1976 Autotune Gemini - ELVA MKI replica

[Darkspeed]

Aug 30, 2018 7:27:55 GMT mylittletony said:

You could mix it up a little and go for a sage green?

This one has BRG roundels!



Colour coded steels would fit with the cost control and look

It will have to be the "Brunswick" type of BRG and more likely the medium of the 4 versions - As for the wheels a set of these maybe worth a punt with some 175/50's on.

Wheels

With a coat of silver plus some

[legend]

I love steel wheels

E-Type Jag racers look great on steels and the magnesium centre locks with the square holes that look like steel wheels.



www.rspanels.co.uk/media/image/parts/5049d2008c1cf.jpg

[ettorebugatti]

What happened to the Libres?

I would stick to the blue and go with an Ecurie Ecosse theme.


13" Wellers from a Formula Ford might be a good looker too.

[Darkspeed]

Aug 30, 2018 12:20:54 GMT legend said:

I love steel wheels

E-Type Jag racers look great on steels and the magnesium centre locks with the square holes that look like steel wheels.

Those mags are very sexy - much like the Campags that are on the Alfa GTA's mimic the normal steels fitted to the lesser models.

[Darkspeed]

Aug 30, 2018 19:45:26 GMT ettorebugatti said:

What happened to the Libres?

I would stick to the blue and go with an Ecurie Ecosse theme.


13" Wellers from a Formula Ford might be a good looker too.

Libre's still an option - It was just considering a period look with the wires, steels being looked at as it was a offered suggestion and has some merit especially with a set of those Pug wheels at £85 delivered.

Blue - The requirement "...BRG..."

Wellers will always look like - well... Wellers - The Pug wheels are more left field and have the same bulbous centre as the Dunlops - just larger holes - The biggest issue with any of the Pug wheels is the 15" diameter and suitable tyres that keep the overall diameter down. The 14" option with 175/60 is probably better. I think the Libre's win

[scimjim]

I’ve seen kit car builders individually drill the smaller holes between the existing ones, to make them look more like the Jag steels

[mylittletony]

Aug 30, 2018 20:40:07 GMT Darkspeed said:

The biggest issue with any of the Pug wheels is the 15" diameter and suitable tyres that keep the overall diameter down. The 14" option with 175/60 is probably better. I think the Libre's win

Not wanting to detract from the Libres as they are sexy AF, but there are oodles of peugeot/citroen 14" steels - 306, berlingo, etc etc.

[peteh1969]

There are lots of 4x108 fitment steel rims to choose from.

www.oponeo.co.uk/steel-wheels-finder#&&/wEXCAUTcGNrX1RyTFNCb2x0UGF0dGVybgUFNHgxMDgFDHBja19UckxTSG9sZQUBMAUHcGNrX0NQZwUBMQUHcGNrX0lQUAUCMjQFCnBja19UckxTUFQFATAFDHBja19UckxTRGlhbQUCMTQFCHBja19JT0ZQBQIyNAUKcGNrX1RyTFNQRgUBMEXYVseXprWkLDdA2yjbktlGWOPA

[Darkspeed]

Yep, been through all the Pug options already in 13" 14" and 15" - as chance would have it one of my neighbours had a issue with a tyre on his Megan ( rotten valve - popped a new one in for him)
- 14" steel - wrong PCD and offset but I think it could work shod with 185/50/14's just got to work out the offset required.

[Darkspeed]

Cleaned up one side of the interior - Removed the remains of glue and vecro tape backing with a good dose of Acetone. One of the benefits of Gavanised steel, aluminium and poly glass composite, 25 years on and not a sign of rust.







Machined up an alloy spacer to replace the plastic indicator self cancelling bush so the steering column is now ready for brackets to be made for refitting. The column chassis tube can now be cut out and replaced with a complete tube rather than the factory chopped about one.







The body is completely free from the chassis after undoing the 6 bolts that hold the body to the chassis and the 4 bolts that fix the windscreen support to the chassis - It now has about the same rigidity as a rubber chicken.

