Thinking about upgrading the rear brakes on your vintage Mustang or Ford? Maybe to a disc brake? There’s a couple things you need to know before choosing your setup. Let Mike walk you through some of the things we’ve learned, and challenges we’ve faced along the way.

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When it comes to choosing the right brake package for your vintage Mustang or Ford, there’s a couple things you need to consider. What type of driver are you? Where will you be using your car? What’s important to you? Let walk you through the differences in the packages we offer, and why it makes sense to purchase a system instead of piecing it together.

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At MMI we’ve spent a lot of time trying to make sense of this stupid simple part. When a ball joint works well, you won’t notice it. But even a little wiggle can cause your car to feel inconsistent and jumpy, especially at highway speeds. In building our suspensions, we’ve discovered ball joints are extremely inconsistent from batch-to-batch, and even from ball joint-to-ball joint. So how do we make them better? Let Mike walk you through some of what he’s discovered about ball joints and what MMI has been doing to improve the feel and performance of this lowly part.

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Most people can feel the difference between a high-power and low-power engine in their head. But few have experienced the difference between a good shock like our Bilstein setup, and a truly great shock like the ones we provide from JRi. In this video Mike explains the difference between the two and why he thinks the JRi is worth the extra investment.

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Are you thinking about drop spindles for your classic Mustang? Maybe because you want to cram a 315 tire in the front? Listen, we’ve been there, we’ve tried that, and it made Ol’ Blue slower and worse to drive. Here’s Mike Maier explaining why drop spindles in a classic Mustang are a bad idea.

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But how do you go about that? Especially if you aren’t a race car driver with frequent access to a track? Where do you start?

It’s an important question, one I had to think a lot about. Even with 30 years of experience, this is a tough one to answer. Here’s how I think people should go about modifying their cars in pursuit of faster speeds at the track, autocross course, or even for a better car around town.

Where to Start

If you are an enthusiast or hobby driver, the first thing you need to do is spend more time behind the wheel. Drive your Mustang all the time. If it’s a later model, this is fairly easy to do. It might even be your daily driver, which is great! The late-model driver has lower maintenance due to the lack of wear and tear.

But if you have a classic Mustang, you’re likely in for some basic maintenance prior to establishing a baseline. After all those years, the little things add up. That could be engine, cooling, suspension, steering, brakes, etc. Even something as simple as being able to roll the windows up and down can make or break your comfort level, which limits your ability to perform.

When guys want to start modifying, my first question usually focuses on what they think is the biggest pain in the a** part of the car. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had about the nuances of shock valving, only to get into the customer’s car and see their steering column flopping around. What the heck?! Fix that first! The reality is a lot of these Mustang are now over 50 years old. Many were neglected for long periods of time. No amount of race parts are going to make them faster until you address the underlying problems.

All these little annoyances are important to address before heading out to the track or for a multi-day cruise. Driving your car as often as possible will make them readily apparent and prevent you from wasting a day at the track or getting stranded out on the street.

More time behind the wheel means more visibility into not only what your car needs, but how it feels and handles around town. Your goal is to drive your car enough to know what it likes and what it needs, even if that’s just a “feeling”. We help many customers turn their feelings into fixes. Things like:

• It feels loose
• It wanders all over the place
• It feels scary at high speeds
• It doesn’t stop without putting all my weight on the brake

None of these things are normal, especially on a car that’s been well maintained. But they give us a good starting point to address each concern.

The Limiting Factor

For the first couple years of driving or racing, I’d encourage most people to simply do it. Do it as much as possible. You won’t win, but you will start to learn more about your car and racing in general. When starting out, the car is rarely the limiting factor – it’s usually the driver. You need to learn how to properly drive a course, where to place the car to pick up time, and how the whole thing works.

We can’t get to the end of the run and say, “I have no idea what I did.” Which happens a lot with inexperienced drivers. The adrenaline takes over and prevents them from understanding what’s going on. They’re just out there wheelin’ the thing.

We need to get to a point where we can be honest with ourselves about how we go faster. Did the car mess up, or did I? This is how we begin to develop proper technique. Proper technique is absolutely essential before we start tuning the car. In essence we’re trying to minimize our variables: First with a well-maintained car, then with a repeatable driver practicing good technique.

