[blu73]

Hello peeps..

Thought i'd start a proper thread for this project..

Anyhow, heres a pic of the new shell, kindly provided free of charge by pranksta, thankyou very much young man!


Its a 899sx, Correct me if i'm wrong but being an sx i don't need to swap the looms over do I?

Although its look pretty sorry for itself at the mo, the shell is in good shape. 1 tiny door dink on passenger side, and evidence of filler on the tailgate but looks good apart from the paint which is no biggy as its going to be resprayed (eventually).

Currently its like a swimming pool inside due to blocked drain-holes on the sunroof, no rear lights so water getting in there too and the rear windows are not really held on by anything.. So i need to get that sorted, i'm using parts from the old car to secure the windows on so all i've been doing so far is stripping out the inside of the old car so that the bits don't get damaged by water..

Got all the seats out, carpet, headliner, rear speakers and amp out today.

Tomorrow i will be sorting the windows and putting the 899 rear lenses back on to get it water tight (need new rear lenses really having had a look at mine, mounts broke on one and the other was cracked and full of water).

Dunno what to do about the drain-holes as of yet as can't for the life of me find the bottom of them but the roof is gaffer taped up and has some plastic of it for now.

Thats it for now, i'll keep updating this thread as i go though, and i'll try remember to take pics as i go as well.

[J333EVO]

rallycinq or even robrandomsruisers are probably best to speak to as they have both done 899-FIRE conversions, but AFAIK yes you need the loom, plus as its a turbo you will need to change over the full ECU set up as well, so that means all the locks have to be changed as well to make sure immobiliser works OK, I found when we built the Imola out of the twisted red car following the accident, that I had to effectively change everything over, TBH it was a PITA and when it came to doing Emma's turbo, we very quickly agreed to rebuild the turbo in its original shell than swap everything over to her original Cinq, as making that a tidy car was much less effort than swapping everything over again, and that was with prior knowledge.

Good luck with it though, its a learning process, label, label and label again everything you remove with regards to teh loom, MF2, fuel cut defender, take pictures of stuff before and during removal, making putting it all together so much easier with visual referance to everything.

Aaron.

[Whiley]

get some welding rods and poke about in the drainage holes probably full of leaves i expect lol

[balidey]

What colour you going for?

[blu73]

Originally Posted by J333EVO but AFAIK yes you need the loom, plus as its a turbo you will need to change over the full ECU set up as well, so that means all the locks have to be changed as well to make sure immobiliser works OK

Yeah i know all the locks etc are gonna need to be swapped. Absolutely everything is coming off the tub though, right down to carpet, headliner and seatbelts thats no worry really, just thought with an sx you could keep the loom as they got electric windows and all that, but might be easier to just swap the loom as its all wired into the mf2 etc.. What you reckon??

Originally Posted by Whiley get some welding rods and poke about in the drainage holes probably full of leaves i expect lol

Not having ever done welding not the sort of thing i have lying around lol, i had the sunroof off t'other day and they are well blocked can get a bit of wire about 1cm in and then its solid, thinking i should push some wire from the bottom as its more than likely just blocked at the top so would have to push it all the way down the pipe but if i do it t'other way then shouldn't be so bad, just finding the god damn holes thats my problem...

Originally Posted by Balidey What colour you going for?

It will be white when its done. but thats along way off, gonna get it all together and working and then save up for a professional respray..

[1986Uno45S]

SlinkyCinqi has also done an 899 to 1242 FIRE conversion so he will know all about wiring looms and stuff. I seem to remember that you might get away with just changing the engine bay wiring loom and and everything from the dashboard forewards. You might be able to simple unplug the engine and dashboard loom from the fuesbox if it's anything like a Uno. Then again, that doesn't leave much left so you might as well change it all if you're stripping and transferring from one shell to another.

As for the sunroof drain tubes, how about pumping compressed air through them? That might shift the blockages

Originally Posted by blu73 It will be white when its done. but thats along way off, gonna get it all together and working and then save up for a professional respray..

