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BLKOUT2: Rebirth. PRT 2011 track car build thread.

Did some more work on the control arms, should have them all tacked up and in for finish welding Thursday. Also made some more head way on the wiring changes for the car. I'll post a big pictorial update on everything before the weekend. Also ended up taking off Monday, so it'll be a big 4-day weekend getting work done.
 
Awesome man, great to see all those ideas come to realization for you.

I need to take a few days off and get the bike back together....I need a damn paint booth
 
Pole120 said:
Between sanding and filling the hood, I machined the AL spacers for the rear suspension and started on mounting the Odyssey 680 battery.
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You could have always done what I did, if you were worried about space in the trunk... I somehow doubt you were though. In the Cobra I wanted to run a bigger heat exchanger resevoir and so I relocated the battery to run a Vortech Aftercooler resevoir in the stock battery tray. I bought a Dynabatt battery and tried to mount it somewhere up front... but after doing some thinking and some measuring I made my own box for the battery at work. The box is a little on the heavy side but battery and box together weigh about 15 lbs less than the stock battery it replaced.



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I'm also curious as to why you're using polyurethane for bushing material in the foward rear control arms exactly? Delrin would be a better choice for bushings, although it is more expensive and it would have to be machined to fit.

Just an observation :cool:



Shannon
 
I want the battery close to the front of the car for the sake of short wire runs and associated weight savings. Also, with the battery in the trunk I would be required to install an external battery disconnect.

As for the bushings, they were availale off the shelf and required little modification, they're standardly available so sourcing them for the production contour arms will be simple, and the'ye still far better than stock. If I weren't using urethane, i would just jump to haim joints like I have everywhere else.
 
Pole120 said:
I want the battery close to the front of the car for the sake of short wire runs and associated weight savings. Also, with the battery in the trunk I would be required to install an external battery disconnect.

As for the bushings, they were availale off the shelf and required little modification, they're standardly available so sourcing them for the production contour arms will be simple, and the'ye still far better than stock. If I weren't using urethane, i would just jump to haim joints like I have everywhere else.
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Urethane is only slightly better than rubber for a bushing material, and like rubber it will bind almost as easily. I never knew just how good Delrin was for a bushing material until I replaced the bushings in the Cobra's IRS with it... night and day difference from what it used to be. I can see though using urethane for the mass produced arms seeing as how the bushings are readily available, and I'm fairly sure not many on here would want to pay the price of admission for the control arms with Delrin bushings in them as they'd be much more expensive.

I do agree with you that rod ends or "heim" joints would be the best choice, as they offer zero deflection and zero bind.



Shannon
 
Teaser time....I think everyone will enjoy this 3-day weekend's progress. HUGE thanks to John B tires (www.johnbtires.com) for a nice hookup on some tires for the car. These guys specialize in used take-off that have been shaved and heat cycled, they're local and decided to help out. Great guys to deal with for sure.

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Just some tubing....

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Sorry for the lack of updates lately guys. I know a lot of you are excited to see this come together. Unfortunately, but necessarily, this weekend turned into a game of order parts, and drive all over the place to get things done, as well as a day lost at a baptism. I had taken off today with the intent of putting in a full day on the car, and yet again, here it is 2:00, and so far today i've ordered a few parts, and spent a couple hours driving around for supplies ect.

I will have some pictures up tonight, of past nd present progress so you have something to look at while I'm doing the boring stuff behind the scenes.
 
So I'll spare you the details of all the minor boring stuff I did on the car this weekend and get to the good part. First off, stopped and picked up some new kicks, this is the first time I've ever purchased driving shoes and i don't think I'll ever go back.

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I've decided to change gears a little bit with the intake system. Rather than fumble with a separate headlight housing, I've decided to incorporate the 4" post into a functioning light. The port will be located where the low beam sits now, I will relocate those to the high beam location and run lower wattage bulbs. Doing this means moving the fuse box, which isn't an issue as all the wiring will be modified anyway. The battery will stay tucked as originally intended.

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Saturday morning I got the tires mounted and It's evident that the work I put into the fenders was worth the time. It's amazing just how much room for even more tire there is, so there will certainly be changes to wheel/tire combo for 2012.

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Stopped at a friends house that has a bender(which I may now be buying) and got the harness bar for the cage bent. I also scrapped the idea of a bolt in design and decided instead to weld everything in. Everything will just be tacked until I get the car resting on the suspension.

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Lastly, I redid the seat bracket for a third time and dropped it about another inch. This is as low as it can go, any lower and the steering column doesn't drop far enough to see the instrument cluster. The pictures shown are with the column all the way down.

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there can be a downside to sitting to low in the car as well. if you get to low you loose some of your visibility in the car. i sit a git high in my car, but i can see everything that i need to see. might change it a bit after this season, but im driving a different car this season, so who knows what will happen

ive always wondered why all you guys still run the snorkel hose vs a straight sri for intakes
 
At 6' 1" I have no problem seeing even with the seat this low.

With just over 2 weeks left in this workspace, and my goal being to drive the car out and back to PRT at that time. I've had to switch gears from working on several things at once, to focusing on what has to be done to get the car on the road. Tonight I made great progress on the rear control arms, which are the only component keeping the rear suspension out of the car. The next items on the list are to finish tacking in the harnes bar/strut brace/cage and make/install all the patch panels in the firewall. I ordered almost a thousand dollars in parts this weekend....so i've got plenty to do.
 
Pole120 said:
I ordered almost a thousand dollars in parts this weekend....so i've got plenty to do.
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:eek: - I can't wait to see this. Are we going to have a PRT meet before SZ? If not, I will just make a plan to come down and check it out.
 
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