JohnK

Kinda like a mashup of Microsoft Windows and a mermaid: Looks real pretty and might even run, ... sometimes ..., "user error!" ... , blue screen of death, ... but when it does it's, like, not enough fish to fry and not enough woman to love.

Mike, Remember the motto: "When the journey is as important as the destination.". After, what is it now - 8 years, and I'm STILL working to get my "kit" in order. But like that poem I ran across says, the time's been full of adventures and challenges. Buying a properly designed car at the outset may have made more sense (My daily driver is a 19 year-old Civic and the damn thing never misses a beat! ), but I there's no way it could have been more exciting - and the satisfaction of sorting out a collection of challenging problems and having the thing turn out REALLY well ... And Sevens - ALL of them - are unique. There's just nothing else that is as fun to drive. The hassles are just part of the package. It'll get fixed, and you'll be back out on the track.

Mike, I had good luck years ago with "Drivetrain Specialists (874-3680), 4845 Provident Drive. Take 747 North off I-275. Between Crescentville and Mulhauser Roads, Provident comes off 747 (go East off 747). Anyway, the driveshaft (actually all three of them!) that came with my Ultralite which went "clunk" when you moved the universal-joint, was patched together with a Honda CV joint at the trans and what the folks at Drivetrain were able to identify as a Datsun universal joint at the differential with some sort of stub tube which accepted a splined shaft ... - I'm getting boring, aren't I? Anyway they not only figured out what the bits were but also sourced the parts and could do the fabrications necessary and finally spin balanced the assembly on top of it all - I think I paid $250 for all the work. Guy I dealt with there was named Curt, but they all seemed pretty competent and knowledgeable. If this doesn't work let me know, I have the name somewhere in my notes of another such shop here in town that sounds like a good resource. Good luck.

Congrats Scott, glad it turned out so well. Now if only there were some way to make a car work great without all the time, effort and attention to detail ! (other than spending a ton of money, of course) :-)

Mike, Careful, you're not going to have ANY excuses for not going faster than anyone else on the track! :-)

Scott, The PM I was referring to was the one about trammel points. Sounds like you've got all your ducks in a row (and that's what forums are for!). Best of luck that the work goes smoothly and look fwd to hearing of how you enjoy the change.

FWIW - Considering the cost and time and in conversations with the area FK distributor, I always specify the tightest (F1) fit for any rod ends I use. The set up can be a pain, especially if you're using trammel points (look for earlier posts on this by me, or maybe rss wants to post a PM I sent him on this) but, the ends will loosen up under use, and I have never seen any problem with the ends being too tight - i.e. stiction caused problems. I'm figuring that the lifespan of the ends will be longer the tighter they start out. I've heard from a reliable source that F1 teams replace the ends after each race, and I'm certain don't run teflon ends, but that's more than a little beyond my level of sport. P.S. On suspension links: I always use an anti-seize on any fasteners I put together, especially and religiously on things that screw into aluminum. The last setup of the car I did, which involved developing a new steering system, I began using links from Woodward Precision Power Steering - these are light, strong and really lovely. They're made from thin wall 6061 T6 (or is it 6T? anyway, it's heat treated to give the highest hardness) with the ends swedged to form the threads with a special hammering machine that reduces the diameter of the link as the end is created around a threaded mandrel, the process thickening the wall of the end it as it does so, so they're both light and strong. And, of course, as I'm in the middle of redesigning the rear suspension geometry, I'm tossing several of these in the process - helps the economy, right? : - ) I should maybe frame a collection of them and hang it in my den.

Fastenal has somewhere obvious on its website the best set of pages on fastener strength and classification I've seen (have it hanging on a pegboard in my garage). Grainger also, if I remember correctly, has a good equivalency chart for the numeric and alphabetical designations embedded in its catalog in the fastener section Re noise, IMHO anything that can move under load will create noticeable / annoying noise. Shoulder/stripper bolts make a huge improvement that can be predicted by comparing the looseness of the fully-threaded allen-type screws that are originally supplied. But if the rod ends rattle, they'll make pretty much the same noise. As a confirmation here, I climbed all over my car searching for the source of a clunk and found it was a barely detectable movement between my front roll bar and the nylon bushing it rides in. But the bottom line for me is that, when all the slop is gotten rid of in the suspension, you can feel the difference, as well as appreciate the quiet.

Cool, but that is the most obnoxious site I've ever visited. If Alfa's badge is a Shamrock, why are some workers wearing the Trident of Maserati on their shirts? I've just gotta start playing the lottery.

