GLH Project Updates
Most of the older entries are going to be hazy, as I'm just starting this page months after purchasing the car.
September 9th, 2006
New Pics & Updates as of 9-6-06: BOV,
Wiring, Motor,
Exterior
Finally got the car running over the past few weeks! Got the new clutch in,
works great! The car was running stupid rich though. I ordered and put in my new
Accufab Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator, and turned down the fuel. So I took
it for a ride, but it wouldn't boost over 5psi. Found out the BOV was
leaking like crazy, so I put on a different BOV (from a 1G DSM). That didn't
solve it either. Narrowed it down to the boost control solenoid because when I
put in the MBC, she ripped just fine!! Got to go for a ride in the car at 16psi
and it was a blast!!! That is, until... the front brake locked up. Damnit. So
that is the next project. Owell, I'll finally put those nice new SLH
Calipers, brackets, and SS lines to use I guess instead of taking up room in the
basement
August 10th, 2006
Well, got under the car yet again tonight, 4th night in a row. No good news to
report. Decided to remove the trans and start fresh, but noticed that the
clutch disc was messed up. The inner section that recieves the input shaft
is goofy. It's a 2 piece design, and have of it is plastic!! WTF!!!
Also, it's busted. One side is loose. Didn't notice it before, but must
have been like that. Owell, what's ANOTHER WEEK for this project.
Whoopty Dooo! Anyways, got another one coming from FWDPerf, probably next
week. More then.
August 7th, 2006
Ok, so I get the clutch, and read up on installing it before I've never done a
Turbo Dodge clutch before. Done some on FWD & AWD DSMs, so I'm more than
familiar with clutch replacement. Long story short, I read in 3 different places
it's a self centering clutch. So after the pain in the ass that it is to remove
the freaking transmission on this car, I put in the
new clutch about a week later
and let it sit for a bit due to other activities, such as
Rally 'Round The Lake 2006.
Finally, after the Rally we start muscling the trans back into place. NO SUCH
LUCK!! Cannot get it lined up at all. After two + hours of wrestling with it, I
gave up for the night. Finally now another week later I finally get time to take
the trans back out and use a clutch tool, looks much better now. So much for
that self centering clutch bulshit! Tomorrow night we'll see how it went
this time... Can't wait to drive it again!
Week of July 16th, 2006
Friday, July 14th: Well, after waiting almost another month (see post below...)
still missing the down pipe. Decided to go ahead without the down pipe for
the time being and get the car running. So that's what happened. Put in
the cam, scrapers, oil pan baffle, intake and intercooler pipes, filter, etc...
some new pipes were needed for better placement and alignment. Custom radiator
supports on the bottom as well to move the radiator over 3" or so. Long story
short... we fired it up and it ran!!! It clicked like crazy though, so I
removed the oil pan, and took out the crankshaft scrapers and tried it again.
Problem solved. I'll leave them out for now until the car is running properly
for sure.
So we let it idle for a bit, and it smoothes out nicely! I go to put it in gear and take it home from my friends shop, and GGRRIIIINNNNDDDD!!!! It won't go into gear!! DAMNIT!! The clutch will not disengage! We tried everything to break it loose but all to no avail. So I drive it home in first gear Saturday evening and start tearing out the transmission in my own garage in the 95+ degree weather. After 3hrs or so, the trans is on the ground and the clutch pressure plate is off. Yep, clutch disc is rusted to the flywheel. So I pop that off, and clean things up. I decided to order a Hybrid T2/T3 clutch from FWDPerformance, at which time I'm informed that my down pipe will be shipped at the same time. Cool. Anyways, I'll post again when it's actually driving.
In the meanwhile, I've been installing my new gauges. Well, starting to at least. They are going great so far. Will get some pics up soon.
June 21st, 2006
This past week a LOT has happened. Almost all of my parts finally came from FWD.
I got a lot of stuff cleaned, sandblasted, and repainted under the hood!
Everything has turned out excellent so far. Nothing spectacular, just trying to
keep it all clean looking! Underhood,
Rims, Lights.
Also, the car is currently over at a friends garage (VPT
Vollert Performance Tuning) to get some new intercooler pipes welded up and
the exhaust will be put on as well. While it's there, we're also going ahead and
installing the oil pan baffle, crankshaft scrapers, and a GLHS Shelby camshaft
as well!
June 6th, 2006
Well, I've actually done a LOT of work since I updated this last, but I finally
got down to the computer to tell about it. To make a long story short, I've
finished up 99% of the under hood wiring. I've got the new battery tray all
welded up, and my power distribution block all in place and wired up. All that
remains for wiring under the hood is to install the battery and run a 4ga Power
& Ground wire from the battery to the new distro block, then pull some wires
from the engine bay into the interior. Otherwise, she's all cleaned up
wiring-wise. Check out the new Electrical Wiring Page
HERE
May 21, 2006
Did a good amount of work this past week. Got a lot more of the wiring cleaned
up, some more soldering done, even made a sheild for the distribution blocks
last week. Out of ABS plastic to cover all the wires and such. turned out
very nicely! Today I got a LOT of degreasing done under the hood too.
There was a greasy sludgy buildup, at least 1/4" thick over the entire front of
the motor and all on the sides as well. I did the best job I could with my heavy
duty degreaser, brushes, and rags! It turned out good.
