my low budget dream car build

[shamrok]

Originally Posted by chrisbalich

Now, I need you guys to print me a side marker delete bit for the other side...

Yes! Get out of my head plz

[shamrok]

Originally Posted by brasch

If we can get about 20 orders we should be able to sell for $60'ish or cheaper with more volume...

Awesome, love it and thanks for the update.

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by brasch

I’m down to design one, you all want it to look like the lens only black?

I'd rather have a piece that emulates the rub strip.
It could be mostly hollow to save on materials.

[Jonny042]

Originally Posted by chrisbalich

I'd rather have a piece that emulates the rub strip.
It could be mostly hollow to save on materials.

There is a factory part that euro cars used, might be worth to buy one to emulate - not sure if they are left/right specific.

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by Jonny042

There is a factory part that euro cars used, might be worth to buy one to emulate - not sure if they are left/right specific.

I know. And I think you can even get them from Pelican. But they were close to $100 last time I looked. That's just silly for a 5" (125mm) long piece of rubber with two screws bonded in.
If Bryan and Co are able to spit them out for $30-60, and sell their scoops for ~60, that's both pieces for little more than either of the existing bits.

And I have a soft spot for DIY and small business.

[freesaints]

I'm in for the side marker delete piece as well. Looked at the one our host sells and no way am I paying that much for that little piece.

[brasch]

I will start a new thread, but here is a mockup based on the Scoop Chris has of ours

[Flojo]

I have that long known eBay-scoop…
it is nice in the garage when walking around the car when hitting your shinbone on it...

[chrisbalich]

Not much progress lately. But some parts have started trickling in.


These are the bits I really needed to get started raising the spindles, but then my personal economy was stimulated and I went and spent a bunch more money with our friends over at Elephant. Those bits are scheduled to arrive on June 2...unless FedEx decides to deliver them to the wrong house 40 miles away like they did with the rest of my most recent Pelican order. Fortunately, the expensive bits made their way here safely.
I haven't checked the weekend weather, but it looks poopy outside right now. I may get started tearing the suspension all apart in preparation for raising spindles and replacing bushings.
I've been very unmotivated this week, and need to break out of this funk. I like to think that if I restore some front suspension travel to the 911 and can drive it with less trepidation, I will feel better in general.
I probably ought to get my sandblaster up and running so I can properly clean up any suspension bits I pull off the car.

Either all of that in the immediate future, or I'm going to venture out into the woods with my bike and a tent and try to just feel better.

50:50 odds right now.

[VWLoosenuts]

Originally Posted by chrisbalich

Then, it was time for more glamour shots. This time with a little old/new flavor.


And a little side-by-side comparo of my tucked rear and the 964's badonka-donk.


I've got plenty to keep me busy in the coming weeks, so I'll keep you guys updated as I make incremental progress.

[chrisbalich]

Good morning, Team!!

Despite all the dischord in our world right now, I managed to have a pretty good weekend. Let's jump right in.
You can't make an Easter basket without breaking a few eggs...or eating some candy. Something like that. IDK. I'm not really into holidays. *I do like candy*

So I had to pull the front shock assemblies off the car. Hooray for pulling off freshly bled calipers!


Then, I stripped down the shock assemblies.


Inserts out. These are definitely not new. If this is what 40 year old Bilsteins look like, IDK how a person could buy anything else. :shrug:


A little time-warp action, and you can see where this is all going. Am I doing this right? Hard to say. I'm out here full-time winging it.


Here is some evidence of just how steep the learning curve is when milling/grinding out the OE rosette weld is.

To press these hogs up the shock housing requires something that will fit over the housing, fit nicely on the spindle collar, and be strong enough to withstand 100M metric tonnes of force. (not really. maybe 90M metric tonnes. Sorry. I got a little caught up in the moment.) I turned some stainless exhaust pipe into some artistic shapes and went exploring in my house for things to try. Turns out the part of my engine stand that grips the engine and rotates in the stand part of the stand is exactly all the things I needed. Stand. So I stripped off the little arms and slipped it over the shock housing. It worked perfect. At this point, I felt like a proper hillbilly. But it's not crazy if it works. Amirite?

With both spindles sufficiently lifted, I installed fresh rosette welds (plugging those horrific holes in the collars) and then added another ~3/4" of weld on the lower edge of the collar to shock housing. Secured like Ft Knox.

At this point, it had become clear I had no idea wtf I was up to. Some supervision was required.


Under the watchful eye of Kelly, I removed the brake hose brackets and the other brackets that do fork-all on my car. The shock housings were smoothed and cleaned, the brake hose brackets were relocated 40mm north of their previous locations, the offensive hole in the the first shock was patched, and I shot those suckers with some paint. I don't happen to stock Bilstein green, but I do generally have black. Once the black was [mostly] dry, I slipped on the Elephant short shock wipers and this happened.


Even the least keen-eyed among you will have by now noticed that there's a wee bit of jewelry in that last photo. Those are the Rebel adjustable bump-steer kit from a previous post. I'm not a race car scientist. (This should be painfully obvious to anyone who's read any of my posts, met me, or probably even heard of me.) But I'm decent at arithmetic and passable with logic. So I set the bump steer kit at 40mm of correction. I know that raising the spindles 40mm doesn't mean you set the bump kit at 40mm, but I also decently lowered it beyond what the spindle-raising adventure netted me, so I figured it was a place to start. Seriously. You've got to just try stuff and see what happens when you don't have the resources to hire an actual professional.
And if you think this whole thing hasn't been disturbing enough, just wait. There's more.
I left in the rack spacers. *triggering intensifies*

Lo and behold, a dark picture that without context would mean very little to most of the populous. But as we're here, safely amongst enthusiasts, we see that I'm illustrating the clearance between balljoint and wheel barrel. This is after raising the spindles 40mm. I did heed the advice of one JPNovak and 'measured' clearance before taking the car apart with a 40mm tall socket and there was room aplenty.

