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Chris Wiita's 1995 960R

Alright, let's start--spindles!

First spindles--these are modified standard spindles, I added ears for the V brakes:



At some point, and I honestly don't remember when, I decided to build drop spindles so I could dump the car a little more and not compromise the geometry quite so much. This was my first attempt:







The concept was pretty simple--just extend the bottom of the stock spindle. I wasn't happy with it, and never drove it with them. Primarily, I couldn't get a good weld onto the spindle--lots of outgassing from the OEM forging, not sure of what. Additionally, it was very heavy, and moved the strut mount point up a lot, limiting travel. I put it on the back burner for awhile, and eventually decided to bite the bullet and just make spindles from scratch:



That's what I came up with after some modeling. It drops the axle stub 50mm, incorporates the mounting ears for my brakes, the ABS sensor, and shortens the steering link to quicken the steering 20%. I simulated this pretty extensively and am very happy with the force it can take in turning/braking.

The stub axle is 4130, the machined part on the bottom is 1018/1020, and the flat parts are a 1/2" HSLA steel. I chose the metals primarily for their forgiving weldability.



All the joints were chamfered to increase the depth of penetration. Surface was prepped with sandblasting.









They fit great, but I have yet to really drive in anger with them. My initial impression is very good. I love how the car turns in now.



Here's an image showing the suspension as it is now. The swaybar endlink was giving me trouble--the amount of motion really needs a longer endlink, but the 850 strut has very low mounting positions. Solution: move the mount. New endlink is an ipd HD for....something. I think it's an S60?




Next will be a general front suspension update, then, bodywork!
 
the poi said:
eventually decided to bite the bullet and just make spindles from scratch
Click to expand...

1334916583754.gif
 
I did some fine tuning of the front end so I was happy with it. My design parameters:

~40mm bounce and jounce travel
Lock to lock steering without rubbing on fenders or frame with the 19x8.5 wheels and flared bodywork
stance

The steering is limited with delrin spacers inside the steering rack on both sides. I'm using Ben's upper strut mounts, and relieved some of the strut tower to maximize clearance for camber/caster. Can't find pics of either of these, so I bolded the pertinent bits of the previous two sentences so you can use your imaginations and pretend those were pictures.

I do have a couple pictures of the strut/spring changes. After some math, I realized my previous strut configuration was actually limited by coil bind before my bump stops. This new setup fixes that issue. I'm using Eibach 450lb beehive springs--they allow for more compression, and eliminate coil bind with this configuration.

Here is the component stackup for the front struts:





I've dropped the strut as low as possible to maximize my droop (the drop spindle raises the tire in relation to the strut!), and spaced the top as necessary so the bump stop properly engages without any wheel/innerfender involvement.


In addition, I did some stuff with the lower control arm. The rear bushing is garbage and fails all the time, also it is rubber and I hate that. My first attempt was to try to do a cast-in bearing for the rear position, and convert the front to a simple polyurethane joint.



This actually seemed OK, but after a brief drive after it simply sat in the control arm for a year, the rear bearing slipped out of position. I just replaced it with a slightly more complicated aluminum shell. This works great:





 
This is related to nothing, but whatever:



This is the future rear suspension. It's mostly done, I just need to design the shocks. I suspect I'll re-design or modify the trailing links to mount the shocks behind everything.

What it has now:

8.8 IRS pumpkin
Auburn Gear LSD
Ford Racing 3.73 gears
Out-pace links (spherical bearings, adjustable) for the lower control arm
Boxed toe links
Driveshaft shop axles, converts 8.8 IRS to Volvo outboard CV (turns out it's a fairly standard Saab part. Also the wheel bearings are Porsche GT3 parts. Weird?)
 
OK, so. Wheels.

klr142 was selling giant BBS LMs, and I bought them because I have, historically, made poor decisions. I am also very stubborn, so I put the largest tires I could fit on those wheels, and proceeded to make the car fit them. It was a pretty big project, and I was kinda losing interest in the wagon, at some point I bought an S2000, ultimately, this whole fiasco took 3 years to eventually complete. Buttoning this up is what I had to do to get the thing back on the road and it's still not really done (needs paint, some fine tuning with the bumper interface)

Anyway,

Wheels specs: BBS LM: Front: 255 AD08s on 19x8.5, Rear: 295 AD08s on 19x10

I started on the back because it was the easiest.

