Project Car / Motorbike thread. Let's see 'em.

[Haakon]

Ways to improve leaf sprung rear end apart from resets and good dampers? All my experience so far with making cars handle is coil sprung solid or IRS designs.

Best way to improve the rear end on an EL wagon is to sell it and buy something with proper suspension.

Or maybe work out how to graft in the IRS from an AU Fairmont.

But otherwise, dont drive it hard and understand that its a great towing car, but not much chop as a performance car.

 

[wesdadude]

Looks mint.

Spent 7 hours under the civic yesterday [snip] Furious.

Maybe you're looking for here?

 

[redbruce]

Ways to improve leaf sprung rear end apart from resets and good dampers? All my experience so far with making cars handle is coil sprung solid or IRS designs.

The up side is no inherent camber/toe issues with a live rear end (just don't use lowering blocks to drop the back) and don't stiffen spring rate too much (otherwise front has to manage the inherent roll oversteer). I don't know about relative merits for shocks on fords but on Commodores KYB Excel -G are much superior to Munro GT's but I'd go to adjustable Koni's to give some extra tuning ability, especially since you have coil overs up front.

The EL was a huge improvement over earlier falcons in the sedans (they were actually really pretty good for a live rear design), but only a bit for the wagon due to limitation of a cart sprung live rear.

Ideally a watts link is required (like on the sedans) and what we did to Mazda RX3's, Escorts, etc for club racing back in the day (along with some sort of track rod linkage) but that is a major exercise and technically road illegal.

Take a look at what Ford have done to tame the cart rear on the XR6T utes. They handle better than any such layout should.

This is a reasonable discussion on principles and design:

Design of a rear suspension configuration for a live axle race car to achieve optimum handling characteristics. https://eprints.usq.edu.au/3971/1/Parkin_2007.pdf

Or maybe work out how to graft in the IRS from an AU Fairmont.

AU still had coil live rear. IRS came in with BA sedan but wagon still had Hotchkiss (leaf spring) live rear.

 

[Haakon]

To be fair, as Redbruce says the later Foulcan leaf spring do handle way better than they should. But still lots of unsprung weight - my best brown pants moment was a sharp dip in the road in the middle of long high speed sweeper - the axle simply bounced and there was a much too long period where the back wheels were not on the ground. The rear of the car rotated about 5-10 degrees at 120kph and landed with a very loud screech from the tyres as the car straightened up rather violently. :twitch:

I'd must have hit that corner at that speed a hundred times in my Renaults which hardly noticed that dip...


AU Fairmont Ghia, XR8 and XR6 VCT (and as an option on other models) had a nice double wishbone IRS that hung off a subframe for simple fitment onto the chassis that also held the coil sprung live axle. The BA onwards control balde IRS is a different beast again, adapted from the rear end developed in Europe for the Focus.

 

[nitro01]

Best way to improve the rear end on an EL wagon is to sell it and buy something with proper suspension.

Or maybe work out how to graft in the IRS from an AU Fairmont.

But otherwise, dont drive it hard and understand that its a great towing car, but not much chop as a performance car.

I like my wagon though And I know it's nothing compared to an IRS platform but it's fun.

 

[nitro01]

To be fair, as Redbruce says the later Foulcan leaf spring do handle way better than they should. But still lots of unsprung weight - my best brown pants moment was a sharp dip in the road in the middle of long high speed sweeper - the axle simply bounced and there was a much too long period where the back wheels were not on the ground. The rear of the car rotated about 5-10 degrees at 120kph and landed with a very loud screech from the tyres as the car straightened up rather violently. :twitch:

I'd must have hit that corner at that speed a hundred times in my Renaults which hardly noticed that dip...


AU Fairmont Ghia, XR8 and XR6 VCT (and as an option on other models) had a nice double wishbone IRS that hung off a subframe for simple fitment onto the chassis that also held the coil sprung live axle. The BA onwards control balde IRS is a different beast again, adapted from the rear end developed in Europe for the Focus.

