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V1 Alex and the Extended City Frame - 08 Sport/Automatic Donor
- Bretter Well-Known Member
7/17/2018 Longish Update
Last weekend, we took a trip to Red Oak and picked up the majority of Stage 3 for our kit - a couple pieces remain but we will be busy until they come in! It was great visiting with Lonny & Adam - such a wealth of knowledge there!
We put on all of the brake lines and brake reservoir (had to relocate the ground to another hole in the pedal box).
Kick plate installed. Front brake lines installed - still waiting on the aluminum spacers to arrive for attaching the brake lines to the control arms.
Steering column mostly installed. Need some tweaking on location/rotation of turn signal before final torquing of the bolts.
Intake system installed. PCV filter installed rather than vacuum cap. Struts mounted with dust covers on both sides. With all of these, we decided to run the engine again to see if it was better than before and oh yeah baby! Single crank to start and runs well and smooth now! Kept running til the radiator fan came on at 215F coolant temp. It did seem a bit slow to react from idle on an aggressive acceleration pedal push - instantly hear the air vacuum and then the rpm's revving up. Will have to try it out on the road when the time comes
Now we have it raised up to make it a bit easier for fitting the body panels on and various other electrical work. Temp sensor, light sensor, headlights, tail lights, transfer buttons from steering wheel to TBD in the Goblin, etc. Waiting on seats and straps as they are being shipped from Corbeau.
We can't seem to figure out what this black collar around the steering column is? Doesn't seem to affect operation - and it has a connector that is missing and I don't remember what I took out from the harness here. Possibly something to do with ABS?
Last weekend, we took a trip to Red Oak and picked up the majority of Stage 3 for our kit - a couple pieces remain but we will be busy until they come in! It was great visiting with Lonny & Adam - such a wealth of knowledge there!
We put on all of the brake lines and brake reservoir (had to relocate the ground to another hole in the pedal box).
Kick plate installed. Front brake lines installed - still waiting on the aluminum spacers to arrive for attaching the brake lines to the control arms.
Steering column mostly installed. Need some tweaking on location/rotation of turn signal before final torquing of the bolts.
Intake system installed. PCV filter installed rather than vacuum cap. Struts mounted with dust covers on both sides. With all of these, we decided to run the engine again to see if it was better than before and oh yeah baby! Single crank to start and runs well and smooth now! Kept running til the radiator fan came on at 215F coolant temp. It did seem a bit slow to react from idle on an aggressive acceleration pedal push - instantly hear the air vacuum and then the rpm's revving up. Will have to try it out on the road when the time comes
Now we have it raised up to make it a bit easier for fitting the body panels on and various other electrical work. Temp sensor, light sensor, headlights, tail lights, transfer buttons from steering wheel to TBD in the Goblin, etc. Waiting on seats and straps as they are being shipped from Corbeau.
We can't seem to figure out what this black collar around the steering column is? Doesn't seem to affect operation - and it has a connector that is missing and I don't remember what I took out from the harness here. Possibly something to do with ABS?
Karter2026
Goblin Guru
- Karter2026 Goblin Guru
I think that is the steering angle sensor. It worked with the ABS and traction control if it had it.
Briann1177
Goblin Guru
- Briann1177 Goblin Guru
Yes, steering angle sensor. I think I even took that sensor off.
- Bretter Well-Known Member
9/1/18 Finally after a summer of travel and other stuff, we finally found a day when we could both work on the car.
We got the fender mounts on the front, front lights installed and wired, side mirrors installed and wired...
Spacers installed on the transmission side of engine mount - now the engine is perfectly level...
For the lights and mirrors, used some watertight connectors on each. Made it a bit longer/harder to install here initially, but if there is ever a problem or one of them breaks for whatever reason, it will be much easier to fix later!
We got the fender mounts on the front, front lights installed and wired, side mirrors installed and wired...
Spacers installed on the transmission side of engine mount - now the engine is perfectly level...
For the lights and mirrors, used some watertight connectors on each. Made it a bit longer/harder to install here initially, but if there is ever a problem or one of them breaks for whatever reason, it will be much easier to fix later!
