From the butcher to the baker.

Its been a long while since I put something up. Well, the short version of the explanation is that I made a discovery (the hard way) that you apparently cannot save a blog post on mobile and resume editing later. So the in-between post is lost somewhere in cyberspace, never to be read. That aside, I am pleased that the GC finally made its' way to Diastar for the long awaited makeover.

The long and painstaking process of stripping begun in earnest and with it, the awakening of many ghosts of modders past.

In today's blog post, I'll just highlight some pictures from the process. Hopefully, in the process, you can pick some valuable lessons on areas to check for any purchase where the car is over 10 years old.

Engine Out: Hoist

As you can tell, no shortcuts were taken in pulling the driveline. I don't know if there exists a name for this method, but basically you pull out the engine still mated to the gearbox. This will soon be cleaned up and shipped to a new owner.

Clean Bay, Not: Aftermath

As soon as the bay was vacated, we were in a better position to begin thorough inspection. This was just the preliminary bit as it will undergo several iterations; scrub, fix, rinse, repeat. As you can already tell from these shots, the steering setup was in distress, with serious bleeders that had caused muck and gunk to collect over time on and around the front cross member.

Rust: The enemy within

Angle 1

Angle 2

There were some sections which were too restricted to inspect with the engine in-situ. However, with the renewed access, we were able to spot these. The search and destroy team had clear instructions that these would be cut out and fresh metal overlaid and welded into position. This will also provide a chance to strengthen specific brace points on the underbody. Progress on that will be content for a future blog post.

Suspension: A painful past, viewer discretion advised.

This was one of the areas where undeniably, some shortcuts had been taken. The front end handling was taken care of by a pair of BC-R coilovers. These were swapped over from a GDB to a GC chassis. Given the differences between the two in the knuckle mounting points for the upright strut, some adjustment is usually required to retro-fit on the GC. As seen from the picture, a blow-torch was the chosen tool of trade for this exercise. A poor choice. In our experience at the lab inc. , use of wrong tools result in a higher probability of epic failure. Therefore, these bottom mounts on the coilovers will be taken out and redone over at Panesar Engineering, with the right tools.

BC-R Coilovers: not too shabby

Close up

The general state of the coilovers was good, save for the butchered bottom mounts. I will share some before and after pics once they have been taken apart, cleaned up, serviced and reassembled.

The locking rings also had quite some damage which could be traced back to use of the wrong tools, again. I cannot believe that people of the interwebs actually took Jeremy Clarkson seriously when he said anything and everything can be fixed with the "almighty hammer!".

Inside Scoop: Cabin

The cabin was relatively untouched. The work pulling out the driveline exposed the B&M short shifter kit.

I was surprised to see that this shifter seemed very well made. It has a anodized billet aluminum shaft, shift knob and shift boot catch. However, it seems specific to the 5sp transmission and will be of no use to me here. Off to the parts bin.

Radiator: Heat exchange business

Well, you guessed it. From the previous blog on the carry-over parts from Bane, we shall be reusing the Mishimoto Radiator and the slim-line fans for this. Ergo, this radiator is another candidate for the parts bin. Also in surprisingly good condition as it came from a GC8 Type RA donor car.

Still to come:

In the coming week, level 2 stripping expected to be at an advanced level and will be the focus for the blog. Hopefully, our resident pro-photographers will be in the house for this one. Have a great week ahead folks!