Midlana: First "Book" Build

Shocks would be about the last thing I would order, along with the springs. When I do a build I make solid shafts that hold the ride height where I want it and place things in the car to keep the corner weights the best I can. No friction or springs messing with the scale readings.

Make a dummy coil over out of some wood or something to keep an eye on clearance. Or borrow or buy a junk one off ebay.

Once you have 95% of the major parts hung on the car throw it on scales, check you motion ratios figure out your desired wheel rates and call the shock and spring people.

*I say all this without knowing what the book says about shocks and spring rates. It looks like you have a lot of options, any of them can be made to work.

FYI-your build has me really thinking about building one or three of these once my RX2 and Spitfire are done. Yes, I said 3. I have two friends that have money they haven't counted yet and they like track cars.

jgrewe wrote: ... Make a dummy coil over out of some wood or something to keep an eye on clearance. Or borrow or buy a junk one off ebay. ...

A piece of PVC pipe (similar to your spring diameter) is cheap and easy to cut. Helps with modeling the placement of parts.

Excellent idea! I figure 3.5 inches is a reasonable OD for 2.5 ID spring, no?

Hate to say it but there is no substitute for the actual parts to measure.

bgkast wrote: Excellent idea! I figure 3.5 inches is a reasonable OD for 2.5 ID spring, no?

3" schedule 40 is 3.5" OD.

I do agree with olpro most of the time but in this case I don't think you are trying to build to really close tolerances where that would be an issue. The final shock dimensions, valving, and spring rates are more important. You can always get some 2.5" pipe and make a telescoping assembly!

FYI- just bought the book tonight. I told my wife and blamed you. You are now on her "List" which isn't a good thing.

Excellent, another book sold and I somehow avoided being the bad guy this time :)

I bought these for my project:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Coil-Over-Shock-Mock-up-Tool,57416.html

In reply to Gimp:

Cool.

Those would be really great if they had a threaded turnbuckle instead of pins so you didn't have to take the rod end off to fine tune them.

Those have one rod end with a reverse thread so you can just rotate it to make it shorter or longer. The holes are for the big adjustments.

In reply to Gimp:

slick! I had thought about making something like that

jgrewe wrote: Those have one rod end with a reverse thread so you can just rotate it to make it shorter or longer. The holes are for the big adjustments.

Yeah, there is a pretty reasonable amount of adjustment. The holes let you move 1/2 inch at a time, and the threads let you fine tune. That, and they are sturdy enough to support the full weight of a complete car, so you can pop them on and send your shocks off to be rebuilt and still have a roller if you want.

Junk has been getting in the way of Midlana progress.

I went on a little road trip with my Son and the Miata to Eureka CA a last week which was fun and free from automotive drama. The day after I got back my wife was hit in her Explorer, totaling it. Luckily she and the kids were OK. I spend most of last week and the weekend dealing with insurance, replacing the car with a 1998 GMC Safari and bringing the new van up to stuff: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/lets-go-on-safari-1998-gmc-safari/86217/page1/

I got back to work on the car last night and finished up the front suspension.

I also gave the build table a thorough cleaning. You can actually see the surface of it now!

Midlana forum member Oltmann stopped by this weekend to look at the build, and take some measurements for his build. He brought along some shocks from a side by side ATV, which use 2.5" springs. clearly they are too long for my suspension, but it looks like the springs will clear my upper A arms OK.

I just bought an Elise fuel tank. It may need some minor tweaking to fit, but that should save me a month or so of fabrication. Stainless steel too.

*not the actual tank

How much was that tank? It looks like a nice little piece.

$200

Behold:

After much dawdling and a false start the rear-suspension jig is complete!

I had to modify the book design slightly to get around my tapered rear end. I don't like working with wood, it's hard to be precise with it. The two sticks of 2x2 that I used were each off 1/16 from the 1.5" square dimension, one larger and one smaller, which necessitated some tweaking of the jig dimensions to keep things accurate.

Like I said on the Midlana forum...if this was a Morgan replica I would have rage-quit by now!

I can never find the right filler rod to stick wood together.

Looking good!

see, and i find wood much simpler to work with than steel. im intimidated by projects such as yours. and rust repair.

build a piano? sure. build a frame? ummm......

bgkast wrote: $200

Sweet deal!

jgrewe wrote: I can never find the right filler rod to stick wood together. Looking good!

Yer lookin' fer the wrong product, Pal!

I found an Elise tank on ebay for a great price (a sheet of stainless would have cost almost as much) so I decided to give it a shot. It arrived today and it dropped in like it was designed to fit there!

The angle of the tank even perfectly matches the angle of the frame!! It clears at the top front by about 1/8 inch on each side.

Unfortunately my neon fuel pump doesn't drop right in, I couldn't get that lucky. I will either adapt it to fit or track down what ever Toyota part the Elise uses. The "lotus" part seems to go for about $600 used.

Hahaha I bet they're the exact same pump

Hey I found a much cheaper aftermarket pump that will work here, and the compatibility list should give you a hint at what factory pumps will work:

http://www.monkeywrenchracing.com/product_info.php?products_id=1642