BRZ Rally Car

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

im debating about cutting the whole thing out and throwing a piece of square tube in there because my rockers are GONE.

fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

im debating about cutting the whole thing out and throwing a piece of square tube in there because my rockers are GONE.

#northernstatesproblems ;)

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

My car is from SC but I bought it off the 2nd owner who brought it up to Chicago sometime around 2004 and then I acquired in 2006 after a few quiet years as a sweet clean road car it then was subjected to a decade+ of rallycross and a stage rally and ice racing has really taken its toll now lol.

I have a floor drain in my garage I do my part of cleaning it too lol.

E36 M3 just... happens. 

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

They're horrible!!  

That's very decent of you, unfortunately they're keen to keep it local - when I last looked last year, the limit was maximum 5 years old (I did read they're planning on reducing that to 3 years old) unless it's on a 'classic' import licence (which costs even more), and they can charge up to 70% duties once they total it all up - and that 70% is on what the individual customs agent determines is the value in the local market..

I'll just keep on enjoying watching you guys get on!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

In reply to thatsnowinnebago, AWSX, Andy, anyone else who wants one :

Honestly, if you want one of these inexpensively, I'd consider buying one with a blown engine and either dropping in a junkyard motor or building an improved one if that's your thing.  Maybe even a swap, but I'm not sure how well developed any of the kits out there are.  This platform is incredibly easy to work on, even by Japanese standards, and so far at least none of the CANBUS or other computer stuff has gotten mad at me.  I kind of want another as a road car once the cage is in this one.

I want one...I need two recce cars! 

Since I'm still procrastinating on ripping the interior out, I decided to try and figure out what I want to do for a jack.  While carrying a hydraulic jack is sort of nice from a flexibility standpoint, space is limited in the back of this car so I went junkyard shopping to see what I could find.

After poking around various cars and SUVs for about an hour, I came across a Cadillac SRX and discovered what might be the ideal rally scissor jack.  Original Subaru on left, SRX on right:

Not only does it collapse nice and small while lifting twice as high, it also has a 19mm hex on the end so I can run it up and down with the same impact socket that I use for the lugs.  The base is pretty big too, so it shouldn't sink unless the ground is really soft.

I cut off some extr​​​a appendages from it, welded a little reinforcement on, and sprayed it with some leftover paint:

Good find on that jack. I've been wanting to find one or two to make a motorcycle lift and that may just be the ticket. 

Got a little note reading practice in today and a few photos as the sun set:

It is highly convenient that your codriver is someone you live with and can get in a car with at present times :)

Nice find on the jack. What is the max height? Curious how it compares to the random SUV jack I am using. 

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

It can pretty comfortably go from 4-18" in about 10 seconds, a little higher and a little faster if you really want to give it full power on the impact gun:

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We're not quarantined from each other right now so we can practice- the flip side is that when we are (has happened twice now) it's super weird taking two separate cars to go walk the dogs at the same place.

Being married to your codriver has its' perks, although it makes it almost impossible to keep budget discussions in sane territory.  

Looks pretty typical of a gm jack, they should be everywhere 

In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :

Good to know, having the hex already attached instead of having to weld a lug nut on is awesome.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Yes, i used to carry one for my trailer and kept the socket with my impact for quick tire changes

More for my own memory than anything, these are the "always on" lights on the dash now that everything is bypassed/disabled the way I want:

I should also remember the TPMS light since it's controlled by some logic beyond my comprehension now that the wheels don't have sensors.  When the dashboard comes out, these should all get taped over so that any new warning lights stand out instead of being lost in the crowd of normal ones.  The fuel gauge can also get a "5" at the 5/8 point and a "10" at 1/4 tank for an easy indication of how many 5 gallon fuel jugs to dump in at refuel.

This probably happens to other people here- occasionally I get wound up seeing all of the impressive sheet metal work on this forum and think that maybe I can do some degree of acceptable bodywork.  In this instance, the victim was the hood.

I figured that, if I was careful and took my time, I could use wheelsmithy's louver technique to make some vents.  So I measured and drilled pilot holes and heated paint and rounded the edges of a sheet metal seamer with a file and just overall spent too much time and effort to ruin my hood:

I honestly thought it was going to look okay until I flipped the hood over.  Oops.

