Trouble - late-1969 SSS Bluebird Coupe

[carterb]

You must have missed my comment on the fenders.  The PO said the shop tried to remove the undercoating with heat and bubbled all the paint, he ran out of time or money to re-shoot them.  So to my surprise, I got a car with primered fenders.  :crying:

[Just Joel]

I think "over fenders" = fender flares ;)

[carterb]

Ah, I'm so used to poor spelling and grammar on forums and texts that I assumed "over fenders" = "other fenders"

 

The flares did not come with the car.  The mounting holes were welded up on the front fenders.  I need to do the same on the rear quarters.

--carter

[tr8er]

quick - someone photoshop my coupe and the delorean!

Give me that just right angle of the coupe.

[carterb]

This is the best profile I have at this point in the story

 

[carterb]

So...

 

Now that driving looked like a real possibility, it was time to focus on suspension.

 

For the rear, I have a great recipe for for coilovers:

 

QA1 ADJUSTABLE SHOCK BODY DS602

 

 

 

PLUS QA1 UPPER SHOCK MOUNT CONVERSION KIT SS110SDM

 

 

 

PLUS 12" EIBACH SHOCK 1200.250.0250 (or pick a different rate if you like)

 

 

 

(note - you can save a few bucks by using QA1 springs instead of Eibach)

 

AND WALLAH!

 

 

This whole setup can be purchased from Summit Racing for $525/pr ($473/pr using QA1 springs)

 

I've had the same setup on Cooper for a couple years now and it works great!

 

(Hey Jeff, I just realized all of this stuff is MADE IN USA!!!)

[Trophy24]

Thanks for the specs on the spring length. I have considered this route for my car, but was unsure what to do about springs. How is the ride with that spring? I will be running 250# in the front with the heavier KA.

[carterb]

Come over and ride/drive Cooper if you like.

I have 200 front 225 rear on that car with the L16.

 

Trouble will have 225 front and 250 rear since it is getting a little heavier motor.  (oops - did I say that out loud?!)

 

The damping adjustment is huge on these shocks.  Just right is a couple clicks away from too soft or too stiff - so there should be plenty of adjustment to cope with changing the spring ratio 10-20%.

[q-tip]

Thanks for the specs on the spring length. I have considered this route for my car, but was unsure what to do about springs. How is the ride with that spring? I will be running 250# in the front with the heavier KA.

I'll open the same offer Carter did, I have a ka and #325 springs, I don't think the ride is too harsh.

[INDY510]

Trouble will have 225 front and 250 rear since it is getting a little heavier motor.  (oops - did I say that out loud?!

Yes you did .... and you said it yesterday too: .... :lol:

 

At some point in time I decided that the collection of cars I mentioned - one of each - would be even cooler if they all had the same motor!

[carterb]

Yes you did .... and you said it yesterday too: .... :lol:

 

 

True, but I also said:

 

One of the problems with taking years to even start working on a project is that the vision changes more times than your underwear! (that may not be much for some of you guys)

 

 

Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and sell all my Datsuns so I can buy a Ford Crew Cab with a Testarossa kit!

 

[tr8er]

It amazes me that Ford didn't make that body styling standard.

[q-tip]

True, but I also said:

 

 

Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and sell all my Datsuns so I can buy a Ford Crew Cab with a Testarossa kit!

 

I'm redneck enough to think that's awesome!!!

[nad015]

So...

 

Now that driving looked like a real possibility, it was time to focus on suspension.

 

For the rear, I have a great recipe for for coilovers:

 

QA1 ADJUSTABLE SHOCK BODY DS602

 

 

 

PLUS QA1 UPPER SHOCK MOUNT CONVERSION KIT SS110SDM

 

 

 

PLUS 12" EIBACH SHOCK 1200.250.0250 (or pick a different rate if you like)

 

 

 

(note - you can save a few bucks by using QA1 springs instead of Eibach)

 

AND WALLAH!

 

 

This whole setup can be purchased from Summit Racing for $525/pr ($473/pr using QA1 springs)

 

I've had the same setup on Cooper for a couple years now and it works great!

 

(Hey Jeff, I just realized all of this stuff is MADE IN USA!!!)

im keen on making a set of these, i see the part number for the threaded shock in summit shows a pic of the shock with the thread going only a short way up the shock body, like the shock you have used in your other cooper build thread.

 

do you need to stipulate when ordering that you want the full thread length on the shock body??

or do the two different threaded shocks you have used have different part numbers??

[carterb]

^^  Not sure.  Maybe they changed the design?  I was surprised when I ordered them for cooper that the threaded portion was so short.  I was relieved this time 'round to find the threaded portion much taller.  I can only assume that if you order them by the part number I showed, you will get what I got.

--carter

[carterb]

Come over and ride/drive Cooper if you like.

I have 200 front 225 rear on that car with the L16.

