The rebuild begins...
Discussion
Out with the old
And in with the new
Iain had heard that in the factory 944s were assembled by dropping the body onto the mechanical bits, so we thought we'd give it a try in reverse
With the roll cage in place it was actually pretty easy to lift it up (ok, so it might have been harder without a forklift).
Tomorrow's plan is to re-assemble the engine, transaxle, torque tube and other mechanical bits from the old car - which are generally in much better shape and race proven - and drop the body back on.
The roll cage (done by Automotion in Levin) is a work of art - waaaaay better than the old one, though we hope never to have the opportunity prove that. Having seen their work on this, they'll be doing the Cerbera cage for sure.
We're booked and paid for Targa Bambina on 7th/8th March, and hope to have a couple of weeks to shake out the bugs, so still much to do...
And in with the new
Iain had heard that in the factory 944s were assembled by dropping the body onto the mechanical bits, so we thought we'd give it a try in reverse
With the roll cage in place it was actually pretty easy to lift it up (ok, so it might have been harder without a forklift).
Tomorrow's plan is to re-assemble the engine, transaxle, torque tube and other mechanical bits from the old car - which are generally in much better shape and race proven - and drop the body back on.
The roll cage (done by Automotion in Levin) is a work of art - waaaaay better than the old one, though we hope never to have the opportunity prove that. Having seen their work on this, they'll be doing the Cerbera cage for sure.
We're booked and paid for Targa Bambina on 7th/8th March, and hope to have a couple of weeks to shake out the bugs, so still much to do...
have a Pacific Maitai on me.............. you deserve it!! 
Mmmmm nice drink.. A glass of red went down well this evening.
It took almost as long to clean myself up as it did to clean the car.
Still lots to do before we can start re assembling the car. It will be a bit of a frankenstein but should do the job. The only bu&&er is that we are doing this on some of the best weather days of the year.
It will all be worth it when we get to the start line of the Targa.
It took almost as long to clean myself up as it did to clean the car.
Still lots to do before we can start re assembling the car. It will be a bit of a frankenstein but should do the job. The only bu&&er is that we are doing this on some of the best weather days of the year.
It will all be worth it when we get to the start line of the Targa.
So where abouts do they run the Bambina event? Going back to that first photo, how did you feel seeing it being lifted up there to the scrapper, quite sad I guess ?
The Cossie in here looks quite fun
https://www.targa.co.nz/Buy_Sell_Swap_830.aspx
The Cossie in here looks quite fun
https://www.targa.co.nz/Buy_Sell_Swap_830.aspxI don't know what prices Cossies usually go for, but as a racing package that looks like a steal.
The feelings went something like this:
- Happy to be alive
- Sorry to be sore
- Pissed off at making the stupid error that caused it
- Sad that the grey 944 is no more - while it was never a P&J for either of us, it gave us a lot of fun.
Once we got our heads around the loss of the old one and agreed we'd rebuild, it actually started to get exciting again and with this one we get to apply what we knew was great about the old one with some small improvements of our own. Provided we can get the setup right, this should be a better car. Never look back....
I believe the Bambina will be held around Papakura on the Sat/Sun with a street show (whatever that means) on the Friday evening. Last week's newsletter said they'd be giving us details to plan our accommodation this week, so maybe that's changed.
The feelings went something like this:
- Happy to be alive
- Sorry to be sore
- Pissed off at making the stupid error that caused it
- Sad that the grey 944 is no more - while it was never a P&J for either of us, it gave us a lot of fun.
Once we got our heads around the loss of the old one and agreed we'd rebuild, it actually started to get exciting again and with this one we get to apply what we knew was great about the old one with some small improvements of our own. Provided we can get the setup right, this should be a better car. Never look back....
I believe the Bambina will be held around Papakura on the Sat/Sun with a street show (whatever that means) on the Friday evening. Last week's newsletter said they'd be giving us details to plan our accommodation this week, so maybe that's changed.
