clarkspeed

That sounds about right since I just bought the same. I got my bar used on Ebay and built my own bearing bearing holders to save a few bucks. But compared to other options it's really not that bad. I just got my end links and will post on my page. Let me know how you bend the arms. I wasn't sure heating the aluminum would be good..I thought about putting mine in my press but that scares the hell out of me. I was just going to brace them and hit with a sledgehammer. But with my new mount it doesn't look like I will need to.

Man you get things done before I can even post examples for you! Greg runs a bearing like you selected on all his cars. Those end links should be fine. With the straight arms you may need to mount a little higher to try and keep them close to parallel. I think Greg runs the 30 degree.

Boxed sheet is probably the way to go.. I went with aluminum arms. I'm not sure that is the best answer, but similar to you, I may come back to that another day. I have with steel stubs with a cr- Molly bent pipe in the rear and that worked pretty well. Another place I may stick a camera when testing just to see what is going on. But not a lot of real estate available if I want to change it up.

My recomendation is a multi piece bar from Speedway Engineering like your picture. Reasonably priced and more importantly, you can swap out bars of you need to. Plus you can find them used on ebay depending in the size. I would not try to lengthen one or bend one myself. On the other hand,, I would not be afraid to weld on some angle iron brackets or similar to the existing OEM style bar you have if that can make up the difference. OR an offset bracket attached to the control arm.. I have some examples if I can dig up the pictures. And yes, adjusters and rod ends for the links.

Yes, yes, and yes. I have a big surprise reveal for my struts. But you will need to wait for that.

You got it. They sway bar sits in needle bearings inside the 3" tube. A circle track style. The arms need to be cut about 6" and drilled for adjustment. I ordered the heim joints and links to finish out. It sits about 1" in front of the head if my measurements are correct. The pics are so damn busy I can't even tell what's going on. Anyway the tube bolts to the strut towers and the frame rails.

I am a little behind on my posts. Pushing to finish most of the serious welding so I can take it off roterssere. Here is a shot of the front sway bar attach. I was not comfortable placing it under the frame for interference and did want to go through the frame. So this is where it ended up. I didn't like putting the weight up so high so I tried to steal as much rigidity to the front as I could with it. The cross member comes very close the the head and unbolts for engine swaps. Sure looks like a GT car now. Sorry the top pic is upside down.

Looking good. You are so far ahead of me on the front. I am still in the roterssere for a few more weeks until I can access that area. I am also adding 4 tie downs to the underside of mine for strapping to the trailer. It makes hooking and unhooking so much faster. I do that on all my cars.

That looks damn sturdy. Nice work. Some use 1/4 or 3/8 round steel for supports just so you can adjust a little with a big lever/hammer. Yours looks beautiful and light weight also, AND very exact.

I have GC bolt in plates for the front. I found a universal set on ebay couple years ago. I like their plates best, but they are kind of overkill for rear. The rear actually use the original mounting plate. I just cut it out to match my homemade slider. I wonder if this is considered "bolt in"? No more hacking than cutting out for a set of bolt in plates. Best is to somehow go by all the original holes and reference points. The FSM has a chassis layout drawing with all dimensions. Try to get the chassis as level as possible F/R and L/R. Layout tape or paper on the floor and use plumb bobs to mark points like the strut tops. That will allow you to check all the X and Y dimensions and cross chassis square. And I use a digital level to measure stuff in the Z direction where I can. Across strut tower tops, front cradle, etc.

Just homemade camber plates to save a buck. They don't get as much use as the fronts. These are the holes they slide into.

Oh and here is my 3D printed drivers side door handle.

Sorry have not posted in some time. Been busy making my own brake rotor hats. More on that in a future post assuming I am successful. These posts are now basically caught up with where I am at on the build. Most of the stuff I will be posting from here on out will be relatively "fresh". So here is the rear strut build up. The struts are from a 280 and shortened. The cartridges are a cheap no-name brand I bought off of Rock Auto a few years ago just for fit checks. I just welded a spacer on the bottom so there is no chance of it not seating correctly. I 3D printed the spring spacers and milled a button top for the spring hat to fit a thrust washer in there. The camber plate is also made by me with a 5/8 spherical bearing.

Old wiring is a pain in the ass. Look first at all connectors for corrosion, the wires are probably OK if not modified. Do not assume anything is getting signal, voltage, ground as it should be. Always start with the simple stuff, then work toward the more difficult, like point to point continuity. I once had a fuse that looked fine, had continuity, but would not take any current. Lesson learned, verify the simple stuff first and I mean verify. Someone posted some good detail on this recently. The Bosch L-jetronic is a very simple system. Not many inputs or outputs. When everything is working as it should, it is bullet proof and fairly easy to troubleshoot. It can even be adjusted slightly for mild modifications. If you can troubleshoot components per the factory manual, you are way ahead already. As you can tell I am a big fan of these original systems. I played with them for years. One of the favorite Zs I have owned was a 80ZX with big throttle body, ported 76 intake, mild pocket porting on the head, 6-2 headers with 3" exhaust on stock efi. Otherwise stock. Something about the sound, rear end squat, and flat torque curve just worked right. But I will also never forget chasing that damn fuse problem for 2 weeks. Or the time the heater hose had leaked on a connector and corroded it and I did point to point checks for 2 weeks, and the time.....old cars are tough.

Very nice car!

