Original Nagari wishbones

Fred Podner started this. He's keen to get his Nagari back on the road relatively quickly without a major overhaul over the next 10 years. I can relate to that. Fred has circulated a plea for advice about a number of things including what to do with those original wishbones. As an aside, our Spanish member after a quick look at the front end on his Nagari, exclaimed WTF or whatever is the Spanish equivalent. Fred has said "front wishbones I understand are not a Bolwell strong point so some mods to increase strength and reliability would be nice" and "considering minor relocation of the front suspension pick up points" and "I am interested in any alternate parts you may have found that have advantages over the original parts" and "are there any wishbone jigs?" and "I would appreciate any help/advice to make this as quick and painless as possible." A couple of other quotes from Fred are:-

 The existing wishbones look a little puny ( some early cars had failures) and all the front wishbones are inclined.  I would like to do the minimum changes and not chase “perfection” but I don’t want to make things worse than they already are.

&
The ford uprights or more particularly the ball joints are meant to be loaded from the top wishbone through the top ball joint being pushed down.  I think there is a version of the ford range ( galaxy I think) that had a lower ball joint designed for tension loads.  The upright is fine in the application.  Again I don't wan to change too much I think it mainly the weak wishbones ( maybe having the bottom arm horizontal and if I really get excited lift the top arm so that it doesn't ive as much camber change).


Beven responded with "I read somewhere that Ford uprights weren't designed to be used as they are used in a Nagari".   and then asked Andrew Maschmedt about it.


Part of Andrew's reply included:-

Some of the most enjoyable days spent on Bolly runs and sprints.

It's funny where we end up. I now work for Ford and at present, in India tuning shockers on Ford's local product. I live in Geelong and work at the You Yangs Proving Ground doing each day what I used to do at MSCA sprints. Sounds amazing but as you could imagine it is not always just fun.

I don't mind giving some advise to Bolwell members regarding unique suspension issues.

This is what appears at the bottom of mail from Andrew.
Andrew Maschmedt 
Technical Expert - Tyres & Handling 
Vehicle Dynamics 
Product Development
Ford Asia Pacific & Asia 


From Peter G:-

(Footnote: I have sent Fred drawings of early wishbones, as well as drawings done by Andrew Giannopoulus when he updated his wishbones, I included info on Mustang II and Holden HQ-WB lower ball-joint swap. All this info should be readily available, through the Club, any thoughts? Ed.)

Peter, could these drawings and information be published in subsequent Slipstreams?

At the bottom of this post is a provision to contribute to a discussion on this subject - just click on comments.