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Chevelle
The suspension on this car needed to do two things, ride nice enough for everyday use and handle well enough to keep any red-blooded American car lover happy. With those being the requirements, a fully independent suspension was the only answer. Since we’ve never been the ones to use any “over-the-counter” kits, we built our own suspension to fulfill our needs. The front suspension was relatively easy except for our real-estate issues. There wasn’t any room for our Bilstein coil-overs in the traditional place, so we had to get creative. Now the rear was a little more interesting. We didn’t want to use any hard to find or expensive parts, so we borrowed parts from here and there to build this one-off IRS. The center section is a ultra narrow 9” Ford rearend with aluminum CV/rotor adapters where the wheels would typically bolt up and the knuckles are custom built to hold 4wd S-10 hubs with drive-flanges for 934 CV joints. |
Datsun
This one was a little of the “beaten path” for us. It is more… crazy for the sake of crazy (that’s not really our style.) This one uses 2wd Nissan front spindles in the front and 4wd Nissan IFS front knuckles for the rear. The center section is from an AWD Mitsubishi Eclipse with the CV’s modified to accept the stock Nissan IFS front axles.
Excursion
Now here’s something you don’t see everyday… A fully independent Ford Excursion. Why would you put an IRS on an Excursion? To ride as nice as possible of course. This vehicle is a mobile office and the owner sits directly over the rear axle. With the stock leaf spring rear suspension leaving much to be desired by way of comfort, the IRS is the best way to cure that. Again we used a 9” Ford center section, this time a very nice machined piece from Kugel Komponents (don’t ask, they won’t sell you one, call us if you’re interested.) Custom-built knuckles hold front 4wd F-250 hubs, with custom drive flanges for 934 CV’s. Because of the enormous size of the Excursion, the coil-overs are from King Shocks.
F-150
This front end has 18” of travel with the motor in its stock location and everything is built out of TIG welded 4130 plate. There isn’t a whole lot more to say about it, the pictures speak for themselves.
Mitsubishi
Okay, so a customer comes to you and says, “I want to build a truck that no one can beat.” Now we all know that that is impossible, but you gotta try right? Once again, we used a 9” Ford center section, except this time the housing is hand fabricated. And again we use the 4wd S-10 hubs (they just work well.) Then everything is TIG welded cold rolled plate.
Tacoma
This truck is one of our favorites. It came to use as unassuming as a stock truck with a Grant Kustoms tailgate skin can be and left looking exactly the same way just lower and with some 20” Detata wheels. It’s what under the skin that is so neat about this truck… A fully independent chassis with inboard brakes and Wilwood rotors and calipers on all four corners, who could ask for anything more out of a daily-driven body-dragger on 20’s?
TailHook
Once again, in true Bio Kustumz form, a vehicle that doesn’t quite fit into the “custom car shop” portfolio, but we wouldn’t have it any other way! This is Max’s personal downhill rig. It is a bit on the heavy side, but it sure shines on the rough descents. It has 8” of rear wheel travel, 67° head angle (finite adjustments can be made with the shock link,) a floating rear brake and an integrated chain tensioner. This frame isn’t just a throw together either, there are months of development time invested into this thing. It has been working flawlessly for the past 4 years with only minor maintenance and the occasional parts upgrade. It is truly a pleasure to ride!