 

Trouble will have 225 front and 250 rear since it is getting a little heavier motor.  (oops - did I say that out loud?!)

 

The damping adjustment is huge on these shocks.  Just right is a couple clicks away from too soft or too stiff - so there should be plenty of adjustment to cope with changing the spring ratio 10-20%.

 

Paul came over and drove Cooper yesterday.  I think he was pretty happy with the set up.

 

[Trophy24]

That was so much fun!  I had never driven a RH drive car before so between that and the dogleg shift pattern it was a little hard to get used to.  At least I didn't grind any gears or stall it out ha ha.

 

I was impressed with how smooth the suspension was with those springs.  Not at all a harsh ride like I was concerned about.  Thanks again Carter!

[carterb]

Okay, time for the front end.

 

More coilovers:

 

QA1 threaded sleeve kit

 

 

 

plus Eibach 8" springs:

 

 

plus roll center adjusters (Techno Toy Tuning?)

 

 

Plus Cusco camber plates (from Japan)

 

 

 

 

 

Plus Tokico BZ3038 adjustable inserts (more on that later)

 

 

Plus 280ZX strut housings modified by Dave Carroll equals:

 

[carterb]

Procuring the Tokico inserts involved much drama.  Corey and I were going to rebuild the front end on Greengo (see other build thread) so I pulled off the stock struts and sold them and grabbed all the stuff to do coilovers on his car only to realize I didn't have any strut inserts.  No problem, I'll order some up.  Oh boy....

No one had Tokicos.  Turns out the US distributor had gone out of business some time ago.  I ended up working with Danny from Sparktec Motorsports who was giving me the play by play from his potential new distributor.  After weeks of "any time now" availability of the Tokicos, I finally gave up and ordered a set of Konis, which I really didn't want, but Canby was not getting farther away.

The next day, Tokico's started shipping!  No kidding, the NEXT DAY!!!

So I shipped to Konis back to Danny in exchange for Tokicos for Greengo, Trouble, and Race Car (a project to be announced later)

 

Although disappointed Danny didn't get a heads-up from Tokico that they were finally shipping, I have no ill-will against him and was happy with the purchase and happy to recommend him to anyone else needing Tokicos, Konis, or anything else they sell:   http://www.sparktecmotorsports.com/

[carterb]

Initial assembly of the struts was a challenge as usual.  Seems like every time I have these done the communication falls apart with the powder-coater and we end up with the strut threads filled with paint.  Last time around, I modified a strut nut to act as a thread chaser which worked okay but you still have to spend an hour per strut with a utility knife, file, dental pick, etc getting most of the paint off the threads.  This time around, I didn't have the patience, so I went to the store and bought a wire wheel.

 

It had slightly too large of an OD to fit into the strut tube so I bent half the wires forward and the other half back to make it more of a ball shaped OD.

 

 

  This allowed me to get it started into the strut tube and it literally took less than 60 seconds per strut to completely remove the powdercoat from the threads!  Oh yeah!!!  :thumbup:

[carterb]

Now I could complete the assembly but I had one more issue.  I had never run camber plates before, and I had three different sets to choose from:  The aforementioned Cusco set, a set from Techno Toy Tuning, and another (generic?) set that came with a car I bought once.

 

Here is the T3 kit (with needle bearing set)

 

 

And here is the other kit I had:

 

 

All three sets were quite different in construction and design.

[carterb]

I was following some conversations from some others about the T3 plates and how the needle bearings don't work if the caber plate is at an angle to the strut.

 

 

I admit it looks terrible.  Someone said the strut is always perpendicular to the camber plate so it doesn't matter, and that the stock bearing is no different.  But as the wheel moves up and down, and if static camber is chagned, the strut angle does change (if only a little) and the stock bearings are essentially in a rubber housing to take up this angle change.  Doesn't leave me with a good feeling - regardless of how many people are running these "with no problems".  I will likely use these on Greengo but will probably try to improve the design.

 

The generic set has a spherical bearing so it doesn't suffer quite so much from the angle change issue but the load path is terrible!

 

 

I will likely use these on Race Car but like the T3 plates, will probably have to change something to be happy.

 

The Cusco set didn't come with any kind of top-hat for the springs.  Here it is assembled using the T3 top hat and spherical bushing:

 

 

This set-up looked like the best combo, but I wanted to keep the T3 stuff together for Greengo so here it is using the top hat from the coilover kit:

 

 

I think the only drawback with this setup is the extra height from the taller top-hat and there is no real rotational bearing for the steering.  That's what I ended up with though on the car.  I can always change something later.  Here is the full front and back kit now ready to mount:

 

[carterb]

Here is the right and left rear before:

 

 

 

And after:

 

 

[carterb]

While under the car I took some more pics of the Fujitsubo exhaust.

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to hear what this sounds like at speed!

 

Here's the rear end back down on the ground.

 

[Just Joel]

Great progress post!