How do you make it rain in California?... buy a speedster.

I managed to get some work done on the ole girl today. I wrapped up the cooler, thermostat, and oil filter install. It's not looking all together too horrible.

I received the new wheel studs this week. I turned my attention to the rear wheels/fenders. I decided that it's not an outlaw if you don't cut the fender lips. I trimmed about 1/4" off part of the rear fenders with a grinder. Below is a photo of the wheels with some 20mm spacers. The 20mm units are just a tad too large. I will most likely step down to some 15mm units for the rear.

Took a shot of the Lempert VDM replica wheel. Still waiting on the horn button from JPS.

One step closer!

Ted

Damn cool steering wheel.  Sorta looks like a Nardi.

Ted, you are a very adventurous sort, with mad skilz, as they say. n When you run out of things to mod on this car, it is going to be something else.  Great pics -- keep 'em coming.

Love the Outlaw direction you're going with! Wheels are BAD A$$!!!! 

@ Ted

Hello Ted a really, really cool thing you mounted the oil cooler. however there is a little thing noticed from me:

I think it is very important that the output from the oil filter is connected to the lower input of the oil cooler. And the upper one has to go back to the Engine.

This is the only way to prevend that  air bubbles can stay in the oil cooler.

If it's not done this way, it will always take time til you have the full oil pressure and the oter thing is with air bubbles  the performance of the cooler is much lower.

I'm not entirely sure but when i follow the oil lines on your picture, it seems you mounted it the other way around.

So cheers and thumbs up for your construction!

Greetings from Germany, Jan

Hello Jan, 

That's a good catch. Makes sense.  If the oil simply has to 'fall down' through the cooler it's not going to get the full effect of the cooling. If I have to push the oil up and through the cooler it will 'fill' the cooler before it is pushed out the top. 

The fan switch (I need to finish wiring that up) will be on the 'inlet' and not the 'outlet', but that's a minor detail.

I'll swap the hoses at the thermostat today. 

frazerk - Thanks for the kind words. I'm a mere hack compared to some of these members.  Your comment on the wheel inspired me to learn the differences between the Nardi and the VDM. The two are actually identical except for the embellishments. The Nardi has a single black inlay. The VDM replaces the inlay with two groves which are painted black.  When I ordered the wheel I wanted something different from the standard Nardi, but didn't want to stray too far. I was on the fence between the VDM and a wheel like Terry's.  I'm still not sure I made the right decision. I may have to order a second one so I can change them out like Marty changes shoes.

Jim - Thanks buddy!  I was trying to figure out if I liked the tecnos on the car or not. I had to keep asking myself... What Would Rod Emory Do? (WWRED?) I was looking at the car and decided to figure out where I would have to cut the lips. The more I looked at it I figured I'd give it a go. Glad I did. Only a trained eye looking up under the wheel well could tell they have been shaved. Now that I think I've mastered the wheel spacers on the rear, I love with how the rear looks. I'll need to pull the rear tires back 1/8" to 1/4", but it should still retain that fat boy look.

Does anyone make a WIDER front beam? I'd love to push the front wheels out  a bit. I also think I'm going to have the front wheel studs taken down about a 1/4 to 3/8" of an inch. They are *jjjjjuuuuuuust* a bit too long without the spacers behind them. I only want maybe 3/8" of the stud sticking out past the lug nut.

As always - thanks for checking in. I appreciate it. Keeps me from making mistakes like Jan pointed out above! Plus the encouragement and compliments keep me going. 

Hi Ted,

usually you put the switch to the outlet.

the logic behind it:

the fan should not switch on as long as the cooler does it's job alone without fan.

And another tip from my experience: Build a relay circuit witch shuts of the fan during the engine start. This makes the engine start much easyer with hot motor! 

if the fan is running during start, it takes too much energie from the ignition.

Cheers

I understand the logic for the switch on the outlet, unfortunately with the way it's plumbed up right now, it's a space issue. The switch doesn't HAVE to be hung directly off the cooler. I could simply put it in line anywhere on the return line. I'll need to change some stuff and buy an extra fitting or two, but it should work. 

The other side of that coin is that with where the cooler is mounted, it's not going to get a whole lot of static airflow. So I'm not sure how effective the cooling will be without the fan on. I'm going to build a scoop to hopefully direct air over the cooler to hopefully improve the efficiency.  I also want to build a FOD screen for in front of the fan. Man, this thing is never done.

If you have a schematic for that relay, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

Think my drawing is even not better than my english writing ;-) but I tried.

Putting the switch somewere into the returne line might be the best. Maybe close to the thermostate?!

