Lotus Update

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Fri Mar 01, 2013 5:47 pm

All caught up at work so I had a couple of days of just working on the Lotus chassis. New rear tube cross member is in. A bit of drama getting it bend properly. Ended up packing it full of sand, welding caps on either end and slowly heat bending it (lots of heat). Next I drilled it and welded in the mount tubes for the 5 speed tranny. Fabricated mounting plates (my welding is improving by leaps and bounds) and, Ta Da, the tranny is bolted up.

Woo Hoo !

pause

Uh oh...

My plan to fit Wildwood pedals won't work as there is no room for a clutch pedal & master cylinder beside the brake pedal :-( The stock clutch is by cable and the pedal is offset to clear. Scratched my head for quite a while until I came up with a plan to fit the clutch master on the other side and fabricate a cross-over linkage to make it all work: more welding and machining practice, yippee.

The donor cable shifter arrived so more welding and fabricating to come after the pedals are done.

I think, I am almost positive, (would you believe fairly sure?) that, after all the above, the chassis will be ready for blasting and painting. I have decided to paint it myself with a brush and POR 15. Cheap, cheerful and effective. The inside will be liberally filled with anti-rust treatment.

I really have to start wearing a mask when grinding and cutting. The crap I am pulling out of my nose is unspeakable.

Angelo · Post by **Angelo** » Fri Mar 01, 2013 11:00 pm

jbcollier wrote:All caught up at work so I had a couple of days of just working on the Lotus chassis. New rear tube cross member is in. A bit of drama getting it bend properly. Ended up packing it full of sand, welding caps on either end and slowly heat bending it (lots of heat). Next I drilled it and welded in the mount tubes for the 5 speed tranny. Fabricated mounting plates (my welding is improving by leaps and bounds) and, Ta Da, the tranny is bolted up.

Woo Hoo !

pause

Uh oh...

My plan to fit Wildwood pedals won't work as there is no room for a clutch pedal & master cylinder beside the brake pedal The stock clutch is by cable and the pedal is offset to clear. Scratched my head for quite a while until I came up with a plan to fit the clutch master on the other side and fabricate a cross-over linkage to make it all work: more welding and machining practice, yippee.

The donor cable shifter arrived so more welding and fabricating to come after the pedals are done.

I think, I am almost positive, (would you believe fairly sure?) that, after all the above, the chassis will be ready for blasting and painting. I have decided to paint it myself with a brush and POR 15. Cheap, cheerful and effective. The inside will be liberally filled with anti-rust treatment.

I really have to start wearing a mask when grinding and cutting. The crap I am pulling out of my nose is unspeakable.

I'm really good with a brush...let me know!

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Sat Mar 02, 2013 12:57 am

I'll be at work tomorrow at about 10. Probably stay till 2ish. Welcome to come and laugh!

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 5:18 pm

The pedal assembly is all ready for final machining and welding but I have to wait for an adjustable reamer from Thomas Skinner for the bronze bushings. Hopefully this week. Now I just have the cable shift linkage at the tranny and new cables to fab and sort.

The end is in sight -- of this stage only, of course!

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 6:47 pm

The reamer will be in tomorrow so I will have the pedal assembly done this week. Spent today overhauling the throttle pedal: welding up a broken frame and converting it to brass bushings as well. Now it's smooth as silk.

I also ordered the new gauges for the dash:

http://www.gaugeguys.com/Smiths/gt40.htm

Absolutely beautiful, at least I think so. I got the 200 mph speedo (yes, ridiculously high) but I plan to calibrate it so it's accurate when read as kilometres. So, at an indicated "200 mph", I will actually be doing a much more reasonable (and attainable) 200 kph (125 mph). I'm also switching the ammeter for an oil temp gauge. The nice thing about the Smiths GT-40 guages is that they have extra long capillary tubes for the temp gauges which makes it possible to use mechanical gauges rather than the stock electric ones. Most mechanical gauges have a capillary tube that is too short for a mid-engined vehicle.

The only draw back is that they are (cough) expensive. Donations cheerfully accepted and glowingly acknowledged ;-)

Angelo · Post by **Angelo** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:26 pm

Very Nicey nice!

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 5:45 pm

Pedal assembly is done and you can see photos here:

http://s250.beta.photobucket.com/user/j ... 20assembly

Now I have to separate the tranny from the engine, sort out the clutch fork so that the actuation arm is in a better position and then I can fabricate a mount for the clutch slave cylinder.

While the tranny is out, I'll figure out which gears are where and design the shift cable rear mech to suit.

I think I'm a little behind schedule but pleased none-the-less. I have set an artificial goal of driving with Janet to Holywood in 2015 for the TCM classic film festival. Still lots to do...

redbike · Post by **redbike** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:31 pm

2015? I have no idea of what is involved in a project of this type! I should have thought you'd be whiz zing down Groat late summer 2013.

Edit: why does spell check di vide whizz & zing?

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:45 pm

Well, with no demands on my time (work, etc) and a (large) pot of gold, no problem!

Angelo · Post by **Angelo** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:47 pm

jbcollier wrote:Well, with no demands on my time (work, etc) and a (large) pot of gold, no problem!

When he's not looking we'll break into Johnny's vault...

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:58 pm

The clutch fork is sorted and the the clutch slave mounted:

http://s250.photobucket.com/user/jbcoll ... c%20Clutch

Now the tranny end of the cable shifter and then the frame is off to the blasters.

coyoteran · Post by **coyoteran** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:19 pm

John, when the Zombie apocalypse comes, I want to be in your camp. You take care of the machines, I will take care of the shooting.

T

jbcollier · Post by **jbcollier** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:18 pm

That would be good because I'm a very poor shot. I once missed a rabbit at about 15 feet with the spread bore of shotgun. Even the rabbit was taken aback.

redbike · Post by **redbike** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:47 pm

Cut yourself some slack! You say 'spread bore' but that is all relative. Size of the shot 2 3/4 " cartridge or 3.5" what size was the shot? And most importantly, what was the choke on the barrel? Any number of reasons you could have missed besides the most likely....

Angelo · Post by **Angelo** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:39 pm

Regardless if we are building a team a like the mix so far, we just need a cook...