My 182ff track car build (so far)

[Optimista]

Just finished reading this from the beggining. Stunning! Love it and love the current "restauration" as i've done something similair. Can't wait for an update

 

[1985michael182]

Whilst the engine bay was completely empty I figured I would give it a good clean up to get rid of the grim and dirt. I borrowed my father in laws little steam cleaner and started cleaning.

Good little tool, didnt have to use any chemicals just a microfiber cloth to wipe it off after.

I actually forgot to get a full before picture but I did get one...

Before

After

Cleaned up really well but now I could see the rusty bits 🙈

 

[1985michael182]

For anyone who doesnt know the difference between a 2port ABS master cylinder and the cup 4port master cylinder, heres the difference

 

[Hxrry]

Outstanding thread, I am so impressed with everything you have done and your attention to detail. Great work, look forward to seeing more pics .

 

[1985michael182]

Now that pretty much everything was stripped out of the engine bay and wheel arches and I stupidly cleaned every up, I could see the rusty bits 🤬

Which is not acceptable for me....

So out the wire wheel came and I removed any surface rust I could find.

Around the brake pipe brackets and the ABS wire clips

Up into the tops of the suspension turrets

And on the inner wheel archs

I then used red scotch bright with panel wipe to key the paint and remove any wax oil or oil deposits from the inner arches.
Once the areas were clean I brushed Jenolite rust converter over the bare steel and left it for a good hour to dry properly. I then used Etch primer to cover the bare steel first, then used a stonechip primer to give a decent thick paint protection and finished the job with bog standard alloy wheel silver which I must say is an extremely close colour match for my car.

Any holes that I no longer required I used aluminium tape to cover with 3 layers for strength. I put this on over the etch primer so it would not react with the bare steel.

Really tidied the arches up and now rust free for a while longer.

 

[1985michael182]

I forgot to say that I also cut away the metal bracket which the arch liner clips onto which always scrubs on the wheels when you've lowered your car.

 

[1985michael182]

Once the arches were done I moved onto the engine bay.
I removed all the rust using the wire wheel and then sanded the repair areas to feather the edges out, scotch bright to key for the primer, paint and laquer.

I also fitted the reflect-a-gold to the bulkhead, which is a nightmare to fit as it doesnt like to mould around curves. I ended up using a hot air gun to make the glue more tacky and pressed it into position.

 

[1985michael182]

I looked at my front calipers and figured I wanted to refurbish them but I couldnt be bothered to do them myself so i boxed them up and sent them to Biggredcalipers, I asked which of their coatings would withstand track temperatures. I was told they use stove paint which will take 900°c so should do the job. I also asked for titanium bleed nipples fitted, so they wont rust. They look pretty rough.

The same day I got a call to say my subframe was ready so I went and picked it up.

Looking good.

 

[1985michael182]

At this point I was waiting on the nuts and bolt at the platers, so I figured I have gone this far I might aswell go the whole hog.
So I blasted my 182 mani and painted it with 1200°c exhaust enamel.

I also sand blasted all of the engine mounts

Nice before and after pic.

I painted all the nut and bolts and the lower engine mounts in silver 600°c engine enamel and then painted the upper cam belt cover in black wrinkle paint. Great stuff. 3 decent coats of paint the I put it into the alloy wheel oven at 80°c to bake, the heat is what makes it wrinkle.

Very happy with how it all turned out

 

[NorthloopCup]

There’s something strangely satisfying about that wrinkle paint.

 

[1985michael182]

Yea I know, watching it turn is more interesting than most TV shows

 

[NorthloopCup]

Yea I know, watching it turn is more interesting than most TV shows

😂😂

 

[1985michael182]

STILL waiting for my bits from the platers!

So figured I could start putting some bits back on as I was running out of storage space.

Servo back one with the cup master cylinder and started running the Proline cup internal braided line kit.

I put the engine mounts back on, just slack as they would need to come off again to fit the engine, but they wouldnt get damaged or knocked around.

Later that day I popped into work to try to make some headlight blanks.
I bought a cheap pair of standard head lights.
Cut the guts out of them, leaving the original mounting points and prepped them ready for primer. Then primed them.

