Great fun at 2 day autox school, now SC needs work - DIY or farm out?

[cantdrv55]

Excellent instructors and challenging exercises/courses this weekend at the 2 day autox school at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. I hope other Pelicans post their experiences here since there were quiet a few of us taking the school. I'm happy with my run times but I could've been much faster. The straightaways freaked me out because of the incredible speed one could achieve before reaching the sea of cones that made up the tight turns. That wasn't the only reason my times were long though.

My car has 135K miles and still has the original shocks. Also, there's slop in steering and I think my brakes could grab tighter. I want to autox again in three weeks but I have to pay attention to these first. My question is, should I DIY or pay to have them done? I'll have one full free weekend between now and then. Will replacing pads all around, bleeding brakes, installing turbo tie-rods and replacing all four shocks take longer than that? I've never done any of these projects but I'm hoping a couple of Pelicans could lend a hand. How much in labor do you think it would cost me if I farmed it out? Labor rates here in the SF Bay Area are about $100 per hour.
BTW, here's a link to some pics taken by fellow Pelican Itzkirb. I'm sure more are on the way.

http://gallery.rennlist.com/gallery/album190?page=1

[Jim Smolka]

Depends on ones wrenching skills, tools, and the amount of liquid refreshments to offer a couple of buddies.

The job is do able, but you will need carefull planning and be sure to have all the parts. Of course you will need the car aligned after all the work is done

With help and some good luck, it would be a fun project.

[vesnyder]

You are probably looking at ~$1,000 labor and I strongly suggest you do it yourself, not just because of the saved $$, but the appreciation you gain of the car. None of the projects are particularly difficult, but having somebody around who has done them before is a definite plus - even if it is some on-line Pelican guys. But if you are relying on the on-ine Pelican support you may want to budget more time.

Good Luck!

[rcm]

55, I just went thru a very similar thing. My first DE, found a few things, the car could use to stop and handle better. Personally decided to hold off till winter when I can spread the cost over a few months. Good luck with fix and next runs.

[anthony]

>>My car has 135K miles and still has the original shocks.

Dang, my car has original 86K mile shocks and the ride sucks! I can't wait to install the Konis.

What I would do is do each project in steps. For example you can do strut inserts/shocks without needing an alignment. I'd do that first.

Second, I would just inspect the pads/rotors and bleed the brakes. This costs almost nothing. If the pads and rotors are still good you can run them for a while longer. I'd highly recommend that you buy a set of 4 speed bleeders. They make 1 man bleeding super easy.

I'd leave the turbo tie rods for last. If you are going to do those you might also want to do ball joints and/or torsion bar bushings.

[juanbenae]

chris, i could give you a couple hours on a weekend day for this work. ive done all you describe, minus the tierods. i had that done before i found pelican, and was affraid to work on the car much.

the shocks would be a good 1st step, you can install them all the way around in an afternoon. i would strongly suggest turbo rods, but id do them near the end because they WILL require an alignment. you could get it close, but your tires might pay for the out-of-wackness w/o an align.

you could do the brake pads in about 20 minutes. well thats with your wifes help (see shed thread)!!!!

im not available next (holiday) weekend, gotta pull the patio boat out of the water for the winter at my folks' cabin that weekend.

paying someone to do the install will cut down on the parts budget big time.

glad the school was so much fun. i loved my experience there a few years back. you outta be up front at the next mines run eh??? did any of you guys get dean as an instructor?

[vash]

by my math, if you get the car safely up in the air. all four wheels off, one really long day. i mean pads and bleeding is about an hour, the other two will be the time consuming ones. i say DIY.

[juanbenae]

cliff, how did you do at the school? after two previous AX events were you too cool for school?

[vash]

dude, i learned that i need alot of work.

i beat the crap out of my car. something is VERY squeaky in the front end. i almost went insane driving home. my tires are wasted (new S0-2's ) and now i have an occasional hot start problem.

amazing how fast some "students" are. i got my ass handed to me by many vehicles. some worth mentioning, two 928's so the theory being that 928 are slow on tight courses is schit, and a 1968 912, with soft suspension and regular o street tires like you would find on your mothers camry. friggen amazing watching him rail on the tight course.

the wide open course was damn fun. just for perspective, a 911 turbo (993?) got up to 130mph on the back straights, and there were two such straights. it was like a game of chicken, staying on the gas for as long as possible. i did ok on both courses.

the best part was, with the two courses and the fact that after the first day, there was a group party at EL TORITO that gave everyone diarreha, there was plenty of time to drive. some guys did 20+runs on some courses. but with my car issues, i did at the most 10. with 20 i would have gotten fast.

