1959 Volvo PV 544
Posted by hudson
Andrew McNally Infallible Moderator Join Date: 01/08/2006 Posts: 1,217 |
Yeah it's a b16 99.9% sure now. The floor pans on my beast have been done once before.. going to have to cut them all out and put in new ones.. not a big deal since I will be putting in a larger transmision tunnel as well.
As per your suspension question.. you're right.. I don't know how the shock works effectively, but it does work.. see picture Andrew M Onterrible 30ish |
Michel Hoche-Mong Infallible Moderator Location: Campbell, CA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,156 Rally Car: Golf, Golf, RX-3 |
I went out and stared at it some more tonight and did some measuring. The shock's mounted to the knuckle itself, but where it's mounted on the top A-arm is about halfway in (a little more outboard, actually). So that spot on the upper arm moves at roughly a 1:2 ratio to the knuckle. Doesn't seem like an efficient place to put a shock, but what do I know. It's gotta be a pretty hefty rate to do much though.
Hm. The lower A-arm is 16" long, with the bumpstop 2.5" inboard. Sitting at rest, my bumpstop's got a 1.5" gap to the subframe...so the total travel is roughly 1.75"...plus a little squish factor in the bumpstop itself...call it 2" on the high side. Yikes. Lessee, what else. Oh, the spring is 4.25" dia, 5/8" wire, and 7" long, so about 6.5 effective coils...giving a spring rate of approx 430 lb/in. It's mounted about 9.5" of the way in on a 16" arm, or about 60% of the way in, so its effective rate is 255 lb/in. Hm...that seems high. I was trying to figure out if there was a way to get more suspension travel out of it, but the only thing I can think of (without going to something completely custom) is to put in a longer spring, which would raise the ride height and decamber the wheel. I guess one could get some of that back with camber bolts, but not much. Seems like about 3" of travel is the max. Anyway, I'm just pondering. Here're pics of mine. They should make you feel better about the shape yours is in. Self-righteous douche canoe |
Andrew McNally Infallible Moderator Join Date: 01/08/2006 Posts: 1,217 |
Michel Hoche-Mong Infallible Moderator Location: Campbell, CA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,156 Rally Car: Golf, Golf, RX-3 |
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Michel Hoche-Mong Infallible Moderator Location: Campbell, CA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,156 Rally Car: Golf, Golf, RX-3 |
Andrew McNally Infallible Moderator Join Date: 01/08/2006 Posts: 1,217 |
Andrew McNally Infallible Moderator Join Date: 01/08/2006 Posts: 1,217 |
I finally got the motor out.. it was a whore. But at least it's done now.. Noticed a fair bit more rust.. but still solid enough. I really don't like the PV subframe at the moment.. will probably put something else there.
I've got to slow down car work and gear up house work unfortunately.. Hopefully I'll get a lent welder in here sometime soon and start attacking some of the rot. Andrew M Onterrible 30ish Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2006 06:41AM by hudson. |
John Vanlandingham Super Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
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Andrew McNally Infallible Moderator Join Date: 01/08/2006 Posts: 1,217 |
So finally got my little migger that wasn't busted in shipping.. gas enabled.. just don't have a bottle and proper wire at the moment. Spent a couple hours with my bud fucking around with a mustang fender.. filling in cuts and welding washers to it.. good fun. Feeling quite good about the whole project at this point.. still need a few more tools and a whole lot of sheet metal!
Andrew M Onterrible 30ish |
Michel Hoche-Mong Infallible Moderator Location: Campbell, CA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,156 Rally Car: Golf, Golf, RX-3 |
http://www.swedishtreasures.com/ has a bunch of panels for it already sized and dimpled. I don't know what they have in stock (most of the floor pan stuff seems to be "call to order"
 , but they're pretty cheap and that might be a whole lot easier than fabbing up whole panels yourself.
Self-righteous douche canoe |
Andrew McNally Infallible Moderator Join Date: 01/08/2006 Posts: 1,217 |
hoche Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > has a bunch of panels for it already sized and > dimpled. I don't know what they have in stock > (most of the floor pan stuff seems to be "call to > order" , but they're pretty cheap and that might
> be a whole lot easier than fabbing up whole panels > yourself. I usually get most of my parts from www.scandcar.com They have just about everything available for vintage Volvos. A lot of the companies in North America are simply resellers and have little to no stock. That being said, http://www.vp-autoparts.com/ now has a warehouse in the States and I've been led to believe they stock most of the available parts for "commonly restored Volvos" ie Amazons, 544s, and 1800s. I have to look into how much $$ I'll need to spend for sheet metal soon. Quick looks at the pricing is not good. The thing that drives me nuts about buying sheetmetal for old Volvo's is none of the stores have proper pictures if any at all.. and the Volvo parts manuals, etc of which I have many usually don't have any information either, even when it's a Volvo part No. Edit: I just noticed Swedish Treasures has a wack of pictures now for at least the 544 sheet... that's really nice to see. Andrew M Onterrible 30ish Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2006 06:59PM by hudson. |
Andrew McNally Infallible Moderator Join Date: 01/08/2006 Posts: 1,217 |
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