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

Met her already and I think she is adorable :)

It's the 11th anniversary of her indoors and I on Saturday so I am taking her out for a swish dinner in London.
I should be over very soon to collect the hat Steve, I have also bought you a "Bah Humbug" hat in medium |B
 
Ah, yes, of course. A lot frailer now, unfortunately.

Bah, Humbug, brilliant! You shouldn't have, but thanks :)
 
Circlips are a tad too big. However, I anticipated this so also ordered a smaller set, so as soon as these arrive I will try again to assemble driveshafts.

In the meantime I am continuing with the wheelie bar. Started on tube ends today. Having toys makes life so much easier, and cheaper. Lathe has already paid for itself.



This is the way to tap holes :)





Once carbon fibre tubes arrive a I can finish ends by machining down to ID of tubes. 3 more to make once aluminium bar arrives.

 
I bought a Myford Super 7 for £10 from work, it was being binned. I stripped it, lightly refurbished it and sold it for £700 and was a non-runner! I was going to keep it but thought it was too small for what I wanted it for. Still got my eye on others though, there's never too many tools!
 
Absolutely and nice flip. The other rule is no matter how big your tool is you very quickly find that is isn't big enough.

Bought my first Mill and within a few days realised its limitations. Even my CNC mill is too small for some of the jobs I want to do. However, I have kept the small mill as it serves as bench drill as well as being useful for small jobs and saves me having to fire up the bigger mill.
 
Steve, now your pretty good in the creative department and you have carbon fibre material indoors, did you not fancy having a go at making the tubes yourself then?
 
T9 man said:
Steve, now your pretty good in the creative department and you have carbon fibre material indoors, did you not fancy having a go at making the tubes yourself then?
Click to expand...

Well, the thought did cross my mind. However, the tubes need to be strong and uniform so I thought it best to leave this job to the specialists. Also, at less than 45 pounds each I didn't think that it was worth the time, effort and risk. Besides, I have plenty of work to do in making the tube ends, wheel assembly and central support brackets :)
 
old-git said:
Well, the thought did cross my mind. However, the tubes need to be strong and uniform so I thought it best to leave this job to the specialists. Also, at less than 45 pounds each I didn't think that it was worth the time, effort and risk. Besides, I have plenty of work to do in making the tube ends, wheel assembly and central support brackets :)
Click to expand...


Understood |B
 
I had nothing when your age and did most of my car maintenance/modding in the road or on the driveway outside my parents' house (where I lived).
 
T9 man said:
Ditto! I don't do any real work on the car myself any more, I leave this all to the pro's ;)
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And a very good job they are doing. But you are still very much involved: Original concept provider, script writer, producer, director and enforcer.

And fiercest critic.
 
I love making things, but I love even more making things from scrap.

I have had this square bar for at least 20 years. It has been used mostly as a lever to move cars and trailers stuck in mud in the paddock.



I needed a U section to make the wheelie bar top bracket from and spied this. So I chopped off 50mm and set to work on the milling machine.

Probably not worth it, time wise, but it only cost me electricity and wear on cutters and the result was very satisfying:



 
As soon as the next delivery of aluminium bar arrived I will the 6th and final wheelie bar rod end holder:

 
In all seriousness Steve, once the Elan is ready for the track, have you thought about undertaking a project on behalf of someone who would otherwise be struggling to showcase your skills?
 
A good example of why you should always wear appropriate safety equipment when using machines.

I was roughing out a cross brace bracket for the wheelie bars when the, admittedly wrong, cutter dug into the aluminium and threw it across the workshop. Fortunately it missed me but I was wearing a full face guard. It is like a welders mask but with a clear plastic face shield.

Two lessons learnt. Use the right bloody cutter (on order) and make sure item is secure. It was only held by the lip so I will make the next one whilst still attached to the stock tube and cut it off once finished.

 
:)

The problem with making stuff for others is that it takes a lot longer as it has to be perfect. I can live with small imperfections as long as it is structurally sound, but it would have to be perfect if for someone else. I won't live long enough to make anything for T9 ! :)
 
Being an ex-toolmaker myself it is hard to make parts for others as Steve said you'll spend more time on theirs than your own. It is pride.
 
I have looked at many designs as there is no point in reinventing the wheel(ie bar) but there is nothing suitable for the Elan. I had to, therefore, design my own from first principles and emperical experience. I was constrianed by the fact that I could only accommodate one top tube without a lot of fabrication. The available chassis also restricted the spacing of the bottom bars, although I have stretched this using spacers.

I could only fit a single wheeled bar for the same reasons, but these are becomming more popular even on cars that 2 wheels bars can be fitted to, so no issues here.

Ideally, there should be two top bars as this is where the compressive stresses are and this is how commercial single wheel bars are made. The tube size for bars up to 2400mm long tends to be 40mm OD. I am using this diameter tube but only 1300mm in length so, hopefully, this will be fine.

I will be adding stiffening in the form of three 25mm diameter bars in a triangle approx mid point. As the top bar has to pass through the body I won't finalise its position until body and chassis are together

I am not expecting a violent wheel stand senario as the suspension has been designed to avoid this. This bar is really to assist the suspension if required. In some respects I hope it is required because that will mean we are getting good traction :)
 
We shall see.

I have never been totally happy with the structural strength of the carbon fibre rear damper push rods. So, I have decided to reinforce them with an outer sleeve consisting of another CF tube. I was able to source a tube that will slide nicely over the original and they arrived yesterday. A little bit of sanding to remove the gloss from the original tubes and they slide smoothly together.

I want to glue them together so I discussed which epoxy to use with easycomposits. I always thought that some glues work like magic and this has now been confirmed:

 
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