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[drakos]

sorry, not the promised update, not enough time today to start with the coilover.

in the hour i've spend in the garage i took a angle grinder and removed al the mounting bolts for the heatshields (most where broken anyway and exhaust routing will be drastically different, more on that later  )
after that took the wire brush on the grinder and removed all the rust from the bottom and cleaned up the driveshaft

al the rust was superficial and nothing needs repairing  amazingly clean for a 94 opel/vauxhall 

[drakos]

gave the front half of the car a few layers of stonechip paint and sprayed the tunnel white just like the engine bay. this way it is easy to see if something leaks and where it is comming from 
next is to stonechip the rear and mask off the white to paint the overspray black again

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Looks beautiful, shame to get it dirty 

 Please let us know what stonechip paint you use. I've used some stuff (tetrasyl, if I remember right) but I'd like to invest in some of the 'rubber' stuff that replicates the original underseal better, but yet to make a purchase. .

[Ever Ready]

Keep up the good work, I do like to follow a project

[drakos]

thanks,

the stonechip is nothing special, just cheap motip/duplicolor overpaintable stonechip.. wouldn't recommend it for normal use except for trailing arms and stuff..
in my case it is just to give it a uniform color, cover the bare metal from the rust removal and a little bit of protection without being sticky (and heavy) like real undercoat.

on my other cars i use caprotec rx5 and rx10.. eats rust (rx5) and the second layer is real undercoat (rx10) it is available in all colors and gives a nice silk gloss finish and feels a bit like rubber. not a mark or rust on my car after 10 years of abuse and rain 

[humbucker]

Calibra town! 

[drakos]

That is actually only half the calibra collection 
Got myself a 100% stock 8v, a v6 4x4 show/track car and a rear half that funtions as a event trailer 
The one in front of the omega is from a mate. In the progress of being converted to rwd.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Thanks for the info 

RWD calibra? Great idea! Would you be using the 4wd rear axles, or is that a surprise for another day? Very interested to hear how you'll be doing it 

[humbucker]

Thanks for the info 

RWD calibra? Great idea! Would you be using the 4wd rear axles, or is that a surprise for another day? Very interested to hear how you'll be doing it 

A fellow Cavalier Turbo owner has achieved the same using Sapphire Cosworth running gear.

[drakos]

Simple way would be to use a omega 3000 diff and 2.4 rear axles..plug and play
 but we could not find any so stripped down a omega b and using that rear diff,shortened drifeshaft and axles.. gearbox also omega b.. engine is a saab turbo with a big garret with fmic

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Fascinating! Hearing that makes me wonder why didn't they make the Calibra rwd all along? I'm sure that would alter the handling characteristics nothing put positively. It never quite got rid of its Cavalier underpinnings, maybe the dashboard was too obvious for many people, kind of 'sheep in wolf's clothing' thing. Which is a shame, because I never thought so and always thought 'oh it#s a cav underneath...and? what's wrong with that? Cav Mk IIIs were brilliant cars!' but certainly with another few quid spent the if all Calibras were rwd maybe people would have felt they were buying a 'very cheap baby 3 dr Senator', as opposed to an 'expensive 3 dr cavalier'

Also Frod running gear in a Vauxhall is just wrong, sorry!!  But a beautiful pic, and lots of effort and skill there. 

[drakos]

quite a lot done the last weeks.

first was to customize the wiring loom, no pics when finished but believe me, it is light 
lost everything that wasn't necessary, the entire loom now fits in a grocery bag

the list what remained is shorter.

-all light stil work, but ditched the broken light module, and all other wiring.. all that remains are a few direct wires for the new switches in the center ( fuses gonna move to the center console to).
-merged the left and right light units, so no more separate wires or fuses.(for example, only one wire to the 4 rear lights and licence plate, one wire for the left and right main beam.. etc)
-blinker and hazard lights all still work
-wipers and window washer still work except the interval, also removed the washer level warning
-dash still works, only removed the wires and bulbs that weren't used anymore
-no more ignition barrel, everything is nog a switched positive ( killswitch is the new key  )
-immobilizer is still there, glued the chip to the ring
-positive feed wire moved to the inside of the car
- only one off the 2 horns remained

and that is literally all that remained   
lost the servotronic, all fan and cooling wires/relays ( only a positive feed for the new fan relay remained).. abs, airco,tc and off course everting that was for the inside..
because i lost the abs, i also lost the speed signal. acquired a vss relay from a corsa to get a speed signal direct from one abs sensor. and gonna build a signal converter to deal with the difference in abs teeth and for fine tuning the speedo.

enough text and time for pics,
got a spacer for the gearbox made to account for the loss of the dual mass flywheel;




after that everything came together without any problems and a few hours later the engine was in 









and the dash in for now, ordered some carbon plates to fill the gaps and gonna use the center hole for the new switches,killswitch,start button and a few fuses



and cleaned up the rear diff and removed the abs rings

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Cannot wait to see what this weighs with all the modern 'junk' (subjective) removed. Very nice idea about minimising the loom, I wouldn't have thought about that. Purely on an economy point of view, what would happen if you took maybe 200kg off the weigh of an Omega, that's before any actual performance mods occur. Lotus 'added lightness' methodology.

Keep it coming, fantastic project! 

[Bojan]

Great stuff here, it's really rare to see fully and properly stripped omega.
Do you perhaps know how much discarded loom weigh?
Also, I can imagine how much space is gained in small spaces (like behind the dash) now when there is no thick loom branches.

Diff -  is it a standard, open type or LSD?

PS. A little OT – that off-road van (mitsubishi?) on several images looks very interesting (with A/T tyres, sand channels, snorkel...).

[drakos]

no idea how much weight is lost at the loom.. but it is a lot.. 3 trashbags of wiring gone and that is not including the weight of all te relays, sensors, brackets, switches etc.. think that 30kg is a minimal guess  and then another 30kg from control units,horn,blowers etc.
will do a weighting soon when it is complete and running but before the cage goes in

diff is stock for now, looking for a lsd but that is not on top of my priority list now..
fuelbag,swirlpot, big brakes etc are more important as upgrades after the initial build to get it driveable

the mitsubishi is a great car.. it is a l200 (i think?) 4x4 "oem".. lifted,dual fueltank, snorkel etc.. inside is more like a campervan.. is from a mate of mine that uses it properly in the sahara and all kind of rugged places.. at the moment it is on transport to south amerika for a vacation/expedition