Jimmymac & Alistair's Monocoque Cars

[JimmyMac]

I know that.
Aerospace Cad 2 with the yellow chromate finish is indeed similar in appearance to passivated zinc but it has a much longer service life than Cad 1 and zinc comes nowhere near close.
This finishing company did this example for me after discussing an Alochrom 1200 order for some alloy castings that I am doing.
I also have a lot of original GKN bolts for these cars and they might help me with these if I can get them stripped clean first.

There is another supplier close by who did a plasma Titanium nitriding order for me some years ago and they also offer cadmium finishing.
Expensive game and 'oneseys' would be out of the question with both factories.

 

[JimmyMac]

There has been lot of chat on various threads about these Hartwell latches recently.
Here is the set that I am using made from original parts.

The brackets being machined from billet are not to original material spec. however as these should be investment castings. The pattern work for these is only my list.

 

[JimmyMac]

I picked up a few gear shift castings today from the foundry.
These new patterns were done in traditional sand and heat treated.
I am very happy with the final result.

 

[Randy V]

I need to chime in here just to say —
Your attention to detail is second to no one James... Kudos!
I love sending people to this build log...

 

[JimmyMac]

Waiting for the glass man to turn up today to glue in the heated screen on Alistair's car.

This is the final job before the FIA inspection.

 

[Dave Bilyk]

OMG near the finishing line! Great job James

 

[JimmyMac]

OMG near the finishing line! Great job James

Thank you Dave
Alistair is the main man on this project now so Kudos must go to him.

 

[Dave Bilyk]

Quite right James, I should have remembered Alistair. I can't express enough how much interest and joy comes from seeing the high level of engineering and commitment to the art shown in your posts, so thanks to both your good self and Alistair for providing that. Great job Alistair

 

[Markus]

re: Jimmymac & Alistair's Cars

I've been playing in my sand pit again this weekend.
Some more pedal boxes and R/H gear shift brackets, and very contented with the results. Heat treated L169 alloy.

Hello James,

When I saw your recent post about gear shift brackets I thought I had a Déjà-vu.....

But it was not, just found an older Post!?

Jimmymac & Alistair's Monocoque Cars

re: Jimmymac & Alistair's Cars Hi Jimmy, Ray and Steve its nice to see this heading in the right direction and I'm pleased to see the quality and accuracy coming to fruition. best regards to all concerned Chris Melia.

www.gt40s.com

Regards
Markus

 

[Mark Boyers]

exceptional job james and alistair ,thankyou for taking the time to share with us all it is very much appreciated

 

[JimmyMac]

Hello James,

When I saw your recent post about gear shift brackets I thought I had a Déjà-vu.....

But it was not, just found an older Post!?

Jimmymac & Alistair's Monocoque Cars

re: Jimmymac & Alistair's Cars Hi Jimmy, Ray and Steve its nice to see this heading in the right direction and I'm pleased to see the quality and accuracy coming to fruition. best regards to all concerned Chris Melia.

www.gt40s.com

Regards
Markus

Hello Markus

Yes it was also a bit like deja-vu for me.

The story is that I had a few of the older ones left but I NEVER liked them.

The old batch was patterned to the original drawings and they had the wall thickness at only 0.180" or 4.7 mm thick which I think looked too skinny, especially after machining the back of the angle to fit the top plate bridge and the front scallop for the door post buttress on the sponson. (the reason for the breakages at the front)

My humble opinion is that it appears that the initial design for this bracket was not really thought out properly and there were ongoing revisions to it after the chassis was finalised, instead of reviewing it and starting again to develop a stronger one piece unit which fits the as-built chassis.

I suppose the design was passed OK as the unit was built to last but a short life cycle but we are not doing that.
Incidentally the FAV draughtsmanship would never have passed muster in any of the engineering offices that I did my time in.
Typically, the bracket and lever drawings are poorly notated and have errors mixing up imperial fractions and decimal measurement.

Below is what I believe is the Willment / Brian Angliss bracket used on the later prototypes (P1086).
It has a thicker and much stronger one piece casting incorporating the top bridge for the shift plate and a joggle at the front of the angle for the buttress.

I might still make a few of these as I have plenty enough hardened gear levers left.

 

[Markus]

Hello James,

Thanks for your detailed feedback.

Your build(s) is(are) very fascinating. Not just the craftmanship but also the engineering portion of it. Your always go a few extra miles.....

Keep going, I look forward to see and hear her running.

Markus

 

[JimmyMac]

Number 1 off the ramp today.

 

[Randy V]

What an amazing journey you guys have been on!

 

[Stephen Ducker]

Simply stunning !

 

[Fabrice]

Number 1 off the ramp today.
What a beautiful car... congrats for the details effort and to share this .
View attachment 116007

View attachment 116009

 

[JimmyMac]

My dash for the second car painted and ready to go in.

 

[David]

Nice work on the dashboard.

 

[Ryan L]

That is looking very crisp James.

I don't know how you have made it look so sharp. I especially like the sharp edge to the line as it rolls over the top of the dash board. Most of the ones I have seen have this somewhat flattened.

No doubt something to do with the 90° corners opening up a few degrees every time a replacement mold is pulled of a molded copy part. So after a few generations that 90° corner ends up at 70° with very rounded transitions.

I have my dashboard cut up at present (its been like that for a while) and I am just not sure how to tackle getting it back together and moving in a direction that is like yours. If you have any photos that show the development and steps you used to get to the point above I would love to see them. I can also understand if you don't want to air all the little tricks as well so will just have to knuckle down and get moving.

Cheers,

Ryan

 

[JimmyMac]

Hello Ryan,
Thanks for your interest - that particular dash took me a long time to complete.

I spent a long time looking for a dash which I liked and fitted properly and they exist but lack some originality and are very expensive.
Anyway there is nothing fancy here, it is a Blue Peter job and involved cutting bits away and replacing them until none of the donor existed.