Mattndew76 Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Less talk more pics of the Chickenpawk!! 1 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted February 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Less talk more pics of the Chickenpawk!! Tomorrow. Quote Link to comment
Mattndew76 Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 :D sweet!! Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted February 14, 2016 Report Share Posted February 14, 2016 And although we got some more work done, I don' think any pictures were taken... at least I know my crappy-assed phone was not enlisted to such an action. 1 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted February 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2016 And although we got some more work done, I don' think any pictures were taken... Yeah, sorry 'bout that. Good things are afoot though. Just have to keep them to ourselves for another week... B) 2 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted February 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 The rack was way too high, so first we fixed that. Our brackets will need more work, but we got it down lower where it needs to be... I had a set of A10 mounts, so we tried those first. Ended up being a little too high, almost back up to where it was way back when... Front to back spacing is good though... So what can we do to get it lower? We could shorten the engine brackets, but before doing that we decided to try one other option. We pulled the engine back out, and got a set of 280Z engine brackets and motor mounts and tried those... Those got it quite a bit lower, at least 1.5-2" lower than before. You can see in the above photo that the crank pulley is now below the frame instead of above it like before. Header test fitting went well. Will need a small dent in the floor for clearance though... This thing is very low in the car now, almost A-series low... ^_^ After that, we did another test fit of the rack and it all seems to clear very well now. :thumbup: Pulled it all back out after that. We'll be removing a little more material from the crossmember to cheat the rack forward a bit. Then modifying (and reinforcing) the rack brackets so that it'll be good to go. If all goes well, we are planning to scrub down and repaint the engine bay next week, then maybe putting the engine back in for that last time. If that goes well, it's on to finishing the rear suspension so we can roll this thing outside to see it in all it's lifted glory... :devil: 4 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted February 28, 2016 Report Share Posted February 28, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiUVQ-pla24 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted March 2, 2016 Report Share Posted March 2, 2016 There exists out there in them intergooglewebs... well, on mine and John's phones to be exact, a photo taken with my extremely crappy phone camera of the crossmember and rack mounts painted a resplendent "Cyber Man Silver." I am sure John would skin me if I made an attempt to paint the engine bay, so I'm going to leave that until Saturday... probably. We'll see. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted March 11, 2016 Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Well, the engine bay is painted (thanks John), the crossmember and rack are in, and the flywheel and clutch are bolted to the engine. However, I think I'm going to tap the brakes on the installation of the engine until we sort out the suspension and steering. I'm not sure how we're going to fit the T/C rods and I believe the arms on the steering rack are too long. So, having said all of that, I bought new ball joints this morning and plan to assemble the struts and arms and stuff this weekend... unless I buy a subwoofer for the smart and decide to install that instead. John, how's your stereo-fu? Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted March 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2016 Well, the engine bay is painted (thanks John), the crossmember and rack are in, and the flywheel and clutch are bolted to the engine. However, I think I'm going to tap the brakes on the installation of the engine until we sort out the suspension and steering. I'm not sure how we're going to fit the T/C rods and I believe the arms on the steering rack are too long. We definitely need to install the rack last. B) Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted March 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2016 Before: After: Test fitting some parts. T/C rod angularity is all wrong and will need to be addressed, and tie rod is way too long... A trip to the local speed shop and $136 later... The long ones will be the new T/C rods, while the shorties will be the new outer tie rods... Test fit the outer tie rods and decided where to cut, and away we go... Took the rack off and welded on the new tie rods... Back on the car for a test and everything looks good to go... :thumbup: This is full droop, so static will be 2-3" higher of course... Because we won't be running a sway bar, we will use the hole for it on the LCA for the new T/C rod mount. And since we have now moved the LCA inner pivots 2.5" down from the stock location, we need to also move the front T/C rod mounts 2.5" lower. Then it should be ready to bolt it all together once last time. :thumbup: 4 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted March 23, 2016 Report Share Posted March 23, 2016 I decided that the stock bushings at the inner end of the control arms were a) not going to give enough negative camber, and 2) not "racecar" enough so I cut them off and zooked in some "spare" threaded tubes I had. Now we have Heim joints at the frame end of the arms. Unfortunately, this introduced way too much movement with the T/C rods having Heims at both ends. I grabbed a set of 280Z T/C rods, cut them to length, and threaded them for the T/C rod tubes we built last week. I'm about 98.275% sure this will do the job but I haven't test fit them yet to be sure. Datsunfreak will, most likely, have pictures Saturday. 2 Quote Link to comment
q-tip Posted March 23, 2016 Report Share Posted March 23, 2016 Only the the heim or any spherical joint at the frame end of the TC rod, the control arm end should only need to move in one direction if at all. Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted March 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2016 Only the the heim or any spherical joint at the frame end of the TC rod, the control arm end should only need to move in one direction if at all. That's basically what he's doing. Making the TC rod only move at the front, not at the rear. Before it moved at the rear which causes the whole assembly to lozenge a bit. 1 Quote Link to comment
