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Project Pearl http://www.gt4dc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7119 |
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Author: | DeeCee [ Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:39 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
Haven't updated this thread in a while, but after a full weekend, a week of evenings and this previous weekend, Pearl is now up and running smoothly. Will update more soon |
Author: | TrackToyFour [ Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:57 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
Well done! Hard to believe you've managed to get it all done after seeing the pics in the previous post. Look forward to seeing the post-repair pics |
Author: | DeeCee [ Sun Nov 09, 2014 11:14 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
Well the engine is running with a error 54 code, and that is because I unplugged the W2A pump to prevent it from running dry. The panel work - that is a bit of a story. So no st182's have come through my local scrapyard in 6 months, so no possibility of getting parts to fix the panel work at the front. I had previously checked with local wreckers, but again, nothing in their stock. I was seriously debating buying a broken st182 just to scavenge parts, but without sufficient room to store the car, that was not really an option. Luckily I was trawling through the a nationwide scrapyard stock list and noticed various st182's up in Auckland and a st185 in Tauranga. I put the call out on the local GT-Four club's facebook page on Monday 3 Nov and another member (Mat) messaged he would help out and as a bonus, I knew he was travelling down to wellington to drop parts off to another club member, Joe. Get another message on Wednesday 5 Nov just after lunch and he is at the scrapyard pulling the car apart. I'm rushing to think off top of my head which parts I need and firing facebook messages back and forth while he is stripping the car. (side note, the st185 at the scrapyard was a GT-Four A and it was driven on to the scrapyard! Panel damage on the drivers side of the car - front quarter, drivers door and rear quarter, but it was in running order. That demonstrates people's perception of the GT-Four in New Zealand as a low value car) I also asked if he had time to take out the radiator support bar that was welded on to the car and he kindly obliged and had drilled out the spot welds and had the metal in his car on his lunch break. And bonus, it only cost $23... Second piece of luck, was that he came to Wellington to buy some subwoofers and a box off my friend Nishant and my parts and fuel money was going to the purchase of the subwoofers haha (side note I had built the box so knew it's performance). By Friday we had arranged to meet at Nishant's and he left at 5.20 in the morning for a 6.5 hour drive to Wellington with a plethora of parts for Joe and I, including an aftermarket bumper, a complete hatch (strapped to the roof of his Caldina), st205 brakes for Joe, 2x wide body guards, my front fascia mounts and brackets, 1x st205 W2A intercooler, standard A2A intercooler and pipe work and other various bits and bobs. his Caldina GTT was full to the brim of Celica haha. So within a week, I had the parts to repair Pearl and it only cost me $150 worth of parts, some petrol money and a box of Woodstock bourbon and colas All told, $265 dollars and sorted in a week |
Author: | DeeCee [ Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:13 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
indicators previous had scotch locks on them (can kind of see the kink in the wire. So I unpinned the plugs to fix them up. Heat shrink will do Alternator seems to have been changed over at some point and they used choc blocks to wire it back to the stock loom - nasty! I fixed them up with some crimps and heat shink and loom taped it back up. This is how it looked mid September. Not a lot of work on the car. With the Elephant going to paint soon and the prospect of getting my wide body guards back for moulding, I wanted to move the RC to a space with more room but I had to get it running first to save a bit of time. So at the start of the month, I decided to put some time into getting the RC running. Mostly I was scavenging from my spare parts, but I've had to purchase parts here and there to finish up. 1-Nov-2014 First thing was to mount the CT26R2 aka CT20B. I had purchased a standard manifold to replace the modified manifold which had the divider removed and a wastegate port welded on. Pretty good job too. Cleaned up the stud threads And Pulled two studs out of the modified manifold using the double nut method to mount the CT20B Nick got to work draining the oil and replacing the oil filter. Beer helps haha A lovely mess down there Nick's daughter Abigail looking on while Daddy does some work Using a sharp blade, I removed built up rust to get a half decent surface to get a decent seal with the new exhaust manifold gaskets. That evening, we test fitted the turbo onto the engine, but found the