Group buy FM Chassis brace (finished) Fitting day organised!

Sasso · Postby **Sasso** » Fri May 02, 2008 6:57 pm

marcusus wrote:Looking forward to this. Not so keen on the 9am start though now. I worked til 3am last night, so I'm a bit sleep deprived. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up enough on it tonight to be fresh tomorrow morning.

Bring on the stiffness! Not like that... you dirty minded people...

It sure sounds pretty sus. Maybe you shouldn't enter any more gang buys marcus.

Alex · Postby **Alex** » Sat May 03, 2008 1:29 am

marcusus wrote:Looking forward to this. Not so keen on the 9am start though now. I worked til 3am last night, so I'm a bit sleep deprived. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up enough on it tonight to be fresh tomorrow morning.

meh don't know what your complaining about, I just started work and finish at 8am, then need to drive straight there basically (need some petrol first)

Sasso · Postby **Sasso** » Sat May 03, 2008 2:48 am

Holy mother of GOD, I have just finished installing HALF of the brace with Gavin, we started at what 8.30pm.
Pulling the seats out, piece of cake. Pulling the carpet up, a little harder, especially if your kick plates are bonded to the car.

Beating the stock frame rails into submission, GARRRRRRRRR. A vice works well but mine broke half way along! I had to use a hammer, and that doesn't work too well.

Drilling the holes, not too bad, neither is tightening the nuts, but its awkward and painful to lay under the car for hours. I'm gonna be sore tomorrow.

I found that the passenger side insulation under the carpet was drenched because my drain hole was lifted up, I hammered it back down so its nice and normal now. It's amazing how flimsy the floor of the car is, no wonder its so floppy.

Who's cars are we doing tomorrow? At least two NB's, the rails should be in shape, making it much easier.

We really need some safety goggles too, got all sorts of dirt and metal in my eyes.

I might be a tad late due to finishing off the other half of mine. Unfort the cat hangs too low atm so I can't put in the middle bit.

See you today.

Alex · Postby **Alex** » Sat May 03, 2008 9:09 am

looks like I'll be running late, still haven't left work :cry:

Mactype · Postby **Mactype** » Sat May 03, 2008 9:42 am

hmmm..... did half of mine last night - piece of cake

Sasso · Postby **Sasso** » Sat May 03, 2008 10:05 am

Does anyone wanna come over and help me finish mine before they start on theirs? I'm 2 mins down the road.

Edit, never mind got my mum to help me haha.

Sasso · Postby **Sasso** » Sat May 03, 2008 9:02 pm

Well, semi successful dodgy day.

We had trouble getting one of the seat bolts off one of the NA's, they were on so tight the screw head stripped. So we only did one of the rails.
Marcus' car is complete and took pretty much all day.

Darryl's car is done, and mine is as done as it can be for now.

There is still another NA and SM's NB.

Well some feed back. Mine effectively just has the rails and wings with no center section. The rails were originally crushed flat to the bottom of the car. I noticed the extra stiffness as soon as I lowered the car off the jack stands. Before the car would twist massively when jacking a corner, but this time there was hardly any at all. Then backing off the driveway, each wheel felt much more individual. I took it along a very bumpy road that normally makes the car feel like its about to shatter. The road felt so much smoother, as if I had adjusted the dampers or something. At higher speed on the bumpy road the car didn't dart as much as it usually does, and there was less crashing of the shocks, but my shocks are so screwed that the car feels terrible anyway.

I'm really not sure if its just me, but I noticed a change in the steering wheel feel. It felt like I had more castor, ie, a little more centering force. I suppose the theory behind that is that the chassis has been distorting under the forces the suspension geometry makes, so the steering wheel feels less connected. Can't wait to put the centre piece on.

We'll see what marcus' and Darryl's comments are with the whole brace.

Stay tuned for 2 Dodgy 2 Day in a week or two.

Alex · Postby **Alex** » Sun May 04, 2008 1:19 am

Yea I had to get some sleep which is why I didn't get mine installed

on the way there it was getting hard to engage first then reverse to get out of the driveway, I thought it might go away, or not
ended up being stuck in 2nd gear most of the way back and drove the car straight to mania (with some difficulty) slave cylinder was gone

But they had a replacement on hand so i ended up getting home by 2:30pm
and now i'm back at work :roll:

I guess Marcus got the height fixed up before the end of the day as well ?

marcusus · Postby **marcusus** » Sun May 04, 2008 5:27 pm

SM wrote:I guess Marcus got the height fixed up before the end of the day as well ?

Haha. Yes. Adjusting the height was the easy part. The thing is that the car is now tracking slightly to the left after the height adjustment. I wonder whether there's a bit too much of a difference between the left and right heights, or whether it's just the alignment playing up since the height has been changed...

As for the brace, the first thing I noticed was the ride quality. It's so much smoother now. Just feels like I'm in a sedan with sports suspension. Cornering wise, it's stiffer too. I can take some of my usual corners at a higher speed. There's no real change to the handling dynamic of the car in terms of a change in over or under steer which is a good thing. The extra weight is not noticeable at all either.

Will make further comments during the week when I've dríven it more.

Locutus · Postby **Locutus** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:20 am

how much ground clearance do you lose with the extra bracing? do you know if the rails & bracing were designed to withstand the occasional scrape over evil speed humps & whatnot?

Alex · Postby **Alex** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:54 am

Locutus wrote:how much ground clearance do you lose with the extra bracing? do you know if the rails & bracing were designed to withstand the occasional scrape over evil speed humps & whatnot?

from looking at Darryl's the centre of the frame sits higher than the chassis rails so as long as there is nothing sticking up in the centre there should be no clearance problems

also I'm sure they hold up alot better than exposed chassis rails on the car which seem to be very thin

Steampunk · Postby **Steampunk** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:50 am

Good to hear these things are worth it.
Congrats on a successful GB Mactype.

Mactype · Postby **Mactype** » Mon May 05, 2008 11:10 am

oh you'll have no problems with the frame rails denting once the FM rails are fitted, you'll be able to just slide over most anything I'd say.

Clearance on my car wasn't an issue and I've no rattling so far, appears you can run quite small clearances between the cat and the brace too. This will alter depending on what cat your running and where that sits.

It does tighten things up quite a bit and lessens the creaks and groans in the chassis so all in all quite a good thing I feel.

marcusus · Postby **marcusus** » Mon May 05, 2008 9:37 pm

Well I bottomed out today on some speed humps in a business park, but these things looked a bit perkier than usual ones. All my other speed bumps I go over on my way to/from work didn't cause me any grief.

Sasso · Postby **Sasso** » Mon May 05, 2008 10:46 pm

marcusus wrote:Well I bottomed out today on some speed humps in a business park, but these things looked a bit perkier than usual ones. All my other speed bumps I go over on my way to/from work didn't cause me any grief.

Marcus you fat arse. :roll:

how much ground clearance do you lose with the extra bracing? do you know if the rails & bracing were designed to withstand the occasional scrape over evil speed humps & whatnot?

Apparently the braces are quite strong, you can use them as jack points according to FM, they're pretty thick and heavy, but below the CG, the improved cornering and power transmission outweighs* the acceleration loss.
*no pun intended