Rear Radius Arms.

[Plotloss]

Now that the front is all sorted and such a massive improvment over the cones my attention has turned towards the back of the car.

I am planning to replace the rear subframe complete with a beam and coil overs.

Now, no doubt the back arms will be in as bad a state if not worse than the fronts.

I have heard that this is a pig of a job, is it? Should I get reconditioned arms up front?

Any recommendations on the beam supplier? I have heard that the Huddersfield one is built to an old design which requires some percussive maintenance to fit and MiniSpares have a Calver designed one which I have to say I am erring towards...

[Paul V]

If they haven’t been greased regularly they’ll probably need doing, I don’t think they are very expensive as an exchange.

Not sure on beam axles but had a chat with the guy from Watson’s at combe, they had a few VTEC cars there, one in black, very quick and looked like a standard car with sports pack arches.

[Plotloss]

Thats the idea with mine, make it as unassuming as possible and be able to do a bit of giant slaying at the same time.

Been looking at the VTEC tuning market recently, have come to the conclusion it would be cheaper to put the TVR engine in than taking a VTEC and adding bits, seems Honda do the vast majority of the work for you, its a marvellous engine.

[Paul V]

Must say I found myself walking away try to do sums in my head thinking "well I could just do it"

It’s something I’d like to do, maybe in a few years.

[Plotloss]

Especially as its available in pack form...

I have come to the conclusion that some bits should come from Watsons and some from SAE.

Getting the shell prepped, with a bit of time and effort can be done for under £1000...

Then once that is all sorted dropping in engine (B18C6), DTA, Throttle Bodies and Nitrous is about another £5000 and then whatever you want on paint etc...

[sagalout]

OK so I still haven't started the Clubbie project. G/Fs dad was asking when I was taking it last night, but, I thought the beam axle idea wasn't such a good idea for road use (ref Coopermans info a few weeks ago)
WRT the front, am I right in thinking you've gone coil overs and what difference has it made. Is the car used for competition? Trying to learn by YOUR mistakes before I get digging into the rust.....

[Neil8p]

I spoke to Keith Calver a while back about beams and besides saying the minispares beam was better he recommended that some gusseting work be done on the top shock mounts as they will be taking the weight of the car.

I understood from him the coilovers with the offset top pin can sometimes foul the bodywork and/or radius arm. The centre pin option is better, but requires the body where the shock absorber normally sits to be turned into a box section.

The easiest way he suggested was to cut down the area where the shock would sit in the wheel arch, open it out into the boot area and weld a new plate across to create a box.

Neil

[Paul V]

Plotloss said:

Especially as its available in pack form... I have come to the conclusion that some bits should come from Watsons and some from SAE. Getting the shell prepped, with a bit of time and effort can be done for under £1000... Then once that is all sorted dropping in engine (B18C6), DTA, Throttle Bodies and Nitrous is about another £5000 and then whatever you want on paint etc...

Yeah, not a bad price for the end result.

[WildfireS3]

Re bushing the radius arm is a real pain, have done 3 in my short time on this earth, and I have the original BL tool for doing it. If you can afford it, get recon ones.

[Plotloss]

Interesting stuff.

Paul - End result of 300bhp at the wheels with a 50bhp boost pack - worth it indeed! (Shares in Pirelli also)

Whats this gussetting then? I can understand the box idea, presumable an I shaped cut down the shock line and then stiching in a plate that intrudes into the boot? But gussetting I have no clue.

Sagalout - Yep Gaz coil overs at the front. Fitting is easy assuming everything come apart correctly and all your bearings etc are in good nick - mine werent, turned out to be a pain in the arse job, but the results are more than worth it. Its got a proper modern car feel about it now, well worth the money IMHO.

[sagalout]

So does it corner faster, handle better, or just bounce about less? Would it make a good competition mod or is it more road orientated?

[Plotloss]

Body doesnt roll anything like it used to, turn in feels remarkably direct and you can feel the road a lot better as the spring and shock are in one unit, you lose nothing in the transmission like you do with cones.

I have mine on medium setting and they far outclass the cones when getting on it in every area. I've not been on a track with them yet but feel sure that they would be a huge improvement over cones.

As for them being good enough for competition they make it a shed load easier to rebuild your suspension. I reckon they would be fine...