[anthony]

Wow, that's way faster than usual autoX courses.

[john70t]

One tip about the tie-rod ends: some people such as myself have ended up heating the end and using a hammer to remove them(wrong way-couple bend the arm) after having the factory tool slip off every time.
The factory tool can be made to work if you slightly grind a round relief/pocket at the end of the "U" and jack up the knuckle until the rod is level with the ground.

[cantdrv55]

You see now, I knew Cliff was going to be all modest. He beat me by four seconds on the technical course and six seconds on the high speed one. There were a few folks slower than me still (I worked as the timer for both courses).

[nostatic]

slippery slope...beware

[juanbenae]

you guys must have seen 3 or 4th gear on the large course?

all of a sudden my friday evening skyline run is not feeling so good.

actually the new suspension made for an unbelieveable ride. the car is on rails, just amazing the difference.

the squeaking could be a t-bar in the front rubbing against the a-arm. i was warned about this when speaking to a wrench about my rebuild and possibility of sqeaking.

[vash]

i dont know what the turbo was doing. but i went into 3 once. then i had to deal with the downshift. it wasnt pretty. i just then decided to tap dance with the rev limiter. the fast course was sooooo fun.

so if it is the tbar and the a-arm, things need to come apart?

[deeppurple]

The school was fun - showed me again how much there is to learn.

I don't think that the 993 tt hit 130 in the straightaways, though. I think 130 mph means hitting the rev limiter in 4th gear. The course was very fast, though...

[cantdrv55]

Originally posted by k911sc
chris, i could give you a couple hours on a weekend day for this work. ive done all you describe, minus the tierods. i had that done before i found pelican, and was affraid to work on the car much.

the shocks would be a good 1st step, you can install them all the way around in an afternoon. i would strongly suggest turbo rods, but id do them near the end because they WILL require an alignment. you could get it close, but your tires might pay for the out-of-wackness w/o an align.

you could do the brake pads in about 20 minutes. well thats with your wifes help (see shed thread)!!!!

im not available next (holiday) weekend, gotta pull the patio boat out of the water for the winter at my folks' cabin that weekend.

paying someone to do the install will cut down on the parts budget big time.

glad the school was so much fun. i loved my experience there a few years back. you outta be up front at the next mines run eh??? did any of you guys get dean as an instructor?

Thanks for the offer of help Toby. It doesn't look like I'm going to get to these until after the autox in Sonoma. This coming weekend is a holiday, the one after that is the German Autofest and then after that is the autox. Let me know if you're avail on the weekend of 9/25-26. Maybe I can entice a couple of others to join in as well. I know I live a long ways from most of you.

[cbeers]

Hey Chris,

A little hectic right now for me on time, but keep me in the loop. I can at least keep the beer flowing

I do have some tools, compressor etc so let me know, I'd be happy to throw them in to the truck and help out. Plus, it would be another chance for me to learn.

Let me know


-Chris

[jrdavid68]

Hi Chris, it was nice to meet you this weekend. I have a new appreciation for those that work the timing trailer!

When it comes to upgrades, I'm not your typical Pelican.

I prefer to use Akkurat (sponsors for this years Auto-x School). I drop off the car, we talk about what I want done, I come back later, give them my credit card and drive home.

Not the cheapest way to go, but those guys know what they are doing. I am a self proclaimed "checkbook wrench". I don't own much for tools, I don't have much spare time and I prefer to drive my car when I do have time.

Ross

[32Flat6]

I was driving one of the turbos and deeppurple is right, the straights on the long course were not long enough to hit 130. No time to check the speedo but I was able to top out 2nd (~65 mph) and get a little bit into third. So, maybe 80. Still plenty fast for an autocross. Add in minimal waiting between runs and it was a blast. Highly recommended for those considering the school next year.

Kevin