I've been gathering parts for a while now to be able to do this and finally got everything I needed to get it done. Here's what is going in the car.

Baseline Suspensions Pro Launch #2 kit with anti-roll bar (thanks Kevin )
Wolfe Racecraft LCA and spring relocation kit (thanks again Gerry )
8.8 rear narrowed 1" on each side, with
Motive Gear 3.55s
Strange 9" ends (part number H1138)
Strange 33 spline spool
Mark Williams axles with 11/16" studs
TA rear end cover
Strange 10 setting adjustable shocks

I'll be keeping my '95 Cobra rear brakes and '03 Cobra wheels on it for the street and I have a new set of Bogarts for the track.

I'm also doing a minitub, that was inspired by TwinTurboStangMark, by cutting out the stock wheel wells and adding a 3" strip to widen them. I didn't want to switch to a coil over setup and also didn't want to move my shock inside the frame rail because I want to be able to keep my regular bend tail pipes, so I cut out the stock shock mounts and moved them in 1". If you look at the 5th picture and then the 7th picture, you can see the difference.

My dad and I have been working on it for a while now and hope to have it done here in the next few days.

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Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

more

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Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

The pictures of the wheels were before I started the project. The picture with the red circle shows where you have to clearance the Cobra brakes in order for them to work with the Bogarts. The wheels are 15X10 with a 6.5" backspace and the tires are 28X10.5 ET Drags with the stiff sidewall.

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Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Best part is, its done the way you want it done... Did you narrow the housing your self???

 

Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Looks great...pics answered tons of questions for me....Thanks

 

Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

matt was tellin me you got all kinds of new toys recently.
looks good!

 

Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Looks good!

Get some Aerospace or Strange rear discs and they'll clear the wheel.

 

Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Yep. One of my uncles basically has a machine shop in his garage (lathe, drill press, mill, etc) and I used his band saw to cut the old ends off. My dad has the bar and fittings for the housing ends and differential to set everything up, so we used that to line everything up. After we set it up, we found that the L side axle tube was bent, so we fixed that by heating and bending it back. Everything lined up great in the end. The pictures at the bottom show how far off the tube was before we fixed it.

Glad I could help.

Yeah man. I'm looking forward to seeing how much I can pick up with the drop in rotating mass by swapping wheels. My street wheels came out to 52.6 lbs a piece in the back. The Bogarts are 35.3 lbs a piece for the back and 23.3 lbs a piece in the front including tires.

Thanks. All I'll have to do is grind down that banjo bolt a little bit and the clearance will be fine. Plus, I've put enough money into this rearend setup already!!

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Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

FWIW, when I narrowed my rear end and welded 9" ends on, it was off just like yours is. Good thing you jig'd it and didn't just weld the ends on!

 

Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Little update. I had to modify the anti-moan brackets because of narrowing the rear. It was easy though. I just cut the weld, then moved the clamp part over, then rewelded it. I also put the uppers on the rear and the studs in and drilled out the holes in the chassis brackets for the uppers since the new uppers have 5/8" bolts. Got the plastics back in, but I still need to take a heat gun to them to get them to mold in a little better.

Tomorrow we'll be putting the rear end under the car and mounting the anti-roll bar so we can weld the tabs on the rear housing. Once we get it up in there, we'll be able to see exactly where we need to redrill the shock bracket on the rear end and get that done.

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Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

looks good Glad i could help-

 

Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Very well documented.

Got any pics with the springs installed?

The only screwed up part is that all that pretty painting of the rear end and the baseline suspension kit will be hidden once installed .

 

Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Thanks Brent,
I'll be getting those pictures today. I got nailed with a sinus infection yesterday and wasn't able to do anything but lay around the house. I'm feeling a little better today though after getting some antibiotics in me, so I'm going to try to go over and mess with it some more. It does suck that I won't be able to really show off the suspension after it's done. But then again, it'll just go with everything else I've done, and plan to do, with the car that you can't see and don't expect.

 

Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Little more progress. I still need to adjust all of the suspension parts, but I need to finish putting all the interior back in before I do that anyway. We got the new shock location made on the rear end bracket, but I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, so I'll put it up tomorrow. I also noticed that I'm going to have to rearrange my fuel lines a little to give me some more room above the anit-roll bar. As far as how it sits, I couldn't be happier. The tires tuck under it exactly how I hoped they would and other than a little more clearancing on my shock mounts, everything is perfect. I also used the heat gun and got the inner panels to mold in there a little better. It actually came out very nice. I'm happy with it.

