Garcia Family - Daytona Coupe

This one was fun, but also something that created a little trepidation and a deep inhale before we started.  Other builders warned that this was a struggle to install due to the frame design. For those that don't know what a rear differential is here's a grossly over simplified description.  It takes a spinny force (driveshaft) and turns the spinny force 90 degrees into the axles and eventually rear wheels.  Also pretty sure "spinny" is a word even though my auto correct is trying to change it. We found our first "oops" when we tried to install the sleeves into the differential bushings.  Don't worry if that sounds like gibberish, just know that we made a mistake.  Two of them fit perfectly and two were clearly the wrong size.  We had inadvertently installed the wrong bushings into the steering rack because they were close enough that it seemed to fit well, but just enough off to not work for the differential.  Blah, blah, blah, so I spent an hour and ...

I haven't felt like writing much lately, but it was time for an update so here it is! There's no anecdote, just some actual car building and a whole bunch of research happening in the background because there are a lot of decisions to make.  Some of those decisions may hold us up in the near future so I'm trying to get ahead of things. With the parts painted we installed the rest of the front suspension  For those that understand what you're looking at, the upper control arms are very adjustable to dial in camber, caster, and toe once the car is ready for an alignment. Here it is again with the wheel bearings (hubs) and steering rod connected.   The brake rotors are two parts each and held together with 12 bolts that have to be tightened to a very specific torque setting.  This is true of lots of the parts we are installing.  In addition the bolts on these rotors have holes for safety wiring which is only a requirement for race cars, but we did it anyway be...