Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Brake adapter plate

One of the last items on the List from the Certifier was to have a adapter plate between the new brake booster and the older master cylinder.

I didn't have any means of milling a plate form steel or nylon so I decided to make my own by using epoxy putty. Its a two part putty that you kneed together and it sets like rock and can be filed, sanded, drilled and painted. Since the plate is not for strength, but for mounting support and just under compression it should be ideal.


 
The issue is that it sticks like sh@t to anything so I had to make sure that the contact surfaces were protected from the epoxy for fear of it sticking the whole assembely together.

 
 
The gap that the adapter has to fill, as you an see the biggest challenge is that its angled.

 
Preping the master cylinder so the epoxy wont stick to it.

 
I made a plate out of the foam board to use for the initial template, this allowed for easy access to to form the plate at the right angle. I didn't have time to take a photo of that process as the epoxy hardens quickly.

Basically I kneed up the putty and with the use of the foam template form up the plate at the right angle and made sure it covered the full area of the master cylinder mounting flange. Once it was shaped and the epoxy started to go off I put the master cylinder and booster together to make sure of the fit.

 

 
I separated it to make sure no epoxy was bonded to the different parts. Then I bolted it together to apply pressure before it fully cured to get a perfect fit. I will tidy up the excess that was squashed out.

 

 
The plate 90% cured, Left over night ready for cleanup filling, removing the monofoil and painting.

 
Job done, rough and ready but will work.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Rear guard mounts & transmission tunnel

The final stage of the rear gauards is the inter mount holes. To make this acurate the guards had to be full assembled. I got the required bolts and buttoned up both guards.


 
The hole locations were marked out and then drilled out to 16mm, in three stages, 5mm,10mm,16mm. They were made this big so I can weld in anti-crush tubes as these will be tighted very tight. And since they go through the floor to the chassis also act as extra body to chassis mounts.

Crush tube ready to be welded in.

 
All the welding done and cleaned up. This pretty much completes the fab work on the rear guards. They took along time to get sorted. But are now looking pretty darn good. There will be extra work done once I finalise the paint and detail work for the RattyT.

But the objective to have easy on/off light guards was achieved.

 
I now had to finish off the interor holes. The wood floor was drilled ,but not the chassis below.

 
Final test fit with the mounts all drilled and complete.

 

Next big job was to start the transmission tunnel. I was planning to do this with wood, But after a bit of play I was going to be to bulky and I wanted to have it as streamlined as possible. So I decided that I would have to fibreglass it. Since I havn't done fibreglass before ... another first.

After some reading and basic knowledge from talking to other people who have done it I decided to fibreglass over cardboard.

I mocked up the tunnel in simple box cardboard as it was easy to work with and I planned to transfer to foam cored cardboard once I got the shape right.

 
Rough cardboard template transfered to the foam card.

The card is 5mm high density foam with card either side. I used it alot when doing my design course. Its easy to work with, you can use hotglue gun to join. It allows you to mock things up very quickly and it strong.

 

First part of the tunnel mocked up.

 
Complete cardboard work all glued in-place.

 

Body now off the frame ready for epoxy fiberglass, now on the hunt for a cheap fibreglass supplier.
The plan is to glass over the top, and also around the ply firewall, for additional strength.  Then to trim and then do the underside of the tunnel in glass and the complete underfloor in resign to make it water proof.


 

 
The once clean chassis... now needs a cleanup and repaint ....

 

Seat continued & rear guards

Continued work on the seat, I bolted everything on and checked the clearances again. All good this time.


Next was to look for foam for the seat, Luckily a shop called ParaRubber had everything I needed. The foam is upultory grade 100m. I didnt have the excat size so just got rough the right size. The smaller piece is 75mm and is for the back.


The final job on the seat frame was to drill out the front mount holes.



Now that the seat frame was complete I could work on the final mount points for the rear guards. One issue I ran into was that since the test fitting and mucking around I forgot to check the clearances of the diagonal rails I put in the seat frame. When the guard mounts are in place they hit those rails. So I had to cut notches into the rails, not biggy but another job ....
 

Put the guards together and buttoned them up, as I now need to do the internal mount points. The hole through the floor had already been done when mocking up the guards.

 
Shot of the interior with all the part in-place.

 

Later in the evening it was time to tackle the seat. I was just going to use my mexican rug, but it was just a fraction to small and I was worried that if I did just have that and it got wet... likely living in Christchurch that I would be a real pain to get dry. So I got some plan old black vinyl to cover the foam first and then Ill make the mexian rug into a throw over the top. So if it does get wet its easy to take off and dry and the foam will stay dry.

I marked out the foam and them took it back to ParaRubber to get cut, far easier them me trying to cut it without the right tools.

 

Test fitting of the vinyl and trying to figure out how best to do it without sewing.

 
No turning back now, all cut ready for gluing and stretching.

 
Front edge done first.

 
Tabs cut out ot make the corners easier

 

All done glued and stretched, corners done best i could, Its only to keep the foam dry.

 
Test fit, its sure is comfy, if alittle to high, but I'm sure my fat arse will compact it over time.

 

Slow motion racing


Racing In Slow Motion IV from Mattzel89 on Vimeo.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Seat continued

A fine day, so with D2 (Daughter Number2) having an assigned nap ... time to get some work done. Next step is to make the seat base, Now on my trusty trailer wood working table I marked out on 18mm marine plywood the base, using the skill saw the base was cut out in quick fashion.
 


Sitting in its new home. 
.

Next was to make the seat front. After some mucking around and jigsawing a 8mm plywood the front was made, had to have cut outs for the gear selector and hand brake cables. 





The wood working area is a little messy now.


Almost as messy as the actual garage.
 


The finished seat parts, Sub-frame, base and front plate.
 
 
 
 


Next job is to mount the base to the frame, not sure what they are called but got "wood claws"


Bolts and "wood claws"


This view shows the front over hang of the base over the sub-frame.


Mounting holes drilled and the "claws" hammered in.


All bolted up and a test fit .......... Shit!! the front center mount it hitting the gear selector.


Revision 2, front mount moved back 50mm.... fixed... A job is worth doing twice.


After some consideration I was a little worried that the hand brake may not be ridge enough, So I added some angle between the cable mount and hand brake.... extra strong now. 


All welded up ready for clear up.


A good days work completed.