Freds FE3 into the ute swap DONT POST HERE.

[fredio54]

ok, so work done in last 48 hours :

last night :
tail lights chosen and fitted
gasket surfaces cleaned on mani
hinges created for sides of flat deck
more ms work

tonight :
another fwd mount modded for coolant duty etc this time with the original bracket intact for use as an engine brace on two 45deg diagonals to each inner guard. that ought to keep it still ;-)
paint removed from turbo brace
manifold installed

























enjoy.

fred.

[fredio54]

i need somewhere indelible to remind me of this, so here it is :

white r26 spark A
yellow r27 spark C
red r29 spark B
black js11 through proto spark D

shield grounded inside ms only.

fred

[fredio54]

tray hinges done
tray head board support mostly done
ms internal wiring done

remaining for rear end :
make supports for fuel lines and cabling
weld on nylocks for head board
coat with zinc primer
buy ply
build rear loom
screw lights on
bolt on ally panels and guards
bolt in fuel system and battery

i want to finish with the rear end early next week, and have the exhaust done mid next week, and the engine running late next week, early the one after.

missed the first track day...

there will be more.

fred.

pics :

[fredio54]

if i just swap the leads from the right two leds, i should have ign strobing across from one side to the other

its almost in firing order...

[fredio54]

welded on the nuts
welded on some supports for cabling and fuel lines
drilled other tail light plate
created ally strips to hold battery in
applied the first lick of paint to the tray
designed wiring setup for rear end
drew up shopping list for tomorrow arvo

no pics unless you want some from the track day that fraud didnt attend with "his fc"

fred.

[fredio54]

todays purchases :


10m of 50sq mm copper cable for battery feed to starter and ground feed from rear to front (to be combined with two grounds to the tray direct from the post.)
a wilwood brake proportioning valve
a set of clips for the sides
and a rather pretty solid brass fuel filler to go in the deck. this will seal. i used to have issues with fuel pissing out the side under hard left cornering.

fred.

[fredio54]

Today was a short day at work.... left at 1pm and went shopping again...



the vband finally arrived from ozzy. the guy at cummins gave me a good price and then said "is it for a car" and looked at me, i smiled and said, "yeah, its going into my ute" he grinned :-)

while there i viewed my first hy35w, which is supposed to be the same as mine (the one rebel uses) and it appeared smaller. i'm thinking it must be because of the funky compressor housing. an optical illusion.

it was one a traditional B series...

also in the show room was a marine C just like the one in our boat. it had surprise surprise an hx40m on it. the label was long gone from our one, so i didnt know what it was... interesting stuff. for those that dont know, the C is a 6 cylinder 8l making between 200 and 500 hp depending on application.

i also picked up the 3 sheets of 17mm ply that i need to line the deck and make the sides from. 7 ply H3 treated and quite flat...

the rest of the time between 1pm and 530pm i spent inside a f ing massive 4wd and light commercial wrecker. i asked to take some measurements and they just let me look around by myself. the utes and vans and rvs were stacked 3 high all through it and surrounded by piles of diffs and gearboxs. there was a HUGE box sitting in one of the chassis. WAY bigger than the W series toy boxs and the R mazda box WAY bigger. it whatever it was was 4wd. when/if i go back i'll figure out what it was.

the mission of course was to figure out what to do for brakes!! mondays experience at the track emphasized that the stock rotors (which i already replaced with brand new brembo blanks and custom mintex m1166 pads...) will NOT be enough for that engine and me behind the wheel.

i found some suitable rear rotors for sticking with 6 studs. however i could only find 6 stud rotors for the front that were too big or two small.

instead what i found was that late bongos have 5 stud front hubs and some of them have the 10 bolt diff and 5 stud rear too! what does this mean :

i may be able to just buy a set of hubs and axles and just install them. this would ease the rotor and caliper situation a great deal. the most i can fit inside the chrome terrano 15's is a 300mm rotor. so anywhere between 280 and 300 will be fine and about 30mm thick. they ought to keep the heat down and the pad replacements further apart.

