Last post of 2012!.......

It's update time......been a few weeks and 25 4mm drill bits later, I think I've made some progress.

Where to start....More drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting, drilling / riveting.....................you get the message, and I haven't started the floor panel yet..that's over 200 rivets on it's own.

That said, all is looking good, and even if I say so myself, I'm very pleased with the fit and finish of the panels so far....I spent a bit of time on each panel before powder coating smoothing off edges and rounding corners, and I'm glad I did because it does make a difference to the way the car feels.

As you can see, most of the pipe work in the tunnel has been done, this includes fuel send and return, rear brake, and the coolant pipes are almost ready to slot in. 

 The gearstick shaft has been shortened and fitted.

 Thanks to John and Rachel from the Westfield club (yes, the Westfield owners do still talk to me since I defected) for the donation of some old shocks which are ideal for the build. When ready, it will be a visit to Protec for the real deal

 The handbrake poses an interesting problem with the race style seats. My plan (to keep things simple) is to simply increase the diameter of the pulley wheel for the handbrake cable which effectively keeps the cable on the floor. Once again, thanks to my dad who knocked up a nice thin pulley, and couldn't resist throwing a bearing in it to make it super smooth.

 I think that will probably do for 2012, next step really is to finish the well panels and get the floor panel in. For this I've ordered a further 200 large head rivets..happy new year to everyone.

Oh so Orange :-)

Two posts in one day!.

The powdercoaters called me to say the chassis was finished.......Couldn't wait to see it so I popped in on my way home from work to pick it up....and I wasn't disappointed.

The colour came out exactly as I wanted. I was after the Orange from the Mclaren F1 GT car of the 90's, and to my eyes, this is what I got.

Naturally I had to slot the seat in (what is it about orange and Carbon that look so good), and offer up a few panels to see how the colours are looking together.

I was particularly pleased with the driver footwell panel that for some reason looked great with the grip pattern.

The side pod panel was to hand, so again, couldn't resist offering it up to see the colour contrast.

Of interest (if you are building a J15), the scuttle panels are not really defined in the instructions, so I've oped for a two piece panel and It will be rivnutted (is that a word?) in rather than riveted. The reason for this is simply because I'm guessing it will be useful to have the option of removing the panel if you need to get to other parts of the car. The split in the panel is because the steering column goes over the top of it so, would be impossible to remove with out it.

Finally (for today), here is a pic of the fuel pump modification required for the deep tank (did this earlier this week). The pump and brackets are retained from the Puma, but the bracket is cut and another piece added so the pump sits at the bottom of the tank. This of course means the fuel pipe and associated electrics also need lengthening.

 

 See, told you there would be more colour in this post :-)

Shot blasting

Popped into the powder coaters again today just to see the chassis after shot blasting.......It has the appearance of a grey spray, but it's a really course finish.

I'm sure the powdercoat is going to adhere well to this. My previous westfields powdercoat quality was not the best, and peeled quite badly on the wishbones and uprights....so, fingers crossed.

I've also taken some close ups of the seat belt anchor points for IVA......As once the car is together you will not be able to see them.

Puma gone, Chassis welded,

Much to the wife's dismay, the Puma has moved on to a better life sat in a scrapyard!. She begged me to keep it on the drive as it looked so nice, but I put my foot down and said no........Thanks to Mark for the kind offer of sitting in a car with little in the way of brakes and (unknown to him) most of the wheel nuts and steering column nuts almost undone while being towed by me, he had to use the handbrake which was almost cooked by the time we got to the scrapyard.....anyway, goodbye puma.

  

Also, A big thanks to Richard for welding in the seat cross members. This is something that does not come with the chassis, as most use the optional cushions you can purchase from Sylva. These cushions are genuinely comfortable, but as I want to use the car on track I wanted a more supportive seat (see previous post).  Mental note...I must learn to weld!.

Finally, I dropped the chassis off to the powdercoaters this morning (17th Dec 12) on my way into work. While I was there, I was able to take a sneaky peek at the other parts after powder coat.....I should be picking this lot up this week, which should give me a bit of time of Christmas to make a start on the horrible job of drilling and riveting 300 holes!. FYI...anyone local, I can recommend Calmac for powdercoating work, they do lots of car work and know thier stuff.

P.S. The wishbone / engine mount / bracket colour is a mat black with a 30% gloss to give it a little bit of a sheen....looks great thus far.

Milestone reached........

You know when you have reached an important part of the build when you are able to sit in the car while holding on a steering wheel and make Brumm, Brumm noises.......yes, this happened this week and I was one happy bunny :-)

More happy because I shipped the panelling and some other metalwork off the powder coasters. On the same day the seat arrived.......for this, I took a flyer. I always liked my Westfield seat, but thought the same type would not fit the sylva chassis...however, after measuring, it was close so I figured I could trim the seat to fit......obviously to go one better than the Westfield, said seat was ordered in carbon.....ive said it before, but what a tart!

The really good news was the apparent driving position with the wheel in place....I hesitate to use the word, but it felt perfect, and I think I sat there for a good hour pondering the build.

The chassis rails for the seats are hopefully getting welded this week (thanks Richard), then it joins its other components for shot blasting and powdercoating.

Colour...well after lots of thought, I decided I wanted to be a bit different, so it's semi matt black for panels, wishbones, engine mounts, rear uprights, bodywork brackets, and a rather nice ral2000 orange for the main chassis.....this should complement the French blue body work in a subtle 'gulf racing' type of way.

One issue I will need to deal with is the handbrake cable routing....as found on other j15 builds, by using race type seats there is not enough clearance for the handbrake cable which is actually designed to go down the passenger tunnel side.....not ideal but space is tight. I'm hoping by using a larger pulley under the handbrake, it will rout the cable very close to the floor and just sneak under the seat...I will only know when the seat is in its final position.

Next post will hopefully be full of colour :-)

Progress...of sorts

As you can see the panelling is moving forwards - all be it slowly. However, I had a bit of a dilemma with the floor panel. The instructions state it should go from the bottom of the rear bulkhead to the cross member just in front of the fuel tank. However, having stared at it for about 2 hrs, I can't think of a good reason why a). you would not go right to the front of the chassis, and b). why you wouldn't extend it into the engine bay (at least to cover the two triangle side sections of the chassis and the area just behind the rear bulk head.

I suspect both these areas would act a stone / mud collector, but they would almost certainly also improve the aero package, and to some extent keep the engine cleaner.

Anyway, for now, I have stuck with the instructions with the theory that I could always add the panels later.

Chassis front

 

 Chassis rear

 

I offered the side pod just to get an understanding of how and where it fits. The bottom sits on the floor panel (that is extended out from the chassis by 30mm), the top sits on a piece of angled alloy.

Also, I've completed the rear bulk head panels: