Swing to IRS

[vwfanatic]

[attachmentid=3259]Spent saturday before the blizzard up at Jim Wolcott's shop where I brought my '61 pan for some help on some mods for the latest incarnation of my hotrod project. I wanted to switch to IRS rear suspension and that is what we tackled first. This first pic shows the area being cut away that makes room for the IRS pivots

[vwfanatic]

second pic shows the jig jim made being used to test fit the bracket and then the bracket in place

[vwfanatic]

a couple more shots of the install

[vwfanatic]

We also cut away the rotted pan halves and rotted bottom of the tunnel. pulled 2 big bags of crud out of the tunnel, and jim came up with some wild ideas for making this pan extremely unique and different......cant wait to get back up there and do some more......but in all fairness to jim....he did 97.5% of the work, and i tripped over stuff and provided comic relief. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif[/img]

thanx again jim [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bowdown.gif[/img]

[TeamEvil/TC]

"and jim came up with some wild ideas for making this pan extremely unique and different...... "

He talked you into those stupid dropped pan "pockets" for the seats, like what he did on the God Awful black and red 80's style pick-up didn't he?!? If you're messin' around with the rear suspension and the pan's free of the body and it's gonna be a truck anyway, and you're open to "unique and different" why not a decent four link coil-over set-up and be done with it.

If this "Jim" guy is as good as you say, he could probably help fab one up wicked easy in no time, and you could still help him . . . in your usual manner . . .

Do you do kids parties? A little comic relief is always welcome at those . . . gives the parents a brief break from the action.

[vwfanatic]

no TC. no dropped pan pockets, this is REALLY special.....and you wouldnt want to see me around kids.....wouldnt be pretty [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif[/img] ....you might note, I dont have kids


BTW TC...i heard the snow out your way was taller than a lawn gnome [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif[/img]

[TeamEvil/TC]

VWF,

You gotta send me an email with the chassis details ! ! If that damned Jim is doing the fabrication and it's by your design it's gotta be something that I'm next in line for! Just look at the "frame extender" as a perfect result of a mind meld between you two,

I just went out a short while ago for the Gnome approved depth test. Snow was to my arm pits in a LOT of places. Of course the real test is when I jump into the snow from the stairs, stomach and ass proudly "extended" as it were. Can a fifty gallon drum be paced into the resulting hole without touching the sides.

That's the optimum shape that I'm shooting for, about as tall and wide around as a fifty gallon drum . . . with a pointed red hat on top.

[vwfanatic]

ROTFLMAO [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/funny.gif[/img]

[walt]

Good job Dan and Jim. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img] .................................................. .....

I think that this needs to be pinned at the top of the page in the (how to) part of the TLTS thread. It would have been better if jim showed everybody how he made the fixture that he uses to set up the IRS pivots.

Good job guys. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[hotrodheb]

Originally posted by walt@Jan 24 2005, 08:19 AM
I think that this needs to be pinned at the top of the page in the (how to) part of the TLTS thread.
<div align="right">Quoted post</div>

Done!


Looks good Dan... Great work Jim

[vwfanatic]

walt - jim has had those fixtures around for years. he has done this a number of times before. with all the buggy work he has done over the years, it has come up once or a hundred times before. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

it's great working in a roomy shop with all the right tools [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

[BIG BAD BUG]

Did you make those pivot point brackets new, buy them or cut them off another one..???

[1slo3]

too bad it isn't a type 3! you could have just unbolted the rear end and bolted in an IRS unit. hehe! good work though Dan!

[jimw]

[attachmentid=3265] The fixture was made off an IRS chassis. There is a piece of plate with the
torsion cap bolt pattern in it. The other end is a piece of round tube bored
to a good fit for an IRS pivot bolt. These pieces were assembled into the
IRS chassis and angle and flat bar as shown in the pics were used to connect
them together. Once welded up it can be unbolted from the chassis and used
as a jig to locate the brackets on a swing axle chassis. Just requires some
carefull cutting to fit.
You have to make one for each side.
Jim

[vwfanatic]

Originally posted by BIG BAD BUG@Jan 24 2005, 11:37 AM
Did you make those pivot point brackets new, buy them or cut them off another one..???
<div align="right">Quoted post</div>

jim had the brackets in stock. something he always keeps around. you cant make them as cheap as you can buy 'em.

and jim gets all the credit for the nice job....i just played around with the plasma cutter a little. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rollingeyes.gif[/img]

[BIG BAD BUG]

They have never, (to my knowledge) and I have asked, Been available new, in Australia..
I had to cut a set off another car to get them for my Baja...
Who sells them and how much please...???

[vwfanatic]

email jim wolcotts@ragingbull.com

bet he could fix you up. most vw parts suppliers over here have them, but i always like to send biz to one of our own

dan

[BIG BAD BUG]

ok, thanks

[steve71super]

Ok,so what gives dan?You gonna throw this chassis under the Ratwagen?Maybe el Ghiablo,or the drag car?Hmmm....what else ya got layin' around up there that you could stick it under?Inquiring minds need to know.

[hotrodheb]

Originally posted by steve71super@Jan 24 2005, 02:15 PM
Ok,so what gives dan?You gonna throw this chassis under the Ratwagen?Maybe el Ghiablo,or the drag car?Hmmm....what else ya got layin' around up there that you could stick it under?Inquiring minds need to know.
<div align="right">Quoted post</div>

I think he is putting this under the '58 that he got a while back???

[Ryan]

as noted in the november 1996 issue of hot vw's on page 71... top rith hand pic and caption say that suspensions unlimited sells the swing to irs fictures too.




i just happened to be looking at that issue tonight [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/funny.gif[/img]

[Ryan]

oh yeah good work dan and jim.



and if anyone wants a phone number for SU that is 9 years old its 714-996-6260

[happy hoppy]

looks sweet!

that jig is too cool, I love home made tools ( that work )

[vwfanatic]

Steve - the chassis is actually going under the '60 body that i dragged back from utica. Rob, the '58 is just a pan that i got from bigguy, and i couldnt get the heart to hack up the '56 i'm picking up from jimw for this project. So the '60 body, on a '61 pan will be what we are concentrating on at the moment. And i cant mess up the ratwagen, as the pan is sweet and turbopunk has wood for it [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rollingeyes.gif[/img]

and hoppy, as far as homemade tools that work.....you would be running around jim's shop with a boner. This guy is one of the most talented problem solvers, i've ever met. One of his main forte's is creating idiotproof jigs so that even an moron can assemble and fabricate parts over and over for major manufacturers without knowing jack about what they are really doing. he can visualize some pretty amazing stuff, and then build it as well. I consider myself very lucky for any time i get to spend in his shop. I learn so much

[lunatic_magnet]

that looks supernice dan...

i may still do it yet myself, at one point i went so far as to get the irs mounts, but i never welded them into the chassis. i'd like to do that on both the kit car and the 63 baja...

btw those irs mounts are in the bugpack catalog