My S2000 Build thread 56k beware

[JSEnclosures]

Figured i’d pull my build thread from s2ki and post it up over here.

Some quick background on myself. My name is Jake, i’m 24, a mechanical engineer. I work at an engineering firm by day and do car audio on the side, my business name is JSEnclosures. I’ve always been a car guy. In college I led a team that built the world first and only turbo diesel snowmobile, by the time we had it finished a few years down the road and the bugs tweeked out it was running 95+mph and getting 60mpg, as well as dismissing all the myths behind diesel engines and the cold weather. It was features in a number of magazines including diesel power. I have a lot of experience with all mechanical tools which makes this project fun because i can do most of the work myself. For the welding, shop space and help along the way my buddy Ozzy steps in, He owns Variant Fab in Amsterdam.

Picked this car up on 11/24/2010 for a guy in Utica. Runs and drives perfect, just needs the frame straightened some body work and paint. It also has the 04+ top with the rear glass conversion. Has 114kmi on the clock. Before i purchased this car i sent the pictures over to a body/collision shop that does a lot of frame straightening and i have heard good first hand reviews. They quoted me 200 to get it perfect, so after hearing that i jumped on this baby and picked it up. I will have it back from the shop (Harts collision in East Greenbush) the middle of this week.
My goals with this car are simple. Make it nice and quick, it’s a great base to start from. This will be a summer car for a couple days a week only. I have a brand new Toyota Tacoma 4 door as my DD and also two bikes, a 06 R6S and a BMW F650GS Dakar. This will simple be the “fun car”. First plan is to get it back to stock oem condition (body wise), second phase is turbo. Probably going to cage it as well. I’ve always wanted to do soo much to my cars but my problem has always been that i daily drive them. This is simply a project car for me so it’s nice to know i can do whatever i want to it, and i don’t have to get it back together for the next day. I can take my time on this, and i will.

MODS

—Exterior—
Fresh berlina black paint
Naked AP1 headlights
CR fender turn signals
AP2 rear bumper
S2Carbonworks carbon fiber exhaust trim
Side emblems shaved
Rho-plate mount for front plate
HIOF1CER vanity plates
Perrin 4" shorty antenna
Newer soft top with glass rear window and hardtop latches
tinted windows
red painted calipers (soon to be repainted black with s2000 decals)
convex mirrors

—Interior—
Full roll cage custom built by Variant Fab
Hard dog custom roll bad padding and leather wrap
Mugen roll cage trim for a clean look
NRG hub, quick release and wheel
AP2 radio door
AP2 center console
Sparco Evo seats
Buddyclub low rails
Takata short harnesses
Alpine radio with iPod hookup run through the ac vent above the radio door
modifry accessory bracket and iPhone mount
Valentine 1 security mount built by Variant Fab
Valentine 1 & V1 stealth display
Radio control interface shaved and cover in Carbon fiber wrap
Autometer 1 3/4" roll cage 2 1/16" gauge pod mount
AEM wideband air fuel gauge
finer liners carbon fiber transmission tunnel wrap

—Under The Hood / Performance / Etc—
Password JDM kevlar cooling plate
Password JDM black fender bolts
Password JDM black valve cover washers
Password JDM black Vtec cover
Password JDM black radiator stays
Spare AP1 valve cover soon to be powder coated gloss black
AEM V2 cold air intake
Invidia 70mm test pipe with bung welded in for AEM wideband
Invidia Q300 dual exhaust
T1R rear anti-bumpsteer kit
Exedium front anti-bumpsteer kit
S2carbonworks coolant overflow
AC delete
Braille battery and mount (need to be installed)
0/1 gauge wire for battery relocation (need to be installed)
Erie s2k Driveshaft spacers
walbro 255lph fuel pump (needs to be installed)
ACT Prolite flywheel
ACT HD pressure plate, OEM disk, OEM bearings

