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Friday, May 18, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Dampers
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Spent an hour in the garage this evening getting the springs and
dampers separated and cleaned up. The dampers will be going on the
dyno for assessment...
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Posted by
DH2 at
9:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Off On Holiday
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Not a very exciting day really, mostly spent driving a van on
motorways. But after an early start, I had the chassis and body
loaded into the van, and ready to start driving (a van with no
radio!). Four hours later, it was unloaded again onto a pallet, and
the body placed onto the chassis. A quick sit in it, to be measured,
and I was back on the road again. Happy holidays...!
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Posted by
DH2 at
7:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Monday, May 07, 2012
Suspension Suspended
Main task today is the get the car ready to go on a little holiday
tomorrow. To this end, I needed to remove all the suspension, so
that the chassis can be put into a van easier. I got a bit stuck
with some of the ball joints on the front end, so had to remove each
side fairly whole sale. It was then I discovered that this caused
the chassis to tip up with the weight of the axle on the back (I
think I did things front to back), so balanced the suspension back
on the front.
Then it was onto the rear, which is another little
juggling act to get the axle safely out. It is rather heavy, I can't
really lift it on my own, so it is abandoned on the floor. I then
emptied all the accumlated stuff out of the chassis, and retrieved
the dash panels which had to have a couple of cut outs where I've
added the tube joining dash hoop to tunnel.
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I went along to Stoneleigh yesterday for the kit car show, where I
picked up a few bits, and had a nose around at some others, and
looking for ideas. One thing I got was a new gear lever. This one is
a quickshift, which should make the change a bit nicer, though
obviously it is designed for use in an Escort rally car, so needs to
be shortened somewhat.
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Posted by
DH2 at
6:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Back To The Welder
Things have been pretty busy, so not had alot of garage time. Same again today really, but I did
get a couple of hours. First thing was to take the engine and gearbox out again. The chassis is off
to get its cage made this week, so I need to get things ready for that - I need to get it stripped
down to just the chassis. I'm well practised at getting it in and out now, so it was only about
20 minutes or so and that was done.
Having got some more MIG wire into the welder, I have a few little bits to do. Firstly, I tacked the
pedal box bulkhead in position - the idea here being that I will see if I can get that welded in
while the cage is being done, as it's a tricky weld there between thick and thin materials.
Whilst I was on, I then finished off the second engine mount platform that I started last week. The
welding is a bit better I think - the welder seems to like its new tip and some new wire. Finally,
I seem to be collecting steering columns in the same way as handbrake levers - but there is clear
winner here, as with the handbrake actually, who'd have thought the venerable Ford Sierra comes up
trumps.
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Posted by
DH2 at
7:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Levers and Mounts
Not so much garage time this weekend, but I did look at one or two items. Firstly, I put the engine
and gearbox back into the chassis - to see how it fits with the relocated gearbox mount, and to have
another look at engine mount design. It all seems to be aligning and fitting as designed, so that
is good.
With that I distracted myself by looking at the handbrake. I've got a small collection of potential
handbrake levers now, but I think the Sierra one is probably going to be the best bet, as it is
quite slim. This is good as there is not alot of space in the tunnel (once there is a propshaft
in there too), and I would like to get out of the old location in the footwell and a bit neater
into the tunnel.
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Later on, I spent some time playing with cardboard prototypes for the offside engine mount. I'm
not sure what the rules are with regards to design of these, so I am just trying some things out -
I don't know whether it is best for the rubber mounts to be horizontal, or they will be happy at
an angle. Need to do some research on this...
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Posted by
DH2 at
5:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Bulkhead Mock Up
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Putting crappy things behind me, I decided (too late, I know) to actually mock up the bulkhead this
time in plywood. So a quick chop based on the cardboard template, and some holes drilled, we have
this. Looks ok, the only question is I'm not entirely sure what the rules are with regard to how
to space the master cylinders for the brake pedal. Ideally you want the pushrods square on once
you have adjusted the balance bar, so there's probably some arbitrary yet magical figure for
this. I have chosen 70mm, which I think would give about 50mm of adjustment, but it is fine
tuning anyway, any larger adjustments can be done by changing the master cylinder (for one with a
different bore).
