Spoolpigeon's S2000 (re)build

At the request of a another board member, I've made this build thread on my rag. Its technically a rebuild after the car was in an accident . Anyhow, the car will be a better car after all is said and done.

In mid July I was getting geared up to attend my first national tour event in Wilmington, OH. I wanted a tire warmer for that event to try to get the most out of the RS-3s on the car, so I had my buddy sign up as my codriver. He wanted some seat time in the car before the event (although he had driven it before, he wanted to be fresh in it), and was my codriver at the local event 2 weeks before the tour. Here it is before the event with the freshly applied Tirerack banner and other required stickers.

All was going well until his 3rd run where he spun the car through a high speed 3 cone slalom, loooooooooong 4 wheel slide (imagine the car going straight, but facing 90* to the right) and clipped a wall at the edge of the lot.

berkeley

Double berkeley.

The important things: My buddy was OK, and all the course workers were OK. While I was sick to my stomach to see my car get hurt, I was just relieved that no one was hurt.

The drivers side wheel hit first:

We took the drivers side fender off so we could get a dolly under the wheel and push the car off course so the event could go on. Within minutes of the accident I had probably 6 or 7 folks offer me their cars to finish the event. I was totally blown away by the kindness and support of everyone in the KY region. It truly is a great group of folks.

The biggest help was Marc Pfannenscchmidt. He put his car on his trailer, towed it home, grabbed a stock wheel, came back to the event, loaded my car up and towed it home for me (a 45 minute drive). All without me asking for any of it. He is a standup guy for sure and I owe him big time for that help. He also gave me the number of a guy in Louisville that used to part out wrecked S2000s who ended up having nearly everything I needed for the repair. I seriously can't think Marc enough.

Wow, your buddy bent the E36 M3 out of that wheel spool. I can hardly wait to see what happens with the rebuild. I'd almost keep it as a trophy.

mndsm wrote: Wow, your buddy bent the E36 M3 out of that wheel spool. I can hardly wait to see what happens with the rebuild. I'd almost keep it as a trophy.

Perfect Wall art for the garage.

Exactly.

Marc got the car home and myself and a couple friends started the teardown to see how bad it was underneath the sheet metal. Fortunately, the S comes apart very easily and before long we had it down to a kinda cool looking open wheel racecar.

So it wasn't terrible once we got under it. It pushed the bumper bars over and and crinkled the radiator core support a bit. The drivers side suspension was bent too, but that will get attention after the body shop gets done with it.

The next day I borrowed my neighbors trailer and towed it to the shop.

mndsm wrote: Wow, your buddy bent the E36 M3 out of that wheel spool. I can hardly wait to see what happens with the rebuild. I'd almost keep it as a trophy.

I have the wheel and I've been trying to find some clock guts to put where the center cap sits. It'll go on the wall for sure!

This netted me $12 at the local scrap yard

I forgot to mention that I converted the car (and myself) to alcohol injection before it left for the body shop.

Spoolpigeon wrote:

mndsm wrote: Wow, your buddy bent the E36 M3 out of that wheel spool. I can hardly wait to see what happens with the rebuild. I'd almost keep it as a trophy.

I have the wheel and I've been trying to find some clock guts to put where the center cap sits. It'll go on the wall for sure!

Buy cheap clock at target. Gut. Pretty sure you can figure out the rest. They're all the same on the backside.

So a few weeks went by and I got a call from the body shop to come take a look at teh progress. They had the car on the frame rack and I got the good news that the frame was perfectly square. Luckily the actual structure of the car doesn't start until the strut towers, everything in front is just the radiator support and those bumper bars. Glenn (the body guy) said the impact was actually ideal since it just pushed the bumper bars over, but didn't crinkle them. They used the frame rack to pull those bars back into place. Then they were able to reshape the radiator support so that they didn't have to cut it out and replace it. It's not show worthy, but nearly unnoticeable once the fenders are on it.

Everything lined up great, so on to the test fitments.

I got nearly everything I needed from the guy that parted out S2000s. He stopped doing those cars earlier in the year, but had enough parts left over to get me %80 of what I needed. The big thing was that he had a FULL SRS system, which I thought was going to be the most expensive and hard to find part. Both bags, both seatbelts, and the SRS computer. What a relief! All I had to source was headlights, drivers side fender, and drivers side LCA.

Test fit looking good

In the meantime, my hopes and dreams of racing at my first tour event had been saved. A great friend offered me a seat in his E36 M3 that he just prepped for STU. While I was sad that I couldn't run in my native class, I was incredibly thankful for the codrive so I wouldn't miss the event.

4 hour ride in a straight back, aluminum racing seat bolted directly to the floor

The E36 M3

Had many of these

We had a great time at the event. We finished 10th (me) and 11th (Shawn) out of 16 in STU. Not great, but the car is seriously out powered compared to the EVOs and STIs. But none of those berkeleyers were doing this!

