Rear mount done.

I managed to get a bit more done on Saturday. I decided to leave the tower cover plate for now, as it would block access to the reinforcing webs that I need to replace.

Whilst I waited for the garage to warm up a bit, I had a bash at the templates for the front reinforcing plates. The idea is to have them vaguely replicate the original ones, only a bit wider to suit my brackets. I may change the plan a little, but I can't think of another sensible way to make this.





Then I moved on to the rear reinforcing plates. One would be a simple flat plate, but the rear one would be more complicated to fit and weld in.





Both shapes were transferred to 2mm sheet before the rear one was cut and bent to shape before being welded. They were then loosely bolted into place to make sure all was well.





As I was happy with the fit, the suspension bracket was fully welded to the chassis rail. I guess I'd missed a bit of oil or something, as one of the plug welds needed cleaning back.



The rear reinforcing plate was then welded in. Some of this took a while as I could either see the weld or get the torch in, but not always both. The vertical weld against the chassis rail on the back of the bracket was the worst one to do. The welds have yet to be cleaned back, but they will be to make it look cleaner.





The front plate was much easier to fit.



With both plates in, I was about out of time before dinner, but there was just time to fit have a trial fit of one of the suspension bushes. Whilst the rear plate looks like it blocks the bush, with the angle the wishbone tube will run there is plenty of clearance.

More front end progress

With some more thought and planning, as well as seeing JLH's front end as a sanity check, I was happy to get stuck in with the cutting discs and the next step of the front end. JLH are a small local company that specialise in Morris Minors, but are starting to branch into Spridgets too with go faster bits.

I say sanity check, as I had been thinking about where to put the coil over. As I imagine JLH found out, the only sensible way to fit one of a good length is to remove a chunk from the front of the suspension tower to allow one to get near to the plate the lever arms normally bolt to. I have seen short ones fitted up into the tower where the coil spring normally sits, but for a road going car that won't work well. I was a bit worried about cutting so much from the outer edge off, but as John has already done what I was thinking of, I now feel much happier about wading in. I just hope he knows what he's doing......

Before I got too stuck in, I wanted to cut the remaining bits of the front support brackets off. I had thought about keeping them, but when I sat and look at them in more detail, it's just not worth it as wider ones will do a much better job. To give better access I also cut the steering rack cross member out, as it's welds are cracked and it was going to have to come out at some point anyway. Now just helps make things easier.



This shows the line that I plan on cutting the tower back to. I expect this to cut back into the upper spring mount, but how much I'm not sure yet.



This shows the first level-ish cut made and how far into the spring mount it's gone.



With the now accessible welds ground back, I'm left with a fairly level surface to which I can weld a reinforcing cover plate as well as seam weld the tower where I can get to it. This plate will tie everything back together with in the tower itself. There will then be a second plate to link across to the upper left hand A arm mount, which will be set back into the triangular frame to the left of the tower. The box for the mount will be the full depth of the frame to make it as strong as possible. I won't be fully closing the lower edge of the spring mount to the cover plate, as the big hole in the bottom will be act as a drain should anything get in.



Before I can put the cover plate on I will need to sort the lower support brackets out, as well as clean and paint the inside of the tower, as the plate will limit access to the bits I need to weld. I suspect I'll have to make the brackets on the car from sheet, as I doubt I'll be able to make them in one piece on the bench.

Finally making a start on the front end

With the rear suspension complete, although I am still to check the wheel clearance, it was time to make a start on the front end. But first I needed to cut the existing brackets and supports back to match what I had already done on the LHS of the car. The RHS looked like this some time ago:



I started off cutting back the front bracket and it's supporting plate back. But I soon ran into an unexpected, but minor, problem. Part way through cutting the bracket back, I found that it was both cracked through above the chassis rail, and on the verge of removing itself from the rail altogether.







Thankfully, the tear is almost on top of one of the inner webs that I fitted when I straightened the rails so welding it up was nice and easy.



The rear half of things was next. It started off looking a bit worse for wear:



Once I'd cut back most of the unwanted sections, and given it all a clean up there was the rippled section left to flatten. The remaining bits were then cut back as far as I could get them:







So now I had a good clean base for the suspension. This side will be built up and checked as thoroughly as I know how to before using it to make a jig for both of the suspension arms. That way I can ensure it's all even, and should I ever bin it I can make new ones easily. Before I could start with the brackets on the car, I wanted to make sure the hubs and wheel fitted together ok. They're also needed to measure the length needed for the lower arm, as it will be determined by the track width.

