.

20240630_163452 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240817_094707 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240817_130355 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240823_193646 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I bought the leftover materials from him to use on the challenge car for $100. He tried to give them to me, but that violates the rules. I couldn’t make him take more. Believe me, I tried.



While talking about procurement, I bought a set of wheels, as I no longer had any in the budget. Don’t like them cosmetically, they’re heavy and narrow, but they were CHEAP. Wheelsmithy from GRM sold them to me. They came on his Miata, and he couldn’t find anyone to take them for free for the last few years despite his best efforts. So, I paid him! They’re bound to get way cooler with some effort and paint, but I don’t know how yet. Feel free to give me ideas.

20240629_205344 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



After the triumph and suburban were done, I moved onto the welding that needed to be done at dad’s place where I had the good welder. The turbo car has some hacked up sections of frame rail to provide a minimum of clearance to the turbo and downpipe, so I needed to do something similar in the green car. My solution needed to be more elegant, because I’m making a nice car this time.

20240805_171216 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

My solution was to cut he pinch weld off the driver’s side, and notch the wing some more. This should give me all the clearance I should need, and even allow for a fairly simple 3-inch downpipe should I desire in the future.

20240804_143944 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240810_160333 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Then moved onto the trans tunnel. It had been butchered by yours truly to make the t5 shifter fit, and I wanted to be able to make the stock rubber boot bolt in again. Cut a chunk of trans tunnel from a rusty Miata headed to the scrapper, and fiddlefarted around enough to make a patch that fit well enough to get welded in.

20240810_140629 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240810_160259 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

We then got the car outside for a little cleaning. See, it was filthy from being used as a race car, and from being a Miata before that. So, Castrol super clean and the pressure washer came into play.

Before:

20240907_121555 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240907_144043 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

During:

20240907_144012 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

After:

20240910_195503 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

The white has aged like milk, and is flaking off. Its going black. I also think I’m cutting the angle welded to the subframe connectors off, as it no longer as a butterfly brace to mount there. Get the out of the way for something better.

I’ve been working on cleaning up the engine bay in preparation for blasting and painting it. that means grinding down all the seam welds, removing sloppy seam sealer, stc. Again, the white aged poorly, and previous me left a lot of work for current me.

20240913_185338 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Once I think its ground well enough, I’m spraying some gloss bright paint on it. best way I’ve found to see what it will actually look like when its painted, as ground and wire brushed is perfectly camaflouged. The spray paint highlights it very nicely so I can see what I need to keep working.

20240913_185326 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240913_185315 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



I’m also working on repairing the hardtop, even though that’s not challenge work. It is work that needs done, and while my shop is trashed it’s a good time.

I started by getting the rear latched epoxied back in after cleaning all the jagged and fibrous wreckage out, and managed to nail the placement dead on.

20240910_193241 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240910_194528 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240910_194543 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240910_194935 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Moved onto the sides, where I opened the cracks with my Dremel and carbide burr, followed by digging deep with a 40-grit flap wheel, feathering with an 89 grit DA, then five layers of woven feverless cloth and epoxy resin. Once this is all done, I can flip it over, reinforce the rear latches, and chase all the cracks on the internal structure. Then ill feel OK about hanging It on the wall out of the way for a while.

20240911_065024 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240912_070954 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240912_071235 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240913_185250 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



Last but not least, I’m arguing color with myself. I’ve gotten it narrowed down to 1981 corvette charcoal grey, Volvo fjord blue, 2000 corvette dark bowling green metallic, and 2001 Miata BRG. If anyone is willing, could you photoshop the colors onto the red car below? Same body kit, bumpers, wheels, etc. as my car.

1593803114_img_8299_mmthumb by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Fjord Blue Metallic-734-40,92,120-640-en_US by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

JULY-4TH-2013-013 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

P1310463 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



Thanks for reading y’all, and remember to make the world suck a little less for those around you.

 

Go with that blue

 

I cannot tell if it will be as awesome on the car as it is in my head. Nor can I tell how it will look with the tan interior.....

I'm so conflicted about color it's keeping me up at night! Which is really lame now that i admit it out loud.

 

Great update, glad to see the car making progress!

I'm trying to imagine the blue and am struggling with it as well. The green is easy to see since it's somewhat close to the BRG from the factory. I think that would be a pretty safe bet.
Personally I might lean towards a slightly brighter blue, but I'm far from a paint aficionado.

 

2005 razor blue. Apparently only about 500 made.
I ordered a touch up can of it to spray a test panel. It's very similar to the fjord blue in pictures, but has metallic in it too.

 

i owe yall a real update soon. Been too busy with life, but we have been down to bare metal and are on our way to paint. Its close.

 

I had a 2005 Razor Blue. Bought it totaled as a parts car. I liked it enough to paint my NA that color.

 

That grey has more gloss to it than the actual paint on my car. Is that just primer? Almost reminds me of the Porsche Grey they ran in the late 2010's.

 

yessir just primer. Just wetsanded and washed/srill wet primer. The water, while on top of properly prepped 2k, can show how the panel will look finished. If you apply water or solvent.

 

Budget update first

Previous total:1325.87 with 1880 recoup

New money:

Gallon of deltron in final color: 281.67 (I won’t use it all, will pro rate later)

Gallon kit of matrix ms52 clear 175 (I won’t use it all, will pro rate later)

Gallon reducer: 30 (won’t use it all, will pro rate later)

Front lip: 45.99

Nb2 bracing set: 100

4 m6 weld nuts: 1.70



New totals: 1720.62 with 2000 recoup



Well, it’s been a minute….

