Narrowed C4 IRS...... camber questions
 

Guys, I think for the most part I have this thing whipped. I narrowed the batwing 10" overall and will beef it up with 1/4" 6061 plating, tig welded to the outer portions covering the inner webbing. Narrowed each side 3". Installed the VPB lower camber links and Denny's half shafts. Have an idea for mounting the QA1's. Now for the questions.

Suspension travel: without notching the frame, the first thing to touch is the toe links, with 2 3/4" of travel up (compression) from rest. Should I alow more. I have a feeling I should have allowed more stroke, the trouble is, I was worried about ripping my fenders off so I went with the shortest QA1 with 4" of stroke....giving me about 2" of up travel (comression). Any thoughts?


QA1 mounting: I'm told, not to mount the QA1's off the factory shock mount, which makes sense to me. I have seen people make a sort of plate mount using the two bolts that support the dog bones (trailing arms). The trouble is, I really cant use the top bolt because it nearly touches the frame when the suspension is fully compressed. Its like a 1/16" away from frame. I could notch the outside of the frame slightly but I was wondering if it would work using the lower dog bone bolt and the factory shock mount instead, and just leave the upper bolt alone. Anyone mounted thier coil-overs this way?


Camber change: This is strictly an eyeball way of checking camber. Used a inclinometer. My camber tool is on its way. With the face of the rotor at 0 degrees at rest. On full compression of the suspension, 2 3/4" upward (compressed) motion, I lose 1 degree of camber and lose the same 1 degree when moving down 2 3/4". Total of 5 1/2 " of overall suspension travel. Is this acceptable? Any thoughts. New poly busings throughout already installed. I also noticed the forward bracket for the dog-bones flex a little. Not much but they do flex some.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Dave

This sounds all too familiar. I did not have to narrow the batwing for my application but did shorten the half shafts 4 1/2'' on each side. My QA1 shocks are mounted to the original shock mount, reinforced with a bracket to the lower dog bone mount only. This seems to be what most are doing. I got my shock mounts from Art Morrison Ent. and it is simular to the mount that Wayne Due made for his IRS mounting kit. I know that a company called Flat Out Engineering makes a mount using both dog bone mounts. I am curious, what is your application that you had to narrow the batwing so much?

We did not narrow the batwing on Project Prodigy. We just did some "hoggin" on the spindle in just the right locations for clearance.

Great....I was hoping someone had gone that route. That will free up the top bolt. I had to turn it in already to clear the frame. I should be ok everywhere else. What stroke QA's did you use? I think mine are just over 4 inches. I hope they will do for typical street use. Now is the time to make it right if I need more travel. Any thoughts would be appreciated. One more thing....what would you concider an ideal camber change for a typical road coarse? I live in the Ozark mountains.....lots of curves. I placed this in a 36 Chevrolet Truck...very narrow frame/bed. I really wanted to be able to keep the full depth of the bed...so I went with custom bent rails and placed the frame at a slight rake. Here is the link to my project journal. I'll add some more recent pics tonight.
http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/jour...22&action=view

Dave

So....do you need a watch dog....I guarantee the saftey of all your cars. Just set me up a cot in the back....cable tv....and an occasional test drive....wink wink. Really....those are some really nice machines! In fact...I like all the cars/trucks on this forum!

I too will have to do some hogging....but just to get rid of what I dont need. Had to narrow the batwing if I wanted to keep my bed. I couldve raised the floor of the bed to accomodate the batwing....but I'm placing a AU bed cover so I'll have storage for extended road trips. Planning a trip to CO next summer. Hope the truck will be my transport by then.

Thanks,
Dave