New Tyres - Hankook Ventus V12 evo2(K120)s

18.8k miles, 4 years in and the MOT flagged the rear tyres were on their last legs, still legal, but reported as an advisory. The offside rear had plenty of tread but wearing through the inside edge.

So time for a change - I've gone for Hankook Ventus V12 evo2(K120)s, fitted care of Staplehurst Tyres.

Chosen through a combination of reviews, price and wet performance. I need a general purpose tyre, nice as slicks/semi slicks look, I'm road use rather than track. The spare not being replaced - its not directional which makes more sense for a spare, I can use it on either side of the car.

Hankook's Symmetrical and Directional tread - I think a good compromise between practicality and looks. In theory if the inside blocks start to wear I could swap tyres (not wheels) side to side and even the wear pattern.

Need a few miles on them to run in and we shall see!

+ while watching chatting to the tyre fitters, an idea - I need some distinctive jacking point indications on the bottom of the car, either stickers or simple painted circles.

Odds & S*ds - Tracking & Wings

Finishing various jobs today;

IVA Looming

I got an email from IVA Gillingham, asking me to get in touch and make an appointment for the test! Yikes - need to get a move on

First up was to turn the car around. My drive is on a slight incline so my thinking was if I have the front of the car just out of the garage it will be level enough to setup the tracking and give me more space either side to 'sight' the cycle wing positions.

This was the first time I manoeuvred the car out of the garage under her own power - so gearbox, clutch & brakes all put through their paces - in a very minor way.

Reversing light working, brake lights working

Slight weep from the now filled brake system - cured with a quarter turn on the pipe union.

Brake push rod

When I got the kit the very first job I did was the brake cylinder & pushrod - I cut the original rod far too short but now I have the brakes filled I created a pushrod of the correct length:

Adjusted the steel 'stop' in the pedal box which is adjusted to prevent the pedal moving too far back. The brake pedal is firm now - a good sign

Pinch Bolt backup

On to the final part of the pinch bolt modifications; I drilled and installed a couple of roll pins (just to the left of the pinch bolt/IVA cover in this picture). These 20mm 3mm diameter roll pins run through the casting and into the dummy upright - even if the bolt were to loosen they might save a catastrophic failure and give a little warning that something was wrong before the upright parted company with the wishbone:

Tracking

My first try at setting up the geometry; just basic front tracking for now. I obtained a TrackACE alignment kit and gave it a try. The principle is a laser bouncing from/to a fixed point and comparing the result between the wheels:

I spent some time finalising and torquing up the steering column and rack. Trying to at least start with the wheel close to centred. With hindsight I guess the car sorts the centering out itself when rolling & I'll need to adjust the steering wheel alignment again later.

Nearside first - everything is aligned so the laser travels twice across the car & hits the zero mark:

Then offside:

The result after my first attempt, I started at 2º toe in, and adjusted it back to 15' toe in - 2x complete turns on each track rod. I'm not sure yet the ideal position but its reasonably easy to adjust - by rotating the track rod assembly and winding each side in or out:

All booted up - the nuts will have to be covered for IVA due to the sharp/small radius edges:

Cycle wings

And last up while I had the front of the car outside I offered up the cycle wings. They really dont want to sit in any particular position so I'm going to sleep on it before making anything permanent. I think I'm close; sitting quite far back on the wheel (while also ensuring I have the appropriate 30º coverage at the front as required by IVA):

Without the nosecone the car looks very retro - like some 20s or 30s roadster with the big radiator up front.

Wheel Studs: 4 down, 12 to go

I'm using the washers + spare (open) wheel nut on upside down method to insert the wheel studs;

The downside is I can't get a socket over the nut this way up & therefore can't use a breaker bar:

4 down - 12 to go:

To be honest ,they are not all tight against the back of the hub, perhaps 1/4mm higher on some, they are as tight as I can get without the hub jumping out of the vice though. I'll have to re-check once wheels and a little driving has settled things in:

Double check the stud lengths with the disc & wheel in place, I have a good 10 full turns on the wheel nut until its tight:

47mm Wheel Studs arrived, struggling to fit them

The wheel studs arrived - 47mm long, so I tried to fit some;

First brute force - hammer, then vice with a socket over the thread, then after cooling in the freezer. The first one is just vice + hammer, the second the same method after cooling in the freezer (not much difference):

At this point the vice was fine, however my bench & the vice mounting was moving, and I was at the limit of torque I could physically put into the vice.

Posted the query on RHOCAR - looks like the best option is to wind the studs in with an open wheel nut on upside down - Ordered same on Ebay. (arrived 29/6/12)

Wheel studs - 47mm needed

I have the stock team dynamics wheels from GBS.
I realised early on the standard 30mm wheel studs would be too short and before delivery of the kit bought the max 63mm studs from Mtec/Ebay.

Checked the wheels on discs & hubs today:
    30mm studs would give about 5 turns on the wheel nuts - not enough.
    63mm studs a going to foul the closed end wheel nuts

Turns out I need 47mm studs - subsequently ordered from Mtec racing.

Tyres on.. the wheels

Tyres on.. the wheels & balanced by a local garage - in hindsight if I had bought the tyres from them rather than GBS the balancing and valves would have been free.

Might be a little early in the build - but I needed the space - all four wheels/tyres now sit under the car tucked out of the way.

One wheel didn't balance very well & took weights around 60 degrees of rim so might end up being the spare - still waiting for one tyre from GBS.

Note,
After only a couple of weeks sitting on the garage floor the stick on balance weights fell off. It seems like the new rims might have laquer or wax polish - anyway something which stick on weights don't like - worth cleaning them before getting the wheels balanced.

My garage was good though - re-balanced everything for free.