In cutting out the big ol hole for the battery box, I over shot on this edge. 
I was left with plenty pieces of sheet metal to make a patch with. It’s always nice to patch with pieces of same metal, when the pieces are different thicknesses it can get tricky getting a good heat and speed in welding without blowing holes in the thinner piece. Continue reading ‘Patchy’
Archive for the 'car' Category
The Ckuckster brought over his little speed demon over to do some welding on the shock towers. He’s converting from torsion bar to coil over, which means the shock mount will be supporting the weight of the car, which it wasn’t originally designed for. For a little peace of mind he decided to complete the welding on the seams of the mount. 
A little clean up and he went to town with the welder. Scat slid by just as we were starting and laid down some metal also. No fabrication needed, so it wasn’t anything too difficult. Continue reading ‘Of Shocks and Batteries’
Weekend started with finishing off the front end grill area of the Scat Sled. We knew what we were going to do so the work went faster. Chuckster showed up in the morning so getting the turn signal patch cutout, flattened and tacked in was done by lunchtime! The patch was soon fully welded in and by the end of the day all the center seams were also welded, and there was still daylight left! Movie here.
Is there some new addition to the HRS that I haven’t heard of? I think it’s an intentional falsehood meant to freak people out. I’m sure if a law regulating this actually passed, the news media would have been abuzz about it for at least a week. In any case, hasn’t the danger of phone/gas pump interactions has been thoroughly debunked, the most familiar example being by Mythbusters? Of course, I took the picture with my phone while filling gas!
Saw the vanity plate, “BF8FUL”. I’m fairly certain this individual is of the evangelical, new-fashion religious variety (“be faithful”) and not the meat-loving variety (“beef ate full”). Too bad he or she doesn’t have a full command of English, since the plate reads “be fateful” and not “be faithful”. There’s a big difference there (hint: go check a dictionary). Maybe this is one of the friends of the “discreet”/”discrete” guys…
(0)Saturday after a long break, had the SCCA RallyCross out at KRP. As always, insane fun! The space we had to work with was drastically cut, but we made do with what we had.
Here’s one on car view of one of my runs:
It sounds pretty good run like this, I like! The new CV shafts held up, looks like the main nut also at the bearing stayed tight. Only big problem I had was the generic made in Chine silicone hose on my intake failed. Duct tape to the rescue! I’ll have to find some real hose and fab up a good mounting bracket. The little FX that can is a contender here, with some good driving I know it can place in the top. Only major tweaking that would be nice is if I could find a set of the mythical TRD FX rally springs and some good struts to go with them.
Saw a block-and-long-U-bolt lifted F250 pickup with four super-expensive external-reservoir Fox Racing Shox dampers across the back axle. Too bad the outer two were at the inboard 1/3rd distance stock Ford locations where they do little to moderate roll, and the other two were installed on either side of the differential housing. WTF?!?! The money would have been better spent on a real off-road coil-and-4-bar rear suspension and TWO Fox dampers.
(0)A note to the girl with the giant Kardashian-wannabe sunglasses who while trying to tailgate me on the LikeLike onramp in her 9th-gen Civic sedan went sliding into the outside curb in full-lock understeer on dry pavement – your salesman lied to you when he told you that the Honda Civic is a sports car. …oh, and guess what? I wasn’t even out of second gear!
(0)Whew, been working on the rally FX the past week to get it ready for the SCCA display at the First Hawaiian Auto Show this weekend. I went at the paint with the DA polisher and had to find some new polishing pads for it. Time for a plug for Pak Shak, an auto detailing supplies shop right off of Sand Island Road. The dude was very knowledgable, and helpful. He knows his stuff and gave excellent suggestions, and never tried to push anything. I picked up a backer and some pads for my Porter Cable. If you’re picky about country of origin of your tools, you can get from them German made polishers, although you will paya good premium. Anyway, after a full day of work, the paint had quite a shine, probably not seen since it left the dealer! I can’t imagine doing this without power tools. And micro fiber towels. What the heck did people use before these? They work awesome! If you’re not doing anything this weekend, come check out the show. I’ll be working the SCCA booth on the second floor from 7PM on Saturday. You can check out the most awesomest FX16 in Hawaii. Or possibly the last of two in this state that hasn’t completely rusted away anyway, yet.
I’m glad my old car predates the higher mandated door height for passenger vehicles. Even with the door beams and side airbags, it’s probably not as safe as a current car in side impacts, but at least I can actually see out the side of my car. Also, aesthetically my car doesn’t look all “gangsta” with tall door sheetmetal and tiny windows like a gen2 Scion xB or Chrysler 300. My sills are around 20cm (8″) below the Scion tC parked next to me. That’s like barely below my sight line!