Have you ever wondered why most double A-arm front-ends angle the top control arms downward to the rear of the car? This is part of the process of engineering anti-dive characteristics into the front suspension.
]]>If you draw lines from the control arms back to the middle of the car, and find where they intersect, then you can use the height from the ground to calculate the percentage of anti-dive.
Anti-dive aims to stop braking force transferring through the springs and shocks, which can compromise the car’s stability and balance, and put the force through the arms. Think of the rotating inertia as the car travels down the road and, when the brakes are applied, this inertia will try and fold the front-end under the car.
Angling the top control arm helps resist the folding force of the wheel and brakes, improving stability under braking. United Speed Shop Magnum IFS units are designed with four degrees of anti-dive geometry in place, giving a great balance between a front-end that dives heavily under brakes, or over-stiffening the front-end by having too much anti-dive.
SCRUB RADIUS
The science of scrub radius has largely been engineered out of modern cars (many of which actually have negative scrub radii) but anyone who has driven an old car with deep-dish wheels on the front will have experienced why scrub radius is important. Scrub radius is the relationship between the kingpin axis (an imaginary line between the ball joints) and the contact patch of the tyre.
If the kingpin axis intersects the contact patch to the outside of the tyre the vehicle is considered to have negative scrub radius, and if it intersects on the inside it is considered to have positive scrub radius. Whether a car has negative or positive scrub radius either set-ups mean the tyre is not turning on its centreline
Many cars back in the day didn’t have power steering so suspension systems were often designed with positive scrub radius as this makes the car easier to steer at parking speeds.
Modern cars tend to run positive offset wheels to run zero or slightly negative scrub radius, as this leads to more responsive steering and better stability. Cars with excessive negative offset wheels can suffer from issues like deflection when hitting rough roads or puddles. Think of it like how easy it is to hold a heavy weight close in to your body, and then how difficult it is to hold it when your arm is outstretched.We all love seeing deep-dish wheels on our old cars, but as too much dish negatively affects scrub radius - it's a bit of trade off between aesthetics and science, as are a lot of things on modified cars.
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We all want a cool-looking car and sometimes this can negatively affect how your factory suspension works, which is why United Speed Shop Bossguy Ryan spent bulk time working through the black art of geometry to make sure the Magnum IFS units give you a killer looking car that drives beaut, too.
Camber relates to the vertical axis of a wheel, while toe (sometimes called “tracking”) is the horizontal axis of a wheel. If a wheel tucks in at the top and out at the bottom, that car has negative camber, while a set-up with the wheel poking out at the top and in at the bottom has positive camber. On A-arm-equipped vehicles you can alter camber by changing the length of the control arms, using movable ball joints, or shimming the top control arm inwards.
Negative camber tends to put more of the outside tyre’s contact patch to the ground mid-corner and under a vertical (rather than shear) force. Increased caster for the inside wheel will help improve that tyre’s contact patch angle by leaning the wheel into mild positive camber.
Caster is the angle between the vertical axis and the steering axis, running through the pivot point of the wheel. The pivot point is an invisible line running from the centre of the upper ball joint to the centre of the lower ball joint, hitting the road surface just in front of the centre of the tyre’s contact patch (known as “trail”).
This means the wheel casters – or leans – around while turning to trail behind the steering axis. Caster on a road car should be aligned to provide an amount of self-centring behaviour in the steering, improving straight-line stability. However, excessive caster angle will turn the steering heavy and less responsive, and can make the inside wheel lean over too far to return on its own locking the steering in that particular angle.
Toe in (positive toe) has the wheels pointing in towards the centre of the car, while toe out (negative toe) points the inside edge of the front wheels outwards. Toe in is considered more stable at high speeds and having calmer steering response as the wheels turn in to the centre of the chassis, while toe out will generally feel more responsive on turn-in at the expense of sometimes feeling a little more nervous under heavy braking and at high speeds.
