More rusty justy....
Posted by Mad Matt F
Matt Follett Junior Moderator Location: La Belle Province, Montreal Join Date: 03/13/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 645 Rally Car: Don't Laugh, the Justy is Fun! |
Because there is no official Justy build thread here (it was built before RA was spawned {I was gonna used "conceived" but that just sounded wrong}), and well I sorta hope this gets buried three pages deep...
Here's a new "how not to fix your rusty broken rally car thread" So... I finally had a chance to begin to right the wrongs of Tall Pines 2013... Jeff took the car after Pines, as a bent rally car in the garage means I get little real work done, and I had a lot of "real" work on my plate last winter. But last week-end I headed to my parents cottage, which is not far from where the Justy was sitting forlorn and broken in vast storage yard surrounded by boats worth more then the aparment I live in.... anyway... we pulled the car to my parents cottage, and I spent a couple of days and three bulk packs of metal cut-off of wheels cleaning out the mess. Here's a pic of the left side wheel, bear in mind this is after I had spent 20 min on stage trying to straighten the control arm with a ratchet strap and a BFH, and then try to drive back to service to actually "fix it". I had managed to get the tire fully clear of the body, when I started the rim was metal on metal, so I managed quite a bit in the field... 
Here is the other side. 
It's made worse looking by the fact the left tire is pulling out so when you try to drive, it crab walks and pulls the right tire too. This made trying to drive down the highway "interesting" as the car would wander around a bit depending on which rear tire was havig a better couple of seconds... It was somewhere in there that Jeff said "yer an idiot, and I want out of this car" er well, not quite those words, but I think that's what he meant. But not only was the control arm bent, the whole subframe had shifted to the right. In true Justy style, I rigged the red-neck rotisserie 
Hmmm that wheel is kinda out of alignment. 
The real mess... (why don't I give up on this thing...) 
Back in 2010 I added new steel to the area BEHIND the subframe mounts, thinking if we went off, it might save the back of the car... but didn't add too much to the mounts themselves... duhh so I cut out the whole mess. 
And took some 1x2x1/8" box and built new rails. ( I should add in I did not leave the cut section at the bend in teh box open, that triangle was boxed in with more 1/8" steel so the 1x2 is a complete box section front to back). There was a little plate of 1/8" steel in the car that the trailing arm was located with, I welded up to that at the front and then built more steel angle into the rear of the car, so there is now solid steel at both ends of the 
both sides... 
Bolted in a whole new subframe, and dropped it back on the ground. 
Still some work to do, but it seems to drive straighter then before 
The really good news is that the new motor with the triple carbs pulls awesome on gravel. I was really struggling on the ice/snow last fall, and Pines was the first time really driving the car more than around the block...So I thought it worked okay, but the tuning issues (wouldn’t settle below 3000 rpm at idle, still a bit of a roll on throttle bog…) kept me from really getting to understand what it could do. However, a few runs up and down the blind section of forest road that ends at my parents cottage says, if I can straighten out the car again, it will be awesome, er well, better than a stock Justy. Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2014 11:13PM by Mad Matt F. |
Banned Super Moderator Location: La la land Join Date: 01/25/2006 Age: Fossilized Posts: 3,740 Rally Car: Not a Volvo |
A mind is a terrible thing to waste...
You did a great job considering what it looked lie starting out. Cutting and welding next to a fuel tank and a woodshed..my kinda guy. I had a Justy back in 95 or so , fun car and a real Metro killer. |
Andrew McNally Professional Moderator Join Date: 01/08/2006 Posts: 1,217 |
1/8" thick steel, that's probably 3 times or more thicker than the original, should get a few years out of it
Andrew M Onterrible 30ish |
Alex Rademacher Professional Moderator Location: Reno,nv Join Date: 09/10/2007 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 686 Rally Car: 93 GC with an 01 RS swap! |
Matt Follett Junior Moderator Location: La Belle Province, Montreal Join Date: 03/13/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 645 Rally Car: Don't Laugh, the Justy is Fun! |
Thanks Gene, you missed the open cans of chainsaw fuel, oil cans and propane tank
Metro as in the Montreal subway? it never gets anywhere on time...
As in the MG Metro? this is the groop bee Justy! |
Chris Krepski Elite Moderator Location: Gatineau, Québec Join Date: 02/25/2010 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 31 Rally Car: 1991 VW Golf, 8V of fury! |
Matt Follett Junior Moderator Location: La Belle Province, Montreal Join Date: 03/13/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 645 Rally Car: Don't Laugh, the Justy is Fun! |
Chris,
Determination is just a nice way of saying stubborn idiot...
If all goes well we may, just may, have another stab at it... need to do some basics, like get it idling, sort the throttle bog, oh yeah, actually do an alignment... maybe sort out some suspension. buy another rally car...
|
John Vanlandingham Senior Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Fixed that for youse. John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
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