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

Hi guys, just found this forum today and spent a while browsing through, looks good so I joined.

I'm not exactly building a Haynes Roadster as in the book but I am using the book for guidance. What I have got is a 12 year old Locust which I picked up from the local breakers yard cheap minus engine transmission and steering rack. Once I got it into my workshop (just to make everyone jealous I run my own business and have a 2000 sq/ft workshop to play in:D ) I had a think about what engine to go for. I decided something outrageous was called for so started browsing Ebay and soon found a Granada Scorpio Cosworth going silly cheap and I got it.

Stripped the granny and disposed of the shell (still got a ruck of spares to get shot of on Ebay) and recently dug the Locust out of the corner to start work on it.

For those of you who don't know what a Locust is its a cheap version of a se7en style roadster that has a very simple ladder chassis and plywood body clad in aluminium sheet which actually makes it rather heavy, I weighed it when I got it and it came in at 570KGs with no engine or gearbox:( .

Anyway, we've stripped the bodywork off and I've started reframing the chassis, basically I'm adding framework made from 25mm sq tube and 25x25x3mm angle.

I hope you'll accept me as a fellow builder even though its not a true Haynes roadster.

Happy Christmas, D.

A very warm welcome to the forum Davey :)

It would be rude not to make good use of a find like that :cool:

I am sure the book will give you some great ideas for improvement of your chassis.
Plenty of friendly help & advice available here too.

Are you going to convert the chassis to run the grandad diff & IRS ?

I look forward to seeing some pictures of your progress ;) :)

Hi Rponnie and thanks for the welcome. Yes we're going to use the Granny IRS setup with fabricated wishbones, one area where the book will really come in handy.

You can see some photos on my website at www.cossie.davenewell.co.uk which is a sort of blog-ish that I try to update whenever there's anything new to say.

I'll try to post a picture or two once I've sorted out how to, shouldn't take me too long as I use a few motorhome forums.

D.

Welcome to the forum mate.

You will find loads of useful info here. Friendly people as well.

Cheers,

Ryan

Thanks Ryan, I've browsed around a bit and it certainly looks friendly:D .

Happy christmas, D.

An attempt to post a picture of the chassis as I left it yesterday.

D.

Hmmm, not sure that worked properly but if anyone's interested some earlier pictures are on my website in my sig.

Just been having a read of your Blog Davey an interesting project on the go by the looks of things :)

If I had spotted that in a breakers, i'd have snapped it up myself ;)

The ole Cossie lump is certainly a beast :eek:

Keep the ole blog up to date mate, it'll be interesting following your progress :)

Thanks Ronnie, the cossie lump isn't going in as standard either. Its from a 1990 car with 60K genuine mileage, full service history and Ford main dealer serviced and repaired throughout with docs to prove it. As its an early one its of the BOA variety which means in essence that it puts out 195BHP at 5500RPM and just shy of 200ft/lbs of torque at peak. The later BOB gives even more and fitting BOB cams into a BOA lump instantly puts you into 250BHP territory. I just can't be arsed with swapping cams (I've seen the Ford training video on removing a camshaft from this lump and its just not funny) but what I am doing is replacing the original plenum chamber and two stage throttle body with a set of six individual throttle bodies.

I picked up two sets of Honda 600 throttle bodies off ebay for just over £60 and have broken them down into pairs (three of, one pair for spare) which will eventually be mounted on a custom fabricated inlet manifold, coupled with a decent set of stainless steel headers and free flowing exhausts along with an Emerald ECU I'm expecting around 220BHP and close to 250ft/lbs.

Ebay is my parts dept!

D.

BOB cams wont give you 250!

Decatting the BOA will get to about 200, BOB cams will see about 20BHP if your lucky . And fitting Vauxhall injectors another 10BHP

So on a health engine with CAMS, DECAT and Injectors you could get 230.. But it's more likly to be in the region of 210-220 given general wear .


They are good engines, a tad heavy mind.

The plenum is dreadful though, it badly afects the breathing. So the throttle bodies should be a big help.

TT

Cheers TT, I'm only going by what I've read on this 'ere interwebby thing;) and as I said I can't be arsed swapping cams out, on the Ford training vid even their demonstrating technician was getting a tad grumpy with it and lets face it, 195BHP/190ft/lbs in a lightweight car should prove interesting. Yes it is a heavy old lump and it does put a question mark over my 650KGs target kerb weight but I still think its achievable, time will tell.

D.

