Party Rat Study

[kenny c]

Nice work. How does the watts link work when one wheel travels further than the other. doesn't it try to move the axle sideways?

 

[jfg455]

The pivot on a watts link needs to be in the same plane as the axle movement. The way you have it you don't get any of the benefits of a watts. All that is happening is your links are pivoting on the heim joint ends. [P

 

[400orbust]

Kenny C....that was one of my concerns building this...if there was a lot of articulation between the left and right wheel, then yes it would try to move the axle sideways however the movement is limited by the solid axle and split wishbone connection (the axle cannot twist much in the split wishbones if that makes sense) so it turns out not to be a concern. I don't have any less articulation than if I used a panhard bar. I'd say one wheel can be about 5" height difference than the other.

jfg455....true, the connecting links are pivoting on the heims but the watts link is also moving and doing its job. I also have read that the pivot needs to be in the same plane as the axle movement but it is just not true. As I move the axle up and down the watts link pivots back and forth keeping the axle centered and not allowing any left/right movement. I've done lots of engineering on the concept to make sure it'd work and it does. I'll take a short video showing the movement and see if I can post it on here showing it working.

I appreciate the comments.

 

[Old Iron]

I have to agree with 400 on this one guys.
The watts link will work in this current configuration.
It's no difference than a solid rear axle on the articulation aspect.
What I would recommend is, the watts link pivot be at a 90 degree to the frame at ride height.
I will be using this idea in the future.

 

[400orbust]

Ok, no video showing the front watts in action, I guess I'm not that smart so you'll have to take my word that it works.

I put the whole rear end back in, mounted the engine/trans and installed new front kingpins & spindles. I now have a rolling chassis! Disregard the awesome wheels, wood blocks and rusty tubing holding it up off the ground. Next step is the steering arms and tie rod then on to the cab.

 

[400orbust]

Got the steering arms in and tie rod in. The traditional speedway ones didn't fit so I ended up getting chassis engineering ones and they worked great. Now that the chassis is as done as I can get it I'm on to the body. This is my first chop so I did some research about how to align things but never did find a good tutorial so I just went for it. I took out 5 inches. The back of the cab was fairly straight forward...I just had to make one vertical cut in the corners to stretch/shrink the top and bottom to fit. The A pillars took alot more work. I wanted a clean chop so I ended up deconstructing the A pillars and reconstructing them for a seamless transition from top to bottom. The pics kind show what I did.

 

[400orbust]

A pillar rebuild pics

 

[kenny c]

Very nice.

 

[TruckRat]

Looking good. What size wire you using?

 

[400orbust]

For this sheet metal work I'm using .024 on 110v.

 

[kenny c]

That works.

 

[400orbust]

Whew...been gone awhile. Bought some property, built a new house, moved and sold old house in the last 18 or so months. I'm looking forward to getting back on with this build. In that time I've done very little work but I did get the cab stretched 7" (so I can fit inside) and I'm now working on getting it mounted. I took no pics of the process but here is one of the cab and chassis together for the first time. It is stretched behind the doors 5" and the firewall is stretched 2". I have quite a bit of work to do I think to mount the cab properly but then hopefully I can start putting things like steering pedals seats wiring etc etc in.

 

[400orbust]

And one more of another angle...

 

[smallfoot]

Good to see you back at it...[cl

 

[lowbudget50]

Killer! Is that a VW truck in the background

 

[400orbust]

Yes it is a VW doublecab. I've been into pre-67 vw buses for long enough to remember when they were still affordable. It is on my to-do list as soon as I get this project finished...or maybe my back-up project if I get tired of this one.

 

[400orbust]

Slow progress but got the tubing in the cab bent and installed. The cab is ready to mount. It'll bolt on to be removable and is isolated with poly mounts. The floors are in also. At the scrap yard I didn't notice but one of the pieces I grabbed was stainless so they look different. Wished I'd noticed and tried to find another so they'd both be stainless.

 

[joedoh]

look at the spine on that gal! nice work![cl

 

[400orbust]

Seats in finally. What a pain! There is not much width in the cab with the driveline having to go in between the seats. I searched a long time for some that would be narrow enough and finally found these seats from a transit van. The are only 18" wide but actually quite comfortable and they were cheap. Then, I had a tough time installing them cause I couldn't get access to bolt or weld them in. I ended up buying the lowest profile seat tracks I could find on feebay (from and early 90's miata) and used those so I could slide the seats foward and back to access the mounting bolts. So...seats are in and they are adjustable! Eventually I'll recover them.

 

[400orbust]

I'm also building a barn now which will clear my garage up so I have better space to work. I am working on relocating the alternator and mounting a radiator as well as steering box/column and pedals and that I can fit them properly with the seats in.