06-24-2011, 10:19 AM
Welp. Got the parts I was waiting on, put the new front cover gasket on, greased all the stuff you're supposed to grease, put on the new throwout bearing and reattached the throwout arm. I got the new, undented pilot bearing and installed it less like an idiot this time, and then bolted up the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate.
Then I dragged the thing back under the car and shimmied it into place with rope and a floor jack. At a certain point though we had to use the floor jack to change the angle of the motor and I just had to manhandle the trans to get the input shaft into the pilot bearing. Got all the bolts on Wednesday night, installed the slave cylinder and reattached it to the "power plant frame"which is mazda for "weird thing we used in place of a normal tranny mount," and put the driveshaft in. Thursday, with the help of Jake and Meg, we torqued all the trans and PPF bolts to spec, put the downpipe and cat back on, filled the trans with fluid, put the underbody panel back on and installed the shifter and center console.
THEN WE DROVE THAT SHIT, around the parking lot. Leaving work early today to go to OG and get another quart of trans fluid, the DMV for tags, and registration, and autozone for some clay, polishing pads and some top treatment.
Hurray!!
Total cost to get the car on the road so far:
$500 Purchase
$146 Parts
$ 45 Title
$ 54 Moar Parts
$ 25 Fluid
$ 80 Tools (I actually spent more but I'm returning about $60 worth, you could argue that tools aren't part of the cost, but its the cars fault I went and bought em)
$ __ Tags+ Registration later today
$850 Total so far. Tagged, Running and on the road. I'm not counting insurance, because listing it as my DD offsets the insurance cost on the M3 enough to break even. I still pay $145 a god-damn-month though.
The car has fresh motor oil, fresh trans oil, freshish looking coolant and plenty of life left on the brakes. I'm planning on driving it quite a bit to break in the clutch, but depending on how terrifyingly shitty these old tires are at stopping the thing, I might wait until I have new wheels. Speaking of which, I found a guy with three good TRmotorsport C1Ms and 4 good Kuhmo XS's for $280, I can get a new 4th for $89 and I'm into a set of track wheels for less than $400. If that deal goes smoothly I'll be on the prowl for similarly used/cheap coils and sways.
Next steps this weekend and next week are to detail the every loving shit out of the blessed thing. Clay bar, polish, wax, top treatment, headlight and glass restoration, trim de-rusting and repainting, and I might take a look at slowing down the rust in the rockers to buy me a year or two before I have to have it fixed fixed.
I am planning on trying to keep an accurate running total for this thing, I'd like to see how cheap I can get it on the track.
Then I dragged the thing back under the car and shimmied it into place with rope and a floor jack. At a certain point though we had to use the floor jack to change the angle of the motor and I just had to manhandle the trans to get the input shaft into the pilot bearing. Got all the bolts on Wednesday night, installed the slave cylinder and reattached it to the "power plant frame"which is mazda for "weird thing we used in place of a normal tranny mount," and put the driveshaft in. Thursday, with the help of Jake and Meg, we torqued all the trans and PPF bolts to spec, put the downpipe and cat back on, filled the trans with fluid, put the underbody panel back on and installed the shifter and center console.
THEN WE DROVE THAT SHIT, around the parking lot. Leaving work early today to go to OG and get another quart of trans fluid, the DMV for tags, and registration, and autozone for some clay, polishing pads and some top treatment.
Hurray!!
Total cost to get the car on the road so far:
$500 Purchase
$146 Parts
$ 45 Title
$ 54 Moar Parts
$ 25 Fluid
$ 80 Tools (I actually spent more but I'm returning about $60 worth, you could argue that tools aren't part of the cost, but its the cars fault I went and bought em)
$ __ Tags+ Registration later today
$850 Total so far. Tagged, Running and on the road. I'm not counting insurance, because listing it as my DD offsets the insurance cost on the M3 enough to break even. I still pay $145 a god-damn-month though.
The car has fresh motor oil, fresh trans oil, freshish looking coolant and plenty of life left on the brakes. I'm planning on driving it quite a bit to break in the clutch, but depending on how terrifyingly shitty these old tires are at stopping the thing, I might wait until I have new wheels. Speaking of which, I found a guy with three good TRmotorsport C1Ms and 4 good Kuhmo XS's for $280, I can get a new 4th for $89 and I'm into a set of track wheels for less than $400. If that deal goes smoothly I'll be on the prowl for similarly used/cheap coils and sways.
Next steps this weekend and next week are to detail the every loving shit out of the blessed thing. Clay bar, polish, wax, top treatment, headlight and glass restoration, trim de-rusting and repainting, and I might take a look at slowing down the rust in the rockers to buy me a year or two before I have to have it fixed fixed.
I am planning on trying to keep an accurate running total for this thing, I'd like to see how cheap I can get it on the track.
Now: 07 Porsche Cayman S | 18 VW Tiguan
Then: 18 VW GTI Autobahn | 95 BMW M3 | 15 VW GTI SE | 12 Kia Optima SX | 2009 VW GTI | 00 BMW 540i Sport | 90 Mazda Miata | 94 Yamaha FZR600R | 1993 Suzuki GS500E | 2003 BMW 325i | 95 Saab 900S