Good technique takes a while to learn and a lifetime to master, but start with the basics. Here’s one I learned a long time ago that’s been foundational to my driving. In most cases the best way to drive a turn is to:

1. Brake for the turn
2. Apply a little throttle
3. Start your turn in

It helps me keep my speed up through the turn, enabling a faster exit speed and a quicker lap time. Most people want to jam the brakes later, I want to get off them sooner.

The start of the turn sets up the rest of the turn, so this is where you want to pay attention to what the car’s telling you. Can you let off the brakes sooner? If not, what’s the limiting factor? Too often drivers get comfortable in their car and prefer to stay within its boundaries. But our goal is to drive faster all the time. If your technique is spot on, it’s time to start making changes to the car. Progress is key and it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. That’s what chassis changes are all about. Finding a boundary and breaking through it to the next level.

Better Driver, Faster Car

Going faster is less often about making improvements to the car and more often about learning to be a better driver. Sure, spending thousands of dollars on improving your car will make it faster in theory, but if you don’t know how to squeeze out every bit of performance then you won’t go any faster. Adjustments to chassis setup, suspension tweaks, steering, and brakes are often made to fit a particular driving style, a style that encourages the driver to drive the car as fast as they can. Until you understand your driving preferences and have a consistent repeatable technique, throwing money at the car won’t make it any faster.

The right order starts with you. Spend time behind the wheel. Drive the car as much as possible. Knock out the little stuff and keep up with the basic maintenance. Focus on improving your driving or find a coach to help you establish good technique. Then we can focus on how to make the car work for you and not the other way around.

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For whatever reason there isn’t a whole lot of information online about how an autocross works, especially for people completely new to racing. Everything I found was along the lines of “show up and have fun!” which is great advice for people who have done it before. Like my intro to piano class in college, it’s only helpful if you already know an instrument. Reddit forums, SCCA posts, etc. are all geared toward going faster, but what about the people who just want to go and try racing for the first time?

When Mike asked if I wanted to write an article on my experience as an autocross first-timer, I thought it was a good idea. So let’s start with the basics.

What is Autocross?

Autocross, or “parking lot racing” as my brother likes to call it, is a low-cost, low-struggle, low-risk way to get out and drive your car fast. Typically set up in a parking lot, airport, track, or any place with a wide open piece of tarmac, the “race track” is an improvised course marked with small traffic cones. Cars run one at a time in an effort to score the best time through the course. Hitting cones results in penalty time added to your run, usually a second or two. Most runs are anywhere from 40-100 seconds long.

Those are important details for those of us with either:

1. Expensive cars that we don’t want to break or
2. Only one car that we need to get to work in the morning (and also don’t want to break)

These details are what make autocrossing so approachable for racing newbies. The track is a giant piece of tarmac. Generally speaking, if you lose control or get a little too enthusiastic through a corner there’s nothing to hit. This is by design. Sure, you may wipe out a few cones, but rarely do they leave lasting damage on a car’s finish. With a little blue masking tape, even that damage is preventable.

The other important element is course design. It changes with every event and course designers try to keep the max speeds under 80 mph. This helps limit the size of wipeout someone might have and minimizes the stress put on the car. Thanks to a shorter track, lower overall speed, and fewer laps, your car needs fewer consumables than a comparable track day car. That translates to fewer brake pads, rotors, tires, gas, etc., which means you don’t need a fortune to take your Mustang out for a weekend of fun.

Dodging the Cones in a 66 Mustang

What Do You Need to Autocross?

To start autocrossing you need a car… and that’s about it. What type of car you ask? Nearly anything. Mustang, Lamborghini, your mom’s Corolla, basically anything that doesn’t have a high center of gravity like a truck or SUV.

There’s a common misconception that you need a “fast” car to go autocrossing. While you will see your fair share of fast cars, you’ll also see stock Hyundais, Saab wagons, Civics, Go-karts, and yes, even the occasional 90s Corolla. Many racers will tell you it’s better to start with a slower car, as it gives you the chance to develop good habits at slower speeds.

I know what you’re thinking: I’ll never win anything in my Mom’s Corolla. Wrong again! Thanks to the classing system the SCCA uses to organize the cars, you’ll only have to race against other similarly equipped, 90s beige cars with 6-CD changers. The fast guys will race the fast guys and the slow guys race the slow guys, which means you get to be competitive no matter what you’re driving. As a novice, you’ll also be added to a special “novice only” class to see how you stack up against the other newbies.

