Dirty Baja E30

[TheRealE30kidd]

LOVE it!!! should handle anything in baja!

[epiphy]

We got some work done today.

This high lift jack thing was awesome. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out how to get it to go down:


















In our quest to replicate Vorshlag's rear setup, we decided to cut out the rear frame thingy:



John got in there:

[epiphy]

We were having a serious existential debate about the rear suspension of this car. There's really not much room between frame and tire, and the shock towers are just not tall enough to fit enough travel.

We want to fit these:


We have three options:

Option 1:
Make ultimate shock towers, extend trailing arm mount location out. We need to change the mounting location on the trailing arm because the springs are so wide they hit both the cv and the brakes. So we would weld a tube extending off in the direction of the shock mount bolt (green). We would then reinforce the other side of the tube with square tubing (blue). We would then weld shock mount tabs like this off the welded tube (red).


The top would then be the ultimate in shock towers, to raise the mount location by roughly 3 inches. 20mm spacers would be needed to fit the shocks between the frame and the tires, even with mega towers.



Option 2:
Pushrod style suspension, moving the coilovers into the trunk. This would be a lot easier to fabricate, as we wouldn't need to make a custom shock tower, nor would we need to change the mount location on the trailing arm. Plus there wouldn't be any spacers needed to push the tires out. Only need small hole on side to fit pushrod through (black). It would just be more complicated to measure. (But how fucking cool would it be!??)



Option 3:
Forget all my crazy suspension plans. Remove the biggest support bar on the trailing arms, and just go with the old separate shock and spring setup. The advantage of this is obvious, we wouldn't need to fab ANYTHING and everything already fits. Plus more up travel since the support bar wouldn't hit the spring perch. And it would only take 5 seconds to do. Disadvantages are that it's not as badass, and less adjustable, and trailing arm less strong.


We can't really decide what to do. The obvious easy answer is cut that trailing arms support bar off and use what already exists, but that goes against the principals of ridiculousness this build has.

[JGee]

Up travel is important. So however you can get more the better, just keep the travel under the CV joint limit or blow them out in a couple hours.

I vote for option 1, even if you have to mount the shocks to the cage inside the cabin.

Maybe lowering the sub-frame would make some room. Wheel spacers or anything to give it a wider stance is a good thing.;)


JH

[Q5Quint]

This is amazing and I approve of everything so far. Your decision model is faultless.

Cant you just make the arm bigger? I like option one but it isnt 'mega' enough. Either budget and best bang for time+money, or go all out crazy.

I am trying to think what would break first when you jump this thing into a ditch- the stock shock towers seem suspect anyway so no matter what you will end up doing some reinforcing right?

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/1079148-ifs-vs-trailing-arm.html

[epiphy]

I think we've come up with a really good solution. A lot of the offroad guys use hoop towers like this:




So since we are reinforcing the rear frame anyway for the dual ear diff, it would work for us to mount them there. Then, we can also weld the hoops outer edge to the wheel well too, for extra strength (red dots). Later on we could easily just weld a bar going from hoop to hoop, for even more strength. And it should tie into a roll cage easily.

Fitment should be easy too, we can jsut tack it in place and then cut the shock towers out from under it.

[epiphy]

This is amazing and I approve of everything so far. Your decision model is faultless.

Cant you just make the arm bigger? I like option one but it isnt 'mega' enough. Either budget and best bang for time+money, or go all out crazy.

My decision model for now is "use whatever you have laying around"

We were throwing around the idea of welding large square tubing on the under side of the car, on the sides behind the side skirts for reinforcement. The idea would be that down the line we could use them to support trailing arms mounted much farther forward. Since there's no fuel tank, we could easily mount them there. Or even farther forward in the rear footwells.

I am trying to think what would break first when you jump this thing into a ditch- the stock shock towers seem suspect anyway so no matter what you will end up doing some reinforcing right?

All I know is that my subframe and trailing arms will survive!!!

[ThatOneEuroE30]

So cool if I ever build a track car it will be a rallycross car or a drift slut. Cant wait to see what else you do.

[epiphy]

Did some more measuring today. Just thinking outloud here.



Testing fitment




Here's my new dilemma. Careful measurements of the coilovers shows they need to be mounted roughly 3" above and 2" out from the original shock location for full 10" travel. That means the hoops are about 2" too short:


I can rotate them like this, but then they'll be too far in (for the wide coils to clear the frame they had to be pushed out):


I could angle them like this, but then I'll need to fab and bend a bunch of sheet to fill the gap between the hoop and the wheel well. This wouldn't be as strong as the other options since I couldn't weld them right into the wheel well:


If instead I make longer hoops, I can fit the shock bracket AND weld the hoops directly to the wheel well:


I can't really know how to proceed with the hoops until I finish the dual-ear diff mount frame part, so I'll hold tight for now. Next week we will finish the new diff frame and test fitment again with the coilovers actually attached.

[epiphy]

More measuring and new parts today.

Stopped by to see my friend Nick at work today, who is wrapping this benz for some attorney:


Put the dual eared 4.10 medium diff in the subframe. Man doesn't that shit look beefy!


I used half inch shaft collars from Ace hardware as spacers, I figure it'll help give an extra half inch of CV travel:






I FINALLY found the combination of parts needed to get these enormous offroad coilovers to fit in the trailing arms STOCK MOUNT LOCATION!. There were two issues 1.) the springs are so wide the contact the cv boots 2.) the shock eyelet is for 1/2" bolts.

Here's what they normally look like:


I ordered one of these to help raise the spring about 3/4": http://www.pacificcustoms.com/fox23400373a.html

I ordered one of these to change the eyelet to a 12mm bolt size: http://www.pacificcustoms.com/fox21304001a.html

I also ordered the longest available eyelets, which push the springs up another 1 3/4", but those won't be here 'til next week.






As you can see, it still doesn't entirely clean the boot, but with the longer eyelet from Fox, it will.




I also got much, much much longer shock hoops this time. I'll cut them to size rather than have them be too short this time.

[TheTacoMan]

Awesome, Ive had some thoughts of making an offroad e30 like this modifying for longer travel. Super cool, how many inches do you imagine the rear will have?

[epiphy]

Awesome, Ive had some thoughts of making an offroad e30 like this modifying for longer travel. Super cool, how many inches do you imagine the rear will have?

I'm hoping for 10" in the back, as that's the total limit for the offroad coilovers I'm using. This is only possible by raising the shock mount location and by using a shock with longer travel. I can't possibly get anymore than that, because at that point the axles become the limiting factor, so no matter how much I cut up the car it won't help without some expensive custom axles.

But you should be able to get something like 8" by just using larger springs and using spacers between the diff and subframe. I never actually measured the stock travel

[epiphy]

Got a new toy. Tomorrow we get to use it!

[francogt1]

good stuff!

[epiphy]

Got a lot done today.

Plasma cut this and grinded out:





And with the 2x2x12ga angle peice in place:



Testing fitment:





Now we put the subframe back in to test the fitment locations for the bars the hold in the diff ears:



We then tacked the two angle pieces to the main bar, and magnetted and tacked the diff support bars in place. Then we took out the whole thing and welded it together:




Test fitment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp3WeiFT3OI