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Pigeon-Rat - Opel gambler build

1966 Opel rekord mounted to 1990 Nissan pathfinder.
Overview Gallery Discussion
Got a chance to work on pigeonrat a bit today. A few days ago I picked up some 3/16 plate to start making the crossmember. I also picked up some tubing to make bolt throughs.
Before cutting anything, I decided that I really need to be better braced on the I side of the frame. When I cleaned up the frame earlier I hadn't fully cleaned up the inside, so I got that done today.

I really want the crossmember to be removable, so finding the right way to bolt it on has taken some time. I decided before cutting out the cross pieces, I need to bolt some plates to the frame so I know for sure the dimensions of the pices I'm going to weld to.

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I drilled a 1/4 hole straight through a piece of square tubing with the drill press to use as a guide to make the hole in the frame straight across.

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I then used a 3/4 hole saw.

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Tubing in place so I can mark the width.

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Ready to weld in place.

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Welded up.

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7/16 bolt.

The plan is 4 bolts per side. I got 2 done on the ds today. I'll get 2 per side done for now. Should be enough to hold things in place for further mock up.
 
I was finally able to get my crossmember rendered in 3/16" plate. I'm still learning how to use the plazma cutter, and there is plenty I still need to add to the crossmember, but I got something I can work with for now.
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As you can see, I added 6 more holes in 1" increments so that I can play around with the pivot point height once I start cycling the suspension. I'll cut off any excess once I nail down where I want it to be. (assuming I don't make a whole new one).


Here it is mounted to the car. Hopefully I won't need to mount the axles anywhere near the bottomw holes. I want to get as much travel as possible, while keeping the lift as low as I can.
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Axle hung. The crossmember is just tacked together, but it's tacked solid enough to do some cycling.
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SInce I went this far, I just had to bolt the tires on to see how she looked. :cool:
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And drooped out:
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I don't have radius arms attached yet, and I'll have to do some cycling to see how much it can droop without binding the axle shafts, but it looks pretty cool like this.


The cross member is just about as far back as I can get it, but it still puts the tires a bit forward of the existing wheel well. No biggie, as I knew there would be significant trimming anyway.
20260531_211414.jpg

Besides, it's a lot easier to trim fender than it is firewall.
 
This is the best shot I could find. It's the second set (2" .250 wall Chromoly), the 3rd set is 2.25" .325 wall DOM.
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If you need more detailed shots I can go take some pictures.
 
Thanks! I remembered that you beat on them pretty good without issues. I couldn't remember if you had any section that was just 1 tube. 2.25" and .325 wall is pretty damn beefy!

How long are they? Do you know how much travel you have? I know it's a straight axle, so not exactly the same thing, but just trying to get a ballpark idea of what I'm shooting for.

The ones I saw at the shop were only 1.75" .120 wall, but you can see that they both go all the way back, so that makes a difference.
 
ashman said:
Thanks! I remembered that you beat on them pretty good without issues. I couldn't remember if you had any section that was just 1 tube. 2.25" and .325 wall is pretty damn beefy!

How long are they? Do you know how much travel you have? I know it's a straight axle, so not exactly the same thing, but just trying to get a ballpark idea of what I'm shooting for.

The ones I saw at the shop were only 1.75" .120 wall, but you can see that they both go all the way back, so that makes a difference.
Click to expand...
How do you plan on using this thing with the long travel?
 
ashman said:
Thanks! I remembered that you beat on them pretty good without issues. I couldn't remember if you had any section that was just 1 tube. 2.25" and .325 wall is pretty damn beefy!

How long are they? Do you know how much travel you have? I know it's a straight axle, so not exactly the same thing, but just trying to get a ballpark idea of what I'm shooting for.

The ones I saw at the shop were only 1.75" .120 wall, but you can see that they both go all the way back, so that makes a difference.
Click to expand...
They are 45" long between the bolts on the lower bar and 12" travel shocks. Brandon Watson always used to ask if I just had one bolt going through my front and rear link arms because they were all so long. But the truck has a 127" wheelbase, so it worked.
 
I forgot to add this. My first set was 2" .250 wall DOM, I bent the hell out of those. The second set was .250 wall Chromoly, I broke one of those in half on "the Trifecta" aka gold bar rim/golden spike/poison spider mesa.
 
Babaganoosh said:
That’s what I was wondering, I would think you could get a way with a 2in piece of dom.
Click to expand...
I'm sure that would be fine for him, the S-10 was pretty heavy and got dropped full weight onto those arms numerous times. If those aren't going to be drug over rocks, he could probably get away with something very lightweight.
 
What is this magical shop full of suspension parts you speak of? Cool speed shops are a dying breed.
 
HankScorpio said:
What is this magical shop full of suspension parts you speak of? Cool speed shops are a dying breed.
Click to expand...
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Midnight4x4 is a local shop here in Salt Lake. They sell a lot of fab parts, and build custom cages. Great guys to hang with too.
 
I got the radius arm mocked up. For now I just used a stock radius arm extended with pvc. From bolt to bolt it's 40" long. My current wheelbase is 109".
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Once I got the radius arms bolted up, I could start cycling the axle. I had some interference with my crossmember and the pumpkin.
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I had to cut quite a bit out to get as much up travel as possible.
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Luckily with the engine offset to the passenger side, there is plenty of room above where I cut to thicken the crossmember back up.

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After all the cutting, I was able to get it to where the radius arm was about 3/4" from the bottom of the frame.
I think that's probably about as good as it's going to get.
I'm aiming for 14" of travel split evenly between bump and droop, so tomorrow I'll set the axle 7" below here and see how tall she is.
 
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