Sway Bars

[John]

I just thought I would share my plans with fellow SPF owners.

I'm in the process of making longer sway bar links for the rear sway bar. This will allow for more adjustment. As many of you have menitoned, they are too short.

With repsect to the front sway bar, after giving it much thought I have come up with two ideas.
1- Make a one piece bent unit, much like the originals. Using two piece pillow blocks and split bushings for chassis mounting and maintenance. The ends of the bar will be threaded to allow attachment to the connecting links.
2- Use a similar setup as SPF (3 pieces) but, the ends of the bar need to be larger. Having larger ends will allow for more splines to carry the load. This will also require using two piece pillow blocks and split bushings for chassis mounting and maintenance. The SPF idea is fine except the splines are too small. The concept is used frequently by NASCAR type sway bars. SPF made the ends small enough to slide through the chassis mount which, in my opinion, was a bad idea.

If anybody is interested in either the front or rear, please let me know. The more of these I make, the cheaper they will be. I will post pictures as soon as I have some. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to ask. I am very open to any other ideas to correct these problems.

Thanks,
John

 

[Mike Drew]

At the risk of asking the obvious, why are you trying to reinvent the wheel here? I agree that SPF really dropped the ball on the whole swaybar/end link setup (and why on earth was that allowed to happen? They did such an excellent job replicating the complex parts of the car, and then totally fouled up when making something as simple as a bent steel bar????)

However, there are manufacturers out there that are dedicated to making 100% authentic parts for GT40s. I'm talking about Cushman Competition (whose website has rolled over and died--what's up with that?), Safir etc.

I recall that Cushman has already made the proper swaybar mounts, the proper end links, and I have every confidence that he makes the proper sway bars as well, although I don't recall seeing them on his ex-website.

Here is a direct link to the parts you are considering making yourself:

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/vendor-manufacturer-announcements/25024-original-replacement-parts-3.html#post241839

And Safir? Who knows what they're making? You can barely find a phone number for them, much less a website. Still, it's likely they have the right stuff too.

Rather than screwing around trying to create proper parts, why not just buy them off the rack? Doing so will likely save you (and everybody) some money, give you instant gratification, plus it will provide support for businesses that have made significant up-front investments (in both time and money) to produce these things to support us.

Hopefully, SPF will respond to customer inputs, and will change their design to more accurately reflect the original setup (preferably before I buy mine!) :laugh:

 

[John]

Mike,

Thanks for the input. I couldn't agree more, that's why I asked. I checked out Cushman and saw his mounts. At the time I didn't see the the links, split bushings or complete bars. With respect to Safir I've talked to them about other things but, never the sway bar items. Honestly, I didn't think that everything needed was available off the shelf. I'll have to do some more research. Thanks again.

John

 

[Jay Cushman]

Mike thanks for the kind words and I am changing hosts on my website so it was only down for a few hours. Check out the new look and we are still working on it as we speak

 

[Mike Drew]

Mike thanks for the kind words and I am changing hosts on my website so it was only down for a few hours. Check out the new look and we are still working on it as we speak

Looks pretty snazzy, but nary a GT40 to be found anywhere. :huh:

I presume you'll get that part up and running soon enough. This thread just demonstrates that there is a demand for quality, authentic GT40 products, which is a small but growing niche in the marketplace. But nobody (and I mean *nobody*) is actively filling this niche. Yes, you have a lot of stuff, but as you can see here, few people really know about it. And I suspect you have (or can make) substantially more parts than you have even shared with us so far.

I urge you to take the time to fully exploit your unique position in the market, and formally advertise the pieces/parts you have available on your website.

(And the same goes for anybody else who is 'flying under the radar', offering authentic GT40 parts but essentially keeping it a secret!) :thumbsup:

 

[Jay Cushman]

Mike my business has always been around to support my racing but after I decided to build a near exact GT40 for myself and I felt tubs would be available for less than 100k I decided to make alot of the parts that were just not avaialable. Thru my years of racing and selling ford parts and engines we have developed alot of great friends and contacts that I can now use to get some of this stuff done. WE have a fully stocked fabrication shop and access to a large CNC machine shop. The biggest problem is making 40 of something to get costs inline and only selling 4 of them when your done. I am always open for ideas.

thanks Jay

 

[Mike Drew]

Mike my business has always been around to support my racing but after I decided to build a near exact GT40 for myself....

Hmm. Although we've seen your parts, I can't ever recall seeing your car? Care to share some photos, even if it's a work-in-progress?

Cheers!

 

[John]

The sway bars on the SPF cars aren't like the originals. Some of the original manufactured parts will work and some won't. One of those parts that doesn't, is the rear links. I have made longer rear links. Attached are pics showing both the stock and the longer links in the forward and aft position. The longer links definetly allow for more adjustment and a more linear motion. There isn't as much angle between the upper mount and the links. This might even help transfer the load better, less side force. As I mentioned before, if anybody is interested getting some made or has any comments, please let me know.