Hi All

I know this has been mumbled around the forum a bit, but here is my progress for anbody who is interested

So far I have bought a chunk of aluminium from these chaps and have drawn up some bushes using my shakey CAD skills.

I have sent my request off to 4 machiners, and so far have had quotes of:
1. £120+VAT & Materials
2. £60+VAT & Materials.

The Metal its self was £25+VAT and £14.50 delivery, but the Metal Fast crew where very helpful and it came next day.

I think I will test run the bushes - hoping I got all the dimensions correct etc and see what the final costs are like and maybe if there's interest do a GB.

If anybody has faith in my CAD drawing then I'm more than happy to Email it to you for your own fettling - PM me.

So I guess best estimate so far is about £100 without postage, which is quite alot, so fingers crossed it will be worth it

Alastair

I'm still interested dude. If you get some made, i know someone who can probably replicate for cheaper?

Ross

Great web site, good price for the material too.

Rich

good work ,and good luck with the results

Just pinning on the end of this (or the middle! ) this is something we may need to start seriously considering as a coupé failed its MOT a few weeks ago on worn rubber subframe bushes

Got a lump of 30x40x200 for my arb brackets too - £8

Im with Stan on this, its a cause of concern for the future.

Wonder if its possible to produce some rear bushes using alloy and polyurathane to absorb a little more vibration ?

Dont be such a wimp Jimbo!

Nowt wrong with that,would be ideal

Oi! You! Us oldies need a bit of a comfort to stop our dentures rattling!


I've heard you've already got natural padding to absorb the bumps

This has been quiet for ages, so a quick update...

After getting some project work out of the way and making enough time to go to the machinest, The bushes have been made up and I'm collecting on monday.

MattB is going to guinea pig them and if all goes OK, maybe we can think about a GB, if there is any interest....?

So far the total cost has been aroundabout £100-110

Will post up some pics when I get ahold of them

Alastair

For anybody who is interested...
Tah - Dah !



Now being posted to our in-house Guinea Pig

Alastair

Nice!


I'll be very interested..........

I'll be interested too depending on how hard they are to fit and Matts write up after fitting. Good effort so far though.

Mark

Would it not be better to go for poly ones? I'm up for either option - they're going to get done with the rear arms soon....

poly ones sound an ideal compromise

Poly isnt exactly that much more flexible.

Ross

it is a lot more flexible than solid aluminium,especially with regards to,vibration and resonence

Hmmm. Could the solid mounts be used as a mould for poly?

Ross

The poly bushes wouldn't be moulded (at least not for a run of this volume)

Much easier to get them turned on a lathe

Ah. Wasnt sure. Has anyone contacted them with regards to it?

Ross

you cant use PU on the rear, there's not straight forward way of incorporating that into the design. Listen until you actually look at the rear bushes enough with the random comments about PU. You have to have a clamp design with the bolt through the middle, the std bush achieves that with some seriously well bonded centre to a rubber bush which is then bonded to an outer section. Under the middle section is a spot welded cover.

rich

If you wanted poly, could you not buy a bar as the aluminium and turn them in the same way?

Alastair, is the depth of the stepped section (parallel to the bolt axis) equal or less that the lip height on the sub frame - if its greater then the frame could move up and down in that space.
if you turned the same thing from PU the bolt would pull through it and the lip on the frame would cut the PU in seconds.
Rich

It should be the same so the subframe should be solid. I did wonder if you could make the bushes thinner to lower the back end slightly but I think that would have ended in the subframe not sitting correctly so left at standard thickness.



Thought that may be the case

Thanks for the commments Rich!

Yes you could lower it, I may do this to mine as I made them too thick, the only issue you get is the hole in the chassis rail for the top damper bolt becomes obscured if the dimension changes. But to get round that for the occasional damper change I remove the top cap and raise it up on the bolt, of course it would be the other way round for a lower (thinner) top section.

Rich

......just have the rear 2 bushes changed, as these are the ones that begin to rot.

I had Barbz do the horrible task of this for me & he siad it was a real sod to do.

My bushes were solid alu' with no lady-smady damping rubbish / PU sleeves.

I can honestly say that I cannot notice any difference in ride quality, except the rear just feels somewhat more planted ( in addition to the Eibach rear arb ).

Taz

I think that settles it then - I'm interested in the solid variety.

Your lady smady enough............you didn`t do em yourself