Mark's Civic build

[phil]

Good luck with the build. Talk to Russ(Global) about getting a good sump guard made. As the one I can see in you pics was the same as he had.
It can't cope with heavey hits and sucked to work on in service.

Last rally it did it was handed back to me in the sevice park bent over its self. We then bolted on bits of wood

[Mark]

Bit more of an update.

So, it took 35 hours to get the car stripped. This included some driveshafts that just didn't want to come out of their hubs due to dirt and grime in there.

I'm currently just past the 100 hour mark. In the last 65 hours, I cleaned all the seams, welded (very badly) all the seams with about 3 - 4kg of wire, then ground back about 80% (joking) of my weld, and then wire brushed the welds and painted them. It's not the greatest of jobs but it'll do. I got Frinky over to do some good welding on fitting the sill stands - which took about 10 man hours to do.

As usual for this car, a big thanks to Denis Stevens for the rotisserie in the photos, the blueprints for the sill stands and the various tools borrowed! I got about half way through the welding and had just the underneath to do and the sill stands and just went, buggah it, time to borrow the spit that Denis had offered.

It took two and a half hours to get the car on the spit. Two hours was fitting up the modified bumpers front and rear. Then I got Rob, my next door neighbour, to come and give me a hand. It's really quite scary having the car sitting over a metre off the ground so it can fit on the spit but it only took around 40 minutes when all the preparation was done. One of the photos is the car sitting dangerously on two tyre piles and wood to get it up to height as well as the engine hoist at the front...
Denis says the spit uses a Datsun auto flywheel and caliper to allow you spin it by handle then lock it in place. It is made out of two converted engine stands. The whole arrangement comes apart and fits in the back of my Lancer.

We wheeled it outside yesterday and washed it down with a high pressure washer (seriously, it has a 11hp engine powering the washer unit) and then you turn it upside down to wash all the cr.ap from the grinding and welding out of it. Spin, rinse and drain!

Gem and I then painted the underneath - while it was on the spit - with some epoxy enamel and spray paint to give it some protection in the places that are going to suck to get it when it has a roll cage in it. I also spent a whole hour fitting the 4mm nylon sheet that I used as underbody protection on the Evo - which took about 3 weeks to fit - in about an hour. I had learnt my lessons from the Evo and this time had purposely welded in small M6 nuts with washers into the floor for easy and strong attachment ahead of time. It's not a strong enough material to shrug off a rock hit but good for stopping abrasions.

Next on the list, is to get it off the spit tomorrow, put in seat rails and mounts, strengthen the front cross member and rear LCAs then figure out the final cage design.

The question is, can I finish the car within 200 man hours (excluding cage)? I suspect probably not but it could come in close! Might depend if I get around to replacing the roof panel as well.

Mark

[Paul]

That spit looks something like Mr Wilson would conjure up Mark. Too bad Dennis got there first, Hey Ben.

[Ben Wilson]

I was tempted to 'improve' it a little last time I was over there...

[Mark]

So, got the cage in - courtesy of Rod Kilby. No Sainz bars. I was very happy with the number and position of bars.

Then got Rob, from Fusion Painting, my nextdoor neighbour to spray the interior to hide all my ugly welding. He put down some Dulux protective coatings, they're a single-pak, so I can use manually fix up any scratches at a later date. He did the primer coat then the interior and engine bay coats all in six hours - as we had a problem with the gun - last Sunday afternoon. The interior is done in a grey protective coat that is the same as that used on the Harbour Bridge. I told Rob that its supposed to be a quick, dirty and ugly build to get the car out there quickly so it just needs another coat inside and I can start chucking stuff back in there. Already started doing so on the engine bay.

Got a few challenges ahead:
-converting the standard brakes - which is a crossover system - to the simpler, one line running to the front, one to the rear, so I can run a rear brake bias valve in the cabin as well as hydraulic handbrake. I singularly hate running the fuel, return and brake lines in a car. I hate the time it takes to get it right - 3 days with the Evo if I remember correctly.
-getting and fitting a new roof skin as the old one has been damaged in the past when the car was imported.

Russel and Jean from work said I should aim for an event, so I can try and get it ready, so with a bit of reflection that seemed like a good idea and I decided on aiming for Bathurst on September 25th - 10 or 11 weeks after Mini Corsa. Figure I need to go through rego, and do a test before hand so figure that means got to get it ready by about 8 or 9 weeks out for rego the pressure is on especially once I get clear of the Mini Corsa organising.

