Suspension Setup - Feeling Dumb

Today's goal was to set up at least the rear suspension. Before taking the wheels out I checked the camber and it was -0,8 and -1,3 on the driver's and passenger's sides, respectively. Used a nifty app on my Android to measure it against the wheel. After jacking up the car and taking the wheels out, the camber was different (and positive) since the suspension did the full drop. I made the calculations and (I hope that I managed to) set up the correct amount on the passenger's side to have -0,8º each side.

Then did lots of measurements to try to calculate the toe-in. Currently the rear has massive toe-in and the driver's side more than the passenger's side. But I couldn't make it with just the pen, paper and phone calculator that doesn't even do square roots. After much cursing and thinking, ended up storing the wheels away and left the car on axle stands on the rear, calling it a day. At home with a protractor and some scale drawings I'll manage it.

In between I recalled an old email from Steve from Aries where he advised me to have the washers on the base of the rear uprights all on one side (the front one, if I'm not mistaken). At the time I didn't pay much attention and placed them where it made easier to assemble the thing. Now I realize that it impacts castor and I'll eventually correct it when I get around to disassemble the uprights to fix the toe. That means I'll have to redo camber and after that re-check that toe is still correct. Sometimes cutting corners ends up giving a lot more work. And today I'm feeling pretty dumb with the math.

Tunnel Done!

Started another session with nail varnish on hand. Used it to mark the prop-shaft bolts so that later I can check if they are coming loose. I wonder if, when the prop is full of road grime, I'll be able to see the orange varnish I used... Hope so! It was fun that, after releasing the hand-brake and putting the car in neutral, I could push it back and forth (to rotate prop and reach all bolts) with just one arm, while kneeling next to the car.

Then, finished the work on the big panel of the driver's side tunnel. Last time I left it with the last rivnuts already in and just needed the dremmel to enlarge a couple of the holes to get the bolts in. Did so and also tightened the gear lever pivot again.

Then I released the throttle peddle, that is actually what holds the complete bulkhead to the chassis. Pushed it all together to the side so that I could fit the small panel and drill to fix it. Turns out that the panel needed an extra part cut out if it was to go in without taking the other panels out. Used the dremmel with a cutting disk to start the cut, then bended until snapped the part and used a big metal file to make it all clear. Held the part in place with a clamp, drilled, removed it, enlarge holes, fit rivnuts and the job was done. This is the end of the tunnel! (at least until I get around to make a vinyl cover for it.

It's odd, but I look at it and it looks bad, on the pictures it is actually OK. I'm probably comparing what mine looks with what I see of other in pics, so maybe it's not that bad... But I can't wait to get it all covered anyway.

Last bit was spent making a first attempt to measure the current toe-in of the rear wheels. It was enough to test what I have and may still need to perform a proper setup (material-wise). It also made me think that I need to get my trigonometry straight before I go work on it again.