Parts For Sale (Pm for pics of anything, don’t want to clutter up here, all prices obo)
BB Trunk lid with a small dent in the passengers side corner $50-
BB rear bumper with a small (4-5" crack) in the lower passenger side, some scratches as well. $50-
Passenger airbag $200-
SRS wiring harness (main) $80-
SRS module $100-
A/C Pump $200- obo
All A/C lines $200- obo, will seperate
A/C Condenser (a little bent but works 100%) $75-
A/C Condenser Fan $75-
A/C Bottle $75-

11/24/2010 -The day i purchased this car

11/27/2010
I drove out to Western Mass and picked up an oem trunk lid and two oem hoods. Figured i’m make one of the hoods vented as i’ve seen in a diy on here.
Then on the way home i went to poughkippsie to pick up taillights. Picked up taillights and also ended up picking up a carbon fiber hood at a great price they guy also happened to have laying around.
*I have one or possibly two oem silver hoods for sale in perfect condition if anyone is interested
11/28/2010

Got the new trunk on tonight, straighter out the rear end, and got the rear right taillight in. Also pulled the rear bumper off
12/3/2010
Dropped the car off at Harts Collision in East Greenbush to have the frame straightened. I should have it back midweek of 12/13
12/13/2010
Well, with the s2k in the shop for the frame straightening I have been eager to get it back and continue working on it. I have the dented trunk lid still lying around so I figured I’d make a trunk lid under cover. I already had all the mat, tape and the fiberglass which was dated 1/2011 so i wanted to use it up before it expired. I think I’m just gonna mount some crossovers here and a jsenclosures.com logo lit up under smoked glass.
Taped it off and made the fiberglass mold tonight.

12/17/2010
Got the car back from frame straightening. Looks perfect and the alignment is great with the wheel again. Still need to take it in for a 4 wheel alignment after new tires though.

[JSEnclosures]

Frame is Straight! Woot

12/22/2010
Last night i went over and did some work on the car. It has had a CEL on since i bought it so i plugged in my ultra gauge to read the code. The code was P0410 “secondary air inj malf”. I knew my air pump wasn’t disconnect since the accident so i took a look at it and noticed it had a broken cover on the output side. The part where the hose connects to the male nipple was ripped clean off. Doing a quick search reveals that these air pump are pretty pricey, even used. I am hoping i can pick up a broken pump for cheap and just use the cover. I posted a thread in the wanted section. If i cannot find one in the next couple days (or maybe today even, lol) i am going to order a air pump delete kit form gt motoring, drop a little weight on the car and be done with it. I cannot find the delete kit for sale anywhere but the forums and i’m looking at a post from mid 2009, so i am hoping they are still available.
I’ll be back over working on it today and removing the fender support brackets in prep for welding on the new ones when they come in. I also stripped the trunk yesterday.
12/23/2010
Today was a very productive day. I got off work at noon because of xmas so i went over and worked on the car a bit. First i removed the fender support brackets because they were bent and i have new ones in the mail. Next, i stripped the interior, removed the seats, removed all the audio wiring, removed the amp, and removed the factory roll hoops, and all the plastic behind the seats. I also cleaned up a couple things like removing the factory cd changer cord, and i wired the speakers off of deck power (since you couldn’t even tell there was an amp before). It is now pretty close to ready for a roll cage which i will start working on in a week or two.
side note: I have a kicker zx350.4 amp for sale as well as a factory cd changer cord. I will be buying a membership so i can sell on the forums here in the next day or two.
Next on the list is removing the airbag system and A/C. These will also be for sale very soon.Then i will start finishing the body work this week, adding the new bumper covers, and constructing the cage with my buddy Ozzy in a week or two. My buddy Ozzy i refer to is a welder and machinist. I currently have my car at his shop for winter storage which is very nice as i am surrounded by every tool i could ever need. It’s very nice to have a lathe, mill, welder, car lift, tube bender etc etc when you need it.
Here are the pics:

12/27/2010
Ordered the new front bumper and front bumper upper corner metal brackets I needed from Saratoga Honda. Super cheap, good guys to deal with. Parts will be in tomorrow. I also stopped by the shop and replaced the twisted hood with another oem hood. I have the fender support braces coming in tomorrow and the fenders being fixed. I also ordered a nrg quick release and a nrg steering wheel. Just need to get a thin hub and I’ll be all set. Trying to figure out what to do/where to mount the cruise control. I also bought an ingen intake yesterday.
Here is a pic with the new hood

12/28/200
painted the fender supports and put them on, set the headlights in and put the new bumper on today. Fenders are getting worked on tomorrow.

