GameboyRMH wrote: It does take standard 2.5" springs. The problem is that if I bring them in legally it roughly doubles the price through duties & other fees, on top of expensive shipping.
Nobody makes springs in Barbados?
GameboyRMH wrote: It does take standard 2.5" springs. The problem is that if I bring them in legally it roughly doubles the price through duties & other fees, on top of expensive shipping.
Nobody makes springs in Barbados?
Hahaha no of course not. There are places that re-arch and re-assemble leaf springs but that's about it.
GameboyRMH wrote: Hahaha no of course not. There are places that re-arch and re-assemble leaf springs but that's about it.
You must love the combination of tiny island and massive protectionism.
The protectionism doesn't even seem to be successfully protecting anything 
But I guess it's about keeping the trade imbalance out of the Gone Plaid zone as well.
Should have the last parts next week. Companies closing around Christmas are almost certainly going to push the end of the build into the new year though, I still need to get the exhaust built, AC system put together and gassed up, and corner balancing & alignment.
The insulation was rotting off the AC lines so I put something better on there. Goodbye aluminum-backed cardboard wrap:
Hello foam rubber insulation covered in aluminum tape:
I finished the upper part once I confirmed there was room when installed, and yes it still flexes. And yes I had to trim some off to make room for the mounting bracket I forgot about. I'll do the other line coming from the compressor like this once it's fabricated from a couple of different lines I have.
Also revising future plans:
Spring 2014 - rust repair to rear deck and doors, sparewellectomy, rear strut brace, adjustable flat bottom aero, adjustable brake vent system, EBC Yellowstuff pads (already ordered).
Winter 2014 - MS2x, ITBs, bigger cams, CoPs, maybe: DIY variable trumpets, TwosRus oil pan baffle kit, ARP main bolts & DIY crank ladders, DIY crank scraper
Early/spring 2015 - Plasti-dip paint job.
Let me know how the adjustable aero goes. I'd love to compare notes.
Home stretch now...got the smooth pulley from trucke:
The engine should start for the first time on Saturday, then depending on which shops are open the following week the car will either be quickly finished or will sit until the new year.
Didn't get the engine started this weekend, when your mechanic's mom's car blows its slushbox that causes delays. I did get some other stuff done, like building a 3-gauge 1.5DIN bracket out of coroplast that actually doesn't look ghetto, but forgot to take pics. I'll get pics of the finished product.
Picher tiem!
DIY gauge bracket:
I hope we can find the piece of plastic that broke off the face of the radio because I won't be able to justify the cost of a new deck for a long, LONG time.
We got the last belt hooked up (it was hard to find the right belt here - 5PK1040) and the throttle cable swapped. The shop will be open tomorrow and the plan is to finish up the suspension work.
I think I have that old Alpine sitting in a cupboard in the garage. Let me check. Probably cost prohibitive to ship the whole thing but I might be able to tear it apart for some things.
Thanks for the offer but it wouldn't make sense...not just in terms of cost but because this deck welds into the DIN cage (no screw holes in the sides either) and I'd like to move the deck to the bottom slot and put the gauges up top.
I'll eventually replace it with an Alpine CDE-126BT or CDE-HD137BT, but there's lots of work to pay for and rust repair and more important mods to do before then.
Got a few little things done today...one of them was rolling the car out of the garage to get the ride height measured, and that's when something in the handbrake linkage snapped If it was a cable I might take the opportunity to get a stronger one fabbed up rather than using a stock replacement, there's a good chance it would save money too.
For anyone else looking into getting the Ultra Racing 4pt lower front strut brace for an AE92, be aware that it eats into your ground clearance by clean over 1" 
Right now the car is sitting at 5.25" all around, before it was at 6" front 6.5" rear, stock is 7" front 8" rear. I'll be running something between 5.5"~6" front and somewhere between 1/4"~3/4" forward rake...I think I'll select rake within that range based on looks. All the suspension mods I've done so far should shift the handling balance towards more oversteer so I don't need more forward RAI. At 5 1/4" the front geometry is already closer to stock (as in, better) than before through lower preload so I could afford to run slightly lower, although geometry is better higher up...tough decision. And now there's the much lower clearance at the strut brace to worry about, currently a terrifying 3.5". I think that at less than 5 3/4 front ride height I'll be taunting the speedbumps.
Based on my experiences doing suspension tuning on strut equipped cars, I would strongly suggest optimizing geometry over other concerns. Once you get these types of cars into a geometric sweet spot, they not only handle very well but suddenly become very sensitive to ride-height changes.
A 3 mm drop in the rear suspension ride height on my car is the difference between mild understeer that you can provoke into oversteer if you're aggressive and crazed tail-out antics on the approach to every sweeper, for example. My car, which is not so different from yours, likes the biggest RAI and highest roll centers possible - the limiting factor being tuck-under.
Jacking or tuck-under, depending on whose terms you prefer. ^
You'll also reap big rewards in tire wear, you won't have to run as much camber (I do fine with -1.5) or toe out and the car will just generally become a lot more predictable.
Since the ride height will basically have to be re-set for corner balancing, I'm going to try 5.75" front 6.5" rear...almost the same as before but a quarter-inch lower in the front. If it's OK in terms of ride height but I get too much oversteer I'll drop the rear another quarter inch (no problems with geometry back there). If I scrape stuff I'll put it back to 6" front 6.5" rear.
