Projects 26 T Roadster Pick Up build Thread

Update time. Spent 2 long days working in the garage,and finished up the wishbones.

Since I wanted to run them to the outside of the frame rails it presented a challenge given that I had curved the frame out to follow the gentle curve of the T body.

Because of that, there was no room for a wishbone to run straight from the brackets off the rear end to the side of the framerail.

The rear end brackets would have been tight against the brake backing plate leaving no room for the e-brake cable etc.

So, the solution was to put a 5 degree bend into the wishbone allowing it to sneak around and clear the rear corner of the frame and follow along the side to the front mount.

The frame mounts for the heims were done the same way I did for the front bones.

As you can see the rear bones are also drilled and sleeved with tubing as the front ones are.

The next step will be the top link of the rear suspension to complete the 3 link set-up.

Then will be the coil over mounts. Here's some pics. It's starting to look like a hot rod chassis !

 

Bump for the day crowd !

 

Top notch again Larry!


Mario

 

nice build- i am starting one myself

 

Only just found this thread, Its amazing how easy it is to miss good stuff on here. Great to see you using a Y block, I have a built 292 with Fenton tri setup that i'm itching to put into a little modified.

Look forward to the updates.

 

Good stuff Thanks, that's nice to hear coming from you.

 

Another small update, made my rear lower coil over mounts, got them welded up using 1/4" plate and tacked them to the rear axle.

I only tacked them in place as when I get it sitting on the floor I may have to move them slightly around the housing when I dial in my pinion angle.

Larry

 

Excellent build thread. Are you going to "BOX" in the rearend wishbone plates or just leave them exposed and parallel like you have them now?

Frank

 

I had in mind to look at the section where it rises up to the top heim and possibly drill through there and add another tube- hole.

Otherwise I'll leave them open.

There is plenty of strength there even to a sideways load, they are 1/4" plate.

What did you have in mind ?

 

If you mean the plates on the rear end itself, I'll leave them open, just weld around them.

 

Great job. I am looking forward to seeing this on the road.

 

Looking great, can't wait to see this done!

 

Thanks fellas, I have been on this project a relatively short time and have made decent progress.

It's gonna take a while, I'm building everything I possibly can, then comes the factor we all have to face is the $ come slowly sometimes.

I don't want this to take forever though. Doing my best.

 

A little more progress.

I built the upper shock mounts and tacked them into place with the bars I have drilled at 13" to set ride height for my TCI All American coil overs bolted in.

After that I was looking at different designs for the rest of the rear suspension.

I decided on a pair of upper bars angled from the top of the pumpkin (4 bar style ).

Fabricated the bars, brackets and all then welded - tacked it all in place.

Have a look at the pictures.

 

Bump !

 

Couple more little things today, went out to the garage to clean it up and then started doing stuff instead .

I beefed up the corners of the kickup a little, maybe overkill but will give me a little peace of mind.

Also added some small braces to the upper front 4 bar mounts.

 

correct me if im wrong, but without a pivot point at the diff on the lower 'bones' wont the suspension bind a great deal as it trys to travel?

 

nice build. be watching for updates.

 

rustisgold, I'm with you on this one. It is time to remove the "hangers" and the Mock-up shocks and move this rear end up and down with a floor jack. I have concerns but I know nothing. It is worth checking now though and I hope I'm wrong.

Very nice fabrication and welding. Keep after it.

Lost_N_Austin

 

Went out to the garage and removed all of the support brackets and the coil over mock up bars too.

Hooked my engine hoist to the rear end through the hole in the top bracket of the rear end.

Moved the suspension up and down and it moves well through the range of up and down motion needed.

There is some binding as expected if one side tries to move up and the other side stays down. I get about 2" up and down movement without too much trouble before it binds.

Any suggestions ? I'm doing my suspension based on an already used idea so ??

Here are some pics I used for reference. This is a 32 apparently.

EDIT - And, the damned thing must ride like a truck with no suspension at all ! After what I discovered with mine this design ends up as a very big very stiff anti sway bar and gives almost no side to side suspension action when one wheel passes over a bump the rear end is not able to react properly with one wheel rising and the other staying down on the pavement.
Poor design to copy as I have discovered.

 

Ok well I messed around with it and it appears that a re-design is in order Oh well crap happens !

I unhooked and removed the top heim joint from the plates I designed for the rear end.

Once I did that then I get plenty of articulation and the rear end can move up and down freely from side to side.

It removes the "sway bar" effect and allows it to work smoothly, as in it will allow one side of the rear end to go up and the other to drop as a wheel goes over a bump on uneven pavement.


So a re-design of the wishbones and rear end mounting plates with only one lower pivot point is in order.

I have it in my head and will post pics as I get it built.

 

Blue One, this is an interesting delima. I wonder if the front mounts allowed it to twist (heim joints?). With a top 2 bar, you should only need a single bottom. when we talked I thought you were running a transverse spring (like I am). that might allow it to pivot.

Did you try unhooking the top 2 bars and see how it moved with just the lower (curious more then anything)

Since I was also going to build something similar to the pictures of the green 32, I will have to think about it more. that was a professional shop that does some outstanding rides.. maybe someone on here knows the car

 

Yes the top bars were unhooked, made no difference with the "sway bar torsion effect" of having the wishbone solidly mounted to the rear end with 2 heims.

Having a single bottom pivot will allow the rear end to move as it should.

As soon as I removed the top 2 heims from the wishbones , the rear end worked really nicely in all directions.

I had originally thought of using the transverse rear spring, but decided to go coil overs in search of a good ride.

As far as the green car being professionally built, it is not the first time something less than ideal in function was rolled out of a pro shop.

 

Well dah! Yes... keep it coming, please!
I subscribed long ago.

 

as did many more of us.

 

Uhhh.... yeah! I subscribed a while back so I wouldn't miss your updates! GIMME MORE BLUE ONE!

 

I just found this thread.
Good to see that you tested your suspension before you finished everything.
I see a lot of "wrong" designed suspensions on Hot Rods......
Mostly on the rear.

I like the `32 style frame idea

Michael

 

im kinda wishing ida kept that body, but i like the build quallity your putting into the car-nice work

 

you can use the split wishbones and then just make it a triangulated 4 link.

 

Well update time. I modified the wishbones I made to go to a single pivot point below the rear end.

Removed all the heim joints except the ones on the front of the wishbones where they attach to the frame.

Fabricated all new mounting points with all urethane bushings.

Now that it's all together I tested it all out and the difference is really amazing. I now have a smoothly moving suspension that articulates well from side to side with no binding through a larger range of suspension movement than the coil overs will allow, both up and down as well as side to side.

Gone is the "sway bar effect" of the last design

Needless to say I'm pretty happy with the results of my "modified triangulated 4 bar design".

Pictures below. Larry.