first a little humour :



i told the guy "thats what i call them too" "why do you have a honda if thats what you think" he said "i have it because i hate them and want to beat on it" nice :-)

on to the point :

what i did to my girlfriends brakes! this pad began the day as half a custom m1166 race pad. after only 70 kms of 165ps output and 1030kg chassis weight and of course me ;-) it disintegrated! the other three were crumbly round the edges (normal for heavy use) and cracked across the centre (also normal) this one just said "enough is enough" and quit. i felt it go into the first corner the one time i took her out in it for a few laps, and went easy for the first few corners. the peddle seemed to recover, and i carried on. i did 5 laps on it and this is the result. a 1mm or so imprint in the back of the backing plate of the pad, and the friction surface peined over from being smeared by the rotor. i couldnt get the clip out! i almost couldnt get the pad out of the caliper. moral of the story, if brakes the size of the utes cant take 500km of NA 4age use, then they sure as hell cant handle double that power and more weight in the ute. i dont want to change them that often. even with only 3 functional pads, and that thing slowing us by melting itself, i managed to pass quite a few cars. so big brakes for me.













not good enough for a mad bastard like me obviously.

this may need an edit...

fred.

[fredio54]

for those of you who thought the tray looked heavy :

34kg + 68kg = 102kg = 225lbs

ie, when you take your tubby mate for a spin, you are worse off ;-)

thats just the steel frame, the ally panels for the fuel box, the batt, the pumps, the surge tank, the tail lights, the ally guards, the screws to hold down the ply, and the ply itself are not included.

much of that however i would have had to have anyway...

and as a bonus, i can carry heavy [shizzle] on it now too.

back to work....

fred.

[fredio54]

added clips for sideboards, cut out front half of tray ply, drilled all holes in it, fabbed up a fuel pump bracket for both bosch pumps, drilled mounting holes in the frame for all sorts of things, angle grinder scrubbed all of the rust and scale off the top of the frame. bottom and sides to go, then paint. should be on for good tomorrow.

pics :















enjoy.

[fredio54]

today was spent cutting out the remainder of the plywood sections for the deck, drilling all the holes to hold them down, grinding and wire brush drilling all the surfaces on the whole thing, and priming it with zinc etch primer...

felt good to see all the ply screwed on for fitment. in a few days it will be on for good. the primer says you dont have to over coat for 3 months, but i think they are being conservative, as i've had better luck with it than that.

we will see anyway, as thats all its getting, and it will be in storage for 2 years with only 1 month of weathering...

was hoping to have it on tonight, but ran out of paint and time. will finish priming it tomorrow evening, and bolt it on about the same time probably. only things to do to the ute to bolt it on are install fuel line under cab, and clean chassis. then i can bolt on all the ally panels, and install the fuel bits and relays and wires and hoses and pipes etc etc etc.

pics :









fred.

[fredio54]

forgot to pay credit where due (twice!) so here it is :

Thanks to Karsten and Andrew (two bloody grade A jafas through and through) who helped align the head board steel while i welded it on...

and

Thanks to Cam (again) and James who are pictured with the flat deck putting in screws, you two made a real difference to yesterdays proceedings

and last but not least

Thanks to Linds, who despite being a pretty little thing, got outside after Cam and James quit, and got on the end of a drill, and then a spray can and helped finish the job. She didnt even bleet too much when a piece of wire from the wheel on my angle grinder hit her in the cheek!

fred.

[fredio54]

ok, no pics today

finally go the tail lights
screwed them onto the ally panels for them
talked to a man about a dog, and concluded that hard line for the turbo feed is the way to go brazed at the ends.

finished painting the tray looks nice all matt black, almost a shame to put the flash ply over the top ;-)

will bolt it on tomorrow night. and install the driveshaft one final time. i'll drop in the fuel system and hook up all the lines where i can

may even jet some out across the car port :-) you'll see me on the news if it goes wrong :-p

i bet those pumps will be loud.

it will be nice to be doing some rudimentary easy wire soldering compared to the fine component and smd stuff that i usually do so well ;-) esp while typing in stuff to wind up fraud. of course, this is a hack job, so he wont be reading it...

onwards and upwards. many things to do yet and only 5 weeks till i jump on a plane.

fred.

[fredio54]

it would appear that i forgot to post these two pics...

not sure why, perhaps waiting till it was finished or something...

and i just wanted an excuse to post this link ;-) :

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe





anyway, time to do some work on the bloody thing...

fred.

[fredio54]

hello all. land mark occasion tonight (biggest since the engine went in)

the tray is on!

bolted down

tail lights installed

and sideboard catches installed

also the 3/8 fuel line is under the cab.

tomorrow night will be some fun assembling all the fuel and doing wiring etc.

the two pics from just now.





good night ppl

fred.

[fredio54]

oh yeah, me and linds cleaned the chassis of all dust and waxed it before we plonked that on. getting close!!!

fred.