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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: November 7, 2016, 8:28 pm 
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Location: New Jersey
Looks like a nice piece of kit!

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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: November 7, 2016, 8:35 pm 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
Yeah! As they say in the UK, I'm "chuffed"!

Waiting for my replacement heater unit, now - should be here in a few days. Progress, however slow, is still progress.... :cheers:

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Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.

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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: November 8, 2016, 3:05 am 
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Those are really nice. If you will post a pic of them on or new to your wheels you are using. Thanks.

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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: November 8, 2016, 9:42 am 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
Well, here's one of one of 'em sitting in place (ignore the masking tape on the tire!), more or less at the correct height & position. It gives you the idea, anyway. It's going to take a bit to build the mounts etc. (which I plan to shamelessly copy from others' examples!).

Attachment:
Front fender small.jpg


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Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.

http://zetec7.webs.com/


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: November 8, 2016, 6:31 pm 
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Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
Very pretty! What was your motivation for ordering them versus some other vendor, like someone in North America? Was it a question of their style, or their quality, or some other factor? I take it they were £152 ($188) a piece, not that amount for both fenders?

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


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: November 8, 2016, 6:38 pm 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
Actually, that was the TOTAL price, for the pair, including shipping etc.!

The reason I chose to buy there was because, except for Curtis (hard to deal with, long distance, especially without even being able to see a picture of what you're ordering), I couldn't find a North American source for fiberglass cycle fenders.

I found lots of plastic trailer fenders (wrong radius, wrong shape, wrong size), steel fenders (heavy - and I already have more unsprung weight than is advisable!), and some aluminum ones (all in fairly thick alloy - no lighter than the thinner steel ones available).

Plus, the ones at KitSpares are specifically made for Locost-type cars, so they actually fit, without having to re-manufacture them like a lot of the otherwise-intended-use fenders.

I've been searching for, oh, 3-4 years for front fenders, and these were by far the best I've found...and the best price!

I did consider "rolling my own" out of aluminum, but I don't have a bead roller or English wheel. Plus, with the cost of aluminum what it is these days, one mistake on making one would be costly. I also thought of making fiberglass ones, but it would be a loooong process (making a buck, casting a mold, making 2 fenders), and as there's no way I could hope to approach the quality of the KitSpares ones, I'd have to have them painted professionally (locally, that would exceed $100 per fender). So, with the cost of materials & paint, homemade ones would cost substantially more than the ones I bought. These ones are perfect already, and don't require any finishing at all.

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http://zetec7.webs.com/


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: November 8, 2016, 7:49 pm 
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OK, there are lots of good reasons there and you've clearly done your research. Thanks for the response.

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


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: January 19, 2017, 7:56 pm 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
Well, I've been working on my dash & windshield stanchions lately (when I can squeeze shop time in between work times).

I decided to dump the plywood dash in favor of an aluminum one. As most of the switch gear is designed to only go through sheet metal, trying to fit them into a 3/8" thick plywood required cutting a big hole & fabricating a thin metal insert, for each and every switch. It was getting to be a ridiculous amount of work, and I wasn't happy with the look. I found a 1/2 sheet of 14 gauge aluminum for $50 all-in (no, I didn't have a gun in my hand at the time!), so I have enough to also do the vertical & horizontal sections of the front of the scuttle. Nice!

In order to simplify layout of the gauges, etc., before I started cutting the alloy, I laid out a grid pattern on it with a Sharpie. That was a seriously good epiphany - it makes sure everything is accurate, square, plumb, etc. before actually cutting any holes. The aluminum will still have 1/8" foam padding, covered by black automotive vinyl, as I like the "traditional" look.

The glove box itself is the same one from my wood dash, although the latch is now from a late '80's Datsun 300ZX...because it would fit.

Here's a pic of the proposed layout - this is what might be termed an "artist's conception", as the gauges haven't been fitted (other than test-fitting, which went perfectly), and I "painted in" the switch gear using an ancient version of Paint Shop Pro. It's crude, but you get the idea. The row of switches & control cables will be mounted through a metal panel, inset into the vinyl & surrounded by a chrome trim (the panel & trim sourced from an Austin Mini Cooper Mk. II), but this doesn't show in the pic, as there's no vinyl covering yet to set it off, so it wouldn't be visible. For some reason, the pic is a little "soft"...don't know why, it's sharp & clear on my computer. Oh well, you get the idea.

