Has anyone ever made their own suspension parts such as control arms, panhard rod, torque arm, etc.? I have access to a fully equipped machine shop and plenty of chromoly tubing, as well as help from Mechanical Engineering majors and computer design software. Any ideas?

If you have access to a machine shop and know how to use things, might I suggest fabricating aluminum parts and not chrome moly. get yourself some solid aluminum 1" or 1 1/8" tubing and buy some sperical heavyduty rod-ends (opposite threads on each end so you can lengthen or shorten the bars while on the vehicle), and drill & tap threads into the ends of the solid tubes for the rod ends. The ultimate lightweight heavy duty racing parts. Or just purchase a set from SlotCarRacing.com.

That's a good idea about fabricating stuff from solid aluminum bar stock. It sounds a lot simpler than what I had planned. I might make both versions (since the school is picking up the tab for the material) and see which one is lighter. The only concern I have with your idea is the rod ends. In the plans I made, I would have been able to use polyurethane bushings so I could grease them and they woudln't wear out as fast on the street, but would still be a lot more solid than rubber bushings. I've already started on my own double-hump crossmember, which I've designed to accept T-5, 700R4, TH400, T10, and Muncie trannies. The only reason I started making this is to clear dual exhaust, where the lowest part of the system is where the tubes go underneath the crossmember. I've drawn computer plans for solid motor mounts, which don't to be to hard to make, and I'm drawing plans for a torque arm which may or may not mount directly to the crossmember. Any other ideas?

Matt