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Brake Bias, Period Correct USB Ports & Throttle Cable Mounting
Distractions over we turned to our last remaining issue to solve on the center console: where and how to mount the brake bias knob and the period correct USB ports. So we can sync our Walkman of course! Time for a bracket. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...256fa7ab_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...10aa818e_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a432f90f_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f4f1c7f4_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c4ae9f48_c.jpg Then we thought the next logical project would be the throttle cable because, well, we felt we could finish it. You may remember that we had previously rotated the AAN throttle body through 90 degrees to clear the hood but we now realized that would put the linkage in a difficult place to reach with the throttle cable so we put it back where it should be and made some room for it with a Dremmel. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b435343a_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7848ac95_c.jpg This allowed us to use the bracket supplied with the intake manifold and the intended threaded holes but it then seemed that the outer cable was too short so we rigged up a temporary “outer cable lengthener thingy” at the bulkhead to see if that would help. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e6d92d8d_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b602370b_c.jpg It kinda worked but seemed like a very inelegant solution. Then we realized that our 10V throttle cable was mounted way further from the throttle body on that engine than on ours and our problem was the location of the throttle cable bracket. So we moved it. Of course we mocked it up rally-style with some big-arse cable ties first but it seemed to work so we got the drill and taps out; metric of course. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0e9b16f9_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...536f3de4_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8f214a4a_c.jpg |
Prepping for Custom Stainless Exhaust and Skid Plat Design
We are honored to have a friend of ours agree to build us an exhaust. It’s going to be 3” stainless steel with one muffler at the rear and as similar looking to the works cars as possible. Of course, that meant we had to build a skid plate! Well, not exactly but we did need to see how much room we would have around it so we mocked one up. First the rear support bar which spans the chassis rails behind the gearbox. We used some rather flimsy aluminum tube we had lying around which made it really easy to flatten the ends. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e97a99a9_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...281e99a3_c.jpg Our surrogate 3” exhaust tubing fit through but it might need to be lower. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c91ac5b3_c.jpg Next, we turned our attention to the front support. We thought we would see if we could mock up a reasonable facsimile of the works support using PVC conduit, even though that would be a little larger diameter than the steel tube we’d ultimately be using. How hard could it be? https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4e09c4f2_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4ccddfef_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4ccb23a2_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...620edffe_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...62a585f7_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...eaf79157_c.jpg Not bad eh? https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...48934e1a_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a723b885_c.jpg Next, we need an actual plate. Fortunately, we are a Corbeau seats dealer and their seat boxes are perfect for mocking up skid plates. Our plan was to try to replicate the molded Kevlar are whatever exotic material this one was made from, but in aluminum plate. This might be a three or even four Hobnob project! https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...67ff145f_c.jpg Well, you don’t know until you try so we put the kettle and our thinking caps on and had a Hobnob. First, we made a masking tape mold off of our 1:18 model. Then we put that on the photocopier and hit x18! (no, we didn’t) https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...506bcef5_c.jpg As convoluted as the works plate appears, if you study the it carefully you can make out many flat looking facets to it. Most obvious is the center section that is about two feet wide. We realized that if we took a long piece of box this wide and put two bends in it we would have the essential structure down. Moreover, if we weld some 2” wide rims on it might look quite similar. So that’s the plan. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e7aa7e48_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3d318b61_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d61d9108_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b0cbb172_c.jpg |
We were pretty happy with this so far and decided that maybe this idea had some legs. We pushed on with mounting the cardboard plate to the PVC support bars so we could remove the box and axles stands. To do this we made some clips out of some thin aluminum sheet and bent them around the bars. They worked rather well unless there’s a slight breeze or somebody sneezes too closely!
