BF4 Break: Project cars/ hobbies

This thread will be dedicated to those of us who enjoy wrenching on cars, trucks, 'wheelers, sleds, tractors or any other sort of old junk that brings joy. All other hobbies are free to be posted as well whether it be knitting, whittling, the making of maple syrup ect. anything goes!

Some context as to the reason for starting this thread... the graphics card in my laptop took a shit, it functions but can no longer game it up. I though to myself why keep buying laptops, im not in the service anymore so why not just build a desktop again like the good ol' days? So that is what im going to do! The next few weeks will be dedicated to buying parts and putting it together. BF4 is the only game worth playing, its all I play so it doesn't have to be high spec, but im gonna build it half decent in case BF6 turns out to be good. Im sad that my position of 33 on the bZ1.5 leaderboard will go away, hopefully I dont sink down to far while im getting this pc together... I was just thinkin' I could maybe catch up to my friendly nemesis garner, bless his K/D oriented heart, that will be delayed I guess! Cya soon hopefully supes and all the other acquaintances I know from the best server ever.

The time I usually allot for BF4 will now be spent wrenching on the ol' shitbox so I will share a little bit about it and in turn I hope you all post pictures of your shit boxes and all the hard work you have put into them! Dont forget all other hobbies are welcome too! I wanna see your canned goods, your syrups, your home-made radios, your be-dazzled shit, anything! Lets share some shit about ourselves in this thread and have a grand ol' time. Fishermen post pics of your fish too! If im not wrenching or playing bf4 im at the river slayin' sturgeon. Lets begin!


When was the last time you old fuckers here saw a Chevy Sprint? Probably not for a long while.

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For those who are not in the know about this fine machine it is a pre-geo metro made from 1985-1988, before they ruined it with cursed fuel injection, ish! It does not share a single part with a geo metro but it shares the spirit of what a geo metro is. Its a 1.0 liter 3 cylinder with a 5 speed manual transmission. It produces a blistering 45 horsepower from the 998 cc powerhouse of an overhead cam engine! It features a mechanical fuel pump and a 2 barrel carb so it might make through a big solar flare or an emp from china. It originally was a heavy emissions vehicle... it had a computer controlled Hitachi carburetor whose mass in solenoids and vacuum lines was almost greater than the engine itself. It even had an oxygen sensor so the computer could fine tune the carburetor... a strange thing to see, it worked well but it was just a fuckin' mess so it had to go. I replaced that with a larger 2 barrel carb (seen below) from a toyota starlet that happens to bolt right up to the stock suzuki manifold, its a profoundly simple carb but being for a 1.6 liter 4 cylinder I need to reduce the size of the primary and secondary jets. It runs very rich according to my air fuel gauge, which is reading from the original oxygen sensor bung ( im kind of thankful for the goofy emissions setup for making the inclusion of my own oxygen sensor for the air fuel gauge very simple!) I left the ecm in the car because it controls the shift light which is a very charming feature... although most of the wiring harness has been tore out so I dont actually know how the computer knows when I should shift based on load, its like magic. Also, the check engine light blinks every few seconds and I get off on it, im gonna let that sorry, sensor-less ecm call out to absolutely nothing forever, fuck that goofy thing.

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Besides the carb I have done a fair amount to it. When I got it the driver front wheel was locked up... it needed brakes and wheel bearings all around. When I got it rolling and running I just ran it I guess you could say for a month or two. Little did I know the clutch was completely shot, metal on metal pretty much but the flywheel was not tore up at all so that was good. It never held fuel and would go through 10 bucks in gas in about two days. I sped off in front of my co worker one day and he said that gasoline was just a' pourin' outta the back of 'er. I dropped the fuel tank to find that the fuel lines crumbled in my hands and there was a softball sized hole in the top of the fuel tank! A fuel tank cannot be found for this legitimately rare car. So to make a long story short I replaced the clutch, then took out the rear seat to make room for a drag racing fuel cell as a new fuel tank. I will post a picture of it tomorrow. There was even more goofy shit too I will discuss here.

