Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Roll bar, e-brake, trunk inner panel, misc.

Tonight I installed the hoop. It must be fitted before the body goes on because its nearly impossible after that point.



After removing it I installed the last inner trunk piece by riveting it in.



Next I got the e-brake functioning properly.



Earlier today Scott and I took the car out a few times. We noticed the rear passenger wheel would rub under acceleration or around a curve. So later, I removed the rear wheels and massaged the aluminum in a bit to prevent that from happening again. I also adjusted the rear springs a little to bring the rear of the car a bit higher. I did this because there was more wheel gap between the fender and front wheels than the rear fender and wheels. So this should equal things out as well as give the rear wheels a little more room so they don't rub.

We also received the Excalibrator. I had American Muscle add a custom tune specifically for the car. It eliminates the engines need for the EGR (our check engine light is no longer on) and maximizes the parameters to premium fuel and the upgrades our car has. It even took into account the rear end ratio and tire/wheel size. The nice thing is Ludi can just plug it in and adjust a lot of the parameters like spark, air/fuel ratios, rev limit, and top speed to name a few. Additionally, if the cars check engine light ever comes on he can plug the device in and see exactly why and diagnose the problem without bringing it somewhere as well as reset it. The stock tune is also on the programmer so you can simply plug it in and choose to switch it back to stock if you really want.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Primed

The car is almost completely primed and ready to paint!



Thursday, September 6, 2007

Car back from Performance Wheel

John called around and got a variety of different inner and outer tie rod ends until he came up with the best possible match. Unfortunately, the wheel is not adjustable and it isn't right in the center (it's too far away to just adjust the tie rods further as well). The car drives perfectly straight and John was very impressed with how it went down the road. To get the wheel perfectly centered I may bring the steering shaft to a machine shop, have them cut and then re-weld it at the right spot. Hopefully we'll have the body back very soon so the car can get finished up.