Project Car / Motorbike thread. Let's see 'em.

On a lighter note. The factory lights on the kubota are ok for getting home in the dark as long as the loader isn't fitted, then the loader blocks most of the light. If you want to finish the last bit of mowing in the dark then the lights are useless and don't show anything near the deck. Thus some work lights were needed. #1 ditched these little leds that were rock lights on his 4wd for bigger ones so an hour or so with some cable and DT connectors and we have a result. The leds had a 6mm hole that was quite close to one edge so drilling it out to fit the M8 bolts that connect the canopy to the frame was not possible, but I have a mill and end mills. Done. The canopy bolts are fitted upside down, presumably to stop the exposed bolt catching on stuff, anyway these can go the other way and make a perfect mount for the little lights. Then some deutsch connectors which have to be the easiest things in the world provided you have the right crimping tool and voila!





Brackets are just tight enough not to vibrate loose but slack enough to be able to move them around to change the spread of light.
 
Seems to make sense.


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https://www.reddit.com/r/CarsAustralia/comments/1ias5rp
 
Cardy George said:
@Haakon I still stand by my don't throw stones statement, but your initial assessment was correct.

Guy was clearly a dick. I've done some questionable shit in a car, but never with anybody else in it, let alone a 4yo, and never if there's was a significant chance of other traffic.
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They were a punchy car with a slightly modded motor, the LSA must be insane in it. Something you need to drive with a lot of respect or it will show who the boss is. People become too complacent and then all of a sudden everything comes undone in a few seconds.
 
Flow-Rider said:
They were a punchy car with a slightly modded motor, the LSA must be insane in it. Something you need to drive with a lot of respect or it will show who the boss is. People become too complacent and then all of a sudden everything comes undone in a few seconds.
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I can’t see how you’d ever be able to use that much power in what’s a pretty light car. Maybe on a track with a very very skilled driver, but in real world roads you’re a misjudged tap of the throttle away from it all going south.

An LSA (which was no doubt very tuned) in a VK is just an ego trip.
 
Haakon said:
I can’t see how you’d ever be able to use that much power in what’s a pretty light car. Maybe on a track with a very very skilled driver, but in real world roads you’re a misjudged tap of the throttle away from it all going south.

An LSA (which was no doubt very tuned) in a VK is just an ego trip.
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Thought you said you'd been to Summernats?
 
Cardy George said:
Thought you said you'd been to Summernats?
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Ha. No, was tempted once but didn’t think it was worth the rather exxy tickets. Got to hear an awful lot of it though!

A mate at work lives within a couple of kms of the venue and often have to keep the house closed up to keep the smell out!
 
Dales Cannon said:
Agree with you @Cardy George but that unibody when new would flex so much when jacked up from one side you couldn't open the doors. Then it has an lsa fitted. 430kW stock and for under $2k mine made half a MW. Mate spent $10k and his was 600kW. At the wheels. Stupid choice, ls3 good, lsa crazy.
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+1 on the flexiness of commodes, I had a VH as my first car. It was used to tow the family's boat quite a lot. When the boat was on the towbar and you opened the boot it wouldn't close again. The boat was a 5.4m fibreglass runabouty thing with a stern drive and only a single axle trailer which probably should have been on doubles but it had been registered that way and didn't even have brakes until we fitted them. Ball weight was a foreign concept in the 80s so I have no idea what it was. Useless bonus trivia, the first car I ever drove over 200kmh was my my cousin's VK SS quiet country road no other vehicles around, that was fast enough for me and I haven't done it many more times since then.
 
I used to drive a HZ Holden Kingswood until about 13 years ago when the TUV did some crash tests using various vehicle combos. I watched a video that showed the safest car from 1980 (some sort of Volvo sedan) having a head on with the new Mini which although being half the size of the Volvo basically went in one end and out the other. A week later I went and bought myself a new car and parked the old Kingswood. Old cars are bloody deathtraps. The only thing I miss is the sound... (and the simplicity, ease of repair, real bumper bars, blah, blah, blah
:cool:)
 
I put the really old Renaults out of daily use once I saw this...

A lot of Renaults used this platform's layout which has bad basic design flaw - the longitudal front drive layout like an Audi with the engine out in front of the axle has a crossmember with the steering rack mounted on that across the top of the diff/transmission right behind the engine block. And given the lengthways engine mounting there is stuff all between the front of the engine block and whatever it hits.

So long story short the crumple zones dont really exist as far as the steering column is concerned - the engine starts moving back very early in the crash event, and as the engine doesnt compress the steerign rack is getting moved back very early on too. End result is the dash coming in badly and the steering wheel taking your head off.

A good example of the big improvements airbags brought to car design - the need to keep the steering wheel in position so the airbag is actually in the right position to be useful in itself brought big changes.
 
The early model commodores were built light to meet the new fuel efficiency regulations for the 80s.

There wasn't much to them in a crash, but engineering in cars has come a long way since then with airbags and crumple zones in cars.



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Flow-Rider said:
The early model commodores were built light to meet the new fuel efficiency regulations for the 80s.

There wasn't much to them in a crash, but engineering in cars has come a long way since then with airbags and crumple zones in cars.


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Oh Fark glad I only had that for a few years ...
Best not start looking for crash videos of old Kombis, my other old favourite drive :rolleyes:
 
Flow-Rider said:
A friend of mine had a VL 6 cyl when they were fairly new and a truck pulled out on him from a side road while he was doing 100km/h, the VLs motor came through the firewall and pinned his mate to the seat and broke his arm in about 5 places.
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Thats pretty bad that a car sold in the 80s still wasnt ensuring the engine goes down and under the floor... Even the Renos with the dodgy steering column behavior would still put the engine underneath. My first car was a P6 Rover from the 60s and they would also ensure the engine wasnt on your lap if it got that bad.

Up until the VR, Commodores were all embarrassingly bad for safety. The VT was way better, but still behind the ball a bit compared to the european stuff. The VE was when they got good and they were as good as anything else.
 
A mate is into big soggy yank tanks and has a 76 (?) M1 Abrahms, or something. It is an ex west coast Canadian car and has been converted to rhd and renovated with a sunroom and deck. Well anything that big is a renovation rather than restoration. For a lot of years he has put up with a whistle from the driver's window where it meets the rear window. It is a weird design as there are no rails in the door for the glass to run in and adjusting the pitch and yaw of the window means adjusting the whole mechanism as it sits in the door. Something got loose a few weeks ago and the window slipped and was hitting bits it shouldn't. Anyway we stripped the trims and following the manual and free balling it managed to get it better but still there was a gap of 4mm at the top rear of the window. Doing a comparison of the near side it finally dawned on me that the windows were pillarless and the front window seals on a trim fixed to the rear window that just looks like a pillar. The fronts were pretty much the same position but the driver's side rear was too far inboard. Thus the gap we couldnt get rid of. We should have been adjusting the rear and not the front! Bugger. Wasted a few hours but actually an easy fix. And mate had put up with the noise for years! Off with the rear trim, adjust as per book and no more gap, no more whistle. Took 7 minutes.
 
I don't think it's the same car but it did a 9 second pass with the stock blower (12 Psi) on it and modifications to the heads and driveline.

They changed the blower to a harrop one and these were the results.

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