As part of tuning your suspension for primo on-road manners taking into account camber angle is important as the tyre will want to roll in a curve as it interacts with the road surface. Having mild toe-out with a wheel alignment running negative camber negates this tendency.
If you’ve been following our series on suspension geometry (check out Bump Steer and Ackermann ) you’re now probably grasping how difficult it is to design a front suspension system to work well on-road, be easily serviceable and package into a variety of different vehicles. Thankfully modern computer design programs like SolidWorks remove time-consuming trial-and-error out of the process of building cool new parts like the Magnum IFS.
]]>The Ackermann principle at its simplest means the inside wheel always turns on a tighter radius than the outside wheel. First patented in 1818 by Rudolph Ackermann, the Ackermann geometry is actually a theory describing steering linkage angles that increase the turning radius of the inside steering wheel, improving the turning circle and eliminating having front tyres slipping sideways when following a curve or bend.
Perfect Ackermann geometry follows a line from the steering pivot points, ball joints (or king pins) down to the centre of the third-member (also known to you cool kids as a “diff”). When you look at the diagram from above pay particular attention to how the steering arms angle either outwards (on a front-steer set-up), or inwards (on a rear-steer set-up). This is why you can’t simply swap steering arms from a rear-steer to a front-steer set-up, or vice versa.
Ackermann tells us the steering arms on the front hubs need to appear to toe out as the steering angle increases. This allows the car to turn in a tightening radius, improving low-speed manoeuvrability and turn-in response.
If this steering angle isn’t taken care of, you’ll end up with a car that scrubs its tyres and pushes its front-end through carparks or slow-speed turns. And that is pretty much next to un-driveable in a street car!
Next week we’ll have a squiz at the three C's (Camber, Caster and errrr... Toe)
]]>Have you ever driven a modified car down a road and had it seemingly follow random bumps in the road, pulling left or right as it strikes them? That, kids, is bump steer.
]]>WEAVIN’ WHEELS
Have you ever driven a modified car down a road and had it seemingly follow random bumps in the road, pulling left or right as it strikes them? That, kids, is bump steer. To put it a bit more technically bump steer is the angle of steering deflection through the suspension’s arc, IE; the wheel turning left or right on its own when the suspension compresses and rebounds.
Bump steer is caused by an incorrect relationship between several key components of the front end, most often the underlying issue is incorrect length steering rack pivot points (either too short or too long) and/or the steering rack mounted at the wrong height in relation to the rest of the suspension unit. At its core, avoiding bump steer is a relatively simple concept; as the suspension moves through its range of motion, the steering linkage needs to travel in the same arc as the control arms. Like most subjects of this nature there are a myriad of tiny details that we just can't be arsed to go into here – save to say, in practice you really only need concern yourself with the three green lines in the following image:
The key to minimising bump steer starts with ensuring there are concentric arcs for the control arm and outer mounting point of the tie rod end at the spindle, by having the pivot points of the steering rack fall on a line that passes through the inner pivot points of the upper and lower control arms. The correct length of steering rack can be determined by the relative height of its mounting position. All other things being equal, a steering rack mounted higher would need to be wider to allow these points to fall on that line, and following the same principle, a lower mounted rack would need to be shorter. Bear in mind that if you raise or lower the rack – the mounting point of the tie rod ends must raise or lower with it. This is why USS manufacture their own steering arm for the Magnum IFS (see image)
The spindles (stub axles) in these units are forged Wilwood Pro Spindles. However, the steering arms supplied by Wilwood are not suitable as the Magnum IFS runs a fairly low rack position (for adequate sump clearance with a slammed ride-height) so the USS arms incorporate around a 30mm 'drop'.
In the real world, absolute zero bump steer isn't possible – due to things like different camber settings, even deflection in suspension bush material etc. but you can come damn close. USS prefers to measure and document these numbers with a bump-steer gauge to back up the theory and CAD design numbers, rather than claim absolute zero bump steer.