Spot welds, peeling:



Cutting:



Rolled the fender up for clearance, and welded the inner fender back togehter:



The flare on the rear is 2 960 front fenders. Here's the start of this one:



Mostly attached:



Metalwork complete:



Then I had to do the other ****ing side. Seriously, finishing one side an realizing I had to do it all over again was soul crushing. Anyway here's the other side. I blasted everything with Southern Polyurethanes epoxy primer to protect it until I get the thing painted:



I like how they came out. To save money or something, Volvo didn't change the rear fenders on the wagons in 1995, so they're actually still sharp-cornered as opposed to the softer new front fenders. I took the opportunity to mix the designs a bit--the rear matches the front, D-shaped side profile, has a soft profile for the flare body, and has a sharp crease into the second contour.


Then I had to do the fronts. The fronts were a disaster. I basically wanted to lower to lip of the front fender so it look lower, without compromising travel, and maintain the D-shaped design and the smooth flare and crease I put on the rear.



Stock, 960s have the front wheel arch about an inch higher than the rear. Turns out there's a reason for this. Due to the suspension geometry, and made worse by the wider wheel and the worse scrub radius, the wheels moves out quite a bit when it turns. So you're basically stuck making a compromise of a ton of wheel gap up top, or have the fender stick out pretty far laterally to provide the same clearance. I ultimately split the difference. The fender sticks out a bit, and it's weird looking from some angles, but at least I can hit bumps and turn and stuff and the wheel doesn't munch the fender.

All this to say that the front took forever. I wanted to make the structural bits of the fender steel, so I didn't have to worry about differing thermal expansion and cracking from any fiberglas work. I started with cut up 960 fenders to try to maintain the Volvo design I used in the rear, but couldn't get it to work right. Increasingly desperate--I ended up cutting apart 6 960 front fenders, 2 brand new E46 M3 fenders, a couple fiberglas eBay "fender flares"--I gave up and just made my own.

I made the profile I wanted out of some welding wire and transferred it to 1/4" rod. That rod forms the fender edge, as I don't have a lip. It's also in a flat plane, so I could just make another one, and flip it to go on the other side. I made a concentric arc above the fender lip for the outer contour in welding wire, and tacked in place.





And because the outer arc is in a flat plane, I can transfer the outer edge into a single piece of gently curved sheet metal, which can be transferred as a 2D shape to the other side by bending the other way:





And then the fun part! Tacking in a billion strips to fill the profile:





Then some grinding/sanding to smooth out the stitch welds:



And finally a healthy helping of mud.



All the gaps and every weld line on the inside were treated with seam sealer, and the inside is fully undercoated. Last bit was the new inner fender liner--polypropylene:



I need to get some more pics for documentation, but here's a glamor shot:




The last point here besides needing paint, obviously, is that I originally planned on adapting the bumpers to the fenders, but I've decided I'll add what I need to the fenders/body to interface with the bumpers properly. It'll be easier then trying to get something to stick to the polyurethane bumpers, and should look neater.

And if anyone ever crashes into my car and bends one of these, I am literally going to murder them.
 
This is amazing! No other words can describe.

But, I'll have to stop following Your work. You put the bar waay too high, no way I can reproduce any of these stuff :lol: :lol:
 
AWESOME work!:)
Have you considered to make som extra sets of suspension parts??There are not to many badass 960 suspension upgraders on the market and you might be able to make some good money on it(have a 960 myself so I might be interested;-))

Continue with the great work!
 
wowzers. That's a heap of metalwork I don't envy. I would have called it quits and got bolt on plastic ones halfway through.
 
As ever, very cool.

I'm assuming that Chris' day job involves shark portable, cranially-mounted, coherent radiation emission weapon systems?
 
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