Duncan's Race Car - The Most Overdue Build Thread On Sau

[Duncan]

BTW if someone has a spare ashtray for a 32 gtr I need one! have to keep my maccas change somewhere

[WantGTR]

have a used one. also here in sydney, textured finish...

[Duncan]

cool, pm sent

[Duncan]

so that reminds me of the old joke....

what's yellow and purple and has 13 nipples?

yes, a bloody gtr race car.

over the last few weeks the focus was getting Neil's radical running for the first round of the hillclimb champs,  which we just managed (well, I did a bit but f**k all overall). but in any case I hadn't touched my car since mid jan until the other day.

so I spent the weekend bleeding stuff, 4 calipers with 2 nipples each, abs with 2 nipples, attessa with 2 nipples, and the strangely uni-nippled clutch. looks like I've got good pressure in all of them now but it's hard to be certain until it drives.

I haven't got the car started yet, I tried both the Haltech and the PFC and it cranks but doesn't run. The PFC continually resets so I assume it's a problem with the ECU power (i removed the ECCS relay).  Time is a bit tricky at the moment because we are moving to the country, eating a lot of peaches, but I'm still hoping to get it running first.

 

[MBS206]

Have you thought to rule out the power issue to give it direct power?

This also brings me back to when you rewired Neils car, from memory you had the same problem and found that there was a second power wire that had been disconnected. That raise any memories? Or am I just going mad? ha ha

PS: If it still doesn't start I have a hammer you may borrow

[Duncan]

you're spot on Matt, that's why I'm going down the dangerous path of assuming that same symptom means same problem.  In the gtst (which had always run fin on the stock computer), when we put a powerFC in we had put a fuse into an existing but empty circuit in the fuse box. Without it the PFC constantly reset, with it in it worked perfectly.

I'm getting the same symptom here so I'll just start with checking the various 12v wires in the engine loom have power when they are meant to....if it's the only mistake I've made after this much rewiring I'll be surprised.

[spudtatoe]

Just spent like the last 2 hours reading this thread! Awesome work dude

[Duncan]

well, I made a little progress.

first up I worked out an issue with the ECU wiring; basically IGN signal in a 32 goes from the key to the DS firewall grommet to the front engine bay fuse box to the stock boost controller (of all things), around the front of the engine bay, along the strut tower, through the PS firewall grommet and into the ECU.  All of which would be fine if I hand't assumed that only the boost controller used that source in my car now and wired it to the boost controller switch.  So for now boost has to be on either high or low for the ECU to receive the IGN signal and start up properly.

So that got the powerfc behaving properly, but despite some further stuffing around the car still doesn't start. I then plugged the haltech back in (properly this time) to check everything there (it shows way more inputs and sensors) but I still couldn't work out the issue and decided to give up and take it to someone who knows what they are looking at. I expect to post up again afterwards saying I was out of fuel or something stupid like that.

Anyway, so I focused on the next step instead, getting the car rolling again. Wheels are on, brakes working, everything tightened up (oh except the front driveshafts, and all the ball joints which I better remember....). She's back on the ground, rolling, and godzilla approves

[Duncan]

so anyway, the next (actually final) big job of the reco is painting the interior and fixing the exterior. And no I'm not trying DIY, I've done that before (on the nugget) and it looked really shit.  I'm not trying to make a showcar but I do want it tidied up.

so back out with everything in the interior, wiring, seatbelt mounts and eye bolts, boot release, gear shift etc, looking really empty, again

Next up is vaccum then wipe down with wax and grease remover, then tape up and ship it off to the painter.

Also need to remove all the stickers, even the ones that have been on there for 10 years and will pull the paint off because I'm getting them to clean up the outside as well

I decided to move onto the painting now, because in big news for us, we've bought a place outside Sydney near Goulburn and are selling our current place over the next few months.  I really needed the car rolling and OK to move so I decided to get it ready for painting instead of trying to spend weeks on the ECU.

[260DET]

20 hours ago, Duncan said:

....................................

I decided to move onto the painting now, because in big news for us, we've bought a place outside Sydney near Goulburn and are selling our current place over the next few months.  I really needed the car rolling and OK to move so I decided to get it ready for painting instead of trying to spend weeks on the ECU.

Bought near Goulburn eh, Wakefield Park?

