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    Results 21 to 40 of 75
    1. #21
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States

      Wheel/Tire

      It's like Christmas in May! Got these in today for the Roach. Seams a bit too nice for the car, but you gotta have some bling. They are sweet! Thanks Forgeline for doing a great job, as usual. Had a used set of 315's to mount up for fitment. This is a look at Ride Height. Rear suspension is almost done, trans is done, gear set is here, brakes are here. Need to run some plumbing before we start to re-assemble.

      Attached Images Attached Images    


    2. #22
      Join Date
      May 2005
      Location
      Socal, Ca
      Posts
      913
      Rob,

      Are these the deep concave rims?

    3. #23
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States
      The rears are, the fronts are the standard concave. Wheel in picts is a rear

    4. #24
      Join Date
      Dec 2005
      Location
      Birmingham, AL
      Posts
      3,356
      Country Flag: United States
      Nice choice! The new IFS looks cool.
      Stephen

    5. #25
      Join Date
      Nov 2006
      Location
      Houma, Louisiana
      Posts
      305
      Country Flag: United States
      All looks good Rob, cannot wait to see the finished product. Love those Forgelines.


      Bill Haynie

      1970 Nova 572/620 TKO600
      2013 Boss 302 Laguna Seca



    6. #26
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States
      While the front is going back together, and we're waiting for the trans to get back (mild freshening up of the TH350), we've been laying out plans for the rear suspension. As I said before, I'm a newbee to the F-body particulars and some things are really starting to settle in. We really want to do an offset 3-link. But, if we're going to do this, we have our own rules to follow.

      1. It has to work. Really well.
      2. We have to be able to duplicate it, at some reasonable level.
      3. It has to be available in a kit form that others can install and duplicate the performance.
      4. it has to be user friendly, so that others will choose and install, and be able to duplicate the success.

      Now, add to that, Easy to set up, easy to tune, and give the user some choices to fit their goals. So, our plans include 3-link, low mount panhard bar, coil-over assembly, sway bar, mounting and bracing, and a new housing/axles if desired. The design work of the 3-link is easy. You start with the wheelbase, axle height, weight and weight balance..... put it in a program and we can work out the mounting points for the bars to get the desired instant center, anti squat, roll steer and roll center..... Now, fitting that in the car is the tricky part, doing this within our rules makes it even tougher. For our project car we are using a Moser 9" ford with 31 spline floating axles and a WMS width of 56". (If I had it to do over I would go with 58") The Moser 9" has straight 3" tubes for easy mounting, so the axle side mounts are not to tough. We will be using a pivit-ball end on the links to allow full articulation and a quiet ride. now on to the chassis side of things.

      Starting with the lower bars, we set the length in a range that would let us mount them in the OE spring pocket area. Here's where the learning curve hit. We had the OE pocket/cup for the leaf, and the hardware. Really? Three nut-clips in some sheet metal hold in the spring? So that's what transfers 600+ HP to the ground on these cars, OK. But not going to work for us. Besides, our car is on the rough side, and there's a little rust in that area.
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    7. #27
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States
      Now I know that she's no peach, but I'll bet this is pretty normal. And if not rusted all the way through, most rails here are weaker than on day 1. Our front lower bar mount will be a weld-in part. The Pivit mounting has a through bolt and sleeve, so a notch must be cut to install. These will come assembled as shown and pre-fitted to the rails bends. As well as being welded in place, there is a bolt pad that sits on the top side of the floor to help pull the mount up tight.
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    8. #28
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States
      I know this looks pretty rough, but this is the truth of what we're working with. The cut notch allows the mount sleeve to fit up into the rail section. We did not repair the rust because soon it wont matter. We did use a liberal amount of rust sealer once the area was cleaned and before the mount were pushed up. The mounts nest tight up to the floor section as a front stop to locate them, they also line up with the OE mount holes. Once in place, three holes are drill in each side through the floor and the top plates are bolted in. This helps to pull the new mounts the rest of the way up. once in place, they are welded in. The large holes (not welded yet) are there to plug weld through to the OE rail. Slow and steady, don't over heat the metal. Now we have some lower mounts that can handle to torque. There is one more brace to add, from the new mount out to the rocker pinch weld seam. The aluminum spacer is there to hold the width during welding.

      Ok, I am looking for feedback, positive or negative. Let me have it.
      Attached Images Attached Images    
      Last edited by RobNoLimit; 05-13-2015 at 05:27 AM.

    9. #29
      Join Date
      Feb 2005
      Location
      Minneapolis, MN
      Posts
      195
      Country Flag: United States
      I like how it looks. As an amateur welder/fab guy, I think this is something I could handle to cut and weld in. Having done a set of subframe connectors, where you had to do a lot of trimming to get a good fit, I like how this looks. I like the idea of having the 3 bolts pull the mount up tight and hold it for welding. As opposed to having to hold it or brace it and have it shift a little during install.

    10. #30
      Join Date
      Sep 2011
      Location
      Southern Ontario
      Posts
      640
      Country Flag: Canada
      Quote Originally Posted by RobNoLimit View Post
      I know this looks pretty rough, but this is the truth of what we're working with. The cut notch allows the mount sleeve to fit up into the rail section. We did not repair the rust because soon it wont matter. We did use a liberal amount of rust sealer once the area was cleaned and before the mount were pushed up. The mounts nest tight up to the floor section as a front stop to locate them, they also line up with the OE mount holes. Once in place, three holes are drill in each side through the floor and the top plates are bolted in. This helps to pull the new mounts the rest of the way up. once in place, they are welded in. The large holes (not welded yet) are there to plug weld through to the OE rail. Slow and steady, don't over heat the metal. Now we have some lower mounts that can handle to torque. There is one more brace to add, from the new mount out to the rocker pinch weld seam. The aluminum spacer is there to hold the width during welding.

