Just a quick post & picture.

I should have the car to Precision Chassis Works within a couple weeks for the roll cage install. YES!

Why does the roof have to come off?
For those who might not be too familiar with roll cage installation, all the various tubes are bent and cut to precise angles and lengths. The cage needs to fit as close to the interior surface of the shell as possible. Now, imagine you’ve just fit two sections of roll cage together up against the roof of the car on the inside. How do you weld all the way around the two pieces?

More than one way to skin a cat.
Some builders choose to cut holes in the floor of the car so the cage can be dropped down through the floor, providing access to the top. This method provides more room between roof and cage, but the amount of room is dependent upon the height of the vehicle. To get the most access, the car would be raised on jack stands or even on a lift. Now the fabricator has to climb into and out of a raised vehicle to practice his art. Not so with the roof removed, Kent (my fabricator at Precision Chassis Works) will simply stand up in the car and weld the cage in place.

Ok, but why does the windscreen and back light need to come out?
The roof skin is glued, then spot welded into place. Half the welds run down the sides of the panel, the other half are “conveniently” located under the top edges of the windscreen and back light. So the glass has to come out. The trick is removing them carefully so as not to break them and need to spend money replacing perfectly good glass.

How do you remove the roof skin on a car?
YMMV, but I started by removing the trim snapped into the drip rails on the top of the car. Those two plastic strips running front to back? They gotta come out. Then the little plastic clips holding them in place need removed. These were relatively simple – use one flat screwdriver to depress the detent, then another to slide it free and over the post.

Next, each spot weld was marked and center-punched, before I went through with a special, spot weld cutter drill bit. This process was made a bit easier due to the sunroof being removed, so I could stand up inside and reach over, but the bit wanted to pop out and walk left and right, so gloves, goggles, and focus were critical.

My buddy Mike Foster came over to lend a hand. We tried our damndest to carefully remove the windscreen without cracking it, but this is no easy task. I fudged up and instantly saw two cracks race from one corner to the center of the glass. At that point, there was nothing left to save. We broke out the pry bars and had at it.

After the windscreen was recycled, we marked and center punched the spot welds along the front edge of the roof and began drilling again. Now we were taking turns – one of us standing up in the sunroof, the other through the windshield. In the shot below, Mike is standing up through the windshield and steadying the drill motor as he cuts one of the welds.

We ended up calling it a day before the roof was off, but I did get a chance to go back through with a flat screwdriver to scrape away the adhesive used to glue the roof skin in place prior to being welded at the factory. With the adhesive gone, I was able to start separating the roof from the car in a number of places.

The roof skin is nearly free now, just need to get the back light out – hopefully without breaking it – and drill those spot welds across the top. From there, it’s a matter of stripping paint from any interior locations where the cage will be installed (a-pillars, base plate locations on the floor, etc.), pulling the cash out of the bank, and scheduling a time for Kent to come pick up the Galant. We’re getting closer!

]]> http://www.tarmac-and-gravel.com/2010/08/roof-removal-begins-on-195-2000/feed/ 0 http://www.tarmac-and-gravel.com/2010/06/all-are-punished/ http://www.tarmac-and-gravel.com/2010/06/all-are-punished/#comments Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:07:52 +0000 DR1665 http://www.tarmac-and-gravel.com/?p=526 Two Galants, both alike in dignity,
In fair Phoenix, where we lay our scene,
From ancient sloth break to new irresponsibility,
Where texting fingers make drivers’ hands unclean.
From forth the fatal lanes of these Phoenix roads
A pair of star-cross’d Galants are totaled out;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death make racing possible.
The fearful passage of their death-marked titles,
And continuance of their owner’s rage,
Which, but his Mitsus’ end, nought could remove,
Is now the two minutes’ traffic of this page;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
Where here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR4 464/1000 has been totaled out.
464 is one of less than 300 Kensington Grey GVR4s imported to North America back in 1992. It passed emissions testing with flying colors on Friday. Then the title was branded salvaged because the cost of repairs would be more than the cost of the car (only after a $1000 salvage bid was taken off the top). Monday, the fax went to the insurance carrier. Wednesday, I got a check for $2600 and change. We’ve been down this road before.

