Little Low Red Wagon - On a budget

[carter]

Took some videos of the suspension cycling today










Tires still don't rub...they spin freely fully slammed to my surprise.

[smokeyfan1000]

What about driveshaft? Rubbing anywhere? Are U joints binding? I'd be more concerned about those than the tires rubbing.

[Sebastiaan245]

Oooh men,
That's super awesome!!!!
Respect for your work

[carter]

Originally Posted by smokeyfan1000

What about driveshaft? Rubbing anywhere? Are U joints binding? I'd be more concerned about those than the tires rubbing.

Pretty sure everything's ok under there ;)

Pan bar needs to be modded for adjustability but that's in the works. The main thing stopping it from going lower is the rear diff hitting the bump stop on the floor.

[carter]

The sticker?? why? lol

Anyway...it got a face lift tonight, I have a flat hood that's black that will be going on it once I pull a small dent out of it and paint it to match (have a journeyman friend to do that, I've never understood the art of autobody)





I have the fog inserts but Im trying to source a fogless grill so it'll look cleaner.



After it sat for 8 or so months, I started it (well boosted it) and ran it for about an hour. I sure missed the sound of an old Volvo engine. Makes me want to drive it even more now. More progress will ensue tomorrow. Hopefully hook the compressor up to the tank so it can fill itself and I can check for leaks.








* Thanks to Bryce for the front end conversion parts! *

[jarullar]

Awesome build, inspiring!

[carter]

Thanks man! I'm having a ton of fun with it

[Mr. Blewregaurd]

any plans on doing air in the front end?

[carter]

yup, I'll be getting some air struts shortly. And then I'll be figuring out how I'll raise the engine cross member... :-/

[Shimmy]

schweet progress.. When is the front end joining the slam party?

EDIT:

Originally Posted by carter

yup, I'll be getting some air struts shortly. And then I'll be figuring out how I'll raise the engine cross member... :-/

That will be a task. What are you ideas? Making it thinner and moving it up will make it weaker but if you change the mount for the motor there is only so much wiggle room you have with the trans hitting the tunnel and valve cover hitting the hood. Honestly sounds like too much work to get low and problems at every point. I would just for bag the front and let it fly with out doing anything crazy to the Xmember.

[carter]

Edit: Does anyone have info on that white wagon? Has the cross member been messed with? Or is it stock?


Struts will be ordered shortly, just figuring out which kit I need to order.

As for the cross member - I'm either going to start from scratch with higher control arm and steering rack mounts, and keeping the motor the same;

or cutting the "ears" off and reattaching them lower and plating it. I figure if I can tuck the entire drivetrain up 1.5" and trim .5 - 1.5" off the bottem I should be close the laying body.

Pic for ref:




Just some ideas I had, maybe someones tried them and failed, I'll have a better idea when I find another cross member to chop up and experiment with.

[amerbritcan]

I've heard rumour that it's just had all springs removed and all bumpstops trimmed down, and driven like that. that's just hearsay though. the car's from like, australia or something.

[carter]

So what you're saying is...I can still be one of the first 245 wagons on bags?

[amerbritcan]

Originally Posted by carter

So what you're saying is...I can still be one of the first 245 wagons on bags?

all 245's are wagons

[BassGuy]

Originally Posted by amerbritcan

I've heard rumour that it's just had all springs removed and all bumpstops trimmed down, and driven like that. that's just hearsay though. the car's from like, australia or something.

Nah, in Australia, the wheels run on the roof, so that car is *CRAZY* low.

[volvogeek]

The crossmember is about as low as the oil pan. If you trim off the bottom of the crossmember to get clearance there, you'll probably have to mod the pan as well. What I'd probably do is mount the engine off of the frame rails (something like how fast242gt has his), cut the crossmember after the suspension mount points, trim it down, weld a bar across with some method to attach the steering rack and then see where the oil pan sits. You'll probably only gain about an inch doing all that, however.

[carter]

Originally Posted by volvogeek

The crossmember is about as low as the oil pan. If you trim off the bottom of the crossmember to get clearance there, you'll probably have to mod the pan as well. What I'd probably do is mount the engine off of the frame rails (something like how fast242gt has his), cut the crossmember after the suspension mount points, trim it down, weld a bar across with some method to attach the steering rack and then see where the oil pan sits. You'll probably only gain about an inch doing all that, however.

Holy crap that sounds like a fun job lol.

Has anyone tried raising everything up? I'm near my car at the moment but I figure I could gain at least an inch and a half before the tranny comes close to the tunnel. I plan on modding the shifter as it is anyway.

[carter]

Just won this bad boy on ebay. Can't wait to install it.





This kind of idea. Hot rod theme continued

[Mr. Blewregaurd]

Originally Posted by carter

So what you're saying is...I can still be one of the first 245 wagons on bags?

Let the race begin! You beat me to it by a week or so

[carter]

haha oh well. Who cares who's first, in the end the nicer build will prevail!


Got my shifter in the mail.



Quite stoked. Can't wait to punch through the gears.

[carter]

Momo hub adapter finally arrived.



Polished the thing for a while



Finished plumbing the rear bags and wired in the valves to the switches. Everything worked first try, no leaks, no troubleshooting (thank god, I cant afford to spend time on any set backs.)



All I need now is the $800 strut kit, my tank secured, and compressor lines/fittings all installed and ran to the tank.

[Mr. Blewregaurd]

nice, i wish i had the patience to do hard lines, also what strut kit are you using thats 800? the airlift kit i got was only 600

[Mr. Blewregaurd]

also, what rear bags are you using? I got uva airhouse 2's and im thinking they might be a little short? what is the in flated height on the ones you are using?

[Jaz_ej20]

Some info on the white one:

The front strut towers have been lifted 2 inches and i used wrx front struts. Bonnet didnt close so i hit it with a hammer till it did.

[carter]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blewregaurd

also, what rear bags are you using? I got uva airhouse 2's and im thinking they might be a little short? what is the in flated height on the ones you are using?

I'm using slam ss 6" bags in the rear. They don't bellow out at all when inflated or collapsed.

As for the strut kit, I'm looking st the air lift universal kit, it's $795 from air assisted (in Winnipeg so its already in Canada) or 670 or something from qualityairride.com (used to be suicidedoors.com). Gonna place my order this week if the shipping is free with QAR.