Hello all,

I'm going to make up my suspension "U" brackets this week and was wondering what people think is the best method for bending the plate. I was thinking of either just marking the plate, putting it in the vice and bending it over with a 2lb club hammer with a bit of wood in between the plate and the hammer but was wondering if it was worth while cutting a peice of wood the right thickness to match the gap in the U bracket and using a vice and club hammer again but bending it round the wood. Is it worth going down the wood route or will it just split or get squashed or does anyone have any other ways or is just putting them in the vice the best way.

you can buy them off ebay i understand, or cant you just cut one side off some square/box ?

[Edited on 28/7/08 by graememk]

I could cut it from some box section but I have some 3mm plate and don't mind bending it just trying to decide on the best method.

Why not make them oversize by a few mm, allows for suspension adjustment and
if you don't quite get them exactly the same it doesn't matter.

Oversize and standard are as Graememk says, easily available.

Thats a good plan. I am going to use slightly longer crush tubes than I need and space the poly bushes with spacers or washers to give me approx 5mm of adjustment. but may do that as well.

Personally I'd go on the principle that building a chassis is a big job and a few short cuts aren't a bad thing!!!

I'd go to Ebay and buy

these

NTDWM- just showing my level of lazziness!!!!

try this

linky dinky

I cut mine from box section

I cut mine from box section as well.

I have tried bending a few pieces of steel while building, and its always been more difficult than it looks.

Lars

I also cut them from some 50mm box section.It is a good idea to drill the holes first as then they are garrantied to be in line which would be difficult when bending from flat unless you make a drilling jig.
Paul.