Craig's GT6 MK3 in Aus.

[GT6MK3]

Interesting week. Full on at work, full on here at the forum.

 

Did some work with my new 0.1 gram digital scale. The 6 lovely new forged and machined pistons and pins all came in well and truly within spec. I was promised within +/- .5 of a team, but they're all within less than half that, with a total spread of .4 of a gram. Nice.

 

 

 

 

The rods are a little less pleasing. The should be within +/- 1 gram, but one is 1.9 grams lighter than the median (and one is +1). It's not sheep stations, but it is outside the spec I paid (quite a bit) for.

 

Over

 

Under

 

At this point, I'm still trying to get Kai from WBC to understand that this should be his problem, and that sending me instructions on how to fix it at my expense isn't really the right solution. He's a good guy, I'm sure he'll come through.

 

Go home tonight to find a present beside the door, and rushed inside to open it...

 

Steve Smith (GT6Steve) recently advertised a Quaife LSD, which is something I've lusted after, and even tried to buy before, but the gods have never smiled on my attempts. Shipping from the 'States to Oz nearly killed the idea of buying it, but Steve (awesome that guy he is), did me a "hot-rodders brotherhood deal", so I could afford it. Steve's pay it forward attitude is awesome, I'm sure he could have got more for it, but he's the kind of guy who's pleasure comes from seeing others achieve their goals. (I'm grateful I'm not racing against him though...)

 

5 days ago, this was baking in the Vegas heat:

 

 

 

A big, big, "Thank You" to Steve.

 

C.

[GHR630]

Those Quaifes work a treat too. Docile on the road but put the traction down pulling out of the turn on the track. Love it!!!

[GT6MK3]

Wet cold and miserable here in Melbourne this mid winter weekend (big surprise). I tried to to some work on Saturday, but to be honest I just faffed about and did nothing effectual in the end.

 

I'd like to claim I did a lot of thinking, but mostly I thought how cold my fingers were...

 

Went to the footy last night, and my team got, well, whats 5 levels worse than utterly rooted? Came home, opened a bottle of red and watched the entire replay on TV to complete the torture, so had a slow start this morning lunchtime.

 

Enjoyed my time in the garage this afternoon, despite the cold. After owning it for a few years, I finally plumbed in my retractable air hose holder, really nice not to have to fight with the leaky auto snag blue hose I've used till now.

 

Picked up the battery box replacement plate from the anodisers on Friday, looks good on the test fit.

 

 

That meant 20 something holes had to be tapped to m3 though. Doesn't sound like much tll you have to do it, but doing it neatly means about 4 minutes each, and chewed up over and hour.

 

 

I reckon theres about 2-4 more hours to make it fit perfectly. Good old OCD.

 

Spent an hour on Friday at the engine shop, working through where we are going, what they are and aren't going to do.

 

Wayne ( the boss there) had a look at the triumph thrust bearing options, and suggested switching them out for some similar bur better toyota offerings, so I'll be off to their sibling shop thats doing the block line boring and honing tomorrow to see if its possible.

 

C.

[GT6MK3]

I had a C.D.O. today, and fortuitously, Alan was in his factory running up a measuring machine, which left his mill unused.

 

I've had a project I've wanted to build for a while, for both the GT6 and my daily driver.

 

Nerd that I am, my iPhone is fairly indispensable (don't judge me, I admit I'm a nerd!). My customers expect it to be answered pretty much 24/7, whether it be a phone call, SMS, or email they reach out with, and it's become a "don't leave home without it" essential. Being self employed, my office is at home, but I spend lots of time on the road, and most of that time is spent on the phone.

 

Here in the nanny state, using a hand held phone while driving has always been a high end traffic offence, but the newish state government recently ramped that up.

 

My car and Julz's both have built in bluetooth hands frees, for my van and the GT6 I've got a portable bluetooth. That was fine till recently, but under the new rules, even to use a handsfree, the phone must be in a purpose built holder. For years, if a rozzer ranged up along side me and pointed disapprovingly at my phone in my hand or laying in my lap, it was ok to simply point at the hands free. Now, touching an unmounted phone is worth enough points to be a 1/4 of my licence gone. Welcome to the nanny state...

