Lee, Ball joint spacer?

[Harv]

Lee,

Have you thought about spacers to fit in between the control arm and ball joint?

I was thinking about this the other day and thought that if there was a spacer to lengthen the control arm and reposition it lower to help reduce bump steer, then there would not be any relocation of the ball joint (relative to the strut) and change the scrub radius.

John

[mattmcginn]

Hey John last I heard from Lee last week is that he is indeed making them but there was a delay from the machine shop doing the machine work on them.....but they are in the works!!!!

I am looking forward to getting a set for my flared rat that I hope to heaven I can get some time to work on this winter...too many projects and too many customer cars to work on that pay the bills for the growing family...

Matt

[Rick74]

Matt, that picture just made my day!!! Beautiful work.

[mattmcginn]

glad you like it...I built it a couple years ago but it has been sitting for a while now... This is what the car started like:

you can see some more pix here if you like:

http://s94994139.onlinehome.us/gallery/M20-Hotrod-2002?page=1

[jlandreth]

Beautiful work Matt! The "before" pictures of the car looked pretty bad,even by Ohio standards,but you've saved it. I couldn't be more impressed.

[mikeo]

Matt,

How many of your very talented hours did it take to bring the car to its current state?

Mike O.

[skipsfcr]

I'm on Lee's "roll center spacer" waiting list myself. Matt I just love the fact that you saved a car that nasty. They get cut up most places. Looks badassed.

[Harv]

Yea it's good to save em. Not always the cheapest way to go.....

Don't Lee's spacers go under the strut and over the ball joint and steering arm?

John

[Lee]

Last weekend, my powerbook had DC problems. I brung it for repair and it

was supposed to last no more than two days. I learned this morning that the part is not available anywhere in North America. In the meantime, I have been accessing the net in a café, 30 minutes per evening. I am buying a MacBook tomorrow morning to be back on track. I couldn't work of all week.

Harv. Here is what I have had machined and was supposed to, get two weeks ago, until the shop realized they goofed. They qre making a second batch. Available in 19 and 32mm thickness.

The roll center spacers are made from steel and a work of art. They will be zinc plated or black oxyded.

[trangieboy]

If the car is lowered 1 inch should we use a 1 inch spacer ?? Or it`s not that critical to keep arms at original angle ??

Mal.

[Lee]

If the car is lowered 1 inch should we use a 1 inch spacer ?? Or it`s not that critical to keep arms at original angle ??

Mal.

Most racecars are lowered at least 4 inches compared to stock.Thicker spacers I know are a bit under 1.5 inch.

[mattmcginn]

Thanks for the nice words guys.

As far as hours my brother and I worked on it for a month straight, so it was at least a few hundred hours but there was tons and tons of other work but I bet the body took a few hundred hours and thats really just roughed out, everything fits well, but there are some wavy areas that need blocking.

That car was the perfect donor-it was crusty in all the places that would have made it unfeasible to restore it to stock-it needed front fenders, rear quarters, all lids/doors, etc. But figure that the flares in the rear were made from a piece of steel that cost about 20 bucks:

and they replace a $700 quarter panel (X2) and I had a bunch of good boltable parts (doors/lids) around. The outer rockers were shot (not a big job to replace and it also opens up the opportunity to add some more beef in the sills)

THe super hard and tedious sections to repair, the floorpan shock towers and framerails were unmolested and perfect, and to boot, the car had never been wrecked hard.

The nose had been "reskinned" at some point so the outer skin was good, but the inner structure was wasted. So I cut that out and kept the outer skin...and made a nice custom brace. This engine was a "placeholder" tii engine I had with a subie intake boot...but you can see the nose chopped out. This engine is now out of the car and I was going to put in an M50 I got from a buddy but that project was a ton of work and unfortunately I had to do customer work because we were backed up with not much help here so it got sidetracked and it now is just sitting idle.

Now however I have enough manpower here (there are now 5 full time guys here (Me, Jim, Justin, Nigel and Nate) plus my brother Dan who gets as much done in a day as most men get done in a week) where maybe I can tinker a little once we get caught up with some of the projects that have been not getting the love they need...we have about 10 gigantic 02 and e9 projects going on...

[jgerry2002]

Matt , when did you pick up the turbo? Any pics or links of that project yet?

[dapbmw]

Distanzstücke Federbein Lenkhebel . makes more negative camber. alpina used them on their cars.

here is a pic

[horizon2002]

Dear boys,

I am sorry, but I don't understand utility of this part :