Project 60: The latest

With the handbrake cables now in, I started routing and plumbing in the air lines. This is a very straightforward job, in which you just have to make sure the body won't trap or pinch any of them. 

By this point I was looking for some inspiration. I find that if I do little cool bits to inspire me it keeps my motivation going. So I bolted up the new rear drums and stuck the wheels off my Ghia on, lowered the pan off the axle stands and plugged the workshop compressor into the rear bags, inflated them and, hey presto, one (half) airbagged car! I had the rear end going up and down like a whore's drawers!

Full of motivation and with a tea under my belt, I got stuck into the front end. I bolted up the new 3.5-inch narrowed airkewld.com front beam and inserted the torsion leaf replacement bars. These do away with the two leaf stacks in the front beam and replaces them with two free spinning threaded bars. As all of the front suspension duties are handled by the air shocks, you no longer need the spring that the leaf stacks provide. The bars are held in at each end by two jam nuts and rotate around roller bearing washers (see photo, left). This ensures the front control arms move freely. It also means that each side moves independently of the other, allowing you to raise one side of the suspension without it affecting the other side.

Before I left the workshop I also mocked up roughly where the wings will sit to get an idea of how low the '60 will be. This confirmed my suspicions: It's low!