'00 FRC Hardtop - moar LS/Murica/long distance high speed cruising

[nsogiba]

Time for some tunes

So i pulled the passenger foot kick panel and cut the CD changer connector, and after thinking about how I wanted to route the radio shack connector, I sat down at the kitchen table and soldered wires to the 5 pins using bits of my old GM truck harness from my swap. small scale soldering is not my strong point but I got it done.



I made temporary connections to everything (left the bare shield wires disconnected from anything), stuck a CD in the changer, crossed my fingers, reconnected the battery, and let her rip

_DSC4771 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

SUCCESS! Using a 3.5mm to 3.5mm I was able to get my phone to play music and it sounded great. Figured I'd take it one step further, and plugged in my Miccus Mini Bluetooth adapter, which is a tiny portable unit that takes a bluetooth audio signal (like from your smartphone) and converts it to audio output through a 3.5mm jack. After making sure it was paired properly, that worked perfectly as well! So now I have wireless bluetooth AUX audio through my smartphone, which will be great this summer on those long road trips. Sure beats those expensive AUX converter units

Now I need to clean up this mess, solder and heatshrink everything, and run the aux port into the center cubby where the bluetooth module will be housed.

_DSC4773 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

[loekaaz]

I would like more details and a how-to of that BT stuffs!

oh and your sig is overdue

[nsogiba]

^ i will add some more info on the bluetooth. It's a really slick setup. I need to finish the wiring, it's just wrapped together right now and all shitty.

you're right about the sig! let me see what I can do

[nsogiba]

sig fixed

[Suburuuh]

Liking that 'full retard' exhaust option!

[nsogiba]

Few buddies sent me this, got a chuckle out of it

photo 1 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

I found this guy on ebay, used to love building these as a kid, kinda cool that now I own a car that I can have a model of

photo 3 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

So I was on the fence about the body side moldings but decided to pull them off and I'm really glad I did. It cleaned up the body lines a ton. Spent a couple hours Saturday doing it

Off to Wallyworld to get supplies. I am driving this thing every chance I get!

photo 2 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr
_DSC4774 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Rinse her down with hot water to soften the tape a bit and clean any dirt and grime off

_DSC4776 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

This piece came off with very minimal effort, surprisingly

_DSC4777 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Glue came off easily too. Not the case for the rest of the doors

_DSC4778 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Time to start flossin' baby

_DSC4780 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

So the glue on the door is miserable soft foamy stuff, I spent about half an hour peeling chunks off with my fingernails before I had enough. off to the store to buy this bad boy which was the best thing since sliced bread and craft beer.

_DSC4782 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Very effective but leaves a pretty nasty mess of wax, foam, and dust behind. Worth every single penny

_DSC4783 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4784 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4785 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4786 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Quick wipe down with a microfiber looked great but there was still an imprint of adhesive around the perimeter

_DSC4787 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

I read about horror stories where guys with brightly colored cars down south (read: sun-baked) had a big shade difference when removing theirs. Mine was a NE car stored in a a garage so it was barely visible, especially on a black car. Anyhow out came the DA

_DSC4787 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4788 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4789 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Pulled it out for a quick wash, looks a ton better

_DSC4790 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4791 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4792 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

So I finished out the evening by visiting a friend in Rochester an hour away, chasing my buddy in his M5 the whole way. We did a couple of rips and the car was a blast but the clutch hydraulics will definitely need attention. I had the typical C5 problem of a soft clutch pedal after a couple hard shifts. Already did the Ranger method to clean the clutch fluid and honestly it didn't do squat, so I'll have to do some homework to see what's next.

photo 4 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Depending on the weather this week I might start on the cutouts, stay tuned

[LCG]

you will do that car some justice...

[nsogiba]

luckily this one wasn't touched by Dr Frank

But there's always time for that to happen right?

Thanks for posting, I enjoy your Porsche and E38 threads immensely, one of the main reasons I come on this site. Keep on posting and thanks for stopping by.

[loekaaz]

luckily this one wasn't touched by Dr Frank

But there's always time for that to happen right?

Thanks for posting, I enjoy your Porsche and E38 threads immensely, one of the main reasons I come on this site. Keep on posting and thanks for stopping by.

Don't forget to mention that outrageous goat...

[DER E30]

Nice! I'll watch this

[white out]

Side moulding removal = win

Remove the fender vent plastics. Looks neat without them, might aid in cooling underhood temps, and the ECM is going to get wet anyways.

[nsogiba]

^ I was thinking about that. They're super floppy inside and don't seem to do much.

Did some tuning over the weekend with HPTuners, emissions codes deleted and AIR shut off. I also made a bunch of small changes like lowering the temps at which fans come on, shutting off AIR system, turning off CAGS (skip shift), and repurposing the 1-4 shift light to act as an actual shift light. I set it at 3000rpm for testing and it worked like a charm, so I'll have to change it to 6000 for the real deal. I also got in my LCM5 module to proactively fix the column lock but didn't get a chance to install it. While I had the laptop hooked up I also set the Column Lock Fail parameter to shut off fuel above 284mph in case of CL fail - so good to go there. I'll toss in the LCM5 this week and that should take care of that potential problem permanently. Finally I shut off AIR and rear O2 codes, flashed the tune, and took a ride to get it inspected. Unfortunately flashing the PCM erases it (along with readiness monitors for emissions), so I wasn't able to get a sticker today, but I put a bunch of miles on it Sunday with the wife, so should be good to go in a day or two.

Had a few minutes before dinner Sunday and the weather was nice so I removed the Clutch Over Center spring (partial assist and return) to see if it helped with the sticking pedal - it seemed to have helped a bit but haven't beat on it hard enough to tell for sure. I am also working on a DIY solution for an actual return tension spring but need to think about how I want to attach it...

[nsogiba]

Pulled out the clutch assist spring:

_DSC4884 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4885 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4886 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4887 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Will be fabbing up a real return spring in the next week or so

[nsogiba]

When I bought the car it had some wacky subwoofer fiberglass box in the OEM cargo well. ***** not having room for jumper cables, couple tools, the usual "necessities", so it had to go.


so here's what I started with

_DSC4888 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4889 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4890 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Pulled back the carpet, sure enough they glassed it right to the OEM tub. I'm sure it took somebody a long time to do this because it seemed to look pretty nice but I'm not into big audio and I want my storage space back

They glassed the wood into the shell and then bonded over that as well. Then laid the carpet over it and trimmed it with a knife.

_DSC4891 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

So out came the hammer for some test hits

_DSC4892 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Pretty brittle stuff so it started ok along the stress points

_DSC4893 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

The wood flaked apart easily

_DSC4893 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4894 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4895 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

_DSC4896 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Keeping at it. Sides came away

_DSC4897 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

The pile grows
_DSC4898 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

The final shell in the bottom of the tub proved to be very tricky.

_DSC4899 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

After some more cursing and yanking
_DSC4900 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Finally! I vacuumed everything up
_DSC4901 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

And lined the entire rear with Frost King insulation. No pics of the finished product, I was losing daylight and wanted to get it done.

_DSC4902 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

I finally remounted my 12 CD changer in the OEM spot since they had laid fiberglass in the well where it was supposed it go. New mounting nuts and lockwashers, and now it's like brand new. I am more than pleased with how it came out.

[white out]

Wow, that looks like a total PITA to remove.