Everyone that knows me well knows I have tons of close calls, I somehow always find myself in one of those last minute situations where I'm busting my ass getting things done at the last possible second. This was one of those days. With my cage taking longer then initially expected and planned on I found myself in a pickle. I had two days to finish up installing some new parts, get some tires mounted, buy a fire extinguisher and figure out how/where to mount it in the car, pack everything up, give Luke my spare wheels/tires to carry for me since there is no way all of them are fitting in my trunk. Oh and I forgot to mention replace my windshield after being cracked hardcore during the cage install.
I didn't waste any time getting to work, and I can't believe the number of set backs I ran into. First thing first, I dropped the car off to get a new windshield while at work, afterwards I went to go buy a fire extinguisher. I wanted a big one too, not those little sissy ones you see people strap to their bars, I'm talking a full sized 5lb bottle. Headed out to the local hardware store and bought one along with a wall mount bracket. (don't worry I came up with a plan on how to mount it) After that it was tire mounting time, a couple weeks before I had bought another set of XXR 962 off of my friend Matt, These ones being 17's (much easier to find tires for that size) I decided to run 17x7 up front with a grippy tire this giving me more clearance so I wouldn't rub at full lock, plus I've been needing a nice set of tires up front to take care of some slight understeer issues. The fronts had been taken care off already but the rears was another story. Every place I went to was too busy, I searched for hours and thankfully I eventually found a place to mount some for me.
With all the time spent dealing with that I lost daylight time, it was getting cold and I didn't have a good place to do work on the car, thankfully Rodney from Imports USA came to the rescue offering me some of his shop space and use of tools throughout the night so I could get things taken care of. We worked until the AM and with great reward/success in doing so. I had bought some PBM front LCA over a month ago and putting those on really did pay off.
I used these to move my track out, I can't remember how much I moved them but it was a pretty good amount, I do remember it was something close to 2" tho. Removing the old LCA and tension rods proved to the the most difficult thing that night. It took forever to get the knuckles to separate from the ball joints, but eventually we were successful.
I also just realized, these will be the first pics where you get to see what I look like...they are really bad pics of me btw, and I needed a haircut.
As you can see by the blue tape around my windshield and the "Igna" sticker missing I really did have to get a new windshield. In the process I also lost my stance sticker that was running down the driverside which I had grown very fond of. I told this to Rodney and with him being a decal designer he was able to make some new ones for me, which I think he had a lot of fun doing.
I think I left Rodneys at around 2am or so. Even with working that late I still wasn't finished. I got the LCA mounted and took care of doing a self alignment, also installed the PBM rack essentric bushings which was the main things I wanted to get done. That's when I discovered buying these LCA was one of the best investments I had made. It added quite a bit of steering lock for me.
I went home right after and continued getting ready for Automass, loading up a change of clothes, tools, jack, helmet, etc. Then the next morning immediately after waking up it was working time again. Luckly it was simple, mount the fire extinguisher which I must be one of the luckiest people in the world. All I did was eyeball it and after drilling the holes I noticed I had somehow managed to drill on both sides of the frame rail just barely missing the brake and fuel lines! Talk about lucky!
Then it was off to Chicago!
No comments:
Post a Comment