That interior goes a long way toward reminding me of the original wool interiors available in Model As when they were new.
I'll have to post a few pics of mine...
That interior goes a long way toward reminding me of the original wool interiors available in Model As when they were new.
I'll have to post a few pics of mine...
Amazing progress! Nice work.
Noice works!
Metal beats wood every day, unless it's a wooden bath tub. Those are just cool, even if you don't take baths.
Incredible! The hard line through the firewall for the vacuum to the brake booster is especially tasteful.
maschinenbau (I live here) said:Fun fact - the Swedes used 7/16-20 threads on all their seat belt hardware. This was challenging to figure out.
7/16-20 is a DOT-Required thread for seatbelts, you'll find that in all vehicles.
SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:maschinenbau (I live here) said:Fun fact - the Swedes used 7/16-20 threads on all their seat belt hardware. This was challenging to figure out.
7/16-20 is a DOT-Required thread for seatbelts, you'll find that in all vehicles.
Pretty much in Europe too (very fun for us who otherwise live metric lifes).
I suspect you have it sorted, but are the belt retractors facing the same way as in the Volvo donor? They tend to be bit directional in my experience.
But 3-point belts is very nice to have in a car that you actually plan to use! :-)
Gustaf
In reply to therealpinto :
The retractors are 90 degrees rotated about the vertical axis from where they were originally installed on the Volvo. I couldn't package them any other way. They seem very sensitive in all directions though, fighting me the whole time on the bench and during installation!
One way to check is to keep them in the orientation they have, and tilt them forwards (while keeping them parallell to the B-pillars in the other plane if that makes sense). If they lock, all is fine.
Gustaf
Coolant pipes and hoses for the pump inlet (lower radiator) are in. I had to snake under one of the cross-members using some elbows and splice them together with short pieces of aluminum tube. But this tube doesn't have a bead for the clamps to bite onto, so I made a tool out of some vice grips. It even has a face. This will also work for intercooler plumbing...
The outlet side is more complicated, and involved welding some aluminum tube to cast aluminum. My radiator inlet is 1-1/2", but the 2JZ outlet is 1-3/8" or whatever that is in metric, but there is not enough space between them to stack adapters. Plus it will look neater this way.
Jumping around while waiting on the upper radiator hose, I decided to tackle the shifter bushings. The shifter on this W58 is pretty sloppy. When in gear, you can wiggle it sideways about an inch in either direction. So I ordered a W58 bushing kit from http://www.w58bushings.com/ assuming all W58's are the same. I was wrong. The kit I got is for early MKII Celica/Supras, which have a larger hole in the selector than my later MKIV unit. The plastics pieces are still compatible, but I had to trim the OD of the bronze bushing down 1mm. But I don't have a lathe, so...
My "lathe" aka drill press, a bolt, and some files. It worked suprisingly well!
The shifter got a good smathering of Lucas Red n' Tacky grease and I did a drain and fill with 3 QT's of Redline MT90 while I was at it. The shifter is noticeably less sloppy now, and I'm looking forward to how it drives. Still need to bolt down the boot to the tunnel and maybe even install the fancy leather Lexus boot over it.
Got the argon bottle swapped and my 9" flex hose arrive (heh) so I could finish the engine coolant outlet. The radiator wants 1-1/2" like the rest of the system, but the engine wanted 1-3/8". So I cut the lip off the coolant outlet and slid the 1-1/2" tube over it after crimping a bead into with my velociraptor pliers, and burned them together. I also filled a small port that would normally heat the throttle body.
Cleaning, pruning, repairing, and re-wrapping the harness. Which reminds me, I need to buy a battery. Just for fun I hooked up the starter to a dead battery, jumped by my Fiat, and was able to spin the engine a bit. This was the most exercise it's had in 3 years! It wants to run, even with those hacked-up temporary OEM exhaust manifolds.
I've got a brand-new, unused turbo that would look great on the passenger side of that engine . . .
The Rice Rods runs again!!!
