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You know its going to happen with the pressure supports. What I like to do is glass in a pair metal spar supports length wise to keep the hood flat. Hinges with correct geometry should have zero upwards pressure when collapsed. |
At this point, it looks like I'm going to replace the hood. The two supports are creased, just front of the hinges. I don't know that those can be fixed. We could potentially reinforce the areas, but I'm not sure that will be enough.
Vince, I was wondering about that also, the pressure. I'm thinking we need to pull the hood and see what happens when we compress the hinges. I have the Fesler hinges, I've had them for about 2 years, so I don't know if the design has been revised or not. I did swap out the struts since the ones I had wouldn't hold the hood up, thus these are stronger. But they "feel" right regarding the pressure it takes to close the hood. The direct sun definitely heated things up to the point it softened, which started the problem... An expensive lessen. :( I'm going to touch base with Albert about his carbon hoods and get his thoughts on this type of problem with them... |
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I have fixed cracked ones in the past. Do a couple cuts before and after the damaged sections. You can then push down on the hood to match the fender line. You may have to support the front higher. I made a conture gauge that spans the whole length of the hood out of 3/4" plywood that matches the fender and hood conture perfectly( just did a trace on one side with the fender then cut it with a jig saw). Clamp it at a few spots then you can add a metal spar (aluminum rectangular tubing works well) and fiber glass mat and resin the underside while clamped in the conture gauge. On the spar you can cut the glass hood supports and fit them in to sit flush. Its a bit or work but Erik seems like he can handle it. Going with one of Alberts CF units would be good too. Let me know if you do get rid of the hood. I'll be more than happy to take it off your hands. :D |
Looks like we discovered the reason for the hood issue today. Eric and I removed the hood and did some measuring on the angle of the hood hinges. It seems in the effort to get the back of the hood down, the hinge was basically "bottomed out" and pointing upward. So we were putting the hood in a bind when we were closing it. Thus, when it got hot out in the sun, the bind caused the supports to give way.
:bang: Self-inflicted wound here... We were able to adjust the hinges with the hood removed so that they sat down more naturally, and when we reinstalled the hood, it lays down much better (except for the leftover bow in the middle). Eric thinks he can cut into the channel that forms the support and reinforce it with some aluminum, then re-glass over it to make it looks ok. That sounds better than having to acquire a new hood and having it repainted! So I'll let him have the car back next week to start on that. I stole it from him for the weekend to drive around and "tune" a bit. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. :) |
Speaking of tuning. Yes, I drove around for a good while today. I want to get some time on the engine, and do some more tuning as well. I'm still learning the Holley EFI setup, but so far I really like it! The biggest obstacle is just knowing what to tell the system to do, and discovering what the engine likes and what it doesn't.
It's idling great at 800 rpm. At cruise RPM I have it requesting about 14.5:1 AFR, and that seems to be working pretty well. I have a little hiccup on the spark advance when suddenly stomping the throttle under heavy load, but I'm working on that one. I also noticed that I have some knock retard during WOT, and I'm going to have to pay more attention to that. I have 2 knock sensors attached, but some tuning may be required before those are really reliable (I don't hear any pinging, but the sensors seem to). The car drives great! I had the windows up and the AC going today. While it won't make the car "cold", it was definitely comfortable. The car is surprisingly a little louder than I expected, but not obnoxiously so. It rolls down the highway in 6th gear very happily so far too. The suspension feels very smooth, and it has great straight-line traction so far! I hope to get her on a chassis dyno in the next few weeks and do some more WOT tuning. Hard to know what is really helping or not when running the street. Oh, Eric installed the new Recaros which I purchased this week too! I will try to take some pictures tomorrow. They definitely aren't as "sporty" as the Sparcos were (as in, they don't have the 'hold you in place' supports), but they are going to be much more comfortable for longer drives. Once I get the harnesses in, I shouldn't be going anywhere... ;) |
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Seats Seat mounts? On road pictures Anything? |
You will have to enjoy this one for the moment... :) I'm headed out in her now and will get some this afternoon!