This picture is taken through the wheel from the outside.


Around this time in my story, you'd think this saga was over. And I forgive you for that.
I set the car on the ground, readjusted the ride height, sat on the bumper, rolled it back and forth, bounced it, etc to settle it and took a peek at the toe.
Gads! I had ~2" of total toe-in. What the fork is this ship? I could feel a little panic in the back of my neckbones, so I leaned on my tenuous relationship with Google.
Turns out, that when a turbo tie rod conversion kit is purchased, it comes with these big honking washers that are to be installed betwixt the new tie rod and the existing steering rack. These act as rack-stops afaik. Either that, or ballast to keep the front end planted on the Mulsanne Straight. Either way, they are the washers mentioned in the Rebel bump steer kit instructions that are to be removed. Car back up stands, fuel pump skid plate of doom dropped, rack boots fought, tie rods untied, washers out. Installation is reverse of removal, and this junk is on my bench instead of under my car.


More in the next post as I can only post 10 pics per post.

[chrisbalich]

I'm back!
Actually, I never left. It just takes me forever to type out and then edit these diatribes. It's been taking me even longer now that I'm trying to upload my pictures to Pelican instead of using my Flickr. I digress.

With those huge washers removed, I set the car back on the ground. Toe was [miraculously] at 1/8-3/16" of total toe-in. That's good enough for a rip around the block.

With front suspension travel restored, the car was a total riot to drive. Still low enough to necessitate caution whilst traveling unknown roads, but an absolute ripper.

The next morning, I messaged a local VW enthusiast who sets up meets to see if anything local was happening. He said nada, but he was cruising up to Valparaiso (~130 miles away) to get some fancy wheels put on a client's car and asked if I wanted to cruise along. Valpo happens to be the next town south of where I grew up and my all-time absolute favorite pizza place has a location ~1/2 mile from the shop TJ was heading to. So I packed up an 11mm ratcheting wrench, a fancy multi-bit screwdriver, a pen light, and my laptop and away we went.


On the way back, TJ shot this.


In all, I clocked about 300 miles. The car has developed a bit of a pull to the right under hard braking from freeway speeds (70mph). I'm going to bleed the brakes again before I start getting too worried. And I identified a rattle that's been making me crazy when I drive over a lot of little bumps. I have my Rennline dash delete panel secured with only two rivets, the ignition bezel, and the headlight switch. I need to secure it another one or two places on the passenger side of the car and I think I'm fully rattle-free. Hooray!

[jpnovak]

Nice!

guess I should have posted this link last week.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/480047-koni-struts-raised-spindles-how-few-question.html

BTW, Mine took 19 tons of force on a 20ton press. They did not want to move. I also added bump steer correction to the ackerman arm because Rebel Racing didn't exist.

I think the highway pull will go away once you dial in 4 corner alignment and corner balance.

[jpnovak]

BTW, John Deere green is almost a perfect match to Bilstein Green.

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by jpnovak

Nice!

guess I should have posted this link last week.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/480047-koni-struts-raised-spindles-how-few-question.html

BTW, Mine took 19 tons of force on a 20ton press. They did not want to move. I also added bump steer correction to the ackerman arm because Rebel Racing didn't exist.

I think the highway pull will go away once you dial in 4 corner alignment and corner balance.

Originally Posted by jpnovak

BTW, John Deere green is almost a perfect match to Bilstein Green.

Thank you.
I'd searched and read a bunch of threads about raising the spindles before I got started, so I felt like I had a decent idea what I was up against. But as with all things, theory and reality are a little different.
I only have a 12ton press from Harbor Freight. I really didn't have to mash it very hard at all to get mine to move. Grinding out the whole weld was really the trick there. I got close with the largest drill bit I have (I wish I had an end mill.) and then finished it off with a carbide burr in a big die grinder. (leftovers from porting the heads for the LS I put in my old M3)
I added a little more spring on the front right at a gas stop (remember the 11mm ratcheting wrench?) and the pull improved. I agree the alignment is going to make a big difference.
Good tip on the John Deere green. That stuff is everywhere here in central IN.

[obscene]

that's a hell of a project for one weekend! nicely done!

[1979-930]

The front ride quality must have been like my 1980 Mini Truck on the bump stops for you to dive into the spindle raise this quick.
Nice job!

[Jonny042]

Nice work! And great progress! I bent my press trying to raise spindles. Had to find a bigger press, not only to raise the spindles, but to straighten the first press

[Jeffreypang911]

Sweet build! Love to see other DIY hotrod G bodies out there.

[chrisbalich]

Originally Posted by obscene

that's a hell of a project for one weekend! nicely done!

Thank you, my friend. The work hasn't stopped. Stay tuned.

Originally Posted by 1979-930

The front ride quality must have been like my 1980 Mini Truck on the bump stops for you to dive into the spindle raise this quick.
Nice job!

It was jarringly bad. (LOL - I'll see myself out.)

Originally Posted by Jonny042

Nice work! And great progress! I bent my press trying to raise spindles. Had to find a bigger press, not only to raise the spindles, but to straighten the first press

I must have been blessed by the car gods this weekend. I didn't really have any trouble pressing the collars up...and I used no heat.

Originally Posted by Jeffreypang911

Sweet build! Love to see other DIY hotrod G bodies out there.

Thank you!
We're still going strong. A couple more years and it may accidentally end up a nice car...