Category: bodywork

• Transmission Rebuild
  
  • I ended up dropping the money on a Quaife QDH3Y limited slip differential to drop into the car. It cost about $930 shipped direct from Quaife in the UK. All the US resellers had big markups on the diff. Quaife’s website makes it look questionable as to whether it’s actually in stock or not, but they shipped it relatively fast.
  • The rest of the transmission looked great inside. I had some difficulties finding the correct axle seals for the male axles vs the female axles that I had but otherwise everything came apart and went together as expected. Gave it a fresh coat of paint as well since I didn’t do that the first go around.
• Autocross testing
  
  • Decided to test out the repaired transmission with an autocross at Atlanta Motorsports Park. Seems to work great! It’s definitely a little less noisy than the last OBX one. Hoping this one lasts for quite a while. The car definitely needs some driving improvements on a tight autocross like this. Boost lag is extremely noticable and the braking for such a light car is underwhelming due to the forward bias.
  • My friend is now the caretaker of the Wreck Racing E28 BMW we built in college and it made an appearance at the autocross as well. Man it’s fast!
  • My company Ampere EV had our electric DeLorean serving as the pace car and it participated in the autocross as well. About dead even times with my 818 on the small autocross course.
• Misc Fixes
  
  • The car is already back apart and on jackstands to go through and fix a few more issues I’ve had.
    
    • Fuel filler neck seems to leak fuel in hard right turns with a full tank. I think just some hose clamp adjustment at the gas cap is needed.
    • Front door gap panels need to be made for water resistance.
    • Cleaning up the rear body seams and front fender mold lines to get the car to “10 footer” level appearance. Lot of work for somewhat small results!
    • Replacing the rear hatch struts with 40lb ones. The 30lb ones provided by FFR don’t quite hold it up and it has been a nuisance.
    • 3D printing a new intake mount, maybe with an airbox to come later.
    • Clutch doesn’t quite want to bleed right, not sure if the reservoir is clogged/bad master or if the pedal just needs further adjustment. It simply doesn’t suck in new fluid when trying to bleed it.
• Ampere EV
  • The EV conversion system start-up is coming along well! Continues to take a lot of my time off of things like 818 work, but we’re nearing the end of development of our V1 system and it’s shipping out to customers now. Our product is a fully integrated EV drivetrain that includes everything except for vehicle-specific mounting solutions. Our development and show vehicle is a 1982 DeLorean DMC-12 we have converted with the full suite of products such as air conditioning, power steering, fast charging, etc in addition to our standard battery modules, controllers, and display products.

The Ampere EV Delorean "Ampere One"

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July 2022 Update: Transmission Fixed and Autocross Testing

July 2022 Update: Transmission Fixed and Autocross Testing http://www.818coupe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220618_195625.mp4http://www.818coupe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220618_202336.mp4 Transmission...

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Feb 2022 Update!: Transmission Failure

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Resuming Work and Interior Finishing

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New Year, New Job, New Website!

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The post July 2022 Update: Transmission Fixed and Autocross Testing appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

Category: bodywork

The post Resuming Work and Interior Finishing appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• General: The car is officially my “daily” for the time being. I did the 75 mile drive back to Atlanta with it and it is my only car here on campus at Georgia Tech. Certainly not the most practical of vehicles, but it has been good to spend some time with it in the driver’s seat both to enjoy it and also identify things I need to fix. Planning to put more miles on it driving around this weekend so we will see how everything goes- might even have to encounter a little rain.
• Issues:
• The only things broken so far is I had to remove all my black mesh trim I put on because it was coming loose. I think rivets plus the silicone is a requirement. 
• Need to fix drivers side rear wheel liner rubbing.
• Slight rubbing at full lock for the driver’s side front wheel.
• Have an annoying squeaking sound coming from the firewall or belts.
• People think it’s a Ferrari because it’s red
• Air Conditioning
• I have charged the A/C system and everything is working! Very glad because I was not ever able to test my compressor or the fan circuit until the A/C was charged so I kinda just had to hope that it would work. Blows nice and cold now :).
• Radio
• Since I’ve been driving the car more I have started messing with the Android radio features more. Overall I really like it but I am working on a better solution for digital gauges. My major hurdle is my Japanese ECU does not support OBDII so I can’t use most diagnostic readers on the car. Right now I use an app called BTSSM that works with OBDlink bluetooth devices and my Tactrix usb cable. I don’t like having the cable dangling in the open and I also don’t like that it stays powered on if I leave it plugged into the OBD port. I am looking into trying an SSM to CAN converter that a forum member used an Arduino to do. He’s basically done all the work and I could use realdash (which is very pretty!) to show my digital guages. I’d still have to use tactrix and BTSSM to check engine codes and such but that’s not a big deal.

