fiero308 Buildup thread (LOTS OF PIX!!!! ; ))

[fiero308]

hi
thanks;
I had to get some work done; sometimes you wonder but this is something i have wanted to do for a long time.  To be really ridiculous, I am hoping to go see V8Archies shop in IL this summer and see his GT40 kit (future considerations).  THAT is my fave car.... and so I am viewing all this as 'practise'.  Interestingly, Darth Fiero's shop is on the way in Indiana so hope to stop in there too.
I hit a "Canada delay" after my last outing (Jan).  It dropped to the -25 range for about a wk-10 days and during that time I got busy at work. Typically this is my busiest time of yr, so  not a surprise. It is now 13 feb - sunday - and i have been workworking all day. Oh well. I can see that maybe in about a wk I will be caught up and able to get out there again.
In the meantime,
I bought another parts car; a 92 Lumina Z34 with 5 spd, complete.  It actually sounds pretty good but I will have to get it here. 
I have hit a possible snag with the new upper arm.  It may be too far 'back' where the upper balljoint installs and we are checking that.  As in, the welding shop is thinking about it.... to be realistic.  But it will get resolved soon.
I am hoping to get a pic from someone of the STOCK setup, taken from 'dead-on' the stub axle end to show the alignment of the arms etc etc.
I am starting to think about maybemaybe getting my car on the road for this summer; my plans so far is simply to get it RUNNING.......so that is ambitious but who knows?
So my next progress should hopefully start up again in about a wk.  I am going to push this as much as possible.  But not tomorrow.  That is the 14th Feb and I am told that is something special....

[fiero308]

Welllllllllllllll  it has been a while. Things like keeping body and soul together, for myself and various hangers-on around here. Then a principle client broke his leg and was (still is...) laid up for the past 5 wks so I ended up being his 'gopher'..... to meetings and jobsites and so on - on top of doing other ......umm - work.

But finally got back at it last nite. I have been plaguing the welder to come to have a look at his handiwork - specifically the upper control arms (front) he made. I mocked it up and it 'LOOKED" (unscientific, huh?) like it wasn't right. And so I put the stock arms back on and found a reference point ( a bit difficult since the new arms are almost 2" longer) to try to compare. And it 'seemed' like the new uppers were not right. But weeks and weeks went by and he couldn't manage to get here to have a look; so friday I phoned and said why don't I go ahead and make any changes and he said 'sure!"........ so I did.
Sat nite spent about 2 solid hours doing end of winter cleanup;
THEN got at the uppers.
This is what I found:
First is a pic of the roughed together upper arm in my jig (the jig is what takes the time...)
You can sort of see the tape measure with the 10" mark showing in the opening. You can sort of see that it is not centred......... so I was right. In fact it was off by just about 1/4" exactly. 2nd pic is a bit clearer. I took the pix without the flash but believe me, I had lots of light for this stuff.

[fiero308]

2 pix per posting..........
so I cut out the plate, nicked the tack welds and bent the arm so that the plate would mount in the right place. In this pic it shows the 'adjusted' lower arms (in the jig) with the other side control arm (not yet adjusted) on top of it; to show how much I had to move it.
Then I have to grind out some material and tack it together. Again it looks dark but that is in fact because of the spot light fooling the cameras light meter. You can see how much I have to get rid of but that is OK.
Today I'll do that to both uppers and work on getting the proper shock mounts attached to the lower arms; then monday I can take them in to be all solidly welded up.  While they are doing that, we'll go sun ourselves somewhere warmer!!!

[fiero308]

well I'm not a happy camper. The whole point of getting the welding shop to make up the new (longer) front upper control arms (yes, the bottoms too) was to SAVE time.
I have ended up taking apart the upper arms completely; they weren't made accurately; and, as a further concern, the heavy steel 'sleeves' that the red poly bushings fit into seem to be some bizarre alloy that doesn't like mild steel.  Repeated efforts to tack the new arms to these sleeves are ending in the arms simply snapping off. There is NO penetration or 'stick' to the sleeve material; I don't know what it is but it isn't stainless. So that is a concern and at this point in time a P.O.
They used the same stuff for the lower arms so that might turn into an issue too.

So I happened to have some high quality seamless tubing that is just about right for the small upper poly bushings; so I have made up new sleeves and remade the left front upper control arm and have got the right front ready to go. That being said I am NOT happy with how they look and I am going to pursue getting some other good tubing I have bent and remake the arms too.
Right now everything looks sloppy and I am not happy with that.
So today has been an exercise in frustration and a lost day pretty much.

Maybe to reclaim a bit of progress I'll try to get that upper shock mount made up. That at least I can do, then mirror it for the far side.

darn and more......  

[fiero308]

May 8th. Hmmmm
Oh yeah! Happy Mothers Day!!
I spend a fair bit of it in the garage........ THAT should make her happy! 
Had a week away and workwork when I got back but finally got to spend some time on the front end again.
I wasn't happy with the way the welding shop did the front upper control arms so decided to redo them.
Step one: need a bender......
mickey-moused one out of 3 pipe dies and a metal bender I had...... that took a bit of time.  Works OK.    No flat spots on the tubing after bending it, providing I am careful. I am using a die for the 'stopper' or keeper (whatever you want to call it) that is sometimes just a flat piece of metal. This helps maintain the round section.
Hard to tell, probably; the 'most reddish' one at the back is the 'stopper' - the other two do the bending and form the radius.
Test piece looks OK; learned a bit from it.

(2 pix per........)

[fiero308]

Bent up my new arms. Turned out OK.  1" DOM tubing with .100 wall. Bought a bit of this stuff way back.  A bit rusty.....