12/29/2010
Went over to the shop last night to see the fenders and they looks pretty good. I am still waiting for an upperf rame rail support, the part that goes under the front bumper(on the top side) so it was hard to get everything to fit up exactally. Drivers side fender has a small crease in it and i was told it would be very hard to work out. So…i am waiting on that part and i will see where everything lines up when it comes in, should be here within the next couple days. The fenders have had the dents worked out of them and look amazing though, but i might need to scrap them and move on to new fenders. Hoping i can find a set someone took off when the replaced them with wider fenders, worst case senario Saratoga honda has them for i think 240 a side, so it’s not too bad.
While i was there last night i threw the car up on the lift to get a good look underneath and everything looks great. I didn’t expect to see any problems but i was still happy to see there was nothing i needed to worry about.
Also ordered the front anti-bumpsteer kit, i think i also have a used t1r rear kit i’ll be getting from a guy on here. I also bought an air pump for 60 bucks but after the guy shipped it he told me it broke when he was taking the hoses off of it so idk. I only need the cover on one side of it so i hope he’s talking about the other side being broken. Either way, he refunded half and told me he’d refund the rest if i cannot use it. Fingers crossed
Here ia a shot of the car on the lift:

12/30/2010
Pulled out both airbags today, srs module and wiring. Tomorrow morning i will be trying to find a belt in stock and then over to the shop to pull the a/c out. I think that’s pretty much it for today. People said the passenger airbag was a pain to pull out but i found it incredebly easy. I took off the cover and popped it back on the dash so there wasn’t a huge gaping hole. So tomorrow is the a/c, and i have the new steering wheel coming early next week so i’ll put that on, then i need to order a mugen roll cage trim piece cover and i’ll start constructing the roll cage to match up with those holes for a clean look. I also have a bunch of other parts coming in that will go on next week as well.
1/1/2011
Got the front upper bumper/hood support in today. Also got the air pump in and just my luck the piece i needed was not damaged. I will put there parts on monday along with the steering wheel and also pull the a/c (i picked up the new belt today).
MORE TO COME

[JSEnclosures]

1/3/2011
Put on the new air pump tonight. No more CEL! Also put on the nrg wheel, hub and quick release.

[JSEnclosures]

No more AC. Just the begining of cleaning up the engine bay and dropping unneccessary weight.

[JSEnclosures]

1/7/11
finally brought my canon back over to the shop tonight. Well didn’t do much today, just removed the a/c pump and replaced the belt with the shorter one. It all went very easy. Also put on a shorty injen intake i picked up. Intake should be good for now, i will be going turbo or supercharger in the near future so it’s going to change either way. Got some parts coming in next week. My T1R rear anti-bumpsteer kit will be here monday and i’ll put the front and rear anti-bumpsteer kits on early next week. I ended up getting an exedium front bumpsteer kit seeing how it is just a spacer and spent 60 bucks for it new, could justify the T1R for the extra 40 bucks. Also got the a/c delete button, top of the steering wheel trim(because the tabs are broke on mine), a blank button for the cluster (right side) and the gromet for the a/c delete in the firewall from the CR. Next up on my to-do list is to order the mugen rool hoop trim piece and start fabricating my custom welded in cage.
Here are some pics

[JSEnclosures]

1/29/2011
Took a trip down to poughkippsie today and picked up an apexi single exhaust from a guy i met for some parts a while back. He has the mugen roll cage so i took some pics and got a good look over it because i will be starting my cage this week. Got back to the shop with the exhaust and put it on, then i gutted the interior. Exhaust looks huge, i’m not sure if i’ll stick with it but i bought it dirt cheap so if i do sell i can make a few hundred easy anyways.
Cage starts monday

[JSEnclosures]

1/31/2011
Just picked up my roll cage. Some assembly required…
1.75"OD x .083 DOM

[bennyfizzle]

why the fiberglass nonsense under the trunk and why are you caging it exactly?