q-tip Posted March 24, 2016 Report Share Posted March 24, 2016 That's basically what he's doing. Making the TC rod only move at the front, not at the rear. Before it moved at the rear which causes the whole assembly to lozenge a bit. I can see that being a problem, that's a lot of moving parts. Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted March 24, 2016 Report Share Posted March 24, 2016 "Lozenge!" That was the word for which I was searching! Also, I put a lick of paint on most of the parts today (that was the disturbance y'all felt in The Force earlier) and will probably do some more test-fitting tomorrow. Saturday, for sure, we'll have an idea of the final assembly... and moist rikery, pictures. Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted March 27, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2016 Tim's getting good at this whole paint thing... View of the modified control arm... Another mockup... Blew it all apart, then painted the ball joints and steering knuckles... Got the struts completely disassembled... Used the air chisel to knock the brake line holders off then cleaned and painted those... If I had been smart enough to bring some new strut inserts from home, we could have put it all back together for (hopefully) the last time. Guess that'll be next week... 5 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2016 Well, had a hard time finding some S30 inserts. They seem to be special order and 2 week wait everywhere I looked. So, what did we already have... I happened to have a completely rebuilt set of S12 struts with new inserts in them, so we took those apart since I'm never going to use them. As it turns out, the shock body is 1" longer than the S30, and the shock shaft is 1.5" longer for a much longer stroke with these than the S30 inserts... Of course, now they are 1" too long to fit inside the S30 struts. So how do we fix that... Well, the S12 strut tubes are are tiny bit smaller than these S30 struts, so we cut the top 2" off of them, and pressed them into the S30 struts... Tim welded those up, we repainted them, popped in the new inserts, then put them together... Got the spring and camber plates on, then bolted the struts into the car, for hopefully the last time... :thumbup: We will obviously need it to drive to know for sure if the spring rates are going to work, so here's hoping they do. We ordered some new rotors, so we should be able to see it on the ground (at least in the front) next week! :thumbup: 8 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 3, 2016 Report Share Posted April 3, 2016 "They seem to be special order and 2 week wait everywhere I looked." 3 Quote Link to comment
Coda Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 Tim, your fab skills (and bravery to tackle such a wild build) inspire me. It was cool to see the car in person. Cant wait to see it rolling down the streets of Crazy Ft. Worth! 1 Quote Link to comment
dimlight65 Posted April 4, 2016 Report Share Posted April 4, 2016 Tim, your fab skills (and bravery to tackle such a wild build) inspire me. It was cool to see the car in person. Cant wait to see it rolling down the streets of Crazy Ft. Worth! Oh stop, you're going to make me blush! But seriously, YOUR work cutting out rusty metal and replacing it correctly (very much UNLIKE my method of "Hack and Zook") had me impressed with your skills.... and worried as to what you thought of our pigsty of a shop! As for the wildness... hadn't really thought about it. Just seems natural to me. 2 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 10, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2016 Installed new studs, new wheel bearings, new bearing seals, and new rotors... Everything is now buttoned up on the front so we put the wheels on and gave it a look. This is with Tim standing on the crossmember to simulate engine weight. We do think it will settle some once it's fully weighted and rolled around a bit, but it's almost looking like we might need to lower it... :rofl: So with that done (and us REALLY wanting to see this thing on four wheels already!), we got cracking on the rear... Looking at the spring pads on the S110 rear axle we realized they are the same diameter as S30 springs. So we grabbed another pair of S30 front springs... Free length is WAY too tall, so... Cut down to 10.5"... Gave those a test fit and they go very well. We took some spare S30 spring hats and made them bolt up to the frame rail on the 1200. Oh, did I mention the spring pads on an S110 axle line up perfectly with the frame rails of the 1200? ^_^ That done we got the axle housing out of the car because we need to tweak a few things on it and then paint the housing and assemble everything onto it so we can get the rear suspension finished up. While it was in there and close to static ride height, for grins we test fit some AE86 shocks we had (common for 510 use in my cars) and it looks like those will work perfectly also. But it required removal of the stock shock mounts, so... Spring mount ground off, and ready to weld in a new "shock mount"... ^_^ Had to stop there because we ran out of time. Next week Tim will get cracking on all the welding that needs doing, then hopefully we will have the rear end in the car to give it a look with it on all fours! :thumbup: 7 Quote Link to comment
Coda Posted April 11, 2016 Report Share Posted April 11, 2016 Looking great, Fellas! Y'all can really crank out the work. Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2016 After tack welding the bolts in place we gave it a test fit... And I'm glad we did. Turns out the bolts come out at a very bad angle... <_< Took some measurements and came up with a change of 23 degrees. We whipped up some brackets that alter the angle by 23 degrees and welded them on... Much better now... :cool: That done, hopefully next weekend we will assemble and paint the axle assembly, then bolt it in the car for good... :thumbup: 5 Quote Link to comment
datsunfreak Posted April 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2016 Third member installed, scrubbed down, and a bit of paint applied... Chucked under the car and lower links installed... Checking fit of the upper links... Although it doesn't sound like much, somehow that took all day... :rofl: Need to get some metal to make mounts on the frame rail for the upper links, then we may be ready to install everything and see it on the ground for the first time. :thumbup: 2 Quote Link to comment
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