coilover or 2 shocks?

[rookieshooter]

This is the shock tower or whats left of it, Damn east coast living. Frame is ok. Of what I can see of it .

 

[mitch]

i was just checking out race-dezert.com like bigdave said and they have some sweet rides many with coilovers im sure if u had any questions rookieshooter they could help

 

[410Fortune]

yes a simple hoop to pick up the coilover is all thats needed, unless you plan to beat on it pretty good

 

[410Fortune]

Your shock tower/coil bucket is about GONE time to cut those off man!!
F-250 shock tower and custom bucket time!! Extend everything up and get some longer springs, or go straight to coilovers....

 

[BigDave!!!]

have you decided which your gonna do rookieshooter, springs or coilovers?

 

[Rick]

I have a bunch of photos showing coilovers on a TTB Explorer. They start here: http://www.explorerforum.com/tds_02/2.html

That's Paul Bredehoft's Explorer http://www.explorer4x4.com/ocl.htm

 

[rookieshooter]

Thanks 410 and Rick, your input is just tremendous, the best money I spent on this project was joining this site.
BigDave I just came in from getting the front of the B 11 on Jack stands to start taking off the towers by what ever means grinding, cutting c4 just kidding. The heat and humidity is worse then the labor. Going to call-up the race car shop and see if they have some old coilovers I can use just to get an idea of making some brackets for the bottom. I looked at the pics Rick posted. Man that is sharp fab work. and gives me some ideas. I will use a hoop for the top.

 

[BigDave!!!]

sounds good and i know how much that east coast humididy and heat sucks, no fun. how much of a lift are you planning on getting out of the C/O's?

 

[rookieshooter]

sounds good and i know how much that east coast humididy and heat sucks, no fun. how much of a lift are you planning on getting out of the C/O's?

I have Ex springs in the back with one leaf removed and HAD 94 Ex springs in the front, The bottom of the rocker panals with 28" tires is 23 1/2" off ground that was with v8 and trans. I know that the front Ex springs were to stiff. I would at least like the front to come out with a min. of the same ride height but with the adjustable coilover I hope that I can even go higher if I want. I am going to do a lot of researching on types and spring rates of these shocks. All this is new to me and thats why I really can't give you an answer about the lift. Got 3 of the rivets out, wasn't bad, just drilled them thru with a 1/4" bit then took the Uni-bit and drilled utill the rivet head fell off. The bottom seems to be a little tougher, may have to drop the drop bracket because that bolt goes thru the bottom of the tower. Man I'm drenched in sweat, had to come in for a while drank some OJ and plenty of water.
Going back out.

 

[BigDave!!!]

getting lift from the coilovers should be no problem. good luck and keep us updated

 

[410Fortune]

350# is a good spring rate for a lifted V8 BII, this is what Eibach and Skyjacker offer their Ranger lift coils in.
The Explorer springs are closer to 450.
Not sure if this rate translates the same over to a resevoir shock/coilover combo or not.

Winter's fabrication on that truck is top notch, I got a chance to see it last year at Thaven. Those beams I believe are 4" over per side, allowing you to use Dana 44 outers and save some $$$ for custom axles.

If you are going with C/O's on the TTB you will definatley want to have some extended arms, and a cut and turned beam would be fantastic to make the max of the travel. The next step would be to also widen the beam and modify the ball joint to bring camber back into check, this is how these guys get away with stock drop brackets for the axle pivots and still run lift and correct camber.

 

[rookieshooter]

Mr. Moderator can you please move this whole thread over to Offroad EX Projects under Ricks Bronco 1 and 1/2 this thing has turned into an ongoing thing,no use tieing up this space.

Drilled 1/4" hole thru rivet then took one of the best tools ever..the Uni-bit, just drilled untill the rivet head came off.

Pried tower away and found two rusted holes thru frame. You can see a spark plug thats been in their for years. Look at pic 21 and you can see the tip of it. I wonder if this started the rust? Other side is fine.

Called my buddy Jack who builds and restores old vintage tin cars and makes some nice hot rods and knows how to restore frames. He told me just what I thought...cut the rusted area out and radius the corners. Cracks love to start at sharp spots/edges.

This is a template for the 3/16" plate that's going over the bad stuff. This is where Jack told me something that I did not know. Try to never weld across the frame at right angles but with the frame along the horizontal. That's why the diamond shape. Small right angles are fine but not all the way across. You have a higher potential for cracks if all the way across.

