Expedition chassis build

[Cody Loren]

The guy I got them from Assured me of quality Weddle internals, but I’ve bought enough used crap before to know not to get my hopes up. I payed little enough that a solid rebuild is still in the budget before it gets used.

Since I’ve moved I’ve slacked on mounting my tube bender. I need to get it setup to complete the rear section of the cage.

[dustymojave]

Not so sure I agree with that rear suspension setup or offroad wheel and tire choice in this pic...

But I DO agree with the basic concept of the rear motor mount in this pic.

I've observed over the years many offroaders and racers having trouble with motor mounts that are on the engine cage bars under the engine. When you bang the skidplate, that pushes the engine up. At least flexes things a lot. Sometimes break things. The ones who have no trouble hang the mounts from the upper rails. For a 4 cylinder like an Ecotec, running bars diagonally down from the corners of the top rail with the crossmember above the bell housing. In your chassis, running removable bars down from where you're hanging that strap would be a good place.

My buddy has a 4-seater with a n Acura NSX V6. I like that. but it could use a more expensive trans to handle the HP. He keeps breaking the bus trans. He saved money on the initial cost of the trans, but spends more on rebuilding and replacing it often.

Oh... While I really like the mock-up shock mounts, I recommend that the upper shock mount bolt be parallel with the pivots for the trailing arm.
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Richard
Offroading VW based cars since 1965
Tech Inspection 1963 - 2012 SCCA/SCORE/HDRA/MORE/MDR +
Retired from building Bajas, Fiberglass Buggies and Rails in the Mojave Desert. Also Sprints & Midgets, Dry Lakes, Road Race cars. All types New and Vintage
SoCalBajas Member
Kicked Cancer's A$$...1st and 2nd round...Fight ain't over yet.

[Cody Loren]

Got sidetracked on the buggy to do a gender reveal at the river.
Gonna have a girl!

[Cody Loren]

Been busy but back to do some welding on the car and hopefully progress soon

[Mr. Unpopular]

Man I'm REALLY digging the detail of the components you are making!

Those rear arms look very nice! I see the billet bearing housing, is that designed to hold VW bearings and stub axles?

Any way you'd be interested in sharing those files for the arms? I'd like to build a set for myself, adapted for microstubs
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"In any racing engine, the nearer you are to it disintegrating, the better it's performance will be"
-Keith Duckworth, creator of the Ford/Cosworth DFV

[Cody Loren]

Thank you! So the billet housings are EMPI parts and yes they use all the type one bearings and stubs. One day I’d like to convert to micro stubs as well.

I think you said once you had access to water jet or laser? I might share the files been burned in the past but I really don’t see me building sets of these. And selling the plates for others to weld will eventually get reverse engineered anyway.

[Cody Loren]

Working on little things when I can. Still waiting on shocks but scored a char-Lynn torque generator for power steering.

Does anyone have any suggestions on hid vs led? I’d like to convert these old hella lights.

[Mike E.]

What spring rates and lengths are you running on your front coilovers?

[Mr. Unpopular]

I'm by no means a lighting expert. My car came with cheap round HID's and I'm not really that impressed with them. I do like the "old school" round housing look though.

I would look on Youtube for a channel called Headlight Revolution. He sells basically all of the conversion kits for lighting, but he seems to have unbiased reviews with testing of many of the conversion kits in many different type housings.
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"In any racing engine, the nearer you are to it disintegrating, the better it's performance will be"
-Keith Duckworth, creator of the Ford/Cosworth DFV

[Cody Loren]

[Cody Loren]

[Mike E.]

[Cody Loren]

Laying out the dash. Got the lower dash bar squared and tacked in. Somethings are just time consuming solo.

[Cody Loren]

Got the panel in with switches and gauges

[jimmyhoffa]

Oooh yes. As a man who spent way too much time on my dash, I approve of this dash.

I didn't realize how much time I'd spend looking at it waiting for some indication that my engine was exploding, and yours sure is easy on the eyes as well.
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1974 Chenowth 2RL #1244 Street Legal
My other car isn't ridiculous.

[Cody Loren]

Paging Richard!

Earlier on you recommend my shock pivots be parallel to the trailing arm pivots if I’m correct? Would you approve of this for the lowers?

[jimmyhoffa]

That looks about perfecto, mine are at that angle and the spherical shock ends barely articulate at all through the travel. (Doing this also minimizes the likelihood of bending a shock shaft too, if you really stuff it good. )

As a sidenote, I think the correct way to summon him is to say 'Dusty Dusty Dusty Racecar Racecar Racecar' and then wave some burning sage over your keyboard but I'm a little out of practice so I could be wrong.
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1974 Chenowth 2RL #1244 Street Legal
My other car isn't ridiculous.

[tobiism]

[liquidrush]

I got rid of all of the incandescent bulbs on my buggy and replaced them all with LED. The current draw is next to nothing and in lots of cases relays aren't required but I'm a complete wiring/electrical nerd and have relays installed for all of my lighting circuits. It's just the right thing to do.

[Cody Loren]

I’ve got a few tubes added to the car and started figuring out the power steering. Still waiting on bypasses to wrap up the rear.