V8S bush upgrade
Discussion
Are you getting them to remove the trailing arms or doing that bit yourself. Removing the trailing arms can be a right sod of a job if all the bolts are seized. In a fully equipped garage with a ramp etc, maybe five hours all in for both sides? You might want to get a fixed price off them just in case. You'll also need to be sure the mechanic understands how the shims go back in or it will upset your geometry. Squeezing old bushes out and new ones in should be straight forward enough if they have a big enough press. It might be a good idea to give the garage a full set of new bolts. Some are UNF some are metric. Good luck 
I stuck with a rubber bush when I did mine.
I stuck with a rubber bush when I did mine.
v8s4me said:
Are you getting them to remove the trailing arms or doing that bit yourself. Removing the trailing arms can be a right sod of a job if all the bolts are seized. In a fully equipped garage with a ramp etc, maybe five hours all in for both sides? You might want to get a fixed price off them just in case. You'll also need to be sure the mechanic understands how the shims go back in or it will upset your geometry. Squeezing old bushes out and new ones in should be straight forward enough if they have a big enough press. It might be a good idea to give the garage a full set of new bolts. Some are UNF some are metric. Good luck
I stuck with a rubber bush when I did mine.
Is that 5 hours just for trailing arms or the whole job? I stuck with a rubber bush when I did mine.
They're a nightmare to do, in terms of labour. I'd expect to be doing that all day, possibly longer (if done properly).
I rate the Powerflex bushes, and use them not only on my own car, but on any customer's cars we do a chassis job on. The fronts are very tricky to fit without destroying the bush. The rears are difficult to remove the old one, but easy to fit the new ones. As for which is better on the rear - OE or poly, the poly's don't have the same clear cut advantages over normal rubber that they do elsewhere on the car, as they're a different design, which is effectively two-top hats that butt together inside. The outer part of the 'top-hat' ends up pinched against the trailing arm hangers. Looks less than ideal when you fit it all together, and personally I'd prefer to see a straight bush with some thrust washers on the ends, something like that. I might have a word with Powerflex - I've already in talks with them about improving the front ones to make them easier to fit. That all said, I've never actually had a problem with the rears.
Don't expect them to tighten up the handling or anything. The originals are no softer. The advantages (for me anyway) in the poly lie in the fact the inner sleeve is free to rotate inside the bush, rather than being bonded as they are in the originals. Obviously poly is more durable than the rubber too. I like using them because I know the car will ride silently, handle nicely and the product is good quality.
I only use Powerflex though. Haven't seen any other brands that get near them for the finished product.
edited to add: Take it somewhere that's done the job before, or somewhere you know they're sensible and trustworthy. It's easy to knacker these bushes trying to fit them!
Another thing I'd give consideration to is shot blasting and repainting the arms while you're at it. You know they're all done then. I'd also follow the advice of using new bolts/nuts.
I rate the Powerflex bushes, and use them not only on my own car, but on any customer's cars we do a chassis job on. The fronts are very tricky to fit without destroying the bush. The rears are difficult to remove the old one, but easy to fit the new ones. As for which is better on the rear - OE or poly, the poly's don't have the same clear cut advantages over normal rubber that they do elsewhere on the car, as they're a different design, which is effectively two-top hats that butt together inside. The outer part of the 'top-hat' ends up pinched against the trailing arm hangers. Looks less than ideal when you fit it all together, and personally I'd prefer to see a straight bush with some thrust washers on the ends, something like that. I might have a word with Powerflex - I've already in talks with them about improving the front ones to make them easier to fit. That all said, I've never actually had a problem with the rears.
Don't expect them to tighten up the handling or anything. The originals are no softer. The advantages (for me anyway) in the poly lie in the fact the inner sleeve is free to rotate inside the bush, rather than being bonded as they are in the originals. Obviously poly is more durable than the rubber too. I like using them because I know the car will ride silently, handle nicely and the product is good quality.
