If you saw the Facebook posts then you know, but if you’re like us and Facebook makes you feel vaguely creeped out then you might have missed it. The good news is that the car is log-booked!
For those who don’t know it means the cage, seat mounts, belt mounts, and seats and belts were all inspected and found to be good. That’s a huge step for us and also for Ryan so we got some of the good stuff to celebrate. Even if we win rallies we don’t get the good stuff, so we were happy. Thanks to Ryan at Rally/Race Developments!
However, his work is not yet done. We (meaning he) is still patching up pieces in the wheel wells and the under-body, attaching pins to the unibody so we can mount the sub-frame, and doing a few other bits and pieces.
Lest you think we’re letting him do ALL the glamorous stuff we have completed dis-assembling, cleaning scraping, prepping, painting and re-assembling the front sub-frame – “check out our new bushings, yo!” is what we’ll be saying on tuner night – so that it can be used to mount suspension to so that the front end can roll. And for the back? It’s the same back there, except that it was a huge pain in the ass to get apart. We tried our own strength, we tried battery impact guns, we sawzalled some bolts apart, but you know what did it?
Fire. Fire and air tools. Good thing as next step was nuking it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Oh, here’s a good picture. Most of the team looking somewhat despondent in this one.
Obviously this was before the logbook. Probably something to do with subrames, actually, as the front is sitting on the ground painted.
So once we get the rear sub-frame cleaned (we particularly liked burning the bushings out with an oxy-acetylene torch, but despite many small fires there’s still some rubber in there) we’ll prep and paint it also and then put the bushings back in and then re-assemble it. And with new wheel bearings to boot, same as the front. Our running joke is “You may as well – you’re in there anyway”. Applies to pretty well everything, from why not do some repair to buying things at Princess Auto. Does add up a little though, but when you’ve go Sputnik money, what’s the worry?
Am-hem. Yes, well, where were we. Doing anything we sort of know how to do ourselves to save cash, if memory serves. Right. So once we have the front and rear suspensions on we will prep and paint the interior and engine bay – white, what else, and very probably in a parking lot, where else – and then take the damn thing away! We can hear Ryan’s cheers now… Yes, it will finally go back to Alliston, where it will be reunited with the rest of its parts. We should have the engine back by then – can’t recall how many time we’ve said THAT – and we’ll throw that in and start putting that bad boy back together. Oh, and building a set of brake lines, fuel lines, and wiring it. The wiring is going pretty well in that we have about 80% marked as garbage.
Interestingly,at some point someone was pulling a LOT of power through a very small wire, which joined forces with some friends in the harness. It may have had some electrical gremlins in the past… We’ll fix that, though! Top is the old. Bottom is the new.
So the wiring and fluids and the good/new parts are in Schomberg (some good stuff also visible in the picture above), the cage/shell is in Mississauga, the motor is in Markham, and the spares and extra motor bits are in Alliston. Still. However, by this time next month we should have it all in one spot, at least. And – AND – we’ve figured out who will do the bodywork, and that isn’t us. So that’s good news. One thing we have NOT figured out is a steering rack, as it appears ours was somewhat haphazardly converted to manual. Hopefully we can find one relatively soon so we can steer it while we push it around. That would be sweet.
Hopefully coming soon are pictures of cleaned up Talon bits and then some freshly painted interior stuff!