** APOLOGIES about the next few updates **
They are very 'wordy' with no photos because I simply didn't get chance or have time to take any. Please bear with me though, normal business will be restored shortly.
I had just got the interior fitted and time was rapidly running out. It was about 9pm on the Thursday night which meant I only had a matter of hours to get things finished and I still hadn't fitted the new suspension. Or any of the other jobs I had to do on my list.
More & more of the guys were gradually arriving at the unit in readiness for heading off to the Gathering. It's kind of tradition to meet up at Area 52 the night before, tinker with some cars, drink some beers then all crash out ready for final tinkering before convoying to the big event around midday/1pm on Friday.
As more people arrived, we all started cracking on with Brian's VW T4. He wanted to lower it a bit, so we jacked it up and got on with that. Before you could say "How low" it was back on the floor sitting lower and the masking tape appeared. Before the hour was out, the car was changing from its light grey paint to satin brown. We don't do things by halves and a repaint of a van only mere hours before an event didn't worry us in the slightest. When I say 'we' this was mainly Brian himself (Nutter81) along with Rich (Rich), Dave (Butterz), Robin (RobinXR4i), Chris (Diabolu), Robin (RobinJI), James (Jrevillug) and a few others who arrived during the evening (it's all a blur, so apologies...I can't remember who else was there!)
I suddenly realise it's about 1am and I still haven't fitted my suspension. I'd better get a crack on.
I raise the car back up on the lift and pop the new struts into place, tighten everything up and bring it back down to see how it sits.
LOW!
BUT....
...there's something wrong. Despite the struts being much shorter, the car has absolutely no travel on the drivers side. None.
After some poking around and investigating, we discover the car is actually now sitting on the driveshaft. Not good. There's also a slight problem with the top mount.
Knowing it's gone 2am by this point I decide to concentrate on the top mount issue. The driveshaft was going to take some loud tools to resolve and I didn't think the nearby houses would appreciate that in the middle of the night.
Pulling things apart, putting them back together, comparing with the nearside, lots of headscratching and testing later it's discovered that the bolt that compresses the bearing/topmount and spring perch onto the strut can't tighten down enough because the thread stops before it can clamp everything properly. This is causing a clunk whenever the suspension is loaded. It's only about 2mm less thread than the nearside, but it's enough to make a difference.
I dig out a very large, very thick washer from the washer drawer and drill out the centre to 14mm (the size of the threaded section). This is placed under the bearing/top mount on top of the spring perch and takes up the slack enabling the top mount nut to be tightened down properly.
This little job took a few hours to diagnose and about 10 minutes to sort. It was now 5am - everyone was shattered and they all decide to find a spot to crash out.
Not me. Despite having only had three hours sleep previously, and not much more the night before...nor any kind of break for days, I decide to work through the night. I didn't have time to sleep and, instead, chose to do all the little fiddly jobs while everyone rests so that I'll be ready for some proper action to sort the driveshafts around 9am.
It was pretty wierd working through the night, watching it get light while plodding away on the special custom wheel centres I'd had made at Rank engineering, t-cutting all the lower half of the car, sorting the exhaust, modifying the rear wiper (which didn't sit right due to being a front wiper someone had previously fitted!) and a whole host of other things.
I was completely shattered, but by 9am I had completed pretty much my entire list of jobs and was now ready to tackle the ongoing saga of the suspension. Was this finally going to be the end of the job? Was the car going to sit how I wanted and still drive how I'd intended it too? Was I going to be driving my Delica to the Gathering because at the very, very last hour I'd failed in my quest to get the car how I wanted it?
There was literally a matter of hours before we headed off and I was about to find out.
(apologies again for the lack of photos but I was so focused on getting the car sorted that I literally didn't take ANY! That will be addressed very soon)
They are very 'wordy' with no photos because I simply didn't get chance or have time to take any. Please bear with me though, normal business will be restored shortly.
I had just got the interior fitted and time was rapidly running out. It was about 9pm on the Thursday night which meant I only had a matter of hours to get things finished and I still hadn't fitted the new suspension. Or any of the other jobs I had to do on my list.
More & more of the guys were gradually arriving at the unit in readiness for heading off to the Gathering. It's kind of tradition to meet up at Area 52 the night before, tinker with some cars, drink some beers then all crash out ready for final tinkering before convoying to the big event around midday/1pm on Friday.
As more people arrived, we all started cracking on with Brian's VW T4. He wanted to lower it a bit, so we jacked it up and got on with that. Before you could say "How low" it was back on the floor sitting lower and the masking tape appeared. Before the hour was out, the car was changing from its light grey paint to satin brown. We don't do things by halves and a repaint of a van only mere hours before an event didn't worry us in the slightest. When I say 'we' this was mainly Brian himself (Nutter81) along with Rich (Rich), Dave (Butterz), Robin (RobinXR4i), Chris (Diabolu), Robin (RobinJI), James (Jrevillug) and a few others who arrived during the evening (it's all a blur, so apologies...I can't remember who else was there!)
I suddenly realise it's about 1am and I still haven't fitted my suspension. I'd better get a crack on.
I raise the car back up on the lift and pop the new struts into place, tighten everything up and bring it back down to see how it sits.
LOW!
BUT....
...there's something wrong. Despite the struts being much shorter, the car has absolutely no travel on the drivers side. None.
After some poking around and investigating, we discover the car is actually now sitting on the driveshaft. Not good. There's also a slight problem with the top mount.
Knowing it's gone 2am by this point I decide to concentrate on the top mount issue. The driveshaft was going to take some loud tools to resolve and I didn't think the nearby houses would appreciate that in the middle of the night.
Pulling things apart, putting them back together, comparing with the nearside, lots of headscratching and testing later it's discovered that the bolt that compresses the bearing/topmount and spring perch onto the strut can't tighten down enough because the thread stops before it can clamp everything properly. This is causing a clunk whenever the suspension is loaded. It's only about 2mm less thread than the nearside, but it's enough to make a difference.
I dig out a very large, very thick washer from the washer drawer and drill out the centre to 14mm (the size of the threaded section). This is placed under the bearing/top mount on top of the spring perch and takes up the slack enabling the top mount nut to be tightened down properly.
This little job took a few hours to diagnose and about 10 minutes to sort. It was now 5am - everyone was shattered and they all decide to find a spot to crash out.
Not me. Despite having only had three hours sleep previously, and not much more the night before...nor any kind of break for days, I decide to work through the night. I didn't have time to sleep and, instead, chose to do all the little fiddly jobs while everyone rests so that I'll be ready for some proper action to sort the driveshafts around 9am.
It was pretty wierd working through the night, watching it get light while plodding away on the special custom wheel centres I'd had made at Rank engineering, t-cutting all the lower half of the car, sorting the exhaust, modifying the rear wiper (which didn't sit right due to being a front wiper someone had previously fitted!) and a whole host of other things.
I was completely shattered, but by 9am I had completed pretty much my entire list of jobs and was now ready to tackle the ongoing saga of the suspension. Was this finally going to be the end of the job? Was the car going to sit how I wanted and still drive how I'd intended it too? Was I going to be driving my Delica to the Gathering because at the very, very last hour I'd failed in my quest to get the car how I wanted it?
There was literally a matter of hours before we headed off and I was about to find out.
(apologies again for the lack of photos but I was so focused on getting the car sorted that I literally didn't take ANY! That will be addressed very soon)