Koni shocks can run inverted if they "mono-tube" types but not if they're "twin-tube". Koni makes quite a number of different models. When I spec'd mine with Koni Racing the decision of which type to run came down to the type of car it was to be run on, fitment issues (min and max lengths and available space, controlling suspension movement, motion ratios,...), and how the car was to be used. Wheel and chassis control in a high performance road race car running racing rubber means having very precise valving control of dampening over very tiny movement distances. Doing that is technically and mechanically hard (and expensive!). Happily for me, I paid attention to what I was being told and got a set of very good shocks that suite a road-going seven with track use in its future - I.e. considerable suspension movement was to be the norm. Without the advice I could easily have spent twice what paid. If you're running race-only on velvet smooth tracks, you can well justify spending LOTS of money on a set of shocks - and reduce your unsprung weight by running your gas-filled types Inverted (-: .

Me too. Complete kit is less than $20, and you can get the components separately. Didn't say what coverage was. I'm interested in how it will look on a matte finish like my graphics.

I wrote, and there was some discussion on, a post with pics of my experience with a Craftsman jack that I felt was a very good jack for Sevens. I think the thread was "A particularly good floor jack for a Se7en...". I also and often use full-size floor jacks with 2 x 2 x 36 square tube between the jack and the chassis for longer term work, protection of the chassis tubing (just don't like to lift the car without distributing its weight more widely when the chassis tubing is so light), and general paranoia about having the car fall on me.

Roman, Yes, taking my usual obsessive care to not change the alignment as I did this fix. Very glad that I did so - I can sense a clearly better feel for the / of the road, and when Kitcat took it out for a drive he commented that it was the quietest Seven he had ever been in. That said I'll redouble my efforts to find the badge you want. Cheers John K

Roman, I'll see if I can find the one I have, although it might take some searching. Fair trade for your post on FK rod ends. Cheers, John K

My approach is to put something between the chassis and seat mounts that absorbs high frequency vibrations. Reid sells Barry Bonds mounts and Grainger sells something similar (see Vibration Isolators, in their index "2-pc Center Bonded Mounts"). Both designs sandwich rubber grommets to damp vibration, but in a way that contains the grommet so that, even if the grommet completely disintegrated, the parts would not come apart - they would rattle around a lot, of course ;-). The Bonds mounts in particular can support quite a bit of load, and both are very quieting. In addition to the quieting, high freqs cause part failures in things like muffler mounts, instrument sensors, and instruments. Ask if you'd like pics.

How are they able to produce a percussive sound by rubbing? Such technical skill!

What a treat to see these shots. Takes an old git right back to the good old days. For you, thinking back about how the Bug Eye drove, must put your Se7en's behaviour in quite a nice perspective.

Check out http://www.airpartsinc.com for both a good description of the different alloys and what I've found to be very good service. Haven't compared prices. On another matter, found it much better to get almost all my steel tubing from them, rather than my local Metal Supermarket. Their 4130 is " normalized" to aircraft spec.

Capitalism is awful, but not as awful as any of the other systems. (Churchill, and doubtless many others) It certainly is about exploiting one's circumstances - at the expense of everyone/anyone else... so what's the surprise? Gvt is likewise awful but we get stuff like all the bits that iphones are made out of, not to mention the internet and GPS - and the circumstances it has to deal with keep changing. I'm continually amazed that we somehow have managed to keep things upright for such a long time.

Loren, Chuck, et ala., Do you think the Catreham-style brace would, first of all, work on an Ultralite, and would it be effective enough that you wouldn't have to fabricate a broader support structure at the front / shell diff mounting?

I mean, I'm all up for new technologies and looking fwd to the amazing collection of automotive stuff that's bound to arrive as the future becomes the present ... but seriously, wouldn't most of us feel pretty out of their time if they were to see this driving down the road and coming along side their Se7en? http://phys.org/news/2013-02-kor-ecologic-urbee-car-d.html I'd have trouble coming to terms with what the front of the vehicle was!

Really great production. Lots of significant history. Very surprised to see that Stewart is so timid about driving fast. Nice to see someone who's a star in his own domain being so humble in someone else's. Great racing videos from the glory days, even if they were dangerous as hell. Thx much for the link Mondo,

To explore the fact a bit further, read Sinclair Lewis' Caucasian Chalk Circle - a group of bank robbers who realized that they could make a LOT more money if they bought and ran a bank than if they stole the money from the banks - minus the downside if they got caught. I dont think the book was meant to be funny, but wry laughter seem appropriate.

This is beginning to sound like Congress; two sides becoming more and more polarized. There is not AN answer, there isacompromize that everyone thinks is pretty awful, but somehow steers into the middle of the road, and that works well enough until circumstances change. It would help a lot if people would bite the bullet ( sorry about that) and realize that starting with what they want to be true and cherry picking the facts that support that point doesnt give good results, and learn that you have to put ALL of the most accurate information you can find on the table and and assess ALL of it dispassionately if you want a good answer about what should be done. Not fun, but gives good outcomes - and you get to think of yourself as a grownup.

In hopes of having an "informed discussion" on anything, we have to deal with organizations that will do whatever they please to win. Wouldn't it be nice if there were enough time to vet all the information. http://phys.org/news/2013-01-faking-nra-pro-gun-americans-abuse.html