500_19B's Bugeye resurrection

[500_19B]

The last little while has been a bit of a slog. Not sure why exactly. It is probably a mix of the later-winter weather and how long this project had dragged on (and how much there still is). Compounding that, I have a relatively big job on the old 911 that I need to do. Based on how long the bugeye is taking, I will need to shoehorn the 911 work in between. The job on the 911 I need to do is valve spring replacement. The springs in that engine are double, and on one cylinder, one of the two springs has broken. Rather than just replace the one, I will do all twelve because it may be that some are near the same point. The springs are one of the very few parts of the engine I did not renew when I did the rebuild. I had taken the heads to a Porsche specialist for valve machining and valve guide replacement. At the time, he inspected the springs and recommended that I don’t change. He is a very reputable shop, so I don’t blame him… there is always some uncertainty. That said, I feel the weight of needing to do this job, as now that I know one spring set is weak, I won’t risk driving the car. Of course, Porsche OEM valve springs are not cheap, so in combination with the bugeye, more money than I like is being spent!

Maybe once that is done, I will be more optimistic again!

Anyway, nothing to do for it other than just push ahead.

I did a final clean-up of the windshield wiper motor well, and then coated the drains with Corrosion Free oil and put in the cowl cover and seal.





Also took another picture looking over from the passenger side to show the plumbing of the cylinder 4 cooling kit:

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[Smoblikat]

Nice build dude, love the attention to detail. Your OP mentions getting the rear fender from Subaru, do you happen to have a P/N for that?

I may or may not be hopelessly addicted to bugeyes, and I see one near me that would need some de-rusting and general love. Front fenders dont seem too hard to get, but I havent been able to find any rear OEM replacements that arent widebody.

[500_19B]

Originally Posted by Smoblikat

Nice build dude, love the attention to detail. Your OP mentions getting the rear fender from Subaru, do you happen to have a P/N for that?

I may or may not be hopelessly addicted to bugeyes, and I see one near me that would need some de-rusting and general love. Front fenders dont seem too hard to get, but I havent been able to find any rear OEM replacements that arent widebody.

The part number I used was 51439FE142. This is a picture (not mine, but it shows exactly what I got):

[Smoblikat]

Originally Posted by 500_19B

The part number I used was 51439FE142. This is a picture (not mine, but it shows exactly what I got):

Thank you!

[500_19B]

Crept along a bit.

The two hoses that run up from the AOS cover on each valve cover finally arrived, so the heavy shrouds that surround the fuel rails could go on.



At this stage, everything is nesting close together. I am glad I took a lot of pictures of this stage of disassembly as they have really helped me get the relative locations of wires/hoses etc. correct.





The plenum that sits in the front fender is back in, along with the lower half of the air filter housing and the ABS unit mounting. Things are continuing to fill up.



A small detail, but the hood alignment has been adjusted and the bolts (which were still the originals, unpainted by the shop) were replaced with black ultra corrosion resistant items. They are a bit costly, but look very clean.

[CNY_Scooby]

Awesome restoration, as with everyone else I do love the attention to detail. I do believe you are supposed to have the cones for your ball joints with the aluminum arms. Subaru part number 82141-08A44. Might be something to look into if you haven't quite yet. keep up the good work, love following this.

[SubaruSVXCrazy]

Nice work!

I'm going through a project similar with my L coupe I'm STi swapping. I know the feeling of spending hours on stuff the average person just blew by. It makes you feel some type of way when you're in the garage working on it getting sweat in your eyes and one of the neighbors drive past your house in a newer WRX/STi and you're like that could be me right now..... but nooooo I'm cleaning up old hardware OR huffing paint fumes getting mad light headed to where you start questioning if you should take a break but don't OR laying on piece of cardboard getting rust in your eye and having to stop for a trip to the ophthalmologist, so you can stare at a plastic drill bit as it drills the rust that's stuck in your eye OR cleaning corrosion off a piece of F!@#$ aluminum block or trans you already spent days on and tasting the corrosion in your nasal passeges OR painting a part under the car no ones gonna ever going to see but me. Putzin' around, spending more time on the damn car then hanging out with your girl or your friends...

