1978 Reliant kitten rebodied in hand formed aluminium

[johnbonnett]

Why you may ask use a Kitten as the basis of your build? A question I have asked myself many times after embarking on the project. In some ways it is unsuitable for what I have in mind being short in the wheelbase and narrow as well. But on the credit side, the Kitten has an extremely stiff and well designed chassis capable I would have thought of underpinning a much higher performance car. I'm not one to butcher a perfectly good classic car but the one I opted for was a basket case with quite a rotten chassis. It had been stored in North Devon in a salty atmosphere and hadn't turned a wheel in many a year so ideal for my purposes.

As some of you know my hobby is metal shaping and my idea was to build an aluminium fixed head coupé body using traditional techniques, English Wheel, gas welding, hammer and dolly etc.

My aim was to leave the chassis unmolested and bolt the new body to it. The second part of the brief was to build the new car using modern components fitted with up to date technology like heated front and rear screens, air conditioning and a head unit with a screen. 

The first task was to remove the body and reveal the extent of the works needed to repair the chassis. Here are a few photos, before and after blasting

[horrido]

Nice idea. Let´s see your designs for the body.

[johnbonnett]

Apr 28, 2021 14:25:34 GMT horrido said:

Nice idea. Let´s see your designs for the body.

I really wish I could show you but I have to be honest and say that there are no designs or drawings. I have no drawing skills which is quite a disadvantage so I am having to make it up as I go along adding a bit and if it looks okay leave it and if not remove it and try something else. The big difference between mechanical work and bodywork is that mechanicals are either right or wrong. With bodywork you have to spend a long time looking at it and deciding if it looks right to you and if it is what you are trying to achieve. All very much in the eye of the beholder.

To make things even more difficult I decided to base the body on a MK4 Fiesta windscreen which are inexpensive, laminated and electrically heated. Although the Fiesta is in modern terms a small and reasonably narrow car it is considerably wider than a Kitten and it was difficult to see how it might work without widening the track which was something I didn't want to do. Similarly with the wheelbase, any changes would not involve any modification to the chassis.

I've a huge way to go but the journey so far has been fascinating and hugely involving. Without getting too involved in the minute detail, over the next days I'll post a few photos and words which I hope will be of some interest.

[bstardchild]

I'm in

[The Rascal King]

Likewise, I'm following. Don't gloss over the minute details, though...that's where we learn stuff!

[johnbonnett]

Following shot blasting which highlighted the problem areas was to set about repairing the chassis. The main longitudinal rails are a top hat section folded from 2mm sheet. A horizontal closing panel in 16 gauge. Fortunately our local fabricator was able to reproduce  these rails so I was able to cut out lengths and replace rather than trying to patch up what was there. I was also able to purchase a replacement front section that contained the suspension mounts. It wasn't perfect but a whole lot better than what was on there. 

I stood the chassis off the building board using identical steel uprights and made a jig to ensure the replacement front chassis section went on correctly.

[horrido]

Apr 28, 2021 15:31:13 GMT johnbonnett said:

Apr 28, 2021 14:25:34 GMT horrido said:

Nice idea. Let´s see your designs for the body.

I really wish I could show you but I have to be honest and say that there are no designs or drawings. I have no drawing skills which is quite a disadvantage so I am having to make it up as I go along adding a bit and if it looks okay leave it and if not remove it and try something else. The big difference between mechanical work and bodywork is that mechanicals are either right or wrong. With bodywork you have to spend a long time looking at it and deciding if it looks right to you and if it is what you are trying to achieve. All very much in the eye of the beholder.

To make things even more difficult I decided to base the body on a MK4 Fiesta windscreen which are inexpensive, laminated and electrically heated. Although the Fiesta is in modern terms a small and reasonably narrow car it is considerably wider than a Kitten and it was difficult to see how it might work without widening the track which was something I didn't want to do. Similarly with the wheelbase, any changes would not involve any modification to the chassis.

I've a huge way to go but the journey so far has been fascinating and hugely involving. Without getting too involved in the minute detail, over the next days I'll post a few photos and words which I hope will be of some interest.

I can work some designs out with you if you like. Are you dead set on the Fiesta screen though? Even classic car screens can be had heated and I´d think they´d possibly be more future proof. You could always widen the track with wider wheels and thereby create a wider body. What´s the wheelbase of a Kitten anyway?

[johnbonnett]

Apr 28, 2021 16:15:49 GMT horrido said:

I can work some designs out with you if you like. Are you dead set on the Fiesta screen though? Even classic car screens can be had heated and I´d think they´d possibly be more future proof. You could always widen the track with wider wheels and thereby create a wider body. What´s the wheelbase of a Kitten anyway?

That's really kind of you, thank you but the body is well advanced as will come clear as the story unfolds. I have as you suggested widened the track by fitting 6 inch rims with all the added width on the outside. 

More to follow.

[ovimor]

Oof! I once tried peeling an orange in my pocket.... Sorry, no pictures!

I'm in all the way


OVIMOR

[OAY842F]

Cool, bookmarked before I'd finished the first paragraph!

