Hello, people.

Originally, my next engine was supposed to be a replacement engine for my 626 Station wagon. However, in the course of events, the engine specification began to grow out of bounds, and it's no longer a very good choice for a DD. Hence - a new platform was needed.

I had owned a 626 Hatchback GT before the wagon, and so it should happen, I got it back. As a hulk, but that's a small matter. The power my engine should make power would be quite a bit more than enough for a stock GD body to handle - so rebuilding and reinforcing the chassis would've been in order anyway. I liked the versatility of the hatch, but since the Wagon greatly exceeds it, the hatch became a good starting point for the performance vehicle.

Here are some shots of the car, undergoing the stripping:


The car tilted on jackstands.


Some patching up on the left hand side rear wheel well, quite a bit of rust but not nearly good enough view to tell what's going on, so here's where it's at:



The floorpan is basically rusted off at the edges, and the trailing arms are held on by almost nothing. There's really little left to save, almost the entire floorpan is needed, plus new mounting points for suspension parts.


In fall of 2008 I got a good offer on an AWD 626, not exactly pristine either, but a good donor car. The problem with the AWD was it's registered as emission controlled vehicle, where my GT was not, thus the AWD would have very expensive registeration process if I wanted to put my new engine into that car.



Here we go, a white hatch, just like my GT is/was. I think it was the most common color/body combination at the time. A keen eye might notice the AWD sits a few cm's higher than FWD. Fortunately, it's not because the propshaft would need the extra clearance, it's just because the AWD was thought to be used in deeper snow than FWD could


And here's the real deal, driven rear axle for the 626 We decided to have on last drive in the snow with it before the slaughter, that's why the rear subframe is packed with snow.


The GD propshaft.



The mighty powerhouse of the AWD! Any ideas what I should do with it, try how much power I'd get out of it as NA? Sell it? Anchor a boat with it?



And whis is it, the transmission ready to be mounted on the engine stand, if only I had the engine off it already!

A stock AWD transmission absolutely cannot take the punishment a turboed DOHC is going to put out, so it'll need a great deal of reinforcing. Even then, the results are somewhat suspect. I do believe an EVO driveline is a must somewhere down the line, but for now I'm happy to play with the stock box and see how much throughput I can have!

It's going to be one hassle of a project though... car body, engine and the transmission should be in the works at the same time!

No, the new engine will go into the rebuilt FWD body as will the AWD drive line. As a curiosity, the built engine is in fact the very original engine to the car. It was swapped at 380 000km's for less driven one, and was put into storage to eventually become the basis for my engine build... Though, since the block was ruined, the only original part will be the head (and the intake manifold for the time being).

It would be easier to build the original AWD into a turbo, but unfortunately the legislation regarding low emissions models is close to draconian, just to have the required emissions tests would run to several thousand euros and you couldn't change a thing with the engine without having to go through the same tests all over again (the turbo, or intercooler, or almost whatever the inspection officer can spot). Also, the AWD car has a suspicious bind with the rear doors. I don't know if the body has been twisted or not, but the FWG GT body is, even though with extensive rust damage, absolutely square.

The engine's an F2 for sure, I'm certainly not overly thrilled about, but the idea of refurbishing it with FE 12v internals does interest a bit (I'm guessing 150-160hp NA). The whole AWD GLX car cost me only 300 euros, so parting out will probably turn the purchase into net profit

Holy crap, anything you don't build yourself Would love to see pics when you get them off the phone. Even more intrigued on your DIY rotisserie. Please take lots of pics while you're removing the AWD suspension, just in case future readers attempt a similar feat.

Alright. Nothing spectacular going on with the car, but the rotisserie is looking good.



Dad came up with a brilliant solution to the rotator head. The wheel bearings I had bought for a car dolly made *Really good* bearings The problem was the hub that prevented the cross amrs from bolting directly on the flange, so I needed some sort of spindle for it. So I made one for each end from leftover tubing and some 5mm steel sheet:



It's really important to brace the part well for welding, since it will warp otherwise and that will practically ruin the part.



A perfect fit! I had to open up the holes a little bit, they were a bit too exact and would've been a problem when hanging the car onto the rotator.



