My MB6 Track Car build

[stoocake]

My plans for the car are to keep it road legal, but mostly it will be used on track. I plan to race the car evetually, but for the next year it will be mostly track days and road use while I work to get the most out of the chassis. I plan to do this car as cheaply as possible, and doing most (ok, all) the work myself has helped with this.

Some of the plans I have for the car are as follows, although this lost grows longer as I go (Bold ones are completed):

-Strip Interior

-Remove Sound deadening

-Remove Air conditioning

-Remove Sunroof

-Remove ABS system

-Remove unused cabling

-Remove Foglights and wiring

-Remove Power Steering

-Adjustable Brake Bias Valve

-Remove SRS

-Relocate battery to passenger compartment

-Custom Dashboard (lightweight y0!)

-P72 ECU and mapping

-2.5" Stainless exhaust

-MG ZS180 Rear ARB

-Coilover suspension

-Perspex Windows + remove electric motors

-Roll Cage

-Bucket Seats and Harnesses

-Sparco Steering Wheel

-Aluminium/Carbon Door cards

-Polybushes

-Oil Catch Can setup

-K&N Panel Filter

-Braided brake lines

-Dixcel Pads (but I'll wait till I've used the 4 sets of OEM pads I have)

-Wheel Alignment

-Fidanza Flywheel (standard clutch for now - still on std power)

Here's the car when I first got it:

Getting the interior out was fairly painless and very quickly made the car look and feel more serious. Removing the sound deadening is a horrible job and takes hours and hours. I've been using a heat gun and a wooden spatula to remove it, which makes a reasonable job of it without damaging the metal underneath. I know people have used dry ice in the on a cold day and supposedly that makes it flake off a bit easier. If I ever do this again, I'll certainly try that, but I expect it'll still be laborious. Once the sound deadening is out, a wire brush in a drill makes fairly light (but messy) work of the seam sealer.

I took part in the group buy on here for Fidanza flywheels back last summer. It was fun trying to drop the gearbox and lift it back in without an engine hoist; ended up tying a rope around my dad and his partner, using the strut brace as a pulley, had them walk backwards to lift the box up while I manovered it into place. the flywheel is a big improvement on the stock unit, and the car is every bit as driveable as it was before - I've not had any problems with hill starts or stalling or anything. Accelaration is greatly improved, although the engine does still feel restricted by the exhaust/cat so these will be changed soon.

Removing the sunroof made a large improvement to the handling of the car - it feels much sharper and the car doesn't bank as much when turning in. I fabricated a bung out of aluminium bought from a suppliers in Stourbridge (if anyone's looking in the area, PM and I'll get their details - highly recommended and not at B&Q prices!)

I made a template out of cardboard and used this to shape the metal. I was surprised how easy it is to cut aluminium with tinmans shears. I've never fabricated anything before, so this was fun.

At first, I added an inch around the outside of the template so that the panel I made had a lip which I could use to bond it, but in the end I gave up on this as it was too fiddly, and it was a few extra grams of weight so save

Here's the panel almost in...just a bit of filing to do, then clamp it and bond it. I'm going to be ghetto and use bathroom sealant or something similar around the edges to stop it leaking Don't worry..I'll be going for a professional as possible finish.

I made a new grill from a cheap piece of mesh spotted in the bargain bin in Halfords - makes a nice change from stock and only took 15 minutes.

Comments and criticism (good or bad) welcome.

Thanks

[stoocake]

As I will eventually run a lightweight bare-minimum dash, I have started fabricating this. Although I will continue to use the stock dash until I get the roll cage fitted and start competing.

I have taken the dash wiring loom out, and started removing the cables I don't need...the harness for the CD player was a fair amount of wiring out, and will help keep it tidy when my dash goes in. It'll also save those few grams of weight. It's quite addictive this weight saving game. It's easy to become very anal about it.

I'm also removed the SRS harnesses and computer, as well as the ABS sensors.

I want to remove the circuit that plugs into the dashboard dimmer switch, as this is unnecessary for obvious reasons. However, I'm not sure which cables I need to bypass to make this happen. I'll have a fiddle, but if anyone who is reading this might be able to help, give me a shout.

The car had been pretty much sat still from around April 08 to February 09 and I felt the brakes needed a full rebuild. I wanted to remove the ABS system anyway and run the brake lines inside the car, for safety and to make it easier to fit an adjustable bias valve.

The rear calipers were begininning to stick even before I took it off the road, so a complete rebuild was the obvious thing.

The fronts looked like this:

Got new disks and caliper rebuild kits all-round from brakes international - very highly recommended, they were helpful on the phone and quick delivery.

Rebuilding the fronts was easy, just popped the pistons out, new seals in, greased everything up and bolted them all back on.

The rears are a nightmare. I just spent most of a weekend trying to get the pin out that holds the handbrake cable to the handbrake arm on the caliper. 4-5 days soaked in penetrating oil, applying heat, tapping with a hammer to encourage rust to break, cutting a groove on top and using an impact driver, drilling out the stud (just rounded off my drillbits)..NOTHING worked. In the end I hammered a screwdriver in between the lugs of the handbrake cable and levering a gap large enough to fit a cutting wheel of a dremel through.

