Good Lord.

so not alot has been going on in this thread for the last 2 month, so i figured i should do something about that

still havent got the car in colour yet, still getting all the panels ready then gotta do all the small things like hinges and such
but i thought in the mean time i should get the other wagon going so that i can get the mechanical parts of the car that i need for rego time all ready. rebuilt the carby as it seemed to be the weak link in the engine, turned out that the top 2 halves werent even remotely flat so when there was no gasket in there and it was bolted together you could quite easily see straight through the large gap. lots of filing later it was flat again and the engine runs
then the clutch was stuck to the flywheel. so i had to do some no clutch starts and driving, then after a bit of on and off the throttle in 1st with the clutch in the thing snapped free.
so the other wagon now starts and drives. no brakes other than the handbrake but that will do for now

also made a bit of a start on sorting out the rear coil setup that i'll be making for it later on. need to figure out what length coilover shock i can fit in the back so that i can order them while the dollar is good
probably be getting these from summit racing

12 inches is the tallest i can fit straight up and down if the bottom strut mount is 4.5 inchs below the diff centre line(same as where the shock mount is)
can fit longer on an angle but the only reason to go longer would be to get a shock with more travel...but as its then on an angle the affective vertical travel would probably be about the same as a shorter shock
can get the same thing but 2 way adjustables, but they are twice the price and can probably get away with the 1 ways

so to mount all this in i'll be making new diff mounts, obviously, and cutting the crossmember above the diff that the shocks mount to out and remaking it out of 4 or 5mm wall 75x50 rhs, and bracing the chassis rails where it meets them accordingly. i'll be knotching the centre of the crossmember rather than having it go straight across so that i can some extra clearance to the diff

heres a ppic of under the car so you can visualise




going to be a 2 link setup with 2 bottom arms that mount to 2 points in the diff each and one where the front leaf mount is. and then a panhard to hold it centred
going this setup as there is no room for top arms and i will have at most 3 inchs of suspention travel so i dont see the change in pinion angle as the suspention moves as much of an issue

a dodgy pic incase you cant follow the description




and as the crossmember will now end further back i will have to make a new fuel tank, which works out nicely as i'll be making it an intank fuel pump setup with swirl pot and baffling it all up. getting rid of the spare wheel that sits under the tank originally and replacing it with extra fuel capacity, aiming for about 60 litres

so for the actual progress that i made, i mocked the fuel tank up out of cardboard to see how it will all fit in. make it about the same depth as stock so i shouldnt hang much lower that the original tank, i made it skinnier so that i can possibly fit another muffler beside the tank incase i want to go to 3 inch exhaust later on with 2 straight through mufflers, and its 50mm shorter so suit the new crossmember design










also bought a new unitig ac/dc pulse tigso at the end of the week i will have the ability to weld alloy. dont know yet wether to go alloy or stainless for the tank. yet to price up either material but that will come later on
stainless would be easier as it would require less welding as it can all be cut in one piece and folded up so there will be no welding at the bottom of the tank. pipe will also be easier to get in stainless as worst case i can weld mild to it

and then last night after i'd done my ultra cool fuel tank i noticed that my CA is still sitting around getting no love. well its had a bit of love with some nicely bead blasted alternator cover/housing bits, also bead blasted the front housing of the turbo so that it looked all shiny and new. but they dont really count compared to this

i think i didnt do a half bad job for half a days work between drinking eating and helping a mate get his 351 xc almost to the point of being finished
anyways, enjoy some pics























that was going to be one of the jobs i left till last as it really didnt need to be done till the car had actually been registered and made it onto the road. but i ran out of stuff to do so thought i'd give it a crack
didnt turn out to be too hard as i didnt originally thinkg that all 4 pipes would actually make it into the colector so i was going to join #1 into the back of #2 and then just go single pipe into the collector. but it all just kinda worked out
have to figure out what sorta order to weld stuff up in and then once its all welded up i'll get the flange milled flat and it should be ready to go
might even look into heat proof coatings, ceramic coating or somehting like that to keep the heat in and directed at the turbo

also should thank simon(sikyne) for providing all the bends i used for a nice price. only used a bit over half of what i bought from him and its still going to end up nice and cheap

Great job your doing there pigdog! The wags ideas look sick...!
The Aussie dollar is kickn ass and making things great for car part buying ha :)
That mani you have made up looks great. Time consuming but real good. When you deside to get rid of it PM me cause il gladly take it off you! Remember that down the track lol.
Top work mate. Need to catch up soon and swap parts and meet each other!

so ive been looking a little more into the coilovers that will suit, got 3 that ive been looking at

________________________comp____exten______travel

3955________$170-307____9.5_____12.625_____3.125
________________________241.3___320.675____79.375

CB-101______$165________9.5_____12.75______3.25
________________________241.3___323.85_____82.55

S5203_______$160________9.5_____12.84______3.34
________________________241.3___326.136____84.836

3955 is QA1 precision brand 12 point stiffness adjustment, so both bump and rebound at the same time. revalvable and rebuildable...but i think they only have places in the US so that could be a bit hard to do

S5203 is Strange engineering, 10 point rebound adjustment, no bump adjustment...only real advantage over the QA1 coilover is the extra 5mm of travel

CB-101-P is heidts brand, 10 point adjustment...guessing its also just rebound. seems to be designed to be used in old mustang and camaro front ends...can find absolutely nothing on these shocks other than what summit racing says which isnt a whole lot of help

if i had a bottomless bank account these ohlins coilovers would be the go...but they are a little out of the price range

EDIT, think QA1 is the winner. found out a guy in the US that my brother buys a bit of stuff from is a supplier of them. $150 for single adjustable, $260 for double. and he just had a sale so double adjustable pair with springs was $575...i think i can afford that

nice nice cant wait to see it

2 sexy
love the green rocker cover
love the coilovers
love Mercs of all kinds
miss my coupe

havent actually driven the merc for a while D, as its been off the road getting the brakes fixed...but in the mean time i have driven an SLS, guess that kinda makes up for it

wow! great work piggy, love the manifold, and the drop tank. tig hey, well looks like that pleumn is one step clost for the su manifold
so not having my car gave you time to make progress lol. get some gas to finish off the miging of the firewall lol

Cant wait to see this thing on the road- ow thats its pretty much perfect painting weather.

I was happy in Japan with an SLK for a few weeks
until the Kyoto traffic did my head in