jimrankin

Hey, just go digital and everything up to 999 MPH shouldn't be a problem. Oh, just thought of a problem, digital might have a "highest speed reached" memory so there goes the "I'm sure I hit at least" slightly upgrades story.

the "right" side, being left on the sketch, I'm so confused.

Since only about 5% of the "7's" on the road are real "Lotus" 7's it would be real lonely at the right side of that fountain. As a WCM Ultralite owner does that mean that the Caterham/Birkin et all owners want me or those sacrilegious STORKER owners to bring our own water, the fountains off limits ;-). BTW, I'll be at LOG. I'll be the one in the big hat and wrap around sunglasses looking all shifty LOL.

Just read my own post and realized I miss stated the line about "the rear brakes getting too much" when I meant "the front brakes" getting too much pressure. Also ditto on FE07's post about too much rear bias, great way to practice getting into corners sideways unintentionally until you get that dialed out. Still haven't got mine exactly right but not the heart stopping experience it used to be ;-)

Compared to stopping the cars weight the wheel/tire mass is minor, more important to going/cornering than stopping. Even with a 50/50 corner weight you still apply somewhere around 70% of the cars weight and brake force to the front wheels due to the weight transferring forward under braking. Do you have access to a good brake shop that can read the PSI going to the front and rear under full foot pressure? Might be a problem with the rear brakes getting too much of the pressure due to a master cylinder problem. A lot of standard automotive MC's were set up "dual diagonal" not "front/ rear" so the pressure is equal instead of front biased.

I was looking at the painless pigtails as a replacement. Have some painless stuff on the car including my headlight switch. Most of the painless stuff is made by them but the switch was an import that failed quickly. Painless replaced it without a problem and the new switch has worked perfectly. The first switch had an obvious manufacturing defect and fell apart internally. Really want to get into an LED bulb install though. Going to take a really long trip next year on roads I don't know and want to run headlights whenever moving. Spare H4 bulbs are easy to find but the LED units are more reliable under road shock and general 7 type vibration.

There are several H4 bulb pigtails on Amazon/CL so I'll probably get replacements there if I don't get any feedback on making the LED kits fit. The ones that come with the headlight buckets are Chinese crap with very thin wire for the current required for the H4 bulb so that may be part of the problem. As for driving faster, I'm not sure the CHP would go for the excuse "my headlights overheat below 90MPH" ;-)

I have had very little luck with the longevity of the headlights on my S2K. I'm using standard 7" Deitz type headlight buckets with H4 type light bulbs and if I run them on the street, especially in the daytime, they seem to overheat and the cheap plastic end where the wiring plugs into the three prong bulb base distorts, or melts completely. Since I use the type of headlight lens/reflector with a ring of LEDs surrounding the edge (used as my turn signals) I'd like to keep them and find something that creates less intense heat than the Halogens. There seem to be some good LED replacements for the H4 bulbs but they come as kits with small fans for cooling and control modules. Anyone try to fit these into a typical chrome headlight bucket yet? I've already thought about venting the buckets to cool the H4's so venting for a small fan isn't an issue. There are some whole 7" LED headlight units available that will easily install as a full replacement but I'll lose the very bright and noticeable LED turn signal feature I like in the current lights. Thanks, JR

Throughout history great societies and religious movements have risen and fallen but their impact and reach to the majority of the worlds population were limited by the constraints of the communications and travel modes of the times. The fact is that we now actually do live in a world society where modern communications and travel have made it possible for almost any movement to spread their beliefs across the globe. My generation (baby boomers) were brought up to think that differences in political ideologies, mainly communism verses capitalism, were the big problem and there was a good chance that the world could actually end with a nuclear bang. In retrospect that has seemed to be mostly the governments of the opposing countries pushing their own agendas. The "they want to wipe us out" rhetoric has proven itself to be untrue and while the arms race did spur massive leaps in technology and employment it eventually ran the USSR into debt and basically bankrupt and the US nearly so without much else to show for it The "current" generations, our children and grandchildren, have a whole new selection of problems to deal with. The obvious fact that Putin wants the "old" USSR back is a bit troubling but not really the real problem of the times. The chances of the him pushing past the Ukraine and starting WW3 in Europe are slim at best. The real problem, and possibly the end of the society as most of Europe and the West know it lies, as it really always has, in religion. Not "religion" as most of the people on this blog think of it as, but in religious fanaticism. As the worlds population becomes more and more divided into the "haves and have not's" its become easier to spread religious ideologies to the larger number of have not's. Until the modern communications I noted earlier became available a lot of people who were living at what we in the west term subsistence level did not think that they were all that bad off. If you don't have a lot to compare it with basic food and shelter look pretty good. Much like the other religions of the world have in the past the Muslim religion preaches what was, and still basically is, a "pie in the sky" philosophy. The big difference is that although the basic religion may have once been a peaceful one it, like most other religions, has been adapted by its environment. Outside forces like the Crusades and the incurrence of other religions into the middle east have changed it into what we are seeing now. I myself have never been to the middle east. I do have several friend who have worked there and a couple who are now retirement age or older have said that the difference in three decades is truly amazing. Where they once felt safe by only observing local customs they now say that there is no way they would advise anyone to go there. It may be only a small portion of the religious leadership who are pushing the Muslim religion into a Fanatical one but they are the ones who seem to be holding sway with the poor and disenfranchised who are so much the majority. They are also well aware that the poor and disenfranchised in other countries are receptive to the ideas they are preaching and the ease with which they can move their information and disciples around the world. Do I think that the spread of Fanatical Muslim ideas is a danger, yes I do, the same as the spread of any fanatical ideal is. Do I have any practical idea how to confront it, No. Short of educating the worlds population and making life better for everyone, not a real possibility, there is no way to reduce the lure of any fanatical movement. Yes, I realize that the early Christian religious movement was considered fanatical and that joining it meant that you could hold beliefs in no other God but one, a fanatical concept at the time. It did not tell you that you must make everyone else in the world convert to it or die, a pretty defining factor based on what we are now seeing. Whoops, didn't start out to say much at all and although this got long probably didn't say much in the end.

