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Yeah! Replacement twin-disc and upgrade kit delivered, I'll be pulling the car in the garage and starting work tonight.
I'm also thinking of swapping my stock 1.8l brake parts to the following setup, anyone with brake experience able to chime in on what I should expect?
- 01-05 sport booster (NON-abs) -- I guess this has a slightly bigger diaphragm (15/16 vs 7/8) for more brake boost
- TSE 11.75" BBK (dynalite most likely)
- 01-05 Sport rear brackets, stock 1.8l calipers and 10.9" rotors
Not sure on pads yet, maybe Hawk HP+ in the front and HPS or HP+ in the rear? I'd probably swap for Carbotech XP8 all around after testing the setup on and killing these pads.
On my way to the garage to start working.. I put my sport brake parts in the car in anticipation of upgrading things. I just need to confirm before I buy anything, are these the rear brake brackets I need to use after removing the sport calipers to swap my NA brakes to the sport 10.9" rotors if I want to keep my NA calipers/pads in the back? For whatever reason I feel like I am missing something.
Clutch is on and torqued, found that the two long bolts that go through the starter were both loose so I torqued them after a drop of locktite on each. Think I'll have it done tonight.. At least I sure hope so, the twin can be a bitch to align to the input shaft..
Clutch installed. Sport brake setup in the tote.
Left the stud alone as it was only damaged above the nut and functions fine so I'm leaving it alone after tightening it and a little locktite.
The floaters got replaced by new ones. They definitely get hot in street driving with all the shifting. Hopefully the thicker plates will maintain a little better.
Discs appear to have life left, did i over react? Pedal was markedly moved up and the engagement was feeling like it was close to slipping.
Long night, after a night at the ball game we headed to the garage and I finished buttoning things up. Having issues with the fuel line not sealing on one AN fitting right before the rail and the heater core hose connectors are once again slow leaking. Trying to figure out the best solution for the heater core issue, maybe a thin layer of RTV would seal things? It's definitely slightly warped and needs some massaging in the future. Almost want to make those two hoses 2-part so there's less likelihood of leaks in the future.
Fuel lines needed just a tad more torque to stop a weep after sitting for a bit. Also rotated the fittings on the heater core bung and tightened them down, appears to be sealing and holding after temps hit 210. Babied it home last night and after driving around today with it in the 90s with no leaks I think she's good to go. Adjusted the rod in some to get a little bit of free play; so far this new carbon/kevlar clutch 949 has for the twin engages like butter, almost no shudder at all. I think it will be very easy to DD.
Honestly, it feels like I'm driving my Saturn the engagement is so painless. The organics I stalled the car a LOT getting it going when I first put things together. I didn't experience this at all. I keep thinking something's off, but then it holds WOT without slipping so it must just be awesome then lol
Today we tackled the passenger footwell subwoofer project that has been stalled for a while now. I had planned to have a (experienced) glass layer friend over to help kill a few cases of beer and to both make this go smoothly and make sure the end product is better than what a rather inexperienced glass can do. In the end however, the expiration date on the resin can was the deciding factor and Lacey and I decided to tackle it this weekend while the weather was nice.
We began by taping off the entire area to be glassed as well as some extra to provide position options after removing the shell. I laid a alternating 3 layer criss-cross of masking tape and then (didn't take a picture) laid strips of aluminum foil over that. Once this was all done, I draped some foil over the carpet by the door and the door bar and I laid 2 layers of mat and we left for the night. I'll update with more tomorrow.
Shell cured overnight, trimmed and removed the foil and tape. So far looks good, need to figure out how I will build the boxes volume as the woofer requires .5-.65³ft of volume, perhaps along the tunnel in a tall, narrow void? Or along the toe board ? Bearing in mind I have to keep it removable, I'm trying to keep it above the glove compartment's reinforcement brace. Not sure. Any suggestions appreciated, I'll probably try to start working out the remainder of the parts like a pair of MDF rings to countersink the subwoofer tomorrow.
The 10 just wont fit, .5³ft is just asking too much to have any leftover legroom and keep it removable with the door bar there. We opted to go with a more conservative 8" JL which calls for .3³ft and will look a lot more like the image above. The 10 is going in my DD.
In other news, I got a thing! I'll be installing these, the prop valve, sport rear calipers and sport MC early next week once I have my pads for the rears on hand.
Today was very productive! I had an interview and accepted a position at a new job. More IT stuff, but in a larger setting with actual benefits so I don't pay for Dr visits out of pocket.
To celebrate, I got drunk and messed around with the sub shell again tonight. First images show the speaker ring after the glue set overnight, the cardboard is measured to the biggest 8" sub I would consider putting in there which should leave ~5" of clearance. I attached a baffle to help solidify the box and give it some form. I had removed all of the foil and tape from the shell that I could but some of it persisted so I used a cup wheel to further scuff up the shell and clean up the remaining foil and tape. In the process, a few bubbles were removed to be re-filled with resin to prevent compromising rigidity.
