Seemed like a good idea at the time!

[Duncodin]

My bushes look like this

I know that the poly bustes fill the whole gap between top and bottom plates but the OEM bush is about an inch smaller than the distance between top and bottom plates

I assumed that rubber rim around the bottom of the bush rests on the bottom plate and the beam rests on top of that rim. Or are you saying that that rubber rim needs to be half an inch up in the air above the bottom plate?

 

[Duncodin]

/Deleted

 

[Althulas]

Have a look on post 27 in this thread https://zroadster.org/threads/rosie-the-turkish-green-2-8-z3.52923/page-2#post-746001 and scroll down the photos you can see a clear pic on how the would sit on new oem bushes. If you look at my thread in my sig you can see how poly bushes sit.

 

[IainP]

Well, my nothing to see angiogram ended up seeing rather a lot. Really rather a lot.



Got myself banned from driving for 4 weeks, no lifting, exertion, yada, yada. Loads of tabs, and more tabs to counter the side effects of the first lot, great fun.

Soooo, not sure quite where to go with this project, my joke to a mate this car was being built to eventually see me out has actually become a possibility/probability. Build it, Scrap the Fiero? Mot it/Sell it, attack the Fiero? Dunno really.

Written to Motorsport UK enquiring if they’ll grant me a licence, still on an NHS waiting list for more tests. Which may determine things.

Anyhooo.
Car needs to be on the road for April. Sod paint, rattle canned bumpers, nothing else. Modified class is completely out, which means:
Cage is out, as are some of my suspension mods, I still plan on a bar though. I won’t be needing the sill stands I just bought. Thankfully I hadn’t welded in the receiver tubes. Scrapped the moulds I’d started for the sills, and the parts I’d started for the hardtop.
Speaking of hardtops, I was amazed no-one here, or eBay, wanted the alloy hardtop brackets, despite lots of interest. So they’re back on the car. The steel originals I’ll hang onto. Result dependant.

I’d made one set of slot and tab pieces, to check my dimensions before a friend had a load laser cut. Gone to recycling. Fortunate the hospital visits delayed events enough I discovered nobody would want the things, before I laid out the money for 30 sets of components So at least one good thing came from the chest pains. Also told friends I’m not doing favours for the foreseeable, can’t work for beer anyway 🥲

Of course I didn’t listen to the don’t do anything b*******s, and I’ve been fine, (I’m banned by SWIMBO from using the word ‘fine’ by the way), but the downtime has shown I need to upgrade/purchase some equipment. Now I’m back at work I’ll hit O/T hard and have the NHS pay for it. Already bought a new “noiseless” compressor, it IS quiet, though slower, but I can use it at night without annoying anyone. Picking up a s/h Tig tomorrow for alloy, already upgraded the garage with a 16Amp supply for the other Tig and Portamig. I may need either to modify, or build, a crossmember for the 6 speed, that absolutely, definitely, IS going ahead. Asap. Not allowed in Roadcars, but it’s heavier, the ratios are the same, I’ll drive to events, I’ve no interest in pots and I’ve already had a quiet word with a scrute. Parts are incoming, research an upside of the downtime.
Bought a newer spare wheel, unsure whether to have it powder coated, not a fan, or blast, and 4coats of Hammerite, definitely a fan.

Need a tyre from Camskill, yes I could buy an e46 wheel with tyre for the same, emergency spare 20 years old? Nope, I’ll have new thanks.


My son is as bad as me, the Mini we’ve been doing trackdays in is getting some work over the winter. I’ll be remaking those arms of the rotisserie out of box section, currently bar and it’s bending, not a lot, but it isn’t terribly inspiring. Box will be easier to turn.
Discovered a couple of repairs in the Mini floor that really weren’t very great, I’ll be teaching him how to do it properly and make them invisible. And the front end, and the boot corner, and the rear valance, and a door pillar. Was originally supposed to be a 2p size repair, now it’s on a rotisserie. Minis.
Have a Good Christmas!

 

[Matt Barnes]

Well, my nothing to see angiogram ended up seeing rather a lot. Really rather a lot.



Got myself banned from driving for 4 weeks, no lifting, exertion, yada, yada. Loads of tabs, and more tabs to counter the side effects of the first lot, great fun.

Soooo, not sure quite where to go with this project, my joke to a mate this car was being built to eventually see me out has actually become a possibility/probability. Build it, Scrap the Fiero? Mot it/Sell it, attack the Fiero? Dunno really.