There are some double rail sliding compound miter saws on the market that use the system you are looking at. Might be cheaper to see if the "repair" parts can be purchased and then modify as required. I think I posted some previous pictures of my modified slides and adjuster and now don't seem to have any unwanted movement and still adjustable without unlocking anything.

Some idea of how it looks now.

On my second "go round" with the boot cover I did a couple of additional mods to make life easier on myself; 1: replaced snap fasteners with the quarter twist type. 2: Moved the cell all the way to the right or more useable boot space. 3: Used a flush deck hatch over the fuel filler in the cell so I didn't have to unsnap to refill. 4: made some mounts and cut some lexan just long enough to bow up and keep the cover tight as it stretches with age and wind action. 5: added a zipper along the un-snapable front edge of the "luggage" side of the boot to make full access quick and easy. Unfortunately I've already uploaded these photos in a different thread about boot covers so can't show them in this one.

The part that captures the front heim joint is easily purchased on line. If your careful you can actually cut it off the existing part by cutting through the head of the bolt and then dressing the "U" shaped part smooth before having the new bolt welded on. I did that with the first broken part and it was not the one that broke second. I think it might have been Speedway Motors I got the "U" shaped part from. They come in both "flat" and "concaved" perch, you will want the flat.

I don't know of any "long tube" being part of the Subaru hub assembly. The long bolt is encased in a tube after it exits the hub and hard use can bend, or worse, break the bolt off at the hub. Not a lot of fun at high speed. I have now completed three track days with many hours on track (with slicks) and the braces I posted pictured of in the thread. No indication of any flex at all. I'm running 10" long bolts so the leverage is pretty high, probably why I broke two of them in two years before the added brace. If you have already bent one better do the brace along with the new bolts, cheap insurance.

Was stopped at a light when a kid pointed at the car and yelled "Look Mom, a REAL Hot Wheels"

Replacement fuel hoses for automotive use do not have to prevent vapor from penetrating through the wall unless certified for newer compliance standards. Marine fuel hoses have to meet higher standards so that gas vapors do not settle in the bilge. I replaced my supply and return lines several years ago with marine grade and it REALLY made a difference in the smell in my attached garage. Now almost no smell in the garage and none getting into the house.

But California won't let you use XXX in a plate anymore, XXX7FUN

Saybyby

Looks a bit like bowling, with cars for balls and people for pins, only more fun...

I've used Imron for several projects over the years and it's some really bulletproof stuff. Did all of the original exterior aluminum on my house boat with it and it still looked good after nearly 20 years in a marine environment. On the advice of my paint supplier I used a 3 part automotive finish right on top of the old Imron (really sand it well) for the repaint. Since I was doing the boat in a work yard and didn't have access to clean air for a supplied air respirator he advised getting away from the Imron, dangerous stuff. His comment was that even though Imron has been reformatted the newer multi-component stuff is even better. I'll try to find the name of the product but was in the Imron price category and was MUCH easier to shoot, fan overspray melts right in and no runs/sags even on complex angles and pieces coming together in deep "V's". If your not doing it yourself (no one should do Imron themselves in less than ideal spray booth conditions) ask you body shop guy what he thinks is best. He'll probably give you good advice and do it cheaper if he's not shooting something he isn't comfortable with.

need to type faster, got both those tools and use them all the time.

Really cheap SEA and Metric thread pitch gauges available in auto stores or on line. Usually come in tap and die sets also and best way to check all sorts of different bolts down the line. With the mix of SEA and Metrics used on most 7's it's a god investment.

But the bus tickets are free and it's usually an entertaining ride ;-).

I like them all......but it's hard to take the Chevy out of this old guy.

About the added cost of the current systems not figuring in the cost increase. We didn't get air bags, energy absorbing bodywork, driver assistance, electronic fuel injection and engine management systems and materials in the motors/driveline that have them lasting five times the old "performance" curve. That said, cars we actually want have become quite expensive while the cannon fodder grocery getter has actually become quite a bargain to buy and drive. Henry Ford had it right, build the same thing over and over on a production line with very limited number of parts shared by several types of vehicle and you can get the cost per unit down to minimum. Throw in robotics and CNC machining with todays mass produced cars and you can see why they are "affordable" for what you actually get. The problem with pricing on limited production cars becomes apparent, PEOPLE and PARTS, and in some cases as noted, gouging when they can. Even with robots and CNC you still get to amortize the cost over how many parts the program/robot makes so more is (cheaper) better. And when you get down to making something in limited number, and in some cases "by hand" the cost per unit skyrockets. But, if it was just about the money as compared to what you actually get anyone buying a Caterham over a new Stingray would be instantly committed. Actually, anyone buying a Caterham over an LS Stalker should probably be held for observation :-). I guess it just comes down to how crazy you are about "7's" (or anything for that matter) as opposed to what it is actually "worth" that makes them "worth" what we'll pay. As noted at the bottom of all RNR's post, "crazy people drive 7's".