B+ Progress report, More work required

[Andy (doc3781)]

Well with Green doing his bit of a report on what he's been up to I should report on my last couple of weekends

Seans S1 V8 has seen the front suspension mounts modified to accept some Gaz coilovers and I dont care what the DOC say the guy at dampertech does not ask the right questions of know the correct lengths and setting for Duttons - They are decent shockers though. Anyway with the mountings modified the car is - now far too low !!! Just as it should be .

Pete B's S3 - Has had a fair bot of work carried out with radiator mounts to put a much bigger rad in the front - the engine mounts raised to lift the sump off the floor - some seat belt chassis points put in to fit four point harnesses - some extra chassis lugs put in to mount the rear bumper on.

My B Plus

The hydraulic handbrake has had a rebuild - and it now works quite well - I hope it goes through the MOT because although I have found most of the missing parts the auto adjusters are not in place on the actuating levers - and they will be near impossible to find.

The rear suspension is made up of stainless trailing arms and rose joint bushes and quite a few of the rose joints have seen better days leading to a few clunks from the back end that will need sorting - 8 joints at between £10-30 depending on spec can be quite an expensive job - think I will be replacing just the worn ones for the moment.

The shockers although working now have been given a fair bit of a work over to tidy up. however they look dreadful and are due to be replaced - another £400 of work along with welding of the mountings to convert fron the pin type mounting to the more usual bush type.

The odd things I have found are that one wing is mounted about 20mm higher than the other making things look a little unbalanced - you dont notice it right away but it makes you look at the front of car and think something is not quite right.

The engine is starting to get a clean up to remove the years of oil being blown all over it over the years due to a lack of an engine breather - engine now breathing into a catch tank.

An earth on the fuel tank led to the fuel gauge bursting - no not into flames - into life and pretty well indicating correctly that the tank was a 1/4 full.

I have also found a switch - fully wired and goes into the loom and does absolutely nothing that I can find - I can only assume that the car may have had a heater at some time in the past as its the only fuction I can think of it doing. - Will trace it eventually.

I have also given it a bit of a tune up and got the accellerator pump working getting rid of the flat spot when flooring it (evil grin) by Christ its bl00dy fast - I would venture to say quicker than the old S1 V8 which is very quick by any standards.

S4 - well all thats getting is scratched to bits as I work around it - Still when the S3 is down at Petes it will come out the garage and get moved about and finished off - not really that much work to do on it just need the space.

Cheers

Andrew

[Andy (doc3781)]

Work continues albeit very slowly on the cars - OK so its all but stopped and all thats been done over the last couple of months is.

S4 - Engine and box are in the body and bonnet are back on and its pushesd into the cold so the real car can spend winter tucked up in the garage . Some issues have arisen with the suspension - although writing the suspension spring calculator I had not run the S4 (not designed or built by me) pick up points through it - well they didnt look that bad - well serves me right for being lazy - after sticking the engine in the suspension bottomed - with 300lb springs quite well preloaded - no matter how much preload it has to be coil bound to lift the front the leverages are that far out - Anywell this focuses the mind so I went on a measuring spree - Looked at two S4 old style lower arms - both had different leverage ratio's !! bit of welding required to sort it out.

B+ - Taken a wing off to re-set the pair of them at the same height - also gives the opportunity to do a bit of measuring to design a decent system for holding cycle guards for Seans S1.

I have also taken the time to look at the rear axle which has a slight weep on a rear wheel bearing - new seals required and a job to do over Xmas.

On the done jobs front I have built a battery box so that the battery can be relocated in the boot giving a load of extra space in the engine bay so that the fuel filter and a few extra pieces can be re-homed. Have invested a few quid in some new switches to correct the electrics and tidy up the interior.

New hood is a bit tight and has also highlighted an issue with the sidescreens seemingly being too long - very strange and need to compare with the S1.

Shockers have started to be refurbed - a bout in the electrolytic bath does wonders - They will have to do until the funds turn up after xmas for the new shockers.

I splashed out for some bush kits based on the locosts to rebuild the rear trailing arms but they are not suitable so thats them shelved for the front end mods. Still leaves me with problem at the back and the likelyhood is that new rose joints will be the order of the day.

Sean is still managing to get me to do the odd bit of work on the old S1 - this time round its a brace on the roll bar to mount 4 point harnesses on - and if I do say the result is pretty good and boy do they hold you in.

Thats about it from me for the moment - loads to be getting on with and looking forward to summer really.

Cheers

Andrew

[Andy (doc3781)]

Cripes 2006 and where does it find the projects.

B+ is still in the garage - I lent on the top rail of the chassis a while back and tubing has gone in - including some additional support for the scuttle. Pictures on the website of all this will available at some time.

