Monday, November 20, 2006

Test Drives - first impressions.

Ride quality is excellent! The car feels a lot more precise in everything it does, but not harsh. With the H&R Red (turbo) springs and Bilstien HD shocks it seems like the perfect combination of control and comfort for street use. Today is the 2nd test run down the normal commuting route and both drives were equally enjoyed.

The suspension does give a jarring ride. Some places where the car was difficult to control (crossing heavily rutted intersections) seemed a lot smoother, which I found odd with the stiffer shocks and springs. The reason for this, I think, is the fresh components stopped the tendancy to pogo, because the shocks could not control spring bound/rebound. Whatever the reason, it's a vast improvement AND it did not ruin the day-to-day ride comfort!

There are some drawbacks. I'm not feeling what I'd call bumpsteer but it is a bit more skittish and tends to wander more on the road. I'm sure this is due to the basic (and I mean very basic) alignment I had done Saturday morning.

The reason for the basic alignment initialy is to test the ride height I selected (Euro RS + 5mm) in a real world environment. City, town and soon (some time this week) the state ferry system. All of these provide interesting ground clearance challenges. The ferry is the one I'm most concerned with. Tides in this area an vary more than 14'. That is a lot of ramp angle when you are talking about approach angles getting onto and off of that auto ferries. I hope I don't high-center the car. Nothing pisses off ferry uses more than a dead car or worse.. one fully blocking the loading ramp!

More thoughts to follow as I spend time driving the 964 on the commute. Now, the 993 is going to go in for some TLC, probably an alternator overhaul and to come up with a cleaver plan to hard-wite in the Escort radar detector power harness. I just completed a basic reverse engineering of the spare I have. Hopefuly my assessment is correct and I can duplicate the scheme, creating a switched 12v output to trigger stereo auto-mute as well as flash dashboard lights instead of a tiny LED. We'll see how it turns out.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

DONE! (nearly).



After what was much longer project than it needed to be, the 964 is back together and on the ground!

Last night my neighbor came over and we completed bleeding the brakes. Ah.. rock solid. The only task left now is to set ride height (the above pictures is with the springs set at full extension), set the alignment and finally bed in the new brake pads.

For this photo I rolled the car in and out without the brakes. I just could not wait to get it outside and see how it looked as low as it would go.

Jacking the car to bleed the brakes was interesting. The near rear sway bar is quite stiff. At the current setting, jacking the car from it's rear jack point lifts both tires on that side of the car. In fact it almost put it on one tire (left front, right rear jack point). It will be interesting to try it out once alignment and brake bedding are complete.

Later this week I'll post some more pics of the car just before I finished the button up.

It sure was sweet to fire up that engine again. It sounds soooo good with the recent updates. I 'll try to shoot a video clip of it and post this weekend!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Brake supplies finally here!

Finally, the last of the brake supplies for this project have arrived.

I could have gone with a lesser fluid, or even a better fluid (at $60 per 1/2 liter) but this is regarded as one of the best and when ordered from Amazon.com it's also one of the most economical. With specifications that vastly exceed DOT 4 requirements I should not boil out the fluid unless I really, really screw up by over-braking.

Also in the kit is a bleeing bottle to keep the fluid from making a mess on the floor and facilitate easier bleeding of the brakes.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Starting on 964 Rear

With the front buttoned up and only bleeding of brakes remaining I've began work on the rear of the '64. Looking at the lower mount points this will be a breeze. Nothing need be distrubed in the alignment adjustments. Rear sway bar should be far easier to access than the front.

The big problem will be gaining access to the tops of the rear struts. As you an see, the motor is stuffed into the rears of these cars. Plenty of parts are in the way. Since I replaced the stock airbox with the cone intake I can at least see the tops of the rear shocks. Not so on the driver side. Removal of the blower fan seems to be a requirement and likely the only holdup on completing the rear of the car. Time will tell. More as I start to unbolt parts.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Buttoning up front end

Finally, found some time to get working on this project again. If feels good to have things put back together. It's been far too long that car has been in the shop. With it just a tad more than 1/2 way done I see light at the end of the tunnel.

To be clear on this. The project is NOT difficult nor is it that time consuming. I've simply had some problems setting side the time to do it, with family, work, board meetings, club meetings, needing to eat and do laundry (house cleaning etc.). It's just been a time conflict issue. If you plan to do this sort of work. Fear not, it's EASY! A little time consuming but a long single day set aside to just knock it out and you are done. Only people with weird work hours other self-imposed restructions will find it and extended project.

Onto the pics and a little bit about what all those new shiney parts are:


All the parts back together
New Bilstein struts, H&R 965 Turbo springs, Axxis Ultima brake pads and new Zimmerman rotors. At the suggestion of others I painted the new rotor hats in high-temp (1200F) silver paint. They look fine now but will soon begin to show rust. The rotors on my old race Miata did the same thing. Nature of the beast when the ocean water is 1/2 a block from your house. It should keep it looking clean and sharp!



Assembled with my fabricated droplink.
Here is the driver's side of the car, viewing assembly from the front. You can see the sweet new pads, big vented rotors, new stainless front brake lines. What is sort of unusual and I'm not even sure I'll keep them in service for long, are heim joints and grade-7 thread-all that are serving as the sway bar droplinks. You can see it crossing just in front of the strut from the steering knuckle to the bar. It's an interesting method of doing this, dropping the link off of the steering knucle instead of the lower control arm. The way the front suspension the car is engineered is like nothing I've seen before. I've worked on number of cars with strut front-ends but the way the assembly works (camber and caster changes) through it's travel is facinating. This is the last time those parts will look that pretty.



Buttoned up and on the ground.
And finally, wheels re-installed and placed on the ground. I think you can see why I painted the rotor hats. They are quite promenent with the factory wheels (due to the great degree of front-end offset compared to most wheels - meaning they are further outboard than most). Again.. soon they will never look this pretty again.


Wednesday, November 01, 2006

I've got big balls..

.. monoballs that is. The MODE monoballs for the 993 arrived last night. These things are really trick. Adjustable camber plates with monoball tops for maximum camber adjustability and precise steering. I can see why these cost more than 1/2 a Porsche Unit!


In other news.. feck.. it'd getting cold. If you are reading this from the midwest or upper Eastern seaboard you're likely just laughing at me. But hey.. for us.. this is getting a little chilly! Brrrrrrr. I don't eveny those of you that live in the snowbelt... (why anyone built anothing more than an ice fishing hut up there is beyond me).