F40 replica aka "operation turd polish" (Page 55/62)
shemdogg MAY 10, 08:19 PM
Yeah buddy bagged it and tagged it all around lol. The lowest points of the rear and front sit about 1/2", the area in front of the rear wheels touches the ground barely. Making some progress w the new paint scheme and was glassing up the wings when I spotted a 5" piece of 1x4. Automatically I went to the car and this is what was drawn right away, giving me the idear of what to do next.

Gonna look schweet, but of course hard to shape and sand. Story of my life w this ride lmao. Thats pretty much it for flat sections, but there is a roof scoop in the werks somewhere sometime. Got the idea of how I want the exhaust to look, gonna order another exhaust tip. Dunno how this paint schemes gonna turn out. Like I told the wife, its either gonna look really really good, or its gonna look really really bad. Either way, I was gonna repaint it anyways. At this stage, whats one more paint job lol.

shem
shemdogg MAY 10, 10:04 PM
Im thinkin something along the lines of this vent behind the front tire

shouldnt be too tough lol

shem
Trinten MAY 11, 11:51 AM
The work you've done is awesome!

If you took the Saleen front vent though, that would give you a very big rocker panel "lip" to step over when getting in and out of the car, requiring the doors to open further to clear everything easily (or risk scuffing up the interior or 'kicking' the rocker panel). My preference on anything wide-body-ish is to use the "hourglass" style that you see on a lot of older Porsches. You could still do similar vents then, off the back of the flared front quarter panels.
shemdogg MAY 15, 11:10 PM
Hey Trinten I really appreciate the kind words! Im putting that saleen vent on the front lower side of the hood. The car already has a monster rocker to step over when getting in n out. Its a contortion act to get into the car, especially in the garage. Did a few experimentations w the front vents, experimentation #4 was a success.
Hey sharkey sharkey

friggen love it. Cut out some shapes for the roof scoop, gonna need a few tries on that too. Mostly looks like the cars sporting a mohawk or a spartan/ marvin the martian helmet. But I can run it all the way back without the trunk hitting it when opening. So the paint scheme im trying out is from the f14 jolly roger/ vf1s, dunno how im liking it. Moved things around a few times, still kinda ehhh lol. Always sounds great in your head but when you start laying it out it kinda goes bleh. The onset of general malaise, maybe that should be my screen name. Anywho-

yeah- still werkin on it

shem
shemdogg MAY 16, 09:19 PM
Made lotsa progress today. Almost done with the shark teef up front, went and made a roof scoop.

Dunno how I like it, def looks like a mohawk. A punk rock car, a 300 reject, I dunno. Ill work on other things and let that marinate for a bit. Could always toss it. About 25% into fb gallon #20, and im outta bondo oh nooooooo!

At random times the voices/aka creative inspirations will tell me what to. Sometime last week the idear for the exhaust popped into my head. 6 thrust vectoring nozzles across the back! Lol just kidding, two's enuf. Turns out I had 75% of the parts already. Got a decent head cold and was gonna call it a day, when the mailman showed up w my part. The current exhaust hangs to the left (like me lol), so I hadta figure out a way to get it centered. No time for love dr jones, I did what I did last time I hadta move the exhaust around. 6' digging bar and a sledgehammer. Stuffed the bar in the center exhaust, a few good whacks, and about 20 seconds later it was centered. Then I pulled the back lower piece off and cut off the strap that was holding the pipes together. The drivers side pipe is loose at one of the connections so its just hanging now. Cut a big ol hole in the back bumper and bam, I got a sick effin exhaust


Shemdawg happy

shem
shemdogg JUN 05, 11:57 AM
Pretty much finished up w the roof scoop, gonna integrate a rear view camera in there somehow later on. Added some air brakes to the roof, still playing w the paint scheme. Kinda liking it more n more. Car died on me and wouldnt start again, thought it was outta gas. Threw 5 gallons in, still wont fire. Primed the hell outta the fuel pump w a jumper, still same fire n die. Found an old thread on here about the fp relay, found it, switched it w the one next to it, car runs. Kinda taking a break from the sanding for a bit


Got my welding buddys garage all dialed in w the 220. Will be moving back to san jose in a few months so he will be close. Instead of cash I asked for his dad who owns some junkyards to get me a ls4 and f40. So thatll show up sometime. Was browsing the pick n pull website n saw they had a buncha 3800sc cars. Told the wife when they have a 50%off sale, ima get one. The next morning was memorial day, I clicked their specials page and theyre having a 50% off sale that ends that day. I went n got me a 3800sc

Its an oily mess, intake manifold gaskets were dunn wrong, bottom end looks good. Gonna have the heads checked and change all the gaskets while I accumulate swap parts.

