The Webmaster Zone

Did a lot of spring maintenance on the car last weekend, changed the oil and filter, topped up the coolant, replaced the plug wires, replaced the fan belt, fixed a ground problem with one of the turn lights, replaced the brake light switch to fix the brake lights, greased the suspension, propshaft and handbrake cable, replaced the valve cover studs and replaced a bumper overrider which my roommate backed into. The previous week my ignition warning light had been coming on higher in the rpms, but it would turn off when I revved the engine. I was hoping the fan belt was just slipping, but shortly the light came on and stayed on - another dead generator. Replaced that in the Octagon Motors parking lot, it was only just over a year old. When I put the new gen in and started the car a horrible squealing noise erupted from the engine bay. As it turns out the fan on my old genny had little notches cut out of the blades to clear the adjuster bolt at the bottom of the generator yoke, which the new blades didn't have. A quick swap solved that. I also had Octagon install my new roll bar and new 3-point static seat belts, I wanted to make sure it was done right the first time. I feel very secure in the car now, althought I still need to get some foam for the rollbar behind my head so I dont crush my skull if my head was ever whipped back. In other news, I just got the estimate done for Phase II of the bodywork, replacing the fenders, door skins, sandblasting the entire car, finishing work, and a nice eurethane paint job. Saving now, that will be coming in July/August. Lots of new pictures to develop & scan, I'll get those up in May sometime. The current paint scheme is really... interesting. Still trying to sort out my rear wheel rubbing problem, I came up with the following (see picture). The bad news is it looks like the 6" rims I've got now are no good, I need something with somewhere around a 1-1.25" (25-30mm) positive offset (moving the tire into the wheel well more). Too bad, because I really like the look of these rims, maybe even more than real minilites. On the plus side I'm sure I can sell them for what I paid for them. The "deep dish" look is awfully nice, though. Update: I just called Moss Motors, the minilite replica they sell (14x5.5 PN 455-386) has 23 mm positive offset. Main Street Motorsport reports that their minilites (the real ones, not replicas) are available in offset ranges from 15-30mm (backset 105-120mm) and they have a very nice but spendy 14x6 alloy rim. I'll add more results as my research continues, and probably build a new comparison page.