A typical USS Magnum IFS displays 0.23 degrees of toe-out at its extreme droop position and 0.30 degrees of toe-in at full compression. These are at the extremes of the suspensions travel, as shown by the graph, the suspension displays near zero bump steer through the vast majority of its useable travel.
That's a quick run-down on bump steer, next week we'll introduce you to Uncle Ackerman.
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Before you write in saying that these cars came with A/C, you need to realise they have the cooling powers of an ice block against the summer sun in the Sahara. Thankfully there are companies like Vintage Air who make kits to retrofit modern-style air conditioning into old tin.
It was driving back from Summernats 30 in my un-air-conditioned '68 Plymouth that convinced me to spend the money adding A/C to my '64 Pontiac that was sitting at United. Because it is such a big barge I had to go for Vintage Air's biggest system, the "Gen IV Magnum".
The list of components required will vary from job to job, and you'll need to budget at least $5000 to do this job - more if you are paying for someone else to install it. The parts required include -
Due to freight quotes I bought the evaporator from Rocket Industries in Sydney for around $1200, while I sourced the other Vintage Air components from Summit Racing while the Aussie dollar was in much better shape than it is now. All the fittings, hose, condenser, compressor, drier and binary switch came from Speedy Air Spares in Queensland.
Below is Vintage Air's Gen IV evaporator unit - it is a complete system that includes heater, blower fan, heater tap, and air conditioning - all electronically controlled with a supplied wiring harness, which only requires simple power and ground connections to do. The heater tap we mounted near the bulkhead connector as it is spliced into the rubber hose going to the engine.
The stock heater box and fan is a huge unit compared to the Gen IV Magnum. But, and this is a big but, installing the Vintage Air unit has taken up pretty much all my under-dashboard space and leaves me without a glovebox. This isn't an issue for me as I don't own any gloves, but it also meant I had to move my stereo headunit under the front seat.
You can just make out the evaporator in this pic - not much space back there now!
Below are the controls, the bulkhead connector for the firewall, the compressor mount (hand welded - nice one Vintage Air!), a trinary switch (which I didn't use), and the vents I'll be using. As my car already had windscreen (demister) vents I didn't need to buy these, although they are available from Vintage AIr. You can also get a great selection of controls to set fan speed, and bulkhead connectors in a range of finishes. I went with black, like my heart.
The system is joined together using bolt-on fittings of 3 different sizes (-6, -8 and -10), suiting different sized rubber hose, and clamped using Speedy Air Service's awesome DIY Air-O-Crimp clamps.
Here you can see the receiver-drier (left) fitted to the radiator support panel. Ryan drew up a custom mount for the transmission cooler, condenser and a slimline Spal pusher fan. There is also a 16in Spal fan on the reverse side of the radiator for engine cooling.
Something to bear in mind, especially you fellow Pontiac weirdos, is that by adding all this hardware in front of your radiator you increase the risk of your engine running hot. I am planning to fit aluminium Edelbrock heads and EFI to my car down the track to hopefully fix those potential issues if they crop up.
Vintage Air actually make a compressor mount for the Pontiac V8, saving plenty of headaches. You can choose between traditional style compressors or the modern Sanden-style (which is what I went for). This was test-fitted to the engine before Ryan and the boys powder coated it black using Oxytech satin black.
Here is the firewall-side of the bulkhead connector, on the custom-designed block-off plate Ryan made and powder-coated. This plate sits over the hole where I had removed the stock heater and blower fan (see below).
The old heater core - the blower fan lived where the round hole is.
Ryan mounted the plate from the inside, then set the angle for the A/C lines (top) and the heater hoses (bottom).
The back of the bulkhead connector features four more of these exact same fittings, which connect to the Magnum evaporator. There is no easy way to say this, but connecting the fittings under the dash sucks and you are best off stripping the seats out and paying someone with tiny hands to get it all connected.
After test-fitting the evaporator to make its custom mounts we removed it to fit the fittings, as these run back to the bulkhead connector. There is unfortunately no easy way to do this, apart from maybe running one of Vintage Air's boot/trunk-mounted units.