Attachment:
dash alloy draft layout 8 B.jpg


Stanchions-wise, it's been..."fun". I made them out of aluminum, the same 1/8" anodized stuff I used for the car's floor. I don't know what alloy it is, but it's hard as nails, and the anodizing is way harder than that. Bending the stuff is like trying to bend a metal file.

The difficult part is that my frame is 42" wide, but tapers to a "book" nose. So, the taper angle is steeper than other frames, necessitating a fairly obvious twist in the stanchions to make them match the sides of the windshield frame which will, of course, be parallel to the center line of the car, rather than the sides of the car. That, coupled with the curve in to the top of the scuttle, plus the decreasing radius of the scuttle's curve from rear to front, means the windshield frame will have to fit a gentle curve in the middle, changing to a tighter curve at the sides, where the curve is actually a cross section of a cone. I tried "doing the math" on it...there's simply too many variables all at once, and I got a headache. So, I went with the tried-and-true "bend it, over and over, until it fits" technique.

It worked, although it's not as pretty as I'd like. The far more gentle scuttle curve & taper on a Ca*****ham means the bends & twists of their stanchions are almost invisible. Mine are, unfortunately, very visible indeed.

To try to make up for that, I decided to polish the stanchions. This decision was simplified by the fact that one of my stanchions had scratches in the anodizing from the jigsaw I used to cut it out, and I don't have enough material left to make a replacement. Of course, the anodizing is harder than anything known to man (except the aforementioned jigsaw base which must be made out of either industrial diamond, or carbonized, rediculated, case-hardened unobtanium), so sanding through it was entertaining.

I finally discovered that 3M pads, on my die grinder, would get through it. It's slow, but it works. Unfortunately, the instant it gets through the anodizing, in the next femtosecond it makes deep scratches in the now-exposed aluminum. Another trip to the store for wet/dry paper (down to 1500 grit), polishing compound (I like Autosol, personally), 0000 steel wool, a stick of white rouge for the buffing wheel, and off I go! Six hours of polishing later, I got to this:

Attachment:
stanchion 4 small.jpg
Attachment:
stanchion 5 small.jpg


Perfect, they ain't, but I've had it up to here (picture me with my fingers stretched to the ceiling, at this point) with sanding, buffing, and polishing. My shoulders ache, my neck's sore, and my fingers are permanently stained grayish-black.

Next, I'm going to try to build a buck for my windshield frame. That will be fun - I bought a half sheet of 1/2" MDF at the lumber store (as the frame material snugs down onto this material) but, as it was curved when I bought it, I attempted to take the curve out by stressing it the other way. That worked. Too well. I now have a 4-cornered bowl. I doubt I can ever get it truly flat, so...it's off to a different lumber store, to see if I can get a flat piece.

***By the way, the aluminum cladding on the scuttle in the picture is just aluminum flashing - I'm using it to get a general shape for the curve of the lower windshield frame***

The madness continues...


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Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.

http://zetec7.webs.com/


Last edited by zetec7 on January 20, 2017, 3:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: January 20, 2017, 12:54 am 
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Joined: October 24, 2008, 2:13 pm
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Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
The new dash and windshield stanchions look very nice. Personally, I like the metal dash better. That's a lot of hard detail work in those items, but it's paying off for you.

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


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: January 20, 2017, 2:42 am 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
Thanks! While it is a lot of work, I have an aversion to having to do anything over again (like the dash...), so I try to think everything through, probably waaaay too much. I probably spend a lot more time thinking about stuff, researching stuff, and designing stuff than I actually do building. On the plus side, most of the time I'm happy with the way things turn out.