I wasn't expecting this to happen tonight, but it just sorta did. No vids, but here's a picture of my sketchy test bench situation. I hooked up enough of the Lexus cluster to make sure I had oil pressure. This week I've added a battery kill switch, wired and re-terminated all the heavy gauge stuff, and have been slowly re-wrapping and re-routing the harness with fancy braided split loom. I'll have to figure out a mounting solution for the kill switch, since I needed to cut a window in the tunnel to get it wired without dropping the trans. Then there is the headlight and taillight wiring, which I've barely thought about. And mounting all this junk under the cowl in a very tidy manner. Very close to driving.
Don't forget the heat shrink BEFORE you crimp and solder!
A few brackets here and there, such as this one for the ignition coil mounted to the engine block.
Had an oopsie with the crank sensor. The plastic was cracking too, so I ordered a whole pigtail.
I'm just so happy it started up. It's been over 3 years since it last ran, and almost 5 years since I first embarked on this journey. I'm excited to build an exhaust as a reward for all this tedious work.
Looks like you have some interesting plans for the exhaust, if that front downpipe running straight out the side currently is any indication.
In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :
Think lake-style header, but for a 2JZ. Probably the first and only of its kind.
Progress has been slow but steady. Sorting through all these little details will make the first drive feel much more confident, very much UNlike when I hastily got Datsaniti running, took off ripping down the street and the bumper fell off in my neighbor's yard. I won't say I'm doing things "right", but certainly "right-er" this time.
Big scary hole drilled in the firewall, which meant removing everything on the intake side. I used a Seals-It grommet, which is two-piece with a knife edge between the pieces, so you can remove or install it without the harness in place.
Here's where the smoke will be stored.
Some various iterations of the smoke storage shelf, plus bonus mystery sheetmetal template you'll see later.
Ended up with Rev 2. The ECU is spaced off the bracket with enough clearance for bolt heads for mounting the fuses and relays. Toyota was kind enough to provide a bunch of tapped holes in the side of the ECU. This area still under construction.
I decided I need a kill switch, because I don't trust my wiring. I think it looks cool too. Its CAD template was a few pictures up.
I mounted the unfinished dashboard (AKA one side of the original gas tank). That steering wheel sure looks rough.
A little satin paint, some steel wool, and road bike handlebar tape.
Taillight wires are fished through the truck bed. I have the taillights, but now I need some pretty brackets. Once the taillights are wired, I can take it off the jack stands and finish wiring the interior. And then drive it?
In reply to maschinenbau :
Im totally stealing road bike handle bar tape for my steering wheels. That's one of those so obvious why didn't I think of that things. It's genius!
So awesome!
nocones said:In reply to maschinenbau :
Im totally stealing road bike handle bar tape for my steering wheels. That's one of those so obvious why didn't I think of that things. It's genius!
I've also wanted to try tennis racquet tape for racing wheels for the extra bit of "close your eyes and it could be alcantara".
In reply to nocones :
It's the black "leather" kind from Fizik. I used the brown leather stuff on Datsaniti and loved the thickness and style it added to the old-school 70's wheel. Plus, budget friendly. As with wrapping any road bike handlebar, you always have to do it at least twice until you get it right. You can see where I ran out and had to fill the gaps with Tesa tape. Third time might be the charm.
What are te two segments by the upper spokes on the hot rod? Looks like different material than the tape.
Thinking about this o fix my truck steering wheel.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
Tesa fabric harness tape on the hot rod wheel, friction tape on the Datsun wheel. The friction tape was kinda sticky for a while, but once it lost the stickiness it felt like rough leather and kept holding strongly. I am not sure yet about the Tesa tape. I think it will wear off and feel too different from the handlebar wrap, but we'll see.
This is all awesome. A possible suggestion for you to consider or ignore; some kind of clear tubing to run over the tailgate chains so they don't bang around and chip paint in the process. No idea what kind to suggest.
You'll need to log in to post.