[JSEnclosures]

2/1/2011
Started the Cage last night.

Here is a shot with the bumper cover on and the exhaust

And a couple randoms…

[JSEnclosures]

2/6/2011
Yesterday we did some more work on the roll cage. We got the main rear hoop finished up, as well as the seatbelt harness mounting bar that attaches to it. I’m extremely happy with the way it’s come out so far. Everything has been dead on, and has matched up to the mugen trim piece 100%. I’d say where it sits right now we are about 30% done with the roll cage. Here are the pics with the step by step process.
First we made the rear hoop, two 90degree bends on the same plane. Pretty simple. We made this to 22.5” height, the mounting base plates are ¼” so that’ll bring it to 22.75” height total. Top goes up and down no problem.

Dropped the seat in to see how it sat. Very pleased with the total height of it.

Next I took the rear support and cut out just over 3” from each end of it. Doing so I lost 1 bolt hole on each side. I also removed the stock seatbelt mounting brackets since I wont be using them. The reason for cutting this piece to so the 3”x 4” mounting plates for the rear hoop can be centered on the pipe.

Then we welded on the 3x4” base plates for the main hoop.

Tested the fit for clearance and everything fit perfectly

Next we measured up the piece we would need for the seatbelt harness bar. Put a bend in each end to get the bar the sit back 4” and match the mugen trim as it should, then we tacked it in place and gave it a test fit to mark up the holes for the harness mounts.

Then we put it in place with the cover to mark the holes.

With the holes marked, we broke the tack and removed the harness bar. We then hit the marked holes with a center punch, put the bar on the mill and drilled the 1” holes. Then we tig welded the bar back in place.

Then we cut some 1” stock to 2.5” lengths. The tube is 1.75” so 2.5” length would allow the slug to sit about ¾” above the bar, which was perfect for the trim piece. After cutting 4 slugs we put them in the mill (because we didn’t have an attachment for the lathe) centered and drilled them out and used a tap to thread them for a 7/16” harness eye bolt. We then welded these into place.

And put in place

And as it sits now

[JSEnclosures]

2/16/2011
Worked on the cage a litttle bit last night. Spent a lot of time bullshitting and drinking but that’s just fine with me. We ended up getting the rear section done and both pieces bent and knotched with the base plades done also. This has been and will be the hardest part of the entire cage. It is also the smallest part but it’s just tricky because it bends in two different planes that are probably about 80degress to one another. I didn’t take any pictures last night because we still need to weld this all in but here is pretty much what it looks like minus the downtubes behind the seats:

Now i’m pretty much just waiting to decide on seats. I origionally wanted something reclinable and was set on the sparco r505 (or torino 2) but they do not fit. Now i’m thinking bucket seats and have about 20 different brands and models in mind haha. I need to go soemwhere and sit in them to find the one i like and then i can finish this cage. So anyways, i’m waiting to decide on seats because i really want side support/braces for the cage, and the only way to tell if i can make them work or not is to have the seats first. I want to do something like this (first pic is from a customized mugen cage):

And if i can’t pull that off with the seats of my choice (all depends on width of the seats) then i will run the cage like the mugen with the downtubes behind the seats. You only lose about 2" with downtubes behind the seats so even for a tall guy like me it’s not too bad.
Anyways though, before seats we will be pulling the dash and running the a-pillar downtubes this weekend. This part should be too bad, but it’s really going to set it off. It should look something like these:

I will be updating this weekend with more pics of my actual cage.

