Has anyone ever built custom A-arms for the 308?

Seems unlikely. Why not just take yours off your target car and create drawings from there? You can even send them to a place that will 3D laser scan them and provide you a 3D model that you can convert to flat dxf format.

 

Maybe those guys making the Group 4 308GTB replicas???

 

I think Bert did, if I recall correctly.

 

Hi Julio, in my reply to your email I said I couldn´t help you, but I found my old A arms (not available for sale btw) and took some rough measurements. Do a google search for chrome moly a arms or 4130 a arms, there are a lot of race shops that can build them, I think Norwood has done it in the past, and James the new owner can still have it done I would think, there may be more. I think you should get the uprights first and get a length of thin wall pipe 12 mm inner diameter so the M12 bolt fit in, and build quick test A arms with the rough values from my pictures, then adjust for your race car set up. You will want maybe 2 degrees of neg camber in front, 3 in the back so set up your A arms such that that can be done without a load of shims. The 4 corners of the front arms are level and parallel but the rear arms have a degree of toe in build in, and some form of anti dive, I´m no expert but if the inside is level the outside is not. When you have the uprights, experiment to get the factory specs for alignment. Maybe for a track car you will have the arms made for a little increase in trackwidth. Anyway, use my information only as a guide, I know nothing...
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In layman's terms, what would the advantage of "custom" A-arms be?? What would one gain from them??

Thanks.

 

Well said. I wondered the same thing.

 

I have done custom A arms for GT4 and 288/F40; my spares are not for sale; unless some one else has he jig ready to go, take yours off and create your own jig; James Paterson at Norwood, Berlineta Motorcars, to name a few domestically have them. When you mount the A-arms, use metal or wooden spacers while you weld the jig up;

BTW, the factory GTB and GT4LM's and I think the BBLM's did not use tubular A-arms; for weight reduction back then, the drilled out the stock ones. I don't think the suspensions or tires were as firm back then.

cheers

 

The original poster has bought this car, no A arms to make jigs of:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=140981657&postcount=10

 

Oh.......wow.......

*speechless*

Come buy one of my cars, and hang that one up on the wall.

Life is too short.

 

I found a full front clip for $6500, about a year ago.....let me see if I can find the info..

You need a second car that was destroyed by an engine fire.

 

Well, carry on then.....

I'll keep an eye peeled for 'bits".......I know of a lower front valence for $250....want that??

 

There's also a nice set of HRE wheels I ran across .....16".......red baskets.

Guy wanted $1K for the set.

I was going to take my car over and confirm they fit.

 

I have a hood also....

 

Roger, a full composite clip would get you well down the road.....I'll crown it with a Euro front bumper I am taking off, and no longer need.

I rumble here in Houston I need a Cattle Guard front end...

 

I'll get a pic of these wheels, they are nice I was going to get them myself.

16" x 7"s and 16" x 8's, the stance of the later cars...

 

And thank you for the file with the original GTO body blue prints, wow! But it gives me more work as I probably want to de everything over again to correct sizes!
I stopped measuring the exact sizes of the rear A arms because it was getting too complicated but if you want, I´ll check again to see what the toe in build into them is, and the angle between inner mounts and outer.

 

take a look at the chassis diagram for the 288/F40; the front susupension has anti-dive built into the specs; If I remember correctly about 7-9 degrees. Stock 308's do not have anti-dive; I think later model Mondials did; not sure about the 328's. Correct me if I am wrong.

When you are setting up your track 308, put the anti-dive in the front end and lower it with some F40 style U-tabe A-arm pick ups; simple but very effective. you'll be able to dial in more camber for the track. James Patterson may still have the tabs for sale.

Cheers!

 

Presumably the original poster is looking for "custom" A-arms for adjustability purposes. Likely this means adjustable rose joints on the inboard end, or threaded rods with lock nuts. This is so that camber (and to some degree caster also) can be easily adjusted on the fly. Probably considerably stronger as well depending on use of gussets and what wall thickness for the rods.

Car manufacturers use stamped A-arms simply because they're cheap to make. Just take a piece of heavy gauge steel and put it into a stamping machine and viola, new A-arm. This is far less expensive to make than TIG welding rods and inserts in a complex jig and then adding in the cost of adjustable rose joints.....gets expensive real fast.

 

Here are some pics of the ones Norwood made in the past.
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