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps8b78fc9c.gif |
Pictures! :)
First, the new seats. These are the Recaro Specialists M. Eric made new mounts to mount them as low as possible. I can definitely feel a difference in the height to my head/headliner. These don't quite have as much bolstering as the Sparcos did, but they are very comfortable for me. http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps1ca239bf.jpg The driver's side mounting plate: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps2a2d0563.jpg The clearance to the side where the adjuster is. Plenty of room: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps97f0339f.jpg Clearance to the harness bar: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps52af8b1b.jpg http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psb75d2913.jpg Folded up. :) http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps5d5bca35.jpg |
Here are a couple of pictures of the 'bow' in the hood. This is after removing the struts, this is what's left now that needs to be fixed:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...pse80fc226.jpg http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps4d6d0658.jpg |
And a few shots from the rooftop:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps8ca4978c.jpg http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...pseab48cc9.jpg http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps6b192bdb.jpg Closeup of the spoiler: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps6f395206.jpg |
And finally, a couple of the 'creases' in the support structure of the hood that need to be fixed:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psd7b4852f.jpg http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps289db300.jpg http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psa025b9e9.jpg |
I am glad you posted the pics of the specialist m's, i have an older set for mine and i'm not that happy with them, they are too wide and a little stiff. My roll bar is going in soon and once i'm harnessed in i'm sure thell feel different.
Are yours new? I used the morse brackets and they fit well and low... Mike |
Dude, that thing is looking sweet!! I really dig the spoiler too. That Eric got some skillz. :thumbsup:
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looks great bryan. all good on the hood now?
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Not a great picture, but I snapped it this morning before I took them to the powder coater. It's upside down, the bend contours to the floor to keep it low, and the 1" spacer on the right side is the back where the slider mounts. The chamfered hole towards the left is the front slider mounting hole. The other 4 holes are to mount the bracket to the floor using the factory seat mount holes. http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps51fb93a1.jpg |
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At the end of the day, I think we are going to have to take the blame for this. While the VFN is definitely not 'strong' in the front-to-back support areas, we caused most of our own problem by getting the hinges into the wrong angle. But the hood shouldn't have 'collapsed' the way it did either in my opinion. |
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I have done painted hoods before and you just have to be carefull with the resin. It happens, at least it wasnt cause you forgot to hook the areo catches before you took it down the interstate. :sieg: |
Work continues on TOW now that SW's T/A is wrapped up. Eric is in the process of repairing the hood. This weekend he built a form to clamp the hood to, then cut out the damaged fiberglass support areas that buckled (1 side at the time). He then epoxy bonded in some aluminum channels which he bent to reinforce the support. Those will be set tomorrow, and the fiberglass work will begin. Hopefully that's going to solve the problem without requiring a hood replacement!
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon installing the Vaporworx PWM controller for the fuel pump. What seemingly should have taken me an hour took me 5, because I was trying to hide the wiring. And working in the front part of the trunk is a real pain! But, it's installed, wired, and plumbed (except for tightening all of the fittings). We'll test it out next weekend. Eric and I discovered last week that my alternator had died. No idea why, it was new with my Wegner drive kit. So I ordered a replacement, except I missed a digit on the part number, and received the wrong one. I'll be ordering yet another tomorrow to solve that problem. Now on to the big task we've had to take on. When we put the car up on stands last week to determine where the banging sounds under the car were coming from (had to be exhaust, but we couldn't determine why, since it's so solid), Eric found that the torque arm / locating bars on the rear axle housing had allowed the housing to rotate. It's a bit hard to explain without seeing it, but the torque arm had rotated to the point where it was touching the bottom of the housing, and I'm guessing that the torque from the housing trying to twist actually caused the bars which come off the side of the TA to bend. After Eric and I starred at it for a while, we could see why this might happen based on the original JRS design. Jake has since changed the mounting points of the 2 arms from a single shear that is in parallel to the rotation of the axles to