Not bad for 1 and a half hours work and £15 for the lights.

The engine and gearbox just doesnt look right now sat next to the shiney parts though... 🤔

And... finally my nuts, bolts and hubs are ready to collect!!

I MUST WARN YOU ALL, THERE ARE SOME EXPLICIT PICTURES TO FOLLOW THIS POST!
I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY TROUSER ACCIDENTS WHICH MAY OCCUR FROM VIEWING THIS THREAD!

That is all

 

[Mbeau]

I really like the plating on the nuts, bolts and hubs. Is that expensive to have done?

Excellent read this thread 👍

 

[1985michael182]

Think I paid £100 cash m8

 

[1985michael182]

So

I took all my nice new shiney bits to work and built the subframe up. I bolted the rack back on whilst it was easy to get to.
The centre bushes on the subframe where a b*****d to fit, they are so tight to get the metal clip back over them and the bolt in. Took me longer to fit them than build the rest up! I fitted new bearings to the fresh plated hubs aswell.

I then took it home and fitted it to the car with the nice shiney bolts and brand new subframe captive nuts.

During the week I also flatted the primer on the headlight blanks and managed to get them painted so I gave them a test fit.

And whilst we are on shiney parts my front calipers got delivered

I have no words to describe these....

then this happened and blew my mind!!

 

[1985michael182]

Nice sunny Sunday, perfect for fitting shiney parts...

So I have the Recon Gaz gha struts with 550lbs springs and revalved to suit, with PMS solid top mounts freshly plated and fitted with new bearings from PMS.
The fresh plated hubs with new bearings modified by Mark to use his role centre kit and the fresh refurbished front calipers finished in silver stove enamel.
Last but not least the Proline braided hoses to run to the calipers aswell.

Please make sure you are not operating any heavy machinery whilst looking at these next pictures!!!!

You can see how clean the old arch liner is. I scotch brighted it with wheel acid, dried it out and then used the hot air gun to heat the plastic up just enough so it just starts to shine then move on to another area. It revitalised the plastic and looks brand new again.

I think we can all agree the role centre/bump steer kit is a thing of beauty

Lock tight on the studs and used 2 nuts tightened together to wind them back into the hub flanges. I could really do to buy some shorter ones though as the guy before me ran 20mm spacers! Aswell as the et35 2118 alloys, bloke was crazy it would ruin the handling.
I bought some new camber bolts aswell but they weren't gold so I didnt fit them and fitted the old shiney ones instead.

The brake pipes are just test fitted to see where they sit.
One little annoyance is I forgot to send the brake line clips for plating 🤬

So I'll have to think of something to do with these.


Fitted a new ABS speed sensor aswell, had to smash the old one out with a hammer and chisel. Plenty of grease around the new one prior to fitting it, try to stop it from bonding itself in to the hole for the next time I need it out.

Then the health and safety team turned up unannounced to check my work and make sure I was torquing things up correctly!

Good days work tinkering away and very pleased that I had put the effort in to refresh all these parts.

I did get in trouble from the boss though as the health and safety executive got covered in grease and oil 😁

 

[Tomwrx]

Thats some detail to work there mate, cracking read, amd look forward to the next update

 

[1985michael182]

Thanks m8, I like things done once and done right

 

[Clio_fool]

Thanks m8, I like things done once and done right, excluding the bonnet that is. 😂

👍

 

[1985michael182]

Hey I did the bonnet right.....

The first time

 

[1985michael182]

I just didn't close the bonnet catches properly, or at all

 

[Bennett699]

Wow amazing work!! Need to get mine to this level

 

[1985michael182]

On to the next stage which is the engine. I don't have anything planned regarding pulling the engine to bits, but whilst it's out and easy to get to I decided to change the sump gasket and the crank seal behind the flywheel. Also I couldn't put the dirty rusty engine back into an immaculate engine bay so some thing had to be done.

I started by building up my engine stand

And then putting the engine onto the stand, little tip... get somebody to help you lift the engine, it's very awkward on your own as the stand tries to move away from you when you try to slide the 2 parts together, it's also very heavy!!