I then cut some mat to the desired shape and removed it, and cut 3 more sheets. In total this will make 5 layers of some high density marine fiberglass mat. I added some foil and taped it on to build up the sides a little and laid all 4 layers of mat. Afterward, I cleaned up any air bubbles I found during curing by popping them with a razor and working them out. Resin tended to pull the mat back on once I worked it a little.
A few hours in, and as I was laying the last sheet Lacey showed up and I semi-assisted while she replaced her radiator which had a crack in the plastic endcap. After around 4 hours the resin was STILL somewhat soft, the temps dropped from the low 80s to 67f so I brought out a space heater and put it on the shell. I'll be damned if within half an hour the shell was ~80*f and most of it was ready for further work. I sat a cut up box over the top to close in the heat and it was fully cured by the time we finished her car and left (3am..).
I'm going to bed. More work tomorrow unless BLARGH IM DED.
Further progress on the box; Saturday I attached the ring to the shell after trimming to suit and glued in some MDF stands. All said and done, the ring was wedged in pretty securely before applying any resin. I then scuffed up the ring and baffle to give them a good mechanical grip and then stretched a 100% polyester pillowcase over the box and cut to suit, gluing it in place. Once things were positioned properly I test-fit things and all is looking good. I did find that the box will get close to the glove compartment hinge and brace with the carpet in place however without it it will clear fine. I will likely either trim the brace if it will work or I will cut the carpet to add clearance. With the brace in place though, the box will not come out of the footwell which is some added security. I tested the interior volume and found it is a little too big, perhaps .4³ft but I need to reinforce it yet which should cut down on volume a little (and some extra volume can help make subs sound better).
Sunday I cut fiberglass cloth (3 sheets) and mat (2 sheets) to size and put a permanent marker dot on them so I could position them when I lay the layers. I then placed my first two coats of resin on the cloth and lip of the shell that it contacted and then cut ~25% with acetone on all wood contact surfaces to ensure it got good penetration along with mechanical grip and added all 3 layers of cloth and 2 layers of mat and reinforced any weak spots with an extra piece and trimmed the overlap off. Today I will cut things flush and reinforce from the inside the union of the shells and the ring as well. Also thinking of a 4" wide strip around the overlap area on the outside.
Tonight we trimmed off the lip around where the edges meet, I then hit up the box with the cup wheel again and cleaned up any rough surface defects and gave a nice scuffing around the edges. Due to humidity we held off on any resin work tonight. More work tomorrow.
Today, I sanded the front facing surface with 80-grit. Once I was satisfied with how it ended up, I applied liberal amounts of the messiest incarnation of fiberglass I've used yet, Bondo Glass which is supposed to be similar / the same as duraglas. It has fiberglass strands mixed into a paste that you mix with a hardener and apply within 3-4 minutes of mixing. I used it to seal the interior of the box to the outer ring as well as further seat the 'legs' of the ring to the base of the box and the ring. I then applied a single layer of cloth to cover the front and overlap into the base by roughly 2" and applied resin. Once cured, I trimmed the opening and applied a layer of paste around the ring/glass transition, allowed it to cure, sanded and applied resin. Tomorrow I will sand things down, drill a hole and install the wiring and speaker.
In other news, the cooler fan for the Saturn died today while driving to the fingerprinting appointment for my new job. Luckily I have a spare on hand.
Today I cleaned up the inside of the box as there were some loose bits of bondo glass and other stuff floating about in there. I then drilled a barely-too-small wiring hole and hot glued it after heating the fiberglass/wiring some (much like soldering) to ensure glue penetrated. Pulled the knot tight and glued over that and the exterior holes. Installed the sub and test-fit in the car, installation was fairly painless and found I only required a small trim to the glove compartment mount bracket to clearance the ring in one area. Just need to look into proper carpet to match the black interior now..
Today I tested the sub with my spare amp and confirmed it held up to rigorous abuse. I then pulled the sub, taped off the opening to the box and painted the rings black to match the carpet and sub; this turned out better than I expected TBH. I found some carpet locally and once the ring was dry I applied some Super77 to the box and the carpet and got things laid down and used adhesive remover to clean up any overspray. I'm frankly surprised at how well it turned out considering I've never used it before.
Today I mounted the sub into the box, and then into the car. Added in the glove box and bracket and put a small piece of hose in as a gasket to keep the brace from rubbing into the carpet. Turns out the brace will act pretty well as a support and keeps things from moving. Since I had a spare channel left in my amp after one burned out a while back I figured I would wire in the box with a quick disconnect and connected it to the spare channel. It's not nearly enough power to really drive it, but at least it's there. It'll be a little while before I can get a reliable and compact amp. Next on my plate is swapping brakes.
06-30-2017, 02:29 PM
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