a double shear setup that is perpendicular to them. Additionally, rather than using the 2 bars from the TA to the top of the housing to control the pinion angle, he now uses a mount from the TA directly to the pinion support. That mount will actually triangulate the support instead of having points top and bottom which can allow rotation (my analysis, not Jake's). So anyway, Eric called Jake on Tuesday, and Jake got the pieces together which we needed to convert to the newer design on the way to us. As of yesterday, Eric had cut out the old arms and tacked up the new ones along with the pinion support. It's all coming out this week to be final welded on a table instead of upside down installed in the car. If all goes well, everything should be back together this week, and we'll get her back on the road next weekend. Oh, and we also found our noises during this. Two separate ones actually, which correlated to what I thought I was hearing. The first was from one of the over-the-axle pipes rubbing on the Watt's link crossmember, when the axle housing moved backwards. It pushed the pipe into the crossmember, because there is very little space under there. The second is one of the pipes running through the tunnel is hitting the seat belt bolt. D'oh! Easy fix, just didn't see it coming when we assembled it all before the belts were in. :) I don't have any pictures of the hood work, but here are some pictures of the PWM controller and the torque arm work... http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps8e965091.jpg http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps99e5d78f.jpg Eric built this shelf which folds up and is bolted in place vertically to hide the speakers, canisters, and amp. It was a perfect mounting spot for the PWM controller: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps92457ef9.jpg Plumbed into the fuel line near the tank: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps07deac07.jpg Wiring through the floor: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psd6c99b29.jpg Replacement arms: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psb9d846b7.jpg Pinion support mount: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...psfa6438a7.jpg Back together, ready for welding: http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...pse0d357eb.jpg |
You can review all of that and go over the pics and stuff while noshing on some ribs at The Salt Lick. It'll help you through all of these engineering exercises.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Looks good Bryan!!! |
Looks good Bryan... you guys keep tackling those little gremlins as they come at ya like spider monkeys. :D
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Nicely done Bryan,,,,, the car is going to be a huge source of enjoyment once you get past those pesky little "sorting out" issues... I'll look forward to seeing you at some events next year..
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Thanx guys! As you both know, these projects always give you little 'tests' when you think you're finally done with them. We will knock them out, and I can't wait to get her out on the road!
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You're gaining on it Bryan! She's looking good. :thumbsup:
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TOW got to come home yesterday! I worked with Eric for a little while on Saturday trying to get the hood aligned as best we cool. What should be simple ends up being an exercise in frustration trying to understand how moving the hood hinge causes unexpected results in the hood alignment. We had to shift the front sheetmetal a bit as well to get the final alignment right on.
Over the last few weeks, Eric has fixed the hood, replaced the brackets on the rear axle housing for the torque arm, replaced the side tubes on the TA itself, fixed a few rattles we had under the car, stopped the AC freon leak and recharged the system, replaced the seats, and touched up a bunch of rock chips that were in the car. You know, basic punch list stuff. :) So far, everything seems good except for some gear whine in the 3rd member. I'm going to give it a little more time, and then call up Strange to discuss it with them. Definitely annoying! For my part, I installed the new Vaporwerx fuel pump controller which seems to be working well. I haven't had a chance to connect up the laptop and run some WOT runs, but I will do that this week. Hopefully no more falling fuel pressure at high RPM. This morning I drove her to work for the first time. What a great feeling to be out and about driving this project after almost 4 years of planning, collecting parts, and actual work on the car! While I still have a couple of small things left to do, I can do them anytime. I'm sure I'll head back to Eric's for round two of punch-list items, but I expect smooth sailing for a while now!!! Thanx to everyone along the way who has offered advice, answered questions, and even poked and prodded once in a while (that W guy who shall remain nameless). Now that she's on the road, I'm sure there will be a new round of questions as I work to dial it all in. Tuning, engine, suspension, and brakes, are next on the list. |
Strange will just laugh at you on the gear whine.... They sell race pieces... and it's just part of the deal. At least that's what they told me on the Nomad - which has their aluminum 9"....
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Looking good Bryan .
