The Rusty Banana Build Thread

[firebush357]

I picked up the Rusty Banana for $160 with no title. The car was owned by an elderly woman that drove it back and forth to northern states and then wouldn't sell it when the clutch went out and let it sit in her driveway for many years down by the ocean. I bought it from her son in law once she passed and we ended up having to drag it across the yard with my truck while they bounced on the back of it because the brakes had seized.




Upon washing it I found that the car had some rust issues in the rear quarter panel, upon further inspection I found out the Rust issue was bigger than I thouht... Holes all through the under side body panels and at least one through the floor, I also pulled the rear tow hook off with a lawn mower because it was so rusty! This is when it earned it's name "The Rusty Banana"

So Rather than part the car out I decided to give it a purpose... Mud Car!

Started with some 27" BKT Tractor Tires for the front.


To raise the car I went and pulled some Kia Rio Springs and Struts on the front and put Aspire Struts with Festiva front springs on the rear. This raised the car up about 1-2 inches and the rest of the lift was provided by the bigger tires. All together I ended up with about 12" of ground clearance at my sway bar. Also put some 25" Tractor Tires on the rear after I decided that I want to try to get it registered as a Custom Side by Side.



This car has fought me every step of the way because of the rust and crust. Here are some extra pictures of the process and redneck fixes.



After a New Clutch, Bearings, Brakes, Struts, LCAs, Tires, Wheel Spacers, Etc... It finally moved and stopped under it's own power last night. I still have some work to do to get it trail ready but I may take it for a test drive this weekend in a muddy back yard!

[firebush357]

Currently I am running 2" spacers on the front but I just ordered some 1" to see if I can get these tires to tuck in the fenders a little better but it will probably cause my tires to run the inner fenders more than they already do.

We are making plans to visit a local Off Road park in a few weeks so I need to make a Skid Plate and get my winch mounted before then. There are a lot of trails that I will not be able to go on because they are super uphill and rocky which is odd for Florida but I am going to go check it out anyway.

[Thebrandonbeezy]

Its all flat and sugar sand down here. That thing is really cool, with enough hammering and cutting i feel like it'd do decent in the nasty stuff.

[firebush357]

Did some initial testing this week to find out what needs to be improved before it hits the trail.





Found out that my ditch is a little deeper than I was expecting....

I am going to try and raise the front a little more by adding the Smaller Spring I have leftover from the Advance Suspension setup on my other car. My plan is to put it under the Rio Springs that are currently on the car because it will give me a little extra height and some more suspension travel. I'll update with pictures when I get around to it.

[Thebrandonbeezy]

2018-07-16_09-49-23 by Brandon Hobock, on Flickr

Build that mount, and run somthing similar to this,

Screenshot_20180716-095111 by Brandon Hobock, on Flickr

[firebush357]

I don't think that I can go a whole lot higher without doing a lot of extra work. From reading about the problems JDcass1224 was having with the CV hitting the Sway Bar when he put a 3 inch block on top. I looked and mine are getting kinda close already so anything higher than another inch or two will require they sway bar to be dropped or fab up something to replace the sway bar.

[Thebrandonbeezy]

Yeah didn't think about that. Too bad it needs the sway bar to keep the lca in position. Sway bars arnt somthing you want on a dedicated off roader. On the ford sierra/merkur xr4ti there are companys in Europe that make sway bar eliminator kits. So that people can run bigger adjustable ones. Ill try to find a pic after work

[firebush357]

Sweet. I have been watching videos on 4 link suspension and thinking about how to make something like that on a FWD lol. It won't make any difference until I weld the diff but it is something interesting to think about while I am at work....

[Thebrandonbeezy]

Screenshot_20180716-152349 by Brandon Hobock, on Flickr

Bracket goes to the frame, the other end goes through the bushing where the sway bar would normally

[william]

I'm having a hard time seeing how the sway bay could ever hit the axel I could see the axel being pulled from the trans if you lift too high. Iirc movin was lifted 4 inches or so and had to go aspire axels .
Weld that diff and hit it hard you'll amaze people how far that fwd will go . I wanna see some pictures and videos!

[firebush357]

I'm having a hard time seeing how the sway bay could ever hit the axel I could see the axel being pulled from the trans if you lift too high. Iirc movin was lifted 4 inches or so and had to go aspire axels .
Weld that diff and hit it hard you'll amaze people how far that fwd will go . I wanna see some pictures and videos!

This is the first time I have seen his build. I am swimming through his posts now to see how he pulled it off.

[firebush357]

So I finally found his original build thread and there is some good info in there. I never knew there was a Travel Limiter in the rear axle that needs to be cut out...

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii139/moovin/OHVYA/ALIM0818-1.jpg

He used 91 Golf Struts that are about 2 inches longer and 2 inches more travel than the Rio ones I used. He tried to get rid of the Sway bar but it didn't work well but he did end up custom lengthening his LCAs and Inner Tie Rods.

Thanks for pointing me in that direction, learned a lot from it.

[william]

Your welcome, I learned a lot from him when I was going to build a lifted festiva. Ended up just going about 1-1.5 inches higher and 185/60/14s and it was plenty to get me back to the deer stand and duck blind without bottoming out any more.

[firebush357]

I was going to add some extra springs to the front struts to raise the front a little more but it wasn't working out so I was digging through my scrap pile to find something to make a lift block and found the perfect solution.

Knocked the studs out of my strut mounts and added some old scrap ones on top with some longer bolts. Made sure to leave the Rio Mounts on the bottom so keep the use of the bearings. Gained about 1.5 inches


I am basically at the max amount of lift now without having to make some custom parts because I had to compress the strut to get both of the bottom bolts through the mount and I am starting to get some positive camber.

[firebush357]

Decided to take it for a test run last night.


It walks through the mud like it's not there.


It doesn't like hitting larger puddles at speeds but I think a new Distributor Cap and the hood being put back on will help with that. I also plan on making a Snorkel for it because it splashes a good bit of water and mud up into the air box. I have a BP and an Auto trans sitting around so maybe if I get bored with it I can drop those in there and make this thing a beast.