 

I'm a practical nerd, I work in the real world, which means crawling under desks, over, round and under machinery, and working in jeans. My phone has to survive the hurly burly if work, and be able to be shoved into, and also hooked out of jeans pockets. I've tried all sorts of cases, from the silicon ones, the leather ones, to no case at all. I tried no case at all for exactly one day, and dropped a iphone3 face down on the road. $475 to replace the screen...

 

A couple of years ago, when I got my 3s, I found a case by Extreme thats basically a clear acrylic clamshell, with a shoulder around the screen (by the way, stick on screen protecters are a waste of time, I've never used one, and my car keys go in the same pocket as my phone), and was rapt when I found the same one for my 4. When I went to a 4S, I bought 4 more cases so I knew a had a couple of years worth. The one that's on it has done a few miles, but still does the job.

 

 

The thing about cases is that no-one makes a hands free holder to go in the car that works with a case. There are a plethora of adjustable, one size (fails dismally to) fits all offerings, but none last more than a week or two. I know, I've bought and broken lots.

 

So I've been trying for a while to dream up a better mousetrap. I've had a plan, but it's been stuck in my head, and I couldn't articulate or draw it in a way Alan (or any one else) could understand so I could get it cut/built.

 

Alan's bridgeport is computerised, and runs on Accurite, which is a conversational programming language. I love a chat, so it suits me to a T. Alan plunked me in front of it today, and told me to let me know when I was stuck, or ready to spin tools.

 

I can't draw or paint. I can't describe well. But I really like Accurite's interface. I swore a lot, had to walk away a few times, restarted more than once, but eventually had just 57 logical steps:

 

 

Alan's still not willing to see one of my fingers fly across the factory, so he checked my work at each stage before I hit the go button, but this one really is my own work.

 

I started with this

 

 

which made me these

 

 

Screw them together, and you get

 

 

Which my cased iPhone slides into with 1/2 a mm of clearance all round.

 

 

 

 

I'm hard pressed to explain the feeling that it gives my digital based brain to hold the physical example of what I'd imagined in my hands, just like I'd pictured it.

 

It's a prototype, and rough and unfinished, and I can now see the changes I need to make to the design to mill the perfect ones for the Monaro, GT6 and van, but, as a nerd who marshals one's and zeros for a living with normally only a logical return, the physical manifestation of an idea that formed while I was driving, gestated while I was measuring and programming, then grew into fruition in front of my eyes is incredibly satisfying.

 

C.

[pomwah]

Very nice Craig, I imagine it's akin to the feeling I used to get when the solution to a particularly stubborn problem would occur to me in the middle of the night, leaping out of bed, cutting the code, compiling and executing. To see it run properly, a great sense of achievement.

 

Cheers

James

[GT6Steve]

Jeez Craig, admit it, you are a nerd. But a HotRod Nerd! Billet phone case....Wow

 

I'm slowly coming around to a 4S except Siri pissed me off early in our courtship....

[GT6MK3]

Steve,

 

I've been waiting quite a while for a tag line for my online persona to come along. (Like your "That Vegas bloke" or JohnD's "Loves Monkeying with his car")

 

I do believe you've tagged me perfectly. Thanks, I'll wear that as a badge of honour.

 

Change made.

 

C.T.

 

HotRod Nerd!

 

Ta!

[Nick Jones]

HotRod Nerd...... that may stick Nice one Steve - now get back to sanding !

 

I'm a phone luddite..... Nokia 6310 - you can talk to people on it (I believe it does this text thingy as well) and only needs feeding once a week

 

Nick

[GT6Steve]

Hey, good news!

 

Coming back from the pub just now I was talking about a Billy Joel seduction song but couldn't remember the babe, Just now out of the blue Pat said Christie Brinkley! Took me a minute to make the connection but I'm so freakin" proud she did!

 

And just to make it Forum pertinent, my arms and shoulders hurt just now from all the labour. I think I hurt myself pushing the racer into the trailer Wednesday to gain workspace....

Edited July 6, 2012 by GT6Steve

[GT6Steve]

Newcomers will be wondering WTF with that crazy assed out of the blue post in the wrong topic. Old friends will understand and ignore the off topicness of that celebration.

 

 

Oh, Sanding Sux!

[Millstone10]

Hi Craig

 

Have you seen this cable mounting option for an iphone dock? think that will fit . just a little more programming.....

