How's the Celica going, Dave?

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David Leikvold
Posts: 981
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:57 pm
Location: Brisbane

options

Post by David Leikvold »

As Rodney Rude used to say, "You know what I hate? You know what I really hate?" Right now for me it's finishing a well considered response to good advice and then pressing "Back" instead of "Preview". So I'll start again and it'll be completely different.
Rob, it's only a long day's drive each way, come on up! I promise I'll post some photos soon. Holes where steel used to be might look like progress (and for me it really is!) but I'll try to include something that promotes constructive discussion when I have some parts to bolt in. The wrecking yard idea has merit, I've found one that doesn't mind you wandering around. They know you'll eventually buy something if they let you in. And if you hurt yourself, well you should have been more careful. My kind of place!
Doc, I had always intended to have the front as low as possible, with a splitter only about 2" off the ground and attached to a full belly pan with sacrificial rubber stripping near the front dragging on the road/salt at full bump. I can't warm to the idea of running on the bump stops, I've found that makes a car twitchy. I'll run very low with very hard springs and progressive bump stops. At the rear I'll probably raise the mounts for the struts only as far as I need to to get the shorty coils above the tyres and be able to use Fulcrum's $93 each corner threaded ride height sleeve and collar kits.
The front is a bit different. I want and need to get the front tyres very close to the top of the mudguards which leaves no room at all for a coil spring. I think I'll probably use a dummy cartridge to keep the front end together and use a Formula Ford style remote mounted coil over shock somewhere clever. I'd like to leave all the struts at their original angles to avoid other complications from geometry change. And I'll probably have to build lots of reinforcing very different to standard to stop the front end collapsing.
So when you finally see the finished car it'll look very original and people will wonder how it can really be a Competition Coupe but there will be virtually nothing that hasn't been modified or replaced to get it to look so standard!
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!
David Leikvold
Posts: 981
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:57 pm
Location: Brisbane

thinking again

Post by David Leikvold »

With a clear head in the morning I'm thinking again. For the rears I won't shorten the strut tube because that'll mean the Fulcrum adjuster sleeve will be near the tyre and therefore useless. What I might finish up doing is extending the tube so that the whole 130mm long adjuster is above the sidewall. That way I can run a compatible OD tube, an off the shelf cartridge and a 7" long rock hard coil. Then, as I said last night, raise the mount plate to suit the new working height.
As for the front, I was looking this morning as I ate my Corn Flakes and I think I'll weld a tab on the back of the shortened strut tube at the bottom and run an almost vertical push rod parallel to the strut tube with very heavy duty rod ends to a bellcrank behind the strut and mount the coil overs in the engine bay in front of the strut tower. I'll just have to protect it all from the salt. I might put a rubber sheet around the strut tube to minimise the spray. Photos when I've got something worth seeing.
Good, Fast, Cheap, pick any two!
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