Nice weather, new suspension got some grip and got carried with the throttle at a light. Launch was great picked up a bit quicker. I imagine me breaking a 2.2 60 ft time this year.

I get home I give the car a look over and voila stress cracks in the usual spots...

I also have some stress cracks appear on the lower part of my b-pillar passenger side... SOFB !@#$!@#!@#!@!@#!@!#@

Anyways, they're gonna do a reblend/repaint for that section for free for me come May when temps will really cook the car's paint.

 

uh oh your paint isn't mint anymore

:retains championship: :hail:

 

I can think of quite a few cars better looking than yours, and besides, you've got "touch up paint covered" paint chips and shattered paint on the bumper from backing into a dumpster lol

My car wears its stress cracks like a badge of honor, it also holds an honor badge of destroying its 2.73 gears back when it was 100% stock...

 

haha.....dumpster.

*needs new paint*

 

Heh, TBI and stress cracks don't belong together.

My guess is that it isn't engine torque that's flexing the chassis. Probably has something to do with the fact that a 15+ year old unibody is as rigid as a wet noodle. Leaving a driveway or hitting a pothole would be a more likely cause.

 

yoooooo chilll duuuuuuude

just a little sarcasm ooooooooooookay?

 

Alex I'm just joking around lol

NTChrist, nope this has been a problem since before paint... it progressively got worse every time I took it to the track.

If you look at some shots Kaz took of my car from last year you'd understand just what kind of stress my car goes through every hard launch.

Before the 1.6 rocker arms, I had 260 ft/lb at the rear wheels...

It's not your typical LO3, that's for sure.... how many do you know can pull a 92 mph in the 1/4 mile?

 

I'm unsure as to how the recent application of paint is an answer to the wet noodle hypothesis.

Also, prexisting stress cracks will get progressively worse under the conditions you've described so why would you just paint over them if, as it appears, you knew they were there.

 

hmmm I had at least 150 runs without SFC's or chassis mods and my car has no cracks..and my car has the flexi-t-tops..I dont get it..

Daz

 

It's the bondo underneath more than likely that's not flexing well with the rest of the chassis. I don't claim to fully understand how the stress is distributed around my car, but as it stands, its there now and only showed its head after getting on the throttle a day ago.

Daz, with t-tops you b-pillar wouldn't have the same resistance as a hardtop would so I imagine the b-pillars are affected differently.

Here's a diagram of my theory of why this is occuring on my car. With the open diff, the passenger side doesn't grip and the force directed forward comes from the driver's side. There's uneven application of force, body twist's as the force is directed on driver's side, the rear also squats and the front raises slightly + twist and get strain on passenger side b-pillar.

 

Makes sense, when I am driving, if I place my hand on the t-roof window pillar joint I can feel the t-roof moving. AND I have both an STB and weld in SFC's.

My best MPH in the 1/4 was 91 and no stress cracks on my new paint.

Mark

 

Ditto. Maybe the 300k+ has something to do with it? Just as an FYI, I had an '80 TA that had a stress crack across one of the sail panels. I had it fixed twice and it came back. I sold that car as soon as I could.

 

I'm thinking the bondo in that area is to blame and it will be refinished anyways. After getting in some sfc's the condition shouldn't be as bad and I don't imagine me dropping in anything in the ways of major power. I think a 305 TBI in the low 14's, perhaps breaking into 13's will be the limit and a job well done as far as personal challenges go. One thing for sure is it's be a fun daily driver as I work on my next project hehe

 

If you ever want to hear a story of the worst thing that can happen if SFC's aren't installed, then ask me sometime. I can tell you quite a story...

 

Cruz: Didn't you have your torque arm break on you?

Share share the story...

 

T-tops can and will spontaneously explode. One more reason why they are the work of the devil.

 

Well, the torque arm has "rippied"out twice, and will get fixed before summer.

But when I originall swapped out the 5.0tpi, I bought SFC's cause I knew I would need them. I also just finished painting the car for like $3000. So we dropped in the new engine, and we were testing the secondary springs on the carb, we hadn't put the SFC's on yet and the paint was 3 days old. We decided to take it out and see if the secondary's were opening. So we took down the block and beat on it. Then my passenger side T-top shattered when we hit it, going into third. Pieces of the t-top shard went flying all over the place, inside the car and out. It ended up gouging the new paint right down to bare metal. The whole car, from the doors back had to be repainted. It was $1200 for just the paint and materials, and I found a set of t-tops for $200.

So if any of you mod, install the SFC's first, trust me...

 

I love t-tops

 

Ya mean this one?? That was a nice launch!
:hail:

 

More green light racing!.... Hey there's Dave!

 

Is that my car, or slades with the new paint on the right???? atleast from pics etc the paint looks the same....great choice in colours I might add

 

LOL!!! Yeah! I'll have to get some new pics of you too this year, good thing you've got a bra Dave, or I wouldn't know who was who. LOL!!!!

 

It's really different in person... just ask Mark... today in the sunshine it was really blue, like a royal blue or something. As the sun set it changed to a deep purple... nice effect...

 

^^^ Post number 7,049 about the colour of your own paint.

 

<==ensuring in future he won't be confused with tanager's car...

Mine's faster anyways hehe

 

ha ha....maybe not for long.....

 

Ya see Rovic doesn't come and read our site, so he does'nt know what is in the works.....

 

Ya that 4 inch cowl hood is certainly going to change the car... in more than 1 way....

 

LOL! Me bets Rovic is checking out our site now..LOL!!!!

Here ya go... www.sogm.ca