How to bend strut tubes for more camber

[TobyB]

Double a- arm or bust.

 

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[Daily02]

4 hours ago, 2002iii said:

Sounds like replacing the bent strut and getting longer control arms should fix all your troubles.

 

Danjer sells very nice looking longer control arms.

 

I would leave the strut bending and most things alignment related to the professionals. Why go through all the trouble of building a jig and experimenting, when you can just buy one from someone else already done?

I do my own alignments -from my old NASA Racing days- and I enjoy such projects. If it screws up then I will replace the strut body, and it likely needs that now. 

[Daily02]

4 hours ago, Son of Marty said:

Or you could just buy some Bilstein/Alpina neg camber struts and have the valved for your use.

That is a nice solution. I didn't know about Bilstein Alpina negative camber struts. I replaced the shocks with Bilstein's less than 500 miles ago. If I would have known about them...  

[Preyupy]

There were complete strut assemblies available from Alpina/Bilstein back in the day.  There were what was called Green dot struts that had -1.5deg more negative camber built into them but used the stock spring size mount.  The Red Dot struts I believe had -2 degrees more Negative camber and most of them that I have seen had adjustable spring perches.  As far as I know they were both Tii spindle sizes and the Tii 3.5" caliper mounting ear spacing.  

 

I have had a set of Green Dot struts on my car since 1978.

[Son of Marty]

There were 3 grades made, the green dot (street) with 1.5' camber and stock height spring perches, the yellow dot (rally) 2' camber and lowered spring perches, I've run a set of these on my 74 since 1976, and the red dot (race) in both 2,5' and 3' some of these with lowered stock spring perches and some were adjustable. All 3 have a much larger shock pistons all run tii bearings and have the 3.5" caliper mounts.

Edited January 30 by Son of Marty

[uai]

I am pretty sure rallye yellow dots have standard spring perch and green exist with and without lower spring perch (welding bead is 36 cm from bottom for lower oppsed to 38 cm from bottom for normal)
I also have a set of Sachs coilovers with negative Camber and have had a pair of sachs with standard Spring perch with negative camber. Pretty rare but also existing are non ti Bilsteins with upsidedown dampers.
And all the Alpina references are a bit wobbly those Bilsteins were available at all the other tuners too Koepchen, GS, Schnitzer etc...

[Son of Marty]

I think that Alpina used Bilstein to make the first batch and that's how the name was attached but Bilstein kept building sets that were sold to the public and other tuners,

[Preyupy]

And I thought I paid a fortune for them back then.  $285 with shipping for the pair, new, if I remember correctly. 

[Cabbage Fumes]

I have a vintage set of coil over Tii struts that are stamped Bilstein on the tube. The tubes are threaded on the outside with aluminum lower perches and oem style strut bearings, using what looks like full width springs. They came from a Tii Touring. I heard rumors that BMW offered coil overs as a special order item back in the day, but I can't confirm that. There were many layers of paint on them when I got them so I have no idea if they were a different color than black originally. I haven't measured to see if there is any camber difference from standard Tii struts.

 

[Son of Marty]

All 2002 have a coil over front strut, I think your talking about adjustable coil overs and I've been a 2002 fanatic since 1971 and have never even got a whiff of a factory offered adjustable coil over. 

[Cabbage Fumes]

2 minutes ago, Son of Marty said:

All 2002 have a coil over front strut, I think your talking about adjustable coil overs and I've been a 2002 fanatic since 1971 and have never even got a whiff of a factory offered adjustable coil over. 

You're confusing the term "coil over". Just because the spring is situated over the strut tube, doesn't mean it is considered a "coil over". "Adjustable" and "coil over" are redundant.

[Cabbage Fumes]

7 minutes ago, Son of Marty said:

never even got a whiff of a factory offered adjustable coil over. 

A Tii strut with outside threads, primitive adjustable full width lower perch, with "Bilstein" stamped on it is definitely period correct for '70s racing in Europe, I just don't know if it was something Bilstein produced and sold, or was produced by them and sold/used by tuners like Alpina. Were the Alpina "Works" cars using struts sourced from Bilstein? If they did, would they any Alpina stampings on the strut tubes? I'd really like to get some idea as to the origin of the struts I have, and if they are something to hold onto. I already run 3.5º using bent Tii tubes and GC plates, so I'd consider offering my vintage struts to someone more excited about having the period correct style vintage coil over setup.

[Son of Marty]

From Wikipedia.

A coilover is an automobile suspension device. The name coilover is an abbreviation of "coil over shock absorber".^[1]

Description[edit]

Coilovers are found on many vehicles, from RC cars to normal passenger cars, race cars and 4x4 vehicles. They are sometimes used as a factory suspension option on new cars. Coilovers are used in double wishbone suspension systems,^[2] and are often a component of MacPherson struts.^[3]

[Cabbage Fumes]

Just now, Son of Marty said:

From Wikipedia.

A coilover is an automobile suspension device. The name coilover is an abbreviation of "coil over shock absorber".^[1]

Description[edit]

Coilovers are found on many vehicles, from RC cars to normal passenger cars, race cars and 4x4 vehicles. They are sometimes used as a factory suspension option on new cars. Coilovers are used in double wishbone suspension systems,^[2] and are often a component of MacPherson struts.^[3]

I know you want to be right, especially since you get your information from the internet, but gather a thousand passenger car owners and ask them all, "Raise your hand if you have coil overs". Unless they are enthusiasts that have added aftermarket coil overs to their cars, you will get zero hands raised. Case closed.

[Cabbage Fumes]

Actually, from now on, I'm going to go up to every 02 owner I see and look under their fender, and say "nice coil overs".