Roadracer's #997 build

[33fromSD]

Can you not get 30 day temp plates from local office? Ours are $30 cash, 10 min job. Anyway, good luck!!

Thanks James...yeah, I asked that about the temp plates and the clerk told me that is a question to ask when the state calls me about the inspection details. No worries, worst case I'll trailer it.

Jim

[RoadRacer]

I got a few minutes last night to crank up the caster even more. I want to feel it.. want it to be stable at speed. 6deg wasn't cutting it. So I went to 12deg.. LOL. Today, I can feel it. The steering certainly has some self-centering And when I turn the wheels, they look like they are about to fall over they have so much camber.

I may dial it back a touch.. but I have to say it drives great on the freeway. I was peddling along and looked down and saw 110mph and it was like steady as a rock. Love that.

[RoadRacer]

Ok, so the DMV just accepted my appraisal (although he said "no idea why my manager needs this for a VIN-less motor") and will let me know next week if the now-quite-large pile of papers is approved. Then I can pick it up and carry it to the tax office for the actual tag process. I'll be starting my 4th 90-day "temporary" tag - at this point it feels more permanent! - on Tuesday.

Fingers crossed.

I found and picked 3 personalized plate numbers 3 months ago - its part of the Street Rod form to pick these numbers - amazingly there are all still available. I still can't believe they are.. I'll let you know them all once I get one

If you're in TX, check the plates (and number availability) at https://www.myplates.com/

[RoadRacer]

Made me smile.. my dashcam saves special events like hard braking or crashing automatically.. apparently it also creates clips due to “harsh acceleration” too. Not sure this really counts.

[RoadRacer]

Spent 3 hours going over alignment again, to further experiment with the balance between high speed stability and cornering responsiveness. I had 12-14deg caster and it was super steady, but hard to corner. So today I went through it again, set 8deg caster, 0.8deg camber, 1/16" toe-in, cos I'm preparing for my first autocross event, and short-course cornering is important.

Went out again after these changes, and it's certainly less stable but still good enough at 100mph, but cornering/steering much improved. I'll spend the month between now and autocross getting used to this setup..

[33fromSD]

Mileage 1695

Spent 3 hours going over alignment again, to further experiment with the balance between high speed stability and cornering responsiveness. I had 12-14deg caster and it was super steady, but hard to corner. So today I went through it again, set 8deg caster, 0.8deg camber, 1/16" toe-in, cos I'm preparing for my first autocross event, and short-course cornering is important.

Went out again after these changes, and it's certainly less stable but still good enough at 100mph, but cornering/steering much improved. I'll spend the month between now and autocross getting used to this setup..

Where are you doing the autocross event James? Sounds like a blast.

Jim

[RoadRacer]

Circuit of the Americas (COTA) has a Spokes club event in one of the large parking lots on June 20. Can’t wait!

[33fromSD]

Circuit of the Americas (COTA) has a Spokes club event in one of the large parking lots on June 20. Can’t wait!

Nice...have fun.

Jim

[RoadRacer]

The title saga continues. I hadnt heard from the DMV so I made an appointment to see them. They said that it was rejected again because the form VTR-61 "Rebuilt Vehicle Statement" needed more information about the work I had done to the car. They handed me two blank sheets of paper and asked me to document "what I'd done". OMG.. so I did that, writing down every step, and handed it back in.

A few hours later I get a call that my paperwork is ready to pick up and take to the County Tax Office who actually create the title. I picked it up and the letter on the front says that I need to get a bond for 1.5x the appraised value because the car's identity cannot be proven - all because of the crate motor.

So I go get a bond at a cost of $550.

Next on the letter it says "The vehicle does not qualify for Classic, Antique, Custom Vehicle or Street Rod license plates" - which may be a much bigger deal.. I'll have to find out.

Here in TX, we all apply for Street Rod title because it means no annual inspection, all regs are per 1933, etc. So I don't yet know what this bonded title is going to mean.. if it gets bad enough I may be forced to buy a new motor and start this process all over.

What a complete sh*t show!! And no way to appeal apparently.

[33fromSD]

Well that sucks, hope it works out for you.

I'm still waiting to hear back on all my paper work I had to submit too.

Jim

[FF33rod]

oh man, that really sucks, feeling for you!

