1970 Ginetta G15

[giuliettaevo]

Nov 20, 2022 10:06:20 GMT lebowski said:

Personally I prefer to find an off the shelf OEM solution that fits. More time consuming but probably cheaper and better.

That's also my favourite solution. Also handy that if it ever breaks you can quite easily replace it. You do need a good brain to remember where every part came from.😅

OEM stuff is most of the time well designed but watch out, the pennycounters are powerful forces.. cheaper options are often used, like plastic instead of aluminium.

[Darkspeed]

Getting OEM to fit in a G15 is not the easiest of things so the owner did what many would do and went to a reputable manufacturer - Radtec in this case - for a drop in replacement to the existing. When you spend half a bag you don't expect the result to be a product that's trying to kill the engine! I have a Skoda Fabia rad waiting in the wings if my existing high efficiency stock G15 rad ever turns out to be marginal.

[ovimor]

.."OEM stuff is most of the time well designed but watch out, the pennycounters are powerful forces.. cheaper options are often used, like plastic instead of aluminium"..

I bought, brand new, a Proton Savvy. A couple of years old and the drivers windup window mech began to jump [little cog worn].
I stripped it all out and replaced the cog with the identical part, from a Kia.
Proton was soft monkeymetal / Kia sintered and hard.

..... Bean counters.... 🤨

OVIMOR

[Darkspeed]

Assisted with a bit of work on #13




Making a couple of cooling pipes up for an oil to water cooler.


This one for the return to the water pump





And this one the flow from the top of the head





The injection layout - BMW K1000 throttle bodies - bespoke adapters and a special combined manifold to suit the adapter diameters from Mark Maynard.




After crawling about under the car installing the gear shifter, tightening up all of the clamps for the services and adjusting the handbrake - underneath this bit.





We cut a complete set of new side windows - which was surprisingly straight forward.





Picked up a couple of parts for my projects and went and sat in traffic.

[Darkspeed]

More welding on plastic cars.























About as strong as a bolt in cage for a G15 gets. Hopefully none of it will ever get tested.

[Darkspeed]

Bit more painting today with The Specials on repeat following the sad news of the passing of Terry Hall





And then to add to the misery I discovered that I had used standard 2K hardener with the epoxy primer - FFS

[teaboy]

Very sad DS, on both counts.

[blackpopracing]

Ah, that's gonna be an to clean off.

Been there with the wrong epoxy thinners too.

[Darkspeed]

The primer appears to have dried - I say dried as its not tacky as I expected it to be - but its not fully hard yet as you can still leave a mark in it, but that was the same with the stuff mixed correctly in these temps. I also noted that some paint on the outside of the tin from prior use is fully hard - and clearly that has not had any hardener at all. I am going to put it in the low bake oven (cardboard box and a fan heater) for a couple of hours and get it all toasty and then see what its like at the weekend. It not critical stuff just suspension parts so will see what its like when I come to sand it prior to top coats.

[biturbo228]

Done that before. It'll dry, but won't 'cure' so it'll stay a bit soft and you'll be able to wash it off with thinners/petrol/misc solvents that shouldn't normally touch 2K paint.

You might be lucky though and whatever chemical they're using is the same in both.

[16grit]

Nov 22, 2022 22:29:09 GMT Darkspeed said:

Assisted with a bit of work on #13




 

Hey DS,

seeing the fuel regulator reminded me of the advice here SBD / Jenvey pdf - (https://www.sbdmotorsport.co.uk/wp/wp/pdf/2L_XE_TP-VX-2-0-K3_Taper_Throttle_Kit_Instructions.pdf)

Having an installation directly above an exhaust  like the Ginetta pictured, I did this:

Just another day on the good ship niggling doubt I suppose...

[Darkspeed]

Thanks 16grit I have passed that over to my mate.


Made the intermediate gear shift support for the G15 a bit lighter following the shape of the one from the racer - ends up well under half the weight it started out at.





Will have to revisit the one on BOY and see how light I made that one.

[Darkspeed]

Many thanks to kevdonlon for these steel wheels for the demonstrator rebuild. Another part of the jigsaw sorted.









Had a mail through eBay - "Sorry I missed the auction any chance etc. " - I said that if I had the material I would assemble a set and unfortunately for me I have almost all of the parts needed.









Still - if it helps out another G15 owner - I am not doing much else in this weather.

[Darkspeed]

Drilled some holes - pressed in some tubes - made some pretty rainbow colours.











Just need to put a chamfer on the lower plates and job done I think.


That's it, all out of materials now

[miket24]

Darkspeed, firstly, I have enjoyed this thread immensely whilst down with Covid, and secondly, as a former development engineer with a heat exchanger manufacturer, I can confirm that this alloy rad is totally unsuited to liquid/air duties. As jonsey commented, it looks like a charge air cooler, albeit, not a particularly good one. Providing that water velocity is reasonably high, rad performance is completely dominated by the airside performance. You need turbulent flow (ie Re above 2100), but keep the max water velocity below about 16 ft/sec to avoid erosion. Hope that this helps with your modifications. A further comment is that the header tank is far too large but is probably controlled by the need to fabricate from flat plate. Cheers

[Darkspeed]

Jan 7, 2023 9:56:15 GMT miket24 said:

Darkspeed, firstly, I have enjoyed this thread immensely whilst down with Covid, and secondly, as a former development engineer with a heat exchanger manufacturer, I can confirm that this alloy rad is totally unsuited to liquid/air duties. As jonsey commented, it looks like a charge air cooler, albeit, not a particularly good one. Providing that water velocity is reasonably high, rad performance is completely dominated by the airside performance. You need turbulent flow (ie Re above 2100), but keep the max water velocity below about 16 ft/sec to avoid erosion. Hope that this helps with your modifications. A further comment is that the header tank is far too large but is probably controlled by the need to fabricate from flat plate. Cheers

Cheers back atcha Glad the thread provided a bit of a distraction whist fighting off Covid and thanks for the input on the rad. Pump flow rates is still on my to do list and when I do I shall do the calcs and see what we have in regard to velocities etc. through that rad. I would be more inclined to put the fabrication effort in if A - it was simple job to remove and refit B - there was nice consistent number of cores to work with - I had thought about a tapered header both ends to try and give even pressure/drop flow across the core but - Tanks mainly just mimic the original design. Plenty else to do and think about at the moment so will be some time before it gets revisited unless engine cooling issues turn up again.

[Darkspeed]

Started a little work on the "Racer" - Just a cleaning up job of the drivers door to begin the refurbishment works - figured if I am going to hand out " one bite at a time comments" that taking a few nibbles at my own projects would be good form.

After sitting in outside unprotected for 30+ years the condition of steel parts was not great.

A few of the small screws holding the inner door panel did actually come out but a few did not - Luckily they very small headed screws and even with levering the panel over what was left of them the damage was negligible.





I had already removed what was left of the window frame at this point and started removal of the inner door handle and lock assembly...





....Which was not going to be reusable





I did manage a little bit more work removing a couple of nuts from the hinge assembly but still a way to go to get all parts removed.

[75swb]

Are those mechanisms sourced from a donor or ginetta specific?

[Darkspeed]

They are early Lotus Esprit












Marina

[v8ian]

Early Lotus Esprit probably means Morris Marina........... Just Saying......