Rick k;) |
I have been following this build. Really classy looking bird not over done. Great job!
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TOW is loaded up and ready for her first road trip this afternoon! I'm driving up to Fort Worth today for the Good Guys show this weekend. Since I have about 400 miles on her to date, I'll easily double that this weekend, so she will get a good shakedown!
Not a lot else has been happening other than driving lately. Eric did a few little cleanup tasks (leaking AC fitting, remade one of the fuel lines) recently, but that's it. I've been tuning the ECU, and I'm realizing that I had it set up a good bit rich in the normal driving ranges. I'm slowly leaning it out, and so far that's working pretty well. I'll get to collect a lot of data this week and see how she responds. Hopefully I will see a few of you at the track this weekend! I'll try to remember to take a few pictures myself as well... |
Don't forget to grab some ribs at The Salt Lick before you head out of town!
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Good luck Bryan! :thumbsup:
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You coming down and need me to bring you some of that jerky that Salt Lick calls ribs? ;)
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We made it! 3 and a half hours, running 70-80 MPH, and here I am! I'm registered and checked into the hotel, and everything went perfectly. The car is starting to quiet down just a touch as a little carbon builds up in the exhaust, and the gear whine had moderated a little (although it is still there, it was less noticeable as I got above 75 MPH). But on the whole, an excellent drive!
The one issue I have is my gas mileage was pretty pathetic, but I'm blaming that on a rich mixture. I'm working on that today, so I'll get another shot at it on the way back. Looking forward to a great weekend! |
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Love ya buddy! Glad to hear you had an uneventful trip! That's a big stress reliever... Don't run 'er too fat and wash down the cylinder walls and ruin that ring seal! Light throttle cruise -- maybe 15ish A/F's?? What are you seeing?? And how much timing do you have dialed in at that light throttle light load cursing?? |
You got that right! While I have all the confidence in the world in the work that Eric and I have done, until you put her on the road and drive her, you never really know what might happen! Thankfully, everything has been great so far!
I've been slowly creeping up the AFR in the part throttle cruise states. I started around 14:1, and that was too rich (I would get out of the car smelling like fuel). For the drive up today, I was around 15:1 I believe. I've now bumped it up to 16:1, and slowly decrease it as the map sensor shows less vacuum. I've been reading the Holley forums to get a feel for what I should target, and this seems like the right range. As for the timing, when I'm in the pure 'cruise' state, I'm running between 40 and 45* of advance. I drop that down again to the mid-30's as I get a little less vacuum. I'm running around 25* at idle, and I jump to max of 33* at WOT. Since I haven't been on a chassis dyno yet, I'm not sure where the WOT numbers should be, but I am running a knock sensor and I can monitor it in the Holley SW. I have seen it pull timing when I could hear a ping, so at a gross level at least, it's working. :) As always, I'm open to critique if you have other thoughts. I just got back from dinner (if you ever get to TMS, you must eat at Babe's Fried Chicken!) and it seemed to like the leaner cruise conditions, although I think I heard a little lean pop when I touched the throttle. The Holley SW has all sorts of adjustments for TPS and MAP enrichment, so some experimenting with those will probably take care of it. |
Oh --- I'm no tuning guru -- was really just wondering aloud as if we were having a conversation.
Personally - I hate the blanket statement "just give the motor what it wants"... REALLY -- how do I know what it wants?? LOL Tuning EFI is a black art.... Maybe it's why I love the self tuning versions where all I have to do is set timing and pick three different A/F rations - Idle/cruise/WOT.... done.... I think transitions are the hardest part to work out.... is the A/F to lean - or do I need to add fuel via the accel fuel table (everyone calls it something), or is it timing? UGH --- so much info. I know you're good at the info part -- it's in your DNA. I do know this --- I was so busy trying to tune every little cell perfectly -- and the "tuners" give the maps big overall blocks of info... and when I finally did that -- things got easier. Why haven't you done a dyno with a good tuner like bringing in Mike Morris?? |
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Is tomorrow the first time you've really gotten to drive it like you stole it? Good luck tomorrow.:cheers: |
Have fun this weekend. Was thinking of going up, but plans changed. Maybe next year.
