When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
All this shows that bitter old man is absolutely not an engineer. I told that twat he was a cnc operator and a welder that’s it. It didn’t go down well lol but it’s absolutely true. He has no business doing work like this on peoples cars. He needs taking to court by someone. Sad thing is after coming across him a few times on Facebook I think he actually finds how shocking his work is funny when you pull him up on it
You'll be all the more satisfied mate once it's done right and you know it is, the power your going to put through it, it would've pulled itself apart it'll be mint when you e finished with it
i think you want some angle in the rear shocks you don't want them straight but its hard to tell from the pics just how much you have.
should mock build it up before you fire up the plasma.
i think you want some angle in the rear shocks you don't want them straight but its hard to tell from the pics just how much you have.
should mock build it up before you fire up the plasma.
thank you. Yes, it is probably more a case that the turret size and shape should have allowed the angle of the strut. The turrets were too small for the shocks already so I had to cut them. The caster angle means that the strut sits outside of the curve of the turret. If they had been done to compliment the angle of the shock it would not have been so bad.
once I have shorter suspension struts I can see if I can get the wheel central to the arch. At the moment I cannot get the wheel close enough to the arch to allow the suspension to show me where it needs to be and the adjuster on the shock touches the chassis.
At the moment the caster is quite extreme. I may be able to keep the turrets and play with the top mount, I may swap to adjustable top mounts front and rear anyway.
The 205 wheel is not all that big normally, add in a gearbox tunnel and you begin to limit the floor space. The harness bar was cut out as I couldn’t get the seat back far enough to fit in the car and it was too low anyway to be safe. I still had an issue with the seat hitting the cage feet boxes and I need to get runners in. The front cage foot was similar as I was cramped for pedal box room and very concerned that I would break my ankle on the box in a shunt. Willie Green got in my track car once and explained just how painful a broken shin is when you wrap it around a cage leg in a bump.
Passenger foot box front. Drivers foot box front. I have drawn on to the offending bit that seemed to be far too big and my ankle bone rested on it when legs straight. The seat has no other wiggle room but does give dead straight run to the pedals apart from this foot in the way.
I wondered if there was some floor strength box running through but only Mr Angry the grinder could tell me…worst case I would have to weld them back I .
Nothing in the back one at all…I can just put some 2mm-3mm steel across the hole and box it in. Front is the same, I can plate it in, no reason that I can understand for it to be there…loads of thick steel still left for the cage leg to sit on.
I will complete all of the floor welds and bulkhead welds once my new engine mounts arrive, I just want to check the engine and gearbox sit right before I weld it all up for good.
Legs straight now and no more ankle danger, I can get the seat back and legs out stretched now. Just need to buy a good pedal box now as that wasn’t completed.
Section 1.3.2 of the blue book. Needs to be at least as thick as the cage being welded to it and at least 120cm2.
Bare in mind the 120cm2 can then be folded to suit the width into a box shape
Thank you, I will have a measure up but I expect I am left with that easily and to be fair this doesn’t need to comply with race regs but they are there for a reason so it makes sense to follow them. I will make sure I weld in steel at least as thick as the cage wall.
i think just the tops of mine were 120cm2 without the sides of the box. Maybe he made the tops 10x12 to hit that figure but didn’t factor in the box profiles?
Last edited by Caddyshack; 24-05-2022 at 05:28 PM.
If I look at the rear turrets on my escort they have a reasonable flare them (wider at the bottom) likely specifically for clearance They are much wider than yours appear to be. Like these.
this is the pic I found on the web (not mine, credit to them) of rear suspension mount points from (I think) an MSport escort WRC shell. They arent centred on the wheel centre line, but the centreline of the diff output flanges are the centre line of the wheel arch. In full droop the centreline of the hub will fairly far forward of the wheel arch centreline, determined
Thank You Jono...that is exactly how I was trying to explain that they should be to allow the damper to be at the correct angle without hitting the turrets. It makes a lot more sense when they are like that and the cones in that way do not make it look silly when the strut is at angle wider than the tower.
Grabbed a couple of hours today and plasma cut some plate to go in the rear cage base plate. I have also used it to build in the lower harness mount clip on point.
I am going to run 2 options. 1) will be a 3 point retractable harness 2) will be a 4 point clip in for more serious work.
Harnesses can be a pain on the road and a barrier to using the car so the retractable ones will make it easier for when I just want to jump in and go.
