Friday, September 19, 2014

Better lighting and an iPhone 6+ = better photos

Got myself an iPhone 6+ today which has optical image stabilisation for much better low light photos; the result with the one very average light I've previously demonstrated here, captured with the 6+ is as follows:


I've also spent some cash at my local bunnings, finally sorting out some Fluro light battens; three more double fixtures so now I have four evenly spaced. The difference is like night and day:



It looks like the result will be much nicer images for the blog. Here are a few detail close ups:




Also a shot showing the reflection from the lights:


One showing a bit more low light flexibility (in shadow in the cabin):


Also I've put new bolts and locktite in the right hand CV joint at the hub end, so the car is moveable again. While I had the vehicle jacked up to make access easier I clearanced the front left wheel arch through the extent of the steering lock - hopefully this will stop the scrubbing:


A bit more massaging with hammers and wheel removed, some rage gold and hi fill primer/paint will mask my butchery. It needs to be test driven first :)



Sunday, September 14, 2014

Halfshaft Woes. User error.

Driving the E21 today and heard a pop then felt the car misbehaving as if the halfshaft had failed.

Luckily I was only a short distance from home. Jacked it up and this is what I see:


Two bolts missing (one of which has left part of itself behind), and of the four remaining, one has snapped and also left remnants in the back of the hub assembly, and two have hammered threads.


My fault for forgetting locktite. Rookie mistake. I filed flat where the outermost thread had pulled out/warped from a couple of the holes, then used my auto center punch to punch the two broken bolt pieces.


Because they broke due to sideways force rather than binding in the hole, I only needed to drill partially into them - once I noticed the drill was starting to turn them clockwise, I simply reversed the drill and put it on a slight angle to bind the bit in the hole; running the drill then wound the remnants out in seconds.


Here you can see two damaged bolts, one OK (thread wise, although it could be a tad bent, looking at it!) and one snapped bolt. One of the "u" clamp/washers was also missing but I've got spares from the last half-shaft.


Off to get more bolts (and locktite this time!)

I'll leave you with this very traction-less zero to one-hundred and something km/h: