This is going to be my last post on this blog. I sold my kit yesterday. I’ve accepted that I just don’t have the time or money to put into it. Having a full time job and a full time business on the side doesn’t leave a lot of free time to work on a project car like this.
I was very surprised at how depressing it was selling the kit. I thought I would feel relief, like a black cloud over my head was gone. I do feel a certain amount of relief but it’s pretty darn sad too.
My wife says in 6 months I’ll be talking about getting another kit car to replace it. The responsible adult in me shrugs it off. The realist in me secretly thinks I’ll be surprised if it takes 6 months.
Here is my final picture of the kit, as it’s being hauled away.
Diablo being taken to it's new home
Since my last post far too long ago I’ve finished the steering with the exception to the welding. Nothing that will keep it from being steerable while I have my wife push me around in it so I can pretend.
In my last post I mentioned I had it all in but couldn’t get the old rod ends off. Well I tried everything, liquid wrench, heat, etc. I took the rack out and put it in a vice, no luck. That’s what happens when you try to get cheap and use old parts apparently. So I got a remanufactured one. That went in so much easier.
So now it has steering and I’ve put the wheels on it. Next step is to get the floor put in, then I’m going to do some body work. Look for my next post sometime in the next 6 months.
Over the weekend I mostly completed the steering system, at least as much as I can at this time. It was more difficult than I thought. Seemed simple enough, the steering rack just bolts in with 4 bolts. Problem was the chassis had two nuts welded in on the inside of the tubes and they were slightly off center. So when I threaded the bolt in it was hitting the edge of the hole in the tube, making it seem like I was stripping the bolt. In addition, one the top two bolts was slightly off so I had to elongate it.
After all that fun we bolted in the steering column which went much more smoothly. The column did require some modification but no big deal. I still have to weld the insert into the end of the column, right now it’s just sitting in there. I also have a u-bolt to weld to the chassis to support the column. Not real sure how I will do that, there isn’t much room there at all. I might get a longer one which will be a lot easier to weld in. I can’t do any of that welding until I get a 220v circuit for my welder installed though. Maybe that should be my next focus.
The last piece to the steering was to swap out the tie rod ends on the rack with Corvette ones. Easier said than done. The old ones were frozen on to my junk yard rack. There are certain parts that you probably should not get cheap with and I’m starting to think the steering rack is one of them. I sprayed a bunch of liquid wrench on them and I’ll probably try again last night. It occurred to me I probably should have removed them in the vice before installing the rack. I really don’t want to remove it again.
I need to find a cheapo steering wheel so I can get everything centered.
Now that this part is mostly done I need to figure out what to attack next. I probably should do the pedals and the brake and clutch lines, but that sounds difficult and I need something relatively easy to do now. Whenever I work on these pain in the ass areas I get frustrated and stop working on the car for long periods of time. I need to do something easy so I can get enthused about working on it again.
Woohoo! The chassis is on the ground! This was my first major milestone. I think for the last 6 months or so I’ve said “I plan to have it on all fours next week”. Well, I finally did it. There is still that one bracket I have to weld on for the rear suspension but it isn’t necessary to have it on the ground. I will definately have to get that done before it’s driveable though.
Does this view make my rear look wide?
My next goal is to have the steering system in place by the end of the month.
I feel like I have gotten a lot done lately. I never did get the rear suspension finished but I’m close. Well, sort of. I have to weld on a bracket but I don’t have my welder hooked up yet so that will have to wait. That shouldn’t keep me from getting the wheels on and lined up. My plan is to get the front wheels on, put the front on the ground, put the rear wheels on, lower the rear so the frame rails are parallel to the ground, then align the suspension. Then step back and enjoy this milestone. It will be the first time the chassis has stood on it’s own. I was going to do that the other night but the front wheel studs are too long so I will have to trim about 1/4″ off of them. I should have that done this week.
In other news, I’ve gotten the garage a little bit more organized. To make room I temporarily bolted the trans to the motor and bolted them into the chassis. Of course now I have less room to work on the suspension. I also have temporarily positioned the sheet metal in the car. And we got some shelves for organizing the parts. The chassis is starting to look a little more like a real car.
I wasted a whole lot of time over the last few days. I wanted to have the rear of the suspension on, put the wheels on and put it on the ground to see how she looks. Of course that didn’t happen. I’m starting to sound like a broken record. Well….. I mentioned in my last post that I was having a hard time sanding down the hub to fit in the wheel. I finally got that to fit acceptably but then realized the shiny new wheel studs were too long. Strange, they weren’t much longer than the old ones but whatever. So I shortened them. Then shortened them some more. Of course it was a PITA and took too long cuz I wasn’t using the right tools. Then it occurs to me. I forgot the put the brake roter on the hub before test fitting it. Son of a……. The thickness of the rotor more than covers the base of the hub where I was having that problem. And I most likely didn’t have to shorten the wheel studs. At least I didn’t shorten them too much. So in the end, everything I did on the Diablo over the last few days with the exception of pressing in the new wheel studs was a waste of time. And I feel very foolish for making such a stupid mistake.
I started working on the rear suspension last night. I disassembled the hub on one side, pressed out the old wheel studs and sanded down the hub. That was a P.I.T.A. A belt sander works real well for most of it, but it can’t get the base of the hub. So I used various methods of sanding that down. After spending far too long on it I think I finally have that one side done. Hopefully this weekend I can get the entire rear suspension done and just for fun bolt the wheels on and see how she looks on all fours.
I actually made a bit of progress over the long weekend. My original goal was to get the motor and trans bolted together and temporarily installed in the chassis. Unfortunately I lost the instructions for my adapter kit so I had to figure it out on my own. That meant I did a lot of bolting things on, then taking them off. We finally got it all together and tried to mate the engine and trans, but it wouldn’t fit. Then I realized what that one extra part I had was for. It’s a replacement pilot bearing. So I have to get a bearing puller and pull out the old one and put in the new one. I should be doing that this week. Then I have no excuses for not getting the motor in.
I also worked on the front suspension. I disassembled the hub assemblies, pressed out the wheel studs, sanded down the hubs so they would fit in my Lamborghini wheels, then pressed in new longer studs. I reassembled the hub assemblies with new hardware, installed poly bushings in the lower control arms and loosely bolted it all on the chassis. I need some new bolts, nuts and washers before I can torque it all down. Unfortunately, I forgot to coat the lower shock mounts. I planned to coat them with Gun Kote. I should be refinishing a rifle in the next few weeks so I will just coat them then.
It feels really good to make some progress. Hopefully that will keep me going and I can get a lot more work done. I will have some new pics in the gallery soon.
I said the other day I hoped to have the suspension on the car this weekend. I wish I could say that happened, especially after banging my shins onto parts of it while working on my bike. I had forgotten that I have to replace the wheel studs before I mount the suspension and after looking at it it will be more difficult than I thought. I did get the shock mounts coated with gun-kote though. It’s probably overkill but I like the stuff so why not.
After all this time I have a teeny tiny update. If you recall (or if you never new) when I bought 40th Anniversary Murcielago wheels and tires for my build. One of the front tires had been removed for some reason. They supposedly only have 300 miles on them. Last night I had the tire mounted and now I know why it was removed. There is a small hole in it. Bummer, but not a huge deal right now. I will plug the hole and it will be good enough for moving around the garage. I will have to replace it when (if) I get it on the road though.
With any luck I might work on the suspension a bit this weekend. I have been working on other projects that take priority over this one. I am getting frustrated with all the parts taking up space in my small garage. If I get the suspension bolted on and maybe get the engine and trans mounted I would have much more room to work. That’s a good excuse to work on this instead of my other projects I think.