      Ok, I am looking for feedback, positive or negative. Let me have it.
      Rob, I am an amateur at all this so take it as such, but in the first picture if the top edge of the rounded portion was not as rounded, it would be easier to weld to the stock OE? [Where the floor boards curve up]

    11. #31
      Join Date
      Jan 2015
      Location
      Charlotte, NC
      Posts
      309
      Country Flag: United States
      Like the way it looks..how's the rest of the car coming along?
      Justin Novick
      Sales/Support
      Entropy Radiator / Engineered Cooling Products
      "The Sexiest Radiators For The Sexiest Hot Rods"

      www.EntropyRad.com www.SpeedCooling.com
      773.303.8251

    12. #32
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by Peter Mc Mahon View Post
      Rob, I am an amateur at all this so take it as such, but in the first picture if the top edge of the rounded portion was not as rounded, it would be easier to weld to the stock OE? [Where the floor boards curve up]
      We did that to reduce the shear load on the OE panel. But yes, it would be easier to weld, there's a give/take there.

    13. #33
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States
      coming along nicely. We'll be showing off your parts soon.

    14. #34
      Join Date
      Nov 2008
      Location
      Lawrenceburg, TN
      Posts
      4,083
      Country Flag: United States

    15. #35
      Join Date
      Sep 2013
      Location
      sw Kansas
      Posts
      1,640
      Country Flag: United States
      Rob, the only downside I thought of was the factory tolerances on the attaching area. If the initial description states that you need skills and this isn't for someone who hasn't ever fit and welded before, I would think you would have satisfied customers. I observe that there is about 3 levels of work that happens in today's market place: absolute bolt on, it better be dummy proof! Some cutting and welding, skills and some exp. required. Advance skills needed because of equipment and knowledge needed to install the purchased parts and the ability to adjust after the install. Almost nothing is in the first category which causes unhappy people. Due to production and oem tolerances, most items require fitting. people aren't expecting that. I would think that the customer for this would be the second or 3rd skill level so they would be satisfied after they were done.

    16. #36
      Join Date
      May 2005
      Location
      Socal, Ca
      Posts
      913
      It looks good. I hope D.Pozzi pops in here and gives us his two cents.

    17. #37
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States

      Panhard Rod

      Working away on the project has brought in some debate in the shop. Panhard vs. Watts, and now, 3 Link vs. Torque arm.

      The first one is easy for me. Although I run a Watts link (sideways under the diff) on the HellBoy, I am a believer in the tuning aspects of a panhard rod - When PROPERLY done. Most commonly available panhard rod set ups are too short, and mounted too high - IMHO. Most of this has to do with "packaging" and making a product that is "sell-able" and can have successful installation results. - Looks too different = doesn't sell. Too hard to install = doesn't sell. That's just the market. The "Too short" part usually has to do with those dang coil-overs in the way, and the "Too high" part has a lot to do with what there is to mount to. We decided that the roll center location is more important than those other pesky things, like coil-overs and available mount locations. We know the front roll center of the Sniper IFS, and we want the rear roll center to be about 1 1/2" higher than that, and have some tuning range. What we came up with will be included in the Sniper rear suspension package. Not for the faint of heart.

      The picture is of the basic big pieces, there are a few small brace pieces not shown. The "Axle side mount of the Panhard rod is part of the lower link mount.
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      Last edited by RobNoLimit; 06-12-2015 at 06:01 AM.

    18. #38
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States

      Panhard Rod

      Ok, so you Will be able to see this from outside the car. Mostly from behind the wheel on the passenger side. Maybe it looks a little crazy, but we're OK with that. The chassis side mount is designed for use with a mini-tub and trimmed down rail section. I doubt we will bother to make this to fit a stock tub and rail. The cross brace is fitted to a small mount tab on the drivers side, and also attaches to a portion of the trunk pan.
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    19. #39
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States

      Panhard Rod

      - Forgot to mention this. The brace rab is bent in that goofy step to allow for exhaust clearance.

      The Panhard bar itself is now 38 1/4" center to center. On the chassis side we are using on of our poly lined pivot ball adjusters (left hand thread), this helps reduce NVH. On the axle side it's a high-misalignment rod end. (right hand thread). In 6" of travel there is .107" of side shift. So, from ride height to full compression (based on a level bar) will yield less than .060". now, if you've been following following along on some of the advanced discussion you may have alreadt thought - Hmm, if you mount the axle side slightly lower than the chassis side, then the axle shift will be about half, or .030". Yeah I know some caught that.
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    20. #40
      Join Date
      Aug 2010
      Location
      now In Dandridge, Tn.
      Posts
      1,301
      Country Flag: United States
      Oh yeah, about that 3-link vs. Torque arm discussion. We decided we can't decide. So, we're going to build the car to run both. - No, not at the same time. Look, the lower links, panhard rod, coil-overs and sway bar would be in the same place either way. So, if we put in both sets of mounts, we can swap from a 3-link to the torque arm in a hour or so. And then we'll settle it the old fashion way - with a Shoot-Out.

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