Only tonight have I started dismantling the calipers, the pistons were really stuck thanks to the nice gunge that had congealed in the rubber boot seals and the slider pins aren't much better.

I still have a bleed nipple stuck in one of the calipers - again I've tried heat, penetrating oil, brake pipe spanners, clamping it in a vice and twisting the whole caliper..etc etc. It's stuck forever I think.

At least the new disks are an improvement

I took the ABS pump out to save weight and return the car to a complete non-ABS brake system to get it through the MOT. The whole unit is in the bin now, seeing as the ABS didnt work anyway. It's a fairly heavy unit and tidies up the engine bay nicely.

Finally, a shot of the Civic and my old Prelude together, which you can't see, as it's dark....as always! (Ignore the Kia Cerato in the background - that's my dad's partners and it's a bloody awful car!)

[MBK89]

looks great man

keep us all posted!

[stoocake]

In trying to remove the seized bleed screw, I'd tried flattening off the sides and clamping it in a vice, but that didnt work at all.

I decided to give up so ordered a new one from Brakes int. £117 all in without the exchange unit (I'd tried to drill out the other one so they wouldnt accept it). They delivered the next day too, which was handy.

...um, just as well I'm not going for looks huh?

I had to redo the brake lines as the ABS pump had been removed, so I bought 25 feet of copper brake pipe and a flaring kit. My first time making brake pipes, so after a few practices getting a nice symmetrical flare I gave it a shot making my own. It's pretty easy and quick to do, loads of tutorials online so I'll spare you here.

I've stripped out all the cabling from parts that no longer exist, eg rear speakers, rear wiper, electric window, rear demister (it's still there but I will be hopefully replacing the rear glass soon with something lighter) front foglights, headlamp washer and rear washer motors. I've still got some to remove, including the ABS loom that I need to hack out from the rest of the wiring that runs through the drivers side bulkhead.

Here's the window wiring before I hacked through it all.

And the foglights and lamp washers being removed. Need to work out what to do with the gaping holes in the front end now

And some more wiring to come out the next time I remove the dash

I haven't posted pictures of my brake install yet, so here's my adjustable bias valve mounted behind the handbrake:

My aluminium sunroof bung wasn't 100% successful as after an 800 mile round trip to Scotland at 70mph it has started to lift at speed - only half an inch or so along the passenger side, but it will need redoing at some point. Rather than recover this, I'm considering removing the whole roof skin and replacing with an aluminium sheet. Especially as I will have a roll cage.

Also here's a shot of my OMP steering wheel, purchased for a whopping £6 once I'd sold the boss kit that it came with. Notice the luxurious carpet placed to offer my girlfriend a modicum of comfort. Funnily enough, this is an offcut of a carpet I had installed in my house from Carpet Right's 'Accord' range. So at least it's Honda related.

I've also started painting the interior white! I wasn't going to do this originally as it is purely cosmetic, but I couldn't resist it looking a bit smarter in there. 2 coats of B&Q white metal paint should do it.

I also move my boot release catch to the rear to tidy up the interior a little more. This will go when I fit bonnet and boot pins.

AND FINALLY!!!

Suspension!

As this will be (if not already) strongly biased towards track use, it would be wrong to fit anything other than a decent set of coilovers. Besides, the ride height was badly needing sorted, and as most of us know the standard MB6 suspension is a little on the soggy side.

Old shocks:

Standard top mounts use 10x1.5mm nuts, whereas the new shocks needed 10x1.25 (most Honda's use the finer thread - the MB6 is awkward as usual)

The drivers side bottom bolt was a right pain to get out. I think the fork may be slightly twisted as no amount of jiggling the suspension seemed to free it up at any point, but on inspection after removal it looked ok. I've haven't replaced the parts so I'll see how it looks after a proper alignment.

There isn't much room to get the shock absorber free, even with the fork removed, so most of my body weight holding the suspension arms down whilst wriggling the shock absorber and it eventually comes out.

Removing the rear shocks , there is even less room, and the method I resorted to was to use spring compressors to compress the springs enough so that I could shorten the strut by hand and remove it that way. Much easier than removing the ARB or LCA links - although a search on here reveals other people to have had success that way.

So here'S the exciting bit: the coilovers (the doodling on the paper wasn't me and the placemats aren't to my taste - don't judge me )

The new vs the old. Notice the difference in length - the stiffer springs compensate for this, and make it much easier to fit the new units.

New top mounts, again using 10x1.25mm nuts

I was running out of daylight by the time I finised fitting the suspension, so I didn't have time adjust the height once the car was lowered to the ground. At the moment the car looks like this:

..I kinda like it low, but I'll start experimenting with the ride height this weekend and get a proper alignment done on it, as it'll be badly needed now.

Next update should be a new exhaust and decat, perhaps some lighter wheels, fitting my bucket seats and finish painting the interior.

