The Little Red Build Thread
 

Hello fellow Geeks!
I bring you the build thread for SCarlet, my tiny stick-shift SATURN SC1.
She came from Spring Hill already tuned to get great mileage, and I've proven she can (44 MPG!).

For the Ecomodders who are unfamiliar with me and my car, I hail from Minnesota, the tenth planet from the sun (thats why its so bloody cold here). I commute a million-billion miles to Minneapolis Tech where I attend the Cinema Division. I acquired SCarlet this past Independence day from a friend. They knew I am into Saturns, so when their shiny new G3 Prius got delivered early and they needed to unload the Saturn quick (they live in a condo, so parking space is in high demand) they called me. After the test drive, the gentleman asked if I wanted to buy it. I said 'yes!' and he asked how much I had on me. "$20"
"Deal"
:eek:
I later donated parts and did some audio work on his daughters Taurus.

For $20, trading a stereo, and 3 or 4 hours of labor, I acquired a
street legal car (thats a big deal in my household... the doors in my old car had a habit of popping open in corners. WooHoo!).

When I get caught up on my schoolwork, I'll be laying the mods on heavy, so I thought it was high time to start a build thread.

What I've done so far:
-Cleaned the EGR system
-Replaced the gas cap (vacuum leak)
-Fixed the faulty Idle Air Control wiring (it now idles at 700 to 1100 RPM instead of 2500 RPM
-Removed the spoiler (the benefits of this are debatable)
-weight reduction... I think my shop vac weighed two pounds more after I cleaned SCarlet:p
-Installed a Kenwood that I paid too much for. I count this as an ecomod because it makes spending the extra time to drive the slow lane bearable. You haven't heard a bad stereo until you've heard a Saturn stereo. Ouch.

And now The Short List: things I plan to do in the near future...
-Move my number plate lower to improve aero and block 1/3 of the grill.
-Block heater- I have a magnetic oil pan heater. Should I use something else?
-Install my MPGunio- A new ATmega is in the mail :)
-Install a volt meter
-Switch the alternator's field coil
-Move the radio mast
-Make a more aerodynamic spoiler
-Pizza pans!
-Kill switch
-WAI

The long list: way-in-teh future projects...
-Rear wheel skirts
-Deep cycle battery
-Charger
-Manual steering
-LED running light conversion
-Paint the roof white to keep the car cool
-Sound and heat insulation... somewhat to lower the load on the HVAC, but mostly because this is a LOUD car
-Aeromod the headlights
-120 VAC rear defroster... so I don't have to draw on battery power

Any other suggestions boys?

~Jimbo

P.S. Jeff, If your reading this, your kindness is greatly appreciated. I sill feel I owe you for the car.

Oval_Overload -

Sounds like SCarlet is back on track. Here are a few comments on your todo list :

- You may have a worn out top motor mount :
Two Top Motor Mount Fixes in one day ... - SaturnFans Forums
Probably won't fix all the noise, but may put a dent in it.

- In my pre-Ecomodder daze, I used to have headlight covers on my SC2. But I can't remember if they gave it the "flush" look or not.

And don't forget the side skirts! - http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...rts-10749.html

CarloSW2

Carlos, next time i make it out to Cali, I'm buying you dinner.

As for the headlights, Lowes sells headlight-sized pieces of Lexan :)

I went to Walmart and picked up my new hubcaps after work... 16" pizza pans, made in the US of A if you can believe it. I hate Walmart, but nothing else is open when my shift ends at 11:15 pm.

Life works in strange ways...
I've stumbled into a side job helping the local Zap/Miles/Wheego mechanic.

At the shop, we've got a collection of old Discover batteries lying around that I could get for next to nothing, which got my grey matter a-turnin'

I've already talked about deleting the alternator on SCarlett and EV batteries would work great for that, but last week I got trained on eGo scooter repair...

...The eGo is a fairly punchy little vehicle powered by a 2 HP DC motor the size of a coffee can. It runs on two 12v deep-cycle batteries in series, and the controller is capable of regenerative braking

Regen! Woo!

