In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
I installed some running boards on my friend's truck and it had these. Took me longer than it should have to understand them, but definitely a neat design.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
I installed some running boards on my friend's truck and it had these. Took me longer than it should have to understand them, but definitely a neat design.
There are some things I really hate doing, and rust is one. But pointless rust is even worse. As noted earlier, I found some holes in the Sequioa frame, and Toyota basically said "sorry, the frame recall ended earlier this year" and did nothing for me. So, guess I'll have to patch this stuff up myself.
The whole design is dumb. The reason these areas rusted is that for some reason Toyota put an "inner frame" in these areas (which looking at the design, doesn't seem to do much, IDK). In any case, this inner frame on the driver's side in both bad sections is essentially gone back to earth. The outer (main box) frame is mostly ok other than a few holes where the inner frame was close enough to the main frame to trap salt and crap i there and rust it out.
The one plus is that all this stuff can be done without jacking up the truck, which is convenient.
First I cut out the rust area under the driver. This is where the two frame sections are joined and you can see the remains of the inner frame up at the top.
And the inside was full of rusted-out pieces of that section. Again, can't tell what exactly it was there for though. Maybe just to align the frames when joined? IDK
Spent about an hour with a shop vac and an extentable magnet pickup tool getting rust chips and flakes out of there, and then hit as much as possible with POR-15 or spray paint.
Then cut out some 1/8" and patched it. The curved edges are to avoid any stress areas.
The area further up (back of the wheel well area frame) was the same story - had the "inner" frame and rusted out right where that inner frame was, near an access hole that let stuff fall in and get stuck there.
More cutting here.....and wow that's a lot of rotted metal (and paint) chips
And more plating...
Did a few other little areas (all very small) so no pics. But needless to say, it wasn't much fun.
wow, that is significantly more rust than I was imagining when this first came up. Nice work getting it out of there and replacing sections of the frame.
Enough about boring frame rust. It's time for rallycross again. Today was the 5th DC event of the season, back at Panthera training Center in W.Va. Perfect weather and it's a nice drive, so I went old-school and drove the car there instead of towing, getting to use the homebuilt roof rack again.
Slightly lower turnout than a lot of events this season (maybe like 40 cars) but about 15 of them were in Mod RWD, so as usual, a super-competitive class with most of the usuals there (minus Josh S.). The course was a new design and part of a new area we hadn't used before. It was a mostly-technical course that I would have begged for when the car had the M42, but with the bigger engine courses like this are a bit more of a handful keeping things in check, especialy considering my sub-par driving at the last couple events.
As usual, started off strong, along with Jeremy Sitar in his e36 328i. We both hit the courses hard out of the gate usually, and as usual, we had 1-2 positions after the first run. The rest of the class tends to be more cautious on run 1 but usually closes the gap. Jeremy and I set over a 3-second gap from the pack on the first run. On the 2nd run, I laid down a nice run and oddlly caught up to Jeremy at the finish (he was the car ahead of me). Turns out he broke one fo the mounting ears off of his diff, so his day was done (I offered my car, but he preferred to just call it a day and hang out instead).
I also shot this perfect selfie, just on a whim lol
For the rest of the morning session's 6 runs, my driving regressed and got a bit messy, culminating in (amazingly) my only cone of the day on Run 6 when I almost went off-course driving into a wall of dust, not being able to see the course at all. Between the lost time and the cone, I dropped to 3rd or 4th at lunch break (this is getting all too common recently). Meanwhile, Nick, Stephen, and a couple other guys continued their consistent/clean driving and edged ahead of me.
In the afternoon a GRM member showed up who I had promised some ride-alongs to, along with his wife. So heck, i let them ride on all the afternoon runs. And as seems to happen a lot, the car settled down nicely and I set down 5 clean, pretty fast runs (though none were exactly flyers). Meanwhile, so did Nick and Stephen. But Stephen made a rare mistake, while holding onto a 5-second lead over me and Nick, and locked up brakes and missed a turn, losing 10 seconds and dropping to 3rd (yeah, still held 3rd). Meanwhile, I started the afternoon 1.8 seconds back of Nick in 3rd. He was unusually tentative on this course's multiple blind turns and blind crests, trying to stay clean, and I pushed just a bit harder, moving up each run and in the end beating him by about 2 seconds for the win.,
Car felt good, no issues at all. I ran the Federals again, which are probably not as ideal for rallycross as my Dmack/Maxsport combo. But I'm trying to figure out the car's handling on the new setup so ran them anyhow. Nick was on gravels as well but Stephen was on Maxsports. Not sure it mattered much either way, but who knows.
