Sportwagon from hell...header pics

[LeftLaneGuy]

Bob:

Looking at your flickr page, I noticed your frame rust is very similar to mine... Any pics on the repair?

I know what to do, but I'd like to see *your* repair...

thanks! And great work, as always!!!

[Travis]

Gauge thickness varies based on material...

-Travis

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by Travis Gauge thickness varies based on material... -Travis

Also sheet versus tubing have different values as well!

It works out to .1046" in steel sheet, or 2.65 mm.

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by LeftLaneGuy Bob: Looking at your flickr page, I noticed your frame rust is very similar to mine... Any pics on the repair? I know what to do, but I'd like to see *your* repair... thanks! And great work, as always!!!

The frame is very solid actually, only the 'jack pad' is shot. The frame has one bubble in it, I will simply use a hole-saw and drill through the outer layer of frame metal exposing the thicker inner rail. Then I remove all scale and weld a patch in place.

For the jack pad I simply copy the stock contours in the aforementioned 12 ga steel sheet. A bit of a PITA on heavier steel, but not impossible. And It should outlast the car. Adding drain holes to the lowest point of the jack pads is paramount, they fill with sand and gravel, and driving in the rain soaks the sand and it stays saturated with moisture for days at a time, locking it against the un-painted metal inside the jack pad. So adding drain holes allows the moisture and sand/debris to fall out.

I will document it when I get to repairing it. But I'm working on the steering quickener install and front suspension upgrades first before moving on to the framerail. So maybe a couple of weeks or so.

Bob

[RallyBob]

The header came back from Jet-Hot today! It looks awesome coated....
Pics to follow soon.

Bob

[2 Fast 4 U]

Originally Posted by baz this should help erick AWG to square mm Wire Gauge Conversion danged americans sticking to old units

you can wright that again

Originally Posted by Travis Gauge thickness varies based on material... -Travis

Originally Posted by RallyBob Also sheet versus tubing have different values as well! It works out to .1046" in steel sheet, or 2.65 mm.

I can and wil say that it is far more easier here in Europe than in the US, we only have to look for the thikness we want, because everything has the same standard sizes, no matter what material you want

Bob, when are the pics due??

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by 2 Fast 4 U Bob, when are the pics due??

Well, I only have a chance to download my pics once every 3-4 weeks, but as it happens tonight was one of those nights! I loaded more pics of the construction phase of the header, with details of the collector cone. Plus there are photos of the suspension modifications at the rear axle.


Here's the finished header after coating.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3216/...b181db71_o.jpg

[samdog]

That is Beautiful....Another piece of art

[RallyBob]

Here's the header pics again:

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by RallyBob Another interesting find on this Sportwagon. Both shock towers had spider cracks eminating from a single point. I'll post pics one of these days of this issue, before and after.

Here are the cracked shock tower areas:

You can see the rust and cracked sheet metal in the first pic after I removed the undercoating from the wheel-well area. Then I removed the paint and rust, and re-aligned the torn metal prior to welding it.

The passenger side was not nearly as bad, but had started to 'pop' at three spot welds. It hadn't fully cracked yet.

[RallyBob]

The view from inside: Prior to the repair the cracks were clearly visible from this vantage point, which is what caused me to investigate further and find the problem.

[BQS4]

Bob;
What is the machined looking sleeve in the coil spring area for?

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by BQS4 Bob; What is the machined looking sleeve in the coil area for?

It's a piece of 3" stainless steel tubing. I cut it to 1.75" long, and it's a pressed-fit into the spring bucket. One tack-weld holds it in place.

On any car that's lowered with substantially shorter springs than stock, the springs can fall out of the seats at full suspension droop. This prevents that scenario from happening.

[RallyBob]

More stuff.

First pic is of the initial batch of parts being sent off to the powdercoater. My old powdercoat guy closed up his shop and is concentrating on sharpening ceramic machining inserts (!?). But his former #1 employee went to work at another shop in Hartford called Competitive Edge Coatings. They have huge capabilities, in fact they have powdercoated complete unibody chassis' before! That's a big oven....

The next two pics are of the customized rear sway bar. I took an off-the shelf Addco 3/4" rear bar, chopped the ends of the 'arms' off, and made some custom 5-way adjustable arms. They attach to the chassis via some LH and RH 3/8" rod ends, secured to the body with aluminum bushings. The body mounts themselves are prone to tearing out, so they have been completely seam-welded to help prevent this from happening. In fact the stock ones on this car were already slightly cracked.

[madhatterpdc]

... On one side the cracks were almost 3 inches long! I attribute this to two distinct facts...

I would like to state for the record that there is really one major factor here in these cracks...

cob-b-b-b-le st-t-t-tone road-d-d-d-ds

[Paul]

Originally Posted by RallyBob The next two pics are of the customized rear sway bar. I took an off-the shelf Addco 3/4" rear bar, chopped the ends of the 'arms' off, and made some custom 5-way adjustable arms. They attach to the chassis via some LH and RH 3/8" rod ends, secured to the body with aluminum bushings.

Bob,
You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of this... would ya????

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by Paul Bob, You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of this... would ya????

Nope. I can take some pics and post them with the next batch of photos. It'll be a few weeks however, as I just downloaded a batch of pics yesterday.

