What have you done to your ride lately?

[Silverback]

Wifes uncle has a 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish (twin turbo V12). Last time I saw it was November 2017 and he had 50k on it!! It was his daily driver. He drove the balls off that thing. Let me drive it once.. damn what a noise. Last time I saw him ( 6 months ago) I asked him about it, he said he was looking at a newer one. I hope he gets one. But its cool to see them used. Don't want to spend the $$$ on routine maintenance though.

 

[MatthewMay1]

I remember you talking about that car. I sure would like an Aston....At least the Z3 is a Bond car too, haha

 

[Silverback]

For sure.. would be a blast to drive along those windy Arkansas roads.

 

[MatthewMay1]

Sure would! But then I’d want to turn off the roads and run some trails and do some camping. Tough decision on which vehicle to take!

 

[TacoXpo]

The price of running aftermarket shit. This represents about 2 hours of welding, grinding, fitting, cycle, repeat. With that time under my belt, I can see how janky the aftermarket LCAs connection to the frame is. For any of you that have the same, next time you replace those bushings take a look how gouged up those surfaces are. I probably have another hour or so to fill in and grind the last bits of void.

Edit: I wish I had before pictures to show you how messed up those surfaces were!

 

[PSU Taco85]

Finally fixed my abs light after 5 years . Turns out the harness had an open in it by where it’s routes on the steering knuckle. Verified the location with a TDR, then cut out the bad section and spliced in a new piece of wire. Cheap fix compared to a new speed sensor or new harness.

 

[PSU Taco85]

You ever look into Redarc? Ive been watching some Australian shows (Patriot Games) and all those guys love their stuff. He has a different take on duel battery set ups that Ive not seen others talk about all that much. I didn't pay enough attention to be able to quote him when I watched the videos, but he's got some good takes on them (no idea how accurate his data/opinion is, but he seems to know his shit based on bad past experiences/failures)

have not yet, but I will have to read up on it. The booster I got was from down under as well, made by a company called HKB

 

[Oswego]

The price of running aftermarket shit. This represents about 2 hours of welding, grinding, fitting, cycle, repeat. With that time under my belt, I can see how janky the aftermarket LCAs connection to the frame is. For any of you that have the same, next time you replace those bushings take a look how gouged up those surfaces are. I probably have another hour or so to fill in and grind the last bits of void.
View attachment 21224 View attachment 21225

Edit: I wish I had before pictures to show you how messed up those surfaces were!

When I first removed my LCA's to swap the BJ's I was amazed at how crappy those mounts are. I was bending them by hand by accident with the LAC's removed

Looks like you had some excess wear through those plates - I am in the same boat but mine was just starting last time I inspected them. Now I understand why your cam bolts were fubar.

Were your sleeves seized to the bolts?

 

[TacoXpo]

Finally fixed my abs light after 5 years . Turns out the harness had an open in it by where it’s routes on the steering knuckle. Verified the location with a TDR, then cut out the bad section and spliced in a new piece of wire. Cheap fix compared to a new speed sensor or new harness.
View attachment 21226

View attachment 21227

I have the same issue - for about the same length of time!

 

[TacoXpo]

When I first removed my LCA's to swap the BJ's I was amazed at how crappy those mounts are. I was bending them by hand by accident with the LAC's removed

Because they are designed to be somewhat 'plyable' - hopefully to be in the elastic deformation range.

Looks like you had some excess wear through those plates - I am in the same boat but mine was just starting last time I inspected them. Now I understand why your cam bolts were fubar.

Were your sleeves seized to the bolts?

Excess would have been mild. You're looking at the repaired state - NONE of the seating area inside my Sharpie brand dyechem wasn't even there prior to my welding that material there.

Seized? Yes - IMO there was not enough clearance between the bolts and the sleeves. Spent about 30-40 minutes polishing the bolts so that the clearance at 'room temperature' is adequate. An additional disappointment was that with the TC cam plates, the back 'cup' on the rear cam, has about 50% of the purchase they had originally.

While I was working on them I texted a friend that spent his life building race cars (Indy, NASCAR, SCORE and SOCOM).

MEETS OR EXCEEDS MFG SPECIFICATIONS.
I can see in my mindseye the drunk fucker in a Las Vegas strip club who first coined that phrase at one of the first SEMA shows.

I would like just 1/4 of the time that I spent filling in the gouges that those first gen TC Lower Control Arms gouged into those lower perches. It wouldn't be bad if you could get a grinder in there but NOOOOOOOOO! - combo of grinder and files.

It's time like this that I TRULY appreciate the time and money that you guys spent on real cars.
​

I've said it way too many times but after working in product development an proof for production for both (what was) the Big Three's (Aircraft and Automotive), the aftermarket testing program centers around 'Does it fit?'

EDIT: Regarding 'bending with hand' - this is an issue I see with MANY designs. Many folks have it in their head that metal shouldn't move. That is just the opposite. Metal should not crack! When you design things to embrace the properties of the material - Metal should bend in the elastic deformation range (so it snaps back) not the plastic deformation range (causing localized hardening and then - cracking.

If you really want to see a prime example of this, look at plane's wing. When we design wings, on the Destructive testing, we would bend the wing until it fails. If you want 'rigidity' it's done by triangulation or thickness but it will never be perfectly ridgid.

Another challenge that I have is where people think Class 8 or higher bolts are better. I think they have a place but not always in all places. Suspension is a classic example. - They are not good at stretching and go right into cracking!

 

[Anathollo]

Because they are designed to be somewhat 'plyable' - hopefully to be in the elastic deformation range.

Excess would have been mild. You're looking at the repaired state - NONE of the seating area inside my Sharpie brand dyechem wasn't even there prior to my welding that material there.

Seized? Yes - IMO there was not enough clearance between the bolts and the sleeves. Spent about 30-40 minutes polishing the bolts so that the clearance at 'room temperature' is adequate. An additional disappointment was that with the TC cam plates, the back 'cup' on the rear cam, has about 50% of the purchase they had originally.

While I was working on them I texted a friend that spent his life building race cars (Indy, NASCAR, SCORE and SOCOM).

MEETS OR EXCEEDS MFG SPECIFICATIONS.
I can see in my mindseye the drunk fucker in a Las Vegas strip club who first coined that phrase at one of the first SEMA shows.

I would like just 1/4 of the time that I spent filling in the gouges that those first gen TC Lower Control Arms gouged into those lower perches. It wouldn't be bad if you could get a grinder in there but NOOOOOOOOO! - combo of grinder and files.

It's time like this that I TRULY appreciate the time and money that you guys spent on real cars.
​

I've said it way too many times but after working in product development an proof for production for both (what was) the Big Three's (Aircraft and Automotive), the aftermarket testing program centers around 'Does it fit?'

I had to use a 2" right angle grinder to get in there. Worked really well up until you get towards the very back of the tabs.

 

[TacoXpo]

I had to use a 2" right angle grinder to get in there. Worked really well up until you get towards the very back of the tabs.

So, I assume you had to do the same? How bad were yours?

 

[Anathollo]

So, I assume you had to do the same? How bad were yours?

My cuts were from my sawzall blade cutting out my frozen OEM alignment bolts. Mine were badly seized up.

 

[Oswego]

Because they are designed to be somewhat 'plyable' - hopefully to be in the elastic deformation range.

Excess would have been mild. You're looking at the repaired state - NONE of the seating area inside my Sharpie brand dyechem wasn't even there prior to my welding that material there.

Seized? Yes - IMO there was not enough clearance between the bolts and the sleeves. Spent about 30-40 minutes polishing the bolts so that the clearance at 'room temperature' is adequate. An additional disappointment was that with the TC cam plates, the back 'cup' on the rear cam, has about 50% of the purchase they had originally.

While I was working on them I texted a friend that spent his life building race cars (Indy, NASCAR, SCORE and SOCOM).

MEETS OR EXCEEDS MFG SPECIFICATIONS.
I can see in my mindseye the drunk fucker in a Las Vegas strip club who first coined that phrase at one of the first SEMA shows.

I would like just 1/4 of the time that I spent filling in the gouges that those first gen TC Lower Control Arms gouged into those lower perches. It wouldn't be bad if you could get a grinder in there but NOOOOOOOOO! - combo of grinder and files.

