Re: Old School Meets New - Supercharged LSA into Grand Natio
Well, I was getting close to buttoning up the front suspension when this same thing happened to me (this is a picture from SicMonte's (Doug Luce) same lower control arm/Howe ball joint set up):
Yep, the ball joint popped out. Turns out that Marcus at SC&C had dealt with this same problem at least back in 2008, which ticks me off. The holes in the SPC arms were designed for the Moog "problem-solver" ball joint which is slightly oversized. The Howe ball joint is the stock size. Sure would have been nice if the problem were fixed by now, or at least tell me when I'm purchasing that extra buck option. Very poor customer skills even if he does know his stuff.
Anyways, had to grind through the powder-coat, grind off some of the Alodyne coating from the ball joint to set it up for welding. My buddy Tom busted out the stainless rod and put in 4 nice spot welds per side:
I cleaned up the part and shot the welds with a couple coats of Chassis Black. Looks OK and the welds have good penetration. Once the weight of the car is on the suspension the lower ball joint is retained anyways. But it would have been at risk anytime I jacked the car, and you know when it would have failed - at least 50 miles from home, probably at a track someplace highly inconvenient.
I decided to paint the firewall so I got some Eastwood Extreme Underhood Black as it is quite resistant to brake fluid and I have dribbled fluid in that area before when bleeding or installing a new MC. So I remove everything (within reason) and clean it well with mineral spirits, then shoot it. Looks good but when it dried it had some fish-eye in it. So I waited a day then lightly sanded the fish-eye areas then shot it again, admittedly on a rainy day (high humidity) when it was like 55F in the garage - all around the edges where I sanded it wrinkled up, plus the fish-eye was still visible. Second round, same outcome, but now the paint looks cheesy around the entire sanded area.
So guess who's stripping their firewall?
Since this was supposed to be pretty much a quicky install, where I was going to circle back maybe next winter and do a full frame-off, I probably should have put up with a little fish-eye that would have been hidden by the blower.
This is the first pass of the stripping - got a lot of stuff off including a bunch of that hard tar they use as sealant, but I need to go over it at least once more.
I did carefully fold down the body seam from the left side of the bottom of the picture almost over to under where the steering shaft will go. It helps the 4L85E fit in there and presents a smooth surface to pass fuel lines, etc. over. I'll probably fold it down a little bit more towards the driver's side, too. It also helps with clearance for the headers.
Once I finish the firewall paint, get the front wheels & brakes on and plumbed I can set that motor up in there. In between coats of primer and topcoat I'll get back to finishing the porting on the blower.
Jim
