67 firebird

Sleeved the low mount



This is 1.75" d.o.m. tubing (.120" thick), cut to a raw length of 19 inches. It is resting on the lowmount and tomorrow I will fit & weld it to the low mount. It will house the bottom spring perch. The coil spring is Going to be around 10" long when the car is at normal ride height & has a free-length of 15 inches. My biggest thing to overcome is the surrounding chassis, but I should be able to clear it... JUST!

Can someone tell me the purpose of these two holes in the bottom of the rear control arms? I am guessing alignment or assembly? I'd like to use at least one for my bolt-on coil adapter.

 

maybe i missed it but why not just get longer coilovers with a suitable spring?

 

I almost bought a set of BFG tires yesturday.
But I will hold off until suspension stuff is functional.
I'm concerned with the weight of them bigger meats;

BFG ko2 45 pounds 215 65 r16 (27+ diameter)
Winter tire 20-25 pounds 205 55 r16 (24.5 diameter)
The car was never designed for that weight of a wheel.

Combined with twice the torque from the engine, twice the weight and extra traction at the end means everything in between will be getting bullied.

 

check out Yokohama Geolandars - they are A/T but more car/SUV oriented than truck like the K02. Much lighter but very good offroad, I have had them on 2 Subarus so far.
There are several variants of this tire though so research carefully.

Also, can shave some more weight by going to a narrower tire (195?) since the tread is the heaviest part.

 

If you find a tire that narrow, with an off-road tread pattern, I want to know about it.

There are plenty of rally tires with aggressive tread, but you're pretty much limited to 15" diameter. And they generally are not very tall.

 

Scott, have a look at this website. I don't see anything that would work unless using 4 compact spare rims.
Coker Tire Military Truck Tires

 

I don't see a link, but I think you reinforced my point.

 

i had these on my old Outback in 205/70R15, they worked well in dirt and snow but i never found any deep mud.

lmk what you think?
https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/geolandar-a-t-g015

 

Good idea brother. DONE!
I thought about it for the last two days and your right. Particularly in the back end where space is limited. I will mount them to the outside of these tubes. Now I kinda wished I made them out of aluminum.... but I am being conservative with the funds & only have access to the aluminum welder at work.


And overall less bulkiness will be more pleasing to the eye.
Tonight I ordered 2 inch I.D., 7" long alloy coilover tubes & perches. And I ordered "ultra high travel" 2.5" I.D. coil springs (14" long/ 175 lbs/inch constant rate springs). I hope I guessed right on the spring rate, referencing 2 different online forum charts, most are around 150 and I like a tight butt.
I'm so excited. I will continue building for it... it's basically the same general concept as before but more compact. This will give me more room to mount the rear shocks if I can't mount them inside the spring, but I will try to mount inside.

MONEY TALK:
So far I have spent
$510 on a Jeep 4 spring/4 shock kit
$250 deluxe coilover springs
$220 coilover sleeve/perches
= $980 cdn/$690 usd

 

That's not an off-road tire. Back when little pickups were a thing (70s?), BFG and others made real off road tires in 15" sizes. Now you can't find anything close to 25" or 26" in diameter. Rally tires are good, but expensive.

 

Did you guys watch this yet?

 

These are 27 lbs
21570r16
28" diameter
9" section width
"light truck/suv" tires available in Canada.
Nokian Rotiiva All Terrain
Thats like 20 lbs per tire lighter than BFG... I wonder about sidewall strength though.
I'm starting to think something like this with extra siping to the tread might be the plan.
https://www.kaltire.com/en/tires/rot...l#productSizes
There is a truck in my alley with them. They look skinnier than most tires on a half ton.

Video. Starting at 4:13 he starts talking about features. Designed in Finland!

 

I run nokians z-series, a summer now all season tyre, on 3 cars.

quite cheap as the ruble is weak against the dollar. I shred them then buy more.

 

Finally welded up the lower rear strut bodies (I looked it up last week-yes the rear can be a strut -part of an assembly that resists compression) after cutting them to 6" length. I welded on another 3/8" plate to the mounting eyelet and removed the skid plate. Here's a comparison. The prototype part of building anything is time consuming, I'm sorry I move at a slow pace. I'm making everything by hand and re-using/re-purposing materials like 90% of the time.... It's hard to go into hardware stores with the Covid virus situation, so I can't even replace my worn-out tools, so I'm often improvising. The good part of this is that I have lots to keep myself busy with while waiting for parts to come in.