The list of things still yet to be completed since the last post where,
Install air shroud around the intercooler radiator to get better air flow
Secure front grill and bumper
Electric safety switch pull wire
Fit Mud flaps
Fit new door trims including electric window and door closing
Install a Navigator light
Wire the Brantz navigator foot reset and speedo connection
Wire and install the steering wheel electrics including horn
Mount fire extinguisher, Safety Triangle, SOS sign, Jack and Tools
Install pedals and footrest for the driver
Install some protection on the drivers side floor
Adjust seats and belts
Seal all holes inside the car from dust
Install racing rear-view mirror
Install extra roll cage padding
While the list looks straight forward, each of the items took me some time to do.
Install air shroud around the intercooler radiator. The reason this was done, is when the car was being tuned, the inlet air temperature was getting up around 40degC even with a large industrial fan blowing on the intercooler. We think that the air is going around the intercooler and not though it. So I made up a shroud that is connected to the front bumper that fits neatly onto the intercooler. If this is still an issue later modifications to the bumper may need to be done as it covers 1/2 of the intercooler.
Secure front grill and bumper, as with most things in these modern cars, plastic clips seems to be used everywhere to secure items, as for the grill it was held in with 6 plastic clips where 1/2 where either broken or near broken, these where replaced with cable ties. The bumper required new bolts as the old bolts had rusted so badly they broke when the bumper was removed.
Electric safety switch pull wire was installed and tested, but when the wire was bent it would not pull at all, so it was taken apart and cleaned, some graphite used to make the wire move smoothly and then installed.
Fit Mud flaps, this took some time to install, the factory ones are molded to fit the contours of the wheel arch, but with these being flat sheets some massaging needed to happen. After a few different versions of cardboard mud flaps the final design was transferred to the rubber, drilling holes and nutserts inserted and they where installed.
Fit new door trims including electric window and door closing, this was an interesting job, I was not to sure how to do this, many sleepless nights wondering what to make them from, how to seal the window, make the electric windows work and how to close the doors with the roll-cage across the doors.
The CAMS manual has the following;
11.3 Doors and Door Trim:
(a) It is permitted to remove the soundproofing material from the doors, provided that this does not modify the shape of the doors. In the case of a two-door car, the trim situated beneath the rear side windows may also be removed but must be replaced with panels made from composite material, save for utes in which case such trim is not required to be replaced.
(b) It is permitted to remove the trim from the door together with the side protection bar in order to install a side protection panel which is made from composite materials.
(c) If the side protection bars in the doors are not removed, the door panels may be made from metal sheeting at least 0.5mm thick, from carbon fibre at least 1mm thick or from another solid and non-combustible material at least 2mm thick. The minimum height of this panel must extend from the base of the door to the maximum height of the door strut. It is permitted to replace electric winders with manual ones.
I had only removed the door trims and not the side protection bars, so 0.75mm Aluminium sheet should be fine to use. I made up some cardboard templates for each door, cut out the electric window switches and the window seals also from the original door trims, fitted it to the made-up door trims and went from there.
Once I had the templates complete I then transferred everything to the aluminium sheets, bent them up using some angle I had laying around, cut holes and fitted the window switches then riveted the window seals to finish them off. Next was fixing the trims to the doors and this was done using 5mm nutserts and screws, the nutserts fitted neatly into the existing holes used by the original trim with a couple of new holes drilled to hold the sheet flat. The electrics where then connected and everything worked.
Install a Navigator light, this was done when the door trims above where being done. I'd seen a few different location to mount the navigator light including from the dash, mounted from the roll-cage on the A pillar, above the door, and behind the navigator and on the door. I decided to go with the door location, it was easier to it to a flat surface and seems to be a good location.
Wire the Brantz navigator foot reset and speedo connection, nothing to exciting here, found the speedo signal coming from the MoTeC and made a connection, a few runs up and down the drive showed it was working. The foot reset had two wires, one to an earth the other to the Brantz, the switch was then mounted to the foot rest using Velcro so it can be adjusted.
Wire and install the steering wheel electrics including horn, I'd made a steering wheel backing plate from the last post. Added a few buttons, one for the horn, the other at the moment is not connected, then mounted it to the steering wheel and connected up the horn.
Mount fire extinguisher, Safety Triangle, SOS sign, Jack and Tools, this job is still on going, I've mounted one fire extinguisher under the navigators seat, the other will go into the boot as well as the tool boxes. I had been looking at different ways to mount a tool box and the other items in the boot, and was struggling to work out what to do. Then on the weekend I went into an army disposal shop and stumbled upon bullet and detonator boxes, these things are lightweight and come in different sizes perfect for tools. The boxes are going to be bolted to the floor with one holding tools and the other the electric torque wrench.
Install pedals and footrest for the driver, I purchased a few small items from Rally Nuts in the UK including a set of pedals and a drivers foot rest. I found that installing the foot rest a bit of a challenge due to the limited room in the Subaru and also due to the size of the foot rest, it was massive, but I finally got it to fit. The pedals made the clutch and brake pedals a little wider and gave some traction to the pedals, to mount these it was a few holes into the existing pedals and that's it.
Install some protection on the drivers side floor, the floor area the drivers feet has a few welded plugs and double skin which has been welded and so would not be the best for feet that would be moving about a lot. So I found some floor rubber at Bunnings that did the job, just to cover the floor and give a smooth surface to work on.
Install racing rear-view mirror, something else I picked up from Rally Nuts in the UK. At the time I thought it would be a good idea to have a wider rear-view mirror, not that I'm going to be worried about anything behind me, but when driving the car on the open road it would be handy to be able to see better out of the car and with the seat and cage, its tight in there. The mirror comes with roll-cage mounts but using these the mirror was only inches from my face, so I made up some new mounting brackets and set it against the windscreen. The field of view in the mirror when seated is great, you can see from the B pillar to the B pillar in the car.
So that is what I have been doing these past few months, the list is getting smaller on what needs to be done, the main item to get done now is to get the car registered in Queensland so it can be used, but that is where the problems starts. It seems that since December 2012 the transport authority here in Queensland has no longer been issuing Limited Use Licenses, mainly due to some people doing the wrong thing and CAMS turning a blind eye to the situation. Here in Queensland if you have a roll-cage in a car, you can't run the car on a normal registration you need to run Limited Use License, everyone knows that, CAMS and the competitors and in the past they have turned a blind eye, to me its strange as insurance would not cover anyone if they knew what was going on. So until the stand off is resolved the car is stuck in the shed and doing the odd 20 meters up and down the drive to annoy the neighbours, I hope to get it on the road and do a few test runs and the odd motorkhana before the first round of the Queensland Rally Championship in April.
