S13 Suspension in an Ae86 - Bad for low impact crashes (Bent Rails)

[maxhag]

The other side looks like it should.... Wheel alignment settings look like they should, and the rail looks totally fine......

I understand what you are saying, and it's left me totally confused now....
But your right, if the cross member still bolts up ok, and the LCA bolts to the x member, it sort of suggests thats not the problem.....

What I can say FOR SURE, is that the holes in the rail to bolt the x member to the rail, are definatly NO LONGER VERTICAL. Ie; head above the holes, you cant see thru the holes cause of the angle......
The top looks in position still, but the bottom holes have moved inward (toward motor), ie rail is twisted.... yet x member bolts up

The holes on the GOOD rail side, look perfectly vertical when looking at them from above....


Yes, very confused

[nelpd96|]

JoJo, As I said when I first had a look at it, it is really hard to know what happened because we didn't have a good idea on what the thing looked like before the hit.

The reality is that from what should have been a relatively minor hit it ended up pushing the bottom of the strut in around 20+mm. If you remember that is roughly what we had to pull out of the other side to make it drive semi straight again. This is not even looking at caster and toe.

The load transfer path was sound but the damage caused by it was not. The standard configuration with the LCA and caster arm for a triangle which is pretty strong. I have a feeling that the revised design on your vehicle allowed for more movement that would be normally allowed.

But as I have said before, all speculation until you can get it on a jig and see what is straight and what is not.

Regards
Paul

[ae8zn6]

Makes some calls Jo and we can progress to stage II on Thursday

[maxhag]

I made a call to a bodyworks place that was recommended to me....

Just to put the car on the aligner is $440. Thats WITHOUT any work done, just setting it up.......
He also said, he doubts the aligner will have the measurement values for a car that old!!!!!! FFS!!!!! He wasn't positive, as the system wasnt on when I called.... Calling me back....
He also said, that having a modified firewall and tunnell, means that the factory values might be out to begin with.......

I wasn't exactly thrilled with the phonecall......

Waiting on a return call...

[Matt]

These measurements of the rails / underbody ae86 might be useful

[maxhag]

Ok, my car is booked in.....

* Going on a "Car aligner Mk4"
* All pulls are done COLD
* They do NOT plate the area afterwards. He said that just creates another weakspot. He says if its that bad, they replace the whole section instead
* Cost is $440 just to set the car up on the aligner WITH NO WORK DONE
* Without seeing the car, was quoted $900-$1000


As I know nothing about this sort of thing, how does this sound????? (Adan? Paul?)


(sorry to Hijack this thread Matt)

[Matt]

Hope the price of $900 is inclusive of the setup time... It does sound a little exy but that is me basing it on taking about about 6-8 hours all up @ approx $80 an hour without allowing for materials.

[meadan]

Yeah it sounds about right.

But id get them to check their program has the data for an ae86, because most panel shops dont know how to use the machine without it telling them what to do.

The car aligner is a decent system, and getting it on there is a good place to start. I wouldnt commit to anything except for a measurement though, would be better to ask for a result before they actually start doing work on the car.

How much of the car are they going to measure? It would be interesting to see how straight an ae86 is after 30 years with decent abuse. Plus no point them fixing a front rail which is 10mm out, if the whole car is 10mm out everywhere else...its all kinda relative in the end...

[maxhag]

He said they measure the WHOLE car..... To check if the chassis has "diamond"........

[whips]

When's it booked in for? I need this done too