2/13/12 Fast Progress

I've been busy enough on the car that I haven't been good about updating, but here is what I've done over the past few days.

Since my front struts arrived, I sectioned them and put together the front suspension. Here's how.

First I admired my large pile of new parts.

The reason struts need to be sectioned is to maintain adequate suspension travel after lowering the car. Sectioning the strut allows you to use a shorter strut insert. Here are the old and new strut inserts. As you can see, the new one is a little over an inch shorter.

Then I took an old strut housing.

Then I cut off the spring perch.

And ground the weld smooth.

And cleaned up the grime off the housing.

Then I used a pipe cutter to cut the strut housing in half. The pipe cutter is useful because it makes a *nearly* perpendicular cut. I still had to turn one side on the lathe to get it perfect. 

Then another cut is made to make the struts a little over an inch shorter

And the edges are chamfered for welding.

And clamped into a bit of angle iron for welding. Note the old strut in the housing to maintain straightness.

Tacked

Seamed.(ugly weld)

Ground down so the new spring perch can fit over. 

New spring perches are made from 2" sch 40 pipe. 

Tacked on. Note the etched finish now in preparation for paint.

Seamed.

Painted

Puppy.

I had to turn the inside of the isolators to get them to fit over the new struts. Not a big deal. 

Lather rinse repeat on the other side and I re-assembled the front suspension.

The rear struts came in on Saturday so I will start installing them tonight. The brakes should also arrive tonight. Stay tuned.

-W.W. SBSS