74 Turbo Dart Sport

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Holden Customs said:
I started getting my weird dana 44 rear end mocked up and in place. I am adding in a panhard bar to the back to help with lateral movement. I think I got it in a decent spot for clearance all around when the suspension compresses. I wish it could have been a bit longer but it seems like it will work.
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just curious on your thinking....why the panard bar? ...aren't those for coil over suspensions. The leaf springs keep the rear from moving lateral. Due to the relatively short attaching point to the rear swinging in an arc, I would think it would cause more lateral movement than reduce it.

you seem to really know your way around this build....I'm just trying to learn.
 
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HemiDenny said:
just curious on your thinking....why the panard bar? ...aren't those for coil over suspensions. The leaf springs keep the rear from moving lateral. Due to the relatively short attaching point to the rear swinging in an arc, I would think it would cause more lateral movement than reduce it.

you seem to really know your way around this build....I'm just trying to learn.
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Mainly, yes, they are just used in coil over suspensions. With leaf springs there still can be a decent amount of lateral travel from rubber bushings and the shackles. My thought was I had this panhard kit already and thought I would put it to some use on my project. Being that it is adjustable I thought it would be nice to play around with and compare it to the car if I remove it as well. Looking back at my pictures though after your comment and having some second thoughts I think I will make some larger brackets to mount to the diff and put it farther over to the driver side to increase the radius, then like you mentioned it would have less lateral movement caused by the bar itself.
 
Completed some more work on my weird dana 44 rear end. I wanted to go to disc brakes on the back and they unfortunately don't make kits for this one. The ssbc big bearing ford 9" was close and I had planned to use that but with them out of business I had to get creative. I ordered a set of calipers, pads, and rotors from powerstop for a 94 mustang gt and decided to make them work. I drafted some brackets for a bearing retainer and caliper mount and had a local machine shop laser cut them out. I was happy to find out everything was all correct and am quite pleased with the result.
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More work on the car over the past while. At least self isolation can be good for something. The backside of the underbody was prepped, primed, and painted. As well as my rear diff, brackets, and fuel tank. I also got everything installed again and sitting back on its own tires. She is a roller again.
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Today I formed up some patch panels for the quarters and got those welded in and did some light bondo work to cover up the bends. Still need to sand it down and try and find a color match to paint just the quarters, as I am not planning on painting the whole car.
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I had the colour matched up as close as I could by eye. The paint chip I had matched almost exactly in the sun. I smoothed out the patches, primed them, and put it down. Unfortunately there was more of a difference once it was on the car. I think if I buff out the edges it may make a bit of a difference but it will stay like this for now.
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While I was working on the 2 patches on the quarters, I took out the dash aswell. Forgot to grab some process pictures but it has been cleaned up, rust converted, patched where needed, and painted again. The dash pad I buffed with some leather conditioner and scrub bad, then polished. Came out looking pretty nice. I included a before picture.
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Holden Customs said:
I had the colour matched up as close as I could by eye. The paint chip I had matched almost exactly in the sun. I smoothed out the patches, primed them, and put it down. Unfortunately there was more of a difference once it was on the car. I think if I buff out the edges it may make a bit of a difference but it will stay like this for now.
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The problem was hard edging the tape, if you sprayed it so it faded into the rest of the adjacent paint on the quarter panel the difference in the shade wouldent be as noticable.
 
Not sure why you'd need a pan hard with leaf springs. I understand what a pan hard does but with leaf springs couldn't a pan hard make suspension bind up? Just never saw one on a leaf suspension before. Looks like it's going to be a neat build. Keep up the great work!

On Edit: Should have read whole post before asking. Saw someone else had same question. Still think it'll cause binding. But that's the beauty of this site and guys that do the "out of the ordinary" we'll see how things work out as time continues.
 
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Yeah I regret taping it but I think I can use a fine steel wool pad and soften the edges a bit. I used a soft tape edge, as in I flipped the tape back on itself so that it wasn't a hard edge but now I see that doesn't help much. Oh well
 
Joe Mc said:
Not sure why you'd need a pan hard with leaf springs. I understand what a pan hard does but with leaf springs couldn't a pan hard make suspension bind up? Just never saw one on a leaf suspension before. Looks like it's going to be a neat build. Keep up the great work!

On Edit: Should have read whole post before asking. Saw someone else had same question. Still think it'll cause binding. But that's the beauty of this site and guys that do the "out of the ordinary" we'll see how things work out as time continues.
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It may bind up, I do agree. I set up the bar before I changed out my rear leaf bushings and it went from lots of lateral movement to nothing. Then when I swapped the bushing, in my kit I noticed the hangers were different. Turns out the old owner had extended the shackles. So with new shackles and bushings there is almost no movement. But its in there now so I we will see what happens with it. More of an experiment.
 
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