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The previous owner overheated it bad, and I did too on accident because it overheated for me all the time because the previous owners overheating adventures blew the head gasket! It would not keep cool due to combustion gasses entering the cooling system disrupting the flow! I took it apart to replace the head gasket ( I have no pictures of the head job or clutch job because the phone I had at the time I was using to take pictures took a shit so I lost them all!) This thing is so simple to work on, a head gasket job on this car takes less than an hour. The transmission comes out in about 20 minutes! Its just so open and simple I dont know how else to say it. When I had the head off I found that the intake manifold and head were warped. I attempted to resurface the head myself which works great if you have a completely flat surface to sand it on. Well the glass table I chose was completely flat, but I failed to realize ahead of time that the weight of the head bowed the glass a little bit so as I was moving the head back and forth over the sandpaper on the glass only the outer 2/3s of the head were getting nice and shiny, while the middle 1/3rd looked stained and crappy like it had just come off the car and I thought to myself "wow shes reeaaally warped, guess' i'll keep on sandin away" and well needless to say I now have a bowed, rainbow shaped cylinder head! I ended up ordering a new head off of ebay and I gotta send the old head to the machine shop, whoops!

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Please ignore the zip-tied geo metro racing radiator. In my defense a proper radiator for this thing is expensive and the radiator it had would turn to dust as you ran your finger along the fins. The 60 dollar chinese geo metro racing radiator works so well that it never reaches operating temperature, it runs beyond cool and this will even further curtail thermal breakdown of the oil, yippee!

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Based on my two poor and lackluster pictures of the interior you can tell the interior is in mint condition as well. Its a true survivor of a vehicle but the rust is pretty bad, the frames solid but the body going and parts are nearly impossible to find.

While im building my pc and not playing BF4 I will being doing more to the Sprint including sanding and touching up various rust spots and putting a new c/v axle boot on the passenger side. I will post pictures of my progress in this thread as it happens.

Now that this rushed and poorly written write up is complete now its your turn to tell us about your projects! Let us know all about them! Show us your classics, your tractors, your maple syrup operations, anything fun and hobby related! Im sure the old farts here work on cars or have in the past, go through the picture books and tell us some stories!
 
In 2021 I bought a 2007 Volvo XC90 as a second car. I'd been wanting one for a long time.

It's AWD which I wanted and it was in good condition but with a lot of neglect.

I had to replace the hinge on the gas cap cover.
I replaced the weather seal all the way around. All four doors, the hatch, and the sunroof. This included the window trim.
The front end had to get replaced. I added an upgraded swaybar and links. Struts, bushings, strut towers, and etc. were all replaced.
The rear shocks/struts were surprisingly easy to do and so were the rear suspension updates.
I replaced the cheap shit tires with Goodyear Wranglers which gave me another two inches of ground clearance and improved the driveway appeal.
The cooling system was for shit and it's been replaced. This includes the heater coil, radiator, hoses, water pump, and etc. Some of the aluminum parts were pitted inside and I replaced them with stainless parts from IPD.
The headlights were fogged over and I replaced them with new and then installed LED headlamps for both high and low.
The climate control panel was replaced.
The CPU was replaced with a reprogrammed CPU that did away with the governor and acceleration limiter. It improved the smog inspection numbers as a bonus.

This is it last fall at the Salton Sea:

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And this is the dream:

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In 2021 I bought a 2007 Volvo XC90 as a second car. I'd been wanting one for a long time.

It's AWD which I wanted and it was in good condition but with a lot of neglect.

I had to replace the hinge on the gas cap cover.
I replaced the weather seal all the way around. All four doors, the hatch, and the sunroof. This included the window trim.
The front end had to get replaced. I added an upgraded swaybar and links. Struts, bushings, strut towers, and etc. were all replaced.
The rear shocks/struts were surprisingly easy to do and so were the rear suspension updates.
I replaced the cheap shit tires with Goodyear Wranglers which gave me another two inches of ground clearance and improved the driveway appeal.
The cooling system was for shit and it's been replaced. This includes the heater coil, radiator, hoses, water pump, and etc. Some of the aluminum parts were pitted inside and I replaced them with stainless parts from IPD.
The headlights were fogged over and I replaced them with new and then installed LED headlamps for both high and low.
The climate control panel was replaced.
The CPU was replaced with a reprogrammed CPU that did away with the governor and acceleration limiter. It improved the smog inspection numbers as a bonus.

