Polyurethane bushes

Get a chunk of material, sign up at any college that has a lathe....

Or mod it to use/do =something different / better?

Itys all just metal/rubber/polyurethane etc!

Thinking about this - Any ideas where to get nylon rod, poly, etc suitable for turning down into bushes? I know it can work out cheaper, but I'm damned if I know where to start looking for it!

And any thoguhts on nylon wishbone bushes? Would be way too hard for most of the others I suppose, but can't see why suspension arms can't be more solidly mounted.

In message , Stuffed writes

This guy can help there. He's mainly a non-ferrous metal stockist but also sells Nylon rod and other plastics.

snipped-for-privacy@mailordermetals.co.uk

He's located near Nottingham if you wanted to pick stuff up yourself.)

He's also usually at the autojumbles held at the Newark showground.

Thanks for the answers guys,

I can get them machined in work if I can get suitable material but when I contacted the local suppliers of polyurethane in Belfast they will only sell a minimum qty of 2m at 137quid a metre. I had no luck when asking if they had a small sample in stock. Nylon wouldn't work at this point I don't think as the movement would wear the centre hole into an oval . I'll contact the guy mentioned and see if he can help.

Cheers, Aaron.

It will handle better but you will get road noise etc. May as well use rose joints...

Cheers - Another site checked and bookmarked, but I'll mail him about nylon as it's not listed :)

Bit far to travel from the deepest southwestish!

The sub is going to get poly in place of the rubber with any luck, and a little more noise isn't a problem on an old rwd car where your left knee sits on the g/box cover :) Plus anything that tightens the feel a bit can't be a bad thing, as the Dolly isn't the tautest feeling car in the world.

And getting some nylon rod of the right diameter and turning it down makes more sense than paying the rather high price for poly bushes (they're more than the far larger sub mount ones, IIRC). And there's other cars as well, so it might work out cost effective, depending on the cost of the nylon rod. Just wasn't sure what the wear rate would be compared to rubber typed ones, and if the lack of shock absorbing could be a problem on the arms.

Damned sure they wear far too quickly on a road car! And cost more than a little. And aren't anything like as easy to fit. And have a silly name.

But yeah, if money facilities and time weren't problems, I'd seriously consider it :)

Although I doubt this is going to be an issue, tightening up bits of the suspension doesn't necessarily improve the ride quality, handling or cornering grip. It can make things jumpy or jerky rather than progressive, for instance.

That said, poly bushes seem to have a fair reputation, they can squeak in use (I've heard you should douse them in wd40 or something) and last forever, with no downside particularly.

I don't mind a little twitchiness as it geos, and the Dolomite (1500TC actually) doesn't seem to have the sharpest rear end as it is. Or front end, come to think of it. And there's no anti roll bars. So beefign things up a bit can't really hurt.

That's the main idea - I want to be able to put bits on this car, and not have to worry about it again for the foreseeable. A little harshness in the ride is worth a lot of miles without failure :)