 

http://www.holdmypho...pple-Cable.html

 

Nigel

 

p.s. Saw that reference to the Bulgarian relay boards. Interesting what you could get over there... I used to drive past a factory that made the uniforms for the London Met Police.

[GT6MK3]

Newcomers will be wondering WTF with that crazy assed out of the blue post in the wrong topic.

 

They may, but I feel warm and fuzzie. May the pixie dust keep falling accurately.

 

C.

[GT6MK3]

Been way too cold and wet to play in the garage this week, so I've been working. Got a call from a small business needing love and care for their admin/manufacturing network. Still in the infancy of the relationship, but I think that being the part time sys admin of http://www.powerflowperformance.com.au might just be nicely mutually beneficial :-)))

 

Of course, my (fairly ridiculous) job has way too much sit and wait time. This, (seemingly inevitably), leads to me pushing back the day I finally get the car out of the garage again deciding to improve the design spec.

 

With Steve having done me a "HotRod Nerd" deal to get me his surplus Quaife, the plan to build a Subaru Diff based rear end has gone out the window. Nick Jones has a great sales plan for his CV based conversion sage advice about the dangers of dumping large doses of HP or torque through the spindely shafts of a swing spring system. Actually, Nick tried to convince me to head out and engineer something using locally available parts, but I suspect he seriously over-estimated my abilities in that suggestion. So hopefully, before too long, what I can't find here in Aus for a J/B conversion will be winging it's way from his workshop to mine.

 

It seems a waste to ship lumpy iron bits around the world, so I set to with the phone this week, and started chasing as many bits here as I could. Ahem. Nill nada none, seemed to br the answer. GT6 bits are like hens teeth in Australia. Then this arvo I dropped out to one of the pommy metal specialists an hour and a bit out of town. I'd phoned first, and been told "GT6 bits? There's none here... but there's some in the factory, come by, we'll have a look" I got there 1/2 an hour before closing, the boss was at the post office. I figured I'd hang around till he got back, and I'm glad I did. It' was after 5 when he got back, and and he explained that he had to take his elderly Mum to a Doctors appointment. Than he asked why I wanted GT6 bits, so I gave him the 1 minute potted version.

 

"Jump in your car, follow me."

 

So I tucked onto his tail, and stuck there as he fairly raced through peak hour traffic, across the highway (narrowly avoiding being hit by a cop car), till he pulled up outside an innocuous looking door to a warehouse/factory building at the back of an industrial estate. He undid the padlock, cracked the door, and said "Light's are on the left, washroom's at the back, there's some rags on the stairs you can use to wrap stuff up. Drive shaft stuff is straight ahead. I've got to get Mum to the Doctor's, lock up when you're finished, bring what you want today back to the house next door to the office when you're finished and we'll settle up." Then he drove off.

 

I wandered in, sniffed the wonderful musty smell of musty, slightly rusty, old british iron, turned on the lights, grinned, and began fossicking. I didn't find everything I needed, but what a treasure trove.

 

8 sets of unobtanium

 

 

Want a bonnet? (various states of disrepair)

 

 

Don't like those? Turn right...

 

 

No wonder I couldn't find any of these in Aus last time I went looking, they've all been hiding behind that door!

 

 

It's not all in great nick, but there's a hellovalot there. Triumph Bits, MG bits, Sunbeams, Alpines, Sprites, all sorts. There was a box I could sit in, full of SU6 bowls.

 

I found two pretty good (to my eye) sets Roto Uprights, Brake plate/drums, wishbones, hubs and axels. The radius arms were all missing, and had mostly been cut off as stubs, so I'll still have to find those (Hello Steve?), and I couldn't locate a roto rear spring (try as I might, although I'm told there should be one there somewhere...). I did find an anti roll bar that might be the right one, I'll have to measure and see.

 

When I was done, I washed up, turned off the lights, shook my head, then locked the door.

 

Then I headed up to the owners house. He had a squizz at what I'd found, we had a chat about how lovely GT6's are, and we settled up, at what I must say way a very fair price for unobtanium. I've paid more just for the shipping on parts coming from OS. Lovely bloke! The classic car brotherhood is a nice place.

 

I'm still short a spring, a spring plate, quite a few brackets, and need to check the roll bar. But I'm a lot closer than I was, and can start to get my uprights milled to Nick's specs, and begin looking forward to him shooting me some CV bits.

