Well, no pix yet unless you really want to see all the holes it has!
The car is basically identical to what I already have. It's even the same color, which is great, since I've got 2 spare doors and a spare hatch for it - just in case.
So far the interior is gutted, and we found we've got a lot of rot to repair. It runs (well, it did until part of the distributor bracket broke today), so that's a start.
My plan is to get the floors and shock tower fixed, then get a cage installed. After that I've got to get a seat, make it fit me, and put a harness in. The next step will be just a little bit of suspension work - the car seems to be pretty stock right now.
If I do anything to the motor, it will be to have the 87 motor reworked slightly for the street car, then to put the 88 motor in the 87, maybe with a new cam. I'm not looking to be really competitive right now, and the 88 is starting to tick. I guess at 140K it deserves a little motor work. I'll then run it as is, and decide what to do as money and time allow. It also depends how far back in the pack I'm running - I hate to be last! :)
I hope to have it on the track by Spring 98 - I'll post updates as the project progresses.
January 27, 1998
So much for periodic updates - I've been busy! The car went in the shop for the cage about 6 weeks ago. In addition to the cage, there was quite a bit of rust in the floors and the rear shock towers. The cage came out great - 8 points with double NASCAR-style door bars on the drivers side. It now has one coat of POR15 gray on it, and that's all I've done to it since it came back. Unless you count the fact it's getting a "new" rear window; my street car needed a new one, so the race car is getting the old one (saves me from having to rip off the tint). But the window is going into the hatch I took off the street car last summer, so it still needs to be installed. I really hate working outside in the cold, despite the nice warm suit I got for Christmas and the heater we bought for the garage.
I went to a swap meet 2 weeks ago hoping to pick up some accessories for it. All I walked away with was a harness. On the plus side, I did find a Kirky seat I really like. There's another meet the beginning of March; with any luck I'll get the seat and a helmet there.
November 28,1998
Despite our best efforts, (and to give credit where credit is due, my fiance Tim did a good deal of the back-breaking work. though I was the one covered in black POR15 for weeks on end), we just couldn't get it on the track this year. We were so close! <G>
This will be no great surprise to anyone who's built a race car from scratch, but I spent a lot more than I had thought. It probably would've been cheaper for me to sacrifice the street car and make it a track car and buy a cheap beater, but what fun is that? What they say is true: it is cheaper to buy a turn-key car than to build one from the ground up. On the other hand, now both of us are pretty intimate with the workings of 85.5-88 EGT's. And since I own two of that generation, this is a good thing.
Things replaced: clutch, just about the whole front suspension with the exception of the sway bar, rear springs/shocks, entire braking system (stainless steel lines all around / run inside car), main bearings, belts, hoses (I refused to allow the heater core to be removed!), larger intake was made, and lots of nuts and bolts!
We found that remanufactured halfshafts and hubs don't like to go back together without a special tool; we had to buy a few special tools for this project.
The seat bracket still has to be made and the harness installed. The flex pipe for the exhaust came in last week, so the exhaust can be finished now. We couldn't get the header bolts off (more rust!) so that will have to wait for the engine overhaul.
Keep your fingers crossed - March isn't that far away!
Last updated 11/28/98