What Should I Be Rebuilding/replacing First?

[Atari Boy 11]

Right, I have an 89 1.6 with a 1.9 in it. I now have the question of what to do next. I use the car as a weekend toy and track day car.

As I see it the next two things that I should be either, beam, mounts and brakes or dampers and springs?

I have a 1.9 beam in my garage that I need to finish off stripping which I could rebuild and use the 1.9 disk brakes that came with it. I would also put either solid or group N mounts on itI whole different discussion topic for sure).

The car is current on -30mm PI springs on the front and standard height at the rear, it is on its original dampers front and rear (the cars has done 156,000). I also now has 1.9 rims and standard 195 55 tyres.

A good friend of mine who does know his stuff thinks that I should be changing the dampers and springs first as he thinks the car is skittish.

I think that the beam on the car is okay but it is not going to last forever is it, and certainly I can’t lower it in its current state.

Ideally I would do it all at the same time but I would prefer to fund one bit at time.

 

Comments and advice would be helpful.

[Anthony 1,000]

Doing the beam first would be my suggestion, but then again I would say that, wouldn't I?

 

The dampers will be past their best no-question with 156k on the clock - especially with lowering springs on the front - but so long as they still seem to be giving reasonable damping then they can wait... at that kind of age/mileage the beam is more likely to be in a sorry state and detremental to the handling in my experience.

 

Clearly if the dampers are shot to bits and unable to deal with bumps without unsettling the car then they'll need to take prioriry.

[welshpug 1,627]

similar to what Anthony said, but I'd put an emphasis on safety, i.e give the brakes a checkover and sort the beam if its causing any issues with stability.

[Rob_the_Sparky 9]

Rear beam. If it is left too long then it will damage the beam making it more expensive to fix. Other suspension parts are easier to repair and don't damage other parts when a bit rough (as long as you don't stack it!).

 

Rob

[pug_ham 242 3 Cars]

Moved into correct section.

 

Graham.