Rear Suspension help!

Hello all! I just aquired an unbuilt CMC/Streetbeasts Speedster kit and while it has a complete steel frame, I am unsure how to start putting the rear suspension together. will the rear torsion housing with the horns (cut away from the pan) bolt in? it seems that was the intention of CMC when they built this frame?

Cary

I am a couple of steps ahead of you on a Street Beasts Speedster email me direct and I can get you through alot of their nonsense and can send a few pics to help you out

Alan

The rear suspension install is pretty straight forward. You may have to re-drill some of the bolt holes as the SB jig (if they used one)is off a little.

Jeff:

I just read your profile: "Kit does not include new fasteners. Either have to buy new or re-use bolts from the VW donor. Not a big deal, but the trips to the hardware store can get time consuming."

Seems nothing has changed from the old CMC days!!!!

I got to be on a first-name basis with the guys at my local "Ace Hardware Store" because I was in and out of there so often getting fasteners......Eventually, when I got the car finished to the point that I could drive it over there, they took a picture of it and hung it on the wall behind the cash register with the Caption: "Everything holding this car together came from this 'ACE Hardware' store!"

About 1/4 of the way through the build, I just made a list of what I thought I would need, and went to the hardware store and bought big quantities of everything on my list and put it all into one of those little draw-organizing, bench-top parts holding bin things. I found that, once I did that, I could build the car AND have lots of fasteners on hand for all kinds of other projects (I'm now making custom mounts for the driving lights I won at Carlisle).

www.nutty.com/catindex.html

www.nutty.com/assortments.html

I bought a grade 8 bolt, nut, washers and lock washer set. 1/4" - 1/2" thread w/ several lengths. I think it was $450. Used up a bunch on the Speedster and still have some left over for the lawn mower etc. The set even came with bins.

Jerome

Thanks everyone! "JHS" you have exactly the same rear setup as I do. Where did you cut the rear torsion housing from the frame? is it just flush with the torsion tube? also what year rear IRS are you using? Nice car by the way!

Thanks,

The rear end is out of a '72 Ghia. Yes, cut it just in front of the torsion tube.

Jerome

Cary,

I almost forgot! Before you put that rear end in open up the large hole for the shift rod about an inch or so on either side and add a 4 or 5 1/2" holes for wires/hoses/cables. I didn't do that and was too lazy to pull the rear end back out. You will thank me later.

I had to make a special extension for my shift rod so I could reach the bolt to tighten the coupler. If you add the extra clearance you may be able to avoid this.

Have you got this far, Alan?

Jerome

Thanks for the Tip about drilling the extra holes! a few years ago I raced a 5-1600 bug in the SNORE series out here and I cant tell you how many times I had to take the car apart because in the hurry to build it I forgot little things just like that!

I may have the drawing for the shifter extension. If you find you need it.

Jerome


Update: I found a pic.

That's it.....I gotta get me a Bridgeport or SOMETHING!

Spent a lot of today in a very warm garage (until the coastal fog rolled in and REALLY cooled everything off!) massaging a pair of Stainless Steel plates into classy looking mounts for my driving lights. Couldn't just leave them straight, OH, NO! Not ME! Had to make the darn things compound curves just like everything else on this car! And with hand tools, yet!!

grumble, grumble, grumble........and grumble some more.......

gn

(grumble....coulda been sailing,,,,,grumble....)

Nichols I know the feeling! anything that looks/works perfectly can always be improved with about 100 hours of work because some part of it makes us crazy and then no one even notices the "improvement" we made!

Jerome

I've been toying with the misc on the red speedster "rod" doing odds and ends.
On the Street Beasts project, I have the rear suspension in, front axle beam on and all of the cable tubes installed , now find that the pedal assembly factory holes not even close, did you raise the pedal location or cut into the floor to allow for the pedal bottom clearence and pedal stop?

Now that the rear suspension is IN ...Ehy do you mention to open up the shift rod hole larger than the Street Beasts shop did ?...

.....Tell me this isn't going to be yet another hassle!

Once I had the rear end in and everything nicely detailed; brake lines, accelerator and clutch cables run I installed the tranny. I found I couldn't get to the damn coupler on the shift linkage to tighten it up.

It was between the SB frame x-member and the VW assembly x-member. So I pulled the tranny back out and sketched out the extension you see above. I then stole a chunk of 4140 from work and a 12 pack later my buddy turned up the piece for me.

I thought I told you this story, If I didn't I owe you a beer at Carlisle. Or better yet I owe you a shifter extension.

If memory serves the coupler would'nt fit in the SB hole either. But even if it did I still couldn't get a wrench on it. Maybe it was off-center too.

My CRS is flairing up again. Your asking me to remember back a couple of years.

Jerome

I see trouble on the horizon again in Paradise, watch for an email!

Oh yea the pedals. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!

I cut into the tunnel. If I had a welder I would have relocated the mounting bracket. Remember I built this thing without a welder or an air compressor. I patched the hole with a finely crafted piece of sheet metal.

Sorry I cant find a good pic.

Jerome

Just figured all this nonsense out "Street Beasts" has their initials reversed :)

I'll make you and Gordon a deal.

If one of us finds a big sack of cash on the side of the road we'll start a business buying up all those half built BS and CMC kits out there and turn them into some kick ass rides.

How big of a sack would we need. 40 gallon Hefty bag full of 100's?

Jerome

Maybe we could have our own TV show on Discovery, "East Coast Speedsters" Of course we wouldn't get any ratings unless we had some of those wacky Left Coast guys on the show. Maybe Jim Ward could come out to the shop and yell at us for no good reason, ala Paul Sr.

Some have dared to questioned my questionable sanity after the many projects I've dabbled in ...But there is no questioning of my sanity if, I were to happen upon a bag of buckaroos along a roadside as I am like gone my brothers...POOF out of here.
Aka ...One Way Jose' to a permanent beach front residence :)

There you go Jerome, now you did it.

Alan,

You would be bored in a week.

Jerome

There now, doin' that (Summer and Winter - different vistas).....life is good...

Alan: don't forget that place in Jersey that Simon Hambly uses for CNC'd parts; they supply the drawing software, then you create what you want on your PC and email the drawing to them, then they send the part back to you in a week or so (there's some money transferred somewhere in there, too). Let me know if you need the URL.

Either of the three of us could go into the CMC/BS (oop! SB) car finishing business, right now, with the tools and things we already have kicking around. Well, maybe Jerome could buy a decent TIG welder (I'm looking for one, too) and an air compressor with those nifty air tools, but that doesn't require a bag of money. If I DID win Powerball, though, Some place on the water in Guadeloupe would look pretty nice, I'll tell you....

Come to think of it, this is my short list of tools that I wish I had (still) that I would actually use often enough to justify them:
Miller TIG welder
Small metal lathe
Small Bridgeport Milling machine
Small lift (If I had still been in Beaufort, Alan wouldn't have beat me to it!!)
A/C for the garage (both of them)

gn

Jerome:
Me bored on the beach HUH What you say?....I thing Not!
Annual early March trips to SunScape at Casa DelMar in the the Domican Republic sipping drinks all day long at five bars or beach front service, six different dining venues, 24 hour room service, day long sailing aka Rum trips and did I mention the tops are optional female beach attire?


Gordon: Ah, the lift....she's sure a beauty, not even a scratch on it and....just set in a new AC unit too brrrrrrr :)

Nice (optionally topless) beach....

Only person in full sight is the kid in the foreground with a full tee-shirt on.....