[johnbonnett]

I like compact attractive little cars that are nimble and I try to follow Colin Chapman's philosophy that a light car doesn't have to be particularly powerful to excel on the road or circuit. To this end I decided on a 1.6 Ford Sigma engine that has an aluminium block and weighs just 8okg. Okay,  considerably more than the 34kg of the Reliant engine but lightweight compared with many others. For some reason, these engines are not particularly popular among special builders although have been used by both Caterham and Westfield. So low demand probably equates to low resale value which enabled me to buy two fully dressed engines from a scrapyard for £200. The standard 1.6 makes 100bhp which has to be good value. With throttle bodies, a decent management and exhaust system we could be looking at around 150bhp with no other modifications. 

1st Motion have built for me a 5-speed type 9 with a close ratio gearset and this is mated to the engine using an RWD/Westfield alloy bellhousing. I'm retaining the Reliant rear axle which I am assured will be good for 150bhp BUT....... the casing is not very strong and will not tolerate a Panhard rod and the loads that it imparts on the axle. But a 4 link system is vastly superior (in my opinion) to a leaf spring arrangement so I needed to find a way round the problem. 

When I bought it, my MGB GT V8 with standard rear suspension cornered like my old Hilux with the truckman top fitted. Initial understeer followed by final roll oversteer which was very unpleasant. After having driven the 300hp Frontline Abingdon Edition MGB I was blown away by the way the car handled which was in no small way a result of the clever rear suspension. This was a 6-link system. They don't list this in their catalogue and normally only fit it to cars they build in house. But probably in view of our respective backgrounds in motorsport, Tim Fenna the MD of Frontline encouraged me to buy the 6-link rather than the 5-link omitting to mention that it was another grand more expensive. But worth every penny because it transformed the car and the driving experience. So why mention this? Because that's the system I decided to use on my car. It's called the Mumford Link, not unlike the Watts linkage but instead of having a bracket mounted to the diff casing, the bracket is mounted to the chassis. A couple of photos attached. I was able to use the existing leaf spring mounts as the pick ups for the trailing arms. I've fitted Gaz coil overs with adjustable spring seats.

[johnbonnett]

As I mentioned I've based the body around a MK4 Fiesta windscreen so the first thing to do was to make a frame for it. Using 1mm mild steel sheet I folded lengths of L sections. Using a shrinker stretcher I formed theses lengths to match the profile of the screen and then TIG welded them together to complete the surround.

[Alpina99]

Brilliant !!
In for the long haul on this one,
Looking forward to seeing future updates
Nigel

[johnbonnett]

Apr 29, 2021 9:05:38 GMT Alpina99 said:

Brilliant !!
In for the long haul on this one,
Looking forward to seeing future updates
Nigel

That's very kind of you Nigel thank you. I started the project 18 months ago so there's a bit of catching up before we reach the state of play at present. It really is a massive project which I try not to think of as a whole because it is too daunting. I treat each bit that I'm working on as a project within a project and that seems to work for me.

Having made the frame for the screen the next thing was to decide on how much it sloped.


Although I am trying to build a light car I haven't compromised on the main body frame which will give rigidity and hopefully a bit of built in safety.


To give the screen frame something solid to be tied to I cut out a section of the round tube and boxed it in.




I bought a donor Fiesta and have used the entire scuttle/bulkhead assembly which gave the project a terrific boost.

[alx]

Awesome stuff. I'm in for the journey.

AL.

[blackpopracing]

I'm suprised you did not use a donor for the screen frame as well, could have saved a fair bit of work?

[johnbonnett]

I don't think the Fiesta screen frame would have fitted the concept terribly well and foremost, I didn't have it when I made the frame. I did use the rear aperture though.

Having tacked the screen frame in I filled in the gaps so that it would have the strength of the tubular frame behind it.


The screen sits nicely all round.




A big benefit of using the Fiesta scuttle is the steering column mount. I'm using the Fiesta column with an extension to mate up with the Kitten steering rack.





I fitted a pillow block bearing and formed the footwell.








I had to reproduce the profile of the Fiesta A post which I managed in the folder .










The finished footwell.

[jiggawhat2k]

Always blown away by the ability of some people to be brilliant at every aspect of car building, sounds great can't wait to see it unfold!

[ovimor]

... unfold ... ?

You must be thinking of Cardboard Aided Design lol




OVIMOR

[johnbonnett]

Apr 29, 2021 13:47:12 GMT jiggawhat2k said:

Always blown away by the ability of some people to be brilliant at every aspect of car building, sounds great can't wait to see it unfold!

Kind of you to say but I'm not brilliant in any department I'm afraid. I guess dogged sums me up and I relish the challenge and like gazzam (who is doing such splendid work on the XK120) I've found a huge amount of help on YouTube particularly from Wray Shelin and Chris Runge. They are inspirational and explain what they do in detail and clarity. I think it was Matt Urch who explained pie cuts which I used to fabricate the exhaust manifold. By cutting 9 degree angles on round tube they can be rotated against their fellow to produce any desired angle and orientation. I used stainless tube and TIG welded them together. Here is the start