targa 2012 prep begins

[Colin Byrne]

Hi guys
A couple of pics of what I've been up to over easter.  With 1 year to go before the next targa preparation has well and truly begun.  The first job on the list was to stiffen up the steering mounts to get rid of as much compliance as possible.  Whilst investigation suitable possibilities I uncovered and old dodgy repair that had rended the chasis rail between the firewall and the front cross member almost  useless.  So before I could get started in some braceing some major repair work was required!
   With that repaired I set to work on addition some rigidity to the idler box mounts.  Whilst I was at it I thought I would strengthen up the shock towers in preparation for some new dampers, lucky I did to because both sides had cracked nearly all the way through to the mount.  To strengthen I bent up some 6mm rod to he contour of the shock tower lip and stich welded it all the way around.

[Simon Bidese]

love the work Colin. Make sure u remain well lubricated during the works:)  I spotted the bottle cap in the first picture...was that from the home brew collection?

[Frank Musco]

Very nice. I've seen a shocker mount break away. Nothing like peace of mind while going for a quick drive across the countryside.

[Evan Bottcher]

Neat.  One shocker mount on our GTV was cracked pretty badly, it's obviously a weak point.  No reinforcement was done on the replacement - our car won't be doing any Targa rallying (only in my mind).

[Colin Byrne]

Yes, it is important to keep the fluids up, unfortunately not home brew though, but it is on the (long) list of projects!
The shock towers are just pressed sheet metal (not unlike the rest of the car, including "chassis rails") so it's not really surprising that they show cracks after 40 odd years, particularly I'f you start mucking around with damper settings.  I am glad I found it as I'm about to drop some coin on a nice set of ohlins externally adjustable dampers, which would have been a bit of a waste had I not seen the damage, thanks goes to Vin for mentioning that I should have a look at that area.  He also said the rear shock tower mounts have been known to fail as they are just held by two captive m8 nuts, not sure how I'm going to strengthen those yet, as access is an issue with the cage.

Next job
Moving the top arm location point down by 1" to raise the front RC as this is allowed in the rules where as the ball joint riser is, well questionable

[Colin Byrne]

over the weekend i set to work lowering the pivot point of the top suspension arm.  Was a little bit more difficult that i fist thought as space was limited, particularly when trying to use drills with holes saws.  The part that took the longest time was turning up the 4 spacers, took me all saterday

when that done nearly finished the next job is to clean up the engine bay and install the steering and idler boxes.  Any ideas on how to fix up the paint chips in the engine bay without getting it completly resprayed?

[Cool Jesus]

Colin, sounds like you're after some support to slack off and only touch up the chips with a brush??? or your not that concerned about the finished look under the hood.

PS. you dropped your sunnies...

[Colin Byrne]

Ended up getting the engine bay resprayed, looks pretty good we managed to get most of the front suspension and steering in yesterday, including the new steering rod end kit i got from Spruell Motorsport.

[Colin Byrne]

Hi Guys
got the new motor in and fired it up on saterday,  Started very easily and sounded awesome, can't wait to drive it at the 6 hour, also new shocks have been delivered haven't fitted them yet, that's this weekends job