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Thread: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

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    Spanner Monkey trip998's Avatar

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    Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    Hi all
    I am in the process of fitting (Peter Lloyd Rallying) round turrets to my mk1 escort and i'm struggling to locate them correctly. From the drawings i have found on "the idiots guide to fitting turrets" i have established (i think) that i need to get approx 5" above the arch and 39-1/2" centres. The 39.5" makes sense as the axle brackets are 42-1/2" centres. I will be running Gp4 Bilsteins and want to go quite low so i think i will need the 5" above the inner arch. I have noticed that some people fit the turrests low ie 3 to 4 " above the arch.



    I have plumbed the turret and it's pretty close.


    to get to the 39-1/2" dimension on the top turret centres required i would need to take about an inch off the outer edge of the turret it'self in order to move the top closer to the inner 3/4 panel. i am a bit worried about cutting the turrets about but do you have to do this??
    The angle suggests i need to do this as my axle brackets are 42-1/2" centres










    any help gratefully received.

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    Way too much free time Decade Plus User Retromotorsport's Avatar
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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    the turret top fits against the inner wing stiffener like yours .. the apron of the turret fits flush against the chassis rail ... the turrets should be inclined ..if you look inside the wheel tub, the flange sticking through is pretty even..

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    I am by no means an expert on this, but the higher you fit them, the more available damper travel you will have. If you fit them to low and you have long dampers, you may not get enough travel. Measure lots, cut an weld once

    www.gulfpetrolheads.com

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    Hi Neil
    Yes i agree and even though i am really keen to get this turret fitted i must make sure it's in the right place. I have a set of Coilover Gp4 Bilsteins coming tomorrow so i can work out the exact height i need to work to. That will be my work for Saturday. By the way your pictures of fitting turrets on your escort build thread were a great help but i have 2 questions.
    1. To get your turret close to vertical and get the top closer to the inner quarter panel did you cut into the strengthening panel or cut some of the turret off? As you can see from my pictures, one has to be cut away either part of the back of the turret or more of the car????
    2. I know your car is going to be quite low so how high is the top of the turret above the inner tub? I expect i need the 5" but just checking really.


    as above the picture shows roughly what i would need to remove. Or the same amount from the tub??

    Thanks also Gary, which do you think i should cut? The tub and strengthener or the turret?????????

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    Now I have an airline pilots memory, so all I can recall is that I trimmed the bottom of the turret by a couple of cm's below the chassis rail and the "long edges" of the turret below that 90 degree corner in the picture above.
    I did not cut away any of that 45degree 'ski slope' edge, it all fitted inside the arch as per my pictures, with the base of the ski slope sitting pretty well on top of the arch


    how high is the top of the turret above the inner tub?
    Can't give you that measurement accurately but the top of the turret (nut pan flange) from the boot floor at the base of the turret is 31cm
    It is almost exactly the same height as the parcel shelf and the turret bolt center is 14cm in from the wall measured roughly from were the parcel shelf does it's 90 degree angle

    With hindsight I would fit the turret about 3-4cm higher, as my Bilsteins will not have much damper rod showing if I lower the car as low as I may need to for the track.
    If yours is a road car the height above (31cm) should be fine as there is a lot of adjustment in the dampers. However, please remember I am an amateur, if one of the professionals like Gary gives advice, follow his, not mine!!

    www.gulfpetrolheads.com

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    Thanks Neil
    I will have another go at it Saturday morning. When i look at the pictures i have taken it looks easy to get that little bit more tilt towards vertical but when i get in the car it all looks wrong.
    I am pretty sure i know where i need to go with this now. Parcel shelf cut away and cut more out of the tub to allow the whole turret to go up to the 5" above the arch mark.

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome




    Quote Originally Posted by Retromotorsport View Post
    the turret top fits against the inner wing stiffener like yours .. the apron of the turret fits flush against the chassis rail ... the turrets should be inclined ..if you look inside the wheel tub, the flange sticking through is pretty even..
    AND THE MOST IMPORTANT PART WHAT YOUR MISSING

    THE TURRET SHOULD BE INCLINED
    Last edited by Retromotorsport; 24-06-2010 at 13:54.

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    Gary
    i understand that 100% but i currently have far too much incline.

    Obviously for you this is simple as you could probably do it with your eyes closed. This is my first try at fitting turrets and as it's my car i don't want to fuck it up completely or make such a hash of it that it either looks shite or worse falls apart. I dont want to weld them in only to find the shocks foul at the bottom.
    Working from the drawing at the top and reading through many threads i will end up with approx 6 degrees of incline. I know they are going to be inclined but i am having trouble getting them positioned to get to 39.5" at the top and therfore the 6 degree angle.

    Thanks for your input though, it all helps to get the job finished.

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    stop stressing about the top measurement... just fit them tight to the stiffener panel..and the apron to the chassis rail .

    If your going to use GARTRAC measurments..use GARTRAC turrets ..

    the top of the damper isn't a shell bearing where you need the plastigauge to get it withing a thou... its a damper.. its dosnt know if you at 3 degs or 10 degrees..

    the idea behind turrets is to remove the damper from harms way.. and to place the damper as close to the wheel as possible .. where it gets the biggest movement.. its still flawed as really you want a 2 to 1 ratio of damper movement to wheel movement .. hence bell cranks on formula of top GT cars.

    Also remember your mounting a coil-over where a damper was designed to go ... not a coil over... the works cars never used coil-overs on the rally cars, that was just the German race cars
    , if you cut into the stiffener, or cut the angled face, you will find that coil-over sharing space with the wheel .... and its quite funny watching a car like that go for a drive.. the tyre on the O/S winds the ride height up.. the N/S winds it down..
    or you have to fit really skinny wheels .

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    Thanks Gary. i forgot about the possibility of the coilover fouling the wheels. I am very glad i asked the question

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    Thumbs up Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    well after all the advise above i waited until i got these to set up the turrets and the rear suspension. also had to wait for my welder bottle to be filled up after my neighbour ran it out.


    so the near side is completed but i still had to cut a little bit off the outside edge of the turret to get it to fit at the top. if i didn't cut that off the spring would have been fouling the turret as it was lent over too much. i am setting this up to suit the axle i have and maybe if the shocker mounting brackets were slightly closer to the wheel then it would have given a little more clearance.


    got about 1/2" clearance through the arc of the suspension travel. it's being set up for track use and a little road maybe so it's not going to have a lot of suspension travel from jumping through the rough forests or anything like that.

    i know (coz Gary told me) that the 39-1/2" measurement was not important and maybe it's only a coinsidence but it's damb close.



    just brushed on some zinc primer for the moment, got the other side to do. now done the other side and had even more problems lining it all up. then i found that the axle was over to one side about 10mm, anyway it's all part of the enjoyment learning new processes along the way.



    would i do it again????????
    not sure really, it would depend on what i wanted to do with the car or what the car was. this is just an old 2 door mk1 thats had plenty of welding done in the past so a few plates here and there dont matter. if i was going to do this to a tidy motor i would be on the phone to Gary i think.

    NEXT JOB 4 LINK BOXES
    by the way thanks for the help and advise all.

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    Re: Turret fitting, any advise very welcome

    Just wondering if anyone has fitted these to a 4 door escort? I am trying to but can't find any measurements for the 4 door. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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