Lotus Update
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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.
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 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.
�Long live vintage motorcycles that are too tough to die...�
- Dustin Kott-
- Dustin Kott-
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!
The end is in sight -- of this stage only, of course!
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 ;-)
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 ;-)
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...
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...
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.
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.