My 1985 Monte Carlo SS Barney...

[SSLance]

My motivation to make the 3 year old rims look like the brand new ones waned pretty quickly...

I was more concerned with just getting the water spots off and getting them sealed so they didn't spot back up again. Did you do the insides of the hoops as well? There was a bit more real estate involved there and that where I used up quite a bit of the sealer. Plus the diaper I used to apply soaked up quite a bit as well.



What is interesting is what that diaper felt like the next day...hard as a rock!!! The sharkhide did the exact same thing to the diaper I used to apply it to my pontoons on my boat.

[83hurstguy]

Yes I did, doing the insides sucked too. Mine are 8" wheels, which makes for less real estate as well.

I used those paper-like towels in the kit to apply the sealer, and yeah, they were hard as rocks a few hours after applying. So weird! I was trying to avoid having the towel soak up more sealer than was going on the rim... that was tricky. Mine only went around the block twice then winter hit... so we'll both be testing durability this year. You definitely more than me. Mine were zoop sealed before though, and I was way happy with it. This stuff seems to be better with the final sealer and "touch up" ability.

[SSLance]

How else was this stuff any different than the Zoop Seal kits? With Zoop was there just the sealer in the kit?

The Slick Finish is the trick that I think is really gonna make this stuff perform. It makes the finish almost chrome like, hopefully it's as easy to maintain as chrome too.

[83hurstguy]

I paid someone to polish/zoop mine last time, so I couldn't tell you exactly (at $200 total, I would have done that again this time, but I'm not in Chitown anymore). I can confirm it was nowhere near as slick, and I don't remember a "wax type" product like the slick finish being available. The maintenance procedure was basically to wash it with car wash soap and be gentle, and after a few years repolish and reseal.

[SSLance]

With Ron Sutton's help, we picked out some brake upgrade parts for Barney and I got them installed this weekend.

We decided to upgrade the front calipers to the larger metric calipers with the 2.75" piston and use some EBC YellowstuffR pads. This should increase my front brake force from 1804 pounds with the R4 pads and stock calipers to 1973 pounds with EBC pads which will hopefully be a bit more street friendly while at the same time work well for autocross. If I want more braking or if the fronts tend to lock up significantly faster than the rears I can upgrade the rear pads down the road.

Best part was, this was all bolt in parts, no modifications or geometry adjustments needed after the upgrade.

Here's the stock D154 caliper with a 2.5" piston





And here's the new Afco Large Metric caliper with a 2.75" piston



They aren't sexy looking, but were bolt ins that didn't require any other modifications and provide a significant increase in braking force.

[carguykeith]

How's the pedal feel with those, did you keep the same master?

[SSLance]

I was pretty surprised with how the pedal felt. I didn't have a pedal pusher to help bleed them after the install so I did the best I could bleeding them with my Mighty Vac and the pedal feels stout right off the bat. I didn't start it up or drive it as the roads are a mess here right now, but I can tell the pedal is nice and firm, maybe even a little less travel in it than before.

I'm still running the stock MCSS master cylinder, pedal, booster and prop valve.

[SSLance]

I dealt with a power steering fluid leak most of last year, it appears that I overheated the fluid during a track day early in the year and cooked an O-ring or two in the process. So I removed the PS pump and warrantied it out for a new one...and last night reinstalled the new one with new O-rings on the high pressure line. I also plumbed in a Power Steering fluid cooler at the same time. A friend found the cooler for me, I believe it came off of a mid 80s GM truck. I didn't get to take too many pictures during the install as I was in a hurry to get it done so I could get a road test in of the new brakes and wheels and tires (more on that in a minute) while the weather is nice. Here is the cooler hanging from the bolt that holds the center brace of the core support in front of the AC condenser.



This is taken with the radiator and condenser laid back towards the engine and shows the PS cooler mounted.



The cool thing was there was room where the AC lines come out of the air box to run the PS lines so I didn't have to cut any holes in the air box. Now the cooler is right in the middle of the air box and with the electric fans on they'll draw maximum amount of air right over the cooler all of the time which should help it do it's job real well.

All I have left to do is flush the old fluid left in the steering box out and fill with new fluid and that job is complete.

Then I can road test my tires and brakes...

Last years track tires vs this years...

Old track tire on the right, new track (and everyday) tire on the left



Overall dimensions are just about exactly the same, the Falken has a half inch extra tread width though (hope they fit).









I'm betting...that these street tires give me just about as much grip and stability as the used Hoosiers did last season. Plus, they look a TON better and I can drive them to and from the racetrack.

[instro84]

those new wheels look pretty good.

[Mizzouri]

Well, it looks like we'll both be on the same tire and size as I am unwilling to take the TA to an 11" wheel since it takes away from my project more than I care. After all the changes you have made you are going to be serious competition. I am looking forward to this season!!!

Guess I better start staying at a Holiday Inn before each event. ;)

[SSLance]

Can't wait!!!

