Too much shenannigans..... hand me the grinder!
I completley understand what is in the works and what is not, no worries. (I just want to buy QA1s and not cut my car up to put them on) no offense taken. -L
OK, back to the project. Today I got together with my dad and Verell, at my dad's house to use his lathe (better than mine!) to work on the prototypes of my design for the new shock eyes for the front QA1 on the 308. Below are some pics of the process and result. I had made some sketches on my computer, but not exact CAD drawings or anything. They are based on the design of the QA1 shock eyes, modified to fit the 308 suspension. The first order of business was to figure out the best way to machine them. The first one took 4 hours to make. The second only about an hour. So, we finished the lathe work on them. Now we have to go to Verell's house to use his milling machine to machine the flat areas for the eye and then drill the eye. Right now they are cylindrical, and don't really look like the finished product. When finished they will look more like shock eyes. Stay tuned. We are getting close to having a part ready to mount on the car and test the fit. After that, Verell ought to have an idea what he is going to do about a kit and maybe have some pricing. First shot shows Verell and his bad hair day. Second shot shows the piece in the lathe. Third shot shows the pair of finished parts on top of the sketch. Final shot compares the new elongated shock eye with the QA1 shock eye that it will look like when finished, although longer! Birdman Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Last year I purchased Verell's shock bushing kit for the QA-1's and have the QA-1's in my garage (I didn't get around to installing them last year). I'll be very interested in the outcome of this experiment. If successful, I will definitely be purchasing a set. I'd rather not cut into the A-arm if at all possible.
I thought that pic. of your old man on the lathe was cool but i just had to go back to the Selma Hayek pic. Bet Selma has a nicely trimmed lawn. All i find is bald eagles everywhere. Seems no ones serving fur pie. A piece every now and then would be nice. I love that type of voluptuous body..ya know curvy but not fat. damn. *tries to go back to lathe pic to no avail*
Birdman, That's a screen capture from Paris' infamous "Sex video"...it was done on some "night vision" setting or something...hence the pale green glow....it's her but it's pretty painful to watch, from the lighting... I've heard.........no personal knowledge ......LOL!
TEX, I don't believe the night shot is her, ,,,, I just put it up for debate. Paris, could probably care less. She got the free publicity from the mess. (or so I've heard.) Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well, I still haven't had a chance to get over to Verell's house to finish the machining on the new shock eyes, but I started putting Verell's bushing kit in the other shocks. They are very nicely made, precise. You need to press them in, because the polyurethane bushing in the shock is pretty tight on them, as it should be. It's not so tight that you need a press though. You can probably do it with a vise. The way I did it was to install the circlip and one washer on one side, then press it in, and then install the washer and circlip on the other side. Nice, no play. The important part is that the bushing is exactly the right length to provide no play in the shock mount on the car. That is so that when you tighten the mounting bolt, you don't stress and break anything like greg328! (Sorry Greg!) Here are some pics. Birdman Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Birdman, What springs / spring rates did you end up buying? Did you get them through Summit or where?
Greg, et al, We'll post springs/spring rates as soon as we've established that we've got something that works OK. d
Birdman & I finished machining the first pair of the extended length eyes about 1:30 this AM. It certainly gave my little mini-mill a good workout. Bleary eyed, we guesstimated that machining this first pair would have cost ~$1275 (17hr x $75/hr) in a shop. Umm, x2 as there were 2 of us doing the machining... ;^) Anyway, thought you'd like to see some pix of chips flying & the rugged finished eyes: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
OK, so this morning, after getting back from Verell's house and into bed at 2:30 AM, the kids woke me up bright and early at 6:30. 4 hours sleep...yeah, tomorrow is gonna suck. Anyway, I had a little time this morning after I shipped everyone off, and I test fitted the shock eyes. The good news is that they will work. The bad news is that they were not perfect. My original drawings called for a rounded outside of the shock eye, like the stock QA1 eye (see Verell's pic, above). But this is a little tricky to machine by hand, so we just made it kinda octagonal. Well, there was a little interference with one corner, but only a tiny amount, so I just filed the offending corner down a tad. Next, the A arm touched the shaft of the eye at full droop. In actual use with the suspension loaded, it wouldn't touch, but I didn't want it to touch at full droop either. This occurred because I made the shaft thicker than it really needed to be, just to be sure it was beefy. I mean, my girl likes a thick shaft, if you know what I mean. Anyway, rather than chuck the whole thing up in the lathe and take down the diameter of the whole shaft, I just used a rounded file to put a little depression in the one spot that needed it. Not sure how we would approach this in a manufuctured part....probably just make the shaft a tad thinner, or add that depression to the machining operation and do it with the milling machine. After the parts were test fitted and everything lined up nicely, I put the QA1 polyurethane bushings in them (a little tricky to press in. I suspect they have a special tool at the factory for this. Took me a while to figure out how to do it without them collapsing.) Then I pressed in Verell's bushings and the eyes are done and ready to go. Now I just have to put everything together and get it in the car! Then wait another 2 months to test drive it. D'oh!!! Birdman Pics: 1. The finished eye 2. The eye with some hand filing to make it fit perfectly. 3. The eye with bushings. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I got 12" 250 pound springs for the back and 10" 300 pound springs for the front. (The length is a function of the shock length). These are around 75 pounds stiffer at both ends than stock. I picked these highly scientifically....I bought what the majority of other Fchatters bought in the past. I wanted them stiffer than stock but not too stiff, so I think these are good numbers. I got them from a guy that I'm not sure I would recommend. His price was very good, but his shipping time was 3 weeks+. In fact I still don't have the fronts from him!! I don't think he keeps them in stock, and instead has them drop shipped from the factory. If I were to do it again, I would buy them from Summit and pay the extra $25 a pair. The shocks/springs part numbers for the parts I'm using are: REAR QA1 12-250 spring QA1 DR5855P shock FRONT QA1 DR4855P QA1 10-300 spring All of the above will run you about $800 (two of each thing, so you can do the whole car). Pretty cheap. Cheaper than replacing the Konis/springs. Then you will need Verell's bushing kit, which is actually cheaper than the Ferrari bushing kit for the Konis. And finally you will need these new shock eyes, assuming you don't want to grind the A arms in front. I'm still not sure Verell is going to make these or not, and if he does, what they will cost. I have a suspicion that there may be a "one time group buy" or something like that, so if you ever have a desire to do this mod in the future, better get in on it! Birdman
I've chose my springs by the same scientific manner...more than anything, I was curious on what specs you chose. I don't want to grind my a-arms so I am definitely interested. Now we need to find a group large enough to convince Verell to once again perform his magic! I have his bushing kit that I purchased last year. Now I need the extended shock eyes.
BTW, The table I supplied for the following thread has the carb'd car (GT4, GTB, & GTS) spring rates: http://70.85.40.84/~ferrari/discus/messages/256120/199158.html It also has a good discussion on how to calculate the spring rate & ride height by Rob Schermerhorn (Rexrcr). Another copy of the table & a bit more info here: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95219
In the interest of keeping this thread somewhat complete, here is the table from the other thread! Now, we just need a few more hot pictures of Selma and Paris. Birdman Image Unavailable, Please Login