Tell us about your winter upgrades.

[Wingco]

Thanks Duncan.
Yes rear calipers are off the ford Sierra 4x4 and Fiesta mk2 discs.
I have herd about the handbrake issue so will bleed system first before fitting cables.
Now I have my wheels back with tyre fitted I will be sorting the hub convertors out, I need to order now as they take 2 weeks to make.
Slowly slowly getting there.

[DJ.]

Better to have delays this time of year than when the warm weather arrives

[andyf]

I'm currently working on swapping the torsion bars on the front suspension for coil-overs so that I can adjust the ride height and the caster angle, which is the main benefit because at 2.5 degrees self centering is non-existent.

This is what it should look like when I'm done. At the moment I'm preparing the parts.

What I'm aiming for ;)

[Wingco]

No reason it want turn out like that Andy fingers crossed.
Keep us updated.

[Wingco]

Small update from me.
During the week Ross came round and we bled the brakes completely and we now have a pedal. After doing that we found out the discs would not turn on the axle due to them jamming up on the caliper carriers, so they came off and I'm getting them skimmed by 1mm also some slight alteration on the packers that were used on the carrier brackets.
Made up a bracket for the new speedo sensor. Before it was facing the UJ on the prop shaft, now they have changed this to read from the wheel hub, a lot easier to get to now.
The new rear hubs work a treat, the wheels now fill the wings and look a lot better from the rear.
the only real issue I'm having is the hand brake cable, got to try and get my head around this one.
Slowly slowly getting there.

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[DJ.]

That is an interesting project Andy, I hope it all comes together.

[Jasonmpk]

Well done guys, all I've done is replace the worn throttle cable which was starting to fray, tyres are next on my 'to do' list, hopefully soon, then it's just a little bit of welding to reinforce a wandering bolt hole. Most of my time has been spent trying to keep water out of the garage, which I'm failing at by the way, so am fingers crossed for sunnier times!!
Jason

[andyf]

I've been making progress with the coil over setup on the front of my Marling Roadster.

Others who have done this have simply used the existing lower shock absorber mount but when I tried that I had problems with clearance on full droop, actually makes me think others may not have checked this condition.

These photos illustrate the problems that I found.

So I had to modify the lower arms to make custom mounts. For this I decided to use Locost weld on mounts.

I also had to modify the mounts for the tie bars

And now we have got it back together it looks like this

All that's left to do is to trim some off the top mount to get clearance for the spring plate and put the wings back on.

[Wingco]

Nice job Andy, looks nice and neat should do a good job for you. Now for a trial run ?

[DJ.]

Looks a neat job
What advantage do the coils have over the torsion bars? Is it just weight or are there handling advantages too?