clarkspeed

I am no coating expert for sure. I do deal with coatings in my job just not paint so much., more like hardness and TBC. But as you already know, any coating is a system that has to work together. Every material laid down must bond with the previous layer. Surface finish, mixing, cure, thickness, and cleanliness must all be controlled along with chemical compatability. If you follow the rules, I think most stuff will come out ok from a durability standpoint. No one uses laquer anymore. I have never been really happy with anything our a spray can at an auto or big box store. Just fast and convienient. If you really want durable, look into single shot industrial coatings and fleet coatings (sherwin, ppg, etc). As a do-it-yourself amateur, I personally like working with single shot acrylic urethanes with a hardner mixed in. No can spray can match the pop of a real paint.

Thanks Cary, My front ARB is mounted with needle bearings enclosed in a fixed tube. Aka stock car style. The rear is located in Delrin bearings because I ran out of time and space getting that one to comply. Maybe a future upgrade? I use SusProg3d also. Let me say it is sooo much easier on a rotisserie. But even with that I probably have 8 hours in this round of measurements and still have a few I want to verify. If you ever want to compare anything let me know. I think (hope) I finally have the damn struts dimensioned. Not easy even on a bench. That book looks very interesting. I probably have room on my shelf for 1 more :-). If it can expand on what I presented in the attachment of my previous post, let me know! A resource I recently found on data acq is "Your Data Driven" from Samir Abid. Website, book, and podcasts. I have not had time to explore deeply yet but looks promising. I picked it up from Bentley's "Speed Secrets" podcast. I have been slowly going through that entire collection. A lot of great driving instruction, but some interesting engineering insights also. I have been doing a lot of podcasts recently. My "free" time outside of work, family, real estate adventures, and building this car have been consummed with my recently acquired 77' Alfa Spider daily driver. That cost me 4 new books recently. Anyone on this forum care to know how I perfected tuning SPICA fuel injection? The AlfaBB forum doesn't like things that deviate from the norm. Don't ever mention engine swap on there. I guess that's why this forum has Hybrid in the name.

Sometimes stopping to collect your thoughts makes a world of difference. I had pages and pages of notes and book excerpts that have been directing my general path along with past experience on things that I know work. So I stopped and put them all on 1 sheet which was definitely beneficial in making things clear for me. I call it my chassis KPI's. Some are starting points and some are must have. Most of my modifications to this tube car were adding adjustment where there was none or little before. All production based cars have limits on what you can do for adjustment and alignment, along with plenty of fixed dimensions and weights you cannot overcome. My goal all along has been to transform this shell into more of a purpose built race car like a spec racer or formula car, but keeping the basic strut suspension. The fastest setup may end up being something very close to a limited prep Improved Touring car, but it does give me almost infinite adjustability and possibilities for for radical changes in the future. One of the basic goals was the lowest ride height (and CG) I can stand without botttoming while still maintaining suspension performance. That is not in the KPI's but implied. That is not easy so easy to achieve with a MacPherson Strut car. I use SusProg3d for my chassis simulation software. By measuring everything on the rotisserie with giant t-squares, with 24" and 6" machinist scales, I was able to measure things out much closer than I have in the past. The usual process is the car level on jack stands and plumb bobs pointing at masking tape on the floor. When I start weighing everything and get the car sitting on wheels. the final calculations can begin. So why did I do this? Well knowing what I know now, I think I could actually get in the ball park with most of these suspension KPI's without resorting to such detail. I have been working lately with some Excel based equations that approximate the software output. But each equation takes you down a path, making it difficult to see how changes affect other things. For example, if I extend the front control arm 1", how would that affect camber gain, weight transfer, toe change, Ackerman, and so on, and so on. With the software I can change virtually anything and instantly know what other things change with it. In addition, it provides a baseline for the car I can track over time up to and including damage assessment. Most importantly for me, it provides a basis to understand and visualize what is happening when I make changes at the track or the garage, it gives me "hints" on what changes I may want to make, it documents the "formula" for what works, and it can answer most of my future stupid questions. So here are my KPI's. I invite Cary and others to chime in if these are in line with what they have experienced. Based on my experience these numbers will get you close enough to where you want to be to begin track testing and the car will be docile at high speeds. The 3 catagories are things that I will just verify, measurements I will make in final configuration, and predicted results from the software. Some of my initial results are listed although may not be exactly what I wanted. I may change springs and bars again before I even get to the track. But not ready for that decision yet. This is really the first time I got all the numbers in. All of the settings are nomimal at the moment until I can get the car on the ground. Clark Suspension Design Parameters.pdf

Got a little painting done this afternoon. I started putting together my suspension "targets". I will post it as soon as I clean it up. It can answer some questions others may have on what I am trying to do. Just general guidelines that put you in the ballpark.

