Autosport Pics

Just to confuse everyone, I did my last update before the Autosport show, but didn't publish it till today!!!

Anyway, the show went well, and the car looked good, although I'm a bit biased ;-)

Here's a few pics from the show.



If only my budget had been a bit bigger and it had been ready a few months earlier :-O



Son of Vortx

It was great catching up with loads of Locosters, and RGB competitors. Just need to concentrate on getting it finished, and getting my license.

2 days to Autosport!!

Ok, so I've got 2 days left till I have to stick the car on the trailer and get it up to the NEC.


Good news is it looks like a car and it will stop :-)


Bad news is.... it will need pedals to go anywhere :-(


With illness and snow, it hasn't progressed as I'd hoped, but should still be ready for the start of the season.


Over Xmas the body was riveted on and all the brackets fabricated to hold body parts on (top job by Gavin).
The bulkhead panel was cut and fitted. It's always a tricky job, getting it in without bending the panel, but the pre-cut panel provided by MNR only needed a small amount of trimming to fit in.


Once the panel was in, I marked all the tubes on the back of the panel, so I could see where to drill the rivet holes. With the panel out I pre-drilled the panel, fitted it back in, and drilled the tubes, using the temporary rivets I used on the front bulkhead panels.



Bulkhead panel drilled ready for finishing and Riveting.

I was going to paint the back panel, but ended up using vinyl and was very happy with the results, wished I'd used it on the front panels.

Once the panel was covered, it was sealed and riveted in place.



Trust me to find the black rivets after I'd finished!!!



Very nice cover made for the rear, by an old friend.
 He's taking orders if anyones interested, just drop me a line.

The quick lift Jack  might be a bit big to fit in the back of the car for events.

First rear arch aligned, ready for bolting on.

There's a thought....6 wheel Seven....I need to check the Regs :-)

Rear lights fitted

Front Cycle wings cut and fitted, not perfect, but I'll be happy  if there still on after the first race!!

Cutting holes in the body is always a big step, but you can always add a bezel if you make a real mess!!

I wonder if I can get a tune out of it.

Manifold fitted, still needs a few tweaks before I run the engine.

Dash Panel looks good, thanks to my wife's latest crafting tool. Not yet wired, but OK for the show.



Car ready for show, front lights fitted, Master switch and fir pull added.



Look forward to meeting all my blog followers at the Autosport show.

 

Good progress this week

I got back from Valencia late on Friday afternoon after a 2.5 hour delay!!
I'd hoped to start building on Saturday, but my back was playing up again, so I had the weekend off, and was in a foul mood, by Sunday night, thinking I was going to loose another weeks building.

I'd booked this week off so was happy that my back felt better on Monday morning, and armed with sandwiches biscuits and tea,I made my way to the workshop.

I made good progress this week, especially with the extra help from Gavin.

The first job was to re-adjust the spacing of the rear wishbones before assembling the diff and drive shafts. For the time being, I'm going to leave the washers in place, and replace them with spacers, once the suspension geometry is set up.

I had to modify the hole positions for the diff mounting,  as 2 of them were slightly out of position.
Once the diff was bolted in, I realised that I should have connected the fuel pipes first, as there is not a lot of room under the diff. Luckily I managed to connect them without taking the diff out.

With the diff in place we started to assemble the rear drive shafts and hubs.
As I'd chosen to use the Willwood Sierra rear calipers, I had to mount their adaptor brackets. The brackets can be mounted both round both ways, but only one way works, so make sure the machined face is mounted against the bearing housing.

Once the uprights were assembled with the hubs and caliper brackets, they were re-assembled to the wishbones and the calipers were bolted on.

To complete the rear end the handbrake was drilled and bolted on, and the cables routed.

As I plan to duct the radiator hot air out of the nose cone, I had to move the rad forward from it's original mountings. This meant fabricating some new brackets.
At the moment I've mounted directly to the rad, but I've just ordered some rubber bobbins for the mounts, to minimise the vibration into the Ali Rad.


Trial fitting brackets.



Next job is to set the steering position and get the column cut to length. This involved sitting in the seat and getting the a comfortable driving position, whist the positions were marked by Gavin.



I was happier than I look...honest !!

Once the steering column was positioned, I could start fitting the body.

The tub was riveted from underneath, but the top was left to allow for aligning the scuttle bonnet and nose.

The position for the steering column was marked on the scuttle, then slots cut to clear the column. I wanted to have slots, so that I can remove the scuttle without having to remove the column. I can finish the slots with a small bezel.

Next was to fit the nose, and check the bonnet length to ensure the scuttle position.

Everything aligned great. This is one of MNR's strong points, the body fitment and alignment is second to none.



Where's Gavin? Look carefully, he's the one in the Rusky hat!!



So this weeks finished on a high, I feel like I'm getting there, and once Xmas is over, I can finish fixing the body, then start to think about fitting the Engine :-)

Have a Great Christmas everyone, and a Happy New Year.