So anyhow, it's good to get another win under my belt. This event was really make or break in terms of staying in the hunt for the championship. Nick still has a 7-point lead with 3 events to go, so we'll see if i can make that up. Gonna be hard with my 3 terrible events (I can only drop two of them), especially since Nick basically never messes up badly enough to do worse than 1st or 2nd......
Some other pics I took...
NIck
Love seeing Jim Golden's S2000 and Sebastian's stage rally Z3 coupe as well
Yeah, Jeep Renegade. Surprisingly quick around course, and with the exhaust chopped behind the cat, it sounds like a Fiat 500 Abarth....so, awesome, with turbo spool.
Fan favorite Corolla Wagon
Kimmett, going fast, as always
Shawn and Katie, wheeling the unicorn
e30s carry all the tires...
Jack Swayze's stage STi (also seen in my STPR pics, I think)
John Royer's class-leading Focus
Sorry to hear about the rust, but thanks for posting about it. That's great info for when I start hunting for one
Thanks for all the ride-alongs, it was a great day meeting new people. Plus you helped get my wife hooked, she didn't think it would be this fun, she couldn't stop grinning. Now on to find our own car for the 20' season.
Love that stage rally z3 coupe. I see an ARA banner on it, when did they last run a stage rally in that? I thought I had been doing a decent job of following the 2wd entries, but haven't seen that one in a while.
Yeah, seeing that Z3 there is just awesome, love that car! I wasn't tentative in the PM session, just in my first two AM runs after I missed the hairpin turn on the drivethrough and didn't quite know where to go on my first run. Such is life when you're the first car on the course for the day and the course cuts through tall grass. Those first two runs basically sealed the deal for me, I drove fine after that :( Stephen really kicked a$$ all day, aside from that one run it was a pretty dominating performance. But one bad run is all it takes in this class....
artur1808 said:Love that stage rally z3 coupe. I see an ARA banner on it, when did they last run a stage rally in that? I thought I had been doing a decent job of following the 2wd entries, but haven't seen that one in a while.
They were entered for STPR this year but withdrew at the last second due to an issue that coudln't be resolved in time. They've run a few NRS events previously (Sandblast, not sure what else) and are runnign the Tennessee Tarmac rallysprint in a few weeks. The car is sweet, but it's REALLY low ground clearance and they've definitely had some issues with it over the past few years.
In reply to irish44j :
I thought everything underneath those was supposed to be really similar to a normal 3-series? Just a frankenstein of e30 and e36?
artur1808 said:In reply to irish44j :
I thought everything underneath those was supposed to be really similar to a normal 3-series? Just a frankenstein of e30 and e36?
Yeah, they basically are. I think he has some custom trailing arms and stuff. As I recall the car has Ohlins or some other high-end rally suspension. I think their STPR issue was that they needed a specific part to fix something and couldn't get it in time.
JesseWolfe said:Thanks for all the ride-alongs, it was a great day meeting new people. Plus you helped get my wife hooked, she didn't think it would be this fun, she couldn't stop grinning. Now on to find our own car for the 20' season.
no problem. Happy to get more people addicted to the fun!
Also, if you're on FB find the "Washington DC Rally, Rallysprint, and Rallycross" page (or something like that) - most of us are on there. And if you are interested in getting a BMW, check out the "Dirty e-thirties" page (which is our group for BMW rally/rallycross here in the US).
Took a half-day today (I'm trying to burn some use-or-lose vacation time by the end of the year since I rarely take actual vacations) and the weather was nice so i went to Home Depot to pick up some PVC for a little project I've been stewing on for a while.
