SAS Hardbody, 3-link, coilovers.....

[nissanheathen]

would love to come help ya finish it up but kinda a far drive...love seeing hardbodys out on the trails..mines waiting for resurrection in the yard....



there it is next to the new project....have a build thread in the zuk forum....

[skullver]

Oh nice, I will check it out! That tubework on the Zuk looks real good!

[RedAggie03]

Good luck getting it finished. I saw the for sale ad and was sad that someone had given up on it. Looks like it will be really sweet when done!

[skullver]

Thanks, kind of kicking myself now haha.

progress on the steering box, the inner plate is made from .250" plate, and is obviously too short now, as I had to cut more into the frame rail to dig out all the old sleeves and structure from the old steering box location. It is now 2" further forward, and now I am going to re-do that inner plate out of .125" plate(and add the other 2 sleeved not shown), and have it tie well into the frame rails, also plated the outer rail under the new box location, hard to see in the pic. I am also going to plate a bit more for the trackbar mount, and the engine cage tie-in points. I am going to take a pic tomorrow of the pile of stuff I had to dig out of the frame rails, no wonder the hardbodies never had any problems with steering box/frame fatigue!

[skullver]

I decided to use what I have and just made a a patch plate, then going to add a fish plate to tie it all together a bit better, and cover the seams.

[skullver]

[dvdswan]

nice work on the steering gear support. you make this look too easy.

[carslut]

nice project, should be solid once its done.

[skullver]

Thanks, easy? I would say it is not complicated, but it is time consuming, and dirty haha.

Solid is what I am shooting for, no use doing all the work and half assing things that can't be changed easily.

Haven't had any time to work on it, just a few minutes here and there so I capped the bumper ends where I hacked off the leaf spring hangers.

[nissanheathen]

looking good keep the pics coming

[skullver]

Well, got a little more done, plasma cut out the fender wells to fit the coilovers, and did some more frame plating for the trackbar mount, and have it tacked into place. Now I am going to get some scrap tubing together and mock up the draglink, mock up the trackbar, mount the coilovers, and do some cycling, set the bumpstops, measure for limit straps, and burn it all home. I already have some 1.5"x.250" wall tubing for both the draglink and the trackbar, still have to make the axle side trackbar mount, shouldn't be too hard. Now back to my real job.

[skullver]

start of upper coilover mount/engine cage.

Frame tie in #1 for the engine cage.

[nissanheathen]

like the open miter ends....did my steering mount the same way

[skullver]

Originally Posted by nissanheathen

like the open miter ends....did my steering mount the same way

Thanks, I saw that, looks good. I am actually going to cap them, and add another tube lower to tie the entire structure into the front bumper, and make an intricate gusset to blend the node in, or that is the plan. I just wanted it straight coming out of the firewall for the coilover mounts to lessen the misalignment, and as it needed to follow the hood line, a bend was kind of a PITA, I wasted one piece of tube and said fawk it, I am doing it this way. I actually kind of like how it is, envisioned in my head, hope it turns out that way haha. I also need to build a removable bridge to span the engine bay, tie in the coilover mounts, and use all my dimple dies.

[skullver]

[skullver]

testing out my new camera, a couple litte inclusions on the gusset weld, but there is plenty of it. I ran out of gas shortly after that so it was obviously a gas flow issue, and it was a little breezy. I am not worried about strength, the welds that count on the main trackbar tabs are deep and strong.

psngr side frame tie in. This is taken at approximate ride height, with 7" of shaft on the 14" coilover.

came up with a little issue with the coilover and the bake booster, so I may swap the tubes from d/s to p/s side and mount the c/o on the outsides of the tubes. it comes a little close to the innner fenders that way with the springs, but sheetmetal is easy to move, the coilver just doesn't have as good of a mounting angle. I got the drag link cut, chamfered, drilled, I need to get gas and tack into place, and then mock up a trackbar so I can cycle it with the coilovers and see if anything rubs or interferes with anything else with the track bar and steering all hooked up. I also lengthened the steering shaft so it steers now, no pics of that yet. Since the upper link mounts are just tacked into place, I am gong to move them outboard a bit, up until they have about an inch of clearance between the spring and the mount at all extremes of travel.

[skullver]

I got the axle side trackbar mount mocked up, going to be a bit tricky as it is tall, but I have some ideas involving tubing, more plate, some dimple dies, and probably a healthy dose of cursing, to make it all work. The trackbar is going to be 4" shorter than the drag link as it is, but they are pretty flat, so bumpsteer should be minimal(and that pic it is only tacked in place, it is going to be perfectly parrallel with the draglink for the final version, it sits a little low in the pic, it just sucks not having any helpers to hold stuff for me while I tack in place).

[dvdswan]

very nice

[skullver]

Thanks.

So I got everything hooked up, cycled it all in all configurations, and I am very happy with the results. So now it is time to pull the front axle assembly, and finish weld everything up, beef up the axle side trackbar mount, may do a little more front truss work on the long side, and then it is time to put it all back together and call the front suspension done. Then onto mounting the Beard seats and Impact harnesses, and do all the little details before I test it out.
Not quite full droop, 13" of shaft on a 14" coilver, I have to raise the chassis a bit more to get to full droop.

[dvdswan]

well done.

[nissanheathen]

looking sweeet

[skullver]

Thanks!

I was going to add some dimple dies to the plate, but decided to have it all boxed in/enclosed instead so it isn't a dirt/mud trap. All 1.5" DOM tubing, and various thickness of plate. Getting there.

[skullver]

backside plating:

painted up:

[dvdswan]

Originally Posted by skullver

Thanks!

I was going to add some dimple dies to the plate, but decided to have it all boxed in/enclosed instead so it isn't a dirt/mud trap. All 1.5" DOM tubing, and various thickness of plate. Getting there.

1st glance I thought you picked up a TTB front axle. hella beefed up.

[skullver]

haha, it is all mostly .120" plate so it isn't that heavy. But that trackbar mount had me a bit concerned being that tall. My philosophy, over build it a little, re-doing broken, or inadequately built stuff sucks!