PICS HERE... Not 100%, but I'll wait til the motor
needs to come out sometime (hopefully NOT soon) and I'll steam it or pressure
wash it. Otherwise, it was a decent week for work. Even got to enjoy the
Wisconsin Dells Car Show this weekend with some friends! The police actually
closed down the main drag due to the amount of people and cars (doing burnouts)
and then the riots started!(well, almost riots anyways) It was a pretty cool
scene to see! Beer cans being thrown at the cop cars, people in folding chairs
sitting in the middle of the road blocking the cop cars, people not letting the
cop cars even move to go after someone doing a big burnout! it was a cool night,
that's for sure!
May 10, 2006 THE DAY OF
GLORY!!!
Well, tonight was the night. It got painted!!!!
HERE <<<< You need to check this out for
the details!!!
May 9, 2006
Tonight I made it out to Shane's, sore neck and all. Hey, the car needed to be
taped off and any finishing touches with the wet sanding. It was an early night
for me, and some good drugs got me to sleep nice and early!
May 8, 2006
Tonight Sara and I were on our way to Rapids to tape up the car for it's final
painting, but just as we were at the last stop light on our way out of town, we
got rear-ended by a drunk driver! Yep, a lady in a Saturn rear ended us at
7pm on her way home from drinking! She begged us not to call the cops, but
seeing that Sara was instantly feeling pain in her neck/shoulders, and couldn't
move her neck very good almost right away, we definitely called the popo.
After 30mins or so, we were off the the hospital. We both got checked out.
Both have whiplash, but nothing too serious. Mine was minor, sore neck, etc..
Sara's was worse though. She had a large swelling on her shoulder from muscle
spasms. We were both given some heavy duty prescribed drugs for the pain, and
sent home. No working on car tonight!!
May 6 & 7, 2006
(Saturday & Sunday)
This weekend Sara and I went to Shane's house to get some work done on the Omni.
What got done was a LOT! I got the side marker lights finished up, the 3rd brake
light is now gone as well, the car got reprimered for the final time, and the
door jams painted as well! It's all ready for the final coat now!! Check it all
out HERE!
May 1, 2006
Well, I got to Shanes house today, and found he had primed the car with a first
thin coat over the weekend. As much as I wanted to prime it myself, I'm glad
we're at least making progress! I decided today to shave the rear side markers,
so that was tonight project. go HERE for more
details on that.
April 25th, 2006
Well, it's been a while since I updated this. I was there on Sunday the
23rd as well, finished off ALL the sanding finally. The one small dent has
been patched up nicely, Tonight, I got it all taped up and ready for primer.
I'll be busy tomorrow night, but Shane is going to prime it for me. then, next
week I'll get it blocked down, and will be painting next weekend for sure. About
damned time. Pics
HERE
I also got all my spare rims/tires dismounted and ready to be sandblasted and painted for the track day tires, and drag radials. 6 rims to blast and paint now. yippee!
April 12th, 2006
Went over to work on the car tonight, and he had gotten a long way already!
All I needed to do was remove the door handles and mirrors, and get rid of the
adhesive from the rub strip. New pics posted: Details
HERE
April 11th, 2006
Today I talked to Shane and he said he had all the holes welded shut, and the
body work done and car smoothed out on the entire drivers side, and would have
the passenger side done before tomorrow as well. I plan to go there after work
tomorrow and pull a few last pieces off the car, finish a little DA sanding, and
get it ready for sealer/primer later this week.
April 9th, 2006
(Sunday)
Today I spent a good 5+ hours at my friend Shane's house sanding the car down,
and getting it ready for paint.
April 4th, 2006
Car got picked up and trailered to a friends house about 30 miles away so we can
start on the body and paintwork this weekend. He's going to weld up the small
holes from the trim piece on all the doors, we're cleaning that up. I don't want
the trim pieces on there anymore, so that is getting smoothed out and then on
Sunday I'm heading over there and we're going to get it sanded down and fix any
small dents etc.. Hopefully she'll be painted and back here in 2 weekends!
April 3rd, 2006
Spend a couple hours in the garage cleaning up the wires again and getting it
ready to be picked up for paint tomorrow. The wires were an absolute mess,
and I've got a good 5+ hours left on cleaning up the wires and engine bay in
general. I ordered a nice 4 place distribution block, and plan to move the
battery to the passenger side, and use the distribution block in the stock
battery location. hopefully all goes well, that will really clean it up a lot.
but so far, I've got just as big of a mess as I started with... well, not quite.
but there's a LOT of work to be done yet.
March 2006
Started to clean out the engine bay and redo some of the wiring. Was
supposed to have car picked up to get the body/paint work done at a friends
house. The front/rear bumper is off, repainted, and waiting for the car to be
painted. Front end is all off, intercooler pipes and intercooler are out. Pipes
were sandblasted and repainted semi-gloss black. Nothing fancy. Got my 14
inch rims delivered for my track day tires.
February 2006
Ordered up some goodies for the car including FWD Stage 5 ECU, 3 bar map sensor,
2.5" JRB style mandrel bent cat-back pipes, +40 injectors.
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
Started to snow late this month, parked it in the garage for the winter. Took
most of the interior panels out first so I could work on repainting them.
October 11th, 2005
Took the car to it's first lapping day, at Shawano Kart Track. Had an absolute
blast!
October 2005
Installed Energy Suspension Polyurethane front sway bar bushings. Also installed
a new driver side axle and passenger side boot at the same time. New front brake
pads as well.
September 2005
Cleaned up interior quite a bit, and under the hood a little as well. Minor tune
up, cleaned air filter, new plugs, etc.
August 2005
Purchased the car in Jacksonville FL, made the long, hot, boring drive home
without any problems.