General When two becomes one (AKA Operation: Frankenlefty)

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General When two becomes one (AKA Operation: Frankenlefty)

YTUNO

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Some of you may remember that earlier last year I bought a MK1 Uno Turbo on a whim on the way back from Auckland to collect another car.

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BMW E38 740i (Hitler) and MK1 UT (Mario) stopping off in Wanganui on the way to their new home in Wellington.

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Mario and Hitler quenching their thirst

It was looking rather resplendent in its shiny new gun-grey metallic paint (excluding the gold two-tone effect). According to the owner it needed new CVs and some rust fixing in the spare wheel well for a Warrant of Fitness (similar to an MOT for those of a UK disposition).

Lies!!! :D

The small amount of rust in the wheel well turned out to be a boot floor that was more hole than metal and was only being held in shape by the rubber coating. The area in behind the tail lights was also rusted out. Bugger!

Still, nothing some welding and patch panels wouldn't solve. It was going to have to go into the bodyshop to get rid of that hideous gold lower paint anyway.

Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. Let's investigate the body a bit closer just to make sure nothing else is going to need to be done. First step was to remove the plastic bodykit.

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Double bugger!

The search continued and it turned out that the front frame rails were rusted and pretty much any panel you touched reveled rust. Basically the previous owner had had the car dipped in a pool of bog and then painted to look pretty.

The body was clearly a right off. Oh well, the mechanicals all checked out and to buy all of the turbo bits and pieces would have cost me more than $1000 anyway.

Sounds like it's time for a project! :devil:

Now, I already had a MK1 70SL sitting in the garage that I was partially through turning into a toy car when I discovered the Uno Turbo. Should I combine the two and end up with a four door Turbo? Tempting. Very tempting.

However, the 70SL already had a good engine and I preferred the three door body shape of the Turbo. I decided that I would move the 70SL project from track/toy car to "fun run around and weekend dog car".

So the search began for a good three door shell or donor car. After looking at a few MK1 three doors that were effectively just Uno shaped piles of rust I decided that a MK2 donor might be a better option.

As it turns out Mal from Fiat Parts in Cambridge (yes we have a Cambridge too. They even do rowing there, just without the university and the prestige.) had a left hand drive MK2 Uno 1.4ieS that he was willing to part with. It had a warrant and registration and was in tidy condition. Plus, did I mention it was left hand drive? (I'm a sucker for something different)
We agreed on a price and my wife agreed that a long weekend in Cambridge would be nice ;).

Roadtrip on!

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Hitler taking a breather on the Desert Road, about halfway to Cambridge
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This is the first time I have ever seen Mt Ruapehu without a shroud of clouds

We made it safely to Cambridge in about six hours (including stopping for lunch) and found a motel that accepted dogs. No easy task as it turns out! It was no Hilton, but at least it was clean and warm.

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Fine dining and fine accommodation Cambridge style.

The next morning we met Mal in town and after a healthy breakfast it was time to meet "Lefty".
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He is a 1991 1.4ieS and was imported from Germany in 1993 (hence the LHD). He was originally imported into Wellington (so this is also a homecoming trip for Lefty in some ways) as a Diplomatic import with a little over 30,000kms on the clock. The intervening 16 years and 110,000kms had been very kind to Lefty and he was still in very good condition both inside and out. Winner!

My wife and Gracie (dog) elected to travel in Hitler which meant that I got to travel in style. If anything I could say that this Uno was rare
But I thought now forget it, yo home to bel-air. Err I mean Wellington. :)

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By 8pm we were all safely back at home. So far so good!

Now it was just the simple task of moving everything turbo related from Mario into Lefty.

Hmmm Easter was coming up and my friend Steve and I both had some annual leave owing.
Operation: FrankenLefty was born!

And any operation worth doing is worth documenting right? So I thought that I would create this thread to track this project.

Operation: Frankenlefty - Stage One: Prepare the theatre
The first task was to clear out the garage so that we had sufficient room to operate. This meant that Luigi (70SL) would have to live on the driveway for the week.

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Luigi kindly giving up his warm bedroom for his brothers

We then repositioned Lefty and Mario in the garage so that they faced each other. We figured that this would give us plenty of room to move and make the engine swapping phase a little easier.

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Garage prepped, Unos in place and "Muppet Cones" deployed to warn the neighbours that I am about to lower their property values once more. Must be time for Stage Two!

