Full droop - welding in turrets

Okay, so on these Compact E36 cars the droop is limited by the travel ability of the arm. Same in Merkur really. Anyhow, when determining the shock mounting eyelet height, what should a decent buffer for droop be?
The max possible droop for the arm is at 20". The height I am looking at, shock runs out of droop ability at 18.5" so 1.5" of unused droop. This gives full ten inches of travel with 1.5" buffer before the wheel hits the fender.

Picking up steel to build first set tomorrow. I was thinking 1/8 thick for top plate/mounting eyelet and either 14 or 16 gauge for the turret. 1/8" plate on top front of turret for cage rear stays mounting.

THoughts?

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Grant Hughes

Thats how I did the rears on my 08 subaru. I used 3/16 for top plate instead of 1/8" but mine is a coil over. I have no buffer thow. My control arms run out of travel the same time my shock tops and bottoms out. I hit the bump stops 2.5" or so before the wheel hits the inner fender. about half inch and the shock is topped out. Im running 9" shock and I have about the same travel. close to 11" of travel at the wheel. 7" ride height puts the piston on the shock a little over mid travel.

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First rally 2013
Rally car type AWD subaru
Total rallies as driver 6
Total rally cars built 2
Total rally cars caged 3
Total rally cars repaired from offs 4
Total years racing exp other then rally 19 yrs
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I did read original escort and rx7 prep manuals too before posting this. The Ford manual said it is best to take it to a shop with the appropriate jig.

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Grant Hughes

Is this so easy and should be standard practice on so many cars (Volvo) that it's above and beyond some simple advice as to sizing of materials? I'm going to stick with my existing plan of 1/8" top plates and mounts (doubled at the eyelet) and 16 gauge tower then.

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Grant Hughes

1/8 in should be good, but maybe put doublers at the bolt holes and brace the tops to the cage. When you are setting the height of the turrets, check that ride height corrosponds with ~70% shock travel, dont go on arm range alone

Is it coil over?

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First rally 2013
Rally car type AWD subaru
Total rallies as driver 6
Total rally cars built 2
Total rally cars caged 3
Total rally cars repaired from offs 4
Total years racing exp other then rally 19 yrs
Like 31motorsports on FB!
Check out 31motor sales on ebay for used Subaru parts

Yeah, coil over on first one I am doing. Might be seperate on the multilink setup though and run a stock location inboard spring. Have considered a stock spring location rubber bump stop regardless to keep that higher force bending moment at a more centralized location with less lever action. On a STA setup that is. The rear beams and arms bend on rally cars (I'm on third beam and second set of arms, see Sean's post about DC2's.)

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Grant Hughes

Quote
alkun
1/8 in should be good, but maybe put doublers at the bolt holes and brace the tops to the cage. When you are setting the height of the turrets, check that ride height corrosponds with ~70% shock travel, dont go on arm range alone

Car is stamped outta less than 040..around 088-090 is fine for tops, .0625 for sides and 3/16 for little D shock mounts...

Truck HD exhaust tubing ought to be nice material to work with on the sides.
(just spent an hour search for thin wall tube.
Truck drive shaft is a option..5" to 6" dia

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

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My 2400lb oval track car had 1/8" top plates 5" around with a nut welded in center for screw jack bolt to set ride hieght. there were no bars going to the plate to help with load. With 500lb spring and never bottoming out hard they mushroomed or pushed up a good 1/4". On an oval track car that doesnt see big hits but does see a lot of constant pressure 1/8" is to thin with out extra support from the cage.

If your tops are smaller and you incorporate the cage into suporting the very top I would go with 1/8". If there bigger stand alone tops with out support or only from the sides like most Subaru rears I would use at least 3/16".

Ive been making the subaru extra strut top supports out of 3/16. So I may be over killing these things.

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First rally 2013
Rally car type AWD subaru
Total rallies as driver 6
Total rally cars built 2
Total rally cars caged 3
Total rally cars repaired from offs 4
Total years racing exp other then rally 19 yrs
Like 31motorsports on FB!
Check out 31motor sales on ebay for used Subaru parts