Hello but I'm not building a Haynes roadster, quite

[Bonzo]

Originally Posted by flyerncle

A quote for ally sheet Ronnie,2 mm half hard from Aalco 8x4 £75 quid non polished.

All the 2mm 5 bar chequer plate to make a tank 24x9x12 "£15" !!! from a good friend.

Sheet of 1.6 polished from the mate £47 inc vat.

Thank's Paul

I guess my local stock holder must be feeling the pinch a little, I enquired about prices a couple of week's back.
2mm 1050 half hard was £67 + vat

That is a fair bit cheaper than the 90 odd quid that I was quoted earlier this summer

Wish I coud get mates rates

[Davey]

Originally Posted by richardk

Davey, that manifold is going to be perfectly ok, I can only mig myself so I think the work you've done is really good. I dont recall if anybody has asked this before, I apologise if they have but was your motor registered? Guessing it would have been, is there any chassis numbers etc that could help you get a copy of the V5

Anyway nice work

Rich

Thanks Richard, I have the V5 and the car is currently on SORN .

Pedal box is coming on nicely but we've been away to the Welsh lakes this weekend so no more progress as yet.

D.

[Davey]

My mate's dad Mick has been having some fun. Having got his front frame sorted last week I popped over yesterday morning to see how he was getting on and woe of woes all his diagonals were out plus a few of the BR rails were wrong dimensions so he spent yesterday afternoon cutting it all up again. Anyway I spent an hour with him this afternoon and we got him back on track. He now has the outer BR rails in place and tacked along with the front frame tacked in position. Tomorrow he should be cutting the two longitudinal parallel BR rails (BR9 and 10 I think) and then he can get them tacked in place.

D.

[Davey]

Well work has gone quiet at the moment (slightly worryingly so ) so I've been doing a bit to the Dragon. Over the last few days I've framed up the rear end, I'm going for ali sheet over steel tube frame. The bottom rails I've made out of 25mm sq 3.25mm wall the same as the rest of my chassis but I've used a piece of 19mmdia round tube for the top rail. I nipped round to a local electrical contractor yesterday to see if they could make the bends for me with a conduit bender, they did and I had a nice little chat with the boss while his mate bent my tube. Turns out the gaffer is a petrolhead who runs a 7 litre V8 Corvette, he showed me a pair of tyres he has on the shelf ready for it (cripes they're wide) and reckoned they'll be the third set on it and its only done just shy of 7K miles so far . Anyway they did a smashing job of bending my tube and the only charge was a promise to take gaffer for a blast when its done .

I've been working on the pedal box too but today I tried it all for size with the drivers seat in place only to discover a major cock up, the top of my scuttle is about four and a half inches to low . This is the trouble with not doing my build by the book I suppose. Not a major headache to sort out, probably about two to three hours work I reckon but it does come with some good news. I am planning a top hinged pedal set with the brake master cylinder in front of the scuttle, as it was the brake reservoir would sit about two inches above the scuttle top. Once the scuttle top is raised the master cyl reservoir will be about an inch and a half below the scuttle top. The bonnet line will also be better for covering that mother of a motor.

I do have some photos but they're on my phone and I've left the data lead at work so I'll have to post them tomorrow.

D.

[Davey]

Had to go out to collect the Mrs from the train station so called in to get my data lead. I also discovered a slight cockup with the inlet fanimold, essentially the transfer tubes foul on the fuel rail thereby stopping it going all the way down to the heads, possible solutions are:make a pair of spacer plates to take up the distance (about 12mm) or "adjust" the transfer tubes to clear the fuel rails or alter the fuel rails to clear the fanimold transfer tubes. I'm open to alternative suggestions too .

Here's a few pics of todays cockups .

[Davey]

Due to the weather I've been able to spend a good couple of hours on the Dragon today. I've now got the rear end all framed up and 90% welded, only the underneath bits to do once its all stripped down and I can flip it over to do them. I've framed the transmission tunnel up and again that is welded on the top sides. I rebuilt the scuttle frame a week or two ago, just a couple of bits left to do on that and sort out the pedal box finally and I'll have a completed chassis . Then it'll be time to strip it all down, flip it over and weld the undersides then grit blast it and paint it.

I'm using the fuel tank that was fitted to the original Locust which measurements show should hold six gallons of go go juice so it should have a fair range unless I get a touch of leadfoot disease . I'm going to make the rear tub panels in three sections with the actual rear one as a separate removable panel so I can get the tank out should I ever need to.

Not sure when I can get any photos as I've got a big job in tomorrow and rebuilding/redecorating the front room over the weekend but I'll try soon.

D.

[HandyAndy]

Nice work Davy, sounds like your build has made some nice progress

You,ll need the extra capacity of the fuel tank for that beast of an engine

Look forward to seeing some updated photos.

cheers
andy

[Davey]

I'm expecting 30+ MPG from it when driving sensibly Andy, it did up to 32MPG dragging the Granada shell around when cruising at 70MPH so with more efficient breathing and a lighter body to haul it should be OK.

D.

[Davey]

Progress of late has been patchy but I've had a decent day on it today and I now have the lower steering cloumn bush mounting and drivers footwell end plate tacked in. I've also been working on the pedal box, I've opted for top hinged pedals so as to mount the brake master cylinder higher up than the Haynes design, this should make bleeding the system a whole lot easier as gravity will be on my side . I've acquired a master cylinder from a Saxo so I've set it up using that but I really need to calculate the pressures/clamping forces and pedal travel using this and Granada calipers so I've only got the MC mounting tacked in place for now.

I've also looked at shortening the steering rack centre shaft as it is about 25mm too long and giving rise to an unacceptable amount of bump steer. The good news is it looks like it will be really simple! The centre shaft is made from mild steel (checked with a nick from a hacksaw) so it won't be difficult to hack 25mm off the nearside end. The track rod knucle jonit is screwed into the centre shaft on a M14X1.5 thread and my local tool supplier is getting me a tap for tomorrow morning so I should be able to just tap further into the centre shaft (there is plenty of hollow length available), hack 25mm off the nearside end and refit the knuckle joint with thread lock. I think I will almost certainly need to make some track rod extensions though.

I'll try to get a few photos tomorrow afternoon and I also need to update my website.


D.

[Davey]

No progress to report sadly as I've been floored with serious manflu for the last two weeks . I have been to the workshop twice in that time, once to fetch the van for a ride to Norfolk to collect a trailer and once to meet up with Triff for a good old chinwag, (thanks for the mushies bud, I haven't been close enough to the Dragon to try them yet but they look good and I'm sure they'll fit a treat ).

I had intended to spend at least half of this fortnight working on the Dragon but this manflu has beaten me down, I even had to go see a doctor type person in hospital the other day .

Anyway down to the real purpose of this posting, my next door neighbour is a mature single woman who has in ther last few months found a male companion. today he said to me "you've got my old motor in your place" which nonplussed me a bit. My face obviously gave away my confusion 'cos he then said "little two seater sports car in green"! My first thought was I hope he hasn't read my description of the car when I got it.

Apparently he had a Zetec in it but it suffered really bad bump steer. his description was that it was "bloody awful at 80MPH"

Would you believe it?

D.