I only use Powerflex though. Haven't seen any other brands that get near them for the finished product.
edited to add: Take it somewhere that's done the job before, or somewhere you know they're sensible and trustworthy. It's easy to knacker these bushes trying to fit them!
Another thing I'd give consideration to is shot blasting and repainting the arms while you're at it. You know they're all done then. I'd also follow the advice of using new bolts/nuts.
Edited by Kitchski on Saturday 18th February 10:52
Top Gear TVR said:
..Is that 5 hours just for trailing arms or the whole job?
It took me two weekends and all the intervening evenings to get one off. But that was working in cramped garage with the car on axle stands and so very limited access. The lesson I learnt was that if the bolts through the bushes are even slightly seized don't wast time trying to get them undone. Go straight for the cutting disc and get the buggers out. Richard is in your part of the world isn't he? He will have done lots of these I imagine so why not take your car to him, then you know it's in expert hands? Top Gear TVR said:
Ok so my guesstimate of half a day to strip and half a day to rebuild front and rear is OK. I'm planning to send front components for clean and powder coat if I go ahead.
And maybe disc and calipers upgrade?
I think those are pretty optimistic times. Some outfits will happily give you a fixed price quote, and then just have to swallow the difference when they find it takes forever. Places like mine, who are much smaller and don't have a massive bank balance to fall back against just have to be upfront and say "We think it'll take roughly XX hours, but we really won't know until we start." Problem is, two seized bushes could add another 50% in hours to the job.And maybe disc and calipers upgrade?
I would guess (because I'm sitting here with Rich's non-committal hat on, not Southways' hat) that to remove the front wishbones (with no bolt issues) and strip the bushes out, you'd be looking at 3hours or so. To remove the back, again no issues, another hour per side (it takes a LONG time to undo a nut 1/36th of a turn at a time, with UNF threads either full of rust or paint.....or both! There's four of those) So you're just over a morning's work there to remove everything. To fit polys to front and then install, that could be another 3 hours, and then the back's going to be about the same. So you've got 11hrs there, and then if there are ANY problems with rusted bolts etc, you could easily add another 5 or 6 into it.
It's one of those jobs where you really don't know how bad it's going to be until you do it. It's much easier with no body in the way
I wouldn't powercoat the arms either. Get them zinc spray-galvanised and then overcoat yourself with a 2k brush on paint (to reduce costs a bit) or have them 2k sprayed. Bare in mind also that freshly painted arms will need more prepping to fit the bushes.
v8s4me said:
Richard is in your part of the world isn't he? He will have done lots of these I imagine so why not take your car to him, then you know it's in expert hands?
If that's aimed at me, very kind, thanks. I'm not in his part of the world though! I'm closer to France than him I expect!If you didn't mean me.......why not? What's wrong with me?!
Kitchski said:
If that's aimed at me, very kind, thanks. I'm not in his part of the world though! I'm closer to France than him I expect!
If you didn't mean me.......why not? What's wrong with me?!
You're too close to France, Richard. If you didn't mean me.......why not? What's wrong with me?!
Steve is up in swede-bashing land, nearer to Mat Smith.
So why not take it to Matt Smith then? You'd be safer to take it to someone who has done trailing arms before so they don't waste time (and your money) learning on the job.Do the trailing arm bushes really need replacing Steve? Are the rubbers disintegrating? Is there a lot of play on the trailing arms? If not, I would just replace the damper bushes at the rear, and do all the front bushes, incl. the anti-rollbar mounts.
I used Superflex poly bushes on my S1: easier to fit than the one-piece Powerflex ones, as they are split into two top hat bushes with a single centre tube. I have had no problems and I'm very happy with the results.
Don't forget to get the suspension heights & alignment properly set up afterwards.
I used Superflex poly bushes on my S1: easier to fit than the one-piece Powerflex ones, as they are split into two top hat bushes with a single centre tube. I have had no problems and I'm very happy with the results.
Don't forget to get the suspension heights & alignment properly set up afterwards.
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