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Apr 18, 2024 14:32:25 GMT
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The bill should really be met by the production company as what they built was just downright dangerous. Perhaps make contact and give them the opportunity to put things right. A red top would likely have great fun with a story like that and may well cough up. I have to be very careful there Andrew, they had to sign a form saying they would not say anything bad about the program. To be fair, the program people had never done a hot rod before and it went more than 100% over budget (so I don't think they will ever do one again) and they went on the advice/outsourced work to some 'experts' on the parts they did not understand. They have done a lot behind the scenes to fix a lot of faults after it was given back, but they have to draw a line at some point. I'm sure the team in general did everything in good faith.
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Apr 18, 2024 13:18:09 GMT
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Here is the link to the go fund me page, thank you in advance to anyone who contributes. gofund.me/b8edcbd8
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Apr 18, 2024 12:56:22 GMT
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Just spoken to Andy & Kim and they have given me permission to try crowdfunding for it.
The costs for everything will be about £1800 to complete so we will need around £1200 from crowdfunding - possibly a little less if we can sell anything off.
If anyone would like to donate any amount big or small then we would all be very grateful.
Once I've set up a go fund me page I'll post details. If anyone prefers PayPal then please PM me.
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Apr 17, 2024 22:23:26 GMT
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Thanks for all the offers everyone, I'll post something up tomorrow after talking to Andy & Kim.
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Apr 17, 2024 22:21:36 GMT
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Lookinh good Paul.
'Cold Front' putty is brilliant stuff to minimise distortion.
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Apr 17, 2024 22:20:10 GMT
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I'd probably avoid the rubber gasket. Check for clutch fluid leaks inside the car - it's good for dissolving paint.
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Apr 17, 2024 21:50:01 GMT
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I had a good visit with Wayne at OddRods tonight, and we do have a way forward now but I need to chat with Kim & Andy about it before I say on how we achieve this. I had another look tonight at the crossmember & chassis rails and took some more measurements - the castor is 7 degrees! way too much for a road car. The chassis does look fairly simple to cut though........The white lines show the cut line and the drop needed. Wayne bluntly stated that the parts I brought over for him to look at were dangerous and that he would not touch them. His advise was it's less work to just start again, and I think I agree with him. A few photos of his work here show the quality of what he builds. This is under an Opal GT - with a twin turbo LS motor going in it!
Some larger lower wishbones for a truck and some other top wisbones.
One of his front clips under construction
And a shot of one under a Pop in his workshop.
These come all set up with no bumpsteer and he can even put the tracking approx correct for the initial fitting if asked.
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Apr 17, 2024 11:59:02 GMT
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Thanks for all the offers - it's very humbling.
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shandylegs That is very kind of you to offer, I'll PM you to discuss.
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Darkspeed - ah, the penny dropped this morning when I woke up - I apologise. I guess I mis-described my potential plan then. What I actually meant was to lower the balljoint in relation to the spring mount - if that makes more sense? This will then raise the car. But that has got me on another line of thinking - I don't think it would be terribly difficult to make a new lower wishbone mount for the crossmember and to weld those in place. The upper wishbones could then have the angled tubes to meet the top stub axle mount. Not the finest geometry I admit, but for the limited movement this car will have it should be ok. Like this;
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Apr 16, 2024 22:43:43 GMT
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A Mini rack? But that goes behind the front wheels It goes where you put it I don't know to be honest, all will be revealed tomorrow.
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Apr 16, 2024 22:07:19 GMT
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Some good progress tonight, I had a chat with probably the best hot rod suspension builder in the UK tonight - Wayne from 'Odd Rods' (he built my suspension on mine) and he is renowned for his front clips - especially for pops. Sadly he was contacted by car sos for one of his front clips, but as they wanted it in 24 hours he was unable to supply in such a short time frame which is a bit of a tradegy in retrospect. Anyway, I'm going over to him tomorrow evening with the whole front suspension and we will set it up on his suspension jig, I have taken all the datum points he asked for from the car and these will be replicated on the table so we can plan it correctly to rectify the problems. He thinks maybe a a mini rack as they are dead simple to narrow. So tonight was then spent on some little wins. I looked over the rear suspension and this was obviously checked over better with yellow markings on every bolt (I assume to mark it was tightened). The rear shocks did have a massive amount of pre load in them with the adjusters wound up rock hard. This would account for the bouncy ride when I drove it - only the tyres were giving the movement. I unwound them completely and just added a couple of turns of pre load, set the adjusters at 8 clicks and it now has a working rear suspension It needs a good clean - it's covered in filler dust everywhere! While under there I found the trans fluid leak Kim had told me about, it has a nice trans cooler fitted over the rear axle, and one of the pipe clips was a bit loose, nipped up and no more leak Another little job was welding some studs to the back of the throttle pedal plate, so it can fix securely to the mount with no bolts on the front. While the welder was on I bolted the wheel to the hub and welded the 3 loose studs back on, so another job ticked off. Lastly, the rearview mirror was bolted to the dash top - a fairly useless position, it's now fixed to the screen top as Andy wanted and has a far better rear view now.
