OptimizePrime's Build | '10 SS/TC #168 | Registered

[Briann1177]

I've read through most of that monster HHR thread, and based on observations from my donor, I think the proper way of installing a catch can is hooking it up to the port inside the intake manifold.

From what I remember on mine, I don't recall having any oil in my intake tube or turbo inlet blades which leads me to believe that it doesn't vent in that direction from port 1. On top of that there is a check valve to prevent flow in that direction

I also don't remember seeing any oil in the turbo outlet blades, pre-intercooler pipes, or the intercooler itself. Everything was was pretty clean. If it did flow in that direction, I would think that your intercooler would get covered in oil which would cause problems in itself.

When I removed my intake for valve cleaning, there was oil everywhere. There were small puddles in a couple of spots and the intake runners were definitely covered in oil. It was a complete mess.

You're definitely not hurting anything with the catch can, but I don't think it's going to help as much as you hope. I hope I'm wrong because I'd really like to see a good fix to the carbon build up on these GDI motors.

 

[OptimizePrime]

OK guys, I'll consider this the end of Phase 1. The focus was to put it all together and make the necessary adjustments prior to making her look pretty. It sounds good on paper, but I cringe at the thought of having to take this apart and rebuild her again now that she's running... it's a lot of work. Here's some pics of what it took to get through the last mile of this phase.

For the side panels, I didn't like the idea of anything permanent and welding on tabs felt a bit overkill for how light these panels were. I took some 1.5" rubber clamps and put them in strategic locations so they held the panels but were virtually unnoticeable. The added advantage of the rubber clamps is that they provide a bit of clearance from the frame so they don't rattle. Takes about 5min to remove per panel, I'm happy with this solution

Next up was the parking / emergency brake. I cut my lines getting them off the cobalt, so I had to order new lines thinking they would be easier to install. Well...they weren't. I cut the first knob off the lines down to the second metal knob and fit that one - worked out just fine.

I had some random metal spacers laying around, so I cut them up and used stock bolts for the front of the parking brake. There's a lot of adjustment points with the lines so the placement of the base is not really all that important. I did have to cut the metal tubes that mount to the subframe about 2 inches shorter to get the lines to fit in through the yellow bracket enough for me to then fit the metal clamp.

There's not a lot of room to run the transmission cables and the parking brake through the wall opening. I like how clean this space looked running the transmission cables through channel on other builds, so I cut the tunnel cover and notched it a bit to fit the lines. I'll 3D print a cover for this area so it looks clean and you won't be able to tell it's two pieces.

Next up was matching the gas pedal to the brake pedal. Using the stock bolts, I modeled and printed a spacer. I've attached the STL, I printed mine with 7 walls, 70% infill, 7 top and bottom layers and it's a very strong piece - use at your own discretion.

I'm mounting my RPD to the steering rack and loved the idea of putting the AEM Wideband sitting right there too. When looking through the steering wheel, both the RPD and Gauge are rock solid and easily read. Here's the back side, you'll see the front in upcoming pics

I picked up the Seibon GTWING-1 and am incredibly happy with this wing - it looks incredible in person and well made. When installing, I forgot about the DF wing mounts and used the Seibon mounts which required minor drilling of the front hole on the DF upgrights. I don't know if I goofed up here by not using the DF mounts, but it works and looks great.

As a short term solution, I installed the DF exhaust. The exhaust itself sounds great, but I'm going to upgrade this in the future with something a little more visually appealing to match the rest of the build.

Last but not least, I installed the windshield. Two major differences I noticed with the windshield is that now I can definitely feel the heat generated from the radiator and the spool sound from the intake is noticeably louder (almost too loud, which I never thought I'd say). In the future, I'm probably going to angle the windshield back and cut it shorter - I'll be using a helmet when driving.

