Build Officially Started!

[Tatey]

Just a quick update to my build:

I've just finished the diff area on the chassis and i've ran out of steel so im now needing to wait until after Christmas, when i'll have enough money to buy the 3mm steel plate, 30x3mm steel flat, 40x3mm steel flat and an extra length of 19x19 box, im needing to finish the chassis. I haven't got a camera at the moment so i cant take any pictures.

I'm trying to find some jobs to do on the car up until Christmas.

[Tatey]

Another quick update here. My build has finally resumed now that i have all of the steel plate and flat bar needed to finish the chassis. I've also got some 1mm cutting discs and some new ceramic flap discs (supposed to last 3 times as long as zirconium flap discs).

I have to say i feel like i was living in the stone age using a hacksaw.

I've also decided I'm going to try and build myself an engine stand instead of buying one, I've got the majority of the things i need to make one, i just need to buy some casters and get some larger diameter pipe and i should be sorted, meaning it should hopefully only cost £10 to make.

[Tatey]

It's been a long while since i've posted in this thread, but here are a couple of photos to show my progress so far and my new engine:





The new engine is a 1.8l Zetec Silvertop. Which cost me a grand total of £40 . It has come with a chopped down sump and oil pickup pipe, meaning it's one less job for me to do.

My plan is to run it on ZX9R carbs with megajolt. I'll be making my own inlet and exhaust manifold to go with it, as well as having the engine 25mm further forward to accommodate the thermostat housing.

[Tatey]

Well I had a nice trip down to SSC and to a Locost Builder in york to pick up all of my wishbones, uprights, polybushes + crush tubes, rear camber adjuster and my bargain £25 seats! All in all its been a good day especially since I had my last exam today.

I immediately got in the garage and decided to have a quick tidy up of the build table and check to see if the seats fit (they do ). I took a couple of pictures to show you, I have to say it looks much better with a tidy table, I think I might keep it that way:

[HandyAndy]

Looking nice Tatey

nah, leave the table messy.......it hides the coffee cup stains

well done on finishing your exams

cheers
andy

[Tatey]

I have to say it's much more motivating bolting stuff onto the chassis (like the handbrake) and now have seats to sit in (yes I did make brum brum noises).

The only problem I have with the seats at the moment is that because of the 2 different types of runners, one seat sits much higher than the other. So I could either find another seat of runners so I have 1 complete set, or make custom seat mountings for each side of the car so that the seats sit at the same height. What are everyone's thoughts on doing either way?

Once I have the seats in place I'll be getting the seat column mounting, and over the next week I'll be putting the suspension mounts onto the chassis.

[HandyAndy]

with regard your seat height issue,

Why not just raise the lower one by using some box steel, then on the other side just use flat plate for the seat mounting point?
saves the hassle of making new runners or buying a matching pair.

when are you fully welding your chassis?

cheers
andy

[Tatey]

I think I will go for that option Andy, as you say, saves effort in finding 1 set of runners.

I wasn't sure whether to fully weld the chassis now, before the suspension brackets are on, my thoughts were that if the chassis were to distort during welding and the brackets are in place then it could result in them being wrong. However I'm not sure if distortion could actually pull the chassis out by that much if I were to move to a different side of the car for each weld.

Which way did you do it Andy?

Also in regards to fully welding, did you just weld one side of the car and swap to another after each weld and doing the same for the back. So say left front, right front, left rear, right rear? Or did you just work your way from the front to the back swapping between left and right?

After all of this effort I don't really want to mess it up now .

[HandyAndy]

when I fully welded my chassis I basically started at lets say the front right hand side TR1 to front frame area,
let it cool down a bit then went to the rear left ( SB part codes on passenger side)
let it cool down
Then after every 2 welding points I checked measurement of the height of the chassis from the build table and at each diagonal points.

Basically I tried to weld as far away as I could from the previous weld, & checked all measurements along the way,
It took a while, but like you say, at this point of the build I too didn,t want it to go wrong.
I welded on the suspension brackets once the chassis was fully welded & only when I was happy it hadn,t distorted.

cheers
andy

[Tatey]

It's been a long time since I've updated this thread, mainly because I started a new job 5 weeks ago which is 200 miles south of where my build is located.

However due to the kindness of Handy Andy, my build is now officially moved into the new house! I now have a lot more space since it is only my stuff in the garage.

I started organising stuff last night after Hand Andy left and cleared some space to allow myself to work.

This morning I set to work reconstructing and improving my build table. Back at home I had the build table supported on an old dining room table and then just had 1 legs supporting the outer corners. This worked well at the time, but I no long have the dining room table and the way the legs were fixed to the top it wouldnt support its self. However each leg is now secured to the top by M12 studded bar and seems to be sturdy as a rock.

I now need to wait until one of my house mates gets back so we can lift the table upright as I dont want to risk damaging the wood by doing it myself. Then I'll be putting the chassis back on the table for hopefully the last time.

Since moving house it has also meant that I no longer have a work bench, so while waiting for someone else to come back, I set to work constructing my new work bench. It is being made from 2 layers of bed slats (1000mmx500mm), with a 3mm steel plate covering the top. It is then going to be supported on 4 30x30x3mm steel angle legs with a rim of steel angle along the edges of the top to spread the load. Im designing it so that the steel plate is only bolted to the top (so it can be replaced if needs be) and so that the legs can be broken down into individual pieces (since in 12 months time I will be moving back home). I am just needing to find a new steel supplier local to me so I can order the steel plate and angle.

Even though I have made no progress on my chassis today, I am one step closer to!

The chassis is nearly fully welded, I think I can finish welding it tomorrow evening, then I can start putting on the suspension brackets and finally getting the chassis rolling, hopefully I can have it rolling by the end of next weekend!

I am still aiming to have the car completed and on the road for my 21st birthday on Jan 10th 2010, which is a tall order, but I think if I try hard I will be able to do it.

Once I get the internet installed at my house at the end of this week I will post some pictures of my progress.