If you need info on the BOA/BOB then your best bet is

fordpower.org.uk

or

powerdbyford.co.uk


When you have to move BOA's arround you realise how much more weight there is than a standard 12V.

TT

Cheers TT, useful information there. I've been dow nthe workshop yesterday and today and most of the chassis is now in place and fully welded. Additional work needs to be done at the rear to carry the suspension and all the wishbones need to be fabricated soon.

D.

Hopefully there's a couple of piccies attached to show progress, blog site will be updated in the next day or two. The black parts are the original chassis and the rusty bits are the new, when its all done I'll get it shot lasted before painting it.

Don;t forget to put a spigot bearing in the crank when you swap the flex plat for a flywheel.

TT

Yeah, don't suppose the box would last long without it:D .

D.

Done a little bit more today despite dying of manflu. Last week I cut off the rear hub mounting flanges from the Granada lower wishbones with my new gas axe. today I started tidying them up ready to fabricate my rear uprights. I machined the inner face and reduced the overall diameter in the lathe. Pictures attached. One done the other raw.

D.

Rear suspension uprights are now fab'd up. Photos and a brief write up available on my website below:D . Your input is gratefully appreciated, either on here or on our own forum.

D.

Just had a look at your updated blog D :cool:

Tis really interesting to see how folk overcome particular problems when using non-Sierra donor parts.

Just goes to show ...... Most things are possible if a little thought is put into practice. ;)

Looking good mate :) :)

Cheers Ronnie, its good to get positive feedback:) , well any feedback actually as long as its constructive. It does help having 2000sq ft of workshop and an eight Tonne four post lift (makes a flippin' great workbench:D, especially for welding work ). 160 Amp Mig welder, 6" Clarke bandsaw, combined lathe and mill, pillar drill, 10 Tonne hydraulic press, 3' combined folding press/shear and rolling mill and oxy/acetylene cutting and welding kit to play with. All I need now is money:o .

D.

That's two things I would dearly like.......A decent set of rolls & a small press brake :) :)

No four post lift for me, I have to make do with a full length inspection pit & jacking beam......Next best thing I guess :o

A brief update. Today I lifted the Dragon off the trestles and placed it on 5" high blocks on the ground (my chosen ride height) then lined up the wheels using the original Granny bottom arms at the front temporarily so as to get some measurements and trial position the steering rack from the Granny. At the rear I mounted the driveshafts and fitted them to the hubs. Once it was all lined up I could take the measurements for the rear upper and lower wishbones. Hopefully the bush tubes, bushes and wishbone mounts will be with me later this week. got to get some Maxi ball joints and Tranny drag link ends (which model Tranny should they be from?) to complete the front wishbones then with some dummy shock struts I can at least get the beast on its wheels.

I was greatly reassured to find that left and right rear wishbones came out to identical measurements.

Here's a photo showing it mocked up.

Looks purpousfull on the cossy rims..

I would use my set but I don't want to go 5 stud..

TT

Cheers TT, doesn't look too rough does it?:D Not sure i'll stick with the Cossie rims, they're a bit plain but a decent set of alloys in five stud will not be cheap:( .

D.

Taking shape there Davy :)

The Dragon certainly looks a bit different from when you first collected it :cool:

The Transit joints you require are the Draglinks from the Mk2 Transit Late 60's to mid 70's.
These are easily avalable ..... I got mine from my local motor factors £6.50 each ..... Any problems with id, its the right handed ones with the 18mm X 1.5 thread that you need. :)

Cheers Ronnie, I'll get onto my factors in the morning:) .

D.

Should have the Maxi ball joints and Tranny drag links (that sounds kind of wrong somehow) tomorrow afternoon, ball joints at just over a tenner a piece and £4.30 each for the Transit links (assuming they're the right ones of course):D, Happy daze! Just waiting on the arrival of the bush tubes and bushes so that I can make the bones and mount them, hopefully they'll arrive tomorrow as I've got no work booked in and it'd be a shame to waste a day.

D.

Decent prices there Davie :cool:

I am rather envious of you folk that live in area's where the motor factors have stiff competition ;)

My only decent local factor has branches all over the county ..... Recently bought a budget wiper blade in the Plymouth branch £2.75 inc vat .... bought another wiper blade, same brand & size in my local Penzance branch, nearly £6 :rolleyes:

I guess that's the price I have to pay for the nice view from my window :D

I am headding down to Par Sands for my Hols in May... I prefer my nice quiet town to the BIG smoke, but being tooo far in teh stix would be a pain...

