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Jin wrote:That fan look's spot on, if only I'd seen it 2 months ago....
Jin wrote:Ahh coilovers, that's exactly what I'm up to at the mo,
It's nice to be busy
Jin wrote:I've been planning this conversion since I bought the car and naively thought that there would be an off the shelf solution I would be happy with ...but i was disappointed.
I've viewed every possibility intensely for far longer than is healthy and have made many conclusions including the following,
The MGF suplex units have 2 major drawbacks.
1 they are fixed so non adjustable in terms of rate.
2 more importantly they will not support the rear of a metro due to the differing wheel / spring ratios .
The weld in conversions look downright shoddy not being supported around the full periphery.
Even if you have access to some of the highest skilled welders in the world to carry out the work for you (luckily I do) I still wouldn't feel happy bouncing up and down all day on these esoecially if you consider the immense force acting in this area (around 20 times that of a similar sized vehicle) and again spring choice is limited. Also I don't like the thought of chopping and welding the subframes, I like a nice neat bolt in conversion that can be reversed/ transferred / replaced if needed.
To cut a long story short I've designed and drawn up 2 bolt in conversion platforms (2 front and 2 rear Metro or 4 identical on the MGF that fit exactly as the hydragas units do along with the custom lower spring plates and the adjusting mechanism.
As mentioned above the rears are the problem in terms of rating and there are no off the shelf springs that will fit in and support the rears, so those springs will have to be custom made (designs completed and costings done).
The real beauty of my setup (more for MGF owners) is the front conversion platforms (front and rear on MGF) have been designed to take off the shelf coilover springs giving not only a wide choice of rates but also price.
The other benefit is they will be fully height adjustable by simply opening the bonnet / boot or reaching under the rear bumper (metro).
So far the machine shop is already working on the machined items (may even be finished, I'll have to check tomorrow) and the spring manufacturer is waiting on my instruction to proceed.
In all reality I expect to be on the road with them in 6 months pending no disasters, it would be sooner if I didn't keep distracting myself with mounting DVD players In The dashboard and making stainless battery trays ....
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