Rather than the x bracing on the main roll hoop, I'd have gone for a v down to the transmission tunnel and x bracing in the rear legs (moved to the rear subframe) - makes life easier to get your helmets behind the seats for stowage.
Have you considered adding compression tubes between the rear legs (mounted on the wheel arch) and the feet of the main hoop? - probably not so significant for Targa but definitely for circuit racing.
Great to see the harness bar close up to the seats - nice short straps for minimal stretch and easier to set up for the hans devices you guys are getting, right?
PS: fit the race seats and check you can operate the handbrake before you get too far in case you need to modify the drivers side intrusion beams.
Have you considered adding compression tubes between the rear legs (mounted on the wheel arch) and the feet of the main hoop? - probably not so significant for Targa but definitely for circuit racing.
Great to see the harness bar close up to the seats - nice short straps for minimal stretch and easier to set up for the hans devices you guys are getting, right?
PS: fit the race seats and check you can operate the handbrake before you get too far in case you need to modify the drivers side intrusion beams.
Edited by RENN68 on Tuesday 27th January 02:16
Edited by RENN68 on Tuesday 27th January 02:30
Interesting - is this how yours is now? I can see how your design would work well for helmet access. We wanted the X bracing instead of a single diagonal member on the main bar because in our crash the top corner was shunted far enough in to cause my shoulder injury, and this was the corner where the single diagonal bracing member came up to (ie from bottom passenger side to top driver side). If the impact had been on the weaker passenger side corner it would have been shunted in further. Unlikely as it is to have the same type of impact twice, the possibility wasn't something we could ignore.
Helmet access will be tight - the seats aren't decided yet so we might be able to find some that allows them to squeeze through.
Handbrake is clear. And yes, we are getting HANS and wraparound headrests.
Any harness recommendations? Looking at 6-point, 3" chest and waist.
Helmet access will be tight - the seats aren't decided yet so we might be able to find some that allows them to squeeze through.
Handbrake is clear. And yes, we are getting HANS and wraparound headrests.
Any harness recommendations? Looking at 6-point, 3" chest and waist.
Unfortunately no - we cannot stow our helmets behind the seats because of the current bracing configuration and its a major pita.
Theres a lot to good cage design and its actually quite scary how the minimum spec 6 point cage can deform. The cage in the 968 had additional bracing and the compression tubes (for rear/ quarter impacts)added together with the side intrusion bars when the po decided to go endurance racing and his co-drivers insisted on it.
As far as harnesses go, the 2 things that can annoy are not having 'pull up' adjusters on the lap belts (pull down are virtually impossible to get tight) and regardless of 5 or 6 point, having the buckle on one of the lap belts rather than the crutch strap - the crutch strap is usually not something you can adjust quickly. Since our car does a lot of road miles, we tend to run them as 4 point on the road (don't use the crutch strap) and the harness tension is not quite as tight as when racing (if you can breathe comefortably when your harness is tight, its not quite tight enough for racing
)
Theres a lot to good cage design and its actually quite scary how the minimum spec 6 point cage can deform. The cage in the 968 had additional bracing and the compression tubes (for rear/ quarter impacts)added together with the side intrusion bars when the po decided to go endurance racing and his co-drivers insisted on it.
As far as harnesses go, the 2 things that can annoy are not having 'pull up' adjusters on the lap belts (pull down are virtually impossible to get tight) and regardless of 5 or 6 point, having the buckle on one of the lap belts rather than the crutch strap - the crutch strap is usually not something you can adjust quickly. Since our car does a lot of road miles, we tend to run them as 4 point on the road (don't use the crutch strap) and the harness tension is not quite as tight as when racing (if you can breathe comefortably when your harness is tight, its not quite tight enough for racing
)Can imagine what a PITA it is - even with the single diagonal it was a bit of a contortion to get a full face through, now with both it just might prove to be impossible but heigh ho, we'll cope and its not changing now.
Are you doing the Bambina?