Ryan spent a couple of hours checking the best way to run the A/C lines through the engine bay. Once they were in the neatest, optimal position he cut the hose to length and tightened the Air-O-Crimp fittings, which are very different to regular A/C fittings..
These are the innovative Air-O-Crimp DIY fittings that Speedy Air Supplies sells. Basically you just use a pair of their fancy pliers to squeeze the tangs of the crimp closed once you have positioned it on the hose. They have colour-coded tabs to tell you quickly what size fitting they're for - black, red or yellow.
The end of the coloured tab positions the crimp in the correct location by seating against the fitting. Once they lock closed the hose can still move, but don't worry as the lines haven't leaked in one of Ryan's installations yet!
We tucked the lines tightly together so it would be neater. The heater hoses use normal hose clamps, while the air conditioning fittings run the Air-O-Crimp fittings.
Lines crimped and tucked out of the way, we're almost ready to have a licenced refrigeration technician come and gas the system.
Vintage Air say one critical (as in, must do!) element to ensure your air conditioning works well is to put heat and sound-proofing down in the cabin, which Ryan did using Aussie Car Builders products before we got started.
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One easy way to make your old school car nicer to use is to install modern accoustic and thermal insulators.
Aussie-made Car Builders has several options, from foil-backed tar sheets to spray-on options.Ryan and the USS crew have used Car Builders in almost every vehicle to come through the shop, from hot rods and pick-ups to wagons and coupes.
The optional knife and roller are both mandatory purchases when applying foil-backed tar-based sound proofing. You need to ensure there are no air pocket or lifted edges once the job is done.
Ryan and the boys normally prepare the floor for the sound proofing by painting it in KBS Coatings' Rust Seal - part of a 3-step rust-killing process and a wet paint that dries rock-hard.
The matts are laid out, rolled with the special roller, and then the gaps are joined by a special foil tape.
The finished job looks so good it will be a shame to cover it with carpet! Car Builders now also sells special Lizard Skin spray-on sound proofing (and also a ceramic sealer) which can be applied over the top of a sanded and primed floor, while the ceramic coat goes on top of the sound layer.
Check out http://www.carbuilders.com.au/ for more information on their full range.
]]>The top-line model with compressors and valves inside the tank (the ENDO-CVT, or Compressor Valve Tank) won't be released until 2018, however customers can order the ENDO-VT (Valve Tank) now which still has the industry-leading Accuair VU4 valve block positioned inside the tank. There is also the option to order an ENDO-T which is the tank-only.
I was at SEMA 2016 and had to have one for my 1964 Pontiac Bonneville coupe as its air system was very old and I was already sending the car to Ryan and the guys to work on.
I placed and order and received mine in February from one of the Australian resellers and, as I was upgrading my front/back air suspension to a more modern front/back/side/side system that I could get engineered I also purchased new Viair 480C compressors and Accuair E-level computer height management for a completely legal, modern air system.
All fittings are already machined into the end of the tank, with the valve block wired to accept the Accuair E-level wiring loom straight into the end. That cap can be removed to service the parts inside, including the valves.
The tank itself is CNC-machined with no welding, meaning it is far stronger than many cheaper options on the market. There is a built-in 400psi blow-off valve, it can be mounted on a quick-release system for easy maintenance, plus it can be mounted on top or bottom for more creative installations.
Push-To-Connect (PTC) fittings are used and Accuair have specified that stainless lines are NOT to be used on ENDO tanks as they cannot guarantee the fittings will bite into the hard stainless enough to hold it securely. Instead, they recommend using brass, copper, plastic or rubber - basically more malleable materials.
While some will ask why I didn't just wait for the ENDO-CVT, the good news is you will be able to retrofit the ENDO-VT and ENDO-T tanks with valves and/or compressors once they are available.
The ENDO tanks are available in 3 gallon and 5 gallon sizes, and in a range of finishes - black, bronze and silver.