This is it last fall at the Salton Sea:

View attachment 14670

And this is the dream:

View attachment 14671

That is a good looking car man, with performance to match no doubt. Those Wranglers make all the difference, the bull bar and luggage rack as well... Id says its modestly aggressive... nice. How is the acceleration now after the ECU replacement (ever thought about throwing in bigger injectors to compliment the more powerful ECU?) , any idea on the 0-60, that thing HAS TO grip the road and take off fast with those Wranglers combined with AWD, no loss of traction there I bet! Have you played with the exhaust at all too?!?! Show us under the hood man! Does it have or do you plan to add skid plates to protect the engine, transmission and AWD components while trail riding? Sorry about all the questions but im sure we are curious about that neat rig!


It looks ready to take on Wolf Creek Pass or the infamous Black Bear Road in Colorado... go show those Jeep-tards what a real vehicle can do!

Your rig kind of reminds me of my old expedition, although it was a ghetto rig not classy like yours :)

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In 2021 I bought a 2007 Volvo XC90 as a second car. I'd been wanting one for a long time.

It's AWD which I wanted and it was in good condition but with a lot of neglect.

I had to replace the hinge on the gas cap cover.
I replaced the weather seal all the way around. All four doors, the hatch, and the sunroof. This included the window trim.
The front end had to get replaced. I added an upgraded swaybar and links. Struts, bushings, strut towers, and etc. were all replaced.
The rear shocks/struts were surprisingly easy to do and so were the rear suspension updates.
I replaced the cheap shit tires with Goodyear Wranglers which gave me another two inches of ground clearance and improved the driveway appeal.
The cooling system was for shit and it's been replaced. This includes the heater coil, radiator, hoses, water pump, and etc. Some of the aluminum parts were pitted inside and I replaced them with stainless parts from IPD.
The headlights were fogged over and I replaced them with new and then installed LED headlamps for both high and low.
The climate control panel was replaced.
The CPU was replaced with a reprogrammed CPU that did away with the governor and acceleration limiter. It improved the smog inspection numbers as a bonus.

This is it last fall at the Salton Sea:

View attachment 14670

And this is the dream:

View attachment 14671
I have never wanted a Volvo but damn that second picture is changing my mind.
 
Super cute. I bet that roof rack makes a great Costco run.
 
If work and money weren't an issue (hoping to fix both soon tm) I'd be getting my hands on a Citroen C1 and converting it to a 2 seat rally car. <800kg , 80BHP with a 1.2L 3c engine and handles like a go-kart. It was also my first car so lots of sentiment to get one going again

In the UK there's a endurance racing league that races using the Citroen C1 / Peugeot 108 / Toyota Aygo chassis and it looks fun as fuck

 
How is the acceleration now after the ECU replacement (ever thought about throwing in bigger injectors to compliment the more powerful ECU?) , any idea on the 0-60, that thing HAS TO grip the road and take off fast with those Wranglers combined with AWD, no loss of traction there I bet! Have you played with the exhaust at all too?!?! Show us under the hood man! Does it have or do you plan to add skid plates to protect the engine, transmission and AWD components while trail riding?

The acceleration is a bit improved off the light after the ECU/CPU upgrade but the top end now exceeds the 110mph it had been limited to. The thing that really improved the acceleration was the tires. The cheap shit tires it had before were such a hard compound that it was almost like driving on ice even in dry conditions. And you had to be soft on the pedal or they'd break loose and you went nowhere.

I haven't touched the exhaust for the simple reason that what it has seems just fine.

There are some skid plates under the engine but I want to add more. Been trying to find someone to fabricate the brush guard for me since I can't find any aftermarket these days.

It's been in the sand at Pismo Beach, California and it did great, even from a complete stop. The Volvo AWD is frankly magnificent. It's done well in snow although I use chains even though California law says the AWD is enough.

The tow bolts are in the back of the car just in case I need them.

Under the hood so far is bone stock. I want to install a K&N air filter but that's going to take a lot of fucking around with the mass oxygen sensor and then that has to be approved by California's Air Resources Board so I can take it on the road. Not sure it's worth the hassle really.
 
