NS F355 Project (Page 41/73)
Bloozberry JUN 23, 10:32 PM
Love the 3D drawings. The concept to move the strut towers outboard by 3" is a great "thinking outside the box" idea too. Since you're going to be cutting them out and relocating them, it might make sense to raise them as far as you dare in order to re-gain some of the strut travel lost due to lowering the car. You also want to make sure that by moving the strut towers outboard that you're not going to run into strut/tire clearance issues too.

Regarding the extra room in the engine bay by squaring off the sheet metal in front of the struts, you might also consider going the other way and making more room ahead of the wheel wells instead. That's what I'm doing to make room for the side saddle radiators. Not sure what your plans are for the rad though.
Yarmouth Fiero JUN 24, 07:32 AM
Thanks Blooz. I have been considering the option of raising the towers as much as possible and you had mentioned in a PM or email that you might soon be sitting the rear section of your 355 body on your chassis in order to size up the rear structure mods required. That might be a great opportunity for me to have a look at just how high I can go. As well, while I said I am planning to reuse the stock towers, I am also considering the option to fabricate new custom towers that will better suit the new rear strut dimensions and location. The stock rear struts and springs are much larger diameter than the coil overs I am looking at and it just doesn't make sense to keep such large strut towers. I have a few ideas for replacing them that would have the required strength plus add a modern and unique look to the engine bay. Gotta keep up with the Jones's

With regard to perhaps using twin radiators forward of the rear wheels, I have pretty much accepted the fact that my rocker frame reinforcements associated with chopping my roof off have made that option impractical. I looked at several options but there just isn't enough room to do it right. So I'll incorporate some engine bay cooling air on one side and engine combustion air on the other side. For the engine rad, I'll just fit a good quality 4 core in the stock location.

note: edit typos

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 06-24-2014).]

355Fiero JUN 24, 03:15 PM
Yarmouth;

The rear clip on the panels I sent you guys only has about 1" clearance above the strut towers. If you move them out as you are thinking, you will gain more room under the rear top raised section. Maybe an additional 2"?

As for moving the towers out, I made a plate setup that moved the strut out toward the frame rail. I essentially, turned the strut top around so the two outer mounts were now the inner mounts and made a flat plate setup to mount the third strut mount bolt to the outside. I kept the same angle etc. of the strut tower to not change the geometry and used coil overs on the struts. The coilover clears the inside of the upper rear frame rail by about 1/2" through full travel. The other item to make sure you do is to invert the mount bolts so you are tightening the nut from the wheel well as there is very little room on the top with the convertible clip on it.

A quick pic of how I made the strut top extension. Hopefully it comes through from Photobucket.



Cheers
Don

[This message has been edited by 355Fiero (edited 06-24-2014).]

Yarmouth Fiero JUN 24, 03:20 PM
Thanks for the info Don. That is very helpful.

Did you have a chance to look at the chassis jpg's I sent you?
Yarmouth Fiero JUL 02, 09:55 AM
Still working on the rear suspension posibilities, including selecting suitable brake and suspension components as well as modifying the rear structure of the car to suit the selected components.

To start with, I have been looking at possible brake components. I've narrowed the search to Wilwood products as they have a good selection, a good reputation and I like their website. For rotors, I am looking at the Wilwood SRP Drilled and Slotted 12.9" dia. x 0.81" thick with aluminum hat having the 5 x 100 bolt pattern and a 0.71" offset.



I've added these components to my 3D model to see how the parts fit. As suspected, the rotor interfers with a boss on the stock spindle casting. Part is colored red in the drawing. It should be a small matter to remove.







I have not selected brake calipers yet but I'm considering the Wilwood Forged Superlite 4 piston lug mounted model. First I'll draw them and add them to my model to see how they fit.





Here are a couple pics showing the assembly together with the wheel. Note, the drawing shown is the rear wheel which is 18 x 9 with 38mm offset.



As I had mentioned earlier, I have roughly set the rear track width based on the rear body panels that Blooz and I will be using. This results in an approximate 4" per side track width increase. My plan is to move the strut towers outward to compensate for the new track width. My dilemma is deciding if the struts should move outward the entire 4" or use some combination of strut offset bracket at the spindle and strut outward relocation. As can be seen in the last pic, the strut is going to be very close to the inside edge of the wheel if its bolted directly to the stock spindle. Any thoughts or experience to offer relating to this matter would be greatly appreciated.



As a final note, the drawing of the spindle casting surface is not 100% accurate although I think I've captured most of the important measurements and features. Also, the rotor and hat drawn have an 8 x 7" bolt pattern where as I am considering the models with 12 x 8.75". I'll update the drawing once I have made my final selection.
355Fiero JUL 02, 02:57 PM
Yarmouth Fiero;

You will not be able to push the struts out the full 4" without impacting the upper rear frame rail. The most I could move mine out, with coilovers was about 3" so I needed to use a 1" spacer I built to connect the strut to the rear hub. You also then gain some needed clearance on the rim. My strut also hit my rim without the spacer but your offset is probably different than mine was.

Cheers
Don
Yarmouth Fiero JUL 02, 03:30 PM
Thanks Don. Looking at the chassis and my drawing I could see 4" was pushing it. I agree a 3" move will be the maximum and then a 1" strut spacer. Did your spacer also include a drop to lower the strut bottom as much as possible with regard to the spindle? You also mentioned maybe gaining some height by raising the strut tower but looking at photos I took last summer when Blooz and I put your rear body work on my chassis, I don't see alot of room to raise the strut tower. Am I missing something?
Yarmouth Fiero JUL 02, 08:19 PM
Here are a couple shots with a generic strut in place. Looks like there will be lots of wheel clearance without the strut offset bracket on the spindle.
Bloozberry JUL 02, 08:39 PM
Are you widening the rear track by 4" on each side? For comparison's sake, I only widened my rear end 3" per side as measured from the wheel mounting surface on the brake hat to the center line of the car. By using 9" wide wheels with a 45mm offset my new half-track width (tire centerline to car centerline) is 832mm though, so if your wheels are different, then you'll need to account for that accordingly.

Take my measurements with a grain of salt though because I designed my rear suspension width using my old 355 body. But since we're going to be using Don's body as a plug for our moulds, and given that Don reshaped the rear fender openings significantly, my rear track may be a little too narrow now. I should know for sure sometime next week when I get back into working on the car.
Yarmouth Fiero JUL 02, 08:54 PM
Thanks Blooz. Yes, at this point I am just locating my suspension in the general area +/- 1" so I can get an idea of where my strut towers "may" need to go. I won't make any final decisions until we have a real good look at that body on your chassis. You had given me a rough measurement based on the outside edge of your tires and that was my starting point. Modeling the brake components is a safe bet at this time so that once we have the definitive dimension for rear track, then I can move ahead with the strut tower locations and then lower control arms. With the components modeled in 3D, I can move them around with little effort and try a variety of "what if" scenarios. Its a powerful tool but I spend a lot of time developing the drawings. You know all about that right?