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Nice! I gotta say, I love the color bands on the jackstands! My next Garage mod!
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Last weekend before RTTC.... Most of Saturday was spent finalizing the upper coilover crossmember. I wish this ended up being lighter, oh well. http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/6326/67494869.jpg Mocking up the torque arm http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8217/59455084.jpg Coilovers in place http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2864/32134331.jpg Torque arm finished up http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/8339/98137250.jpg Where I left off tonight http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/9832/21910862.jpg Will be back at again tomorrow night. Luckily all the fab work is done, just have to assemble everything now. |
You made this look too easy...
Looking forward to seeing the car soon! Matt |
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This makes my roll cage project look like child's play... |
Tom--you've got to make this event---hope to see you in less than a week--very cool mods on the car---love the cone bro---you seem to take a little something home with you from every event you attend--El Toro mud for instance---:lol:
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Sooo are you done yet? :D
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Ok, finally taking the time to update this. Last update was the Sunday night before RTTC. As most of you know, I did make RTTC, but it was not an easy journey. I had it mostly together Tuesday night, but found out the links for the watts were too long. So Wednesday during my lunch, I ran out to a offroad shop and picked up some weld-in threaded adapters so I could make new links Wednesday night. Get them together and finish up the last couple things on the car. I know something's not quite right since there's an interference between the rear rotors and the backing plates from Kore3, but I press on (more of this later). First drive was about 1am Thursday morning over to my buddy's house to pick up my hood. Gave me enough time to bed in the new pads. Drove the car to work that day and left for California about 5pm. Made it to the La Quinta in time to catch the last of the parking lot partiers.
Here's a couple pictures from that week. Wasn't taking many due to rush to get the car done. http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2...0424105012.jpg http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/419...0312090415.jpg So Friday morning of RTTC. Luckily I was on the autoX first so I could test out my new suspension that I finished up just over 24 hours prior. It was running fine throughout the day until late afternoon on the autoX course. Heard one pop, didn't think too much of it, heard another, and then the sound of metal dragging on the ground. Oh ****. Car is still rolling ok, but I coast off to the side. Get out to look underneath, and my &)($&#% torque arm is hanging on the ground. Push it back to the pit area and get it up on jack stands to see wtf happened. The upper bar cracked and sheared which placed the entire load on the lower turnbuckle which then failed. Red lines show where it broke http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3108/12964151.jpg After running around asking everyone if they had a welder on site. Brett from Fab53 offered to take it home and weld it back together for me that night. HUGE thanks to Brett for this. He saved my ass big time. He brought the arm back Saturday morning, complete with lots of extra bracing and a ubiquitous Fab53 sticker. Threw it in and went racing. Raced all day Saturday without issue, and then drove it home on Sunday. Whew. Drove it to work one day the week after RTTC and realized something was still wrong. Took me a few weeks to dig into it, but I found out that the offset of my rear axles (flange to bearing) was wrong. Rear rotors dug into the backing plates and pad abutment brackets. Got that fixed just last weekend and cleaned up all the collateral damage. Finally driveable again last Sunday. No issues. 'tis a good feeling. So how do I celebrate? Drive on a bunch of dirt roads today http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8...0506185109.jpg It's filthy beyond belief, but it's good to be back. :D |
That's hot ridding for you. Looks great how much better does it feel and handle with the new rear setup from the old?
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Tom is still alive!
So was that dukes of hazard style driving on dirt roads lol? |
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That does look bad, I think one of those studs has a bit of grease on it..!! :P
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I'm assuming a few to many of these....
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Ouch! Have you spoken with L&H?
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Wow, I've been slacking on keeping this up to date. I'll try to pick up where I left off.