They're really good at magically chucking you sideways for no reason! Hence why I want to sort the tail end rather soon :shocked:

 

[tick]

They're really good at magically chucking you sideways for no reason! Hence why I want to sort the tail end rather soon :shocked:

I installed a panhard rod on the back of my XA hardtop years ago and it helped quite a bit
Although it would still step out if you hit bumps mid corner , my Falcon ute is the same , if it bothers you now, my advice would be not to get an LSD

 

[stirk]

im really good at chucking the rear end of my car sideways as I'm driving too fast and am a shit driver! Hence why I want to sort the tail end rather soon before I crash and maybe kill someone :shocked:

Fixed for you

 

[hazza6542]

Fixed for you

Editing someone else's post and forgetting a full stop in your own. I say.

Saw the mighty runner today, can't miss it dude it looks pretty mean driving around. The white on blue has a sort of retro feel to it, like it a lot.

Beetle was a bit of a bitch today, headlight ready to go on, just had to bend a bit of a tab back up. Trying to do that and the screwdriver went straight through all the bog I didn't know about and there's a great big bloody hole in the front fender! Shit shit shit, I wonder what condition those spare fenders I have are. Turns out they're the og panels and the primer on top is coming off easy to reveal a pretty damn good Ruby Red paint underneath! Happy days.

 

[stirk]

Editing someone else's post and forgetting a full stop in your own. I say.

Saw the mighty runner today, can't miss it dude it looks pretty mean driving around. The white on blue has a sort of retro feel to it, like it a lot.

I think I missed a bit more than a full stop but I'm in a calm sick drug fuelled daze, so chilled out on ranting like a grandpa about some kid going sideways in a foulcan.

The old runner is awesome and the plans I have for it will make it quite capable off road.

I wonder if all the people in their white topped fj cruisers notice the heritage.

Bummer about the bog, I hate bog! Back up fender will work though.

 

[hazza6542]

I think I missed a bit more than a full stop but I'm in a calm sick drug fuelled daze, so chilled out on ranting like a grandpa about some kid going sideways in a foulcan.

The old runner is awesome and the plans I have for it will make it quite capable off road.

I wonder if all the people in their white topped fj cruisers notice the heritage.

Bummer about the bog, I hate bog! Back up fender will work though.

Just yell out if you ever need a hand with anything for it. Any excuse to work on a car instead of listen to the girls rant about the real housewives of Narnia. Saw a blue white fj cruiser with a lift, tires, jerrys on the back, spotties etc the other day. Bloke planted it off the line and it wasn't fast but pretty damn quick for what it is. Seems like the perfect off road/on road mix of a car.

Bog is an arse, I like rust more. Just checked the other spare fender I had, little bit more rust but only one problem spot, should be a 2 minute fix with a welder.

 

[nitro01]

Fixed for you

That's great mate, wonderful, thanks :*

 

[hazza6542]

Well fuck me, right? Those fenders, now I don't know if they're original or not, cos you'd think the factory knew where to drill the holes for the indicators, not almost a foot back from where they should be. I can dodgy it up by drilling a hole into the front and routing them that way and plugging the other hole but fuck me, how does this shit keep happening?!

Where it should be:



Where it is, halfway to Europe:

EDIT: Always a silver lining. Finally have an excuse to weld up the top holes and get bullet indicators down next to the headlight. Not sure how I go about keep the wire out of the way. Maybe indicator wire follows with the headlight wires into the bucket of the fender then out the fender through rubber tubing to bullets, who knows. Should have welding done by Sunday, rust forming by Monday, and $250 worth of indicators shortly after...

 

[nitro01]

Well fuck me, right? Those fenders, now I don't know if they're original or not, cos you'd think the factory knew where to drill the holes for the indicators, not almost a foot back from where they should be. I can dodgy it up by drilling a hole into the front and routing them that way and plugging the other hole but fuck me, how does this shit keep happening?!

Where it should be:

View attachment 329299

Where it is, halfway to Europe:

EDIT: Always a silver lining. Finally have an excuse to weld up the top holes and get bullet indicators down next to the headlight. Not sure how I go about keep the wire out of the way. Maybe indicator wire follows with the headlight wires into the bucket of the fender then out the fender through rubber tubing to bullets, who knows. Should have welding done by Sunday, rust forming by Monday, and $250 worth of indicators shortly after...

