Retro Power Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 (edited) I have been asked a few times about the rear end setup that we put on Curt Pattinson's white ascona 400 replica This setup: Started writing the details out on a PM and realised that no wonder it took some hours to build!!.......there is a LOT of engineering involved in making something stronger and better than the original factory cars using parts which don't cost a fortune to replace in the future...... Here's the details, posted for future reference should anybody else want to do this (its very strong and looks the part too) Just for reference, this is basically the exact same setup that was homologated as an option on the chevette hsr The bushes used for the rear of the lower arms are polybush ltd (www.polybush.co.uk) part number 2-1-2 and you need 2 sets, they are £12.48 each the tube they fit in needs to be 2" OD 10swg tubing, cut to 87mm long and skimmed out VERY slightly in the bore (the bushes are 45mm, the tube as it comes is 44.3mm, an engineers place will run a boring bar through it, you want it to be around 44.7-44.8mm These bushes fit the standard commodore lower arm, youll need an m12 X 120 or M12 x125 bolt to bolt them in. Further to that, Manta lower arms are 608mm centres, Commodore are 543mm centres, so you need to lengthen the commo arms by 65mm. To achieve this I used 1.75" 10swg seamless tube, machined a threaded boss with 3/4" unf thread and pressed and welded it into each tube, then cut the front ends off the commodore links, worked the lengths out to get the tube int he right place (crude jig with threaded bar and wood) then welded a plate across the inside of the arm for the rear end of the tube to be welded to, then boxed it all in. I reinforced the arm as per the works chevette mods when they used these links on the 4ha axle I used 3/4" rose joints and machined top hat adaptors to drop the ball end down to 12mm bore and space it to the width of the stock manta brackets, then drilled the lower arm brackets on the car out to 12mm (they are 10 as std) I have all the bracket dimensions too but rather than write it all out, if anybody needs them then let me know! Hope that helps somebody! cheers Nat Edited November 29, 2013 by Retro Power 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Abbott Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Brilliant, thank's Nat Now there's an article for the mag... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro Power Posted January 30, 2014 Author Share Posted January 30, 2014 back to the top, been asked a few more times about this setup so pushing it back up so its easy to find (the search function on this site is poor!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny D114BCW Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Thats brilliant, and the best quality work as always. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Abbott Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I can't wait to bring my car down to have this done to it. The site needs changing to a more modern host like passionford and migwelding forum use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcliff Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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