jbrentd's 2nd Chance CQ - She's Alive!

[jbrentd]

I couldn’t pass up some local OZ Ultraleggeras. Had to test fit them. I think I’ll sell the TSW Revos. The rear brakes look so small.




Spent way too much time today looking through my unorganized piles and boxes of parts for the original ground strap. Never found it, but I know it’s around here somewhere. I did manage some time on the front suspension, as well.




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[PRY4SNO]

Ultras are sexy as hell, nice score. Personally speaking, I like the wheel fitment to have the rim flush with the edge of the fender. Looks brawny that way and fills out the wheel arches nicely. How do the OZ wheels fit in that regard, what is the ET?

Super cool armrest, I never knew there was an aftermarket one available... where'd you manage to find that? I had thoughts of adapting one from a C4 but don't really like the idea of putting a hole in the TT seats I have. That mount is really tidy so my interest is piqued, to say the least.

[jbrentd]

Ultras are sexy as hell, nice score. Personally speaking, I like the wheel fitment to have the rim flush with the edge of the fender. Looks brawny that way and fills out the wheel arches nicely. How do the OZ wheels fit in that regard, what is the ET?

Super cool armrest, I never knew there was an aftermarket one available... where'd you manage to find that? I had thoughts of adapting one from a C4 but don't really like the idea of putting a hole in the TT seats I have. That mount is really tidy so my interest is piqued, to say the least.

I agree, one of my favorite wheels and I agree on the fitment. These are 17x7 et 42, made for Ford Fiestas (a downside of sticking with 4x108 I suppose). My 15mm spacers make them et27, effectively. So, these should be very similar to the Hockenheims, with regards to the rim lip to fender fit.

That Kamei armrest is actually made for B2s and C3s, but the mounting arms are bent to fit the wider B3 tunnel. And I made my own hardware to secure it to the seat rails. Braden was selling it on FB a few weeks ago, so I snatched it up.


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[jbrentd]

Both sides of the front suspension are on now. Just need to torque everything down. Also built a new ground wire for the transmission. I may have to bend the lug on the transmission in order to get the bell housing bolts on.





I was surprised to find the 3B’s firewall bracket fit right in behind the coil. The holes lined up perfect. This is where I’ll put the timing, rpm, knock, and O2 sensor connectors.




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[jbrentd]

Got the carbon canister relocated to the fender and hoses routed this morning.










Now, I’ve got a question. I bought an S2 AC line that goes between the drier and the evaporator from Audi Tradition. Problem is, the male fitting at the drier is M28 (bottom), but the stock fitting is M27 (top). Should I just tap the aluminum fitting on the drier? Anyone else run in to this issue?








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[jbrentd]

I found a local refrigerated truck service company to just swap the smaller collar from the old line over to the new line. Should work just fine. I really wish I could weld, like some of you guys.




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[PRY4SNO]

Great idea with moving the carbon canister to the fender. I didn't particularly like the idea of deleting it but hadn't seen any tidy solutions, until now.

[jbrentd]

Great idea with moving the carbon canister to the fender. I didn't particularly like the idea of deleting it but hadn't seen any tidy solutions, until now.

I can't remember where I saw that, but I can't take the credit for the idea. Just to clarify, I did have to source the carbon canister from a cabriolet. I think the ABY S2 also uses this style. P/N 8A0201803

[jbrentd]

I have very little to update on the coupe, but I hope to re-gain some momentum soon. Back in November, we started construction on a detached shop and it has taken up most of my free time. I'm still working on moving stuff over from the old garage, most notably, the coupe. After finishing up the front suspension, it's back on its feet again for the first time in almost 2 years. And my son and I were able to get it pushed over to the new space...much to my wife's approval.






I was also able to re-cover the front door cards with some new foam underneath the original leathers.

[jbrentd]

I am happy to report some actual automotive related work happening in the new shop and that the coupe and 3B have become one.






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[vt10vt]

Excellent progress love the new shop, very jealous!