The standard 1/4 turn are easy to find. I don't recommend buying from Speedway, those are made a little too thin. I learned my lesson there. I buy the Panel-fast from Brehents. I use them to secure all my body panels. I think the camloc's are a Euro aerospace thing for interior panels. A lot of aircraft companies sell them. I can't remember who I bought them from last time. These guys seem to have similar. The adjustable receptacle is nice if unsure of panel thickness . https://sri-supplies.com/

I had to Google quick latch. I call those button latches. I used them in my passenger door. Greg uses 2 locking Aerolatch on hood of the EP car. He said people may sabotage car at runoffs. FYI you can get the quick/ button style latches super cheap direct from China. I use true military grade cam lock fasteners on my back hatch. We used the same when I worked in aerospace on space shuttle. They are expensive but small and strong. And damn they work well. I have 4 butterfly camlocks on the back hatch. Plenty strong enough for hood too, but kind of small to fiddle with flathead screw type if you are in a hurry. And I did not think the butterflies would look good there, even though they are tiny. Again, quick and easy to remove/install panel and they align quickly. My crew loves my hatch and hood solutions. A hood that slides into something at the firewall and has 2 button latches in front would be fastest to remove/install of all. It is amazing how critical an interface the hood and hatch are. It is inevitable your crew or yourself will be trying to closeout these spaces as fast as you can go. Quick positive lock with no error is so important. 4 hood pins with cotter pins doesn't cut it.

My last couple of cars I mounted a couple aluminum C channels about 5" long on the cowl, then used 2 hood pins to secure the front near the radiator. Makes it quick and fast to remove and install. The Ztrix hood is fairly rigid, I dont think you will have a problem holding with 4 points. For the car I am building I will do something similar in the back, but probably 2 straight pins mounted to hood and a receptical near the cowl. For the front 2 pins I went way overboard. I bought a pair of cheap Aerolatch knockoffs. Then modified the design to something a little better looking and working. Then 3d printed my own version of a hidden latch. Here is a pic of the first prototype. I could not find any finished pics. https://www.facebook.com/262575520591481/posts/1754987928016892/

Well then go for it. It should be a nice car when complete. And dont worry too much about the rules as long as you can reverse things. My tube car is kind of dual purpose in that respect. It could convert to scca gt3 if desired. And I usually tidy things up before I sell because it is worth more if it can be raced in many organizations. Cool, do your enging tuning on the street if able. That can save a lot of time. Of I were starting from 0, I would go ahead and do a race school. One where they provide the car. It's not cheap, but you will learn more in 3 days than any other way. Most likely you will come away motivated, committed, and understand how a good car should feel. Then you will want to do some hot lapping on a track to sort the car out. Plus you can run with open groups since you had the school. Get some help from an expert on setup if you want to speed that up.. At that point you should have a good idea on what you want to do next to support your new addiction.

That is why you don't see aluminum tube frame cars or nothing even close. Aluminum space frame with rivets was popular and aluminum honeycomb, and even aluminum adhesive was popular in the 70's into the 80's. Before carbon fiber took it all over. It is very malable and doesn't like point loads. That is when aircraft switch over to titanium. Still a little cost prohibitive for racing except for F1. Plus steel can still get you under most weight limitations up through Trans Am.

Greg is the Zen master if you want to interpret EP rules. He has been to the tech shed many times. I have personally been there.. Vintage is a little looser for sure. But again there is a gold medallion level and acceptance to Rollex historic in Laguna at the other end. I have seen newer built cars accepted there, but they must be correct. Perhaps a question again, are you going to sell it or race the shit out of it?

Rule of thumb is use aluminum thickness little less than 2x steel. So equivalent aluminum structure is not so light. But when you are not super critical of structure, like secondary structure, then it becomes super attractive. I can tig steel with my welder but not aluminum. Hopefully upgrade someday.

For vintage you want to end up in CP (2.4) Or BP (2.8). 0.40 over max.. That is where they ran back in the day. Many organizations use 1972 scca rules. SVRA has one of the most complete rule books. Engines are fairly unlimited. An EP air dam would not be allowed. Rules enforcement depend on the org. Some are happy to have a lot of cars on track and no one complains, others want parity, and many complain. And even they are welcoming as long as you are not podium. Some will do a displacement check. When I run with SVRA they are critical of obvious things like big brakes and super wide wheels. But I usually run around mid pack. I've even run EFI with no problems. Some groups will let you run with no points, some will bump up a class if you are way outside the rules. Greg's latest car it built to win in that 2.4 CP class I believe. So he is ready for any scrutiny. Vintage is full of cars running much faster than they ever ran in the 70's. I ran against a Jag with twin plug head and 400+ hp. And not unusual to to see 40k Porsche engines with titanium rods and more. And V8 stuff forget about it. Some swap tires before every race.. I think the best answer don't worry until you are running top 5. Then if you want to run at the sharp end, tighten it up. I am usually around top 10 and have a hell of a lot of fun.

So I decided to re-do the rear suspension again. I am confident the Delrin bearings would be fine, but started thinking they do deteriorate over time. So when I got my little homemade mill running I thought about a simple solution I could replace them with using oillite bearings. I have used these in the past with great results. Slightly more weight, but probably less than 1 lb overall. So I milled out some ears that could be welded to DOM tubing with both a top and bottom weld. Slipped in the 1" ID flanged bearings and done.