I was able to wrap up a couple projects over the weekend. I have been working on them off and on for a couple weeks now but can finally say they are done. First was the battery relocation, which turned into the battery relocation/fuel pump relay mount since the relay board was just to big to place behind the trunk trim panels. To start I ran the main power wire from the starter back to where the battery box would sit.
The wire is wrapped in tech flex and tied to either factory wiring loom where I can or riveted to the car with the supplied clamps. Mounting the box was simple enough, though this box is huge. It easily accommodates my battery and the relay panel for the fuel pumps.
Next was cutting the factory battery cable ends off and grounding the ground, then running the factory power that would have went from the battery up front to the starter/power distribution box. Now that wire runs solely to the power distribution box.
Lastely the box was filled with the battery and relay board as well as connections for my battery tender. You can see the tender is plugged in, I ran the wiring to the back side of the box so in the future I can plug it in without removing the lid.
The next project was installing my aerocatch hood pins. Talk about a nerve racking project, the adage measure twice cut once could not be more true. I used a piece of cardboard to make the cut on the drivers side. I used a large enough piece to allow me to cut the outline of the hood so that when it came time to cut the passenger side I was able to simple flip the cardboard template and know that the two sides mirrored one another.
After the two sides were cut I cut the backing plates for each latch in half and taped them into the holes. Doing it this way allows you to not cut the bottom of the hood to put the backing plates in. Only issue is getting the latches in without pushing the backing plates out. Turned into a very tedious job but the results were exactly what I wanted, now with the hood open the bottom side only has holes big enough for the studs to go through.
After some adjustment to get the stud height correct I locked down the studs and cut the rubber bits. So now I have a hood with a little extra security for track days.
The last project worth mentioning was making an air intake for the turbo. I didn't want to run an open turbo or even a mesh as this will be a 95% street car made for cruising and just weekend enjoyment. So my issue was the lack of room between the turbo and ABS block. Only two solutions that I would think of was running a small filter (which I wanted to avoid) and using a 45 degree silicone coupler then a two inch long 4" diameter pipe with a K&N filter attached to the end. I actually really like the look of it and the idea of having a filter that won't create to much restriction for the turbo.
The next bit I worked on was tackling the wiring for the gauges, I was able to mount the relay panel into the glovebox using rivnuts so that it is easily removable but I stopped at that point. So that's the next project to finish then test all the wiring to make sure all is ok. After that it's fluids and startup tune then time to fire it up and hopefully have a smooth break-in period before tearing it apart for trans/clutch/rear end and final tune next spring.