Project Car / Motorbike thread. Let's see 'em.

[Toff]

Good to see something thrown up here that has some retro-cool factor... this is what this thread was intended for. Project cars and bikes... not endless talk about late model cars and... brake pads!!

Late models can still be projects! But thanks anyway, love the RX2.

Mother. Of god.

Good, bad or other?

are those genuine compomotives? sick ride, love the semirat look

Don't reckon so, at least not going by the price payed

4 door mk1 golf with 5 spoke wheels are fucking awesome.
k-jet? 1.5T? restore to orginal? colour? sooo many questions!

Cheers!


It's actually a joint project between me and my old man, he had a '77 GLS back in the day and loved it so I talked him into a nice project car. Currently it's the stock 1.6 carbi 4spd with mostly original interior, but has a few nice bits including corsshair headlights, blanked grille and height adjustable coilovers all round (still has another ~2" to go down from the picture ).

Going to get another one on monday, only missing an alternator and sump, but chances are the body will be in better nick (less rust) and if that's the case, we might go ahead and strip it down to a bare shell and do a bare metal respray (thinking original pale blue with white rims [possibly Simmons B45's?]). Then follow it up with an injected 16v 1.8l and 5spd and finish off with some better seats + stereo. End product will be dads new daily (and mine when the RX7 isn't going/ too cold or wet for the motorbike) so nothing too powerful or fancy.

 

[floody]

I bought these 2 datto 620 utes off my mates dad for $700. Plans are to use the blue chassis, it is a lwb with 1998 navara front disk brakes with probably the white cab and all the best parts from each one. I want to make it like a rat rod with some japanese style like fender mirrors. Also airbags in the rear and drop spindles in the front. What do you think?

Good buy.
What do I think....You had to ask...

Japan doesn't do flat trays. So anything "Japanese Style" should have a tub; and fender mirrors alone doesn't make something "Japanese Style".
I think you are trying for too many styles. Make it Japanese styled*, or make it a rat rod, or cali style, whatever. Take some elements from here and there but stick to one main theme idea.
Also flat black does not a ratrod make, and fake patina mostly sucks.

*The vast majority of 70s-80s custom utes and vans in Japan are...Cal styled. Yep yank plates, yank wheels, even left steer swaps.



I reckon one low with a tub, clean straight body, tidy stock trim, and a set of nice billets, period correct 14-15" 5 slot alloys or D-hole steels (i.e. procomp rockcrawlers), at a usable level of low would be heaps cooler than some shaved tempe wheeled sackrider 'minitruck'. Bagged would be cool if you could do it without hacking the hell out of it; once the metal is gone, you won't find more! That and if you could miraculously make it legal, otherwise it will be hacked up AND unusable.


ratsun.net has some excellent forums for 320/520/521/620/720s.

Keep it simple, keep it true to what it is, and you'll have something truly cool.

 

[Ivan]

^^^^Those Datto's are shaweet.

 

[shitbmxrider]

Back in January, some tealeaf decided he wanted my TE510 Supermotard more than I did.


And I, stupidly, didn't have in insured.


Well, two days ago, I pulled the trigger on a 2006 Husky SMRR450 that I found on the web out of Brisbane.... It will be down to Melbourne before christmas....

And I am looking very, very forward to it.

Now I just have to buy some tyre warmers, a genset, and get my leathers fixed... wooooo

 

[floody]

...That and organise some insurance.

 

[juzzo]

finally some progress! New intake is on (stainless) and BOV blocked. 5 stud conversion is complete. Also grabbed some castor arms and put the wheels on. Just goin to play around with the fitment til I'm happy. Needs more low and an alignment but at least its out of my garage

Juzzo

 

[Venciferus]

Madness juzzo been on track yet?

 

[benji boy]

36e

So this is a project... BMW E36 328i
things that i have done,
Coils
Wheels
massive stereo
cold air intake
front strut brace
HID all round
clear indys

things to come,
as seeing as i get my full licience next month im purchasing a supercharger kit (this also means getting a tune and new computer)
LSD
Exhaust (currently have M3)
camber adjust arms.
M3 kit
Big Brake kit
Short Shift Kit
new clutch
rear strut bar
Complete custom boot install and speaker pods on front door and if i feel like it the rear tray.

 

[juzzo]

Madness juzzo been on track yet?

Not in ts current state. When I first got it I took it to Queensland raceway for a practice night and apart from the understeer due to shitty cheap arse steer tyres and the intake closing on full boost it went pretty well. Its also repping r32 seats which are so much better then the stock ceffy seats and a deep dish wheel.

 

[Norco Maniac]

the TF Corty i built and drive everyday, posting it here as its going to my daughter next week. i'm heading to Lismore to pick up a Morris ute, need something to cart the bikes around on...

 

[udi]

One for the suspension nerds...

How much static toe in should I run on the back of a rwd for grip on street/mountain runs?

It's a multilink rearend and I've replaced most of the arms for rosejointed versions but there are still a lot of rubber bushings and therefore it's not rigid by any means. I have mapped out bumpsteer curves and have hopefully come up with a setup that minimises it / stops it going into toe out under compression.

Basically I don't really want it toeing out under any condition, and my worry is that it may do it under load thanks to the give in the bushings. I've pencilled in 1mm of toe in per side at the moment, my question is should I go higher than this to adequately compensate? 1.2? 1.5?

 

[brisneyland]

1mm seems to be the figure I see bandied about for both FWD and RWD applications.

In the excel we started with 0.5mm toe in on the rears. It was a little twitchy under brakes so I added 'some' toe in, which has really helped stability under brakes, but I feel it's made us slower. Next session I'm going to reduce it bit by bit and see if I can feel the difference or post faster times.

