Morton's white VQ Statesman

[savage1987]

Also any where else I should take out to save weight?

Your big expensive wheels that make your car slower. Your motor that weighs over 3x what I do

[Haydz]

Sorry mate forgot to mention. Not the caprice. My vn exec I'm building as a daily.

[savage1987]

Ooooh

In that case there is plenty of weight to be shed and morton will know/have done 98% of it

Sam

[greenfoam]

Morton. I need your wisdom. I'm pulling all the sound deadening from under my carpet and just curious as to what the easiest way is? Any help appreciated. Also any where else I should take out to save weight?

If you can get hold of some dry ice that is the easiest and cleanest way, freeze it then bash it off. For those of us that live in a dry ice free zone we use a heat gun and scraper, if your air con doesn't work, rip that out. There's lots of other things that can be made lighter (pretty much everything in the car) but it starts to get hard work and 100 grams at a time

[Haydz]

well i started today. got the drivers side done with a heat gun and a scraper. its not too hard. pretty time consuming but still.

foam i sent you a message on ebay re a tune for this light vn

[hakhawk]

well i started today. got the drivers side done with a heat gun and a scraper. its not too hard. pretty time consuming but still.

foam i sent you a message on ebay re a tune for this light vn

just dont let yourself get consumed by the vapours they can get pretty potent in such a confined space

[Haydz]

lol hakhawk doing under the pedals made me a bit headspinnish.

[savage1987]

If you can get hold of some dry ice that is the easiest and cleanest way, freeze it then bash it off.

Terrible idea I did this on a high 30s day in summer, under a tree... well over $50 worth of dry ice barely even did the bottom of the footwells. Total pain in the arse. I still chip away at mine with a chisel at room temperature whenever I can be bothered (not often)


Dry ice was a huge fail for me.


Sam

[Bz Kn33z]

A chisel wont go astray, a couple of holes in the floor and youl be laughing.

[savage1987]

A chisel wont go astray, a couple of holes in the floor and youl be laughing.

Separating the layers of floor pan is annoying... I have hit curves etc pretty hard though and none of the nicks have gone through the galv layer. I'm impressed!! They don't make them like they used to any more

[Reaper]

Heat gun and scraper worked great for me. Once you get the technique down it sort of peels away. I cleaned it up with thinners and petrol (when I ran out of thinners). Make sure all the doors are open in a well ventilated area and disconnect all sources of a spark (battery etc etc).

Reaper

[Morton]

A good heat gun goes a long way. Make sure you get one that goes up to 600+ degrees ^_^ That was only just hot enough for me.

Speaking of weight reduction, I want to get stuck seriously back into the stato once the HQ is on the road.

I want to take it all apart again, and completely ditch the climate control system 100%. Blower motor, air box, the lot. Replace with two/three electric heaters for the window. Drill a few things out, save some grams here and there. When the dash goes back together, I want everything sikaflexed to kill the rattles.

I also want to replace the clutch, throw in a lightweight flywheel, and see if I can once-and-for-all get the clutch fork aligned properly. Replace the diff with my stored 3.73s + tiiiight LSD and have it all set without any lash. Current one lashes like a mofo.

Underbody air effects will get a complete makeover from scratch - possibly look out for something a bit more radical. Possibly inclusion of on-body air effects. I'll be doing economy tests on the eastern freeway (2am style) including lengths of string and a camera to track changes in airflow.

There's a lot for me to get excited about next year

Just got to get this damn HQ on the road first...

[savage1987]

Underbody air effects will get a complete makeover from scratch - possibly look out for something a bit more radical. Possibly inclusion of on-body air effects. I'll be doing economy tests on the eastern freeway (2am style) including lengths of string and a camera to track changes in airflow.

I don't know why more people haven't looked into this

[Morton]

Probably the sheer time it takes to "engineer" stuff like that. It's all well and good to know what you want, but another thing to create it, make it look nice, and still have it readily removable while being able to stand 100+ kph winds and rain and stones

[savage1987]

Good point. I'm sure you have a plan

Prototype, manufacture and sell!!

[stocky]

where do you put the pieces of string? if you need any under the car, you can get a good view of them by removing the gearshift boot from the floor. i could always see the road while driving without that thing on

[Haydz]

I like all the new ideas you have. I'm going to employ your idea of the air dam at the front of the car. I'm just wondering how far toward the motor did you go? I know it'll be slightly different being a 6 but I'm still willing to give it a go and try fabricate something. Cheers Morton btw my car sounds like a tin can without any sound deadner.

[Morton]

where do you put the pieces of string? if you need any under the car, you can get a good view of them by removing the gearshift boot from the floor. i could always see the road while driving without that thing on

Use knitting wool. It goes all over the car. Spaced roughly a foot apart in all directions. You pick a nice bright colour, like flouro green or pink, so it stands out against whatever colour your car is.

I'm not so concerned about watching undercar flows. I know what I have to do under there - you have to try and turn the whole underbody into one big venturi, to increase flow speed and lower air pressure around the middle of the floor pan. I'll probably give up and burn it, but if I can get even something moderately effective, it'll be worth it

Good point. I'm sure you have a plan

Prototype, manufacture and sell!!

Hahaha sod that for a joke Maybe if I had a hoist to make undercar access easier...

I like all the new ideas you have. I'm going to employ your idea of the air dam at the front of the car. I'm just wondering how far toward the motor did you go? I know it'll be slightly different being a 6 but I'm still willing to give it a go and try fabricate something. Cheers Morton btw my car sounds like a tin can without any sound deadner.

I went back as far as the swaybar. Seemed like a good place to terminate my prototype - easy to loop a few cable ties loosely around the swaybar and be done with it

[HCVP]

Haha, i wouldn't know what to think if i saw a white Statesman going down the freeway at 2 am covered in fluro pink wool !!

[delcowizzid]

morton ive got a small ball pein hammer here if you want to dimple it like a golf ball for less drag also a nice little boot lip will give a decient gain on decreasing drag stops the suction created behind the car if you can disturb the layer of air flowing over the car at the boot

[Morton]

We have dramas, ladies and gentlemen.

I can't get my clutch fork to line up properly!!

Here's the problem:

I have the pivot ball retracted as far BACK as it will go.

The clutch fork is therefore sitting as far BACK in the bellhousing as it will go.

When I do a dummy fit of the bellhousing with fork and thrust bearing, the thrust bearing is FIRMLY forced up against the pressure plate diaphragm forks.

This is not healthy I thought I could fix my clutch-slipping problem by moving the pivot ball further in, but now at full retraction the problem will still be present.

Using the same old clutch (heavy duty PBR or Clutch Industries number), using a flywheel that came with my conversion, and both my thrust bearings are the same dimensions.

I've always had a problem with clutch fork alignment, but this appears to be worse than ever. Something has changed without me changing it?

Any ideas folks?

[kniever]

cable stretched? have you tried putting everything back to proper specs and see how it sits? dont have the time to search right now but it was something like 321mm? from the top of the pivot ball to the edge of the bellhousing.

might have even bent the clutch fork? thats common.

dont know buddy, hope ya work it out.

[Morton]

Nah, it's nothing to do with the cable or the adjustment of the stud. The stud is as far back as it can physically go, and the cable only affects pedal height + movement.

Thanks though

Oh, and my clutch fork seems to be just fine. Either way, if it bent forwards, it would only cause the thrust bearing to sit further back, which would solve my problem.

What puzzles me, is that this problem appears to have developed over time without me changing any of the components inside the bellhousing. Any ideas?

[ari666]

wrong thrust bearing? maybe a little too big?

bugger this will text you.

[Morton]

Thrust bearing it is. I bought a new heavy duty clutch kit from PBR (same part number as I bought when I did the conversion), and sure enough the thrust bearing supplied with the kit this time is actually shorter. All along my clutch problems were ALL the fault of PBR supplying me with the wrong thrust bearing from the start!!!! Goddamnit!! lol