Thanks Blimey. Since I live in California and am going to register this car as an engine change so it will be legal, I have to run the smog pump. The big problem with that is that the pump won't fit because of the front cross member. My fabricator who did the engine bay for me told me to go ahead and cut out the area where the pump was hitting and he would reinforce it for me so here is what I did: and here is how it fits: I took the cross member to him and here is what he did to it: He builds custom hotrods and he said that he wanted it to look clean and OEM instead of just welding up the cut out area. I think it looks awesome and should be plenty strong enough: He also fabricated the spacer and bolts for the shifter: I got my Eurojet street core and front grill: Since I am going to have the AC condenser from the MKIV and the inner headlights on the quad round grill, there will be no room to mount the intercooler behind the grill. I have a new small euro bumper on the way from TM Tuning so while I am waiting for that I got an old small bumper that I have laying around to see how it will all fit. Here is a quick mock up of what it is going to look like: My fabricator said he will do something nice to get it mounted. Right now I am waiting for the front bumper to get here next week and some more powder coated parts and the engine is going in for the last time. Everything is going to be plugged in , wired, connected, and filled by the next weekend. If I get all that done, I should be able to start it by next weekend. I am taking the two steering columns to my fabricator today to get the MKIV column adapted. Once that is done it will be time to get the dash sorted out. I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
It's great that you have these guys to run support for you by building custom brackets and doing mods like this - it's really turning out well!
That is some very tight work on that cross member. I love seeing stuff like that. Way above my skill level.
Thanks everybody. I have been waiting a long time to get the shifter back because it needed the one inch spacer to be installed and sit correctly. I cleaned out the original mounting underneath the car for the shifter and got it bolted in: I decided to see what it would look like with the center console and here is what it looked like: Unfortunately it is sitting too low so I took the spacer off and re-installed it and it fit perfect with the center console: Basically all of the DIY for this were to fit it with a MK2 center console. Since I am using the MKIV one, it would have worked perfect without being modified so I could have had this in a long time ago. I will need to mount a small strip of metal across the back to bolt the rear of it though.
When I started this I knew that the three big hassles for me were going to be the shifter, steering column, and dash. Well now the shifter is finished and in: The steering column is done: So that is two of the holdups checked off the list. To mount the column and dash, I am going to cut and have the metal dash support from the MKIV welded in so it will bolt right in. I also got some more powder coating done: And some pretty stuff from TM Tuning showed up: E-Code inner and outer crystal lights, new clean Euro front and rear bumpers, and crystal front turn signals to go with the new badge-less quad round grill that I already had. I need to finish torquing everything on the engine and it will go in tonight for the final time.
Thanks. Got the engined torqued, all the hoses clamped, and then dropped it in for the final time: Here you can see that there is plenty of room for the SAI pump: and the clutch master cylinder and shifter cables are attached to the trans: Today after work I am going to connect the axles, hook up the harness, and get the radiator, power steering, and AC lines connected.
I got all of the wires connected in the bay except for the lights because I will have to modify all of those. I still need to figure out connecting the battery as well since it is inside now and the DIY I was using from the MKIV forum is MIA after the forum switch. I got everything in the rain tray situated and the main harness in the cover. I put the front support on a little pre-maturely, but I wanted to see how it was all going to look. Tomorrow I am going to pull the support back off and run the power steering and AC lines. Once I get those on, the radiator goes in. If I can figure the battery out, I should be able to get it started by Sunday.
Today was a drinking and swimming day, but I added a sticker, so I took a shot to show how bad the rest of the car looks: You can see the rear of my 87 Scirocco, my 04.5 GLI, and the top of our new dog Titus
A couple of things. Your project is impressive. I look forward to the final shots of the completed car. Does this guy's car run like that? That bay is empty. What the hell is a smog pump and do MINIs have one? The Wiki article was vague, but it sounded like it is just a catalytic converter nowadays.
yep the guys car runs like that. its the joy of a shaved bay. im not too sure about the smog pump stuff though