That post wasn't directed at you Aiden. My advice for you is "ask Greg". If you still need some holes filled, I'm sure myself and others can chip in. And there are relatively simple equations that can ball park most stuff. Being an engineer and more importantly, a part time race engineer, I want to know my car intamately. And hopefully I can save a lot of time when actually dialing it in at the track.

Sorry, I should have mentioned powder coating. It really is the best solution for finish quality, color selection, and durability. Some of the most stupid stuff I post on this tread are when I take strange things off the shelf and use them for solutions on this car.

I have measured all the hard points for input into software. I use a program called Susprog3d. There are others out there. I think I have every hard point measured to within 2 or 3 mm. It is difficult and time consuming but the chassis diagram from the FSM does help a little if you have stock chassis points. So why invest all this time any money? If you study suspension design, there are certain targets you want to hit. Some critical are suspension frequency, roll angle, F/R stiffness %, and roll center. I have a good idea of where I want these based on study and past experience. Taking all the measurements and putting into software will let me know where I am. Even if I did not know what I wanted, going through the process at least let's me know where I am and any changes can be documented and reversed along with a possible direction to pursue.. Bottom line, if I get this right, it will save countless hours of testing time on the track. For example, I took a wild guess on my sway bar rates when I bought the bars. And the arm length is just what I needed to make it fit. I needed this all just to mock up the suspension. After I got all the data input, I think I am much closer to a desired roll rate and F/R stiffness than I thought. I believe I can at least start testing with current rates. And if I purchase a few extra springs or bars I know which way to go. Springs at $60-70ea and roll bars at 100-150ea are relatively cheap, if you have a plan for what you want. I have been ask before "can you give me your measurements". There are a few problems with that. I spent a lot of time doing it and perfecting my methods, every car is different, and most importantly, doing it yourself is about the only way to understand what you are doing. If someone just gave me the numbers, I would be lost forever. However with that said, if anyone is trying something similar with Susprog3d software or an alternative, I am more than happy to provide guidance. I have been working with my own developed Excel based system to make it more simple, but I just don't have enough time to finish it.

It's the stuff used to coat internal windings of electric motors. Developed many years ago and hot rodders picked up on it to coat internal engine blocks. Sheds oil well and encapsulates casting flash forever. That's what I bought it for and it works well, but it is expensive. I'm not building many engines now and was amazed it still looked great after all these years. Again, why not? Otherwise it will sit another few years. Durable finish is an understatement. A good idea I found for suspension is stainless steel spray paint. Steel it is the brand. Kind of a dull silver finish but again, durable as hell and easy to apply. It also is expensive, but doesnt take a lot of product to fully cover so it goes way longer than say a color spray paint. I bought a couple cans to use, but since everything else is silver or black I wanted a different color for the unsprung stuff.

I was going to resurrect this thread soon also. Once I pull the chassis off the roterssere I plan to measure every component I install. I have a set of digital corner weight scales that seem pretty accurate.

First I have seen this thread. Very ambitious. Good luck and glad to see you finally got back to your dream car.

No picture updates. 2 tasks before I take it off roterssire. I am measuring all the suspension points to put into my simulation software program. If I play this right, all future adjustments will be predictable and repeatable. Trying to get all the points within a couple mm. It is much easier now than on the ground. And the last thing will be painting suspension parts. I debated over this for weeks on end. I just could not decide. I ended up choosing a 10 Yr old+ can of red Glyptal I had sitting on the shelf I had used for some block coatings way back when. It stirred out like new, flows out beautiful to reduce brush strokes, durable as hell, looked great on my sample part, and essentially free. Problem solved.

I don't know what I am doing? Is that a good answer? I usually shoot cars just like you are doing. Having painted 3 or 4 like that, I decided to try something different. My last car was painted a battleship grey which came out great. For interiors, I usually shoot a straight cheap industrial urethane (no UV protection), with hardner, no primer. But I don't usually shoot over so much bare metal as you have. I did some research on the Google and found a log of drag racers using the hammer tone paint to good effect. Plus I had some mental pictures of a titanium color interior. The hammer tone is easy to brush, easy to match spray, durable, and super easy to touch up. So I thought why not a 2 tone? Not really much more difficult. What did I learn? Shooting the interior with a gun is still best way to go. But the 2 coat rattle can spray hammertone on my interior panels came out decent and seems durable. And easy to touch up if needed. But not as "nice" a finish as I would like. IF you want to do the cage in a different color, I HIGHLY recommend the brush on hammertone. For some reason it lays down perfect on the curved surfaces. And you don't have to mask off anything. On the downside, I think the brush on only comes in silver, grey, and black.

