What have YOU being doing or are you planning to do with your Vette?

[theseoldcars]

Back in my Mk1 Escort days I had steel wheels and a friend had alloy 4 spokes. We swapped wheels one day to so I could see how his tyre size worked on my car. With the alloys on my car it was very noticeably how much more nimble the car was. It was faster and better on fuel. I was really surprised the difference it made. It’s the most effective change you can do on a car.

Seconded. I changed my C4's standard wheels for same-sized forged three-piece BBS RS 178 wheels; the new wheel and tyre combo transpired to be 4.5kg lighter... per corner, so pretty significant. The difference is noticeable on road and track, without a doubt.

 

[Mad4slalom]

Joy personified!

That is looking sooo nice. What a special colour

 

[Nassau65]

Seconded. I changed my C4's standard wheels for same-sized forged three-piece BBS RS 178 wheels; the new wheel and tyre combo transpired to be 4.5kg lighter... per corner, so pretty significant. The difference is noticeable on road and track, without a doubt.

Nice. Looks very 80’s

 

[Forrest Gump]

Seconded. I changed my C4's standard wheels for same-sized forged three-piece BBS RS 178 wheels; the new wheel and tyre combo transpired to be 4.5kg lighter... per corner, so pretty significant. The difference is noticeable on road and track, without a doubt.

That’s interesting, the standard C4 alloy does look like it’s got a lot of metal on it. Aesthetics over weight saving maybe.
Trying to find the weight of the factory C3 wheels, consensus is steel rallye wheels are 27.5lbs and the alloys are 19.5lbs. Big difference there if those nubers are correct. The steel rallye wheels weight included the chrome trim ring and the hefty centre cap.

 

[Nassau65]

Just read a couple of articles on those rally wheels, they sure are heavy mothers, and that’s without all the trim added on.

 

[antijam]

The reduction in wheel weight will show a very slight improvement in performance but what will be more noticeable is a reduction in polar moment of inertia.

 

[fine69]

Just read a couple of articles on those rally wheels, they sure are heavy mothers, and that’s without all the trim added on.

Yes. A lot if the weight is in the hoop which is furthest from the centre of the hub. When that is spinning it’s a lot of load to change direction.
Which is why light prop shafts don’t really make any difference as the weight is close to the centre.

 

[Roscobbc]

That’s interesting, the standard C4 alloy does look like it’s got a lot of metal on it. Aesthetics over weight saving maybe.
Trying to find the weight of the factory C3 wheels, consensus is steel rallye wheels are 27.5lbs and the alloys are 19.5lbs. Big difference there if those nubers are correct. The steel rallye wheels weight included the chrome trim ring and the hefty centre cap.

Interesting that a C3 alloy wheel is supposed to weight only 19.5lbs. I wonder how many people have invested in alloy wheels that perhaps thinking they are going to be lighter than steels only to forget the weight of the larger tyres they are fitting......especially if 'run-flats'......now they are heavy!
I made me check the weight of my Boyd alloy wheels. So one of the front 10" x 8" seems to be 26 lbs. It would be interesting to weigh it with tyre. It's classed as a 'billet' wheel, which is not correct being a machined cast centre with a welded-on 'spun' rim. A 'billet' item is something fully machined from a solid piece of alloy. Not 100% sure I'd be too happy with the strength/safety of something fabricated from perhaps high quality race weight alluminium. I would think that Steve's C4 aftermarket wheels will be quite light as the later cars don't have the same amount of offset and perhaps could be of lighter construction.

 

[CaptainK]

I see a lot of you took my humour about whether a spring is sprung or unsprung weight - apologies, it was a joke based upon the fact that its a spring NOT on a car, and thus is it "sprung" or "unsprung".

Well, I found it funny anyway...... TAXI !

 

[Roscobbc]

I see a lot of you took my humour about whether a spring is sprung or unsprung weight - apologies, it was a joke based upon the fact that its a spring NOT on a car, and thus is it "sprung" or "unsprung".

Well, I found it funny anyway...... TAXI !

Perhaps when you are correctly sent to the 'bad joke jail' a sympathetic CCCUK member can 'spring' you?

 

[CaptainK]

Reading above about the wheel weights etc - I did that too many years ago on my FTO. It comes standard with 16 inch alloys for my top model, and I swapped out to 17 inch lightweight wheels, and all combined the new 17 inch wheel and tyre package is lighter than the original 16 inch package. I was happy with that. When looking around, I paid a lot of attention to alloy weight, as I didn't want anything heavier than the standard wheels.

For my C3 - well, I don't drive it fast and I just wanted it to look nice. Hence the alloys I got. Never bothered to check the weight of them.

 

[Forrest Gump]

Perhaps when you are correctly sent to the 'bad joke jail' a sympathetic CCCUK member can 'spring' you?

Probably just get a suspended sentence though?

 

[Roscobbc]

Probably just get a suspended sentence though?

I'm sure that would put a damper on things!

 

[James Vette]

Topped up power steering fluid and radiator fluid. Took driver door apart and sprayed wd40 but still have door problems. Taking the door lock mechanism out tomorrow to hopefully clean up and refurbish instead of wasting money on buying a new one. Cold starting the car still requires a can of cold start spray into the air intake but it starts pretty much perfectly if you try to start it within an hour or so of it being off so the new starter motor is working perfectly but the engine cold start must have a fuel line issue or something. The automatic choke doesn't seem to be working so that doesn't help. Wipers are stuck facing up and wiper door is stuck open even after fiddling with the switches under the steering column and fiddling with the on/off switch above gauges. I think my dad mentioned a manual switch in the wiper bay but I don't think it helped. Also changed the blown heater/AC fuse but still doesn't work or make a noise. There are a lot of wires hanging out above the pedals that give me a headache just thinking about it.

 

[Oneball]

Your choke is adjustable. It’s “rest” position is on, as the engine warms it opens up.
Check that it’s closed when the engine is cold, you set it based on ambient temperature with the engine cold. On both Q-Jet and Holley carbs it’s the same principle just a flap with a bi-metallic strip (either engine heated or electric depending on carb) that opens as the engine warms. It’s not going to be a fuel line issue. Highly likely Bubba has been there and fixed the choke in the open position.

 

[antijam]

With the rear suspension rebuild on my '71 complete, I've spent a happy day sorting out alignment. First job was to set the frame to ground clearance. This was easily done since I have long spring bolts fitted with nyloc nuts in place of the split pinned originals and a bit of winding up and down soon achieves a stock 7.95" clearance both sides.


Camber was next and again relatively easy since I have 'turnbuckle' strut rods fitted (arrowed above) - easier to adjust than the cam type originals, though they do have a disadvantage; suspension movement applies a torque to the strut that in the originals can only be reacted by the compliance in the rubber bushes. The new struts have rubber bushes too but their stiffness means that the torque can sometimes loosen the locknuts - I tighten them up as tight as you can with open spanners.

Rear toe setting needs a bit more work and I set up the kit to 'string' the car. My DIY gear is cheap and simple to build. I've bought two lengths of aluminium channel from B&Q that I clamped together and drilled small holes through both at each end. I position a pair of axle stands set to the height of the wheel hub one each side of the car at the front and another pair at the rear on which I rest one of my drilled channels.




I check that the distance between the channels at each side of the car is the same to ensure they are parallel.



I run a length of fishing line through the hole in one end of the front channel to the hole in the rear one and attach a couple of bolts as weights to keep the line taut.



I repeat this on the other side of the car. Since the holes in both channels were drilled together, the two lines must be parallel. I adjust the channels side to side to ensure that the distance from the lines to the front hubs is the same both sides and then that the distance of the lines from the rear hubs is the same both sides.

Now the difference in distance of the line to the front and rear rim of the wheels ( A minus B)....


.......lets me calculate any shim shuffling from one side to the other of the T/A's to achieve the correct toe-in.
(My fishing line is much finer than string, so unless you have very sharp eyes you'll have to take my word for it that it's there!)

All I need now is some warmer weather to get the car out for the first time this year and go for a top down blast!

 

[teamzr1]

Don't you guys in the UK, first do weighing each corner and adjust the center of gravity
and then do the alignment ?

 

[antijam]

Don't you guys in the UK, first do weighing each corner and adjust the center of gravity
and then do the alignment ?

On a track car I certainly would. On a road car I wouldn't bother - I couldn't guarantee the weight of a prospective passenger.

 

[James Vette]

Door card is off and door lock mechanism is out. Very hard to manouver past the window even though it's all the way up. Washed and brushed inside and out with boiling water and going to sit in hot water for a few hours.

 

[Chuffer]

Door card is off and door lock mechanism is out. Very hard to manouver past the window even though it's all the way up. Washed and brushed inside and out with boiling water and going to sit in hot water for a few hours.

Why the soaking in hot water ?