Not an actual corgi's Build Log - 2007 SS/SC

Corgithulhu

Well-Known Member
Hey all! My name is Andy, my friends call me Andy, but you can call me Andy. To answer what many of you thinking: yes, my name is inspired by a real corgi I have. She's the sweetest menace.

My build donor is a 2007 SS Supercharged with a salvage title. I bought it off Facebook marketplace for $1200, and from what I can tell, I should be fairly proud of that. The guy I bought it from got it at an auction, and didn't realize he couldn't title it in NC as it was. It got salvaged due to a pretty hard cronch on the LF corner, and it bent the inner bumper/unibody frame a little bit. The AC condenser is a little banana shaped, and quite a few parts got cracked because of it. Whoever did the body work to put the new fender and other bits back on could have done a better job if they used a sledgehammer instead of a wrench. Suffice to say, they did not do well. The good part is that it runs just fine - shifts wonderful and the engine is plenty strong.

This morning I got started into it. I took off the front body parts, and some other odds and ends. My plan is to take it really slow and be as methodical as possible labeling wiring connectors, and sorting the bolts by location. My first question to that point: should I bother sorting by where bolts came from for items that won't be saved (i.e. baggie for bumper bolts, one for hood bolts, one for fender bolts, etc.)? Or is it better to just sort by thread size?

I haven't put in the order for the Goblin yet. Still sorting out what configuration/options I want, and making peace with my girlfriend who is graciously giving up the entire garage for this.

Edit to broadly outline what I want: I intend to keep the motor and kit as stock as possible performance-wise. It was already plenty quick in the Cobalt, so it should be all I need in the Goblin. I want something to take to the nearby mountains, as well as the odd track day here and there. But I don't want to bolt on power and require brown pants of passengers, just a sense of thrill.
 

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ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
Looks like a great donor. How many miles on it?

You could just toss all the bolts not being used in a box. The great thing is that they are all metric and in no time you will be able to identify them by just looking at them. Mostly 7, 10, 13, and 15mm. The bolts you need to for the kit come with the kit minus one here or there.

Welcome to the forum.
 

Rttoys

Goblin Guru
Cool. That’s what I paid or mine, in basically the same condition.

I sort the bolts that I figured would be random use as big (15mm head or bigger), small (10-13mm head) and real small interior (8mm head or smaller). Bolts you know you’ll use again like the trans and engine mounts, I screwed back where it came from. Everyone has their own method though.

also, take a lot of pictures. Close ups, far away and in between can be used later for reference. And label EVERYTHING. Everything.
 

Corgithulhu

Well-Known Member
How many miles on it?
Roughly 187k on the odometer. A little higher than what most look for, but it really didn't give me much to worry about as far as how it runs, sounds, etc. My parents live near where I picked it up, and we gave it a full once-over/shakedown drive around country roads, and were very pleased.

Bolts you know you’ll use again like the trans and engine mounts, I screwed back where it came from. Everyone has their own method though.
That's a good point, and something I intend to do where possible. But otherwise I think yours and ctuinstra's advice to just sort by size should work well. Thanks!

And I am definitely labeling as much as possible, especially wiring. Every connector gets a tape tag so I know what it was. Small parts are labeled and put in bins or on the shelf.
 

SmsDetroit

Goblin Guru
Roughly 187k on the odometer. A little higher than what most look for, but it really didn't give me much to worry about as far as how it runs, sounds, etc. My parents live near where I picked it up, and we gave it a full once-over/shakedown drive around country roads, and were very pleased.


That's a good point, and something I intend to do where possible. But otherwise I think yours and ctuinstra's advice to just sort by size should work well. Thanks!

And I am definitely labeling as much as possible, especially wiring. Every connector gets a tape tag so I know what it was. Small parts are labeled and put in bins or on the shelf.
If you unplug it, LABLE IT. You can thank me later. Lol
 

Briann1177

Goblin Guru
WOW, what a brilliant idea! I can't believe no one has ever said that before! ;):cool:
No need to be a DB, DS. Some things just can't be reiterated enough. For as many times as "check your ground wires" had been discussed, you'd think we'd never see another post about it. Nobody should ever have a ground problem again.

With that said, label your wires and check your grounds.
 

Rauq

Goblin Guru
Welcome! You mentioned the previous owner of your donor realized they couldn't title it in NC, does that mean you're in NC as well? I'm in the SC upstate area and there's a few more folks in the western Carolinas. The Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachians are a key motivation to my build as well.

Be sure to update your signature to make it faster and easier to get better input and answers to your questions. We will all want to help (as you may have noticed) but the helpfulness tends to improve if you make it obvious to folks what you're working with.
 

Corgithulhu

Well-Known Member
Hey there! I'm actually in Upstate SC as well - Greenville area! The PO was in Charlotte, and I am very familiar with that area since I grew up there.

I will go update my signature now, good looking out.
 

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
No need to be a DB, DS. Some things just can't be reiterated enough. For as many times as "check your ground wires" had been discussed, you'd think we'd never see another post about it. Nobody should ever have a ground problem again.

