83 Volvo 244ti stage build

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Eric Ewert
-its going to be a bigger pain down the road; ideally you want to tie the cage into the tops of the towers to help keep them nice and sturdy.
- you don't need to do the aftermarket 4 link stuff at the same time, and it can be easily added after if wanted. I drove mine around for a fair amount of time with added shock towers and the stock 4 link and it worked very well. In my humble opinion the towers were the bigger difference vs adding the long 4 links.

Anyway with that now thoroughly beaten to death keep it up! Great progess so far.

Thanks!

I think with how we have the backstays configured as of now, it won't be too hard to modify it for towers later on. Not the easiest thing but not the hardest thing.

Assuming it makes it through 2017 fairly unscathed I might do a lot of work to the back of the car - remodified backstay design to suit the towers and a proper fuel cell [rerouted lines too] as well as the 4-link. Who knows though, if I like how the stock setup works I might leave it.

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john vanlandingham
but revalving it to what is right is an additional $100-130 depending each (never know with San Diego, but sometime revalving of a new shock at time of purchase is less than the $130 "normal service/revalve)..so now this "easy" method is a couple of hundred MORE for something that really has no advantages....

I have a few rear stock 240 HD's sitting on the shelf. In about a month or so, San Diego will be a 45 minute drive so I don't need to fret shipping costs if I want a revalve.

Not trying to argue this is the better way - it's just the more suitable way for right now. As mentioned, if I do towers I want to do a cell and other things at the same time since it will make sense. But for right now I just want to get out there and have fun.

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Robert Culbertson
Oh! Since you're just about ready to start all the seam welding business, add some extra material onto the bottom frame rails where the trans crossmember bolts up. I had to do that recently because all of the weld nuts were ripping out. I just used some 1/8in thick x 2in wide strap... way over kill but it was in the shop.

Ironically enough, someone must have been giving this car similar abuse or it was in the hands of a ham fisted mechanic at some point - the nuts in the framerail were gone and someone at some point decided to notch the frame rail and use nuts, bolts and washers to hold the crossmember onto the drivers side. It will get fixed properly but now that I know I'll add some more material on there.

In unrelated news to the build itself, I recieved extra motivation to keep a sane head behind the wheel because my ladyfriend has convinced me she can codrive. Not much convincing needed as she is organized, can multitask extremely well, can stay relaxed in stressful situations and is very brave [on top of having rode shotgun with me driving like a fool countless times, she handles angry dogs on a daily basis and used to skate pools as a teenager as gnarly as the old dudes.] I've got her on the same regiment I followed for a few months when I was set to codrive in a certain Fire Breathing Monster at Doo Wops, which did not pan out unfortunately.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2016 12:43PM by pat244ti.

A note on codrivers; all the stuff you listed is great, but if they are awful at the notes, it doesnt matter how good they are at the other stuff.

You might want to get her some training. The amount of people bitching about codrivers to me lately has been astounding, in a world of rallying with notes, whether organizer supplied or recce, it will be the biggest difference (2nd to your abilities as a driver) in your speed on stage. Cause at the end of the day, thats what we are doing, racing.

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dreamsofjvl
A note on codrivers; all the stuff you listed is great, but if they are awful at the notes, it doesnt matter how good they are at the other stuff.

You might want to get her some training. The amount of people bitching about codrivers to me lately has been astounding, in a world of rallying with notes, whether organizer supplied or recce, it will be the biggest difference (2nd to your abilities as a driver) in your speed on stage. Cause at the end of the day, thats what we are doing, racing.

I think she will do really good honesty. She is good at multi tasking and takes everything pretty seriously.

She has already been studying up on it, all on her own. She proposed the idea to me of getting my "racing simulator" [a flat screen TV, a Kirkey seat, and a Logitech G27 rigged together with 2x4's] down to her place in Orange County, firing up Dirt Rally, putting it on mute, doing a few slow passes for her to take own notes and than having me try and do the stage quickly with her notes.

Back to the car - been getting it cleaned up for seam welding, found a couple of cracks here and there.





Yesterday we got the gas tank, rear axle and front crossmember out. Just about ready to go on the rotisserie next time I'm up there.

A little update, was sick for a little bit and also been having to deal with my grandma passing away so work has been a little slow on my end [only been up there twice the past 3 weeks] but Al has not slowed down











We got it on the rotisserie over the weekend




And promptly got to scraping.