The post September 2020 Update: Daily Driver! appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• I spent HOURS sanding the body seams on the side of the car. And…it still looks meh. You can tell where I had to add gel coat paste to repair the thin areas or big voids. It’s better than it was though for sure and once polished it looks fine. It’ll certainly look just fine from a few feet/in photos. I haven’t finished the passenger side yet because I got tired of sanding but will return to it and also fix the seams on the front fenders. Bodywork is indeed as bad as other builders say it is.
• I had to re-fit the front fenders at the a-pillar since I’ve moved my top. Required a good bit of extra trimming
• Shimmed the rear fender area to make it fit better.
• Doors still need some fitment help in a couple areas. I think I’m going to switch to countersunk screws for the whole door area because of clearance issues. My passenger door also has a habit of locking people in when you use the inside handle. The inside handle doesn’t release all the way sometimes which causes the door to get stuck closed.

• Starting to work on the interior now as something to allow me to go back and forth on the bodywork sanding. Used some time the last couple days to work on electrical items as well as plan out some of the upcoming work for the center console.
• Installed my keyless entry controller (Amazon chinesium part for $20). Works great! The instructions were next to useless but thankfully I’m good enough with a multimeter to figure it out. For $20 this is worthwhile for any 818C/S build since they’ve already got the actuators.
• Installed 3/4 of my vintage air vents. Waiting on the placement of the last one because it will depend on if a radio screen goes in the dash or the A/C controls do. I don’t really understand how these are supposed to be held in place securely…may need to give Vintage Air a call.
• Installed my backup camera. Haven’t run the RCA wire for it yet because that’s going to be a pain.
• Trying to decide whether to mount the radio in the dash or in front of the shifter. Dash has better visibility but might interfere with A/C ducting. Shifter area is harder to see and reach but a little easier to fit. If you’re a builder and have already tackled this issue let me know what you did.

• My ABS system continues to have issues that confuse me. It sets a code as soon as I drive forwards at any speed. Code is for motor/relay failure. It’s also blown a fuse in the past, but it’s not blown right now. I honestly can’t remember if the ABS system worked with the current pump in the past. I know my last pump, that had some messed up threads, worked with the same wiring setup. I may try to re-read my older updates to see if I ever had ABS working with the new pump because if not my issue is likely that the pump is bad. 
• The only other diagnosis I have is that there is a capacitor wired into my iWire ABS harness and it seems to be open-circuit so possibly bad as well? Not sure if it is the cause of the issue, or like the blown fuse, is a result of a pump issue.

The post July 2020 Update: It’s Road Legal! appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• Registration
• I made a trip home this last weekend thanks to Spirit’s $75 round trip tickets. I was able to get the VIN plate on the car and have it inspected by a police officer. What I think should be the final piece of paper for getting the title is now in the mail. I expect that I should be recieving the title via mail sometime in the next few weeks :).  Then I just register it and get a plate like a normal car! Excited to be able to drive it around soon.
• Finally got insurance figured out. American Modern is issuing the policy and surprisingly the rates came out pretty decent considering my age. My insurance agent almost wanted to quit though because of how much work he has had to put into this policy vs the commission he’ll get from issuing it! It’s certainly not a straightforward process with these cars. I had to provide receipts for everything, a list of all parts on the car, proof of my primary vehicle insurance policy, proof of my 818’s value, proof of my 818’s certificate of origin from FFR, and more.
• Bodywork
• In the time I had at home, I continued the work on the body. Sanded the front fenders a little more, and am still contemplating on how much more I care about them. I began sanding the driver’s side mold seam that runs down the car. Fixed a few other odds and ends that I had left as well.
• Build Website
• Continuing to put a lot of work into improving my website. If you’re curious, I’ve built a new section at www.818coupe.com/the-build that is meant to be a summary of the build and is broken down by category. Thus far, I have added just about all the images and formatted the pages. Even added a comments feature to those pages. I still have a lot to do to add all the text and explanations for everything but I like how it’s turning out so far. I haven’t seen any 818 documentation like this previously.
• Let me know if you’ve got any ideas for website improvements/features/info that you think will make it better!
• Summer plans
• The next time I’ll be working on the car is the week leading up to July 4th. I had been hoping that the car would be basically finished after that but based on how much time all this bodywork is taking me, I’m not so sure. I could leave the body in a so-so condition, but that would require me doing a lot of disassembly in the future to fix it. It may be easier to not rush things and try to do it well the first time. The car also needs all the interior work done. I’m looking forward to working on that part. Have some cool ideas in mind with the Android head unit, radio, cameras, and even a pop-out cupholder stolen from a BMW. This car should have a surprising amount of features when it’s all said and done. So we’ll see how that week goes, I’ve yet to decide if I want to attempt to bring it to Michigan or not for a month.

