Car just completed...What things should go wrong in the first few trips?

[Richard Hudgins]

Folks,

There is one piece of equipment that is absolutely critical in any build. And it is a paint marker.

See Sharpie paint marker for an example.

As you build and do final assembly and a fastener is torqued to spec the last time mark it as such with the paint marker.

Then before you take the car out for the first time look at every nut and bolt.

If there is no paint on the bolt/nut/joining device then you need to fix it.

This method works for any connection even AN oil and fuel lines.

After all connections have a paint mark then you can drive the car for the first installation lap of your test area.


Now I know that a lot of you will think that you do not wish little spots of paint on all of your pretty grade 8 bolts and in particular not on your gleaming ARP bolts that you spent too much on.

Believe me, it is better to have the paint on the connection then it is to have the left front upper A-arm fall off. Or Lower for that matter.

Every A&P mechanic I know uses this method as self QC.

Also next time you are looking at an F1 car notice the little yellow marks on every connection. You will see these marks on the inside of the engines as well.

[ratsnst1]

this is one that most everyone misses, and its the embedding process of the brakes,all that going around the block going 15 miles an hour or more is fine but when you get to where you think you can really start driving it, scuff your roters and pads and do some hard stops at about 50 mph do 4 or 5 of them , basically get your brakes nice and hot that will let the material on the pads start transferring to the roters giving best possible braking. that is the bigest problem that willwood and bear brakes have with customers, saying there brakes are not working very good, then the rep askes did you do the embedding process, and almost every one says oops no I didnt, then the rep says well there you go then, and then almost never hears back from them.I know this cause it happened to me lol.

[AL427SBF]

Originally Posted by Richard Hudgins

Folks,

There is one piece of equipment that is absolutely critical in any build. And it is a paint marker.

See Sharpie paint marker for an example.

As you build and do final assembly and a fastener is torqued to spec the last time mark it as such with the paint marker...

Richard is right on as usual. In the aerospace biz we call that torque-striping. Anything that gets torqued gets a torque-stripe, and it is applied right across the mating surface boundary. We then shake, rattle and roll the hardware to simulate the ride up - early shuttle vids show those guys being bounced around like they're on a circus ride. We then inspect those fasteners afterwards and see if we have a broken torque-stripe (rotational slip). If we do then we know it wasn't torqued properly or the torque spec was too low. You can do the same thing after your 1st cobra indoctrination on pavement. Just because it didn't break on that 1st trip doesn't mean something hasn't loosened up.

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by Richard Hudgins

Folks,

There is one piece of equipment that is absolutely critical in any build. And it is a paint marker.

See Sharpie paint marker for an example.

As you build and do final assembly and a fastener is torqued to spec the last time mark it as such with the paint marker.

Then before you take the car out for the first time look at every nut and bolt.

If there is no paint on the bolt/nut/joining device then you need to fix it.

This method works for any connection even AN oil and fuel lines.

After all connections have a paint mark then you can drive the car for the first installation lap of your test area.


Now I know that a lot of you will think that you do not wish little spots of paint on all of your pretty grade 8 bolts and in particular not on your gleaming ARP bolts that you spent too much on.

Believe me, it is better to have the paint on the connection then it is to have the left front upper A-arm fall off. Or Lower for that matter.

Every A&P mechanic I know uses this method as self QC.

Also next time you are looking at an F1 car notice the little yellow marks on every connection. You will see these marks on the inside of the engines as well.

+100..........been doing this for years, I also use some of my daughters finger nail polish in contrasting color to mark stuff along with a Sharpie......that way I know it has been torqued/tightened down....when building something over time, it's easy to forget what you have tightened and need to tighten...one quick look and you know.....
Again +100...........

David