omg i love this car man every post it gets better i want mine to look just as clean as yours
keep up the great work and love the wheels

those covers look so awesome!

Looking good

A little bit of an update, but nothing over the top. After 5 weeks of doing nothing, I finally got a chance to get my a** in the bay and start prepping for welding. The standard grinding of all of the holes to bare metal on both sides.



I also had the slightest bit of surface rust causing cracks in some areas of the seam sealer. So I decided I would remove all of the seam sealer and inspect it, then take care of any trouble spots. Naturally I used a flat blade screw driver to peal away the old seam sealer. I had some surface rust underneath in several spots... as you can see on the top seam:



To quickly remove the surface rust effectively and easily, I used a Speed Blaster sand blaster. I also have the Hot Spot re-collection bag to help collect the media. The other bonus is that the rubber tips that come with the Hot Spot allow you to blast small spots without getting media everywhere. You simply apply a lot of pressure to the surface when blasting and it doesn't allow media to creep out around the edges of the tip opening.



This picture demonstrates the difference:



Then the finished results:



Since I'm doing a tucked radiator, I also took this opportunity to shave the old radiator mounts:





Battery tray removed and the area underneath opened up to weld in new metal:





The previous owner also had the OEM SR side mount intercooler... so the area was hacked out to accommodate it. I had made a fiberglass plate that covered that entire area and my crankcase breather mounted to it. So it was completely finished off on my old setup. However, I won't have anything there with the V8, so it will also get fresh metal welded in there:



I also had a little bit of surface rust where the shock tower and top rail meet and are spot welded to a top plate. So I drilled out the spot welds with the proper bit, then used a cutoff wheel so I could peel back the area and gain access to the rusted area.









I had this issue on both sides of the car. So I prepped the metal by grinding it down bare so the rust was completely gone:



Since this area has to be welded back in place, I can't just spray it with rust inhibitor, then primer, paint etc... because it will just burn up. So I sprayed the area with weld thru primer. This stuff does just what the name implies:





So now when it's time to weld that back down, the primer will stay intact and protect the bare metal from corrosion again. Then seam seal the area back up and it should be good to go for years to come.

Its looking great man! Can't wait for some more updates!

s*** just got(even more)serious

The key to my heart is detail.

Keep up the good work. Not only do you build beautiful cars, but you help people learn along the way. That my friend is a quality hard to come by. New covers look awesome. Are they simply for looks or do they serve a better purpose than the stock ones? Valve covers are just valve covers to me

Speckid4 wrote:New covers look awesome. Are they simply for looks or do they serve a better purpose than the stock ones? Valve covers are just valve covers to me

They do serve a purpose.... they look a hell of a lot better than the crappy stock ones Which is the main reason I bought them. They will allow for larger aftermarket rocker arms, which I will most likely do in the future. But for now, their just for looks. They also allow for the relocation of the coil packs to the top edge instead of right on top like the OEM setup. Keep in mind that I focus on 50% looks and 50% performance. I feel it's the little things like this that make my builds stand out aesthetically.... so I don't mind paying what most would think is outrageous for these.

Finally got around to doing some welding tonight. I have never pulled the trigger on a welder, so I had my good friend come over and show me a couple techniques before I dove in.

I hung a couple pieces of inspiration up in the garage the other night also;)



Yours truly going to town:

Broadfield, your attention to detail is second to none. I commend you.

Subscribed! awsome work

Broadfield: The man that uses his own car as inspiration!

how much money do you think you will have in this car when it is all said and done? my guess around 60k

smallblockman69 wrote:how much money do you think you will have in this car when it is all said and done? my guess around 60k

yeah i dont think thats even remotely close, maybe with labor included. I could realistically see 30, but that may be high

ashibah83 wrote:

smallblockman69 wrote:how much money do you think you will have in this car when it is all said and done? my guess around 60k

yeah i dont think thats even remotely close, maybe with labor included. I could realistically see 30, but that may be high

Well, the car is never done. I can say I easily have $50k in it at any given time. And that figure obviously does not have any labor in it since I do all of my own work except for painting the body. Figure I'll have $20k spent this summer just getting the LS3 in there along with a few other goodies.

wow more than i thought, but then again you have gone through wheels, a few interiors, and a couple of motorsets, not to mention suspension...oh and more pics please, ive been missing my daily "broadfields car-dreams" lol

ashibah83 wrote:wow more than i thought, but then again you have gone through wheels, a few interiors, and a couple of motorsets, not to mention suspension...oh and more pics please, ive been missing my daily "broadfields car-dreams" lol

Well I'm not adding up what I've spent total.... just what is on the car at any given time. Otherwise it would be $100k. Hell, I just sold $19k worth of SR goodness and spending another $20k on the new setup.