The wood dash was a disappointment, but in the end, I agree, the aluminum dash will be the better choice. I plan to make it as easily removable as I can, as I'm enough of a realist to accept that at least one of my 1960's-era gauges will fail at some point, and access will be invaluable. As for the layout, I wanted something reminiscent of the gorgeous dashboards of the bygone era of British sports cars, like the Jaguar E-type and Aston Martin. It would have been far easier (and quicker) to put in a bunch of mismatched switch gear I already had on hand, but I wanted it tasteful and logically thought-out, so the plan above is what I came up with. You might note that the name of the file is "dash alloy draft layout 8B" - there were 15 previous layouts for the aluminum dash that I drew up & subsequently discarded...

Actually, access has been one of my primary concerns, throughout the build. At every stage, I stop and think "If I need to get at this starter/alternator/water pump/heater core or whatever, how will I be able to do that without disassembling the car?" (bearing in mind that "Murphy" is, and has always been, my co-pilot, and if one of these things comes to pass, it will be at night, in the middle of nowhere, in a driving rain). To that end, ALL the bodywork around the engine bay will be removable via either bolts, or Dzus fasteners (probably the latter as, while I might not always have tools with me, I generally at least have a coin in my pocket). As the build progresses and I add more components, access to the various parts in the engine bay is becoming more restricted, and permanently cladding it in aluminum (my original plan) would make things vastly more difficult. If, on the other hand, I can strip the front end to a bare frame & engine in just a few seconds, maintenance & repair tasks will be infinitely easier. Oil filter changes, for example, can be accomplished sitting on a stool beside the car. Without the removable panels, a hoist would have been very desirable, or even necessary, for this simple task.

The situation at the rear of the car is more difficult, as the rear aluminum bodywork will be pretty much permanent. To that end, I've mounted the fuel tank (which constitutes most of the contents of that area) on vertical, rubber-lined rails. One bolt on each side is removed, freeing the tank to slide in its rails, and the gas tank can be slid up & out, giving vastly more access from above & below.

The seats are likewise easily removable - they're mounted on hinges (one half welded to the frame, the other welded to the front of the seat slider rails), and the hinge pins are removable by pulling hairpin-style cotter pins (so, no tools required). As I had to remove the seat tilt mechanisms to be able to fit the seats into the available space, I added a kind of tilt feature of my own - the rear of each seat is anchored via a rotating lock mechanism at the back end of the sliders, with a push-knob release under the front edges of the seats. Pushing the knob unlocks the seats, and they tilt forward all the way against the dash (albeit, without folding in the middle as they used to). That way, my inertia-reel seatbelt mechanisms are accessible, as is the otherwise-wasted wedge-shaped area behind each seat, which will eventually have small lock boxes fitted for secure, small-item storage.

I know, I'm obsessing over some of the small stuff. My concern is that, at some point, I'll think "Oh no...the position of the governmnet-required defrost vents is wrong!", and I won't be able to fix it, as everything was welded/bonded into place, and access isn't possible.

Or worse, "Doh!! I should have added provision for a left-handed, reverse-Whitworth, modified left-hand, metric titanium 12V DC Twinkie dispenser!!", and it will be too late.

Can't have that, now, can we? :BH: :roll: :cheers:

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Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.

http://zetec7.webs.com/


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: January 20, 2017, 9:21 am 
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Yo Zetec!
Could you share the plans for that Twinkie dispenser??? :mrgreen:
:cheers:
JD "Fat Kid" Kemp

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Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: January 20, 2017, 1:00 pm 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
Sure! Well, I haven't actually designed the hard bits yet, but here's the wiring diagram for it! The flux capacitor has been the hardest part to source, despite poring through several wrecking yards, and the local auto parts guy looked at me like I had two heads when I asked if they had any in stock...

Attachment:
circuit_diagram.png


I was inspired by Rockwell's latest turbo encabulator design, after viewing this video. I just had to find a way to incorporate one into my build, and it seemed perfect as a controller for the Twinkie dispenser!

Here's a transcript of the video:

"Here at Rockwell Automation’s world headquarters, research has been proceeding to develop a line of automation products that establishes new standards for quality, technological leadership, and operating excellence. With customer success as our primary focus, work has been proceeding on the crudely conceived idea of an instrument that would not only provide inverse reactive current, for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. Such an instrument comprised of Dodge gears and bearings, Reliance Electric motors, Allen-Bradley controls, and all monitored by Rockwell Software is Rockwell Automation’s "Retro Encabulator".

