1981 audi 80. suspension reattached!

pm me with what you want for the fuch trims and a few close up pics please.


unless anyone has dibs on em

Hi Dez,
I usually walk to Manningtree, so I will be the tall dark haired guy waving to you or in J reg bright red Escort Cabriolet (sunny days only) or a light blue 10 reg Mondeo.
Hope to see you around!
Julian

I'm looking forward to seeing this progress, i'd done a deal over pm with Mike for this but time, skills and most importantly money prevented me seeing it through (sorry mike btw!!)

i'm glad its finally gone to someone with skills. i'm certain its destined for greatness

thankfully, my workshop contains this-

the big magical box of coiloverness.

in there was this lot. a pair of FKs for a polo/lupo with disintigrated collars, and a pair of TX technix bodies only, but with good collars. annoyingly, they're a differnt thread, but I can use the bodies and collars off the TAs and the rest (inserts/springs/helpers/topcaps) off the FKs, to make a full set.


so, we have a plan, best get on with it!
first, remove some bracketry and clean up-


then, I machined some thread off the lower section of the bodies. youll see why in a sec.




this is why. the TAs were threaded further down, but I needed them to have less thread to allow the steering arms to fit. so I skimmed the thread off in the lathe to the same length as the FKs.


heres the new strut body against the original audi one. its 2" shorter overall, which is nice
I'm going to have to drop the steering arm down the body a bit, but it needs that anyway to help sort out the bumpsteer.


this was a quick reference pic for me to note where the steering arms sat to get the ackermann angle right. with the large square bit of the bottom of the hub clamped vertical in the vice, a level sat on the top of the strut body sat right on the lower edge of the TRE hole.


very scabby. best start chopping! (after id emptied the non-sealed damper assemblies and all the old oil out of course).


I chopped straight through the strut then flapwheeled the weld down to break through it, then a lot of hammering/chiseling later, I have this-


quick test for the the hub carrier on the strut body-


I needed to do the same with the steering arm, and fit that first though before I weld the bottom bit on. like so-

striaght off the jack-


then, adjusted down another 1/2", hubcaps back on, driven around a bit-






it may not look a whole load lower, but i think it sits pretty much bang on
its actually about 3.5" 'lower', only ive kept 2" of that as suspension travel. which is 2" more than it had before!

it then took me an hour and a half to remove and free off the siezed-totally-solid adjustable trackrod to do the tracking- i guess it wasnt done when the springs were chopped which may also explain the handling!

but overall, its totally transformed the way its drives too. the mixture of having suspension travel, smaller tyres, reduction on bumpsteer from the trackrods sitting level again, and the front now sitting lower than the rear as opposed to vice-versa, and doing the tracking has meant its a joy to drive compared to before. it goes in a straight line unlike before, doesnt tramline, corners well, and can be driven and steered one handed. I'm very happy with it!

wheels on next i think

Such a great work, congratulation

Great fabrication work. If ever there was an advert for lowering 'properly' and not just cutting coils this is it

This is just what the doctor ordered - I'll have to do the same on my Passat.

Great job!

Just one question about the steering arm clearance - I noticed that they "arch" a bit toward the tire - visible in this pic:



Would it be any better if you swapped the L and R steering arms? I realise this would probably involve shortening the track rods.

Another thing - What are the dimensions of the wheels on there now - I'm most interested about the mounting pad to back edge distance, which I could know if you gave me the offset and width of the wheel.

Cheers!

so, wheels.

yesterday, i laoded the boot up with lots of them-


then took them to the sandblaster, and got them back a few hours later looking like this-


so, i then took em from looking like this-


to like this-


nothing flash, jsut a brushed on coat of gloss black POR15, cos its tough and self levels well.
i did all 4 weds eve-


then this morning i sealed them, with sealant. for seams. known a seam sealer ;D -


it was so hot today where i started had tacked off by the time id gone all the way round the wheel! so within a hour it was all dry.
so i then fitted some tyres-


hairsprayed em and put some air in-


then washed the excess tyre soap off-


the wheels were banded to widths based on tyre choices, ive gone for 165/60R14 on a 7.5" front, with 175/65R14 on an 8.5" rear. this gives em a kind of 'big n littles' look, but with even stretch. it also means I'm not using an obscure sized, expensive tyres- I'm using ones ive already got in stock!

ready to try-


id already folded under the arch lips in anticipation of rolling the arches. man that was hard work! this audi arches are so tough! (and absolutely perfect too, not surprising considering the amount of sealant on the insides of em.

off the jack-


yeah, thats a tight fit- these have already been rolled!




it then too me about two hours of absolute abuse to get them to not rub. problem was the arches were just too stiff to flare when rolled, even with a couple of people in the back of the car. a bodywork hammer wouldnt touch em, so i had to resort to the ghetto method of a big adjustable spanner to lever them out, then judicous application of a big ball pein hammer. it was equivelent to bending 4mm plate by similar methods!

so, absolutely knackered after that, i took it for a drive to get some tea to check i was rubbage-free before tidying up the smacked about arches.

looks alright i think-


i now need to knock the rear arches around a bit more to tidy them up before some filler work, then add 10mm or so spacers on the front (which i need some longer bolts to do so) before folding in and flaring out the front arch lips to match the shape of the rears. its coming together nicely though