In the end it will be worth it and we'll have something special, something built with our own hands. Can't buy that.... and he will have just another common WRX (no offense to anyone out here cuz I like them too )

[SubaruSVXCrazy]

Originally Posted by 500_19B

This year, we purchased a 2021 STI and the plan was for my son to take over the 2002. However, an errant fox running on to the road led to an unexpected off-road diversion, resulting in damage to the rear quarter panel and door. I knew I had to fix this car, as my son probably loves it even more than me, and was heartbroken (and after all that the poor fox didn't make it anyway)

That's a good Dad right there

[500_19B]

Originally Posted by CNY_Scooby

...I do believe you are supposed to have the cones for your ball joints with the aluminum arms. Subaru part number 82141-08A44...

Hey, thanks! Actually I do have the cones (did not note them in the thread though), but I really appreciate the heads-up, as heaven-knows the huge amount of things I have forgotten!

Actually, when I took the old ball joints out of the aluminum arms, the cones stayed with the ball joint and at first I wondered if I needed a different ball joint. But then realized they were separate items

Originally Posted by SubaruSVXCrazy

...I know the feeling of spending hours on stuff the average person just blew by. I...

Your whole post is full of so much truth, but this line especially resonated with me! Often I am embarrassed to post "so this weekend I did this little thing and that little thing that should only take 20 minutes to do, or should just not be done at all"

Originally Posted by SubaruSVXCrazy

That's a good Dad right there

Thank you! It is the one thing I may actually be good at!

[500_19B]

Grinding along.

Before I put the AC hardlines back in, I need to flush the evaporator, and to do that, I have to remove the expansion valve.

So that was what I spent the most time on this past weekend. Here you can see where the expansion valve attaches to the evaporator.



After this picture I finished removing the white plastic duct (to which the blower attaches) and go the valve out. If it is not too brutally cold with weekend I will try and do the flush.

In between I dabbled in some other odd jobs. I started up with the wiring of the connectors for the JDM side markers that will work as turn signals. I am not so good with electrical stuff, but this job should be simple. I found this really nice 3M shrink tubing (translucent red) and started to stitch things together. Now I need to do is splice this into the turn signal connect that plugs into the headlight.



Another small electrical job was to rig up and 2.2 k-ohm resistor since this car (2002) had the EGT in the up-pipe, which will not be present with the Grimmspeed unit. I opted to use the connector from the EGT itself and wired the resistor to the leads.



Splurged on new windshield washer nozzles and clips, which made for a tidy install.



Got the hood scoop back on, with new seals and hardware. The scoop and washers look nice and clean.





Last job for weekend was adding in the seals at the front of the hood.

[500_19B]

-10 for the high today... it's been a cold February in these parts.

Busy with some other things today, but was desperate to make some progress on the bugeye.

Did eek out an hour around noon to mostly finish the hood (only thing left now is to put the insulator cover back on).

What had delayed it was a couple of the foam sealing strips were on backorder, but yesterday the last ones came in.

So, the refinished intercooler duct and various sealing strips all ready to go:



The correct part numbers for the various foam strips were not so clear, so I bought all the ones I thought might be right. Turns out none seemed to be exactly right, but it was no biggie as I was able to trim longer ones to length and ended up with a configuration that looked like it was. Now with the rubber bellows added back in this part was finally ready.



Now the underside of the hood looks sharp.



While I was out there freezing, I quickly added the bumpers, height adjusting buffers and the clear protection stickers.





That's all the time I have today, not sure what I may be able to do tomorrow. We will see.

[D-Rodman]

You are doing an amazing job, thanks for all the pictures.


Sent from my iPhone using NASIOC

[500_19B]

Thanks!

Did manage to get the one job done that I really wanted at this stage... namely the A/C hard lines.

These need to go back in so I can complete the rest of the engine room connections etc.

I cleaned up all the A/C lines on the outside first:



Next, I removed the old o-rings and rigged up my undercoating gun and a conventional air blower nozzle with a tapered plastic tip to use for the flushing. From everything I read, it seems important that flushing A/C should only be done with specific flush solvent (instead of mineral spirits for example). Not wanting to take any chances, I purchased the flush solvent and first flushed the evaporator core and then the four lines. I am putting in a new condensor, but those are hard to flush anyway. Had just enough solvent to do what I hope is a good job. My son took a break from school work to help me finish the job, as it really helps to have multiple hands to steady the drain hose etc. After we finished the flush solvent, we continued pumping air through the parts and I think they ended up pretty clean and dry.

