200$?!?! Alright, I'm coming over... The Crinkles story

Well,  there were no RX8s at any of the local pick-n-pulls so I guess we will have to either shop around or wait to get upgraded injectors. 

In the mean time, I wanted to get a few more items checked off the list (and take a break from body work) 

The idle air bypass valve was just open to the elements so to keep local flora and fauna out of there, and prevent boost from leaking down, it needed to be plumbed into the intake system. 

I apparently didn't take any pictures of the build process, but you can see here the stock hose meets the Y for the BOV quite nicely. 

And all back together. 

Now during the first test drive, the car did stop running before we left, a problem we attributed to my brother kicking the ECU/ Jump board/ naked wires that were just sitting around on the floor of the car. 

So before anymore testing is done, something a little more permanent should be installed. To the Computer! 

Well I guess, first, I sat on the floor of the garage with a pair of calipers and a notebook for 45 minutes but after that, To the Computer! 

This is actually Version 2- the first one had very flimsy little tabs to hold the speeduino board in place and they broke immediately. 

Round two! Print!

Much better results on the second go- around.

And of course a lid as well. 

One PNP ECU for half the price and 50 times the effort!

Just Checking in to say this project ain't dead! (It has slowed down a touch though)

But I found some Bigger injectors from an RX-8 via E-bay, and my brother found these gems locally. 

$ 220 for coilovers and the wheels were...$300? I need to check my notes but I think they only add about $100 to the budget because the old wheel price was close to $200. 

Anyway, the big development round these parts is...blown headgasket. 

Well I think so since after the last test drive, i noticed the "coolant" temperature was rather high, turns out it was actually the air temperature that was high, since there was zero coolant in the block. 

That's a big 'Ol whoopsie with no one to blame but myself. Added coolant and plenty of it decided to promptly exit the vehicle via the exhaust pipe. 

So looks like it was tear-down time. 

On the upside, the new injectors were much easier to install this way, lol.

Also, as you can see more than the necessary amount of disassembly happened.

Partially because I bought new stiffer valve springs and partially because I wanted to port, polish and deck the head, while it was out. 

Head was not so warped, it was only out by about 2.5 thousandths but I already came this far so...

Shiney!

Also, not much to be done on the port and polish but maybe a 1/16" all around on the gasket match. 

Certainly wouldn't be worth it if everything wasn't already apart. 

Anyway she's back together now and you can see those new yellow injectors peaking out. Time to start over on the tuning front!

Well, The next major step was tuning and my brother has a monopoly on the tuning software and the know how on how it works. (Which is to say he has more than zero) 

So I jumped back in to some more fiberglass. 

The rears of the fender flares needed a bit more substance and a smoother edge, so I put a very thin slice of pine inside before wrapping it in fiberglass.

Also, I got tired of moving the shell around by hand so I assembled the old rotisserie I had built for the MG (decades ago) and then repurposed for the VW (years ago), and repurposed it again to hold the Saab body.

Well that fender is still looking mighty lumpy, so now on to the long, long, slow process of smoothing it out. 

I started out using Bondo mixed with fiberglass resin. And it worked well in lieu of a gel coat, except it kept gumming up the sandpaper something fierce. I was thinking this was due to the fiberglass or the way it was mixed but no, actually, did you guys know this? Name brand BOnDo sucks. it's not good. I got a big ol gallon tub of evercoat body filler and it is miles better. One sheet of sandpaper lasts for an hour instead of 5 minutes.

Anyway, there's 4 weeks worth of work over the course of these three boring pictures. 

But, here's your payoff. 

She. is. coming. together. 

Oh yeah, also, this. 

Hells yeah there's boost noises!

YES!

So happy when there's a new post for this build.

Flares are looking great!

This car looks soo good! 

Thanks again, friends! It's great to know people appreciate the posts!

I bit of mis-alignment on the rear panel gaps. (Well, tons of it, but I'm settling for a consistent amount of too much)

So, I cut that corner out and flattened it. I also bumped up the bottom edge match the metel line. 

A little bit of foam and hot glue, filled the void nicely.

I also got distracted by the fact that the underside was a lumpy, sharp edged mess and pulled the whole back end off again. 

While test driving the car, your head gets awful close to that metal edge pointing down, so 10 minutes with a hammer and pliers had it pointed at the roof instead. 

