38 replies to this topic

[toryman76]

Little update on this thread. I managed to bolt the passenger side back together over the weekend. The spring went in so much nicer. No clunking or "boing" noises when compressing it. I gave the car a little bounce and rolled it back and forth and it appears I have fixed the left to right ride height issue. Annoying thing is this didn't make much difference to my tyre clearance but at least one thing was fixed. I bought one of those cheap magnetic camber/castor gauges and decided to have a play around with it. Using my crude wheel pads and angle measuring device (read garbo bags and protractor!) I had the driver side with what I thought might be OK clearance of just over 5mm to the front lip. Measured camber at -1° castor at +1.5°. I mucked around for ages until I got the passenger side close to this at camber -0.75°, castor +1.25°. Unfortunately this gave me less than 5mm clearance to the front lip, which I know with a bit of loading on the bushes etc, this will end up fouling. So I am kind of back to square one, and I am realising now that I need a serious change in front end geometry to otherwise make this work.

My options are:

1. Give up and go for a smaller tyre size.

2. Modify the front lip.

3. Limit full lock with a plate off the lower arm. Has anyone done this before?

[76lxhatch]

Bear in mind that clearance at full lock can be a lot tighter than under normal driving conditions - unless you're Bo Duke the only time it sees extreme steering and suspension angles is when you're backing out the driveway.

[toryman76]

Bear in mind that clearance at full lock can be a lot tighter than under normal driving conditions - unless you're Bo Duke the only time it sees extreme steering and suspension angles is when you're backing out the driveway.

That's exactly what I am concerned about. I know the clearance I have now is not adequate. With the 13in rims I had about 10mm clearance static and on the odd occasion they would just touch.

[neglectedtorana]

I haven't done it yet but have been considering modifying the front inner guard lip for clearance. I currently have enough clearance but am always thinking about wider front tyres and have tried my rear tyres on the front and find the issue would be the inner front lip, not sure how it will look when modified which basically mans cutting some off.

 

I remember it being mentioned in another build thread but there wasn't a picture

[76lxhatch]

That's exactly what I am concerned about. I know the clearance I have now is not adequate. With the 13in rims I had about 10mm clearance static and on the odd occasion they would just touch.

I actually meant the opposite (i.e. less clearance is OK) but if you know there are issues... unless you've replaced bushings recently?

[toryman76]

I actually meant the opposite (i.e. less clearance is OK) but if you know there are issues... unless you've replaced bushings recently?

Bushes are effectively new. The cars only done several thousand km since being built. Bushes were bought some time ago now though. They would be at least 10years old. All Mackay rubber bushes were used.

[toryman76]

I haven't done it yet but have been considering modifying the front inner guard lip for clearance. I currently have enough clearance but am always thinking about wider front tyres and have tried my rear tyres on the front and find the issue would be the inner front lip, not sure how it will look when modified which basically mans cutting some off.

 

I remember it being mentioned in another build thread but there wasn't a picture

 

Here is one thread I found with a couple of photos of the guard lip being trimmed, but I am not sure how this will look once on the car.

 

http://www.gmh-toran...ared-lh-torana/

[neglectedtorana]

Same car I was thinking of, some pics of it finished in the link below.

Was going to put some tape on mine and see how noticeable the tape is from the outside next time I have the car out in the sunshine

 

http://www.gmh-toran...project/page-13

[toryman76]

Thanks Tom! There is some good photos there to clearly show how it would look. Given that mod was for a 215/45R17 at 625mm OD I don't think I would need to be as aggressive as that. My tyre is 205/55R15 at 607mm OD. Food for thought. I might try your approach with some tape to see what it would look like.

[toryman76]

Bit of an update/request for help... Driving around with limited steering to one full rotation of the steering wheel is a little bit stress full and so this isn't really a permanent solution. Mucking around with wheel alignment didn't make any major difference and I don't want smaller tyres, so my option for the front is to get modifying. However during my driving around I noticed I have a 'small' problem on the rear too... It scrubs on the lip of the guard when loaded full of fuel and a my little kids in the back! This I was quite surprised by. The rear guard was not rolled when I built the car because I never saw it to be a problem. I am cautious that the rolling process might very well end up in damaging paint work. Beside smaller tyres (not interested) and more offset in the rim (might be able to sneak another 3mm off my rims) what are my options here? Is it dodgy to cut off a little bit of the lip? Can rolling of the rear guard be done in a way that won't damage paint work?

 

Attached Files

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[warrenm]

You can roll the guards, should be someone close to you if you don't want to do it yourself.

[Heath]

Zip half the lip off with a thin cutting disc, or yeah heat it up and roll the guards. You can't roll the rear one in much where the door jam meets the wheel arch... but you can still make a bit of space.

 

I always do it before painting a car if possible.

 

By the way, your front guard in-front of the wheel is out of shape. It has clearly been bent up (and therefore in) at the back, where it gets close to the front of the front wheel. This will be contributing to the clearance issue you were describing. The lower edge of the guard is supposed to point down roughly towards the main sill height (behind the front wheel), but yours is basically horizontal. Bend it out back into shape or fabricate a strut to keep it pushed down, away from the chassis rail.

[toryman76]

By the way, your front guard in-front of the wheel is out of shape. It has clearly been bent up (and therefore in) at the back, where it gets close to the front of the front wheel. This will be contributing to the clearance issue you were describing. The lower edge of the guard is supposed to point down roughly towards the main sill height (behind the front wheel), but yours is basically horizontal. Bend it out back into shape or fabricate a strut to keep it pushed down, away from the chassis rail.

Yeah I reckon this happened when I rolled the lip years ago pre paint. I remember doing them off the car with a hammer and dolly. I don't think I took enough care to ensure the guard held its shape. I am thinking the only way to get it back where it should be is to dolly the lip back down and hope the guard springs back to where it should be. I have another guard here and from memory I think it's gone up about 30mm....

[Heath]

I'd begin by pulling like on it like hell with your hands, and it wouldn't surprise me if you got it to stay where it needs to be, haha. The Torana sheetmetal in that area is not very heavily engineered.