Hawk replacement suspension.

[Iowstratos]

Having fun with new Christmas project, fitting new springs and dampers.
Also de-rusting the suspension parts and chassis with POR15, as the car is over 30 years old!
Doing the front end first as I?ve only two weeks in the workshop at work.
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[Guy Mayers]

Great progress Ian, glad the upper pivot bolt wasn't seized in either the chassis bush or the wishbone bush, that can be difficult to dismantle in rust sets in. Good solution to sort the seized ARB bolt stuck on the shock bush! Did you consider upgrading the upper wishbone to polybush or is that just too harsh on the Island?

Guy

[Iowstratos]

Had more fun with the bottom inner bolt, as the inside of the bush was rusted on, on one side.
I’m quite happy with the old bushes and i think as you say the Island roads are like a constant rally stage!
Just awaiting on the POR15 top coat for UV protection, postal strike.
As a side note, its a good idea to have gloves on when painting POR15 as its seams to be almost solvent proof.

[Iowstratos]

Did a bit to the rear today, taking off the old Beta rear struts with the one coil removed to get the correct spring rate and ride hight.
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[ProtoTipo]

Hi Ian,
Some people have reverted back to, or prefer the rubber Beta strut tops.
'Might be best to hang onto the old parts until you've tried it on the road.

[rutthenut]

These old cars do like a bit of refurb every few decades, don't they ;)

Is that a cleaned-up and repainted Beta spring still, or did you get new springs on the Gaz struts?

[ProtoTipo]

Is that a cleaned-up and repainted Beta spring still, or did you get new springs on the Gaz struts?

They come with the GAZ struts John.
'Pig tail' on the Beta and they're a larger diameter. Flat ground ended on the GAZ springs.

[rutthenut]

Cheers - did assume they were new springs but thought I'd ask.

[Iowstratos]

Got the struts with springs from Gerry. Springs re-painted red.
Yes I will be holding on to the old struts, they did me well, and worked very well.

[Iowstratos]

Bottom bolt and spacers. Also a bit of old rubber water pipe for the anti rotation of the bottom of the coil over.204992050020501

[Iowstratos]

2054320544Getting back together. Did find a difference between the Hawk early bottom arm and the new as the old ones need more relief at the back for the new shocks.
Also the new rod for the top suspension is 25mm to long as for poly bushes, so had to cut the thread one end another 15mm at 1/2”unf.

[Iowstratos]

Finished off the rear suspension today. Used after market to hat, not Gerrys lovey Gold ones as I may go back and use the Beta ones if its to noisy!
Had to make up 10mm spacer to take up the slack as the height must be different.
Found that the camber was 1 1/2 degrees with no adjustment, so about 1/4 degrees more than the old setup, will stay with that and see how it performs.
Just need to take the car out for a spin to settle the setup.
Then its ride height setup, what is yours for comparison?
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[ChrisCar6]

From my datafile:

RIDE HEIGHT

Sando:-
15.5cm rear - to chassis cross rail under rear bulkhead.
15 cm front - to chassis under footwell behind front wheel.
PS edited to add Ride height currently is 18cm rear and 16cm front taken from crossmembers at either end of cockpit floor


Tomblin
6.25" rear & 5.5" front, measured under suspension pickup points


Transformer Gp4 road setup

2mm Toe in Front
0.2 degree Toe in each side rear
4.5deg Castor front
-1.1 camber front each side
-0.4 camber rear each side
Ride height 15mm higher rear to back