Steve

[RoadRacer]

Any of you with no hood or sides or fenders will know that there are a few drawbacks - everything gets dirty and oily andy buggy and you have to really be sure to miss puddles

But today, I found the best reason to go without front panels EVER - has anyone changed their oil? LOL You can just kneel down and reach out and undo the filter, drain the oil and be done in 5 mins without any bloody knuckles or swearing. It's a dream!

Jim, sorry, you're still gonna have to do it the old way.

[RoadRacer]

I had a godawful permanent screech coming from the driver's rear brakes so I threw the car up on the quickjack today and inspected all the brakes. All other corners were fine, but the drivers rear I found something odd - not sure if I screwed this up when fitting it but 3 of the 4 hardware clips were completely f'd. Huge bits missing from them. Any ideas?

Anyway, a quick trip to the local store and I got new hardware (no need to buy the pads luckily), and now the screech has gone!

2021-05-29 10.40.32-1.jpg 2021-05-29 11.30.21.jpg

[33fromSD]

Odd...never seen that before

Jim

[RoadRacer]

Weird follow-on brake problem. I decided to bleed the brakes again to try to improve pedal. I found no bubbles on front but when I tried the rear I got a different story. First I got air out and the wife inside said the pedal went much harder. Great!

Next day I took it for a drive.. and could barely stop at the bottom of the drive. Pedal went soft. Back on the lift and I find that rear brakes can’t even stop me turning the rotors by hand. I would the balance bar back to favor the rear- still no rear brakes. I rebled and found that I couldn’t get but a bare dribble of fluid out of either rear. Tried bleeding for a while and got nothing - no air but barely any fluid either.

So either the mother of all air blocks or a dodgy master cylinder?

I ordered a vacuum bleeder (always wanted one) to see if I can pull fluid through, so cars out of commission for a day. I have a spare MC so not sure whether to throw that on while I wait..

[33fromSD]

Weird follow-on brake problem. I decided to bleed the brakes again to try to improve pedal. I found no bubbles on front but when I tried the rear I got a different story. First I got air out and the wife inside said the pedal went much harder. Great!

Next day I took it for a drive.. and could barely stop at the bottom of the drive. Pedal went soft. Back on the lift and I find that rear brakes can’t even stop me turning the rotors by hand. I would the balance bar back to favor the rear- still no rear brakes. I rebled and found that I couldn’t get but a bare dribble of fluid out of either rear. Tried bleeding for a while and got nothing - no air but barely any fluid either.

So either the mother of all air blocks or a dodgy master cylinder?

I ordered a vacuum bleeder (always wanted one) to see if I can pull fluid through, so cars out of commission for a day. I have a spare MC so not sure whether to throw that on while I wait..

Vacuum bleeder is the way to go. I bought one about 5 years ago and have not used any other method since.

Jim

[RoadRacer]

Vacuum bleeder is the way to go. I bought one about 5 years ago and have not used any other method since.

Jim

Which one do you have Jim? After reading lots of reviews I got this: Capri Tools CP21029 Vacuum Brake Bleeder

[33fromSD]

Which one do you have Jim? After reading lots of reviews I got this: Capri Tools CP21029 Vacuum Brake Bleeder

I have an el-cheapo one...works great though

Jim

https://www.amazon.com/Titan-51885-1...483278&sr=8-24

[FF33rod]

Ages ago in the build I got something pretty much identical to this https://www.amazon.com/Orion-Motor-T...%2C211&sr=8-10

Absolute crap. The attachment to the bleeder nipple is very difficult to get a seal on - not enough sizes to get something to work. In the end, it's easier to recruit someone to come help than to try to use this single handed. The ones you guys are looking at look better.

Steve

[RoadRacer]

ok, so I'll call this success, and as is usual it's not the kit but the builder

We talk a lot about 3400lb mustang GT brakes surely being good enough on a 2200lb car, but it's taken me until today to figure it out. TLDR; I hadn't bench-bled my MC's.

I spent all morning trying to bleed the rears. So many thoughts running through my head - I had run my crossover line from drivers-passenger side up on the highest chassis member and looking today I thought that was my issue - how was I going to get air out of that big inverted U? Do I have to refab that line? The front MC was like a rock, the rear was very soft. But I couldn't get any air out of the rear brakes - in fact barely any fluid. The MC must be broken? What a pain to replace it in a finished car..

As a last resort I sat and thought about bleeding the MC in situ - I'd need something to screw into the outlet, and didn't have any spare brake line or fittings. What else could I do?

