Hi there
Quick walk around video the Mrs did at weekend before we took it for a drive with T-Tops off:
Cars ride and rattles are greatly improved now, of course this is 50 year old suspension technology so it will never ride like a modern car but dropping tyre pressure from 40psi all round to 24 front and 28 rear has made a transformation. The door card suggest 20 front and 26 rear for minimum load, for now I've gone with a little over this.
Driven the car for some distance now, did Macclesfield and back on the country roads, on smooth roads its an absolute pleasure, it also handles surprising well too and I've manage to reduce a lot of the rattles, there was a lot of loose wires and other stuff behind the dash which I have now secured so they cannot move and rattle. The hood was also not double latching on one side and it was also not level, I got some rubber hood risers and also fixed the latch, over rough roads this was the main culprit of noise/rattle, this is now cured.
The car is still harsh over rough roads, but I have noticed that the car has the heavy duty suspension upgrade, maybe even the gymkhana handling upgrade as rear leaf is only 7 springs, so I think the harshest. So I've ordered some suspension upgrades to try and improve rough roads whilst not impacting handling:
- Bilstein HD dampers (B6) to replace the new ACDelco dampers on car, feedback seems to along lines that B6 dampers give better ride (better damping quality) and will also improve handling, we shall find out, £300
- Original new rubber rear leaf spring mounts, to replace the new polyurethane mounts on there, £30
- New rear strut rods / camber arms, the bushes look crack and they look original, will put camber shim back in same place to avoid messing up alignment, £80
- Also new bolts and mounts for rear dampers and rods just in case old ones refuse to come out and need cutting out. £20
- New moog steering idler arm, current one seems fine but looks original and if this part fails you can't steer, so at £50 made sense to replace it, plus moog one is well rated.
- New power steering ram, to fix the leak, the above idler arm links to this hence makes sense to change idler arm, £120
- New front anti roll bar rubber link kit, £15
- Air filter, £5
- Oil filter, £2
- front coil spring seat/insulator just in case old ones have had it, £15
- New tie rod ends, £14 each
- Ordered yesterday, shipped with Fedex priority, due this Friday, £177 and £145 VAT. There was slower cheaper options that may have also avoided VAT but just wanted hassle free quick delivery.
In short I am removing any poly bushes from car, going back to original rubber, am hoping that along with Bilsteins give a rough road improvement in ride. If that fails I will look at composite rear leaf spring options and try to find one that won't stick the rear end of the car in the air.
Am also looking at changing the rear mufflers to something louder as its quite tame in person, but am also contemplating electric cut outs so I can go open header type sound by using a remote fob and then back to quiet if I wish just by pressing a button, gonna be talking to JP exhaust about options, the car has a proper dual system on it with no cats, now I have got used to car has plenty of go, hits 80mph in no time and feels fine and stable there, but this kind of car prefer to just sit at 55-60 on a fast road.