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1971 Speedipus Rex

All the work you're doing is looking great.
Got to ask this, Is the slider you installed supposed to help the leaf spring absorb some of the bounce when you go over speed bump, pothole, etc... so it doesn't give you that "jolt" feeling? Never seen that before. That's why I asked.
 
It provides more consistant handling as it does not bind like the hangers do which provides a more consistant spring rate, It also drops your *** end down a bit more. Taken from their website:
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SLIDERS
The AFCO leaf spring sliders (SEE PHOTO) can eliminate the up and down movement of the rear spring eye caused by shackles moving through their arcs during suspension travel. Consequently, the rear suspension's loading points displace less during suspension movement. Sliders, depending on their installed angle, generally reduce the shackle effectæ and provide more consistent spring rates than shackles. There is no shackle effect to the rate of the spring when the slider is mounted to point directly at the front spring eye center(this is the preferred mounting position). Since sliders are usually more rigid than shackles, they have less tendency to bind laterally during cornering. In general, sliders improve the handling consistency and predictability of leaf spring equipped race cars.

http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/leaf.shtml

All the work you're doing is looking great.
Got to ask this, Is the slider you installed supposed to help the leaf spring absorb some of the bounce when you go over speed bump, pothole, etc... so it doesn't give you that "jolt" feeling? Never seen that before. That's why I asked.
 
Thanks for the link. That was good reading and informative.
 
Great to see some progress on your ride......Nice banner on that rear end..LOL! Great work as usual dangina!
 
I must not be a hater, those spoilers look great on your car.
 
hey man any updates? really interested in your build here. great work!
 
Are the Rallyes on yet??? I'm definitely getting a set for my '71 GTX...really can't wait to see yours. LOVE the color combo...

sjd
 
That's one hell of an update and car **** festival dangina! Thanks for the updates!
 
Are the Rallyes on yet??? I'm definitely getting a set for my '71 GTX...really can't wait to see yours. LOVE the color combo...

sjd

!Thanks!
sorry the ralleyes I couldn't make work with my 13" viper kit, even with the mounting bracket shaved down 3/16" and a 1/4" spacer, its just too damn close, the problem is the barrel on the rim gets smaller, not what I needed. But I will be upgrading to a larger rim that will be 10" wide!

So its been a crazy -CRaZY past 8 months with work averaging about 60-70 hrs/week. The financial part of it is good but its taking its toll. I have been working on the roadrunner here and there, it seems I love to do things at least twice, the longer it sits, the more I change my mind :)

I got my 47-ci stroker back finally, the stock covers are on just to protect the valvetrain, they are also wrapped up underneath, I have some aluminum covers that I'll be painting to match and putting on.

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I had to grind one area on the box for clearance, painted it up

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got some new hood pins!

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Brads70 on the forum here complained that his monotube shocks were too bouncy with the hyperco leaf springs, he switched to QA1 double adjustables and the problem went away. Even though the ones he had were bilsteins, I decided to sell the hotchkis fox racing ones for these for peace of mind:

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I bought this to try on my cra, its for a barracuda, I thought the lower pans looked the same and you don't know until you try it, too bad it doesn't fit my car, its a nice big spoiler, I'll have to stick to the camaro one for now

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I was reading on the forums you can get these boots for the rod heim ends, I'm just choked I didn't know about this sooner, you can buy them from seals-it. not sure if they are entirely worth it, but again peace of mind. I tore apart my entire front suspension to get these back on.

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So reading more on the forums i decided to give this a try, the stock endlinks that came with the hellwig swap bar was a long 5/16" bolt that was on a huge angle to the lca hole and the holes at both ends had so much slop to them I never cared for it. This seemed like a good solution. The are actually ford endlinks for their explorer? They are Moog#K750074. With the dual pillowballs I can get the angles I want with no slop!

Using a 5/16" bronze bushing, I installed them on both the LCA and sway bar:

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Cut them down shorter to what I needed:

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final assembly:

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Some of the guys shorten them an inch, or cut them down to make them adjustable, I'll leave them for now as they are still about 1-2" higher than the balljoint.

I was never happy with the way the wheel sits in the center, with the longer brackets and shorter spring, It seem like I was still about a 1 1/2" off center more towards the rear, seeing how I left about 2 inches towards the front of my sliders at full rebound, I figure I could get that back and still have a 1/2" to spare. So I took my brackets and re-drilled them 1 1/2" back and for fun about another 1/4" up! drop that rear baby!

before:


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1 1/2" back

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Finished!

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Since I moved my rear axle back to where it needed to be, I had to also move the sway bar endlink mounts, I didn't like the hellwig 8" long mounts with bushings, so I thought I'd go with 1/2" adjustable heim links.

had to file the inside of skid 40 3/8" steel tubing to get the 1/2" bolts to fit, its pretty snug!

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welded, painted and body sealed and painted again! then hook up. Using steel heim links for now until I get some aluminum ones

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Started on the hardlines for my brake lines:

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thats all for now, I'm actually just about finished my front end except I ran into complications. The solid tie rod sleeves I bought from PST were over 1" shorter than stock tie rod ends so I couldn't finish the front end until I get some new ones. A BIG THANKS TO BRADS70!!!! for coming to my rescue and tooling up some and shipping them to me which arrived today! I'll have more updates the next set of days off...
 
You sure have put a lot of thought and work into doing this! That is some cool work and re-working of things.. Brad is a great guy to deal with, i myself have had the privilege!
 
Great update Dangina! You are really doing some nice fabwork.

I do have one concern though as I bought the PST tie rod sleeves also. Were yours too short because of changes you made to the front susp or are they improperly made too short? If they are incorrectly made have you talked to James about a refund and to let him know they are not right so they can correct?
 
Sweet update man! looking good! Are those the year one rallyes?
Yes they are! Beautiful rims, best repos I've seen yet, and they fit with a ton of room on the car, they could have easily made them 10" and still had plenty of room

Great update Dangina! You are really doing some nice fabwork.

I do have one concern though as I bought the PST tie rod sleeves also. Were yours too short because of changes you made to the front susp or are they improperly made too short? If the]y are incorrectly made have you talked to James about a refund and to let him know they are not right so they can correct?

I had not bothered getting a refund as I bought them over a year ago and am just now getting to them, I also numbered them (like I did with all my parts) so I figured its a wash. I do admit that with the bump steer that it does increase the length I need but only by 1/4". If you look at the stock length its suppose to be 8", not sure why the PST ones are 7" which is kinda frustrating. I thought about calling it in so for mopar owners wouldn't get disappointed.(*edit I pm pst about the issue, hopefully they can fix it for future moparist*) Here I snapped a quick photo yesterday when i got the new ones in from Brad:

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Yes they are! Beautiful rims, best repos I've seen yet, and they fit with a ton of room on the car, they could have easily made them 10" and still had plenty of room



I had not bothered getting a refund as I bought them over a year ago and am just now getting to them, I also numbered them (like I did with all my parts) so I figured its a wash. I do admit that with the bump steer that it does increase the length I need but only by 1/4". If you look at the stock length its suppose to be 8", not sure why the PST ones are 7" which is kinda frustrating. I thought about calling it in so for mopar owners wouldn't get disappointed.(*edit I pm pst about the issue, hopefully they can fix it for future moparist*) Here I snapped a quick photo yesterday when i got the new ones in from Brad:

20140325_165030_zpse2beed76.jpg
Just a thought, have they been made 1/2" shorter each end to allow for the locking nuts you'll need to use instead of the tube clamps ?
 
When we designed these sleeves we took into account the jam nuts into the over all length. As you can see in the photo if we made it to the length of the standard sleeve in the middle and then tried to add jam nuts on the may bottom out/bind on the ends of the tie rod ends when alignment is done. I hope what I am explaining is making sense? Ours are based off the originals and are intended to be stronger and used as a replacement,so in the case of the bumpsteer tie rod ends there may be an issue.

Thanks
James
 
When we designed these sleeves we took into account the jam nuts into the over all length. As you can see in the photo if we made it to the length of the standard sleeve in the middle and then tried to add jam nuts on the may bottom out/bind on the ends of the tie rod ends when alignment is done. I hope what I am explaining is making sense? Ours are based off the originals and are intended to be stronger and used as a replacement,so in the case of the bumpsteer tie rod ends there may be an issue.

Thanks
James

just curious even with the jam nuts I had plenty of room, if it were me i'd rather have more thread engagement, I know the rule is you want as much thread engagement as the thickness of the end itself as a minimum. I appreciate the quick response!
thanks James
 
We will be taking this into account/thought during the next production run.

Thanks
James
 
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