Operation: Frankenlefty - Stage Two: Tear down
The next phase was to strip down both Lefty and Mario and prepare them for the swap. I have decided that as Lefty's primary purpose is to be a track/hill climb/fun car he will be more purposeful than pretty so I'll keep his original blue/green paint scheme for now.

By the end of day one both cars' front suspensions and brakes had been liberated and the engines and gearboxes were ready for removal.

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So far so good!

After a gentle cut through Mario's exhaust pipe (for some reason Mario's pipe was welded into one continuous pipe from turbo manifold through to tail pipe) his engine was ready for its big adventure.

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Steve "gently" removing Mario's exhaust

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Mario's engine is loosened and chained ready for removal

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Mario goes up and the engine comes down. Luigi's original rims and tyres support the block to prevent any damage. Luigi is so generous to his brothers!

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One Turbo engine ready for its new home

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Wheeelieee Uno! :D

With Mario's engine bay looking empty it was time to make some room in Lefty's. The last bolt was removed and the separation was ready.

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For some reason my wife wasn't interested in a group hug at this point.

A strategic hole was drilled in the overhead beam to allow us to support Lefty from above while we lowered and removed the engine.

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$20 drill "letting the smoke out" after drilling through the beam. Still, it was bought to make one hole and it achieved that. Just.

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"I feel pretty, Oh, so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and bright!"

So by the end of day two we had both engines removed and had made a good start on clearing out the engine bays ready for the transfer.

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To be continued...
 
I give this thread an official "Ucof 2 thumbs up" award.
Congratulations :)
 
Lol, thanks guys.

Now where was I up to? Oh yes, Day three.

After successfully removing both engines the day before we decided to tackle the interiors so that we could get to the wiring looms. Steve leapt into Mario while I decided to get better acquainted with Lefty.

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Mario devouring Steve. Sadly only his legs were left. Moral of the story: Never **** off an Uno :p

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Mario's interior was stripped out in short order. It turns out that Mario's second body was based on a blue Sting. The bonnet used to be red and the hatch appears to be from the original UT that was Grey Metallic. To say that Mario was a bit of a mongrel is probably understating things somewhat.

Unfortunately we also learned at this stage that Mario's wiring loom had been hacked and grafted into the remains of the Sting's loom. Triple bugger.

Meanwhile I carried on stripping out the interior of Lefty. Apparently MK2 dashes are much more firmly attached than MK1's. One of the many differences between MK1s and MK2s that we would discover, but more on that later.

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Mmm factory fresh wiring...

By the afternoon we had successfully removed the wiring looms from both cars and I was well on the way to creating a driveway sculpture out of Lefty's interior. Unfortunately, the neighbours didn't appreciate my artistic talents.

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Mount Lefty

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There is a surprising amount of room in an Uno when there is no interior.

Right, now we're ready to introduce Lefty to his new turbocharged heart. Which means we must be up to...

Operation: Frankenlefty - Stage Three: Lefty's new heart


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We used the trusty engine hoist to lift the engine into place and Lefty was well on the way to moving under his own steam again. We reaffixed the engine and gearbox mounts and fitted the ECUs and ignition coil into their temporary homes.

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Suddenly it was starting to seem like this project might just be getting somewhere. So we decided to call it a night and start the wiring with a fresh mind in the morning.

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Wiring wiring everywhere...

Steve leapt in and started trying to sort out the wiring loom. Luckily he had labeled the wiring before removing it from Luigi. Unfortunately it didn't match any of the colour schemes referred to in any of the manuals I had for the Uno. This meant that we effectively had to reconstruct our own loom.

While Steve was working on the wiring I kept myself busy moving Mario's hubs over to Lefty so that the Turbo's thicker driveshafts would fit. I also made the most of the opportunity and decided to replace the CV joints. Well, I didn't really have a choice as one was completely knackered (it fell off in my hand). After a thorough search through part suppliers InterParts managed to find the only set in the country! Apparently they were listed as Lancia Delta Intergrale CVs.

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Shiny new CVs. No more clicking now! Damn expensive though, they cost me half as much as what I bought Lefty for

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Old CV joint. This one was dead. The passenger side one wasn't actually too bad, but we replaced both anyway.

Judging by the swearing coming from Steve's direction I could tell that the wiring wasn't going too well. We decided to have a break for a bit and consult the electronic wiring diagrams so that we could zoom in and follow the individual wires.

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After staring at the computer screen for a couple of hours we had a breakthrough and rushed up to the garage to try out our theory as to where the pesky yellow wire lived. Result! FrakenLefty coughed into life for the first time.

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This one wire caused Steve hours of frustration and prevented FrakenLefty from roaring into life

The only problem was that as we had hardwired the ignition we didn't have a way of stopping the engine and we had not yet hooked up the radiator. Rather than letting the engine overheat and seize, undoing all of our good work, we both reached for the coil lead. It successfully stopped the engine, but gave both of us a nasty electric shock. No matter, FrankenLefty was alive and we could move on to...

Operation: Frankenlefty - Stage Four: Getting warmer...warmer

The next day Steve began finalising the wiring. As FrankenLefty was going to be mainly track focused we decided to forgo the key ignition and go with a starter button, battery isolator and separate power sources for the fuel pump and ECU.

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Steve getting comfy with the wiring. He spent most of the day in this position. Well, that or laying upside down inside Lefty.

While Steve was enjoying the smell of solder I moved on to installing the front brakes, front suspension and fitting the gear linkages. Apparently the gear linkages are another point of difference between MK1 and MK2. MK2's exit through the firewall whereas MK1's extend out from under the gearlever. Luckily the MK2 shell still has the hole and mounting brackets needed to fit the MK1 parts.

The good thing was that after the hubs and brakes were fitted and the everything else was pretty well buttoned up I could fit the Turbo alloys.

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At first I wasn't sure about the white wheels against the blue/green paint but now they are starting to grow on me.

We then lowered the front down from the jackstands and jacked up the rear of the car so that we could remove the rear section of Lefty's exhaust and fit the new rear suspension. I also need to swap the rear subframe for the Turbo version with disk brakes but this will come later. For the target is to get Frakenlefty rolling under his own power.

Speaking of which, it's time for our first test drive!!

First I had to maneuver FrakenLefty out of his home for the week.
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It sounds a bit like a tractor because it is still missing an exhaust.

The testdrive went well. All things considered.
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This pretty much brings us up to date. We parked FrankenLefty in the middle of the garage and moved Luigi back into the warmth.

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Now in the short term I have the following tasks to complete:
  • Figure out the dash arrangement. The MK2 dash won't fit Mario's cluster and Mario's dash won't work because of Lefty's LHD arrangement.
  • Mount the battery isolator, starter button and switches
  • Complete the wiring for the tail lights, indicators and headlights
  • Mount the front bumper, grill and bonnet
  • Get a new exhaust fitted so that FrankenLefty no longer sounds like a John Deer
  • Fit a passenger seat
  • Complete the strip down of Mario so that he can be sent off to the big carpark in the sky and Hitler can regain his spot in the top garage.

Ideally I need to get this done by the middle of May in time for the Trials season to start.

Then in the longer term I need to:
  • Fit Mario's rear subframe
  • Decide on whether I want to convert the exterior to back to a MK1 or leave it as a MK2
  • Fit the Turbo bodykit
  • Rollcage and extinguisher set up
  • Race seats and belts

To be continued...
 
Now, it all makes sense. I noticed you had an LHD Uno mentioned in one of your signatures... and I wondered why Mal had stopped trying to sell me that ex-Germany LHD Mk2 Uno 70SXie three-door. I was the obvious target, since I save Unos (apparently) :p

I've actually had the joy of manouvring that Uno around the yard and certainly it was a weird experience having everything on the 'wrong' side :) I would definitely have converted it to RHD, but didn't have a Mk2 interior to do that with.

Obviously I'm really happy that it's gone to a better home than I would have provided (note that you now have a better engine for Luigi as well).

I'm guessing you had also dulled-down Mario with some grey primer in place of the gold paint?

I like your witty writing style, if not your fashion style (second-to-last pic) :D

-Alex
 
oi!!!! have you nicked my wheels!!!!! cheeky buggers:p

very nice work btw, outstanding effort, and a really quick turn around(y)

i wish my garage was even half as big as yours:( still, i hear container shipping rates are still falling....maybe my idea to send all my bits south to you and alex and have both mine rebuilt is not so far fetched after all:chin:
 
Obviously we were both writing at the same time - usually a rare problem on this forum :p EDIT: And Jai too! :eek: must be a quiet day at work!

I wonder why you don't use Mario's parts to convert to RHD - just some bolt-on parts (steering rack, which you want to change anyway as the Turbo rack is ever-so-slightly 'quicker' - higher-geared, less turns lock to lock, pedal box including cross-rod and brackets for servo/master cylinder, and the wiring which you have presumably transferred.)

I think the shell changes between Mk1 and Mk2 for the dashboard are only the top mounting brackets?

