Joey’s Geeky Life

The shop I do my tuning at had a dyno day and general open house.  It was a great time, the Central Texas Stangs showed up and many other friendly folk, here are some pics:

After 130,000 miles on our 1999 Toyota Camry LE V6, we decided it was time for it to go to a better place..

It will be missed:

However, I am proud to introduce our new car a 2009 Toyota Camry SE V6:

So some of you might wonder what I have been up to…  Working on my dissertation, that’s what! Here is a little clip of me documenting some laps at a local race track:

This all started with chasing a squeak in the rear passenger side of my car…  I was determined to find it.  I was so determined I have spent the last 4 months looking for it.  And well to say the least it has been an adventure.  To keep it short I will highlight:

-first had my mechanic look, found broken welds

-looked for welder, found one, seemed reputable (mingos autobody) and said they would take care of it.

-Noise in sued

-mechanic looks again (this is where I heavily abbreviate things), shody welding and turns out my sway bar ripped the frame of my car

-take back to body shop, they say they fix everything, take it to mechanic right afterward, it was a total hose job!

-tell my hi-performance guys my situation, turns out they do custom fabrication and here starts the fun story!

So yeah, this past Monday I made my way down to Motion Dynamics to learn about welding and structural re-enforcement.  Working side by side with Craig (an awesome chap if I might say so), we embarked on a welding/re-enforcing adventure.   Eight hours later and some major sweat (turns out it was the hottest day in July in years, 105 degrees!!!) we had a fully re-enforced rear frame.

I learned a lot about MIG welding and how to cool parts when working on them.  I also learned about re-enforcement in general.  For a full photo diary check our my photo gallery.

(lower control arm being prepped for boxing)

(lower control arm boxed before paint)

(the lower control arm after we boxed it and painted.)

So yeah, these are just some of the photos I took throughout the whole process.  And as for that noise?  Well turned out it is the body flexing and is going to take a little more of Craig’s magic, all in time…

 A special Thanks to Craig at Motion Dynamics, he really did a beautiful job!