As mentioned, got home late/early. I had planned to stop and sleep somewhere but I kept feeling good so I kept driving.
Went down on Saturday, while I was en route dusterbd13 Michael pulled all the parts- that hadn't been the plan originally, but Michael is awesome and wasn't about to let a flaky partout guy stand in our way.
The handoff:
Had delicious barbeque, excellent conversation, and peach cobbler. Took pictures of none of that so here's me with the sign:
The thousands of calories of pure barbecue and cobbler energy carried me all the way home with my pile of parts. Michael is the best.
See? Thousands of calories of pure bbq and cobbler bliss is what helps me keep my girlish figure!
Nine months pregnant. 
Anytime you need something my way, let me know!
A few hours sleep and back at it. The loot:
Apart from a few door scratches and an ultra yellow headlight lens (I ordered new ones, this can be a spare and I needed the brackets anyway) everything is in pretty good shape. Went straight for the welding project first. Old and new:
Zap zap- not pretty but this is a sacrificial piece anyway, as we recently learned:
Some more:
Almost like nothing ever happened:
Hit it with some spray paint- while I could try to blend/hide where I've repaired this, I'd rather remember exactly where I've cut stuff off and added it back on:
Moving on to the door- needed to open up some holes for the door panel fasteners, move a few pieces over, and eventually I'd like to swap my tinted window over but not right now:
Changed the lock before I forget and force myself to have to climb through the cage:
After a bit of a fiasco involving drilling out a hinge bolt, we were pleased to discover that it closes and latches just fine! Doesn't seal perfectly but the body shop can handle that:
Next, the fender- cut the vent, taped off and painted:
Put pieces of the car back together while waiting for the paint on the vent to dry. The police report says the guy hit us at 630pm last Sunday, and this is 550pm:
If you ignore a few things and squint real hard, we fixed it in under a week. That feels pretty cool, even if I still do need to make another strut and get some other parts that are in the mail.
Nice work! No messing around at your place!
More productive than me. I spent 7 hours under the Sequoia today trying to change just ONE of the headers. As things currently stand, the new headers are still sitting in my garage and the truck is back to exactly how it was (actually, slightly worse). I'd rather have driven to North Carolina....
In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :
Well, YEAH. BBQ beats rust any day of the week and twice on Sunday. And today's Sunday.
Anybody have a novel idea for how to try and straighten this strut tube? I'm making a new one but would love to get this one close enough to straight to hang onto as an emergency backup. I've already tried wedging it under the lift arm and jacking directly under the most bent portion, which did absolutely nothing. Hydraulic press?
Bolt the strut to something real sturdy. Stick a longer, stronger tube inside or over the strut tube. Lever that sucker straight again.
In reply to maschinenbau :
Maybe I'll make a BRZ strut to class IV hitch adapter, then I just need to find a giant ultra thick wall tube or a solid rod that's around 40mm OD.
Zap zap:
Add gussets, let cool bolted together to minimize warpage:
Not any uglier than the last one:
And paint:
Hopefully the welds on this one are just as good as the welds on the one that got hit, given how that held together.
I know it's money, but cut off the old tube and weld a new one on. You'll be happier.
Old and new:
I actually swapped out the PS insert too, and kept the original as a spare. Gartrac sent me a pair with 300/70 damping instead of the 300/100 I'd been running, and given that the car is more rear weight biased now that seems like a thing worth trying.
Assembled with the knuckle from the partout but all else the same:
Put the car together enough for a lap around the block:
It drives straight!!! Feels like I've been holding my breath for a couple weeks and I can finally exhale.
You going to make it out to the DC double header next weekend?
You have a witness too. You followed an OBS F150 between Sideline & State. Almost the same shade of bronze. Great to see it back.
Damn, you work fast. Nice job!
irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:
You going to make it out to the DC double header next weekend?
I'd like to! Didn't know it was a double.
TurnerX1/9:
You have a witness too. You followed an OBS F150 between Sideline & State. Almost the same shade of bronze. Great to see it back
I was wondering who beeped!
Sara fixed some stuff that still had Focus all over it:
I moved the sweet tinted window over from the old door. PSA for anyone who does this: the weenies on FT86club say it's super difficult and you need to take the whole regulator out. They are wrong, there are two fasteners:
I removed the front triangle too but I didn't need to in order to get the big glass out:
Fits nicely:
And reinstalled the door panel too:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:
You going to make it out to the DC double header next weekend?
I'd like to! Didn't know it was a double.
TurnerX1/9:
You have a witness too. You followed an OBS F150 between Sideline & State. Almost the same shade of bronze. Great to see it back
I was wondering who beeped!
yeah, two individual events saturday and sunday. The postponed one was added to the singleheader in May, which is now a doubleheader as well.
Decided to make something to replace the stupid little corner marker lights that always fall out and hold the bumper cover on better while I was putting the front back on- used a little of the metal we cut out of the hood when the vents went in and a little angle aluminum:
A few rivets and a thread forming fastener from some interior part make this, remove the 10mm head to free the corner of the bumper:
New headlights and it's back together:
Just a totally normal car picking up parts for our truck:
It has a little bit of a grumbly noise from the front end, could be the wheel bearing protesting or it could just be something in the not-totally-aligned hood/fender business vibrating. Feels great otherwise.
Anyone interested in listening to Mr. Nonack speak actual words? We had him on Trackwalking podcast and asked him about this car and whole bunch of other stuff. We could have talked for five hours easy, but we cut it shorter than that.
Podcast here or you can just look for Trackwalking Podcast and Chris Nonack and you should find it.
Loaded up for rallycross tomorrow- weather has cut it down to a single day event instead of a double. Downside of Saturday only is less rallycross, upside is that Sara can go too.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
On the upside, doubleheader next weekend, and rallysprint the weekend after!
