My 182ff track car build (so far)

[1985michael182]

Right where did I get to.

So the panel bond has dried and now I have to dig out any bonding that is on the top side back to clean metal and now apply metal filler. This is why I tapered the hole to start with so the metal filler isnt just sat in the hole it also becomes part of the roof skin to stop a fault line showing when it gets hot in the sun.

Same again I used the heat lamp to cure it then used a d.a. sander with 80grit to make it flush with roof skin then body filler to finish.

So next was primer, I prepared the full roof skin and masked it up ready to go.

Then I flatted the primer, removed the tailgate hinge bolts to pull the tailgate away from the roof so I dont get a masking line it also saved removing all the wires and then masked up to paint.
Came out nice.

Slightly lighter shade but it wont matter it matches the bonnet and bumper and will most likely paint the rest at some point so it will match at some point.

Next was the screen with a new rubber set.

Which basically brings me back to square one apart from the bonnet which I cant be bothered to do at the minute, but I did fit new catches which literally I check everytime I walk past it !!

 

[Clio_fool]

Great work, and what a bargain the silver one was👍. The can't be much else it needs can there? Excluding the bonnet that is😂.

 

[1985michael182]

Great work, and what a bargain the silver one was👍. The can't be much else it needs can there? Excluding the bonnet that is😂.

If only my friend..... if only 😉

 

[1985michael182]

I'll add more later on.

It's like waiting for the next episode of a show you like to watch isnt it.

Like Tomotek's or Ilya's

 

[1985michael182]

At some point I do have another bonnet and a set of bonnet vents to fit, but that's not really at the top of my list. Body work always comes after mechanical soundness.

So whilst it was sat at work and all of my tools within reaching distance I figured I should sort some bits inside that were bugging me. Starting with the dogsh1t battery setup. I hated it!

So I gave the floor a good lean up and fitted the OBP cage that I had bought which was 100% better!

I was waiting for the propper terminal attachment so had to use some panel bond EMC screws until the turned up.

Then I vacuumed and blew the passenger seat off to get and dust and dirt off it and put it back in, loads better.

Next was the drivers and passenger footrests.

Which I would encourage anyone to do as it's so much more comfortable than your heels arguing with the strengthening brace on the stripped out floor.
N.B. dont ever take that strengthening brace out, it's there for a reason. Stops your ankles being trapped/smashed to bits in a head on collision

I should have taken that grip tape off before fitting the drivers side really

 

[Martin.]

Love it when I see you have updates haha

 

[1985michael182]

I'll have my tea and write abit more. I've got over 300 pictures to write up about 🙈

 

[1985michael182]

Last things to do before it can go home is to fit the ebay special genuine skoda fabia front splitter, which I've got to be honest looks basically the same as the cup ones do at a fraction of the price and it wont crack or smash into a million pieces if gets hit by even a fly!!

Then I machine polished the full car to within an inch of its life! Every panel, all the lights, I even did the windows!

I also refitted the fresh gloss blacked clio badge and it was ready for home.

One little problem I came across was the roof scoop leaking water in through the huge hole! So I over came this by putting sponges into the openings as we all know a compressed sponge will not soak up water, which did the trick.

 

[1985michael182]

After waiting 2 weeks for the push button quick release mounting form Benjeneering.com to turn up they had finally arrived at work and promptly fitted them that night.
Pretty self explanatory to fit, just took a while to figure out where they would be best mounted.

Once I worked it out I adjusted them so I could fit the bumper without them trying to push the bumper back off.
I then refit the bumper and pressed hard on to the mounts so they made an indentation on the inside of the bumper which I could use to drill the holes

They look a little like PDC sensors 🤣 but they are there to do a job

But.....
Yet another set back, I masked the wing edges up so I didnt damage the paint taking the bumper on and off and quickly wish I hadn't bothered!! Pulled the tape off and a big chunk of paint came off with it from a poor previous repair 🙈 FML

If I didnt have bad luck I'd have no luck!!

 

[Clio_fool]

Well you did say you'd end up painting the whole car eventually! 😂

 

[1985michael182]

Yea tell me about it. Tried to stop damage and still bloody caused it, cant win

 

[1985michael182]

Ok next....

Some large boxes turned up at work in reception and I was told to move them immediately as they were in the customers eye line. I couldnt remember ordering anything so when I eventually remembered it was a nice little surprise.

CM composites goodies had arrived !

Door cards are super light, nothing to them but the splitter was heavier than I thought it would be. It's like a composite plastic sandwiched between to sheets of ally. It was a lot lighter than the wooden one i had removed when i bought the car but still not what i expected.

So waited until the weekend and went to work on the Saturday morning in the clio and then work on it in the afternoon after I had clocked off

First I did the door cards as the bare doors where really annoying me. I tidied up all the loose wires that were no longer used and tie wrapped them up so they wouldnt rattle inside the doors.
At some point I'm going to get the wiring diagrams and strip any none essential wires from the entire loom, but for now this will do.

