What are the "must-have" suspension parts?
#103
So, between all the SFC arguments I wanna make sure I picked up the thing I needed out of this thread. My 00 Vert is an agressive DD. I have S-T 35-25 sways and stock springs/shox. I wanna keep the stock springs and height. What's the best and most cost-efficient shock to put on there? Is it the Bilstein HD? The Koni's are gawd awful expensive. I've already got all the other stuff on the car (STB, LCA's and PHB). Thanks!
#105
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From: Kansas City, Missouri
Sorry I asked! Just kidding! Thanks for all the great help everyone! Anyways, can we all agree on a list of items like 1-10 in order of importance. Sorry, but I guess I'm just not savvy enough to understand alot of the jargon!
#106
I see it this way....If you want another bolt on that may stiffen the chassis thats around $130 bucks then do so. Sounds like personal preference. I will go with the latter of buying them when I have nothing else to buy...
#107
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From: Austin, TX by way of Chicago, IL
FWIW, before I had SFC's (got them last summer) my car was driven hard. I have wrinkles in my quarters. The car felt tighter after the sfc's IMO.
I'd post a pic of the wrinkles, but I am at work.
I'd post a pic of the wrinkles, but I am at work.
#108
I have a few rr wrinkles too (pictures included). I recently installed sfc and they made a difference...mainly made cornering feel more confident with less chassis flex. I didn't buy my car thinking it would ever handle like a vette, but I still want a better launching and cornering vehicle.
The pictures look funny since there is a reflection of our honda in my birds paint, but the wrinkles/denting is pretty obvious. The denting is a the wrong angle to be a parking lot ding from someones door etc.
The pictures look funny since there is a reflection of our honda in my birds paint, but the wrinkles/denting is pretty obvious. The denting is a the wrong angle to be a parking lot ding from someones door etc.
Last edited by v8hunter; 04-03-2006 at 05:19 PM.
#110
Well, let's hear it for the rr quarter panel body flex damage ... anyone else got 'em? SOMETHING has to cause them and most say SFC's stop them. Once I had my subframe's welded in, I didn't get anymore. Is there any possibiility something else could be causing them on soooo many cars?
#111
Actually that's very much a result of a ding from somewhere else. It would have to be less deep and over a much broader area to be chassis flex. I've seen those type of dings in the exact same place on several of my friend's F-bodies with SFC's equipped after only a few miles. They were parking there vehicles everywhere but didn't even have the HP/TQ I have. They drag race with theirs now, but no more dimples. I now am interested in seeing the floor pan since that's much weaker. If that's perfect, then ther is no possible way that tiny ding can come from chassis flex without SFC's. As I have the mods listed in my sig, that's what I'm running and I'm still looking for serious wrinkles, and not something like a door ding. If the chassis was seriously flexing that hard, it would look much uglier than that and not something so precise. There would also be some sort of paint wrinkles, similar to a third gen I had.
Time for me to go back to AXing and making the vid.
EDIT: at the angle, it's practically not possibly with most passenger cars, but light trucks it is, especially with lift kits.
Time for me to go back to AXing and making the vid.
EDIT: at the angle, it's practically not possibly with most passenger cars, but light trucks it is, especially with lift kits.
Last edited by Foxxton; 04-03-2006 at 06:15 PM.
#113
Well, just as a reminder, I'm not saying that the type dent is absolutely impossible from chassis flex, but extremely unlikely due to the type of artifact in the panel. I try to include as many other possibilities to rule out any possible errors and from my experience with strain guages in that area of the quarter panel didn't yield any significant change. Precision strain guages are extremely accurate that they can record strains that are impossible to feel with direct contact from the human hand. From my experience and other AXer's and RRer's they haven't had any of the typical dimples that the 3rd Gen's have.
After all, I have seen ones with the wierdo dimples just today (didn't have a camera ready, drats!), but they just didn't look like that, and they've been run with the "catching air" method, the method of drag racing that I don't prefer since there is a high pressure build up before the completion of the launch which induces more frontal drag and not to save the chassis at all. Another thing I noticed on the 3rd Gen and some Fox bodies that have the miserable wrinkles/dimples/crazy warping is that much of those artifacts have the dreaded "tin can" effect (the type of dent that rebounds after pushing it in, usually occurs with a thinner make of sheet metal. Those type of repairs can be a real PIA).
BTW, to the one who had that dimple, if you're proficient enough, you could carefully use a dent dolly to remove it, but again, you must be proficient and prudent with using one, because you don't want to "tin can" the panel, though thinning is more difficult with the panel being pretty thick. Also since you have posted that pic, it would be interesting if you have access to some sort of senior project undergrad engineering student or a masters candidate that is willing to spend the time to run it like you do with strain guages, including one in that dimple area.
After all, I have seen ones with the wierdo dimples just today (didn't have a camera ready, drats!), but they just didn't look like that, and they've been run with the "catching air" method, the method of drag racing that I don't prefer since there is a high pressure build up before the completion of the launch which induces more frontal drag and not to save the chassis at all. Another thing I noticed on the 3rd Gen and some Fox bodies that have the miserable wrinkles/dimples/crazy warping is that much of those artifacts have the dreaded "tin can" effect (the type of dent that rebounds after pushing it in, usually occurs with a thinner make of sheet metal. Those type of repairs can be a real PIA).
BTW, to the one who had that dimple, if you're proficient enough, you could carefully use a dent dolly to remove it, but again, you must be proficient and prudent with using one, because you don't want to "tin can" the panel, though thinning is more difficult with the panel being pretty thick. Also since you have posted that pic, it would be interesting if you have access to some sort of senior project undergrad engineering student or a masters candidate that is willing to spend the time to run it like you do with strain guages, including one in that dimple area.