Bump stops, bent mounting pin, and my latest wreck...

Hi John,

I need some new bumps stops for my JVL upsidedown struts.
Should I get these through you, or?


Also I've bent another mounting pin, is there a recommended way to straighten these? I presume they can take straihtening without failure? They seems to work OK bent, without failing.

Probably should have been an email...

Thanks...Martin.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2010 10:38AM by MRWmotorsports.

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MRWmotorsports
Hi John,

I need some new bumps stops for my JVL upsidedown struts.
Should I get these through you, or?


Also I've bent another mounting pin, is there a recommended way to straighten these? I presume they can take straihtening without failure? They seems to work OK bent, without failing.

Probably should have been an email...

Thanks...Martin.

YES, AND YES AND NO.

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john vanlandingham

Quote
MRWmotorsports
Hi John,

I need some new bumps stops for my JVL upsidedown struts.
Should I get these through you, or?


Also I've bent another mounting pin, is there a recommended way to straighten these? I presume they can take straihtening without failure? They seems to work OK bent, without failing.

Probably should have been an email...

Thanks...Martin.

YES, AND YES AND NO.

OK, what, why not?

Quote
MRWmotorsports

Quote
john vanlandingham

Quote
MRWmotorsports
Hi John,

I need some new bumps stops for my JVL upsidedown struts.
Should I get these through you, or?


Also I've bent another mounting pin, is there a recommended way to straighten these? I presume they can take straihtening without failure? They seems to work OK bent, without failing.

Probably should have been an email...

Thanks...Martin.

YES, AND YES AND NO.

OK, what, why not?

More should be arriving shortly, just ran thru like 32 in quick time...
WIDE blocks witha nice radius oh say 20mm (Bore a 20mm hole in a block of aluminum and then band saw it in half. That give you 2 to support the body with. Do another pair so you have one to press with and a spare, the press one you can use to CAREFULLY straighten the upper tube when they bend, and they way you guys jump things it seems they may sometimes bend a bit. As for the pin support the body and press on the pin preferably with a hunk-o-alloy so you don't smooosh the threads. The pins are relatively soft and that means they won't fracture or break off.
You don't need to use a dial indicator, just bring the ram really really close and rotate the whole insert to find the high spot and press away...

And the reason THIS is better than an email is cause the multitudes of lurkers out there can read this and learn something, they can't read a one shot email...

But speaking of email for privacy sake, can you find whatever you can about Small Claims Court actions in Ontario and email me?
I have a friend here who has been stuck with a $2000 non payment thing and has no idea where to turn. 2k is a real pain.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2010 09:48PM by john vanlandingham.

Quote
john vanlandingham

Quote
MRWmotorsports

Quote
john vanlandingham

Quote
MRWmotorsports
Hi John,

I need some new bumps stops for my JVL upsidedown struts.
Should I get these through you, or?


Also I've bent another mounting pin, is there a recommended way to straighten these? I presume they can take straihtening without failure? They seems to work OK bent, without failing.

Probably should have been an email...

Thanks...Martin.

YES, AND YES AND NO.

OK, what, why not?

More should be arriving shortly, just ran thru like 32 in quick time...
WIDE blocks witha nice radius oh say 20mm (Bore a 20mm hole in a block of aluminum and then band saw it in half. That give you 2 to support the body with. Do another pair so you have one to press with and a spare, the press one you can use to CAREFULLY straighten the upper tube when they bend, and they way you guys jump things it seems they may sometimes bend a bit. As for the pin support the body and press on the pin preferably with a hunk-o-alloy so you don't smooosh the threads. The pins are relatively soft and that means they won't fracture or break off.
You don't need to use a dial indicator, just bring the ram really really close and rotate the whole insert to find the high spot and press away...

And the reason THIS is better than an email is cause the multitudes of lurkers out there can read this and learn something, they can't read a one shot email...

But speaking of email for privacy sake, can you find whatever you can about Small Claims Court actions in Ontario and email me?
I have a friend here who has been stuck with a $2000 non payment thing and has no idea where to turn. 2k is a real pain.

When do you think you'll have bump stops in-stock again? Just let me know, I'd like 4, even though these have lasted 4 years, I like spares.

What you describe above is the proceedure for straightening the tube itself... didn't bend a tube this time, but most of the time I have, I've bent them beyond straightening, ie. kinks. It's good to hear the pins are soft.. I though the NO answer was to straightening the pin!

I wasn't jumping this time, well sorta... jumped into a ditch full of rocks.