Besides the car, there are a couple other things you’ll want to bring with you to ensure a good time:

1. An approved helmet – Check with your region on the specific rating your helmet should have. Usually they have a couple to borrow if needed, but you’ll probably want your own. The cheap ones work just as well as the expensive ones and they’re like $75. You don’t need a full-face one, in fact you may want an open-face one for improved visibility. Don’t show up with a bike helmet, they’ll laugh at you.
2. A roll of painter’s tape – This is your first event, so you won’t have numbers to slap on the side of your car. When you register, you will pick a number to represent your car on race day. Any old one- or two-digit number will work: 5, 9, 12, 69 (really?). You’ll also pick the class your car goes in. Here’s a good article that outlines where your car will probably end up.

Your roll of tape is what you’ll use to spell out your number and class on both sides of your car. Make ‘em big and make sure you use a tape that people can see (don’t use dark blue tape on a black car). Remember, a 1 or a 7 is a lot easier to make out of tape than 55.

Worried about rocks and cones damaging your paint? Slap some painters tape in the areas behind the wheels and on the front bumper if you want. Tape is cheap, paint is expensive. People may chuckle a little, but that’s only because they don’t care what their car looks like.

3. A hat and sunscreen – You’re going to be outside, in the sun, on tarmac, usually with no shade. Bring a big hat and sunscreen. Bring lots of water and comfy shoes (closed toed). Bring snacks. All of this will go a long way to making the day more enjoyable.
4. Advanced stuff – At some point you’ll want to think about bring a pyrometer (temperature gun), a tire pressure gauge, a garden sprayer, a jack, and a bunch of other stuff. Cool, but you don’t need it for your first event. Eventually we will write an article that covers what all this stuff is for, but for now stick to the basics.

Painters tape is your friend if you want to protect your paint at the autocross.

How does Autocross Work?

The actual event is split up into different heats, sometimes two, often three or four. As part of your entry to the event, you’ll need to “work” one heat, and “run/race” another. Yup, unlike other forms of racing, autocross is affordable because people volunteer to help run the event. The good news is the work is pretty darn easy. First, let’s walk through the typical schedule and where you should be.

Registering for the Event

To register for your local autocross, Google SCCA SOLO plus your local area. You’ll find your region’s website with a calendar of events and links to register. Fill out the form, pay the registration fee (usually about $50) and sign up to be a member of the SCCA (if you’re not already, usually another $90 for the year). The SCCA events aren’t the only game in town, but they tend to be well supported.

You’ll need to punch in details about your car including the class you’ll be competing in and your desired racing number.

Once finished and submitted, you’ll get a confirmation email and a link to the waiver you need to digitally sign to get into the track. Your region may have you sign something on your way into the event instead. Review the schedule for the day and make note of when things get started.

Have a friend who wants to come along? Does your Mom want to watch and make sure you don’t crash her Corolla? Spectators get in free! They’ll even be able to ride with you so long as they have a helmet. The only thing they can’t do is drive.

At the Event

ARRIVE EARLY. Get to the event early in the morning. You’ll want time to get your bearings and see how things work. This will give you the time to tape up your car and hopefully meet a few people. Walk around and see the other cars. Look to see where the grid is. Watch what the other racers do. Absorb it all.

Once you’ve taken in the sights and sounds, head over to the registration table. This may or may not be marked, but you’ll see where people are checking in. As part of your registration, they’ll give you your work assignment and which heats you’ll be working/running.

Arrive early enough to walk the course a couple times. You want to know where you’re going and your plan of attack.

Next, keep an eye open for when they post the detail sheet. I don’t know if this has a better name, but when you see everyone drop what they’re doing and head over to look at a freshly posted sheet of paper, that’s what you’re looking for. This sheet will outline important details for each of the racers including your grid number. Make a note of your grid number which IS DIFFERENT than your car number. I like to take a picture of the sheet with my phone so I have it with me all day.

At some point, the course will open for walking. WALK IT A COUPLE TIMES. You need to get a feel for where it goes and how you want to approach each of the turns. The more familiar you are with the course, the faster you will be. My region even offers a novice walk. Anyone who wants to join can walk with a group led by someone with a lot of experience. The guide will talk through each of the corners and how to approach them. I go on this walk every event. Just talking through the track with an experienced racer makes the time commitment worthwhile.

