Slammed/narrowed 1968 devon tin-top (frank)

[ant]

have you already bought a weedeater then johnny?

 

[ant]

The saga continues...............................


Had another test drive yesterday(sat) and i'm not happy with the steering. It doesn't wander but sort of tightens up when going straight!. Very odd feeling indeed. After much umming and arrhing, i've come to the conclusion that its down to unusual movement in the trailing arms.

When you fit a red9 kit to a standard beam you replace the torsion leaves with their tie bar, this holds the trailing arms on and they swivel in the beam on the og roller bearings. When you fit a weedeater it has no roller bearings, in place of those ce use a polyurethane bush. This is where is gets complicated..... The weedeater beam is supposed to be used with a narrowed torsion spring, this spring as well as acting as suspension helps keep a solid structure to the trailing arms so they have no play and they only move in the up/down intended way. The problem with the steering i think is the trailing arms moving slightly side to side other than up and down due to the " lack of structure" caused by mixing polyurethane bushes with the red 9 tie bar. That again probably doesn't make any sense and i thought about not posting this due to the fact it is really hard to explain in text.
Anyway how do you fix it??
Simon (red9) comes to the rescue again!!!! and has offered to make some replacement bronze bushes to replace the polyurethane ones which will give the trailing arms a solid structure and fix the steering problem. At first i thought it may be a camber issue on the frt but i think its something more than this. So Vanfest is looking a dodgy for me again.

Got up early this morning and stripped the entire front suspension again. lol

Just one of things i suppose that happens when your trying to do something that hasn't been done before, i'll get there in the end i'm sure.

 

[ant]

also work continues on working my new rims.....

after the dip and blast i've primed,flatted added the two basecoats and the first layer of clear is drying in the garage.

still got to roll the rear arches yet too

 

[faux]

Hi Ant

The wheels are looking good, keep up the good work. 8)

Again though, wouldn't it be better to just add the red9 coilovers and leave the torsion springs in place? I thought that would give you the best of both worlds. I am contemplating it myself.

Jon

 

[ant]

been thinking about that too jon....... going to leave that as the back up plan and see what red9 can come with.

 

[mk2matt]

this looks like its going to be 1 sweet van dude

keep us and the work updated

 

[Guest]

have you already bought a weedeater then johnny?

yes, got delivery of it a day ago, now im sitting with a red9 kit and weedeater, it looks like you had alot of modification to get the red9 to fit :shock: , i wasnt expecting it to be such a hassle

 

[Guest]

Hi Ant

The wheels are looking good, keep up the good work. 8)

Again though, wouldn't it be better to just add the red9 coilovers and leave the torsion springs in place? I thought that would give you the best of both worlds. I am contemplating it myself.

Jon

would that work? or would the spring be fighting against the coilover??

I assume you would have to drill out the nipples holding the circular spring housings so the springs would rotate completely freely as the red9 bars allow the trailing arms to do so??

if the problem is sideways movement in the red9 torsion bars isnt it supposed to be held by the centre dimple in the bar?

sorry for all the Qs, but my next move depends on what your solution is

 

[ant]

Simon, as i type is on his way back here with the bronze bushes he has made today!!... top bloke.

Johnny, as it stands so far, you will need the coil overs moddin, the two extra top brackets and possibly some of these bronze bushes (if that solves the steering issues).

If this doesn't work i'm going to pull the beam and sell it and buy another one...red9 are going to be selling 4" narrowed beams soon which obviously their coilovers will bolt straight on to.

if you need to call me johnny 0 7 8 9 1 2 4 9 9 1 1

 

[Grazy]

So does this mean you are on for Vanfest Ant dude 8)

 

[ant]

Hope so grazy

Simon showed up and the bronze bushes are a perfect fit.... soon got dark tho, i hate it when the nights draw in, so out came the lead lights.Just finished putting it all back together..... not test driven it yet leave that for tomorrow, i'm knackered.

Oh, took me freshly painted rims to have some rubber put on today(165/55/15 frt and 185/55/15 rear)... just hope i have time to tuck the rear arches before vanfest.

For johnny...... don't want to be the bearer of bad news but Si said it would pretty much cost the same again for him to mod/fab all the bits up. I'll let you know how mines drives now. But i'm afraid unless you want to spend the cash, its gunna be weedeater or red9! CE may have it back? and i think the red9 beams are £100 cheaper so is possibly not all bad news!

 

[Guest]

i guess ill have to bite the bullet and get the red9 beam instead, i wonder when its onsale?

 

[tintintin]

Loving the wheels Ant

 

[Big T]

Any pics of the new rims on dude??

 

[surfbus]

Any pics of the new rims on dude??

yeah.... photo's?? :mrgreen:

 

[ant]

Sorry fellas been down devon all week, surf died off on wednesday but the weather has been fantastic .

Not got the rear wheels fitted yet, infact they are still at the tyre shop. Will get some pics sorted in the week.

Thinking about changing the wheel colours already! :?

 

[leon]

Welcome back, you definatly picked a good week for a holiday.

 

[Low&Slow]

Loving Frank! Well done you! Hope that our's looks as sexy soon! :mrgreen:

 

[ant]

ok an update

After trying for what seems like ever to sort my frt suspension, i come to the conclusion that mixing all these after market suppliers products isn't working so i'm selling the weedeater and going for a narrowed red9 beam instead. At least this way i know that the beam on my bus is designed for coilovers. So yesturday i stripped the beam back off the van.

and its now for sale with narrowed torsion springs and fitting instructions if anyones interested

Went over to see stevetwobenders just before the strip down to see what a brm will look like. Look pretty nice but i lost the narrowness

talking of narrowness

random pic of the underside when the pedal tray is removed.... nice surprise to see this on a 40 year uk bus!!

liking this shot

Selling the newly refurbed rims aswell going in a different direction.
So i'm thinking the bus will be off the road now till next year, shame as we had pretty much no use out him this year with all the test fits and strip downs

 

[Graham L]

Ant

I wondered how you were getting on with the red 9 stuff?, was chatting to the guys from red 9 at the weekend down at Oktoberfest and your name was mentioned. Their stuff looks good and seems to be well engineered but just wondered how you were getting on with their bits :?: