Rallyho progress

[paulh]

what if you just cut a slot in the tube down near where the shock pin comes into the tube, might weaken the tube a bit, but itll still be stronger than it was, and youll be able to work on it just like normal.

Paul

[Luke]

Well the problem with a slot is that you still wouldnt have enough room to turn a box wrench more than a couple degrees. I say cut the whole chebang out.

[Rallyho]

See, that's what ALL you engineering types suggest. Us knuckle draggers look upon that project kinda like uhhh, like trying to figure out a brake bias assembly for instance.

Luke, have you ever done full travel in the rear of a 99 with just the shock in place? how close is the shock to bottoming out before the bump stop does it's thing?

If an upper eyelet and corrisponding upper mount were put in place, I'm <guessing> it would increase the overall shock legth by about an inch.

[Luke]

If you put an eyelet on the shock you would want to move the mounting up to accomodate the longer length of the shock. The shock is close to bottoming already, I have stroked the suspension with no springs to check.

What if you just cut the tube off a couple inches above the shock "shelf", hole sawed a large hole where the stock pin hole is and then hang one of these from cut end of the tube.




Edit:

Or you could not cut the tube off and just hole saw out the stock mount out from inside and then cross drill the tube and weld bungs for rod end in the tube. The inly problem with this is it would be difficult to align the rod end to the cross bolt inside the closed tube.

[Rallyho]

Your first idea is what I was thinking...just wasn't going to raise it. But obviously I would need to do that. If I cut if off I would probably need to do some plating in there to support the tube so it doesn't "dangle."

Your second idea is an interesting one. I wonder how long I could make the shocks with extenders and an eyelet...enough so I could get that bung up so it was inside the cabin. maybe even align the bungs front to rear just under the cage junction...here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/thewhitesal ... 0620102434

[Rallyho]

Well, some paint fumes anyway.

Some paint managed to fall in the general vacinity of the car over the past week, with some more to come.

Along the way some other things like shock mounts, stupid RA rear cage plates, some weight was taken out of the rear quarter/hatch area, etc.

Once it gets back from the "the little paint shop of horrors" I can start bolting stuff on!

paint- silver with an orange swoosh and white interior
http://picasaweb.google.com/thewhitesal ... cember2007

cage plates and weight removal
http://picasaweb.google.com/thewhitesal ... talRemoval

[Jordan]

Looks great, what paint code did you end up going with?

[Rallyho]

I'll get the code...but I think both the silver and orange were mitsu.

They couldn't match up whatever PPG stuff I got with the saab #, and they could not cross ref the Triumph motorcycle stuff...so we just got as close as we could.

It's got paint on it...and it ain't perfect...which is perfect!

[Luke]

Looks awesome! There is nothing more motivating that fresh paint. Now comes the actual fun part of assembling the thing!
I hope to get the exterior done on my shell sometime this month as well, can't wait.

[Geoff]

is that 38 lb just sheet metal??

[Rallyho]

yeah. well, almost. It ended up being 41lbs when I was all done.

I removed:

most of the ribs from underneath the hatch
the hatch strikeplate
the heavy bar that runs from on top of the fuel tank (inside the car) back to the rear lip...some sort of crash thing
all the interior sheet metal that forms the inner layer up around the hatch, rear windows, up over the wheel wells, etc
the two diagonal sheet metal braces that are under the rear quarter windows

It looks much cleaner now and I figure if nothing else, they offset the battery being back there.

[Rallyho]

Huffed some more fumes last night:

http://picasaweb.google.com/thewhitesal ... cember2007

[Luke]

God damn, pretty freaking cool mike!

[Geoff]

I love that color combo! Super '70s! Are you sure that isn't a 99?! The orange is almost the same color as my '73 Honda motorcycle.

Now you need to figure out how to remove that much (or more) weight from the front of that car.

[Rallyho]

A quickie update on the car.

Work on:
Wiring
brakes
susp
interior
fuel
..has been started...but NONE is finished!

A few of us will be working on it this weekend. Gotta get this thing finished!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/thewhitesal ... tAndBrakes