Thank You Jono...that is exactly how I was trying to explain that they should be to allow the damper to be at the correct angle without hitting the turrets. It makes a lot more sense when they are like that and the cones in that way do not make it look silly when the strut is at angle wider than the tower.
I also found this in my collection. Which i think may be someone fitting MK products.
Thanks, the angles on mine are more extreme than that but I am working on it. I think that if they had made my turrets like that I may not have had the hassle I have had. The other issue with mine is that the chassis had not been notched where the suspension leg needed to go, I have done that now. Mine were not big enough for the reservoirs to move up and down…same Shox as those too.
More sanding and filling today, this was the largest area of damage on the wing. I cannot feel any deviations to the touch now so probably one more coat of high build and block it back and that area should be done. There are about 7 repair areas on this wing as it popped 4 of the filled rivets where it joins the car, another crack like the one in the pic and then a crack up the door pillar and along the window ledge. Nearly all sorted now….I hate body work.
Engine mounts arrived from Dewitts, they are more industrial looking than the ones that went missing but i doubt much of them will be seen and I can always add showy ones later, I need to see if the gearbox fits the tunnel as my box is the oppliger long box, I took it up to the car whilst it was there but I don’t know if it was ever offered up. Once I know it fits I can motor on with completing all of the floor welds and finish that bit up ready for rust proof and paint.
I have put in the L shape on the front cage leg, drivers side. Angled it back towards the cage to keep it as far away from my ankle as poss. I left 3mm of the old platform poking up from the floor and welded the base to that, then put a thick weld from the old base to the floor as it had only been tacked on this side,
There wasn’t a weld along this box so that has been done now Quick release spit…..quick released The black bar across the front was an old mount for the rad, I will cut this out now and re do. Ready for a test fit of the engine and gearbox. I am going to have a few days off it now and then push on with the engine mock up.
I have put in the L shape on the front cage leg, drivers side. Angled it back towards the cage to keep it as far away from my ankle as poss. I left 3mm of the old platform poking up from the floor and welded the base to that, then put a thick weld from the old base to the floor as it had only been tacked on this side,
someone told me the weld I have zoomed in on is too cold as it doesn’t tie in to the floor…it actually floats above the floor and is not meant to tie to it, it welds the plate I added to the box only. I then welded the floor to the box after.
I can't believe how bad this thing is. I said all those years ago not to send it to that clown. The time it was away and this shoddy horrific work quality is exactly why.
But, the past is just that, it's good to see you cracking on with it, lessons learned and get it finished. I really feel for you. So many have gone before you in the same situation.
When we where down collecting my beam my mate commented on the way home how shoddy the work on the red pug looked, boot was like a patchwork quilt with loads of little sections of steel welded in to fill holes.
In all honesty i have no sympathy for toby, the amount of advertising and blatantly shoving mk into all our faces for years has back fired.
OMG its been ages since i have seen any progress on this build (just like my own) i have just cough up on all thats been happening since you got it back, im so happy to see that you are making progress with it, it does get you down after a while, we all need a kick in the arse now and again to get motivated and you have just given that to me. i will be in touch very soon mate, thank you for the updates
OMG its been ages since i have seen any progress on this build (just like my own) i have just cough up on all thats been happening since you got it back, im so happy to see that you are making progress with it, it does get you down after a while, we all need a kick in the arse now and again to get motivated and you have just given that to me. i will be in touch very soon mate, thank you for the updates
Hi buddy, hope you are well. Thanks for the comments.
The engine side of the mounts were lost whilst away so I had to buy some from Dewitts, the centres must be different to how MK had done the so I had to plasma cut the inner parts of the chassis side to allow the plate to be tapped back 5mm and then weld them up again, this stopped the metal around the bush hitting the chassis mounts.
engine in and gearbox trial fit will be tomorrow….fingers crossed. I have a sneaky feeling there isn’t room for the slave cylinder and I don’t know if my actual gearbox was ever mocked up to the car whilst it was there….time will tell.
Once I am happy with the exact engine position I will put a plate over the bolt hole on the mount as I had to slot it to get the Dewitts mounts in. I have put a spirit level on the shell and the engine and it does sit dead flat….or atleast will with the gearbox weight on the back as it wants to tilt forward a little now. In this pic you can see the cuts I previously made to the scuttle panel to stop the cam trigger and breather hitting…you can now see how much lower the engine sits. I will fold up some boxes to finish the scuttle, just in case the engine needs to come up a bit.
22-05-2022, 10:13 AM