With that said, label your wires and check your grounds.
A little sensitive with the DB comment at my humor, which some other got. :D Since you insist, the labeling message was stated by RT and Corgi responded to labeling everything already in the thread further above, so I'm pretty sure he got that. :rolleyes:
 

Rauq

Goblin Guru
@Bajakid1450 is also in the area so we'll have to get together sometime. There's an autocross in Clemson this Saturday, I'll be trailering there as I'm not registered just yet. I only have a few minutes of drive time in my car so far so this should be interesting.
 

Bajakid1450

Well-Known Member
Hey there! I'm actually in Upstate SC as well - Greenville area! The PO was in Charlotte, and I am very familiar with that area since I grew up there.

I will go update my signature now, good looking out.
As soon as I get my wiring harness back and registration done I can come help you one weekend and get it mostly together with you. I went from just a frame to 80% finished in one day with the right tools and equipment
 

Corgithulhu

Well-Known Member
Very cool Rauq! I haven't decided if I want to try auto crossing mine once it's built since that hasn't always been as interesting as a day at a circuit, but it would be fun to experience.

And very generous of you Bajakid. I haven't even put the order in for mine yet since I've got other large financial obligations first. I'm still on week 1 of even owning the donor! But I'm not worried - I've got patience :cool:
 

Rauq

Goblin Guru
Very cool Rauq! I haven't decided if I want to try auto crossing mine once it's built since that hasn't always been as interesting as a day at a circuit, but it would be fun to experience.
I'd love to hit Road Atlanta sometime for an HDPE and an autocross is definitely not that, but it's still a fun time and a great way to spend a day around cars for a low low price. Autocrosses in Clemson are about as low-key as they get, in part because there's not a huge lot to run in, and the price tends to reflect that. I am not at all interested in being a competitive autocrosser and that's very low down on the list of reasons why I decided to build a Goblin but I still enjoy it.
 

Rttoys

Goblin Guru
I like autocross a lot more than I thought I would. I have run all the local tracks including circuits of the americas (several times) on my sport bikes and love being on the track. I figured doing autocross would be a chance to work out any bugs before I hit a big track with the goblin, then I can make the switch.

It’s a few sub 1 minute “laps” and takes all day. Doesn’t sound too exciting. To my surprise, it’s a lot more enjoyable than I thought. We get the track layout on sat afternoon, Sunday we get one track walk and we are off to the races. 5 runs does not give you a lot of time to hammer out the best time in your division. :eek: But that’s the fun part, the challenge of getting it right as quick as possible. Toss in we can take passengers now and there’s 3 (soon to be 5) goblins in our class, so we have a bit of a contest going on. :cool:

still can’t wait to run a bigger track though.
 

Corgithulhu

Well-Known Member
Nothing too eventful yet. Over the past few evenings, I've gotten the unused parts of the interior pretty much out save for the dash and some odds and ends. Everything is coming apart cleanly and isn't giving much fuss. Connectors are all being labeled, bolts are all being sorted and saved. I took the pictures below, then busted out the seatbelts completely. Not sure if I was supposed to take the bolts out of that black bar where the back seat bottom hooks on at the back, but it had some nice chunky factory bolts that might come in handy. Also found out GM decided not to drain that back seat bottom area, so I had who knows how many years of water with coins and dirt steeping. Definitely took a step back and let it dry out for a couple days.

My dad is coming over this weekend, and our goal is to get the powertrain and the dash out.

And the way things are going, I plan on putting in an order this coming Monday!
 

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Rttoys

Goblin Guru
I took all the nuts/bolts out that I could. When you live out in the middle of no where, it’s hard to come by metric bolts and I like “factory” ones better than store bought ones. :cool:
 

jamesm

Goblin Guru
Seems like I pulled that black seat mounting bar too. I think that was the only way I could get part of the seat out.

Definitely save all the hardware. I’ve broken more bolts than I care to admit working on other cars and stuff. It’s super nice to have that tub of hardware for a replacement.
 

Corgithulhu

Well-Known Member
So a fairly big update on the teardown: engine and dash are out! My dad lent two more hands yesterday, and we were able to get the engine and dash both out of the car. I was extremely lucky that this was a Florida car most of its life, because all the big bolts that were potential trouble came out with no fuss whatsoever. Only one of the two exhaust studs froze and snapped. The subframe dropped easily, and the engine dropped out without any real concerns. Suspension blew apart just fine as well. All in all, a very low stress day taking the engine apart. If you can find a donor from a state that never sees salted roads, get it. Life is so much easier.

My dad and I only had access to a couple floor jacks and Harbor Freight dollies for the engine removal in lieu of a hoist, and I will describe our method here: first, undo the subframe like the video shows. Then, we put one floor jack on each unibody rail where the videos also explain early on, at the doubler. We dropped the car at the same time until the engine was just barely touching the 2x4s on the cart. We carefully undid all 6 engine bolts until the last couple slowly lowered the engine weight onto the blocks. Once the weight was entirely on the cart, we jacked the car up and slid it out. I'm sure that's extremely similar or identical to what others have done, but I figured it bears repeating since it's a slick way of getting the engine out. Pro tip: use a stronger cart than we did...the middle is bowing a little.

Now I just need to follow the disassembly videos to finish up stripping the car!
 

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