Building a rally car. Opinions wanted.

[MountainMike]

Hey guys, off on a trip right now so it'll be a week at least before I'm back at the wrenches on the Pontiac. We are planning on bracing the frame once we figure where the roll cage is going to sit. We want it to work as one cohesive unit. As for the front end, I'm thinking about boxing in the stock subframe for now.

 

[MountainMike]

So a brief update. The Acadian has been kicked out of the shop for a bit while I prep the Jetta for an autocross event. However that does mean something good...

The panels are back on and it's wheels down!

It has a little rake that should be fixed by the diesel coils, but let me tell you, I AM PUMPED!!!

 

[MountainMike]

Going to pull the mothballs out of the car here soon, more to follow.

 

[MountainMike]

Here's the gist of what's going on.

(1) I found a pair of bucket seats from one of our accessory suppliers at work
(2) The car is currently being used as overflow storage so that will have to be dealt with
(3) Our welder is amped to do the roll cage, that will be done later in the summer though
(4) All fuel system components have been acquired, just need to make it work.

 

[MountainMike]

Seats on order as of today!


Sent from Villa Auditore using a carrier pigeon.

 

[MountainMike]

Here's a picture of a screen-cap of the seats, sorry for the fuzzy resolution.

Sent from Villa Auditore using a carrier pigeon.

 

[MountainMike]

Seats arrived today!


Sent from Villa Auditore using a carrier pigeon.

 

[MountainMike]

Last week the gents and I decided it was prime tome to get things going again on the Poncho.

We got the car inside and took a look at it and came to a realization...

This thing has been used as storage for too long. So we finished up our loose end projects (Bullbar on the Dakota, rear tire on the Spyder and stereo in the Jeep to free up some space.

Priority 1, get the shop clean with the Spyder out in storage. We used the added space to give us an extra half bay. Then we cleaned off the benches. Seriously!

We got the car all cleaned out and the part spread out on the benches. Nicely of course.

Here's a really life view of the bucket seats.

More to come, just wanted to set everything up.

 

[MountainMike]

Got some lights mocked up today, more to come tonight.

Sent from Villa Auditore using a carrier pigeon.

 

[MountainMike]

Heater box and most of the dash has been removed.

Sent from Villa Auditore using a carrier pigeon.

 

[MountainMike]

So Ben and I did a little more work on the car tonight. We're did mostly logistics stuff tonight but on Tuesday we did a little more cutting of the dash.

We decided that heat was not really a requirement anymore, with the Sport Trac filling a large chunk of what I need in a vehicle the Pontiac will be a strictly summer vehicle.

With the heater box out from outside and inside, we were able to remove the heater controls from inside the car and trim the dash up even more for extra room.

And Ben finally got the door panel back on his door, some self-drilling screws required.

More work to do tomorrow night.

 

[thatbluecar]

You can see the engine from inside the car now, we'll be fabbing up some block off plates for the holes in the firewall

 

[MountainMike]

Started doing electrical things. I hate electrical.

Sent from Villa Auditore using a carrier pigeon.

 

[MountainMike]

We made ourselves a tool box for just electrical today. Should come in handy.

Here I am way under the dash trying to remove some wires.

Removed the stock instrument cluster

More tomorrow, going to freshen up the front end a bit.


Sent from Villa Auditore using a carrier pigeon.

 

[MountainMike]

Presents arrived today, more wrenching to come tomorrow.

Sent from Villa Auditore using a carrier pigeon.