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f8484756_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cdb38363_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a42a6799_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9ba3f495_c.jpg So that was the basic structure sorted. Now we just needed to widen it; and form the upturned sides! A bit more Corbeau cardboard and loads of Hobnobs and Yorkshire tea later we had this: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2bc1a4db_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fc5ca988_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b36cd5de_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...842d4ed1_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bc4c4d8d_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e59cce96_c.jpg Lovely. Right; what shall we work on next? Mud flaps? First, we’ll have to put the kettle on! https://farm1.staticflickr.com/822/2...3d12d597_b.jpg |
The car took a big leap forward recently and, as a result, we are now exhausted.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b22c279a_c.jpg We asked our friend Scott Banes if he’d like to build us an exhaust and we were honored that he said yes. Scott is a local rallycross and rally competitor who has owned about a gazillion Subarus and we’ve always been impressed with the work he’s done on them. We thought it would be good for him to glue metal together on something else for a change. Plus, his shop is only about 30 minutes from ours so it was an easy tow. He only had the car for the weekend too which was great. Beforehand we talked bout trying to mimic the Group B cars exhaust as much as practical without going nuts. This meant a 3” stainless with one back box but we also wanted to try and incorporate a catalytic converter. After showing Scott all the pictures we had he liked the idea of keeping the down pipe and wastegate dump separate till under the car and thought he could even incorporate the removable plate some of the works cars had and the muffler support bracket, like these: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...da970294_w.jpg We left him too it. It was a tight squeeze but he nailed it. The works cars had an enlarged transmission tunnel so their exhaust could go over the axle instead of under it. We gave Scott permission to BFH a bit more room for the cat if he needed to be we didn’t want to have to refabricate the tunnel. As you can see he managed to get both the cat and the extra pipe in, though we have no idea what we’ll do with that hole in the dump pipe. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ee7c6791_c.jpg He would have pulled off the muffler bracket to but didn’t have any suitable rubber bushings to hand so rigged something up for now. We’ll come up with something later, hopefully. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...494b780d_c.jpg We were very pleased with the attention to detail Scott took with the way the exhaust exits the back of the car. Both the location and angle of the tip are perfect. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...67ae1c8d_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e40ed123_c.jpg Now, if we could just get him to help with the rest of the car! https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...85bf69ea_c.jpg |
Solid modeling was the major CAD advancement made in the 1980s. Significant software offerings included the well-known 2D system known as “AutoCAD.” We’ve been doing a lot of Auto-CAD ourselves lately but the more grassroots Cardboard Aided Design versus the Computer Aided Design you might be more familiar with. Most of what we are cadding is to make templates for a bunch of parts we need to fabricate most of which involve welding.
We started with the simple stuff; the foot rests. Yes, you can buy generic ones which work just fine but, you know, we saw that Group B restoration build and now we want those, or as near as we can “reasonably” make. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3863f6e3_o.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...dc62b3c5_c.jpg And the driver’s dead pedal: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...278043a6_c.jpg We may yet find something from Rennline’s catalog that’s fits the bill. For instance, this is our Rennline 911 footrest. Pretty close, eh? https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4cf5c284_c.jpg Regardless, we’ll need a bracket. So we made a template: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...dc52a9f6_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1f5dea2e_c.jpg Creature comforts next. Door cards. Unfortunately, there are no real precedents for door cards for a Group B Quattro as they used molded Kevlar doors that were essentially hollowed out. We’re not doing that. So, what to do? Fortunately, the stock Quattro door is pretty flat, apart from a small gap we made a patch panel for, so it looks like a flat panel of some sort will attach easily enough. We just have to come up with a shape, a material, some way to attach them and cut outs for door handles, window winders and door pulls. How hard could it be? https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0a0718d9_c.jpg First we covered one door in masking tape. Then we drew around the periphery with a Sharpie and marked all the holes. Next, after a mug of proper tea and some Hobnobs to steady our nerves, we carefully peeled it off the door and stuck it onto a sheet of corrugated cardboard scavenged from a Corbeau seat box. Yep, same as our skid plate. Good stuff. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f366e48d_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2b1a784f_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...951952ee_c.jpg Then cut it out and cut it up. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...26239090_c.jpg Surprisingly, it actually fit so we dug out the door handle bezels and temporary held it in place with some M8 bolts pushed into the original plastic fasteners that miraculously are still mostly present. Just needs some sort of door pull. We’ll get back to you on that. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bc6ac309_c.jpg |
Now full of confidence with our auto-CAD prowess we decided to take on a much more challenging project: Mud flaps! You’re probably thinking “who welds on their mud flaps?”. Well, not us, but the ones on our role model had quite substantial brackets welded to the body and we thought we could mimic those pretty closely. Plus, brackets!
