Project Theseus

[Noll]

Ok, got a response from them; I'll stick it here in case it helps anyone else searching in the future.

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Based on the details you have provided, I would recommend taking a look at our 365041. Below are the requested specs:

Part Number	Extended Length	Compressed Length	Body Length	Body Size (Outside)
363046	21.38"	14.61"	14.13"	38.1mm
364014	21.14"	14.41"	12.95"	42.7mm
365041	20.04"	13.62"	13.5"	42.7mm

The 365041's are for the front of an AE86, definitely something I should have considered in my research before but good to know now regardless. The '85 MR2 rears (363046) will be a tad long (although might work if I shave the bottom "cup" down) but would be a solid option for someone who doesn't want to cut their housing as short as I did, and the 364014's (late 80's VW jetta) will work in my case with a spacer or for anyone who wants to cut even more out.

[Noll]

Haven't posted much progress for the last little bit; not because I've not being doing anything but rather that it's not been anything particularly interesting. Finished taking apart the rear CVs, removing rear springs, cleaning up the bushing seats on the rear LCAs, and going general cleanup. Back to more welding now though!

Made some front bumper mount plates:






Welded on, as well as the front upper frame horn section.






Mostly cleaned up:






Just a couple more small things to do and the driver's side of the engine bay will be all done.

[KeithZed]

Yes, there's lots of slugging on a project like this. The main thing is to keep to chugging along, even if it's slow at times.
The work is looking great. It will be wonderful when it's done!
Keith

[Noll]

Yes, there's lots of slugging on a project like this. The main thing is to keep to chugging along, even if it's slow at times.
The work is looking great. It will be wonderful when it's done!
Keith

Indeed, and many thanks! Here's hoping, ways to go yet but on the home stretch.

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Realized that before I go any further with finishing adding structure to the front end, I should fit the fenders and hood to make sure everything lines up. Small amounnt of tweaking was required, but it all sits nicely now.




Figured while I was at it I might as well throw the rest of the front end together.








Now that I've adjusted stuff a bit the rad support sits even better which is nice.




The ae86 inserts also just arrived, and the fit perfectly which is awesome. I'll need a ~2mm spacer at the bottom of the strut tube so I can properly snug up the gland nuts and then the front will be complete.

[Noll]

Lots of small stuff that needed doing in the engine-bay area today. Removed the wiper linkage at long last, and ground off a bunch of captive nuts with snapped-off-bolts in them from the fenders and welded in new ones (no pics, because that's boring), and then addressed the rust around the hood latch mount:






too pitted for my liking, so time for new metal.








And back on, using the spot welds as a reference point.





Finally got around to fixing that hole in the strut tower:






This part of the windshield frame was always slightly off, and I didn't want to have to build up masses of filler to make the seal fit properly when the time comes for reassembly.




And so, much shopping and welding later, we have this. Still imperfect, but a whole lot closer to how it should be. May do another round of tweaking, or might just call it good and either lead it or use some filler to finish (I have no experience in lead filler but I'm sure I can figure it out).





Compared to the other side:

[zedfoot]

Nice job on that corner of the windshield opening. A really common problem on these cars. I mentioned before, I've seen them so bad that the dash got sprayed on a re paint.

[Noll]

Nice job on that corner of the windshield opening. A really common problem on these cars. I mentioned before, I've seen them so bad that the dash got sprayed on a re paint.

Thanks! It's not perfect, but close enough that I can finish it up when I get to the bodywork stage of things. I'm aiming to avoid that haha, fit-and-finish should be better than factory with any luck.

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Continuing on with the "boring but needs to happen" stuff.

Welded up the spot-weld holes in the battery tray, and drilled some holes for bolting it in instead. Will need to do the same on the car side, as well as some captive nuts.




Then spent a couple hours vibrating my hands apart using an oscillating tool to remove the remnants of undercoating from this side:




and everything on the passenger side too. This sucked, but needed to happen so I can weld on this side of the engine bay without the welds being contaminated. Still a bunch of ugly welds etc to clean up as well here.

[Noll]

Yet more little stuff done, should be back on to the more meaty work soon though.