So now I am the proud owner of TWO Galant VR4s, BOTH of which are salvage cars.
Yay me, right? Right. There is a silver lining to this situation, just as there was last time. Funds from the Kia Incident, where 195/2000 was totaled, were used towards the purchase of 464/1000. And so it is today. No, I am not buying a third Galant VR4, but I am putting the funds towards the roll cage in 195/2000. Maybe the title of this post should have had more to do with the Lion King and “circle of life” than Romeo and Juliet, but whatever.

The mad blood stirring.
I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire;
The day is hot, the Capulets abroad,
And, if we meet, we shall not escape a brawl;
For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

Behold! My new radiator! It seems like radiators wait just until summer arrives to spring leaks and make life a living hell. Last week Friday, prior to emissions testing and salvage branding, I stopped at Performance Radiator here in Phoenix to pick up a replacement radiator. I had been doing a little shopping, but the night before, I saw a Performance Radiator unit in a local DSM. It had metal end tanks and looked very well put together. Combined with the immediacy of getting the part I needed locally on-the-spot, I didn’t mind paying almost double the Rock Auto price online.

Oh that’s just lovely.
I was happy to pay $180 for an immediately available, all-metal-construction, direct-fit, locally manufactured radiator. What I actually got was the same, made-in-Indonesia, plastic-end-tank-having, off-by-half-an-inch radiator I could have bought for $80 any number of places online. Thou art a villain.

What am I supposed to do at 10pm on a Saturday night, once I’ve already got the fan bolted up and have greasy finger prints all over the thing? Pack it back up and try to return it after work on Monday? Fuck it. I made it work. Pulled it back out and took the Dremel to the lower mounting tabs. I opened up the holes in them to increase the lateral slop in the assembly and then torqued the entire unit over towards the passenger side to be bolted in. Meh.

Progress on 195/2000!
Prior to installing the radiator in 464/1000, I spent a little more time emptying out the interior of 195/2000 in preparation for the roll cage getting installed within a month’s time. Still a bit left to do – pull the carpet, remove the rear door cards, remove the front and rear windshields, and take the roof off – but it’s all manageable. I’m looking forward to this…  a lot.

Oops!
So the radiator in 464 was replaced on Saturday night. Car ran beautifully all day Sunday, well, almost all day. A stop at home to pick up some car parts late in the afternoon revealed coolant weeping from behind the timing belt cover and the sound of boiling coolant in the water pump and thermostat housing. The water pump shit the bed.

Tomorrow begins water pump replacement. What better time to also replace the timing belt, pullies, tensioners, valve cover gasket, cam seals, and oil pan gasket? A solid bunch of maintenance and repairs in one fell swoop. Hope I can get drag my ass out of bed early enough to get it done before it gets too hot outside!

[464] is pretty steamed about all this.
I’ve been down this road before, back in February of 2008, some kid in a Kia tried to make a left turn on a yellow and failed – miserably. This is what I called “The Kia Incident.” Plenty to read between here and DR1665.com on all that happened as a result of that evening’s events.

What followed was a 2 month nightmare of back and forth with the kid’s questionable-at-best insurance carrier. The law provides for the lesser of replacement value or repairs to your vehicle when someone else hits you. The Kia owner’s insurance carrier totaled [195] and offered $800. Gee, too bad I couldn’t repair or replace the car for that. So we spent the better part of two months going back and forth. It wasn’t until I got the state insurance commissioner’s office involved that they finally played ball and I got $4700 to cover the damages.

Allstate, who insures both [464] and the Jetta has offered $800.
Regular visitors to this site (or people who know me on GalantVR4.org or 2GNT.com) know that [464] is far nicer than [195] was prior to the accident. The paint is better, the interior is better, everything works, and so on. [464] is better than average. My recent research into listing prices for comparable GVR4s reveals the average price, excluding outliers, to be $4300. So, if [464] is going to be totaled, then it will cost me $4000+ to replace her.

You can see how this will likely take a while. They want to trash my car for $800. I want to repair or replace for $4000+. The burden of proving the value is on me, as their “impartial” 3rd party valuation services are incapable of adequately establishing the value of such limited edition vehicles.