The post June 2020 Update: Final stage of registration, build website, bodywork appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

The post May 2020 Update #2: Continuing the bodywork appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• The car isn’t quite as far along as I had hoped it would be at this point considering how much time I’ve had to work on it. Particularly the paperwork part, so it will not be coming with me to Michigan for at least a little while until all that gets processed. It’s also looking like the interior might not get done by the end of this week either, although I plan to try if I am able to. I’ve got no other plans this next week other than working on the car so I should at least be able to get through the bodywork. All the little tasks add up to a lot of time though so we’ll see what I’m able to knock out. I might try to work some kind of plan to get the car up to me later in the Summer.

• I have begun, and nearly finished what I hope is the last of the work on the doors for quite a while.
•  I installed the power windows and while the hardware installation itself wasn’t too bad, I really struggled to get the window alignment right. It’s still not perfect and there’s some inconsistency between the two sides as far as alignment and stuff but they both work fairly well right now and seal fairly well. After several days of messing with it that became good enough for me. The biggest frustrations were cutting the window cutouts in the doors and then getting the window to seal while not hitting things going up and down.
• I wired in the power locks thanks to some connectors sent by another 818 builder. I used the oem Subaru door wire rubber grommet thing for my 818 as well to route the door lock and window wires through. It helps it keep a more oem look and be well sealed so it’s a good (and free since I had the parts) solution.
• I made an addition to my door panels, I had already planned to waterjet some aluminum inset piece with a design, but since I lost my waterjet access due to covid plan B was to just make a decent piece out of aluminum that will suffice for now. It helped fix my driver door handle mis-cut as well so I went ahead and made the stand in piece. FFR sends one of these with the kit, but its for the 818S which uses the Subaru door handle so it’s useless for the C. Why they couldn’t modify it slightly to work for the 818C I don’t know…

• I’ve begun the body work with the doors and door sills. Right now I’ve filled some holes and voids in the sills and started sanding the doors. The good thing is the bodywork definitely isn’t terribly difficult. It’s time consuming, but if I follow all the steps I’ve been getting pretty good results thus far and it’s the first time I’ve done much of this. I’ve finished part of the passenger side sill and polished it out and it looks really good! I think the body part lines shouldn’t be too hard to tackle after this. Next up will be doing the front fenders and part of that will be adding rubberized undercoating and foam mat to the underside to protect from rocks and reduce sound.

The post May 2020 Update: Door windows and bodywork appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• Wheel Well Aluminum
• I installed both the front and rear wheel well aluminum panels. The rear ones were fairly straight forward. The front was like a puzzle! I had to ask the Facebook group for help. The instructions don’t clearly show where they all go (although there is a diagram further back in the manual) and the content hasn’t been updated with the new panels for the revised front nose. That aside, I also had to modify some of the front panels because I did not fully understand how I should’ve routed everything earlier in the build to make these panels fit where they should. Some things I had to trim around because they were not easy to move and I moved a couple items that were easy. A couple panels still have to be installed, but I’m waiting until the doors and fenders are attached for the final time.
• All these panels were coated in rubberized undercoating. I’m hoping this reduces some of the rock “pinging” when driving.
• Rear hatch
• Much like the rest of the coupe components, this was quite a chore to complete and the instructions/provided parts could use improvement. But I think it looks pretty good now that it’s done! I had to remove/reinstall/trim about 10 or so times to get it to fit when opening the hatch. Having all the glass in definitely makes this process more difficult but not impossible. Thanks to some forum instructions, I was also able to install the gas struts without much issue and now everything is working great. 
• Fitment could be better, partly my own fault and partly not. I trimmed the edges of the fiberglass to match the glass so that once I have it vinyl wrapped or painted you can’t see red gelcoat. This made the panel gaps a bit larger but not horrible. The gap at the top is very large so it doesn’t hit when opening and the door also doesn’t really sit down enough at the top to seal. I may have to improve this seal better down the road to reduce wind noise.
• Misc 
• Next step is to work on the door windows and finishing the body fitment.
• After just fiddling with the rear moving closure, I procrastinated restarting the doors by cleaning up shop a bit and reorganizing. A couple interesting things: I believe I am officially done using any of my donor parts! I am also down to exactly one box of FFR parts left to install which is quite a change from the massive pile of boxes I used to have just a year ago. The finish is in sight, but I’ve got my work cut out to finish the body and do the interior in the next 2.5 weeks.
• Registration update
• I’m still waiting on the second of my appraisals, but that should be in soon I’m told and then I will get everything submitted to the state to get my title. I don’t know how long it will take them to process it right now. Could be better than usual, could be worse. I’m still hoping I can get it up to Michigan but it’s definitely going to be complicated working out how to make sure the car is sorted enough to make the journey.