So it's at this point after a little bit of closer inspection and whilst stripping a few bits of that I noticed I have the wrong exhaust gasket on!

So this will have been restricting my exhaust gases flow!! I might have hit the magic 200bhp at EFI if I had the right one on! So I ordered the correct on straight way.

So I had formulated a plan, I was going to decrease the full engine and pressure wash it all off, dry it and then sand last it.

So I started with the pressure washer, I filled the inlet and exhaust ports with loads of old sheets to stop any potential water or sand getting into them. Same with the thermostats housing and any other holes exposed. Then I used layers of Gorilla tape cut to size to water tight the holes.
Next i sprayed Autoglym wheelacid all over the engine and let it soak in for about 10 minutes then blasted it off and repeated the process until it was clean from oil and muck.

The next stage was to use the airline and blower to dry the engine off getting into all the nooks and crannies. I didn't want anything to be wet as the sand will just clog together and create more work. I wanted the sand to just fall back off the engine as I rotated it.
So once dry I remasked all the holes with gorilla tape to ensure I hadn't damaged the tape with the pressure washer. I also masked off the cam belt and pulleys and the PMS breather plate incase I hit it with the blaster by accident.
Note to look out for, the crank in the centre is hollow and leads into the bottom end, make sure this is sealed!!

So i blasted it all off took a couple of hours getting into all the different angles.
Then It looked like it was going to rain so I didn't get any pictures of it blasted, I cracked on with blowing all and any sand off and then painting with VHT silver engine enamel.

Came out well and a very satisfying job

I have other plans for the rocker cover

 

[JamesBryan]

What size bolts did you use to mount the engine on the stand mate?

 

[1985michael182]

Good question I'll take a look when I get home

 

[NorthloopCup]

What size bolts did you use to mount the engine on the stand mate?

Pretty sure they’re m10x100 that I use mate.

 

[JamesBryan]

Pretty sure they’re m10x100 that I use mate.

Cool, I've got some of them. Needing to put an engine on a stand too.

 

[1985michael182]

Yes m10 buddy

 

[1985michael182]

Next I moved on to fitting the EPAS column and ECU.
I had previously bought the Ebay controller, and the ECU and column off another forum member.
I had a quick look over the instructions and then went to my local auto electrician to get the power cable and connectors required.
I started by removing my dashboard, then I removed the old column.
You need to fit your key barrel and electrics from your original column onto your Epas one. So I got the new one fitted and all bolted up, fitted the ECU where they fit on the dci. Plugged the connectors in and re fitted the dash board.

I didn't get the power connector with the ECU so I used large female blade connectors. Heat shrinked them individually and the heat shrinked them together.

So you need to wire a fused main live wire and an ignition live, so when you turn the ignition on the ECU turns on and allows power to the column via you new fused live wire.
My fused live

One possible ignition live is your brake pedal switch for your brake lights. Shown below.

But with most of the electrical components stripped out of my car I figured I would us an ignition live not currently be used.
If you don't already know, an ignition live is a curcuit/wiring that is only live when your ignition is turned on.
Really easy to find using a power probe.

So the crocodile clip goes to an earthing point and the probe end onto you wiring connector, don't pierce the wire covering as it can lead to corrosion and electrical faults.
So turn on your ignition once you find a live turn it off again, if the live stays on it's no good it's a constant live. Turn the ignition on again and move to the next live you find until you find one that turns off with the key.
I found one on the traction control which is no longer connected. Slightly low on volts as my battery was under charged. Should be over 12.4v

I also mounted the variable switch to the control panel.

I can't actually test that It works yet as it's not on its wheels on the ground but it will work, i did it 😁

All back together

 

[JamesBryan]

Ignition live wires are generally yellow or orange/yellow on these, you know that now though

 

[1985michael182]

Ignition live wires are generally yellow or orange/yellow on these, you know that now though

I didn't know that m8 but now you say it that makes sense.
The probe method will work on any vehicle though, not just our old bangers.
Plus not all ignition lives are 12.v either

 

[1985michael182]

Right, bit of a break from writing pages on here but I'll do abit more.

