Hello RR dudes,
I thought that with 1 month to go till RR gathering 2011 (obviously mised that deadline - Ed ) i'd show everyone whats been burning my midnight oil for the last couple of months, and the challenge ive set to finish the project ready for The Gathering.... #GULP#.
I picked up the UVA last year after the epic roadtrip documented elsewhere on the forum; retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=90915&page=1#1176336 And after a few months of ownership I decided that it was time to start making it mine and give the old Girl a new lease of life she deserves!
This is how it looked towards the end of last year at the Beach meeting;
In general it was in good conditon for its age, but you could certainly see where all the previous owners have had different ideas and repairs on repairs on bodges on repairs. it was time to bite the bullet and start stripping down ready for a fresh canvas!
1st to go was the mammoth fuel tank;
I did a rough estimate on the capacity and reckon it was around 17 to 18 gallons and took up almost the entire front end of the buggy, not to mention the weight in steel alone. Guessing on a rubbish MPG it would still do about 300 miles on a tank full, which I didn't think was really ness bearing in mind your backside would probably be crying out for a fuel stop and leg stretch way before then...
The seats that were in there were really falling apart, and my plan was to get hold of some original "Layback" GRP ones that the Fugitives were fitted with originally, but this also had a knock on effect of moving you away from where the previous owners had put all the controls in the centre console. When you were strapped into the harness you couldnt actually use anything!
My plan was to combine some chassis reinforcement on the A pillars with a new Dash panel where it would move the dials and switches off the floor and within arms reach, both functional and cleaning the look of the inside. Time to hit the milling machine to make some angled bar cut-outs for a perfect fit;
No easy 90 degree angles on these.....
Its been a long while since ive done any hardcore welding so I was pleased with my early "refresher" in welding again;
Bars welded in, the fuel tank was removed and time to relocate the battery right to the front. Anyone whos driven one of these will know that getting the front wheels to lock under braking is too easy due to low weight over the front end, and with a new lighter tank this was only going to get worse ><.
Brackets were fabricated and fitted to mount a decent battery box courtesy of "The Bay of E".
Also purchased was a decent Riv-nut tool, which I must say is one of those purchases ive actually found awesome and very handy, and looks alot tidier than welding nuts for mounting points.
Next the mounting frame for the spangly new fuel tank was made. A bit of planning and some fabrication, the frame was test fitted, and sourced some nice looking straps that are actually from a lambretta!
One of those head scratching moments to work out how to mount a new dashboard. I needed to fit a brace bar across the frame to act as a lower mount for the dash, but if it went all the way across it would get in the way of the steering column. Bit of lateral thinking later I dropped the column and I welded in a complete bar, fitted 2 x braces and then cut out the part where the steering cowling goes. This meant I knew the bar was level both sides but also was would be strong enough not to flex under load.
Time to turn to ergonomics! After driving it for a while I found the gear knob too far back, which meant the passenger getting elbowed in the face alot (Sorry Dan) so needed to be moved further forward. This also makes it closer to the steering wheel for that racing feel ;D
The wiring was a bit of a state, gaffer tape, shower sealant, you name it, it was used somewhere in there, so a complete re-wire will be needed, even for my peace of mind and knowing it will be done right.
The old floor panel had everything mounted to it, fuel tank, pedals, wiring, fuel and brake lines and it was getting a bit of a mess not to mention the mount of holes drilled everywhere so my plan was to make sure everthing was going to be mounted to the frame instead, both for tidyness and also to help with repairs and maintenence in the long run.
Floor panel removed and wiring looms/brake lines out I came across this that made me chuckle;
Where in the past the pedals has been moved it appears that the master cylinder pipes were going to interfere with one of the major lower frame braces, so rather than move one or the other, a large gaping hole was cut in the member and left to the elements.... Oh how I laughed at the rust, another job to fix.
I continued to fully strip down to a bare frame and decided that if I was going to be sure how good the frame was then id take it back to bare metal and check the frame welds as it was now a 22 year old car. Several hours later, many sanding discs, and only about 2 feet of frame exposed due to the "Nuclear War" grade chassis paint I decided it was time to make life easier and make some phonecalls. I found a local chap that specialised in Soda Blasting, which is alot less abrasive than sand blasting but would bring it back to metal and also has a benefit of not having to stick paint straight on to keep out the rust due to a coating that helps to keep moisture away for a few days. Had to wait a couple of weeks to slot me in but it was worth while for the end result;
Back to the grindstone and time to think about a replacement screen. The old one was simply bonded to the outer frame and didnt look brilliant, and also had the edges exposed and they had started to chip away, both sharp and a smashed screen waiting to happen, so I welded in some strips around the inner edges of the frame to allow me to bond the new screen in flush to the frame. At the same time also fabricated the upper mount for the dash and windscreen wiper motor.