-Alex
 
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it looks like you have forgotten to swap to the uno turbo steering rack - its 1.5 turns faster lock to lock than the standard rack....

.....this will help you catch those mental rear end moments when your bombing it along your timed stage ;) :p :D
 
Yeah Alex I think that Mal was pleased to see the back of Lefty :D

I considered converting it over to RHD but it isn't quite as simple as first thought as you need to move the steering column support which requires some cutting and welding.

The car will most likely be torn down again at the end of the year for a full repaint and track prepping (rollcage and seam welding). I might convert it then (well technically the guys at my dad's restoration shop might convert it then ;)). Although LHD is supposedly better for NZ tracks anyway and it has kind of grown on me. Even if I do sometimes grab the wrong gear or look out the window when looking for the rearview mirror :eek:

You guys are too good! We did leave the standard rack in place I will swap that over in the future, but in the meantime Lefty's rack may be better for Trials...
 
Yes Alex, you should know that converting to RHD isnt as easy as simply putting in the RHD interior. Also that would mean going with the mk1 interior (although this would probably be a good idea because then you could use the UT instruments - boost gauge etc). Never know you might be able to get a LHD mk2 UT instruments and steering rack from somewhere...

I personally would keep it LHD, as with you guys I like the idea of having something a bit different (hence I've never owned a corolla).

being LHD is only really an advantage on anti-clockwise race tracks (like Taupo). I dont know what way Manfield goes, but Pukekohe and Hampton Downs are clockwise. Motorkahnas tend to be anit-clockwise, so that would be useful.

I also agree with Alex, the engine from the LHD Uno would go really well in the 70SL that you have.

I hope you like the picture I've attached :) this is an Autocross we did 2 years ago (Mal behind the wheel).
 

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Ha ha! Thanks JJ that photo is awesome. I'm pleased to see that Lefty already has some "motorsport" heritage :D

The interior is likely to be a bit of a bitsa. The rear and passenger seats from Mario are in good condition and the carpet is in excellent condition so I'll use those in FrankenLefty (with the passenger seat now becoming the driver's seat) and I'll get the other front seat recovered using the fabric from some good UT rear seats I have.

Mario's cluster should work with a LHD MK1 dash, if I could find one. At the moment I have it cable tied to the dash support rail as the interior is still dashless anyway.

And on the good news front! I've managed to score a Mazda GTR fuel pump which fits into the in-tank cradle that is fitted to Lefty's tank. This is great because Lefty's fuel pump isn't really keeping up with the turbo's requirements and I couldn't use Mario's as that is an external fitment (same as a MK2 apparently).
 
You mentioned that you are bypassing the ignition switch. I've noticed that most people who come to our club events still use the key to start their car. Its more practical, and since it works fine then theres no need to replace it.

In fact as a general rule the standard wiring loom works fine.

I keep my race car road legal since this means a couple of things:
1. Every now and then (more often that I should) I use the race car to drive to work :) its more fun and is a good way of testing the car.
2. It means I can drive my car to the race track, which saves a whole heap of hassel.
 
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It currently has a reg and WOF and I intend to keep it that way if I can for exactly the reasons you mention. Why would a push button start preclude it from getting a WOF?
 
A push button start wouldn't stop it from getting a WOF.

In my opinion modifications to a race car should only be done if it makes the car safer or faster. Some people go a bit silly when making a race car. Like spending HUGE amounts of money and time saving weight, when a quick trip to the loo before the race would make as much difference.

Maybe using a push button setup would be more reliable, but not by much. Also removing the ignition barrel would remove the steering lock, which I guess would be a good safey feature. Seems like a lot of effort to me.
 
It wasn't really done to save weight or anything. It was done to make it more simple. The old wiring loom had been hacked up pretty badly and it just seemed easier to start from scratch.

On the plus side I have now swapped in the new fuel pump from the Mazda GTR. Lefty now accelerates properly and builds boost nicely. The old 1.4 SPI fuel pump was only delivering 20-30psi (we installed a fuel pressure gauge) and the new one is delivering a constant 40psi. Whizzer (y)

On the oh bugger side, I took Lefty down to get his exhaust welded back together. Unfortunately Mario's exhaust is pretty much only worth scrap. The rear resonator has a hole and it was solid mounted rather than flexi mounted. I've ordered a new 2.5" resonator and exhaust system to be fitted tomorrow. It is going to be dubious as to whether it is "legal" as it will be louder than a standard Uno, but it will be quieter than what Mario had. I guess I'll find out when I take Lefty in to be certified.
 
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