Blooze Own: An F355 Six Speed N* Build Thread (Page 96/126)
Bloozberry FEB 18, 09:20 PM
Hmmm... I see I owe a few acknowledgements and a few replies, so thanks go to Charlie (cptsnoopy). I've been keeping an eye on your thread too and am jealous about how far along you are. Your car is going to be tearing up the streets of Phoenix in no time.


quote
Originally posted by zkhennings:
How much of the specifics of the build did you plan ahead of time? I know for example the upper supports for the bell crank you found a good solution when the time came, but was everything else planned ahead? Or are you making it up as you go?



That's a tricky question because when I started out I certainly didn't think I would redesign the suspension. If I had to put a number on it, I would guess that 80% was planned ahead and the rest made up as I went. For example, I figured out the location for the suspension pivot points ahead of time, since that's the only way to make sure the wheels would work as intended. Then, starting with my stock Fiero drawings I planned how I could fit those pivot points to the chassis in the available space. I had to start from scratch several times when I realized I simply didn't have the room to do what I wanted. Each time I honed in on a better solution. But even so, there were some things that I didn't see at all, or occasions where I counted on a wrong measurement, or simply thought I had enough information to forge ahead when I didn't. I can think of 3 examples off the top of my head that didn't go the way I expected and had to redesign on the fly:

a. drawing the wrong inner diameter of the rear wheels which resulted in designing the knuckle-top brackets such that they interfered with the wheels (on the fly solution: flip the knuckles left to right and change all of my suspension mounting points);
b. drawing only the driver side chassis and suspension expecting the right side to be a mirror image. This error caused me to have to have to dump at least one suspension design since there is much more room on the driver's side than the passenger side for the suspension; and
c. not having drawn the engine in top view where I would have seen the clearance issues with the passenger lower frame rail before I welded the engine mounts to the cradle. This omission caused me to have to cut off and remake the front and rear cross members of the cradle.

So as you can see, despite all my planning there arose even big problems that had to be solved as I went.


quote
Originally posted by Will:
I think bell cranks are over rated for cars with fenders (IE, cars that aren't open wheel race cars). The idea in my head doesn't use pushrods or cranks, but I need to get serious about drawing it out so that I can verify that it will work in the space available.



I found the pushrod and bell crank were the answer to packaging constraints, especially with the lowered suspension.


quote
Originally posted by skidd1000:
I also just bought a Fiero with a f355 body installed on it. I too picked up an 2001 cady sls for $100 with (you guessed it) an over heating problem. One day those two cars will become one. I don't have your patience or your skills or your pocket book, but I do have time so this will be an adventure.



I'm only a PM away if you need advice or have a question or two. As for money, you'll soon find that this forum is a treasure trove of information on how to get things done inexpensively (lots of DIY stuff). And if you start a build thread, you'll also find your patience and desire for a good quality build will grow when you get rewarding comments from complete strangers such as yourself.


quote
Originally posted by katatak:
Thanks again for sharing your work.



You're one of the good guys Pat. Thanks for your words of encouragement, although the idea for the firewall cross member is totally Yarmouth Fiero's. He's a pretty ingenious guy given all the stuff he's designed for his convertible and this is his frist ever project car. I was checking out your thread yesterday and see it's chugging along at the same pace most of these projects do! Keep it up, it's going to be one-of-a-kind.

As for a bit of progress on the Blooze-mobile, I did some more cleaning up of the firewall and primed the engine bay in prep for reinstalling the cradle. That went without a hitch, though there's definitely more wiggling and jiggling than a stock engined car to get everything lined up as the frame is lowered back over top of the engine. I don't know how those guys with stock wheelbases managed to shoehorn the Northstar into their engine bays... I have three more inches and find it tight!

With the engine back in I could start building up the suspension again to test out the weight on wheels config. I just had to take a photo or two with the springs on the coil overs even though they're not set up with the spring seats at the right spot.



The instructions for the coil overs say that anti-seize compound must be smeared on the shock tube's threads before attempting to adjust them otherwise there's a risk of galling up the threads. That's going to make a mess. I also make a modification to the bell cranks to enable me to spin the shocks around to have the adjuster knob more accessible at the rear. I had to grind down the radius of the end of the bell crank arm to get the larger end of the shock body to clear the bell crank. I like them better this way:
motoracer838 FEB 18, 10:35 PM
Blooz, that is looking great, I can tell you from experience my N* is "stuffed" in the bay, http://www.fiero.nl/forum/F...3/HTML/000024-2.html about a third of the way down the page, you'll see that I had a "little" rework myself. (damn, looks like myfiero.com is down again)

I might have to "borrow" your rear suspension for my 288 widebody.

Joe

[This message has been edited by motoracer838 (edited 02-18-2014).]

Will FEB 19, 09:28 AM

quote
Originally posted by Bloozberry:

I found the pushrod and bell crank were the answer to packaging constraints, especially with the lowered suspension.

I don't know how those guys with stock wheelbases managed to shoehorn the Northstar into their engine bays... I have three more inches and find it tight!




Never disparaged the pushrod concept... It works great for you and will look great in the engine bay.

Up an inch, left and inch, up an inch, forward an inch, up an inch, right an inch...
ccfiero350 FEB 20, 11:18 AM
Lots of lube on the shock threads! I had to crank in about 2" of preload on mine the first time.

It might be a good idea to make some shock socks to keep them clean when driving around and easy to remove for show and tell.

------------------
yellow 88 GT, not stock
white 88 notchie, 4 banger

RCR FEB 20, 12:48 PM

quote
Originally posted by Bloozberry:

I don't know how those guys with stock wheelbases managed to shoehorn the Northstar into their engine bays... I have three more inches and find it tight!




It's tighter with the 4T80e...


But it fits.

Bob
Bloozberry FEB 21, 09:18 PM
To mark this thread's approach to 100,000 views, I thought I'd post a short video showing how the rear suspension works it's magic. (The spring is removed from the coil-over to allow me to compress the suspension fully). Enjoy!


http://youtu.be/4n26lixRbDM
Yarmouth Fiero FEB 21, 09:28 PM
Very slick Blooz. The video really brings it all home.

Great job. What's next?
Sage FEB 23, 02:32 PM
Yep, the video really does work better than a technical explanation. If a picture's worth a thousand words, the video is pricelss, as far as demonstrating how it all comes together and works.

I would imagine the addition of the spring would also be interesting to watch in action. In your estimation, will the ride be as stiff, less stiff or about the same as a "normal" coil-over set up?

As always, beautiful work. Thanks again for taking the time to share.

HAGO!
aeffertz FEB 23, 04:45 PM
That rear suspension is really neat.
Jim88GT FEB 23, 05:29 PM
Blooz,

Great thread and attention to detail!! Any thoughts/concerns about engine bay heat affecting shock performance?

Jim