That done it was time to turn to pedals. The old pedals were pretty shot and the master cylinders had started to seap too, so I bit the bullet and bought a complete pedal set comlete with dual brake clylinders which would allow me to fine tine the front to rear bias and help that locking front brake syndrome. Going along with my plan to mount everything to the frame I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and make the pedals adjustable front to rear to make it more comfy to drive, and also different heights to drive it too.
This is what I came up with;
The inner frame slides forwards and back and the pedal box sits inside the frame.
Next up was the rear end (ooooer Mrs) and what to do with the lights. The old ones looked like generic trailer lamps and didnt really suit the retro feel I was after, so much wallet emptying expenditure later and some nice chrome lamps were sourced. I'm going to hide alot of the wiring inside the frame so had to bust out the machining skills again to make some stainless mounts that would allow me to feed the wiring inside the frame and also weld blended down tube to fit them it.
Et voila!
Tubes welded on rear frame and lights test fitted, very please with result if I do say so myself.
Bruce, Just had a thought and I don't know if yours is the same, but I re-designed the rear removeable engine cover frame mounts where they used to bolt on the gearbox horns. The old way used to mean you had to remove the gearbox rear mounting bolts to remove the frame, which was a pain in the bottom and meant alot of hassle supporting the box while you took it out and in again. I welded some tabs in the horns themselves and elongated the rear frame tubes with internal threads so they bolt on and off without touching the gearbox at all (you can see em welded on in the above piccies)
Last weekend was spent beavering away fabricating and fitting the panels where the new seats will sit. Due to my height and fat ass ive decided to fit a slightly lowered floor to mount the seats on, this should give me more leg and head room as well as meaning the seats don't have to come out to remove to front floor panel, which is nice. Filler and primer started to tidy up the frame and some patterns made for some stainless panels for the dash and scuttle trims.
So there we have the 'Ol Girl so far! Its been a mental couple of months and a fair bit done that ive missed here to get to where I am now, feel free to ask any questions.
Welding all done, 90% primered last night and the added bonus of the GRP seats that ive been waiting to come from america for 2 months turned up today so full steam ahead.
1 Month to go then till The Gathering, place your bets!
P.S Now you know why ive not managed to make it to any A52 meetings...
I thought that with 1 month to go till RR gathering 2011 (obviously mised that deadline - Ed ) i'd show everyone whats been burning my midnight oil for the last couple of months, and the challenge ive set to finish the project ready for The Gathering.... #GULP#.
I picked up the UVA last year after the epic roadtrip documented elsewhere on the forum; retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=90915&page=1#1176336 And after a few months of ownership I decided that it was time to start making it mine and give the old Girl a new lease of life she deserves!
This is how it looked towards the end of last year at the Beach meeting;
In general it was in good conditon for its age, but you could certainly see where all the previous owners have had different ideas and repairs on repairs on bodges on repairs. it was time to bite the bullet and start stripping down ready for a fresh canvas!
1st to go was the mammoth fuel tank;
I did a rough estimate on the capacity and reckon it was around 17 to 18 gallons and took up almost the entire front end of the buggy, not to mention the weight in steel alone. Guessing on a rubbish MPG it would still do about 300 miles on a tank full, which I didn't think was really ness bearing in mind your backside would probably be crying out for a fuel stop and leg stretch way before then...
The seats that were in there were really falling apart, and my plan was to get hold of some original "Layback" GRP ones that the Fugitives were fitted with originally, but this also had a knock on effect of moving you away from where the previous owners had put all the controls in the centre console. When you were strapped into the harness you couldnt actually use anything!
My plan was to combine some chassis reinforcement on the A pillars with a new Dash panel where it would move the dials and switches off the floor and within arms reach, both functional and cleaning the look of the inside. Time to hit the milling machine to make some angled bar cut-outs for a perfect fit;
No easy 90 degree angles on these.....
Its been a long while since ive done any hardcore welding so I was pleased with my early "refresher" in welding again;
Bars welded in, the fuel tank was removed and time to relocate the battery right to the front. Anyone whos driven one of these will know that getting the front wheels to lock under braking is too easy due to low weight over the front end, and with a new lighter tank this was only going to get worse ><.
Brackets were fabricated and fitted to mount a decent battery box courtesy of "The Bay of E".
Also purchased was a decent Riv-nut tool, which I must say is one of those purchases ive actually found awesome and very handy, and looks alot tidier than welding nuts for mounting points.
Next the mounting frame for the spangly new fuel tank was made. A bit of planning and some fabrication, the frame was test fitted, and sourced some nice looking straps that are actually from a lambretta!
