What did you do on the rally car today?

john vanlandingham Wrote:
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> But! But! But Wait a minute, you bent a rear beam
> on a VW!!!!???
> On asphalt??? How can that
> be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????
>
> I don't belive you!

Hehe - don't worry - I spot your sarcasm :-).
Actually I slid sideways into a rather nasty curb - made the whole car jump quite a bit, and also bent the wheel a bit.

> I have read many many times over on the
> Authoritative American Resource the VWs are
> amazingly tough!!!!

Haha - well, I kinda agree to that - but they DO have their weak points. The difference is that I acknowledge it - same with Derek I reckon (when he had his obviously).

I learned pretty fast from Rabbit-owners that Golf rearbeams are made out of overboiled macaroni or something similar, so I actually bought that spare that I've just mounted, about 2½ years ago just KNOWING that some day I would fudge up the existing one. The old one actually endured going OVER a curb about a year ago without any damage it seems (and I wasn't exactly just parking it mind you). Did take out the tire though, and put a small dent in the rim.

> Maybe you installed the last one wrong?
> Maybe you're big and fat? Was it bent on your
> side??

My side - not particularly fat - on the "strongly built"-side though :-). 180 cm. tall, 85-90 kg - could be, and have been, worse :-).
Actually it was a reaaaally bad day. You know how you as a driver, always smash up the navi's side? Well, I started on the first stage where I almost wrecked the drivers side rear fender - too close - but no damage. Third stage I went into the aforementioned curb, in the drivers side... what's up with that? It's supposed to be the OTHER side - where I can't get hurt!

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Brgrds
Brian





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2006 01:59PM by wildert.

NoCoast Wrote:
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> My Merkur rear beam was bent as shit too.
>
> Yesterday I started welding on the JVAB aluminum
> crossmember. Blew the shit out of the breaker so
> now I have to replace the breakers in the the box
> with new ones. A bit worried if my ghetto house
> wiring will be able to support the amperage
> required to weld Aluminum.
>
> Created a template for new shock brackets on the
> rear STAs. I know some people have made it work
> with the stock ones, but I can't see any way to
> get it to work properly with the stock mount so
> I'm just going to do new ones again. Compared to
> the ones that we made hammered that resulted in
> super ride height. They were about three inches
> high. These are being made sober.
>
> Going to buy steel for cage feet and brackets on
> STA in a few minutes.
>
> Grant Hughes
> www.nocoastmotorsports.net
> Denver, CO
Grant, be sure and clean the material really well, and maybe throw all the pieces in the over for 10 minutes before welding to get them up to temp.

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Scott Manley
Spokane, WA
86' XR4Ti
37

Did throw it in the oven. Now I have to replace the breakers though.

Went and got a 4ftX2ft piece of 20 gauge for sunroof. And three 4ftX18" sheets of 1/8" and a bunch of smallish 10X6" pieces to make random things. Went and picked up a master cylinder and looked at all my pretty shiny Bailey Motorsports parts sitting down at Checkpoint Racing waiting for me. Oh, and looked at some of the Samco hose I ordered, and talked to Brian a lot about cage stuff. May start bending on Sunday if we have time. If not it should all be done by next weekend hopefully.

Got to replace the breaker and see if I'll be able to weld Al in this house.

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Grant Hughes

NoCoast Wrote:> Yesterday I started welding on the JVAB aluminum
> crossmember. Blew the shit out of the breaker so
> now I have to replace the breakers in the the box
> with new ones. A bit worried if my ghetto house
> wiring will be able to support the amperage
> required to weld Aluminum.


You oughta see the hijinks over at Boomerang Racing.

Welding on the car:

1. Set up areas to be welded
2. Open garage door, go outside
3. Unplug welder from generator, curse 5 minutes starting generator
4. Plug welder into generator, go inside, close door
5. Weld until snarl. (This step is the quickest)
6. Shut off welder, open door, shut off generator, back inside, close door
7. Remove tip, remove snarl
8. Re-snarl twice before getting wire through, install new tip
9. Repeat steps 2-8 until depletion of beer, patience, or on good days, stuff to weld

The rally RX-7 should be done sometime in mid-2013...

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Oh yeah. And I should add that all of the steel was free. Trick to free steel. Find a fairly busy sheet metal fabrication shop, go in and tell them you are building a race car and ask if you can dig through and take a few scraps out of their dumpster. I spent under $20 and got basically 16 ft. X 18" of 1/8" steel plus another 3-4 feet of 6" wide. Try it sometime. The sunroof patch was the only thing I had to buy.

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Grant Hughes



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2006 11:09PM by NoCoast.

One idea I haven't tried is getting some large hoods off some old 70's cars from the pick and pull for sheet metal. The hoods are like $12. There's alot of material on say a Caddy, Lincoln or Imperial. I just cut up another XR roof for my sunroof hole. I also saved a XR hood that's probalby not repairable, but the sheet metal would be good for some small patch jobs. I've been cleaning my garage so I can work on the car. I'm finding all sorts of XR parts out there. I'm also finding out I'm a parts whore.

