I picked up the wheels tonight from the shop. Wheel Medic completely refinished them for me (center caps and all, though I forgot pics of the caps) and mounted new tires. They are a charcoal grey with a metallic addition (I think it's metallic grey and a "spritz" of silver paint, but I'm not exactly sure how they did it....then it's all clear coated).

I raised the ride height again. I raised the rear adjuster 3/4" and I raised the front spring perches 1 complete rotation. Tomorrow I think I'm going to add 1/4" more to the rear and go another turn on the front shocks. I'm ok with it where it is (I have 1 3/4" to the rear factory bump stop), but I thought I might try going a touch more. Then I need to get it aligned and I'm ready to go.

I also grabbed some pics of the rear shocks installed in the car.

Is that paint or powder coat? Looks really good.

It's apparently both. I told them I really didn't want powdercoat because I've seen issues with it. But these guys do thousands of wheels. I guess I'll see how it goes. It's a black powdercoat, grey (paint I think?) and then a clear powdercoat.

My LCAs should be delivered today. I have an alignment scheduled for tomorrow morning. Tonight I get to make my last ride height adjustments and install the new LCAs and the wheels and tires. Then I'll have to start working on shock adjustments.

My wife drove the car and said it's truly a whole different car now. It feels much more like the BMWs she drove at the BMW school (when she worked for BMWUSA) and nothing like the original floaty pig that we started with. And it doesn't clunk or make noise. So far, so good.

Are you going to get it corner balanced?

I considered it, but it's a convertible. lol. Since any events I run with it will just be for fun (just to go do it), I can't see investing the time or money to corner weight it.

On the other hand, this seems likely to be a rather capable autocross car now and I'm a little sad it's not a hard top or T top car.... Oops.

The way I see it is you spent a lot of money on that suspension. It'd be a shame to not take advantage of the adjustability. I think I paid like $75 to have mine adjusted on a set of scales, the fronts anyway.

Idk, maybe you could get it done and really not notice a difference or maybe it'll make your driving experience that much better.

If you don't mind sharing, how much did the wheel refinish cost ya ?

~DaVe

$120/wheel "refinishing"
$15/center cap (paint/refinishing)
"something" for painting the lug nut covers
$15/tire mount and balance
"something" to straighten the bent one (I have to pull the bill out of the console in the truck)

All total (tax and all), I walked out the door for about $665.

I raised both ends by one "turn" of the spring perch (adjuster). That's about 1/8" on the shock and a bit more at the wheels. I was going to go with two turns on each end, but one seems to be about where I wanted it. It might be a touch low, but it handles well, looks ok and I didn't get hung up on the speed bumps in the local parking lot tonight. I'm calling it a success.

I really like the coil overs. UMI and Sam Strano did an outstanding job on them. I haven't even had a chance to start tuning yet and the car already feels shockingly good. I'll get it aligned tomorrow and go from there. Everything I got from UMI has been top shelf and Ryan and the crew do amazing work and are all around nice guys. They will be in town this weekend and I'm going to catch up with them so Ryan can take this one for a spin. Seems only fair for all the effort he has put into helping me with this project. Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough.

And....it's "done" (at least for now). Alignment is scheduled for tomorrow morning.

(The close up gives a better idea what color the wheels are, they look dark in the big pic).

That looks really good

It looks like I may have a bent spindle on this car. One side would go to -2 camber and the other was -1.3. Castor was 4.5 (max) and 3.5 (max). Something is off....

Good to find it now, than a month down the road when you're trying to figure out why the inside of one tire is showing air.

Yea, but it still sucks. Now I have to find two known good spindles and swap them out. I'll likely replace the castor bushings just for grins and then I have to figure out if I want to do new upper control arms.


Edit:

I just found a pair for sale on Ebay. They say 60 day return policy and free shipping. For $69/ea, I ordered a pair. Maybe I can line them all up and figure out which ones don't match (laying on the garage floor on the bearing flanges). Then I'll touch up the paint and install them.

Funny. People laugh at me for cleaning and painting the replacement parts. Well, my wife, at least. I'm glad to know it still happens in the world.

I would have refinished the upper control arm mounts (they had a little rust....the only rust on this car) if I hadn't been in a hurry to get the shocks on it so I could get back to driving it. If I tear the whole nose down, I'll likely buff the rust off and redo those while I'm in there. You're not the only one with automotive OCD.

I guess I should get castor and camber bushings for the lower control arms (they don't seem excessively worn, but they are from 2002) and maybe fresh balljoints while I'm in there. If it's worth doing....

Well, I have new Moog Problem Solver control arm bushings, new Problem Solver balljoints (ordered from Stranoparts.com and on my door step the next day), two new-to-me spindles are on the way and I'm waiting for a set of Moog tie rod ends to arrive (I forgot about them until later). I also had a Moog alignment tool delivered (the shop didn't have one, but they ordered their own the day I was there) so I can just take it with me from now on. That came from Jegs and arrived at my door the next day (drop shipped I believe).

Has anybody ever swapped the front control arm bushings with a balljoint press? I've done that on a 3rd gen, but I wondered if I might get lucky on the 4th gen too?