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Day 1 is in the books... I'm tired, sunburned, and my feet are killing me. But it sure was a fun day. :)
I haven't driving an autocross course since 2002 when I competed at the RSE even in Bristol. Before that, I did exactly 2 events in preparation for the RSE event. So to say that I'm a novice would be a bit of an understatement. :) With that, I got to the track about 8:15 this morning and found my spot in the auto-x pits. Apparently you have to get there much earlier to get a better spot, I'll remember that for next time. The guy parked next to me was racing his 33/34 3-window coupe, and apparently at the FW event last year, that car ran the second fastest time overall, only bested by the Summit Crusher Camaro. He was very helpful for a newbie like me. :) We passed through inspection and went out to walk the track. They have laid out a different course here this year, apparently due to someone (I hear rumors it was Bret, but I'm not sure) blowing through the stop zone and hitting a wall. Still, it's a 65 - 75 second course, and it's a lot of fun. Even though I'm no expert, I have a pretty decent feel for the right lines to take. I got run 1 in around 10:00. 74.5 seconds, and that puts me into 5th place in class of about 25 in the muscle car category. Fastest time in the first round was a 72.0, I think by a second driver in the Crusher car. She was quick, and as I recall, leads the class at the end of the day. I didn't hit anything, and I discovered that first gear is where I want to be most of the course. Second run was a good improvement, as was typical across the board. 72.5 for me, 70.0 for the group leader. I was trying to watch the Pro-class drivers, how they were taking the line, and I was reminded that one particular corner sets up such that going slower will be faster. I told myself the next run I would do that. Oh, I also has an awesome 180* tire spinning entrance into the first turn during this run, which several people came over and commented on afterwards. I downshifted into that 180* turn, and when I hit the gas, I just lit 'em up. I never lifted, steered through it, and off I went. That was fun! So run 3, I concentrated really hard on a couple of specific turns, and I was rewarded with a 70.8 second run! Unfortunately, I didn't make a full stop in the stop zone, so that time won't count. And that sucks, because it was my best run of the day and would have kept me in 5th place! I just completely locked up the tires in the stop zone and didn't modulate enough to stop the car... :( Angry about run 3, and knowing that run 4 was likely my last, I was determined to make amends. Oops... I completely overdrove one of the 180* turns, and knocked out 2 or 3 cones. I knew I had one under the front of the car, and I contemplated backing up to get off it, but I decided what the hell, I'm already out this run, so I kept on going. I decided to try more 2nd gear through the rest of the course, and that was a mistake! WAY too much speed through the middle of the track, but I managed not to hit another cone. I came back around with my tail tucked between my legs, but at the same time, I had a blast! At least I know the limit of that corner now... My only issue of the day, and one I'm still scratching my head about, was after run #3, we found what appears to be a puddle of oil on the pan under the front of the motor. By look and smell, it appears to be oil. But I have no clue where it came from. We looked at all of the fittings, the catch can, the power steering hoses, pump, rack, oil pan, and nothing is wet. The only thing we noticed was the boots at the end of the steering rack had slid off, but unless the rack pushed fluid out of the end seals, I don't think it could come from there. I'm baffled... I wiped everything down before run 4, and after that run and the drive to the hotel, I don't see a drop anywhere. Nothing seems to be overfilled either, so I don't know where it came from. I will be keeping a watch for this going forward. I was able to meet several fellow Lat-G members today, and hopefully tomorrow I will get to meet a few more. I was busy talking about the car and prepping for the runs today, so I didn't get to wander around the rest of the show at all. I did get over to the Ridetech booth to weigh the car, and it is pretty darned well balanced. 52/48, and a total of 3806 pounds with me in it and a full tank of gas. That puts the car itself around 3550 or so. I need to go on a diet... :) Side to side was within 20 pounds front and rear also... TOW did great for her first time out, I'm looking forward to doing more of these now that I have a car I can do it with again!!! |
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