73 Fjord with Megasquirt

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Ive been sidetracked! My long term project is on hold while i try to finish off someone elses unfinished project. The attraction was it needed alot less welding than the 72, it will need alot less paperwork to get it back on the road and it has a few enhancements that i like but didnt want to do to the 72 as i want to keep that 'factory'.

The plan is to get it on the road asap, leave it alone cosmetically, do what is necessary mechanicaly, not cut too many corners but not worry about origionality - and to end up with a reliable beater with a bit of hot rodding thrown in

A few pics to get the ball rolling


How all good projects arrive!


Megasquirt relay board


Megasquirt Brain


Inside Megasquirt V3.0 with MSII Board


Ford EDIS (came with coilpack, VR sensor and crankshaft toothed wheel)


Wiring nightmare


faded but untorn and complete moulded carpet


Honda Integra Seats - match the blue interior nicely


Carpets lifted to reveal floopan rust (sand is from PO sandblasting engine bay!)


Chassis rails are OK


Repair begins


New frost plug and flywheel skim on the 'to do' list


80 amp alternator


Engine and chassis numbers match


Distributor blocked off


Damage to Heater box


Wiring clean up begins

I plan to rewire keeping the origional loom intact and adding the Megasquirt/EDIS/FI wiring totally separate in its own loom

Spent most of last week seperating the looms and wire tracing and continuity checks on the original loom, good news is it hasnt been badly hacked and has all the original color coded wiring intact

More to follow!!

Edited January 21, 2022 by scanner

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The heater box is fairly beaten up but the core looks ok and i need at least a demister so i have started to do a cheap but functional refurb, started with a bracket for the heater valve

I subsequently read on the forum that the valve will function supported by the hose only but i had already done most of the fabrication so on it went.

Some damage to the case meant the cables controlling the demister and footwell flaps were not attached and not opening the flaps

The problem

Bracket bent up from some 16gauge and painted with Hammerite ( Im not a big fan of Hammerite but was OK for this)

And in position, it will be rivited on, the idea is to spread the load and reduce pressure on the brittle plastic - hope it works!

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Took a trip to pickaparts and lifted about 200 hoods, came away with a few bits and pieces. BTW there are no 2002s at NZ Pickaparts and BMWs are few and far between, stiil you work with whats available

Distribution Box from a 5 series, not an E30 one but will do the job

Relay boxes from a couple of Toyota Corollas, they take Bosch type relays and i thought looked quite neat

A couple of cables from Honda Integras which i hope to adapt to acctuate the Throttle body using the 2002 Gas pedal

An assortment of Faston .250 connectors, covers and adhesive heatshrink from Digikey. Only took 3 days to arrive from the US- great service. The terminals were chosen after reading this http://www.ratwell.com/technical/Terminals.html Paladin crimper is on its way purchased on Amazon last week!

I now have no excuses and need to get stuck in to mocking up the layout for the engine bay and repairing original wiring

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Following the excellent FAQ heater box rebuild continues

Foam on flaps replaced with closed cell foam, red rubber grease used on flap grommets

Assembled to test cable movement - all good, success!

Mockup of wiring in engine bay

Showing relay box and Pos and Neg terminals (Battery to be trunk mounted) using modified original loom

Mocking up additional relay box and Megasquirt relay box(Cardboard version!) Plan is to run a seperate loom for Megasquirt EFI

Another trip to Pickapart - spent 2 hours removing the loom from an old Merc, not sure of the year but had lots of nice wiring that looked similar gauge and color coding to the 2002 so i now have a good supply of sutiable wire!

Mercedes wiring to be put to a better use!!

Started repairing wires that had been cut into or used as power takeoffs for additional electrical stuff. Trying to get the origional loom back to factory

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Finished testing the wiring, everything works, all relays and switches function. I had to take off the ignition switch as i was getting an unreliable contact in the 'fhart' position; 2 screws at the back and it comes off without taking the keyed part off, squirted some contact cleaner through it and greased the ball bearing and works perfect now. Sorry no pictures of this

Welded on a good solid earth that i can use a jump lead on - the battery has already been relocated in the trunk by the PO.