Now, basically the only new principle involved is that instead of power being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it’s produced by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive diractance. The original machine had a base plate of prefabulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurving bearings were in a direct line with the panametric fan.

The lineup consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzelvanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that sidefumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal lotus o-deltoid type placed in panendermic semiboloid slots of the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the ‘up’ end of the grammeters. Moreover, whenever fluorescence score motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm to reduce sinusoidal depleneration.

The Retro Encabulator has now reached a high level of development, and it’s being successfully used in the operation of milford trenions. It’s available soon; wherever Rockwell Automation products are sold."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w


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Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.

http://zetec7.webs.com/


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: January 20, 2017, 3:32 pm 
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Awww shoot, and I thought it was gonna be difficult... :rofl:

Good one, Bro!
:cheers:

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JD, father of Quinn, Son of a... Build Log
Quinn the Slotus:Ford 302 Powered, Mallock-Inspired, Tube Frame, Hillclimb Special
"Gonzo and friends: Last night must have been quite a night. Camelot moments, mechanical marvels, Rustoleum launches, flying squirrels, fru-fru tea cuppers, V8 envy, Ensure catch cans -- and it wasn't even a full moon." -- SeattleTom


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: January 20, 2017, 8:59 pm 
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Location: Carlsbad, California, USA
zetec7 wrote:
. . .

I know, I'm obsessing over some of the small stuff. My concern is that, at some point, I'll think "Oh no...the position of the governmnet-required defrost vents is wrong!", and I won't be able to fix it, as everything was welded/bonded into place, and access isn't possible.

Or worse, "Doh!! I should have added provision for a left-handed, reverse-Whitworth, modified left-hand, metric titanium 12V DC Twinkie dispenser!!", and it will be too late.

. . .


Thank God, I'm now no longer alone in Locost-World :mrgreen:

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


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 Post subject: Re: Long-term +2 build
PostPosted: January 20, 2017, 11:12 pm 
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zetec7 wrote:
Sure! Well, I haven't actually designed the hard bits yet, but here's the wiring diagram for it! The flux capacitor has been the hardest part to source, despite poring through several wrecking yards, and the local auto parts guy looked at me like I had two heads when I asked if they had any in stock...

Attachment:
circuit_diagram.png


I was inspired by Rockwell's latest turbo encabulator design, after viewing this video. I just had to find a way to incorporate one into my build, and it seemed perfect as a controller for the Twinkie dispenser!

Here's a transcript of the video:

"Here at Rockwell Automation’s world headquarters, research has been proceeding to develop a line of automation products that establishes new standards for quality, technological leadership, and operating excellence. With customer success as our primary focus, work has been proceeding on the crudely conceived idea of an instrument that would not only provide inverse reactive current, for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. Such an instrument comprised of Dodge gears and bearings, Reliance Electric motors, Allen-Bradley controls, and all monitored by Rockwell Software is Rockwell Automation’s "Retro Encabulator".

Now, basically the only new principle involved is that instead of power being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it’s produced by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive diractance. The original machine had a base plate of prefabulated amulite, surmounted by a malleable logarithmic casing in such a way that the two spurving bearings were in a direct line with the panametric fan.

The lineup consisted simply of six hydrocoptic marzelvanes, so fitted to the ambifacient lunar waneshaft that sidefumbling was effectively prevented. The main winding was of the normal lotus o-deltoid type placed in panendermic semiboloid slots of the stator, every seventh conductor being connected by a non-reversible tremie pipe to the differential girdlespring on the ‘up’ end of the grammeters. Moreover, whenever fluorescence score motion is required, it may also be employed in conjunction with a drawn reciprocation dingle arm to reduce sinusoidal depleneration.

The Retro Encabulator has now reached a high level of development, and it’s being successfully used in the operation of milford trenions. It’s available soon; wherever Rockwell Automation products are sold."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w

I'm an instrument mechanic, and when people ask what I do for a living I show them that video. I can't keep a straight face for long though.
Kristian

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