Offroad-Express

I'm looking to make some 25mm spacer blocks to sit above the coils in the rear of my Niva. I need either some hard non-shattering plastic (ie like butcher's block), or some hard rubber.

Any ideas where I can buy some such material (big enough to make some 25 x 136 diameter blocks)?

Ta'.

go down to briscoes or wharehouse or whatever and go get the thickest plastic choppingboard you can find (must be that hard plastic stuff not wood uless you want a creaky car ) and get a hole saw and cut the out the right size to suit you coils not hard you'l figure it out

their was a place called industrial plastics;i brought 65mm round dowel for body lift.They even cut it to lenghts i needed for free.Was in birmingham drive don't no if still their but should be in phone book.

mroffroader wrote:go down to briscoes or wharehouse or whatever and go get the thickest plastic choppingboard you can find (

Yeah cheers, already tired that, as I'm pretty sure the chopping board plastic is exactly the right material (shatterproof), however the thickest I could find were lucky to be any more than 10mm.

You used to be able to get thick ones (about 2") but I can't seem to find any?

Cheers for the industrial plastics tip, I give them a go if no knows where I can get a thick chopping board.

you will be very lucky to find a chopping board that thick.. just use 3 10mm thick pieces.. or dont be cheap and order them from 4wdbits.co.nz or something..

had a look 4wdbits don't look like they stock anything for suzuki's

coxsy wrote:had a look 4wdbits don't look like they stock anything for suzuki's

Let alone Niva's

Work out the dimensions you need and see if Craig from Genie 4x4 can match some up for ya

are nivas not related to nissan's... always broken??? sure you can adapt something.. better still see if a local car yard will trade it in.. problem solved

callum007 wrote:you will be very lucky to find a chopping board that thick.. just use 3 10mm thick pieces.. or dont be cheap and order them from 4wdbits.co.nz or something..

Yeah, I know it sounds cheap, but I resent paying $100 for a couple of blocks I'm perfectly capable of making if only I could find the material.

But yeah, since I'm also lazy I'll see what Genie have got. You never know your luck.

PS - can't find a listing for 'industrial plastics' or anything like it in Chch.

try engineering plastics. they are located down by addington race course on the stretch towards tower junction. (facing the back section of the race course near the roundabout)

Mike

hehe have you every tried working with the proper stuff? UHMWPE
Its tough stuff so hope you have some decent tools....

Got quoted $150 by one Engineering place to cut 8 x 2" Blocks from a rod and put a hole in the middle... (and i was supplying them with the rod)

After Killing:
1 Metal Cut off Saw
1 Hole Saw
1 Wood Band Saw Blade
5+ Hacksaw Blades
Kept Bringing the 500w Drill to a Halt

Can't remember what else i used/killed but ended up using a Table Saw/Circular Saw Thing with some funny blade i think, and drilling a close round series of holes with a small drillbit and then using the hole saw just to finish it off...

Just outta interest do niva's have IFS fronts?
Have you considered swapping coils with something from another car also?

[quote="icekayak"]hehe have you every tried working with the proper stuff? UHMWPE
Its tough stuff so hope you have some decent tools....

quote]

You make an interesting point, Ice,

Woodworking tools!!

A spade bit does a great job of the hole in the middle, and an ordinary woodworking cutoff saw to trim to length. The Spade bit provides excellent clearance for the swarf.

I betcha a wood lathe would be the go for accurate trim length too.
Do they blocks HAVE to be absolute precision machined? a mill or two shouldn't matter?

Must talk to Wopass about how to do body lift.............

grr my other reply disappeared...

Have you tried those tools or just suggesting Cos was gonna try another set.

The engineering place was gonna use a lathe to do it.
The accuracey doesn't matter too much i just needed a sung fit over a bumpstop and to fit inside a outside lip. (so just did the final adjustment with a drill pushed against side of the hole, was way too slow with the file i tried)

You really need something with a lot of torque at low revs, and was suggested using armour all (like dashboard spray/polish) to make it slippery when using the hole saw... it sorta worked till i ran out It just generates huge amount of friction on the holesaw/blade....

Body lift? you gonna need that certed, is that gonna void your warrenty?

The point of armour all is as a lubricant. Yep. but your main enemy is the heat created by the friction of the sides of the hole saw in full contact with the stock.
Hence my suggestion of the spade bit, little contact with the sides and plenty of room for the swarf.

Just rent one of those Ramset beam drillers with the coolant tank, last time I rented one it was $15 for an hour. But I do alot of business with them. I was using it for 10mm steel, no reason it wouldn't work for what you want, slow and torquey

just have to find a way to hold it then

Get one with a mag base

mag base? I meant for the plastic...

mike wrote:try engineering plastics. they are located down by addington race course on the stretch towards tower junction. (facing the back section of the race course near the roundabout)

Cheers Mike, by the look of their site they're exactly what I'm after. A great selection of rod, tube and sheet sizes of tough plastics.


PS - I have access to a wood lathe so some milling isn't too much of a problem.

PPS - Yes the Niva is IFS. It basic layout is very similar to the original Rangie. Despite being IFS they are sill quite capable, though I'm in constant fear of dropping the front alloy diff on a rock. Must get around to making a guard one day...

PPPS - Yes I'd love to have longer springs in the rear (easier and more legal), but the Niva ones are already quite long (41cm off the top of my head). The only cheap replacements come front the front of 6 cylinder cars, which would be far too stiff for the rear of the poor old niva.

1994 Honda Accord US WAGON springs ?rear? are 115mm x 430mm with a faily soft spring rate (and ?fronts? are 100mm x 410mm) think they sold for $10 on Trademe when i was looking for vitara ones....
so just keep looking for factory springs on trademe etc.. just ask everyone what length they are

May pay to have a look at vitara front IFS as in them a 20mm spacer will lift it 30mm due to the geometry of the IFS (dunno if its same for a niva), and then you run into CV angle problems if you go too high....

Also need to probably think about longer shocks

Sorry know nothing about niva's but have just done different springs/shocks and coil spacers in my vitara

icekayak wrote:1994 Honda Accord US WAGON springs ?rear? are 115mm x 430mm with a faily soft spring rate

Cheers for the heads up on those. Yes, the rating would be about perfect. However (I was wrong with my 41cm length guess ), stock Niva coil length is 434mm, so I need 460mm long coils of about the same rating.

Actually now you mention jap cars, thick-ish rubber spacers from a car with the correct diameter coils might even do the job. Hmmmm, maybe a visit to the wreckers...



And yes you're right about the geometry effect - even on the live axle rear end 25mm spacers give a 50mm lift!
Not sure what to do about the rear shocks as I just bought new rear gas shocks not that long ago. These look to have lifted the rear about 20/30mm themselves so I though I might get away with a lift on them. However, when I measured them their travel is the same as the stock shocks so yeah I'll probably have to find a safe way to shift the mounts (or buy some new ones. )


For the front I have some HQ springs that apparently give a 50mm lift, and some 20mm steel ball-joint spacer blocks to correct the camber and help clear the upper bump stop.
Apparently the stock shocks are fine with this, but I have my doubts. Luckily it looks easy enough to drop them at the front with some stock sized nolathane or a bit of square section.

so problem all solved then..

just use aluminium itll do the job for a body lift, its wat i use.
nylon billit will be fine too however it will deterorate faster. nylon is cheaper than aluminium, itll cost you about $60 for 1m of 2" dia. aluminium is about $100 for 1m of 2".

Ryan.