V-12 Engine into 308 Build, over on Grassroots

I popped the second side apart and also popped out 1 of the old rubber bushings to start thinking about what I want to do for the new bushings. I truly hate the design.

I'm leaning towards popping out the bushing supports and making new ones that hold spherical bearings.
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What I'm kind of struggling with is toe adjust. the factory setup works by flexing the rubber bushes so I could leave rubber or urethane on the top arm mount...and maybe that is best so I know nothing will bind. Or I need to make 1 or the top frame mounts adjustable....maybe put a rod end on the frame and the fork on the a-arm? I could slot it? I need to think about it.

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oh its on! I ordered some steel tubing that I can make adapters to replace the rubber bushing tack in sleeves that will hold the new spherical bearings. These won't have the life the rubber did but they will make it handle better and will be easier enough to replace so good I think. Still not sure how I want to handle toe adjust.....I think I'm just going to slot one of the upper forks and see how it does before I try to get more clever.


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I think I've said this before, but the way I got 10" wherls and 295 tires on is by moving the lower shock mount about 1.6" inboard. And I after 20+ years I just cleaned up the sad job i did on the a-arms
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Cut and ready to get welding tomorrow

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I welded the bajesus out of them

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and just like factory

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looks great - if you want to go next level, you can use a needle scaler to emulate the original casting

 

So I was trying to convince myself its ok to leave it as-is......usually what I do is sand and scottbrite the whole thing like I did with the the whole engine and trans to kind of give it a diecast look and hide all my welding and reworking. That is probably what I should do to the uprights.

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was kind of joking as it won't really be seen - your stuff all looks great (i need a work table like yours) ... but I watched this youtube yesterday:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EAhxpvMC1i4

 

Ok, I'm sorry for yesterday's sad finish, now they are diecast like everything else I've touched
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That alone will get you 5 more HP.

 

Mark, what is your technical background - were you an engineer?

 

Was a machinist in a past life, now an engineer....well engineering manager the last 15 or 20 years so i just talk about technical stuff these days.

 

Cut some welds
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Then knocked out the old bushings
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Then spent WAY more time bead blasting than I planned
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but 1 bearing fits, 15 to go (I'll make all 16 adapters while I'm at it so they are ready for the front too). Then I'll need some spacers so everything fits right.

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I'm having a personal crisis.....I REALLY want to paint something yellow.....I know its wrong, but I also know in my heart the car will be faster if something gets painted yellow.

 

Time for a poll by your 3X8 peers.

Calipers

 

Paint the calipers

 

Agreed . Yellow!
Let's get crazy and adventurous, match the V12 energy...
Yellow A-arms! And look at that they're already prepped for paint! It's a win/win!

 

That though has crossed my mind

And don't forget I have 18" wheels so you can see in pretty well......I don't want to boy racer it but everything semigloss black is maybe a bit to old man

 

Im leaning toward the calipers and springs in yellow and leave the a-arms black. I'm still screwing around with the bearings.....hopefully finish that up tonight and get on to paint

 

Incredible work, Mark!! Such an inspirational thread!

Cheers
-Dave

 

I think my HF blaster is just completely worn out...but I just the springs cleaned up with a wire wheel and a selection of abrasive options. It took forever but I now the extra speed I get with yellow will make it all worth while! The yellow caliper paint sure be here tomorrow so I can take care of those too.

I kind of with I had a set of stock springs to set next to these....these are 6 and 8" tall, I remembering stock being like 12"? something like that? Different planet.

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The springs are gone to begin their power coating adventure.

In other news I just got the case for the new ecu. About the same size as the old AEM/EL
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LOTs of pins, I can't even imagine running out of anything
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And nice sealed, locking, and covered wire connectors.
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Now it just needs an actual ecu board....and some branding stickers of course The board is designed and pinout complete so I can start wiring in the new connectors and figuring out where to mount the thing as soon as I get some down time from the suspension.

 

2 down.
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Those calipers look faster already, leaning forward into the wind

 

All four calipers painted....not sure I love the shape of yellow but changing it is a next year problem at this point and who knows maybe be they I will love it.
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I tried to make the bearing adapters my life's work but they are done
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and the A-arms painted
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I realized with the bearing the lower forks can rotate.....there is no force to move them so I think I'll just tighten them up and see how it goes. If they rotate I'll need a solution but I don't think they will
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I started reassembling the uprights and realized I had altered the brake line brackets to install the F430 calipers so the plating is gone and they were starting to rust, so they are blasted and painted
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The front upper frame mounts are slotted to make make toe adjust possible with the bearings
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The forks have longer bolts to let me add the camber the super sticky tires like but they still need to be painted.
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I think I'll also make some spacers for the forks so I don't need a ton of shims and I need spaces for the A-arm bolts because the bearings are much shorter than the bushings.

Its getting close to engine install time which is good because are the ECU boards are ordered so I should have a working ECU in my hand in maybe 4 weeks? My how time flies.