57 Nomad-C4-LS1 called "Ozzy"

[chevynut]

Sounds like a pretty good deal on those coilovers Paul. I assume you set the car at your desired ride height and measured the shock length. We usually set the front at about 12" with the lower a-arm level and the rear I believe is 13 5/8" with halfshafts level. Of course you can run it a little higher if you want.

As for springs, I believe we have found that 450# works well in the front with an LS engine and 500# works in the rear. For some reason the IRS requires a heavier spring than expected. I will be interested to see how yours works out. I have 600# springs in front with the BBC now and I will probably go with 500 or 550# rear springs.

[WagonCrazy]

I assume you set the car at your desired ride height and measured the shock length.

Yep. Seems like 12.5 in front is where I want it. 500 may be too stiff, but I'll find out when I get it roadworthy and then go from there. The coil springs themselves are $50 each from Viking.
Rear measured out at 14 ride height. 400 may be too light back there...

Front springs are 10 inches "unsprung" and rears are 12 inches "unsprung" so if they don't work, I can't swap 'em with each other. Will have to get new ones.

The main engineers from the King family were formerly with QA1 and started this company 2 years ago. They only make double adjustable coil overs, as well as straight shock only applications.

I almost went with Aldans (more local to me) but they were much pricier. About $1500 or so shipped to me + CA sales tax.

[WagonCrazy]

UPS just delivered the coil overs. I'm so excited. Christmas in July!
Will try to get them all put together and installed over the long weekend and post some pics soon.

[rockytopper R.I.P 5-13-2017]

Awesome build !!!! I've just started my LS nomad project. I was considering C nut's C4 frame. I thank it's probably the best bang for the buck on the market. I wanted to keep my wheel well and run a stock tank so I decided to go another direction or else he would have had my business also. Good luck with it gonna a be way bad azz.
Rocky

[WagonCrazy]

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Got the front coil overs put together and installed. It's a tight fit. Less than 1/8 inch to 2 main "touch points'.

The upper shock mount...near the top of the spring cap.
The lower (stock C4) sway bar mount...the spring almost touches about 1 inch from the bottom of the spring...about where the 2nd coil comes around....

Once installed though, and the weight put on them, the clearances seem to be ok (barely). But there's no room for error...thats for sure.

CNut, lets talk sometime about how this might affect future frames you build. Specifically, the design of that top shock mount, and the positioning of the holes in the front sway bar mounts (so it will allow the sway bar ends to be moved "fore" about 1/4 inch more.)

On to the rears!

[WagonCrazy]

For some reason, the process of adding pics here gets them rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise.
I tried to adjust that on the pic end, to no avail...

Oh, you may notice I haven't sinched the coil springs up (with the spanner wrench) yet. They are set at the bottom for now. Will do the fine tuning next time I get under there.

[chevynut]

Paul, I would be glad to consider your design feedback. I don't think there's any need for "excessive" clearances, but if there is interference of it's too close for comfort, it surely needs to be addressed. After 50 C4 projects, you're the only one who has ever mentioned this to me. Your frame was #11.

I am surprised that the upper shock mount is an issue at all. Is there clearance fully extended? If so, there should be no problem. When I went to laser cutting the upper shock mounts, I re-designed them slightly and I think they have better clearance. What is the distance from the outboard side of the frame to the center of the shock bolt hole? I may have increased that slightly and I think the "legs" may be a little narrower than on yours. You can grind some clearance there if you feel you need more.

I always knew the swaybar was close, so we position the swaybar mount as far forward as we can without slotted holes. Your swaybar bushing clamps should be slotted, so it can be moved further forward if needed. I would recommend trying a different type of end link to allow it to move a little further forward. The stock link works, but it's pretty restrictive. Mine is close too. I ground the end of the swaybar down a little for more clearance.

[WagonCrazy]

I am surprised that the upper shock mount is an issue at all. Is there clearance fully extended? If so, there should be no problem. When I went to laser cutting the upper shock mounts, I re-designed them slightly and I think they have better clearance. What is the distance from the outboard side of the frame to the center of the shock bolt hole? I may have increased that slightly and I think the "legs" may be a little narrower than on yours. You can grind some clearance there if you feel you need more.

Distance from the outboard side of the frame to the center of the top shock bolt hole is 1.25 inches.
When fully extended (jacked up the front end letting the wheels hang), the top shock hat binds ever so slightly at the thin portion of the mount. I can grind that down if needed.
But...when the front end is compressed to ride height, that top hat/collar rotates slightly...taking the binding off. I stood on the front frame horns and jumped up and down...articulating the suspension and it didn't seem to bind up there, so I think it's probably OK as is.

I always knew the swaybar was close, so we position the swaybar mount as far forward as we can without slotted holes. Your swaybar bushing clamps should be slotted, so it can be moved further forward if needed. I would recommend trying a different type of end link to allow it to move a little further forward. The stock link works, but it's pretty restrictive. Mine is close too. I ground the end of the swaybar down a little for more clearance.

I'm using Energy Suspension sway bar bushings and clamps, and I don't remember if they are slotted at this point. I need to get under there and loosen it all up and see if I can get the "forward" sway bar movement I want. Grinding some meat off the end of the bars really won't help, because its not the bars that bind. It's that stock square shaped end link setup that is very close (less than 1/16" inch at ride height). But again...jumping up and down on the front end didn't actually bind anything...so I will readjust it all and see if I can create a bit more clearance.

I think this will work out well without too much more fuss.

Want to get to the back end of the wagon and put the rears in next.

[WagonCrazy]

Update:
Rear coil overs are in, and are a bit long. Wagon sits too high. Even though there will be about another 500 pounds when it's all assembled, I may still get a set of slightly shorter springs to see about lowering it more. The current 12 inch springs are adjusted all the way 'loose" to get it as low as possible. Ratcheting up on the adjustment nut just raises the wagon up more by extending the shock.

I started back on the sheet metal repairs to the floors and headed for the cargo area yesterday. Finished the floor and access panel for above the fuel tank.

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No on to fixing the floor above the "doggone" connections at the frame (under the rear seat). Those dog bone ends stick up about 1/2 inch above the plane of the existing floor. Will shoot a pic when I get done with that.

small steps forward...

[chevynut]

Paul, I was wondering if you ran into dogbone interference issues with the floor or not. Wade did and I did, but for some reason some guys didn't seem to (or didn't mention it). Maybe it has to do with the body mount thickness or body placement on the frame. It's a minor thing, and I try to mention it to guys looking at the C4 setup. You can't avoid it by putting the dogbone lower in the front, because that will mess up the anti-squat geometry. The only way to really address it would be to move the rearend rearward slightly, extending the wheelbase, or lowering the position of the rearend in the frame which will raise the car. Both of those things would allow you to lower the dogbone and not affect the geometry.

By the way, I checked my new upper shock mounts and they are slightly longer from the frame to the center of the bolt. Perhaps I should increase it even more, but I'm not sure it's necessary. The "legs" are 1/2" wide.

If I were you I would not mess with the springs until you get all the weight on the car. I think the 400# springs are going to end up being a bit too light. I don't remember when I decreased the shock angle but I believe it was before we built your frame. So you should be able to use a lighter spring than Bruce and Wade used but I still think 400# is too light.

You don't want to try a shorter spring.... a lighter spring is the right way to address it. But again, I would wait until you have the car finished, full of fuel, etc. before I messed with final spring selection.