Arizona Revised Statute (ARS) 20-461.9 states…

“Attempting to settle a claim for less than the amount to which a reasonable person would have believed he was entitled by reference to written or printed advertising material accompanying or made part of an application” is an unfair claims practice and against the law.

ARS 20-461.8 goes a step further…

“Compelling insureds to institute litigation to recover amounts due under an insurance policy by offering substantially less than the amounts ultimately recovered in actions brought by the insureds” is unfair as well.

I am fully prepared to fight this.
I bought [464] because it was a fully functional, complete and un-molested specimen that I could restore to better-than-new condition once [195] was prepared on the rally stages. Now I’m going to be forced to get a salvage title issued, which will severely impair my ability to one day sell the car for a profit if I should choose to do so. I’m not taking $800. I’m not taking $1500. I’m not taking $3000. If I have to kill the car on paper with a salvage title, I’m getting $4000 to do so. And if Allstate is unwilling to fairly compensate me for my actual loss, then I am prepared to take this matter to court, even if I have to represent myself in small claims.

As for why [464] is steamed, above…
Beyond its driver side doors all being goodly mangled, sticking and jamming against each other every time one is opened, it’s summer time. What better time for the radiator to go out, right? I’d swap in the radiator out of [195] (let’s face it, the beast won’t be needing it for a while), but it’s a DSM radiator, which is different.

More updates as I get them.

Here’s some pictures of the final repairs.  I didn’t cut the replacement core support off as accurately as I would have liked, and some of these areas are pretty thin (with that gooey adhesive between stamped layers), but all in all, I’m really happy with how these repairs turned out.    As I was telling my friend Kris the other day, Hooray!  I’m back to Square One of my rally car build!

The outer sides of the “rails” are fairly thin, and the adhesive between the stamped layers can make for some really frustrating welding.  Despite grinding things down thoroughly before the work, the welds still got contaminated, or the torch wanted to burn right through.  This was pretty tricky stuff.  Even so, I don’t care what it looks like so long as the front end wont be ripped off by heavy sweep one day.

Perhaps you noticed my new crossmember location bits.  Since this core support is from a FWD Galant LS, it doesn’t have the provisions to locate the AWD VR4 front crossmember.  Mike trimmed up some CrMo tubing he had lying around and set it in place for a perfect solution.  These are merely tacked into place for now, as the clearances are too tight for him to get the torch in there to finish them up with the Tig.  He’s going to get a Mig from a friend and lay down the last four beads in the near future.

What else is new?  Well, I went to move a blanket in my trunk the other day and found a JDM Cylcone intake manifold back there!  I totally forgot that was even there!  These things are pretty slick.  They have a slightly smaller plenum than the USDM 4G63T and 8 runners.  At low engine speeds, prior to and shortly after the turbo begins to build boost, only one runner is feeding each cylinder.  This results in greater intake charge velocity, meaning a noticeable improvement in low end torque.  Once the engine is really cooking, the ECU opens the butterflies, effectively doubling the volume of the runners, for full power.  I’m told there is a little loss of top end with these, but I’ll have a restrictor on the turbo eventually and torque down low trumps HP up top in my book.

Now I’ve got to decide – do I want to bolt up the Cyclone, convert to DSMap, and drive the car a bit or do I want to pull the roof skin and front glass so I can get the cage started.  Hmmm…

Over the next couple weeks, Mike will be plating over the seams where the FWD radiator core support was grafted onto the existing AWD unibody.  I’ll post up pictures once the car is back together.  For now, there is a lot more room back at the fort, so I think it’s time to address some shelving issues.

Today, while 464 sat covered in filth in the driveway, I took the drill to the joints between chassis and replacement core support on 195. Anywhere there will be welding needs to be clean and free of paint, rust, and grime.  This was four hours of hard core drill and wire wheel action.  I am beat.

