The Project Pad

Today's update:

Finished welding up and painting all the strut housings. Pretty happy how they came out!




I also picked up my new (to me) rear bumper from Alex this morning. I had no idea where I was going to find one so this was a huge help. Thanks Alex!

I wanted more room for the brush guards so I took the bumper shocks out, drilled and chopped them shorter, and re-welded them to set the center section in as far as possible. Here is the result.



Front bumper needed some love too, so I did a little repair work. Not the prettiest but it matches the overall appearance of this car.



The last item for today was working my way toward getting the downpipe off so I can drop the subframe, but PS axle was in the way. It had a torn outboard boot which needed replacement so I took care of that while I was all greasy.



that's it for today!

The more I work on this car the more excited I get for the end result. Today contributed a lot to that excitement.

Started off by getting the other front axle and knuckle off and dropping the subframe so I could test fit the spacers and see what room I have to work with and what else I need to do. Discovered I have one busted trans mount so I'll need to order up a new one.





The extended new subframe bolts I bought are 12.9, M10 x 180 socket head cap screws. They work just fine in front, but are about 5mm too long for the rear so I am going to swap them all out for 170mm ones.





Bolted up the front. With the motor still in it's stock position there is a deceiving amount of room to play with for tying the spacers together. Almost makes me want to keep the motor that high. I think when the new struts come on Friday I will bolt them in and set the car down on it's suspension so I can measure the axle angles and decide how much I need to drop it down.



The rear is soooooo much easier than the front!! All I need to do is extend the vacuum lines for the diff lock and I should be golden. There is tons of room to run tubes in there to tie it all together. Seriously wish the front was this simple.





Maybe something like this..



Don't think I'm going to have any issue with exhaust rubbing on the axle.



And finally, the last of the extended brake lines and fittings showed up this weekend. I'm using:

-3 AN stainless lines w/ PTFE lining (HRP brand from HRP World)
M10x1 female bubble to male -3 union (Earl's, from summit)
M10x1 male to male -3 union (Brembo, from HRP World)



That's all for today. Tomorrow I might get to start fitting some tubes!

Assuming the spindle is in line with the trans horizontally (I don't know if this is true, I'd have to look), and assuming an axle length of 23.125" (Via NAPA compressed axle length; driver's side) then with a 5" drop (in the spindle relative to the trans), you're adding 12.2* to your axle angle. I'm not sure what the stock angle is, but I'd assume that's too much and is going to cause binding. You'd also be increasing your axle length by 0.5". Let's say you want to minimize your angle increase to 5*, then you'll need to drop the trans by 2". Then you'd only have a 0.09" increase in length, which I'm guessing would be OK with the stock axles.

On that note, I wonder if you could just flip the engine mounts upside down to gain that 2"? I'm not sure it would clear the exhaust (if bag o' snakes) on the passenger side though.

Thanks for doing the trig on that Alex! The problem I was having was that I didn't measure the cv angle stock, so I didn't know where it started to calculate the difference. I took a peek at my red car and it looks like it has about a 3* downward angle but I don't have any good idea how lowered the car is from stock at this point. Would you mind measuring your 90 some time when you have a chance?

I have a stock height B4 I could measure for you tonight. I was wondering also about shock travel. I assume you are going to keep whatever stock was correct? Is that going to be enough for what your goal is?

I love this project BTW!

That would be awesome- please do! Yes, keeping the stock shock travel, steering, and close to stock suspension geometry.

First up for today: shift linkage.

When I installed the JHM shifter it became a lot harder to get 5th and reverse. Sure enough the stock joint was super sloppy and was causing problems. Tried pulling it apart to see if I could tighten it up. Not worth it.



When my other car still had an 01A I had considered doing a solid linkage with a u-joint, but never got around to doing it before doing the ABZ & 01E swap.

Most u-joints I found are more than I want to spend: $60-200 each. Then I got another idea from looking in my toolbox: socket u-joints! I got a set of 3 for $10 delivered off Amazon Prime.







Got it installed and it is definitely an improvement, but there is actually more lash in it than I would like. I think I may pull the joint apart and try shimming it to take out the lash.

Next up: suspension!

