Reventon build

[SchulzeA]

Looks like its coming together nicely 

[lance345]

Well, I finally had something (arguably) worthy of taking a picture of, so I did. If not for more than motivating myself.

I had a long hangup waiting for the lift to arrive. How do people do these stretches without one? I tried and finally had a breakdown and bought one. My pocketbook is in therapy on Tuesdays due to it. That allowed me to finish the stretch, get everything back in, and GET THE CAR RUNNING!! That was maybe the proudest moment for me so far. Wasn't hard at all, just the uncertainty of it being my first time I kept wondering 'did I miss something?'

Huge thanks to Texas for helping me out with ordering rims. His contact has been great so far, and after talking with him today my rims should be going to polishing and powdercoating tomorrow. As you can see the car looks pretty funny with the mr2 rims. On that note I now have OEM lambo rims "Calisto" with Hankook Evo rubber on them (all brand new) for sale. See my earlier pics.

I'm holding off on attaching the body or repairing the rocker until I have the wheels so I can make sure everything looks good and aligns well. In the meantime I'm starting bodywork. The whole body comes with a ridge from the seams of the molds, and as Texas has shown, a ton of problems. I have most of the ridge down, and I'll probably be cutting the sail panel and rocker vents out soon to do a redo.  I also have the front headlight buckets sanded and ready to paint black, and I bought carbon fiber to lay in them for a more OEM look. I'm debating doing some more carbon fiber work on the car. It's not OEM, but I think it'd look good and this is a Lancoghini now! I also think I'm going to go with a factory paint color, but do some fun stuff to make it mine. I will have to practice my airbrushing again 

[lance345]

Stretch is about 90% done. All the welding is done, so all I have left is the stretch some lines under the car (brake, clutch, coolant, AC) and put the gas tank back in. I'm expecting the gas tank to be a situation all to itself since it's perfectly molded to the inside of the center console. Lots of tweakin to get it back in I'm sure, but I'm waiting for a lift I ordered to get here to do it all. I jacked up the car and tried but got claustrophobic. It's also been -30C (I think that's about -25F?) and I don't have a heated garage, so I work until my feet go numb then head inside.

While I wait I'm getting the body ready to go on. I spent the last couple days slowly cutting away what I needed to from the car and I'm pretty close. Might start welding some supports onto the car and fiberglassing or panel bonding some metal plates onto the bodykit.

If Tex happens to get on would you have any pics of attaching your windshield support? The bottom of mine does not match up even close to the bodykit - it's about half way into the door opening on each side. I don't know if it's an overall too wide problem, or an angling problem.

[lance345]

Finally put the pics on my computer. I took tons, so I'm trying to just put up the ones that give a good representation of what I'm doing.

I was asked by a friend of mine that looked at the thread, "what is sleeving". I'm sure most people here know, but I'll give a quick description for those people I refer here that have little experience 

Sleeving (some people call it fish scaling) is where you double up the metal along the seam of a weld. This is done by making a piece of metal that fits inside/behind where the butt weld will be, and you spot weld it on both sides of the seam weld. This creates a lot of reinforcement of the seam weld both in terms of the metal being double thick, but also if for any reason the weld would fail, there is a great deal more holding the weld. Why do it? Well to start with here where I live you have to. Any time you are dealing with a structural part of the car it has to be sleeved. Aside from that it creates a much safer weld. Odds are far, far greater that the metal will fail than my weld area. NOTE: you will notice that sleeves aren't pretty or perfect, they just need to be functional to reinforce the seam.

If you compare the pics I attached here with pics I attached previously, you'll notice the sleeves have been spot welded in everywhere except the floor pans. This gives a good example of what I'm talking about. The floor pans won't be sleeved as 1. They aren't a load bearing part of the car  2. It is 22 gague steel, which makes it really hard to weld. It burns back really bad, so we have another way to deal with it in autobody.

Sorry if this is useless info to most, but to those it isn't I hope it helps 

As always, please feel free to critique, comment, or ask questions.

[lance345]

Just a quick update, I'm in the process of sleeving the rocker and the center console. It's been way more time consuming than I imagined, especially when I set myself back about 4 hours from a stupid weld or cut, but it's a real gray area here if what I'm doing is even allowed. Anything I don't like the look of I redo.

Hopefully have the welding done by the end of the week, and then pics and vids. I've been taking some as I go, but I'm too lazy to post them most times I sit down at the computer.

[No Bull]

Those rims look really good!   

Chris

[lance345]

Thanks 01Lambiero, I'll try to remember to do that from now on. Sorry to all that are getting weird neck cramps.

Just got my wheels today and ran them to a shop to be mounted and balanced. Happened to talk to a friendly mechanic that likes cash so I may have someone to do my clutch and brake lines for cheap so I don't have to buy a flarer, bender, etc...

[01Lambiero]

Turn your phone sideways when taking pics.

[lance345]

Got the stretch done today (not welded, just stretched)

I have 2 quick pics attached. The first is just a pic of the stretch of 10.5", and the second is the idea that I stole from apsara in solrac's reventon build diary. I didn't want to use round tube as I'd find it really hard to weld to the frame, so I used square tubing - 1and1/4 pieces that are 6" long before and after the cut, then slid in a 2ft long piece of 1" and tacked it to one of the tubes. Just like the diagram in the other thread it worked perfect. As soon as I was all the way through the car it sagged a bit since the tubes weren't perfect (they had a bit of play) but they held up fine. I walked side to side sliding the car along the rail 1" at a time until I hit my 10.5" stretch. Took maybe 2hrs altogether from starting cutting to getting it stretched and the rails just tacked up for now so the rockers will stay at 10.5 while I take measurements and tweak.