Next, I realized that the ball joint mounting plates they used didn't provide enough area at the edges to allow for a decent weld. So......... make up new ones. 1/4" plate.  Oh well.  Also my belt sander is on its last legs.  (Excuse coming up)......

[fiero308]

So a new sander was required.  Seems logical, right?

And finally; as far as I got today; new arms made up, new ball joint mounting plates made up, one arm finished/sized - ready to be tacked in place.  You can see the bushings in the jig and the 12mm threaded rod I am using to hold things in place.

I am hoping to have both arms finished tomorrow. The bottom front control arms are good; so this gets me almost done with the front suspension (fabrication-wise).

I am making the upper control arms to be interchangeable; my suspension travel is very limited and so the ball joint plate is 'aimed' at the axis of rotation (the long bolt that goes thru the upper control arm bushings) ...... vs the slight angle that is on the stock setup.  I don't foresee any problem with doing this.

more to come soon I hope 
gp

[fiero308]

update:
monday may 9th; I got the upper control arms all tacked together and got the lower shock mounts attached to the lower control arms and took them into the welding shop to 'get glued' together (high amperage welder)

I could do it but I feel a bit more comfortable having them do this particular bit.

Hope to have them back in a day or two, then sandblast and paint! Then I have to get the upper shock mounts done and my front end will roll!!  Won't stop, but it will roll.
Brake caliper mounting brackets are on the soon-to-do list.........

But it is progress and that is good.

gp

[fiero308]

little update:
the control arms are DONE......
welded solid and test fitted on the jig to be sure they didn't move during welding; I have drilled and tapped them for grease fittings and have to sandblast and paint them now.
With a little luck I will get my other donor car tomorrow - Sat; and get it back here in my driveway which should please all the neighbours immersurably......
I have cleaned and primed the steering rack so it is ready for painting when it gets WARM enough again arrrrgggghhhhh

So stay tuned...... little things happening
gp

[fiero308]

Well the control arms are painted; at least partially - seems pretty bad when you have to wait for WARM WEATHER in MAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! arghhh

I also cleaned up the steering rack and had it checked out; it is fine. But as a note, the amount of corrosion where the rubber bushings fit was SCARY!  A LOT of heavy duty corrosion to the point that a measureable amount of aluminum has warn away I would guess.

So it is cleaned, primed and painted. Aluminum, so it looks new, LOL.
My BIG concern now is with holding it firmly in place. Looking at those "U" brackets, they don't look all that strong against lateral forces. In fact, they don't look right at all. So I am thinking about adapting something like a bit of reinforcement to them (they still have to fit the bushings etc) to keep them from 'bending' a bit from side to side.

Does anyone know if you can get poly steering rack bushings?

Hope to get a good day in on the car today! Pix to follow.
gp

[fiero308]

got some work done; not as much....... you know..........
but started prepping the new lower control arms; realized that one had been ground down and smoothed and the other NOT (yet) ..... then I looked inside and saw that the seam inside had not been welded so I decided to do that too.

first pic you can see near the back where the seam is.......
that will eventually be gone.......
you can see in the next pic where that unwelded seam is........

[fiero308]

Upper control arms are done; tapped and ready for grease fittings; got two coats on top of the primer so that is a start. I am not going for show quality right now; I am too anxious to make it ROLL.........!!!

I put bolts in where the grease nipples will go to keep paint off the threads.
Anyway
long story short; spent pretty much the rest of the day on the lower control arms; drilled and tapped the grease nipple holes; drilled lightening holes and future sway bar holes in the 'web' between the arms; did a LOT of smoothing and finishing; not show quality, no, but it doesn't look too too bad;
primed and painted finally;
got the steering rack just about ready to go back in with the new ends installed; just have to put one boot on. It has 2 fresh coats of aluminum paint.
so a bit of progress.  Amazing how time consuming it is. 

[aaron88]

Dude....those look super heavy duty.  I don't think you are going to have any problems with it.

Aaron

.

[fiero308]

well problems are NOT something I want so I am going to err on the side of "no problems" as much as possible.   
Believe it or not they are only a shade heavier than the stock units.... and they ARE longer so they should be a bit more I suppose but I will save a fair bit with the reduced suspension components (removed spring, shock, spring perch, etc etc etc)
So I may come in under weight anyway.


Got the steering rack reinstalled today; holding that plastic/rubber protective sleeve out of the way is a trick; if you snake some vice grips up inside then you can pry the sleeve back and work comfortably. Took a pic in case that helps anyone.
(later)

Installing the control arms; front right. It IS a bit of a test fit and it is TIGHT!! but that is ok
just got the ball joint pressed in; the impact gun makes short work of THAT LOL!!!
should have a bit more progress to post shortly.
Day by day bit by bit. I'll beat Gary..........

[fiero308]

well got a lot of 'work' done....... but lots more to do of course.
Painted both front wheel wells; couldn't decide between silver and black so went with gray.
Got the steering rack installed; used vice grips as a 3rd hand to make it easier to keep the boot out of the way (1st pic) good hint here for anyone doing 'rack work'.

Got my control arms finished and the bushings installed and the grease nipples; modified those little end caps for the lowers to match/fit my lower control arms; got the right front installed (2nd pic) so I can do my final locating for the upper shock mount.

A good day; cleaned up and got the bench ready for tomorrow; set up a jig for making the upper shock mount both sides and make them. Got some grinding to do on the driver side spring perch area to make it match the right side (where I have spent all my time)

Doesn't look too bad so far. Nice and tight, too; those end caps really make you force the control arms into place!