If I were to fit the motor to the bracket the PS pump used (provided the proper pulley could be adapted) I would have a very powerful 24 volt alternator/starter combo (BAS anyone? Anyone? Bueller?).

My first-draft control scheme for this monstrosity goes like this:
~In-gear braking already shuts the engine off, so I'd leave that alone (DFCO) and engage regen
~Shift to neutral with the hybrid system active, and the engine shuts down
~Put it in gear and slowly let out the clutch and the motor spins the engine up, activating the injection while the clutch grabs
~While cruising the 24v system does nothing. No regen, no boost

Let the scheming begin!

*yawn* What do YOU do at midnight on a Saturday?

I bolt cookware to my car.

I give you my aerodisc prototype:
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_DSC00057.jpg

After much deliberation (because its sooo important o.0 ) David The Hardware Store Guy and I settled on screwing three bolts through my hubcaps and bolting the pizza pan down with wingnuts and lockwashers.

For comparison's sake, here is the unaltered wheel
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_DSC00061.jpg

Oval_Overload -

Good job. You definitely need the bolts on an S-Series. On the snap-ins I used to have, I'd always lose the front passenger cover. My theory was that the "assymetry" of the driveline led to some wierd torque thingy on the front passenger wheel when you ran over potholes.

I am guessing the pizza pans do not "bow out" like the racing disks. If they did, you'd need to be careful at car washes where the wheel is "grabbed" by the conveyor belt.

CarloSW2

The bolts hold pan pretty flat and solid. I'm thinking of switching to hex nuts because the wing nuts look ridiculous. It would be less convenient, but I always keep a toolbox in the trunk.

So far so good with my pizza pan mod. Its solid as a rock. I got into an argument with the burrito-making guy at work over the proper way to attach housewares to a vehicle. By the end, he was ranting in Spanish, so I'm gonna assume I won :P

In other news, my number plate mod is gonna take some work... the fugly black bracket is screwed on from the inside of the bumper.
AND... Its time for *dramatic pause* a brake job!
I think I'm going to try to pilfer a four wheel disk system from the JY. These drummies are useless.

Ceramic pads are sexy. My left caliper was jammed creating massive brake drag... that explains why my last two tanks only netted me 33 mpg. In other news, I finally found the brackets that hold the spare tire. Its so nice to not hear that bouncing around all day long.

While under the car, I discovered the muffler wasn't really attached to the body, so when I do my motor mounts I'll fix that.

I just picked up a pair of Deka Dominator batteries from work. They had been used for 6 months in a Zap Xebra. EV batteries! Yay! Now to disconnect that alternator...

Today I drove a Wheego Whip. Its a fabulous car. I passed a Hyundai. On the freeway. Oh my 0.o

~Jimbo

PS if anyone needs Deka Dominators, we've got 4 more used ones for sale cheap. They are in Minneapolis

My milage is creeping back up again! woo!

I spent far too long fighting with the auto-parts store people for a muffler bracket (they sold me one for a J body) so I went to the hardware store and bought 3 feet of galvanized cable to hang my muffler from. Saved myself $15, and the mysterious clunk is gone :) Tomorrow will be motor mount day.

I stopped to help a lady who's Prizm bit the dust on the freeway. She never checked the oil which probably caused some sort of pressure problem in the already weak oil pump. Spun itself apart... CHECK YOUR DAMN OIL, people.

Have an interesting night,
Jimbo

*cue the 21 gun salute*

SCarlett, may you rest in pieces.

She met her end tonight as I was leaving Minneapolis on my way home. I approached the MN 36 and Snelling Avenue cloverleaf to find myself getting frisky with a doe whitetail.

Now to put this into context, there is a shopping mall on both sides of the highway, in addition to D. O. T. office buildings and several apartment buildings. It is just barely beyond the city limits of Minneapolis, and skyscraper laden downtown is 2 minutes away. You're much more likely to hit a Starbucks double mocha latte than a deer in this part of town, and yet, thats just what I did.

