Suspension

    Europa's are prized for their great handling, which depends on the suspension.  Not only had my car been sitting outside for some time, but all of the nearly 30 year old rubber parts had pretty much rotted away.  This warranted a complete rebuild of both the front and rear suspension.   

The front suspension was pretty easy.  Removal of the upper pivot pin was a pain, but judging from the horror stories I hear about them rusting to the chassis, mine was a breeze.  Luckily, everything was in good shape.  I bead blasted all the parts and painted them.  The expensive pieces (A-arm halves) were coated with POR-15; the other parts were painted with epoxy spray paint.  New parts include bushings, tie rod ends, upper ball joints, trunion bushings, steering rack boots, wheel bearings, vintage Koni shocks, and modified springs.  The "modified" springs are actually the stock springs, cut down 1.5" to lower the car.  I also used aerospace nuts and bolts where possible - there will be a chart detailing what sizes I used at the end.

 A note about the trunion bushings - they are polyurethane, which replaces the entire plastic/metal thing.  There is no performance gain from the polyurethane, only less maintenance as they do not need to be greased regularly.

The rear suspension was a little more difficult, as the bearing/stub axle/drive shaft arrangement needs special attention when being rebuilt.  There are a lot fewer parts on the rear suspension versus the front, but extra care is needed to put everything back together properly.  The old parts were in good shape, just a bit dirty.  The radius arms were bead blasted and painted with epoxy spray paint.  The original lower links were bent by towing the car out of its resting place, so these were replaced with new units from Banks, along with new bushings, new wheel bearings, new universal joints, and new shocks.  The hub carrier assembly is the delicate part of the rear suspension, and I rebuilt this myself; so far, it works flawlessly, but we'll see how long it lasts.  It will fail at some point, but premature failure is evidence of a poor rebuild.  Unlike the front suspension, the rear end was not lowered.  The new shocks and springs were old stock items from one of the US parts suppliers.

Below is a chart of all the AN bolts I used on my Twin Cam Special suspension. All of the AN part numbers listed are for plain, un-drilled, cad-plated/chromate finish bolts. If you want safety wire holes, you will need to modify numbers according to ordering guidelines (whoever you order from). 

I recommend that if you are going to go the AN-spec route with your suspension bolts, its best to order a AN washer 'kit' from a racing warehouse. This is much cheaper than ordering individual washers, and the washers are better than the hardware store SAE variety. If you get the kit with an unbreakable box, they are always organized and easy to find. The half-height washers are invaluable when shimming various suspension assemblies as well.

Disclaimer: since no two cars were exactly the same leaving the factory, and owners have been known to modify things, I can not guarantee that the bolts listed will fit correctly. It is best to double check all of the lengths before ordering. I have not verified if any of the bolts listed will fit the S1, S2, or early TC models.