So, at STPR our crew guys had to stand around in the mud under the EZ-up when it was raining. That's no fun, and all our other gear got wet too (like the toolchest on the trailer). So decided to make up something we can use in service that's easy to haul, not heavy, and easy to put up and take down. I could get a very small EZ-up for the trailer but it would have to be like 7 feet x 7 feet which is tiny. So $75 worth of PVC 1 1/4" and some fittings and I built a frame. I still have a few things to do to it, but this is generally what it is. Flexes some since it's PVC, but seems sturdy enough to hold up to some wind and rain if strapped down sufficiently.
locator holes for the feet
It takes about 2 minutes to pull the four (uncemented) connector pieces and drop the three "arches" to the deck, where they sit nicely inside the rails. I'll make up a couple brackets to hold them in place this weekend
For the roof, I ordered up one of those repurposed 9 mil billboard tarps (literally, old billboards). They're thicker than the HD heavy-duty tarps (which are 7 mil) and supposedly extremely tough but not too heavy in this thickness. On one side they're black, on the other side.......is whatever graphic you happen to get. So it could be a Chevy dealer, or it could be Corn Flakes, or whatever. That's half the fun. Cost about $30 shipped for a 10' x 20' one, will be interested to see what graphic I get.
burning vacation time? you wanna come to tallpines?
the Z3 was at SOFR to.
also interested to see what your billboard is.
theyseemebrolin said:burning vacation time? you wanna come to tallpines?
the Z3 was at SOFR to.
also interested to see what your billboard is.
lol burning vacation time at home is free :)
McNamara already messaged me trying to get me to go run ESPR next week, but again that money thing.......(and ESPR is overpriced for what it is, so not real interested anyhow)
So, I build cheap PVC stuff instead haha.
I wish you better luck than mine with the billboards, the 2 I bought a couple years ago were just black n white, no design. I was kinda bummed about it.
irish44j said:theyseemebrolin said:burning vacation time? you wanna come to tallpines?
the Z3 was at SOFR to.
also interested to see what your billboard is.
lol burning vacation time at home is free :)
McNamara already messaged me trying to get me to go run ESPR next week, but again that money thing.......(and ESPR is overpriced for what it is, so not real interested anyhow)
So, I build cheap PVC stuff instead haha.
I meant to crew. Agree on ESPR.
You could make hockey goals from pvc, and wood edge to hold water to freeze. then at waste management winter your crew could play hockey on it.
theyseemebrolin said:irish44j said:theyseemebrolin said:burning vacation time? you wanna come to tallpines?
the Z3 was at SOFR to.
also interested to see what your billboard is.
lol burning vacation time at home is free :)
McNamara already messaged me trying to get me to go run ESPR next week, but again that money thing.......(and ESPR is overpriced for what it is, so not real interested anyhow)
So, I build cheap PVC stuff instead haha.
I meant to crew. Agree on ESPR.
You could make hockey goals from pvc, and wood edge to hold water to freeze. then at waste management winter your crew could play hockey on it.
Ironically, I'll actually be in Ottawa at the same time as Tall Pines. But I'm there for work (traveling on official passport) so can't exactly duck out to go rally.
In reply to theyseemebrolin :
But..... Will think on a way I can adjust my schedule at least come visit you guys, if not crew
artur1808 said:Nice, DIY enclosed trailer. I like it! Where are you sourcing these re-purposed billboards?
Finished up the trailer-shelter-thing storage arrangement. At the front I used a holesaw to make a couple inclined brakets that the front sections just "fit" into when lying flat. Then a couple pairs of eyebolts through the deck to hold the front down. At the rear, just used some L-angle I had sitting around to hold them in place. Seems like it should be secure. Even if the stuff comes looks, there will be a car there keeping it from falling off lol. This setup also secures the crossbars on the deck, which is convenient.
I know, super-exciting. But it's a project.
A little ghetto. I may actually weld some brackets on at some point but wanted them to be removable at the moment in case I change my mind about this setup
Got the tarp in today, from billboardtarps.com. I was excited to see what graphic I'd get on mine. Well, at least it's automotive-related (the other side is just black)
These are nice tarps though - ripstop fabric so WAY tougher than a normal tarp of the same thickness
I used my old Harbor Freight grommet kit to install grommets around the perimeter
Then used a spare PVC pipe as a means to roll it up
Then some test-fitting on my frame (which isn't totally complete yet, I plan to add a few arched central slats to allow rain to pour off and not pool up.
Looks decidedly ghetto. Perfect
I'm going to do some trimming and adjusting to make it fit more snugly. In this pic one end isn't secured so it's not very taut
rolled up and all the pieces secured. I'd say one person can set this whole thing up in about 5 minutes, so that will be convenient, in addition to our EZ-up that shelters the car itself. Not beautiful, but I think it'll be very functional and useful.
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