[jbrentd]

Excellent progress love the new shop, very jealous!

Thank you! A detached shop has been on my wish list for a long time and we've had a couple false starts over the years. So glad to have it and start using it.

[jbrentd]

It seems crazy what we sometimes do to keep our car projects moving forward. I was able to get in on a small group buy windshields and they finally arrived in the states back in March. Since then, I was trying to come up with a plan to get out to Asheville, NC to go pick up mine.

Rather than fly out, rent a car and make the ~14hr drive in one straight shot to bring it home, my wife and I decided to make a road trip out of it. We drove to Nashville and stayed a couple nights there. To make it a little more fun for her, we stayed in a Grand Ole Opry themed boutique hotel just about a mile from the honkytonks on Broadway. She was happy as all get out that we got one of the Dolly Parton rooms. From there we drove over to Asheville, picked up the windshield and stayed one night there. I wish we had another day there, as I wanted to check out the Biltmore estate. Woke up the next morning and headed over to Memphis for one night. We had a hotel 3 blocks from Beale street, so we walked over to check it out. There was a pride parade that day, so there's was a lot of good people watching. Like I said, in retrospect, I do wish we had stayed 2 nights in Asheville and Memphis as it would have been nice to have more time to see things.

When it was all said and done, we did 36 hours of driving (2,000 miles) in 5 days.

Here's a picture of the cargo. As you can see, we put all the grandma quilts to good use. Probably not the best way to transport a windshield, but it made it home in one piece.

[jbrentd]

I got some time to myself out in the shop last night and was able to get a couple things done. First was to swap on another oil filter housing. I guess I got a little too ambitious with trying to remove one of the oil lines so I could make room for installing the starter.



Starter and replacement housing are in now. And I mocked up the AC dryer and oil cooler. They are trying to occupy the same space and the cooler is pretty crusty…I think I might buy an aftermarket cooler and fit some -10AN hoses.






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[jbrentd]

I’ve been wrestling with the issue of fitting an intercooler on my swap for a while. I originally bought the 3B S2 core support and IC, but that’s a no go with my non-s2-style euro bumper. I am willing to pay up for one, but finding one is pretty tough.

With my bumper, the only useable space I can see is where the OEM auxiliary radiator once lived. Last year I thought I had a 2 pass IC that would work, but it’s too long to fit in between the headlights with hoses attached.

My latest attempt involves a small single pass IC and fabricating a custom core support. Things are looking good so far, just waiting on a 2.25” aluminum pipe that goes underneath the IC. Just need to add some tabs or spacers to keep it from coming in contact with the harmonic balancer and AC compressor.










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[varia]

Peter Hutt has 2 euro bumper for sale atm in NY, and will receive 3 more at the end of the year.
This intercooler wont be efficient judging by the size, quality and location.
I would go with euro bumper, stock s2 cross member/IC

[jbrentd]

I don’t disagree that this solution isn’t optimal, but it’s what I am faced with at the moment. I don’t want to cut on this bumper I have or make the jump to having to use hood pins.

I have been trying to get one of his bumpers for a while now.


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[jbrentd]

Well, I ended up getting one of Peter’s bumpers and am glad to use the OEM IC and crossmember. I had a little time in the shop to make some more headway on the reassembly. I think I have the entire engine harness all lined out and connected, as well as the hoses/lines for turbo discharge, fuel, evap and vacuum systems.










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[Afterthought]

Fitting an intercooler in any 20vt swap is always a pain.
you can fit a pretty decent sized core behind that S2 bumper .
On my both of the B3 swaps I have done I made my own support bar to hold the bumper and also open up space for the intercooler - but if I had access to an oem core support like you got i would have just done that .
Where did you find the bumper ?

[jbrentd]

Fitting an intercooler in any 20vt swap is always a pain.
you can fit a pretty decent sized core behind that S2 bumper .
On my both of the B3 swaps I have done I made my own support bar to hold the bumper and also open up space for the intercooler - but if I had access to an oem core support like you got i would have just done that .
Where did you find the bumper ?