I also added a plywood spacer to smooth over that gap and wrapped it in a thing sheet of fiberglass.

Could use more layers but I don't wanna waste product when I have a lot more to do...

As in, the whole front end of the car still remaining. 

Yeesh. having the back end of the car close to the right shape, made me forget just how god-awful the front end is still looking.

Well, step one, lets match those body lines.

-Snip - Snip

Now the piece I cut out, has this convenient alignment block. It needed to be cut in a bit but I matched it to a metal bracket. (lying on floor above) 

After I got the bracket on in (mostly) the right place, I could pop that section of the body back on and rejoin them with the new correct curve/ alignment. 

Some steel backing plate is covered in packing tape and then used to clamp them together.

I added another plate up top and... well humble beginnings eh? 

I just need it to form a basic frame so I can start building out the rest of the fender around it. After seeing the rear flares come together, I'm confident this cluster-burk will prove to be something as well. 

In other news, more tuning happened on Sunday, and while we don't have perfect results yet, we found a huge boost leak and after fixing that, we are building boost reliably and generally getting closer to manifesting the "vision Board" 

More Tools Than Sense said:

Thanks again, friends! It's great to know people appreciate the posts!

I bit of mis-alignment on the rear panel gaps. (Well, tons of it, but I'm settling for a consistent amount of too much)

So, I cut that corner out and flattened it. I also bumped up the bottom edge match the metel line. 

A little bit of foam and hot glue, filled the void nicely.

I also got distracted by the fact that the underside was a lumpy, sharp edged mess and pulled the whole back end off again. 

While test driving the car, your head gets awful close to that metal edge pointing down, so 10 minutes with a hammer and pliers had it pointed at the roof instead. 

I also added a plywood spacer to smooth over that gap and wrapped it in a thing sheet of fiberglass.

Could use more layers but I don't wanna waste product when I have a lot more to do...

As in, the whole front end of the car still remaining. 

Yeesh. having the back end of the car close to the right shape, made me forget just how god-awful the front end is still looking.

Well, step one, lets match those body lines.

-Snip - Snip

Now the piece I cut out, has this convenient alignment block. It needed to be cut in a bit but I matched it to a metal bracket. (lying on floor above) 

After I got the bracket on in (mostly) the right place, I could pop that section of the body back on and rejoin them with the new correct curve/ alignment. 

Some steel backing plate is covered in packing tape and then used to clamp them together.

I added another plate up top and... well humble beginnings eh? 

I just need it to form a basic frame so I can start building out the rest of the fender around it. After seeing the rear flares come together, I'm confident this cluster-burk will prove to be something as well. 

 

In other news, more tuning happened on Sunday, and while we don't have perfect results yet, we found a huge boost leak and after fixing that, we are building boost reliably and generally getting closer to manifesting the "vision Board" 

Pretty fool proof plan to me

I think so!

Brother wasn't able to come over for more tuning last weekend so extra body work was worked. 

I started by re-sealing up the top of the fender, looks awful rough right now, but sanding and B̶o̶n̶d̶o̶ Evercoat can fix all. 

Anyway, since I was making great progress on this side, I decided to stop completely and switch to the other side. 

I think my logic was I would forget exactly how I did it and I wanted them to be cut/pasted in the same way. 

So I followed the same formula on the Passenger side and then noticed that the steel plate I used as backing on this side lined up very nicely with where I wanted the fender flare to end up. 

So I clamped these fender flares that my brother had brought over into place and then sealed up the gaps with aluminum flashing. (Everything is covered in Packing tape as well, if you're following along at home, NOTHING sticks to the back of a piece of packing tape. Not glue, not paint, not fiberglass or expanding foam, it all falls right off.) 

Couple of layers of mat and resin later, oh yeah, it's all coming together. 

And it's hard to see in this last pic but I also added another reinforcing layer to the inside of the front clamshell. 

Sorry that body work is boring, to do, and to read about, but I hope to get some solid tuning/ driving videos this weekend!

(Prepare for the sweet sound of stu.) 

I love Crinkles.  Might be my favorite build currently going.

Bodywork IS boring and frustrating at equal measures but, trust me on this, it is definitely NOT boring to watch - especially in Crinkle's case.

Flares are looking goooood.

Bodywork is NOT boring.  It's an artform, and it's nice to see a privateer garage hero tackling such a big project like this...  I'm following along intently!