Back building

Finally back building after 3 weeks off with my back problem. Lost a lot of time, so I'm going to be busy in my week off before Christmas.
The snow also hampered all my deliveries, most of the stuff turned up within a couple of days of the snow stopping, was like Christmas coming early.

So this weekend consisted of Christmas shopping on Saturday and a good day down the workshop on Sunday.

Jobs completed this week:

Pedal box fitted. Spent a lot of time getting the clutch cable routing right and checked the efforts. There's been a lot of comments about how heavy the clutch is on the CBR1000, but the 08 model doesn't seem any heavier than my old R1 so I think i'll stay with the cable, rather than going to a hydraulic clutch. I hope I don't come to regret this !!!!

Next job was rebuilding the diff. I must say a big thank you to my Uncle Tony for fitting the new bearings to the diff and carriers, while I was incapacitated.
The first time I tried to set the diff clearances, I had a tight spot which was probably down to some muck between the diff and crown wheel, so I had to pull it out again and take the crown wheel off, clean it and bolt it back up. With this done, I managed to get the clearances set and bolt it all back together.
With a fresh coat of paint, its ready to go in.

Whilst I was working on the Diff, Gavin was fitting my newly acquired extinguisher. He's getting good at laying under the car drilling holes ;-). Cheers Gav.

I was considering using twin pot willwood brakes on the rear, and fabricating a handbrake mechanism off the Diff, but decided to go with the simpler route of Powerlite calipers with the handbrake cable attached, it's more expensive, but I haven't got the time to mess around anymore, and I prefer the idea of having a proper hand brake, should there be any problems with the hydraulics.
One job that was needed with fitting the Powerlite rears, was to machine down the hubs to fit inside the 240 dia discs. I managed to do this in a machine shop we use at work, they let me use one of their Lathes. A big thank you to ASE for this, and I'm sure I'll be back for more at some point.

Going to bed now, I've got a 6.10 flight to Valencia in the morning, got to get up at 3am ouch!!!

Bloody Back !!!!

Lost another weekend this week. Last week my back started spasming, I've never been in so much pain in all my life. Spent 3 days in bed, now walking (with a stick).
Been to the Physio and got some exercises to do.
Hope it sorts itself out soon, it's going to be a busy Christmas holiday.

Slow Progress....

It's been a few weeks since my last post, and progress has been slow.
I had a couple of weeks off, doing some DIY at home, decorating my Son's room and making a craft area for my wife, needed the Brownie points ;-)

Last weekend the front suspension was completed with the hubs assembled, brake discs and calipers fitted.

I'd been debating whether to get my diff rebuilt with the Tranx LSD or have a go myself. As I'd never built a diff before........., I decided to have a go!!
I found a site that explained the basics of stripping in and rebuilding the diff, http://www.mc2racing.com/tech/20081104a/index.html

First job was to make a tool to remove the bearing carriers, lucky for me, George didn't need the old discs from his Mazda doner (cheers George).
We measured the pitch of the teeth on the carrier, drilled and tapped a series of holes around the disc that matched the castellations, then fitted some M6 screws. With a lenth of bar bolted to the diff, we had a carrier removing tool.
Holding the diff in the vice, the carriers were unscrewed carefully, to make sure the crown wheel didn't get damaged.
With the old diff removed the crown wheel was unbolted and carefully removed with a brass drift.
I'm not planning to remove the Pinion so will only replace the diff carrier bearings, these are going to need to be done on a press, so I need to call a friendly workshop I know.
With the crown wheel removed it was aligned to the new Tranx LSD and bolted together.

With the help of George, Gavin and a swan necked lift, we fitted the engine loosely, to start thinking  about cooling pipes and rad location.

 

This weeks been another lost weekend, as my backs been playing me up (nothing to do with the engine).
I planned to fit the radiator, but could hardly stand, so after making a bracket up, I called it a day.
Big thank you to Gavin though, he got under the car and fitted my reverse box.

Hopefully my backs better this week, I hope to get the diff in next weekend.

Steering Rack and Front Suspension

Today I finished fitting the Steering rack.
Apart from having to file the brackets out a little, to fit the rack, it went in very easily. The bolts were a little long, so they were cut down (a bit more weight out!!).

Before fitting the front wishbones, the powder coating in the bolt holes needed to be cleaned out.  I also measured and cut the bolts down in advance.
The lower wishbones were fitted first, loosly fitting the bolts, so I could assemble the upright and upper wishbone.
The uprights are steel lightweight specials, which are actually lighter than the alloy ones available, I did have to tap out the powdercoating, but again, no other problems with fitting them.
The washers were fitted, but only to hold the bones in a rough position, as I want to get proper spacers made to replace them.
With the balljoints fitted, the front suspension is assembled, although it needs to be setup.