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As promised, it’s time for the rear suspension. When I started this project my original plan was to get the rear frame kit from ABC Performance so I could stuff 335s out back. After thinking about it for a while I decided that if I’m going to go through all this work I wanted to try something different. During my dealings with Ron Sutton while I was at Ridetech, I learned about his suspension kits, specifically his offset three-link. After some discussion and numerous emails, a big ol brown box showed up on my door step with this stuff in it…
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4669/...13f06a38_b.jpg10015 by Yelcamino, on Flickr After having cut the front end apart with a 4 ˝” grinder, I broke down and bought this Eastwood plasma cutter. It was relatively cheap, has a better warranty than the big names, and it works awesome! So far it has been able to cut Ľ” plate without the slightest hiccup. Highly recommended if you’re in the market for a plasma cutter. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4749/...2cfbf791_b.jpg10020 by Yelcamino, on Flickr With the old 9” in place, I located the stock rear axle centerline using a good old fashioned plumb bob. (I added the red line to show the plane I was using) https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4763/...07764f47_b.jpg00012.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr With the centerline marked, I removed all the rear suspension and started measuring for the new parts. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4670/...750a4205_b.jpg10027 by Yelcamino, on Flickr Wanting to keep the body mount, I was able to do some fancy cutting thanks to the plasma! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4622/...40648317_b.jpg10028 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4743/...2c6f55fd_b.jpg10029 by Yelcamino, on Flickr With all my cuts made, the engine hoist made quick work of getting the old stuff out of the way. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4750/...5ab9cb8e_b.jpg10030 by Yelcamino, on Flickr The first thing I did was get the new crossmember tacked in place so I could start fitting the new rear frame rails. After spending too much time trying to get these rails in the proper position… https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4743/...966e9428_b.jpg10031 by Yelcamino, on Flickr …I got in contact with Ron and he sent me a new set of rails that were a better fit for me. He’ll probably chime in with more details, but I think these are now the standard rails in his rear kits. A couple of cool features is the holes for the watts link crossmember and sway bar tube are already in place, and there’s a line cut to locate the axle center line. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4616/...2e558b90_b.jpg10032 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4763/...29a37c1f_b.jpg10033.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr The next step was getting the new rear end housing in place so I could locate the suspension brackets. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4628/...8bc188b7_b.jpg10033 by Yelcamino, on Flickr Here the watts link crossmember and sway bar tube are tacked in. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4625/...4763d371_b.jpg10034 by Yelcamino, on Flickr Lower shock mounts tacked in. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4720/...b47e032a_b.jpg10035 by Yelcamino, on Flickr Third link tacked in. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4723/...af62e147_b.jpg10036 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4763/...2c4300c9_b.jpg10037 by Yelcamino, on Flickr |
Driver side watts bracket tacked on.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4765/...6721be6b_b.jpg10038 by Yelcamino, on Flickr It’s slowly starting to take shape. You can see in this photo the back brace is tacked to the rear housing. Down the road you’ll see I had to modify it to clear the coil overs. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4662/...7634cef6_b.jpg10039 by Yelcamino, on Flickr From this angle you can see there’s about ˝” of space between the back of the rear end housing and the watts a-frame. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4753/...f261c02f_b.jpg10040 by Yelcamino, on Flickr I made these gussets to help reinforce the joint between the rear frame rails and crossmember. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4621/...872e4c3c_b.jpg10041.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4619/...885db293_b.jpg10041.2 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4619/...271567cb_b.jpg10042 by Yelcamino, on Flickr At this point just about everything is welded in permanently except for the housing brackets. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4756/...b140d7c9_b.jpg10043 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4765/...c6ef6818_b.jpg10044 by Yelcamino, on Flickr I added this rear crossmember which I cut from the original frame rails that Ron sent me. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4651/...a77fd41e_b.jpg10045 by Yelcamino, on Flickr With all that done, it was time to connect the original frame horns to the new rails. They didn’t turn out quite as pretty as I imagined them, but they’re pretty sturdy and put both bumpers where they should be. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4612/...d583b051_b.jpg10046.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4746/...d668bdf3_b.jpg10046.2 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4653/...18cc9f0d_b.jpg10046.3 by Yelcamino, on Flickr I tried to make both sides as similar as possible. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4699/...0b888d97_b.jpg10046.4 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4607/...da32cb5d_b.jpg10046.5 by Yelcamino, on Flickr The bumper fits nice and doesn’t bounce around! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4626/...8a4325d6_b.jpg10054 by Yelcamino, on Flickr |
Here’s the Ridetech coil over with a spring in place.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4695/...43a31435_b.jpg10056.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4605/...3d2ca074_b.jpg10056.2 by Yelcamino, on Flickr Plenty of room! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4604/...76060155_b.jpg10056 by Yelcamino, on Flickr With the rear wheels and tires in place, the track width is 72” just like it was before. With these little 10” wide wheels and 295 tires, there’s 7 ˝” between the inner side wall and the frame rail so I have lots of room to fit a 12” wide wheel with 335s! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4723/...a4387cb8_b.jpg10058 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4717/...cc7bb52d_b.jpg10059.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr |
A while back I came across a set of Jake’s Rod Shop C6 tubular arms being sold by Jon (Jtomas801) here on Lateral-G. The price was right and I liked the way the lower arm was designed for a coil over vs the factory arm which requires a weak (IMO) trunnion to mount a coil over.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4615/...8df8cf0e_b.jpg10059 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4657/...e05bd837_b.jpg10060 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4715/...7ef93310_b.jpg10061 by Yelcamino, on Flickr Here’s the Jake’s Rod Shop arms mounted along with the new Ridetech Track 1 C7 hubs. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4715/...0d6a3baa_b.jpg10063 by Yelcamino, on Flickr Now things are starting to get fun! Just to help me visualize things, I put my P-Ayr mock-up engine in place. In this position, it’s about 12” rearward of the stock location. The plan is to get the engine behind the front axle centerline. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4719/...0ab4b596_b.jpg10062 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4768/...1a51cdc8_b.jpg10064 by Yelcamino, on Flickr For the most part the front suspension is all in place. I did a quick check of the alignment and I have 5* of caster on both sides, -1.5* of camber on one side and -1.4* of camber on the other. Not too bad as a starting point. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4720/...7cfe993b_b.jpg10065 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4606/...be41cc3a_b.jpg10066 by Yelcamino, on Flickr It’s finally starting to look like a real chassis! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4713/...7daf9773_b.jpg10067 by Yelcamino, on Flickr Now you’re all up to date. I still have a few little things I need to get done on the frame but the next big step is test fitting the body. Due to the rear suspension, I’m going to have to cut out some sections of the rear seat area and trunk floor. Before I can do that, I have to get the interior stripped. To get myself motivated, I took the rear wheels off the Z06 and put them on the frame to see how some big meats would fit… https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4740/...cb6211d4_b.jpg10072 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4614/...02d5b35a_b.jpg10073 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4700/...4072a663_b.jpg10074 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4768/...11d390b1_b.jpg10075 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4617/...96324e74_b.jpg10070 by Yelcamino, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4699/...1394ef88_b.jpg10071 by Yelcamino, on Flickr The Z06 rear wheels are obviously too wide for the front and they have too much backspace. However, they actually turn quite a bit so that tells me 11” wheels (with the proper backspacing) and 315s will fit! They fit great out back but again, due to the offset, they actually narrow the rear track width by 2". |
Well played Sir!!!
Smart choice going with the de-coupled 3 link !! While I haven't driven a car with that setup - my new race car (Sutton Track Warrior) will have that. I'm hoping for some major mechanical grip. |
Impressive work Herb, nice job.
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Think you'll have to notch your front crossmember for the pulleys/balancer?
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