Mayhem ('69 Ghia)

May and Velvet at Starbucks looking good before the TRP Swap event.



She's a roller!

TO COOL MATT

I never knew that was what May really stood for. That changes my perspective towards it/her/him/shim....

I guess we can't refer to her as "cute" any more?

What is that on the end of the antenna? It looks like it is on fire.

is that a rat fink on the ant.

Submarine Driver wrote:

I never knew that was what May really stood for. That changes my perspective towards it/her/him/shim....

An it or a shim? Really?!?! She is definitely of the female persuasion and she definitely lives up to her name wherever she goes .

speedbuggy wrote:

I guess we can't refer to her as "cute" any more?

'Wicked' would be more appropriate.

west coast ghia wrote:

is that a rat fink on the ant.

It's actually Clay Smith Cams 'Mr. Horsepower' perched up there...

I'll just stick with May when I'm around her.

There you go.

May's looking good in person

Why thank you sir, thank you very much.

Sexy

May has some accessorizing to do this weekend.



Added 20 mph just sitting in the parking lot.

nice set up. i was going to do the gray one

Sweeeeet.

Very Sweet!

Hehe funny that after you saw my quick release setup you acquire one! I love mine.

Nice!!!

Front End - Seconda Parte: Steering Box Re-Build

So I have been trying to get my front end to settle in but it just doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I will spare all the details but I think Ray is tired of hearing me complain about it so we're going to pull it all out and see what is up.

Since I pretty much did it solo the first go around it could be anything.

I am trying to get all the pieces together to make the surgery go quickly.

I swapped my steering box for a 'new' one but it is real tight, almost too tight. We tried to loosen it up a bit before our weekend drive but we could only make minimal improvements.

So I had the steering box that was in May when I swapped out the front end:

Here it is out of the parts pile:



It was real gritty when turned and rough feeling, which is why I replaced it.

I figured now that it is out I would just rebuild it.

Well let's just say it is not as easy as it looks.

But after some help from Ray who has done one, two, or a 'few' before, we were able to turn out a winner.



SMOOTH AS BUTTER!



My new steering box was around a hundred bucks and it basically sucks out of the box.

If anyone has a steering box that can be rebuilt, I would high recommend having someone who knows what they are doing rebuild it. The difference is AMAZING.

Seriously, I am blown away...

We may pull a few and rebuild them. If anyone is interested, let me know.

It was fun getting a little gooey filling up the rebuilt unit.

AWESOME!

So everyone is right, lesson learned. If you are a greenhorn:

NEVER BUY ANYTHING WITH MOVING PARTS AT BUG-O-RAMA!

Stick to sheet metal.

So the refurbished control arms I bought with BRAND NEW German ball joints are trash.

The ball joints are indeed German as you can tell buy the lettering on the ball joints themselves.

But the jackhole who pressed them in must have crushed them or something. 3 out of 4 of the ball joints would barely move if at all! So that is where my front end was binding up.

I am so pissed. I am going to take those control arms to Bug-O-Rama and if I see the guy I am going to beat him over the head with them and shove them up his rear apron.

I need a designated representative to carry my bail money.

Anyway, got the everything out and have new stuff to go back in. Hope to have it all back together tomorrow.

Dude, that sucks.

Mateo wrote:

NEVER BUY ANYTHING WITH MOVING PARTS AT BUG-O-RAMA!

Amen Brutha! That includes Weber carbs missing all of the internals that "Ran great when I took it off"
Or "rebuilt heads" that the valve guides slip in and out of the heads easier than the valves........

Okay, I just had to get that off my chest...... Sorry to hear that you got burned Matt.......

Yea, I revisited the ball joints today and you can hit them with a mallet and they won't move.

Sucks. Anyways, I got the front end back together today with new ball joints. I missed my 3:00pm alignment appointment so I will be getting up early for an 8:00am appointment.

But the front end is entirely different, it rides like a Cadillac now. I am very pleased.

My Cofab oil shocks were binding up the front end too. When I put them back on today, the front end would go down but would not rebound. So they are jacked up as well.

Take off the shocks and I have a well sprung front end.

I drove home with no shocks and it was the best ride since I got the car.

Nothing wrong with rollin' without shocks on the front. My '64 never had them and I didn't have any complaints.