I was traveling westbound on MN36 in the slow lane at 50 mph when the deer trotted onto the road. I stomped on the clutch and brake which locked the wheels, initiating a slide. I've spent so much time trying not to hit drunkards downtown that my reaction to a thing in the road was to avoid hitting it (just hit the deer, people). So I steered left, and with locked wheels had no grip. I almost pulled out of the maneuver but I got too far over in the fast lane and caught gravel, and that was all she wrote folks.

I made the mistake of trying to steer back onto the roadway, causing SCarlett to tilt on the drivers side. She rolled over and skidded to a stop on the roof, in the median.

As soon as the world stopped spinning, I shut the engine off. I checked my limbs to make sure everything was attached and checked that I had no pain in my neck or back. Then I looked around to make sure there were no fluids leaking from the car. Finding none left me to figure out how the hell to get out of my seat. I grasped the wheel and unclicked the seat-belt, sort of flopping down onto my left side. The door, being buried in the dirt, was jammed shut. I resorted to shimmying out the broken driver's window with the help of two gentleman who risked their lives crossing two lanes of freeway traffic. They had me sit in the median while an off duty paramedic and her friends rushed up to examine me. The Troopers arrived in minutes followed by an ambulance and fire truck, both of which were thankfully not needed.

After the paramedics patched up a laceration on my shin and a couple on my noggin', I was left to watch the wrecker load up SCarlett. I have no idea how they got her upright, but they did. The car was hauled to my dad's workshop and I'll try to borrow a trailer from work to haul it home. In the meantime, I'll have to dust off Angila Taurus, who has been doing a fine job of adding iron to the soil in my yard for the past several months.

Look for SCarlett to be reincarnated in Fantastic Plastic Part II: The EV Saga

Check your oil, wear your seat-belts, and have a fine night,
~Jimbo

Wow. ****ty.

Glad you're OK, though. That could have been alot worse, for sure.

Oval_Overload -

Glad you're safe!!!!!!!! At least SCarlett did her duty and saved you. I hope that deer's family appreciates what you did for her/him.

CarloSW2

If I ever end up buying another petrol powered car, it WILL be a Saturn S-Series, I have no doubt about it.

I forgot to thank all you guys. If not for Ecomodder, I would have been traveling over 65 MPH at the time of the wreck. Slowing down has many advantages. On the upside, I flipped my car at 40 MPG :p

P.S. I have some mildly bloody photos, but I'm not sure if those are allowed on EM. Carlos? Christ? what shall I do?

Oval_Overload -

I think you're fine We try to be a family-friendly forum, so you should filter it through your "will it make kids upset" meter.

CarloSW2

Ouch! Glad to hear you're okay! sucks about the car, though.

SCarlett is parts? That's terrible news. She had so much potential.

I'm sorry to hear you'll be confined to a Taurus. I really am. Hope you get another S soon.

It was incredibly sad to see her smashed to bits when I went back to pick her up at the workshop. After much finagling, my boss Carl and I got the spare tire on the wheel that ruptured in the crash and reconnected the battery. She cranked right over. I'm tellin' ya, Saturns never really die. She's probably rebuildable, but getting her road legal would be more trouble than its worth. Bent A pillars are difficult to fix.

Most of the time when we haul a car at work, its some tiny thing like a ZAP Xebra, so everyone thought the trailer was a lot larger than it really is. Rather than risking ruining Carl's trailer, I elected to leave the car and return another day with a proper dolly.

It really is a bummer I have to drive the Bull, but that is my one option.
However, there is a slim chance I might get my paws on a funky little concept car called the Current. Carl bought one, but the manufacturer tanked and now he doesn't know what to do with it.

I just had a nice chat with the insurance man. He said the tubular space frame and flexible body panels make Saturns substantially stronger than most compact cars.

The State Troopers thought my hubcaps were hilarious :D

Oval_Overload -

Hmmm, you gave me a (useless?) thought. If I cared more about safety over weight and MPG, I could probably "foam fill" the back of the plastic panels to increase the amount of "cushioning" in a crash. But maybe it wouldn't make a difference because the energy still has to go *somewhere*, right?!?!?!?

