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Ryan 14th December 2009 01:33 PM

New build started.
 
Hope everyone is well? I have not posted anything for a while so I thought I would update as to what has been going on in the last week or so.

The start of last week I found a donor for sale, a 1991 1.8 cvh hatchback for less than £200 and decided I wanted it. Sierra had two months tax and test left so I hopped on a train and after 3 hours I arrived. A quick toilet break and brew with the seller and I was on my way home again. Drove just over 100 miles home in the sierra and it didnt miss a beat, everything works as it should do, the electric windows are fine and the interior is immaculate. The previous owner was an older chap who had owned the car for around ten years and just wanted something newer.

I then found myself with last weekend free from work so I got hold of Handy Andy and found that my flat pack chassis was ready for collection. So on Saturday me and my co-builder jumped in the sierra for a 300 odd mile round trip to Saturn Sports Cars, again the sierra was spot on.

If anyone is thinking of buying one of these kits from Andy then all I will say is go for it, they are great value for money and it together like a glove. They will also save you shed loads of time at the beginning of the build.

Quick piccy of my flat pack at Saturn.


Also provided was a template for marking out the lines on your build table. This is a massive help both with time saving and accuracy at the start of the build.

If I can offer some feedback Andy, with the sheets being so long when it comes to unfolding and getting flat on the build table the folds in the template can be a bit of a pain, but it soon flattens out with some rubbing. Maybe if the template was rolled up it would solve this?

Little piccy of one of the template sheets.


Time was taken to cut and join the two parts of the template together and block out ready for the br rails to be laid down. Before we scored through the template we decided to lay the br rails down over the template and check accuracy. At first we thought the chassis pack had been cut wrong as there was a gap of around 3-4 mil between br's 5-6 3-4 and 1-2. After checking and double checking every measurement we realised that the template was out by a few mil. As we thought we had the join lines spon on we could not figure it out. This was not really a big problem as we only had to move the template in a couple of mil or do the same with the br rails and re draw a couple of lines. After doing so, more measurements where taken and we found the bottom rails to be spot on as per book spec.

Join lines,


Bottom rails all in ready to be tack welded,


The flat pack all fitted together nice and snug with only a small bit of grinding required on br's 8 and 9 to fit nice and tight.

Andy (spud69) also took us out in the demo car up at Saturn. That blew my mind! well worth the trip up just for that. I was realy amazed that the speed and handling of the car. Andy and Andy are very nice blokes and I would recommend them to anybody thinking of purchasing one of there products.

Sorry about the essay! and I hope the piccys come out ok.

Cheers

Ryan.

gingea1pom 14th December 2009 01:45 PM

Afternoon Ryan,

Great post, good pictures.:)

I’m interested as to whether you are going to tack the BR’s together with the paper template in place?:rolleyes: I suppose there is no other way as if you remove the template then you have no way of knowing if everything is in the correct place.

I have a vision of the whole thing going up in smoke as you try to save the template.:eek:

Cheers Ginge

LeonN 14th December 2009 01:49 PM

I like the essays. Gives me somthing to read insted of working. Looks like theys schassis packs are going dawn a storm hay andeys. Wuld dofo consider somthing like for my next build. Cutting the schassis with a hacsaw was a foolish thing to start. All done naw but never again.

Ryan 14th December 2009 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gingea1pom (Post 27010)
Afternoon Ryan,

Great post, good pictures.:)

I’m interested as to whether you are going to tack the BR’s together with the paper template in place?:rolleyes: I suppose there is no other way as if you remove the template then you have no way of knowing if everything is in the correct place.

I have a vision of the whole thing going up in smoke as you try to save the template.:eek:

Cheers Ginge

Hi Ginge, once the rails are in position you can score around them using a craft/stanley knife and then repeat with a fine tipped marker or the like and then the template can be removed and you are left with a build table complete with lines drawn on.

Ryan.

Superloom 14th December 2009 01:56 PM

Chassis Pack
 
Very nice job indeed, must be a shame to take such a nice Sierra apart though :) Chassis Kit looks excellent, very impressed :)
Good Luck with the welding!!!

Ryan 14th December 2009 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superloom (Post 27015)
Very nice job indeed, must be a shame to take such a nice Sierra apart though :) Chassis Kit looks excellent, very impressed :)
Good Luck with the welding!!!

Cheers mate. Ive done nearly 500 miles in the sierra now and cant fault it. It will be a shame to strip it. I think the missus is getting worried that I will keep it as a daily driver and find another donor!!

Ryan.