Like 4 months’ worth of minutes.



I’ve kind of done a little bit of work in that time.



The angle iron butterfly brace mounts were cut off . that job SUCKED. But needed to be done, and will allow for factory routing of fuel and brake lines with factory clips.

20241002_200742 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Then went ahead and painted the underside bare spots with some leftover black. No pictures, but will take some after exterior paint when I do the real coat of blacken the wheel wells and undercarriage.



Next up, I added the studs through the floor to mount the factory butterfly brace from an NB2

20241004_193645 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20241004_193623 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



Welded in some chunks of 14 gauge where the rollbar lands. Reasoning is, this will be rollbar number 5(?) in this car. Its getting kind of cheesy and weak where they land. So I wanted to reinforce or at least bring back to factory integrity. I welded the supports in underneath so as to not affect the rollbar installation. It was ground down and wiped with black paint. Welded from both sides as well!

20241004_193651 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

While talking rollbar, y’all may have noticed that my package tray is VERY hacked up. My solution here was to gut oversized patched from the parts car to pop rivet in place. Reason I’m not welding is that I want to be able to remove the plates to make rollbar servicing easier if ever needed. While in there, took a couple scraps of 90-degree metal to recreate the front landing areas that I cut out where the Sheetmetal cover bolts down. Also, speaking of rollbar servicing, I sent Bethania garage an email about the bar that was in the wreck. They sent me new hardware free of charge! Amazing company right there. I need to get padding and a cover from them for this bar….

20240927_192132 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I guess that now brings us to bodywork. And there’s a LOT of bodywork.

Ill try not to bore you stupid with the details….



I noticed some cracking filler in the drivers rear quarter. When I did this car for the last challenge run, I stripped plastidip, sanded and painted. I had no idea what was under the paint. This time, I wanted to make it a much nicer car. I knew I had to get the rustoleum off, but still was tentative on how deep to go. My decision was made here.

20240919_181527 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240919_191845 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

It’s all got to go…

So, it did. Quarter was ushed in about an inch from where it should have been. Lip beat to death, taillight didn’t fit, filler up to the door….

20240925_182719 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Hours of panel beating got me here. Which I thought was GREAT.

20240926_192519 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

After priming, I realized it wasn’t. so, more hours of panel beating ensued. And welding up the slide hammer holes. And making tools. And borrowing a stud gun. And ….

20241019_083944 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Eventually I got happy with it for a skim coat of filler.

The rest of the car was stripped to bare metal. I used these coral reef looking discs for my 4-inch grinder. They did a FANTASTIC job as long as I didn’t hit an edge with them. Or my flesh.

20241006_141653 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

All the metal exterior panels were stripped in this manner. All exterior panels required hammer and dolly work. Every single one. These discs will DESTROY plastic. Do not touch.

20241006_150558 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I then bought 300lbs of crushed glass, loaded up my truck and the Miata, and took it to a friends place to blast the engine bay and jambs. I tucked the windshield molding in on itself and taped of the glass top protect it.

20241007_082315 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

9 hours later, I had this

20241007_145350 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20241008_170102 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



We then prepped every surface with 180 grit, shot the epoxy and high build and a guide coat.

20241012_124319 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

And proceeded to hell of blocking. Very minimal filler, but I used every bit of high build and 320/500 sandpaper I had to get it here.

20241219_065104 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Thanksgiving Day and day after, my family and I tried to do the best job of clean seam sealing on the engine bay we could. After watching all the videos and reading all the articles, I decided we would tape off and smooth with mineral sprits and a glove.

20241127_193018 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20241128_092450 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20241128_093839 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



So that brings us almost up to current. I have some body parts ion color, as my friend brad is spraying them for me in his heated homemade paint booth. However, he had brain surgery recently, so we are waiting to finish until he recovers. Thankfully they got the whole tumor.



Until next time folks.

 

Jesus man, really putting the work into it! It's looking great, and is going to be so nice when done. I'll be watching closely!

 

Thanks! The only things left not pulled are the windshield and the subframes. Every other clip, wire, nut, bolt, body plug, grommet, etc has been removed so I don't have to tape around it. I want a car as nice, or nicer than, new when im done. And that starts at prep work. I want jeffbucc to come back around and go "DAMN!!". I want this car to be nicer than my acr was.
lofty goals for a used up race car and a challenge budget. But the majority is effort and time, not money...

 

Well, were NOT going to be pro-rating color and clear. At this point im hoping I don’t have to buy more.

But, its time to post some paint pictures. Brads brain tumor removal was successful, and he’s healing well. His wife’s emergency shoulder rebuild is done, girlscout cookie season has passed, and other life on life’s terms things have been gotten through.

Friday, we taped the car, touched up a few pinholes, wiped it down, and ate dinner

IMG_20250203_120033 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

IMG_20250203_120033 (2) by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

IMG_20250203_120033 (3) by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250321_194301 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



Saturday, he shot it in color.



Previously, we had gotten front and rear bumpers, side skirts, lip, fenders, door handles, and gas door all done

image000005 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

image000004 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

IMG_20241226_170205 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

IMG_20250115_165042 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr



So, now that the tease is done, we got a little carried away with engine bay paint. We decided to do the frame rails, jambs, etc with a good coat of color and clear. Ill cut in with black to make it all nicely defined when I drop the front and rear cradles for cleaning and painting.

But holy crap, I’m happy with how its all turning out

20250323_192037 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250323_192043 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250323_191940 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250323_191948 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250323_191957 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250323_192011 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250323_192022 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr