Kiwi scratchbuilt

[Russ Noble]

Jack, yes and no!!

There was a very talented guy here in Christchurch, Gus Burke, who was exceptional at fabricating aluminium bodywork. He made a polished aluminium copy, from photos of a McLaren, for a guy who was running a 1500 pushrod.

Molds were taken off this and I wound up with a body out of them. However that alloy body was on a car that was only running 6'' and 8'' rims and was only 5 ft wide. My 1600 Twin Cam had 10'' and 14" and was 6 ft wide. So I cut the fibreglass body down the middle of the guards and put a 6" insert in each side. I then ran off my own molds and laid up a lightweight body out of them. QED!

 

[Leon]

Hey!! those were the days. That was a time when you could really get great sports car racing with the old SCANZ class. I remember a car called a "Rubarb" now my memory is pretty dodgy but I think it was the Odlins Timber sponsered car and was running a turbo Lotus Twin Cam 1500 and also there was a car that I think was run at one point by Dennis Marwood that was powered by a 2litre slant Vauxhall SOHC, it had a very nice body on it that rose over the roll bar and ran out into the rear spoiler unfortunaly I don't have any pictures only the mental ones that never fade.
The work is moving at a good pace now and it won't be long and we will be getting action photos on the build log. If you have more of that old sports car stuff feel free to post it or just send it to me so I can get some more Ideas. Just had a long email chat with Jac Mac about Transaxles so hope he can give me some good direction.
Keep it coming mate. Leonmac

 

[Leon]

PS: I see you even painted your sports car "Orange" at one point!! Geezz you'd get shot for less now, Ask Russell Keach.

 

[Russ Noble]

Leon,

Have started a new thread. http://www.gt40s.com/forum/race-track/29576-nz-built-sports-racing-cars-scanz-etc.html#post273198

 

[Russ Noble]

Whilst I have been finishing off the electrics, Lim has been quietly working away machining the castings for the door handles and fuel caps and mounting up the door handles. There is a minor issue with microporosity which doesn't show up until the item is polished. Lim is working with the casting guy to try and get perfect castings. Lim is a perfectionist and is treating this casting process as a learning experience. He uses his 80x magnifier to check the quality. Me? I think they look good the way they are!

So here is the fourth attempt at getting decent castings, still with some microporosity. Lim is struggling trying to get the quality he wants from the foundry that he is out sourcing it to. He has his own theories as to how they could do it better and is frustrated that the casting process is outside his control and taking so long. I can see the next step for Lim will be to build his own foundry!

Apart from that, the work in machining the fuel cap components is quite intensive. Particularly the relatively insignificant spring loaded locking latch, this involves the most work of all. It's not until you start building these things that you can see why they cost what they do.....However Lim's work, as always, is absolutely top quality and the latch operation has a very nice feel and crisp click as it snaps shut. Top shelf!

 

[Jac Mac]

I know a bloke who has a furnace & large crucible, heaps of fine sand & clay on site...............

 

[victor]

Hi Russ, just finished reading all this build log and have to tell you, it looks great, have to congratulate you and Lim for this fine work.
I am starting to "research" about building my own car, and have desided that maybe I´ll build the chassis from scratch and buy the body from some kit builder, so, your build log should become essentiall to my built.
One question, if you please, what are you using to make the panels, I saw it is some sort of alloy, but would like to know what. I´be seen that most people use aluminum sheets but I am a little bit "preocupied" with the interaction between the aluminum panels and the steal chassis. Remember all this is part of my research, lol.

Thanks and keep it up,
Víctor

 

[Lim]

I know a bloke who has a furnace & large crucible, heaps of fine sand & clay on site...............

Hi Jac
My car just arrived last week. Russ and myself have a good look and noticed that the car have no spark lead,:shocked: could not figure WHY? Otherwise on the way to visit you and the bloke who has a foundry.
LIM

 

[Jac Mac]

Hi Jac
My car just arrived last week. Russ and myself have a good look and noticed that the car have no spark lead,:shocked: could not figure WHY? Otherwise on the way to visit you and the bloke who has a foundry.
LIM

Just watch out for narrow bridges!! & bring large sieve for grading sand plus diesel for furnace. . Have 20 ton shovel so no problems there, just dont park your Merc within shovel reach.

Leave it for another month & you can pour my castings as well ! Doubt Russ will get his car going this year anyway.. its taken him all year to get what was going to be finished in January done....

 

[Russ Noble]

Jac Mac, It's not that the bridges are excessively narrow, the're just not built to accomodate rotating cars!

Because I'm a nice guy, I'll refrain from making any derogatory/retaliatory comments about time frames for your project/s :lipsrsealed: :heart:

 

[Russ Noble]

One question, if you please, what are you using to make the panels, I saw it is some sort of alloy, but would like to know what. I´be seen that most people use aluminum sheets but I am a little bit "preocupied" with the interaction between the aluminum panels and the steal chassis. Remember all this is part of my research, lol.

Thanks and keep it up,
Víctor

Victor,

Thanks for your comments, sorry to take a while to answer, I had to hunt up the old invoices to refresh my memory on the grade alloy. 5055, 1.2 thick. Except for the bottom panel 1.6.

Galvanic corrosion is something which it pays to be aware of. Many people know of the effect between steel and aluminium, but less realize there is an equal problem between aluminium and stainless!

All my panels are bonded with a liberal layer of Plexus MA425 this should be sufficient to keep the two materials apart and alleviate the problem.

Good luck with your research.

 

[victor]

Thank you Russ, for your kind answers. I now know what to do with all the paneling, thanks again. Just one thing though, you are talking mm right?

Victor

 

[Jack]

Forgive me for butting in on this. Yes shown in mm. I do highly recommend the
Plexus adhesive MA425, use it frequently. Expensive but worth it.

 

[Iain]

Any one know if Plexus is any good at putting egos back together ?

Iain

 

[Jack]

Only if the substrate remains intact...

 

[Russ Noble]

Any one know if Plexus is any good at putting egos back together ?

Iain

What's up Iain? Someone blown you into the weeds?!

Anyway work continues on the Kiwi 40. I'm using nutserts in places to secure removable panels. Only problem is they sit proud of the surface so the panel wont sit flush. One could always make a gasket thicker than, and clearanced for, the nutsert shoulder but I felt a tidier solution was to countersink the panel slightly so the top of the nutsert was flush with the panel. This involved making up a former to do the job. Another handy little tool in our arsenal.

The side panels on the scuttle were two that needed to be removable in order to run wiring, connect fuel filler hoses, and get at the nuts retaining the front of the spider.

 

[Scott Calabro]

Nice Tooling Russ!

That beats installing nutplates to get a flush non-structural installation for sure.

Cheers,
S

 

[Iain]

Nice job on the former, is it under a patent yet ?

"What's up Iain? Someone blown you into the weeds?!" No one else involved I did it all by myself !

 

[Ross Nicol]

Come on Iain spill the beans. Russ the panel under the sloping one with LHS on it looks a bit wonky, is that the finished article? Will you be ready for SFOS 2010? I'd like to be there for the first flight.
Ross:whip:

 

[Russ Noble]

Wonky!!!??? Shonky?! Whatever! That panel has been crafted with loving care and provides for the conflicting clearance requirements between the wheel in front and the fuel filler behind!! Hence the sexy 'S' bend at the lower panel edge. The RHS (no fuel filler) just has a nice, gentle, even curve.

Me thinks Iain has commited an "unforced error" which has caused sufficient damage to keep him away from the track for a while.... A harmless spin whilst exploring the limits of his new car is not going to cause an 'ego crash'. A 'car crash' might though...... Better give us the facts Iain, you know how idle speculation can run rife..... Better still, post a link to the in car video.