It won't work unless you relocate the swaybar as I did however. I moved it from the top of the axle to the underside of the axle. The links I made are too long for a stock bar location, but they're as short as they can be without bottoming the threads out.

Bob

[Paul]

If you were modifing the Addco bar for use in the stock location, would the new ends of the bar look similar to the pictures you posted? ... And in this case, would you leave the stock chassis mounting and end links stock?

Upon rereading you post, Bob... are you saying the trailing links are too long, not the end links are too long?

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by Paul If you were modifing the Addco bar for use in the stock location, would the new ends of the bar look similar to the pictures you posted? ... And in this case, would you leave the stock chassis mounting and end links stock?

Similar, but longer. Angle would change as well. Stock flat-metal end links suck on a performance application. I used to bend them all the time from hard cornering. I modded my '73 Ascona years ago with the Addco bar, and promptly tweaked the stock end link bracketry. So I then used a male 1/2" rod end screwed into a female 1/2" rod end as my end link (short overall length, so this worked okay). Drilled the Addco bar end link hole oversized to 1/2", then welded washers to the body mounts and bolted it all up. Worked awesome...for a while. The lack of cushioning and my driving style meant I ripped the body brackets OUT of the frame section. No rust...just over-stressed. So I seam-welded them and reinforced them, and they were just fine until that car got rear-ended 7 years later.

Upon rereading you post, Bob... are you saying the trailing links are too long, not the end links are too long?

The 'links' I made...3/8" male rod end LH thread, 3/8" male rod end RH, and a short piece of aluminum thick-walled tube tapped LH and RH....are the shortest I could utilize and still make them adjustable in situ.

The sway bar 'arms' I made that have 5 holes in them are shorter than stock for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted the ability to dial in more rear roll stiffness than the standard Addco bar allows. And two, when I cycled the rear suspension from full droop to full compression (on the bump stops), the end links bound up with the sway bar arms at the stock length and the stock angle.

Hope this explains it.
Bob

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by Paul If you were modifing the Addco bar for use in the stock location, would the new ends of the bar look similar to the pictures you posted? ... And in this case, would you leave the stock chassis mounting and end links stock? Upon rereading you post, Bob... are you saying the trailing links are too long, not the end links are too long?

Alright, let's try this again now that I have pics. The first pic is of all the parts needed for one end link on the modified sway bar. Next is the assembled linkage. The third photo is the assembled linkage compared to another assembled linkage for a stock swaybar. Note the significantly shorter linkage for the stock bar. The last photo is the linkage installed on the chassis.

[RallyBob]

Here are the parts from the first batch of powdercoating. The yellow looks awesome in person.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/...97fbf5aa_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3279/...422ed72a_o.jpg

[RallyBob]

Some of the front suspension rework. I started with the cracked a-arm, and went from there.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3115/...a4c7764f_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3052/...98d53a59_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3216/...e96b712b_o.jpg
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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3275/...97de1fe7_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/...e3c5106c_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3174/...1b2f0474_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3124/...7f8c50fe_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3186/...a9d39855_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/...593c3dee_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3090/...fc5553c4_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3100/...cc17a492_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3210/...0306d0fd_o.jpg

[RallyBob]

Here are the 'L-shaped' crossmember braces (or whatever they are called). These were a mess as well. There were cracks at the bushing area where it attached to the framerail, there were cracks where they bolt to the crossmember/lower a-arm area, and all the threads were buggered where the sway bar bushings bolt up. I ended up replacing two of those nuts and was able to save two of them with thread chaser. The replacement subframe bushings are urethane, and they are simply Chevy pickup truck rear leaf spring bushings, albeit slightly modified (shortened). The small washers welded to the braces are for safety-wiring the rack and pinion mounting bolts. I don't like using the factory locking tabs, but having the rack mounting bolts fall out is a bad thing to happen!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/...7c52992d_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/...b37df8ee_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/...0c87a4d9_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/...f3c01a6a_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3241/...53c6b6fe_o.jpg

[RallyBob]

The upper a-arms. These had the least amount of work done to them. And for once they weren't cracked....

I simply added a thick spacer at the ball joint, while slotting it for camber adjustment. Then there are braces at the pivot points, and I welded the loose sleeves in place for the bushings. Although these a-arms DID have holes drilled through them for zip-tying the brake hoses! I welded those up, and will re-route the hoses instead.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3090/...e7808c02_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3029/...c95dfaf0_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3165/...1ed1f7bd_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3084/...d02743fb_o.jpg

[oldopelguy]

Those sure are some nice pictures, is that camera still holding out or did you get another? We also need to get you a plasma torch, those outer ball joints would have taken seconds to cut for the new mounts.

Did you recess the sway-bar mount some up into the "L" bracket, or is the notch always that "deep"? I don't remember it being so is all.

I've been planning on swapping out the rubber sway bar bushing in the lower control arm with a load-rated spherical mono-ball, and looking at those pictures makes me wonder if swapping out the inner one might not be a bad idea too. The outer sleeves typically used with them are so much thicker than what's in there stock and it might help keep the arms together. Sure the ride would be a bit rougher, but it wouldn't be on a DD car anyway...