Written to Motorsport UK enquiring if they’ll grant me a licence, still on an NHS waiting list for more tests. Which may determine things.

Anyhooo.
Car needs to be on the road for April. Sod paint, rattle canned bumpers, nothing else. Modified class is completely out, which means:
Cage is out, as are some of my suspension mods, I still plan on a bar though. I won’t be needing the sill stands I just bought. View attachment 285793Thankfully I hadn’t welded in the receiver tubes. Scrapped the moulds I’d started for the sills, and the parts I’d started for the hardtop.
Speaking of hardtops, I was amazed no-one here, or eBay, wanted the alloy hardtop brackets, despite lots of interest. So they’re back on the car. The steel originals I’ll hang onto. Result dependant.
View attachment 285795
I’d made one set of slot and tab pieces, to check my dimensions before a friend had a load laser cut. Gone to recycling. Fortunate the hospital visits delayed events enough I discovered nobody would want the things, before I laid out the money for 30 sets of components So at least one good thing came from the chest pains. Also told friends I’m not doing favours for the foreseeable, can’t work for beer anyway 🥲

Of course I didn’t listen to the don’t do anything b*******s, and I’ve been fine, (I’m banned by SWIMBO from using the word ‘fine’ by the way), but the downtime has shown I need to upgrade/purchase some equipment. Now I’m back at work I’ll hit O/T hard and have the NHS pay for it. Already bought a new “noiseless” compressor, it IS quiet, though slower, but I can use it at night without annoying anyone. Picking up a s/h Tig tomorrow for alloy, already upgraded the garage with a 16Amp supply for the other Tig and Portamig. I may need either to modify, or build, a crossmember for the 6 speed, that absolutely, definitely, IS going ahead. Asap. Not allowed in Roadcars, but it’s heavier, the ratios are the same, I’ll drive to events, I’ve no interest in pots and I’ve already had a quiet word with a scrute. Parts are incoming, research an upside of the downtime.
Bought a newer spare wheel, unsure whether to have it powder coated, not a fan, or blast, and 4coats of Hammerite, definitely a fan.
View attachment 285799
Need a tyre from Camskill, yes I could buy an e46 wheel with tyre for the same, emergency spare 20 years old? Nope, I’ll have new thanks.

View attachment 285797
My son is as bad as me, the Mini we’ve been doing trackdays in is getting some work over the winter. I’ll be remaking those arms of the rotisserie out of box section, currently bar and it’s bending, not a lot, but it isn’t terribly inspiring. Box will be easier to turn.
Discovered a couple of repairs in the Mini floor that really weren’t very great, I’ll be teaching him how to do it properly and make them invisible. And the front end, and the boot corner, and the rear valance, and a door pillar. Was originally supposed to be a 2p size repair, now it’s on a rotisserie. Minis.
Have a Good Christmas!

hope you take care of yourself mate....the cars can wait, think rest is more important ...

 

[IainP]

Nah, 8 weeks of rest is enough Matt, I have these

I had no idea about 5% of the population are quite difficult/dangerous to stent, loads of risk factors.
“Why’s it nae surprise you’re in the feckin’ Special group ya pri*k!” Love Glasgow Humour!

Picked up a new toy today, not done any alloy tig in 36/7 years, evening practice time incoming.

On the way back went to see a cheap spare £50 quid diff to convert to lsd. Easy to see why it was cheap, back lash could be measured in days. Passed on that, I’ll pick one up eventually, weird, 6 months ago cheap ones were plentiful @ £75, now they’re £150. Wtf
Cut some steel for a front upper strut brace, need something to match the lower one I made. Started one before and was really unhappy with it, I have a better idea this time. I’ll take pics only if I’m happy with it.

 

[IainP]

Blood thinners, beta blockers and cold weather don’t mix, even with two fleece and a sweatshirt on so mostly been accumulating parts.
The hydraulic ram on the car has a bent end, I didn’t feel confident it would straighten so picked up a cheap one from BMW spares in Lochgelly. I should get a bonnet from there to replace the lumpy bumpy one when he gets round to breaking it.
Bought a clutch cover for the lightweight flywheel. M3 covers go for £200, running a part number search shows the same one is fitted to 5/7series, they go for £100.

I need a 240mm disc for a Getrag box, there are a few options I’m working through. I need a bearing and fork, I’d rather buy a kit with those in it than a whole load of disparate parts.
Cleared, cleaned and oiled the welding bench for the first time in a year.

