With the remaining mesh pieces now powder coated I can finish things up. Tonight I secured the intake duct mesh pieces. I used some hose clamps to secure the ‘tabs’ on the mesh pieces to the duct funnels.

Tonight I finished attaching the diffuser to the frame. I slid the jack in under the diffuser and jacked the bottom of the diffuser up against the frame so I could drill a few holes and rivet it into place. The diffuser I have was quite a bit off in its design so the bottom of the diffuser does not sit flush to the frame. Not a big deal though, as I used the jack to push the end of it against the frame and sunk a handful of heavy duty 3/4″ long rivets into it to hold it into place. I pulled on it pretty hard to ensure it would hold up.

With the diffuser in place I installed the pedal box cover. This piece is not mentioned in the manual at all – it was just buried in within the aluminum parts. I don’t believe it was labeled in the parts list, either. This piece is meant to prevent water/air from getting into the driver footbox, but rather than silicone it in place I placed some double-sided tape under the panel edges to ‘seal’ it in case I ever need to remove it in the future.

I finally received the 3/16″ black rivets I needed to mount the louvers onto the diffuser this week.  Mounting the louver assembly is a straight-forward task. With the louvers in place I hammered (with a rubber mallet) the strakes onto the louvers and got them into place. With the strakes drilled and riveted I was ready to mount the diffuser on the car.

Since I had previously prepped the body for the diffuser install it didn’t take long to bolt it up. The only thing I have to do yet is jack up the car and rivet the underside of the diffuser to the frame of the car. That will not take long at all. The diffuser really completes the back end of the car and shows you how low the vehicle really sits.

In other news, I am still working on the tuning side of things.  I know I could pay a pro and have it done today, but I’m trying to learn how the computer works and if I can get it close on my own I will be happy! A week ago the car would not start with the 96mm tb, and it would not idle with it. I could only run it with my foot on the throttle (then it would die). Now I can start it and it will idle for 5-10 seconds before dying, and I can start it and coax it to idle indefinitely by bringing the RPMs down to idle manually then letting off. Rapid throttle fluctuations are the target of my tuning focus right now, as a hard rev in neutral (ie: 4000rpm+) will cause the car to stall when the RPMs try to come down to idle (overshoots the idle and dies).

I haven’t posted in a few days, but I’ve been keeping busy with small tasks here and there:

– wired up the rear view mirror
– fine tuned the intake tubing positions so that they are ready for mounting when I get the intake duct mesh silicone’d in
– formed the exhaust and intake duct mesh pieces; dropped them off for powder coat
– picked up louvers from powder coating, will install on diffuser soon
– prepped diffuser by drilling more rivnut/bolt attachment points to the body to make it sturdier
– Josh finished the exhaust mount, waiting on a new mandrel to install bigger rivnuts to mount it and complete the exhaust
– making progress on getting the motor running properly: installed a Nick Williams 96mm tb, and am currently working on tuning it with HP Tuners. Motor runs if I stay on the throttle at 1000rpm or higher, but it dies if I let off.

At this point the interior is complete, and all that remains is buttoning up the exhaust and intake, creating a heat barrier between the two, installing the exhaust and intake mesh, and installing the louvers and diffuser.  I also need to get the motor to idle, too.

I’ve had a few requests for pics of how the passenger door frames were done – here they are.

The guy that does the powdercoating for me finished the louvers and some other things today so I went and picked those up and set to installing them. Rear end jacked up, tires removed, louvers fit into place, contact points marked for adhesive, fun times.  Since I had a half container of 3M 8115 Panel Bonding Adhesive left I went and rented the applicator gun from the local auto store and used that to adhere the louvers against the body. 24 hours to cure, so they should be solid as a rock tomorrow afternoon.

The hood mesh looks good so far. Still have to adhere the bottom portion of the ‘mouth’ mesh with silicone.

Time to close up the passenger front wheel well!  To close the wheel well out 3 panels have to be riveted into place. The first piece seals off the inside footbox at the top, but it does not fit very well (at all). I had to cut quite a bit out of panel to get it to fit.  The second piece is a small box-like piece that fills the gap left by the upper close-out panel and the footbox aluminum. Finally, a third panel goes over the footbox/upper close-out to seal it up completely.

Before doing all this I loomed up the wires going into the door, and installed the door stoppers that prevent the doors from opening too far. After the panels were installed I applied Dynamat and Dynaliner to the interior to deaden any noise.

The GTM is coming home! Ken finished everything up this week and Stewart Transport came by this afternoon and picked it up. It’s been nearly a year, but the fun is going to begin anew soon.

Hatch glass, some paint tweaks, and door poppers due tomorrow. Car ships out for home Friday.

Reassembly continues – hood and hatch will be on tomorrow most likely.