I think I have been around this forum just about long enough, and made enough friends to to ask some stupid questions and get away with it (I hope).
I'm a engineer at heart, and I like solving engineering problems. I have a few of those with my particular project. Some of these problems are legitimately created by a lack of ready to weld or bolt-in kits and parts available in South Africa, and some of them I have created myself.
The retractable hardtop is an example of a engineering problem I created all by myself, but my chassis build up has a few problems created by circumstance more than anything else.
I recently posted a question here about a 4-link (or 4-bar... someone please explain to me the difference?) setup, and the reason for that is because my rear leaf springs are shot, and I can't find replacement new ones very easily.
This also brought into my mind the possibility of cutting the frame rails just forward of the rear axle, welding a crossmember in and rewelding the rear frame rail sections on risers, and narrowed just a few inches so I can fit some bigger rubber in there. Obviously this would require a narrowed axle and tubs to match.
So far so good, I like this idea. Now onto the front. The original crossmember, control arms and spindles just aren't going to cut it for this particular car, in function or aesthetics. A normal solution would be a Mustang II with dropped spindles and big disc brakes, but I find the original Mustang II hardware ugly (I probably wouldn't be able to find it either), and the pretty polished stainless aftermarket kits aren't readily available.
So enough of the intro. What are the big problems or challenges associated with scratch building a IFS setup?
The crossmember seems simple enough, as I can even get the sheetmetal components laser cut from CAD drawings ready to weld up. I don't see much room for error fabricating a crossmember.
Control arms are another story altogether as they have to be perfect. So, my thoughts are rather than employing solid welded stainless steel control arms, use a pair of stainless steel rods with adjustable rod ends for the upper and lower arms (four in total per wheel). The fact that there is some adjustment there would allow me to dial in the precision in alignment that might not be possible in welding up solid control arms without the right jigs and so forth.
I would utilise standard Mustang II ball joints and spindles, as these are small enough I can get my parents to smuggle them in from the U.S. when they visit in July.
Instead of a normal coil over setup, I would employ some kind of a pushrod with a bellcrank and a coilover running parallel to the frame rail, or a torsion bar.
What I am envisioning would end up looking more like a F1 car front suspension than a normal Mustang II.
That's my idea, it's open for advice, opinions, suggestions and criticism, I can take it!
I want to learn, bring it on!
Rich
I'm a engineer at heart, and I like solving engineering problems. I have a few of those with my particular project. Some of these problems are legitimately created by a lack of ready to weld or bolt-in kits and parts available in South Africa, and some of them I have created myself.
The retractable hardtop is an example of a engineering problem I created all by myself, but my chassis build up has a few problems created by circumstance more than anything else.
I recently posted a question here about a 4-link (or 4-bar... someone please explain to me the difference?) setup, and the reason for that is because my rear leaf springs are shot, and I can't find replacement new ones very easily.
This also brought into my mind the possibility of cutting the frame rails just forward of the rear axle, welding a crossmember in and rewelding the rear frame rail sections on risers, and narrowed just a few inches so I can fit some bigger rubber in there. Obviously this would require a narrowed axle and tubs to match.
So far so good, I like this idea. Now onto the front. The original crossmember, control arms and spindles just aren't going to cut it for this particular car, in function or aesthetics. A normal solution would be a Mustang II with dropped spindles and big disc brakes, but I find the original Mustang II hardware ugly (I probably wouldn't be able to find it either), and the pretty polished stainless aftermarket kits aren't readily available.
So enough of the intro. What are the big problems or challenges associated with scratch building a IFS setup?
The crossmember seems simple enough, as I can even get the sheetmetal components laser cut from CAD drawings ready to weld up. I don't see much room for error fabricating a crossmember.
Control arms are another story altogether as they have to be perfect. So, my thoughts are rather than employing solid welded stainless steel control arms, use a pair of stainless steel rods with adjustable rod ends for the upper and lower arms (four in total per wheel). The fact that there is some adjustment there would allow me to dial in the precision in alignment that might not be possible in welding up solid control arms without the right jigs and so forth.
I would utilise standard Mustang II ball joints and spindles, as these are small enough I can get my parents to smuggle them in from the U.S. when they visit in July.
Instead of a normal coil over setup, I would employ some kind of a pushrod with a bellcrank and a coilover running parallel to the frame rail, or a torsion bar.
What I am envisioning would end up looking more like a F1 car front suspension than a normal Mustang II.
That's my idea, it's open for advice, opinions, suggestions and criticism, I can take it!
I want to learn, bring it on!
Rich