Got home from the event and stopped by the shop to see the progress:

A couple more weeks go by and it turns into this

Got married, went on the honeymoon, got back late Thursday night and checked on the car Friday.

BAM! It's done, and I drive it home. It felt good to have it back in the garage.

First order of business was to get it on jack stands and get started on the other repairs. I went ahead and put in the new airbags and SRS unit so the interior doesn't look so bad.

The seatbelts are more involved (read: gotta take more E36 M3 out) and will come later.

I knew the car had 2 or more alignment bolts that were seized up, so I decided to repair all of that while I was replacing the drivers side suspension. For anyone who has ever owned a Honda, you know how the suspension bushings seize and freeze up. In preparation for this I stocked up on sawzaw blades.

The top came off fine, but the bottom wasn't budging.

I think this bushing is shot

The sway bar link has a stupid allen key hole in the threaded part. Of course it was stripped out, so it got the sawzaw too.

2 hours of cutting and its finally out. The rear bushing literally fell out.

Where 2 became 1

New hotness over old and busted. It was just slightly bent........

The passenger side was a similar story.

And that's where I'm at as of tonight. I'll update the thread as I get more done.

Oh man that hurt! Last month I threw away two sebring fenders, no one wanted them ... Shipping would have been cost prohibitive though as they are huge.

Stock up on a lot of beer and valium before you tackle the seat belts. When they stole my seats, they cut the passenger side belt (it attaches to the seat on the '06+ cars) instead of unclipping it ... I still have nightmares of the day I installed the new one.

DO NOT try to split the rollhoop covers, you will never put them back together. Thats the only advise I can give you.

In reply to Slippery:

Were you able to get the belt out without splitting the hoop covers? I was curious about that because I couldn't figure out how to split them when I replaced the top.

In reply to Spoolpigeon:

Yes! Do not split them.

This was 6 years ago, but you just remove the roll hoops with the plastics attached. They are bolted down at the base behind the seats. I believe its 4 bolts each.

First remove the rear tray, then you have to remove the center glovebox and some other plastics and finally you can remove the roll bar with the plastics still attached. I believe the seat belts were colored, like pink on the passenger side and blue for the driver's. Once the hoops are off, then its quite simple.

I have the factory manual. If you want me to copy the pages that show the process, PM me and I will do that Monday.

Thanks for the info. I can handle it from there

Sorry to hear what happened, but it really looks great with the fresh paint!

I'll never forget the noise that the accident made. I thought my fiancée was going to cry for you (and the car, obviously).... But damn, man. It looks great now in the pics. I'm looking forward to it making me look slow again next year.

Good thing you got married afterwards. I'd have done the thing exactly opposite. Crash, honeymoon ends, marriage stops!

I thought the S2000's only got the rear all bent up. Takes some skill and determination to tweak the front end

Looking good!

In reply to Powar:

I'm not gonna lie, I cried a bit when I realized it was it was my car. I was riding with norton at the time so I didn't see it happen. When I got out of his car I heard the announcer say that only qualified people needed to be at the scene. It took me a minute to realize that my car wasn't in grid. It was like getting kicked in the balls.

I have the in car footage of the wreck, but I haven't watched it yet.

Spoolpigeon wrote: In reply to Powar: I'm not gonna lie, I cried a bit when I realized it was it was my car. I was riding with norton at the time so I didn't see it happen. When I got out of his car I heard the announcer say that only qualified people needed to be at the scene. It took me a minute to realize that my car wasn't in grid. It was like getting kicked in the balls. I have the in car footage of the wreck, but I haven't watched it yet.

E36 M3, man. I honestly don't know if I would watch it.

And there's no shame in crying, IMO. It was kind of a big deal.

If crying is cool, then call me Miles Davis.

Thankfully I ordered a set of Energy bushings for the front of the car in anticipation of the old ones being junk. Today I got to work on putting those in the lower control arms. Energy recommends using a torch to burn the old bushings out, leaving the original metal sleeve still in the control arm.

Torches cost money

No more bushing. Cleaning up a bit with the spinny thing. Added bonus of a cool black color on the control arm

If there is one thing I learned from Swank Force One, its that proper lubrication is key

Sweet bench mounted press, BRUH

Success!

Uppers are next, but they have to be pressed out. My bench mounted press was not up to that task. Hopefully get those pressed out tomorrow and I can start reassembly on the front. I had to order sway bar links since they got THE SAW. Hoping to have the front done this weekend.

http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/86-diy-how-writeups/43140-bushing-swap-5-tool-no-fire-needed.html

Hey, two things:

1) I like your new format

2) I've posted this nifty tool on here a couple times. It pulls bushings out like a boss.

Alternatively, the HF ball joont service kit is kindof awesome and will get anything out with enough impact.

Screw that. Fire is more funner.

I meant for your uppers, goober.