Driven Daily Hillclimb Racer
02-26-17, 11:13 PM
#76
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This weekend, Mike (my co-builder/crewchief) and I attended the rules/awards banquet. Mt Washington changes everything for the season, and because so many more folks will attend our events to shake down their cars, the season schedule has already been announced. That's great for me, because it lets me solidify our schedule for the season.
Working around the "start in late May" schedule, there are two autocross events I can attend at NHMS. That should be enough shakedown to be able to trust the car, but Ascutney is known for being the car that will shake out whatever your car's weakest link is. Assuming we want to shakedown in late April, that gives us around 7 weekends left to get the car on its own wheels. It's a tall order, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
Once we got back from that banquet, we dove back into the front suspension. After lots of measuring, coping, measuring, adjusting, measuring, and confirming ... we finally have suspension pickups welded in place.
I'm super happy with how that upper control arm tube turned out. Now we need one more, then line up the subframe pickups on the bottom. Once that's done, we focus on the (s13 240sx) rear suspension, and the car should be able to roll around on its own after that.
Working around the "start in late May" schedule, there are two autocross events I can attend at NHMS. That should be enough shakedown to be able to trust the car, but Ascutney is known for being the car that will shake out whatever your car's weakest link is. Assuming we want to shakedown in late April, that gives us around 7 weekends left to get the car on its own wheels. It's a tall order, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
Once we got back from that banquet, we dove back into the front suspension. After lots of measuring, coping, measuring, adjusting, measuring, and confirming ... we finally have suspension pickups welded in place.
I'm super happy with how that upper control arm tube turned out. Now we need one more, then line up the subframe pickups on the bottom. Once that's done, we focus on the (s13 240sx) rear suspension, and the car should be able to roll around on its own after that.
03-04-17, 06:01 PM
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I spent some time on the crossmember and lower control arm pickup points, but it'll take a little bit more refinement before I call it done.
03-05-17, 05:40 PM
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I got this far before I had another set of hands to see where the hub ends up relative to the fenderwell.
The current wheelbase is 90" ... but I have everything set up for 94" as it turns out. Luckily, now that I've established my design, it should be quick to reproduce.
The current wheelbase is 90" ... but I have everything set up for 94" as it turns out. Luckily, now that I've established my design, it should be quick to reproduce.
03-06-17, 06:20 PM
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I really must've gotten a lot of dust in my eye when I cut all that work out.
... What? No, I wasn't crying. Like I said, dust. Someone must've been sweeping before I got to the shop ... or something. Definitely not crying.
After I pulled myself back together, I got everything aligned on all the planes. Then I got to work on the first (and most important) tube: The subframe mount tube.
... What? No, I wasn't crying. Like I said, dust. Someone must've been sweeping before I got to the shop ... or something. Definitely not crying.
After I pulled myself back together, I got everything aligned on all the planes. Then I got to work on the first (and most important) tube: The subframe mount tube.
looks piped 
03-13-17, 02:59 PM
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Progress has been slow this week, as I'm the only one in the shop and most of the work on the todo list requires two sets of hands. On the bright side, that frees me up to edit more video.
03-15-17, 10:41 PM
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I decided that trying to make the front suspension happen by myself wasn't working, so today I switched to the rear subframe pickups. I'm really glad I did, that little change of focus solved my mental block, and I was glad to be back in the shop.
Last edited by driven-daily; 03-15-17 at 10:42 PM. Reason: img link
03-17-17, 09:06 PM
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Continuing on that trend, I started welding in the pickups today.
The front pickups for the rear subframe:
The rear pickup (one of two) for the rear subframe:
Every day, it's a little closer to rolling around on its own wheels.
The front pickups for the rear subframe:
The rear pickup (one of two) for the rear subframe:
Every day, it's a little closer to rolling around on its own wheels.
05-07-17, 05:27 PM
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Well, the s30 definitely won't be ready for the first hillclimb event (Ascutney) but we've been making brisk progress on it lately. This weekend we changed gears a little, and put some time into the race hauler instead of the race car.
I had made the mistake of ordering a gasoline filler neck for it a few months ago, which doesn't accept the larger diesel fillers (I didn't know this until I stopped for a fillup). It's still held up by a bungee cord, but at least I don't have to remove the filler from the tube every time I want to fill the tank any more.
Up next: The coolant system had a slow leak for awhile, but it recently became critical (which is why I parked it). We spent some time isolating the source of the leak, finding the right(ish) replacement hose, and breaking our fingers to get them to fit in place.
Then we turned our attention to the interior. Ugh. Just ... It was disgusting. This used to be a roofing truck, so there's tar everywhere on it. Seats, in the box, all over the dash, steering wheel ... everywhere. The floor had some housing carpet pad with vinyl on top, and wasn't sealed. Everything smelled of mildew and sadness, and the whole truck just felt soggy. After tearing out the flooring, we found enough dirt to plant a garden. It may have been growing, for all I know. That channel above the rockers had around 6" of packed-in mud.
After a lot of cleaning, wire wheeling, and some phosphoric acid, we threw a bit of primer & paint at it.
I haven't decided what kind of long-term coating to put on it yet. I have a bunch of POR15 left over, but I don't know how well it'll hold up to this kind of environment. I'm open to any suggestions you folks might have. Everything's reassembled right now, and the next project will be finishing up the box itself (hopefully this week).
I had made the mistake of ordering a gasoline filler neck for it a few months ago, which doesn't accept the larger diesel fillers (I didn't know this until I stopped for a fillup). It's still held up by a bungee cord, but at least I don't have to remove the filler from the tube every time I want to fill the tank any more.
Up next: The coolant system had a slow leak for awhile, but it recently became critical (which is why I parked it). We spent some time isolating the source of the leak, finding the right(ish) replacement hose, and breaking our fingers to get them to fit in place.
Then we turned our attention to the interior. Ugh. Just ... It was disgusting. This used to be a roofing truck, so there's tar everywhere on it. Seats, in the box, all over the dash, steering wheel ... everywhere. The floor had some housing carpet pad with vinyl on top, and wasn't sealed. Everything smelled of mildew and sadness, and the whole truck just felt soggy. After tearing out the flooring, we found enough dirt to plant a garden. It may have been growing, for all I know. That channel above the rockers had around 6" of packed-in mud.
After a lot of cleaning, wire wheeling, and some phosphoric acid, we threw a bit of primer & paint at it.
I haven't decided what kind of long-term coating to put on it yet. I have a bunch of POR15 left over, but I don't know how well it'll hold up to this kind of environment. I'm open to any suggestions you folks might have. Everything's reassembled right now, and the next project will be finishing up the box itself (hopefully this week).
06-23-17, 11:01 AM
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06-26-17, 01:11 AM
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I had updated my forum passwords, and it took me awhile to get my passwords synchronized to the machines I normally use for forums. You beat me to it, AGAIN!
06-26-17, 10:24 AM
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Prep is well underway. I picked up a spare gearbox, cleaned it up, and replaced the front and rear seals, as well as rebuilding the spare clutched limited slip differential.
I picked up some new 245-40R15 tires from Maxxis.
I put the car into what I call "service mode"
Air conditioning and power steering came out, dropping a lot of weight off the front of the car.
Then it all came back together for a bit more fender trimming and basic aero mounting.
I picked up some new 245-40R15 tires from Maxxis.
I put the car into what I call "service mode"
Air conditioning and power steering came out, dropping a lot of weight off the front of the car.
Then it all came back together for a bit more fender trimming and basic aero mounting.