About the Ralay: You just need a simple 5-pin car Relay. The numbers on the relay should match to the numbers on my schematic.

p.s. what you can also do: Some Ignition lock switches have an extra pin witch is switched of during the start of the engine, you also can use this. BUT in this case you have to put an extra cable from the ignition switch up to the fan all through across the vehicle... I would prefer to do it with the relay like in my schematic.

Ted, I mounted my thermostat directly to the filter housing, used pipe thread to AN male fittings and a double female adapter between the two. No mounting needed. Been that way for 5 or 6 years now. I'll have to take a pic.

Still waiting for the silly sand seal to come in. While I was waiting I decided to clean up the back end of the car. I've successfully sanded and polished most of the rear of the car. I was never able to get in close around the license plate light, the license plate, around the tail lights or behind the bumper. It's always been kind of hazy and dull back around those parts.

I threw caution to the wind and removed everything so I could get in there and color sand the back end.

Below you can sort of see what I mean. Just dull and bleh.

Me and my trusty 2000 grit paper and a sanding block. Now it's REALLY dull.

First pass with some compound on a wool cutting pad. Second pass with a lighter compound on a new pad:

Third pass with a foam pad and some Chemical Brothers 'renew' glaze

One pass with the Chemical Brothers 'Black Light' and a final pass on the Cyclone polisher and some Chemical Brothers 'Black wax'. 

At this point I can't tell if it looks any better than it did two passes ago, but it's a whole lot better than it was when I started.

Oh, while I was in there I decided to clean up the wires once and for all. Good ol Al had a hodge podge of bullet and butt connectors. I'm going to upgrade the entire mess to some standard plugs.

I did a tiny bit of work on the 'daily driver':

Tune in next time when I finally seal up the rear of the engine compartment. (between the rear subframe and the rear of the body.

Thanks for checking in...

Ted

Truely Awesome......   

Oh yeah.. two more images.

One shot of the Mike Lempert with the horn button installed. YAY! Sorry Brandon, the horn button arrived before your car.

Alan, Greg, or anyone else - How do I solve this? The passenger door sticks out a tiny bit on the bottom rear. The top front is slightly recessed. I'm assuming it's a shim type fix. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Ted

Wow, Ted.  The results of your sanding and polishing effort are truly spectacular.  Nice work!

Ted - you got some mad paint polishing skilz! Car looks pretty good! 

ditto what MUSBJIM said.  I know nothing about how to "buff out' car paint, and you obviously have had some training.  What are you going to do with a really shiny back end, and the rest -- um -- not so much??  And I'm gonna say that your st. wheel looks a lot like mine, a Nardi.

Veddy veddy nice, Ted. Me ? I'd be afraid to go near it now ! You make it look easy !

I be waitin' to hear what Alan says about the door.  Just a little wiggle w/ the hinges, I guess, but maybe more complex.

First, shim the hinge that needs to push the door out,  you don't need much here.

See what that has done for the one that has the door sticking out, you may need to remove the hinge and grind a bit off the surface to make it slightly thinner again, you don't need to remove much.

I've been working my way around the car. Color sanding and knocking out the scratches. As Jim can attest, the car had a LOT or orange peel when I picked it up. I started my color sanding on the front right fender (the worst spot) about 6 months ago. I've made my way clear around to the driver side door. I have the door, the front left fender and the hood left to do. It's all pretty shiny, some places have more orange peel than others. The hood will be a big transformation. I may tape off half of it just to show the big difference with and without color sanding.

With respect to the the Nardi wheel: The replica VDM and Nardi are nearly identical wheels. The only appreciable difference is the Nardi has one dark band of inlay. The VDM has two black stripes.  The 'profile' and size of the replica wheels are pretty close.  I believe the the originals were larger in diameter and profile shape/size.

David - Ha! Yeah, no kidding. I was afraid to put the cover on it. The paint is old and soft. It gets light surface scratches on it pretty easily. My goal wasto get all the deep orange peel and scratches out of the paint. Plus this forced me to clean up the wires. They are a mess.

Regarding pant work: Believe it or not, I have had no formal training. It's all learned by doing it and from watching videos on you tube. Color sanding is the scary part. Buffing? The machine(s) do all the work. The biggest thing is to know how the buffing pad is turning and to not have that go up against a hard edge (fender lip, door gap, etc. etc.) So long as the pad is turning away/off the edge - then you're good. If the pad is turning towards or 'onto' the hard edge you will burn the paint.  Go slow. 1400 rmp is the most I do. Just go slow and do like 2' at a time. This paint is pretty tired. Once the whole 'patina' fad is over, I'll get it repainted.   If I get through the entire car without having a major mistake, it'll be a miracle.

You Tube is man's new best friend!