 

It's a damn good start!

 

Meanwhile, tomorrow, my mate Rob and I are going to put my new builds block and hopefully head through an inspection that I suspect has never been done to one before.

 

Should be fun!

 

C

[James]

Radius arms like to weld themselves together.

 

You can easily make up some using some rod ends — you may want to make up at least one end with a normal bush though.

[GT6MK3]

Actually, that gives me an idea - I have a surfeit of AE86 rods that look similar at first blush. Anyone able to measure the extended, closed, and end tube outer and inner circumference of roto GT6 radius arms? Maybe I can do a swap.

 

C,

[Nick Jones]

That guy's name Aladdin? Good find.......!! (Jammy git )

 

I also suspect that ever the tattiest Oz parts will be less knackered that what passes for used roto parts here now!

 

Nick

[GT6 Nick]

I think I've seen that white and red Spitfire bonnet on eBay. Is Aladdin a regular eBay seller?

[jimes]

wow a trip to vanguard wholesalers stash! I'd always wanted to see it. What a fun adventure that would've been!

[GT6 Nick]

That's who it is? I've bought a few things from them in the past. They don't advertise much GT6 stuff but it's good to know they have it. Now let's see. I'm going to Melbourne in a couple of weeks, I have a 32kg baggage limit... hmmmm...

[GT6MK3]

It's certainly a fun place to rummage through!

 

Long and interesting day today. My mate Rob sells high end CAD/CAM equipment, and he has an $80K+ articulated measuring arm on the bench "for calibration" that's about to go out to a University.

 

 

 

This morning, we lumped my 6 pot block onto the table, and he whizzed me through the 2 day metrology course to use it (in 2 hours), then left me (with my head slightly spinning) to measure it.

 

I've spent most of the day hunched (quite literally - no wonder my back hurts) over the block, gathering planes, points, circles, lines and curves.

 

 

Powerinspect marshalled them them all nicely (I even seemed to understand it.). It's a really fascinating bit of software, and allowed me to keep moving the block then roll back to a set datum, and keep measuring. Clever stuff. Dear as poison, hard to get my head around, but really really clever.

 

 

Since I was surprisingly competent at at running the measuring arm (not sure if I should be happy that I was, or annoyed at Rob's surprise!), Rob was able to leave me at it, and he got started on turning the measurements into something more recognisable. I think I've said before that he's one of the best CAD/CAM programmers I've met, and I've met plenty. He's also a qualified toolmaker, so get gets "real world". He's one of those incredibly competent guys I seem to be surrounded by.

 

There's many many hours of work to go, and I've got a crash course in CAD coming up to match the measuring one I had today. Rob's going to rough it out for me, then make me do the donkey-work before he cleans it all up. But having friends with interesting jobs can lead to interesting possibilities.

 

My back is aching, and my brain is spinning. But the possibilities are intriguing...

 

Here's a sneak peek...

 

 

It's Saturday night, and I've worked harder today than I normally would in my day job. I'm off for a well deserved glass of red. Good friends are hard to find, but very rewarding.

 

C.

[pomwah]

Can I be your friend? I don' have anything against hard-won experience it's just that if someone else has already gained it why re-invent the wheel? As you can probably tell I'm a little jealous.

 

Oh serendipity why do you treat me so?

 

Well done!

 

Umm, will a well sorted GT6 rear suspension fit under a MkII?

[GT6Steve]

Do we see alloy blocks on the horizon? What a fantasy that would be...

[AJ.Lintern]

Well probably won't be long before we can get DMLS al alloy engine blocks produced from the CAD model Won't be cheap though...!

[GT6MK3]

Alloy? Pah! Rob's latest DMLS delivery prints in titanium.

 

Not sure the budget would stretch that far...

 

Block and head went back to the machine shop today.

 

Hopefully, the block will be jigged off the newly honed crank centres tomorrow, and the initial decking for straightness, and then the boring of the cylinders will get underway.

 

We ultrasoniced the bores before I left, all seem to have plenty of meat available.

[DaveNotSoSideways]

DMLS is good technology, good science. If the other 80% of our output went into something worthwhile like that, inplace of producing rubber dog shit for profit making we could be living in a much more high-tech, rapidly developing situation of constantly awe-inspiring developments! God we move so slow, what with all the wasted human effort dragging us back like a cancer!