410 again thanks, before I read your post, I called Anderson race cars and off the top of their head they thought 350 to 400#. I would love to do all the things you mentioned. But just don't have the funds for all that right now. I don't have a suspension lift just a 3 inch body lift. For right now if I go with the coilovers and extended radius arms hopefully that will be better then what I have now. That 4 inch extension, I wonder if that is legal with the tires sticking out? How does that effect the rear which is stock 94 Ex 8,8 width?

 

[mitch]

rust is never good have u checked the other side too. chances are that there are other spots on the frame that have holes in them, a extensive check we be best (dont want to have part of the frame fall off when four-wheeling, oddly ive seen it before)

 

[rookieshooter]

Mitch, all due respect for the last year I'v been cutting, grinding, welding under that B11. I'v seen more of its underside then my girlfriends HA HA!! If you look at some of the photos under my project you can see how clean it is. You can see some of the original stamping numbers. The frame really looks like it rolled off the show room floor. The only spot not exposed was under that right hand side tower. Believe me I would not have put 100s of hours in this project if the frame was rusted with holes everywhere. In fact there are all kind of holes in it some are close to 2" in dia. but they were from the factory.

 

[mitch]

ya, ive seen some of those photos and the frame looks really good, i just didnt know if you had checked all of it,after what happed to my friend with his rust prob. id hate to see it happen to you. looks good

 

[rookieshooter]

Ok, Got the plate over the rust tacked in place. Will finish welding when 100% sure where loop is going to fasten to frame for top mount of coilover. Right now I'm thinking of two lower mounting points. But first I need to know the angle of the shock. The best thing that I came up with was the actual angle of the stock coil. And I noticed it was angled with the top further back. I believe the reason is because the way the ttb will want to follow a curved line because of the pivot point of the radius arms.
So I'm thinking that I should also lean the top of the shocks back a little towards back of B11. Keeping in mind that with longer radius arms that curve wont be as pronounced. IF I'm thinking right.

Here is a spot I was thinking about for the bottom, directly over the bolt that held the stock coil in place. I guess the ford engineers thought it was a good spot. I know I might have to leave some space for the bolt and also about the new longer radius rod attachment.

Her's my second spot, outward of the spring bolt. I like this idea because it puts the pivot point further out on the beam. After looking at the pics and hearing suggestions the mounting points will be very strong with boxing- in of the mounts if I can. Both spots are along the center line of the beam which in my mind ,may not be as stessful on the mounting points. The bracket and shock are not the ones that I'll be using, but I needed a demo so I could come up with some ideas. Hey Guys like to here from the pros on this one. I have to leave for my part time job I'm late

 

[410Fortune]

Couple of things. First off how in the world did you get those CO's for mock up so fast (when you are done send them my way) Your sway bar links are too short for a lifted truck, look into getting some Explorer dog leg links.

You are missing the sanp ring safety on your upper ball joints

Your lower mount placement looks fine.

You need to be away of the body size of those threaded body resi shocks (coilovers) are they 2", 2.5"? What is the stroke? 8-10" should be all you need for now....

hahahaha everyone loves a critic.

 

[BigDave!!!]

but your plating looks good where you replaced the rust!

 

[rookieshooter]

Thanks BigDave, 410, I called Anderson Race Cars Owned by Roy Anderson who is somewhat of a Legend around the Tri state area as building some of the fastest stock cars around here. Like I said earlier he was the one who bent my cage and supplied the Lexan for the B11. I called him Fri. morning and told him I would like you to bend me some hoops for a coilover, but I don't have one to mock up measurments. "Well", he said , come on down one of my customers just crashed his car last week and I'll let you use one of his. When he said that I immediatly canceled my choiropracter appointment and hauled ass down there. He told me it has about a 9" stroke. And he could have the hoops sometime late next week. I'm low on the list because first thing Mon. mornings he's fixing all the banged up roundy round cars. Must be nice. Hey thanks for telling me about the clip and links. Constructive criticisim is the best kind.

 

[rookieshooter]

Well its obvious that I picked the second spot to mount the shock. Main reason was that I have that outboard shock mounted in the rear to try to control the leaning going around turns. Especially after reading what CG said about his outboard shock. Might as well move the front one out as well. I used 1/4" steel for shock tabs and gussets. Just tacked for right now. I hope to have the top hoop later this week. If and when I go to a Dana 44 SA I hope I can use the same top hoop.