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Those two little tabs for the bottom trunion do look pretty whimpy. Consider this was on a very light weight racing not road car from the days when they didn't bounce them of curbs so much. As regards loads in single shear they aren't a good idea but they were used A LOT back in the day. I am thinking it might be the perfect being the enemy progress.

[quote="vroom"]Those two little tabs for the bottom trunion do look pretty whimpy. Consider this was on a very light weight racing not road car from the days when they didn't bounce them of curbs so much. As regards loads in single shear they aren't a good idea but they were used A LOT back in the day. I am thinking it might be the perfect being the enemy progress.[/quot



My old FF had shocks and even track rods in single shear, but they went through ] the frame tubing and a through bushing was welded in place. That made things a whole lot stronger. Then again, it also had an upper rear a-arm tube that was about a foot and a half behind the front one.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

You've probably seen these on your old FF, but just thought I would put the picture in. This is just the spitfire upright with the trunion removed and a piece welded on to put a spherical bearing on. I think the picture above of the wishbone connecting to the trunion looks good too. The two little tabs appear to have a reinforcement welded onto the bottom where they connect to the wishbone. It might not be so fragile as it looks.

I like most of how that Westfield is set up, it's very simple and direct. Single shear makes the world go around. I do feel a little better about the late nights trying to work things out on my frame now though. In that picture it would be hard to work it out with the coilover in the bracket and the wishbone in single shear. They probably even "offered" it to the car and it said no. I'm going thru this now, and it is just perversely difficult. Add in the fact that they must worry about production costs and it's harder. I'll agree it doesn't look great though....

BTW, what kind of FF did you drive? Mine is an old '78 Van Dieman.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
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The FF was a "Beattie" I think there may have been only 2-3 of them here in the states. At almost 1100 pounds lets just say it was "durable" and very "safe". I recognoize those spindles. My ford had them. I also had a Triumph Sport Six (Think Herald with a GT6 motor).

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

The mount is for the coil over not just a shock. The loads are very large, single shear is probably inadequate for that application. It carries the entire weight of the front of the car (1/2 for each side) typical forces will be 2-3 times that, or about 600 lbs this will cause a lot of twisting load on the bracket. It might work, but it's a critical failure point. Dynamic loads and vibration need to taken into account as well.

Nice work, but if you stay with that configuration, make sure you keep a close eye on the bracket.

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Volvo 240/P1800 Based Locost
2004 Aprilia Mille Factory
1988 Volvo 240 5 Speed ( For Sale)
2002 Toyota Tacoma
1999 BMW M3

I'll put my 2 cents in, the westfield bracket looks a little weak in my opinion, i'm not a fan of the "stick on" suspension brackets. But, all Lotus built Sevens (except the S4's and a handful of "special" S1/2s) had the coil over mounted in single shear (even the Eleven S2, 12, 14, 15 & early 16's). Caterham also used the same set-up until the early 90's. The Lotus' used 1/2" hardware, i'm unsure if the Westy has 1/2" for the upper arm, most of the bushings used on the XI's are 7/16". I know i'm just adding to the "many cars have been built like this, so it should work", but its worked for the past 54 years, albeit on skinny tires and lightweight mechanical bits.

Having started this debate, I'm now looking at my front suspension and realizing the following: MGB uprights and old fashioned wheels/tires will mean that my lower a-arm will most likely need to be 2-3 inches up from the bottom frame tube to get me ta ride height of about 5 inches. That makes the use of a sleeve welded through the vertical tube between the upper and lower horizontal tubes to hold a 1/2" grade 8 a-arm mount bolt an extremely attractive option.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

Believe it or not...one of the big challenges to building this old school car will come when I bolt on the back fenders. They are round, bulbous affairs that, to me, make the 57-59 Seven's very attractive, I've looked at motorcycle fenders and even some plastic VW rear fenders but none have the right look or style. Looks like I'll have to fab up some bucks and make my own out of glass.

Ideally, I'd have a friend with an original Seven who would be willing to let me glop up his/her rear fenders with fiberglass to make a mold. Anyone out there willing to do this?

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

The above photo is very interesting. It looks like most of the bodywork is pretty flat except the nose and rear fenders (can't see the rear, obviously). I wonder what it would cost to have someone make those items for you in aluminum? There has been quite a resurgence of craftsmen working in metal with English wheels, etc. Maybe you could find someone in the North East to do them for a reasonable price and then do the rest of the flat, or almost flat, stuff yourself? That would really make it a true period car.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886

On every MGB locost I've seen, the lower A-arm pickups are in the usual position. I believe this is less than optimal because you end up with zero caster. I think the only way to get caster on a Locost without ball joints is by rotating the suspension pickups so that the front pickups are higher than the rear, with all pickups angled to stay parallel and in the same plane. I could be wrong about this, but I'm sure enough about it that I'm doing it on mine, and the math works out that with 5 degrees of caster I'll have a little less than 5" of ride height with a 23" tire and the lower A-arms parallel to the ground.

You are correct in your thinking, its the only way to set the caster with the "trunnion" type uprights. The original Sevens are built in the very same way. On the MGBs you can get tapered shims to rotate the front crossmember to adjust caster. I sold my Bugeye Sprites (both projects) because i thought the front chassis legs were bent, little didi i know that they were built that way from new to set the caster. The only downside is that the wheel will travel fore and aft in bump and droop.

Regarding fabricating fenders from alloy: cycle style fenders are one of the easiest body parts to fab. I have even seen a guy at Metal Meet do it with no more than an arbor press and a urethane pad. It does take some time but I guarantee it is a lot more pleasant than working with fiberglass. There may even be some newby out there that would do it if you bought the Al to practice on. With regard to the nose cone give me some time and I'll let you know.

Every Series 1 Seven I've seen has been in polished alum. They look best that way.

I think you need to do the same. (Only partially kidding.)

The front wings are easiest with the low crown. The nosecone is next due to 4 piece (top, sides, & bottom) construction. Welding is critical with this piece. The most difficult will be the rear wings which I believe are usually one piece. They have a very high crown.

You'll need an E-wheel, shrinker with 6" jaw, hammers and shaping bag, and a lot of patience.

o


I think you're right. That's one reason I'm using heims everywhere on my MGB setup. My hope is that The bottom outboard heims will allow room for 5-6 degrees of movement when I adjust the caster on the upper, inner heims.

It will all have to wait, however, since I ran out of tap tube to make my A arms. If it doesn't, I'll still have heims but I'll be moving my front pickups in the same manner as you.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames

I once had a customer many decades ago with a 1955 Gullwing MB his wife opened the passenger door when he was backing it out of the garage. I had a guy craft a new door skin for it out of aluminum. (This was when a Gullwing was only worth about 60K.) The experience was very expensive and took a long time.

Keep in mind that my car is a "tribute:" to a 59 lotus. That's different than a replica. And lucky for me, since I have lots of fiberglass experience. My metal shaping experience is in the form of beating back body work prior to finishing! I've seen aluminum motorcycle tanks fabricated and then gas welded together. It looks to me like the gas welding of thin aluminum is every bit as difficult as the shaping.

At this point I plan to paint the entire car BRG with a large maroon stripe down the center. The wire wheels will also be maroon.

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1998 E 300 Turbodiesel
2006 Jetta diesel
1995 C3500 purple diesel bucket truck w/yellow & silver flames