samstain

is the car you are towing registered and in road worthy condition? If its touching the road then is has to be... doesn't matter if your driving it or towing it on a dolly - if it touches the road then they want your registration $$$'s to maintain that road.

Full set of Pirelli P-Zero Nero's Fronts: 215/40r17 - over 80% tread left Rears: 235/40r17 - 50% left (maybe more) They came off my clubman which is live rear axle so they have zero camber wear, and they did a very good job of putting down over 200rwkw in a sub 700kg car - only removed to put on some really sticky rubber - r888's and RA-1s in preperation for some track stuff. Located in Greenacres $250.

Is the wording 'both' or 'all', I would imagine its the latter.... there would be plenty of single axle pig trailers out there running truck tyres that are rated to somewhere around 8T...

The only differnece between the 2 is a slightly softer compond (180 V's 140 tread wear from memory) and a slightly stiffer sidewall on the RSR - that and the fact that the RS's are no longer made as far as I am aware, they were superseeded by the RSR a couple years ago. You might be thinking of the SS for thier 'just a road tyre'.

No I haven't tried the A050s or DZ03G or RE55s, but I would expect a GG r888 to be gripper than a RSR - especially from cold - to say the 888 is 'the worst performing semi' and not as good as a RSR is a bit out there I would have though without a bit of background on where it was being used. It depends what you are using them for and the power/weight/tyre size it has... Fair enough 888's on a high power GTR doing multiple circuit laps are probably going to over heat and go off unless driven very accuratally, however if its a light or underpowered car they can work very well. Likewise if your doing hill climbs and autocross type events they come on very early where as and RSR can take at least a few hard corners to come on - at motorkhana the only time I really got the federals to perform was when my brother was sharing the car with me (2 spots up the queue) and it was a +30deg day. I had a brand new set of 225/50r16 888's on my S14 for a while and the traction was unbelievable - with careful throttle control it would launch as hard as my brothers 99sti, where as even when new, the RS's were no better than a good road tyre when cold (hopefull the RSR's are slightly better). anyway, im in the market for new tyres at the moment - tirerack do not do anything suitable for what I want (unless I change to 16" rims in which case I can get AO48's), what other online stores do resonable postage to aus? or has anyone had any luck with forwarding services? Also, how have people gone with build dates - perhaps in the states turn over is large enough that is isn't a problem, but I'd hate to get supplied 4-5 year old tyres such as what often comes up on ebay in aus.

what where you using them for? and what was the problem you had with them? Were they new ones or used? They are the grippiest tyre I have ever used.... however I was using them for motorkhana on concrete on a 1200kg car. My only complaint was they had too much traction - I could not throw the front end a full 180 deg with them on. They had a lot more traction that my Federal RS's - I haven't tried RSR's yet, hopefully they are a bit softer and have more grip from cold. My understanding is if you are doing circuit work with them it needs to be light (or 'over tired') car, otherwise they get too hot and go off. For short sprints, hill climbs etc they seem to work very well.

It depends on the length of your trailer and the relative car overhang. I always have to reverse my 180 on to get it to ballance correct. The regulations state that the centre of your axles must be behind the center of the payload area of a trailer (which makes sence to generally ensure you keep some tow ball weight). However if you have a short trailer (as many are to keep weight down - 4m bed or less) and you drive a stripped out F/R race car on to it fowards, by the time you get it far enough fowards that there is minimal rear over-hang, the center of gravity of the car might be well over 1m in front of the center of the trailer axles - buy which time you could have 300kg on the tow ball - thats fine if you have a very H/D tow bar and a car with suspension to match. But a lot of cars these days are only rated to about 100kg ball weight - mine is actually only 85kg even though it has a 2000kg towing capacity. If I reverse my 180 on to the trailer, and line it up so that there is zero rear overhang I get pretty much exactly the max allowed ball weight down on the towbar. But yeah, if you haven't done your homework and reverse a car on tying it down 'where-ever', it can be a recipie for disaster.

Did a bit of machining for a mate last night - a 1jz to T56 gearbox adapter for his ultra car.... So far it all looks good, but we won't know for sure till he turns up a spigot bush and slides it all together.

yeah brett's right, the old handbrake will be ripped out, a handle custom handle slips on so the new mechansim and is screwed in to place (you can just see one of the holes in the last photo). Photo 3 & 4 shows it without and with the handle. The handle is just a bit of tube, so once the base is mounted I'll cut it to length and bend it if requried to get it in to a comfortable position.

Might have been another puma, there were about 13 at the annual get-together yesterday... I noticed at least one there had a bit of work done by Andrew on it - a gold one from memory.

its not a skyline... but its got a nissan driveline if that helps. Impressive sunset at the beach tonight, if I knew it was going to be that good I would have found a better park.

Best to ring CAMS, but basically 3 events that would require you to have a car with full cage that on the road - so 3 motorkhana's/hill climbs/sprints at mallala etc ain't going to cut it as they will just tell you to trailer it there. Assuming this is going to be a tarmac based car you might struggle to find 3 events in SA - There is the ASP tarmac rally... but other than that you are going to be hitting up some pretty rough dirt roads to get any more signed off

was it just normal mild steel wire? or gasless mild steel wire? Excessive spitting could be non gasless wire, or bad earth - though gasless does tend to spit a bit more than proper mig setups.

