Work on Diablo continues...

I'm happy to say that I have recovered my Diablo from the shop where it was vandalized.  I have it with me in Texas and have started to work on it again. 

I'm currently working on the seat belts and some other odds and ends.  Unfortunately I just recently got the doors redone again!  Doing the work myself to set the struts in the right position with the power windows AGAIN!  This was supposedly done in my Oct 2017 blog entry, but it wasn't until recently that I got that done 100% correctly.  So the doors once again run up and down as they should, and the power window assemblies can move as well.

I'll be publishing here again as I continue the work.  I'm also shadowposting this same info into lamboclone.com and pushing some of these updates into the lambo builders group on fb.

So even tho this post doesn't have pics, I'm letting anyone know who still follows this thing that work does go on even though there haven't been any posts about it.  I'll start posting again soon.

Thanks,
Coop

Oct 19 - late update on Speeduino

So all of this has transpired over the last couple of months but I haven't been in here to give an update in a very long time and I thought I'd catch everyone up on where we are right now on the Speeduino install and conversion.

I have the factory ECU and wiring out of the car.  I cut the sensor leads at the back of the motor so I could tie in my Speeduino into those same sensors on the motor.  I, being a network guy, used solid CAT 5e cable to run extensions of those sensor wires to the Speeduino up in the cabin.  It was tough figuring out the pinout on the Speeduino as the guy who made it used a standard IDE 40 pin connector but called the pin numbers what he wanted instead of using the standard.  "Gotta love standards, because there are so many to choose from" -Steve Masters (who I heard it from).

So once I was connected up I ran a test to no avail and no spark, so I had to troubleshoot that.  Turns out that from the wires i had cut some of them that I needed powered and ground hadn't been connected back to those sources yet.  So once my ICM had power and ground then I got spark.  Then I guessed what to use for degrees before top dead center and got it completely wrong, I couldn't make enough power to pull my hill and not back fire and kill the motor.  Then when I adjusted, I went the wrong way and made it worse.  Got mad and quit before I tore stuff up.

Came back later after a conversation or two from some folks and found out I should be way before top dead center which is weird for guys who have really high compression ratio motors.  Set it to like 25 deg btdc and it fired right up and pulled my hill without issue.  Next up is to fire the injector with the Speeduino!

Progress is being made y'all!!!

So I have the car over to Jerry Noone's place to get all better on the body and such.  I'll have more updates about that as they come along.  I have the last post about the doors getting struts, I'm super stoked about that.  Gonna take a few days for that high to come down I think.  :-)

Take care, it's a jungle out there!  :-D

Oct 18 - Door Struts!!!

This has been such a long time coming!  I've waited 16 long years to see this day!  I've turned my car over to Jerry and his guys to work on the Diablo and in less than a week he's already got the struts figured out in the doors and making sure it clears the power windows and all.  So he's got the plan to figure all of those moving parts into that small space already done.  Now he is executing it. 

I'm so happy about it, that I had enough happy left over for the next day!  :-)

Here's some pics he sent me.  I'm going to go by his shop and have a look for myself this morning and work them doors up and down.  For some it may seem like a simple thing, but if you actually build one of these cars, you'll know what it means to get over this step.

Thank you so much Jerry! 

 

Looking forward to the rest of the amazing work that you guys do!

May 24 - late update

I have some late updates and I've been busy getting the car together for the Carlisle car show which has also now passed.  I have pictures to upload and a lot of things are going on now due to work and my new exposure onto the web with a video that has gone viral.

I will update within the next couple of days or by this weekend with pics of what all I worked on just in time to have the car running again (for the car show).

I also have a guy coming over to help out with my dragging brake I've had to listen to since I put it on the road.

Anyway, watch this space as a lot of interesting things are about to happen with the fuel management and the new arduino that got loaded into the car.  We're almost on top of the magic numbers needed to allow the computer to take over for me completely.  So no more turning of knobs will be needed!

I think I'm only a couple or three months away from putting on tag on this thing and trying it out on the road more.  Very exciting times indeed!  I'll be getting over to my buddy who will be doing the paint and interior next week.  He will help with the door windows and the regulators.  May also have him do the strut while he has it there to hold the doors open.  Would be some nice progress itself.

Anyhow, just an apology update so to speak for not posting in so long.  A lot has been going on with work too.  That's starting to blow up for me.  So maybe I can afford to pay for more work to be done instead of work that I'm having to do.  We'll see how that goes.

Take care all, and thanks for the interest in "the fumes car".  I would love to see thousands of them out there.  That would be history making for sure.  Come join me in that.