The post April 2020 Update: Wheel well aluminum, rear hatch appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• Inspection 
• I brought the car in for its Georgia state safety inspection. It passed! Really the only thing checked was the lights. Thank god my last-minute reverse light/blinker fix was successful. My horn didn’t work because my donor steering wheel apparently had some issues with the clockspring wiring. Not sure why exactly it had been messed with but something I’ll have to fix. For the inspection I manually shorted the horn wire to activate it and that was good enough. Didn’t even have to start the car or test the brakes haha.  But it made it and I got the paperwork I needed so that’s really all I was looking for
• Bodywork Update
• I installed the inner door skins and inner door latches.  They need some more tweaking and I need to make aluminum trim for the door handles because I mis-cut one slightly.
• My headlight fix was successful! They are held in there pretty well with the new epoxy.
• Rear firewall installed. The glass was hard to get in but that was expected. I’m not sure if FFR has something to seal the sides better but hopefully there is because it’s not really a complete seal to the bodywork.
• I will continue working on the body now that the inspection is over. Lots of hours left of trimming, sanding, repairing, and finishing.
• Windshield Wipers
• I give this its own section because I was VERY impressed with the replacement wiper kit sent from FFR which is actually the Forma Car’s kit they have sold for a couple years. This is a mono wiper kit that does not require hood trimming. The instructions were easy to follow, the mechanisms were solidly designed, and the install went smoothly. Very unlike some of the FFR finish components…like the door latches. Certainly a worthwhile wiper solution.

The post March 2020 Update #4: State Inspection Passed!!! appeared first on Lawson's 818C.

• Body
• I brought the car to get the glass installed. Everything but the doors have glass now!
• Installed the hood pins for the hood and the rear portion of the top.
• Doors
• I have assembled and installed the door frames, latches and doors skins. Quite a time consuming task with a TON of fiddling with fitment. They still don’t fit perfectly and this was after a lot of trimming and adjusting. Two problems on both sides were that the door latch bases hit the door skin and the front upper portion of the door hits the A-pillar. I’ve gotten them like 90% fitted now and I think they’re just some minor sanding and grinding away from being good. They do both close and latch though and that’s the key part for the inspection.
• I wished I had better understood the forum advice I read earlier. I mis-drilled the door latches on my first attempt as they could not bolt through the FFR door latch mount. Definitely install the mount first then drill because the mount does not have a whole ton of adjustment. It actually looks like the FFR manual mounting point would be impossible since it was too far outboard? Just something that added to the confusion.
• Tried my hand at my first fiberglass repairs. Had to fill some mis-drilled holes using the FFR gel coat paste and gel coat. They came out fairly good so I’m going to leave them until I do the final body work in a 1-2 weeks.
• Headlights
• My headlight epoxy didn’t hold and I nearly lost a headlight…but I used a different epoxy and now they appear attached quite well. I gave them a solid pull/shake and they did not come loose so hopefully this holds.
• Inspection
• I scheduled my state inspection for Friday March 27th. There’s not an officially published list but it appears they check lights, door latches, seatbelts, brakes, suspension, wiring, seats, and basic safety items.

The post March 2020 Update #3: Spring Break Progress appeared first on Lawson's 818C.