It should be cool when it’s all back together though.  Here’s a little photoshop I whipped up this afternoon on a whim…

When I finished straightening up the garage Saturday night, this is what the engine bay in 195/2000 looked like.  Dirty, but complete (for the most part).  Saturday morning, Michael Rodarte and Mike Foster came by to help me pull the engine and transmission out so I can get the front end repairs completed after the Kia incident that occurred almost two years ago.  Can you believe that?  February 4th 2010 will be the 2 year anniversary of the Kia Incident and 4 years that I’ve owned this car.  It’s spent half it’s time with me unregistered in my garage.

Michael and Mike were blazing fast helping out.  It’s been a while since I’ve had to pull an engine and I was expecting to be in the garage all day.  Granted, I’d already removed the transfer case and driveshaft, but they showed up just after 0900hrs, and by 1230hrs, the engine was out, on the stand, and we’d been bullshitting for an hour.  Impressive.

After Michael and Mike left, I tinkered a bit.  Pulled the jacked CV that I was on my way to replace when the Kia Incident occurred back in 2008, then started clearing wire harness and whatnot from the areas where more welding will be needed to fully repair the front end of 195.  Hope to have some more progress within a couple weeks’ time.

[195] was totaled. The following summer, I got plenty of help from friends cutting the mangled front end off and replacing it with parts from a FWD Galant found up in Prescott.  The new front end was welded on, if not welded on as solidly as I would like (for competition anyway).  The factory intercooler was crushed by the front bumper, so I sourced a Dodge SRT4 front mount intercooler to replace it.  That was cobbled into place with mismatched plumbing and bits of PVC from the sprinkler aisle at Home Depot to make sure it worked.

I recently got a new job and the future looks promising, so I drove down to Precision Chassis Works in Gilbert, Arizona to talk to Kent Porter (the owner) about finally getting a roll cage installed for rally. To have Precision Chassis Works build and install the cage to Rally America specifications, complete the front end repairs, and plumb the FMIC was going to set me back an easy $3000.  A fair price, given the amount of welding required and Kent’s reputation for fabrication bordering on art.  (And really, when it comes to safety, is that anywhere to skimp on a build?)

Then it hit me.  I really want to enter the Prescott Rally next fall. That would mean $3000 cage and repairs for sure, but also two race seats, race harnesses, a helmet, a complete brake job, auxiliary lighting, skid plates, a tripmeter (rally computer for the co-driver for those outside the loop), mud flaps, a set of rally tires, and a HANS rental.  All before I paid the likely $750 entry fee, towed the car up the hill, paid for three nights’ hotel room, food, gas, and any expenses I’d obviously comp for my service crew volunteers.  I could easily spend $10,000 just getting to the starting line. Odds are, there’d be some retard in a Kia out there in the boonies just waiting for me to round the bend at 80mph before deciding to cross the yellow tape.  I started waffling on my decision to go all out for rally.  I thought, maybe I should do some partial prep and see if I can’t get out there and drive the car in anger from time to time.  Out of the blue, Dan calls me up and asks if I want to go check out a NASA HPDE event at Phoenix International Raceway this past Sunday.  PERFECT TIMING, DAN.  It might cost upwards of $2000 to do a rally.  It looks like it’s less than $200 to do a full day of hot lapping on a road course. Hmmm…

So the full on rally car prep has been shelved in favor of a staged build which will allow me to get out and actually race the car. In fact, I’ve been thinking about Project: LAGR (“Let’s Actually Go Racing”) for a couple days now.  I’m excited, despite my general aversion to people talking about stage one this or stage four that.  Here’s how I’ve got things organized so far.  It might change a bit, but I’m still waiting on a detailed quote from Kent on some of this work.

STAGE I – Precision Chassis Works

- Front end repairs. The accident damage needs to be completely repaired.  Nuff said.
- FMIC piping. Now that I know the SRT4 FMIC will fit and work, I need it installed legitimately.

STAGE II

- Brakes and lines. Until you can run an entire race with lifting, you’ve got enough power.  That in mind, I’d like to be able to stop the car from higher speeds without wondering if the brakes are going to fail.  The pads and rotors on the car today are the ones that were on the car when I bought it back in 2005 (and it had been sitting outside in New Mexico for about two years before that).  I’m thinking slotted rotors, good pads, braided lines, and fresh fluid here.