[Duncan]

29 minutes to MDTC, 34 to Wakie......hello sleep ins!

(yes Eastern Creek is further away now, but who can afford to go there?!)

[MBS206]

have fun with the brown snakes out there

[Duncan]

So I can't claim to be moving quickly (but then again this build never has....) but the car is in the paint shop now.

Initially they thought they were going to just even up the current surface a bit and respray it....I did warn them this was the 4th time the car had been painted.

As you can see, after they got started and saw what they are in for, they are taking most of it back to bare metal to prep, prime and paint. Car should be about 50kg lighter now too.

Also fixed the small modification I made against the bank at Targa High Country.

They are doing inside and out, should be back in a few weeks. The only real challenge has been the front windscreen which is pretty much irreplaceable being one of Dell's heated ones. They are very nervous about taking it out knowing how hard and expensive it would be to replace....

[Duncan]

Well I haven't yet seen how the car turned out, because Kel and I borrowed a dirty evo and went and did Targa Tas last week.  We took "Lucky" the evo which has all sorts of problems each time she competes but never fails to finish. In our case it blew a cooler pipe about 1klm into a 25klm stage turning it into a mirage instead of an evo for the next 10 minutes, but otherwise it did well.  We ended up 8th in Early Modern and would have been 5th without the cooler pipe issue which is OK for a pretty rookie driver (although the nav was awesome all through).

The main thing I remembered from doing Targa High Country a few years back was that tyre wear can be a killer, so I tried to minimise it

Oh, and well done to Liam and Larry for second in Early Modern.....great effort for the week

[Duncan]

So, Kel is off rallying again and I thought if I don't do some work on the car it may not just finish itself....

The car is back from paint and there is no longer any evidence of that small issue on the nav side where the road was a little narrow that the driver thought.  They've painted the inside too so it's time to put the wiring back in.

Did some more labelling of the wire because I hadn't finished them all

Ran the wiring to the back of the car

And into the boot. That would have all been done back there but the shop didn't attach the rear bar properly so its off again for now

Also go the main/dash wiring mostly sorted.  The smartwire is mounted on rubber mounts to help keep it alive longer.

Mounted it up

All the wiring back in and connected up on the middle and driver's side. Looks like a damn mess but its actually pretty sorted, most of the hanging stuff is for dash and switches

Still have work to do on ECU mounting and wiring on that side. Maybe another 6 months. Or tomorrow.

[Duncan]

So, got a bit more done today.

Since I've gone haltech I need to mount a heap of little boxes.  So back in the day the fabricator made up an MDF dummy but I needed to do it in carbon fibre (becaues race car)

 

So, taped up the cf sheet and copied across the points

 

A little hacksawing and drilling, and it looks like this.  Again I've used rubber mounts to insulate the electronics a little from race car bumps

Mounted up in place in the passenger footwell, tucked up behind the roll cage, all wiring in.

That's pretty much it for now

I also mounted up all the rest of the interior wiring; rallysafe, GPS for dash, camera, intercom all in.

Unfortunately the next step is to redo the dash, since the last one had an uncovered trailer/truck related issue which made it flatter than it needs to be. I also have to put a big more wiring back in underneath (main fuel pump, fuel pressure and e85 sensors, o2 sensor) and a bit in the engine bay too...then it should be right to put the battery back in and see what I've done wrong in the wiring...

 

[Neil]

Great to see you are making progress buddy, pity your 3.5 hours away or I would help.

Post some pics of her painted please.

Funny enough, I had a shit day at work and thought I would read your whole thread, cheered me up, thanks.

Cheers

 

[BakemonoRicer]

Pics of exterior duncan? Keen to see : )

[Roy]

Great to see another old R32 coming back to life!

[Duncan]

Thanks Troy. Did I see right that you took yours to Bathurst the other week? Must have been fun, and plenty of space to let it stretch it's legs there....

Anyway, here's some exterior pics....keeping in mind it's had 15 years of racing and rallying so like most race cars it is only expected to look good from a distance.....

I think it is bright enough, should be easy to spot in a carpark, and come up well in pics/tv

Didn't get a lot done this weekend as I was out fighting blackberries again.  Just sorted the engine bay wiring but needed to get it up on stands to deal with the wiring in the inner guard and under the rear. The quick jacks are a good thing but not really that quick (a bit fiddly to get right) and mega heavy to move