 

[OptimizePrime]

In the next phase, the theme will be making it look good but my main focus will be on the following:

1. Modify the exhaust to include two o2 bungs (wideband and second stock o2), 4" tip, stainless muffler

2. Wrap the sides / interior, paint the hood, paint/powder the frame and suspension bits, wheels & tires

3. Weld the shifter tunnel cover section to the channel & frame which would split the tunnel cover into three sections.

4. Finish the interior button panel

5. Seat cushions

6. Figure out the windshield

Some vanity pics to close out Phase 1 - with the virus running around putting us on shelter at home and this build not being registered yet, I'm confined to limited photogenic spots. Enjoy

 

[ncgoblin]

Nice work looking forward to seeing it in person.

 

[Mayor West]

 

[JBINTX]

well done, sir!!!!

 

[KSLunsfo]

I imagine it will be tough to tear it down with it running and some nice weather finally upon us. But, the upside is it'll probably be much easier to assemble the second time around.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Prime, I have to assume your thinking is on par with my thinking, to get everything fitted and working correctly - while also figuring out what else has become a must-have while building - to ensure that when you do the finish work your car is completely done to your liking. I am with you all the way on this process and your car will be amazing when you get her built the second time!

 

[OptimizePrime]

Prime, I have to assume your thinking is on par with my thinking, to get everything fitted and working correctly - while also figuring out what else has become a must-have while building - to ensure that when you do the finish work your car is completely done to your liking. I am with you all the way on this process and your car will be amazing when you get her built the second time!

Yep, that's it - and I'm glad I did it's just a lot more work and pushes the timeline for registration / driving legally. In the long-run it won't matter, but I'm dreading it now.

I imagine it will be tough to tear it down with it running and some nice weather finally upon us. But, the upside is it'll probably be much easier to assemble the second time around.

Yea I'm doing all the painting and shtuff in my garage, for the longest time it was too cold to do so - just need to hustle and try and get it done before the fall and hate myself for doing all this and showing up too late to enjoy it.

 

[KSLunsfo]

Yea I'm doing all the painting and shtuff in my garage, for the longest time it was too cold to do so - just need to hustle and try and get it done before the fall and hate myself for doing all this and showing up too late to enjoy it.

Well, things can only get done as they get done. But like Tim said, in the long run you'll be glad of your approach.

 

[OptimizePrime]

Goblin fam, almost 12 months to the day I picked up my donor and started this project. As of last week, I'm finally street legal! The theme of this phase was patience, persistence, and positivity. I ran into significant delays and hurdles due to covid, people, and processes but I'm incredibly happy with the end result. It's a bit surreal to see your vision come to be, it's not everyday you get this feeling of accomplishment. Enough of that! Here is what happened along the way....

It took me a solid weekend to tear the Goblin down from fully built to just the frame. Sounds nutty given how long it feels building it, but once you know your way around it's not difficult. One item I had to tackle before paint was a re-angle of the windscreen, stock is ~70* and I angled it to 50* which I believe to be the perfect rake yet still enable you to put the nuts on and not stress out your hood / bracket. You'll need an angle finder for alignment, and it came in hand here too -- bend the tabs using a small vise

After pics shown below

Picture was taken in April....woof

I was noticing some play in the center channel during shifts, so I cut the channel into three sections. The shifter section of the channel was welded in and reinforced. It's super solid now with the only flex being from the plastic shifter itself, which is minimal. You can see in the pics I welded the channel and the plate itself - as they both had flex.

I highly suggest doing this if you have the means but be sure to cut the center rib to make life easy to pull the harness through if your frame is not coated already .... like I didn't do

To coat the frame, I went with a mix of POR15 and Raptor Liner for a two tone gloss and flat wrinkle. Both coatings require a certain amount of prep. In summary, I will never use POR15 again as the all-in cost (time, prep, pain, materials, etc.) is more than what the outcome shows for itself. I don't necessarily regret it, but it didn't turn out as I would have liked. The Raptor liner is a dream compared to POR15. Few pics of the process

Acid etched and prepped

POR15 -- rolled on and then sprayed as it kept eating through the rollers

Sprayed the Raptor liner with their gun <chef's kiss>

 

[OptimizePrime]

Next step was the wrap. This was actually my first time working with vehicle wrap, but have worked with wallpaper before and sadly this is entirely different lol Before this process, I thought it was relatively straightforward after watching the absolute wizards on youtube making it look easy. All I have to say here is, use water to apply and heat to set it. This is a patience building exercise.