All the new o-rings were on hand, but I also picked up a new expansion valve and the supporting cushion.



Here is the valve and spacer all set to go in.



And it is in.



I still have to put the cover and blower motor back.

Next was finally getting the hard lines in place. Everything fit fine. I realized one of the holes being used by the Grimmspeed brace was also used for the A/C line, but it caused no issue to just bolt the mounting point on the outside of the brace.



I still have to find a nice tube clamp for the large line at the point near the brake booster where the flexible section starts.

[500_19B]

We had one of the largest snow dumps for the past few years on Friday through Saturday. I spent gallons of time shovelling, both at home and at my BIL's.

Although lots of snow, it was not too cold, so I did manage to get a few more things done. I finished cleaning and flushing out the main power steering lines. I took the advice from tomacGTi and replaced the clamps on the low pressure side with quality SS screw clamps (the type with an embossed as opposed to cut-out thread).

Got the lines back in with the clamps and everything lined up fine. I still have to put in the new sealing ring where the high pressure line connects to the pump, and also that plastic spiral "insulator" that goes around the line where it passes over the turbo inlet.



With the PS lines back in, I was able to put the coolant tank back in (after cleaning it). So, the engine bay continues to fill in.



Another job that required me to lay my snow-shovelled-out body on the concrete was replacing the small harness for the transmission. I had an issue with the forward (grey) connector. Originally, I thought to just replace the connector, but after pencilling it all out, it was not going to save much money over just replacing that harness section, so that is what I did. Also replaced the steel mounting tab at the same time.



Over the next bit, I will be trying to just finish up items for the bugeye where I don't need to buy more parts, as I must conserve cash for a little while. I need to replace some valve springs on the old 911, and will be replacing all twelve sets - it is one of those jobs where if you have issues with one, some of the others may not be too far behind. I am going with OEM Porsche spring sets, which are expen$ive, and this is the reason for my cash conservation program!

On the bright side, when I went to the dealer to pick up my springs and miscellaneous other parts, I saw this little item:



GTS Targa with manual transmission. Ah, one can dream!

[CNY_Scooby]

The engine area is really starting to shine. Keep it going! oh, and that GTS Targa is for sure a beautiful machine!

[500_19B]

One of the side things still to be done is the alternator. There were no issues with the original alternator, but I thought that replacing the brushes and bearings would be a good idea.

At the same time, I will freshen up the cosmetics as per typical.

Here is the alternator sans pulley. Grime encrusted, but functional.



I followed the FSM and used a heat gun to warm up the back of the housing, and it separated without too much effort.

Once apart, I was able to assess the bearings and brushes:

Both bearings turned smoothly, but when spun quickly, there was some noise, so my conclusion is that they still had some life in them, but replacement makes sense.

The brushes are a lot less worn out then I expected. Now that I have gone this far, I will replace them anyway. That said, I bet this alternator had a lot of life left in it. Also, the slip rings looked basically perfect, no discernable wear grooves. Removing both bearings was easy enough with the normal tools.





The one tricky item was the four screws under the pulley that secure the front bearing. They are easy to muck up (Phillips head), but I managed. It is work the effort to get these screws out without damaging the plate they thread into, as that part does not seem to be separately available. However, it is a very simple part that you could make.

I elected to keep the regulator, stator and rectifier connected. However, this sub-assembly needs to come out in order to do the brushes. There are three screws that hold it all to the rear housing (and the nut on the rear connector). Two of the screws are directly accessible, but for the third, I had to shift the stator slightly to the side:





It's all apart now, and I have most of the parts on hand (new brushes, front bearing, screw sets etc.), but am still waiting on the small rear bearing.

Started cleaning up the housings. It is hard to get them really clean with gentle methods, so I am just going for reasonably clean:



The main thing this weekend was starting on the 911's valve spring replacement:



Did not get very far as I encountered a lot of "first time issues". Mainly around putting the valve keepers back in as the access is really tight (the compressor tool blocks some of the area, and the valve stem is deep down.

However, I have "developed" some techniques and acquired some helper tools so hopefully the rest of the job moves more quickly and smoothly.

I will continue to chip away on bugeye stuff part time before returning "full time" to it once the 911 is finished.

[500_19B]

Just a small update from yesterday...

Turns out I was wrong. I mis-estimated the amount of life left in the brushes.

