Me too! I'm a bastard!

I haven't done much of anything to this car in a while aside from stripping it. Since I posted this thread, I was threatened by my employer that I was about to lose my job. I turned my life and schedule around trying to keep it because I was making great money, but it didn't matter. I was laid off in August right before 8 more people got laid off (and 2 more got pissed off and quit)... and I've come to the realization that this project has such a LOW budget that money really isn't an object. I have almost everything I need to make this work minus rings and main bearings... so I'm selling parts I don't need from two of the cars I parted out for this and making more progress. I have a TON of $**t to sell, and I'm working on the ads in my spare time.

The engine is stripped bare. I didn't pull the crank and pistons yet, but once I get the bearings and rings, the block is getting honed and bolted back together again, but without the balance shafts. Buh-bye smooth idle. There's a video in my sig of the engine getting stripped. There's also one of the AWD car getting stripped. I managed to put a good 14b turbo together from all the spare parts with a heavily ported 34mm internal wastegate, and I'm happy about that for now.

The car is gutted completely right now and I've decided not to keep it street legal. It's getting a roll bar, a racing seat, and losing all the unnecessary weight I can lose from it (like powered seat belts, airbag, all interior parts, etc... The dash and heater control assembly are gone, AC components are history, it's up on jack stands with no engine, transmission or suspension, and I'm ready to start cutting sheet metal and making room for the K-member and rear-end. There's a DVD from www.lilevo.com for sale about AWD conversion for a 4-door mirage that I'm ordering because I'd rather use the knowledge gained by someone that's already done this instead of learning things the hard way. Especially when I plan on my body being inside this thing and eventually running 10's.

Today, I swapped the front suspension perches from the colt suspension to the AWD donor suspension. This is too easy. Yes, BIG vented rotors and AWD dual-piston brakes with 5-lug hubs come with this swap, and it bolts in. That's happening as soon as I get home. I'm bored at my cousin's shop right now, dumping AllData DVDs to his internal HD, waiting for taskbars and bored out of my mind. Just thought I'd post an update on here for the (probably not) curious.