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Apr 16, 2024 21:50:32 GMT
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Kevins,
Yes the struts give you so much more room.
Fred, yes you are right - a lot of the car is really good, it's just temporarily overshadowed by the bad bits. Once sorted it will be great. Again you are correct about the camber gain, but in reality it's not a track car and the suspension travel is only a couple of inches so although not optimal, it will be fine for real life usage.
Thanks for your input from South Africa!
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Apr 16, 2024 21:45:55 GMT
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Hi Mark, I am all good with my understanding - if no pivots move nothing moves its as simple as that - you will not levitate the chassis with different wishbones To raise the car you need to drop the spindle in relation to the lower ball joint - you are not doing that a wishbone is not a pivot its a pivot carrier. The penny will drop - but not the axle in relation to the chassis Give it time .Andrew, this is exactly what I AM proposing doing though.
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Apr 16, 2024 15:20:17 GMT
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Andrew,
I think you misunderstand my drawings. I plan to mount the balljoints approx 45mm lower in the wishbones - with the wishbones staying at the same level. This moves the stub axle downwards thus raising the car.
The block on the right is the steering arm.
All I'm doing is the reverse of dropped spindles that are used to lower cars - just in a cruder way as the spindle is not altered, just how its mounted in the wishbones.
The datum lines for the wishbone pivots are the chassis fixings - so do remain constant.
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Apr 16, 2024 15:13:19 GMT
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Andrew,
It's only about 45mm off, with the current compression of the shocks (they have about 4.5" of travel) they are roughly in the middle. I think the basics are about right - just too high in the car.
Dropping the crossmember would be ideal - but I'm not going down that road, too much work & time neither which are available at this stage.
If I can lower the stub axles to about the place in my crude drawing it should all work quite well. Track width is about right, those wings curve down over the tyres quite a bit.
The shock mounts on the lower wishbones need dropping as the shock is being compressed just to get the stub axle fitted to the wishbones.
Will the Maxi balljoints work for the top mounts as well (I assume they will).
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Apr 16, 2024 14:38:14 GMT
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kevins, yes machining the end is far easier/better, same for the TRE ends. Darkspeed , This crude drawing shows how I mean to drop the spindles to increase ride height. I get where you are coming from with the geometry. I remember when I designed my strut front end - it took 7 weeks of cramming on suspension design to understand that suspensions are incredibly complicated! New design on left - current design on right.
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Apr 16, 2024 12:19:48 GMT
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Fred, I think if I effectively just drop the uprights on the wishbones then the rack does actually remain in the correct geometry (the inner wishbone & steering knuckle points remain in the same pivot point - that bit is at least correctly built). Darkspeed, this is my thoughts on the upper arm - it's only a crude cad drawing from assumed dimensions but it shows the principle of my idea. the lower one would be similar as long as it allows for full steering movement etc. Top view & end view showing the lowered position of the balljoint. If I can do this it keeps the suspension in the parameters it was built for but effectively lowers the spindle height on the suspension - hence raising the car. This will still allow the correct spring travel/poundage.
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Apr 16, 2024 11:24:37 GMT
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Thanks Andrew,
There is some benefit in levelling off the upper arm as it gives more clearance for the spring. If I can use smaller footprint balljoints that will help matters a lot.
The rack (should??) be dropped as if I effectively drop the spindles on the wishbones (by making lowering platforms for the balljoints) then the rack should be dropped by the same amount - or should it?? - or am I overthinking it?
The rack is actually in the correct place for the suspension as it stands right now. Apart from the car being too low, the suspension (apart from the balljoints bottoming out on droop and the calipers hitting, the shocks being misaligned & springs fouling the wishbones) actually works about right.
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Darkspeed, I'm thinking this would also be ok?
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