I drove the Buick to Cars and Coffee this morning and got lots of lookers, compliments and questions. It's a car guy magnet. It will be off the road for a few weeks as I fix the rear suspension. The car had been converted a long time ago to a '74 Buick LeSabre drivetrain. The rear suspension as you will see is a cobbled up GM 4 link. The arms were shortened, an angle iron "cross member" was added and things were stick welded up. Apparently, no care was take to align everything as it bound up pretty badly, the axle was not centered up nor square to the frame. Also, if you hit a dip in the road, the driveshaft hit the "cross member" making a really ugly noise. It was just a mess. So, I've done my homework and decide to install an Art Morrison 4 link parallel bar setup. This will work well, fit well and give me a good ride. The first order of business was removing the junked up existing stuff. So, after I got home, I got to work. I will let the pictures do most of the talking. How would you ever remove the front bolts on the lower trailing arm? I had to drive the bolts out of the suspension to get it out. Check out the "cross member". In addition, check out the way they "leveled up" the suspension with spring jacks and compressors. Also, notice the acorns and hickory nuts. This car was stored in a barn and there are acorns and hickory nuts stashed in every corner. I've gotten most out but there are still some in the boxed areas of the chassis. P.S. Thanks to Hnstray for helping me with ideas on this mod.
After a LOT of cutting and grinding, I have a clean sheet of paper to work with. As my friend, Bill Hampton said, "At least they did no harm."
Today was productive even though I don't have my rear suspension kit yet. I got enough dimensions from Brock at AM to get started. First thing I did today was assemble my SWAG Offroad press brake for my 20 ton HF press. It took about an hour I guess and this thing is great for making brackets and bending flat bar. I bent a piece of 4" X 1/4" with no problem. See pics. For $169 delivered, you can't beat this kit. After I finished that and went to work and cut some steel that I needed, I leveled the car up on my lift. It sure is a lot easier to do the measuring on the lift than on jack stands. I plumb bobbed several dimensions and found out that my chassis is square as can be and the body is sitting on the chassis squarely. So, I won't have to cheat any measurements to get my wheels centered up in the wheel wells. The measurements I took are as follows. I measured from the drip hole in the center of the front suspension to the front of the two jig mount holes at the rear of the frame. These were within 1/16". I'd call that dead on. I used a piece of pipe with shop rags stuffed in behind them to force them to the front of the hole. Now I have a good, square hard surface from which to measure going forward and back. Using plumb bobs, I established that the center of the wheel opening was 19" back from the front of the pipe. AM told me that the length of the bars are 24 7/8" from axle centerline to the front cross member face. I will not have a cross member, I will fab a tower to weld the front mounts to. Not sure if I'm going to use 10 gauge or the 1/4" flat bar yet. The rest of the chassis is 10 ga, so I'll probably brake up some of that to make my towers. You will see a shot of a framing square. After noodling on how to make this tower bracket, I hit on the idea of using the framing square. I simply clamped the rear leg at 3 1/2" (the width of my tower) and measured the distance from the outside of that bracket to the outside frame rail. Then, I swung the opposite leg of the framing square until it was the same distance from the outside rail, or parallel. Read the two dimensions, 3 1/2" and 6 1/2" and that is the lengths my brackets needed to be. The long leg might have to be trimmed a smidge but it's darn close. I'm going to be close to 31.5" center to center on the bars. This should clear my muffler and allow me to use the sway bar, if needed. Tomorrow, I'll fill in the exhaust pipe hole in DS frame rail and fab up the towers. I'll probably position the axle on jack stands and get ready for next weekend to hopefully wrap this up.
I made the two tower brackets today from 10 gauge flat stock. Because I don't have a plasma cutter, it took me longer than it should have. They still turned out nice. I may have some slight trimming to do but they look like they are going to work out very nicely. The only problem will be welding the top forward bead on the bracket. I'm thinking I can stick weld it through the hole in the bottom. There is not enough clearance to get my Mig or anything else in from the top, about 1"-1 1/4". Plenty of clearance for doing the rear portion, however. I made a patch panel to fill the exhaust pipe hole. Traced out the hole on poster paper, cut it out, traced it again and cut the metal. Very little fitting required. I forgot to take a picture of it after I welded it up but you get the idea. The SWAG Offroad press brake worked like a charm for braking that 10 gauge.
Despite some health restrictions for the next 6 weeks, I was able to get a little accomplished this weekend. Mostly I scratched my head and measured. Originally, I thought I could get the coil overs mounted up in the spring perch but they need to be further back than that. So, I came up with a 1" X 2" rectangular tubing solution that I think will work well. After being satisfied that I have a solution for mounting my coil overs, I tacked up the rear pieces for the 4 bar and the coil over mounts. Parallel is going to put me just under my original ride height, which is good. I have about an inch and a half more that I can drop down, if needed. The only real disadvantage to this setup will be when I have to change rear tires, I will have to disconnect the coil overs. I just hope it doesn't happen on the side of the road, which it will. It is important to get everything square and level when doing this. Re-check yourself until you are satisfied everything is right. The biggest challenge for me will be fabricating the cross member and panhard bar mount. The axle housing clears the 1" X 2" tubing but I think it would be cleaner to have two separate mounts. Unfortunately, NOTHING is square and plumb on the factory cross member. It is loaded with compound curves. Credit goes to Doc of Webrodder for the hose clamp idea and the basic idea for the front 4 bar mounts. The hose clamps work great. You can bump them around and you move the axle to see if everything clears before you tack it in. Thanks again to Ray for turning me on to this article. Next weekend, I will have my head stuck up in the cross member area, health permitting.
Rock......good work, my Friend! Sorry to hear you are having health issues. I guess us older guys are in that "zone"
Well, I've probably spent more time looking and thinking about how to do the crossmember than any other part of the job. I started out with an idea for a bolt in crossmember that stretched across the entire width of the car. There were a couple of problems with that, flexibility and exhaust clearance. So, after much thought, I came up with what I felt was the best end solution. The problem, as I stated earlier, is there are no straight, plumb or level surfaces on the OE crossmember. Finally, I decide to box the OE cross member and make my two piece mount fit. I think the pictures tell the story. You will see the one piece that I started with and then modified. Also, I made the panhard bar mount to fit the OE holes and made it adjustable for ride height. My plan is to run everything in the middle hole. We'll see how that works out but if it needs to go lower, I can. Sorry, I didn't get a picture with the coilovers mounted. Maybe next weekend.
Finished the rear suspension and lowered the front, as well. It sits better and drives a LOT better now. I'll need to put some paint on it sometime but, for now, I'm enjoying the ride.
Looking good, nice to see your taking your time and giving it the love it deserves. Cheers Darren Check out my 49 Buick sedanette build
I can't believe what some people do and get away with it. At least you are able to salvage it as it wasn't butchered beyond repair. You are saving a nice car and doing it the way it should have been done in the first place. Love the car and your work.
Rock, Great work! I love how the car sits now. Can I assume all this hard work means your foot is healing up? Chris
It's seems to be. Ask me again in 2 weeks. So far, the incisions are healed up and there is no bleeding or draining. They had to cut it open again about 3 or 4 weeks ago. The internal healing is not complete and it's tender to walk on but at least I'm off the IV's and can get around more.
Rock, Nice work! Glad the Buick is on the road again, and you are back on the road to recovery too! Ray
Great thread. Def giving me ideas for mine but I'll be doing a tri four link Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I considered a Tri 4 setup but this just seemed to fit my needs and worked out well. If you do a Tri 4, you have to make sure you get everything exactly right or you will have binding problems. Good luck!
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