[stoocake]

Managed a little bit more work this evening on the car. My new K&N Panel filter arrived in the post today so got that in. By the looks of it, it was badly needing changed anyway - hadn't done it in 18 months, although the car wasn't driven for 12 of those.

Finally got round to fitting these naf pedals that I picked up in Halfords Bargain bin for about £6. If they feel crap I'll take them off, but I heel and toe all the time to keep myself practiced, so these might be a nice addition. They'll look better once I've finished painting the interior.

Finally, a shot of the car next to my Honda C90 Cub, which I also just got working again so I can use that for commuting when I get it taxed (@ £15/year )

[stoocake]

Buckets are in!

...but I'll get better pics once I've done the passenger side as it was dark when I finished the drivers side.

I didn't get the light wheels and slicks that I was hoping for (last minute outbid), so I'll probably just attend Knockhill in June on standard wheels and Parada's this time. Spent enough money on the car recently and need to buy a new drum kit to go with my new band

Anyway...bucket seats make a great difference. Not as comfortable and bloody awkward to get in and out of the car, but you get so much more feedback about what the car is up to. They're mounted a lot lower down (although I could up the height easily enough with washers ) which should do well for the cars handling, considering that I am now one of the cars chunkier payloads.

I've been busy in the evenings this week painting more of the interior, so it's mostly white now. Still got a bit of heat-gunning to do to remove traces of sound deadening, but no real weight left in it.

Now that I've covered about 150miles on the HSDs, I adjusted the damping tonight 2 clicks towards firmer. I expected a rock-hard ride, but nope, the car just feels even MORE controlled!! I really rate these coilovers! I'll do another click for the drive home tonight (there are 15 clicks in total available).

Still to come are some camber adjustment arms, and a trip to MIJ Performance for a custom exhaust. As I'm going more for peak horsepower rather than low-down torque, I'm thinking a 2.5" system with de-cat, and will eventually run a 4-1 Header. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

[stoocake]

Decided that as it was raining when I got home from work I couldn't use any power tools outside to get the sound deadening out, so I'd tackle a bit of wiring from my engine bay.

Within 5 minutes I ended up with this:

I took the opportunity to remove the washer bottle so that I can move it to the cars interior soon, although I'll probably fabricate a smaller neater container for it.

I weighed the front cross member...a whopping 3.8kg! So it's not worth removing any time soon considering the crash protection it offers. I'll still remove the bonnet latch when I fork out for bonnet pins.

I removed some of the wiring for the air-con, the foglights, washer pumps and some of the ABS wiring which was still there. I need to remove the battery again at some point to get under there and get the cabling out through the bulkhead, but got it looking much tidier back there.

I also removed the power steering belt to see how it feels without it, although I know that as the fluid/plumbing is still in place it won't feel as light as it will when it's completely removed. Still, should free the engine up a tiny bit. I'll report if there's any difference when I've driven it. Once confirmed that I want to do away with PS, I will either loop off the rack, or dismantle the rack and grease it properly, so that I don't have to keep PS fluid in it. I'd prefer to do the latter but it'll mean having the car off road for a few days.

[stoocake]

Update 9/4/09

Nothing too exciting happening recently other than fitting my other bucket seat, FINALLY getting the rest of the sound deadening out and painting the interior white (needs another coat but it's coming along).

In preparation for Knockhill in June I am doing a service as I go - already done the oil before I had it MOTd and will do it again when I get back from the track day. Lastnight I re-fitted my power steering belt as it was crap to drive without to be honest...although it would be better if I did it properly, rather than just removing the belt.

I bought a new timing belt, PAS belt and alternator belt from Honda. I don't actually have a clue when the timing belt was last changed and the car is on 108,000 miles now so it's definately worth doing.

Also had a new dizzy cap and rotor delivered so got those on lastnight. Surprise surprise, the lower bolt holding the cap on had siezed, so had to remove the whole dizzy so that I had room to get it out...not too lengthy a job though - just make sure if you do it you remember the alignment of the rotor arm so you don't throw the ignition timing out by 180 degrees and the car won't start. Also mark the dizzy and end cap so you can realign the dizzy when you bolt it back on.

I'm moving house in 2 weeks so progress with the car will be slow, but I've just had some sheets of lexan delivered...so if it's dry over the weekend I'll be doing something interesting with that..

[stoocake]

Little bit of an update from today ( 12/04/09 )

I've invested in some lightweight wheelnuts...I'm quite impressed by how light they are. Although they're longer than I need, the price was right.

YES! They're pink

I also made one of my lexan window's today. Started by removing the door so that I could cut out the inner skin too - was surprised by how heavy the door is - even without glass and window motors in it. I was going to weigh them but my electronic scales had run out of battery. I'll get the weights when I do the other side.

Door out:

Inner door skin removed

Test fitting:

Lexan window in place:

The door is still heavier than I feel it needs to be though, so I'll remove the crash bar from inside (it's welded in so more fun with the angle grinder) and when I've done everything else on the car, might look at fabricating an aluminium panel to replace the entire door..but that's a long way off yet I expect.

[MBK89]

fkin good write up dude, looks real nice.. keep up the good work