| 03-20-2012 |
It has really warmed up here in the last couple of weeks. Fortunately that means my cheap transportation is back on the road. It doesn't look like much and it's not too fast but it gets between 65-70 mpg, which means I have mobility and huge savings in gas money. I just got the fairing last winter and it makes all the difference in the world in ease of riding. In the past if I went very far any speed above 50 mph would leave me exhausted because of constantly having to fight against the wind pushing against me. Also, I had to wear a faceshield at all times because the wind hitting my helmet would pull back on the top of it causing me to get chocked by the strap. Also, getting hit by whatever massive bugs we have (I suspect humming birds??? hehe) were painful, but really, really painful when they'd hit you in the face. With this fairing I can ride all day long at any speed and not be exhausted.
Today was the day I'd been looking forward to for quite a while. The frame came back from the sand blasters yesterday and all the parts for the IFS are finally here. I started by measuring and installed the rear spring mounts from the location hole I drilled when the body was on the frame.
After getting all the new holes measured and drilled for the new mounts I installed the springs. I had to call Chassis Engineering technical support to make sure the greater than 90 degree angle on the rear shackles was acceptable. They said that was fine and that as long as it's between 90 and 45 degrees it's good. It's bad is when it leans forward. I found out that the further back it goes the softer the ride.
Then I had to get the spring mount lined up and the holes drilled. I had drilled one location hole when the body was still on the frame. The mount is very close to the body so the mounting had to be very precise. I used the one hole on each side I made to locate the remaining holes.
With that done I slid the rear end up under the springs. I'm going to have to cut the perches off the Ford 8.8 rear end and reweld them outward. This means I'm going to have to reset the pinion angle, which I don't know how to do yet but I know I'll need to have the engine and transmission mocked up first.
Then it was time to start on the front crossmember. We took great pain in trying to measure as accurately as possible. My friend Nick stopped by after work and he took over drilling one of the more difficult holes.
This about wraps up today's progress. Tomorrow I'm going to see how far I can get on the rest of the IFS installation and the new core support for the radiator showed up today. I could have used the original one but it would have involved me cutting it up and I wanted to save it in case we ever go back all original with this car.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to also order a transmission crossmember because even if the new transmission can be made to fit I believe the new power brake system will have to mount in such a way that will require removing the old crossmember and installing a new one. I guess I'll have to find out.
