OK so cortina uprights are now as scarce as the proverbial excrement of a wooden horse that rocks...
So where do we turn now?
The sierra hubs are ugly and need a hack job. Granadas and old escorts are just as hard to find as cortinas...

There must be a new source of suitable hubs lying around the local scappy...

SO - any suggestions? I though about audi's but I am not sure about where the rack sits (in front or behind). I do note that the new Attack (that failed to be launched at Donnington) uses Audi TT front uprights.

Or how about the likes of MK producing homemade jobbers like Dax?

I'll second that!

It's about time someone tooled a suitable upright.

Darren @ GTS is this something you could look at?

I would be happy to produce some 3D CAD models for fabricated or cast items if it would be useful.

Nick

westfield do sell an ally cortina copy upright, though its expensive....

upright:

£302pair

hub:

£208 pair

Ned.

was looking into the hyundia "stella", exact copy of the cortina, made up until the early 90's. You can find them and the uprights tend to be cheaper than the cortina versions.

Still could do with someone out there who could produce something, think Rorty makes his own........

Don't Tiger use VW Golf uprights?

They used to.

Cheers

Chris

Yeah, on the Super Six they do.

At the Autosport show last year there was a Scottish company who had quite a large stall selling all sorts of stuff. They had fabricated cortina uprights for sale, and aluminium hubs. The uprights were supposed to be lighter than standard. No idea of price, or who they are, sorry.

Triton and i have discussed this, and i have thought about it before now.

Making fabricated uprights is labour intensive, and even a really desperate fabby will rack up a few quid welding them up, then you have machining of bits etc..

I did look at casting some, and the castings are about £15 each, but, you then have to machine them, and there is a lot of setup work on each casting to make sure you machine the features in the right place. Plus there is a lot of fixturing required to help make the machining possible. Small batches therefore are costly.

As with everything its down to volume. Casting is the way to go, but, its a big investment to sell a hand full of uprights each year. If you can find a Cortina it'll cost you £50 for your uprights. If you sold 100 pairs in a year of cast ones they would likely cost £125 a pair before you look at discs, bearings, hubs drive flanges etc.. You'll easily get up in the Caterham price bracket. Locosters don't want to spend money, most of us don't have any. We would mainly rather put rubbishy old Sierra ones than spend £200 on uprights.

I did look at the Rover 200 and 400 series front uprights. They are plentiful, and wheels should be easy to get as well. All you need to do is the same fix as on the Elise and ignore the spline that attaches the CV joint to the hub and clamp it all back up with a bolt. It would require Sierra style bungs to adapt the strut to a twin wishbone setup.

Kind regards,

Darren

i think a cheap source of inserts for the sierra is the best way to go. what do people normally charge for them?

The Hyundai Stellar only used Cortina fronts in its early form apparently, for a couple of years in the early 80s and then moved over to MacPherson struts. I did read somewhere that the replacement front uprights were still available in Canada from Hyundai main dealers as spares. They might be cheap to buy as obsolete stock if anyone has contacts.
Opel Mantas used a similar setup if anyone has access to them.

yours, Pete.

[Edited on 10/10/03 by Peteff]

Vauxhal Viva's used something similar (I think) I saw some copies at the Autosport show on a stand. The guy recond about £200 a pair.

I made my excuses and left....


Neil.

People are probably sick of hearing this, but some of the light vans are suitable.

I'll either be using the 1984 toyota hiace or a nissan c20 vannette.

Both have removable lower ball joints so you can use their ball joints without machining the uprights - got to redesign the lower wishbones I reckon.
Both also have removable top ball joints, so if I can't find a trackrod end to fit, I'll have to do something wizzy to fix them on.

Both have vented disks and look a bit heavier than the cortina, don't know how they compare with sierra.

Both are front steer.

Not sure about the height of the steering knuckle on the Toyota (hence my current indecision). The nissan is good, but I want 5 studs (so I can get dual drilled mags to fit my 5 stud rear diff).

Cheers,
Greg H

didnt know that, useful stuff. just depends on how easy they are to find. are they common out there? are they live axle as well?!

> are they common out there? are they live axle as well?!

Common as muck.

Yes, live axle too.

Wasn't planning on using more than the front uprights, but they could be quite a complete donor.

Most have column shifts and steering boxes, rather than racks, but with a bit of gearbox jiggery-pokery and the trusty escort rack, they'd probably be a pretty good donor.
Apart from the diesel ones.

:-)