Rear Suspension

I was a bit slack at taking photos of the back end...

Here's one of the suspension in place:

The long bolt through the bottom of the hub carrier is waaaaaaaay too long.  The IVA inspector will look for at least 2-3 threads past any lock nut, so I added 4 penny washers to the bolt, hacksawed the end off in line with the washers and then made rounded the bolt end with my Dremel.

The photo shows the arrangement of washers needed, from right-to-left: bolt head, flat washer, penny washer, bush, wishbone, bush, penny washer, hub carrier, penny washer, bush, wishbone, bush, penny washer, flat washer, lock nut, 2-3 threads.

Bolts at the front end have been inserted from the front, so I decided on inserting bolts from the rear at the back end.

Suspension - Dampers

I have opted for the ATR dampers and springs.  A quick phone call to Laurence at GBS helped with the installation procedure.  This shows what it should look like: 

At the top, the crush tube shortened and fitted to the front of the top mounting bolt.  The unit is fitted with the ATR emblem facing outboard.  Washers are added in front of the bolt face and the lock nut.

Suspension Build - Wishbones

Once the wishbones were loaded with bushes, I set about fitting them to the chassis.  Some of the Ford wishbones are sided; the rear upper wishbone, rear hub carrier and front wing bracket designed for the RIGHT HAND side of the car have notches on them: 

The pedals also go on the RIGHT HAND side of the car ;)

The front ended up looking like this:

I had to use penny washers to fill the gaps between the wishbone and the chassis mount whilst ensuring that the wishbone was mounted as centrally as possible in between the mounting points:

Suspension Build - Bush Installation

Job 1:  Unpack kit.

Job 2:  Build suspension.

This is how I did it...

Firstly, I fitted the bushes into the wishbones.  I don't have a vice, so opted for a different method - threaded rod, nuts and some hardcore washers.  Using an M10 threaded rod, I locked 2 nuts at one end then used the washers to keep everything square and true.  I smeared grease on the bush and made a nut, washer, bush, wishbone, washer, nut sandwich like this:

 And then wound the bush in using a ratchet and spanner:

After both bushes were fitted, I then measured the overall width using some calipers:

Then filed down the crush tube to match the overall width and squeezed it in using the same method.  This was repeated until all of the wishbones were fully loaded.