It is an interesting sensation to know that your best chance is to just let go of the steering wheel, and grab your harnesses. If you know a frontal impact is imminent, you might as well protect your arms, hands, neck, and back.

When I went in at Pagoda a few years ago, I knew what was coming. I had scrubbed off a fair amount of speed before contact, and had a much softer impact than you did, but still... No fun either way.

in my first and worst rally crash we hit a tree upside down and on my A pillar. I did not have a grip on my harness at the time...my left hand got a bit cut up while my right hand punched out the remainder of the window. not a good time.

The Norman demise / crashing sucks banter is not very encouraging for Paul... maybe it should be edited into it's own thread. I think we could all learn from a discussion of crash experiences.

Haha, its ok, I'm fully aware that cars occasionally crash, thats why we've got all this safety equipment nonsense, looks like it worked pretty well in this case! Did a little more work today, pressure washed out the engine bay and interior (harder to get water out of the inside of a 99 than you'd think!). Delorean did some light bodywork in the front end with the sledgehammer, looks a little straighter now, but I think I'll have to add some weld here and there to really secure things up. From older threads it looks like 1.75" front and 1" wilwood should be a good ratio for use with the stock master cyl, just adding that here so I don't have to search for it again later.

Paul

Yes, this car has had numerous racecar type incidents in the past, some seem to have been fixed a little better than others. The front, left corner has had quite the slam at some point. The spring perch has been welded back together, presumably due to a crack? Also lots of shims in the upper A-arms! Also just about everything in the left front corner is a little off and a little wavy, but in a perfectly serviceable condition - for a race car. It just needs a few things stuck together a little better with the welder.

The right rear corner, that needs a little more help, although it's more cosmetic then structural, the entire ass I think is just a little bit shifted due to a fairly good slam in the right rear. I think it's already been pulled back more or less "good enough" straight, but it needs about 2 gallons of bondo to make it look less crashed. the right, rear 1/4 panel looks a bit like a piece of tin foil you wrinkled up and then tried to straighten Rust wise though, the car has surface rust everywhere I have ever seen one of these rust, but nothing structural at all. So, I'd say it's worth the trouble.

I love the ITB car! Keep up the good work. If you ever want to trade for the tube frame car or other goodies, let me know.

kip

So its been cold as shit, but we finally broke down a bought a furnace for our garage from craigslist, so things are back underway, nothing like tropical 45* garage weather to get some shit done. Shuffled the shell over to the lift bay to get some things sorted out, first off was the firewall mod. We started out marking out what we figured would be the least amount of firewall removal needed to get a 16v in, thats the right two lines in this picture:



That was based on the marks in the firewall from somebody doing a crank pulley on the car previously, and general eyeing things up, like this . But as Delorean and I looked at it more, and deliberated, we came to the conclusion that a big hole would be just as easy to patch up as a small hole, so we figured we should just go for the gold, hence the line on the left side of the picture. So this is where it stands:





That's a big piece! Still figuring out what to use to fill the void, I bought a piece of 14ga sheet metal from Metals Depot, but after seeing it in person, I think its overkill, the original firewall seems to be 16ga, or maybe a little less even, so I might just go with that, probably plenty, and easier to work with. I probably shouldn't think about the prospect of the engine and the firewall having a get together, right?

Also threw the vented rotor 900 hubs on with some fresh wheel bearings and the wilwoods



And finally gave up on the idea of repairing the poorly fitted front half of the cage, and cut it out



Hillclimb rules don't require it, it wont be going back in, rollbar should be sufficient, and makes the interior a much roomier place.

Still lots of work, but at least things are happening again!

Paul

Save the section of the firewall where the steering column passes thru so you can reuse the boot to seal it, I had a fun time trying to adapt a weather seal back into mine after tossing it. I think I made a C900 one work, but it might have been off something completely different. Don't remember. The little details like that can cost a ton of time doing the swap, like leaving yourself 1/2" too little room to fit the radiator around the front engine mount...

That's a big piece! Still figuring out what to use to fill the void, I bought a piece of 14ga sheet metal from Metals Depot, but after seeing it in person, I think its overkill, the original firewall seems to be 16ga, or maybe a little less even, so I might just go with that, probably plenty, and easier to work with. I probably shouldn't think about the prospect of the engine and the firewall having a get together, right?


Paul, can you just set the removed piece back, however far needed, and box in around it?

Jon1 wrote:Paul, can you just set the removed piece back, however far needed, and box in around it?

That was a thought, but I'm not sure that would make it a lot easier, and clearance wise a flat sheet would be better. The original piece has a curvature in it that is basically the opposite of what you'd want.

Paul

firewall mod is in theory, done.







Might need to play with the gas pedal placement, and it took some modifications, but the pedals should work and the 16V/turbo engine should go right in now.

Man, I wish I had done mine that way. I sectioned clear over on the driver's side and have to make pedal mounts and had to re-work the steering column boot. That looks good!

Well, we'll see if it fits It's yet to be determined if the alternator will fit in the standard location it is on a 900- maybe, maybe not. It might end up needing a custom AC bracket made that can accept the alternator rather than the AC compressor.

Yeah it worked out OK, after Jon mentioned reusing the piece of firewall, I stared at it for a while, and realized I could just hammer it flat, worked out pretty well. I'm hoping the boot still works, since the hole for it is back farther, and perpendicular to the floor rather than at like a 45* angle. Ended up re-using the lower gas pedal mounting point holes as the new uppers, and shortening the pedal arm a bit. The brake pedal doesnt have full travel though, probably going to have to re-work that, or make some more clearance for it, but I'm gonna wait until I see if its needed first once i have the brakes installed.

Yeah, the brake pedal does not have 100% of the original travel, it's down about 25% - which should be OK, but... that may need some re-working still, I am thinking the pedal itself should be easily modifiable to get full travel back. It's so close to working right, I think a bit of a shave to the pedal arm and a few hits with the air hammer in the interference area should get it almost perfect.