Exocet Donor Car Teardown Complete Summary

Our Donor Car teardown process from start to finish.

This teardown summary is not necessarily in chronological order, it is organized by areas of the car (interior, engine bay, underside). If steps must be performed in a specific order, it will be noted. This entire process can be executed by one person; we had two, sometimes three people working on this at any given time.

In doing research for this project, I found that there are many different approaches to this process. Others removed too much (it is not necessary to removed the wire harness from the Power Plant Frame (PPF) running along the transmission tunnel nor is it necessary to remove the exhaust header) and some removed too little (finding out as things tear, break during the body removal). We removed easy to reach items as we went along. There is no right or wrong way of doing this, the end result is the same.

Total Teardown Hours: 45.75 hours (08/29/2023 - 11/04/2023)

Teardown Start 08/29/2023:

- A/C System was professionally discharged prior to teardown

- 106,650 miles on the donor car at start

- All wire harness plugs were labeled with date, description upon removal

Exterior Body and Lights Removal

- Put car on 2-post lift, removed wheels

- Removed rear tow hook

- Removed front fascia & marker lights

- Removed rear side marker lights

- Removed rear tail lamps

- Removed rear fascia, removed rear license plate panel

- Removed front/back wheel well liners

- Removed fascia support brackets

- Removed engine skid plate

- Removed front air duct, bash bar, racing tow hook

- Unbolted fenders, put wheels back car, lowered car onto dollies

- Removed driver fender

- Removed passenger fender

- Removed battery, put on tender

- Removed headlight assemblies

- Removed headlight motors

- Removed horns

- Removed and bagged all light bulbs to avoid damage

- Freed wire harness in headlight pockets

Interior Removal

- Removed spare tire and trunk carpet trim

- Removed RaceQuip belt

- Removed driver seat

- Removed passenger seat

- Removed shifter ball

- Removed center console

- Removed door trim (both sides)

- Removed convertible top

- Removed rear gas tank cover / parcel shelf panels

- Removed tombstone center console

- Removed glove box

- Unbolted steering column and laid on floor of car

- Removed steering column wiring harness

- Removed dashboard

- Drained coolant at radiator drain plug

- Drained and removed coolant reservoir

- Disconnected heater core coolant lines at firewall

- Disconnected A/C hard lines at firewall

- Removed HVAC blower motor

- Removed center HVAC blend unit + heater core

- Removed HVAC A/C Evap Unit

- Removed dead pedal

- Removed main floor carpet, vacuumed tub out

- Removed DRL control unit from dash wiring harness

- Removed dash wiring harness from dash board

- Removed steering column

- Removed power antenna from trunk

- Removed wire harness from driver side trunk

- Freed door close switches

- Unbolted driver footwell fuse box, disconnected harness

- Removed driver side interior wire harness

- Disconnected wire harness under instrument cluster, passenger side footwell

- Removed ECU from passenger compartment

- Removed passenger side interior wire harness

- Disconnected wire harness at doors; removed grounds in passenger footwell

- Removed throttle and brake pedal assembly

- Removed clutch pedal

- Removed bracket and relay from driver side A-pillar

- Passed throttle cable, odometer cable (transmission cable) through firewall

- Removed shifter boot

- Unbolted gas tank filler neck from body

Engine Bay Clean Up

- Disconnected upper and lower radiator hoses

- Disconnected A/C hard line mounts

- Removed radiator

- Removed A/C condenser

- Removed A/C hard lines

- Removed wiper fluid reservoir

- Removed cruise control vacuum module

- Unplugged A/C compressor, brake reservoir, grounds

- Freed driver side engine bay wire harness

- Removed wiper motor

- Removed fuse box bracket (passenger side engine bay) and charcoal canister hoses

- Removed charcoal canister

- Labeled engine wiring harness 1 through 14 for future reference

- Unbolted solenoid brackets on passenger side engine bay

- Pulled drive side engine bay wire harness through firewall into passenger compartment

- Disconnected wire harness plugs 1-5 on engine

- Disconnected ground labeled 6 from engine

- Disconnected EGR solenoid

- Disconnected charcoal canister solenoid

- Disconnected wire harness plugs 7-11 on engine

- Pulled passenger side engine bay wire harness through firewall

- Removed main wire harness from car

- Removed brake booster vacuum hose running along firewall

- Removed lower heater core coolant feed hose

- Removed brake master cylinder and brake booster

- Capped and freed clutch soft line

- Removed clutch master cylinder w/ hard line attached

- Removed intake bracket

- Removed front brake hard lines

- Removed lower radiator hard line

- Removed upper heater core feed hose

- Unbolted power steering reservoir from car, shifted to side out of the way

- Removed lower radiator soft hose from engine

- Removed bracket holding battery wire harness to the car body

- De-tensioned & removed accessory belt (Power Steering and A/C)

- Removed A/C compressor and hard lines

- Removed steering column from steering rack and firewall

- 1B - Disconnected fuel lines at engine (1A below was chronologically the first step)

Underside of Car Cleanup

- Placed car on lift, removed wheels

- Disconnected front sway bar

- Removed exhaust mid-pipe and axle-back exhaust

- Disconnected clutch line and transmission cable from clips in transmission tunnel

- Pulled battery wire harness from trunk through floor of car to underside

- Disconnected rear brake hard lines from distributor block on rear subframe

- Drain gas tank through drain plug in rear drive wheel well

- Removed fuel filter plastic cover

- 1A - Disconnected fuel filter line, drained fuel hard lines running to engine

- Note: car was sitting for 1+ week, no fuel pressure was in the system

- Disconnected parking brake cable from handle, removed parking brake handle

- Disconnected caliper parking brake cables from main parking brake cable

- Removed main parking brake cable and return spring

- Removed left and right parking brake caliper cables

- 2B - Removed gas tank from car (2A below was chronologically the first step)

Body Removal

- Zip tied main battery harness to PPF

- Zip tied transmission cable & clutch line to transmission housing

- Zip tied items out of the way in the engine bay

- Applied PB Blaster to all subframe bolts, front and rear; multiple applications over a week

- Put wheels on car, removed from lift

- Jacked up front of car using floor jack placed on front subframe lift point

- Placed jack stands at front body jack points

- Jacked up rear of car using floor jack placed on diff housing

- Placed jack stands at rear body jack points

- Lifted car incrementally using floor jack at front, back and raising jack stands

- Moved front jacks stands to front lower control arm rearward subframe attachment point

- Moved rear jack stands to rear lower control arm forward subframe attachment point

- Maintained floor jack positions at front and rear lift points (subframe, diff housing)

- Removed wheels from car

- Placed extra jack stands near front pinch welds for stability

- Used breaker bar to break loose all front subframe fasteners

- Moved extra jack stands near rear pinch welds for stability

- Used break bar to break loose all rear subframe fasteners

- Removed extra jack stands near pinch weld

- Used electric ratchet to remove front and rear subframe fasteners

- Moved 2-post car lift arms into position at body pinch weld lift points

- Lifted body off subframes using 2-post lift

- Install wheels back on car

- Using floor jack, removed jack stands supporting subframes and dropped them to the floor

- 2A - Rolled entire powertrain and subframe assembly out from under the body

- Lowered car body onto wood and dollies, rolled out from lift space

Teardown End (11/04/2023) - 45.75 Hours