So close and yet there's plenty to do! I need at least these: brake system (using a brake disc and quick action clamp), adjustable pads, a long tube to connect the ends and the actual brackets to hold the car.

The rotisserie is nearing completion - I only need adjustable pads, L-arms and some fine tuning. And to figure out the brake.



Here's how the lifting mechanism works: The rotator head is lifted high enough to reveal the next holes in the stalk. The stalk is pegged in place, the collar is moved to the exposed holes, peg is removed and the rotator head is jacked up again to reveal the next holes, and so on... my mistake here was I had planned for a longer stroke jack, so I need to double the hole density in the stalk. Not a biggie, but annoying nonetheless.

Okay, I spent the day at the friend's place working on the donor car. What a sorry sight it is; the car's covered in green pollen dust, every crevice is filled with pine needles, and, of course, the ever-present rust just sticks out so well.

I'm now working to remove the rear subframe. There was road dust *Everywhere*. The entire rear half of the car is caked with the stuff. Also, the car is about just as rusted as the FWD, so it seems like the amount of work would be almost equal in either case (rebuild the FWD into AWD or fix and reinforce the AWD ).



This is what happened when I lifted the car with a jack; the rocker panel gave way with a coarse, gravelly sound. The entire side is very very crumbly.



The rear spindle. There are few immediately obvious differences; the brake caliper is at the front, trailing arm is much longer, and the wheel well is shaped a bit differently. Also the frame boxes are much larger in AWD. Unfortunately it was cut out of the picture, but the rear springs are very different to those in FWD, these were almost like front springs. Coilovers in the rebuild will eliminate clearance problems, however. Also, the rear disc is separate from the wheel bearing, so upgrading rear discs is much easier!



The car was without inner fenders and also missed the mud guard for the filler tube too. The filler tube was definitely on it's final days, and the air escape tube was already corroded off. Also the insides of the rear bumper were filled with crud. I just say it was due time to take this car off the streets!

I only got as far as to have the rear end of the car on jack stands, and removed the forward ends of the trailing arms. Hopefully it's not too terrible chore to remove the rear subframe... I'd like to have it fully cleaned and repaired before November.

Oh, and one more measurement; the width f the subframe:



The rear subframe is 930mm wide, while the FWD subframe is 940mm. That's a great relief, they're close enough not to cause major problems. The mounting points need to be fabricated anyway though.

I messed up the thumbnail... the actual link was alright. Now the thumbnail's working too

Here's what I did today:



That's one heavy bastard! The FWD rear subframe is light as a feather compared to that thing. I'll disassemble it soon and get if sandblasted and painted. The arms are in much better shape than in the FWD car, but still not very good, and they were never that good in the first place! I'm seriously considering tubular arms. Rear struts appear to be much, much greater than in FWD.

I'm modifying the FWD car, because I've already fully disassembled it, and because it's not an emissions controlled car; it means I'm at much greater liberty to modify the engine.

Yeah, BIGGER not greater Mistakes you do when typing stuff in foreign language in the middle of the night after a busy day

Well, here's a shot of the first assembly of the rotisseries. Some minor stuff still  missing, but it's getting into proper haspe at least

Sorry, the best I can offer now is half the car on the rotisserie, still one more update before seeing the entire car body spinning on the rotisserie

Anyway. I wanted to work on the rear before hanging the car, because it would be a major drag to have the car almost completed on the rotisserie and then get back to very basics with the rusted rear.

I had bought some CRC rust removing acid to clean the body frames, like the photos show, they were in a sorry condition. Now, here they are after the treatment:



I must say I was totally amazed by the performance of the stuff. After washing off the acid and giving it a quick go with a wire brush I couldn't see *any* rust left. I painted the insides with zinc paint and proceeded to remove the rest of the rear panel:



The sheet was somewhat rusted and once rust gets started, it won't stop until the rust is completely removed or the steel is gone



I made a paper template for the new sheet of metal. It lacks all the fancy beads and stuf, but at least it's brand new and not rusted.



Here's the thing clamped. I tack-wlded it on and used a bit on Zinc spray to protect the new welds, and welded some more trusses to make the body survive being cut up in the rotisserie:


Then I resumed the work on the rotisserie...

Here's the mounting flanges on the L-arms.