STAGE III

- Helmet. That’s right.  Helmet.  With the front end repaired, the intercooler installed and plumbed, and a healthy brake system, I’d say it’s time to go racing.  I’m gonna need my own damn brain bucket.

STAGE IV – Precision Chassis Works

- 4 point roll cage. The trick here is to get the main hoop and rear supports installed.  Not because it’s required for HPDE, autox or rallyx, but so I can get a harness bar in the car.

STAGE V

- Seat(s). Not required for HPDE, autox, or rallyx, but it would sure beat slippery, 19 year old leather seats and automatic shoulder belts when the lateral Gs kick in.
- Harness(es). Not required for HPDE, autox, or rallyx, but the same reasons apply.  I’m not sure if HPDE requires both front seats/belts to be equivalent, but hope it’s okay if they aren’t.

STAGE VI

- Struts. [195] will be a rally car and, once it’s back on the road, I’m going to spend as much time as I can OFF the road.  Well, at least off the pavement.  For that reason, I refuse to lower the car at all.  If she rocks like a boat through tarmac corners, so be it.  The stock struts are likely blown or ready to blow at the first sign of stress.  A set of KYBs or Konis (or even Bilsteins) will be nice wherever the car runs.
- Tint. There’s no AC in the car anymore.  I fully intend to drive to Tucson and SoCal for autox or rallyx events during the year.  Tint helps keep the inside of the car cooler and also serves to keep Buddy Ricer on the street from spotting a roll cage and trying to race me every chance he gets.

STAGE VII

- Exhaust. I’ll go to Precision Chassis Works for this too.  3” from turbo to tailpipe.
- Injectors. Not sure what size yet.  Maybe 750cc.
- Fuel pump. Probably a Walbro, but not sure if 190lph or 255lph or even a Supra/Evo pump.

STAGE VIII

- Evo III 16G turbocharger. I figure, by this point, I’ll have a solid car with all the bugs worked out.  I’ll have a good amount of seat time from high speed road courses, technical tarmac autox, and wild rallyx events.  There will be random, let’s-see-where-that-dirt-road-goes trail runs too.  I’ll actually be comfortable driving in anger, so bumping the mill up from 200hp or so to over 300hp will be a welcome change and reward for seeing a plan through.

Before all this gets underway, I’m going to see about converting the car to speed density using DS-MAP on the EPROM ECU. Now that I’ve got the dashboard out of the car, I’m going to continue stripping the interior, but I’ll probably flock the dash before it goes back in.  I’ve also talked to AZDave about re-doing the lighting in the instrument cluster to be friendlier on the eyes after dark.  That project is already under way and a write up should follow before the end of the year.

During all these well thought out shenanigans, I’ll see about random projects like skid plates, mud flaps and paint. Little things that will allow me to keep the rally car flavor while moving towards the ultimate goal – a full-fledged stage rally car.

And after all this gearhead goodness, I’m going to start taking the car back to Precision Chassis Works for the rest of the cage. Maybe pull the dash again and get the front hoop installed and tied in to the front strut towers (which need reinforced).  Maybe follow that up with door and sill bars.  After that, I might decide I’d like to reinforce the lower control arms on the car to keep them from getting beat to hell when I do finally enter Prescott sometime in the year 2047.

So that, in an extremely long winded nutshell, is the new plan for [195]. What had been an immense money pit with an outcome somewhere in the foggy distant future has just turned into an opportunity for me to realistically go racing in my race car by my birthday… which is just five months away. I’ll keep you posted!

Despite the sinking feeling that I was actively parting out a perfectly good Galant VR4 (the fear being that I will be responsible for putting it all back together at some point), I pressed on.  The center console came out, then lower dash trim, then finally the entire dash gave way and came out.  I was a bit disturbed to find unopened beef jerky and Sonic coupons (which expired in early 1999) behind the dash.  Ew.

I’ve still got more work to do before the interior is completely stripped.  After that, the engine and transmission comes out, followed by front and rear windscreens and the roof.  Hopefully, I’ve have enough cash saved up at that point to have Kent from Precision Chassis Works come pick up the beast and start bending DOM for the cage.