You will actually save yourself a lot of time and money if you do the respray to the newly stripped shell than if you did it after you built it all up. Wouldn't be so bad if you're staying the same colour, but with a colour change you'll need to get into all those nooks, crannys and door shuts/ boot/ engine bay etc.

Might not be good for the wallet initially but it will work out cheaper in the long run.

[blu73]

Originally Posted by 1986Uno45S As for the sunroof drain tubes, how about pumping compressed air through them? That might shift the blockages

I htought that but the car isn't going anywhere in its current state and i don't know anyone with air compressor, i'll get it sorted as soon as i spot where they come out the bottom of the shell.

Originally Posted by 1986Uno45S You will actually save yourself a lot of time and money if you do the respray to the newly stripped shell than if you did it after you built it all up. Wouldn't be so bad if you're staying the same colour, but with a colour change you'll need to get into all those nooks, crannys and door shuts/ booy/ engine bay etc. Might not be good for the wallet initially but it will work out cheaper in the long run.

Yeah i know this mate, and have thought about it but i just don't have the funds right now to do it that way. I might get the interior and engine bay done now and leave the exterior til afterwards.. My uncles neighbour has all the stuff to do spraying, having seen some of the cars he's done i'd be more than happy for him to do bay and inside, but want a much more professional job on the outside, i'm considering some blue pearl lacquer over the white on the outside but will just be straight white inside.

[rallycinq]

I changed the whole loom, but you should be able to get away with changing just the front. However the front part is the more difficult bit to do.

Make use of your digicam and photo every joint, once in place and a second time showing them split. The more pictures the better.

Cheers

D

[Whiley]

just paint the engine bay when engines dropped is exactly what i did

[blu73]

Not alot to report but as i'm rarely online atm..

Rear lenses on and new windows on the back of new car, hardly leaking at all now lol.. Just waiting for to stop pissing down with rain so i can sort the roof.

Other than that headunit, amp, rear speakers and all related wiring outta old car.

thats it. no pics as they'd be boring and show the lack of progress i've made lol

Hopefully stop raining soon and i can make some real progress

[gazzaman2k]

you can chop and join the looms, like i did or easiest way is to put the comlete new loom in the car.

[blu73]

update:

Roof is not leaking anymore Changed rear window rubbers over and ones fixed, 1 is still leaking, just need to get it sat right though (was getting dark). So car should be water tight tomorrow.

Also i've swapped the bootlids over. This is because even though my old one has a little dent, the red one has blatantly been repaired at some point and i intend to do some smoothing and i know mine isn't hiding anything nasty under the paint, will fix the dent when smoothing rest of it.

I'm a bit unsure really what to do next now. With the bad weather at the moment i was intending to do the interior next but thinking perhaps i should wait till after the wiring is all sorted as access is gonna be alot easier with it all out.

So i guess i start taking out the engine now. Then the wiring... sound like the right order to you? (think i'm just gonna swap all the wiring over now, should be easier than splicing them together i should think.

(will try upload some pics 2moro but it looks much the same atm tbh)


edit: on the drainhole front, if anyone ever has this problem in the future, if you take the headliner out the whole job become less tiresome, you can tkae the rubber hoses off easy peasy, then you can clear the holes on the roof from behind (much easier!!) and get the hose cleared off the car and re-attach. Just incase someones having the same problem at the mo

[arc]

yeah, next move would be dropping the engine and box. keep at it

[blu73]

okies, thats on the cards for tomorrow then, although i gotta measure up my plot of land 1st thing 2moro as i'm putting in for planning permission to build a house next to mine.. But i shall start disconnecting stuff afterwards (and when i've found some more axle stands to borrow, mine are holding up the old car at the mo so need some more.)

[blu73]

Right just a quick one as theres not much to tell atm,
Stole some axle stands from my uncle and engine is just about ready to drop outta new shell, just driveshafts remain then it can come out.. Not made any more progress than that as i don't fancy doing it on my own without a engine hoist and all my free workers are on holiday at the mo but are back tonight.

Progress is slow atm but its progress nonetheless.

Its not actually raining at the mo so might go get some pics and upload later not that it looks much different.