As for pics, soon. I have not been able to touch the car since my last update. But that is about to change after this weekend. My wife is out of session now, so she can help out with our daughters 100% now. It's go time!

wanna lend me some money? lol

moar updates

the a3k wrote:wanna lend me some money? lol

moar updates

For someone my age, I make right at or right below the national average salary. I do not make what's considered good money. It's just that I really only spend money on my car and the necessities for my family. For example, we don't go on expensive vacations like most of our friends that are in their late 30's. I would lend you some money, but I spent it all on my car. I'm actually working on saving more money to buy the rest of the needed parts. If I had lots of money and time, this thing would of been done already.

^This. I'm still in school in my late 20's, but my wife and I go on cheap getaways. We drive all used (but paid for) cars, only really spend money on my car, her art stuff (supplies and such) and our animals. We haven't had a "real" vacation since our honeymoon 4 years ago lol. I too have to save for every little thing bc I don't make much at all since I'm still in school. That'll change next year though (thank god). Looking forward to the updates when they come

Toby,

Your knowledge is requested please. I got my alpine ixa 404 yesterday and have a few questions. Please for give not trying to side track your build blog but


1. Did it go right in or did you have to do some custom fabrication?
2.Did you do a bypass for the video playing while driving, and if so can you tell me how to do it or point me in the right direction for that?
3. Do I need any other wiring to connect to stock harness?

Broadfield wrote:If I had lots of money and time, this thing would of been done already.

Nice work Broadfield! Take all the necessary time you need. Don't rush it... 'cause i enjoy reading and viewing your build threads at a steady pace.

Hey Toby, glad to see you are going with an LS3. You will love it. I remember welding up all the holes in my engine bay. What a pain in the butt! I'm sure your work will be top notch as always. Sorry I missed your post about a buyer for my car way back when. Unfortunately my car was stolen this week. Good luck with your build.

Tim

Hey Broadfield,
I've been reading your blog andthis thread and I must say it's one of the most impressive reading I've come across on NICO or ZILVIA or any of the other car forums since I've been around this place.

Thanks for doing all you do and keeping the rest of us schlubs motivated.

Broadfield, your craftsmanship is amazing and your attention to detail knows no equal, but goddamnit I wish you weren't fouling up that car with a v8. Oh well, your car.

420sxWETDREAMS wrote:Toby,

Your knowledge is requested please. I got my alpine ixa 404 yesterday and have a few questions. Please for give not trying to side track your build blog but


1. Did it go right in or did you have to do some custom fabrication?
2.Did you do a bypass for the video playing while driving, and if so can you tell me how to do it or point me in the right direction for that?
3. Do I need any other wiring to connect to stock harness?

Ground the emergency brake wire to enable videos while driving.

krash wrote:Ground the emergency brake wire to enable videos while driving.

Unfortunately that doesn't work on an Alpine. All Alpines that play video require a foot brake signal while seeing an e-brake signal turn on-off-on. So we use a nice little device call a TR-7, which does all of this automatically.

C3Sierra_S2000 wrote:Hey Toby, glad to see you are going with an LS3. You will love it. I remember welding up all the holes in my engine bay. What a pain in the butt! I'm sure your work will be top notch as always. Sorry I missed your post about a buyer for my car way back when. Unfortunately my car was stolen this week. Good luck with your build.

Tim

That sucks about your car man.... anything come of it?

Broadfield wrote:

krash wrote:Ground the emergency brake wire to enable videos while driving.

Unfortunately that doesn't work on an Alpine. All Alpines that play video require a foot brake signal while seeing an e-brake signal turn on-off-on. So we use a nice little device call a TR-7, which does all of this automatically.

You can't use a relay, or is that just a pioneer thing?



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