SLC: 1989 Zinno coupe. Superlight, Super Functional *6spd swap inside*

[mitchlikesbikes]

Have you weighed it?

unfortunately, no. i couldn't find a convenient place to do it. maybe this spring i can

[mitchlikesbikes]

started working on the car again. pulled some parts off of the rear end. things are going smoothly so far for the most part. main issues are toasted rotors and parking brake shoes. also my shock bolt on the driver side sheared off and half of it is stuck in the hub now. hopefully i can get some vise grips on it and get it out. gonna continue yanking stuff off the rear end til i can drop the subframe and clean/paint before installing my new parts.


most of the fuel lines i've replaced so far looked like this or worse:



condor bushings all here:



getting stuff apart:



broken shock bolt:



other half:



sad looking brake shoes and rotors:





got my new felco 255lph fuel pump in as well. original fuel pump was operational but i replaced it for peace of mind. still need to figure out the senders and replace as necessary

[mitchlikesbikes]

continuing to take apart rear end stuff. for the most part things are going smoothly. i got myself a 12 ton press from harbor freight and pressed out my subframe bushings and trailing arm bushings. i am trying to figure out a way to set up the press that will let me press out the rear diff bushing, as well as the hubs and wheel bearings. the hub is giving me the most trouble because i have no way of supporting the awkward shaped trailing arm to press the hub from the backside.

also, one of my axles was STUCK in the hub. after hammering awkwardly with the trailing arm up on cinder blocks for a while i decided to do some more research and discovered that autozone rents a hub pulling tool that would work to get the shaft out. after cranking on the tool for about a half hour and hammering away i was finally able to get the axle out. once i get the hubs and bearings pressed out i can start cleaning and prepping parts for paint or powdercoat. need to make a trip to NAPA to order rear rotors, new axles, and some other odds and ends.

i also was able to finally get my diff tab clean enough to read and discovered that my car has the 3.73 LSD. was pretty excited about this, since it's the first fancy part i've found on the car since i got it other than vogtland springs, which hardly count anyway.

diff tag showing the "S3.73" labeling



subframe completely dropped:



Bare underside:






subframe out and on the longboards i used to wheel it out from under the car:



the tool i used from autozone on the axle. free rental!

[mitchlikesbikes]

so, got everything pressed out to end up with bare control arms and subframe. my friend brad (edutechnic on here) has built himself a homemade powdercoating station so we're gonna powdercoat my suspension stuff soon. meanwhile, i'm going to be rebooting my halfshafts and starting some rust repair on the body of the car. really not looking forward to the rust repair but it has to be done i guess. no pics right meow, i'm gonna go work a little today maybe so i will take some pics of what's going on.

[FireFight]

Jesus man, this is a rad build! Great work!
i really dig the wheels, i just saw those last night, time to start saving pennies

[mitchlikesbikes]

Jesus man, this is a rad build! Great work!
i really dig the wheels, i just saw those last night, time to start saving pennies

thanks man, i appreciate it. i'm really happy with the quality of the wheels for the price and the fitment.

as far as today's progress, i spent a couple hours drilling and tapping my trailing arm thanks to a shock bolt that broke off. my drillbit set was super dull and shitty so it took forever but i got it to a point where i'm comfortable putting it back together as is. i also got started disassembling the halfshafts for cleaning and a refresh. the grease from the halfshafts was EVERYWHERE so i couldn't take any pictures. tomorrow i will probably finish disassembly and continue degreasing. then i will work on rust repair on the body until my parts to refresh the half shafts arrive.

[mitchlikesbikes]

well, i finally got the CV joints clean enough and also received my reboot kits in the mail so i got that done up today. really messy job, i got grease EVERYWHERE so i didn't take any pictures. but now they're done and i feel pretty good about how they came out. i also took the time to get the old diff bushing out, then cleaned up the diff and hit it with some black rattlecan paint to make it look a little better and slow down rust. after the paint dried i installed my condor bushing. i also got my new rotors today. i need to do the rust repair under the car and powdercoat my suspension components, then i should be ready for reassembly.

rotors:



mess i made cleaning the CVs:



new boot kits. came with inner/outer boots, clamps, bolts, loctite, circlips, and grease.



new outer boot:



inner boot:



full axles (planning on wire cupping that rust and hitting them with some black paint):




my diff was so filthy from the previous owner that i never saw the blatantly obvious white "S" on the bottom to indicate the LSD. derp




quick crappy paint job + condor bushing:



closer photo. after sitting in the freezer for a few minutes i was able to tap it in nice and snug with my small deadblow hammer. after warming up a bit the fit is perfect. not too loose, but not so snug that it was a pain to get in (that's what she said...?)



i have christmas eve off work so i plan on getting some more work done. maybe even powdercoating if schedules line up properly.

