Mk1 and 2 independant front suspension conversion!

[Gunslinger]

Nice lump of spares you got there ... bet the neighbours love that one sitting there now i see where your transmission tunnel is coming from ! .... it should be fairly easy to cut it back far enough to cover what you need, interesting idea here .... is it possible to also use the whole floor sections too so the arches and spring mounts are not disturbed during the conversion ?

mk4 has flared front wheel arches, mk3 dont, the offset on the mk3 wheel is in more for want of a better word, if you put mk3 wheels on the back of a mk4 and they have inside balancing weights 9/10 times the weight will touch the handbrake cable making the driver think the diff is shot

Geoff can you elaborate a little more on this offset thing ..... as i thought mk3's had 14" wheels and mk4's had 15" ..... and with a different bolt pattern

[Luke]

the neighbours cant see this one its hidden away
I was thinking along the same lines in useing the whole floor - thats why ive gone to the trouble of saving the entire lot!! im gonna weld a 1" box section across the strut tops to brace it all then it wont move with any cutting etc. and when its all welded in the mk1 i'll cut it off!!

btw mk4's have 14" wheels - this is swb were talking but i allways thought the mk3 wheels have a deeper dish than the mk4/5 one but the deeper dish ones i have which came off a mk3 may not be origanal wheels

[FredTransit]

Nice lump of spares you got there ... bet the neighbours love that one sitting there

.........I thought it was modern art! Have you offered it to the Tate Gallery? Tell em you will let it go for £10,000, but it's your life's work and it will break your heart...... Pile of bricks anybody?

[Gunslinger]

ahhhhh ...... short wheelbase stuff .... dont know much about the wheels etc on them, havent had any dealings with them, although there does seem to be lots of different ones fitted, think i'll stick to twin wheelers

[Luke]

Right........ ive got to shift that bunch of spares NOW so im back on with this for a bit so i'll post my progress as i go rather than once ive done it all

So far ive welded a brace 1" box across the 2 wheel arches to keep them aligned, ive also removed the shocker (or strut) top bushes as they were worn - rather than fitting new ones as was my origanal plan, im going to weld a plate in place of the rubber to guarantee its bang on. i'll post up some pics when i have them done!

i removed the rubber part today, found an easy way - chuck it in the furnace at work 500deg for 20 min did the trick

my plan is to weld in the complete inner arches and this time make the installation look like its factory done

[Gunslinger]

i removed the rubber part today, found an easy way - chuck it in the furnace at work 500deg for 20 min did the trick

my plan is to weld in the complete inner arches and this time make the installation look like its factory done

lol .... nice and warm

that should look quite good, i'll be interested knowing how much work it is to do that as opposed to doing it in sectiosn so to speak.

anyway, good luck

[transitgeoff]

gotta be better than that other one then eh

[Luke]

gotta be better than that other one then eh

it will look better but the other one was fine just if you looked under the arches you could see it wasnt factory - if you ever get chance to see it close up you should - it's a lot stronger than you think

[transitgeoff]

im only pulling your chain,i know its gonna be "ruff but strong guvna" but seriously i am interested in what your gonna do now for sure

[Luke]

ok some more pics - this shows the bar across similar to a strutbrace - this will be cut of once the arches are welded into the mk1

[Luke]

these are the strut tops with solid bushes welded in, ignore the 10 small holes, they were old pump valves i used

[Luke]

Update - I got called out to work at about 9 and ive just got back 1:00 , i took this lot with me and ive been cutting it into 3 managable chunks
Ive cut the floor area out for the mt75 box to fit and i'll weld that in separate. and ive remover all in front of the arches

Ive also welded the shocks to the spring top housing 2, 50mm flat bars each side (i'll pop a pic up later to show it) this will hold the shock top in the correct position when i bolt in the crossmember it will also allow me to drop the lower wishbones and the hubs, brakes etc. to make it a more manageable lump

one thing i have found it the front bolts are different size to the mk1/2/3 but this can be overcome too

[rover]

Wow You are really going to town on it now aren't you! Renewed enthusiasm?

Rover.

[Luke]

Yeah im back on with it big time - ive now got the whole lot split the crossmember is all welded in place and when i removed it the shocks were perfectly in-line thank god

i'll post some pics soon but ive got the top half in the back of the van and im hopefully gonna attack it with the air saw tomorrow - leaving just the 2 inner arches im a bit worried i'll cut too much off so i may have to fit the crossmember to the van to see how its gonna line up - it would be nice if i could make the join on the arch leaving the floor, but i'll have to see how it all looks

[Luke]

dont think ive stopped with this it's just taking ages to cut out, eventually ive got it so i can offer it up to the mk1 just need time to get up there



yes i know the van needs a tidy