The rally rego thing is pretty easy to do - but only if you are going to use it as a rally car. You can only use it on the road to get to/from or compete in an event, service work or a promotional event - so if you are caught in the city or down glenelg or some random back street they will come down on you hard - not just the cops but the CAMS guys that sign off on the paperwork for you as they don't want it screwed up for the guys that legitimatally need this kind of licence. From memory you also have to compete in a number of events rally events per year to keep it all up to date.

check what wire you are using...if you using normal wire and your using it without gas its going to be very messy and not work. Even with the right wire designed for gasless welding, if the steel is less than about 1mm thick you will have to pulse it to weld it rather than just hold it on, basically just do a .5second spot every 2 seconds or so, you will get a feel for how much heat it can handle as you go. Stick to brand name gasless wire also - I used to always run CIG stuff (shield cor-15 I think) and it was pretty good - I ran out on a sunday and went to get some more from bunnings to finish a job and they are now selling some no name crap that is useless... the bead looked like you had got a bit of bubble gum, rolled it in gravel and thrown it at the metal, had zero penitration even on the 1.2mm RHS I was welding So I now get mine from gasweld, their stuff is ~$20 for 0.9kg and so far worked perfect in all conditions, better than the shild core actually which was twice the price, some of the welds I have done with it are as good as I have ever done with a profesional Gas-Mig setup. As the other scott said, the fumes can be a bit nasty - especially if welding galv - my brother put himself in hospital for a few days after spending an afternoon welding. So make sure your outside in a well ventilated area, gasless wire can handle a fair bit of wind as the shielding gas is coming out of the flux in the wire, where as normal argon mig it blows away much more easy.

Been a bit slow in this thread lately... so thought I'd stick up some pic's of the hydro handbrake I have been making after work this week. It's pretty much ready to bolt in and plumb up now. Bits fresh out the mill ready for welding: Test fitting in my track 180 after welding: Pivot base installed: After glass beading and the adjustment lock nut turned up and installed: The guts of it:

try suppliers to the chemical industry - wineries etc - for stailness bends, from memory they were a similar price. Good exhaust shops can also bend stainless tube if they have a proper bender.

If your doing for fun and enjoy welding then yeah lobster might work out a bit cheaper, but if your a shop and you need to be chargning out +$80/hour just to pay for the gas/consumables rent etc -ie stay in business - then a donut or bend is going to work out a lot cheaper, it is also going to be far more consistent and less risk of leaking, leaving a dag inside etc.

donuts are the other option... can buy them in halves, or as two halves already welded together. I think it cost me about $50 for enough to do my invertd FMIC setup - 360deg of 3" bends in total.

there were a few threads on it earlier in the year. About the cheapest way to get in to it is with a Allmax Tig (or rebadged as - magnum, boswell etc),they go for about $1200 new with 2 year warranty, but all up budget for around $2000 once you get a helmet ($100 - $500), various filler rods (stainless, mild, alloy), a few pack of tungsten (for AC and DC in various diameters), welding gloves, regulator and then $120 odd for a mid sized bottle of gas + $15-20/month rent. From there its just practice - and some hand on help will speed things up no end. I got a magnum at the start of the year and it has worked perfectly. I have since bought one of thier plazma cutters also. Here is one of the old threads: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Welders-t315225.html

Nah, the mill is my personal one... at my last job I had access to one on the weekends that I would use when ever I could. But I changed jobs about 2 years ago and not being able to make stuff was killing me. So I have since bought the Mill & a tig welder, will be getting a plasma cutter shortly. There is a fair bit of stuff going on in adelaide as far as track days - drift practise nights at mallala are pretty much monthly (I haven't been to them yet), there is a motorkhana series through winter that I compete in, and Tailem Bend has just re-opened. They will be having a fair bit of drift stuff going on, I have also organised a few private skid pan days down there, hopefully next year we will be having a superkhana series (if we can get the regs through CAMS). There are also hill climbs at collingrove and plenty of grip days at Mallala.

I keep forgetting to take photo's, but the back has now been skinned in 1.2mm alloy. I made up this cover with access for filling the tank to complete the 'fire wall' what it looks like from the rear: Exhaust tip will be added once bar is chosen and fitted. Its first track session for it in quite a few years. Tank setup performend perfectly all day - as you would expect it to, its only supporting about 170rwkw at the moment, Ill turn it up more later once the motor has done a few more track days.

Injection moulding would be a $20,000 exersize... Casting may be possible but still a lot of work to get a good finish. Best bet would be to CNC machine a few out of billet delrin or alloy, would still probably be $1000 or so to make a the first couple, if you can find enough people that want them you might be able to make a batch of 20+ for around $150 ea.

I have found a local supplier, they need to ring up the factory and get a price for me, but they seem to be fairly reasonable. Hopefully they will also save a lot of weight, solid 45mm axles seem such a waste of steel when slightly larger but hollow axle would be half the weight and a whole lot stronger.

It may 'look fine and everything' but do not drive it anywhere - the main arm that locates the wheel has snapped clean off... Probably they easiest way to fix it is to pick up a complete hub to hub sub-frame and drop it in there. There is something strange about the colors in the photo, almost looks like the cast part has been cracked for a long time and gone rusty.