Ian's 06 SS/SC Extended Track/City/Drag/Motocross/Whatever Goblin #359

[ARabidNull]

First, a huge thank you to both Rttoys and Jbintx! I've been working towards this ever since you both gave me test rides.

It'll be a while before I can post progress, I have to clean up the workshop so I can start taking apart my donor. Until then, this is my donor:

I affectionately call it "the shitbox", because the previous owner smoked/vaped so much the interior stinks. And the paint is peeling off. And the sunroof leaks. The interior is a disaster. And I paid too much for it. However, the parts I care about work just fine.

Before owning the donor, I hadn't driven a stick for nearly 30 years so I've been taking it out to practice and so far I'm already liking it.

Hopefully, I'll be dismantling this Cobalt soon...

 

[Rttoys]

Awesome. Glad you decided to roll with it. I have learned a lot more about these in a year since you came for the test rides. With Jason and I doing a lot of autocross in the last year, we are quickly finding the limitations and weak points of the goblin, but that brings R&D and upgrades to an already bad ass package.

You have my number if you need any help.

 

[Vwsaabvt]

I affectionately call it "the shitbox", because the previous owner smoked/vaped so much the interior stinks.
Hopefully, I'll be dismantling this Cobalt soon...

Wait until you start pulling apart your wiring harness all the smell will be soaked into it also and you are going to get pretty familiarized with it. My shell was long gone by the time I started my harness, but the smell while I was thinning it kept the memory of my "shitbox" alive

 

[ARabidNull]

Seven months later...

After a comedy of errors and several setbacks, I'm finally tearing down my donor. I'm a software guy by trade and until now the most mechanical thing I've ever done was replace the tires and exhaust header on my Subaru BRZ. If you see anything I'm doing that looks wrong, please don't hesitate to say so, I'd rather know now than figure it out later.

On Friday I prepped the car for teardown, I'm basically following the DF Kit Car videos as closely as possible (my donor has some differences, like a cold air intake) so none of this should be a surprise.

I power washed the engine.

Took a note of the final milage before teardown 122,555:

And one last photo before destruction:

Today I started the real teardown, starting getting all of my tools ready to go. I was going to do the teardown in my workshop but there's a space issue and it's just easier to take care of this off to the side in my driveway.

I found out the front shocks of the car are shockingly dirty.

However, with the help of my friend Brit, we managed to get the the front body panels off

And one of the swaybars disconnected.

But we got stuck on the driver's side swaybar. I didn't have the proper sized metric wrench and the nut/bolt is very rusted. It just refuses to budge from this position.

I soaked the bolt with penetrating WD-40 and made a trip to the store for the proper tools. However, it became too hot and sunny for my pale complexion so we stopped there.

So, one day down. Around six hours of work. I'm a minute and a half into the third disassembly video. Tomorrow I hope to finish stripping the donor, although that seems to be expecting too much based on today. Thunderstorms will be rolling through Texas on Monday/Tuesday and I'd rather have all of the Goblin parts in my workshop instead of still on a donor that's open to the elements. I have a car cover in case, though, either way, I'm covered. No pun intended.

 

[Rttoys]

If you are upgrading the struts, then cut the sway bar link at the strut. Street driving you don’t need the sway bar. Track, you nay want to add it back, but it’ll be the base model “smooth ride” one, not the ss.

glad it’s coming along. Don’t be afraid to text me.

 

[ARabidNull]

Thanks, I am upgrading the struts so if that nut refuses to budge I'll break out the angle grinder.

 

[JBINTX]

Exciting!!!
Post lots of pics and update often. Plenty of great eyes on this forum to help you keep progressing in the right direction.

 

[ARabidNull]

I forgot to mention when we removed the front seats I found two nickles and a .45 hollow point. More surprisingly, no stale Mcdonald's fries.

 

[Rttoys]

Dibs on the .45s

 

[G Atsma]

Serious ammo... Must have dropped it while reloading....

 

[ARabidNull]

Day two of disassembly. The previous day took more out of me than I expected. I'm used to spending my days at a desk, not outside crawling around a car. Tons of fun, but my body is complaining. I'm just thinking that while I'm building a fast car I'm just making it faster by losing weight.

First things first, I attacked the strut/sway bar problem. I gave it another shot using some metric wrenches (I didn't have metric at that size yesterday) but the nut was stripped at this point and the bolt was still very rusty so I took Rttoy's suggestion and just cut it free.

Unfortunately, I accidently cut one of the wires nearby.

I don't know what that's for but it connects to the steering knuckle.

My only thought is either it's part of the antilock brake system or traction control.

The previous owners obviously did some modifications to the car. I already dealt with the cold air intake yesterday, but the modifications continued today. They replaced all engine mounts with ZZP mounts. I had already removed one bolt in this photo.

We got the subframe removed. No pictures, I started getting tired and kept forgetting to document what I was doing.

After that, I started in on the wiring. The previous owner loved red and pink because a lot of the wiring is wrapped in red/pink cable sleeves. The weird part is they didn't remove the black sleeves, they just put the red sleeves over the black ones. You can see the black sleeve under the red one in this photo of the airbag sensor.

I also tore apart the fusebox.

At this point, I had to stop. I realized I wasn't documenting and tracking what I was doing very well, mostly because I was very tired. So with the help of my friend Brit we wrapped the Colbalt up and put all the parts we've removed in the workshop in case it rains.

I'm having a complete blast tearing this car apart. It's awesome to see the inner workings of something I've just taken for granted for decades. However, I need to take a break for a couple of days. I may continue the disassembly Wednesday or Thursday but I'll definitely be working on it next weekend.

 

[ARabidNull]

Oh, I almost forgot. The drain plug on my transmission is completely rusted shut. I couldn't get it to budge at all. Any suggestions would be helpful. I'll search the forums, of course, but just in case someone knows who is reading this can help me out.

 

[Ross]

Transmission is aluminum, and the plug is steel, so heat will expand the aluminum more than the plug.
Tip the transmission so the oil is away from the plug, and try to get it up to 200F... but aluminum soaks heat 4x quicker than steel, so it takes a fair bit of heat.

 

[JBINTX]

Don't worry about the cut wire. It is not used. You are right - ABS and traction control.

Maybe try soaking the stuck plug with your favorite sauce for a day or two before going with the heat option.

Get that Performance Division plate off of the frame. It adds +5 HP if you install it on your Goblin.....

 

[ARabidNull]

I'll keep spraying the plug with the penetrating oils I have on hand whenever I remember over the next few days. If that fails, I'll just deal with the mess of not draining the transmission when I pull the engine out and then deal with the stuck plug in my workshop. It'll be easier to access, apply heat, and gain leverage there.

 

[Dale E]

Buy a new upright for the side you cut the sway bar link. Check the other side too. That one looks cracked beyond repair and use. Or maybe my computer is playing tricks with my eyes.

Dale

 

[ARabidNull]

I think I see what you're seeing. I'll check them both. Thanks!

 

[Rauq]

What looks cracked?

 

[k.rollin]

What looks cracked?

http://imgur.com/a/vRhkzIW

 

[Rttoys]

Might be casting or a crack. Looks like casting, but it’s hard to tell from the pic. Just be sure to check it.

and as stated before, the wire you cut was for the abs. Not needed. Label it though so you know to remove it when the time comes.