Lateral-g Forums - RideTech 33 Ford

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- - RideTech 33 Ford (https://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36338)

As for the Woodward rack installation...its not for the meek. Woodward make the best racks in the business, bar none, BUT it is a racecar part and needs above average talent and resources to install correctly. You cannot order a rack for a 69 Camaro [or any other specific application]...their components are manufactured and sold by dimensional data.
On the 33 Ford we made the decision early on [after we discovered the inadequecies of the oem rack system] to do whatever it took to do this steering system right. This meant basically sawing off the front of the car and starting over. After the radiator and grille shell were out of the way, things cleared up nicely. Removal of a few more brackets and tubing cleared a path for proper placement. To determine proper placement we modeled the frontend digitally and ran the data through our suspension analyzer program. This told us exactly where the rack needed to be in every axis. We fabricated the neccessary mounts to put it there, ran the suspension through it's travel, and determined that there was less than .015" of bumpsteer through 6" of suspension travel. Winner!
This also meant fabricating a set of custom steering arms to get the ackerman and bumpsteer optimized. Not a huge deal if you have a CAD guy 25 ft away and a CNC mill in between the two of you.

Is it worth it? Obviously, because the alternative is that I have an expensive paperweight. [That would be a car that you can't steer]

I point all this out not to explain how smart we are [we're not...if we were, we would have identified and fixed this problem months ago] but to demonstrate that sometimes hotrodding takes a little perserverence, a little money, a little talent, a lot of help from your knowledgable friends. Something to consider when you have to round the corner on a bracket or enlarge a bolt hole to get some aftermarket part bolted on your Camaro.

Will we make it to Nashville Goodguys this weekend? I think so.

Tuesday night...stuff left to do:

make steering arms [they're already designed and drawn up]
build tie rod adjusters
finish steering shafts
design and build a power steering pump mount
build another crank hub to accept an additional pulley for power steering
design and build a power steering reservoir
design routing and build 6 power steering lines
design and build a new lower radiator hose
figure out if radiator and grille shell will fit or if it needs to be moved forward

That should keep us busy on Wednesday.

Bret,The 33 is turning out great.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Bret, these are the reasones that I like to let you guys design it and build it first then I can just buy it from you :thumbsup: Thanks for all the you and your guys do for our hobby. Ride Tech = class act :cheers: :cheers:

P.S. can't wait to get to the point to where I'm ready to do my front sub frame all RideTech going in there! :thumbsup:

Well summarized update Bret, always look forward to reading them. :thumbsup:

Killer.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Is this car going to get a set of Ride Tech Shock's.:thumbsup:

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolwelder62 (Post 414956)

Killer.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Is this car going to get a set of Ride Tech Shock's.:thumbsup:

I need one of these also.:D I need to win the lottery :thumbsup:

Doesn't it already have a new set of adjustable Ride Tech shocks :rolleyes:

http://www.ridetech.com/images/forum/33-ford/12/15.JPG

Looking forward to seeing this car next week!

That '33 is sweet! I got a chance to see you out there running it today at Goodguys autocross. :thumbsup: