Ready for Drive

This was an encouraging file name to see on the latest adjusted tune sent to me by ECU Tuning Guru:

The way this process works: I hook my laptop up to my car's ECU and load the latest adjustments sent to me by Tuning Guru. Then turn on Data Logging, start the motor, and run it for a while. Email the data log to Tuning Guru. Receive next round of adjustments from Tuning Guru. Repeat. 

So now it's time to put the wheels back on, get the car on the ground, and drive it around the block in Big Go Kart form. Or, it would be, if I had the active registration required to legally drive this car on public roads. If, anywhere in the rest of this post to follow, there are any words or images that create the impression that I might have been driving my car around the block, these are just figments of your imagination.

Alignment is way off - massive toe out.

Whether or not a hypothetical drive around the block did or did not occur, it was nice to get the car cleaned out, wheels on, and back on the ground. With the seats and dash under wraps and the footwells full of leftovers from the last three jobs, the whole thing looked like a mess of different jobs. Today it got a chance to look like a project car reasonably well progressed toward completion - which was good for the builder's morale.

Nerdy Goodness

The entirely theoretical test drive around the neighborhood may or may not have happened, and if it did happen, it could have happened twice because the first time involved a discovery about torque specs for the water pump pulley bolts. The fan belt jumped ship and made a horrific noise so I stopped car immediately, turned it off, and enlisted some help to push it back to the garage. Or at least that's something that could have happened if I had in fact done a test drive.

By sheer coincidence, I did have occasion to dig around in the donor car fasteners bin and find two bolts of the size that are used for the water pump pulley because by some inexplicable twist of fate I lost two of the three needed for an unspecified job. Before using them, I cleaned up the threads and did some surface rust treatment followed by my favorite re-finish for old fasteners: heating them up to glowing and quenching them in motor oil. It's not truly rustproof but it is somewhat rust resistant and they definitely look nicer afterwards. 

To Do List

Whatever the main weekend activity might or might not have been, I discovered that I have preposterous amounts of negative camber in the rear. The front negative camber is merely ridiculous.

Stance is probably my least favorite automotive trend ever, so this will have to be fixed. 

Also, some of the shocks do this:

Fitting the bodywork will involve some work with the shocks because I'll need to get the ride height and relative position of the wheels correct. I'm not sure exactly where to start this process but I can probably get help on the LMR141 & Replicar group page or from the friendly proprietor of ProTech Shocks Ltd.

I do need to do electrical testing for the headlights brake lights and turn signals because it will be annoying to have to chase down wiring faults with the body on. Also need to do the wrapping / finishing on the engine wiring. But I believe I can declare that I've arrived at the long-anticipated Move On to the Bodywork milestone.