Then I realized I had a real nasty $10 hand pump "bleeder" that I use to suck fluid around.. so I figured, why not, I'll try and force the fluid from the caliper to MC, and any air trapped there would be able to make it those 6 inches. So that's what I did - almost emptied the reservoir, cracked the nipple, and forced half a reservoir's worth of fluid up there.. and straight away I heard those wonderful bubbling sounds. Did it on all four wheels but the first one was the best. Emptied the reservoir, forced it back through each nipple.

Now the pedal is much harder. I just test drove it and NOW the mustang brakes seem wonderful!

I'll have to wait and see if it goes soft again; then I can look into replacing the MC. But today ended on a high.

Oh, one more thing - setting the balance bar. I have it almost horizontal now after the bleeding, but I am using the different size MC's which give me some bias already (.625 rear, .75 front). I tried to lock up the tires to see which locked first (on a VERY empty frontage road) and couldn't lock them up at all. It stopped very quickly, but damn I'm going to be standing on it to lock them up. I'll keep trying, but how easy is it for everyone to lock up tires? I tried from 40 and then 65.. it just stopped. Pretty amazing weight transfer, felt like it was going on tiptoe.

[RoadRacer]

Fitted a heel stop to see how it helps - probably not a huge need on the road (perhaps longer trips) but mainly for autocross. Just 3 weeks to go, so I probably have to stop tweaking my car and getting used to the current setup

2021-05-31 15.31.16.jpg 2021-05-31 16.06.09.jpg

[RoadRacer]

Well, I have a license plate and a tax sticker. The tax office says "I'm done"!

But, we'll see. I have an appt to go back into the DMV tomorrow to discuss my title. I really don't know what I have, and no one can explain it fully. Do I need annual inspections? No idea. Can I get a vanity plate - apparently NO, but no one knows why. So that's another disappointment because I had some great plates picked out.

Hopefully the DMV can look me up and give some proper answers now.


P.S. I had to pay the tax office ~$1600 in sales tax. No explanation where that number came from..

[33fromSD]

Congrats...at least you have a plate now.

I have my inspection tomorrow.....it's odd cause the letter they sent me already references a SoDak VIN # & title number so would the state issue those already before the inspection. I'm hoping the inspection is just a simple formality...guess we'll find out.

Jim

[RoadRacer]

I went to DMV this morning and they confirmed that the tax office "did it wrong". They're going to fix it, and add "Replica 1933 Ford" (as they must), and get some answers on street rod title, annual inspection, emissions, etc, etc.

They also said "of course you can buy a custom plate", so I did. I found lots of good ones available, but in the end I chose this..

drive-it.png

[33fromSD]

I went to DMV this morning and they confirmed that the tax office "did it wrong". They're going to fix it, and add "Replica 1933 Ford" (as they must), and get some answers on street rod title, annual inspection, emissions, etc, etc.

They also said "of course you can buy a custom plate", so I did. I found lots of good ones available, but in the end I chose this..

drive-it.png

Nice!!

[33fromSD]

Hi James

I need your alignment expertise since you and I have the same alignment tool / set up and you have spent a lot more cycles on alignment with this tool than I have.

I also am not 100% sure if mine running full fenders and using the lower control arm mounting holes verses upper control arm mounting holes your running will matter with some of the settings, but what have you found to be the best camber, caster , toe settings for general cruising / highway driving.

I have no plans to track this thing so I'm just looking for you're estimate for best specs for general driving.

Thanks in advance for the advice / help.

Jim

[RoadRacer]

Hi James

I need your alignment expertise since you and I have the same alignment tool / set up and you have spent a lot more cycles on alignment with this tool than I have.

I also am not 100% sure if mine running full fenders and using the lower control arm mounting holes verses upper control arm mounting holes your running will matter with some of the settings, but what have you found to be the best camber, caster , toe settings for general cruising / highway driving.

I have no plans to track this thing so I'm just looking for you're estimate for best specs for general driving.

Thanks in advance for the advice / help.

Jim

Sure.. but bear in mind I wanted a slight bias to 90+mph driving. I wanted it to be stable and not wandering. It's all a balance of course.

FFR recommend: total toe 1/16" (0.0625), camber -0.5º, caster 3-4º (manual) 6-7º (power)

What I ended up with: same toe, same camber, 8º caster (on our machine that's a reading of 4º)

I don't quite know why, but I find 8º is still easy steering even without power steering. Sure, at 1mph you'll feel it, but it's not bothersome. Their recommendation of 3-4º made the car too unstable at speed and on bad roads for me - but there are a lot of factors. Since you have your own alignment rig, I honestly start with factory specs and see how it works for you. FFR aren't dummies, it's probably good for most.

