Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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We will see if I can manage to maintain some momentun with it. As it was chucking it down today I spent most of the time in the garage just tidying up and moving stuff about. I did get one little job done, and that was to make a new crossmember to suit the Lister Bell seat belt mounting brackets. Now I need to get some steel ordered in to get going on the chassis.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 11, 2017 18:44:58 GMT
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Whilst on an ebay trawl the other evening I managed to grab another set of 955i throttle bodies for £31 delivered so that's me done for the time being as I now have 4 pairs - twelve off - so plenty of options for the intakes with my own almost direct to head type adaptor manifold and the special Weber IDF manifold.
I think I will have to look into getting myself a TIG welder to have a play with aluminium as I will eventiually need to get injector bosses welded into the IDF manifold.
I am hoping that the final bit of work on the L200 today will leave it running reliably so that I can deliver the Orange G15 back to its owner for the interior and glass work to be done. With that out of the way a clear garage space will mean that I can get to work on parts for the Stratos.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 26, 2017 20:25:35 GMT
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First off goodbye to a G15 back to its owner for trimming and such. Had a quick look under the covers at my ones to remind myself just what I need to do to them - made some notes and covered them up again I have my old red G15, that is currently doing some HRCR rallying, coming back for some chassis works in a couple of weeks but that gives me some time with a clear garage so I sacrificed a cup of tea at Loton park and got stuck into doing a bit on the Strat' Pictures Remove doors and front and back clams Remove central tub Have a look inside Remove rear suspension Make space in the garage and then stick it on a jack and heave Remove the front suspension and heave it up onto some axle stands so that there is room under for storage. Adjust and trim the rear harness bar and the harness brackets And then break out the welder and weld - being very careful when welding up the multitude of pop rivet holes as you tend to forget where you have just welded when putting hands down to support oneself when going to weld the next hole. I was very careful so no burns today. Now I do not profess to being the worlds best welder but even just a good welder would have dressed this one back and gone again. I need to think about what to do with the side sills - they have been modified from standard when the Hawk body was fitted - and I need to unmodify it. This piece of steel will be going into it somewhere. And thoughts about door bars Got a fair bit done.
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Last Edit: Mar 26, 2017 20:30:14 GMT by Darkspeed
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Mar 27, 2017 19:29:35 GMT
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Now I do not profess to being the worlds best welder but even just a good welder would have dressed this one back and gone again. i had to lean into that picture just to check it wasnt a grease nipple
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 27, 2017 20:43:41 GMT
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i had to lean into that picture just to check it wasnt a grease nipple No that's the weld on the underside of the rear upper wishbone mount ! Another little issue I found yesterday was the track rod end and steering arm I think someone went a little mad with the taper reamer Took it to bits And this is what was holding the steering arm on the other side of the car Plus another hammered in dust cap that was left to rub against the hub So that got a bit of reprofiling with the hammer. After spending a bit of time cleaning A bit of paint left for tomorrow And thats this evenings work complete which will be it for a couple of days as I am going to have a look at the Rally G15 chassis, that has just come back from the blasters, tomorrow and Wednesday is Ginetta G32 work party and pizza day.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 29, 2017 22:24:23 GMT
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Tuesday was a trip up to look at the G15 chassis that had just come back from the blasters and discuss the pan for the chassis works that will be carried out in April. The farm gate that holds the wheels and engine under a G15 in pretty good order and should be pretty straight forward work to do the required mods. Tonight is Pizza and work party on the Ginetta G32 - last week we put the silencer in place and this week was baking it meet the down pipe. Not quite what I am used to but with a bit of effort it can be made to do an acceptable weld. Measure measure cut tack And then fully weld - not too bad with budget welder I spent 5 mins to set Before and after Job done, time for Pizza - result Tomorrow I think I will take a break from cars.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 30, 2017 22:17:02 GMT
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With Pizza on the menu you have to put in that little extra effort We may have to have another bit of a detour from the Strato's for a while to get the Ginetta committments out of the way - Just for a month or so. Preview of the G15 I have done a bit on on the stand at this weekends resto Show. I will be dodging stand duties in order to make progress on the Strato's. But if you go along do say hello the crew as they are real enthusiasts and there are some very interesting cars on the stand.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 31, 2017 21:20:26 GMT
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Hopefully this bloke that stopped by the stand was not to critical of the work on the G15
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Did a few hours on the Strato's again today and I will do a bit more tomorrow but I cannot go too far with the work as it will need to moved out of the way on Saturday to make way for the Rally G15 chassis. Still, progress is progress no matter how small. First off I had a look at the suspension on this car. Old Spax units - not leaking but well past their best with some quite high rate springs - I did a few calculations on the rates and leverages and will revist these at a later stage. Nothing left but to continue to remove the ugly - chop chop This mount has bothered me since day one - there is no need for a mount just to be functional - it can also look okay as well as there is no law against it - lest see if we can slim it down and make a little less of an eysore. It's a bit cracked - a bit very cracked. Hmmmmmmm - And no place for this sort of dreadfulness on this car Time for a break and and use of a little imagination.