CT20B water pipes did not line up. Some googling told me that the stock CT26 water pipes had to be used, so I made some enquiries on the local GT Four Owners Club FB page and luckily a local had a broken CT26 he was willing to seperate the pipes from 2-Nov-2014 Sunday morning, I went and got the pipes and had a yarn to Joe, a fellow NZGT4OC member who is putting a gen3 into his st185. Good little project he has on his hand More work on fettling with the turbo and getting the pipes to line up and fit. A lot of time was spent bending the turbo oil feed pipe to the block. There was also an issue with the turbo oil return hose as the owner prior to the person I bought the car off had replaced the silicon pipe with heater pipe - eek! Nick moved the lights over the engine bay so we could work better at night. Nishant helped a bit as well haha. No more pics on the 2nd or 3rd Nov, too busy working. |
Author: | DeeCee [ Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:13 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
4-Nov-2014 I tried pulling the sensors from the old cat converter but the rust was too much. Only way I could get the main O2 sensor out was to mount in a vice and then remove the rusted nuts, but no vice at Nick's place so I just kept going to think about later. Nick's dog Van was in the way a lot haha. Here is how it looked with the 3" chinese dump pipe mounted to the CT20B - looks more like an engine now Chucked the radiator in and tried firing it up. Initially had some issues with the engine not turning over. FB msgs to Dan, the previous owner, gleaned that the turbo timer needed to be turned on for the car to start. There was alarm wiring which we were concerned about, but turns out it was just a siren and a bonnet switch left in the engine bay with no brain. Caught Nick by surprise as he had the volt meter on the battery, and I had turned the turbo timer on and cranked the engine over. Boy did he jump haha. Engine cranked on the first pop with various engine lights coming on, but she turned over! 5-Nov-2014 Here is how she looked after we left her last night. 6-Nov-2014 3" dump pipe didn't fit properly. Touches a mount on the AC pump And had major gap between the exhaust mid pipe. We jacked up the car later and find the exhaust wasn't even on the mid chassis hanger. Remounting the exhaust on the hanger helped move the exhaust forward. But I had already taken the turbo off and remounted the stock cat converter. Wasn't worth the hassle in trying to make the aftermarket dump pipe fit, so why bother.. Water to Air radiator sensor plug wiring had broken with a plug hanging off one wire. I touched it and the other one broke off as well, so I replaced the plug with a new unit I was going to use for Elephant. Van the engine dog not doing much engine work.. it's worse when Valley (the other dog) wants to play catch with sticks and balls and keeps bothering us 7-Nov-2014 - Friday, exhausted from the week, I bothered to take the night off. 8-Nov-2014 Mat arrived at midday at Nishants with a car load of Celica parts. Boot hatch was for Joe. Garage chicken not doing much like engine dog.. Spent more time putting the engine bay back together and fixing up various wiring and hoses in the engine bay. Had a fun time fitting the turbo drain hose that Mat had got from the wreck in Tauranga, but it saved me $122 for an OEM replacement! |
Author: | DeeCee [ Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:14 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
9-Nov-2014 And pearl leaves the garage under her own power for some sunlight and a good wash Broken window and lots of adhesive to fix and clean up respectively. Wax and grease remover for the win Engine bay together. Still panel work to do, but Mat to the rescue getting me the vertical bonnet support, grill support and even drilling out the spot welds for the radiator support - top man! Glass to clean up once the rear seat was removed. I shouldn't be able to do this... Mastic removed. the lower stuff had glass shards in it, so I threw it out. The top mastic was a bit old, but you can re-use mastic as long as you clean off the grit and re-heat/shape in your hands Panels removed for more clean up and glass shard removal. Car has been repainted and has obviously leaked when they cleaned off the priming dust. It is all in the cavities. Degreaser and water blaster in the engine bay to clean up all the crap Replacement window came off a modified car. *bleep* poor job taping the window off and it had a heap of orbital sander swirls marks on the black trim. I cleaned off the excess paint as best I could with some wax and grease remover. I may paint it black later, but the window had to go in to get the car water tight and washed. Mastic re-applied ready for the window to go in. Sticky horrible job We pulled the carpet as the previous owner was a smoker and the interior is horrible to sit in. Nick used degreaser to soak the carpet to start pulling out a lot of stains then water blasted fun of cleaning.. Not your typical use for a clothes line Wash me please! Valley the dog, loves the water blaster |