[RoadRacer]

P.S. I have Gen1 which I think is different than yours - there is no "upper or lower hole" for me. Don't even remember what that means.. for shocks isn't it?

[33fromSD]

Sure.. but bear in mind I wanted a slight bias to 90+mph driving. I wanted it to be stable and not wandering. It's all a balance of course.

FFR recommend: total toe 1/16" (0.0625), camber -0.5º, caster 3-4º (manual) 6-7º (power)

What I ended up with: same toe, same camber, 8º caster (on our machine that's a reading of 4º)

I don't quite know why, but I find 8º is still easy steering even without power steering. Sure, at 1mph you'll feel it, but it's not bothersome. Their recommendation of 3-4º made the car too unstable at speed and on bad roads for me - but there are a lot of factors. Since you have your own alignment rig, I honestly start with factory specs and see how it works for you. FFR aren't dummies, it's probably good for most.

Thanks James....appreciate it. I realize each set up is slightly different, but it's great starting reference.

Jim

[33fromSD]

P.S. I have Gen1 which I think is different than yours - there is no "upper or lower hole" for me. Don't even remember what that means.. for shocks isn't it?

Got it....it's for shocks and the upper & lower control arms. On Gen 2 chassis there are now two sets of holes....The upper one is for no fenders / bike fenders and the lower one are for the full fender/running boards.

Jim

[RoadRacer]

Did some more bleeding today, pressure first, then vacuum second. Have a good pedal now, so I took it out to an abandoned parking lot to see if I could lock up. I could, even at relatively low speed. It sure sounded like the fronts locked first, but the video evidence doesn't show the tires locked...

[RoadRacer]

[RoadRacer]

[RoadRacer]

[RoadRacer]

Lots of tweaks recently, now the car runs great I can get back to some things lower on the list.

• I changed my turn signal LED's (on the dash) from green to yellow because the green ones were too dim to see in sunlight. According to Jegs, brightness increases from green, yellow/red, and blue being the brightest
• I finally added a hinge and spring latch to my armrest
• I applied my racing numbers ready for autocross (I used to run 167 on my GT40 replica - was what I was assigned randomly at Brighton Speed Trials in '93)
• Last week I noticed that my radiator had been scuffed on the ground - not good since it's aluminum! Not bad damage, but I had the ability to easily raise it up without moving the grill at all, so that was this morning's job. I managed to raise the radiator 1.1", and gained another 1/4" by spinning the hose clamps so that the fasteners were on top rather than the bottom
• I swapped in the lightest springs into my distributor to see if it helped the engine.. honestly, it runs strong but I couldn't tell the difference. But I did lower to 12deg initial.

racenumbers1.jpg racenumbers2.jpg racenumbers3.jpg

before:..radiator before.jpg radlower1-1.jpg

after:....radiator after.jpg radlower2.jpg

distributor springs.jpg

[RoadRacer]

Loved the message this brand GoFastDontDie shares..

2021-06-18 12.18.19-1.jpg

[RoadRacer]

First autocross event is in the bag! Loads of fun and I got much better each run.. but looking at this (my fastest run) I was basically poncing about - seemed so fast in real time, and now looks so slow!

Looking forward to next time..

[j33ptj]

Sounds awesome!! love it!!!

[RoadRacer]

The event had a professional photographer there and was taking some very nice photos - here are some of the car. These are just lo-res screenshots but I'll be buying some of these from him for just $5 each. It's so rare to see photos of these cornering at speed.

2021-06-20 21.47.36 copy.jpg 2021-06-20 21.47.45 copy.jpg 2021-06-20 21.47.53 copy.jpg 2021-06-20 21.48.02 copy.jpg 2021-06-20 21.48.12 copy.jpg 2021-06-20 21.48.22 copy.jpg 2021-06-20 21.48.32 copy.jpg

The fourth one has me studying the camber.. it sure looks like it gets into some positive camber states. I'm going to dial some more static camber in before the next event...and I think raise it a little more at the rear.. that roll at speed looks very close to scrubbing tire at the rear.

Anyone played with an anti-roll bar on these?

[FF33rod]

Cool, thanks for sharing! I did a track day about 2 years ago and remember looking at video afterward and wasn't impressed at all, it looks slow! a lot more fun when you're on the inside

Steve