Finding Suspension Components

Tachus · Post 13 Jun 2006, 16:21

Anyone know a good online supplier of Universal type, good racing suspension components? And im talking everything from A arms, to rocker arms, to bushings, to knuckles, basically the whole shabang.

Post 13 Jun 2006, 16:39

most of those things are built for a certain chassis or geomotry

you could buy the parts to make your own or buy some to fit a differnt car

what are you planning on building

Jersey Tom · Post 13 Jun 2006, 17:09

Yea. Either you build a kit car, or you do it all yourself. If you want to do it right anyway and have some control over your roll center placement, camber curves, etc.

DaveKillens · Post 13 Jun 2006, 17:37

http://www.summitracing.com/
http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Sports/Motorsp ... cessories/
http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/advcat ... SUSPENSION

Tachus · Post 13 Jun 2006, 18:35

Thanks for the links davekillens. And to answer a previous question, im building a formula styled street car from scratch, with a mix of custom and generic parts. Its not gonna be anywhere near the perfection of any formula car, but atleast its a start. Plus i dont have the money to make all of my own suspension components.

Post 13 Jun 2006, 19:13

Tachus wrote:Thanks for the links davekillens. And to answer a previous question, im building a formula styled street car from scratch, with a mix of custom and generic parts. Its not gonna be anywhere near the perfection of any formula car, but atleast its a start. Plus i dont have the money to make all of my own suspension components.

you will soon find its verry cheap to make your own as opposed to trying to make somehting fit

a few dollars in tubing and some sperical bearings throw in a little welding and your done

Jersey Tom · Post 13 Jun 2006, 21:18

Indeed. Since the labor is free, welding up a-arms and tie rods etc is pretty cheap.

Depending on what size car youre making, assuming its tube steel spaceframe chassis, I'd expect chassis and suspension steel to be on the order of $1500. From there just hope you have access to a TIG!

Tachus · Post 14 Jun 2006, 06:41

Yeah but im not gonna fabricate my own clevis brackets and rod end's and uprights and wheel hubs and things of that nature when i can just buy them for pretty cheap, and they'll be perfect.

Jersey Tom · Post 14 Jun 2006, 17:45

What makes them 'perfect'? How do you know if theyre strong enough to stand up to the loading you anticipate, or how do you know theyre not just grossly overbuilt?

scarbs · Post 14 Jun 2006, 17:49

try this forum, there seems to be quite a little industry forming around this series...

http://p081.ezboard.com/fdsrforumcarbuilding

Tachus · Post 14 Jun 2006, 18:17

considering any part I will purchase will be from a trusted manufacturer, and therefor of good quality, it doesnt make sense to fabricate your own complex components. It will also always be cheaper to buy from a manufacturer rather than make your own, when it comes to complex components. As for being strong enough, or too strong, there are standards which one can follow to make sure the proper dimensions and materials are used. As long as you pick the correct part, you should be fine. And by perfect, I meant perfect for the application.

Jersey Tom · Post 14 Jun 2006, 23:32

It will also always be cheaper to buy from a manufacturer rather than make your own, when it comes to complex components.

I disagree. In fact I'd say for complex parts its much cheaper to make them yourselves, assuming you have the facilities for it (ie if youre a university student). You both pay the same material cost, but the more complicated it is the more some other manufacturer is going to charge you for it. Whereas your labor is free.

Post 14 Jun 2006, 23:35

Jersey Tom wrote:
It will also always be cheaper to buy from a manufacturer rather than make your own, when it comes to complex components.
I disagree. In fact I'd say for complex parts its much cheaper to make them yourselves, assuming you have the facilities for it (ie if youre a university student). You both pay the same material cost, but the more complicated it is the more some other manufacturer is going to charge you for it. Whereas your labor is free.

i agree with you i used to race mx quads and an aftermarket set of arms was $400 or so with about a weekend you could make them your self for under 100

and if you are building a car a suspension part is not exactly a complex part

try making your own diff

Tachus · Post 15 Jun 2006, 06:58

I dont have the facilities to fabricate complicated parts, so anything I cant fabricate would have to be made custom by some manufacturer anyways, which I'll look into, but I cant see it being cheaper than buying from a supplier.

manchild · Post 15 Jun 2006, 08:48

It would me more usefull to merge these two threads about attempt to build a race car as one because both of them concern same problem.