Really happy with them and gives it a professional look

After a large amount of head scratching and you tubing I figured out how I wanted to mount the splitter.

Firstly I wanted to mount it in a way so that if I knocked it, it wouldnt get damaged or damage anything else.

So I marked the centre line on the splitter and measured up underneath on the subframe to square the splitter to the car.

Then I drilled 2 6mm holes through the rear of the splitter and into the subframe and fitted 2 aluminium banana rivets.

This was for 2 reasons.
#1 it holds the splitter square whilst I fabricate the front mounting bracket.

#2 the rivets are strong enough to hold the splitter in position but if I knock the front edge the rivets will just sheer off and take the impact with the front edge remaining ok. A little bit like a crumple zone. Then all I would need to do is fit 2 new rivets and away we go again. Rather than mount it with bolts and screws and hitting something and it trashing the front edge like I have seen on so many track cars.

To be continued...

 

[Usr117063]

How many posts away until the 4wd conversion and turbo? lol

 

[1985michael182]

Next I drilled into the front cross member and fitted 6mm captive rivnuts.

I made 2 alloy plates and attached them with caphead bolts.

I then used some aluminium box section I pulled out of the skip from a sales sign that had buckled in the wind and was not repairable. Cut it to length and rivited it in the position I wanted.

I then clamped it up and welded the 2 parts together and refitted them to the car.

I then cut a piece of box section to run between the 2 uprights to keep the centre from sagging.
I drilled 4 x 6mm holes through the box section into the splitter to fix it with the caphead bolts facing upwards but they where too short so I drilled a larger recess in the top of the box so the nuts now sit inside the box section with the nice smooth caphead on the underside. I then welded the uprights to the horizontal parts.
Appaulogies for the aluminium mig welding, its bloody hard to get right with the spool gun. Not the most aesthetically pleasing but it's not going to fall off!

I also made some outriggers out of off cuts from the roofing guys fittings a brand new roof on the bodyshop out of ally aswell. Keeping weight to a minimum and all that.

Then I got the dreaded call from the wife.... "when are you coming home"
So with the splitter now finished and secure i threw the bumper back on and Colin McRae'd my ass back home on the back roads.
Later on after tea and after cutting the grass 🙄 I finished off the bumper with the canards or dive plates or fins or what ever you want to call them.
I lined them up at the same angle as the end plates just because it would look odd otherwise and I could get both sides the same.

Happy as a pig in 💩 😁

 

[1985michael182]

I originally rivited the canards on as that's how they were held together but have since used more of the caphead bolts for security. Main reason being I caught one with my leg and pulled it off...
So clearly they weren't on good enough

 

[1985michael182]

In the next installment ....
Cadwell Park
Crash testing my splitter idea
Learning how the car drives and handles as the first time driving in anger ✌

 

[1985michael182]

As a side note I just found this little gem in my clio album!

 

[1985michael182]

All of this prep work was for one goal.... the track.
Me and around 10 other friends had all booked on at Cadwell park for a 105db day and it would be my first time on track with this car. I had prepped the car to the best of my knowledge and now I just needed to drive it.

Cars with us,
My clio182ff
Eddys clio172cup
Andy's clio172cup
Jeffys clio172cup (my old one)
Mehmets clio172
Lee's mk2 vr6 golf
Aaron's saxo vts
Matt's focus st170
Ryan's clio172

So night before I got loaded up ready to bounce early morning.

So we met up with the other guys and convoyed all the way.
Unloaded the cars, usual tyre pressure checks, wheel nut checks, fluid checks.

I know the track so didnt bother with the sighting, I went straight out after they were done and with in 30seconds almost crashed straight away. Wasnt going quick just steady away to warm everything up and the back end kicked out coming onto the start/stop straight. How I kept it out of the barriers I dont know so i went straight back into the paddock and removed the 2118's with crap NS2R tyres and fited the OzF1 with 2x ar1 and 2x R888R.
After that I got them up to temperature drop the pressure to 28psi and spent the morning learning the limits of the tyres, brakes and suspension.
All was well, nice place to sit. Only problem I found was understeer, at turn in and underpower. Tried to adjust the shocker dampening but all 4 adjuster where seized solid.
So I just enjoyed the car for what it was and carried on.

So Mehmet in the clio172, was the guy I went to help with his throttle bodies and then ruined my bonnet! He had been boasting that he got 201 Bhp out of his at RStuning in Leeds. He paid just over double what I paid at EFI.
So the inevitable race was looming to see whose was fastest. Bothered cars where identical.
Bodies with gen90
Meg 225 injectors
182 mani
But mine also had groupN timing.

