Quarantine Build Thread - 71 Colorado 02

[ray_]

4 minutes ago, zinz said:

Mama Mia.... M88 power in a black e9

 

That is wicked nice. 
 

 

C'mon Ed, you know that's an S38.

 

[JohnS]

Every e9 owner's or wanna be e9 owner's wet dream.  Every time I see a pic of a nice e9 I think.  Why did I sell my e9, why why why?  Frick!  That car is drop dead beautiful.  and the carbon fiber looks perfection.  You guys are killing it ? 

 

I know from experience that the e9 hood weighs a ton (I replaced the hood on my previously owned car) and the best thing you can do is reduce weight in the nose of the car.  Simply awesome guys...

 

Glad to see that the owner retained the original chrome front bumper.  Many remove the bumper to reduce weight up front, but the bumper is so beautiful IMO.  

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by JohnS

[Lorin]

M88, S38, whatever it takes. 
 

 

Im sure in in the minority but those raw fiberglass panels really get me worked up. 
 

Maybe I’ve been staring at amber 911 fan shrouds for too long…

[danco_]

4 hours ago, Lorin said:

[Lorin]

Goodness Gracious. 

[eviction_party]

Love the translucent panels — great work!

[ray_]

What's that QR code on the fender?

 

[Lorin]

6 minutes ago, ray_ said:

What's that QR code on the fender?

 

 

[danco_]

I should update this thread at some point. 

 

I've been enjoying my summer these last 2 months. A lot traveling throughout europe, north america, racing circuits, music festivals, more cars I bought, some flying, golf, family, all of it. 

 

But I'm slowly getting back into the 2002 with one of the final pieces before paint and bodywork, which is the doors. 

 

I changed my mind 5 times on doors. Do I do the skins in carbon or leave them alone? 

Pros: lighter, cooler, every panel on the car will be carbon, cooler. 

Cons: remove everything inside door panel ( i have no idea how it all goes back together; I'm going to need help), a whole heck of a lot more work than you think, complaining that I should not have done this (I'm at this stage right now).

 

So obviously I jumped in and gutted the doors.

 

 

Upon closer inspection on the doors, mine were really nice! Untouched, true virgin doors. Everything worked great, no rust to speak of, they really are a great set of doors to start with.

 

 

 

I'm sad I have to remove its original VIN sticker on the driver door. I will have to find a new variant to slap on there with VIN. I'm sure people make these. 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing I do besides gutting the doors of their mechanical components is drill a hundred holes wherever I could. 

 

 

I took my time and plotted the areas where metal could be removed. I dimple dyed the holes where I could, but decided to not drill holes where they would be visible when you open the doors. 

 

Then I removed the exterior skin. This was easier to accomplish than i had anticipated. I first removed all the spot welds I could find from the sides and bottom edges, then used a soft grinder to grind off where the exterior skin meets the interior door frame. Due to hidden rust, these two pieces popped right off each other when they were allowed to. I found hidden rust and that surprised me. The second surprise was that each door skin weighed in at almost 11 lbs each. 

 

 

 

 

Once the outer door skins were removed, I identified more areas that could lose some metal without compromising integrity of the door. This door will be quite light once the new carbon skin goes on, which should be pretty soon here as the molds are prepped. I just need to not be lazy or busy these next few weeks and I can wrap this door project up. Then I'll send all door hardware out for plating. Slow but steady progress.

 

 

Special thank you to FAQ members who are ordering carbon fiber 2002 parts. They are fun to make and I enjoy speaking with the buyers that I've known online for 10 years, but finally speak to over the phone. That was a nice bonus to this whole drunken adventure of making cool (stealth) carbon fiber parts for our cars. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ray_]

11 minutes ago, danco_ said:

I should update this thread at some point. 

 

I've been enjoying my summer these last 2 months. A lot traveling throughout europe, north america, racing circuits, music festivals, more cars I bought, some flying, golf, family, all of it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, did you do anything fun?

 

😁

[danco_]

6 minutes ago, ray_ said:

But, did you do anything fun?

 

😁

The Italian bachelor party required an NDA so I guess we'll never know. 

 

[Leucadian]

22 minutes ago, danco_ said:

 

The first thing I do besides gutting the doors of their mechanical components is drill a hundred holes wherever I could. 

 

 

I can hear this photo...

 

Amazing stuff, as usual.

 

[danco_]

Still super slow on the doors....been distracted with a few more cars I've bought over the past month, and cleaning out on storage unit I forgot I had parts stashed in. Came across another 5-speed and LSD with notes on their origins which was a nice surprise. I have the door skins made, they just need to be cut to size and bonded to the existing door frame....Slow and steady. 

 

 

Bought a few more M10 engines too....for reasons 

 

 

I have a really nice set of 69-71 front and rear seats I pulled out of storage too. I don't have any plans with these but they sure look nice. I'd say they are drive quality and very soft vinyl. I am not worried about them splitting or cracking. I do need to massage the driver seat skin to fit the frame better, but that's simple. Maybe a fat person had these seats before me, idk. 

 

 

 

Grabbed one of those fancy Quick Ratio boxes with a fresh-ish rebuild. Thinking I'll go with one of those new EZ electric power steering set ups too. My only concern with the electric power steering system is that it might interfere with the new tilton hanging pedalbox which also lives up close to the steering column, where the power steering motor also lives. It might all be fine, I just have to check clearances.

 

 

 

 

I also had a chance to clean the car today and tidy up the interior in prep for more carbon (dashboard). 

 

 

 

I'm itching to do another plating run so I might rip the engine bay apart again to get all those little metal brackets and pieces out to plating. Was also thinking to get headlight buckets plated, door jamb hardware plated, and get some chrome pieces replated too. This would be a good time to get the tii intake manifold and valve cover vapor honed too. That would be a fun mini project before I get back to the doors. IDK. 

 

 

 

 

 

And a quick photo of a few cars. There was some nice ones outside too. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by danco_

[ray_]

Door jamb.

[danco_]

14 minutes ago, ray_ said:

Door jamb.

I'm slow today. I'm slow everyday.