Don't forget gussets in roof X.

---

Grant Hughes

Which tech inspector did Al call to get those door bars OK'ed?

---

Self-righteous douche canoe

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NoCoast
Don't forget gussets in roof X.

They are in there now, still don't have the cage welded to the floor since being able to move it around with the car on it's side makes access a lot easier.

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hoche
Which tech inspector did Al call to get those door bars OK'ed?

Never caught a name from Al, I did show some pictures to a guy named Jim [I believe that was his name] I randomly met down in Torrance when I was interviewing at the place next to his shop where he builds cages. He said he does tech for some of the Socal events and said he did not see a problem.

Edit ** - talked to Al it was Gene McCullough



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2017 11:24PM by pat244ti.

Been busy working away, going up there every 10 days or so for 2-3 days to work away. Also been busy with real work paying for this and preparing to move.

Still mostly doing shell prep/fab but getting close to being done with that. I have just about everything I need to put it back together and be out there, sans rally tires/wheels and proper front suspension. Also bits like intercom/computer/spill kit/jack/etc which I will work on.

But my main goal right now is to have it running, driving and smogged by the end of the month, should be do able.



Going to run this guy with a bias valve, new lines all around [an 3] and 240 single line ABS front calipers.



Also scored a RSI Stage II cam. If I am putting this in I might be skipping the 15G for something bigger.

[/QUOTE]

First victim! Roof panel and a bunch spare metal and parts for both Lemons cars [passenger quarter was rusty ish but the drivers side will be good for the one on my damaged Lemons car down the line.]

Long strange story but this was originally scheduled to be the rally car.





Part 1 of the beefed up trans mount setup


Fixing the ghetto fix from a PO who jimmied the stock threads


More better torque rod mounting


Seat mounting


Strut tower reinforcement


Cut out the panel from the white car


Artsy display of the mounts for the underbelly protection (nasty post welding fumes escaping the frame rail)


Al doing his thing


Test section for the interior/underbelly/engine bay paint. Rust Oleum Appliance white, mostly rolled on

That's some proper progress! Not to mention the quality is rock solid as well.

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Eric Ewert
That's some proper progress! Not to mention the quality is rock solid as well.

Thanks!

Heading up to Al's today to start paint.

Been working on the dash the past couple of days.


Flocked it with the flockit.com kit. It started really beat and mushed up, nothing bondo couldnt smooth out.

So I wanted to use the early dash with the late cluster [mostly because I am too cheap for additional aftermarket gauges right now, at least the stuff I want], but the problem with any stock cluster is the fact the dash bar is in the way behind where it sits so it makes space a premium

Used the stock shroud to trace the gauges

A coffee mug and a giant candle sitting on the table worked as great stencils

Added another layer to mask it

And the semi finished product - not quite done aligning it but it's close. I might do it over again since I found out there is anti-glare Lexan out there.

1.5:1 quickener solution



Cage painted



Using POR-15 glass white topcoat for the tub instead of fridge paint

Finished with all the paint this weekend on the tub, at least everything that will be done outside of a booth. I do still want to do the innards of the doors and stuff going on, but from here on out parts will be going back on the car which is exciting.

It sucks balls but I am not going to be running Olympus. Theoretically I could still try but I don't feel like pushing my finances to test uncertainty with certain components [wheels, suspension] I know I will be changing to have the car be "base lined" where I want it. I don't feel like I have half assed anything yet and I am deep in this project. Feel like it would be a waste to try it.

New goal is to just have it driveable for the Davis VCOA meet in 3 weeks and have it ready for a rallysprint at the end of May [Prarie City] do some tuning and work over the summer [and saving money to get proper wheels and front suspension] and be ready to tackle Gorman, Doo Wops and either Prescott or Mendocino in the fall.


Masking the cage took a while!

More POR-15 for the interior - pro tip if you ever do this get 2 gallons if you want to cover the tub, interior and engine bay/trunk areas too

Ran out of POR-15 and switched to POOR-15 [rust oleum] for the jambs



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2017 01:43PM by pat244ti.

I envy your rotisserie! Also looks real good.

Al built the rotisserie! It works great

Speaking of rotisserie, look what is not attached to it anymore! It's coming home on Monday to Santa Cruz to get running & driving





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2017 12:34PM by pat244ti.

I implore you to not paint it! Love the scheme as is.