To be fair, the tank is much to nice for my old hooptie in its current condition but we'll hopefully solve all that soon enough!
I wanted to be able to have an engineer sign off on my cruiser so I also purchased an Accuair E-level system, which uses the height sensors (seen below) on each corner of the car to keep it all level. It also lets me program 3 heights which I can select from the controller (seen below).
This controller allows Iain to choose three basic heights, or fine-tune the car's stance. It will be hooked up to a cut-out on the handbrake light so it cannot be changed while driving (so no dope hittin' of da switches for da beetches like Snoop Dogg).
Ryan and the boys mounted the tank in the back under my parcel shelf, with the twin Viair 480C compressors enough to fill the big tank in minutes. Without having to run lines from the tank to the valve block it has cut down on complexity, the space required for air installs and even the cost of (expensive) fittings.
**WATCH** the boys got the system hooked up and it is just butter-smooth. Check it out in this video (don't mind Eric on the orbital sander) https://youtu.be/1n3DvBwSEKQ?list=LLa-ns1PqxKFp3dVxhbJbKrw
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As EFI operates at far higher, finely-metered, pressure than a carbie this means you need a powerful electric pump and, due to EFI’s sensitivity to fuel starvation, a way to ensure the go-juice is always there ready to be fired into the chamber by the injector.
Thankfully, Aeromotive has just released a solution to these problems in the form of the Phantom In-Tank EFI Fuel System. Available as a kit for both returnless and return-equipped fuel systems, the Phantom set-up makes it a simple job to get your tank plumbed for EFI.
The premise of the system is simple: is you fit a modern fuel pump inside a bolt-in cradle inside the tank, with a foam anti-surge member attached to the bottom of it. The lines run from the top of the cradle out to the engine, with both return and non-returning kits available from Aeromotive.
We fitted a Phantom Universal kit to Mark’s EK Holden, which is copping a grumpy 304cui injected V8 from a 1990s Commodore, but the idea behind this swap would also work on a carburettor-fed engine converting to EFI.
BOX O' GOODIES
It turns up in one large box containing all the hardware required, but not the drill bits, hole saws and the like to actually install it, or plumb it to the rest of your fuel system. We already had the awesome 75L custom fuel tank from Shaun's Custom Alloy, finished off with two baffles to stop fuel surge, and we also supplied our own fuel sender assembly to show the amount of petrol Mark's EK doesn't have, too.
SHAUN'S PORN
The custom tank done by Shaun's Custom Alloy is a real piece of art. Ryan designed it and had Shaun build it using precise measurements. It's a trick bit of gear made specially for Mark's car.
MEASURE FIRST
First up we plan exactly where the pump cradle and also the fuel sender units will sit in the custom tank made by Shaun's Custom Alloy. The yellow foam piece is the anti-surge unit that is cut to the correct height for your tank, preventing fuel starvation. It surrounds the cradle assembly and ensures it is always bathed in fuel.
GET BRAVE, KIDS!
Taking a holesaw to a custom-made piece of art worth $1000 isn't for the feint-hearted but Ryan has steady hands. After drilling a pilot hole he punched through the 6mm sheet to provide an aperture for the new cradle assembly. He also later cut a smaller hole nearby for the fuel sender assembly.
MEASURE TWICE!
Not all fuel tanks are the same dimensions or depth, so the Aeromotive Phantom system comes extra-tall and you cut the cradle down to suit your tank's individual depth. It's crucial to be precise here as, if the pump sits too high in the tank, you'll have problems picking up fuel from the bottom of the tank which could mean running out of fuel prematurely. The actual fuel pump (the silver cylinder in Ryan's hands) is then attached to the cradle, plumbed and wired as a whole plug-and-play unit.
BOLT-ON BANDIT
Attaching the cradle to the tank is simple thanks to the template Aeromotive supply with the Phantom kit. Bolting it in place it guides you to precisely drill the holes for the cradle's bottom plate, which has 10 studs fitted to it, allowing the cradle to slip into the tank and over those studs.