With the undercoating gone, I welded up a bunch of holes and spot-weld marks:






Not perfect, but good enough.




Got the battery tray sitting level and all the captive nuts welded on:




And bolted on. Pretty happy with how this went. There's enough play in the mounting holes I can probably put some thin rubber on the tray so it doesn't do paint damage when I'm putting everything back together for good. Will also make a future battery relocation super simple; I'll drill an extra hole for the cables before paint and then plug it for now.






Definitely will need some shorter hardware.

[Noll]

Got the heater matrix out today, happily no surprises behind it.




and a demonstration of why I'm planning to temporarily cut off the top of the cowl panel. This is probably the worst of it, but there's a few spots like this inside the cowl that I need to get at and clean/paint, and I have no access to do that as things are currently. It'll suck to do, but needs to happen so I can ensure that surface rust doesn't eventually become holes.

[Noll]

Figured I should finally get the rust on the d/s inner wing fixed, so made a couple cuts and a lot of holes:




Mmm, crusty.




Better.



Even Better.




Cut out even more to fix some pitting on the pillar than went all the way through.




Much better, and sealed + a drain hole to hopefully prevent this happening again.




And made a bunch of templates. 4 in total (not shown). Next up will be to transfer to metal and then a bunch more welding.
Oh, then I need to fix the inner wing itself before I weld it back on, because of course it's rusty.

[grannyknot]

"and a demonstration of why I'm planning to temporarily cut off the top of the cowl panel. This is probably the worst of it, but there's a few spots like this inside the cowl that I need to get at and clean/paint, and I have no access to do that as things are currently. It'll suck to do, but needs to happen so I can ensure that surface rust doesn't eventually become holes."

Working on that fresh air chimney is a real pain, no room to do anything. When I had my Z on the rotisserie I cut out the chimney from below, immersed it in Evaporust for a couple of days then welded it back in and sealed it from both sides.

[Noll]

Working on that fresh air chimney is a real pain, no room to do anything. When I had my Z on the rotisserie I cut out the chimney from below, immersed it in Evaporust for a couple of days then welded it back in and sealed it from both sides.

Yeah, it is an awkward space to say the least. That's a smart plan, may very well end up doing the same when I get the car on its side. going to see what I can accomplish just by cleaning in-situe first - if I can get at the inside from in the car and the outside from cutting the cowl off that makes life easier than having to weld it back in.

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Got all the patches welded in, ran out of time to clean up the welds properly and do some hammer/dolly work though. That'll be next time.

[Noll]

Finally got around to pulling the oil pan off the L28. Surprisingly, it doesn't actually look that bad; might just be a case of new bearings and a polish. Still undecided between the L26 and rebuilding this, thoughts?



After some degreaser the oil pan turned out to actually be basically brand new; needs a couple small dents tapped out but otherwise perfect. May swap this one onto the L26 if I end up going that route.


Hard to get a good pic, but cylinder walls look decent, just a small amount of surface rust. The cylinders that were down may be a different picture though, don't know till I get the head off.






I also revisited the front strut cutoffs with the stuck gland nuts. The rears are also very stuck, so I figured it'd be easier to try to remove them from the small tube sections first instead of the heavy and awkward complete assemblies. I'm cutting/welding the tubes anyway to shorten them, so it's not like it's any more work.


Broke out the MAP torch and heated the tubes for a good while, in the process burning out the penetrating oil from my previous attempt a while ago.




Rigged up this janky mess so I could get some good leverage on the nut without just spinning the tube in the vice. It worked a treat for both, although I was concerned I'd rip the vice out of the bench.



Success! The new nuts I have thread in smoothly which is great.

[Noll]

Got the rear strut tubes shortened and new spring perches welded on. All that's left now is to clean and paint it all properly, then assembly and the coilovers will be complete all round.

[Noll]

Decided to turn my attention to this rusty mess as it needs to be fixed before I can weld the panel back on.




Made in 2 parts, section 1 welded in. As you can see, the old section looked way worse on the inside.



All welded up.





Just need to make/weld on the bottom flange now, and it'll be good to go (after cleaning up welds of course)