1986 Daihatsu L70/L80 Mira/Handi

ill-minded · **Posted:** Tue Mar 12, 2013 11:24 pm

Spent a few hours today fiddling around with the rear end today to fix the springs being non-captive at full droop and frequently bottoming out on bumps. Installed some Daihatsu Feroza front dampers, which are probably a fair bit over-damped and also trimmed the springs a little more to level the rear out. If I can find some dampers with the same dimensions as the Feroza ones, but with less aggressive rates, I'll swap them in, but I don't think there's much in that range off the shelf, unfortunately.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Wed Mar 13, 2013 6:42 am

Okay, Feroza dampers are not good.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:00 am

The good news is that I've recently discovered that old Mini rear shocks should bolt up. They're a shorter unit, like the Feroza ones, but as they're designed for a similarly sized car, should make a remarkable improvement over having basically no suspension and uncaptive rear springs, which I wasn't particularly fond of. I've got a pair on order and should have them early next week.

john · **Posted:** Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:08 pm

ill-minded wrote:

How'd the Vegemite go?

Umm... Interesting. :mrgreen:

ill-minded · **Posted:** Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:42 am

Hahaha. Did you pass it around for everyone to taste?

In other news...

Ah, shit.

john · **Posted:** Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:46 am

ill-minded wrote:

Hahaha. Did you pass it around for everyone to taste?

Oh yeah... :tu:

ill-minded wrote:

In other news...

Oh yeah... :tu:

ill-minded · **Posted:** Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:58 am

I love that 10" 110PCD wheels are quite a niche. It means that they're usually dirt cheap for even the coolest styles, unless they're 6" or wider. 7,000 yen (~$75) is all it cost for those ones.

john · **Posted:** Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:03 am

Can you fit bigger wheels? Say a 12x6?

ill-minded · **Posted:** Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:15 am

Yeah. Standard wheels are 12×4J +50, so technically I'm stepping down to the 10" wheels. I much prefer the 10" size over standard. There's also a hell of a lot more selection of wheels in 10" that fit easily. 5J +20 is what the Mk Is are, and they fit pretty neat in the guards. The FL-IIs are 5J +5 and they're gonna need a bit of work to get them to fit the front without poking too much, but still easily achievable. These Volks are 4.5J +35, I think (hard to tell from the image of the wheel size sticker) so they'll sit inboard a little bit, but I can live with that.

john · **Posted:** Sun Mar 17, 2013 9:25 am

ill-minded wrote:

These Volks are 4.5J +35, I think (hard to tell from the image of the wheel size sticker) so they'll sit inboard a little bit, but I can live with that.

They look badass, too.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Mon Mar 18, 2013 7:45 am

Got my new dampers today. Sizing looks to be spot on with what I was after, so I'm chuffed as nuts. Only little niggle is that the lower mount is to suit a 3/8" bolt, so I'll have to run out and grab some new bolts for those tomorrow. I'll probably drill them out a little to 10mm to keep everything metric. I'd drill them out to 12mm as the factory units are, but there's not enough meat in the crush tube for my liking, so smaller bolts it is.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:59 am

Jiggered up the lower mounts with some new M10 bolts and a bunch of washers I found in a bucket of old bits and got the dampers installed today. Took it for a quick little drive and the difference is amazing. Feels a lot more stable and my springs are now captive again, so no clunking every time I enter or leave a driveway.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Wed May 08, 2013 8:33 pm

So I'm finally making a bit of progress on this, now that I have the Celica (see link in sig) to drive around in the meantime, so once I can get a hold of a welder again, I'll start tacking up everything and getting it all lined up and ready so I can take it to a mate for him to TIG it all up properly.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Thu May 23, 2013 4:46 am

Now that I have them here and can see what they're like, I have a feeling they're not going to clear the brakes. It won't be a near fit either by the looks of it.

Oh well. They'll make some cool furniture.

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Thu May 23, 2013 6:39 pm

Those are pretty slick wheels, they're actually the wheels I wish my Honda Life had instead of the replicas it's got on it.

Any more progress on the headers? I love watching those things take shape!

bennyd · **Posted:** Thu May 23, 2013 6:52 pm

Mmmmm very nice wheels, what's the offset on those suckers?

1986 Daihatsu L70/L80 Mira/Handi

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