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some progress on double a arm IRS

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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 08:20 AM
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Default some progress on double a arm IRS

I'm working on this:


had previously semi-finished this upright: (top section not finished for fitting reasons, has to do w/ frame clearance and instantaneous center)


well...I also finished 1 lower control arm. Here are some shots of the process and the arm installed under the car for test fitting.













The arm weighs about 6,8lbs and should be very strong once fully tig welded. (all these weelds are done with MIG, it's easier to get into the tight spaces like the bracket for the forward rod)

Last edited by Twin_Turbo; Jul 18, 2006 at 08:24 AM.
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 08:46 AM
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Looks really good Marck. Whenever I pass a bolt through flat plate like that I take really good undersize washers, the real heavy kind and weld them to the plate to double the thickness of the material in that spot for more wear resistance. Holes can be oblonged under constant load.
Hopefully your rearend will control toe change.
Nice work
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 09:09 AM
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Man, your car is going to score top points in the NCRS judging once you get the car done!

Awesome work, I hope you'll never finish the project, since the rest of us are always looking for updates!
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 11:32 AM
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Norval, I always drill those holes undersize and carefully enlarge them so it's a very tight fit to the shank of the bolt, that way it won't rattle and should help prevent the hole from stretching. Also the metal is pretty thick, it should be strong enough. This setup does control the toe, the 2 rod ends on the hub side set the toe. All you have to do is remove the bolt on one side and move that rod end in or out so it's position relative to the other changes. That's all there is to it.

Jay, this is my last major project...after that it's finishing up tid bits here and there, fitting the intercoolers and ducting, brackets for misc. components like remote oil press. regulator, filter mount and so on, finish cleaning the frame (I welded in most of the holes and those weird dimples where 2 channels are slid into each other and welded in...I cleaned those dimples and welded them in completely and ground flush. That way it looks like 1 big continuous beam)

Last edited by Twin_Turbo; Jul 18, 2006 at 11:43 AM.
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 11:52 AM
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I dig all these mods you are doing. Nice work. I am quite envious of your skills.
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 12:59 PM
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Marck I noticed you do a real nice notching job on the tubes. How do you do it?? I would assume alot of hand held grinding and test fitting??
It isn't easy to get a good fit but it is the only practical way.
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 01:19 PM
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Originally Posted by norvalwilhelm
Marck I noticed you do a real nice notching job on the tubes. How do you do it?? I would assume alot of hand held grinding and test fitting??
It isn't easy to get a good fit but it is the only practical way.
I was wondering the same thing. Looks good Mark, keep posting the pics.

Neal
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 01:57 PM
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Norval, yes...hand fitting and grinding. Once you get a feel for it you can do them in a minute or so. I always scribe the pipe for the notch centerline (if 2 sides need to be notched) and then I clamp the pipe level in a vise. Next I get my trusty flapper disc equipped grinder and attack the edge of the pipe with the grinder at about a 30-40deg angle and move it from side to side. That way you can easily see the "chamfer" form the proper shape. When I have the correct side all it takes is some grinding of the sides of the fishmouth to open them op and cleaning of the inside. I can do it like this 10 times quicker than with a tubing notcher. The process is kind of hard to explain..if someone wants me to, I can do a sort of photo story board showing how to do it.

I did the entire roll cage that way. I like the points where multiple pipes are nested the best, it really pays off there to have tight fitting pipes.
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 03:00 PM
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TT, I think you need to open one of those super-high-end tuner shops that seem to be popular in Europe...
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 03:37 PM
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what tuner shops? There are no tuners shops here that I'm aware of? We only have junk cars here LOL All the neat hotrodding is done on your side of the big wet (unfortunately)
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 04:43 PM
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TWIN TURBO there are a couple of the repo cobra manufactures
that use upper and lower control arms with the Toranado splined
axle shafts, would they not work for you ??
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 05:53 PM
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WOWEEEE you are gooooood. i think gm will like your stuff. i do
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 06:26 PM
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When you make arms like this do you bolt the heim joints to anything to make some what of a jig to hold everything in place? Looks good!
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 08:12 PM
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Originally Posted by fugawi
WOWEEEE you are gooooood. i think gm will like your stuff. i do
Not even GM engineers design a complete car without testing anything and expect it to go like hell right when it rolls out of the garage.

This is going to be interesting.
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 08:34 PM
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Looks like some AWESOME stuff there.
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 10:21 PM
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That's very interesting, How much does the upright weigh. That looks really heavy with all that extra steel on there. Have you looked at using the c5 or c6 rear a arms and uprights. The bonus to that is you can switch to a 30 spline outter cv joint, and I think it wouldn't be to hard to adapt the internal spiders or have a new inner cv made with the correct splines to match the heavy duty 30 spline spiders from Tom's diff's or Vansteel.

I have the one upper and the right upright currently, it also has a speed sensor on the wheel so you could do some interesting data aquisition with that at the track.
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Old Jul 18, 2006 | 11:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Twin_Turbo
what tuner shops? There are no tuners shops here that I'm aware of? We only have junk cars here LOL All the neat hotrodding is done on your side of the big wet (unfortunately)
I've heard of several very high-end shops that do work on Porsches and Mercedes...
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To some progress on double a arm IRS

Old Jul 19, 2006 | 03:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Little Mouse
TWIN TURBO there are a couple of the repo cobra manufactures
that use upper and lower control arms with the Toranado splined
axle shafts, would they not work for you ??
I had been thinking about those and the C5/6 stuff. Problem is the CV joint setup, how do you go from CV joint on one side to the 1350 u joint on the other. The early viper axles have 1350s on both ends, a much simpler solution. The upright doesn't weigh that much, maybe 12 lbs or so. I'll have to weigh it. I have that weight more than offset with the calipers and all. A completely assembled stock trailing arm is heavier than the stuff I have here now. Also the upper arms are a lot lighter, the lowers are built for 3/4 rod ends w/ 1.25" tubing , the uppers will be 5/8 using 1" tubing.

The jig is just a flat plate with little L shaped sections welded on it. I lay the individual tubes on the plate, slid tightly between the L shaped pieces and poisition them. It's done so that they are positioned with the tube ends in the pipes but not the rod ends, that way the 2 arms are exactly the same.

Not even GM engineers design a complete car without testing anything and expect it to go like hell right when it rolls out of the garage.
Ok...

Batman, do you mean shops like Porsche Tuners Tech Art?

Last edited by Twin_Turbo; Jul 19, 2006 at 04:18 AM.
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Old Jul 19, 2006 | 03:32 AM
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Originally Posted by Twin_Turbo
Batman, do you mean shops like Porsche Tuners Tech Art?
I don't remember names, I just remember seeing some non-factory European shops on various US TV shows. The History Channel did a show on the Autobahn system, and at one point they talked to a Porsche shop that was taking a VERY expensive upgraded 911 for a test run before delivering it to the owner in London.
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Old Jul 19, 2006 | 03:37 AM
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There are several of those, some build nice cars, some create monstrocities. They definitely are very high end though.
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