Shem
shemdogg JUN 24, 01:34 AM
Been reading every 3800 swap thread I can find and accumulating parts to finish the swap. Ordered the flywheel from fierorog, got the right fuel pump, and some generic ls motor mounts. Redid the intake manifold gaskets and cleaned and painted the block. Got a full gasket kit but decided not to pull the heads, just going to get it running. Still playing w the belt routing, I put the alternator where the AC was and flipped the water pump pulley backwards so I only need 1 belt. Been going to town on the harness, what a chore. Removed tons of wire from the harness, there was a bunch of unused connectors and all the auto trans stuff I wont be using. Decided to keep the egr and evap, and delete the cruise control. While I was standing over the motor, I noticed the right side cylinders stick out further than the other side. So Im prolly gonna move the alternator where the ps was. Almost ready to power the harness and attempt tuning, but I still have some wires that dont match up to any pcm pinouts im finding. Heres some progress pics



shem
shemdogg JUN 30, 04:20 PM
Its nice taking a break from the fb work, havent touched sand paper in a while now. Swapped the alternator to the other side of the motor using a long stud and the upper mount bracket, and welded it together to make my bracket. Waiting on the belt to show up.

Thinking ahead about what to do for exhaust, and reading all the other threads about what people have done, I started looking at exhaust pieces. Then I remembered I had a 45ish piece of stainless 3" that I had on a jetski exhaust. One of the big ol tips was attached to this piece of pipe. Cut the bracket off what was left of the cars exhaust and cleaned it up. This will give me a tight angle down to the muff. So all Ill need after this is prolly one 3" elbow w some meat on the ends, and ill have enough to attach the exhaust to the fiero exhaust. $50 exhaust lol. King of cheap here.

Boldly going where no shemdogg has gone before, I got my pcm wired correctly. The pinouts most 3800 swap threads show didnt match up 100% to my pcm. My motors outta a 03 park ave (ultra -oooooooh!) Did a ton of searching and I found this ultra top secret link (please keep it that way )to an auto library for mechanics. Has everything for every year and model go to post #31
https://buickforums.com/for...-manual.50632/page-2
I found the exact pinout for my pcm there. Got it powered up and connected but I need a seed key to unlock it to pull the bin file. Kinda stuck but will keep at it. Waiting on my flywheel, and hunting for a 3/4" pipe tap to start the heater lines from the intake mani and water pump.

Shem
shemdogg JUL 29, 03:56 PM
Well the flywheel finally showed up tuesday, really thought I was getting stiffed. After 2 weeks with no email replies from the seller, I put a post on here asking for his number. Sent a message and the flywheel was shipped. Havent really done much else, I did get the belt routing and sizing done, and drilled out the heater lines to 3/4 npt and got stainless fittings for them. Will find out today if we are moving or not, if we do move then the swap wont be started for a while. Also have a cast on my left hand from cutting a tendon on my left thumb. Thinkin I might as well get a new clutch, dunno how the stock fiero clutch would hold up even tho I plan to baby everything since these manual trans dont hold much torque. A buddy came back from outta country, hasnt seen the car in months. Absolutely loves the mods and paint scheme, went nuts when he saw it in the garage. Hes a pilot and recognized/ loved everything I did.


Ill post again when I have things taken apart, and will take the obligatory engine out pic

shem
IMSA GT JUL 30, 11:39 AM
Looks awesome Shem. One of the things that I was looking at and I don't know if you addressed was the air tank and compressor. Since you like to work with metals, get a generic stainless steel muffler like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Vibr...d_i=B000E3ZMSI&psc=1

You can also find them cheaper and you'll probably have to measure for the correct sizing.

Take the muffler and cut out about 1/4 of the height right before the pipes.


Then use this to cover up the tank and maybe even the compressors on either side. Then you can either take it to a shop and weld on 2 90 degree pipes on either end or use stainless clamps to clamp on the 90 ends which are simply for looks.



The Modena uses an exhaust similar to what I describe:


In the end, you will cover the tank and I think the polished stainless would look awesome behind the black mesh grille.

[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 07-30-2022).]