Gas 1600

[garvice]

Closed up the transmission tunnel. Did this in a few small sections rather then one big piece. More welding, but easier fab work. Just got he two small sections at the front to do then I'll clean up the interior a little better and hit it with the etch primer. On to the photos.

Rear section of tunnel.
GAS1600_040_01 by Garvice, on Flickr

Exhaust relief section of tunnel.
GAS1600_040_02 by Garvice, on Flickr

GAS1600_040_03 by Garvice, on Flickr

Section of tunnel over gear lever.
GAS1600_040_04 by Garvice, on Flickr

Middle section of tunnel.
GAS1600_040_05 by Garvice, on Flickr

GAS1600_040_06 by Garvice, on Flickr

And with some seats sitting in there for reference. I think I will steal these RX7 FD seats out of the Z, as they are then free (Z is not on the road at the moment).
GAS1600_040_07 by Garvice, on Flickr

GAS1600_040_09 by Garvice, on Flickr

GAS1600_040_08 by Garvice, on Flickr

I had a more retro style seat in mind, but that might be later down the track. This is the seat I was originally looking at.

[rolin7]

When I first saw your gearbox tunnel I was thinking wtf is he is doing, but now after seeing it all together it friggin perfect, heaps better over factory. Actually follows the theme in newer cars to with the raised centre section.

Awesome fab work, inspiring.

[Shifty]

Agreed.

The only difference is that new cars have a console and flip-top lid there!

[garvice]

Ha! Yep, might look like a modern tunnel, but without the storage space. Ha!

I could have dropped it after the shifter and put a console in, but I think this will be fine.

Keep forgetting to call you shifty. Next time.

[garvice]

FINISHED THE TUNNEL! WooHoo!

Doesn't look like much, but closed up the little holes at the end and tidied up a bunch of little sections that needed final welding/persuading etc. Onto the photos.

Driver's side
GAS1600_041_01 by Garvice, on Flickr

Passenger's side
GAS1600_041_02 by Garvice, on Flickr

And got some primer on. Metal work always looks much nicer with a coat of primer on it.
GAS1600_041_03 by Garvice, on Flickr

GAS1600_041_04 by Garvice, on Flickr

GAS1600_041_05 by Garvice, on Flickr

Next job will be radiator/water piping and electrical dummy fit.

[E-Z]

brilliant work mate

[garvice]

Cheers mate.

[Gin Kii]

Fuck Yer, that actually looks pretty decent with the seats in there. I happily eat my previous words that went something along the lines of "WTF is he thinking doing it like that".

[garvice]

Been a while between posts, but that is because I've been slack and also been away for work.

Got another set of rx7 seats for cheap, so got them positioned up, just have to make a couple of little mounts. No pictures (look much like the ones in the other photos).

Got a radiator around the start of the year, put the engine/transmission in and realised that the air flow meter/intake will hit the radiator (engine really isn't an easy swap into this car). So the radiator will be offset to the passenger side (RHD car) for "better weight distribution", ha. So that means a bit more sheet work on the front end of the car. Started to close up the opening on the driver's side tonight, got to the point where it was ready to weld in and then thought, "I really should just take the whole middle section off the car and just make up a new opening as that will be much neater". At that point I thought it was probably smarter to leave the shed and sleep on it.

Over the last few weeks I have also been running the wiring in the engine bay (will pull it all back out before paint, just making sure it all works). Mounting the three fuse boxes took incredibly long, probably 10-20h of work in making brackets/planning out the install for that wiring so far (though I was procrastinating a whole lot through the work). Running aftermarket wiring is much easier/neater. Also used the firewall entries from the Toyota engine bay, so the wiring will look reasonably neat (just realised that you can't see where the wiring goes through the firewall in the photos, so you will just have to trust me that it looks reasonably neat).

Onto the photos.

Engine bay showing the wiring and the offset radiator.
GAS1600_042_01 by Garvice, on Flickr

Closing in the radiator support panel, will need to cut about 50mm from the passenger side to close it up.
GAS1600_042_02 by Garvice, on Flickr

[E-Z]

God that engine is going to be a beast in this

[Shifty]

Nice work Mr Brad

[yohoes]

This is just fucking awesome

Cant wait to see more progress

[garvice]

Cheers mate. I made the new radiator support tonight. Cut out the whole middle section. Currently spot ended in, will try and seam weld it tomorrow night and chuck up some photos. Also bought a carbide spot weld drill bit from trade tools. It rocks, magnificent tool, wish I'd bought one earlier.

[rolin7]

Winning as usual. Have you got a tentative date for completion?

[garvice]

Rolin, the original plan was a quick and cheap build that was going to be 12-18 months. Which if you go by my first post would put me at around October last year to March this year. Sadly, I'm not going to make the 18months. But in the same breath, this car has ended up being far more then just a couple of little rust patches and get it on the road. So I really only have myself to blame, and the money has taken a hit from a few other things which slowed down things like the engine purchase etc.

So onto the works.

Started mocking up the radiator hoses. Cut some aluminum pipe, will need to weld a 90deg onto drivers side, 90deg onto engine water outlet, join with 45deg silicon hose, then weld straight section to passenger side and join with 90deg silicon hose. Looks pretty simple, but then again I've not really ever welded aluminium. So it might get interesting.
GAS1600_043_06 by Garvice, on Flickr

Then since I couldn't get around to the cooling hoses, I decided to get the radiator support done.
Out with the old.
GAS1600_043_01 by Garvice, on Flickr

In with a new one.
GAS1600_043_02 by Garvice, on Flickr

GAS1600_043_03 by Garvice, on Flickr

GAS1600_043_04 by Garvice, on Flickr

This photo shows just how offset the radiator really is.
GAS1600_043_05 by Garvice, on Flickr