Thread: '37 Oze build

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It's been over a hear since I received my roller on August 6. I think that I've accomplished a lot, but there's a whole lot more to do, if I'm to finish this car.

I got the car running in late December and logged almost 1000 miles on the road this year. I've taken the car up and down Highway 34 from Loveland toward Estes Park and found that if can take the twisting corners at far above the speed limit, with little body roll. I've got no need for sway bars unless I decide to take up autocross. The ride is OK, as long as the road doesn't have many sharp mismatches. The springs seem stiff, if the road has sharp mismatches. I'm considering getting some springs with a 10% lower spring rate. I found that I have been using too little spring preload for quite awhile. Ride Tech wants to see 60% of the shock travel dedicated to compression. I had mine set at less than 50%, in attempt to keep the ride height low. I've increased the preload, to raise the car about 1/2", but that's still below 60% compression.

The power steering is light and quick. The car practically drives itself at 80 mph (2100 rpm). Apparently my do-it yourself 4-wheel alignment is working well. I've seen no evidence of unusual tire wear, up to this point. I'd still like to have more power assist for the brakes. The car stops fine, but it still requires considerably more effort than most new cars.

The engine has been running great, since I changed the intake air snorkel, to follow GM's instructions for the MAF sensor location and bumped the idle speed to 600 rpm. I get about 20 mpg in city driving.

One thing I can complain about is all the noise - lots of creaks and rattles, road noise and exhaust noise. I've got no sound proofing installed, so I can only hope that it works miracles. If not, a sound system would be worthless. I did reduce some noise just by laying a doubled-up blanket on the trunk floor, to cover all of the large access holes.

Another problem is gasoline smell. I installed a cap that I got from Tanks, Inc., with a spring loaded trap door that allows gas to be put in, without removing the cap. It's similar to what's used on many new cars (including my Corvette). Unfortunately, with only a 3-4" long filler neck, the cap can't seal out the splash from the tank and I see gas around the filler hole, that probably accounts for most of the smell. Tanks sells an O-ring sealed pop-up cap with the same threading, so I may try that. Otherwise, it's a new external cap (with a long filler neck), to replace the one in the trunk. I'm certain that the tank still has a small leak at the weld seam along the top of the tank, that needs to be fixed. I see a dirty spot that returns, after wiping it off. I've already had the tank off once and did some welding to repair an obvious leak at the seam along the bottom and did some welding along the top seam at the same time. It's not all fixed yet. I suspect the leak at the upper seam extends to the driver's side mounting bracket. I'll probably have to cut through the welds holding the bracket and weld several more inches of the seam to stop the leak, then weld the mounting bracket back in place.