SENDER OVER
The fuel sender (which does not come in the kit) came from Classic Instruments. It is used to show the correct level of fuel in the tank on the gauge so you don't want to stuff up how this bad boy sits in the tank. Ensuring the correct length/depth is paramount to a good, working, reliable fuel gauge!
TAP IT IN
We drilled the holes for the fuel sender and then tapped the holes instead of using the supplied bolts (for a neater finish for the customer).
READY TO ROCK!
Bolted up and ready to be plumbed and wired into the rest of the fuel system, we removed the Phantom pump cradle and sender assemblies to blow the tank out of any swarf from drilling those holes. The hole installation took around two hours, working slowly but methodically. No special tools were required; just a holesaw, drill bits, tape measure, texta or Sharpie, hacksaw, file and a tap set for the sender assembly.
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Any painter worth their salt knows most paint problems come from imperfections in the substrate, which is the stuff under the glossy top coat. And it starts with ensuring the surface of the metal is properly clean.
So how do you clean surface rust off and ensure there are no contaminants left on the metal? You use a product that attacks the oxidisation process and the boys at Oxytech make just such a thing.
Called Anti-Ox it is a liquid wiped over the area and then wiped off with a clean cloth, acting like a super-aggressive rust convertor to attacks oxidisation as well as built-up oils or grease. You can use Anti-Ox on bare steel, painted and sanded surfaces and over fresh primer before applying the top coat.
After using Anti-Ox you need to handle that section with clean gloves because there is no protection from grease or oil. If you aren’t going to work on that section straight away, it’s best to put a coating of surface sealer like Oxytech’s Easy Phos over the area. Easy Phos can protect bare metal areas for up to six months if it’s covered up out of the weather.
If Anti-Ox and Easy Phos sound like the ticket for your project, pop in to USS Monday to Saturday (9am-2pm) and grab a tin of Anti-Ox as you can’t be too careful with panel prep. It’s available in 1L, 5L and 20L bulk sizes, and can also be ordered via our website.
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At United Speed Shop we specialise in cars that clock up bulk miles on the street so we need a hard-wearing coating for the chassis, floor and undercarriage on everything we build. Because it is self-etching, chip-resistant and able to be brushed on we reckon KBS’s Rust Seal is the perfect product to put under our builds.
The surface does need to be very clean before you start – don’t just go painting over any dirt, rust or dust! If you don’t have virgin steel under your ride then its best to use the full KBS three-stage Rust Eradication process, starting with a wash in Aqua Klean, followed by treatment with Rust Blast and then top it off with Rust Seal. Thankfully, you can buy all these products in one of KBS’s Chassis Coating Kit.
To properly seal the surface and provide the maximum protection you should apply two generous coats of Rust Seal, ideally with a good quality brush as it will help avoid leaving any streaks or marks in the finished coat. Thankfully, Rust Seal is self-etching so it will flatten out as it dries and final curing can take up to four days to go rock hard and settle.
Rust Seal does need some handling care to get the best out of it. Don’t paint straight out of the tin; decant a small amount at a time into a glass jar or pot and cover the remaining product with a small piece of Glad Wrap or film to keep the air out of the Rust Seal tin. You’ll need to replace the brushes in between coats so budget on stocking up on a few before you start.
The flash-off time between coats varies on atmospheric conditions (aka “what your weather is doing”) but figure on at least 1.5 hours to let it tack off before you come in for the second coat. And finally, remember to wear their Black Nitrile gloves and use care as Rust Seal doesn’t wipe off with solvents!
The good news is that United Speed Shop is now Newcastle’s only outlet for KBS products. While we carry a range of chassis and fuel tank prep products in the store (which is now open Saturdays from 9am-2pm), the full range is available via our website.
http://store.unitedspeedshop.com/collections/surface-coatings/kbs-coatings
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Schott might not be a household name, but their custom billet wheels are some of the best in the business!