Once you’ve walked the course a couple times the event will begin with a driver’s meeting and safety brief. They’ll tell you what’s going on today, how many heats there are, some important safety information, and anything else you need to know. Once finished, they ask the workers for the first heat to report to their work assignments and the event gets underway.

Work Assignment

When you checked in they gave you a work assignment, right? If you’ve never done this before you’ll probably be on cone duty. This assignment is self-explanatory, pick up and reset the cones that get knocked over by racers. Simple, but with a few more details:

1. Each cone will have a little chalk box around the base. This indicates where the cone is supposed to be.
2. If a cone is knocked completely out of the box, grab it, wave it over your head so the corner captain (person in charge of the corner) can see it, and set it back in the box. The corner captain will radio the cone into the timing people so they can add the penalty to the driver’s time.
3. If any part of the cone is still in the box, then it’s safe, no penalty. Signal a baseball style “safe” move to the captain and put the cone back into position.
4. Do all of this while making sure you don’t get hit by the next car coming around the corner. They space the cars out enough so there’s time to do this safely.
5. Congratulations, you know how to shag cones!

Maybe you’re like me and don’t have the best ankles to be running around on. Luckily, there are other roles that need filled. Timing, course setup and teardown, starter, grid… all these positions require helpers to keep the event running smoothly. As you get more familiar with autocross, you’ll have the opportunity to work in other areas.

Racing

This is the fun part. When it’s your turn to race you’ll pull your car into “grid”. This is home base for the racers and the racers only. If it’s not your racing heat, your car probably should not be in grid.

Typically, the grid is a diagonal parking arrangement, each parking spot marked off with cones and a number on them. Your grid number (NOT your race number) will determine where you should park. Once you’ve found your spot, pull your car in and get settled. This is your chance to pull out everything loose in your car. Floor mats, garage door openers, iPhone mounts, etc. Basically anything that could fly around and whack you in the face while racing should be removed and set next to your spot (but not in a place where it can be run over.)

The grid at an autocross event at Crow’s Landing. There’s David from the shop!

While you’re doing this, the tech inspector will likely come by. Have the hood open for him or her. He/she will have a look at a couple different things on your car:

1. Is the battery mounted appropriately?
2. Are the wheels mounted on the car properly?
3. Has all the loose stuff been removed from the car?
4. Do you have an appropriate helmet?
5. Are there any fluid leaks?
6. Is there anything else that would make racing this car a really bad idea?

But that’s about it. No need for a roll bar (except for some convertibles, check your local regulations), racing suit, or HANS setup. Not that these would hurt to have, but they aren’t required. When your car passes tech they’ll probably put a small sticker on your windshield and you’ll be OK’d to race.

You may have noticed a rather official person walking up and down the grid, usually with a headset and a clipboard. Their job is to run the grid, telling the individual drivers when to pull out and head to the start line for the course. Hang out in your car, helmet on, ready to go, until they stop in front of your car. When they point at you it’s your turn to pull out and follow the guy in front of you to the start.

Wait at the starting line until the starter gives you the go ahead. That’s when you can start your run. Assuming everything goes to plan, you’ll finish your run then need to IMMEDIATELY slow down. Some courses may even have a designated stop area after the finish line that you’ll need to physically stop in. Take a glance at the timing board to see how you did but note that this time doesn’t include any penalties you may have received. Then, at a slow speed, you can proceed back to your spot in the grid.

You’ll have some time between your runs, usually at least ten minutes. But this isn’t the time to go grab a sandwich. You’ll see competitors get out of their cars, check tire pressures and temperatures, maybe tinker with a setting on their suspensions, etc. Some will use garden sprayers to wet their tires. Some will just chat with the other racers for a minute. If this is your first time, you’ll be sitting in your car waiting for the adrenaline to taper off. You did it! You made your first run.

Think about how it felt and what you think you did right. Your first event isn’t about laying down the fastest speed, it’s about learning how this works and feeling it out. Eventually the grid worker will come back to you, and you’ll head off on your second run. How many runs you get each event depends on the number of vehicles entered. Fewer competitors, more runs. At your first event just try to improve your personal time with each run.

When you’ve had all your runs, pull your car out of the grid to make way for the next group of racers. Grab some water, take a breather, and if you’re working, get ready for the next heat.