Thanks,
Coop

In case you hadn't seen it.  The video I'm referring to is where a guy who has a huge following filmed me explaining the car and firing it up for the camera.  Sounds great if I may say so myself.

Carlisle 2017 skipping mail chat

APR 2 - no April fools joke here

I'm getting it done.  :-)

I've finally got my front suspension all torqued down.  Yes.  The videos you've seen  of me driving it around before now had some bolts with nuts and some were just bolts.  :-)  Like the top of the shock was just pinned (and yes there is a ton of friction there) and I wasn't doing any highway driving so I wasn't worried about it.  The few passes I have videos of are about all of the ones I've ever done.  I think I only have one drive without it being video'd. 

But I'm so glad that this is finally done.  Was a real bear trying to find all the right metric hardware to put my stuff together with.  3 out of 4 (as it turns out) of my bottom A-arm bolts are M12x1.75x90mm long. One of them was a 1/2-13x4!  Whatever.  It's all smooth and as it should be now.  I have some extra 1/2-13x4 bolts and nylon lock nuts lying about now.  I guess I'll take them back tot eh store and get my money back.  Don't think I'll be needing them in the rest of the build.

But the big deal (drum roll please) is that I can now get an alignment.  YAY!  :-)  I've been looking forward to that day for some time now.  My crap toe job and non-center steering wheel days are about to be over (until it needs another alignment).  hee hee

I've got a guy I've used for my regular cars, he does a bang up job and has a nice laser setup.  I'll be talking to them first about the settings.  I have the Diablo manual that has been floating around out here forever and will see what he thinks about mostly following that.  I don't know that every number will be the same or not.  As these things (even though mine is coil over) are not the same as factory.  Plus it has to look right in the wheel arch.  :-)  I noticed when screwing around with my caster and camber that it can move the wheel to the point that it interferes with the body.

Mar 25 - more on the doors pt 2

In continuing to document my progress on building out my doors, I have the following update.  I've not made any more progress on the passenger side, but have moved to the drivers side.  I had help with me on Friday that could help with getting the latch going.  Once I did that I just kept on going with what I already knew from the passenger side on how to get started on the window and regulator on the driver's side.  So once I was over there on the driver's side, I decided to take that regulator to the next step that I had yet to do on the pass side.  I cut the vertical track out of the fiberglass mount and made a new one directly onto my Lambo door.  I was able to get much closer to the tolerance of what room I have to work within and was able to make the regulator removable.

Here are some pics of the work that was done Friday afternoon and Saturday.

Was able to make one cut for the striker to come through. Drilled either end and hit the two lines with the vibration cutter.

Got these two holes on the money for the striker.

Striker is on.

Latch is on. This stuff goes so much faster once you've done it before. ;-)

Rivet time. Keeps everything in place while I work other things out.

Door lines up pretty nice.

Cut away some steel to let the vertical get some clearance. All of this with the glass is very close. Can also see where I welded my small piece back to the horizontal bit.

Made a small angle bracket for the lower to bolt to. Bent it as well.

Both doors turned out the same on the angle of the bottom of the glass to the horizontal rail.  I think I'll work with that.

On to trying to mount the glass to the rail next!

Thanks for your time and hopefully these tips will help someone else.
-Coop

Mar 18 - More on the doors

This update follows on from the previous one about how to get the doors done.

In the previous episode I was talking about getting the latch in, then hanging the window + regulator then moving on the strut that holds the door open.

This one I'm talking about the window and the regulator.  I'm also discussing the door skin being removable but only cutting it, not the later steps about how to add it back.

Using a variable speed saw I'm using this cutter that has a 1 3/8th wide end on it.  It was very nice for plunging into some interesting shapes to get the cut right.

I was keeping the tool at about a 45 degree angle as I was cutting the front and back areas of the door.

I was showing how you can also just use the corner of this tool to make nice radius cuts.

This was one of the rivets that I had placed around the whole of the skin.  This will make it easier to relocate the lower skin back to where it was when it was all lined up.

Lower skin removed.

In these images you can see how wavy the edge of the glass is. Not a very good manufacturing process.

Further down the length you can see it isn't straight at all.  Does this along the whole of the top from front to back edges.  Roller coaster.

You can see that I have drilled and some rivets in to hold this piece up in place, along the front edge you can see more drill hole locations. The D&R came template'd with them into the body.

Looking back the other way.

Regulator sitting in near the right location. Glass being held up with tape so everything can be checked out.

Getting dark but was trying to provide another angle for zooming in and looking at it.

Both of these images need zoomed in to see more and rotated.

Here's a youtube video going over what has been done.  More details there than what I have typed.