So last May I found that the wheel bearing exploded, gouging my spindle. Due to some difficulty getting a hold of Luke at L&H, I started to look at other options, and sure enough, a smokin' deal on a set of these popped up in the classifieds. http://imageshack.us/a/img692/8881/63927173.jpg http://imageshack.us/a/img832/2227/76397570.jpg Of course they installed with no problem, but the real issue lies in that the AFX spindles have ¾” drop built in while the old L&H spindles had none. This takes the wheel and moves it up into the outer tie rod end. Where I had barely marginal clearance before, I now had a major issue. Luckily, one of my buddies had a set of “short” first gen arms laying around which moved the outer tie rod end in approx. ½”. http://imageshack.us/a/img51/3285/21605447.jpg Unfortunately, this was still not enough. I decided to go with a stud and rod end arrangement to move the outer rod end up as much as possible. Also unfortunately, no one makes a stud adapter in the correct taper/size for the first gen steering arm that’s fully threaded. http://static.speedwaymotors.com/RS/...91636055_R.jpg After having a machine shop ream out the steering arm to match a Ford 7* tapered stud and trimming down the stud as short as possible, I found that it would just barely fit behind a set of 18” C5 wheels I had laying around. Of course, by this time, Return to the Coast is practically around the corner (beginning of October). Luckily, there was no crazed rush to finish the suspension this time; just an alignment on the day I had to leave and then off to California where the car performed great. I didn’t have any problems all weekend… http://imageshack.us/a/img560/640/camaro2z.jpg http://imageshack.us/a/img29/1803/camaro1n.jpg …until the drive home. After the awards ceremony, I left El Toro about 6pm. Now, I know I have to get up at 5am for work the next day and it’s roughly a 6 hour drive back home. So I load up on Red Bull and snacks and hit I-10. My goal is to just stake awake. Just East of the Riverside/San Bernardino area, the car starts to act up. It’ll intermittently lose power and break up while cruising along the highway, but I decide to just press on. Where I-10 cuts through the hills, it has gotten to the point where it’ll lose all power and I have to coast off to the shoulder a couple times, but it’ll keep idling. At this point, I’m thinking I got a bad batch of gas in LA, and my one goal is to make Chiriaco Summit so I can fill up and put in some gas treatment. After nearly getting run off the road by semis as I was coasting, I finally made Chriaco where I filled up and pressed on. Still not running right. By this time, I’ve found that I can get up to cruising speed for a few minutes and when it starts to break up, I can put in the clutch and coast from 70 down to 50 and then back in gear to get up to 70 again and cruise for a few more minutes. Now I’m thinking it’s the fuel pump that’s getting weak and not keeping the carb’s bowls full. Regardless, I press on and continue this cruise and coast method all the way back to Tempe, AZ. It kept me awake no problem, but it’s now 2:30am, and I have to get up in 2 and a half hours. Blargh. At least I made it. A couple days later, when I decide to look at the car, I jack up the rear end and find the root of my troubles. http://imageshack.us/a/img89/904/74266865i.jpg Then I remember bottoming out hard while getting lost trying to leave El Toro (the brake line bracket sits directly below that clamp). At least it’s an easy fix. Of course at this point, my registration is also expired (drove to Cali and did RTTC on a temp-tag). I can pass emissions without much issue, but I had cut off my tail pipe and was running just a turn-down in front of the axle. AZ law states that the exhaust must exit at the edge of the vehicle. I wasn’t going to let such a silly rule stop me so I rigged up an exhaust to use for emissions testing which provided no shortage of amusement to everyone who saw it. http://imageshack.us/a/img820/2520/96969036.jpg http://imageshack.us/a/img687/7861/35386080.jpg Through emissions and registered – Whew! |
:lol: Tom, that exhaust is something else.... looks like something straight outta Fast n Furious.
You ever get a hold of Luke? I know he still dealing parts.... |
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Welcome back Tom |
I like what you did with the exhaust, but it's incomplete. Should look like this...
http://www.bosozokustyle.com/sites/d...k-double-u.jpg |
OMG! joe. I'm still laughing as I type.
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Next time I need to get through emissions, I'll be sure to do something like that Joe.
And yes Brett, you can copy that idea all you want. |
Alright, so at this point, it’s the beginning of November. Car’s running well – all is good. Scottsdale GoodGuys was a blast, and the following weekend was a track day on Firebird Main.
http://imageshack.us/a/img685/1151/20121125114852.jpg In the middle of December, I decide to give the car a look over, and sure enough, I find another issue. http://imageshack.us/a/img845/2610/20121224133711.jpg I only had maybe 0.050” clearance previously, and I thought even with a little wheel flex, that’d be fine. I could live with a little self-clearancing. Little did I know the outer rim would move almost 3/8”!! http://imageshack.us/a/img10/383/20121224134833.jpg So it was time to tear the front end apart again. http://imageshack.us/a/img541/508/20121224142523.jpg With some help from my good buddy Dale, we took a torch to the steering arms and bent them in roughly 3/8”. Ackerman is just a suggestion, right? http://imageshack.us/a/img210/8291/20130121200926.jpg With everything back together, there was a ton more clearance. Best part is that I can fit my 17’s again! http://imageshack.us/a/img703/7735/20130129195404.jpg This brings us up to the present day. I would say everything will be ready for RTTC at the end of the month, but that will just be jinxing myself. :) |
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