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f1a4d3ce_c.jpg The fronts seemed the most straightforward so we started there. Break out the template gauge. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...795efd12_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ae36944f_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a6e5a68e_c.jpg Fortunately, the car sits very level on its pin stands thanks to TRF, so we just used a small spirit level to make sure the bottom of the bracket is level and parallel to the ground. In our experience this is critically important with mud flaps as if they are even slightly off it will ruin the whole look of the car. Rally cars are principally mud flap display devices after all. OK, we may have lost the plot a bit but it makes us happy. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b37efd3e_c.jpg Now for the tricky bit; the rears. Still easy to keep level but, because they don’t line up with the end of the rocker panel like the fronts, a little harder to keep the same distance from the wheel arch and perpendicular to the centerline of the car. We tried though, really hard https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...10cd8d7c_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...119ea308_c.jpg A bit more profile gauge and scissor action and we had one side done. Unfortunately, both sides are not the same on the rear so we had twice as much work to do at this end of the car. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c520de18_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...75ce8027_c.jpg Bet you can’t wait to see what other auto cadding shenanigans we get up to next. And what about those door pulls? https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...85bf69ea_c.jpg |
Time For Proper Mud Flaps - With the mud flap brackets cadded, it was all we could do to resist cadding the mud flaps themselves. Actually, we couldn’t resist. Well, who could?
First, we started with something that isn’t present on the Group B resto we now seem to be trying to emulate in infinite detail: mid-rocker mud flaps (MRMFs), for want of a better term. What are those and why are you installing them? You may ask, Well, here’s an example that seems to only have been used on some of the David Sutton built cars in the UK. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b5b4b46d_o.png It looks like it was used to mask a dodgy transition from the wide rear fenders to the rocker panel (sill in the UK). Well, that’s what we’re going to use ours for anyway as we have this going on due to, well, we’re not sure why. Maybe because we bought the cheap body kit. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...25a55211_c.jpg Looks like it was almost designed for a mid-mud-flap (MMF?), don’t you think? So this is what we came up with. Of course, we also cadded a bracket for it. More welding required. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a5bd9f20_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9653dc63_c.jpg This gave us the confidence to tackle the proper mud flaps (PMFs). Incidentally, we think we are going to use Sparco mud flaps in white as they look to be about the same size as the works ones at about 11” x 19” (that’s 0.002 x 0.004 football fields in American units), are available in white, are cheap and thin enough to fit between the door and the front fender. We also use them on our rally 911 but in portrait orientation. On this car they will be in landscape orientation which is why we measure them in football fields. On the 911 they are 0.09x0.16 stories. We are not using aircraft carriers as a unit of measurement on this car; that would be ridiculous. First attempt seemed too wide. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3f88f1c1_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d9754f25_c.jpg So we lopped off 2”. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b4190337_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cbf2a317_c.jpg And are now much happier. They are now sitting about an inch inboard from the widest part of the fender (top) whereas before they were about an inch outboard. One could argue, on technical grounds, that they should be level with the widest part of the fender but we are happy with this result. Incidentally, it was quite difficult to get them lined up front to back. Like being level, we think it will be an important detail once the car is finished and took quite a bit of measuring and back and forth to achieve so we hope we are right. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5f69a02b_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...85bf69ea_c.jpg |
We took a break from cardboard engineering and decided it was time to grill, or attach the grill. This concoction of aluminium slats has been on and off the car for a while but, until now has never really been fully integrated into the front of the car. Sadly, we’ve just been wedging in in there and taking pictures of it. Ultimately it needs to be attached to the upper intercooler support in such a way that the two components can be removed as one. It also needs to be black eventually and we are thinking of having it anodized. Any thoughts on that? Also, part of this project is to attach the intercooler to the intercooler support bar. That way it will, er, support it.
The first thing to do was make it fit. Right now, the top plate is just wedged between the intercooler and the upper support bar but it didn’t go in far enough and was the wrong height. It also wasn’t parallel with the bumper, didn’t line up with headlight bezels and didn’t seem level! And we thought this would be simple. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7115447f_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...933b4579_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0526c647_c.jpg So, the first thing we did was remove some excess material from the back of the top plate. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...82c993dd_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...641515a4_c.jpg And then clamped it to the upper support bar and asses what we had to play with. The bolt head will be to attach the intercooler later. Stop getting ahead of yourself. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b24de981_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...eac6ee9b_c.jpg With a little bit of measuring, we determined that the bumper was level but a little warped and that the right side (left in the pics) headlight bezel was a little inboard. Otherwise, it looked good. We could have riveted the bar to the grill at this point but are not sure if we want the bar to also be anodized black so clamps will suffice for now. So how to fix the uneven bumper? We’ll tell you next time. (unless we fail) https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...85bf69ea_c.jpg |
Smile. You’re on Cadded Camera!