Anything I can find on small claims court will be from the internet... I'll email you some links.

-Martin.

Once I took things apart, it turns ot the mounting pn was bent a little more than I thought...




Yikes... it's also cracked at the weld.

I figured I needed a new insert at this point anyway, so I might just as well try and straighten it.

I don't have a press, so made a jig... 2 1/4" SS tube held in the vise, 1 1/4" ABS fittig over the end of the insert, all slid inside... this held the strut/insert pretty solid.

Then I found a 4' piece of water/gas pipe that had a 21mm ID, my pin is 20mm.. heave ho, suddenly things were looking a lot straighter!

Now what to do about the cracked weld... Hmmm

Kids, don't try this at home!

I have some spray gell called heat barrier... I squirted that around the top of the tube, cleaned off where I needed to weld. Left the whoel thing in the straightening jig - I figured that way if it did explode it could only go straight forward or straight back... note to self don't get in front or behind!
Fired up the TIG and welded it!





All back together now with new control arm, new TC rod. Just need new inner and outer tie rods and that corner will be fixed.

Next is to fix the RR...

It doesn't need much... yeah right!



- Cast steel upright - broke ball joint section right off
- New shock - bent shaft and broke bottom eye right off
- upper control arm - ripped apart
- front upper link - ripped apart
- Toe link bent to fuck, and ripped apart
- 3 rod ends seem OK but will replace as precaution.



- rear subframe is bent bad and driven into the car about 2"... I've got one that's good on this side so I'll make one out of the two.

- axle - ripped apart, haven't pulled it apart but I imagine CV cage(s) are broken.

Then I need to pull out the fuel cell and straighten the "can" where the corner got bashed in.


Then there's the body work.. fornt fender, fornt bumper cover, and re-bar, rear bumper cover and re-bar... rear 1/4 needs pulling and bondo. Missed the door!


Oh.. and 2 nice rims...



You'll notice all damage is on the co-driver side - as it should be!

-Martin.

Martin, you've been having too much fun.


Oh I welded all new pins or tops and pins onto Vittorio's Audi 50mm units using some paste shit called "Heat Fence"---amazing stuff. 4" away it was ambient temp.

What length rears did we do in the end?

need to get one (or 2---if you're going to be smashing stuff up)?

I have spare rears. This one was only 2 events old

-Martin.

Wow. How the door was missed amazes me.
I have to straighten my pin one of these days. My bending came from an incident that ruined around $500 in components. Amazingly, the Compomotive wheel came out in surprisingly good shape.

Speaking of which, anyone consider any changes to top of Merkur stuff in the front?

I was thinking either convert to use Burmeister top mounts of maybe just a Subaru style one. Then I don't have to try to double skin a volcano shaped tower.

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NoCoast
Wow. How the door was missed amazes me.
I have to straighten my pin one of these days. My bending came from an incident that ruined around $500 in components. Amazingly, the Compomotive wheel came out in surprisingly good shape.

Speaking of which, anyone consider any changes to top of Merkur stuff in the front?

I was thinking either convert to use Burmeister top mounts of maybe just a Subaru style one. Then I don't have to try to double skin a volcano shaped tower.

Don't ram into rocks the size of a desk.
Colin McCleery hasn't kilt- to death his strut towers in oh 50 events and he doesn't have as nice of stuff as you do.
Alternately get Jeff?Blugg to sawz-all off a coupla tops from something he's scrapping and Pringle potato chip them on and use the stuff you have..

Should work----presuming you don't run over desk sized rocks..

Can you try that?

Desk sized rock? I run over those just to get warmed up :-)

I have mungo heavy duty top mount version II's. Here's verI and verII





Problem is I think the front suspension doens't have enough compliance now, and if the geometry is a little bit off, coz I bent something, or I have more -ve dialed in, or I just fucked up when I built it... then I bend strut tubes, or mounting pins.

I'm seriously considering converting to some good rubber top mounts... maybe, sometime, when I need new inserts anyway.

-Martin.

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MRWmotorsports
Desk sized rock? I run over those just to get warmed up :-)

Yeah, but at the speed I tend to drive my rally car they break stuff. At your pace you're probably okay with hitting those. Hahaha. Burn! Now that I have a face I can talk shit and poke fun right?

PS> I wasn't the one who even hit the rock. It was Scott McCarty (other No Coast video guy) driving it during a fun run at a hill climb.

I was actually complimenting John's stuff...