Just an update on my project EA.

After my torque converter shat itself, i decided it was time to go manual. Since the car was gunna be off the road for quite some time while I saved up for the gearbox i wanted, and decided it was the best opportunity I had to give the car a nice body kit and a new paintjob.

I was debating whether to revive the idea of the WRX front bar, and it was decided that the project would be given the go ahead. A fair bit had to be cut off the origional EA fibreglass front bumper (the peice on the inside that attaches to the car) to get the front bar to fit, but with the help of John (EFfalcon), we managed to get it sitting just right. Only a few very minor adjustments need to be done to the sides to get it to fit perfectly as can be seen in the picture below...

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/4th1.jpg

Some pics of the front bar with the cooler...
http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/4th8.jpg

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/4th9.jpg

I also still had a brock rear bar that I got for free, so all that i needed to do was find a suitable set of side skirts. A set of UBC (i think that's what their called) was found at a wrecker on the cheap, and seemed to flow surprising well between the front and rear bar.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/4th2.jpg

At the time, an XR6 lip spoiler was purchased, while only recently, the decision was made to use an SVO lip spoiler to make the rear end of the car a bit more unique. Adding further to this, it was also decided to get twin exhausts, one on either side of the car. As i have no fuel tank, i was given the option. So the rear bar was firstly repaired (is it was almost broken in half) and a space for the second exhaust was made. We also fibreglassed the space for the tow bar, as I don't think i'll ever be needing it.

At the same time, with the help of John, Dave (thanatos) and my mate Ivan, we stripped the car back to a shell. I even had the rear windscreen taken out aswell as the rear quarter windows, while the front windscreen remains on as it's brand new and the windscreen place told me there was a big chance it'd break if they tried to remove it. The clear was sanded back and now awaits the high fill before the real prepping begins.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/4th4.jpg

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/4th5.jpg

We also tackled all the rust spots by grinding them out and filling up with fibreglass, then filled the rest with body filler. The ford badge indent on the bonnet was also tackled, as will be the window washer holes and the antenna holes.

Deciding what color was a very hard decisions. The two big contenders were blood orange and mercury silver. I finally decided on mercury, and so i wouldn't change my mind, i went out and bought all the paint, enough to do both inside and out...

Now, something had to be done with the bonnet. I was origionally thinking air vents, but Dave convinced me that they'd look cheap. I had been dreaming of how a BA bonnet bulge would look, and mentioned it to my mate Ivan (without any real intention of doing it). The next day, we were at ferntree gully auto salvage looking for prices on a damaged BA XR8 bonnet. We found one that was slightly damaged at the front while the bulge was still good, and decided to give the project the go ahead...

The two bonnets were marked out, measured, cut and welded together, while the bonnet now awaits a lot of fibreglass, body filler and many many hours work to get perfect.

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/4th6.jpg

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/4th7.jpg
(Note: the bonnet is not bolted on at this point)

Having a look at the car with all the new body mods dummied in place, i convinced myself that the 16" rims just wouldn't cut it with the added bulkiness of the car, so they were p****d off, and now I am in the market for a nice set of 18's.

Other than what's been mentioned, Dave and I took my old diff out and are in the process of fitting the new 3.7's, but unfortunately after this, the car will probably not be worked on for a pretty long time, so their wont be much progress updates for the next 2 months.

that has to be the nicest EA around....u obvioulsy put alot of work in your cars....will be nice to see the exterior when its fully done...the wrx front will look interesting...nice work mate

Oh by the way, not sure if I have shown these already, but this is what the car looked like about 2 months ago...

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/SuperEA1.jpg

http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/SuperEA2.jpg

hahah no...u never shown them before...how much did the supercharger set u back....and how many kw's u gettin out of it?

Well that's got me all excited for you, can't wait to see the finished project.

just like a movie teaser hehe very interesting project and I appreciate the story to go with it ... a good read!!

I think the WRX front bar will really suit the car when painted as the shape of a rex is similar to an EB. Nice work, very original.

Looks great mate, hope to see pics of the bars painted.

You dynoed it? If so how many rwkw are we talking here?

The kit itself cost me about $3000. My car was on straight petrol before this, so if you count the straight gas research conversion (includes twin convertors and twin lines), intercooler, piping, water injection and mechanical stop on tensioners (had alot of belt slipping issues), it comes to about $8000. That price also includes the 3 inch intake pipe i had made after those photos were taken that goes down into the gaurd to suck cold air from underneath...

It's not running big boost as it's only a 9psi kit, but am currently getting 188.3rwkw. That number should bump up tho as I have a heavily ported manifold and haltech ecu to install. The water injection will be hooked up so that it only activates when there are any signs of detonation, and this combined with the manual i'm saving for, should see the numbers rise to over 200rwkw (hoping)...

Here's a pic of the manifold and intake piping that's just been HPC coated...
http://home.iprimus.com.au/grandmaster1/Coating.jpg

Am I right here ... you've converted the car to gas only?

Yes it's straight gas, tho i need either some form of chip or aftermarket ecu to adjust the timing as the ecu still thinks that the BBM is functional and hence still uses those timing maps...

Last edited by Rmyers on Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ahh... you that means you go back to single point injection?

Well technically it's a carby now...

yeah .. why can't/don't they run gas through a multi point system?

They do, but it's expensive as all hell...