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Old 11-24-2019, 04:53 AM   #76
JDwhiteWRX
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The parts I needed to keep working on the rear upper control arms did not show up in time for the weekend so I moved to the front of the car to work on the front upper control arms.

Things were going well, I got everything into position on the car with the plan of mocking up one control arm using my knuckle jig and then tacking it together before moving to the bench and creating another jig to hold it in place before fully welding and to make the other side.



My problem is the tube I am using is a little larger than the height of the spherical bearing housing. My plan was to heat the tube with my TIG torch and then squish it in the vice to bring the diameter down to the size I need. I have seen other aftermarket arms where they have done this where the tube meets the bearing.



Well it didn't go so well, the first problem was that it was hard to prevent the TIG from melting the tube but at least I know it was hot enough, I was only testing on scrap so I pushed on.
Once I started turning the vice it seemed to work but it was slow and I think the metal may have cooled too much as it became difficult to turn and then the vice handle bent.

You can see I got the size down a little but the tube looks nasty and I still need it a little smaller than that.



I need to come up with a better method, I'm open to ideas? maybe a hydraulic press is needed to increase the squeeze speed.
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Old 11-25-2019, 08:50 PM   #77
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Keep the updates coming!!
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Old 11-26-2019, 02:44 AM   #78
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JDwhiteWRX View Post

I need to come up with a better method, I'm open to ideas? maybe a hydraulic press is needed to increase the squeeze speed.
What material are you making the control arms out of? The heat may be detrimental to the fatigue/yield strength they way you are forming it. Assuming the material is acceptable, try investing in an oxy-acetylene torch to heat up the tube end faster with a more spread out heating. PM me with any material or fab questions.

The project looks cool. Best of luck.
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Old 11-26-2019, 03:38 PM   #79
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Originally Posted by speedyHAM View Post
What material are you making the control arms out of? The heat may be detrimental to the fatigue/yield strength they way you are forming it. Assuming the material is acceptable, try investing in an oxy-acetylene torch to heat up the tube end faster with a more spread out heating. PM me with any material or fab questions.

The project looks cool. Best of luck.
The material is 350 Grade DOM 1020 Hi-tensile Mild Steel 1 1/4 x .120

I plan on making or buying a hydraulic press before trying again.
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Old 12-01-2019, 04:41 AM   #80
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This week I went out and bought the best hydraulic press I could afford, the quality seems pretty good for the money and I'm sure it will be good enough for what I need. The only thing I don't like about it is that its a bit short and I have to crouch down to use it. I can easily build a little platform for it though to bring it up to a more comfortable height.



Today I spent most of the morning building a tool out of scrap metal that would allow me to squish my control arm tubes in a reproducible way.

It has some solid round bar in the base so I know when to stop pressing and a bit of angle at the back to keep the depth consistent.

You can see my first pressing to the left in this photo. I am still using my TIG to heat the metal but at about half the amps of my first attempt so I can control the heat easily.



No its not made from solid gold


So then it was time to move everything into position and start making the front upper control arms. I am keeping the rod ends parallel to each other so when I make adjustments to the length for either camber or caster there is no spreading effect.



The string lines give me the angle for my tube notcher, I prepared all the tube for both sides as they will be the same. The squished end is where they will differ from each other.



At this point I ran out of time, hopefully next weekend I will complete these upper arms.
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Old 12-01-2019, 11:08 AM   #81
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Nice! You don't need to crouch or build a platform though, just get a stool.
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Old 12-08-2019, 05:33 AM   #82
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I got some work done today on the front upper control arms.

I started by getting everything into position again, I have set it at 2 degrees negative camber and 8 degrees of positive caster.

I squared up the rod ends again so they are parallel to each other and then tacked on a small piece of angle to hold it in place while I squished and notched the other tubes. The squishing process in my new hydraulic press went really well.

Once I was happy with the fitment I tacked everything together. The whole process took a long time, especially notching by hand where the tube meets the spherical bearing.



I then removed the control arm from the car and checked that it would fit the other side and it does. I am talking about the space between the rod ends being equal on both sides. I need to know this as I am making a jig for the other side based on the arm already made, just a mirror image.

Then I started making my welding jig which will locate the 2 rod ends and the spherical bearing.



The plan is to build the jig before fully welding the control arm to prevent distortion. I will then make a mirror image just by measuring the angles for the other side, the only thing that changes for the other side is the angle that the spherical bearing mounts on which is easy to measure.

That's as far as I got today.
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Old 12-15-2019, 06:23 AM   #83
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I finished one of the front upper control arms today, it took a long time as its summer here now and I didn't want to put too much heat into it welding so I spent a lot of time waiting for it to cool.

Started off by completing my welding jig.



Then I completed all the welds on the drivers side control arm with the arm in the jig to prevent distortion.



All done.



I then flipped the control arm over to make the a jig for the passenger side which is just a mirror image of the drivers side. The only change is the spherical bearing leans the opposite way, so all I had to do was measure the angle and lean the threaded rod I was using to locate the spherical bearing back the opposite way.

You can see the jig now does both sides. I will keep it in case I need to make another set of different length arms some time in the future.



Ran out of time at this point but everything is now ready to start fabrication on the passenger side control arm now.



Below are the six pieces that held my project up for many months, they are the tapered studs for the front RX8 uprights and the studs that locate the rear upper control arms in the factory BRZ rear uprights.

I measured the taper of the RX8 ball joints very accurately but I was not able to find off the shelf studs to fit, mostly because nobody lists the stud dimensions on their website and nobody replies to emails when you ask for dimensions.

I reached out to Racefab in NZ because he makes the studs I needed but he would not sell them to me because I was not buying his control arms.

So I found some studs that had dimensions listed but they were slightly too large so I had a friend turn them down on a lathe to suit the RX8 upright.

For the rear studs I have to give a huge shout out to Jeff at Racer X Fabrication who was willing to sell me the studs even though I was not going to be using their control arms. When they arrived I was very impressed with the quality and design.

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Old 12-22-2019, 07:15 AM   #84
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Today I got a fair amount of work done on the passenger side front upper control arm. I would have finished it but had to finish up early for my Wife's birthday celebration. There is probably another 20 minutes of welding to be done before its finished.

https://i.imgur.com/ArqAHXQ.jpg?1


edit: not sure why Imgur photos do not display on this forum?

Last edited by JDwhiteWRX; 12-22-2019 at 07:24 AM.
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Old 12-23-2019, 09:59 AM   #85
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JDwhiteWRX View Post
Today I got a fair amount of work done on the passenger side front upper control arm. I would have finished it but had to finish up early for my Wife's birthday celebration. There is probably another 20 minutes of welding to be done before its finished.

https://i.imgur.com/ArqAHXQ.jpg?1


edit: not sure why Imgur photos do not display on this forum?
This may help:

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/ann...hp?f=164&a=138
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Old 12-23-2019, 10:41 AM   #86
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JDwhiteWRX View Post
edit: not sure why Imgur photos do not display on this forum?
Looks like Imgur stole a page out of Photobucket's playbook.


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Old 12-23-2019, 05:03 PM   #87
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Thanks Norm,

sharing images on forums is becoming very difficult, ultimately it will lead to their death as people move to simple sharing platforms like Instagram. Personally I feel a forum is a much better place to share information but it's nice to be able to add some photos too.
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Old 12-23-2019, 05:04 PM   #88
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I finished the front upper control arms today. I decided to remove the excess tube first before giving them a good clean up and a coat of cold gal primer.

https://i.imgur.com/AAaZj42.jpg

Next job will be the lower arms.

Last edited by JDwhiteWRX; 12-24-2019 at 02:53 AM.
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Old 01-04-2020, 05:58 AM   #89
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Work has begun on the front lower control arms but its going slow as its been super hot here in Sydney.

Lots of measuring and checking for clearance, it would be easier if I had the wheel and tyre combo I plan to use but I don't so a cardboard template was made.

Once I was happy with the design I drew it to scale on my work bench.

https://i.imgur.com/2qbKnXg.jpg?1

I then removed the lower mounts to start making the control arms but I noticed the design I had come up with was going to collide with part of the lower mounts. Easy fix, just needed a trim with the angle grinder.

Before
https://i.imgur.com/IqdtCtv.jpg?1

After
https://i.imgur.com/Gum1Rbw.jpg?1

Once again I am keeping the rod ends parallel to each other so they don't spread apart when you lengthen or shorten the arms. I used my magnetic squares to get them parallel and then tacked on a temporary strip of steel to hold them in place.

More adjustment was required to my design so the arms would clear the lower mounts. You can see in this photo I have added a slight angle on the main tube so it wont hit when it swings up.

https://i.imgur.com/QROOoxt.jpg?1

This is as far as I got today.

https://i.imgur.com/QlDwv81.jpg

If I get some time tomorrow I will begin to join what I have made so far to the spherical bearing on the RX8 knuckle. It won't be much fun because I will have to do it on the car in an awkward position. Once joined I can do the last part on the work bench and then make another welding jig similar to how I did the upper arms.
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Old 01-08-2020, 09:10 PM   #90
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Thanks for the update! I'm still following along.
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Old 01-09-2020, 08:22 AM   #91
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Same, I still enjoy and look forward to seeing updates on this. Thanks for sharing
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Old 01-11-2020, 07:16 PM   #92
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Homemade WRX View Post
Thanks for the update! I'm still following along.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wrxracer519 View Post
Same, I still enjoy and look forward to seeing updates on this. Thanks for sharing
Thanks guys, I appreciate your support.


