IMSA widebody installation - Russ style (Page 55/56)
motoracer838 OCT 06, 11:00 PM
Russ; I too have built my own home and garage and would rather build cars and race motocross. Of course I'd rather get a root canal than build another house, the pain would be over a lot sooner ( ha ha ) oh ya I hate drywall, the dust gets into everything.

btw cool rims, I'll bet those look nice on the IMSA!

Cheers Beers N Gearz. Joe
Russ544 OCT 11, 10:30 PM
As promised, the wheels and tires showed up today via UPS, so when I got home from work I set about removing the wheel studs and re-installing them in the 5x100 pattern. I had already redrilled the rotors, wile at work the other day, so it was pretty much a bolt on from there. I guess I'll get used to the new look, but this new setup does hide the tires a bit more than I'd like. the 1" narrower rim, 1/4" smaller diameter tire and slightly (1/4"?) different offset all add up. My slight disappointment in the look was MORE than made up for in the driving impression however, as I went for a 10 mile "test drive". I'm not sure if I should attribute it to the better offset of the rims, the stickier tire, or what, but it sure is a lot more fun to toss around corners now . there was just enough "dew" on the roads to make the drive exciting, but I never felt like I didn't have good control over it. a much more........... "balanced" feel than before.
I'll get a pic of the new wheels posted tomorrow before I get to work on the "SE350". I pulled it into the shop and put the IMSA in the carport already, so I'll be ready to rock first thing in the morning.

Russ544
Russ544 OCT 12, 12:27 PM
here's a pic of the Raceline GT wheels 225 - 45 - 17 on 8" rim:



and the new Falkin wheels and tires 215 - 45 - 17 on 7" rim:



The Falkin is a 40 mm offset, but I don't know what the Raceline is. they sell by backspacing only. I figured the offset out when I first put them on, but have since forgotten. I think I figured about 10 mm difference over stock, but I need to check again. I'm really amazed at the handling difference and road feel now, but like I said, that could be partially due to the tires. the Zexius tires weren't the best handling tire I've ever used.

Russ544

[This message has been edited by Russ544 (edited 10-12-2007).]

Russ544 DEC 03, 07:33 PM
beam me up Scottie.
I've been working on the ITB injection setup over yonder, so I'll keep this thread active in case I need to add an install page.

edit: I was concerned that no-one would be interested in following along on this build when I first started it back in 04'. I see it has well over 40,000 hits since then, so I guess people have been interested after all

thanks,
Russ544

[This message has been edited by Russ544 (edited 12-03-2007).]

midnightcarving DEC 05, 10:40 PM
russ i'm a new member, and a new fiero owner, but in browsing the pages for dash modifications, i saw yours and i have to give it credit for the best one i've ever seen. Most of the dash conversions on the site dont match the car at all, most are very curvy and modern looking. I think in reality that they are poorly designed, you have to consider what its going into, and its going into an older car, with older styling, and that modern interior does not match the rest of the car.

having said that, your dash is a perfect match, it matches the styling of the car perfectly and gives it an awesome performance feel.

i think i'm going to duplicate it to some extent for my 86, but i think i'm going to make mine either red to match my existing painted back plates, or redo them all with a wood veneer.
Russ544 FEB 22, 11:08 PM
is spring here yet?
bump.
What about Bob APR 02, 06:06 PM
It's spring somewhere. A bump to keep this alive for when I can finally start restoring mine.

------------------
Bob
84 SE IMSA Widebody
87 GT 5spd
05 Vibe

Erik MAY 03, 12:16 PM

quote
Originally posted by Russ544:

I can see a light at the end of the tunnel at work now, so I took a day off today and puttered on the car a bit.
I cheated the engine over to the left a tad too much when I built my sbc car and had a small problem with the cv joint bottoming out under acceleration. it wouldn't take long to destroy an axle if this were allowed to continue, so I figured out a way to shorten the left axle by about 5/8" without having custom axles made up. Now that I'm building this Northstar project, that lesson \has come in handy, as the 88 chassis is even tighter than the earlier models and the Northstar needs every bit of "cheating" you can get away with to place the engine further to the left and out of reach of the right hand shock tower. A 1/2" or so can easily be taken up by the cv joint, but more than that requires some alterations to the LH axle.
What I did was to disassemble the left axle and cut (grind) new snap ring grooves as far in on each end of the splines as possible. this ends up being just over 1/4" on each end. with the new grooves cut, the ends of the axle can be shortened by a like amount which gives the tripot about 5/8" more clearance before it bottoms out in it's housing.
I did some measuring today and it appears that I'll be able to get away without any cutting of the shock tower at all. I may have to remove a small piece of the side of the tower cap, just to give a little wiggle room for the cyl head, but that's about it.

stock axle compared to modified.


I received an invoice from CHRF on Friday for the flywheel, clutch, computer and wiring harness, so I expect to see brown on monday or tues with a box of toys in tow. hang on tight... here we go

Russ



Russ, how did you grind new grooves on the axle? Did you use a lathe and perhaps a grinder? Also what did you use to cut the ends off?

[This message has been edited by Erik (edited 05-03-2008).]

Russ544 JUN 07, 04:43 PM

quote
Originally posted by Erik:


Russ, how did you grind new grooves on the axle? Did you use a lathe and perhaps a grinder? Also what did you use to cut the ends off?




Sorry Eric, but I haven't had much time to get on the Feiro board lately, so I missed this question until today.
The grooves were ground in the axle wile it was chucked in my lathe, but of course the axle is way to hard to cut with normal tooling, so I jury rigged a mount to hold a cheepy air die grinder, with a narrow cuttoff wheel in it, to the lathe tool holder. as the axle turns in the lathe I could possition the die grinder precisly where it was needed to grind the groove. To cut off the axle I just used my chop saw with an abrasive wheel.

Cheers,
Russ
Russ544 SEP 27, 12:14 PM
I decided to sell this car for real this time. it's in the mall, and will soon be on Craigslist. it's listed at 12K, so even a Fiero person can't complain about that price

Cheers,
Russ