The geometric sweet spot for the front of this is well over stock ride height, it simply has crap geometry like most macstrut cars. At least the new closer-to-center camber plate position will move the front roll center up a little. I'd like to make custom drop spindles for it at some point to correct it, I'm thinking I'd make 2" or maybe 3" drop spindles for running 1"-1.5" drop, and that still wouldn't be ideal but it would keep the RAI change from getting crazy and let the spindles fit inside 15s.
After setting up the front suspension on the weekend, I did some calculations to verify the spring rates and the calculator spat out a bombshell.
The rates I calculated were wildly wrong somehow, the car was running vastly stiffer springs than I realized. The codes on the D2 springs make sense now.
Front springs - "11.5-205" - 205mm free length, 11.5kg/mm (644lb/in) Rear springs - "O-11-250" - Oval spring, 250mm free length, 11kg/mm (616lb/in)
With those rates I'm surprised that the car has any meaningful amount of body roll under any conditions. These are harder than the rates you'd get on MRP's track-spec coilovers by a big margin. Shows you how much I need roll center spacers. At least there's a good reason for the car to handle potholes so poorly.
So the D2 springs are going back on. I'm not going to increase spring rates any further, later I'll just get shorter springs with a helper or tender setup to get them all out of the way of the tires. I was on the fence about 3/4" vs. 1/2" forward rake, the mechanic recommended 1/2" so that's what I'm trying.
Found out that the right rear handbrake cable on the car is what snapped, I can get a replacement from the dealer here for a not-too-terrible price...more than importing but it should be a better quality part and I get it at lunch today instead of sometime next month.
Finally got all the parts on the car now that are needed for the engine to start. The rear suspension should be going back on today, handbrake cable tomorrow, and then once it's running it's off to the muffler shop for the exhaust build, an AC specialist for AC line fabbing & R134a conversion, and the pricey race shop for tire rotation, corner balance & alignment. I might put off the AC work just to next month to avoid a cash flow problem, if I don't have it aligned I won't be able to enjoy the car at all, without AC I can still compete with it and take it for a spin at night. I need to put this car on DD duty for a while though so my Samurai can get some work done on it.
Oh here are some pichers:
I often repaint bits and pieces and don't document it (like the battery tie-down you can see on the right edge of the pic). Here's the cleaned-up plug wire deck. Originally it came with rubber edging around it, called "U-channel tubing" or "electrical edging." I couldn't find any of that, or any plastic washers of the right size, so I settled on rubber O-rings to achieve the goal of thermally isolating the deck from the head. This also gives you an idea of how the engine would look with the plug wire cover in place.
T3 camber plate setup adjusted into the doriftu position for more caster. They may have to be rotated again to get more caster while running -2.5deg front with the slotted strut mounts in the maximum negative position (half as likely to slip while at a maximum). The T3 plates don't have the adjustment path offset to give a negative camber/increased caster relationship when installed normally like most do.
And yes I later swapped the brake booster line to the one from the donor which doesn't rub the strut bar.
Alright had some delays when the mechanic fell ill, but things are moving again. New handbrake cable's on, rear suspension is back on.
Oh look what's this?
Room for negative camber on the rear? I sure hope so!
The last few parts I've been waiting for should be in tomorrow.
Nice.
No updates on the build other than minor fix-ups, but here's an update on the track:
Looks like the car will be ready first.
Oh great now it turns out something's wrong with the integrated handbrake mechanism on the driver's side rear caliper. This is probably going to require some fabrication.
Have you calculated the maximum body roll angle for your car? It looks like you have 3.5~ish degrees even with those big springs and the swaybars.
Nope, I only did one event with both F&R sway bars, I guess I'd need to get someone to take videos from outside the car. I'm thinking 3.5deg is about right for autocross though.
No updates 'cuz the mechanic's mom's car's new tranny had some kind of hydraulic problem and he had to rebuild the original one, swap it in and return the "new" one. And it's also the car he's driving right now.
Rear ride height came up way too much and the springs are going to end up really close to the tires again...damn I really wanted negative camber on the rear. When the car rolls over I'm just driving on the outside edges of the rear tires. With zero camber on the rear, the harder I turn the less rear grip I have. I'm wondering if some 1/4" spacers might be a good quick fix until I can get shorter springs (of the correct rate) for the rear.
I was thinking I don't have much reason to change front springs, so maybe I'll get shorter springs for the rear and custom drop spindles for the front at the same time, and then consider changing the front springs and getting rear drop spindles. That will give me more opportunity to experiment with front vs. rear spring rate proportions as well.
I think those spindles should be high on your list of priorities. By way of comparison, I max out at about 2.5 degrees roll, with no bars and 488 lb springs. I'm pretty sure my car is taller and heavier than yours, too.
Rear ride height setting and general reassembly are being done. A bolt sheared off in the radiator support this week, gotta find an EZ-out or reverse drill bit to remove it.
I did some shopping around for springs and decided the next setup will be 650lb/in rear 700lb/in front, using a 150lb/in*1.75" tender setup on the front and a helper setup on the rear. A similar tender setup would be best on the rear too but I don't think there's enough room if I want to keep the springs entirely clear of the tires. More droop travel before the spring reaches free length would help the sway bars do more work and make the ride a little smoother. Although I'm also thinking about getting an adjustable link on one side and a quick release on the other for the front sway bar. This will let me neutralize any sway bar bias that comes from corner balancing and see how a disconnected front sway bar changes lap times, a lot of people who race AE92s say a front sway bar isn't worth it around a track due to longitudinal traction loss on corner exit.
Also going to pick up a CANbus/OBD2 interface module for the RCP so it can tie into the MS2x later on.
EZ-out sheared in the bolt
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