[JSEnclosures]

2/20/2011
Well, it’s Sunday and I’m writing this on about two hours sleep from last night. Did a lot of work the past couple days and have the cage to a point where I couldn’t be any happier with it. I spent a couple hours Friday pulling the dashboard out of the car. I had trouble finding a diy for it anywhere but it ended up being very simple. I used the qube engineering diy for instructions on pulling the gauges and once that was done I referenced the helms manual for the dash. It’s basically just a dozen connectors that need to be unplugged, about a half dozen bolts and removal of the steering shaft via 1 splined bolt. Then it pops right out pretty easily. I already had the quick relese steering wheel and the airbags and airbag harness removed so that helped me a little bit as well. Got the dash all out and called it a day for Friday.
With the car all prep’d and ready to go we started the rest of the cage on Saturday. With the dash pulled and all my electrical connections undone I knew I wasn’t going to be able to use the electric top. I pulled the motors on both sides and turned it into a manual top for the day to make quick use for our measurements. By buddy had the brilliant yet simple idea to use a brake line and mark the outside edge of where we could put the tube with the top up. With the top in place and latched down we fixed the brake line to the top of the a-pillar and the rear roll hoop with zip ties and bent it until we had a solid outline. Then we bent up some steel, drank a couple dozen beers and had the hoops in place. We worked till about 4am until it was all done but when you get so involved in a project it’s just hard to stop and go home, you gotta push through. The front half was tricky but we managed to figure it out. We have 4 different bends in each piece on 3 completely different planes, it doesn’t hit a thing, everything clears perfectly and the top latches are still easy to get to. The top has about ¼” – ½” clearance all the way around, the a pillars match up dead on and with the top up you barely even notice it it’s so seamless. I could not be any happier with it, but buddy is just dead on when it comes to fabrication.

So anyways, this is where the car sits now. Next up is to fab a quick piece at the top of the windshield, then make all the gussets, knotch out the dash and once I get my seats we’ll mount them and get a bar running along the doors and tying into the cage at both ends. Then I’m just going to break the tacs, paint it flat black and weld it all back in. Then I’ll paint the remainder of it in place.
Well enough with my rambling, here are the pics:

With the dash pulled:

The Cage:

And Inside:

[Vovchandr]

Subscribed!

Caged 'vert’s FTW.

[Jeff_K]

you realize that tubing you used for the cage not to mention the cage design itself isn’t legal through any sanctioning bodies?

[JSEnclosures]

@Jeff K

you realize that tubing you used for the cage not to mention the cage design itself isn’t legal through any sanctioning bodies?

yes, i do not plan to track this car at all. The tubing and design is more than sufficient to save my life though, should i ever roll this thing. It still needs some more tubing to go in place and then everything will be gusseted.

It is far supperior to a cusco or mugen bolt in cage, that’s all i’m going for.

[bennyfizzle]

looks really good, what’s up with the fiberglass trunk cover thingy

[Shady]

If you got it cheap deff a good pickup

Having driven a few cars that have been tweaked and looked less severe than that. I believe that thing will never handle/feel like it was intended ever again.

[JSEnclosures]

@bennyfizzle

looks really good, what’s up with the fiberglass trunk cover thingy

just going to make a cover for the trunk lid that says JSEnclosures.com

[JSEnclosures]

@Shady

If you got it cheap deff a good pickup

Having driven a few cars that have been tweaked and looked less severe than that. I believe that thing will never handle/feel like it was intended ever again.

For an S, i got it really cheap. As far as the steering and suspension goes, it was all good even with the frame rails bent, the car drove great and tracked straight. Only thing that bent was the very front of the frame rails.

[Shady]

@JSEnclosures

For an S, i got it really cheap. As far as the steering and suspension goes, it was all good even with the frame rails bent, the car drove great and tracked straight. Only thing that bent was the very front of the frame rails.

From that one picture to me it looks liek the car was twisted, might just be me though.

Either way thats great seeing as you dont plan on tracking it and its just going to be a fun toy. Looking forward to seeing it done :thumbup