At Last!. I have started on my car ;-) PART 2

Day 190 - 197 - Not much I'm afraid.

Day 198 - Spoke to my engine guru, Geoff. Going to upgrade my Life F88 ECU so it can deal with fly-by-wire throttle and full throttle flappy paddle shifting. This will cost a few hundred drinking vouchers but so would standalone units.

Geoff is going to order me a 10mm thick carbon/aluminium/carbon sheet to mount the pedal box on.

As they are just over the road, and Geoff knows them well, I will be using DC Electronics for the engine loom:

http://www.wiringlooms.com/Products/WiringLooms/
 
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Day 198 - 202 - Nothing

Day 203 - Discussed fly by wire and full throttle gear changing with my engine guru today. Gave him my ECU to check whether it can deal with FBW and FTGC. I f not, he has a client looking for this ECU at retail so a trade price upgrade shouldn't cost me too much.
 
Day 204 - nothing

Day 205 - Fitted Merc flappy paddles to steering wheel. Not the best job I have done but they can't easily be seen:. Back plate will need repainting:

 
Looks good OG, did you not have thoughts about the paddles being slightly larger aluminium ones for ease of use?
 
I had started making my own paddles but was having space issues. When these came up on eBay they looked just what I needed.

In a perfect world they would be slightly longer but I am looking into that :)
 
Saw an immaculate red and gold Elan Sprint on the M1 today, and it prompted me to come and check on progress. Nice work so far OG.
 
Day 206 - Continued to work on steering wheel:
Removed 250gms
Designed extensions to flappy paddles to be made from either carbon fibre, aluminium or lexan. Converted drawing to g-code and will have a go at making them tomorrow.
 
Day 207. Nothing
Day 208. Spent day at Santa Pod. Spent evening drilling 139 holes in back of steering wheel instrument cluster box (20grams) and setting up mill in order to cut lexan into flappy paddle shapes.

Day 209. Made first prototype paddle. Hollowed it out a little too much as it is a little too flexible. Minor redesign and I will cut another tomorrow.



 
Yes it does look good OG. Does the increased size of the paddle effect the movement of the mechanism and therefore the response?
 
With the lever being further away from the fulcrum, more movement is obviously required :) However, it feels fine and the increase is minimal.

Day 210 - Paddles finished, apart from being stuck on permanently:

 
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With the lever being further away from the fulcrum, more movement is obviously required :) However, it feels fine and the increase is minimal.

I see, and are any holes being drilled into those paddles to make them lighter? :lol:
 
Every single little piece of the puzzle is like a work of art. Will you be allowed just flameproof y-fronts to keep the weight down when running?
 
Thanks

I wish :)

It is going to hurt when I get to the performance point where I have to run a full roll cage. Can't really get away with drilling holes in that :-(
 
Days 211-213 - Tidying workshop as it has got out of hand.

Day 214 - 2mm polycarbonate for rear window arrived. Weighs 1.9kg so even uncut it is 4.5kg lighter than the glass window :)

Now I need to work out the best way to bend the Lexan to the shape of the window. I am guessing the application of heat will be involved but I am wondering if using the glass as the mould is a good idea. I don't want to break it as it is worth a lot more than the Lexan :)

Anyone had any experience with bending this stuff?

 
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Day 215 - nothing

Day 216 - made side window pattern with slider to see if I could cut the hole on my mill. It appears that I can, just. Next step to to see if I can do a decent job of it :)



I think that the rear screen can be cut as a flat sheet and bent to fit without the use of heat. I will try this before resorting to a firm in Colchester that can mould the plastic to shape for around £160.
 
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Day 217 - Started on window slider, using the suck it and see method. Programming for the sliding part was easy, however, the runners were a little bit fidly so I am doing these manually.

Sliding part done and one runner roughed out. Hopefully I will finish the machining of the main parts tomorrow. I will then look into some sort of spring mechanism to hold the sliding section flush with the window along with a handle.

Great fun.
 
Absolutely no problem with coping with the power. The IL300 name is a bit missleading. This box has been run in a 600bhp TVR in a 12 hour race with no issues.

What do you mean by "completely custom?" ?
 
4 aluminium rod ends for the rear susppension arrived today from the States, giving a weight saving of 260gms

I ordered left hand thread and confirmed that in an email stating that I have been previously been sent the wrong thread inserts by a company in England so was a little paranoid.

Guess what? Paranoia was well founded. Although the packets say left hand the rod ends are right hand thread!

Bugger, damn and blast it. Just sent off an email but they are shut until Aug 14th :-(
 
Day 218 - Started on window slider, mark 2

Day 219 - Finished plastic shaping. Awaiting M4 threaded brass inserts and aluminium countersunk set screws. I also have to make the springs that will hold slider flush with outside of window when shut.

 
4 aluminium rod ends for the rear susppension arrived today from the States, giving a weight saving of 260gms

I ordered left hand thread and confirmed that in an email stating that I have been previously been sent the wrong thread inserts by a company in England so was a little paranoid.

Guess what? Paranoia was well founded. Although the packets say left hand the rod ends are right hand thread!

Bugger, damn and blast it. Just sent off an email but they are shut until Aug 14th :-(

Update. They are not shut, their rod end supplier is. Just received an email from Rouchyates (whom I bought the rod ends from) stating that the mistake was on their website. It said left had thread but meant right hand thread!

I have just received another email from them asking for my UK address, which sounds encouraging.
 
why are you using brass inserts rather than aluminium? surly the brass will weigh more and as its not really going to be under pressure or heat cant see the reason
 
Ouch, got me there! :)

Couldn't find any aluminium ones the right size and length so I settled on brass.
 
Absolutely no problem with coping with the power. The IL300 name is a bit missleading. This box has been run in a 600bhp TVR in a 12 hour race with no issues.

What do you mean by "completely custom?" ?

Sorry, what I mean was, has it been made from scratch for your specific application.

I should really think before I say things!
 
Sorry, what I mean was, has it been made from scratch for your specific application.

I should really think before I say things!

Sort of.

It was built once we had finalised the ratios and worked out how much to shorten input shaft by.

Gear ratios were specified to best suit car, engine and its proposed use.

Input shaft was shortened as I had to get the bell housing shortened in order for the gearbox to clear the chassis (Elite did this for me as well).
 

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