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Rex 2.0 wrote:Any chance I could pick up a set of those bushings?

X2^^^^^

X3 on the bushings

I can get you the info on it or have a set made if you provide a set of strut housings and Koni cartridges to test fit...

Unfortunately they are not identical so I cant just pop them out unless someone comes up with a way of cutting the strut PERFECTLY straight at exactly the same height. I used a very large pipe cutter and they still ended up a little bit different between the two. The height of that visible top collar will vary from setup to setup to determine how deep the cartridge goes into the strut housing. These are also very tightly fit to the cartridge and I don't know and hope that wouldn't vary much at all. If I don't have that ability to check depth then the nut at the bottom of the cartridge could be too high from the base of the strut OR the bushing could actually sit too low on the cartridge and be able to move up and down... I probably could come up with a standard size, but then to ensure these do not move you would have to either have them made from steel and weld them in, OR make up set screws or something. I'm relying on the bolting in of the cartridge to hold them in place.

3X00-Modified wrote:I can get you the info on it or have a set made if you provide a set of strut housings and Koni cartridges to test fit...

Unfortunately they are not identical so I cant just pop them out unless someone comes up with a way of cutting the strut PERFECTLY straight at exactly the same height. I used a very large pipe cutter and they still ended up a little bit different between the two. The height of that visible top collar will vary from setup to setup to determine how deep the cartridge goes into the strut housing. These are also very tightly fit to the cartridge and I don't know and hope that wouldn't vary much at all. If I don't have that ability to check depth then the nut at the bottom of the cartridge could be too high from the base of the strut OR the bushing could actually sit too low on the cartridge and be able to move up and down... I probably could come up with a standard size, but then to ensure these do not move you would have to either have them made from steel and weld them in, OR make up set screws or something. I'm relying on the bolting in of the cartridge to hold them in place.

I am very interested, any idea on turn around and price? I've always wanted fully adjustable suspension on my cars.

I'm getting some info made up and a price so if you guys want he can do these... But as noted for BEST fit I would request to have the cartridges and strut housings here to do the custom fit of them, otherwise they may not sit right, Or you would have to better secure them if we came up with a non clamp fit style. One of mine is a bit looser since the strut housings are not perfectly round so I'm going to secure both bushings into the strut housing with a thin layer of metal epoxy on it just to take up the gap, the rest is very solid. I wish there was a way to hold the housing because then we could have threaded the ID and then threaded the OD of the bushing... talk about sweet... lol That would have just taken way too much effort to setup though.

Turnaround would probably be 3-4 days here tops plus shipping each way as long as I schedule you shipping me the parts to a time when he is not busy. Do what I did, find a set of dead housings and use those... don't pull the current struts off your car. I've been saving these housings from last year to do this to them.

those are nice

I could do mine this winter. I can send the strut housing and insert no problem. Just let me know how much.

Ok, he's getting prices together. What material would you guys want? I went with Bronze because it was here and would hold up very well and not hurt anything else, including the inserts... I can easily replace them in the future if necessary. I can have them done in steel and I could weld them in place before sending them back, but that's completely up to you.

Got a price to have them made with the Bronze he said around $225-$250. The price could be lower if you opted for mild steel but I'm not sure how much lower yet.

I'll get the exact cost of the material so I can substitute in other materials to see what it would be. Also Stainless Steel would be a cheaper materials as well but the extra machine time necessary since its so hard would bring you right back up to the same price.

This crap is getting serious...

3X00-Modified wrote:Got a price to have them made with the Bronze he said around $225-$250. The price could be lower if you opted for mild steel but I'm not sure how much lower yet.

$225-$250 for bushings only?

Correct. The material isn't cheap and it takes a while to machine them specific to each application. If they were all the same I think it would be easier but each one is different since there is not way to perfectly cut the strut at the same height, and be 100 straight.

I'll ask him what material he used to price that so you know, as well as how much material is needed for each bushing.

I'll get more details on the cost this week

*EDIT

He's quoting it at $100/hr for custom machine work and the cheapest bronze I found was $70 not shipped for a 6" tube. He said its about 3" of material per bushing used. The biggest cost here is the fact that they are all different, all of the strut tubes are different diameters slightly and the heights are all different and he has to pull the part multiple times to test fit it and ensure it's right.

If you don't agree with the price that's fine, It's just what I have available in my area and I figured I would at least offer the service if others were interested. I would be curious to see someone get a quote from somewhere else just to have a comparison cost. Unfortunately though I will not give out a drawing for the part, That I designed myself... so the image of it is what you have to go off of.

Those are fancy bushings. These could be machined from hard plastic or aluminum too.

I used a piece of steel tubing for mine.

$225 is cheap for that small of a job.

I was going to use tubing but just couldn't find something that I felt comfortable with. My current issue with my struts is the center rod wobbles on the passenger side and created a clunk, so the last thing I wanted is something I didn't 100% trust to stay in place.

And yeah they can be made from any material, and anyone has the choice to decide what they want to use. I was going to do aluminum first but he talked me out of it for wear reasons and it being softer he also stated the bronze would hold up better if there was any movement as well as it wouldn't corrode at all. My next choice was delrin but we didn't have any scrap material and I found a 7" length of bronze to use so that's why mine is the material it is.

If aluminum were used it would actually make the entire setup permanent with corrosion being steel and aluminum sandwich. A plastic would be a good choice. It would not have to be that hard like Delrin. You can purchase UHMW in tubes affordable and it would do the job.