homemade shocks

[locostkiwi]

hi guys been looking at different forums ( locost etc... ) and some people on them have suggested making their own coilover shocksw using "mini" shocks and springs.
does anyone on here have or know of details of these..
Do they work or are they a waste of time making.
If they are worth it who has plans for these?
cheers Tony

[AnguS]

robin hood used to do something similar
the eyes at the ends of the shocks are not designed to hold the car, just the forces of the damper... they fail

dont do it

on the other hand, if you want the bits to do it, i think there are some in my shed

[Bonzo]

Hi Tony

When I first started my build, I nearly S**T my pants when I found out how much my coil over shocks wer going to cost me

A few good ebay sales later, I decided to bite the bullet & buy them .... One of the first things I bought, glad I did because nearly 4 year's later & they have gone up by almost £100 !!

Anyhow to the point of this post.

I did toy with making my own coil overs with these



Triumph shocks .... As fitted to the front of Triumph Herald, Vitesse, GT6 & Spitfire ect .... They can be had for as little as £30 per pair.

I had a few kicing about when I was clearing all of my Vitesse parts & the measurements were not a million miles away from what was needed for the Roadster.

My Idea was Machine some top fittings to take a bush ( Not unlike a coil over ) then machine some spring retaining plates ( Again, not unlike a coil over )
Top of the shock is pre threaded so it would not be a problem fixing the top fittings.

I guess the hardest work would be finding the ideal size of spring to use ... Again custom springs can be found for about £40 a pair.
Never going to be adjustable ( Unless you are clever ) so ride height will be fixed & a fair bit of trial & error finding a suitable spring poundage

Right now for the disclaimer !!??

This post is purely the thoughts of this old fool on a Sunday morning
Deliberately posted to encourage the debate .... Are Lo-Cost shocks possible.

I For one think coil over shocks are grossly overpriced for what they are !!??

As said, for deabate .... Don't go & actually make them without propper research.

[Big Vern]

With alll due respect Angus, most dampers are used to limit both bump and rebound travel and are therefore subjected to considerable loads often shock loads!
Having been involved in designing and making prototype dampers in the past there is no real difference between a plain damper body and a coil over body such as the one in Ronnie's picture.
If the 'ends' are falling off that is more likely to be they way they have been mounted to the chassis and would likely fail if they were just being used as dampers.
The cost of converting stock mini dampers to coil overs would make a cheap option but it would be unlikely that the damper manufacturer would service (rebuild) them when they wore out so you'd have to make another set! Most coil over manufacturers will service their dampers.
Also mini damping would not match the haynes roadster as the effective spring rates would be different and as the dampers would be non-adjustable the handling could be interesting to say the least.
Adjustable mini dampers arn't much cheaper than the coil overs specified for the haynes roadster which are the most logical choice, - You'll end up getting them in the end anyway so why not start out right to begin with!
As for spring rates there are many spring lengths and sizes for coil overs so that wouldn't be a problem but matching the damping rates to the spring is. (something that is eliminated with adjustable and rebuildable coil over dampers such as AVO or GAZ.)
It also never ceases to amaze me how many people skimp on tyres and dampers, the two things that will make or break the cars roadholding while spending 1000's of bucks on tuned engines......
Colin Chapman designed the original Seven to light and nimble with good roadholding and modest power, using the superior roadholding to beat morepowerful cars of the day.
To my mind spending money on good suspension, brakes and tyres yealds greater rewards than a tuned engine and that tuned engine can always be added later when funds allow.
I would however agree with ronnie that coil overs are overpriced but that's generally because most coil overs are sold to race teams for single seaters so you have to pay race car prices - but then AFAICS you get what you pay for and I'd pay for good roadholding.....


BV.

[3GE Components]

Alternatively, if you have access to a lathe and a mill there's always these

http://www.locost7.info/mirror/dampers.php

Kind regards

John

[Big Vern]

Interesting john,
These drawings appera to have been 'ripped off' from some race team or other.
1) How will you 'gas' them up without a filling rig and how do you know the 'valving and shim stack' is what will work with the haynes roadster?
2) How will they be adjusted ie shims for the shimstack etc. These parts are beyond the abilities of the home mechanic and to buy in the parts (even if a damper manufacturer will sell them to you) will cost more than the coil over you're trying to avoild buying......
Yes Coil overs are annoyingly expensive but people are still prepared to spend loads on tuned engines and fancy wheels so I don't see what there is to complain about! It's just a matter of project priorities.
Perhaps it's just a reflection of the people here that style is more important than substance, but I'd rather get the basics right first.

BV.

[3GE Components]

H Vern,

They are "apparently" by Darren George, GTS's Darren George maybe?, he's always said he was an F1 suspension designer, wether these are his work or not who knows There are people on this forum who could make these, and if you don't cost your time & have the material already could probably make a reasonable effort. But as you say, the tuning would not be perfect.

Agreed, quality suspension makes or breaks a car, and is something that you should buy the best you can afford, the nicest ones i've seen of late are these guys, http://www.blackartdesigns.com/ who have a good pedigree behind them.

Kind regards

John

[Talonmotorsport]

I don't think £360-440 for a set of springs and coilovers is too much to ask. I know people will say it's not 'locost' and it's alot of money to pay, but last time I looked a half reasonable set of wheels and rubber was £300+, full set of fibre glass body work was £600-700+, IVA £450. The book is called 'build a car on a budget' not 'build a car for free'. I know some grasstrack racers that would'nt even use the base coilovers from the factory without the manufacturer having the cars corner weights first. You pay your money you make your choices it's up to you, but if at least you buy the right thing for the job in the first place you won't have to spend more money to correct it.

[mr henderson]

Also it's worth bearing in mind that you can actually calculate the correct spring poundage and length if you take the trouble to weigh each corner of the car. It's possible to do this with reasonable accuracy with bathroom scales.

You might need 2 sets depending on the maximum reading of the scales. Just put the car on a reasonably flat surface, raise one wheel and rest it on a board that goes across both sets of scales, then raise the other 3 corners and rest them one blocks of wood or whatever the same height as the scales, and you can weigh that corner, then just a question of repeating it on the other 3 corners. Tedious but cheap and effective

[Bonzo]

Some good debate here

Usually when someone asks if home made is possible, all you hear is " Don't do it, you'll die " !!??

Not saying for one moment any of us would actually make home made coil overs to save a few quid but it is good to have a debate of this nature

Personally, I still think coil overs are expensive for what they are but as Phil said, in the grand scheme of things not the end of the world.

Thank's for some interesting reading folks