Added an earth strap and small earth distribution box from the Merc i took the loom from, giving me a convinient point to add additional earths for the megasquirt and additional relays

Earth in trunk cleaned, may swap screw for a bolt and nut for peace of mind

Earth on heater box bolt is good

This is where i can use jumper leads, positive power distribution box is from an E36 (couldnt find an E30 one!)

First sign of life! interior light. Basically i just went through each circuit, adding fuses, checking continuity and then powering up. By the end of the weekend everything worked

Found this little NZ Native when i took the back seat out, its a Weta, harmless and very cool - ill find a place for him!

I am missing one of these, its the parking light holder for an H4 Headlight, hopefully still available from BMW

Doesnt look much different but its alive now!

Instrument console cleaned and refitted

Loom under dash tidied up and rewrapped with bias tape

And onto the next project. Brake master cylinder refurb.

[rover1]

looks pretty cool keep up the good work!

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Finished the floor and firewall welding, as far as i can tell this is the worst of the rust and at this stage dont plan to look too hard for any more - this is going to be the daily driver so a little rust is acceptable!

Rotten metal cut away

Firewall patch formed

Took the opportunity to treat the insides of the chassis rails with Brunox rust treatment followed by a waxoil type treatment. Rails were in good condition with only surface rust on the inside

Extra plate added on the top of the rail to provide a solid base to weld the gas pedal locating nubs bracket to. Copper coloured paint is weld through primer

Final floor patch formed and holes drilled for plug welding

And welded in

Gas pedal bracket positioned and plug welded on

2 pack Epoxy primer brushed on

Seam sealed

Final coat of paint - Job done!

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More progress with the tidy up of the engine bay and underfloor

Welded up some of the POs mounting holes

And added a bracket for the Hella relays

Scrubbed the underside with Simple Green

Came up pretty good i think

Brushed on seam sealer over the epoxy primer

And sprayed on rubberised underseal using a schutz gun

Wheel wells done as well, i like the grey but may spray a light coat of fjord blue to look more 'factory'

Covers my welding repairs well!

This is the stuff i used, i think its German but available in NZ from R A Johnson, goes on nice and thick and is a pretty good match visually for the factory underseal.

Next on the to do list - rub down the existing primer ready for a coat of epoxy primer

Ready for epoxy primer

Although this is to be a daily driver the opportunity to spray a clear engine bay isnt one to be missed, so i am probably lavishing more attention on this stage than i will be on other parts of the build!

[austinmf]

Great job! Looks super!!

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Thanks for the feedback. Looking to get the engine bay color coated this weekend, then can start putting bits back in!

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The PO had put electric windows in which may have worked OK but im a great believer in the KISS principle and wanted to keep the electrics to a minimum. While dismantling the doors i discovered that both locks were non functional and some rust holes at the base of the door - project creep strikes again!

This wont be an extensive 'how to' as all i did was glean advice written by other forum members and in particular these 2 websites http://www.zeebuck.com/bimmers/tech/doorlocks/doorlocks.html and http://www.my2002tii.com/may2003/may2003.htm

So onto the photos!

Removed the electric windows, i believe from a Ford Mondeo

Rust at bottom of door cut out

Patches welded in

Bottom of doors epoxy primed, stone chip undersealed and wax treated on the inside, should keep the rust at bay for a while!

Door brake seems servicable

Standard problem here, will follow Bill Williams FAQ to sort this out

Regulator well greased up, hope i haven't overdone it?

Door lock soaked in petrol to clean off crud

Then blown with compressed air and Brakeclean, replaced grommets and sprayed with a PTFE lube

Assembled out of the car

And bolted in, (rubber grease used on the grommets)

And locks refurbed as described in the website mentioned above, i also reyeyed the drivers lock to match the ignition by filing down the tumblers.

And so to reassembling the windows, i was ready for a fight here but i think i got lucky and the order i put things back in seemed to work well so for what its worth heres how i did it!

Placed rear guide in but at this stage left it loose

After mocking up on the bench with the guides, removed the guides and dropped the window into the door

Quarterlight was already in the door, snapped the front guide into the front guide rail and bolted loosely to the window.

