drummerdad
05-25-2020, 09:32 AM
I have run into an issue on Isaacs truck build. Ill try and keep it short, but Im not sure what direction to head.
I am building my sons 67 dodge d100. To make a long story short, it was his first vehicle, he got sick and passed away and asked us to finish it. We had many conversations before he got sick about the direction he wanted to go with the truck. He was obsessed with the Dodge challenger hellcat, and wanted to buy a pops and cleveland crate and transfer all of it over. Ambitious for sure, but I cant pull that off. Im talking the Uconnect, the traction control, the ABS...everything.
Anyway, I bought an IFS and have installed it on the truck. It turns out, this is a Helix kit, from...Chi..na. So, we spent some time adding braces in a few spots, and trying to fix it. Here is where the problems come in.
Problem #1- The upper A-arms are too short to eliminate the camber. Im going to add a larger DOM bar over the existing, and weld in a bung that accepts the upper joints, which will extend the a-arm about 1". It wont change the geometry. Not a huge deal. It will also allow me a chance to add some more gussets to the a-arm.
Problem #2- The tie rod ends are to short to eliminate the tow in. Again, we will fabricate some rod ends using DOM tubing and a weld in bung. Easy, but annoying.
Problem #3- In order to make the truck a tribute to Isaac, it really needs Hellcat wheels. This poses a big problem. After taking some measurements, and checking the offset, and clearance, I would need to widen the front suspension by about 4" give or take. To add to that, the front spindles interfere with modern wheels, where the outside wheel bearing protrudes through the wheel. Most modern cars have hubs. I am running a 1-1/2" spacer up front now, on a 8.5"wide wheel from a Charger. The Hellcat wheels will be a full inch wider, and that will be in positive offset.
So for the technical stuff. I am running factory 8-1/2" by 20" charger wheels that have a 24mm offset, I have 5-3/4" backspacing to the outside of the tire. I currently run (against my best judgment) 1-1/2" spacers, which would make my effective backspacing about 4-1/4". The hellcat uses 9-1/2" front tires, with an 18.5mm offset (4-1/2" BS). I want to get rid of the spacers, because, well spacers suck...So I need to make up somewhere in the neighborhood of about 2" per side, for a total front track width increase of 4".
This is where I dont know what to do. Should I get custom a-arms that are 2" wider (this wont fix the spindle issue)? Should I cut and splice the forward crossmember (this wont fix the spindle issue or the a-arm being too short)? I know the "best" option is to cut it out and start over. Im really not wanting to do that. And if we give up on the hellcat wheels, I will have to get custom made negative offset wheels. Those are about $1k each.
CLIFF NOTES*
I installed an IFS (properly) and its going to be too narrow to run the wheels I want (need) to run. I need a solution for this that also fixes a few other issues, but avoids the complete removal of the IFS we have. Options seem to be custom IFS for $5k. Custom wheels for about $4k. Or custom parts which might not work. Help please. Pictures follow.
I am building my sons 67 dodge d100. To make a long story short, it was his first vehicle, he got sick and passed away and asked us to finish it. We had many conversations before he got sick about the direction he wanted to go with the truck. He was obsessed with the Dodge challenger hellcat, and wanted to buy a pops and cleveland crate and transfer all of it over. Ambitious for sure, but I cant pull that off. Im talking the Uconnect, the traction control, the ABS...everything.
Anyway, I bought an IFS and have installed it on the truck. It turns out, this is a Helix kit, from...Chi..na. So, we spent some time adding braces in a few spots, and trying to fix it. Here is where the problems come in.
Problem #1- The upper A-arms are too short to eliminate the camber. Im going to add a larger DOM bar over the existing, and weld in a bung that accepts the upper joints, which will extend the a-arm about 1". It wont change the geometry. Not a huge deal. It will also allow me a chance to add some more gussets to the a-arm.
Problem #2- The tie rod ends are to short to eliminate the tow in. Again, we will fabricate some rod ends using DOM tubing and a weld in bung. Easy, but annoying.
Problem #3- In order to make the truck a tribute to Isaac, it really needs Hellcat wheels. This poses a big problem. After taking some measurements, and checking the offset, and clearance, I would need to widen the front suspension by about 4" give or take. To add to that, the front spindles interfere with modern wheels, where the outside wheel bearing protrudes through the wheel. Most modern cars have hubs. I am running a 1-1/2" spacer up front now, on a 8.5"wide wheel from a Charger. The Hellcat wheels will be a full inch wider, and that will be in positive offset.
So for the technical stuff. I am running factory 8-1/2" by 20" charger wheels that have a 24mm offset, I have 5-3/4" backspacing to the outside of the tire. I currently run (against my best judgment) 1-1/2" spacers, which would make my effective backspacing about 4-1/4". The hellcat uses 9-1/2" front tires, with an 18.5mm offset (4-1/2" BS). I want to get rid of the spacers, because, well spacers suck...So I need to make up somewhere in the neighborhood of about 2" per side, for a total front track width increase of 4".
This is where I dont know what to do. Should I get custom a-arms that are 2" wider (this wont fix the spindle issue)? Should I cut and splice the forward crossmember (this wont fix the spindle issue or the a-arm being too short)? I know the "best" option is to cut it out and start over. Im really not wanting to do that. And if we give up on the hellcat wheels, I will have to get custom made negative offset wheels. Those are about $1k each.
CLIFF NOTES*
I installed an IFS (properly) and its going to be too narrow to run the wheels I want (need) to run. I need a solution for this that also fixes a few other issues, but avoids the complete removal of the IFS we have. Options seem to be custom IFS for $5k. Custom wheels for about $4k. Or custom parts which might not work. Help please. Pictures follow.