Chuck Z

For those of us who know how loud the car is, I'm surprised the guy didn't hear you......

Sorry to hear about this Chris. I know even this won't keep you down long!

Take care.

Chris Lockhart

Thanks Chuck and Wrecktech.

I actually do have a good update though. After disassembling everything, the only bent parts I found were the lower bolt that I mentioned earlier, and the upper arm. I went over to Glenn's house and he scrounged up the new used parts for me. Went home and re-assembled everything with the new parts, and all appears to be well. From my best jury-rigged plumb bob measurements, the face of the hub appears to be nice and straight front to rear. I put my spare Cup 2 on there, and will give her a test drive in the morning. If it feels ok, I'll take her in to the alignment shop as soon as I can get an apointment, and make sure she's right on the money. I also called Jeannie to get a new wheel on order for me. Now I can take it by the body shop and get an estimate on the repairs. Hopefully by the end of the month, she'll be as good as new!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks again to everyone for their well wishes, offers of assistance, and offers of parts. It was deeply appreciated.

Barry Johnson

Glad to hear its coming back to life again, Chris!
How much are a set of those wheels by the way? They aren't on Specialists' anymore...

Mike LaBranche

Good news all around Chris. You've been looking for an excuse for GTS fenders... and bang! opportunity. Go for it. Meanwhile, don't sweat the pranged fender... nobody will notice going by them at triple digits. They'll be too busy talking about that wing. And that flag. And it was red. Blurry. lol
Hope this doesn't spoil your motor mount/pan gasket trip... he _did_ say there'd be beer.

Chris Lockhart

Barry, I'll be honest with you, I have no idea. I *think* that they were originally $1600.00 when I first purchased them. Since then I've had to replace 2 due to a pothole and a curb, and now I'm looking at replacing number 3. I think that lone original is feeling lonely by now. LOL. This summer with any luck, I plan to replace them with a set of Kinesis wheels, so I can run some wider rubber.

Chris Lockhart

At this point Mike, I still plan on being there for the motor mount/pan gathering.

And you're right, at my normal speed, nobody will even get a chance to see the fender bashed in. Just a damn fast flag going by. LOL.

slate blue

Your beater will find out just how hard that Porsche steel is. Might charge you extra for blistered hands. If I was you I would jet was in there before they get it. They are likely to paint over dirt if you don't. Trust me on this, most tradies are pretty slack, I have seen it many times before. If they don't paint over dirt they will spray GM black in there so beware.

Chris Lockhart

Well, after test driving it today, the left rear toe is still way out. On throttle she was squirelly as hell. Kept trying to turn right, then left, kind of like she was fishtailing. I put her back up on jackstands, and took some more measurements with the wheels on. Measured center of left tire to center of right tire at both the back of the tires and at the front. Difference from front to rear was .5" , so I adjusted the eccentric for the toe all the way to it's stop, and it's still .25" out. I still don't see anything else obviously bent. The lower control arm *looks* to be good based on the fitment of the shock and hub assembly, but I guess it could be out just enough to throw me off. We'll see after more investigation. I guess the next step is to remove the lower control arm and check it against a known good arm. What say you Oh Great Rennlist Wizards???????

Jim bailey - 928 International

The lower control arm is what gets bent most often ...like when someone goes curb dancing and smacks the rear wheel against a curb with massive oversteer.

Chris Lockhart

That's pretty much what I figured Jim. I guess I'll have to hit Glenn up for more parts. LOL. Thanks for the input Jim.

Mike LaBranche

Chris... I'd go whack it real hard on the right side. 'Straighten' the geometry out a bit. lol

Chris Lockhart

Don't laugh Mike, I actually thought about using a come-a-long on it, to straighten it out. LOL. I got the lower control arm off this morning, and it does appear to be tweaked as best I can eyeball it. Hopefully swapping this out and getting an alignment will correct all mechanical damage, and then I can turn it over to the body shop. I at least would like to be driving it by the weekend.

FlyingDog

Make sure you charge the insurance company for all of Glenn's parts.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Mr Lockhart IS THE INSURANCE company ..... his insurance company would no longer write full coverage on such an "old " car ....he had liability only to cover the other car/property.

Chris Lockhart

Put the new control arm in and then got sidetracked with the dent, so I didn't get it all adjusted. Will do that tomorrow.

I got the dent pushed out quite a bit using someone's idea earlier in the thread, about using an inner tube, and slowly inflating it. Didn't quite use an inner tube though. I'm from the school of "make do with what you have". So, in that context, a 2 liter Pepsi bottle seemed like it would fit nicely into the crevise behind the crumpled quarter panel. I squished all the air out, and squeezed it into place, drilled a small air hole in the cap, and pressurized it with my blower nozzle. VIOLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The expanding bottle smoothly bent the quarter panel out. It still looks like sh*t, but a much less offending level of sh*t. LOL. And no damage from an eager but untrained tin bender wielding a hammer and good intentions.

She should be driveable tomorrow, and will get a full alignment on Monday. Then off to the body shop so I can have another heart attack, when I hear what the estimate is. Thanks again for everyones help and support, especially Glenn, who endured many frantic phonecalls for advise and parts.