It's time like this that I TRULY appreciate the time and money that you guys spent on real cars.
​

I've said it way too many times but after working in product development an proof for production for both (what was) the Big Three's (Aircraft and Automotive), the aftermarket testing program centers around 'Does it fit?'

EDIT: Regarding 'bending with hand' - this is an issue I see with MANY designs. Many folks have it in their head that metal shouldn't move. That is just the opposite. Metal should not crack! When you design things to embrace the properties of the material - Metal should bend in the elastic deformation range (so it snaps back) not the plastic deformation range (causing localized hardening and then - cracking.

If you really want to see a prime example of this, look at plane's wing. When we design wings, on the Destructive testing, we would bend the wing until it fails. If you want 'rigidity' it's done by triangulation or thickness but it will never be perfectly ridgid.

Another challenge that I have is where people think Class 8 or higher bolts are better. I think they have a place but not always in all places. Suspension is a classic example. - They are not good at stretching and go right into cracking!

I have to run deflection calcs on all the glass and metal I install outdoors. We are in a high wind/damage zone.

The test duration? 3 seconds.

Is it repeated. Nope.

So anytime you are in a city with glass overhead know that the people doing the engineering tested it for a single load one time (if they even did any engineering - most do not). Notice they are not repetitive loads and the longest load Ive had to run was for 20 seconds


If I showed you the engineering reports for Tower 1 in NYC I did a few years ago you would shake your head....and thats supposed to be the safest building in the country (it is not).

That was all 3 second loads and not repetitive loads

nothing is analyzed afterwords either ~ it's either pass or fail.

 

[tx_shooter]

How the hell is that a "real world" test? That is like opening and closing a door one time and saying the whole assembly is good for the life of the vehicle.

I was thinking about it this weekend; I wish there were more greasable points/bolts on the suspension and moving parts. Yes it is more maintenance but it would make for longer/smoother service life too.

 

[TacoXpo]

My first real truck was a military 1 ton panel truck. It zerks for zerks - EVERYTHING! And when you think about where those trucks ended up or how they were stored and transported, it's good they did.

 

[Oswego]

How the hell is that a "real world" test? That is like opening and closing a door one time and saying the whole assembly is good for the life of the vehicle.

I was thinking about it this weekend I wish there were more greasable points/bolts on the suspension and moving parts. Yes it is more maintenance but it would make for longer/smoother service life too.

It's not even close to real world. Also why I get in and out of all buildings I know were built like crap by crap GC's and crap architects as soon as I can. Some of the stuff built these days may meet code (code blows and I would never build to code - I would exceed it), but is lacking any sort of common sense.

Take tower 1 in NYC....I fought with the architect for almost a year to swing the doors the right way. He had some moron do calcs stating pedestrian traffic would flow better in the opposite direction. Problem with that is it goes against human nature and computers don't know what they don't know. Now people stack up and create a choke point as they walk into the doors head first expecting them to push to open. I must say I was smiling ear to ear when I was onsite watching people bounce off my doors, but sadly the same crap happens with structural engineering and utilities. You hire a pro then refuse to listen to them. Also why they had to make up custom stainless steel door handles for every lobby door in every elevator lobby on every floor that said "PUSH" and "PULL" (still didn't work )


I know building engineers that won't walk under certain floors in their own buildings. Reason.....they cored so many holes in the slab over the years from renovations that they said the slab had so many holes in it, it was like Swiss cheese and about to go.

Safety is perceived not reality.

 

[balakay]

Getting a couple small things knocked out today. Front skid is being painted and getting ready to go on later this evening. Leaving the others off for now since I plan to tear I to the trans in the next week or two to install a shift kit and cooler. While I'm waiting on pain t to dry, I built a. We washer fluid reservoir. The stock one hangs down low enough to see it with the CBI bumper and looked terrible. So I copied a build I found on the other site and built this up. It attaches around the fan shroud so itll be up and out of the way and not visible (hopefully).

 

[Silverback]

That's a funny looking bong!

 

[tx_shooter]

I am interested to see how that installs. The washer reservoir hanging so low is one thing I do not like.