I should also point out mine was probably heavier than his aswell as he only had a half cage in.
And this was the outcome...

So, what we can take from this is...
keep your mouth shut until you know your car is faster, then take the p1ss.

After this I ran my fuel down to see how quick I could actually go. I ended up being able to take Coppice flat at about 105/110mph.
But, nobody believed me that I could do it. So I took Eddy out to prove it.

This all happened within 1 lap 🙈

So... we left the track trying to do coppice flat, I put it down to the extra weight of eddy which pushed us to the outside of the corner and when I lifted we got lift off oversteer which was the twitch and we then couldnt slow down in time for the right hander so I figured I would rather go off straight and steer back onto the track rather than try make the corner and potentially end up spinning off.

When we got back to the paddock I couldnt see any damage other than the splitter had hit a grass tuft and pushed the splitter backwards. Jacked the front up and both of the alloy rivets had sheered off, banged 2 more in and we were back out again in 5 minutes.
So my splitter theory worked and no damage to anything.

Few casualties of the day.
Eddys circlip pinged out which stopped his day and Ryan's clutch packed in. Other than that a great day. I never had to take a single spanner to mine all day other than the wheel swap over and the 2 rivets. But let's face it there wasnt much to go wrong, I had already renewed all the usual clio faults.

Day finished, over 200miles on track, packed up and headed home

Really glad I fitted the roof scoop as it blasted fresh air at me all day. The lads where taking the piss all day until they realised I wasnt getting out of the car dripping with sweat like them.

Things to take away from it are, suspension needs renewing or replacing probably with stronger spring rates, gearbox needs an overhaul as its crunching in second, NS2R tyres are w4nk, need to fix the understeer.

 

[JamesBryan]

Get some wheel chokers for those ratchet straps mate, you shouldn't tying it down like that, vosa will have you 😉

 

[1985michael182]

Ok, how do you do it without?

 

[NorthloopCup]

Ok, how do you do it without?

Buy the proper straps ya tight fucker! 😂

 

[1985michael182]

I

Buy the proper straps ya tight fucker! 😂

Would but you've taken all my money...
Ya tight fucker 😭

 

[JamesBryan]

Alloy Wheel Soft Link Straps Trailer Recovery x 4

Link straps wheel choker

slingsandstraps.co.uk

Got ours from here, they do good quality stuff.

£12 plus a few quid delivery.

 

[1985michael182]

Any guide on how far up the wheel they sit?

 

[JamesBryan]

Any guide on how far up the wheel they sit?

Just above half way, so slightly above the centre bore on the wheels.

That way they're pulling front to back and down at the same time.

Not too tight that it crushes your tyres though.

 

[1985michael182]

Thanks, I'll get some

 

[JamesBryan]

Like this really

 

[1985michael182]

I can see the benifit but what if your tyre goes flat? Throught the wheel your tyre can go flat all it wants the car still isnt moving

 

[JamesBryan]

You'll still have 3 others holding it down.

If all 4 were flat I'd imagine you'd just tighten it down more.

 

[1985michael182]

You'll still have 3 others holding it down.

If all 4 were flat I'd imagine you'd just tighten it down more.

Ok I'll get some bought buddy

 

[Louis]

Really enjoyed the videos, your clio goes well and sounds ace.

 

[1985michael182]

Well see as though @NorthloopCup has joined the conversation I might as well write the next part of the build.

After Cadwell I gave the car a good clean up, removed all the track muk and ferrous brake dust.

I had been picking Mark's brain for a while regarding his Role centre/ bump steer kit even before Cadwell. So now was the perfect time to get one bought and fitted to try and help the lack of turn in.

So I got the car on stands and removed the hubs.

It was at this point I realised how corroded the struts were

I took the hubs to work, steam cleaned them off, popped the wheel bearings out and gave them a quick sand blast. Put name tags on them and sent them to Mark.

To fund the kit I sold some unwanted bits. 2 x Sazuka pro bucket seats and a set of Luke harnesses.

Which then left me with the one seat which came out of my impreza hill climb car originally.

 

[1985michael182]

Really enjoyed the videos, your clio goes well and sounds ace.

The forum wont let you upload very big videos so had to cut it into 1minute segments. I should create a youtube channel so I can just link it.

 

[1985michael182]

I'm hoping this link works

 

[1985michael182]

So that's the camera on the dash owned by @E9DYG

 

[1985michael182]

Hes sold his soul to the devil and bought an mx5 instead now

 

[Cullen0406]

great thread like your splitter idea
car sounds and looks like it went well and i'm sure after the mods you've identified you'll enjoy it even more

 

[E9DYG]

Good write up Micky, you sure love your detail 😂👍

 

[1985michael182]

If your going to do it, do it propper

 

[1985michael182]

Now I know how to youtube heres the full video of me and Mehmet