Quick note: I cut behind where the rails were before I welded them on, otherwise it would suck to get the body cut and not hit the rails.

So now the car is sitting on one low rise jack on each side, and I have a 2x1 beam held up with a jackall under the center console. Just trying to take some pressure off my rails, and the tube under the console eliminated the rest of the sag in the frame that I DO NOT want to weld in. I've done about 6 diagonal measurements and seem to be within 1mm, but I'm going to do more then start the welding. I'm thinking of putting a piece of 4x1 in the rocker panel to start, then sleeving the rest of the rocker, sleeve the center console, angle iron at the top and bottom of it, then the quickie floor pans. We'll see how it goes, but I think this is my plan.

I'm very interested to see if anyone has some advice or OMG STOP for this part, as it's the most critical that I can think of. No comments on my welding though  , I know it's not pretty but it worked, and I think I'll get a welder friend of mine to do the seam welding for me. I'll just tack everything up for him. Not sure though. I'm quite indecisive until I decide 

edit: why do my pics always go sideways? they are taken vertically and on my comp view vertically.

[lance345]

Thanks for the reply Tex, I appreciate the advice.

All the housekeeping on the car is done in prep for the stretch. I was hoping to get that and the cutting done today, but people keep stopping by to see this magical process they don't believe. I'll take some pics I think tomorrow of the little things I did to try and - hopefully- make the stretch easier (thanks in a huge part to aspara). This is my first time so I won't learn if it works until I cut and pull, but I have faith. There are many people on here smarter than I am, and I'm stealing all the ideas 

[Texas]

The wheels are 19", 11 or 11.5 rear (putting 305 on them), and 8.5 front. They were on ebay for 4k shipped brand new and seem to be oem as advertised. Being in Canada the shipping killed me on a lot of options, and I like these wheels. I know they are gallardo wheels but they are what fit in the budget.

Anyone (Maybe Tex) know how wide of spacers we need on an mr2? I bought 2 1.25" adapters and while I didn't mount the rim and body I mocked them up and I think they will be too thin for front or back. Where is a good resource for adapters? I found lots of spacers that go up to 3", but not adapters. Are people putting spacers then adapters? That seems kinda crazy to me.

I love bikes. We only get a few good months of riding here in summer but I'm out for every one of them. Trail, track, and a crazy type of riding called trials. If you want to see some really amazing stuff, youtube motorcycle trials 

Sorry bud I am not sure about an MR2. However there are many adapter company's out there that can make you the size you need. I measured the distance from one rear wheel opening to the other and my measurement was 81in wide and this may vary from one car to another so you will need to get all the measurements on your car rather then people throwing numbers at you. When you get the body on the MR2 put the car on jackstands with the weight of the car on it's suspension then test fit the wheels so they have the right clearance then measure from the hub to the wheel and you will have the measurement you need for the spacer/adapter. I am having custom wheels made so I can minimize the spacer distance so the best advise I can give is to measure many times then recheck before you make the leap.

[lance345]

The wheels are 19", 11 or 11.5 rear (putting 305 on them), and 8.5 front. They were on ebay for 4k shipped brand new and seem to be oem as advertised. Being in Canada the shipping killed me on a lot of options, and I like these wheels. I know they are gallardo wheels but they are what fit in the budget.

Anyone (Maybe Tex) know how wide of spacers we need on an mr2? I bought 2 1.25" adapters and while I didn't mount the rim and body I mocked them up and I think they will be too thin for front or back. Where is a good resource for adapters? I found lots of spacers that go up to 3", but not adapters. Are people putting spacers then adapters? That seems kinda crazy to me.

I love bikes. We only get a few good months of riding here in summer but I'm out for every one of them. Trail, track, and a crazy type of riding called trials. If you want to see some really amazing stuff, youtube motorcycle trials   

[Jackal]

Really nice wheels

Are they narrow and wide (sure they are) and what size and price?

Cheers
Jackal

It is really funny. Whenever you see these builds there's always an offroad bike in the back. My earlier pics were no different! Looks like we all fit a similar phsycological profile.

[lance345]

Ok, it literally took me 6 hrs to get the gas tank out yesterday.
Tips for others: Do not try and do it on jack stands. Just don't. Even if you have the clearance like I did - I would have given anything for a lift. Also, it would have taken probably 1-2hrs if I had someone helping me. I undid everything in about 20 mins and pulled it to the side, drained the tank and dropped the front of it on the ground. What took hours and hours is the 4 things you need to undo in the engine compartment while you stand in the trunk and reach over the engine, then have to go back under and pull the tank forward just to realize that the fuel filler line won't come off so you go back out, then under and you have no leverage because your elbows are on the ground already so you go back out....grrrr.

So now that the fluids are drained, my brake lines are cut, my coolant lines are cut, and the e-brake is unclipped I can finally cut the body. I have a couple of housekeeping things to do on the body first and then my first cuts should be tomorrow. As always let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like pictured as I go.

[lance345]

Going to try and post some quick pics I took just on my way out the garage. Haven't got much done in the last couple days, but hope to get some good time in after the weekend. Basically it's just stripped.

Shows the kit I got from CKI, and I'll do a vid talking about the kit pretty soon. MR2 is stripped except for underneath. I don't have a lift so I need to get my stands from my shop. And my rims came on Friday. I really debated a long time about what I would do. I know that Zinik Z28 rims are really good look alikes, but only come as wide as 8.5. I would have to order them, then ship them to have the rears widened, and I just didn't think it was worth it all. It's not like I'm passing this off as a real rev, so oem lambo wheels that were very affordable is the way I went. Maybe I'll regret it, but right now I'm really excited about the rims I got.

If anyone would like me to do a vid of how I stripped the car, or any probs I came across, just ask.