I got some more work done on the front lower control arms yesterday. I completed the welds on the section shown last time and then mounted it up on the car. Once the knuckle was correctly positioned I used some scrap angle to join the previously built part of the control arm to the spherical bearing on the knuckle.

https://i.imgur.com/9o1eVYq.jpg?1

With the position of the spherical bearing housing locked in place I then removed it from the car and began to make a welding jig on the bench, my back prefers working on the bench!

https://i.imgur.com/mnYfC0D.jpg?1

The jig is very similar to the one I made for the upper control arms and it will be used to make both driver and passenger side control arms.

https://i.imgur.com/UtIYFQo.jpg?1

Once the jig was complete I had to notch and squish the tube that would join the bearing housing to the rest of the control arm.

The inside notch was done on my tube notcher, the outer end of the tube had to be heated then squished first before notching by hand.

https://i.imgur.com/nNBpN52.jpg?1

I was very happy with how tight I got the notch by hand.

https://i.imgur.com/9e9s37j.jpg?1

With that done I then cut off the tack welds on the scrap piece of angle and welded the tube in place.

https://i.imgur.com/MCWVsxr.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/u6vYxQc.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/bSHu5Ns.jpg?1

That's all I had time for yesterday.

Next job is to make another tube to complete the triangle that makes up the control arm and a short piece of tube that will serve as the shock mount.
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Old 01-12-2020, 08:58 PM   #93
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Some really cool work you have been doing here.
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Old 01-14-2020, 09:15 AM   #94
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great update. Can't wait to see this thing sitting on some wheels
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Old 01-19-2020, 01:19 AM   #95
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This is awesome! Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see results from the car competing once it is done.
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Old 01-19-2020, 05:45 AM   #96
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Thanks guys!

I have reached a bit of a milestone today with the completion of the front lower control arm.

It's not 100% finished as I still have to add in the shock mount but I had to bolt it up to the car to check the location and it's great to see the RX8 upright fully mounted on the car.

I started by completing the triangle that makes up the control arm.

https://i.imgur.com/Xo6QmSx.jpg?1

and then I was able to remove it from the jig and bolt it up to the car. Here are some photos from various angles. These are with the knuckle propped up to standard ride height in the lowest setting.

https://i.imgur.com/p55OWWa.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/k0rdcVw.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/eL4MWAB.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/cHD5pmD.jpg?1

Of course I still have to build the arm for the other side but I made 2 of everything so it won't take too long.

https://i.imgur.com/uLZnXM1.jpg?2

Those of you following on instagram would have also seen the video of the camber gain. I'll try paste a link below, otherwise its @brzdiy

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7fdTegn..._web_copy_link

This will be my last update for a little while as I fly to Japan in the morning for my annual snowboarding trip.
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Old 01-19-2020, 09:30 AM   #97
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Impressive build you've got here.

The link in your post to the camber video does work directly. Thanks. If you run it again, you might want to include a scale in order to see how much gain you're getting at any given amount of suspension compression/extension.

I think you might want to drop the chassis side UCA pivots a little in order to have the suspension work over a faster region of the camber gain curve. Avoids having to set static camber quite as far negative (potentially giving away a little braking capability). I don't think the geo roll center height change would be significant.


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Old 03-21-2020, 10:01 PM   #98
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Today I moved the upper control arm down by one spacer which is around 10mm. Static camber went from 1.6 to 2.3 degrees but the total amount of camber gain remained the same although it appears to gain camber more immediately.

So the final result is a static camber of 2.3 degrees going to 4.5 degrees in approxiamtely 60mm of bump travel. At this stage I think I will only have no more than 100mm total travel so bump will be slightly less than that.

The suspension software I was using was on my old computer which recently died so I am unable to enter the final dimensions of my fabricated suspension and work out the ideal settings at the moment but the potential is there. I'm not sure if is supported on windows 10 but worst case scenario I can set up another bootable drive with XP.
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Old 03-22-2020, 12:09 AM   #99
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What software were/are you using?
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Old 03-22-2020, 03:30 AM   #100
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Originally Posted by Homemade WRX View Post
What software were/are you using?
Wishbone suspension analysis program by MCdermott

its popular with the Locost builders.

Just looked into it a bit and it seems I may be able to run it in compatability mode in W10.
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