Nerd Racing's 94 Ford Aspire Work Log

[nerd racing]

its actually smaller, its a 70mm or 2.75 inches. the smooth idler is actually about 3.5 or 3.75 inches

I picked up my belts today too so I'll get some installed belt pics up hopefully later on. I like to eat dinner before I work on the car, I lost about 8 pounds since I started the swap because I wasn't coming home from work and sitting down all night!

[Damkid]

That'll mean more clearance for my axle what year aspire did you order it for? or does it matter what year?

[aspireguy95]

it shouldnt matter which year.

[nerd racing]

^^ what he said, its the AC idler pulley.

[Mazda_Powered]

lookin good man! just flying through!

[nerd racing]

Small update, only had 2 hours to work on it tonight.

Cut up the 626 front trans bracket to clear the radiator support and the aspire sway bar. It is shown with a poly filled protege trans mount (not sure if its the front or the rear for them):





Then I decided I didn't like the thickness of the piece of angle steel I had so I made my own from a 3" square 1/4" wall tubing piece I have had for a while:



Drilled a couple holes for the mount to attach to it:



And it will be bolted through the radiator support and 3 gussets will be welded in for rigidity (not that it needs it). Yes I know I cut crooked, its hard to cut straight with an angle grinder with a cutting disk made for a circular saw in use. I'll grind it and make it pretty after I pick up a grinding disk tomorrow.

once this is in place I'll mount up the radiator and finalize brackets for the hood latch/tie piece.

[nerd racing]

Well I drilled my holes for the rest of the front lower mount and ground it down for gussets to be welded in. then my sawzall died so i was unable to cut the gussets out. Its in place right now though and looks decent:



Then I decided to at least make the top radiator mounting brackets for the volvo radiator, believe it or not I made the plates without the latch in place and it came out looking like I clearanced it that way:



Yes I know I bent the heck out of the upper fins... next time I will do it with the bumper cover off... Cracked and scratched the heck out of my molded grill too.

The bottom will be quite easy to do, just going to run some angle steel and bolt it to the radiator and then the pinch weld for the radiator support lower bar.

A shot of under the hood:



Its starting to come together!

[DeeAOne]

almost there already! great work.

[Damkid]

Lookin good!! I'm hopin to fire mine up this weekend

[nerd racing]

^^ I'd be hoping for that too (minus axles and some clutch lines so no driving around) but a female friend of mine from college decided out of the blue to call me and say she was coming to visit for the weekend.

[Damkid]

^^ I'd be hoping for that too (minus axles and some clutch lines so no driving around) but a female friend of mine from college decided out of the blue to call me and say she was coming to visit for the weekend.

well I suppose that's a good reason lol. I should be able to move my car around under it's own power but coolant lines aren't done so no test drives yet

[nerd racing]

I figured out my top coolant line today, gotta throw the exhaust Y-pipe in to figure the lower out, and the remote fill from the 626 is going to be used on the radiator, all I need for that though is some 5/8" heater core hose and a good way to route it to keep out of the belts.

[Turpro]

You guys are killing me. For my BG its a drop in affair and you guys are almost done. FML

[nerd racing]

I wish it was a drop in affair for me, life would be so much easier, I looked all over this half of the country for a decent 323 less than $1000 over the summer, but couldn't find one. Now I'm kinda glad I didn't.

[bomdoutscort]

The car is going to be such a slap in the face to anyone that tries lol