Phase II

[charlie]

I drove my TOY home today with its rebuilt motor. A 35-40 mph cross wind can keep you on the ball when driving one of these things. Any way Im ready to start Phase II I need to get the bumpers, back cover and splash guard on.  Then I need to get a spair tire rack made and installed. The last part of Phase II will be to instal the really good looking TD replica.com badge that came in the mail last week. On May 12 I will retire after 37 years of teaching. I want all of this finished by then so I can drive it to school on my last day.

[Dale Schumacher]

Good for you Charlie – I hope you get it done in time. I made spare tire rack

a couple of years back – a nice easy Saturday job. Let me know if you need

pictures or help.

Dale

[charlie]

 Dale Pictures would be great. Thanks

[charlie]

Decided to add a step to phase II. We are reindexing the torsion bars. The backend just sets way to low.

[edward ericson]

good idea. Please post photos and a how-to guide when done. 

[Mark Hendrickson]

Congratulations on your pending retirement  Hope you “wow” the students and teachers on your last day too

[charlie]

Ed Im using the info that you posted as my guide. I didnt understand what you were talking about when using the jack and chain. Then today when we were looking at the car it hit me like a brick and I could see how it would work. So as soon as the new bushings get here we will take a shot at it.

[edward ericson]

Be careful. And good luck.

I think I’ll be doing this next year on Bridget. Total disassembly. I’m really not that psyched for it, but we shall see.

[charlie]

The new bushings for the bars came Wed. and we got the back end all put back togather. The problem was that when we got the car back on the ground we found that we hadent raised it far enough. So today we took it back apart and readjusted the bars. When we got it back on the ground this time it looked good but we decided that we should lower the front end just a little. So we tore it apart. When we did that we decided that we should have new ball joints. They should be here tomorrow so we can get it back togather. Now I have a question. Have you ever taken leaves out of your front end? If so how many did you take out? we are thinking we should take out 2 or 4 of the small ones. But we are just guessing.

[charlie]

Ed it really turned out not being such a bad job, but there were 2 of us working on it. And the friend that is helping me is really good at doing this kind of stuff. Also the shafts just slid out by hand. I think we got lucky. When we put it togather the second time to get more lift we had to use the jack and chain. Which really worked well.

[edward ericson]

Love to see the photos of this.

I took all the small leaves out of my front beam–six upper and six lower. Still not sure if I will have to put some back. I set the front end at the height it was before the new beam, which turns out to be a couple inches lower than stock, and I can still adjust it up or down, so the spring rate is probably pretty close to what it should be. But all these cars are different–some are heavier than others up front.

You getting just ball joints or the whole arm assemblies?

If just the joints, they say the TRWs tend to be closer to correct. One or two of the Speedster guys had big trouble lately with some aftermarket ball joints “crushing” when pressed in. Sometimes they’re made a few hundredths too big, so when they get squeezed into the trailing arms they’re too tight.

Hijinx ensue.

[charlie]

Im just getting the ball joints.To tell the truth I dont know what brand they  are. I just know that the parts store here could order them today and have them for me tommrow. I sure hope they work. If not I will have to order some and that will take a week or more to get.

Im sorry but I didnt take pictures. I should have.

[charlie]

Well except for a stearing stablizer that should be here this week Phase II is finished. We ended up doing much more than planed but Im sure all of you know how that goes. Any way the car is ready for school. I can’t say a big enough THANK YOU to every one on here who gave me so much help. Ill post some new pictures as soon as I get it all polished up.

Now its time for phase III. My best guess is phase III will go on for as long as I own the car.

[charlie]

My fat fingers ment steering stabilizer.

[edward ericson]

Excellent news! Phase III is forever. I’m still on Phase I and I got the car already built!

[charlie]

Next week is the last 4 days of school and Im ready.

[charlie]

[edward ericson]

That looks just about right. Congrats on a job well done!

[Montie Henderson]

Looks great!  I agree on the “forever” phase III,  seems like theres is always something new or different to add.   Sure glad theres no phase IV.

[Dennis Brock]

Don’t be concerned, you Mom would just say “It’s just a phase that he is going through!”)

[Author]

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