Thread: Sheerluck's project D3

Be interesting to see how you get the hoses on,not much room around the front there.

Originally Posted by scarry

Be interesting to see how you get the hoses on,not much room around the front there.

Paul, I've just been measuring up for some extra silicon hoses and bends and aluminium pipe to extend the existing hoses.

Ît looks tricky, but not impossible.

Originally Posted by sheerluck

This is the crack in the original. Doesn't look much, but I've confirmed it is a crack by filling it with kero.

Kero? Why kero?

Originally Posted by BSM

Kero? Why kero?

I was originally filling it with water, but couldn't make out where it was leaking through. I couldn't get enough pressure in with the compressor to use soapy water, but the blue kero stood out OK against the aluminium to show where it was leaking out of.

There was probably a better way of doing it, but it worked.

Originally Posted by sheerluck

Paul, I've just been measuring up for some extra silicon hoses and bends and aluminium pipe to extend the existing hoses.

Ît looks tricky, but not impossible.

And it seems I made a big error in measuring up. In doing a trial fit over the weekend, I found that not all the pipes need to be the same size. From the turbo pipe to the intercooler, it goes from 2" to 2.5". Yes, I only bought 2.5" pipes.

And in doing a trial run around again today, I found coolant dripping from the front left. The brand new coolant bottle has split along the front seam.

And also, the airbag light now refuses to go off. Still waiting for a USB-serial cable so I can use my new Faultmate, so that I can find what the problem is.

Bugger! Frustration upon frustration! It's that last bit of the project that always gets you. It's when you've got the whiff of home and the pedal is flat to the floor that all these finicky little problems show up. I hope there's not too many more for you Dave.

Thanks Sean. It's days like today that make you want to throw your spanners on the floor in disgust.

The most worrying part was when I put the battery back in, I disturbed the large electrical connector (just to the left of the battery as you look at it) without realising it. As I tried to start it, I got a whole raft of faults, "transmission fault - limited gears available", "HDC fault", "Parking Brake fault - auto release not available".........

I pulled my hair out for an hour, before I looked at the modules and wiring around the battery. Bingo. Unplugged and replugged the connector, one hard reset and it started first turn of the key.

Well to say that it's been a lousy couple of months would be an understatement. Times and life have been better, but life still goes on.

Anyway, just to continue with the works that went on over the last few months.

Body was lifted from the chassis to remove the creased inner guard. (Can't get to it otherwise)



This is what a peeled D3 looks like. And this is My neighbour trying to wash the 100 or so kilos of red dust off the chassis


Inner guard removed all the way back to the bulkhead. About a hundred spot welds drilled.


New inner guard, other LH panels and front crossmember all spotwelded in and given a protective spray coat.


And how it looked about 2 weeks ago


In the last 3 weeks, I've had to replace the gear selector cable - it wasn't quite pushed back into place properly after the body lift, and let go after moving the car around. It was a bit of a pain that it chose to break whilst in Drive. At the same time, one of the connectors in the rear wheel arch chose to separate slightly, meaning that the air suspension and EPB stopped working too.
I had to park the car outside the house and shout my wife to come and chock the wheels so I could get out and take a look at what was going wrong.

No air suspension to raise the suspension, so had to slither underneath and put the gearbox into park without putting myself in too much danger.

It then took 2 weeks to trace the popped connector. The rubber seal inside the connector had pinched slightly, pushing the connector out far enough to cut the power to everything.......and with the D3 that means a dash like a Christmas tree.

I've realigned the bonnet badge, and am happier with it now. It's not quite OE spacing, but it's better than my first attempt.

I've just got to finish off the new intercooler mounts, and install that, attach the bullbar and exterior plastic trim, lights and grille and it's done.

However, two of the wheel arch trims need to be repainted. My wife went to attach them at the weekend and found that something had been dropped on them. Not happy at all.

Oh, and I managed to stand on the compressor cover. Broke it, so need a new one.