The pads with threaded rods are for leveling the rotisserie on uneven base (ground). I thought I had left ample clearances for the parts, but actually they turned out close as hell. I only could manage to center the horizontal beam with a hammer! It paid off to be absolutely precise about getting the L-arm as symmetric as possible, centering the beam was really simple. Here you go, the rear end on the rotisserie...



The front still needs work, but it's practically complete. I just need to make the flanges for the front and clean up (there's an ENGINE lying in the way...) and it's good to go

I also propped the AWD subframe against the FWD frame and did some extra measuring too, here's the gist of things:



The FWD frame is 3 centimeters taller, the difference is measured from the shock mount the same spot on both cars. I just need to check if the shock mount is at the same height (I believe it is). Since this is an area that is going to be heavily modified anyway, it's not a a big deal as such.



The frame width is barely enough, but better make it plenty wide when cutting it up anyway. The inspection officer likes it better when things are properly taken care of too.



Surprisingly, there is long enough flat spot on the rear frame rails. Again, this part will be remodeled anyway.



Now, this is a bit more serious... the diff mounts come awfully close to structures at both front and back of the subframe, and with the subframe sitting 3cm higher than it does in this picture, there will be real problems with clearance.  The spare wheel well isn't a big deal to cut a little, but the other body member coming close to contact is a frame beam, a far more serious case.

There... I sure hope I'll get a photo of the body belly-up in the rotisserie soon!

My gosh please dont spill hot coffee on your lap and kick that support out and keep the dogs out 

Dang looks like a lot of hard work ahead of you, good luck. I'll stay tuned in..

Heh, nice to have the old topic back on the list

It's a shame I haven't had much of improvement since the last update, the harsh winter and no job put a pretty big stopper on the project.

However, things are looking up with the job section, and spring's coming up, so I'm hopeful to make progress in not too distant future

I've taken the first steps with the legal battle about the modification. First, I need a statement from the factory representative (dealer) about the type variants, ie. a proof the AWD and FWD are part of the same model series. It the dealer won't give a statement, I can inquire the factory directly, or dig into finnish traffic agency records, but each option is more difficult and less reliable than the first. I'm hoping for a reply within a few weeks.

Next I need a statement from the traffic safety agency about the safety of such a build. Going by the book it's not a legally necessary document; however, the scrutineering officer WILL call the FTSA for recommendation, and he sure won't be making the same effort in presenting the case to the man in charge there. I will need to present the proof of using parts within the same model line and plans about necessary modifications to the frame with suitably detailed strength calculations, which is the next issue.

The original frame rails are, sad to say, totally rusted away. They can't be repaired or modified reliably; more drastic actions need to take place. Thus, I've come up with this:



That is a CAD plan of a replacement frame rails, designed to suit the AWD rear subframe. Unfortunately I'm not going to go with the tubular subframe at this point, as I don't want to overburden the poor officer with more decisions than necessary. The tubular frame is designed as a bolt-in replacement for the original one, though, so it can be made later if wanted.

The material of the replacement frame rail is 60x40x2mm and 60x100x2mm rectangular steel tubing. It's heavier than original structure, but also much much stronger. I will still need a few more braces inside the car to prevent warping when the remnants of the frame rails are cut out, but when it's done, the car will be by far tougher and stiffer than it was when new.

The beauty of CAD design is I'll get complete cut lists for the steel tubes, and with proper bracing and welding order, it'll meet the original manufacturing tolerances, if not exceed. It's also very easy to derive FEM strength calculations off the piece, and with close enough modeling of the frame (it's actually pretty straightforward under the skin sheets) some stiffness rates can be guesstimated.

The problem is, a term commonly paired with MOT inspection policy is czarist. One of the nicer terms, anyway.
The FTSA is sure to want detailed info on the modification process. I don't want to try out my chances with a sort-of-accurate sketch, I want to present the exact plans. It also helps with construction; I can get reference measures and indeed, the exact measurements for cutting the tube segment. All that will significantly speed up the fabrication process and improve the end results (I hope...). The tooling itself is very simple. An angle grinder, a bench drill and a compound miter metal saw is all that's needed. A welding jig, if needed, can be made from scrap wood.

The material certification won't be a problem; since the car is made from regular steel, the fe37/ST355 steel tubing ("furniture tubing" in fact) is considered equal.