If work and money weren't an issue (hoping to fix both soon tm) I'd be getting my hands on a Citroen C1 and converting it to a 2 seat rally car. <800kg , 80BHP with a 1.2L 3c engine and handles like a go-kart. It was also my first car so lots of sentiment to get one going again

In the UK there's a endurance racing league that races using the Citroen C1 / Peugeot 108 / Toyota Aygo chassis and it looks fun as fuck


Dont let your dreams be dreams....just-do-it-now-man-meme-shia-labeouf-j5fx5nvfpkweithj.gif

As a filthy clueless yankee I had to look up those cars. I second your dream man small cars are the way to go. They look fast too! Your gonna be in that race someday man never doubt it.

The acceleration is a bit improved off the light after the ECU/CPU upgrade but the top end now exceeds the 110mph it had been limited to. The thing that really improved the acceleration was the tires. The cheap shit tires it had before were such a hard compound that it was almost like driving on ice even in dry conditions. And you had to be soft on the pedal or they'd break loose and you went nowhere.

I haven't touched the exhaust for the simple reason that what it has seems just fine.

There are some skid plates under the engine but I want to add more. Been trying to find someone to fabricate the brush guard for me since I can't find any aftermarket these days.

It's been in the sand at Pismo Beach, California and it did great, even from a complete stop. The Volvo AWD is frankly magnificent. It's done well in snow although I use chains even though California law says the AWD is enough.

The tow bolts are in the back of the car just in case I need them.

Under the hood so far is bone stock. I want to install a K&N air filter but that's going to take a lot of fucking around with the mass oxygen sensor and then that has to be approved by California's Air Resources Board so I can take it on the road. Not sure it's worth the hassle really.

And how often do you get it up to 110 ;) Don't answer that there may be feds here :)

If I were in your shoes I would contact a local trade school with a welding program and pay some kids to fabricate a brush guard for you. They are always hungry for projects to learn on and willing "clients" to allow them to build shit for their stuff. If you could measure the frame and where it mounts and draw up a design they would do it for you, maybe you could find schematics for one online and have them whip it up. I bet they would even take the measurements as a lesson on blueprinting and fabrication. I went to trade school and the welders were always begging for projects just like us powersports tards. It would be cheap too. This instructor would look it over/ stress test it to ensure your not getting junk. Might be worth a thought! They could whip up the skid plates as well, that would be easy compared to the brush guard.

My old expedition was the same way in regards to traction. Its 4x4 system was unmatched in my opinion and it conquered things that other trucks and fancy rovers on base could not. It got me out of situations that most other vehicles would of needed a tow truck or an airlift for lol. Sand is spooky though, that is something I never tried nor wanted to. If you trust that thing in the sand like that its gotta be the ultimate rig! Im gonna find a video on their AWD system to see how many computer modules and sensors there are to make it work so well and determine the headache your gonna have when you need to troubleshoot it ;)


It is unfortunate you have to deal with California emissions. The state is beautiful but the laws are not! I went to tech school in the service at Port Hueneme and outside of that shithole and Ventura the landscape was beautifully awe-inspiring and I know thats nothing compared to the beauty of other areas in cali. It would be nice to live there if not for the politics, the ocean is fucking horrifying though. Its a miracle that your new ecu bumped the power up a little and reduced emissions. But hey man if you take care of it and keep it out of the salt you can register it as a classic in 2032 ( hopefully society makes it that long but it probably wont). Then you can do whatever the hell you want to it without worrying about emission I believe. Get rid of the catalytic converters and install the most obnoxious performance exhaust coupled with the most aggressive ecu you can find, wouldn't that be nice :) Then you could install that K/N without worrying about the mass airflow sensor having to be just so so it doesn't enrich or lean out your mixture :)

Again that is a really good looking car man. One of those hinged spare tire carriers that cover the rear hatch would truly complete its off-road aesthetics in my opinion, kind of like what Broncos and Jeeps have, like this kind of. volvo-xc90-offroad-gen1-4.jpg[/url]
 
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And how often do you get it up to 110 ;) Don't answer that there may be feds here :)

The last time we were driving to Idaho we were on a stretch of US 95 that is arrow straight and I pushed it just past 115 to make sure. Before the upgrade it would get to 110 and then it would dog or chug at that speed until I backed down.

The car is remarkably stable at that speed.

If I were in your shoes I would contact a local trade school with a welding program and pay some kids to fabricate a brush guard for you.

That's a great idea! Thank you!

Sand is spooky though, that is something I never tried nor wanted to.

Traction plates/boards would boost your confidence. ;)
 
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