Thread: The Roofus Special

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If you haven't figured out, these boxes are going to be tied into the frame/sides/floor and heavily supported.

These boxes to way longer to figure out than I would have ever guessed.

Originally Posted by RestoRod

I guess it would depend on the frame structure and how it is integrated into the unibody. The Austin Healey Sprite/MG Midget used a quarter elliptic rear suspension albeit with much lower HP than you are using.

Somebody on metalmeet posted a pic of the sprite style mounts. It is a lot simpler than I thought it would have been.

Due to the automotive slowdown while chrysler re-organizes (I work for a supplier), my job has said we are going to a 4 day workweek. That means I have a months worth of 3 day weekends to work on my car.

I always like the positive spins that come of negative situations. Hope to see some more progress. This is a great thread from an educational stand point for me. Keep on posting.

yeah, lucky you.. summer weekends even! WOOT... my six months of unemployment landed me sitting in the house, with too cold/rainy outside to work. now I have a job again.. *sigh* Planning to take some time off before my next job ( I re-enlisted, will deploy on July 13 ) but then it might be too HOT to work much.. but then, there is always evenings / late night.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

yeah, lucky you.. summer weekends even! WOOT... my six months of unemployment landed me sitting in the house, with too cold/rainy outside to work. now I have a job again.. *sigh* Planning to take some time off before my next job ( I re-enlisted, will deploy on July 13 ) but then it might be too HOT to work much.. but then, there is always evenings / late night.

Better than summer weekends.....spring weekends. Hopefully I can get a lot done before 100* weather sets in.

I got my other spring box put together and started looking at how to anchor the top links and came to the conclusion that I needed more beef in my framework. I am adding some 1.5 x 1.5 front to back in a more conventional frame like position. I am also installing a 1.5 x 1.5 crossmember ahead of the forward spring support to provide additional support.

Here are the pics....this about where I thought I was going to get to last weekend.

I feel a lot more comfortable with the extra beef.







Since I am not sure exactly what spring rate I have, I built some adjustability in for the top links.

Looks good and should work good.

You can change the spring rate by deleting or adding leaves to the springs. I would guess this car will be substantially lighter than the original Jag, so you may need to remove a leaf or two.

Next weekend, I will add a diagonal for the link mounts and mount the spring boxes (verticle wall at back, angled wall at front and tied to the frame sideways down low).



Hopefully after that, the pace will pick back up.

Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Looks good and should work good.

You can change the spring rate by deleting or adding leaves to the springs. I would guess this car will be substantially lighter than the original Jag, so you may need to remove a leaf or two.

Using the jag suspension has been a little bit of a headache, but I think it will make the end product neater.

A lot of my build details have just been guesses, but I think I have allowed for adjustability by being able to remove leaves if it is too tall and stiff or jacking up the front mount if it is too low.

As is, my spring box is higher in the car and the front support area is lower. I tried to account for less weight mashing the rear of the spring flat. I have the spring rotated down at the front compared to a MK2.

I am anxious to get weight in the car and set it on wheels.

I jumped in with both feet today. I started wleding the spring boxes in solid. First though, I tapered the front edge of the boxes down for a little more butt room.

Mounting these things is like putting a puzzle together. It is hard trying to figure out how to weld it all together such that you can actually get to where you need to weld and then be able to add the next piece and get it fully welded in.

I got them welded in enough that I was able to put a jack under the rear axle and cycle the suspension. My spring boxes work as intended....as the rear goes up, the front of the spring pushes down.

I will try to remember to take pics tomorrow and post them.

Here are the pics of the boxes getting welded in.





The link mount needs support. I will also tie the boxes in to these.



Stuff is too crowded to get to all seams. I cut the tube apart. Some of the welds are on the inside. After these welds are done, the tube gets put back together. Fun!

Tubes put back together


Boxes tied to the diagonal


Pics of loading the suspension

1952 Mercedes gas tank looks like it will work for this car.






It should clear the links OK and has a little bit of clearance for the diff. Fuel inlet will work with a racecar style cap on the top of the boattail.