We had an entertaining(ish) evening with a chilly bin full of dry ice and a couple of hammers and chisels removing the tarry sound insulation stuff off the floorpan. It went pretty well - got 99% of it off and the rest will shift with a bit of kerosene and elbow grease. We really need to start putting things on instead of taking them off soon though. 37 days left...
Are you doing the Bambina?
We had an entertaining(ish) evening with a chilly bin full of dry ice and a couple of hammers and chisels removing the tarry sound insulation stuff off the floorpan. It went pretty well - got 99% of it off and the rest will shift with a bit of kerosene and elbow grease. We really need to start putting things on instead of taking them off soon though. 37 days left...
Hey Don
PITA = Pain in the Rs.. not a type of bread.. and yes it will be one if we have to carry the helmemets in the front all the time. Hopefully we can make it work.
BTW all the black stuff has gone from inside the car. I spent a couple of hours on it this evening and found that diesel dissolves it even better than kerosene. Now just needs another wash out to get rid of the diesel smell.. Then we can paint.
Hopefully we will also get the engine and transmission in this weekend.. should be a relaxing one
PITA = Pain in the Rs.. not a type of bread.. and yes it will be one if we have to carry the helmemets in the front all the time. Hopefully we can make it work.
BTW all the black stuff has gone from inside the car. I spent a couple of hours on it this evening and found that diesel dissolves it even better than kerosene. Now just needs another wash out to get rid of the diesel smell.. Then we can paint.
Hopefully we will also get the engine and transmission in this weekend.. should be a relaxing one
Hmmm - seems I need a new pic hosting service...
T-17 days to Targa Bambina and we're in pretty good shape. The green machine is a runner, and as of this afternoon has all the required MSNZ approvals. It's got all the same handling bits as the old one - oversized front ARB, King springs and virtually identical geometry, ride height, etc so hope that it will handle as well.
Just waiting one of the two front Koni inserts to come back after its second rebuild - it was faulty first time we got it - and we'll be ready to do the last bits of assembly, final geo set up and see if we can find some time to go play at Manfeild.
We've added a couple of extra mods of our own - hopefully improvements, but time will tell It'll be interesting to see what we weigh in at - we've stripped out more weight than the old one had taken out of it, but the roll cage has more beef so maybe net-net it's the same.
Pics to follow, once we're liveried up and good to go
T-17 days to Targa Bambina and we're in pretty good shape. The green machine is a runner, and as of this afternoon has all the required MSNZ approvals. It's got all the same handling bits as the old one - oversized front ARB, King springs and virtually identical geometry, ride height, etc so hope that it will handle as well.
Just waiting one of the two front Koni inserts to come back after its second rebuild - it was faulty first time we got it - and we'll be ready to do the last bits of assembly, final geo set up and see if we can find some time to go play at Manfeild.
We've added a couple of extra mods of our own - hopefully improvements, but time will tell
It'll be interesting to see what we weigh in at - we've stripped out more weight than the old one had taken out of it, but the roll cage has more beef so maybe net-net it's the same.Pics to follow, once we're liveried up and good to go
Phew... Finished just in time, with final sign off from the scrutineer obtained this afternoon . One of the final jobs left for this evening is sticking on a new set of oversize PH smilies.
(Photo site carefully chosen for its post-apocalypse industrial wasteland setting... or maybe we just rolled it out of the garage)
Route maps are now up here on the Targa site
. One of the final jobs left for this evening is sticking on a new set of oversize PH smilies.(Photo site carefully chosen for its post-apocalypse industrial wasteland setting... or maybe we just rolled it out of the garage
)Route maps are now up here on the Targa site
Kylie said:
Ive got a girlie version PH logo if you want it for the better half support T-shirt??
Does it cost much to do the Narva tour? Was talking to a few Esprit nutters who have done it before and may do it again. May consider if I can generate some spare cash in time Although June = WET
That's priceless, and as my other half is supporting I might just have time to get it onto a shirt for her. If you've got that in higher res or vector format could you please mail it to me?The full pricing doc is linked off the targa home page - Narva Rotorua in June (2 days) is $1150, main event in October (6 days) $2400. Go for it!
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