There will be a few compromises in the short term but that'll be half the fun over the coming years getting the car slowly up to speed and see how much grunt we can get out of the engine etc.

Time to smash the credit card...

Mark

[Warps]

Nice work, Mark.

I have one of its sisters (brothers) - the ex Global / Damo car. Have only done one track day in it but hope to get into a bit more serious stuff when I get back home (3 month stint away in the middle of redneckville at the moment).

I'd offer to assist with info, but I still know bugger all about my own car, let alone setting one up to work properly (I'm just hoping that the previous owners did all the hard work, and I just have to drive it).

Wrt the brakes, I'd personally look at extra calipers on the back for a hyd handbrake (keep it totally separate from the main braking system) and similarly would go for a balance bar for bias control. Probably more costly, but I've never been satisfied with hydraulic bias controllers (I'm sure that they work - I just don't like them so don't anybody start flaming please)

Anyway - I await the next installment eagerly.

Oh has anyone worked out how to make a Honda sound decent? Mine has the ultimate riceboy fart exhaust note and I got majorly pinged for excessive noise at Lakeside. Having 5kg of steel wool hanging out the back of the exhaust isn't a good look next task is to take it to an exhaust shop and tell them to make it quieter, and if it has to be noisy, at least make it sound like a proper car.

[Rus]

Brilliant!



How does it hold? I can see the caliper, but please enlighten me!

[Ben Wilson]

IIRC it just has a tapped hole where the caliper piston was and a bolt with a T handle on it.

[Rus]

Originally Posted by Ben Wilson

IIRC it just has a tapped hole where the caliper piston was and a bolt with a T handle on it.

Thanks Frinky! I was sincerely hoping it wasn't hydraulic!

[Mark]

I've spent a fair bit of time since the last few post two months ago, on the car. I've now gone just over 300 hours on the car. It's been a busy year as well with two rallies organised in that time as well but no Wheel Wobble I'm afraid! It's rough in a lot of spots but least I'll get to do a few events this year hopefully. I've missed too many years of rallying in the last decade to do it once more.

It should be ready for rego next week in time for getting the logbook changed over prior to Bathurst. Getting windscreens in tomorrow. Got lots of mucking around with little things to manufacture like parts of door trims, sump guard, rally exhaust etc.
Engine bay and contents will all be standard for the first few rallies.
Got some Bendix Ultimates off Plasto so fingers crossed they do the job.

Thanks to Blake for building the gearbox in a single night and to Denis for getting everything 'in stock'. For the nerds, the ratios look like I'll be changing gear at 64, 100, 130, 163 and 188 kph is the max at 8,200.
I mustn't forget to thank Gemma for spending 3 hours trying to cover the dashboard with its stupid curves. Glad I didn't have to do that one.

The focus will be on getting the shocks tuned right, rake, wheel alignment, platform height, chassis balance, tyre compounds versus wear as well as the brake bias correct this year. Oh yeah, and learning to drive a FWD. That could be useful as well.

Martino's going to be in the nav's seat for Bathurst so it'll be fun and games across as Martino tries to remember how to navigate and I learn to drive.


Mark

[smee]

Do you have the belts passed through the retaining clips correctly.

3 passes.

[Matt Dyne]

I never knew it was 3 passes.

[Mathew Boorman]

Originally Posted by Matt Dyne

I never knew it was 3 passes.

Yep, it is. Kinda tricky until you cut off the sewn in hem at the end of the belt.

Oh and the Civic looks nice.
More important than speeds, what's the revs after each shift Mark?

[Mark]

Matt,

Here's what my excel file says for the gear change points. Biggest problem is 1st to 2nd comes in under the Vtec (yo!!!1!) engagement point unless you can raise 1st gear rev limit to 8700rpm or change the ratio to 3.07. But I'm sure it will be just fine in the meantime.

kph speed diff (kph) following revs
64.38
100.93 36.55 5230
130.74 29.81 6330
163.93 33.19 6539
188.01 24.08 7149

In the meantime, I've got a 2.5" exhaust thanks to Dave and Russel at Carco and fingers crossed for rego tomorrow morning.
That front LSD is just evil until it has worn in a bit...


Mark

[TKM]

I still think it's dirty and wrong. Be careful you don't catch gay as well