A Day of 8-Therapy

[WedgeWorks1]

Went to my friends place to help him with his and others TR8s. His gold convertible I put a new cloth Robbins top on. The green TR8 needed a gas tank then a tune up. The orange TR8 just needed to be seen and admired for being a $100 TR8 coupe that was almost written-off now that it is officially on the road.





Before.....


After......

[MGBV8]

Mike,

Nothing like V8 weekend to brighten your spirits!

What size wheels & tires on the green TR8?

[WedgeWorks1]

They are compomotive 15x7s. The gold car are 17x6 fronts and 17x8 rears.

[MGBV8]

So there is hope for decent size wheels & tires for the TR7/8.

[WedgeWorks1]

There is but some serious inner fender lip and body triming to make them work. I do feel bad for the front wheel bearings.....so small for such a big tire but he is all straight line.

[tr8todd]

I'm running 16X8s on my car and could have easily gone as big as 16X10s on the back.  Fender rolling and even fender stretching, coil over struts, and different wheel bolt patterns help in the quest.  Without these mods, the best you can do is a 15X7 and 205 tires.  I got around the small wheel bearing and difficult bolt pattern by installing a Ford rear end and modified Rover SD1 front struts.  If anybody has a set of the SD1 struts laying around they want to sell, I'd be interested.  Several of my buddies want to copy this setup, but can't find the used struts and hubs.

[djw090]

The wheels from an MGF bolt straight on. In TF guise these go up to 16 inch.

[bsa_m21]

Todd,

What has to be modified to make the SD1 struts fit?

Martin

[roverman]

If one wanted a 5 on 4.5" bc., light weight, strong, good brakes and cheap... perhaps retrofit series II, Mazda RX 7 ? roverman.

[tr8todd]

The SD1 struts are taller, have a larger diameter tube, larger spindles, bearings, hubs, and brakes.  I started by cutting off the spring perch.  Then using a pipe cutter, a section of tube was cut out.  I can't remember how much, but it was enough to make the tubes the same length as the TR8 ones.  I butt welded them back together and ground the weld smooth, making sure to do the cutting and the welding on the part of the tube that was getting the new spring perch.  I went with adjustable coil overs, so the new perch was a piece of pipe wrapped around the tube and welded in place over the cut/repair.  Five inch threaded collars and adjustable perches were slid down the tube so that they sat on the pipe of pipe.  The hubs were taken to a machine shop where the lug holes were filled and redrilled to 5X4.5 to match the ford rear end.  The TR8 steering arm, lower control arm and ball joint are a direct bolt on.  Once installed, you will end up with a little negative camber, that can be taken out by slotting the towers or with camber plates if you so choose.  I left it the way it is.  A little negative camber is a good thing.  I didn't stop there, the brakes are Willwood calipers with modified 284mm vented Jeep rotors and the inserts are adjustable Konis.

[bsa_m21]

Thanks Todd,

Exactly the info I was looking for!  

M.

[KBStag]

Nice work.  Looks like a fun car.