2/14/11 Slowing Down

Just a quick one today. Yesterday my front brakes arrived. For some reason they decided the needed a signature for the rear brake box and not the front. I suspect they didn't feel like carrying the first box back to the truck, as it weighed around 50lbs.

In any case, the front brakes look great!.Here are comparison pics with the stockers. These things are massive!

I had planned to section a rear strut yesterday, but I got excited and installed these. First I removed the hubs and installed new bearings, then I bolted everything up. They look great. 

Hopefully I'll be able to test these out at the track day I signed up for on April 2nd at Limerock.

-W.W. SBSS

2/13/12 Fast Progress

I've been busy enough on the car that I haven't been good about updating, but here is what I've done over the past few days.

Since my front struts arrived, I sectioned them and put together the front suspension. Here's how.

First I admired my large pile of new parts.

The reason struts need to be sectioned is to maintain adequate suspension travel after lowering the car. Sectioning the strut allows you to use a shorter strut insert. Here are the old and new strut inserts. As you can see, the new one is a little over an inch shorter.

Then I took an old strut housing.

Then I cut off the spring perch.

And ground the weld smooth.

And cleaned up the grime off the housing.

Then I used a pipe cutter to cut the strut housing in half. The pipe cutter is useful because it makes a *nearly* perpendicular cut. I still had to turn one side on the lathe to get it perfect. 

Then another cut is made to make the struts a little over an inch shorter

And the edges are chamfered for welding.

And clamped into a bit of angle iron for welding. Note the old strut in the housing to maintain straightness.

Tacked

Seamed.(ugly weld)

Ground down so the new spring perch can fit over. 

New spring perches are made from 2" sch 40 pipe. 

Tacked on. Note the etched finish now in preparation for paint.

Seamed.

Painted

Puppy.

I had to turn the inside of the isolators to get them to fit over the new struts. Not a big deal. 

Lather rinse repeat on the other side and I re-assembled the front suspension.

The rear struts came in on Saturday so I will start installing them tonight. The brakes should also arrive tonight. Stay tuned.

-W.W. SBSS

2/6/12 Fun While it Lasted

We're losing the shop. 

Yes it's very sad. The financing on the development finally came through so the entire building will be torn down soon. We always knew this was a possibility, and now it looks like we have around one month to finish up and get out of there. We will try to get another shop in the near future, but for now we will be without a shop starting in March.

This also means that I have a month to get my car on the road. This is WAY less time than I thought I would have, but I think it is possible. In the days since I found out, I have spent an unreasonable amount of money on parts for my car. But it's for a good cause and my car will be pretty well sorted by the time I have to leave. 

First, I ordered my brakes. I got a full Wilwood 12.2" setup from Arizona Z Car. These are HUGE beefy brakes. Mine will look like the kit below with a slightly smaller caliper. The only downside is I lose the parking brake, but that's what a brick stored behind the seat is for... I also ordered a 1" Wilwood master cylinder from JEGS. 

I also finally ordered struts. I found the fronts on ebay and picked up some half price rears from JohnC at betamotorsports (the rears are missing the adjuster knob). Springs are ordered from Summit Racing. 

I also got a new glass to hatch seal so I can put the glass in the 1905 hatch. 

Saturday I spent all day in the shop putting my car back together. I started putting my front suspension back in with the new energy suspension bushing kit. 

Everything except the strut housings are in. I ordered a 280z bushing kit because it came with the rear sway bar bushings, but it turns out the steering rack bushings are a bit wider as well. I trimmed them down with a sharp knife and was in business. I wish I had time to paint everything, but that will have to be for another day.

Also on saturday, I ended up buying the CB650 back. It turns out the VIN on the title doesn't match the VIN on the bike. I never noticed this when I bought it, and probably never would have even if I registered it and rode it. I probably shouldn't have, but I bought it back from the guy I sold it to and relisted it with the newly discovered information disclosed. Sometimes I think I'm too nice...

Sunday I went shopping at CB's place. I picked up a new heater control panel, a hatch glass trim piece, seat belts, a 5 point racing harness, a new radiator and lower radiator hose, and a 2+2 brake booster to use with my 1" master to reduce the pedal effort. 

Today I ordered a new carpet kit from ebay. I was going to do the home depot carpet thing, but the ebay prices were too good to turn down and they had good reviews.

The wheels I want, shown below, are back-ordered, so probably won't be able to get them for two months, but I may be able to borrow a set from CB.

Stay tuned for FAST progress. 

-W.W. SBSS

2/1/12 Hard Lines

I spent a couple hours in the shop last night getting the brake hardlines out of the 72. I first tilted the shell on its side with my gantry.

Getting back under this car after spending so much time under the new one, it really is scary how rusty this is. I am VERY glad to be working on a new, clean car. 

After many 7mm bolts I got the hardlines and proportioning blocks out of the car. 

It doesn't look like much, but between bending and flaring this is a huge pain in the butt to make from scratch. I'm glad to reuse some more parts from my rusty old 72.

I also painted some more suspension parts. 

