Excellent.
In reply to pres589 :
Thanks I feel like a bit of a failure though. See last year someone came up to me and said that the exhaust wasn't as loud as they thought it would be in the drags. I realized that dumping it out the driver's side meant the crowd didn't get it's full effect. I've had visions of dumping it out the passenger side but also I've wanted it tucked up so that it's not the lowest point. Well all the brake and fuel lines run down that side. That combined with Chris not letting me take a hole saw to the unibody prevented a passenger side exit. Turns out the factory cut out in the bumper pretty much was a straight shot for 10 feet of pipe to line up with the Y pipe. It's too normal but it was the best way of doing it.
So this evening Chris and I had fun welding up the little leaks at the Y pipe. It's a PITA to weld the top of an exhaust pipe laying under a car on jack stands. Our method was get Lil Stampie to start the car for a few seconds while we felt for leaks. Then we'd point and spray with the welder because we couldn't actually see where we were welding. Doing that about 10 times with each of us on each side handing the welder back and forth worked.
Next we put in a couple of bedrail hangers and called it good for the evening. The pipe hangs down a little more than I want at the rear and with no way of bending it I'm thinking of doing a pie cut to get it where I want it.
Tomorrow I think we're going weight on wheels.
Glorious sounds!
Spoiler alert we didn't get weight on wheels today. But we did make a cool metal bending die for our press.
I bought a 3/8ths plate almost 2 years ago just for this project. So ok maybe I have issues finishing projects timely.
First we cut the plate to size.
Next we cut all the pieces.
Bottom angle die welded in.
Top die made.
First piece going in.
It's bent.
Hard to tell but our top die hit the piece on the side and introduced an unwanted bend. We'll fix that.
For this piece we just used to press to straighten it out. All done for the night so back on it tomorrow.
This evening was a short one because Lil Stampie was back with me and it's a school night. First we fixed our bender so we should only get the bend we want.
Next we started on what I call the Tower of Loop. Got about 75% done and I started having problems with my welder's feed. Instead of the tip as I first thought I was actually out of wire. So then we decided to just cut the rest of the pieces and wouldn't you know a couple of pieces in the blade goes bad. So here's what we have for tonight.
Ok, what the berkeley are you up to here? I don't get it....
We're making half shaft loops. The drag tires were going to use require then according to NHRA. Even though we're told that they'll be looser if you're 11.50 or slower we want there to be no reason to question us. Plus I'm a little worried about what will happen if we actually do get traction off the line so no need for flopping around half shafts.
i learned firsthand that halfshaft loops are a great idea this summer. Better safe than "oh E36 M3 i just ruptured my gas tank with a projectile cv joint"
I will need to remember this for the next effort.
As a general question: do you essentially run a tube the length of the shaft between the cv joints? Or, just how do you implement this the best?
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
Rules state 1/4 inch thick 1 inch wide. We're just going to do one per side because of space issues but Pat had two per side and was better off for it.
Oh! Now I understand. 
So pretty much driveshaft safety loop, just around the cv shafts. Right?
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
Yes sir and a late night bonus ... Carol's been bugging the berk out of me to fix the pictures from photobucket. They're all fixed now. She owes me two hours of my life back. I figured out a trick to make it easier. I'll post that on off topic tomorrow.
Here's our Friday update. Lil Stampie has a school Fall festival so not sure what/if we'll get done tonight.
After dropping him off at school I got a quick session in to finalize the exhaust. Had to make a pie cut about 2 feet from the back and using a jack and block of wood held it in place while I welded it back up. Actually came out better than I thought it would.
Before
After
I don't see any pictures. Which image host are you using that my work seems to block?
In reply to maschinenbau :
It's all on stampie.com. I feel honored that I'm blacklisted I think.
Wow a 14 hour day today and we're wore out. Pictures might have to wait until tomorrow.
Here's what we tackled:
Half shaft loops done.
Rear suspension done.
Trunk done.
Sunroof delete done.
Weight on wheels done.