I like to think out of the box!

Motorsport Auto buys the Konigs in bulk and puts them on sale often. I am really concentrating on rotational weight with this build. I think it is the secret sauce for a Z car. I think about Greg's EP car with those tiny brakes, 15x7 wheels, and lightweight slick tires. I'm just trying to move that needle just a little more with my looser rules.

Well that looks damn sturdy. The best firewall mount structure I have ever seen. A lot of people watch these restoration shows on TV now. As long as the welds are solid they will look great after paint. I'm sure you grind off the blobs like I do. Got the floor pan in tonight. Now I need to paint and assemble the suspension.

Firewall mount was out of the question since it's so thin. Car originally had overhead pedals but when I dropped the floor pan lower they were too high. I thought fabbing a drop bracket to the roll cage cross members at that point would look horrible and add excess weight to make it stiff. So I ended up looking for a floor solution but found I had no room in the back for masters. When I found this one, problems solved and I sold all the overhead mount stuff. What were you doing for pedals? I forgot.

More eye candy tonight. I am so glad I assembled the pedals before putting the floor in. It took me 4 hours to get the MCs correct, set the throttle linkage, and get everything tight. I left access to do this stuff from the topside, but I am sure it would have taken twice as long. Only thing left before I take it off rotisserie is assembling front struts and taking measurements to put into the suspension software.

Greg has an old set of Volks on the EP car and bought a set of Joengblods 3-4 years ago and really likes them. I ran the 15x7 Konig rewinds on the Bob car I sold. No problems. The Mazda crowd runs them extensively. I went a completely different direction, as usual. The olny small diameter development anymore is just for MX5. I bought 15x10 Konig dekagrams from Goodwin racing at 14.5lbs with 1.5" adapters to get the offset correct. The adapters and studs add a little weight back but I think still better than most other custom 15x10 options. Take a look at Goodwin Mazda wheels and that is the 15x7 weights you should be shooting for IMHO. A spec Miata weighs more than a EP Z car. So far, I am the only person I know that will try this. But most EP cars are running a 1" spacer anyway.

For now you need to keep going with what you have. I posted a RC calculator in this forum somewhere. But you need to get everything on the ground first. When it's time to start doing alignments we have lots of helpful "hints".

I think Greg stacks them and welds together. That is simple way and effective. If following his formula, stick with it. My tubular control arms have a spherical bearing with an adjustable tie rod bolt going into the steering arm. On the tube car I'm not sure where the RCs will be so I can adjust where I want.

This community is not what it used to be, but the flame keeps burning. Maybe not as many replies as you might have gotten in the past, but also not as many assholes. Again, all of is that follow you recognize this is a project you are taking the time to make it right and it's not going to disappear unfinished. And keep in mind you could probably message most any other member for advice if you needed.

I have used usedracingtire.com. I think John Borget sell them also. I used another, but can't remember name. Not sure who would be best on those cantilevers. I'm not sure what bodywork you are running. Greg has the Subtle Z kit from ztrix. Those tires have an incredible 9" tread width. If you have any space left over, push out the rims with wheel spacers. I'm running 1.5" on the tube car.

Someone may correct me, but I have applied over metal, primer, and more primer, and fiberglass. I have never had any issues. As long as clean, dry, and not dusty. But the more you apply on top of, the more you depend on the substraight quality. I usually clean with a wax and grease remover and allow to flash before applying.

That is a lot of freaking filler. Tough decision. Ideally you would take out the filler, hammer back to something not so drastic, then re-apply. I always shoot for filler less than 1/8" thick when welding in patches like you are. But those are big areas. I have done a lot of body work but I am no metal expert. I am not convinced I could caress all that to a better position. And filling big areas is not easy. If you are not a pro it can take many hours to get a decent finish. On the other hand, if the filler has not cracked or chunked off you can assume the panel is "stable" and not flexing around when being driven. And if no rust is present, the panels were prepped well before filler applied. In that case, yes just keep going with filler. If you start hammering to get a better surface it will start cracking up. Keep in mind you are building a race car. Most are loaded with filler these days.

I had to put the gussets in after cutting the cross member. It's an OBP floor mount pedal set I think I got through Pegasus. I will have it mounted soon so you can see it. The rack is a square Coleman racing unit with adapters. I think there are some pics earlier in this thread.