Bonzo 14th December 2009 02:02 PM

Looking great there Ryan :cool: :cool:

Good news on the donor :)

Off to a flying start with the chassis kit & template, certainly looking the dogs whatsits ;)

HandyAndy 14th December 2009 02:02 PM

Hi Ryan..

wow great pics

thanks for the feedback on the template, will see what can be done to stop the fold lines , thanks for that.

Phew :eek: had me going out & checking my steel ruler then :D glad you got it sorted .

just so folk know.... it may be worth running a file over some of the ends to ensure a tight fit as i might miss the odd burr from cutting the steel :o

Thanks for your kind words on the flat pack kit, means alot.

both of your faces when you came back from your spin in the Roadster had to be seen to be believed....:D

glad you enjoyed the trip up to see us, & don,t forget we,re here to help at all stages of your build.

keep the piccies coming as you progress your build.

cheers
andy

Ryan 14th December 2009 02:07 PM

Cheers Andy, Thank you for making us feel welcome and supplying all the drinks!

The ride in the roadster was awsome! could not believe how much grip it had even on the damp winter roads!

Thanks to you and Andy for all the help.

Will keep everyone informed of how the build is going on this forum, most of the time it will probably be pleas for help!

Cheers,

Ryan.

HandyAndy 14th December 2009 02:14 PM

you know where we are if needed ;)

enjoy your build.

i look forward to YOU taking US out in YOUR Roadster soon :eek: :D

cheers
andy

londonsean69 14th December 2009 02:25 PM

Looking good Ryan.

Thanks for the comments on the sheets.

I made them as long as they are, to avoid any more join lines.
I'm not too sure how Andy supplies the flat pack, but I can easily send the drawings out rolled up. I have quite a few of the cardboard tubes here for posting, but not a limitless supply. It was easier all round to send them out folded. I'll speak with Andy, see what we work out for the next batch.

I'm interested in which bit didn't line up, because obviously I want to send stuff out that is correct.
Was it just because of the folds? They can make things a bit shorter if not flattened out, or even a bit longer if the paper gets stretched.
As can be seen I have provided a few scales dotted about the drawing, this is to ensure it plots correctly.
Also, the check dims from the book are provided (diagonals).

Get back to me via PM, or on here, to let me know how we can improve them;)

Personally, what I would be inclined to do, is to fix the little wooden blocks in place, through the template (obviously after checking everything is square), then rip the template out.

Then again, I would actually just tack on top of it, and put the little fires out as I go. Not that I would recommend that:D

Ryan 14th December 2009 02:58 PM

Hi Londonsean69.

I will try and explain as best I can.

We checked the plot lines first and they seemed all ok. After cutting the sheet we spent a bit of time getting the join lines spot on, I think we managed to get them just about perfect.

We then blocked out along the lines for the br rails and they were placed spot on as per template.

We laid br 5 and 6 down and after fitting br 12 we noticed there was a gap of 2mil between the ends of br 12 were it meets br's 5 and 6. this was also true for br 11.

We checked the cut of the metal and it was fine. After doing more mesurements on all the br's we concluded that the template was out by around 4mil.

We took one side in by 4mil and blocked there and refitted all the br's back in and found everything to fit perfectly.

Now you mention it, this could be down to the paper streching as we had to pull it around a fair bit to flatten out the creases and get it to sit right.

It could also be human error, but I am still very thankfull for the template as all the br's were down and ready for tacking within a couple of hours.

Ryan 14th December 2009 03:03 PM

I dont know if you can see on this piccy but it shows how we had to move in the br rails to get the book dimentions spot on.

It looks worse in the pic than it actually is, I think the camera angle is making the gap look bigger.

You should see what I mean if you look to the right of br6.


Tilly819 14th December 2009 03:49 PM

Top Bannana

I really enjoy posts like this, great work

Tilly

londonsean69 14th December 2009 03:57 PM

Ryan, cheers for the comments.

How did the check dimensions measure up once you had joined the pages?

I might add a second diagonal check dimension the other way on the next batch, this will enable people to check across both diagonals. Although, in theory, once taped down, if people use the same check dim for both diagonals they should be OK.

I'm glad the template was of some use to you:D

HandyAndy 14th December 2009 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeonN (Post 27012)
Looks like theys schassis packs are going dawn a storm hay andeys. Wuld dofo consider somthing like for my next build. Cutting the schassis with a hacsaw was a foolish thing to start. All done naw but never again.

Hi Leon,

sorry didn,t reply earlier..:o

yes the flat pack kits are proving very popular, :cool:

10 kits in 10 weeks, hmmm be nice if that carries on thru in a 12 month period......52 new Roadster builds :cool:

cheers
andy

Ryan 14th December 2009 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by londonsean69 (Post 27028)
Ryan, cheers for the comments.

