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Unfortunately no. I got the rear offset bushings installed yesterday, but was greeted with some bad news when I pulled the poly front bushing out of the driver's side arm. Whoever pressed out the front factory bushing did a number on the bore. Something was drug through the bore that pulled a ton of material down and left a pretty large ridge (its the shinier area towards the bottom in the pic). So now I'm trying to smooth out that ridge so the new bushing doesn't get hung up on it. I bought some Loctite 660 retaining compound so I'll coat the bore and the bushing in that and get it pressed in tomorrow.
Also, I'm still waiting on some bolt spacers for the rear bushings in the mail which should hopefully be here by the end of the week.
Smoothed out the ridge in the bore today, coated the bore and the bearing shell in Loctite 660 and sent it with the press. Took about as much force as the good bore required so I'm pretty content that it should stay where it needs to.
I got the spacers for the rear bushing too so I gave it a quick little test fit. The Hardrace bearing is a tight fit in the subframe so I'm probably going to bend open the subframe a hair so it slides in easier. It's kind of a pain to get the bearing oriented correctly to get the bolt through it and both spacers but I imagine it's still easier than trying to do this with poly.
I'm pretty much at the extent of how far the control arm can be pushed out with the bushings I designed, it's borderline almost hitting the chassis right now and still has to go up a tad more so I might either hammer the chassis a bit or grind the outside of the arm a hair. I won't actually install the arms until I get the snap rings for the bottom but it's nice to get the fitment on them right now.
Thanks for the update! Yeah getting the LCA's installed with the WL poly and my PSRS is interesting. I forget the method I used but essentually I wanna say I got the vertical bolt installed and then used a prybar to get it into place and bolted in the horizontal bolt. Doing this on a lift is far easier but very doable on jack stands.
As far as fitment with your custom front spherical I konw with the offset PSRS it required me to clearance the frame some. My method involved air hammer to the frame to bend it inward and then I also filed some of the LCA, a lot of which was simply casting flash. But most of what clearance I gained was from hammering away at the body. It sounds a lil crude but was pretty straightforward and relatively easy.
But given this I think its about time I finally pull the trigger on the hardrace spherical so thanks for the updates!
Got the design finalized for the splitter. Just have a few dimensions to double check and then it's getting cut out this Thursday. I ended up actually starting all over because I wasn't happy with how the curve I was using for the air dam fit up to the car so I measured off my current splitter to get the curve dialed in better. Still at a 5" extension, I might have a spare cut out at 6" or 7" in case 5 doesn't do enough.
Interested in making me one? Also I suspect the weather kept you from making it up to my place for that O2 housing this weekend?
I got one cut out of the 1/8" material but I'm not totally happy with how easily it bends. I'm probably going to remake it out of 1/4" material instead. When I go back to cut that I can cut you one out, just pay for material.
I totally meant to swing by your house but I had to scoot out of town quickly before the weather came in. I'll be back in another two weeks and I'll grab it from you then if you're around.
Progress hasn't been staggering and the car needs to be together by the end of this week so it's crunch time. Over this weekend I got the wiring in the engine bay done (mostly), and got everything back together mechanically except for throwing the radiator back in and making one catch can line.
The front struts have been pulled out, cleaned up and had the SSB camber plates put on.
I reloomed my wideband harness since it was covered in some tired, cracked plastic tubing. God I love woven looms.
This week I'll need to get the interior back together, get the offset spacers made for the LCA bushings, reassemble the front suspension, get an alignment, put fluids in the car, radiator, catch can line, get my tires mounted and make two more center caps for my wheels and tie up a couple loose wires. After I'm back from my spring break in two weeks the two big fish left for me to kill are getting the new oil pan made as well as the new splitter, and finishing the wiring on the inside of the car.
Everything is all back together all that's left is to finish up some wiring, fluids, and an alignment. Car should be running tomorrow.
I had a friend make me some spacers for the LCA rear bushing to push it down. It's still pretty close to the chassis still but I won't know for sure if they're going to contact until I put the car on the ground, there's no contact when I jack up the knuckle but it only goes up about 1.5-2" before the car gets lifted off the stands (unless I really have that little shock travel).