Lil powder on the calipers never hurt nobody

Ebrake mounts captive nutted and spacers welded

I noticed there was enough play in the GM MAP sensor to cause a leak, so I printed a bracket for her (attached)

During this process I also made some floor mats. I got the mat from a big box store and used some liquid nails on a piece of 1/8" plate steel after it was cut to fit. You need something sturdy and a little heavy with the ability to remove and clean ...this cost me probably $30 total for both sides.

 

[OptimizePrime]

During the painting process, the overspray landed on my first set of headlights and ruined them. This actually worked to my advantage as this set is a LOT brighter and looks a lot better too. I wanted something a bit more low profile and help the front end look less face like. Pics of the bracket I printed - spaced the light ahead of the bolt to make it easier to point/remove etc.

On the motor side of the house, I needed to replace my rear main seal. At the same time I upgraded the stock clutch to a phoenix friction clutch mated to a new stock flywheel using Opel ARP bolts. The ARP bolts work beautifully - no issues whatsoever with this clutch/pressure plate.

Last item on the painting list was to paint the hood. I chose to use dipyourcar.com and go with the frosted pear color first. I plan to mix the hood color up fairly frequently and was really impressed with how it laid down. Prep was just light sand using 220 and their pre-dip spray. I used 1 gallon of Avalanche Gray as a base and 1 gallon of Frosted pear and sprayed it with their standard gun until I ran out. I waited 20min each coat and just applied layer after layer after layer. There's probably at least 10 coats... I loved the stuff

Frosted pear has a very slight color shift. There are some very light blues and different shades of green. In person it's beautiful

From the pic above, you can also see I had the side panels wrapped and made a front grill. I didn't take too many pics here but the front grill is from customcargrills and I used a screen behind it for an additional layer.

 

[OptimizePrime]

Time for the wheels and tires - it took 2.5 months to get these. They're Konig Ampliforms

Fronts
5x114.3
17x9 +40
Used a 32mm adapter from motorsports-tech to go from 5x110 to 5x114

Tires: 255/40/17 Toyo Proxes R888R

Rears
5x120
19x10b +28
Also used a 32mm adapter here

Tires: 285/35/19 Toyo Proxes R888R

Ceramic coated with Gyeon Rim and installed new TPMS sensors

Here's a teaser, more in the glammer shots in a bit

One of the last mods, that's cheap and I think everyone should do is swap out the flat head dzus fasteners on the hood for some allen-head ones. I don't know why DF opts for these given how easy they are to strip.

You need: Self Ejecting Button Allen Head 7/16 .550 Long Dzus Fasteners Fastener --- from Ebay

One of the last mods: I moved the stock intake outside of the frame and put it into the path of fresh air. This one was a gift as I didn't have to purchase anything!

 

[OptimizePrime]

Phase 2 Complete! Next up is performance mods, seat cushions and other little bits

 

[Mayor West]

It's like a jolly rancher met New York bridge graffiti.

 

[ToxicBill]

Absolutely sick!!

 

[Ark :D]

Looks great!

Any chance you can link to the quick disconnect and steering wheel adapter you used?

 

[OptimizePrime]

Looks great!

Any chance you can link to the quick disconnect and steering wheel adapter you used?

Thanks man, sure thing -- I'm full manual steering so I welded the rod to the quick release part > quick release bolts to .5" adapter

Quick Release	https://www.summitracing.com/parts/qcr-68-012/overview/
32" 36spline 3/4" rod	https://www.summitracing.com/oh/parts/brg-409236
Ruien 0.5" Steering Wheel Hub Adapter Conversion Spacer 6 Hole to 3 Hole	https://www.amazon.com/Ruien-Steering-Adapter-Conversion-Spacer/dp/B06XR9HCMQ

 

[KSLunsfo]

Looking awesome! Can't wait to see it again in person.