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oukie
Part of things
Posts: 307
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Great work and thread, whilst reading through the thread, I noticed that the orange exhaust back box looks almost identical to the stock back box off of an mr2 mk1.
Chris
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Mr2 mk1 x4
Honda Accord 2.4 Executive (luxo barge)
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is it common for those chassis to be that bad, or are you just extra lucky?
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Great work and thread, whilst reading through the thread, I noticed that the orange exhaust back box looks almost identical to the stock back box off of an mr2 mk1. Chris The funny right angle power robber pipe and the MR2 MK1 rear box is the standard exhaust that Ginetta fitted to all G32's - That particular Ginetta is a 1.9 but based on the 1.6 block and not the CVH 1.8 tall block conversion. It's no surprise that the G32 lacked the expected sparkle in performance when you see that system. Then again they did some real mixing and matching of Ford components to build the G32. Great little cars. is it common for those chassis to be that bad, or are you just extra lucky? There were not many double wishbone chassis cars made and even fewer of those few were built to take the Honda V6. We suspect that this is the only chassis of it's type. Add to that the fact that the builder fitted a Hawk body and had to chop and alter the chassis to suit makes things worse, add into the mix the poor quality of work carried out to correct the inherent design flaws with regard engine supports and you end up with what you have here. However issues with the chassis of all type on these cars are quite common - especially in respect of the rear suspension mounts tearing away. ( Strangley not an issue on this car) Most of these faults are know and get corrected during builds but there are still some of these kits only just being completed and have the mounts fail very soon after first use. Lucky for me I enjoy these challenges.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Forgot the shot of the cropped bracket And another shot of the office A nice photo for reference and inspiration
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Last Edit: Apr 2, 2017 21:26:45 GMT by Darkspeed
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can't wait to see the improvements you scheme up in the chassis. I'm always amazed at what you get under many 70s supercars etc and how agricultural it all looks compared to the cages/ spaceframes that you see now. I know they didn't have CAD and all of the analysis software, but even building a scale replica in spagetti would have shown up many of the faults and crazy load paths
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Although the chassis was not as strong as it should have been the placing of the engine mount mid beam on the rear crossmember appears to have been an afterthought and it should have been obvious to whoever put it there that it was just asking for trouble Then again it should also have been really REALLY obvious that chopping into a CDS roll cage to make a body fit was a definate no no. And that cutting folding and pidgeon pooing the side sills back together to narrow them was also not the best of idea's Then again.... no lets no go there. Time will whip round quickly enough to show the works required to beef things up - I just hope I took enough photos of clearances so that I don't have to resort to dropping the engine in and out to check!!! For the most part the chassis is pretty good so what I will be doing will be minimal as the G27 has more than fed my tube fetish.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Pizza Wednesday work party It runs - Roland the owner had toned down the exhuast and given the new pipe a coat of VHT I sold the car to Roland when I bought the Stratos project when I needed space - it was pretty manky when I bought it having sat outside for many years but being glassfibre with a galvanised chassis they survive pretty well. This one was also a very high specification car - Leather Wilton Aero sun roof 1.9 CVH basically very option on the list and only 14K miles on that 1.9. Runs like a dream and damn i'm kicking myself... Thursday I made a bogey... not the sort that blow bubbles created from uncontrollable sobbing due to the regret of selling something you wish you had not but... This This will make it easier to roll about whilst the G15 and the G21 Chassis are in the garage being worked on.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,695
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Cracked on with the works on the chassis, grinding out and replacing welds I did not like the look of, welding up numerous holes in the chassis. Many of the holes in the chassis were standard Ginetta attachements which are in the main just drilled straight through the chassis box section. All these fixings typically end up giving a "pin cushion" dent in the chassis tube so the body, and anything else fixed to the chassis, is never fixed as securely as it should be. All of the main body to frame fixings will now be into plates with captive nuts so as to retain a full clamping force, and all other fixings into the chassis will be by either sleeved tubes, sleeved with threaded inserts and none of the fixing will be by a hole though an open tube. If you do not have the ability to weld then the only option when fixing fuel pumps, expansion tanks. replacement oil coolers etc. is to just drill through the chassi tubes and bolt them up. this means that every fixing was two holes I had to weld up. Many holes and many lengths of stitch welding later, plus quite a few "I don't like the look of that previous weld" welds later we are getting there! This wishbone bracket is having to be removed and replaced as it has gone from 3/8" to 1/2" A sleeved roll cage mount - needs a final weld the other side is done - and a tacked on triangulation plate Oddly quite long sections of the stiffening plates had never been welded But we sorted that The crush tubes for the rear roll cage. Whilst I was emptying a bottle of Argoshield light, Mike, the cars owner, was busy making many small brackets and plates for mounts, webs and gussets for strengthening the Imp wishbones. Busy day... and then I had the gardening to deal with!
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Last Edit: Apr 10, 2017 11:21:12 GMT by Darkspeed
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