SleepyHead, Bobzilla, and John Welsh do OneLap2018

As long as it don't rub, who cares? 

In reply to Bob the REAL oil guy. :

Here is my long term plan...

In Dec, just his past, I bought this Q45 off a CL ad from Dayton, OH.  It was in the hands of it's 3rd owner. 

That ownership went from the original Dr Birkmire, the founder of NICO website and who's son is a regular here on GRM. He sold to Wes who is the guru of Q45's and built the website Q45.org years ago where he features the car in its glory days..  Wes then sold it to a guy in Dayton, OH who DD'ed it for a while.  I bought it sitting on a flat tire with 236k miles and rusty as heck, but drove it home.  However, it still has many goodies most of which is a 5 speed manual trans and Nissan 300zTT brakes!  

I would like to prep the rust bucket a bit and trailer it to GRM $2018.  After that I would undertake the huge project of chasis swapping from the rusty 236k '94 body to my mostly mint, 74k '90 body with the goal of competing in the '90 in OLoA in the Vintage Foreign Class.  That '90 being the same one that took 10th overall in GRM $2016.  

Bob the REAL oil guy. said:

As long as it don't rub, who cares? 

Also has to not rub while loaded down with crew and gear!  

So drove it down the street, and there's a knock in the rear consistent with wheel speed.

edit: well irish44 and bluej were more right than I expected... loose lugs, needed a reseat.  retorqued the rear lugnuts, and all's good now

In reply to John Welsh :

I am planning 2021 for the truck. Should give me enough time to sort things out, make it reliable and do things right. I'll also rent bed space to other competitors for hte event. lol 

In reply to sleepyhead :

stupid loose lugnuts have scared me more times than I should ever admit to. At least they're always on my own cars.

In reply to Bob the REAL oil guy. :

I think this was more the new longer lugs needing another tightening to fully seat.  Irish44 and Bluej indicated this was... normal.

although, poking around... I think I need to take a look at one of the Optima wheels that I might not have looked at closely enough

edit: alright, looks like it's just a paint scratch.  good news is, this whole process has made me much more comfortable whipping out sandpaper on wheel paint 

also, for the record; it's not that I'm paranoid... it's just that I have a lot to be considerate of   

In reply to sleepyhead :

Oh no, you're doing a fine job of thinking ahead for a lot of vehicle use in just one week.  Keep it up! 

John Welsh said:

In reply to sleepyhead :

Oh no, you're doing a fine job of thinking ahead for a lot of vehicle use in just one week.  Keep it up! 

+1. I'm glad you're looking ahead and thoroughly. 

There's not a lot of clearance between the ebrake bits and the rear of the hub flange/studs. How loud a know were you hearing? It's also not difficult to check, so I probably would since we had to dissassemble all that to drill the stud clearance hole in the dust sheild.

In reply to bluej :

after getting back to the garage, and retorquing the lugnuts... I went back out and did a full circle of the neighborhood and no more knocking.  I'm waiting for a few things to quiet down around the house... and then later tonight I'll probably take it on a blast out either 286 or 28 and get it up to "speed"

re: 3/4" tire poke
I've had someone on Facebook recommend a "pry-bar fender roll"... guess I've got a new piece of kit to add to the car packing

interesting perspective from the Evo crew / boosted films...

alright, got out and did my clover leaf test

car did fine, sticks pretty well.  brake flush/bleeding would definitely help increase my confidence in the car.  also, we probably should re-adjust the parking brake.

steering centering (castor?) is definitely reduced with the wheels pushed out around 24mm over stock.  The car tramlines a little bit, and in some situations needs a bit more steering input to recenter than you'd usually expect.  but, I've driven worse.

I had one incident of fender rubbing... cornering pretty good on an exit ramp, and going over an undulation.  So, heeled over and with a good jounce.  We might get it a bit more rubbing with the car all loaded up with gear... but I've got a 2x4 cutoff for the jack pad that we might work with to do a bit of light fender stretching.  Also, shortly after that, I felt a "wobble"... so I pulled off, set on the hazards, and rechecked all the lug torques.  Everything was fine... started back up and headed for home, and no more wobble feeling.  I think I'll be checking the spacer lug torque tomorrow evening.

20 miles, and things seem well enough in order

also, the seed list is filled in.  we're behind the miata, and an E36 M3 with an affinity for belt-spun boost

edit: also, at 55-60mph and the rear deck & seat out... the car's reading ~73.5dB... a 1.5dB boost over last year (not that we'll be transiting that way; but an interesting point to save for later)

The spot RIGHT behind you? Come on.......

unfortunately, everyone behind us last year got a horsepower upgrade

It's an arms race and I'm a T-Rex. 

lol

what does that make the prius?

Snake? Worm? 

The start is close now! I'm getting jitters/butterflies for you guys!

Please make sure to post in the oloa threads as much as possible throughout the week! I may as well have just gone to OLOA this year, it's going to be near impossible to focus on anything else anyways.

Even more so now that I have faces to names rather than just internet stories!

re: the wheel poke, how much camber do you currently run? the wheel should move inboard as it moves up through it's travel so a smidge more camber might solve the clearance issue and could improve handling at the same time?

In reply to klodkrawler05 :

factory... ran out of time, I think, for changing that

edit: maybe I can use this croquet mallet for some extra clearance?

Since I'm cutting vinyl at the last minute, as is tradition, you guys need anything? 

I Just razored off jah's username from the Pax window. Dunno if you want to do Bob's or John's

Otherwise I think I've got enough still from last year... unless you come up with something funny you think needs to be on the hood

for those of you wondering what to pack... make sure to thank Susan & Charles...

Already packed. 

But I packed an umbrella and rain gear too.