Once the stator/rectifier/regulator assembly was removed, it was easy to access the connection points of the brushes under a little cover.



De-soldering to remove:



Here is one of the old brushes beside one of the new. There is a more significant difference in length that I thought. There still is life in the original brushes, but it feels like less of a waste of time now!



New brushes are soldered in. Now I just have to wait for the small rear bearing to come in and I can put it back together.



Here is how the brushes look now:



When I go to put the rotor back in, there is a small hole in the back housing through which one can pass a pin, while holding the brushes up in a retracted position to allow assembly. Hopefully I will remember to take a photo of that step.

[500_19B]

The work on the 911 has been stretching out. Doing valve springs in the car is tough, as there is very little visibility and no room for large fingers for getting the valve keepers on. I have now ended up making some fixtures that add on to the spring compressor tools that hold the first keeper from below after I have it in position, and I've made up a tool for securely holding the keeper as I move it into position. So, things are going better. However, that car is at my Brother-in-law's place right now, so I can only do work on the weekends.

Amongst the many things I have been learning on that job, one item is generally useful to many other situations: I had started with Lucas Red N Tacky grease to help stick the valve keepers in place. It really did not work as I had hoped (valve keepers would easily fall away). Then I tried Vaseline, which was a little better, but still not ideal. Then, I found this stuff on Amazon:



It is made for transmission work, where one often has challenges like keeping individual needles of a needle roller bearing in place while assembling. I wasn't sure if it would be that much better than what I had already tried, but I thought I'd give it a go.

This stuff is fantastic for sticking the valve keepers onto the holding tool and keeping it stuck on to the valve stem. It is still a grease, and small amounts are no issue in an engine.

So, if you ever REALLY need something to hold small parts in situ during assembly work, I highly recommend this.

On the bugeye front, I was able to move ahead on the alternator. Finally, I had both bearings and new screw sets on hand:



I did the electrical checks on the diodes, commutator and rotor windings and it all looked good. Splashed a bit of paint on the outside of the stator core and then was ready to assemble it back into the rear housing.



Next was pressing the large bearing into the front housing, and then installing the retainer plate. The small bearing was pressed onto the back of the rotor, and then the rotor was fit into the front bearing, which was a close fit, but did go in with hand pressure.





To assemble the rotor into the rear housing, it is necessary to press the brushes up and hold them in the raised position with a pin inserted through the rear of the housing:



Before assembling I test-released the pin to make sure both brushes popped back correctly, which they did.

The FSM advised to heat up the part of the rear housing where the small bearing fits into, which I did, and then the rotor/front housing sub-assembly fit in, and it was then just a matter of tightening the four bolts carefully (criss-cross, which ¼ turns only).



Alternator is back together and spins very smooth and quiet. Just need to add in the pulley and it is ready to go back in the car.

[500_19B]

Edged ahead on a couple of bugeye things in between everything else.

Re-finished the pulley for the alternator to put that item into the 100% complete bucket.



I think the coil packs are all fine, so I just made sure they were clean and re-painted the cores and added back the bolts that were re-plated a while back.





Starting to put the door bits back together. I am glad I labeled all the rods!



The rear LH door's electric lock solenoid had failed some time back, so I took the opportunity to replace it with new.



So, we have one latch/handle all done.



As I go through each door, new door checks are being added to tighten up the feel.

[500_19B]

So, I am still putzing around with the 911 valve springs. The first three sets took forever as I went through the frustrating ordeal of figuring out how to get the keepers in position. I ended up "developing" some inserts for the compressor tools, but ultimately, it was making up this little valve keeper holder which, when combined with the "Asemblee Goo" detailed in the prior post, was the big difference maker.



Saturday, I went to my BIL's place and was able to do three more valve sets in two hours, with infinitely loads less frustration. So I am half done with the springs, and hopefully the next six sets will go quickly.

That left Sunday, during which I was able to put in a good chunk of hours on the Bugeye. It was mostly niggly time-consuming things, with not much in the way of photos, as it is all boring stuff. But the accomplishment list included:

Heater blower unit is back in and glove box is reinstalled (all that was taken out for the AC expansion valve). I was able to get all the original clips, wire ties etc. back in without bending or damaging anything, so I way pretty happy there.