That is a large difference indeed... perhaps a different model fender?

As for the wire, couldn't you tack weld a runner on the inside of the fender and run the wire along it, that way it's separate from the headlight and may be easier to modify in the future?

It'd definitely look different next to the headlight, but freakin rad all the same!

 

[hazza6542]

That is a large difference indeed... perhaps a different model fender?

As for the wire, couldn't you tack weld a runner on the inside of the fender and run the wire along it, that way it's separate from the headlight and may be easier to modify in the future?

It'd definitely look different next to the headlight, but freakin rad all the same!

Nope, all beetles with those indicators were in the same spot from day dot. So here's the plan, taking all 4 fenders to a mates, cutting a graft from one, welding into those correct colour ones and ruuusssttt. That's the easy bit, welding in the bullets is where it gets a bit more tricky. I love the rat look but I also like knowing everything on the car is done correctly so getting the exact position is a bit nasty. Bullets are awesome though, you'll see here why I wanna route through the headlamp.

Mates doing my welding, he's putting a single cab 40 series on his 80 series chassis. Ls1 to an auto box, I'll be sure to get some pics.

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[nitro01]

Nope, all beetles with those indicators were in the same spot from day dot. So here's the plan, taking all 4 fenders to a mates, cutting a graft from one, welding into those correct colour ones and ruuusssttt. That's the easy bit, welding in the bullets is where it gets a bit more tricky. I love the rat look but I also like knowing everything on the car is done correctly so getting the exact position is a bit nasty. Bullets are awesome though, you'll see here why I wanna route through the headlamp.

Mates doing my welding, he's putting a single cab 40 series on his 80 series chassis. Ls1 to an auto box, I'll be sure to get some pics.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

That's so wicked looking.

I went to a meet on friday night and an awesome slammed bug turned up. Full rust look, so low, (might have been airbagged) and 3" pipes out the back. I'll see if there was a photo of it, it looked mean as!

I've seen a 40 on a 60 chassis but the 80 is new on me... that'll be an awesome truck when it's done!

 

[hazza6542]

Oh my word, please try and find photos for me. Didn't get to any welding today, bit of a bummer. I got a phat exhaust but it's a bit silly on the stock engine, when it's got the good internals then the exhaust will match.

Mmm, should be fun. Only pic I could find.

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[stirk]

Needs better rear suspension!


[video]http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/brisbane-traffic-hoon-gets-ultimate-comeuppance-after-allegedly-doing-burnout-unaware-police-were-right-beside-him/news-story/614afd96594e1712c88bcc9362edb909[/video]

 

[hazza6542]

Needs better rear suspension!


[video]http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/brisbane-traffic-hoon-gets-ultimate-comeuppance-after-allegedly-doing-burnout-unaware-police-were-right-beside-him/news-story/614afd96594e1712c88bcc9362edb909[/video]

That is fucking hilarious, what a moron.

Replaced steering coupler today, I know there's probably a "correct" way to do it, but angle grinders are pretty versatile tools. Ivory knob cigarette lighter (no not a charging port, a cigarette lighter), transmission tunnel basket and cup holder, NOS indicator stalk - smooth as butter, new exhaust gaskets and some grommets for the wipers, all coming together. Bummer the basket doesn't sit right on the tunnel because it's not carpeted, some brackets and self tappers might be in order. Now to somehow convert the wiper motor to 12v or resist the 12v down to 6v, wipers are crazy fast at 12v.

Maybe if more people had nice feeling indicators they'd actually use them. Long weekend I saw more bad driving than usual.

Edit for pics, bottom left knob is cigarette lighter, looks stock which is good. Steering coupler is good, already a little less play, old one was shot. Steering wheel is on forever now, finally done with original horn cover. Indicator is sweeeet.

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[hazza6542]

Wasn't too easy, wasn't too hard but it should sound pretty damn good. Better sound good for what I paid. Nobody is the wiser it's got a stereo, how I like it.

Don't have any original gels for the speedy lights and don't wanna pay a fortune for some coloured plastic? Guitar picks work a treat with some medical tape.

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