I was kind of proud of myself for fabricating that core support and fitting an IC, even if it was on the small side. But glad I found a bumper to fit the OEM pieces. This bumper came over in one of Peter Hutt's containers that had several front and rear bumpers and some other things I'm sure.

[jbrentd]

Was out in the shop yesterday and it seems I took some steps back and some forward. Had to redo some of the coolant lines that run along the side of the block in order to get everything to fit. Was having clearance issues with the after run pump, fan shroud, PS lines, radiator and AC condenser. I think I got it all sorted, but need to make an extension for the wires going to the after run pump. Also, was able to bleed the brake system.

[jbrentd]

Haven’t had a ton of time to work on the CQ, but a little here and there. After my first time of attempting to fabricate a down pipe failed, I think I have something that’ll work initially. It’s a mix of 200 3B down pipe and 2.5” fittings to connect to my Stebro exhaust. It’s clamped together for now, but I do plan to come back later and weld everything in.





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[jbrentd]

So, I have been attempting to DIY refurbish the driver's seat. It's pretty cracked and has a couple of holes from normal wear. This is after some filler, but before I applied new leather dye.





This is after I applied a couple coats of leather dye. I still need to apply a couple more coats, but I am having some troubles getting a good color match.



I've also been looking at different aftermarket options for seats and the only ones that I really liked were offerings from Recaro. I definitely did not want to spend that kind of money on new ones and used grey leather Recaros don't show up for sale very often.

Having owned my dad's C4 corvette for a bit now, I have started to appreciate the seats it has and the availability of options for replacement foam/covers. After comparing measurements between the 2 sets and some searching on FB marketplace, I found this set of early C4 non-sport seats in grey. They aren't perfect, but useable and I have off-the-shelf options down the road if I want to refresh them. $250 for them seemed like a decent deal. As for mounting them, I have a set of Planted brackets that are made for the B3 chassis on order from Quattromog. From what I can tell, I might have to make a simple adapter plate to mount them to that. Shouldn't be too difficult. The color match looks better in person than in this picture.

[jbrentd]

Last weekend, I was able to get these mounted in the CQ. I think they’ll work pretty well.

They need a little adjusting on the Planted brackets and I’m not sure yet how I’m gonna attached the seat belt receivers yet since there’s a clearance issue with the B3 slider rail.








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[jbrentd]

So, a couple weeks ago I started to prep for firing it up by filling it up with fluids, checking the timing marks, hooking up the instrument cluster, etc. When I went to turn the key just to the accessories position to see if I was getting any power...I got nothing. It had been so long since I worked on the wiring, I forgot I never finished tying in all of the grounds.

Last time I worked on the wiring, I merged what was left of the 7A harness with the 3B harness, made the necessary connections and I left off with this. Even though all of the relays are connected, this wouldn't ultimately work because all of the wire looms are hanging down below and they need to be tucked up behind the relay panel.



So, I disconnected everything again and went for another try. Much better this time around. It's finally showing signs of life when I turn the key! So, swapped a couple relays and tricked the fuel pump to run to purge the air out of the lines. The system pressured up and I quickly found a good sized fuel leak on the line between the regulator and fuel rail. I was done for the weekend.

Fast forward to last weekend, I went to repair the fuel line. Having repaired another fuel line on this car, I figured this one might be similar. So, I cut out the section of braided line and replaced it with a new section of fuel injection hose and oetiker clamps.

After repairing the fuel line, I went back at trying to get it started. It was clear I wasn’t getting any fuel or spark, so I started doing some voltage/continuity checks. Something wasn’t right. After digging in a bit, I quickly realized I hadn’t finished a few more crucial electrical items…like putting in the fuses for the two ignition circuits.

That’s what happens when I pick up the wiring from where I left off over a year ago. After doing that, the thing started so smooth and idled very well.

So pumped right now. It’s been 3 years since I took it off the road.

https://youtu.be/Rtxkhn9uT5Y