I keep thinking that the space frame in your SC was a "1989" design, but the space frame may have been updated for the 2nd-gen 1996 model.

CarloSW2

I think the expansion of the foam would break things. Interesting idea though.

The frame must have been changed in 1996 when they lengthened the wheelbase and again in 1999 when the suicide door was added.

You'd have to use a foam that wouldn't actually harden, I think. Something that could compress and bleed off the energy, rather than transfer it. It would basically mean the difference between punching a wall where there IS a stud, or punching it where there ISN'T.

If there's a stud there, it's instant decel, and it freakin hurts. If there's no stud, the drywall gives some, and deadens the hit. Doesn't hurt.

CAPITAL FROWWWWWWN

:'(

Not good. I liked SCarlett.

Hehehe... If one of your facial lacerations leaves a small scar, you'll have a SCarlett.

Oh that is friggin hilarious XD

Robert, your my new signature

I'm not dead yet!

I commandeered the garage today. After strippin' her naked, the frame damage isn't nearly as bad as I had thought. http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...d/DSC00020.jpg
There is a small kink near the strut tower and a larger one half way from the tower to the headlights. Neither seems to affect the suspension geometry.

A sawzall aided in opening the passenger's door.
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...d/DSC00017.jpg
The locking rods got jostled in when somebody rolled down the broken window, so I had to get at the latch. That panel had a big crack in it anyway.

After much stupidity and annoyance, I got the windshield out.
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...d/DSC00011.jpg
Safety glass is friggin amazing!

I'll probably make an attempt at popping the A pillar back into place with a forklift.
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/m...DSC00005-1.jpg
If it can't be done, I'm told the other tech at work is an expert welder.

Keep it crazy,
Jimbo

She's going to be a salvage project, then?

If you have to have your buddy weld the a-pillars, maybe go cut a roof and pillars from a junker, and do a chop-top using the OE windshield?

Delayed response: glad you were OK, Oval. Bummer about the car though.

The suicide door complicates pretty much every thing, so a chop is out of the question.

For the time being, I'm going to concentrate on removing the red roof skin. If I can get the A pillar fixed, I'll make up a vinyl roof and call it SCarlett DelSol :thumbup:

~Jimbo

Its been a long year, and I've been absent from Ecomodder for a long time, but I'm happy to say that SCarlett is four steps closer to being healed.

In a related note...

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._7472198_n.jpg
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6922396_n.jpg


Kate's Outback is now called "Max" because it bears a striking resemblance to... Max.
http://petcaretips.net/MaxReindeer.jpg


~Jimbo

Its kind of hard to tell from the photos, but that is the A-pillar and roof assembly from a 1996-1998 Saturn SCx strapped to the roof of "Max". The windshield rode home in the boot.

~Jimbo

Oval_Overload -

That was my sneaky suspicion. Does this mean you are making a convertible "SC1e", as in SC1-Electric? How will you reinforce the space-frame? A roll-bar thingy or ?!?!?!?

CarloSW2

Carlos,

Unfortunately, my motor and controller combo just isn't beefy enough to power anything as big as a Saturn, so SCarlett we be keeping the SOHC motor for the foreseeable future. I wanted to build a BugE three-wheeler EV kit with it, but I don't have the scratch for that.

The plan is to replace the dented space frame parts with the assembly I just purchased and cut the roof back to the support that crosses over the rear seats. The windshield can then hopefully be fitted. I'd like to devise a way to have a removable piece of polycarbonate replace the dented-up front half of the roof skin.

~Jimbo

Turns out, my neighbor builds art cars for Burning Man, and he's interested in helping me patch SCarlett up.

...an open-top (br-r-r-r in winter) roadster Saturn by chance?

Jimbo -

Ok, I see. I thought the "antlers" were from SCarlett. Duh, those were bent up. Maybe you could make a T-Top for SCarlett :

T-top - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-Am_bandit.jpg

CarloSW2

Maybe with the "while I'm in there I might as well..." mindset, you could redo the body on the back to be more boat-tail like. Failing that, I wonder if a "trip line" at the rear of the trunk would reduce drag.