 

[top_dog]

1 mm.

Rose joints are pretty full on Uditha, you going to track it?

By the way, I'm pretty sure that Audi, BMW, Merc et al all make their 5 link rear ends go to toe out under load for a bit of extra yaw.

 

[udi]

Yeah fair enough, it actually does go into toe out a little under compression naturally so I guess I shouldn't worry about it so much, wasn't sure if it was what I wanted. Does toe out on the rear not encourage the back to slide out easier though?

So 1mm it is.

Rosejoints are just on the inside end of 3 of the arms. So there's a lot of rubber left, not much change in NVH that I can feel/hear and the car doesn't get driven enough to care about wear. With these multilink rearends there's obviously a lot of pivot points which means a lot of flex / passive rear steering so I think it helps to poly or rose at least some of them. Seems to squirm a lot less with the new arms.

Edit -
Some possible bumpsteer curves:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2li7toz.jpg

I have until tomorrow morning to decide what I want to aim for. Think for now I will stick to something fairly neutral like the two brown (triangle) curves unless someone wants to convince me otherwise. Can always change later.

 

[top_dog]

Yeah fair enough, it actually does go into toe out a little under compression naturally so I guess I shouldn't worry about it so much, wasn't sure if it was what I wanted. Does toe out on the rear not encourage the back to slide out easier though?
Yep thats the point. Remember that tyres actually generate more grip when they are pointing not where the car is going. For racing slicks its 8º, road tyres probably less. So if the car is slightly sliding, you have more grip, so can go faster.

Watch some in car footage on Youtube of Formula Fords, especially somewhere like Phillip Island to see what I mean. F1 cars can't do it so much because their aero gets freaked out by yaw. Slow corners they'll do it though.

So summarily you want both front and rear to be sliding at, call it 5º for arguments sake, through the corner.

Edit -
Some possible bumpsteer curves:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2li7toz.jpg

I have until tomorrow morning to decide what I want to aim for. Think for now I will stick to something fairly neutral like the two brown (triangle) curves unless someone wants to convince me otherwise. Can always change later.

Yes and no. Where does the car sit when static? At 0?

Personally, I'd be looking to have it consistent. I'm a little unsure as to how you're changing the curves, have you got different mounting points for the track rod to choose from? If so, and if its possible I'd choose the pink one, then adjust the length of the track rod to get it back to 1 mm toe out.

Why? Because, when you are in steady state cornering, say between 1" and 2" of bump, this line is the straightest, and the car will by easier to drive. The brown one takes off pretty heavily towards toe in after 1" bump, I'd imagine you'd feel that, and it would be disconcerting.

So basically I'd try to translate that pink line further to the right. Hope that helps.

 

[udi]

Yeah the curves will move over to the right given 1mm static toe-in per side, scale is in inches so up to 0.04.

There are two upper arms (not including the toe arm) and basically various lengths of these two arms change the bumpsteer.

The RUCA as they call it is the camber arm, and I think 12.25 or a bit less is a realistic value for it (to be in the ballpark of say -1.25* rear camber), so you have to ignore the top graph of 12.50 (won't have enough -camber).

So I think realistically (and in stock guise) the curve is going to head towards toe-in after 1", and it will take some dicking around (cba) to change that. So I can achieve the pink line in the lower graph which I think I might settle for at this stage.

The only other thing is, do you think I can get away with running less static toe in than 1mm per side? I originally wrote down 0.5mm per side, only changed it to 1mm because I was worried about it toeing out under power or something - but apparently driven wheels toe-in under power.

What do you think of 0.5mm in per side? Because if I could run a lower static toe in number then the changes under compression won't head into as much of an extreme.

 

[top_dog]

Yeah the curves will move over to the right given 1mm static toe-in per side, scale is in inches so up to 0.04.

There are two upper arms (not including the toe arm) and basically various lengths of these two arms change the bumpsteer.

The RUCA as they call it is the camber arm, and I think 12.25 or a bit less is a realistic value for it (to be in the ballpark of say -1.25* rear camber), so you have to ignore the top graph of 12.50 (won't have enough -camber).

So I think realistically (and in stock guise) the curve is going to head towards toe-in after 1", and it will take some dicking around (cba) to change that. So I can achieve the pink line in the lower graph which I think I might settle for at this stage.

The only other thing is, do you think I can get away with running less static toe in than 1mm per side? I originally wrote down 0.5mm per side, only changed it to 1mm because I was worried about it toeing out under power or something - but apparently driven wheels toe-in under power.

What do you think of 0.5mm in per side? Because if I could run a lower static toe in number then the changes under compression won't head into as much of an extreme.

How hard is it to adjust the toe? Is it just a threaded rod or do you have to shim it or change arms or something. If its easy to adjust just do some trial and error and see. You don't need to go to a wheel alignment joint to measure it either. Some bars and string and a ruler do nicely.

To be honest I doubt you'd feel the difference between 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm on road tyres with rubber bushes. As long as they are both the same that is! So yeah try to get as close as possible to 1.0 mm static but still aim for consistency.

As you say under acceleration it will toe in and under brakes it will toe out, more than likely by more than 0.5 mm anyway.

Your obviously interested in this stuff: read Milliken & Milliken. Its superb.

 

[Igofastdh]

Whats the biggest size wheel that would fit under a VT wagon with stock suspension?

 

[fairy1]

Whats the biggest size wheel that would fit under a VT wagon with stock suspension?

I'd say 40"-

 

[seventyseven]

Whats the biggest size wheel that would fit under a VT wagon with stock suspension?

1.6^your chevrolet badge.