Category: My Projects

Completed upper control arms for a project of mine.  These are only 7″ long.

Teaser

 

• 2WD main leaf, de-arced 3″
• 4WD second leaf, de-arced to match
• 2WD second leaf, bobbed and de-arced to match
• 2WD main overload, flattened (Canadian trucks have two overloads)
• 4WD second overload, flipped
• 3″ blocks, machined to 2″ with 6° taper
• Relocated rear shackle mount
• Re-drilled front eye mount
• Nissan Quest shocks

That should be it.  SO not worth it.

Read More: Hideously De-Arched

I figured I should add an update on the current tune.  I have been running pure Alpha-N for a couple years now, and this is the current state of the tune.

There is still a wee bit of unhappiness light-throttle around 2000rpm, and cold start is still about 10% unhappy.  But very driveable, and nary a problem.

I did have a strange quirk wherein the car would act like it just dropped two cylinders, usually only once in a while, and only within the first 20 minutes of operation.  Only a full on/off/on would make it go away.  Someone on www.locostusa.com found the fix: reset “next pulse tolerance” normal running up to 70%.  Problem solved.

Read More: Lethal Megasquirt

The Flowmaster is gone.  I think it would have worked great on a V8, but the exhaust pulses from a 4 just aren’t enough to cancel each other properly.  So – axed.

The latest muffler is on now, and there’s no going back.

It’s a Walker QuietFlow3 for a 1990 Chevy C1500 350V8.  2-1/2″ in, dual 2″ out.

And by gum, it’s pretty quiet.  I can ~just~ hear exhaust note on the highway.  Any drone is virtually non-existent.

Am I really that old?

Read More: Hideous Exhaust

Attacking the rearward tubes on the Lotus Seven

Read More: The Lotus Seven

I needed some flat steel to transition from the 1″ wheel archs on the Lotus 7 chassis to the 3/4″ tubes behind the seat back bulkhead.  I thought “washers would work great” only, you really shouldn’t weld chrome.

An hour immersed in Muriatic Acid, and now they are de-chromed.

I wonder if the acid might be a bad thing when welding….

This was SO not fun to make.

Read More: The Lotus 7

I know, it’s not a “Project Car” per se.

But it was finally completed, and performed flawlessley on its maiden voyage to the dump today.

Backing it up the driveway, however, that’s a different story….

Read more: The Terrible Trailer

Muffler #1 – Stock – rotted off.
Muffler #2 – Magnaflow 2-1/2″ – Wicked Awesome at full throttle, but drone drone drone drone drone
Muffler #3 – Walker SoundFX – “unusual sound” from get-go, now (new issue) suspect blown baffle inside
Muffler #4 – Flowmaster – we’ll see. Some of the drone is back…

Read More: Hideous Exhaust

I’m really kind of done with this. It was a lot of work, and most definitely not worth the effort. I added a new page to celebarate.

Read More: Hideously-De-Arced