All for door handles and the locks are in now. One of the lock cylinders was badly frozen, so I got new lock cylinders from the dealer, but these came with a new key (apparently there is no option from Subaru to supply lock sets matched to the old key). As a result, it seemed that I may have to settle for having two keys. BUT, I researched locks and carefully disassembled the "good" original cylinder and noted the order and configuration of the lock plates. I then disassembled the two new cylinders, so I had all the new lock plates and the lock plates from the good old cylinder (none of the lock plates on the damaged cylinder were usable).



Happily, I had enough of the right lock plates to reassemble both new cylinders with the same configuration as the originals, so now both new locks work with the original key. I was quite pleased with that.



With that the rest of the door handle installation was completed, and I also finished the three remaining door check replacements.



All that was the major progress, but I also put in replacement clamp plates for the hard power steering lines and also added in the re-plated coolant hard line that comes off the back of the engine for the turbo. You can really see how the Cosmoline looks a little shabby, especially on the green of the drive axle, which underneath is smooth, glossy green paint! Already there is dirt and dust sticking everywhere, just from working in the garage. But I keep reminding myself it is all about protection!



I had mentioned needing a band clamp for the large AC line near the brake booster. Actually, I was able to find one a couple of weeks ago, but never updated that.

[2gnt2wrx]

Really great work here, I'm about to start a similar build on my Sedona Red 02. Can't wait.

[500_19B]

Originally Posted by 2gnt2wrx

Really great work here, I'm about to start a similar build on my Sedona Red 02. Can't wait.

Thanks!

Sedona Red is a great (and rare) color.

On the good news front, I finally finished the valve springs on the 911. I am quite the idiot though, as it turns out that the springs were not the issue. I had made up a sort of lever for “testing” them and was certain that some sets were easier to compress (suggestive of one of the two springs being broken), but I was wrong. The hard part doing the test in the car was the access to the lever was different for various cylinders, which masked actual differences in force. So, I replaced 12 good spring sets with 12 new spring sets! Arrgghh. While it is all apart, I decided also to get the rockers re-bushed, so I must wait for the machine shop to finish before I can finally complete the 911 work.

In between I have been able to get a few things done on the bugeye. When the car came back from the paint shop, I put the headliner back in (very close fit – need to have the passenger seat out of the way). However, it was only this weekend that I put it back in properly with all the items (visors, lights, grab handles etc.)

[500_19B]

I also prepped and installed the rear wing.



This part had the most trash in the paint of any part. Must have been in a corner of the booth with some airflow issues. Anyway, I fixed all that first. For those that are curious, here is the process. Here is one of the dust nibs:



I like to use a nib file, which is a small block with a not-too-sharp file plate.



You can slide this along the paint without it cutting into the paint, except for small peaks like what forms when clear coat wicks into a piece of dust.

After the nib file is done, most of the material of the nib is gone. The next step is to get the area completely flat. I start with P2000 wet sand paper.



Here is the area with the nib now gone.



Before moving on to polish, I prefer to wet sand with Trizact, first P3000 and then P5000. By the time the P5000 step is complete, the sanded areas are starting to be a bit shiny.



For polish, I use Meguiar’s 105, which is a good first step. If it is a big area, like the hood, I would start with a machine, but for the underside of the wing, I did it by hand with a microfiber towel, which took quite a while. (When using machine, I start either with a rotary buffer with a wool pad, or a dual action polisher with a yellow foam pad. If I use the wool pad (most aggressive), then the second step is the yellow pad with the polisher.)

Anyway, after an age of hand polishing (this clear is quite hard), it is looking good.

To finish up the whole underside of the wing I went to the polisher but now with an orange (softer) pad and Meguiar’s 205, a finer polish.



Then it was just putting on new foam seals etc. to make the wing ready for mounting.



On the trunk, it is looking pretty good.



At the same time, the lock and interior release handle for the trunk were reinstalled.

[500_19B]

Next the JDM side markers were done.

Decided to set these up as additional turn signals. It was necessary to splice off of the wiring to the front headlamp turn signal:



Used the heavy-duty 3M shrink tubing to seal it all up:



Used basic-style spit shrouding:



But sealed it all up with the tape that I like:



Ran the loom to the lamp housing along existing wire harnesses and clipped it all securely into place and finally put the lamps in themselves:





Last step was to hook up a battery and check if they actually work, which they did.

Chipped away at a few other small odds and ends, but nothing noteworthy or photogenic!

[AliBenn]

Looking Awesome!