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[B C]

That looks real good

[Bassboy3313]

Awesome!!!!!

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[HipMF]

Full compression achieved.

I got about two thirds of the way done welding it before realizing that I was warping the crap out the quarter panel. It's more or less a big flat sheet once you cut the wheel arch off, so it's pretty flimsy and it doesn't take much to mess it up. Cut out half the welding that I did and started again. Ended up with a huge gap to fill between the wheel arch and quarter panel. Realized what I was doing was stupid and cut the whole thing back off. It took a lot checking, wedging, clamping, re-checking, and cooling the panel down after every quarter inch of weld, but I managed to get it on there while keeping everything pretty straight. Turned out pretty well actually.

It needs a little rolling and/or trimming, but it should be a no-rub situation when it's done. Started working on reattaching the inner fenderwell to the outer, but haven't figured out how to stuff myself into the wheelwell so that I can actually see what I'm doing.

Enjoying a well-deserved beer. Almost halfway done!

[Daggerty]

Great job any thoughts on what youre going to paint the inside with?

[HipMF]

Daggerty said:

Great job any thoughts on what youre going to paint the inside with?

Inside the wheelwells? Probably just seam-seal the welds and spray bomb. It's a fair-weather machine, so I'm not too worried about it.

I'll probably get a quart of paint mixed up for the outside once everything is done. Since I've decided to put the turbo off another year, I'll be doing body work stuff this winter. Finishing the flares, deleting the side trim, marker lights, etc.

Need to figure out what to with the ugly rear valence too...

[Daggerty]

My questions have been answered

[Bassboy3313]

Rear Euro Valance FTW

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[YoungCR]

Great work! I really need to learn to weld...

[Jdesign]

That looks amazing. What are those flares from? I bet you were cringing the first few cuts.

[HipMF]

Jdesign said:

That looks amazing. What are those flares from? I bet you were cringing the first few cuts.

The flares are patch panels for a mk i golf. I actually cut the depth down about an inch. No clue why a golf has such large wheel arches, but I'm not complaining. Plus you can get them for about $28 each, which is stupid cheap. Quality is about what you'd expect for that price though.

After how discouraged I got dealing with the mess I made by cutting out the subframe, hacking out the wheelwells was definitely a "Why am I doing this to myself again?" moment. It's a fair amount of work, but I think I should be able to handle it this time.

[Earl]

I love how they look on 2002's so this will be just as good, if not better=) You're making one hell of an e21!

[Jdesign]

I agree. It looks amazing and it will all be worth it in the end!

[HipMF]

I left the welding for another day, but the second side is going a lot faster than the first. I even took some pics this time.

[YoungCR]

nice work!

[Jdesign]

I wish it was as easy as scrolling through the pictures and seeing the flare form itself into the body. Thats looking great man, keep going!

[HipMF]

Hmm, almost 4 months with no progress? Time to get back to work on this thing now that I'm done fooling around with the compact.

Did a couple piddly things last weekend. Got started on building a new exhaust this weekend.

Since the subframe has moved up 2", there's no need to do the old over-the-subframe, under-the-half-shaft trick anymore. The exhaust that was on the car was put together at the 11th hour, and I never really liked it much anyway. It was fine for the grandpa-stanced, 13" wheeled version of the car, but it's time for something new...

Maybe my google-fu is weak, but I haven't been able to find a video of a 4-cylinder car that has a "true dual" exhaust (ie the exhaust from half the engine's cylinders travels to the rear of the car in one pipe, while the other half travels in another pipe). Both V8s and inline-6s both seem to sound better with this type of setup, but I don't seem to recall ever seeing it applied to an inline 4.

So, in the interests of science, I've decided to try it for myself. Obviously, 4-cylinders tend to sound like crap in general, so I'm not expecting miracles here, but here's what I'm thinking: 4-bangers tend to have a fairly mellow tone in general, but when they do get raspy it tends to be extreme, and in a narrow rpm range (unless, of course, they're forced through some terrible fart-can exhaust which just sounds raspy and terrible all the time...). By splitting the exhaust in two, I'm hoping that each half will hit it's raspyness at a different rpm, thereby cutting the intensity in half, but prolonging it over a larger part of the rpm range. I'm also assuming that lengths of straight-pipe tend to resonate at a particular RPM, contributing to raspyness, so I'm trying to make sure every straight section of pipe is a unique length. The idea here isn't to get rid of the raspyness, but to spread it evenly across as wide an RPM range as possible.

So, here's what I have so far:

The M42 is a good candidate for this experiment, because the stock exhaust is a 4-into-2-into-1 system. The stock header already has each pair of cylinders each exiting through 2 separate pipes, so that's where my work starts.

Even "true dual" systems seem to sound better with an "H" or "X" pipe, so I've included one at the location where the stock exhaust would merge from two into one. This will also be a handy spot to put the O2 sensor so that it gets an average reading from all 4 cylinders and doesn't obstruct flow through the pipe. I'm using 2x1.875" pipe, which is way too large for a stock M42, but gives me some future proofing for when I finally put a turbo on this thing, or rip it out and do something completely different...

The glasspacks that I'm using are super cheap and don't seem like they'll be very effective, so if it does end up sounding like crap, I'll replace those with something that has a greater muffling potential. I've also got a couple stainless MagnaFlow mufflers for the rear of the car that should help quiet things down and look cool to boot.

[YoungCR]

In for the exhaust video! Looks great so far

[Jdesign]

That's looking nice! I am interested to hear what it sounds like. I have a good history with working on Honda 4 cylinders and always thought cheap exhaust made them sound horrific. Because there is such a huge aftermarket for them, everyone buys these cheap exhausts, and now the whole world associates the terrible 4 cylinder sounds with Hondas.

 A nice muffler and correct resonator and piping makes a world of a difference. You look to be on the right track to making something that sounds good. Im all ears

[B C]

I like it when people disregard common solutions and dive into the deep dark world of trying new things. So long as you dont end up with a manifold that looks like a dang house.

[GunMetalGrey]

Your fabrication skills never cease to impress! 
I like your thought process behind the exhaust, and I'm excited to hear it!