I got all new KYB shocks and a 3' x 2" diameter black UHMW-PE rod to make my shock spacers and transmission mount spacers. Earlier this week I machined them after hours in the tooling shop at work. Diameter of the rear shocks works out to make them sleeve over the shock body, but the fronts just have room for a locating feature. I used a metal washer between the shock and the spacer to distribute the load from the little cup thing on the bottom of the shock.











With those done I put the strut assemblies together and installed them back on the car so I could see what it looks like and do some measuring for tires and front axle angles (to see if I do need to drop the motor). I had to jack the car up to get the tires back on it! lol





Sitting on it's suspension for the first time! THIS THING LOOKS FUCKING BAD ASS!! HOLY BALLS I'M EXCITED!!









yes, that is a coolant jug sitting under the car. I don't think I'm going to need a jack to do an oil change on this thing.

Rear ground clearance:



Front clearance. I used one of the old shocks in place of the axle so I could measure the angle. Came out right at 17*. From the research I have done on 4x4 sites and some technical white papers, the inner CV's (the plunging end) can survive up to about 18-20*. I decided I'm going to space the motor down 1/2" (as far as it can go on the stock studs) and give it a try. If I start killing axles I'll have to move it lower.



Last project for today was making an extension cord for the welder so I can move it over to the car and tack tubes in place to make the subframes.





That's all for today!

Lol that looks amazing. Like it has jacks under it. Great work

Thanks Matt! I can't wait to see it with the correct tires on it now!

Add some bullbars / crash guards and paint it black and it would look like something out of Mad Max

LeafBox wrote:Add some bullbars / crash guards and paint it black and it would look like something out of Mad Max

lol that'll be mine. Also adding gatling guns, flame throwers, spiked wheel faces, and a super long cb radio antenna.

seriously though kirk, you are doing exactly what i want to do to mine, only better than i can do on my own lol. Seriously need to get these 2 coupes together once they're both done, then go offroading, get stuck and break stuff.

This is absurd and fucking amazing!!!

Steppenwolf! So bad ass! The stock wheels look like skateboard wheels under that thing! lol.

hahaha thanks guys! I'm pretty happy with how its coming together so far

This is amazing. I totally forgot about measure the axles

Looks like its irrelevant at this point, but I'll try to remember tonight anyway.

No worries! It would still be quite helpful for reference if you don't mind. The easiest way I found to do is was download a free level ap for my phone

Using the bubble level app on my phone it looks like the front is parallel with the ground or maybe the hub is down slightly. So, 0-1* up front. The back looks to be right about 1*, again with the hub being slightly lower.

Take these numbers roughly, as I was laying on the ground in the dark with my phone on the axle haha.

Excellent, thank you!

Looking good, loving this! For the shifter have you looked at steering universal joints? They can be had off ebay for 35~$ in the 3/4", could save you headaches from later rust/dirt jams plus should be tighter.

Youre absolutely correct that a steering joint would be better. My original thought was to use a sealed mil spec joint with zero lash that I have used a number of times in the past on racing applications, but once I got the idea to try the socket joint I just had to try it out and see if it would work in this application for 1/5 the price. I'm thinking I'll probably look at adding a boot to it when I take it out and shim it.

This is what I was originally thinking of using:

http://m.summitracing.com/parts/sum-770650

I used a universal joint from mcmaster carr. Also, I noticed that a universal joint for a 1980's honda shaddow 500 that I was working on is pretty much perfect and a very nice construction. That being said, I really didnt end up liking my solid joint with the JHM shifter. I liked it when the car was on jack stands, but driving around was a different story. Your preferences may be very different than mine.


Here is an example of the motorcycle u-joint I was speaking of.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/3306889770 ... noapp=true

I think i ultimately may come to the same conclusion and end up with a stock linkage with rubber bushings. Solid everything tends to give a very harsh and "notchy" feel

post more pictures, always!

the german wrote:I think i ultimately may come to the same conclusion and end up with a stock linkage with rubber bushings. Solid everything tends to give a very harsh and "notchy" feel

Yes, very notchy and transfers quite a lot of transmission noise. That might not be an issue if your case, but worth thinking about.