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Scott Manley
Spokane, WA
86' XR4Ti
37

Hoods are usually really contoured. And, as the head conspirator at Boomerang found out, many modern cars have aluminum hoods...

Roofs, though, are fairly flat and almost always steel.

I personally like household appliances. Most of them are something like 18 gauge with some made with 16 gauge. I have a bunch of brackets and stuff made with 16-gauge scavenged from old 386's I found on trash day. Galvanized, though, so a BITCH to weld

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Put a new shifter cable in the Alltrac; nice to have 2nd and reverse back! My son 'exercised' the Starion and got threatened by a neighbor about a possible call to the police. Ordered parts this week like a drunken salior just coming to shore....

Mark B.

Kevin Hawkinson got a wide band 02 sensor thing-a-ma-bob that I proposed that Skye, Scott, me and he split the cost of.
Then we drove the 30 minutes into the rabbit warren that is the South Sound and wandered around lost for a while till we found Skye and Ali and we organised a human chain to fill the U-Haul truck 80% full in about 45 minutes.

We walked over to Skyes long neglected but sharper than hell car and lifted the hood and peeked in.

Then drove to a Pull-a-part and swam out thru the yard to get a wiper for the passenger side of Kevvis car so I could see how close he tailgated.

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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.

I put the front struts back on, put the hood and doors back on (which I primered a few days ago), put the windsheild in with no goo, just duct tape to hold it in around the edges for moisture protection. Then I pushed it outside and put the cover on it so I can put that little festiva in for its engine swap.

Jacked up the trailer (which had sunk into the gravel from sitting too long) and replaced the dry-rotted tires with 4 new from the new Princess Auto that opened last week. Pulled the doors out and started eyballing ways to trim the door bins to gain an extra 3" or so for the x-bars.

I've found a source locally for 1.75" and 1.5" DOM, still trying to figure out if I should pay someone to bend my main hoop and front legs or buy some dies for my buddy's bender.

Cheers, Ted

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Pure mathematics is the enemy of every truly creative man -- Sir Alec

started stitch welding yesterday. Got the engine bay all done and primed. Also tacked the mounts for the steering quickener which will be finish welded this week.

After steering has returned, I'll pull it in the garage to start working on reinforcing the rest of the chassis this winter

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-Jason

Opel is all stripped 'cept for front/rear axles/wheels and inside heater box. Cut out rust areas (all in low spots where water sat; rockers are almost perfect). Started welding in patches; TiG is not too different from oxy-acet, but I need to get used to how the argon and the arc flow around things.

Toyota 3rd member arrived so I need to get the axle housing and shafts now so that the rear design can be finihsed up. Need to see it directly to finalaze the exhaust passage over the axle and then set the width of the uppper traling links and locate the sway bar and its arms to the rear axle.

Alltrac got one trannie fluid flush (replacement trannie sat in rain or was ppower washed with no vent cap on the 1" diameter vent tube); after only 4 miles and 3 heat cycles, the fresh stuff put in as the first flush looked a bit rust tinted and was opaque; guess it picked up surface rust on the gear faces and dissolved water. Glad we flushed it!

Regards,
Mark B.

Finished body work... good enough. Took it for paint. Took 2 days instead of 1... fuck lost a day! turned out not bad considering the amatures that did the bodywork! Cost $100 and 2 apple pies :-)

Built the light bar. Wiring is not complete with switch panel, kill switch etc.

Cut some bars out of the cage the tech inspectors didn't like... don't ask and get me started again!

Fuel cell re-installed, just need to plumb in the pump pre-filter, filler neck, and make a cover.

Doors are being re-assembled today, lights etc. all being put back in.

Installed Terrotrip sensor... still need to install the terrortrip itself.

Moved crotch belt anchor points - tech guys didn't like them on eyes at the back of seat, wanted them under the hole...

Bought fire extinguishers, need to install. Waiting on 1st aid kit.

Next big job is to buld the sump guard!
Then... put seats, belts back in, mount spare tires, tool kit. get final log book inspection, load up and go to Tall Pines!

Oh... mount 26 tires!

-Martin.

I did not do a damn thing on the car (since Prescott). Not one damn thing.

Worked till 4:00 PM on Saturday, left Phoenix for Laughlin at 4:30, arrived at 7:00 PM PST, fired up El Blendero, mixed 5 Gallons of Frozen Margaritas, got many people shitfaced. Left Laughlin at 1:30 AM and drove back to Phoenix. Worked all day Saturday.

At least I have my priorities in order. Sometime next week I need to pull the engine off of the Gaylant...........again.

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Cheers
M.Samli
Phoenix AZ
Gaylant VR4
EVO III GSR (Stolen)


Rallies are no place for traitors