My Rex rebuild

[mikey-t]

sooo straight back to the workshop for a bit more work today,
installed my lovely christmas present from the girlfriend, some concept 7 reflector blanks






i got sick of working on the car and watching the dust pile up on my lil baby. so a quick dust off was in order






then it was time to bite the bullet and try to figure out some of the remaining wiring,

i will be puttting up a seperate thread to try get some of the wiring gurus help but for anyone reading this these are my issues

firstly i need to re do all the ancillary earth straps, which will be fun





then i need to find a way of bypassing this whole mess, i know most people just tape it to the battery and use it but i want to delete it and maybe replace it with some aftermarket fuse box block. from what i can gather it mostly fuses stuff in the front horseshoe harness and fuel pump etc most of which will be deleted or hardwired in induvidually.





there is also the problems of my power loom simplification and battery relocate. i have drawn up a basic diagram of what i think i need but if anyone else can add to this please do i am bound to have missed something





then theres the ignition / charging control loom.

i will be using the haltech loom and ecu so most of this loom is redundant but there are a few things that i will still need that connect into the front horseshoe loom. i am not entirely sure what some of the connectors do but i did a quick drawing of what i think i need.

again if anyone can think of anything else that the haltech dont cover or i have missed please let me know.





now i am running a aftermarket fan i can get rid of the fan control loom and 4 relays on the drivers side of the bay., at least i think i can. whilst i am simplifying this loom is there anything else i can pull out..


thanks in advance everyone

[mikey-t]

so phoned up to get insurance back on the car today, pleasantly suprised.
went with adrian flux with ALL mods declared, european cover, breakdown. legal cover, protected NCB etc etc £580.

i would call that a result, anywaaay. for the god knows how many day in a row i turned up at the car with no mechanic and no clue what i am doing so just farted around doing piddly jobs that i can handle.

one thing i was getting sick of was seized/rusted or snapped screw / bolts so today i went through every thread in reach within the bay with a tap to try clean the threads out, each thread then got a squeeze of spray copper grease (this shit gets everywhere) and was reinstalled. little things like this i think make the difference on a car build.

would love to show you a smooth surface with all new bolts and anodised washers but DM dan is still on holiday and im not painting around exposed bits



i have also spent the last week trying to find some sheet metal but apparently no one works over christmas or new year,



one person who does work is my mate kevin at ALM electrics. he got me a few connectors that will be needed to update the haltech loom , and i took him all my power loom measurements etc etc. got me a new busbar aswell for the battery relocation






not sure if i trust this earth strap any more so thats getting replaced pronto aswell as every other earth in the car




another thing that was bugging me was 20+ year old trim clips and bumper/splitter hangers etc pinging off or going missing or having the resilience of a wet noodle so got a load of assorted trim clips, push clips screw clips etc etc ready for a blitz





put this one on the super special FDUK members facebook group and people identified it as a fuel pump step down resistor. i.e for the bin as i am planning a hardwired fuel pump like the internet how to's guides people keep arguing over.  but this got me thinking.

1) how does the fuel pump know when to go / stop slow down etc
2) how do i do a proper job, bona fide' awesome pump reliability never break mod???
any help on this will be awesome






slowly running out of things i can do now so have started looking at spending more money. its amazing how the budget for this "scruffy pup" build is exponential

[mikey-t]

sooo finally my tiger seal has arrived so i can start assembling my wheels again. soooo excited




also collected the first of my replacement earth leads / straps. crimped and tinned gas tight etc etc



continued on with the whole tapping threads on bolts that i wont replace. i am replacing about 100 bolts but dont want to go too far, these are off the anti roll bar that i have pulled off for painting



replacing all the vac lines also as i am a tart




and because i am getting rid of most of my power wiring i have had to seperate certain bits and hide others. this is the connector that goes into the main power fuse box in the bonnet, the one where the egi etc are located. i think it is tatty and old and the connections are shocking so i am redoing it in my own fuse box. will re end these with ring terminals and into my new fuse box




new fuse box and fuses in what will be a sealed case with rubber grommets on the openings

[mikey-t]

so paint has dried on the ARB so that got put back on today,




with these installed for good measure




painted chrome shiny parts in the only possible colour for this build






and my concept 7 goodies arrived also, not entirely sure how the rear quarter light blanks fit but that will be my body work guys issue





told amy she could play with the dremel if she put my split rims back together.