One of those head scratching moments to work out how to mount a new dashboard. I needed to fit a brace bar across the frame to act as a lower mount for the dash, but if it went all the way across it would get in the way of the steering column. Bit of lateral thinking later I dropped the column and I welded in a complete bar, fitted 2 x braces and then cut out the part where the steering cowling goes. This meant I knew the bar was level both sides but also was would be strong enough not to flex under load.
Time to turn to ergonomics! After driving it for a while I found the gear knob too far back, which meant the passenger getting elbowed in the face alot (Sorry Dan) so needed to be moved further forward. This also makes it closer to the steering wheel for that racing feel ;D
The wiring was a bit of a state, gaffer tape, shower sealant, you name it, it was used somewhere in there, so a complete re-wire will be needed, even for my peace of mind and knowing it will be done right.
The old floor panel had everything mounted to it, fuel tank, pedals, wiring, fuel and brake lines and it was getting a bit of a mess not to mention the mount of holes drilled everywhere so my plan was to make sure everthing was going to be mounted to the frame instead, both for tidyness and also to help with repairs and maintenence in the long run.
Floor panel removed and wiring looms/brake lines out I came across this that made me chuckle;
Where in the past the pedals has been moved it appears that the master cylinder pipes were going to interfere with one of the major lower frame braces, so rather than move one or the other, a large gaping hole was cut in the member and left to the elements.... Oh how I laughed at the rust, another job to fix.
I continued to fully strip down to a bare frame and decided that if I was going to be sure how good the frame was then id take it back to bare metal and check the frame welds as it was now a 22 year old car. Several hours later, many sanding discs, and only about 2 feet of frame exposed due to the "Nuclear War" grade chassis paint I decided it was time to make life easier and make some phonecalls. I found a local chap that specialised in Soda Blasting, which is alot less abrasive than sand blasting but would bring it back to metal and also has a benefit of not having to stick paint straight on to keep out the rust due to a coating that helps to keep moisture away for a few days. Had to wait a couple of weeks to slot me in but it was worth while for the end result;
Back to the grindstone and time to think about a replacement screen. The old one was simply bonded to the outer frame and didnt look brilliant, and also had the edges exposed and they had started to chip away, both sharp and a smashed screen waiting to happen, so I welded in some strips around the inner edges of the frame to allow me to bond the new screen in flush to the frame. At the same time also fabricated the upper mount for the dash and windscreen wiper motor.
That done it was time to turn to pedals. The old pedals were pretty shot and the master cylinders had started to seap too, so I bit the bullet and bought a complete pedal set comlete with dual brake clylinders which would allow me to fine tine the front to rear bias and help that locking front brake syndrome. Going along with my plan to mount everything to the frame I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and make the pedals adjustable front to rear to make it more comfy to drive, and also different heights to drive it too.
This is what I came up with;
The inner frame slides forwards and back and the pedal box sits inside the frame.
Next up was the rear end (ooooer Mrs) and what to do with the lights. The old ones looked like generic trailer lamps and didnt really suit the retro feel I was after, so much wallet emptying expenditure later and some nice chrome lamps were sourced. I'm going to hide alot of the wiring inside the frame so had to bust out the machining skills again to make some stainless mounts that would allow me to feed the wiring inside the frame and also weld blended down tube to fit them it.
Et voila!
Tubes welded on rear frame and lights test fitted, very please with result if I do say so myself.
Bruce, Just had a thought and I don't know if yours is the same, but I re-designed the rear removeable engine cover frame mounts where they used to bolt on the gearbox horns. The old way used to mean you had to remove the gearbox rear mounting bolts to remove the frame, which was a pain in the bottom and meant alot of hassle supporting the box while you took it out and in again. I welded some tabs in the horns themselves and elongated the rear frame tubes with internal threads so they bolt on and off without touching the gearbox at all (you can see em welded on in the above piccies)
Last weekend was spent beavering away fabricating and fitting the panels where the new seats will sit. Due to my height and fat ass ive decided to fit a slightly lowered floor to mount the seats on, this should give me more leg and head room as well as meaning the seats don't have to come out to remove to front floor panel, which is nice. Filler and primer started to tidy up the frame and some patterns made for some stainless panels for the dash and scuttle trims.
So there we have the 'Ol Girl so far! Its been a mental couple of months and a fair bit done that ive missed here to get to where I am now, feel free to ask any questions.
Welding all done, 90% primered last night and the added bonus of the GRP seats that ive been waiting to come from america for 2 months turned up today so full steam ahead.
1 Month to go then till The Gathering, place your bets!
P.S Now you know why ive not managed to make it to any A52 meetings...
)