How did the check dimensions measure up once you had joined the pages?

I might add a second diagonal check dimension the other way on the next batch, this will enable people to check across both diagonals. Although, in theory, once taped down, if people use the same check dim for both diagonals they should be OK.

I'm glad the template was of some use to you:D

As far as I remember the diag check dimentions were a few mil out after taping down using the join lines.

Although if I remember this was only checked after laying on the br's and realising they where slightly out. I am getting more sure that this is down to stretching as we were pulling the template quite hard to try and flatten it out.

At the end of the day its still a fantstic template that saves loads of time.

londonsean69 14th December 2009 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan (Post 27055)
As far as I remember the diag check dimentions were a few mil out after taping down using the join lines.

Although if I remember this was only checked after laying on the br's and realising they where slightly out. I am getting more sure that this is down to stretching as we were pulling the template quite hard to try and flatten it out.

At the end of the day its still a fantstic template that saves loads of time.

Sweety as.

Might have to add something to the notes to that effect, or a couple of other dimensions, along a couple of the rails. This will enable people to double and treble check. Cheers for being the guinea pig;)

Problem is, the next 5 sets are already on their way to Andy:eek: So the improvements will continue on MK3.

I only wish I had thought of doing it for my own build:rolleyes:

Ryan 14th December 2009 11:30 PM

No worries about being a guinea pig. I am always up for trying new things, Even more so if they save time and effort!

If anyone is thinking of going down the template route then do it. For the few quid it costs you save hours of time. As I have said previously we had the br rails all down ready for taking within a couple of hours.

Cheers

Ryan.

HandyAndy 14th December 2009 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan (Post 27059)
If anyone is thinking of going down the template route then do it. For the few quid it costs you save hours of time.
Ryan.

tho the templates are included in the cost of the chassis flat pack ;)

Thanks Ryan, your input has been really helpful, this is what its all about....improving the service/help to the builders that have my flat pack kits & also builders that cut there own chassis but might like a template too

cheers
andy

sean 14th December 2009 11:43 PM

hey everyone, im co-building ryan's roadster with him and thought i would just thank andy and andy for letting us come see the workshop and taking us out for a spin in the demo car, it was an awsome ride out just the thing anyone needs to get out in the cold garage to get started.

cheers sean

HandyAndy 14th December 2009 11:45 PM

Hi Sean,

nice to see you posting ;)

glad you enjoyed your time at Saturn, quick car eh :D

hope you both enjoy the build,

your faces were a picture when you came back from your spin :D

cheers
andy

Ryan 15th December 2009 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HandyAndy (Post 27061)
tho the templates are included in the cost of the chassis flat pack ;)

Thanks Ryan, your input has been really helpful, this is what its all about....improving the service/help to the builders that have my flat pack kits & also builders that cut there own chassis but might like a template too

cheers
andy


Yeah the template comes included in the cost of the flat pack. Although I thought I saw a post the other day offering them for sale as a template on its own? I may be mistaken.

Cheers

Ryan.

HandyAndy 15th December 2009 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryan (Post 27064)
Yeah the template comes included in the cost of the flat pack. Although I thought I saw a post the other day offering them for sale as a template on its own? I may be mistaken.

Cheers

Ryan.

yes, templates are available for £4 each if any forum member would like one, covers postage really.

cheers
andy

Ryan 24th December 2009 09:37 AM

Hope everyone is well?

Have managed to get a few hours on the chassis here and there over the last couple of weekends and thought I would post a couple of pictures to show how things are coming on.

Got the front frame built on and tacked into position



Uprights tacked on, one looks wonky in this pic but I think thats down to the camera angle



Tr's 1 and 2 on top of uprights



Bit more built up, U7 and 8 with tr9


Ryan 24th December 2009 09:38 AM

Sb's 1 and 2 tacked into position



along with d's 7 and 8



Second stage chassis fully together and tacked



Sorry about the quality of some of the pictures, the mrs took the camera on a night out and the batts ran out so some had to be taken on my mobile phone.

Let me know what you think, any comments or feedback appreciated.

Have a great christmas everyone and all the best for the new year!

twinturbo 24th December 2009 10:01 AM

"THIS!" ???????



Chassis looks good so far. :)

TT

londonsean69 24th December 2009 10:26 AM

Looking good Ryan. How many times have you set fire to the template;)

Ryan 24th December 2009 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by londonsean69 (Post 27579)
Looking good Ryan. How many times have you set fire to the template;)

Believe it or not Sean, the only damage to the template from welding is a few little "noggin" type burns from weld splatter!


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