Latest update photo of the sidecar suspension under fabrication. The backbone of the shock tower assembly is coming together, it's actually starting to look like a suspension.

An updated photo of the suspension setup, as being built. Don't look like much has happened between now, and the last entry of October 8th, 2005, but things are happening. 2 way adjustable Bottom frame mount, sidecar side top shock mount, 4 way adjustable adjustable dog bone mount, and the spindle center mount/backing plate are all complete or near complete.

Next step will be to start building up the sidecar side frame backbone between the lower shock dogbone mount, and the top shock mount, and starting building up the A-arms.

Photo manipulated to show how the shock linkage will work when mounted to the frame of the sidecar. Sorry for the fuzzy photo, I suck at teh photography. 

Picture 2 of the linkage mockup for the sidecar suspension, using 2 Bandit suspension dogbones, and my spare Bandit shock. 

Side on view of the hub/rotor/caliper/spindle and backing plate assembly. The biggest pain in the butt, was the 16 hours spent on just making the caliper spacer to correctly offset the caliper from the spindle backing plate when mounted. 

Sunday October 2nd's escapades with the drill press and files - precision drilling holes and rough-cutting out the general outline of the lower portion of the spindle backing plate to fit around the brake caliper.  

Sort of, somewhat, kind-of, along the lines of something i am trying to copy. Maybe.

Final design is going to be a double, unequal length a-arm design, non-steerable. I've sourced a 14" x 5.5" alloy rim from a 1992 Isuzu Impulse, and the brake rotor / spindle assembly from a 1993 Asüna Sunfire. *(see notation below)

Braking power is going to be supplied by a '99 gsxr750 rear caliper. I've already had the Asüna rear brake rotor turned down to acceptable tolerances for a motorcycle caliper.

Next steps, start building up the spindle / brake caliper backing plate, order ball joints from a Smart car, and start sourcing out a (hopefully) cheap shock that meets my needs, in good shape.

*(GM re-badged and re-skinned/re-styled Isuzu products, as well as their own GMC Tracker, under the Asüna division 1992-1993 at least in Canada - a short-lived experiment at trying to beat the jap big-4 at their own game, with their very own jap/domestic division == FLOP! -Wasn't that the role that Saturn was supposed to be filling when it too was a startup brand at about the same time as Asüna? - both were GM associated.)

Making Progress

In the past week, i've obtained a set of the '02 Civic EX rims, unfortunately I couldn't get a lesser quantity than 4. If push comes to shove, the sidecar rig trailer gets a new set of rims.

Additionally, i've obtained 2 rear spindle assemblies from a '93 Asüna Sunfire to start the fabrication of the sidecar suspension/wheel replacement. I'll likely be constructing a double a-arm suspension design utilising a 13" wheel, to minimise the amount of sidecar body modifications necessary to make a new suspension setup work.

Source found:

http://handa-accessories.com/civext00.html

For a 1999-2000 Honda Civic. Thanks to Bill McSheehy at hpsidecars.com for identifying this rim assembly, and providing a link to a potential supplier.