The round tube is 44.45x2.64 CDS, cold drawn steel tube, to Motorsport UK spec. Over 20M of it, which my wife spotted, it received folded arms and “Hmnn, Husband”. Oops.
Since I’m banned from lifting anything heavy, I lifted the Frankenbender/hydraulic press onto the tubes, slid it up and onto the bench. Did a test bend, as I need one for measuring anyway, haven’t gotten the leverage ratio quite right as it doesn’t make a full 90 degrees. I don’t actually need the full 90, but a different ratio may make it faster and easier, I think I’ll make it bolt-on to the bottom bracket on the bottle jack rather than welded. Needs stronger springs to return it too, because it doesn’t. All a learning curve.

Considering using the bender to form a strut brace, probably not in cds though, that’s total overkill, thin wall erw would be more than adequate.

 

[IainP]

On less drugs, so getting back into this properly.
I bought Pls surplus strut brace to save making my own

Has a couple problems though, hits the coil pack before it tightens down, another incentive to finish the coil on plug conversion, so no real problem.

This is a (slight) problem though, it hits the nut on the Bilsteins, also before the nuts tighten down. Now, I’ll be running negative camber, so that will allow it to clear, BUT I can’t adjust the camber without taking the brace off, which would make quick back to back comparisons slooooooow.

Do I cut the center out, or not? Spacer washers for now.

Since it was a decent day I got started on the roll bar. I’ve fitted cages several times and modified a few more, but never built one from scratch. Loads of info/vids/how to’s, but it’s pretty easy to stuff it up. I made loads of measurements, then decided to make a foamboard template to triple and quadruple check the measurements.


If you want to know how, I cut 45mm strips and used the test piece to cut 90 bends, then a scalpel and hot glue.

I wanted it as high as possible with a working roof.

View: https://youtu.be/Qb-4sk61VLo?feature=shared

And, it does that with just a little clearance at the top, I hope.
Pulled it out and braced it,

Now I just have to check all my measurements for the umpteenth time and bend the thing. Am I nervous? Hell yes.

 

[IainP]

So.
Did I get it Right First Time?
Nope.
Not at all in fact.
It would be much easier if the rain wouldn’t start every time I try to do anything, but it’s Scotland, it’s May and there’s hailstones.
Trying to bend a hoop in a garage with far, Far, Far too much stuff in it is a challenge on its own.


All the advice is bend it further, 2-5 degrees, to account for the spring back. Except it didn’t spring back at all, so this stick was borked from the first bend. And it didn’t bend exactly where I planned.

I adjusted better for the roof bend, but that first bend should be where that red line is. Too much excess as the first bend started much higher than planned.

Other side I got completely wrong and bent it too far, really need a level on the horizontal, as well as the angle finder on the hoop, all a learning experience though.
At least I managed to start the bend where I planned.

More obvious in this pic how “over bent “ it is. I didn’t bother with the lower bend on that side.

All in all, I’d call it a success, I can now get the bend to start where I want relative to the die, know how to accurately measure the angle with this setup, and more importantly, not to over bend for non existent spring back.
The Frankenbender needs a few more mod’s, unsurprising to be fair, it started off as just a press, but I’m confident the next hoop will actually be useable. Provided it stops raining long enough to get the thing outside, it’ll be so much easier to see what I’m doing. Might consider an air/hydraulic jack, I’m sure my cardiac nurse wouldn’t be happy with my 120bpm heart rate pumping the jack.

 

[IainP]

I have the bender stripped down so thought I’d refit the front hubs, my wife wants it off axle stands. My explanation it makes doing the rear cage easier just got the Look of Disapproval.
Could I find the new hub nuts, or the little stainless bolts I made for the dust shields? No I could not. Two hours later I’d found the spare for my sons e36, but no trace of the bags with mine. Gave up and cut another 6x A2 flange bolts.
It now has hubs, though I haven’t mentioned three of the tyres no longer hold air, I’ll just stick some sealer in for the moment as the tyres are scrap anyway.

I also haven’t mentioned I need to drop the gearbox out to change to the smf, I’ll need to come up with some quick and dirty way of supporting the engine from underneath whilst I sort out a crossmember to the 6 speed. I won’t get away with sticking it back on stands to do that.
Considering selling the SLK and buying the cheapest Z I can find, it’s difficult transporting stuff with the roof down.