Next I needed to get the brake lines finished prior to the engine going back in.
Starting from the mastercylinder I fixed the front caliper lines in position and tightened the joints. The blank that came in the proline kit bottomed out before it sealed the port off so I used a bleed nipple which worked perfectly.

Next I needed to find a suitable area for the bulkhead pipe to go through the bulkhead. I currently have the heater box in which limited where I could drill through and to gain access to the pipe from the inside.
The only place I could go because of the length of the pipe was next to the heater matrix pipes.

That finished off the pipes in the engine bay so I moved to the inside.
Following on from the bulkhead fitting I routed the internal pipe one the right hand side of the gear lever and handbrake to meet the bias valve.

I then continued to the back between the cage and the rear bench seat.
Next was the Tpeice and the 2 rear inner lines. Pretty awkward to find the right place for the arch to drill but after 15minutes of measuring and marking I got there.

Last was the pipes to the rear calipers, I attached the outside lines to the inner arch but couldnt bring my self to fit them to the calipers when they looked so bad!!

So we all know what happened.....
Calipers off, disks off....
Stripped, blasted, painted, greased, refitted.

Now that the pipes were all connected I could fill and bleed the brake system and check for any potential leaks whilst everything was accessible. Easy peasy no dramas, brakes bled up fine.
I then removed all the old rear brake pipes and the rear abs sensor wires. Stripped them back all the way to the front bulkhead and removed the compensatory and bracket. Weight saving.

So that's the brakes all fitted out and done ready for test drive when the engine goes back in

The back axle is on my todo list at some point but not until I have driven it, as is the rear suspension refurb and probably 450lbs springs

 

[1985michael182]

So @ZachB has placed an official complaint that I haven't updated recently soooooo.....

I had to read back a bit to remember where I got to. But it's still on track!

The correct exhaust gasket turned up, massive difference in port size.

With the rear disks all cleaned up I did the same with the fronts, blasted and painted them and copper greased up. I needed to fit them so I could bleed the brakes up but I didnt want them sat rusting whilst I got the engine back in.

Once I had finished off the few final bits and Bob's with breaking and steering I turned my attention back to the engine.
I wanted to do the wrinkle paint on the cam cover so I used various wire wheels on my electric drill to get into the areas to clean the bare ally up. I then masked the rest of the engine up and gave it 3 decent coats of black. I left it 15 minutes to flash off a bit and for some of the thinners to evaporate out of the paint then hit it with heat from the hot air gun to get the wrinkled finish. I love the look of it! Painted the bolt heads silver aswell to finish the top off.

I also did the upper cambelt cover and nut/bolts

As you an also see new clutch had turned up also.

My next purchase was a full set of light weight pulleys. FYI your alternator pulley is already a light weight alloy pulley I didnt realise until I took it off but I had payed for the kit so I fitted the new one. The only pulleys I now have is crank, water pump and alternator.

Obviously having removed the tensioner and PAS pump the belt was going to be shorter but I didnt know how short so I used the old belt and some grips to get a rough measurement of the longest it could be.

At least now I could go to Pages motor factors to see what they had available. I ideally want a stretch belt as there will be very little extra tension with the PMS adjuster.

I didnt realise how far the alternator actually stuck out from the engine until it was back on without the PAS.
Crank pulley not fitted yet as I needed to lock the engine off before undoing the bolt and I needed to borrow the locking tools and my m8s knowledge to retime it to GroupN. Also it's a brand new belt, dephaser and water pump so that doesn't need touching thankfully.

Looking good though, happy with how its turned out.

Think next I need to tackle the box

 

[Usr117063]

😁 😁 The wrinkle paint must be satisfying to do. Painting in general is a relief for me when It goes okay because I have no idea what im doing!


Also I just realised that I have the wrong part of the loom for the abs could you sell me yours?

 

[1985michael182]

If I still have it its yours m8

 

[1985michael182]

I'll check tomorrow buddy. Still think you are making a mistake putting it back on

 

[Usr117063]

Thanks! Hopefully its how I remember

 

[JamesBryan]

That tensioner on the cambelt looks to have gone too far.

Are the marks defintely lined up?

 

[1985michael182]

Not a clue to be honest, my mate did the belt and dephaser stuff so I couldnt F it up. It runs c**k on though?