The goal here is to remove just enough of the chassis material to allow a wrench to get onto the nut, but not so much material that the structural integrity of the chassis is compromised.
There are quite a few spot welds here where a lot of material comes together. Removing too much would be bad.
The air saw sliced it like butter, for the most part.
Which means it’s time to bolt the subframe back into the car!
Before putting the subframe back in the car, we removed the weird caged bit, which left a standard nut, more or less. We properly torqued everything and put it all back in.
We did have to trim the subframe itself ever so slightly to get enough clearance. The angle of this photo doesn’t show it clearly, but I promise you that there is just barely enough space to get a wrench onto that nut.
Now I can get a wrench onto that nut and torque the bolt from the other side with confidence.
All that work just to defeat a stupid nut! Thanks, Toyota engineer person from the 80s. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
2 comments
At this point, I’m more interested in hearing about you getting your money’s worth out of this thing than more upgrades. That’s not to say the work recently posted isn’t first class, but if it can’t run the times it’s for naught. I’m genuinely curious how fast this thing is as is.
You and me both — curious how it’ll do. I got some lap times at Grid Life Road Atlanta last season and they were alright. Off the pace for NASA ST2 times but respectable considering I still didn’t even have a baseline for the car. Heck, I’m still figuring out starting tire pressure.