44 Nose Job
Picked up the 44 from the folks up at Bodymotion yesterday. A mostly positive result. First they put the car up on the frame bench to check it and the car is straight, with all the suspension points aligned and within spec. So that's great news to start off the season.
Next they spent some time yanking all the sheet metal in the front in various directions trying to get the gaps all to line up. The front sheet metal around the radiator support and other metal were seriously "adjusted" over the last several years of racing and repairs. Now the new turbo fenders, header panel and hood are lining up with only small even gaps and the car looks good. Relatively speaking of course. I still have a lot of sanding and painting ahead of me, but that's monkey's work, I can do it.
The next thing they were going to do for me was a corner balance and alignment. As they started working on it they found a couple of issues that I will need to address. First the trick Mantisport strut hats I put on for last season, it seems that the springs are binding in the tower. I had heard the helper springs binding and releasing in slow parking lot turns earlier. But now, at least on the left side, the top of the coils were solidly bound up and frozen. That's why I needed to use a 2x4 under the left front wheel to get my lift arm under the car. So a future order of business is to remove the strut hats and replace with my old camber plates. They also discovered play in one of the rear banana arm spherical bearings. I'll have to pull it and see.
The above issues makes corner balance and alignment a waste of money until I address them. So they moved on to the next task. Fabbing the support for the fiberglass turbo nose.
The guys did a great job with it. They did in a day what would have taken me several weeks of futzing around and did a better job than I probably would have.
They build a nice tubular steel frame and welded dzus tabs for easy on/off of the nose.
I still have a fair amount of work to go: Cut the radiator holes in the spoiler; fab up a tow hook; relocate the oil cooler, painting and more. But I got a great foundation.
Next they spent some time yanking all the sheet metal in the front in various directions trying to get the gaps all to line up. The front sheet metal around the radiator support and other metal were seriously "adjusted" over the last several years of racing and repairs. Now the new turbo fenders, header panel and hood are lining up with only small even gaps and the car looks good. Relatively speaking of course. I still have a lot of sanding and painting ahead of me, but that's monkey's work, I can do it.
The next thing they were going to do for me was a corner balance and alignment. As they started working on it they found a couple of issues that I will need to address. First the trick Mantisport strut hats I put on for last season, it seems that the springs are binding in the tower. I had heard the helper springs binding and releasing in slow parking lot turns earlier. But now, at least on the left side, the top of the coils were solidly bound up and frozen. That's why I needed to use a 2x4 under the left front wheel to get my lift arm under the car. So a future order of business is to remove the strut hats and replace with my old camber plates. They also discovered play in one of the rear banana arm spherical bearings. I'll have to pull it and see.
The above issues makes corner balance and alignment a waste of money until I address them. So they moved on to the next task. Fabbing the support for the fiberglass turbo nose.
 |
| New nose installed |
The guys did a great job with it. They did in a day what would have taken me several weeks of futzing around and did a better job than I probably would have.
They build a nice tubular steel frame and welded dzus tabs for easy on/off of the nose.
I still have a fair amount of work to go: Cut the radiator holes in the spoiler; fab up a tow hook; relocate the oil cooler, painting and more. But I got a great foundation.
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