The first thing to do was to get the second main tube cut and shaped:
This was then tacked in place before removing from the jig for welding. Once cooled, it was put back in the jig to check for any distortion. Somehow, I don't really have any so far, with just the arm closing in by 1-2mm.
The next part is a cross brace to stop the arm trying to open/close under load. This is made of 3/4" tube.
For the basic frame of the wishbone, that's it! However, I still need somewhere to mount a coil over. That somewhere gives a few options. One is a thick-ish plate between the tubes, another is a double gusset thing that looks like a box between the arms, and another is a set up that allows a long bolt to pass through both main tubes using short sections of tube let into the main ones. I prefer the middle option; boxing in the end of the wishbone.
Whilst I wouldn't normally grind the welds back flat, for this piece I need a flat surface for when I get round to fitting the coil over bracket. With the wishbone complete for now, I wanted to see what it looks like on the car! This meant putting the nylon bushes back in and their inner crush tubes. As they're supplied over length, I can't get all the washers into the chassis brackets as yet, but with both outer ones in place, the wishbone is plenty steady enough for now and still falls on the pivots under it's own weight.
Can anyone spot the school boy error I've made?!
Yup, I got carried away making the wishbone and didn't bother checking the cross brace cleared. However, to do it's job, it needs to be pretty much where I've welded it in. So it looks like I'll have to trim the support brackets back a bit to allow the wishbone to move. Currently it doesn't even get to ride height. Overall though, I'm rather pleased with my Mk1 wishbone!!