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...eac6ee9b_c.jpg See the problem? Get closer... big gap. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...16df400b_c.jpg Small gap (and a bent slat) https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...80aae2d3_c.jpg After a bunch of measuring and head scratching, we determined that the top of the carbon/Kevlar bumper was less then perfectly flat. In retrospect we should have just looked at the pictures but we want this build to be engineering based so we got the football fields out and measured everything. No crashing probes into Mars for us! We tried warming it up with a heat gun and pressing on it but this only achieved marginal results. We also had another problem to solve. With the grill clamped to the upper support bar it was essentially just hanging in space (justified our Mars reference above) and was already bouncing up and down. So, we needed a way to support it. We turned to our shop pigeon, Grainger as we are going to kill two birds with one stone. Or four rubber isolators. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...65a81f87f4.jpg These proved to be the perfect length (0.0001FBs) to push the high side of the bumper down and lift the low side of the bumper up while also stopping the grill from bouncing around. And, as they are mounted in the same plane i.e. vertically, as the upper fasteners, the whole assembly just lifts straight up off the car. To quote Marku Allen when asked about the last (as it turned out) evolution of his Delta S4. “…we are very happy mens”. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...f42f5e2a_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6b522458_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d5f21f18_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b1f32147_c.jpg The nuts are a bit fiddly to screw on but the ones on the grill can stay attached. Right now, we have to reach through the openings in the front of the bumper to tighten the lower nuts but those holes are supposed to be filled with mesh ultimately. Going to have to ponder this a bit. Put the kettle on and break out the Hobnobs. We still had to attach the intercooler to the support bar otherwise we’d have to rename it “grill support bar” and we didn’t want to have to go through the whole part name re-registering process again with the German Auto Part Registration Authority (GAPRA). So, we got out the taps, hack saw and hot metal glue gun and went to town. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5217ffe7_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...64c5218f_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9229ec8f_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a7888289_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7c754a09_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ae8e45a2_c.jpg Now everything is as it should be and the grill is quite secure. Even though we still need to attach it to the upper bar it can’t go anywhere as the intercooler mounting boss goes through it. The bumper isolators seem to be supporting the weight quite nicely so all we need the grill to bar rivets to do is stop it rotating. To quote Harri Aardvark after winning the Detroit SCCA RallyCross championship in 2009 “HELL YES! https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...85bf69ea_c.jpg |
We're Hooked On Quattros
If you’ve been following this build, you’ll know by now that we have strongly resisted copying the works cars as much as possible. That is unless we can find an excuse to replicate what they did of course. So, it is with the front tow hook. Our car has perfectly good tow hooks that came from Audi. They work, we’ve used them to drag the car into the trailer more than once. They are a bit close to the bumper though and also make it harder to remove the bumper too as they protrude through it. They are also behind the lights when they are on. OK, they absolutely must go. Let’s see what the works cars used. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6b464ee3_w.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...bd6b450b_w.jpg Yes, we can do that. How hard could it be? Plus, we have this shiny new tow hook from Rennline, that is too short and the wrong shape. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1565710f_c.jpg So, we bent it but it was still a bit short. We thought we could weld a 3/16” plate to it to make it longer and sandwich it between the chassis rail and the lower skid plate flange; just like the works cars. We made some nut (bolt) plates to help with this. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ac165d85_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...809535db_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...54dfc57e_c.jpg And some thin spacers to level off the underside of the chassis leg. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...50cf75b9_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5381c49d_c.jpg Then we made the extension for the tow hook and welded it on. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2a5135eb_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c803ef7d_c.jpg Of course, now we had our new, shiny tow hook we no longer needed the factory hooks so we got the grinder out. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fb8e63e2_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...41976efc_c.jpg And then we were hooked. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...860463cb_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...3cff75f4_c.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c4ef20e5_c.jpg Yes, ours is red. So, therefore we didn’t replicate the works hook ;) https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...85bf69ea_c.jpg |
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