- Bretter Well-Known Member
9/22/2018 Managed to get some work done today
Replaced all the spark plugs and got the exhaust heat shield and muffler on.
Started test fitting the body panels and hood:
Started working on where to put some NACA ducts for cabin (leg) cooling. We plan to put a foam shield at the front firewall to prevent the hot air from the radiator working its way into the cockpit. Once that is done, the hot air will go out the bottom and sides around the firewall, so putting ducts on the side panels would be somewhat useless for keeping cool. So, we are looking at doing it on the hood and routing hoses to the foot area (obviously these are there for location and would mount inside
Is this the latest on how wide the hood is compared to the side panels? Early version pictures seem to be much closer between the side of the hood and the side panel. Newer pictures show more of this type of range. We are leaning towards putting more foam in the gap to close it - what are other people planning on doing?
Finally got some new buttons to be used on Chad's prototype that he sent to us. They are a bit larger and required drilling out the holes a bit. Also, had room for a button or two for future upgrades...
Replaced all the spark plugs and got the exhaust heat shield and muffler on.
Started test fitting the body panels and hood:
Started working on where to put some NACA ducts for cabin (leg) cooling. We plan to put a foam shield at the front firewall to prevent the hot air from the radiator working its way into the cockpit. Once that is done, the hot air will go out the bottom and sides around the firewall, so putting ducts on the side panels would be somewhat useless for keeping cool. So, we are looking at doing it on the hood and routing hoses to the foot area (obviously these are there for location and would mount inside
Is this the latest on how wide the hood is compared to the side panels? Early version pictures seem to be much closer between the side of the hood and the side panel. Newer pictures show more of this type of range. We are leaning towards putting more foam in the gap to close it - what are other people planning on doing?
Finally got some new buttons to be used on Chad's prototype that he sent to us. They are a bit larger and required drilling out the holes a bit. Also, had room for a button or two for future upgrades...
- Bretter Well-Known Member
10/20/2018 Update
Got the firewall installed:
With the 205's on the front, need to cut down the side of the front fenders - done:
When we installed the front fenders, it looks like with the new style ball joint mounts, the fender mounts are pushed outboard by about exactly the thickness of the metal, and because of the extra height compared to the original aluminum mounts, the fenders are a bit high in the front.
Front clearance ~2"
Back of front fender clearance ~1"
New style ball joint mounts:
I suspect if we could use the old style (below) ball joint mounts that the left/right of the fender would be centered correctly and the front could be lowered down such that the weld/arm of the mount is not hitting the angled metal of the ball joint mount.
Has anyone else run into this yet? Is there a different way to accomplish aligning the front fenders?
Got the firewall installed:
With the 205's on the front, need to cut down the side of the front fenders - done:
When we installed the front fenders, it looks like with the new style ball joint mounts, the fender mounts are pushed outboard by about exactly the thickness of the metal, and because of the extra height compared to the original aluminum mounts, the fenders are a bit high in the front.
Front clearance ~2"
Back of front fender clearance ~1"
New style ball joint mounts:
I suspect if we could use the old style (below) ball joint mounts that the left/right of the fender would be centered correctly and the front could be lowered down such that the weld/arm of the mount is not hitting the angled metal of the ball joint mount.
Has anyone else run into this yet? Is there a different way to accomplish aligning the front fenders?
Karter2026
Goblin Guru
- Karter2026 Goblin Guru
I played around with my fenders for a bit. I noticed what you are talking about. I need to get back to that soon. I also noticed that the bolt is no longer long enough to make full contact with the lock nut. You will need 1/4" longer bolts for the mounts.
- Bretter Well-Known Member
11/4/2018
Had to travel to Dallas this past week and stopped by DF shop and chatted for a while. Got to see some neat stuff they are working on too
Lonny & Adam were nice enough to give us a couple of the old style upper aluminum mounts for the front wheels. Going to try and use those to move the front fender mounts away from our wheel and center it on the tire and get it closer to the tire. They were saying that the fenders are really difficult because of so many different versions of wheels and tire sizes being used - I certainly understand! We got some longer bolts to mount the fender mount and started reassembling. Then come to learn/realize that we didn't foresee the upper aluminum mount being thicker than the steel one and now need a longer 5/8-18 bolt to mount to the upper control arm. Nobody in town had the 3" length we needed - longest anyone had was 2-1/2" so now on order and will arrive in a couple days.