Bolted rear guide to window

Slid regulator in and attached to window, this took a few attempts to get the right window/regulator position to allow 'docking' to take place!

Regulator was bolted up (This was after mating it with the window which allowed me a little more wriggle room)

Rear guide rail was then moved forward and bolted loosely into position

After an hour or so of adjusments the window now moves up and down smoothly, more fine tuning will follow but still a satisfying outcome

Door trim still to put on, am waiting on the U channel felt strip to come from Germany

Well thats the passenger side done, will do some other stuff before tackling the drivers side, i need a break from wrestling with greasy regulators!

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Reached an important stage in the refurb today - painting the engine bay. I went with an epoxy primer (already done) and a 2K 2 stage Basecoat/Clearcoat system. This is the first time i have used this paint system, all previous projects were with good old lacquer.

Masked up

First base coat on

Basecoat goes on flat.

I made the mistake of putting the first coat down too heavy and got a couple of runs, so i left it an hour and wet sanded the run with 600 grit and wax and grease remover, it worked perfectly. I wish i could take the credit but i You Tubed this very helpful 'How to" from a fellow Kiwi!

Basecoat finished, 3 coats and a final dropcoat, metallic looks pretty good, no 'tiger striping' fortunately

3 coats of clearcoat and the jobs done! Pretty happy with the result

Color variation

This has been the only downside to the process, the color doesnt match the bodywork! The paint i used was Spiers Hecker Permacron mixed to the Code and the color the body had been repainted by the PO is lighter than the factory color, hence the variation. Looks like a good excuse for a future respray!

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Now the engine bay is painted i can start reassembly, emptying some of the cardboard boxes stored around the garage.

Pedal Box (RHD) epoxy primed, fitting was straightfoward using 3M Strip Caulk

At this point i cavity waxed areas that were easier to get at before i put anything else in,

this is top of the plenum above where the heater box sits

Wiper arms needed a cleanup

New grommets fitted

Painted and greased up

And fitted, i fitted the wipers before the heater box to make life easier,

its a tight fit in there when the heater box is fitted

Heater box and valve refurbed, new hose and stainless hoseclips

And fitted, again using 3M Strip Caulk. Now the Heaterbox is fitted i can start the interior refit

In my latest package of goodies from Walloth and Nesch were the famous 'Corn Cobs" for the doorlocks.

Fitted one and it really does make a huge difference, door closes with a satisfying Clunk now!

The company i entrusted removal of the steering box arm to managed to feck up the alloy housing making oil seal replacement difficult!

Really pissed off but dont think the oilseal was too bad anyway, it was the other seal that was leaking

Ready to rebuild steering box, using EP140 (GL4) Oil to try to minimise leaking

Cleaned and ready to assemble

Job Done, filled with oil, will check tomorrow for leaks!

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Satisfying to start to see parts going back in and the piles of cardboard boxes reducing

Pedal box fitted using 3M strip caulk

Brake and Clutch master cylinders refitted

Steering box in position

Rebuilt twin servos with new hydraulic seals, i have lots of photos of disassembly and rebuild and will post in the future (After road testing to confirm success!!)

Sorting out wiring spaghetti begins

Fused relays for Horn, Low beam, High beam and (in the future) Driving lights

Laying out wiring

Crimp tool and connectors used for relays, makes a nice tight crimp

First Servo added

Some wiring wrapped and second servo added

Next up - Brake lines

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More progress photos

Brake lines cleaned and reinstalled, brake/clutch reservoir added

Washer motor stripped down

Some serious oldschool over engineering here!

And installed on washer bottle, washer bottle leaked but managed to fix with careful use of a soldering iron to weld the plastic

Steering wheel installed, i have a genuine Nardi which will eventually be installed when i get the Momo to Nardi adapter.

Started stripping the ancillaries off the block, the plan is to leave the long block intact and check and replace gaskets ect as needed

Water pump had a broken stud, tried the welding a nut method - FAIL

So drilled out and collapsed thread

Stud screwed out -WIN!

Removed all core plugs

Glad i did, a couple looked close to failure

Removed Block drain plug to reveal?

What looked like solid metal, after chipping away turned out to be sludge build up.

A few more flushes of the water jacket should see it right.