|
much to my disliking, my life is a frickin rollercoaster over the last 4 years.
i have gotten my hands on a descent size lathe mill combo and a dedicated mill.
i got them moved to my familys shop, setup and wired... fully functional, and then we closed the shop less than 2 weeks later.
now the machines are in storage until we figure out what we are doing next as far as the business goes.
my old cnc guy moved out of the country, so thats a dead end.
i am working a trade deal with a full machine shop to build the parts in trade for car parts, but its still a few months out. he has no cnc capabilities but he does alot of bartering with other shops in his area as he has a few patents on faa approved repairs of airplane parts. good possibility this will pan out eventually. he has a broke down car....i have the parts he needs to fix it. i just have to get the parts halfway across the country somehow.
i am still working with the builder and shop that does my current parts but i am out of money to r&d any further for right now.
i also have another deal to trade consulting time for 3d printer and autocad time, but this guy is so busy expanding his business nobody knows when i might get him to sit down and draw some parts. he just bought a huge 5 axis cnc mill for his shop, so im not going to push him because i really want to get some machine time from him. his machine is big enough to build anything i would ever need.... engine blocks, wheels, whatever.
at last consensus with all my builders/friends/engineers/shade tree race car builders, i should make the arms out of mild steel for ease of manufacturing and cheap replacement in the event of crash damage, and offer a billet aluminum version "for people that gots money".
ive finally found a suitable, easliy replaced, inexpensive(25$) balljoint that presses in and has an internal snap ring for added peace of mind. its an offroad piece so no zerk fitting but i may just drill them and install the zerks myself. it fits the stock steering knuckle perfectly with zero modification. the billet aluminum arm is already rough drawn. if i go through with it, it will have a rod end on the front inner mount, fit with the factory mount hardware, and be caster/camber adjustable.
i havent figured out a reliable way to make the tube arm accept the balljoint, make no knuckle mods, use factory bushings, and make it fully adjustable.
another issue im having is that trying to add anymore caster then the commonly available caster bushings at the bottom of the suspension pushes the front wheels out too far, making them susceptible to rub the bumper and inner wheelhouse structure. at least on my car, i need to add anymore caster at the top of the strut, which means modding the strut tower and or making offcenter strut top mounts.... thus meaning it would no longer be able to enter certain classes of scca or other sanctioned events. its very hard to do this and make everyone happy....
i am hoping the racers could use my arms with a centered, unmodified strut top mount because they mostly run 13" wheels anyway. people like me, with 15s or 16s, could use them with offcenter strut tops to get the maximum caster for road use with no worries about passing a race tech inspection.... no one is looking underneath my fender or hood..... lol and im sick of driving my car around with less than 3 degrees of caster, no power steering, and truck ruts all over the road grabbing my HUGE 195s and pulling me all over the lane.
sorry for the long reply, just wanted to address all the questions ive gotten over the last few months.
on a somewhat related note, my car needs new tires.... so im tossing around the idea of going to a 205/50/15. that will put the rear inner tire into the strut tower. so now i need to space the rear tires out. i also need new wheel bearings. thirdly, i need to get my gt rear disc brakes on the car. so im thinking i need to fabricate a new rear knuckle that accepts a unit bearing with 12mmx1.25 wheel studs, has a larger clamp for the strut so as to act as a coil over spring pad, has integral rear caliper mounts to fit the gt brakes or whatever caliper is desired, and move the rear wheels out further away from the strut tower. possibly have spacers behind the bearing available to set your rear track width to suit your needs, and be custom ordered to fit different diameter struts. a billet knuckle would be badass, but as with everything else, i would like to be able to sell these if i make a few sets for me first.
why does something as simple as ordering new tires have to turn into a huge re-engineering project?
_________________ 93 metro 1.0/5spd/ac......parts manufacturing test vehicle [email protected]
|
Login
Register
Gallery
FAQ
Search