The lower part of the body work had never been fixed to the body in any way and over time the body had dropped and spread away from the chassis.



And also dropped from back to front although not really clear in this picture - There are a couple of options with this



I have also noted that the engine has been raised 1" in small spacers to give the sump a bit of extra clearance - The cars actually sits pretty high at 6 3/4" chassis clearance at the front - and so could do with dropping - a chopped sump may well be order of the day.

[jamesd1972]

Bag of tek screws and a few washers and job jobbed fixing the lower body to the chassis !
Fixing the body at the base must stiffen things up anyway?
James

[Darkspeed]

Sept 4, 2018 13:37:13 GMT jamesd1972 said:

Bag of tek screws and a few washers and job jobbed fixing the lower body to the chassis !
Fixing the body at the base must stiffen things up anyway?
James

LOL - Not the way of the Darkspeed - The lower flange on the bodywork will be cut off - an anodised aluminium 20x20x2 angle will be riveted and bonded to the lower chassis rail at 100mm spacing using 4mm rivets 3mm up from the lower face of the floor, the down facing alloy rail will be fitted with M5 alloy rivnuts at 6" spacing making the curve of the body when fixed meet flush with the floor - Body will be fixed to the angle with M5 Stainless steel flanged button heads.

Fastening the the body to the chassis with a few more bolts will certainly assist in making it less floppy.

The Gemini was always, and still is, a kit that left a lot for the builder to figure out and complete which has both its positives and its negatives. For a really competent builder with a clear vision it provided a platform to be creative and produce an truly excellent car. For those with an abundance of enthusiasm and a shortage of ability it also provided a platform to be creative and produce an utterly average car.

[maxypriest]

No way - a Gemini! That brings back some memories.

One of my close friends had a bright yellow one with a 2.0 Fiat twink/131 g-box in it. From memory it had Viva running gear (for a while it was running a pair of Guy Croft 3D’s that I sold him…).

It was used almost exclusively for trackdays and was bought on a whim as it was untidy and cheap.

What was the big surprise… in the dry it was an absolute weapon on the track and we would regularly lap far superior machinery who’s drivers would seek us out in the pits afterwards. We kept the bonnet shut and told ‘em it was 100% re-bodied Viva mechanics. The engine was a typical very healthy fiat tc, it had done lots of miles and pulled like a train out of corners and down the straights.

In the wet its handling was vile and thus it earned the name the ‘Yellow Peril’. We often went spinning off into the grass, it got repaired a good few times.

Apart from that it was superb; and from memory no bother at all.

[Darkspeed]

I think most if not all of the Gemini's were Escort based - The front end steering is Escort the front uprights are Cortina MK3/4/5 back end is MK2 - They are know for handling quite well.


Been looking at the wiring this evening.

When I first started this thing the odd looking Renault cooling fan would run as soon as the ignition was switched on and it would run at a slow speed - If you disconnected the supply to it when the car was running and then tried to connect it again the car would die.

I now know why.

Some my know that Ford used a ballast wire and not a ballast resistor - this is a wire that drops the supply voltage to the coil to 9V when operating normally - but when starting a contact on the starter motor puts an un-ballasted feed to the coil to give it some extra kick whilst the engine is cranking.

Well what our original builder had done is to take the connection that should have gone to the starter solenoid and used it to power the fan. So what you get is the coil and this Rad fan both being run from the coil end of the ballasted supply - All you see colour wise in the loom is black and yellow wire - what you do not see under the loom tape is the Pink and white ballast wire in between.

Next I will have to see what the resistance of the coil is to see if we have a 12V or 9V coil fitted - Chances are it will be a 12V coil being run from a ballasted supply run with a Fan motor load in parallel !!!

I know what would fix that - POWERBALL.

[maxypriest]

Found a picture!!

