First.... here's the new license plate. The car is still "street legal" errrrrr licensed right now, so I just couldn't pass up on putting one last plate on it. Dammit... can't get it to show up. NOOB will have to give a link....

http://public.fotki.com/GoKart....html


Secondly.....

Project shortbus is in the shop now for the cage. I haven't talked to or met johng in Seattle WA, but I want to give him a serious for his indirect assist in finding a cage builder in Portland. The company I was going to use couldn't take the car until Early Aug, and I just coudn't wait. So, I used the search function like any newbie should , and came up with a kewl thread on cages. John used Russ Nyberg at Racetech Fabrication in Portland, and since this forum has been VERY usefull for me so far, I figured I'd take his advice and look the guy up. GREAT guy who does excellent work. He just completed his 14th Spec Miata cage the other day. He doe's very nice work. http://www.racetechfab.com/gallery.html

Thanks to all of you for the great info I've swiped from this forum already. Can't wait to get "the bus" on the track!

 

Russ is a artist. He was in a hurry with mine and it still turned out great.
Glad I could help..... indirectly

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johng &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Russ is a artist. He was in a hurry with mine and it still turned out great.
Glad I could help..... indirectly
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks a bunch!!!! I'll post once the cage is done. If you're at the vintage races this weekend and you see Greg Marshall, have him track me down if I'm around.

 

Nice job, Brad...the car is really looking good!

 

Nice car, looks like a lot of effort to do it right and clean. Kudos on cleanliness and fresh paint. The time and effort show to those who appreciate it.

What class is it being built for? I have never seen anyone remove the roof section like that (the right way). Looks like a lot of effort.

Are those front upper ball joints a replacement unit (nice and shiny)? Are they a camber adjusting unit? I haven't yet seen a good replacemnet ball joint with camber adjustment for a CRX.

I can promise that you will get tire of those long wheel studs unless you are using mondo spacers and have to have that much threading. I did it on one car with a normal wheel and got very tired of turning a spinner wrench and taking guff from people about them. Have long ones on my FP car but is has 19mm spacers so there is only a little extra length to get a nut o the wheel.

 

 

Wow I went through all of your pics and that is simply amazing. I really like your garage! Dream car garage should definately visit your house. Im liking that nice TT with the phat wheelz too. Your a very patient person and are building that car right. Good luck.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What class is it being built for? I have never seen anyone remove the roof section like that (the right way). Looks like a lot of effort.

Are those front upper ball joints a replacement unit (nice and shiny)? Are they a camber adjusting unit? I haven't yet seen a good replacemnet ball joint with camber adjustment for a CRX.
</TD></TR></TABLE>


Thanks Lee,

I've read tons of your posts as a "lurker" on this forum. Good info in alot of them. Glad you can tell how much time this is taking. I'm at about 3.5 months right now, and it's JUST starting to get fun. Should get the car back from Racetec at the end of this week with a fresh cage.

The roof really was a bitch. No other way to put it. The rules state that you can replace a sunroof with a skin or replacement of similar material... blah blah blah. Although the bus was about a 9.5 on a scale of 10 before I stripped it, the sunroof always did have a pesky leak. I just decided that replacing the whole skin would be a nice way to say F.O. to that sunroof. We drilled out all the spotwelds, and tried to remove it the right way. Hope it'll turn out nice in the end.

Yes, the upper control arm mounts are new. I bought new ones and then pressed in the eccentric bolts for camber adjustment. I got those from Tom Fowler at OPM. He's been absolutely awesome to deal with. Believe that they are a pretty new design. You might wanna shoot an e-mail to Tom, and just tell him you want the same stuff that went into Brad's car. Here's a link to the page with all the CRX goodies.... http://www.opmmotorsports.com/....html The rears are adjustable bushings as well, which go in the outboard end of the short upper arm. Fronts and rears both came from OPM and are Delrin. Very easy to push in. I did notice that the factory bushings in the Honda really don't want to come out without some serious persuasion.

Yeah, we've been discussing the studs. Tom's been running them forever and had no problems. They're ARP studs. The wheels that I decided to start out with are Konig Reigns in 14x6 with a 38mm offset. I'm not sure if we're going to be able to run a short spacer behind them or not, and I'm a bit worried that the studs could get the "Ben Hur" effect on passing traffic. Although they might make a schweet weapon, they may also get folded over and that'd make wheel removal tough. I may have them cut down, and re-threaded or go to the Acura rear lug trick youz guys were discussing the other day.

Thanks again for the props. I'm prolly a bit too "retentive" in general.... but I've got Jon Bonforte and Greg Marshall to keep up with out here, and they've both got beautiful racecars. So, I figured mine outta look good for at least one photo once it's built...... then I'll commence beating the crap out of it. I'll be running in
F-production and ITA. I jumped out of karts to build this car, so we'll see how steep the learning curve is. I'll just keep my eyes on this here forum to steal tips from all of you!


Modified by Shortbus at 12:28 AM 7/13/2003

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by siisgood00 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wow I went through all of your pics and that is simply amazing. I really like your garage! Dream car garage should definately visit your house. Im liking that nice TT with the phat wheelz too. Your a very patient person and are building that car right. Good luck.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks! I spend close to 100 percent of my spare time there, so the garage had to be the #1 priority of the house. And thanks on the TT. Wish I could get the Centerline RPM wheels for the Shortbus in 14inch. The 19 inchers on the TT only weigh 14.89 lbs a piece. Just imagine what 14's would weigh.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Shortbus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
The 19 inchers on the TT only weigh 14.89 lbs a piece.</TD></TR></TABLE>


And yes, the garage should be #1 priority in every house! Garages are fun