Author: | DeeCee [ Mon Nov 10, 2014 12:14 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
10-Nov-2014 Carpet was left over night and during the day in a good breeze to dry it out. I vacuumed in the evening and we ended up with a nice soft carpet pile. Some stains still, but it is so so much better now. Interior plastics were then wiped down with wax and grease remover and then we used some silicon to return some lustre. We cleaned out the floor of the car with wax and grease remover and took out years and years of dirt and all sorts of grime built up over the years. We also removed the turbo timer - its a bit old and doesn't work properly, as evident when I pulled the key and the car ran for 5 minutes and I couldn't turn it off haha. And that is where we are for now. Next steps, continue cleaning the interior and then drive it over to Nishant's garage and prep for moulding the wide wide guards. |
Author: | Gary ST165 [ Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:20 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
Yeeeeew another super RC thread cheers for sharing |
Author: | DeeCee [ Tue Nov 11, 2014 10:49 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
I did put this up on OC and alltrac Gary |
Author: | DeeCee [ Mon Jun 01, 2015 10:58 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
So I have been using Pearl as a mule for me to do my fibreglass moulding for Elephant and it has taken a very very long time to get done. Move Pearl back to Nick's place about a month ago and left it there not doing much. Decided to weld the radiator support panel on today as it is Queen's birthday long weekend here in NZ. Bit of a back log on the photos but you all love photos Nov-14 - Car looks half respectable now that it is clean. Had to roll it out of the garage to move to Nish's where I was doing the fibreglass work Drove it for the first time. CT20B goes nicely. And in it's new residence to be a mule for the guards Started stripping down the front end so I can mount the guards and cover the body to protect it for FG resin The high stop light on the rear spoiler was broken, so removed the spoiler. Bolt that holds it on was rusted and broken off much to my annoyance. And here is the broken and replacement stop light Time to remove bolt with an angle grinder Replaced a broken vacuum valve from a Ceres. Toyot generic part so easy enough to find a replacement at the scrapyard Slowly fettling the ground down bolt out of the boot Was wondering why the spoiler side parts were not sitting right. Took the plastics off to find the mounts were the wrong way around.. idiots And mounted correctly |
Author: | DeeCee [ Mon Jun 01, 2015 10:58 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
January 2015 - I got my RC bonnet and bumper moulded, so I thought I'd try them on the RC. Also, my guards finally came back from the panel beater so I thought I'd try them on as well It had been a long while since I had seen my handy work, they look pretty good And there is definitely some room for larger wheels February 2015 - This is Elephant work, but may as well show it off since it is on Pearl. Guards are prepped and then corflute/plastic signboard is hot glued on to some masking tape at the edges of the panel. Car covered up as well Then gel coat is applied. I used tooling gel goat which ends up harder. Both sides are done at the same time. March - 2015 Fibreglass done. Pearl gets out of the garage to see some sunlight And here are the main parts of the guard moulds Since I was over at the fibreglass place, I took some photos of my moulds And now back to my bodgy job haha. The guards are a multi piece mould. More fun stickling plastic to the guards, prepping, applying gel coat and fibreglass |
Author: | DeeCee [ Mon Jun 01, 2015 10:58 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
April 2015 - Car got put back together. I left the battery connected and had to jump start it with my deep cycle sitting in Nish's garage This is the panel that was mashed up from the accident. Car sat at Nick's for a good month before I looked at it today 1-June-2015 - Decided to get it back on the road. First things first, weld in the top radiator support. Had to load up the car with my welding gear and tools and setup at Nick's. While at Nick's he straighten the water to air radiator which had gotten a bit bent in the crash. And welded in. The welds are pretty ugly TBH, but the support is in solid so I'm happy. Nick gave the panel a spray with some black caliper paint I had brought over |
Author: | TrackToyFour [ Mon Jun 01, 2015 1:06 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
Good update. The moulds look really great! Looking forward to seeing how it all looks. Do you have a completion date in mind? |
Author: | DeeCee [ Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:19 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Project Pearl |
No completion date in mind - everything takes so long to do and time is limited with work being so busy at the moment |
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