and then together we got 2 bolted up and a bit of tiger seal in there to airtight the whole lot, put excess in and the remainder can be cleaned off when dry.




and tonight me and my friend are tackling more wiring. yay

[clive]

Looking real good and the wheels are very nice, your lucky Amy  had that much patiance to sort them for you 

[shaunwil]

Its this time of year I wish I had enough garage space to have the car indoors ! Looks like some really good progress

Shaun

[mikey-t]

Cheers guys unfortunately we are hitting a bit of a brick wall, my mechanic is becoming ever more unreliable and we are at the stage now where it all gets a bit complicated. There was several jobs I wanted to get done before getting it outside but time is against me,

My mapper Steve at FC tuning has kindly offered to take the car as is and complete it and then do the mapping etc whilst I'm away and whilst I wanted to avoid that routine (MONEY!!!!!) I think it may be my only option if I want it running this year.

I have a A4 page of jobs to do just to get it ready to go on a trailer and now less than 4 days to do it so as you can imagine I'm stressing slightly,.

[mikey-t]

so today was the day i lost my patience, home, work and everything in between is pissing me right off and the car is tripling it. and i mean on everything, use the rattle gun and its battery charger explodes. paint something the paint reacts
organise for a mechanic to come out and finish whats been started and he has the flu, and my deadline is pretty much up. so the decision has been made for my tuner steve at FC tuning to complete the engine hookup, wiring mapping etc and get it back to me when its able to actually drive and then i can complete it..


that leaves me 4 days to get as much done as i can to save money and also make sure nothing falls off when its on the trailer.


here is one little example of why i have run out of time. i decided to buy a RW throttle body and elbow DESIGNED FOR THIS CAR!

problem one the throttle position sensor is out of line with the mechanism with about 20' of movement before it even contacts the sensor trigger.

problem two the elbow is scary close to the brake lines.

problem three,need to fabricate a guide and locator for the actual throttle cable

problem four, when its all mounted it sits exactly where the strut brace is.
great (censored)ing design


add to that parts suppliers in the uk that take over a month to send a item, i am currently chasing up 4 seperate parts.
yet japanese and australian parts are ALWAYS here within a fourtnight.

no wonder some of your projects are over 5 years old. you spend all your time waiting for parts and when they do arrive modifying them so they actually fit or having to buy more parts that make the original part fit


FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

[shaunwil]

Don't worry about it, things will come together in the end. What makes the deadline set in stone ?

The elbow just looks completely wrong, even looks too big on the pipe pick-up. The Greddy elbow lands lower and above the power steering line to pickup pointing in a similar direction to the plastic oem one.

Shaun

[boosted]

Had a quick look at the RW Throttle and elbow and lists that designed for later gen fd? Unsure if this your issue.
Appreciate project taking it toll on you and trust me ive been there! The paint reacted on my axle too this week and its turned into some sort of bitumen goo...lol.
I cant weld so i have to wait for my mate too come so im couldnt get my car rolling...stick with it bud but when your getting no enjoyment just do summit else....its been 6 months since i crashed my freshly finished project and defo been some high n lows....it will be worth it in the end and you will be proud of your achievements! Lowest point for me loading a 2 wheeled car onto a trailer in the pissing rain on my own....i was cussing for about 1.5 hrs....the time it took to load!
Stick with it bud!

[rovers]

Will the problem with the elbow be the same with the stock throttlebody?   I was thinking of getting that elbow but now im not so sure

[Clarky]

Had the same issue when i had my FD, had to revert back to the Greddy Elbow, also had to change throttle Cable and bracket, and modified the fast idle screw as well. hope this helps

[mikey-t]

Does not fit the stock tb at all but the old greddy style elbow that's full of holes fits just right, so I can either chop and spin this new one or weld up the holes on the old greddy style one.
Spoke to some people and apparently it's designed for hard / race use where a proper strut brace not oe is used or none at all

[rovers]

From what ive read it will fit stock tb if u delete the thermowax and that coolant-bs,   Already have those deleted but i dont wanna ditch the strutbrace.   So im wondering if it will still interfere?    AND what LIM are u using?

[mikey-t]

I'm the throttle body where the thermo pellet mounts there is a little bit of metal that extends out , it's part of the throttle body itself that catches so it still won't fit unless you grind that down but then I think your breaking into vacuam areas.
Standard LIM just played with the inside of it.