Wrapping Up the Day

As the day comes to an end, there may or may not be an award ceremony for the winners in each class. If you won, congratulations! If you didn’t win, congratulations on making it out to your first event. There’s no doubt that autocross can feel intimidating, especially for first timers, but it gets easier. Even after only the three or four events I’ve done I find myself getting into the groove and wanting to go faster.

Autocross is a great way to experience the capabilities of your car. It gives you the chance to safely understand how it handles, accelerates, and stops. Better still, it offers the chance to meet other people who are as into cars as you are. In my experience, these folks have been friendly, welcoming, and more than willing to help if something goes wrong. They might even let you go for a ride with them if you ask nicely.

Get out and give it a shot. So long as your Mustang is in decent working order you’ll have no problems passing tech and learning a whole lot about your car as you go around the track. You’ll find it an addicting way to spend a Saturday. Good luck out there!

Sometimes you win a trophy, sweet!

The post Your First Autocross: What to Know, What to Bring, and How it Works appeared first on Mike Maier Inc.

We hear it, and we hear it often. “I have this big plan for my Mustang! All I need is this, that, and that other thing and my car will be complete!” Usually these plans start with a complete tear down of the car, throwing parts into boxes with questionable labels and setting the boxes around the garage.

Then the inevitable happens: life gets in the way. Full builds require a massive amount of time, specialty expertise, and dollars. Sourcing the parts, learning to weld, understanding how suspensions work, cutting off the old greasy crud… it all takes time and money. Too often these projects never make it back together. They collect dust or are sold for pennies on the dollar to the next guy. Years ago I remember a good friend of mine telling me not to tear apart my car for my big plan, for fear of it never going back together again. He was pretty close to right on that one… it took me four years just to get it driveable.

The Vision

We tend to say, “I’m not going to drive it until…” however in reality we should be focused on enjoying the car now and growing into the future.

When we first get a Mustang we tend to have a vision for how it should look, sound, and perform. Having a vision is a good thing! It gives you an idea of the end goal. But sometimes the vision can cloud our sight. Getting the car from where it’s at today, to where you want it to be, can seem like an insurmountable objective. It feels like everything needs to be replaced, and there’s no good place to start. So they think it’s best to tear it down to the studs and start from scratch.

Instead, we encourage people to think about the little improvements they can make while keeping the car together. Start with the basics: does it run? Drive? Stop? Does it feel safe at 30 mph? 60 mph? Can you drive it to dinner with your spouse and not worry about making it home? Making it look shiny or cool is secondary to all of these. If you don’t enjoy driving it, it doesn’t matter how cool it looks, it won’t make it out of the garage.

Every Mustang Starts Somewhere

People see Ol’ Blue and New Blue and say they want everything they need to make their car like that. This is good and all, but the cars did not come that way. Somewhere along the way each little component had to be bought or made. Add up all those little things and the total bill can get real expensive, real quick. As a result, the average builder ends up suffocated by their own vision.

In reality, Ol’ blue ran it’s first several years with a stock 289 with aftermarket leafs and coils. The interior was a base black interior and the only thing custom was the wood steering wheel. We enjoyed driving it to Tahoe and to breakfast in the mornings. We had a lot of fun with this car, and our experience with it gave us the education we needed to better develop and race the car. Ol’ Blue would not be what it is today without the lessons learned from driving it in its original form. My focus was on little improvements, not dramatic changes.

Plan something small and get it done. It will keep your Mustang on the road where it belongs, with you driving it and enjoying it. Too much all at once is what causes projects to go stagnant. When that happens, people lose excitement. When they lose excitement, life becomes an excuse and the car turns into a laundry shelf in the garage.

Where to Start

This thought process has massively influenced our product line. Each part from MMI should be something that we can easily install and keep moving. When customers ask our advice on what to install next, we want to know what the car needs. Often this conversation results in people realizing they need a whole lot less than they thought to get the kind of drive they want. We want our customers on the road enjoying their cars without having to refinance the mortgage.

Even our packages were designed to be taken in small chunks. They are “recipes”, but each of the ingredients can be purchased separately. Our goal was to give customers a roadmap to where they want to go. So if you have a vision, start by taking a look at our packages and see which one suits you best. Then find the thing that needs the most help on your car and start there. Whether that’s steering, brakes, ride quality, or any of a bunch of other things.

So when you are planning your next “Big Thing”, plan on taking it one bite at a time and enjoy the trip.

The post I Have This Big Plan! appeared first on Mike Maier Inc.

Years later the customer updated everything on his car and pulled off all the old Maier parts for new MMI components. In good car guy fashion he kept the old parts instead of sending them off to the scrapyard. When his son bought a Mustang they had us put all the old parts from 1980 on this new member of the family.

After going through almost everything we took it for a test drive. I asked my son to go with me. As we drove off and I heard the chirp of the tires from the 30 year old locker and pulled second gear. It felt like I was going to hit the back seat with the shift lever. The smell and feel of this reborn time capsule immediately took me back to Western and Laurel making the turn while riding in the passenger seat with my dad driving in his 66 Shelby. That is the ride that got me going. Now here I was giving my son a ride.

To make it even better grandpa built this very motor and a bunch of the other parts. It still ran great. You know, we look so intently to find the next best thing that we sometimes might forget the simple past a little to0 quickly. At the end of the test drive I took this picture. It was perhaps one of the simplest cars we had done and it perhaps was one of the best. So I ask again, what is the right amount of build?

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Originally, the Mustang suspension was designed to have little to no caster. Caster is how much the upper ball joint is set back from the lower ball joint. Caster is responsible for stability on the freeway among other suspension/alignment changes while steering your Mustang. Back in the sixties the thought was to use very little caster and this would make the front tires slide before the rear and also have a very light steering wheel feel. Things have changed quite a bit since then.  Now days more caster to a point is a good thing. It creates stability at speed on the freeway and inspires confidence in the driver.

First we need to make sure that the customer has taken the car to an alignment shop that does not think that making the box green on the alignment machine means that the alignment is good. Those specifications for the alignment were created in the sixties to a bias ply 14” tire. An alignment is a guestimate of how much the tire flexes from the bead of the wheel. Those old tires did a ton of flexing so the alignment shop had to over compensate to get the tire to go the right direction. Now days with modern tires if you used those alignment spec’d the car would feel horrible. Our tires do not flex like those old bias ply tires, not to mention that we are mainly using wheels in the 17” range now. One of these specs in the alignment is the Caster setting; this like we said earlier was how much the upper ball joint is set behind the lower ball joint.

Since the original specs were about 0 degrees, plus or minus a touch. The car would wonder and feel unstable at speed. Through years of development we, among multiple other groups have employed increased caster settings. Historically manual steering cars would use up to 3 degrees before the steering got too heavy and power steering cars used about as much as they could get. This usually ended up around 4 degrees before the tire was pulled into the front fender to achieve this setting. When we designed the MOD 1 coil over system we saw the challenges of trying to get this caster out of the 1^st generation Mustangs suspension design. We here at MMI decided to offset the upper ball joint back to get the base caster setting increased out of the gate. This keeps the 1964.5, 1965 and 1966 Mustangs from over shimming the upper A arms and the 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973 Mustangs from over pulling the lower strut rods and miss aligning the sway bar and wheel location in the wheel well. By offsetting the upper control arms we got our base caster settings up to about positive 4 degrees.

Another added bonus of increasing caster is that when to employ more caster the camber is affected when you turn the steering wheel. Camber is when the tire leans into or out of the wheel well and how much. Negative camber is when the top of the tire is leaned in and positive camber is when the top of the tire is leaning away from the car. Many companies including MMi do the Shelby drop to the inner mount of the upper control arm.  By doing this we are increasing the amount of negative camber as the car goes through roll. Many companies go beyond the classic 1” drop. In our humble opinion more is not always better. We want the tire as flat as possible while driving and increasing the caster settings will increase the outside tires camber and decrease the inside tires camber while turning. This will keep the tire flat to the ground when side loading is applied to the tire, thus pulling the tire under the bead of the wheel. 

Over the years we have learned all sorts of tricks to get these old cars working better and better. We can go on for hours just about alignments. This is one of the reasons why our MOD1 suspension system feels so good. Proper alignments coupled with giving the customer the proper tools to get the desired feel is what it comes down to. It’s not just bolting parts on, you also should have an idea of how to tune it. We hope this has helped you to get an idea that there is more to it than just building a tubular arm.

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