Nice work! looking good. Meanwhile I cant find an hour to work on my car. I've got a small list of things to do before I can do a first fire... Life getting in the way bigtime lol
Forgot you had a build thread here. Yeah, those offset spacers are probably at the limit of what you can do (and maybe a little past it). I would probably make it with a little less offset doing it again, but glad they worked out.
I can see the dings on your front canisters from rotating against the body. Really gotta figure out a better solution on them cause the Ohlin pin is garbage. At a minimum I'm sure I can get a bigger threaded pin and head width (to get a little less bending on the thread and more tension). I actually already have it modeled but you would have to drill/tap to M8 on the bearing retainer plate.
Come up with something there and we can build it cause I need one too
Nice work! looking good. Meanwhile I cant find an hour to work on my car. I've got a small list of things to do before I can do a first fire... Life getting in the way bigtime lol
Haha yea my free time is pretty limited these days. Can't wait to be done with school. BTW I'm around town now so let me know when a good time to drop by is.
Originally Posted by Dallas J
Forgot you had a build thread here. Yeah, those offset spacers are probably at the limit of what you can do (and maybe a little past it). I would probably make it with a little less offset doing it again, but glad they worked out.
I can see the dings on your front canisters from rotating against the body. Really gotta figure out a better solution on them cause the Ohlin pin is garbage. At a minimum I'm sure I can get a bigger threaded pin and head width (to get a little less bending on the thread and more tension). I actually already have it modeled but you would have to drill/tap to M8 on the bearing retainer plate.
Come up with something there and we can build it cause I need one too
Yea they are pretty aggressive and I was lucky that some different sized spacers worked just right. Still slightly sad I was only up to 6° of caster. The wheel does seem fairly centered in the wheel well though so that's good and after getting an alignment the car seems pretty responsive. Still need to pick up a set of OE tie rod ends and then get toe reset again.
Now I see what you're talking about. Yea I didn't spend much time looking the coils over while I had them apart because I was racing the clock to get the car back together. After this weekend I have another month or so to make final changes to the car. If you have any good pics of how the canisters are pinned to the bearing plate let me know. It's pretty easy for me to design something if I know roughly what the shape needs to be and I can fine tune the details and get sizes proper after I get measurements.
Here's where the alignment is at (so I don't lose this photo):
Had the car in tuner galleria this past weekend. I'm not too big on shows but I was lucky to have a lot of friends who went so the time passed pretty quickly. Still haven't gone through the small amount of photos I remembered to take but I've got a couple I took with my phone.
After getting the alignment done I'm really happy with how the car is driving now. Steering effort feels just right and the bump steer doesn't seem too bad even with the whiteline tie rod ends. Still going to swap back to OE rods ends at some point.
I registered for a few track days earlier today. So far I'll being going to Gingerman 4/14, 4/28, 5/14 and possibly 5/26. I'm also on a wait list for Waterford Hills for 4/21. Anything after May is going to be determined on where I'm working and living so playing the rest of the season by ear once all that is figured out.
I still have a fair amount of wiring to go through under the dash still but the rest of the wiring in the car is pretty squared away and I should be starting to get the new oil pan fabbed up this week. Besides that stuff the only things left before I'd consider the car track worthy is cleaning up the rest of the suspension, making the new splitter (again), flushing the brake fluid and throwing some new rotors on the front.
Got a bit more wiring done last weekend. All that's left is stuff underneath the dash. Think I'm close to about 10lbs out now with maybe another pound to go. Really amazes me how much smaller the main harness underneath the dash has become. Need to buy a new interior fuse box as the mounting clip is busted pretty good on mine. Hoping to finish the wiring this weekend/early next week.
Also started on the new oil pan. Got the factory one all chopped up and the new sump tacked together earlier this week. The plan is to retain the baffle plate as well as the factory baffle that controls fore/aft oil movement in the sump. From there I'm going to add a piece with two trap doors in it to control lateral oil movement around the pickup. Hoping to have the welding done next week or the week after and then powedercoat it and slap it on the car. My biggest concern right now is getting the factory pan to fit up nicely to the new sump. I chopped it a tad too high so fitment is going to be interesting.
Feb 6, 2018, 05:14 PM