Now, who wants to help me tear down the front end....again?

Okay, so I had to go look up 'Moog alignment tool'. Never heard of such a thing. How does that work? Kind of curious now, since we have a 4th Gen.

It engages a hole in the LCA and a hole in the K member to allow you to set camber. There is a second hole in the LCA (A arm) and a second hole in the K member to do castor. This is a "turnbuckle" that allows you to push the arm out or pull it in so you can hold a camber or castor setting while you tighten things down.

The tool is U shaped and you turn the middle adjusting nut to either push or pull the ends...I got one when I bought my car

It's the tool that no alignment shop has and tells you after they already your car already on the rack.

I might have a set of stock upper arms, would have to check

Thanks! I already ordered a set of Global West upper arms. Though I may wind up trying something new....(that's all I can say for now).

My wife and I met Ryan, Ramey, Jerry and the rest of the UMI crew for dinner on Saturday night while we watched all the street rods from the Goodguys event doing burnouts in front of the restaurant (there was a silver Chevy II that sounded like a ProStock car during burnouts....it was a monster). It was a fun evening with a great bunch of guys. Today we met them at the Goodguys event where we got to ride along in the Camaro and the Pontiac. Both are impressive cars that make excellent power and quite a bit of grip. I drug along my pyrometer for tire temps and some minor pressure adjustments (I hope we were helpful). Ryan and the crew drove the wheels off of them both in a field of very fast cars. It was a fun day with a great bunch of diehard gearheads.

Thanks Ryan/UMI for having us along!!!

Kevin, It was great to finally meet you and Mollie. It's crazy how you can be online friends and never meet at times. I appreciate the tire pressure help and the driving advice, it helped us a lot to gain some time... now if we were just more consistent drivers you may have seen better results! But we are learning at each event.

It was a great weekend, that is what the events are all about, meeting new people, having fun and testing. Columbus is such a great event for the night life, the cars, the burn outs and the giant car shows at the hotels.

We better see that convertible out there next year for All American Sunday

By then I should be ready. I never did see if the silver C5 convertible had a roll bar in it and I couldn't tell with the top up.

I had so much fun riding with you guys that I realized I kinda miss this stuff. Uh oh.... (we know where that leads)

Ahh yes,I keep forgetting about the roll bar rule...

By then I may just give up and put a 4 point in it. It's not the worst idea from a safety standpoint. If I bought a new Miata, I'd have one in it ASAP (they are common and they fit well in those cars). The backseat is my main hangup. I hate the idea of installing one, but it's likely a good idea (or I'm going to need to find another car to go with this one.... ).

Just how big a deal is the rear seat? It's next to unusable anyway. They screwed up and put the bolt-in 4-point we have in the 95 with the seat back down. It will in no way allow the seat back to fold back upright. OTOH, the pups don't really mind the platform to sit/stand on when 'bye-bye in the racecar'. :-)

With the bolt-in 4-point, we were able to add harnesses. I picked up a pair of seats that the PO had shoulder harness cutouts installed in. They are great for autocross, and even these seats feel better than the Corbeau 1-piece seat that came with the car.







Wolf Racecraft makes a bar that bolts to the front seat mount bolts that allows you to use a crotch strap. Not the best configuration, since it doesn't come up inside the seat bottom, but better than nothing.

Crotch Strap Bracket for F-Body

We hauled my nephew home from my parents house in it and picked him up once or twice. It's a 2 mile drive, but it was handy to have the back seat available. Otherwise, it's useless.

Is your crew going to do any of the Optima events (or have you already)??

I would love to be able to see that 4th gen monster in action on MAV TV!!

Nephew ~= puppy. He'll be fine!!

He's 13, 6ft tall and about 135 lbs. lol

Great Dane puppy?

Bwhahaha.....that's funny (and fairly correct).

We couldn't make any of the events this year, nothing seemed to line up with our schedule and close enough to us. Maybe next year. We are headed to Gingerman Raceway next weekend for the Motor State Challenge, we hear it's a great event!

I'm running a little behind. I never posted pics of the poly/roto joint LCA's that I recently received from UMI. I was in such a hurry to get the thing together and to the alignment shop, I forgot to post pics. As always, UMI builds first rate parts and I'm quite impressed with these.

Why poly/roto joint you ask? Well, I mentioned "wife friendly" on this project. So, that's required a few changes to my usual approach. I've never used (or really even considered) poly/"anything" LCA's in the past. But this time we are going to give it a try. The poly will damp the noises from being transmitted into the chassis, and the roto joints will allow the rear to articulate. The arc of the PHB could cause a little "binding" of the poly end, but I don't think it's actually going to have a noticeable impact in the real world. Unfortunately, I've been a bit slow and I don't have these under the car yet. I'll get them on there when I rebuild the front suspension in the near future (if not before).

Hahah I couldn't run my car any lower unless I moved to a new house or parked my car on the street. Stranos are almost too low, scrape the longtubes/cats a little if I hit the driveway just a little off angle.

Still trying to get spare time to finish the last touches on the car, it's been a weird and wild past month...

