reconditioned wishbones
reconditioned wishbones
Author
Discussion

markh1

Original Poster:

2,846 posts

239 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
I thought there was a company that offered a service where you send them your wishbones and some money and they send you some nice reconditioned ones. Was I imagining this? New wishbones seem to be quite expensive, if I was to replace the whole lot if would probably cost me upwards of £1000.

Edited to add...

What is the recomended paint/coating for chassis parts?

Cheers,
Mark

Edited by markh1 on Tuesday 25th November 17:04

chrispitman

742 posts

284 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
Why don't you just find a local powder coating company, just get them sand blasted then paint. You will have to replace the bushes as they will melt, but a good time to go for poly ones as the eaiser to fit and replace.

markh1

Original Poster:

2,846 posts

239 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
chrispitman said:
Why don't you just find a local powder coating company, just get them sand blasted then paint. You will have to replace the bushes as they will melt, but a good time to go for poly ones as the eaiser to fit and replace.
This is the plan but im worried about the integrity of the parts if there is a lot of rust to be removed.

JR

14,332 posts

288 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
How do you define a lot? When steel rusts it expands to 7 or 8 times it's original volume/thickness for suspension arms. So if the arms are twice as thick then you've lost about a seventh of the thickness/strength. When it's been shot blasted then they're either OK to be powder coated or buy new ones. Clevtrev is selling new ones at about £75; a repair would be very tricky to do satisfactorily for strength and lightness (semi-unsprung weight) and the cost of the repair (plus the cost of powder coating) may easily be in excess of the cost of a new part.

Just how bad are the originals? (They are know to be a weak point, as in a consumable.) Good luck :-)

hiltonig

3,153 posts

238 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
I used a company in Maldon who did a smashing job, they also do the hot zinc coating first before the white powder coat. Pm if you want the name.

ROBTVR

208 posts

260 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
Why not buy Tubular wishbones,I got mine from Readmanracing,i paid no more than £380 for upper and lower front wishbone, very strong and should last alot longer than the original design

Chimjunkie

2,879 posts

241 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
ROBTVR said:
Why not buy Tubular wishbones,I got mine from Readmanracing,i paid no more than £380 for upper and lower front wishbone, very strong and should last alot longer than the original design
A concern i have with the round ones is that they may be too strong. An impact on the wheel will bend the original wishbones thus saving the chassis.

spend

12,581 posts

281 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
If your chassis is toffee even rusty wishbones would bend it...

You have tubular wishbones as std on the lower rear ~ dont exactly hear of loads of bent chassis' from those and they are made extremely strongly.


Chimjunkie

2,879 posts

241 months

Tuesday 25th November 2008
quotequote all
spend said:
If your chassis is toffee even rusty wishbones would bend it...

You have tubular wishbones as std on the lower rear ~ dont exactly hear of loads of bent chassis' from those and they are made extremely strongly.
Who's chassis you calling made of toffee! hehe

My frontal impact bent the front lower wish bone and left the chassis untouched. My worry would be that a stronger wishbone may have transferred the energy and bent the chassis. Point taken though.

shpub

8,507 posts

302 months

Wednesday 26th November 2008
quotequote all
spend said:
If your chassis is toffee even rusty wishbones would bend it...

You have tubular wishbones as std on the lower rear ~ dont exactly hear of loads of bent chassis' from those and they are made extremely strongly.
Well... just because you don't hear about it... doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I have seen many TVRs that have had front and back spin damage and the front is often unscathed (apart from the wishbones) while the rear has had chassis damage such as cracks and ripped out brackets. The problem is that the car is often written off as a result so the details are lost.

On the Wedges, the front wishbones are incredibly strong. I hit a tyre wall at about 70mph at Goodwood many years ago and buckled the front wheel and did a bit more damage. The upright which is a single piece of heavy thick steel was bent and the chassis cracked in several places. The wishbones were fine though. If they had distorted a little, it would have been a lot cheaper and easier to repair the car. If it had been a road car, I suspect it would have been written off as a result.

The rear suspension needs to be stiff and strong because of the power going through the rear wheels so strength is needed. The downside is the risk of increased chassis damage but that has to be accepted.

markh1

Original Poster:

2,846 posts

239 months

Wednesday 26th November 2008
quotequote all
I did not realise rust expanded that much, looking a them now they are probably fine but I will have to wait until they are back to bare metal to make a full assement.

R.e. the tubular wishbones, I dont think my budget will stretch to those.

ROBTVR

208 posts

260 months

Wednesday 26th November 2008
quotequote all
The tubular wishbones work out cheaper than the oem parts from the likes of Racing Green and TVR Car Parts etc...

markh1

Original Poster:

2,846 posts

239 months

Wednesday 26th November 2008
quotequote all
ROBTVR said:
The tubular wishbones work out cheaper than the oem parts from the likes of Racing Green and TVR Car Parts etc...
Really? from what you said in your previous post it costs baout £380 a corner? I did not think the OE ones were that expensive?

ROBTVR

208 posts

260 months

Wednesday 26th November 2008
quotequote all
£380 total for both o/s and n/s front upper and lower wishbones

Linky http://www.readmanracing.co.uk/parts4sale.php

Edited by ROBTVR on Wednesday 26th November 10:07

Dutch_Cerbera

417 posts

222 months

Wednesday 26th November 2008
quotequote all
markh1 said:
I thought there was a company that offered a service where you send them your wishbones and some money and they send you some nice reconditioned ones. Was I imagining this? New wishbones seem to be quite expensive, if I was to replace the whole lot if would probably cost me upwards of £1000.

Edited to add...

What is the recomended paint/coating for chassis parts?

Cheers,
Mark

Edited by markh1 on Tuesday 25th November 17:04
the wishbones of my Cerb have been changed... i wanted to recondition them because i thought that that would be way cheaper... but they changed them. i got the bill from TVR Belgium and including fixing the DIM/DIP box i have to pay around E500... and still have the old ones that i still can recondition...

cheap isn't it???

Edited by Dutch_Cerbera on Wednesday 26th November 18:43

Dutch_Cerbera

417 posts

222 months

Thursday 27th November 2008
quotequote all
Dutch_Cerbera said:
markh1 said:
I thought there was a company that offered a service where you send them your wishbones and some money and they send you some nice reconditioned ones. Was I imagining this? New wishbones seem to be quite expensive, if I was to replace the whole lot if would probably cost me upwards of £1000.

Edited to add...

What is the recomended paint/coating for chassis parts?

Cheers,
Mark

Edited by markh1 on Tuesday 25th November 17:04
the wishbones of my Cerb have been changed... i wanted to recondition them because i thought that that would be way cheaper... but they changed them. i got the bill including fixing the DIM/DIP box i have to pay around E500... and still have the old ones that i still can recondition...

Edited by Dutch_Cerbera on Wednesday 26th November 18:43