We did manage to get the seats in and the wing mounted. With the cross brace, that wing is SOLID! I am impressed!
With these harness straps, the 2 lapbelt sections don't seem to fit quite right with these seats. In other words, the strap material from the mounting point to the adjustment harness is fixed at ~6" - i.e.:
The problem being that if the adjustment bracket is outside the seat, then the strap from the mounting point to the bracket is loose and driver is held in by mounting bracket pulling on side of the seat (see below). If the bracket goes inside the seat through the hole, it barely fits and pinches between the seat and the person.
Ideally, the mounting strap length would be longer like ~12" vs the ~6" currently, but I don't see a way to make that change - they are sewn in place as is. We may have to run the lap belts over the side of the seat rather than through the side hole in the seat - will have to try it and see.
Anyone else run into this sort of issue with the harness and/or seatbelt?
Had to travel to Dallas this past week and stopped by DF shop and chatted for a while. Got to see some neat stuff they are working on too
Lonny & Adam were nice enough to give us a couple of the old style upper aluminum mounts for the front wheels. Going to try and use those to move the front fender mounts away from our wheel and center it on the tire and get it closer to the tire. They were saying that the fenders are really difficult because of so many different versions of wheels and tire sizes being used - I certainly understand! We got some longer bolts to mount the fender mount and started reassembling. Then come to learn/realize that we didn't foresee the upper aluminum mount being thicker than the steel one and now need a longer 5/8-18 bolt to mount to the upper control arm. Nobody in town had the 3" length we needed - longest anyone had was 2-1/2" so now on order and will arrive in a couple days.
We did manage to get the seats in and the wing mounted. With the cross brace, that wing is SOLID! I am impressed!
With these harness straps, the 2 lapbelt sections don't seem to fit quite right with these seats. In other words, the strap material from the mounting point to the adjustment harness is fixed at ~6" - i.e.:
The problem being that if the adjustment bracket is outside the seat, then the strap from the mounting point to the bracket is loose and driver is held in by mounting bracket pulling on side of the seat (see below). If the bracket goes inside the seat through the hole, it barely fits and pinches between the seat and the person.
Ideally, the mounting strap length would be longer like ~12" vs the ~6" currently, but I don't see a way to make that change - they are sewn in place as is. We may have to run the lap belts over the side of the seat rather than through the side hole in the seat - will have to try it and see.
Anyone else run into this sort of issue with the harness and/or seatbelt?
- Bretter Well-Known Member
11/6/2018
With the new bolts and aluminum upper mount, the front fenders look to be just about perfect. With a washer between the fender and the mount and they will be positioned just right.
On another note, the tie rod ends continue to kick our butts! We have tried penetrating oil, 5# sledge, tie rod separator tools all to no avail. We have tried banging the top of the threaded rod end (so much it is now deformed) and even the end of the steering arm to try and force it out. I'm not sure what we did different than everyone else but these things are stuck hard. After accidentally cutting the rubber boot we now have to get a new one. So we are taking off the aluminum steering arm and will take it and the rod end to a shop with a 20ton press. Hopefully that will get the end separated. Here are several pictures - maybe someone can see something that we did wrong? Or ???
With the new bolts and aluminum upper mount, the front fenders look to be just about perfect. With a washer between the fender and the mount and they will be positioned just right.
On another note, the tie rod ends continue to kick our butts! We have tried penetrating oil, 5# sledge, tie rod separator tools all to no avail. We have tried banging the top of the threaded rod end (so much it is now deformed) and even the end of the steering arm to try and force it out. I'm not sure what we did different than everyone else but these things are stuck hard. After accidentally cutting the rubber boot we now have to get a new one. So we are taking off the aluminum steering arm and will take it and the rod end to a shop with a 20ton press. Hopefully that will get the end separated. Here are several pictures - maybe someone can see something that we did wrong? Or ???