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Posted by
DH2 at
8:30 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Monday, April 09, 2012
Backpedalled :-(
So, I decided I have to re-do what I have been doing for the last couple of days :-( The reason: I
was doing the next mock-up stage to work out where the master cylinders for the brake pedal need
to go, and realised it was all a bit tight, and not really going to fit. This is because having
the pedal floor at the bottom of the chassis rails means that the outer chassis rail gets in the
way of mounting the cylinders - I just couldn't get it far enough over.
So, plan B. Moving the pedal floor back up to the top of the chassis rails removes this problem,
and the master cylinder can be mounted much further over as that tube is out of the equation now.
Bit of a downer having spent a load of time and energy on it, but such is life I suppose. At
least it hasn't cost much money.
To confirm my thinking, I had a quick mock up with the pedal floor on top of the chassis tubes,
with various clamps, bits of wood and metal. If I add a platform in front of the pedals in the
main floor area, I still end up with the same pedal vs ankle pivot points. So I then got going
with the composite (cardboard) template, and also started on making a plywood one so I can
trial mount the cylinders - something I should have done first time around...
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Posted by
DH2 at
6:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Sunday, April 08, 2012
Saturday, April 07, 2012
More Pedalling
Onwards. With the chassis mods to date all welded in, it is time to get on with sorting out the
pedals, so I can get the footwell end panelling sorted. So, I spent some more time fiddling with
trying to settle on where to locate the pedals - moving them a bit, sitting in it a bit, measuring
a bit, repeat... After a while I think I have settled on it. With the pedal pivot points and
angle set, it is careful measurement from there to set where the bulkhead is.
So with that in hand, I set about making it happen in the metal. Firstly, I went with cardboard,
to ensure I got the shape right. The bulkhead will be made from two pieces of 2" angle sitting
on top of each other - the lower piece will be welded to the lower chassis tubes, whilst the
upper is welded to the lower, the outer side sill panel, and a vertical bar I added between the
upper and lower inner tubes. This allows the master cylinders to bolt through these angles
which will be plenty strong, and ensure not flex.
After a few hours of fettling, I had the pieces all cut and sitting in position. I'll set about
tacking it together tomorrow.
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Posted by
DH2 at
7:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Friday, April 06, 2012
Dressing Up
Firstly, I got hold of a couple of rubber engine mountings - these are intended for a Land Rover, so
are fairly sturdy, and should do the job ok I think. I can now design the engine mounts around
these.
On the welding front, whilst they seem to be plenty strong enough, I wasn't over the moon with
neatness of the finish of them. So I spent a couple of hours today teaching myself how to dress
welds. I think I've done ok, they look alot neater, and I don't think I've gone too far with them.
Later on I had another go at cleaning the spare sump - I spent a while carefully scraping the
residual sealant around the mating surface, then it had a blast with a pressure washer. Still not
quite clean enough, it then had a spin in the dishwasher...
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Posted by
DH2 at
8:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Gearbox Mount
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Picked up some thicker steel plate, made up a gearbox mount, and tacked it in place. Seems to be
studly enough, as far as I can tell from a couple of quick tacks. Needed to get this done ahead
of something useful happening tomorrow...
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Posted by
DH2 at
8:30 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Seemingly Not Alot
Don't seem to have made alot of progress with anything today. I pulled the engine and gearbox out,
with the intention of making and fitting a new gearbox mount. I started doing this, but realised
that the steel I was using was too thin, so will have to wait until I can get something a bit
thicker.
I then spent an age fiddling around with the pedals. I'm not sure I actually achieved much, I am
just trying to work out where the end of the footwell should be, and therefore where the master
cylinders need to be. Also trying to think how to make the bulkhead strong enough. Dunno...
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Posted by
DH2 at
6:30 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Pedalling Along
I received the pedals I've been waiting for, and got straight on with mocking them up in the chassis.
I used some old angle ali to attach them to a piece of plywood, which allowed me some movement to
shuffle things around a bit as required. I ended up with something which I think will work, though
it's not really possible to be fully sure with the car in bits like this.
