pdgessler

How 'bout them apples?

Couldn't have said it better myself, Roger -- to true wheels the right way you need not only spoke wrenches but also a truing stand (and they aren't cheap, especially for a DIY user who won't use it much). The bike shop I worked at charges around 10 USD labor for wheel truings (a bit more if they are a real disaster) -- If you try yourself and goof it up you'll be paying that labor charge plus any parts you messed up in the process. If you truly want to learn I suggest finding a local shop that's willing to show you the ropes or a friend who has experience with it -- truing wheels the right way takes a lot of practice!

My mistake, I read this way too quickly -- we did use vacuum bagging for this past year's car. But we had a meeting with a sponsor we are potentially bringing onboard for this year and he has vacuum infusion capabilities in his shop that he said we are welcome to use. This is exciting because we will be able to use a faster curing resin which is much stronger than what we used in the past. Our core was not Nomex, I believe it was some type of poly honeycomb but I can't remember exactly what it was. We had problems with our panel flexing from the heat of the engine. At the beginning of a run it would be virtually rigid and by the end the back corner of the panel would sag under the loading. Next year we are looking into different core materials to avoid this along with the vacuum infusion. I'm hoping to do a monocoque body with minimal honeycomb support where needed, but obviously this is a much more complex / risky design process than a simple panel would be, so the team needs to decide what we are capable of. Let me know how your projects go, I'll be interested to hear about them!

Christopher, I do have a bit of experience with this -- my school's SuperMileage Vehicle team fabricated our body and main chassis out of carbon fiber. We used vacuum infusion to make sure all the layers of carbon were fully laminated without voids. It also squeezes out quite a bit of excess epoxy, which significantly decreases the weight. The chassis we made was a sandwich of sorts -- two layers of carbon, a waxy plastic honeycomb in the center for rigidity, and two more layers of carbon. The whole panel supported everything in the car (engine, driver, axle and steering loads, etc.) and weighed about 8 pounds if I remember right. The body was just 2 layers of carbon but was significantly more difficult to make because of all the complex curves. I did have experience with this in the past though, from building a cedar-strip and fiberglass canoe. What are you looking at making? If you have any questions about techniques or sourcing for supplies let me know; I'd be happy to help. -Paul

This is right up my alley, I would really like to find a project car, problem is I can't find one that needs work but not too much. All I see online lately are overpriced so-called "garage queens" that potentially have many more problems than they're worth. I did find a rolling body in Texas that is quite interesting. The only question is finding a replacement engine or suitable swap engine, also the interior is in rough shape. I definitely wouldn't mind doing the work, but all these things to sort out potentially raise the cost quite a bit.

ahg, I am in the same boat as you -- mechanical engineering student. At this point I'm halfway through my undergrad studies. At some point I would really like to buy an Esprit if I can find the right one, but I have decided that I should wait till after I graduate to purchase. I don't currently have a car and can get along just fine without one for the next few years. Whatever you decide to do, I highly recommend that you hop on the forums from time to time. Everyone on here is really great and you can learn a lot about the car before actually having one of your own. Regarding the listing on cars.com -- I looked at this one a bit too since it is about 1.5 hrs away from me. It may be nothing, but the low mileage and non-standard wing may be points of concern. I emailed the seller some time ago but did not hear anything from him at all. Best of luck in whatever you decide, -Paul

This is by no means comprehensive but by the year/styling of a particular car you should be able to at the very least find out what class it raced in: http://www.hgpca.net/classes.php I have no idea where to find any more detailed information though, any other ideas out there? There are probably a few decent books on the subject, you may want to check a local library or something.

Well, after a two days in the real world (my classes ), The Good: Boots faster than XP and Vista All my programs work! I really like the new taskbar setup. The Bad: I can't find workable drivers for my Bluetooth mouse. (Not too big a deal) Programs sometimes take a while to close or Windows thinks they have frozen. (They close eventually though) The Ugly: My trackpad driver randomly will not load on startup. I have to tab my way around the UI and find restart. After a restart it seems to load properly. Some setup applications or graphics-intensive programs will randomly cause the graphics driver to unload itself. After this happens, I get a little 800x600 window to reload the driver. After that everything works fine. The Bottom Line: Most of the issues I have experienced have been driver-related, so unfortunately your mileage may vary. Fortunately though, most (if not all) driver issues will be resolved before the final release. I think Microsoft is really onto something here, and if you have a non-essential system to play around with, go for it! However, if you have lots of sensitive data, odd hardware combinations, or irreplaceable programs, I would wait for the final release comes out.

The link problems might not be Bibs' fault The microsoft site has been totally flooded all day, so that probably has something to do with the link issues. I installed it today and it's running great on my laptop, although I do have 2 GB of RAM. I'm not sure how it will work on other systems.

Well, the deed is done!! Got everything organized this morning and headed over to the post office. I'll be hoping for the best! Thanks again to Bibs for reviewing my CV.

Oh dear . . . now I'm wondering what he has set the reserve price at. And then the engine bay!!! The turbo plumbing looks like it's straight out of a marine engineroom. It's very unfortunate that we're seeing cars like this (the roadster comes to mind) that have been ruined. Being in the market for a project myself, it pains me to see the direction many owners have taken with their cars.

Jonathan--When you switch hard drives, just open iTunes and click (provided you're using Windows) from the menu bar Store> Authorize Computer. It will then make the link between your iTunes library and the iPhone it was previously synced to. This will only work provided you have at least one of your 5 machines left to authorize. Otherwise you must de-authorize the computer, swap HD and move files, then reauthorize. Hope this helps, it's kind of a pain but it's Apple's way of Digital Rights Manangement. Karl--When you converted the movies, did you use iTunes to convert or a third party software? When I convert vids for iPod I always just use iTunes and it seems to work fine for me.

A great video! I agree with molemot about the disposal of vehicles. In the 'corsa muppet's defense (though I still agree that he's a muppet lol ) many new cars automatically activate the hazards during heavy braking or airbag deployment.

Great Projects for both of you guys!! Looking forward to seeing more from both of you . . . I like to see these cars go together again.

great clip!! i enjoyed the sheep and windmill as well!