[Ron Sutton]

Well, it looks like we'll both be on the same tire and size as I am unwilling to take the TA to an 11" wheel since it takes away from my project more than I care. After all the changes you have made you are going to be serious competition. I am looking forward to this season!!!

Guess I better start staying at a Holiday Inn before each event. ;)

.

[Ron Sutton]

Car looks great Lance !

[SSLance]

So I flushed the brake fluid today and bled the brakes again, this time with a pedal pusher. It all went well, so I took it for another little test drive. I had my dogs with me so I couldn't get too aggressive, but they seem to be good now.

It seems like the pedal has to travel further before the pressure starts to take up, but once it does...man they start to whoa the car down quick. I guess that is the larger pistons taking a little more fluid volume to get them moving?

Had a little bit of a Power Steering fluid seep on first test drive, snugged a fitting up and I hope I've stopped it now, so good so far.

Can't get over how well this car drives now. Tires can make a huge difference if the feel of a car on the road.

[SSLance]

So we now have 3 autocross events under our belt this season plus a test n tune session. That equals right at 30 runs so far on the new setup. Everything has gone pretty well with all of the off season upgrades. The power steering cooler seems to have worked as there are no growling noises coming from under the hood even after back to back runs. The body seems to be still sitting squarely on the chassis and overall everything feels a bit stiffer and more predictable on course. The brakes feel fantastic...just love how they just grip better and better the hotter they get. They don't dust up that much anymore once they were broke in which is just an added bonus. And the tires...I can't say enough about the tires. I believe even given apples to apples the car would be faster on these Falkens than it was on the Hoosier A6s. The car is just so much easier and more predictable to drive on them, not to mention being able to drive to the course, drop the air pressure a bit...then drive home. No more trailering... Love Love Love the tires....

Now for the bad...I noticed Saturday as I was backing the car out of the garage to get it ready...a puddle of rear end gear oil coming off of the right rear tire once again. I had put a seal in the axle housing end and it kept everything dry for a bit over a month and 25 autocross runs...but the leak is back. This also had an effect on my runs yesterday as I'm certain the brake pads on that wheel are oil soaked as well which would render them useless.

I also notice a bit of a shudder under a load on trips home from the track. It's like something in the rear end doesn't play nice when it's been subjected to the severe duty for a while. If I had to guess, it's an axle bearing getting hot.

I've also drove through the clutch a couple of times yesterday, slipping after shifting into second gear after the starts. It doesn't slip anymore on the track and hasn't shown any signs of slipping on the road, but it was the original clutch that came with the T56 supposedly out of a 1999 LT1 camaro with 59,000 miles on it...so a disc replacement may be in my future.

My next project is to pull the axles and do a crucial exam of everything rear end related and see if I need to replace any parts and try like hell to figure out a way to seal that rear axle up once and for all.

Here are some pictures from yesterday's event. Had a ball out there...














And here are the videos of the 5 runs from yesterday.

[howehot]

Looks great. With your modes I would like to know if the Hoosiers would improve the handling. Car looks good in the corner shots. See you in Daytona.

[SSLance]

Thanks Dan... The common theory used to be that adding R-comp tires would shave 2-3 seconds off of your time but with today's Rivals and Falkens the difference isn't nearly that much anymore.

In my case, I believe my car is as fast with the Falkens as it was with the Hoosiers I ran on last year if not faster...plus it's better to drive.

Part of that is the sidewall difference as I was on 275/60/16 Hoosiers and I'm on 275/40/17 Falkens now but in reality, the new 200 tw street tires are just REAL grippy and more predictable.

We've got our plane tickets bought so we'll see you down there for sure.

[SSLance]

So I refreshened the whole 9", new bearings and seals throughout and once I was certain the leaks were stopped I replaced the rear brake pads with EBC Yellowstuffs. Yesterday was my first autocross since the changes.

So, how much does an aluminum rim flex when pushed real hard with sticky tires on it?

About this far...



Thought I had enough room so I left the 1/8" spacers out when I put it all back together this last time, apparently I was wrong.

No major damage though, I was checking it after each run and it wasn't until the 4th run that it burned through the shine seal on the rim...that stuff is TOUGH.

Here's the video, not for the squeamish if you don't like the sound of metal on metal...

http://youtu.be/ZMqR7Cl6XRE

Here are the raw time results for the day.

http://www.kcrscca.org/results/solo/...event4_raw.htm

and here are the results by class

http://www.kcrscca.org/results/solo/...event4_fin.htm

Pretty typical finish for me as of late. Had I not hit those 2 cones I would have finished 29th I think, right in between two BMW M3s. I was working on a few things as a driver and really helped the car handle better but at the cost of taking out a few innocent cones along the way.

[silvermonte]

How much space is there between the rim and the bracket? It looks to be about an inch. Pretty crazy tho, I wouldnt of thought it would flex that much.

[SSLance]

My index finger fits between the passenger side bracket and the rim and it never rubbed, but only my pinkie finger fit on the driver side. Just a little more grinding on it should clear the way. It's flexing 3/8s" maybe...