Thats all for today

-W.W. SBSS

1/31/12 This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

There are typically two reasons why we can't have nice things. Either someone else ruins it or we ruin it ourselves. Yesterday I saw good examples of both. I saw a slightly beat up z32 300zx turbo parked near my apartment. Being a Z guy I noticed it immediately. Passing it this morning, I saw that someone had smashed it's back window. That sucks. Please excuse the awful picture.

This next one was a decent car ruined by its owner. Above is a Porsche 944. If you can't tell what's wrong with it, let me show you a photo with flash.

Yes, it seems that the owner has added a bunch of fluorescent yellow trim to the rear of this car. Maybe the front isn't as bad.

IT IS AS BAD! If you look closely, there are even different and clashing shades of fluorescent yellow stripe on the car. Let's take a closer look 

First of all, the state of the natural paint on the car is appalling. It's faded, the clearcoat is gone and its scratched everywhere. Just in case you didn't  know, it's a 944. It says so on the front...and back.... and on the hood.... and on the roof... Wait wait wait is that a prancing horse? I know there's a tiny horse in the Porsche logo, but the image is much more traditionally associated with Ferrari. For a car that proclaims it's identity on every panel, it really causes a bit of an identity crisis. 

Even more logo ridiculousness on the hood. This is the problem with affordable cars from exotic companies. Unlike their more expensive bigger brothers, they are used and abused as daily drivers, and fall into disrepair. Some, like this guy, use the prestigious badge to try, in vain, to distract from the fact that the car is old and in bad shape.

This is why we can't have nice things.

-W.W. SBSS

1/30/12 More Insulation

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but between selling (and dropping off) the 650 and some other things in life, I've only been able to spend one real day in the shop since my last post, but I made it count.

One of the reasons I haven't been in the shop more is that on Thursday I got pulled over in the city. I was riding through one of the central park transverses, and as I got to Central Park West, I fed forward to the front of the line of cars waiting for the light. This is a pretty safe practice that dramatically reduces the number of rear end accidents motorcyclists experience. That said, it's still illegal so the cop waiting at the corner pulled me over. I gave him my info, knowing full well that my VA motorcycle registration was very much expired, as I haven't lived there since...June 2010. He came back about 20 minutes later. Gave me the ticket for 'passing in the same lane' then asked me if this bike was registered. I told him it should be. He said it was coming back as unregistered, and the expired registration I gave him came up as a 'red suzuki'. "OH YEAH! Yes, officer, it used to be red, but now it's carbon fiber."

Two tickets and a little more than $300 later I was riding the remaining 5 blocks to my apartment. I can't really be upset, because I did sortof deserve both tickets, particularly the registration one. Feeding forward really should be legal though.

As a result, I spent much of Saturday getting my Jersey licence again and registering the bike in NJ. Now I'm all legal again.

In the shop yesterday I spent most of my time on the interior of the Z. First I finished installing the FAT MAT sound deadener. in the rear hatch area.

Installing this stuff isn't hard, but it takes a toll on your hands. the foil backing is pretty sharp, so I have a bunch of deep cuts on my fingers from pressing it down to the metal. Oh well.

I installed it on both the outer and inner door skin. It is truly amazing how much 'ring' it takes out of the door. Instead of the door sounding like I hit a steel drum when I close it, it sounds like hitting a mattress with a hammer. 'Clang' to 'Thunk' if you get what I mean. It's kinda hard to describe....

Even being pretty liberal with it, I still have quite a bit of the 100sqft I ordered left. This is good because the package weighed 40lbs, and I'm a bit more comfortable adding 25lbs to my car than I am adding 40. I really will make a huge difference in sound. 

I also started with the EZ Cool. I say started because I vastly underestimated how much I'd need and ran out. Taking some cues from the EZ Cool testimonials page, I started by wrapping the inside of the interior plastics with it. 

This stuff is VERY lightweight, but it isn't peel and stick like the FATMAT. I'm using some loctite spray adhesive that not super strong, but is more than strong enough for this purpose. I have no doubt that I could remove all of the EZ Cool easily (hehe).

With a few of the major interior panels done, I started to do the floors.

This stuff is very easy (hehe) to work with, and putting your hand against it you can really tell how much heat it actually reflects. The only problem is that one roll got me a floor and a half plus a couple of panels. I need at least one more roll, probably two if I want to do the hatch. 

I also made a Home Depot run with JB and picked up some carpet padding. I still have to figure out what carpet I'm gonna use. 

Slowly but surely.

-W.W. SBSS

1/23/12 In with the New

There has been some shuffling of the bikes in the shop recently. For one, there is now a cute little Peugeot 103 moped in the shop. I am fixing some small issues (and possibly modifying it to hit 50mph from it's current top speed of 20 or so) for a friend.

Yesterday a guy came by to look at the CB650 and put down a deposit. I'll be delivering the bike to him tomorrow. It's a bit sad to see it and the 700 go, but it makes room for a new project to be named shortly...

On Saturday it snowed for the first real time this season. This made the city very pretty, even the subway was improved by the flurry.

This also gave me an opportunity to behave like a child in the snow on the moped. All in the name of 'testing'.

I also installed sound deadening in the floor of the Z. I still have to do the cargo area and possibly the doors. and rear fenders. I also have to install my heat insulation on top of it. The interior is coming together though.

-W.W. SBSS