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  #16  
Old 02-16-2006, 01:56 PM
bahnburnr
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I'm not afraid of fabrication. When you deal with goofy rare cars, it comes with the territory (see my sig), but struts are one place where I have to draw the line. Swaybars I'll consider, because they're unloaded components. Bushings I'll consider, since they're generally not that complicated. But I like to think I know my own limits, and fabbing up my own struts is probably well beyond them. I'm sticking with the atrocious 1-piece struts in the urQ, even though I could convert to a factory 2-piece setup from a B3 car. Suspension is the aspect of cars that I know the least about, and it's the place where I'm most inclined to pay extra money for a no-hassle solution. Thankfully, it's also the area that I'm least concerned about modifying on this particular car, so I can put it off while I save up for it.
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  #17  
Old 02-16-2006, 04:06 PM
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TomsSVX TomsSVX is offline
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Many people have used the Koni/GC combe and never had any issues. You can even use JB weld to make the perches work. This is a solid setup that has been proved to work, what else would you need?? I mean what is ur problem with it? My last car was equipt with the koni/GC package and it was my daily driver, not to mention I also attended auto-X events as well. The car was thuroughly thrashed and it didn't skip a beat. I think your fear of this is a little over the top

Tom
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  #18  
Old 02-16-2006, 10:27 PM
bahnburnr
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Yeah, it might be unfounded. I would do my fair share of autoxes in this car, and the occasional Pine Barrens Express. (Surely you Jerseyites are familiar with the PBX...if not, I'll get you a link.) So I can't take any chances. My roommate lost a wheel in the middle of an autox last summer, and he looked like a moron for it. Dropping an engine-full of oil on the same course the summer before didn't help him with that. These were neither flukes nor isolated incidents. They were direct results of his negligence. Right now, my connection with him at autox only goes as far as roommates. God help me if I start having similar accidents. Did I mention that he has a GC8 IRS? Oh yes...he's one of those guys...lol. I cannot be having any "accidents" that even resemble his.

Now, I'm far more experienced than he is with wrenching, fabricating, and driving...really all aspects of the automotive universe. So, I feel that I could accomplish this mod in a safe and satisfactory manner. However, I can't escape the notion that this is a solution that he would choose. Not trying to be down on those that have done this. Before I get my foot too firmly lodged in my mouth, lemme splain what I mean.

Let's start with tools. Tools were made by man (nongender) for use by man (still nongender). Think of a shovel. Shovels didn't always exist...some caveman was smoking some local plant life while trying to move some dirt. He had to stoop over and slide this dirt around with his hands. His fingernails were dirty and worn down. As he's smoking this local plant life, he's getting a little lazy and a little creative at the same time. In a flash of inspiration, he sees what we would call a shovel in his mind. So he constructs this shovel and tries it out. He finds he can move more dirt with less effort. He pats himself on the back and shows his caveneighbors this neat new thing. We still have and use shovels today. That one brief instance of mental work has replaced incalculable physical work for all of his descendents. And it continues. Today we have bulldozers. Homo sapiens is alone among species in this ability.

But a tool, any tool, is only as accurate as the mind that created it, which brings us to the tool's user. Any tool is also only as accurate as the mind that uses it. If I tried to hold the best wrench on the planet in my butt-cheeks to tighten down even a simple oilpan drain plug, I probably wouldn't get very far. So now we have two agents that determine the accuracy or appropriateness of a tool.

Finally, we have the bolt that the tool's user is working on. I'll use my urQ's ball-joint clamp bolt. Some German guy, over twenty years ago, decided that that bolt should be made out of mild steel instead of 304. As a result, when I took it off last fall, I found that it had rust-fused itself to the clamp on the bottom of the strut. You can look at this from a chemical standpoint, iron plus oxygen equals ferrous oxide (or iron oxide...i nearly failed chemistry), and that would be accurate from a scientific point of view. But it's useful to think of the problem from a spiritual energy standpoint. That bolt has begun to lose its identity, its individuality. It is literally slowly becoming part of the strut. This is the third and final agent in our situation.

The accuracy of the guy who made my wrench, the accuracy of my own mind in using that wrench, and the utter lack of accuracy in the guy who decided that mild steel is awesome are all forces at work in the removal of that bolt. This is the holy trinity of car maintenance/modification/construction, and some people (like my roommate) will go their entire life without ever grasping this. These are the people that knowingly crossthread their lug nuts and hope that the wheel will stay on in a demanding situation like autox strictly because of...what, magic?

So, back to the struts. The cutting of the strut body and the relocation of the spring perch in this manner strike me as less than accurate solutions. It's inaccurate in concept, design, and construction. Not necessarily inaccurate enough to not take the pounding we're talking about, but inaccurate enough to make myself uneasy when I'm driving it. And racers who are uneasy about their equipment are rarely the fastest. In my poker circle we have a saying. Scared money never wins. Scared drivers never win either. Maybe you guys aren't scared of your own strut redesigns. Maybe you should be. Or maybe you shouldn't be. I can't say...that's completely up to you. But for my car under my direction, it's a solution that I can't subscribe to.

I'm obviously willing to trade money for experience. I'm enlisting John's assistance with the transmission swap because he's done it before and sounds like he knows what he's doing. If his fee is $1900, then that's $1900 I could conceivably save if I did it on my own, not to mention avoiding a trip to The Land Of No Left Turns. I'm not paying John to do the actual labor...that's merely incidental. I'm mostly paying him for his knowledge. The same goes for the struts. I'll pay the extra money not for the result (the results should be roughly equivalent), but for the intellectual accuracy of the design.

I hope that made sense. I'm really not trying to discredit your solution, because that's your solution and you should do whatever you wish. But it's not a solution I'm comfortable with implementing on my own car. On the other hand, I have no doubt that I can fabricate a better exhaust than that expensive cat-back that is both better (and by better, I mean more accurate) and cheaper, so I will. Fabricating struts and swapping transmissions to that level of accuracy is outside my current abilities, so that's something I won't do.
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  #19  
Old 02-16-2006, 11:40 PM
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TomsSVX TomsSVX is offline
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You have sound logic but I don't think you understand fully. If the Koni/GC setup was in any way shape or form a danger or unreliable, it would not be sold by the huge companies producing them. This being said, do what you please, I am not here to make you do anything just dropping my $.02. Take it for what you will

Tom
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  #20  
Old 02-17-2006, 12:57 AM
bahnburnr
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Thanks, I will. I'm always interested in saving money if I can, so I'll continue to look into it. Maybe in time I'll decide that I really can do this. I guess stranger things have happened.

Nobody said anything about PBX, so I'll post the link anyway.

http://www.rvscc.com/

Been going for the last few years. Don't recall seeing any SVXs yet...maybe this year I'll see mine there. Over a third of the field is usually Imprezas though. Since I started doing it, it's the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Great fun, though I really have to stop taking whatever beater my friend happens to have at the time. A disturbing percentage of my life revolves around this weekend.
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