1987 3.2 Carrera Backdate project - Sladeys hotrod

[911hillclimber]

Great project, good to see it working out.

[sladey]

Thanks Graham

[sladey]

OK so a bit of an update. So the DIY Smart Strings arrived


These are pretty good - it’s a load of 3D printed brackets and you then use some 20mm galvanised conduit and you end up with this


And



I had a bit of a play around with it and it was really quick and easy to set it up.


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[sladey]

I then revisited the weighing scales. It became obvious that driving onto them wasn’t that easy so I ended up making a shallow ramp onto the platform and then you drive from that onto the weighin fulcrum.


Again another gotcha was the the steel started to move as you drove forward so I ended up fitting some latches to stop it from slipping away



To do all the weighing and adjusting I decided I needed to allow a full 3-day week-end. With our Spanish trip coming up I didn’t want to risk buggering up the settings so I decided it was something that could wait - so I stacked everything up, ready for when I’ve got time to tackle the adjustments




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[sladey]

Prior to the Spanish trip I needed to sort my sounds out as music was only coming from the rear speakers. A bit of investigative work revealed the problem was with the amp so I ordered another identical second hand one. Within a day of ordering the new one the amp started working out of the front speakers. I decided to fit the new one anyway just to show the old one who’s boss.

I still had intermittent problems and eventually traced that down to speaker wire that had literally turned to dust. I cut that back to goood metal and all was good

When I fitted my seats last summer I removed the cupholder as it would no longer fit. I thought that would be really useful for the Spanish trip (and it was) so I chopped it about again and refitted it




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[sladey]

The car was brilliant on the Spanish trip and was generally very fast although I did face some criticism for backing off on a 90mph corner. Harsh!

Once back I had to get it through the MOT. I’ve got a friendly MOT guy that I use who is excellent. He talked through the problems with me and recorded them as minor issues so it would pass and I could then sort them

Last years I’d got an advisory that the ball joints at the front were loose. I wondered what the hell he was on about because they are only about 18 months old and seemed to me to be plenty tight enough.

this time he called me through to look at them - he didn’t mean the ball joints but the steering rod ends. They aren’t normal track rod ends but were part of the weld on bump-steer kit from elephant racing. There was loads of play in each side and would have been one of the knocks I was hearing over bumps.

The bits I needed were these from the elephant racing kit

I didn’t want to try getting just that part from America, and I know that design911 now stock the full kit I didn’t want to spend several hundred quid just to replace some ball ends.

Eventually I found an excellent place online - they are based in Kirkcaldy - McGill motorsports limited. I was thrown because the thread for the steering arm is M14 but the pin that goes through the ball joints is M12. All the things I found online were the same size - so M14 thread and 14mm hole, or M12 thread and 12mm hole.

I decided to order them anyway. They I thought I’d have a look around their website. I was curious to see a section called High misalignment reducers - turns out this was exactly what I needed - it fits into the hole and takes it down to M12 size. I also ordered some fetching bootees from them.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them - the delivery was really quick and they sensibly combined my eBay order and my direct order into one parcel. This is what arrived



I ordered the bootees in 2 sizes in case i couldn’t get the small ones to fit. In then end though that wasn’t a problem and it was soon ready to go on



This is part way through assembly


I think they’ll be great.

Now I’d assumed that one size would be a right hand thread and the other side left hand thread by when I got down to it they were both right hand threads so I ordered another one yesterday - came today!

If I hadn’t had to order a second rod end the whole thing would have been under £50 - good value - especially compared to the price of the elephant racing stuff.

Another thing highlighted in theMOT was that my drivers rear bearing was wobbling slightly . I’ve stripped that down and also ordered another one - going to try and fix that this week-end - because heading for CLM on Tuesday…..


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[rhd racer]

Nice one Mark. I’ve ordered some bits and bats from them in the past for the race car and found them great.

I think we share an MOT man - if I am right there is a picture of my old 914 on his ‘cool wall’


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[jwhillracer]

Yes, I've ordered parts from McGill over the winter, and found their service superb!

JW

[sladey]

I think we share an MOT man - if I am right there is a picture of my old 914 on his ‘cool wall’


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I’m not sure I’ve noticed a “cool wall”. Mine is in St Anns

[rhd racer]

Different then - mine is in your back yard!


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[Darren65]

To do all the weighing and adjusting I decided I needed to allow a full 3-day week-end. With our Spanish trip coming up I didn’t want to risk buggering up the settings so I decided it was something that could wait - so I stacked everything up, ready for when I’ve got time to tackle the adjustments

...Mark, you do know there are people that can help you with this....



...and with three days invested in Lawyer work I think you'll be quids in!

Just saying!

[964RS]

I think we share an MOT man - if I am right there is a picture of my old 914 on his ‘cool wall’


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I’m not sure I’ve noticed a “cool wall”. Mine is in St Anns

Good old Nick

[PeterK]

To do all the weighing and adjusting I decided I needed to allow a full 3-day week-end. With our Spanish trip coming up I didn’t want to risk buggering up the settings so I decided it was something that could wait - so I stacked everything up, ready for when I’ve got time to tackle the adjustments

...Mark, you do know there are people that can help you with this....



...and with three days invested in Lawyer work I think you'll be quids in!

Just saying!

Where’s the fun in that Darren - you’d miss the panic of trying to get things completed in time for CLM

[Darren65]

Where’s the fun in that Darren - you’d miss the panic of trying to get things completed in time for CLM

Ah PeterK, another chap with the skills and patience to tackle anything!

I’m in awe of the likes of you, Mark, Jonathan Parr and all that take on these projects and the amazing results you achieve but all way above me I’m afraid!

Keep up the great efforts chaps, I’ll continue to enjoy watching from the sidelines

[sladey]

Thanks Darren I’m well aware of Chris and have used him a number of times but as you drive the car you gradually knock it out of alignment and I want to be able to recreate that brilliantly balanced feeling myself as often as I want to.

Chris is amazing and well worth the money but it is a lot of money and I’d like to build my skills further. I think I’ve got the setup ready to go now but I want to set aside plenty of time to measure, adjust, repeat, repeat, repeat