]]>We chose a set of two-piece “Accelerator” wheels, in a cast and polished finish and with Schott’s patented Cover-Loc hub design. All Schott wheels are machined from billets of aircraft-grade forged 6061-T6 aluminium for a super-high-quality finish, excellent strength and low weight (which helps reduce unsprung mass).
While Les’ truck will run knock-off centre caps there are also pentagonal caps available, while the Accelerator can be ordered in sizes ranging from 17x7-inch up to 22x12-inch.
If you’re hunting a set of sweet high-quality rollers for your project, give Schott a look at schottwheels.com, or come down to our shop.
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An all-too-common issue is contamination of the metal underneath, and often that comes down to not being cleaned properly. This is particularly important for us here at United Speed Shop because, as you can see in our galleries, our shop is stuffed full of project cars sitting around in bare metal.
So how do you clean surface rust off and ensure there are no oils or chemical contaminants on the metal? You use a product that attacks the oxidisation process and the boys at Oxytech make just such a thing.
Called Anti-Ox it is a liquid you wipe on and then, with a clean cloth, wipe off again. Acting like a super-aggressive rust convertor it attacks oxidisation and build-up of oils and grease on the skin of the metal surface.
After using Anti-Ox you need to handle that section with clean gloves because there is no protection from greasy or oil – even the oils found in your skin will cause an adverse reaction to paint so keep a sharp eye on how you handle your metal!
If you’ve got a project sitting around in the bare, pop in to USS and grab a tin of Anti-Ox as you can’t be too careful with panel prep. It’s available in 1L, 5L and 20L bulk sizes.
Do you really want to risk thousands of dollar’s worth of paint job on five minutes worth of cleaning?
]]>Oxytech's Easyphos spray makes storing unfinished metalworking projects an easy task.
]]>We’ve all gotten halfway through a job and had to make the call: leave it raw and deal with surface rust, or hit it with epoxy primer which will then have to be cleaned off later on before getting back into the job proper. Well, if you have a raw steel or alloy surface you need to protect from the dreaded oxide coating then EasyPhos is the product for you.
Oxytech is a company from Sydney which specialises in supplying abrasive blasting media but has added Easyphos spray to their line of Panel Prep products. Available in a handy rattle can spray it is a waterless phosphate coating that seals the metal for up to six months (in a protected environment) and even promotes paint adhesion.
Simply clean the metal, spray the EasyPhos on and enjoy weeks of being able to weld to that metal without having to laboriously clean it before every time you want to run a bead.
Once you’re done throwing sparks and melting tin you can epoxy prime straight over the top of the EasyPhos, again saving bulk time cleaning the metal back. United Speed Shop stocks 300g cans of EasyPhos in their showroom, while Oxytech’s powder-coating products feature on many USS products.
]]>While nobody wants their cool car to be sterile like a new Camry you can make your old girl far nicer to drive long distances by using modern NVH insulation. Isolating the floor from road noise, heat and vibration happening underneath will leave you fresher at your destination and not so road-weary.
Brendan Carroll is the man behind CarBuilders.com.au which is the brand United Speed Shop chooses to stock. His Noise Block Sound Deadener goes on like an OEM product as the modern foil-backed Butyl Mat replaces old school tar-based insulation and uses an anti-drum noise-absorption layer to cut vibrations, with the aluminium top skin blocking heat.
Being self-adhesive it is easily formed to suit floorpans or complex shapes and has been developed to withstand aging and a wide range of temperature conditions. There is even optional foil tape to go over exposed holes and seams, and a finishing matting that is applied using a roller to get an excellent finish.
Noise Block can also be used on the inside of doors and other cavities as well as in the luggage compartment, fully sealing the car from harmonics and NVH.
CarBuilders also make a second stage kit for further noise and thermal absorption. If you’d like more information on their full product line drop in to check it out in our showroom, or visit http://carbuilders.com.au/
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