I'm most glad about weight on wheels and how it turned it. We dropped it down and at first I was worried it'd be too high but as we dropped each wheel down it got better and better. Measured real quick and while ok the driver's side was higher front and rear. Said oh yeah no driver, got Chris in the seat and now she's within 1/4 inch all the way around. Level on the still says it's dead nuts on.
Ok I'm tired and Lil Stampie is more tired so off to bed.
And we have pictures ...
Trunk in process of being finished.
Grinding the tack welds off the half shaft loops.
It took three of us including smaller 9 year old hands to get the half shaft loops in.
Modifying part of the trunk.
Removing the sunroof cassette.
Dressing up the edges of the new sunroof panel.
Discussing how we're going to attach the new sunroof.
Looks good so far, can't wait to see it in action
In reply to Andy Neuman :
She's now the car we should have brought last year. I think you'll be proud of her.
Sorry for the lack of updates. We've been busy with progress and setbacks. Sunday we did a little project for Carol and then back to the car. We touched up the windshield and did most of the budget spreadsheet. Not a hard day but we needed an off day.
Monday was when stuff started going bad. We realized Sunday that the driver's inner tie rod was bad. No big deal except no one local had one. Ended up ordering on over night from Rock Auto for the same overall price of the big parts stores. We did some little things and then decided to start it up. Nothing nada zip. We have a surprise. In looking at saving weight off the front we discussed relocating the battery but I didn't like that idea because it would just move the battery weight rear and actually add weight with the extra battery cables. I did research and the solution was:
Yes I painted the battery box after that picture. What you see there is a lithium ion battery 250 CCA. Our Bosch battery weighed 39lbs. This one weighs 1lb 15.7oz. We saved another .5 lb pulling the battery tray for the battery box. Only cost us $96 and we're all in love with it. So back to the dead car. We can get about 6 starts from the battery without charging before it shows any signs of drain. In our research it said to never allow one of these to drain all the way. I started it Friday and let it charge. Three days later it's dead. Berk. Not a good way of jump starting it so we charged the Bosch battery last night and today used it to jump start the car. Let it charge 10 minutes and we all breathe a sigh of relief when the battery says it's fully charged and then starts the car on its own. We have back up plans but we'd been disappointed if we had to abandon this battery.
Yesterday I also cut off the front of the air box.
Tonight we put in the inner tie rod and Carol finished up the trunk. I'm really digging the contrast.
And the relocated emergency trunk release.
Still a lot that I need to get done so I already called out of work for tomorrow. I think I'll start the day with a donut.
So today I got up and headed to Advance because the driver's outer tire rod was bad also. Not as bad as the inner but we couldn't tell because the inner sucked so much. After that I got supplies to do our alignment and went to lunch with Carol. Don't think my dirty homeless man look fit in with the crowd but it was some good food. After lunch I worked on removing the bedliner that got on the windows and headlights last year. Really wish I had done that last year as it was a PITA.
Chris got off work and we did our alignment. Actually wasn't that bad considering it was the first time either of us had done it. Then it was time to pick up Lil Stampie and our borrowed trailer. Left Chris working on getting stuff ready to load while Lil Stampie and I met Pat to get our drag tires. Now I feel like a big kid showing up with dedicated drag tires.
Sometime today I realized that I'd screwed myself out of ~$130 in budget on our windshield and rear window. Last year I had included the whole price of the two 4x8 sheets. Today I realized that I could just measure the square footage of what we actually used on the car and include that portion in the budget.
So anyway got back to load the car. Some may remember that last year we had to take the tires of the trailer to load and unload. We decided to fix that and borrow Carol's Dad's trailer. The car fits but only two inches on each side. We also have to park it on top of 2x8s to be able to open the driver's door and that clears by millimeters.
Car is loaded. We need to go back to Chris's in the morning to load up some more stuff. I need to prep the drag wheels a little for the tires and then get the tires mounted on the way out of town.
I'm so berking tired. Can't wait to get to Gainesville and relax.
In reply to Stampie :
Glad to see it all come together. You can relax until my triumphant return next year.
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