RebekahsZ

My first and second cars were 56 Fairlanes! None as nice as yours.

Decided not to confuse things by taking car out of shop status. Let the autocross go witgout me. Fabricator had a red eye so I made him meet me at my clinic this morning. Plucked an iron filing out of his cornea. He asked what he owed me and I said, "Nothing, just HURRY UP AND FINISH MY CAGE!" I'm in roll bar purgatory. Air was cool and clean today, temps in the 70s. The track over the border in TN was open and I heard it was a lot of fun. Aaaaaah!!! It burns, it burns!

I would love to see a screw-type camber plate adjuster similar to the Porsche link you posted. When I adjust my camber plates I feel like a fish flopping around on the bank scrambling to get back into the water!

That was a close call! I used to have to tighten my axle nuts after every track day and always found a couple loose ones.

I wonder why all the single-axle trailers I see are from UK, NZ or Australia. I'm saving for the tilt trailer from Brunton Automotive. I hope to look into run-flat trailer tires because I think every concern raised has been valid. Haven't found anything on it yet.

Beautiful.

From what I hear, Huntsville has the better facility. There are only 2-3 cars in the XP category. Don't sweat the competition unless you plan to make a religion of autocross at the expense of family and church. Just come race me! I have only raced at Huntsville. Not going tomorrow. Wanna get the roll bar done. I think you have the airdam mounted wrong. The airdam mounts behind the headlight buckets not in front. Unless you just want it that way.

Yeah, you were getting paid. Insanity is doing miserable shift for free!

I'm a out to have my drain plugs removed too. My left heel always hangs on the forward drain plug.

Will post pics when cage is done. I'm not in love with the boxes on the floor. Would have preferred just a flat plate on the angled portion behind the seat. But the fabricator illogically thought that a diagonal plate was somehow weaker than a box. I personally think a foot plate is a footplate whether it is an angle or not. It just spreads the load.

Went by fabricator to check progress on rollbar. He was welding on it as I drive up unannounced. Plates are in for the bottom of the main hoop and he was welding the plates to cap the strut towers. Main hoop is bent but he wants to put an extra bend in it to go around the inner fenders tighter and the mandrel-thingie that he uses is broken. Says replacement should be in on Monday. I may go by and get car for the weekend if he's done all he can. There is an autocross on Huntsville that I may try to squeeze in. If I hustle, I may be able to get car back together and on trailer tomorrow to be ready to go. As usual it will be a ball-buster. Went by the guy who I will use to open up fenders-there's room in his shop for my car, so car will go straight from rollbar shop to his place. I'm so behind schedule!!!

I may rescue my car from the rollbar builder Friday and go to the Autocross in Huntsville on Saturday. Call me anytime 256-366-4685. If you come, I can give you a joy ride around the course.

In 1994, I installed new stock spindle pins in my Z. The zinc coating on the pins was perfect, i carefully cleaned off the stickers and the adhesive. I put 3.50 grams of antiseize all over the pins and slathered approximately the same amount of antiseize into the cast bore in the hub that recieves the pin. Before the antiseize I scrubbed the bore with a rifle cleaning brush until they shined. The new pins went in with relative ease. When I removed the pins with a spindle oin puller in 2013, one pin came out with only a fair amount of cursing. The other pin got the threads yanked off, then I beat the shift out of the pin to get it out, mushrooming the end of it beyond recognition. The puller destroyed my outer poly LCA bushings. Like an idiot, I put new pins in again before I found out about the 5/8" bolt trick. Some guys get lucky and some guys don't, but it is not for lack of trying. The spindle pin is a punishment born in the pit of hell.

I haven't gotten to the point of selecting a cam for me. I just learned what litman was running in his incredible car, so I posted it up so I wouldn't forget. I don't know if he has the car running yet, but he just sent me a photo packet in the box with the parts he sent me. The mild custom mods he has done are going to blow the forum away!

Just got these specs from forum member: litman FTI Street Sweeper HT Cam: 228/232 0.605/0.600

Wow, I looked thru that whole link. Very cool. The chute would be for landspeed racing and the hitch would be for Drag Week. It's on the list.

Go, man, go!

I think Jon just called me a grandma.... Hey Jon, send me a link to some photos of your latest work on your car-last I heard you were working on the fenders. I'd like to catch up... BTW-I'm still on the first set of your awesome axles. Your looking for truck tires is a good sign!

You are worrying too much about it for a street car. It doesn't matter that much. Yes, you can elongate the holes. If you autocross, you will get tired of the car pushing, but you can always add camber plates after pushing for a couple of years. These modifications can definitely be staged if you are just a hobbiest like me. The only adjustment that will make your car totally suck is toe-in; if it is way off it will make the car pull and eat up a set of tires. Otherwise, you can adjust your speed to the way your car drives. Camber has no real effect on a car driving in a straight line. If it pushes when you enter a corner, slow the heck down before turning. If the rear gets loose when you add a bunch of throttle, don't do that! If you want to go as fast as you can on the track, then try to get to johnc's alignment specs per the FAQs forum then adjust from there. I started with some used sectioned struts to make the car look cool (I was about 26 years old). Then after a couple years I tried offset bushings but they were so terribly noisy (just the rears-the fronts were fine since they aren't right behind your arse). After a couple years, I got tired of having to almost stop at autocross before entering a turn, so I added front camber plates. That helped the pushing, but when I added a V8 i couldn't keep the arse under me, so I added rear camber plates. Wanted to try adding caster the following year, so I went to TTT front LCAs for the spherical bushing. Then the next year I went to large tires, so I needed Modern Motorsport rear LCAs to narrow the rear track. Now I'm flaring the rear fenders, so the narrowed track isn't needed anymore. Having trouble with rear traction drag racing, so I went to adjustable Konis this winter, and I'll see if that helps. I've had the car more than 20 years now and still enjoy it. Would it have been cheaper to do all my mods at the beginning? Sure. But, neither TTT, nor Modern Motorsport existed when I started (actually Modern Motorsport has come and gone). Would I have won more national championships if the car were better prepared, surely not.

Google search images for "remote shifter." When I was at the races a few weeks ago, I saw lots of modified cars that had remoted their shifter handle for improved ergonomics. Pretty simple modification and I think you can effectively shorten the action of the shifter at the same time. BUT, I don't know if you will have trouble getting your top-loader style linkage around the fusebox and the console. Certainly if you are willing to relocated the fuse box and run without a console, a remote shifter would be a no-brainer.

I'm thinking about the future need for a trailer hitch and/or a chute. I'm looking at your rear cage bars that go from the main hoop toward the license plate. Any reason why you located them there? Wheel tubs in the future? Hoping to learn.

It is going to be great to have some chassis that is substantial enough to put a jackstand under. I will be just "armor"-ing the unibody with heavy scab patches at the junction of the firewall, footbox and rocker for a front lift point. Already plated over and under the rear seatbelt recesses for a jacking point in the rear. These cars really are tin cans! Looking good.

Use a string and lots of liquid soap. And a buddy. Or two. And a video camera. Do it on the grass or put down a couple of quilts. Put the metal strip on before you install glass.

If car is on street and only dropping it that little I would just blow off the camber changes and not worry about bit. The squatted rear is kinda "in" and you will just go thru tires a little faster. Just go for it.

I hated the eccentric bushings because they transmitted SO much road noise particularly on seams and bridge joints. Call me weird - or eccentric.