Projects Kustom From Outer Space..France calling.

Hello .
Thanks Chrisp for your message, don't worry about the springs, and forget about it, the more important is the differential.

Thank you Vedette for your links, Citroen DS is maybe a good option and with some modification, I think I can do something cool......

Thanks rgdavid, but I gonna find or build that fuckin' springs

About 2 month for 2 springs, I'm a stupid guy

News soon...ok, let's go

 

Rat, you are not a stupid guy! Maybe you made a mistake, but we've all done that, and some of us have done that way too many times. I'm confident you will get it taken care of just like you have done so many great things in this build! Keep your chin up and you'll figure it out.

 

Making mistakes is part of learning... I've made so many mistakes on my 1965 Chevrolet C10, but that is the price of an education.

You generally learn more from your mistakes.

Learn from it and move on, make it better.

-W

 

....take things further

 

Is this your front suspension? Are those your front springs you posted?

 

Yes, this is my front suspension on your pic, and these are the originals springs, uncut. I just received them.

Next week I gonna clean and paint this parts, and install these new used springs.

And after that, working everyday on my car

 

Glad to hear the "new" springs arrived! Carry on, sir.

 

Here's hoping the new used springs will be up to the task of supporting the replacement power plant.

 

Well...... once again, people who sell used parts on the web boring me i have ask on french website that i'm looking for FRONT spring for my Fregate, and of course a guy ask me that he own 2 used springs from a 1955 Fregate.

I made the deal with no discount, his price is mine.

2 weeks later i have received the springs....and today i have paint the springs, and remove the driver side one....damned, this is not the same!!!! so what? The result is that the seller sold me 2 REAR springs, and they are not the same than front......

i have tried all the day to mount them ....no result....i must do it again tomorow.....they are too strong, too long, and the diameter not enought bigger......

Brain storming.....

Things could have been simple....

 

Yep...and.....

 

if the new ones are different diameter they might not seat right regardless of the height.

 

When you say too strong, it concerns me.

Can we assume you are safely playing with these?

Compressor?
Jack, blocks?

 

Yes, be careful. As you know, there is a lot of energy in those springs. Don't get angry and allow yourself to get hurt by a flying spring.

 

You know guys, yesterday, I wanted absolutely to fit that wrong springs, I'm waiting that about 2 month....but....the big BUT.....a little voice inside me asked "be careful Ratty, you have limited tools, the parts are not the right parts, and in fact, I was not really "in the mood" with this operation.....

And then...I have read your post........BE CAREFUL......and you right......I have drop it.....this is for the example, my bad condition......don't do this at home, or anywhere ;-)

My floor jack.....no good.....

My bad floor...no good.....



Jack for secure a little.....



Spring compressors are cheap....but with that small springs, I cannot use bigger one.....



No way to mount that springs.....the diameter is too small to fit in the bottom socket, and it floating in the top "housing shoes"...



Well, I made shit, of course, I can cut some coil of the old one and weld on the bottom and top of the new....but I don't like that, and in the futur the car will be drive secure...so I'm looking for original FRONT springs.....again......

Yes, it's better to read and follow your great caution, because this time I had lost my way

Spray-can springs red was THE good idea....no epoxy screw up

 

Good job man! Shit don't always go how ya want it to. keep hunting.

 

You could make a spacer can for your old springs.

It's a lot of work, but inexpensive. Make a can that your spring will fit inside. Trial and error to find how many wood shims you need to get the proper ride height. Put a thin metal shim on top of wood shims to prevent wear. Cut can about 20mm above shims to locate spring then weld can to the A frame.

 

Okay here's an old hillbilly trick that may help you when you fit the new Springs in. It's much easier and safer than using those spring compressors under the car while it's up on jacks. Also quite often the spring compressors just hit the frame of the car and you can't use them.


Like I said, this is a hillbilly method, and is not approved by SAE, OSHA (or whatever bureaucracy you have in France to administer worker safety. ) I've used this method on a BMW, on a Subaru; and on a big Ford Galaxie 500 from the 60s, when one of my spring compressors broke while working on the car.

Compress the spring on the ground with a large bolt (greased) and two solid steel plates and a big washer (greased) and a big nut.

Then wind it with baling wire repeatedly in 3 equally spaced places.

For a lightweight car like that you don't need too much. 10 wraps of common steel bailling wire at three locations equally spaced around the circumference of the spring and securely tied off should allow you to compress that spring 4 inches without problems.

10 wraps is 20 strands, and if you do it 3 times that is 60 strands total Each strand can easily support over 35kg of tension, so 60 strands will support easily 2100 kg. That's about the same as the total weight of my old Cadillac and it will hold that spring compressed safely as long as you do not damage the wire as you are winding it, and you make reasonable efforts to tie it off securely and without much Slack.

