im ripping it all off

i realized i forgot critical anti-dive and anti-squat design principles in my suspension planning, so i will be ripping off ALL of my completed rear suspension and starting over. i have met a man who has resources up the wazoo, so i will be getting them rebuilt the right way, so that is a plus.

updates as they come....

im back

been back home visiting family for a week. got back to the shop today. good and bad day.

first off, bought the rest of the metal i need to finish the car. a piece of 1.5x3 tube for the top rails of the engine cradle to weld in to at the firewall. and a bunch a 1" 16ga pipe to go triangulation on the rear end of the car, as well as seat brackets.

i figured out how im gonna do the rear coilovers. i finally decided against pushrods on the back so i dont have a crazy firm ride. the pics show a mock up of how the rear susp will work.

at the very end of the day, i wanted to get the engine back under the chassis so i could see what kind of space i was working with for the fuel tank and also to make some engine mount templates. since i was alone, i lifted the back of the car (took the susp off so it was an empty shell) and propped it up a 4' section of metal so i could go over and get the engine. its on a little furniture roller and i rolled it over to the propped chassis. it BARELY tapped the chassis and that fell over, and for some reason the furniture roller broke in three pieces and the engine slammed to the floor. a dented oil cooler is all i can see right now. i didnt really see what happened so idk why everything broke.

pics were taken with my phone

mock up

got all my new parts in and took it in to the shop to mock it all up. the pics show a potential set up for the rear pushrods, and the seats and steering wheel in place. heres pics:

more new parts

got a bunch more parts in. these include:

seats
radiator
coilovers
steering wheel
weld in threaded bungs and tie rod ends
upper ball joints
wiring harness
some other little things

heres pics of a few of them:

one completed corner of suspension

Well after being at the shop all weekend, i have...(drumroll please....)...one corner of suspension done. thats three less than i was planning on having done. oh well. the left rear suspension is completely welded up and kind of assembled. its held on with tie rod ends and weld in threaded bungs from the unbuilt wishbones, buts its attached to the car! i moved it through its paces and it looks great. i still have to weld on the pushrod attachment, but the hard geometry part is done. its starting to look more and more like a car!

i ordered the front upper ball joints and they will be here tuesday. my coilovers should be coming late this week or early next week, so HOPEFULLY (no promises) the car will be sitting on its own feet in two weeks

here's pics

(the soda can demonstrates full bump [the car would be bottoming out] and the wood demonstrates normal ride height)







total fab time: i finally lost count. 55+ hours for sure

Suspension begins

well after looking online for four, five-foot sections of 1" pipe, i discovered it was gonna be $160.

i checked in to a local place, and they said it would be $8.32. so i doubled the order (for chassis reinforcements) and it ended up being $26 for 40ft. works for me.

so now i got more metal to continue work. first item of business was to weld in the triangular braces on the sides of the passenger compartment. to be honest, as these are just braces, the dimensions werent completely accurate to each side, but thats okay.

after that, i went in today to work on the suspension wishbones. the upper fronts are the simplest, so i started with those. i made up a jig out of wood so the dimensions would be accurate on each wishbone. i accounted for weld in threaded bungs and rod ends that will make up the ends of the wishbones.

here's pics from yesterday and today:





total fab time: 39.5 hours

Gauge Cluster

picked up this used cluster for $150.

quite a bit smaller than i thought...

cool nonetheless.