So I started this a while ago, got 90% of the way there and then got distracted by other things. I'm realistically a few days of work from ordering it, but you know, who has a few days of solid time to work on their hobby?
You can read the original thread here Making My Own Control Arms For anyone who doesn't know yet, I can't follow it up there anyway after I was banned on that forum after I complained about SopranoStu. Matt Yates, the owner, used this to leverage Stu for money he was owed then banned me. If you care about that sort of thing I still have all the conversations saved and am happy to share so you can make up your own mind. It isn't really a loss though, I don't have to argue with conaero and Zep showing up and disparaging me as being unsafe and going on about insurance and what not for a part I had no intention to sell. A bit rich from a couple of guys selling counterfeit AP racing rotors which are "insured" by a company they can't disclose because they have a "NDA"... Right... Moving on.
Catching y'all up:
I used some worn arms which I got from the always helpful New Model Wreckers, in Sydney Australia (they'll ship internationally) as dimensional references. I sent these to an engineering firm that had a CMM (Co-ordinate Measuring Machine) so I could copy the geometry exactly.
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I then sent a sample of an arm off to a lab so I could work out exactly which alloy the arms were made from so I could use these properties to complete FEA (Finite Element Analysis). The alloy is 4343, and using this I can economically outperform the OEM arms using 6061.
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I think broke a bone in my foot. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
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I moved onto the bushings where I made accurate models of the OEM parts so that I could explore more cost-effective options.
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I did a bit of research into far more cost effective bushings since I can control the dimensions of the bushings in my own part.
After that I just kind of started filming DIY videos DIY Videos and chilling out a bit and lost interest in this. After the success of the brake kit Why I'm Making My Own Brakes, the exhaust and the clutch I figured it was time to revisit this. A few people have asked me about it (thanks for the support, especially those of you who have been on sportsmaserati for a while) and then this post popped up and I felt motivated to finish the project Bushings & Polyurethane Bushings
It was a bit demoralising getting setup and bullied by Matt Yates, he had the audacity to pressure the mods here to edit my posts and comments (and I suspect he wanted me banned here as well) which was pretty exhausting. Motivation has returned now though, so I figure I'll finish this. I may even make them available to others just to upset him further since pettiness is tremendously motivating.
In case you're wondering why this is necessary - the captured ball joint has a 100% failure rate, and the only solution is to replace the whole arm. How much are the arms you ask?
The lower arms are 1364.90GBP and the upper are 2639.39GBP, each. That's right, it would cost you 8008.58GBP to replace the control arms on your car, if you source the parts yourself and don't pay any labour. Right now, the arms I designed will cost less than half that and have a replaceable ball joint so that this issue never happens again.
You can read the original thread here Making My Own Control Arms For anyone who doesn't know yet, I can't follow it up there anyway after I was banned on that forum after I complained about SopranoStu. Matt Yates, the owner, used this to leverage Stu for money he was owed then banned me. If you care about that sort of thing I still have all the conversations saved and am happy to share so you can make up your own mind. It isn't really a loss though, I don't have to argue with conaero and Zep showing up and disparaging me as being unsafe and going on about insurance and what not for a part I had no intention to sell. A bit rich from a couple of guys selling counterfeit AP racing rotors which are "insured" by a company they can't disclose because they have a "NDA"... Right... Moving on.
Catching y'all up:
I used some worn arms which I got from the always helpful New Model Wreckers, in Sydney Australia (they'll ship internationally) as dimensional references. I sent these to an engineering firm that had a CMM (Co-ordinate Measuring Machine) so I could copy the geometry exactly.
I then sent a sample of an arm off to a lab so I could work out exactly which alloy the arms were made from so I could use these properties to complete FEA (Finite Element Analysis). The alloy is 4343, and using this I can economically outperform the OEM arms using 6061.
I think broke a bone in my foot. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
I moved onto the bushings where I made accurate models of the OEM parts so that I could explore more cost-effective options.
186494
186496
I did a bit of research into far more cost effective bushings since I can control the dimensions of the bushings in my own part.
After that I just kind of started filming DIY videos DIY Videos and chilling out a bit and lost interest in this. After the success of the brake kit Why I'm Making My Own Brakes, the exhaust and the clutch I figured it was time to revisit this. A few people have asked me about it (thanks for the support, especially those of you who have been on sportsmaserati for a while) and then this post popped up and I felt motivated to finish the project Bushings & Polyurethane Bushings
It was a bit demoralising getting setup and bullied by Matt Yates, he had the audacity to pressure the mods here to edit my posts and comments (and I suspect he wanted me banned here as well) which was pretty exhausting. Motivation has returned now though, so I figure I'll finish this. I may even make them available to others just to upset him further since pettiness is tremendously motivating.
In case you're wondering why this is necessary - the captured ball joint has a 100% failure rate, and the only solution is to replace the whole arm. How much are the arms you ask?
The lower arms are 1364.90GBP and the upper are 2639.39GBP, each. That's right, it would cost you 8008.58GBP to replace the control arms on your car, if you source the parts yourself and don't pay any labour. Right now, the arms I designed will cost less than half that and have a replaceable ball joint so that this issue never happens again.
