78 2-Door Build Thread

[Gipson]

Looking good! any reason you went for 2 1/4 " over a 2" exhaust?
Dan

[dubmc]

pretty much finished the engine...i'm going to drop the engine from the car this weekend and begin to swap over a couple parts such as fuel pump etc and paint the block.

decided to go with the 8v head used on the formula V's which has the biggest factory valves and intake 40mm, it has been completely reco'd and is in pretty imac condition... after a lot of research and talking to people i came to the conclusion that doing a lot of work to an 8v head would quickly add into a very expensive exercise for minimal performance increase....at the moment i'm forecasting 140hp from this current set-up which i would be happy with for the money spent/resources available.

once in the car we will give it a compression test and see what comp figures we are getting.

more photos to come after this weekend - sorry about the iphone photos, ive become too lazy to use my camera.

cheers.

[mikinoz]

Come on bro, some updates would be pretty ace about now.

[dubmc]

Come on bro, some updates would be pretty ace about now.

ahah mate i've been so lazy with photos it's rediculous, but i'm essentially finished!

engine is in the car all wired up, just waiting on a couple odd bits a pieces to get it running...will get some photos uploaded tomorrow...sucks i will need to run it in for before testing it out :S

[dubmc]

got the car back on the road, i guess the reason i was lazy with photo's is because the engine looks identical...the only mod which is noticeable is the headers wrapped in heat wrap.

the engine is definately stronger and once we got the timing spot on, with 10 advance it was running great.

only problem at the moment is that it seems to be lacking power from about 5 grand on and after looking at the plugs it looks like it's running lean...we will have to up the jet size to accomodate this.

not sure if the mech fuel pump could be a source of the lack of top end but i will start with the jets for now, the old engine revved to 7k so this should go beyond easily, hopefully up to 8k.

will also look at getting electronic ignition in the near future with an MSD ignition booster.

it's also on running in oil so i'm not really pushing it too far up top either, for obvious reasons

[dubmc]

so quick update here...got the new engine in obviously as i was racing at wakefield during the nationals...car went great and has plently of power - took 3 seconds off a lap from last year, but this year tyres and crappy JOM coilovers were really the weakest link! actually shared the car with my cousin, so it was running back-to-back heats all day and didn't miss a beat...there will be a few extra engine mods coming so i'll try keep the updates comings..

in other news, i purchased a set of wheels, big step for me as wheels have never been my thing, but i though they were too much of a bargain to skip...they are the TSW 2-piece wheels dado was selling recently

specs are 14x7 + et 35 rear and 14x7 + et 22 front. it's quite close on the front so tyre choice will play a big part. overall the wheels are in awesome condition, however i'm going to powder coat the centres gloss black and polish the lips with new bolts...thoughts, open to all suggestions? anyway, pics below!

[Cookie28]

Looks good!! Also when you left Nats did you give it a bit of a kick down the street?? Because if that was you the car sounded fantastic!!

[Jace]

awesome wheels! keep em silver with black bolts!

[dubmc]

have started refurbing the wheels over the last week. centres have been sanded are now in primer and we managed to get two lips looking pretty damn good! took a lot of elbow grease, sanding and polishing but here are some progress pics from start to finish






only two more to go!

[Jarred]

all by hand? mamoth effort!

[HuH]

Nice work! Those wheels really were a bargain. Glad to see you bringing them back to life!

[GeorgeMK1]

What method are you using to polish them up dude?

[dubmc]

What method are you using to polish them up dude?

to get the wheel like this it pretty much took the better part of 3 hours. i had a mate working on the other one so we manged to do two last night.

we started with 600 -> 800 -> 1000 -> 1200 wet and dry, followed by hot soapy wash down and aluminum polish/buff.

the method is just a sh*t load of sanding ahah i cant really feel my fingers today, but it was well worth it imo.

can anybody recommend a good quality clear coat for the lips and centres?

thanks!

[killingwithasmile]

to get the wheel like this it pretty much took the better part of 3 hours. i had a mate working on the other one so we manged to do two last night.

we started with 600 -> 800 -> 1000 -> 1200 wet and dry, followed by hot soapy wash down and aluminum polish/buff.

the method is just a sh*t load of sanding ahah i cant really feel my fingers today, but it was well worth it imo.

can anybody recommend a good quality clear coat for the lips and centres?

thanks!

lolz its soooo painstaking hand polishing wheels, once i found out a shop will sandblast and machine polish for $60 a wheel I just couldn't justify the pain plus im a lazy SOB!!

good luck with it dude, these wheels are sweet

[Goon]

They're sick man. Well done.

Would like to know which clear coat would be best too!