TT

Cool :cool: Less than 3 miles from my place .... Feel free to swing by :)

Bet it's May bank holiday .... I'll be up at Stoneleigh on the Sunday & Monday :D :D

Got the ball joints today but they only sent one tranny drag link (still sounds wrong), minor mistake in the ordering so they're sending another one tomorrow. Interestingly the thread on the drag link is different to that specified in the book. Book says M18X1.5mm while this one is M20X1.5mm. Not a huge problem as I can bore out the tubes and retap them easily enough. Anybody else ecountered this or did I just get "lucky"?

bush tubes and bushes didn't arrive today so I've been tinkering along with the suspension bracket positioning. As mine is not built to the book the positions are somewhat different so its taking a bit of trial and error to work it all out. I also discovered that the Granada steering rack is a fairly high ration at 2.8 turns lock to lock but of course it does include PAS:D .
D.

Had a good afternoon, job in this AM then had to go bleed for my fellow countrymen at 5.30pm so only half a day to play:D . anyway the bush tubes and bushes arrived today so I've started fab'ing up the 'bones. Following the book design where possible but the dimensions are different due to me rebuilding a different chassis and using Granada running gear. anyway got the rear lower 'bones done this afternoon, got a small job in tomorrow morning so hoping to make the rear upper 'bones tomorrow afternoon then do a trial fit before I weld up the 'bone mountings to the chassis. Cutting the tubes for the 'bones is fun isn't it?:(

D.

I always thought the same, UNTIL Spud showed me a way to do it that takes a few minutes per cut,

tho i admit, the more you do the easier it gets , done lots lately :eek: :)

a little tip.......don,t "think" how the mitre should look like when its finished before you start, as that puzzles the thought process, well it does with me :o

cheers
andy

Cheers dude, done lots of tube mitreing(SP) in the past but its always been big stuff and cut with a gas axe believe it or not. This small bore thin stuff is tricky:D

D.

Well its been an up and down sort of week for me, work has been quiet but that's nothing new just before a major show (Boat caravan and outdoor show next week at NEC) as many people are hoping to pick up a bargain there. Bought suspension mounting brackets from Rogue engineering via Ebay and they arrived on Tuesday then ordered bush tubes and bush kit from 3GE which arrived on Thursday (Cheers Jon:D ) and finally got round to setting out the rear wishbones yesterday. Fab'd up the bottom wishbones yesterday and made the top ones today. I'm really building up a dislike for this thin walled small bore tube mitreing(SP?) game, (give me 2 metre dia 19mm wall tube and a gas axe any day) although I am getting better with every cut.

Anyway here's a phone photo of the finished (who am I kidding:p ) rear end.

D.

My own website will be updates with more detail and photos tomorrow.

some nice progress there Davey, looking good :cool:

ah.... the fishmouths eh??? :D

easy peasey :D .....tho i,ve only ever done them on the tubes for the Roadster:o

cheers
andy

Webshite updated:D .

D.

I stripped the rear end down again the week before last to fully weld the wishbone mounting brackets and today is the first real day I've been able to get back at it (had a really good show at the NEC last week and booked plenty of work in:D ). Re-assembled the rear suspension this afternoon and dropped it back onto my 5" blocks so that I can set out the front end next. Here's a phone shot of me doing the obligatory brum brum bit!

D.

:cool:
soon be getting the staff to push you around the workshop so that your brum brum noises mean you are actually moving :D

Nice work :cool:

cheers
andy

I wish but as the only "staff" at the moment is my wife running the office its not very likely. I've just been languishing in the bath and toying with the stupid idea of putting a 125CC Piaggio scooter engine in (its lying in the corner of the workshop and came off a quad bike my son and his mate bought before Christmas), strictly for "testing" purposes you understand:D .

D.

:eek: what????? putting the scooter engine in the bath or in the chassis????:p

As for the "staff" situation........you could always put full size mirrors along one side wall of the workshop..............double you staff count instantly :D

I,ll bring my team of Huskies down, hitch em up to your chassis & you can make brum brum noises for miles :eek:

cheers
andy

Well I was thinking of putting the scooter lump in the chassis, could make a fun video for U tube:D . Thanks for the offer of the huskies (another interesting video sequence in the making), we have a Dexter who is a ten year old, 35 KG Staffie Boxer cross, I reckon he could pull it along at a fair lick on his own 'cos if I don't use a Halti when I walk him its like walking a landy in low range with all the diff locks in:p .

D.