So what elase happended during 2006 - Not much - I am heavily involved in Parakart racing a class of landyacht and last year concentrated so much on racing that I missed out on fixing the cars and also marshalling and spectating at the local hillclimb venue - loton park - I also brought another motorbike - XS650 yam hich stole a few coffers from the funds.

I have been spending and working on the cars a little though - and re-working the odd bit - the steering was not great so I have done a bit of rerouting - the glass fibre front bulkhead has been modded i.e. removed and I am hoping to spend a few weekends soon getting to grips with it again.

I have recently bought a rear axle from a 105 series alfa - which are very nice and this has got me thinking of a B+ Alfa engined car there have been a few in the past and I am on the hunt for one. Yes Yes I know what aboiut completing one of the other projects first - but to be honest if I had another project sitting about the wife would then force me to complete and get rid of one of the others. And as the S4 has very little work to do on it - thats where the focus would be - and then I would be keen to get the B+ done to make room in the garage- good plan ---LOL


So what next - well Sean wants me to help him sort out some extra scuttle bracing and re route his steering column so that the wheels is better positioned - it was a it angled to the left previously.


Ah well another year

[Andy (doc3781)]

Holy Cr4p how time flies - this thread started in 2004 !!! and the last update 18 months ago !!!

I few jobs have got in the way since then. and still a few more to go.

The S4 has gone to its new owner in Northumberland and the proceeds turned into a Ifor Williams 505R horse trailer - oh well brownie points with the wife so I can carry on with my hobby.

My Westie is finished and on the road and they are nice to drive thats for sure which is taking up times with track days and runs etc. I also got hold of another Westie for another mate and thats taken a few weekend work and then there is always the work on Seans S1.

Oh and then theres always the odd bike ride to get in the way as well.

Anyhow.

The B+ has had the central plastic tub cut out of it and I am starting to chop the chassis rails that serve no real purpose but to add weight out of it. - This will allow me to lower the floor by almost 2" - when thats done a transmission tunnel will be built into it and then a full panel in aluminium to finish it off.

Sean will be tasked with getting a Volvo 240 rad sorted out for it to deal with the cooling - very light weight.

Then its the work on the suspension that we carried out on Seans a short while back.

Thats the plan anyway.

I will start posting some pictures as soon as I can.

Cheers

Andrew

[Andy (doc3781)]

Pictures as promised.

Couple of weekends work and £15 of steel 25x25x1.5 and 20x20x1.5

You can also make out the tubular struts from the just below the roll bar - there are also tubes going back as well. You can also make out the battery tray.

Much happier now with the tunnel as you would never drive a Dutton if the flimsy plastic that protects you from the rotating components was see through. There will be mountings for the handbrake fitted and a diagonal brace along the side.

The top of the tunnel will be fitted with rivnuts so that access to the gearbox and prop can be facilitated.

The width of the axle nose is a bit of a problem as its pretty wide and restricts the width of the seating area, coupled with the trailing arms that angle in toward the seating and the offset to the right nature of the axle it results in the driver seat area being 1" narrower than the passenger side. This is carried on to the front driver footwell where the clutch and starter motor encroach into the pedal space.

I have moved the engine over toward the left by some 2" off of centre to give more space for the pedals and the steering column.

[Andy (doc3781)]

Next stages to the rebuild are the chassis rails that will be welded in to form the bracing for the Panhard rod. This would have been the same as I fitted to Seans S1 a while back but in the case of the B+ the shorter boot area means that the tank sits closer to the axle and covers one of the rails that the diagonal would locate on.

Coming along.....

Andrew

[qplate]

Thats looking good Andy, Keep it going

[Andy (doc3781)]

Trouble is with development as you go along is that things that you think will work, don't later.

This happened yesterday when looking at the roll bar - for competition I have to have back stays and a diagonal. Diagonal is a simple enough job but the back stays need to be removable so that I can remove the rear body work and they have to fit inside the hood as i want to keep the weather gear usable.

I will also add a removable front facing petty strut that will pick up onto the main chassis rail in the passenger foot well.

The design I came up with fouls the newly installed battery box and if moved over the few cms required it then fouls the fuel tank mounts so now the battery box is just left of centre in the boot.

I finished off the transmission tunnel steel work yesterday so I am happy enough with that and I have now moved on to the pick-up for the Panhard rod - I have looked at what I can do around the tank and there is just enough room to pick up onto the main chassis rails but the diagonal to counter the transverse movement of the axle will be a bit fiddly and probably result in the axle having to be removed from the chassis for servicing by removing a half shaft and all the brake back plate etc.

I have also decided to have the Panhard chassis location adjustable so the braket will have a number of hole points in it.

Many of the 40mm box sections in the engine bay will be removed and replaced with smaller tubes and its likley the entire front of the chassis will be cut off and remade with tubular wishbones and smaller sectional tubing. Like wise the engine mounts will be remade and the general area of the engine bay given some additional triangulation.

Progressing quite well at the moment and the only reason I am going through this exercise is that the car was very cheap to buy in the first place and is complete so its only time and a some cheap bits of steel and a sheet of alloy that it will really be costing me.

Anyone got an old escort handbrake kicking about they don't want?

Andrew

[Andy (doc3781)]

A quick post as its approaching the 10am Sunday start time for work to commence again on the car.

The engine is out and the chassis is stripped so that it can be rolled so that I can complete all the welds. I will post a few pictures up later of the progress - probably during the GP as I should have time to spare

Whilst there is extra room in the garage I may even drag the B-Type Chassis out of the hedge and do some chassis work - then again better to just concentrate on the one project.

Photo's soon

Andrew

[mikedao]

hi andy pics look good
gets me thinking i was thinking along the same line
slept on what you sead yesterday and thinking of useing somthing the same
try to use trans tunnal like a backbone to link rear end to the front to take the strain of the centre i think the diff is trying to rip the ****pit fram apart
it did not help having the nose of the diff solid mounted
the chassis is looking good are you going to tie it to the top of the chassis at the gearbox end or leave it floating if you tied it in would give room for extra switches just a thaught keep up the good work
i will send you invoice for new chassis he he dreamer
take care mikedao

[Andy (doc3781)]

I spent the weekend finishing off the welding but did not get around to taking any pictures - its on my list - The chassis mods have been changed slightly from what I started in the pictures and now completed the transmission tunnel has braces up to the top of the chassis to tie it all together.

I got involved with a few fixes required on the Westfield yesterday but I will drag the chassis out of the garage and get some pictures tonight.

Its been a good project to do and has given me plenty of things to think about for the B type build.

The B+ chassis is very stiff now - So 250+ Brake 4.0L V8 will be no problem.

I will also post a picture of my live axle B type frame in the B section later



Cheers

Andrew

[Andy (doc3781)]

Well here we are the fruits of the weekends welding the changes should be obvious.

























Ok so maybe some are not obvious

The chassis rails that are positioned over the axles have been slimmed down to give extra clearance and allow the trailing links at the correct angle for good geometry.

The chassis rail in the drivers foot well has been slimmed to give more foot room.

The engine mounts are now just flat platforms

More to be done.

Cheers

Andrew

[Andy (doc3781)]

Things are progressing and as I have a week off I hope to make a little more progress in amongst doing a bit of essential DIY.

Its amazing what I find on this car - there has been some "strengthening" of the chassis at some point in the past and this has been so poorly Its very lucky that its not been essential.

The welding in of these additional strengthening members is so poor that although it looks welded when you give the area a good wire brushing it transpires that the weld only took to one part of the join and that there is no weld actually joining the two peices together!!

On the front cross member that runs just infront of the engine I found a crack - I was suprised as the area looked like it had been well reinforced after being modified by cutting an angle on it to give it a right angle triangle section so that the oil filter of the V8 would miss it - this had also been done on the S1. So i took the rotary wire brush to the area to find that the weld had missed the join of the reinforcing and that only 2 of the 4 box section side were connected to the rest of the chassis.

Wire brush to the rest of the mods and additional bracing has shown this as being the rule rather than the exception

One of the braces on the front suspension just knocked out the welding was so poor and I figured whilst I was in the mood to remove things why stop with just that amatuer effort and I took out the original Dutton handiwork as well.

At the moment I am considering whether or not to build new tubular wishbones to replace the Triumph ones and relocate the suspension pick-up points to suit - may as well

Andrew

[Andy (doc3781)]

Here we go again.



Decided that if I am going to mod it the may as well keep on going - this week we have lost that strange looking "T" bar arrangement that the suspension mounts off and the large 40mm box sections it all comprised of - these have been replaced with 25mm and 20mm box

I have also reinforced the streering rack because like many other things the execution was pretty poor and it flexed badly.



And from the back - just one more upright to complete and then its time to build the wishbones and then weld on the brackets. Round wishbones will look a bit nicer under the cylce wings anyway.

Cheers

Andrew

[Andy (doc3781)]

With the Westie and the bike now locked up in a barn for the winter the only things I have to play with now are the B's and things have been progressing quite well on the + and I have sold the Ford GT engine and box out of the earlier B Type so thats moving along in the right direction as well.

The chassis is nearly done on the + and I am just waiting for the suspension brackets to arrive before I decide whether or not to increase the width of the front track when I make the new wishbones.

The chassis is quite a bit heavier with all the additional strengthening and triangulation although overall I would be surprised if it came up much more than 20kg over original and I am very happy with its ability to safely handle considerably more power than the Rover in any state of tune can throw at it.

More pictures to follow.

Andrew