[mitchlikesbikes]

well it looks like i'm going to be starting my new job on january 5th. since i have to take most of my tools to my new job within the first little bit it looks like i am in a bit of a crunch to get the car reassembled before that happens. if i don't end up powdercoating in the morning i think i'm going to go ape and dig some rust out of the underside and in the trunk. hopefully i don't find too much more than i can already see

[mitchlikesbikes]

progress has slowed down thanks to a my previous work wrecking my shit with 8 days in a row as a thank you for quitting. it's also been cold as tits here for the past few days. anyway, today i went out to the junkyard to see if i could find anything cool. i ended up getting a better condition fusebox cover and some cheap KYB struts that are in pretty good shape. i want bilsteins eventually but these will be much better than the completely toast no name ones that i pulled off my car. when i got home i bolted them up to my IE mounts to check them out, and everything looks good.

couple cars on the other side of the fence that will soon be melted down into who knows what:



shocks:






also spent some time digging out seam sealer and cutting out some rust on the driver side rear trunk area. lots of cancer back here but if i can get most of it out i will just do a simple patch and por15/seal it. there are a lot of awkward angles and seams that make it tough to really get things down to the bare metal but i think with time i can make it work.







everything i dug and ground out:




at this point i'm not sure when i will have to take my tools into my new job but the cold and lack of energy have slowed my progress enough that i'm not confident that i will have the car done too soon. i'm going to finish rust repair and hopefully start reassembly in the next week or so.

[Zacm829]

Great work! This thing would work great at the AUTO-x

[mitchlikesbikes]

Great work! This thing would work great at the AUTO-x

thank you!

quick but awesome update. i picked up my subframe from sir edutechnic today, and it came out AWESOME. the powdercoating is smooth and looks great. i picked this up and dropped off my trailing arms so he could work magic on those as well. i'm going to be pressing out some hubs and wheel bearings for him on his parts in exchange since he doesn't have a press and i do now. little bit of friendly e30 labor trading i guess.

here are some pics:

[eduTechnic]

;d

[mitchlikesbikes]

unloadedak gave me a good deal on some treehouse CABS so i will be getting started piecing together parts for the front end as well soon.

seems like i might have a bit more time than i thought before i have to take tools in to my new job so i'm gonna try to make a push this weekend to get a lot done if i can get ahold rust repair supplies in time.

[2mAn]

I like what you've done with this thing. Im curious how light it will be as well. I've alwasy weighed mine at truck weigh stations that are "closed" 9/10 times the scales are still working but nobodys there.

My bone stock fully optioned 86 ES weighed ~2750, while my current 84 "318" weighed 2400 with the 2.7i and 2450 with the M52 (and Lukebox)

My guess is you will be under 2400.

[mitchlikesbikes]

I like what you've done with this thing. Im curious how light it will be as well. I've alwasy weighed mine at truck weigh stations that are "closed" 9/10 times the scales are still working but nobodys there.

My bone stock fully optioned 86 ES weighed ~2750, while my current 84 "318" weighed 2400 with the 2.7i and 2450 with the M52 (and Lukebox)

My guess is you will be under 2400.

thanks man, your build is good too. anything under 2400 wet w/o driver would be awesome. i figure i've dropped at least 400lbs off the car since purchase and added no more than 100 or so with the large tires and roll bar. so i'll be at least 300 under stock.

it's starting to look like i might not need to take my tools in to my new work as soon as i thought. and i might be able to get away with leaving most e30 essential tools at home since equipment engineers still use a lot of standard hardware so i can just take standard stuff in for now and see how far that gets me.

as far as the car goes i'm gonna work on some more rust digging this weekend and break down some trailing arms for edutechnic in exchange for the trailing arm powdercoating he's doing for me.