[Darkspeed]

And still up and running - JG Special Falcon 1962

No doors like a Gemini and very different rear wings - Looks a wonderfully mad thing no matter what the foundation, I bet it was an absolute hoot, and that body is really dropped over whatever chassis is under it.

[Darkspeed]

Not much in the way of progress on this one at the weekend but I did manage to test the resistance of the coil and at 1.2 Ohms it is confirmed as a ballasted type. I will probably throw a standard 12V coil on it when I rewire it. Loom is stripped back and much of the redundant wiring has been removed - just got to fight my way to the back of the shed to get my hands on the boxes of wiring components.

The Lovely Elva Chassis - The G4 chassis which was much later than this bears some striking similarities.

[Darkspeed]

Found 20 mins yesterday to take a hacksaw to the steering column mount chassis member

One of the down sides with galvanising is the large amount of Zinc that gets left in the chassis tubes no matter how carefully it's drilled and tipped to try and empty it all out.








And found an hour today to complete the task.

Carving and grinding it out is a pain and it requires a good mask for nose and eyes.
Welding also needs a very well ventilated area - Outside with a slight breeze away from you being a good bet even with the area well ground back there are plenty of fumes generated as you cannot grind back the inside of the tubes.
5 of the 8 sides of welding done and the rest will be closed off when I lift the body off. After its all done it will get a liberal coating of Zinga





Much happier now it has a closed tube.

Mounting bracket for the column and marking the tube for sleeving next. Something I should have done before welding it in, but hey ho not the end of the world as it has good clear access.

Looks better

[Darkspeed]

I suppose I ought to come clean and admit that I also bought the other Gemini that was sale just after the first one I bought.



It did not meet its reserve on eBay and I did not see it relisted so out of sight is out of mind and I thought someone else may have done a deal. Well it turn out not as I was idling away surfing the net and I found it in a place that I never visit or use - Farcebook - no idea how I got to it but there it was advertised at not a lot more than the non selling price on eBay. Long story short I went to see it agreed purchase deal done trailered it home.

Benefits are that it's MOT'd its an SVA'd car on the donor/age related plate. 1. big advantage and I will get to that.

The Good -

The original owner builder did a decent job and made a quite a nice car.
Full weather gear - hood and doors
1600 Crossflow - rebuilt and tuned with a 234 cam kit - unleaded head 32/36 carb jetted to suit K&N Dyno'd at 102BHP
Stainless tubular manifold and system
1600 box and final drive - so a 3.54 ratio
Nicely trimmed inside - not my taste but its well done - a benefit of having to pass an SVA
Later round rear body.

The Bad -

The chassis is a powder coated version and the coating has fallen off in sheets and the surface rust is getting heavy - it has been painted over to protect it but it needs stripping back and doing right.
It's on boring old Ford steels
Escort MK2 Ghia(The donor) clocks.

The Ugly -

The seat belt height for SVA meant some odd brackets that protrude through the body
Concerns about SVA lamp alignment have resulted in some odd mounting pods.

And that's about it

[Darkspeed]

Funny how these things have similar faults.

When I got it back home it was not running right and was missing quite a bit and would not run cleanly - the carb was nice and clean but the accel pump was inoperative. Gave the carb blow out and run air through most of the jets and reset the float heights - Accel pump was down to an issue with the diaphragm so I found a half decent one in the odds and ends and got that working. Running better but still not right.

Next job was to reset the timing which was set a little to advanced so dialed that back to something more suitable and noted that the timing light was not being triggered constantly - Hmmmm low voltage.

Well, recall the wiring issues with Gem 1 resulting in a fan being run off of the coil ballasted supply. Well Gem 2 - had a 12V coil and electronic points that require a 12V supply run off a ballasted supply ! - bypass the silly ballast wire - different colour on this one - Black! and get the full 12V to the coil etc and it idles like a dream and picks up quite nicely and sounds superb.

It has a heater :shock but that was not working as the T stat had been removed - fitted a 71C stat and gave the system a quick flush to check things over. Rad is just a single row thing and I will be upgrading things.