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Feels good to have that cut out!

This is the first tiny step back the other direction towards a whole car. This is also my first attempt at sheet metal body work. I have a friend that is very good at it that let me borrow his shrinker stretcher and gave me pointers. I used a buck to create the profile and hammered the flange over then did a little shrinking along the very front flange. Overall I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Made a piece for the inner rocker (so many holes!) and started welding everything back together. Please ignore the crater in the weld.

Nice work.

I wonder if you need the high number of plug welds that the original car had if you are making a separate frame?

_________________
Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

Or my Wankel powered Locost log : over HERE

And don't forget my Cushman Truckster resto Locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17766

Cut some more sheet metal out of the trunk area. Also built a frame table to finally start building a car. The rectangle tubing is 2x4 so with a 4" ride height the bottom of the tube would be ground level which will come in handy later.

Perhaps not. I will incorporate the rocker into the frame though. When it's done I guess it will be more of a unibody rather than a body on frame. The frame I'm building wouldn't stand on it's own and the body wouldn't either. But together they should be structurally sound.

Differentials live and die based upon torque, not horsepower, so I guess I don't understand way you aren't going with a Miata rear end assembly. It probably weighs about half as much.

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Excellent point. I did look into this. But I didn't use the Miata differential for a couple reasons. The Miata differential weighs 60 some odd pounds (can't remember exactly). What I ended up with is an all aluminum 8.8 from a Mark VIII. It weighs 62 lbs (weighed it myself) and it's a limited slip with a 3.27 ratio and there is a 3.07 ratio available too if I need it. One drawback is there will be more parasitic losses from the massive ring and pinion gear. The Miata ratios didn't work well at all with the bike transmission. It'd be screaming on the interstate.

I also stumbled upon a killer deal. I got the 8.8 IRS, a straight 7.5" rear end, and a straight 8.8 rear end for $40. The guy just wanted them gone. I sold the straight 7.5" for $50 and the straight 8.8" for $60, kept the 8.8" IRS and made $70! I'm not sure if the limited slip will work properly in such a light car. But we will find out. I'm sure there are other small light differentials that would do the job, but I didn't exhaustively search for them and got a smoking deal on the 8.8.

So here is my reverse gear. Or at least somewhere in there. There is a lot of length to lose off that output shaft and that fifth gear is going to be an output flange.

The idea here is to get a reverse gear, but to also extend the useful range of the close ratio bike transmission. I'm going to keep 3rd (under drive) and 4th (one to one), and remove everything else I can. I would like to shorten this up enough to fit behind the seats mated directly to the differential. I've seen the starter motor/sprocket reverse set ups and I've just never been a fan. Plus this will give me 6 reverse gears for some wicked J-turns.

It might be a terrible idea. I just don't know. But it seems like a good idea in Excel and in theory so we're going to find out.

Edit: This is a T5 transmission from a V6 Mustang.

How exciting.... ANOTHER BEC guy... welcome Newt!

This will be a fun build to watch.. I'm a fan of the Bugeye look, but whatever direction you take it, it will be small, light, and fun

You're not afraid of some rust, are you? I hate rust, but I guess virtually all of us do.. Gotta cut it out and move on..


Lots of pictures are key here, and you're off to a hell of a start.. cool concept- this one will scream


--ccrunner

_________________
Dean

1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

"ccrunner's 1960 MGA coupe Restomod" found on MGExp.com

Thanks!
It ended up having more rust than I thought. But I also ended up cutting more british steel out than I originally thought I would so it worked out. It's something I need to learn how to do anyway.

CCrunner didn't like his T5 and removed it later on; not sure why.

Why shorten the tail end of the t5 when there should be plenty of room between the pinion flange and the t5 for a driveshaft or even just a single joint and slip yoke? Trying to free up some seat space with a narrower tunnel?

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That is exactly right. Weight reduction is a nice benefit as well. I started setting seats and transmission in it and very quickly ran out of room. Also shorter transmission decreases the operating angle of the driveshaft. The space constraints ccrunner is dealing with in his Berkley is ridiculous!

I'm not going to dig back through his N600 build because it's so long but if I remember correctly he didn't have his ratios sorted well between the T5 and the differential and he also had a severe vibration. He could answer that better though.

Hey Newt..

The lessons learned from my T5 experiment were these: It will 'technically' work, and on some level it's worth the effort.. In my case the input shaft was slightly bent which gave me an intolerable vibration, but other than that, it was a sound design.. It was initially really nice to have an integrated reverse and .73 overdrive It did end up proving to be a bit of a redundancy however with all of those gears (6 bike gears + 5 T5 gears) from which to choose.. I found the VFR motor wants to be up past 5K at least to make any power, and the T5 gear spread was such that eventually I left the T5 alone, and did all of my shifting through the close-ratio VFR tranny (truth be told the VFR box was simply more fun to shift/drive.. using the T5 always felt slow/lazy).. It was at that point that I ditched the T5.. Pulling it removed my self-inflicted vibration issue, and it also removed 70lbs from the car (it was also at this point that I the car 100% needed a Guibo, so I was up for a redesign anyway) .. I came to rationalize that I didn't really 'need' reverse (you don't on a BEC, it's just nice to have)- and I never looked back..

I can't remember all of the details, but I think at that time I was still running a Miata 4.1(?) diff, and it was way, way off for highway use.. In the end, with the VFR / 7.5 diff / and 20" tires, I settled on a 2.73 ring and pinion.. It seems most BEC guys end up around 3.0/3.1 at the diff, depending on tire size and intended use for the car..

That T5 will work as you're planning, it's just a matter of what you want/expect from it..

--ccrunner

_________________
Dean

1972 Honda N600 Restomod "ccrunner's N600 VFR800 repower"

1963 Volvo P1800 Restomod
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=16309

1959 Berkeley SE492 Restomod...
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19397

"ccrunner's 1960 MGA coupe Restomod" found on MGExp.com

To start, I cut the flange off of the tail housing. I decked a flat piece of aluminum to keep it mostly flat and give me something to hold onto in the vice. I didn't take a picture of it but to make the aluminum cover piece I used CAD and CAD. I started with cardboard aided design to make a template and then I scanned that on the printer and emailed it to myself then imported it into AutoCAD and traced over it to make a DXF and then had it cut out on the waterjet. Turned out pretty good.

I baked the cast aluminum flange in the oven for a while to burn off any oils that might be in it and then cleaned it with alcohol really well. I preheated the flange and the cover plate to a couple hundred degrees and welded it together. It welded really nicely so I think I got it pretty clean. After that I put it back on the mill to deck it flat.