My Rex rebuild

[boosted]

D I Y its the most satisfying way and you can set your own standards! And a darn good excuse to buy tools!  Cant see whats wrong with that ecu install...doubles up as a nice passenger foot rest! Lol.
Keep at it fella! And whilst the specialists have been dicking about your car has gone up in value!

[mikey-t]

got a bit depressed today looking at all the bodge jobs done on my car so went out shopping for tools and stuff, new heat gun, stand off nuts for my rivnut gun, hylomar for the inevitable leaks, nut lock etc etc also brought more small part organisers etc

whilst i was thinking bodge work i decided to bite the bullet and join the club, i purchased my first ever tool of the bodge gods i purchased a angle grinder so yeah will have some fun with that soon.

mail man came with more of the random bits i keep buying think ooooohhh i might need them, but also got my new starter motor,,,whooop



decided to get it straight on, the bolt on the one side is now too long but i will sort that when i can. also probably wont make a difference but it looks cool gave it a bit of heat reflect



and here is todays fresh hell.

have no idea whats been chopped, spliced, cut, terminated but slowly trying to work my way through it

i have talked myself out of the racepak smartwire as it would be overkill but would at least like to tidy the power and fuse circuitry to avoid any warm warm marshmallow toastings on the m42

[Grant Monkhouse]

Such a lot of work going on! Car will last forever when you get it done

[re japi]

I agree! Great job

[mikey-t]

so thanks to a proper FD:UKer i now have a big box of wiring harnesses to play with / track / document / cut up.





hopefully i can figure out what is going on with these without having to rip my car to bits and break stuff. once i have come up with the perfect layout / configuration etc i will re manufacture a loom out of proper stuff and install it fresh.




even with the guides i am struggling with some components, wish they had just gone off wire colour on a single wiring diagram i could trace instead of 115 seperate pages of FSM.




got most of the way on the first loom tonight, it has already been partially stripped, lots missing but this just helps me identify easier and then i can compare it to the next one that also has stuff missing but between them and some double checking locations on the car i should be able to get it together




this all made me feel very dirty and il be honest a little bit queazy but fortunately the dude from amazon turned up with 6 new divider boxes for me to play with




and theyre (censored)ing stackable!!!!!! they lock together and stack,,,,, this made me a lot happier than it should have done

[boosted]

That looks like alot fun...insulation tape is a pain this time of year though....warm it up in airing cupboard.

[mikey-t]

That looks like alot fun...insulation tape is a pain this time of year though....warm it up in airing cupboard.

i use a special tool on stuff like that mate its like a circular blade fits round the wire, just pull and it strips everything off it, no good on junctions etc but even then i tend to just stanley blade it all off.

[mikey-t]

fairly shitty day today no enthusiasm so yep you guessed it went shopping, got metres of rubber mat to lay under anything mounting to body to insulate from vibrations,  and can cut it up as makeshift rubber washers and weatherproofing

also got sick of looking at those puny grounds the guys installed so decided to make some bastard spec ground wires.

not a great crimp as the dies are every size except what they say they are but there crimped, braided purple with raychem heatshrink with adhesive to protect the copper.
oh and as i said bastard gauge



original and new comparisons




while i was out i picked up some pin removal tools and some wire samples to do some tests, 1mm thinwall




from all my (censored)ing about with the front horseshoe harness and stuff i think i have come up with a plan, its not the full rewire / tuck / tidy i wanted but i think on a time / effort / cost scale it is a bloody good compromise and should make a difference

i have looked and it seems that most of the horseshoe loom is required where it is situated, (fog lights, headlights, abs etc) it would be silly to move these to the rear to run a return all the way back down.

same with the main relay box, you really need that to be as close as possible to items such as alternator and starter which leaves the fuse/relay box.

with that i stripped it down and traced the comings and goings and noticed that lots go in and there are very few ground take offs or retruns, and its the same with the front pointless relay box lots going in and then terminating with only about 3 wires continuing to passenger side ecu plugs.

so in theory i could wire direct from source all connections that terminate in the fuse box or relay box and run a longer circuit up to the boot / rear bins.

it works in theory but as we all know theory can (censored) up.

i will have a electrical guru look over my plans at some point see if they are feasible and try pass the work over to them because i cant be fooked

[mikey-t]

right not done much due to loads of time off but shitty weather stopping me,
in the breaks i did manage to prep some cable / hose tidies and tanks etc i will be installing.

maybe overdoing the purple,,,,,,nahhhhh










started routing the cable properly, not rubbing against sheet metal bare








started fabricating a battery / electronics containment box, this will be mounted direct to the body with rubber vibration control sheets, going to mount the battery and the water meth and breaker circuits etc next to each other 3-4 seperate boxes that i will enclose in one big fascia to pretty it up



oh and a box of new toys for free courtesy of a relatives company going bump

[clive]

Blimey, there's a lot of tools 

Keep us posted and hopefully these will get you to where you want to be with the car,

Good luck out there and keep us posted    

[mikey-t]

Blimey, there's a lot of tools 

Keep us posted and hopefully these will get you to where you want to be with the car,

Good luck out there and keep us posted

we have 5x that amount, i just had one of each type, heat shrink guns and stuff like that dont interest me, its amazing what any facility can aquire tools and junk wise,
yes hopefully these tools will help in the rebuild, i know there is a £400 rivet gun in there that will be usefull very soon

[mikey-t]

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY

i have finally got another unit.
yes it is silly silly expensive and may be a bit "farmery" but i have got hold of a empty relatively dry work space once more.

its about 10m by about 5m so plenty of space for me on my tod but am hoping some local mates will share the space and the costs.

in other news, i fitted my wheels for the first time since i purchased them and it has become abundantly clear that my suspension needs to get fitted ASAP. my car looks like a roller skate or one of those ridiculous yank donk things




so exploding spoilers aside we are making progress.

i connected the battery up for the first time in weeks and since fitting my new starter and to my suprise she started up first time,..

[mikey-t]

bit of a clear up and we will be golden, dry it out reseal the one loose wall /roof partition and a good ssweep il be happy,

9m x 5 m in total full electric,steel doors and a farmer who dont care what you do or what time!!!



jealous of my mate with his double unit though, got his drift car in there, his brothers road car and his dads road supra

proper man cave material ,

[boosted]

Nice room for a ramp! I wanna stick 1 in my double garage but ceiling too low.

[mikey-t]

i was thinking that, they are silly cheap when you look and you can even get moveable 4 post ramps that can park a car on and under, just a shame that it isnt really feasible to keep this unit long term, but if that lottery win comes!!!!