2003 Vauxhall VX220 2.2

[-Pete-]

Took it out a drive last night and it was utterly undriveable. Camber and toe so far out. Had a little play on the driveway this morning and it’s much better now. Camber is adjusted by adding shims to the steering arm to push the top of the hub out so a bit of a faff.

after the holidays I’ll get it round for another alignment. I need to figure out which steering ratio setting I like. I have it on the quickest setting and it certainly livens things up but might be a bit much for the road.

if you saw mighty car mods recently when they were at the track with the lotus mechanics, they were using string for alignment and camber setting as they preferred it and said it was every bit as accurate. might be something to learn for your tinkering. Would be super useful to know how to do it at home.

 

[FM155]

When I was doing Formula Fords, the only thing that was important was having a flat surface to do the setup on. The rest was just camber gauges, alignment and strings on axle stands. Worked the best tbh, on most race cars, you wouldn't be able to fit the laser kits between the wheels and the arches.

 

[pablo]

if you saw mighty car mods recently when they were at the track with the lotus mechanics, they were using string for alignment and camber setting as they preferred it and said it was every bit as accurate. might be something to learn for your tinkering. Would be super useful to know how to do it at home.

aye I might have a go sometime. I did it before on my old elise and found it an epic pain in the hole to be fair


well thats the bonnet "done", lost one nut for one of the aerocatches so will need to rustle one up somewhere and get the final bolt in.

Also busted out my welder I bought off @Woodcutter like 6 months ago and did my first ever weld. To say I havent a clue what Im doing would be an understatement.

 

[svensktoppen]

A string is just as accurate as anything else.

It is a bit of a faff though. To get the accuracy the string has to be parallel to the car to the mm. And parallel both sides. And then reasonably accurate gauges.

But the really painful bit is getting the wheel off for every tiny adjustment, lol. And on these cars they're minuscule, typically 1/8 of a turn or less each time for toe.

Just tightening the locknut on the rod end can throw it out again

An alignment place won't get it any more accurate, they just take out the pain.

Camber, corner weights, etc., they're all fine. At least you only do them once.

Toe can be a bit of a pain though.

The other one worth checking with your new steering arms is bump steer. It's done wheel off and you can do the toe at the same time. It's well worth doing assuming your arms have adjustment for it. It's also a "do it once then forget about it".

 

[pablo]

I might get someone to do a full job on it. Id like bump steer etc all sorted too. Ive no more work planned that would necessitate disturbing the geo. was going to remove the wishbones and re-bush them but really CBA

 

[svensktoppen]

Good wishbone bushes make a real difference too if you are in there anyway. Just depends what is there and how old they are. It's easy to do.

 

[pablo]

I only removed the front uppers to do new balljoints so the thought of doing the other 6 arms just put me right off lol

 

[-Pete-]

oh i havent a clue on the method, I thought it would have to be fairly simple with string being used but sounds like it might be a lot of hassle.

@pablo you need more gas flow there which is why its all porous. Turn it up a bit more, although that looks like you didnt have any gas on at all. Do you have a flow meter or gauge on the bottle?

 

[pablo]

wasnt even sure if the gas was flowing. got it sorted in the end. will watch a couple of vids and see if I can figure it out, have a couple of jobs to do on the car once I figure it out

 

[-Pete-]

yeh you'll be grand. Jodie at weldmonger is brilliant, justin at fabrication series, 5th street fab, or bob moffet on weld.com. best youtube channels for welding ( a few others for specialty stuff not listing)
They have great videos that will keep you right. you'll be sorted in no time.

 

[FM155]

On the welding, it looks like those brackets are plated in some way? Anything that is played needs taken back to bare steel to get a clean weld. If you have some clean steel, you might try with that.

 

[pablo]

I hit them with the grinder first but think it was a bad choice to start with. All I had lying around tho

 

[Dave..]

aye I might have a go sometime. I did it before on my old elise and found it an epic pain in the hole to be fair


well thats the bonnet "done", lost one nut for one of the aerocatches so will need to rustle one up somewhere and get the final bolt in.

Also busted out my welder I bought off @Woodcutter like 6 months ago and did my first ever weld. To say I havent a clue what Im doing would be an understatement.

View attachment 306170View attachment 306171View attachment 306172View attachment 306173

Finally someone who welds like me. My instructor told me just to pay someone.
The bonnet looks great. Well done.

 

[-Pete-]

On the welding, it looks like those brackets are plated in some way? Anything that is played needs taken back to bare steel to get a clean weld. If you have some clean steel, you might try with that.

even if it was galv it still looks totally like lack of gas. the holes and porousity is the tell tale sign. galv and mig/stick makes little to no difference, except for the totally toxic fumes! with weld quality with all other things being equal (tig is a totalllllllly different kettle of fish as its a fussy mother and needs super clean bare metal.)

bare minimum, a fresh flap disc and a good wipe with acetone is bare minimum good practive for mig and stick.

that porousity is just gas coverage issues before you even get into the weld prep itself. I'm even guilty of it myself the rare time I'm in a rush and just forget to crack the bottle open.

 

[pablo]

cant remember where we left off but few things done over the last couple of weeks.

gear shifting mechanism stripped out ready for new cage. Keeps the same shifting levers so tarted those up with a lick of paint.

Fuel filler cap sprayed black, silver a little wishy washy against the nardo.

New carbon side scoops fitted and matching front splitters, done in matt laquer. These are copies of the genuine turbo items (££££) but done in carbon.

 

[pablo]

new shifter cage installed. lovely piece of kit, coupled with the gearbox end short shifter the shifting is very precise now

 

[big_pete]

Absolutely mega! I think this is my favourite project of yours to date!

 

[BBSBOY]

The shifter looks great, who makes it?

 

[pablo]

The shifter looks great, who makes it?

Some dude in Czech Republic lol.

 

[Big Pimp]

this is just a horny thread!

 

[pablo]

Couple more things been sitting waiting.
New rear diffuser. More angular than the one I had which didn’t suit the curves. This will also allow me to consider a clam cutout which will expose the rear exhaust and allow heat to escape better.

also prepping to add oil temp and pressure senders. My dash has inputs for these but they both display 0 atm which annoys me. So this will give them proper inputs.

I like to mount these remotely to stop strain on the fittings.

And lastly I reinforced the rear clam heat shielding with some Nimbus stuff. It should keep the heat away from the trunk area. There is shielding there already (left it in place) but it was getting destroyed with the extra heat from the exhaust / supercharger.

 

[Phil_D]

Absolutely brilliant work...Such a cool car

 

[pablo]

Diffuser fitted.

 

[svensktoppen]

Why would you want to cut up the clam? Looks great there

Another option for cooling the engine bay is to use spacers to create a gap along the rear edge of the diffuser/undertray, and the bodywork. That draws air out and yet is all but invisible.

In truth though it will always get hot in that bay.

 

[Lyons]

This thread was going so well, then I notice the gel plates .