Here's where it gets a little iffy. Since Wolfe Racecraft has NO instructions for installing the spring relocation kit that I got, I've just been going by the pictures they have on the site. Well it is looking like I needed to move the LCA mount on the rear end over a little bit or something because the spring doesn't sit straight up and down. It comes off of the perch straight (because by looking at their pictures, that's how it showed it), then it has to angle outward to go to the LCA. This has me a little worried, but I'm not sure if it will make a difference or not. Can somebody help me out on this one? I put some pictures in to show what I'm talking about.

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Re: My Wolfe, Baseline suspension/rear end build

Looks real good.

I really like the baseline anti-roll bar since it can easily be taken out of the car without cutting the weld out.

Your springs look like they are angled a little, is that so?

 

looks great, i'm thinking about mini tubbing my 93 gt

keep up the great work

 

Yeah, they are angled a little. That's what I was saying that I was worried about, but apparently WaterPog has the same setup, and has been running his the same way mine is, for 2 years and hasn't had any problems. I really wish Wolfe had some actual directions about that kit instead of just making you rely on some pictures of the kit being put on a race car, which I'm sure they moved the LCA mount on the rear end for. Oh well, if it becomes an issue, I know what I have to do to fix it.

Anyway, for today's update I mostly worked on the interior and trying to get the back seat to fit back in the car. It's amazing how much work I put into this thing to make it look like I haven't done anything. After doing some thinking, the best thing I could come up with was to actually take the seat apart and cut out some of the guts in it and then put it back together. Thus making the seat narrower, but not really changing the appearance. You can see in the pictures where I cut it out. Then I just pulled the fabric back tight and restapled it. I also cut some of the padding out of the outside bolster of the seat (the same side I cut the backing out). Bending the inside brackets also brought the two backrests closer together. I only put it in for a trial run before I left, but it looks like it's going to work. It's going to be REAL tight, but I think it will work. The only thing that sucks is that I'm not going to be able to lay the seats over anymore. But in all honesty, I'm really not that worried about it.

While I was working on the seat, my dad rerouted the fuel line to get it away from the anti-roll bar and put the tail pipes back in. Everything looks like it clears fine. I still need to check tire clearance with the tail pipes in though. I'm thinking it's going to be REAL tight if it works at all. If not, I'll come up with something.

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Finished the interior today. The only thing I had to do was beat the driver's side wheel well back out a little bit so the seat could squeeze in there, but it's not a big deal since I have A LOT of clearance inside the wheel wells. Everywhere except my shock mounts, but after I did some trimming, that's not a problem anymore either.

I put some pictures of the shock mount relocation we did too so you can see that.

The exhaust had some clearance issues on the passanger side, like I thought it would, but after some time with the heat gun, the plastic gas tank cover kindly moved over for me so the tail pipe could get away from the tire. As you can see in the picture, I have plenty of room now.

Today it was mostly about detail stuff and getting little things taken care of. If all goes well, tomorrow we will be able to machine the rotors and wheels so they will fit over the studs. The list is finally getting smaller.

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the caliper bracket is that from north race cars and did you cut it?

 

Yes, and yes. We had it milled out .160" X 3.160" to go over the bearing per some measurements from this thread. (thanks jinx44 ) https://www.theturboforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=75613.0 Then I measured the width of the axle after I got it and cut the slot in the plates to fit over the axles. The fit was great after it was all finished.


As for today, I got the exhaust and driveshaft mounted, put the battery back in the car, and was able to get the wheels and rotors drilled out to fit over the studs.

The first picture shows the piece that Dave (my uncle) made to center and lock the wheel on the mill and the gauge he was using to make sure the mill was perfectly centered over it. It was threaded on the bottom and screwed into a locking piece that is under the recessed area of the table top. Next is the wheel set in place and measuring to make sure it is perfectly in line with the center of the wheel, as all the other measurements and cuts are based off of those two points. He did the same thing for the next wheel and then cut the piece down so that it could be used on the rotor as well. Then the rotor was locked down and had the same measurements made so it could be cut. Before making the cuts in the wheels, we measured the size of the holes in the Bogarts and then drilled the wheels and rotors to 45/64". I love going over to his house and learning things about machining. If you were wondering why my roll bar is cut in the picture of the interior, it's because he is making me some clevises so I can make the bars swingouts.

Tomorrow I'm going to get the tires mounted back on the rims, install all of the brake parts, and hopefully finish this thing.

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