Frame repair affecting suspenion geometry

[MrBadWrench]

Im the proud owner of a new (to me) 1988 Fesitiva. the body is cherry but somehow there are two large rust holes right in the subframe under the floorboards..

I went and chased down and old highschool buddy that does autobody repair and hashed out a plan for some repairs.. He suggested to me that while we are chopping and hacking on the underside of my festi we might as well reinforce both sides. Then he suggested to me that I might be able to extend our repairs and tie them into the rear subframe giving me a full frame. While this is underway we could easily alter the rear suspension geometry if there were any improvements to be made. Are there any technical specs for the placement of the rear control arms available? If so I would like to measure everything up in case something was allready tweaked, I could untweak it. possibly even improve some angles while im at it...

Don

[Jimmy]

The rear suspension geometry on a Festiva is entirely is dictated by the beam axle. Unless you make changes to it, you won't do much to the geometry.

[MrBadWrench]

I can raise or lower the mounting points for the beam to make improve the geometry for a lowered car.

[MrBadWrench]

ok, took a butload of pics. watch out they are big...

http://www.putfile.com/mrbadwrench/images/89373

[Jimmy]

Man, that's a lot of cancer.

You could raise the mounting points. that might help some.

You could also add a Panhard bar while you are working back there and use that to raise your rear roll center. That would help the car roll and little less and rotate a little better in corners. If you are into that sort of thing.

[MrBadWrench]

Basically the car needs a frame, thats what got me thinking about moving mounts and stuff.

A panhard bar? what good does an axle locating device do when there is no axle to locate?

Yes I am very much into "rotating"

To make a short story long My best friend is moving from 3/4 of a mile from me to about 33 miles from me. He is moving do a Backwoods Middle of nowhere town that is nothing but gravel and hills. So i am looking for a very efficient and amusing vehicle to run me back and forth a couple times a week.