Later on I added something with the throttle pedal. This is designed to be floor mounted with the
others, but that's not really possible in this car due to the angled sides of the chassis. So
I tried rigging it up top-mounted... not sure on this yet...
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I then moved on to some more chassis work. I've kind of decided to try lowering the engine and
gearbox in the chassis a little. This is because for no particular reason I have so far based this
on the existing gearbox mount plate in the tunnel. This needs to move anyway, so I figure I will
cut it out, then stick a jack under it to allow me to shuffle things around.
So, engine and gearbox out. Gearbox mount out. A few holes in the chassis that I'd missed before,
welded up. Then I got a bit carried away and also removed the offside engine mount plate. Then
engine and gearbox back in, and a while spent shuffling trying to get it back into a good
looking position.
I've ended up with it only about 10mm lower, but that should help with bonnet clearance, without
affecting the sump-to-road clearance too much.
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Posted by
DH2 at
6:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Engine In Again
Didn't get alot done over the weekend, but a day off for garage time today. Due to the continued
lack of pedals (ahem), I can't really continue with reconstructing the footwell, but decided I
can look at engine mounts. Before I put the engine back in, I wanted to do a compression test on
it. The idea being that before I take the engine apart, I can get an indication of the state of
its health and whether I will need to rebuild the bottom end.
I spent a little time rigging up a switch I could use to spin the starter motor directly from a
battery, tested on the bench in the vice. With this transplated to the propped up engine, I removed
each plug in turn and gave it a spin. To start with the results were poor and variable, so I put a
squirt of oil down through the plug hole into the bore to lubricate the rings a bit. Once this
had worked around a bit, the figures improved, but cylinder #1 is about 25% down on the others,
which is not so good...
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Next up, I got the engine onto the crane and into place in the chassis, attached to the gearbox.
With this, I shuffled it around a while into the position that I think it needs to be with
respect to the re-aligned tunnel. I could now see how it all looks with both the tunnel mods and
the other engine bay changes I have made.
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The tight spots are where the bellhousing sits in the tunnel aperture, and the oil filter. The
former is expected and I have given myself 10mm clearance here which I think should be about right,
as I don't expect the engine will move around too much. The latter I think means that I will swap
this to run without the intercooler, as it is quite close to the chassis rail. I'll probably just
run it without and see how the temperatures fare, with the sump out in the airflow (compared to
on a Focus) it will probably be ok, and will make the plumbing less complex.
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Looking at the engine mounts, I made up some card templates for where I think they might go. The
offside one seems to line up reasonably well with the existing plate on the chassis, though might
be quite long. The nearside has no plate now so is fair game, but it's busier on this side, so
there's not alot of choice anyway.
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Posted by
DH2 at
7:00 PM
Categories:
Fettling
Monday, March 12, 2012
Yep, More...
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Got another day to work on the car today. I started out by going shopping for some more steel, as
one mistake and one slight change of plan, has depleted the stocks. With what was left of the morning,
I started off by working on my plan for the rear rocker brace. I got some steel tube big enough to
clear the rear of the pivot with enough room to get a socket on it, and cut these to size. The
idea here is that the these can be bolted to the pivot with a tube between the two - this can then
be removed for access when required. The cross tube will be welded to the side of these stubs. Later
on I cut some circles from plate to form the bottom of the buckets.
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After lunch, I set about having another go at the engine bay side bracing. I wanted to make the outer
ones a bit longer so that the triangulation is a little stronger - it just didn't look quite ideal
where I had it before. I also made up the inner one for the drivers side (I had done this before
but made a mistake in cutting it). This one follows the lower engine bay brace to appease my
symmetry.
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Whilst staring yesterday, I'd noticed that the rear mount for the lower front wishbones is slightly
lacking. The front part of this mount appears to be held only by an inch and half of weld, which
seems a bit sub-optimal. Or maybe I'm being paranoid. Anyway, I bought some angle which is just
the right size to be welding around the back of it to add some extra strength.
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That was about it, and quite a busy afternoon. Seems to have gone reasonably well though. So just a
few general pictures with everything that I have so far balanced in position. (Unfortunately the
painted piece of wood I have in the footwell is upsetting the camera a bit)
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Posted by
DH2 at
7:30 PM
Categories:
Fettling