Thanks for sharing the pics of the UMI stuff, glad we've got somebody "local" to them on the boards that is also using these for what they're intended for.

I'm not sure I'm using them as intended. I'd like to do some autocrossing (even in the convertible) again soon. But I'm struggling with the "roll bar requirement" in many organizations. From a safety standpoint, I absolutely think a convertible should have roll over protection. But this car is really clean and I hate the idea of cutting/welding on it like that.

My wife asked if she bought a hardtop automatic car, could I swap the auto into this car and build the other one to race (swapping in the 6 speed from this one). Just a double transmission swap and I'm back in business. lol.

I don't know of any organizations that require a roll bar for autocross.

Goodguys and CAM both did. Those were the events I was considering (most recently). Though I'm an under powered CAM car, it seemed like a fun bunch. Goodguys also had a roll bar requirement for a convertible when I read the rules.

I should be able to run SCCA stuff, but I really don't know that I want to run out at trails after our discussion.

Run it at Wilmington with the Cincy region or up in Toledo

I guess it's been a while since my last update...

I'm smelling a faint amount of coolant. I opened the radiator and it's about 1/2" or so low. I raised the car and looked for the trails of coolant residue I've seen in the past and I don't see anything. If it's leaking at all, it's only the smallest amount. The radiator hoses look original and so is the radiator. So, I've added "cooling" system to my list of winter projects. I plan to swap the radiator, hoses and install fresh water pump gaskets. The new engine was installed in 2011, so it's due to have the coolant changed. This will take care of all of it at once.

I also seem to have a very small drip from the rear axle. I installed a rear axle girdle and it appears that it's weeping the slightest amount of gear lube. So I'm going to put that on the "winter list".

I've got new upper front control arms, tie rods, ball joints, lower front control arm bushings and spindles to change out this winter. I also bought the rocketman wheel bearing adapters. I need to gather up the SKF X-tracker bearings and I'd like to install a brake kit while it's all apart. I'm debating on the C5 parts, or a Baer Racing kit.

I have two slow window regulators and the passengers side is really slow. I've never had to change a window regulator motor on any of my F-bodies. Should I buy the motors or the complete motor and regulator assembly? What's the best way to change them?

And last, 2nd gear is very slightly notchy. It's not anything I can't live with, but it's a handy excuse to pull out the transmission and swap out the clutch and flywheel as well as freshening up the transmission.



It may be an expensive winter, but that should get me ready for many more years.

Here is a guide on replacing a window motor on a Camaro.

http://shbox.com/page/windowmotor.html

I have a Baer kit for the fronts on a '98 Pontiac Trans Am WS6. From what I remember they use the same manufacturer from Australia PBR for the calipers. The rotors are two piece and are easy to change the rings on.

Your 2nd gear is a very normal happening on an F-body, Tremec used plastic fork pads and the synchros are not very durable. And neither are the GM clutches. Sounds like you have a fun winter coming up.

Thanks. I haven't seen any how too guides for the windows. I have a shiny new set of factory service manuals, but a how to guide it always a good idea.

I had Wilwoods on my last 2002 Z28, but they don't like weather and they don't have seals. The Baer kit looks like a good option. Which kit are you running? The Track 4 or Extreme, etc.

The 2nd gear issue is pretty common, and if I'm doing the clutch anyway....I figured I'd upgrade shift forks and do the usual tune up.

What about changing to a GTO T56? I know the ratios are slightly different and it has better syncos.

Buy a drop in magnum from D&D and sell the T56. F-body cores are worth a good amount of coin.

I don't plan to race this one. It might do a few autocross events, but I can't justify spending the money for upgrading things. If it was a hardtop/t top car, I might consider it more seriously.




I could live with the trans for a while. It's not that bad, but it is occasionally notchy into 2nd. Fresh fluid might do it, but I want to do the clutch anyway. Racerdad here on frrax can do the T56 overhauls so we will do it (I just have to buy parts). No point spending more than that.

The only reason I suggested the GTO T56 was because you said you were going to rebuild your tranny. So the cost would be close to a wash.

Wow. Good luck on that clutch job. I think if the clutch went out, again, on our 95, I'd push it to the curb with a 'free to a good home' sign in the window.

It's NOT a fun job.

What's the price on the GTO gearbox? I can buy the"Stage II" upgrade kit (claimed to be rated at 650 hp) for about $750 and we will do the labor.

http://www.thegearbox.org/catalog/item/3838217/7824166.htm

And full bearing kit for $160:

http://www.thegearbox.org/catalog/item/3838217/9342860.htm

Of course they are both out of stock right now (they weren't the other day). But I'm in no rush. My gearbox truly could be sold as a "good" gearbox. I think I feel 2nd gear "catch" every so often. I'm going to go through it as much because it's going to be out of the car as for any other reason. And if it's out, upgrade it.



The '95 clutches aren't too bad. I've done a few (and we're about to do a T56 swap for Gcrites on here). The C4 Corvette was worse. The LS1 clutches aren't too bad. I've done a few of them at this point. It's been quite a few years, but it looks like I've got at least one more to do.