Luckily I had a plan B involving some cheap plastic vents and more cutting, so:

I added some rivets at the corners because I don't really trust double sided tape, especially not the kind that comes with cheap hood vents.  They do look like they should flow a good amount of air:

Much better:

I have 100% been sure that exact process was going to happen at some point in this thread this winter (i.e. the "DIY louvers --> ugh --> aftermarket vents") lol. 

Got a link to those vents? I've been considering something similar and those are closer in style to what I'm looking for than others I've seen. 

Are those a replica mustang hood vent?  How cheap?

In reply to irish44j and Nitroracer :

They're this set from Amazon and they do appear to be very close to the Mustang ones based on pictures.

Enough procrastinating, time to start messing with the interior:

The pile is pretty big already and I haven't touched the dashboard or the stereo yet:

Stuck a seat in there for a look:

The good news is that, if I can get it mounted this low, with a helmet on I have 3-4" of clearance to the closest parts of the roof, meaning there's enough room to fit a 1.75" cage tube and some padding in between.  It might be difficult to mount the seat this low, but I think cutting out the factory seat mounts should make it possible.

Next steps will involve a lot of unplugging things with a little driving occasionally to make sure that nothing bad happens when different bits are disconnected.  I need to figure out how to get rid of the steering lock and power locking stuff too.

Louvers looked pretty good to me. Was chipped paint the problem? Could have flat blacked the hood to fix that. Regardless, where you ended up looks pretty darn good. Seat looks good, too. Gonna do a quick change with another to keep it streetable, or all in?

For your steering wheel lock, you should be able to pull the barrel off (probably has some kind of confounded safety screws), grind off, or remove the pin, then Bob is your grandma's other kid.

BTW, those safety screws should have a pretty common thread, so just grind the heads off.

Hopefully none of this is redundant/useless info,

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) :

All appreciated!

The biggest problem with the louvers was that some of them actually tore the aluminum, so they were pretty ragged looking even if I had painted them.  Some day I'll get it right, but I should pick a steel hood to try next.

The stock seats are back in already, new seat mounts will be fabricated at cage time.

Yeah, to do louvers right, I'm thinking some sort of die set is the only answer. Luckily, doing it right just isn't my way.

I was asking about the head restraint on your race seat. Looks intrusive. I wondered if you were going dedicated racecar, or still dual purpose. Maybe a less radical race seat (or stocker) that would bolt to your new mounts. There's a local guy with a rally Subaru replica that has a similar seat, and it looks like a major PITA on the street. 16 year old me would have loved it, but middle aged me says eh-eh. 

Anyway, Cheers! Great reading, as always.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter):

I worry about the halo also from both a visibility and escape perspective, but there are a lot of people with more experience than I have who say it has saved them a neck or head injury when they crashed.  This car will still be driven on the road after it gets caged and logbooked, but I'll certainly be trying to avoid driving on the highway or in heavy traffic.  If I need to, the side brackets are relatively universal so I could swap out the seat occasionally, but then I'll still be driving a car with a full cage and all sorts of exciting things to hit my head on.

wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) said:

Yeah, to do louvers right, I'm thinking some sort of die set is the only answer. Luckily, doing it right just isn't my way.

I was asking about the head restraint on your race seat. Looks intrusive. I wondered if you were going dedicated racecar, or still dual purpose. Maybe a less radical race seat (or stocker) that would bolt to your new mounts. There's a local guy with a rally Subaru replica that has a similar seat, and it looks like a major PITA on the street. 16 year old me would have loved it, but middle aged me says eh-eh. 

Anyway, Cheers! Great reading, as always.

I think we're all coming to the conclusion that the halo seats are simply safer (seeminly everyone is going to them these days, even though they're not required). Probably difficult to quantify, but makes sense. We also switched to halos this year in our car and frankly, they really don't bother me at all, and don't make it any harder to get in or out (even on our 4-door with small front doors). I expected that I woudn't much like the head braces, but I don't notice them at all when driving. Chris as a motorcycle guy likes to move his head more, so it may take him more time to get used to than it took me :)

I think Chris's look more intrusive because of the big doors. In ours, they kind of tuck back near the B-pillar anyhow.

I drive mine to and from events with the halo seat in and it makes changing lane/shoulder checking a pain, i have to kind of lift up and try to see over the top of the wing but it probably depends how tall you are (I'm not). For the rest of thr time i leave the stock seat in. 2 bolts to change.