CAV - Ugly brackets under rear clip

[Pat Buckley]

What a pretty car - then when you look at it from the rear you see those nasty looking brackets that hinge the rear clip.

I have been looking at them for about 5 years now - they are still ugly.

Has anyone come up with an elegant way of covering these things?

Thanks!

 

[Ron R.]

Pat,

You're probably the only one to notice them.

Ron

 

[Pat]

I put LED backup lights on them.

 

[Ian Clark]

Hey Pat, love the spoiler extension, way cool. About the rear brackets, well it's been a challenge, since I'm no fonder of the stock CAV subframe/hinge bracket assembly either.

However making a manufacturable part, commercially viable, that will accomodate a wide tolerance range (which the stock bracket does) is very tricky.

Pictured below is the prototype quick lift subframe on our Gulf 1075 promo car. It's the direction I want to go on with a production part. A closing panel will be supplied with.

Apart from the visual, the other neat thing about this setup is that once the rear clip is aligned, future off/ons just require removing two bolts, no more wrestling with washers, nylocs and limited access for tools.

What do you think?

Cheers

Ian

 

[Pat Buckley]

Ron - probably, but I still don't like it.

Veek - good idea - do you have any pictures?

Ian - looks good. Any idea on pricing?

 

[Pat]

Hi Pat, here are some photos, with backups on and off. It's a little better that what I had. Of course if someone is about 18 inches tall they can actually see them. It was interesting when I entered our little town's car show the local police found them pretty amusing and suggested I not try a lot of parallel parking in the dark.

 

[Ian Clark]

Hi Pat,

Should have a number shortly. The first "production" part will go on our s/n1051 tribute.

It's easy to imagine but hard to accomplish, the new rear subframe has to maintain the Getrag mounts, gas strut mounts (for the rear clip), mate up to the existing chassis, with body mounts/hinges attaching to inner wheel houses that may or maynot be bonded in the same place car to car and so on...

Once the design work is done and proved the price still has to make sense. Not an easy go with no economy of scale. If I knew there were 50 presold, then the price would come down substantially.

Stay tuned, this is a part every CAV GT should have Oh yeah, no charge for the reverse light bracket!

Cheers

 

[Patrick Dolan]

Hi guys,
I built a complete rear sub frame in stainless for CAV mono #1. Let's just say it was a lot of work. All parts were CAD designed and laser cut in Stainless. It follows the original layout pretty well while designed for a CAV. I found some pretty big issues with tolerances between the body and chassis. It came out very nice and allows the rear clip to be opened and lifted off easily. Final touch was the fill-in panel between the supports. I had thought about making the sub frame available but my final opinion was that each car would need custom fitting. Here is the only picture I could find on this computer taken while car was being repainted. I will try to find better pictures.

 

[Pat Buckley]

Thanks, Pat!

 

[Ian Clark]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for reinforcing the magnitude of the task. Have you lifted the back of the car off the ground from your subframe? Nice looking part btw.

One has to get pretty crafty to make a rear subframe fit all CAVs in a simple to install package. I know we have it covered but as you say "a lot of work".

The CAV GTs are such great cars they deserve an original looking and functional rear subframe. Also I'd be interested in comparing notes on your CAD files. Please drop me an email or call for a chat, thanks.

We have a complete representative chassis in CAD based on dimensional data from seven CAV GTs, covering pre and post 100 cars. As parts availability for pre 100 cars becomes more of an issue due to collision damage, track days or whatever, our goal is to be able to supply any part required to repair or restore a CAV GT.

So the CAD data has really helped with consistancy and fit of the parts, once variables were factored in. The more dimensional info about the cars out there we can get our hands on the better.

Cheers

 

[Patrick Dolan]

Hi Ian,
I did not get a chance to dig up better photos last night. I scoured the web finding as many pictures of original cars as I could before designing my system. Car can be easily jacked up from the jacking pads. I have yet to build the quick lift jack. I have all my cad files and my place of employment has two nice laser cutters in the shop. We deal almost entirely in stainless, so it's a good enviroment to work in if you own a CAV. While undertaking this project I also leveled out the engine and designed and built a new cross support to carry the ZF box. Cold air boxes are another area I have tackled and thought you had one of them on a customers car a year or two ago. Same issue there, though, as each car requires a custom fit to get the box correct. I did them for both Getreg and ZF cars. Still, too many variables and a limited market so I moved on. Still have the car. CAV mono chassis #1 with the carbon fiber body is safely tucked away in my shop.

 

[Pat]

Patrick, I'd be interested in seeing your cold air boxes. Do you have any photos?

 

[Ian K]

Hi Ian,
I did not get a chance to dig up better photos last night. I scoured the web finding as many pictures of original cars as I could before designing my system. Car can be easily jacked up from the jacking pads. I have yet to build the quick lift jack. I have all my cad files and my place of employment has two nice laser cutters in the shop. We deal almost entirely in stainless, so it's a good enviroment to work in if you own a CAV. While undertaking this project I also leveled out the engine and designed and built a new cross support to carry the ZF box. Cold air boxes are another area I have tackled and thought you had one of them on a customers car a year or two ago. Same issue there, though, as each car requires a custom fit to get the box correct. I did them for both Getreg and ZF cars. Still, too many variables and a limited market so I moved on. Still have the car. CAV mono chassis #1 with the carbon fiber body is safely tucked away in my shop.

Took a few minutes for all this to click, but "Hi Pat".

It's been a long time since I saw you at Howard's ...

Ian

 

[Patrick Dolan]

Hi Ian. It seems Howard always has his party on opening weekend for deer season. Missed it the last two times because of that. My CAV has changed a lot since last time I was there. Biggest change was finding a very nice condition ZF box. Did the whole differental flip, found a CAV ZF bell housing and got it all installed. That was a couple years ago now. Heading down to Monterey this weekend to check out all the cars! Vintage race weekend, you know!

 

[BOB JONES]

Hi Pat,
I agree with you,the rear end does look a little untidy. The attached photographs show what I did for my car.
Hope they help.

Regards
Bob

 

[Pat Buckley]

Nice job - thanks!