The front end is based on the uprights/hubs of a classic mini, but using the later Metro drive flanges as they're bigger. The usual PCD of a mini/metro is 4 x 4", ie 4 wheel studs spaced evenly on a 4" circle. My rear suspension, and wheels, use the Ford pattern of 4 x 108mm. Small differences can be taken up with special bolts, but the 6.4mm difference I have is too much for that. So the only real option is to re-drill the drive flange to suit the wider spacing. This isn't something I was willing to attempt, as the holes must be bang on and very closely sized to the splines on the new studs. But thankfully there's a local place that was happy to alter them for me, as well as trim my CV joints down to save some extra weight.





The next thing to do was to fit the new studs. The mini studs are 3/8" where as the new ones are M12, so quite a bit bigger. Which is a good thing as the Sprite will have a top speed well in excess of a mini! The easiest way I know of to fit studs is to go find a man with a press, but by this time all the local garages were shut, so I used a more manual method using a spare wheel nut and some washers. As the nut is turned the stud is drawn into the flange.





With all eight studs fitted, bearings were fitted to the upright. These are just plain ball bearings for now, as I'll be using the better, but more expensive, taper roller bearings for the final build up. The same is true of the ball joints, cheapo versions for now. The axle stub then goes in before putting the drive flange on. It looks a little long once assembled as the brake discs sits behind the drive flange. And as I'll be using 10.75" MGB discs they'll be an adaptor to match the threads that sits between the flange and disc. I'm using the hubs swapped side to side, as a mini has it's steering rack behind the wheels, where as the Sprite has it in front. This stops the brakes and steering trying to share the same space, but has no effect on the suspension itself.





So the front uprights were now fitted and I was happy with that end of things. And that meant the last thing to do today was to spend a while levelling the suspension brackets and tacking them in place. I say levelling, as the front chassis rails kick upwards on a Sprite by 1" to give extra castor. However, my set up won't need that so the brackets are level to the ground and not the rails, hence why they look wonky. The brackets are also fitted as wide as possible, given the webs hidden inside the chassis rail. This gives the strongest possible base for the lower arm without completely re-building the front end again.

Yay, I now own a wheelbarrow

So another couple of weeks have passed, and I've been busy working overtime so work on the car has been slow.

Caring on where I left off, the cross brace had to be finished before I could do anything else. So that meant finishing the left hand chassis mount and then linking it to the main cross tube once the tube was squared up against the shell.



I decided to weld the smaller tube to the cross brace first in at effort to prevent any twist from lifting the chassis mount. But it was soon fully welded and bolted back into place once I had checked it for square against the axle hump.



Now the brace was sat in place, I could see which, if any of the existing holes could be used. Unfortunately, only one lined up and even that wasn't 100%. So I decided to weld the holes up and drill new ones. There's a tip I was told once to help weld up small holes in thin sheet. It involves using something I know as a welder's spoon. It's basically a good sized chunk of copper that is used to back the hole to stop the weld dropping away from the panel. It means you can use a lower setting and help avoid distortion in the panel. Copper is used as molten steel, ie the weld itself, won't stick to it. Once welded the panels are ground flat to hide the fact that there was ever a hole there.







With the boot floor sorted out, I decided to make the Watt's linkage brackets that would hang under the boot before drilling the holes in case I cocked something up with the measurements. These were cut from 3mm sheet and folded, rather than weld two bits together. I based the template for them on the one for the cross brace feet to help keep the shapes even:



That shape was then transferred to the steel and the pivot holes drilled before bolting all four together so I could finish them all to the same shape. They were all then bent to suit.





With the brackets ready, the cross brace was used a drilling guide so I could save time farting about. The hole spacings were then transferred to the Watt's brackets for drilling so they could be bolted into place.



It soon became obvious that the existing way round that the Watt's linkages had been fitted didn't line up right so I had to take both linkages out and turn the pivots round as they are fitted with an offset. With them offset the other way, all was well and the links lined up centrally within their brackets, just as I had hoped and planned.



So this was the point I'd been hoping for for some time. The rear suspension is now complete! And whilst the brakes still need sorting at some point, they can wait for now. Since it is now sorted, I could bolt the rear wheels on and lower the car to the floor. And it does now feel like a car, not just a shell or chassis. Although it did take me ages to gradually lower it down as I hadn't realised that the centre of balance is now just about level with the rear bulkhead. So trying to lift the car up to remove the stands just made it pivot the wrong way, which was a little risky when working on my own late of an evening. Finally it was down and roughly levelled, although I will need to do it again as I need the wheels to start the front suspension.





The car now feels a lot smaller, as it's no longer sat so far off the floor. It's good, but also a little odd still, seeing it with wheels. I'm just glad the ride height looks about right and when bouncing it up and down there's no creaks or groans and the springs even feel about right. But I suspect that will change once it's at kerb weight and being hustled down a back road. I also seem to have a reasonable amount of wheel clearance, but I need someone to bounce the car whilst I lie under it to check that more thoroughly.

So finally, it's now a wheelbarrow!!