Blooze Own: An F355 Six Speed N* Build Thread (Page 93/126)
Sage FEB 04, 11:39 PM
"High tech 5lb mallet"....."shade-tree mechanics way"....."tweaked it a bit until it fit tightly"..... now you're talking MY language LOL! Good to know we share some of the same techniques, even without CAD and advanced mathmatics!

Seriously though, looking great, and coming right along. Glad to know somebody is still making headway on their project, even if some of us are just biding time. It's just somewhat gratifying even to WATCH somebody doing what needs done.

"When you can't work yourself, go down to where they are working and pay alms to those who are." Not sure who said it, when they said it or why they said it, but I do understand the sentiment. That's what seeing your progress does for me, supports the knowledge that it can get done.

Thanks for taking the time to make it possible for the rest of us to watch.

HAGO!
kwagner FEB 05, 08:11 AM
Well said, Sage, and totally agreed
fieroaddicted FEB 05, 06:10 PM
Awesome work Blooze! Been a while since i checked in on this thread. It's looking great.
Bloozberry FEB 09, 09:03 PM
I'm always talking your language there Sage... it's all car-speak. I appreciate the support kwagner and fieroaddicted... funny how you live in same small town fieroaddicted, and we still haven't met! I'm beginning to think you just made that part up and really live in Los Angeles or something.

This weekend I finally "finished" the rear suspension fabrication work. (In the words of Foghorn Leghorn: Let the bells ring and the children sing! Yay! I started the final leg by planning the two supports for the firewall cross member. A few drawings back, I had initially thought to make them canted over from the lower frame rail up to the upper frame rail, like Yarmouth Fiero's design. After discussing with him his rationale for not having made them vertical (they would have gotten in the way of his rollover hoops), I decided mine would be straight up and down. They'd be easier to fabricate and they'd also provide a straighter load path for the spring forces. I made a couple of cardboard templates and quickly figured out that I'd need to remove part of the weld flange on the lower frame rail to get them in place (hashed area):



It was dirt simple to cut the 1" x 3" x 1/8" tubing for the supports since the simple 18 degree angle was the same at both ends. I decided to leave an extra flange at the bottom of both supports to increase the welded area to the lower frame rails (this is the driver's side):



From the rear view you can see that the support is offset a bit by the flange, but it also gives greater access to weld the outside wall of the support to the rail. I'll also cut a little trap door in the firewall from inside the cabin to be able to weld the front edge of the support to the rail.



The final step was to make the stationary shock absorber mounts on the chassis. I figured out what height the eyes of the mounts had to be, to keep the shock level, then where along the length of the new firewall cross member they had to be installed to make sure the shocks would be parallel to the frame, and finally how far back the mounting eyes had to be to get a 14-1/2" long shock absorber with the suspension at ride height. I make it sound more complicated than it really was. Again, I fabbed up some cardboard templates and jigged around with them until I was happy. Then I zipped the mounts out of a piece of 2" x 3" x 3/16" tubing:



I cleaned up the burrs, sandblasted the protective coating off them, and wire-wheeled them to a nice clean finish, ready for welding and priming:



To be certain I was tacking them in the right place, I attached the shocks and double-checked the levelness and squareness and zapped them in place. (The square rod jammed between the mounts was there to make sure they didn't pinch together as the tack welds cooled.) This is the passenger side.



Here's the driver's side tacked in place just waiting for final welding. My little 100A MIG welder isn't hot enough to weld these structural parts so now that I've got all of the suspension pieces tacked in place, it's time to get the pros out to finish it all up. Wednesday is the appointment day so I won't be putting any weight on wheels until after then.



The only thing left to do was install the shocks and cycle the suspension up through it's travel range to make sure everything worked as planned. I'll post a video after the welding is completed. For now, here's a rear view of the driver's side:



And a side view of the passenger side... note the Fiero's in the background:



And last but not least, a rear top view showing how they'll nicely frame the Northstar and F40 transmission.



I can't install the springs yet because trying to cycle the suspension with 350lb/in springs would be futile by hand, and even if I could, they would probably pop off some of my tack welds.
Yarmouth Fiero FEB 10, 07:42 AM
Great job Blooz. It's certainly going to look very cool and functional when it's all done. I like your use of gussets and brackets cut from sections of structural tubing to take advantage of the materials extruded shape and strength. It looks very OEM.

Did you already make plans to move your battery to a new location? I can't remember if it was already done or not on your chassis. I'll be doing that with mine and there seems to be lots of examples of this process on various threads.
fieroaddicted FEB 10, 12:10 PM

quote
funny how you live in same small town fieroaddicted, and we still haven't met! I'm beginning to think you just made that part up and really live in Los Angeles or something.



LOL No, I'm still sticking to my original story of living in Aylesford. I do have to get over sometime soon to see this car. I am certain there is a lot to learn from you for sure. We'll have to set something up for sometime in the next couple weeks. Would have to be a weekend though.
Steven Snyder FEB 11, 01:06 AM
Are those QA1 shocks monotubes? You can't run twin tubes upside down or sideways.
Bloozberry FEB 11, 07:31 AM
The QA1 website has a list of available mono and twin tube shocks on its Circle Track page. The Proma Star 501S's that I bought aren't identified on either list so I assume they are neither.

[This message has been edited by Bloozberry (edited 02-11-2014).]

Steven Snyder FEB 11, 12:19 PM

quote
Originally posted by Bloozberry:

The QA1 website has a list of available mono and twin tube shocks on its Circle Track page. The Proma Star 501S's that I bought aren't identified on either list so I assume they are neither.




Proma Stars are twin-tube shocks. They are valved for drag racing so they weren't really ideal for your application anyway.

FYI there are no other common types of automotive dampers besides mono and twin-tube. Twin-tube is the most common in mass production.
Will FEB 11, 12:56 PM
Are you planning to triangulate the rocker arm mounts?

The resultant force from the spring and the pushrod is going to be up and a 45 degree angle, which is out of plane with your upper and lower supports.