I typically do not wire the first and last coils on the spring as you want them to seat into their rubber silencers without damage to the rubber.

Otherwise I wire up the spring as tight as I need it to be to get it in where it needs to go. Once the suspension is assembled you can just cut the wires. As long as you didn't wear the spring too tight there won't be any annoying clanging or other excitement.

 

By the way you could do the same thing with sewing thread or fishing line and it's all a matter of how many times you wrap it around the spring. I think baling wire is soft and easy to work with but it's strong enough to do the job.

When I did my 1981 Subaru front struts I used copper speaker wire. I made 10 double wraps three places, and it held just fine. That was however a very light car at just 2,200 lb or 1000 kg.

 

Bad news, Rat !

 

Rat please find a few concrete or wood blocks to act as a back up to your jenga set you are using to jack up la orange. We don't want to wonder what ever happened to that rat guy and why did he stop posting?


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Good idea!

Also this Photograph illustrates perfectly the problem with conventional spring compressors.

You see that it's compressed a few coils at the top but it's missed two at the bottom.

So you have to crank the snot out of the thing to get good compression because you're only working on part of the spring.

 

I use gravity to my advantage when removing and replacing coil springs. I remove by jacking up the car and removing the wheels, place floor jack under the control arm but leave an inch or so gap, loosen the lower ball joint castle nut and smack the lower control arm with a 5 pound hammer a couple of times. It pops loose, jack up the control arm, remove the nut and slowly let the air of the jack, the spring falls out.

Installing it you reverse the procedure, jack under the control arm, replace coil spring, jack up the control arm until you can get the castle nut back on the ball joint stud. It doesn't work when the motor is out as there is not enough weight to compress the spring, the jack just raises the car.

I have used this technique for years on the American muscle cars I restore, never used a spring compressor. Maybe it will help?

 

Not all cars will fully unload the spring this way, you may need a pry bar or two.

For safety, you need something to retain the spring in case it slips while you're unloading or loading it with the jack. There's a lot of stored energy there, you don't want it escaping. Some 3/4" all thread and some big grade 8 washers and nuts, run through the spring and control arms, may save you.



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Whether you can compress the coils using the weight of the vehicle depends on a lot of things.

If you're putting stiffer Springs in, getting the old ones out may be much easier than putting the new ones in. I got the Springs out of my 47 Plymouth using the same method as Bandit Billy, and there was no engine in the car and no front sheet metal before the cowl.

I stood on the engine crossmember as I worked the floor jack, and my 180lb weight was enough. BUT, the Plymouth has a lot heavier frame than a Ford, plus those Springs had been lowered with a torch years ago.

 

Ratty, I gotta say that I love this build and I've enjoyed reading this thread. While cruising Cragslist today I thought of you. (I know it's too many doors, and a different car)
https://albuquerque.craigslist.org/cto/d/renault-dauphine/6293520774.html
Still it made me laugh, we don't see too many older French cars around the states.

 

Just found and read your build thread Rat, you are doing an incredible job making this car your own. As others have said, your can-do attitude is incredible and the results are as well. Carry on...


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Jack stands are a must for any work under a car I don't care what your doing. Changing oil to putting a quick pump of Greese in a zerk. Most people don't want to see there friends head squished under his car! Be safe

 

Well Guys, thanks for your messages, all you have said is correct.

For my Fregate, the spring cannot be compressed with my tool correctly because there is not enough space to fit that kind of spring compressor. There is an old tool especially made by Renault...rare.....And my trouble is that I cannot lift the car high enough. I work on sloped floor....the car rips the jacks.

I got a little tired about the car, the parts not found, bad condition and dangerous work, and of course, some other personal troubles....I needed a break. I don't ask that things are allright now, but today is a better day.....

After 5 month of intensive research, nobody own Fregate front springs....amazing.....so after checking more that 8000 models cars.....just only one car have the same spring dimension that I need.....

Jeep Grand Cherokee 2.7 CRD (WJ) (1999/2004).....and only with this engine.......I found a pair in 24h!


And about my differential, with my 5 reverses, today, a nice box.....


The only place where a nice guy propose me the correct differential, is on The Hamb. I want to thank Chrisp for the great communication, and the nice box. But what is inside?


That big boy is heavy, it turn clockwise, I'm gonna clean and paint the part, and find missing parts (again....swap differential on Fregate needs some other parts....) and do the job.......again under the car, with not enough space, alone..........
I will never drop, it will take the time it takes.