Project "Marginal gains..."
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So my mock up wishbones are now being used to make jigs and then will hopefully deliver the finished wishbones.

In the mean time I'm getting the luminum door skins done, I considered removing the upper seal support but I think that the little that the external seals do already would become zero, so I decided replace the rusty standard part with a swaged shaped replacement, a token weight saving but I still think I want wind up windows and the swages help stiffen this area quite a bit



Still waiting for the glue to arrive as I want to use a structural type adhesive so that the door skin stiffens up the whole door as much as possible





And in the mean time just working through all the other bits which are lying around to save weight where I can until the wishbones come back

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 14th Jul, 2017.

According to my spreadsheet tally I have just reached the 100 kg saved point, no doubt I will be adding weight in some places but this figure includes the weight increase going to R100 suspension / brakes and 13" wheels / 185/60 R13 tyres.

Current spec is:

Steel bonnet / boot / roof / front end
Glass wind up windows / front screen / rear screen
Totally standard rear subframe assy - including all std brakes / suspension
MPI fuel tank / in tank pump
RT40 redtop battery - pretty heavy
Bumpers / grille
Std heater
RC40 rear / Janspeed intermediate exhaust

The ally door skins are done and the frames lightened a bit



Pretty well as photos shown before:



Usual repairs to lower part of frame, but all made good now:



This all assumes I stick with using glass wind up windows / regulators:



As shown it weighs in at 6.3 Kg, I can't however see that removing the remainder of the door inner material would get to the quoted figures I have seen for 'Street fighter' doors of 5.7 Kg (-0.6 kg)? So I must be missing a trick some where.

By my reckoning, with bits of weight saved elsewhere in the door, they should have a finished weight of around 14.1 Kg (No mirrors or trim) but including all hinges / handles / locks / catches / glass / regulators etc...

The extra 10 kg that poly door windows / remove regulator / cut more out of frame could deliver is becoming increasing difficult to resist though

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 14th Jul, 2017.

Excellent standard of work as usual mate

Not just excellent - outstanding work throughout !!

Thanks very much for the comments guys

Currently forced into doing bitsa jobs again as the subframe is out of commission whilst the wishbones are being made as the clearances are all very tight at full lock have to keep checking with everything built up

Some bits are off for machining / lightening

Rack mounts hopefully being made in the next few weeks

And still waiting for my compressor to come back after it's motor sh1t itself after just a couple of weeks use

Should be sorting the in tank fuel pump plumbing and wiring today as another job which needs doing but not exactly on the critical path

Saw lots of cars which have inspired me over the years at MITP - Which helps when things just seem to be happening so slowly with so much still to do - plus I am still completely undecided on finish / colour / overall look and seeing finished cars hopefully helps but sometimes confuses me further, but certainly no show and shine car - don't do car cleaning.

Cheers and thanks again

Finally feels like some real progress

Front Lower wishbones are essentially done, they are made of T45, S514 plate with the inner ends being turned from EN14.




Using bushes adds some weight and bulk but doing it this way round means if I decide to go to rod ends then there is space available, if I had started with rod ends then it is unlikely there would be enough room to fit bushes.



There is still a little bit of gusseting to be done (will be added once I am completely sure of clearances) but all the initial attempts to bend and flex them showed little or no movement, the same tests on a standard Metro R100 lower wishbone showed flex where the lower ball joint joins the wishbone. These are also a good chunk lighter.





They were complicated by the fact that the end plates which hold the lower ball joint are at a compound angle compared to the 'legs' of the wishbone which was done so that at ride height the ball joint is sat in its 'mid / neutral' position to make sure the joint wont neck out at maximum travel.

A couple more weeks and I should have the top wishbones done

Also the drive flanges and some other suspension parts should be back from machining to save a bit more weight where standard parts have been adapted.

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 14th Jul, 2017.

Those are sexy.

They look fantastic mate

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Amazing work.

In the 13's at last!.. Just

Very nice. no sorry stunning.

rick

Wish I could weld like that

Your arms look very nice! Did you pick the bushes over rose joints for any reason?

Speeding is like masturbating, everyone does it, but not all of us film it and put it on the internet

[quote=fab,8th Oct, 2010]fuck off

Thanks very much for all the comments,

Tadge44,

I wish I could weld like that too, all of the TIG stuff is done by a friend who is a Motorsport fabricator, he's just busy most of the time.

Supermotolee,

This will primarily be a road car with track or strip use as secondary activity, I find the quality of most of the rod ends / spherical pretty hit and miss and always end up going back to NMB rod ends which are just too expensive for this project. The 8 I would need for the front alone would be over £500.

I find them pretty harsh for road use and with the pot holes and general road conditions they get a hard time, plus they are pretty exposed on a road car and more often than not the protective boots hold moisture in.

There may be may be issues with toe steer due to any bush flex, I will have to see, but as I mentioned above having started with metalastic bushes there is easily enough room to revert back to rod ends. In fact we made the wishbone jigs with this in mind so that the same jigs could be used if I do change.

Cheers

A few issues have kept me away from the 'car' but a few other bits are getting done;

Brake discs, I wanted to get some Brembo discs but they seem to be NLA, all the places which list them don't have them so I went for TRW as a known quantity, I really have no knowledge of Black Diamond or EBC etc...

I chose solid discs to save weight and they have been lightened as far as I would want to go:

Std:



Drilled & Lightened:



Saving just over 1 kg per disc, lighter than a 8.4" std Mini disc



The drive flanges have been lightened already but more was required

Std:



I sketched up and estimated the weight saving of a few options but pocketing the drive flanges seemed to save the most weight whilst retaining most of the original stiffness, so these are the pockets milled in the rear face



Also the wheel locating spigot saw a bit of material removal, overall 0.4 kg saved and lighter than the Mini items



Still waiting on the top wishbones and contemplating some more bodywork over the weekend

Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 14th Jul, 2017.

Looks serious..

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
VEMS + 12 PSI + Liquid Intercooler = Small Bore FUN!

Nice work, this is shaping up to be one of the best quality builds on here!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

On your door tops , do you end up with a double thickness of steel swaged item then the ally skin ? does the window sealing strip fit over this ok ?

Edited by robert on 18th Oct, 2017.

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Thank you for the generous comments, as with most things it looks better in the photos than in the flesh...

Robert,

The stiffening piece at the top of the door skin just replicates the piece as per the std car with some swaged holes added to save a little weight and add a bit of sectional stiffness, so the combined thickness of the door skin and the 'stiffener' (where the outer chrome trim / seal fits) should be as std, the only variance from that should just be due to how well we clamped the two pieces together when it was bonded (I hope)

Cheers

gotcha ... I was concerned that ,with the stock double layer steel skin , there is 'x' thickness , and with that plus the ally sheet 'y' thickness , it may be too much for the strip to spread enough to sit correctly .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

The top wishbones are nearly done now too, I didn't want to commit to the lower damper mount position until I had the correct wishbones fitted so I can place it where I want - so the clevis is still to be done.












Cheers

Edited by Aubrey_Boy on 14th Jul, 2017.

I think its fair to say i love this build, keep up the good work

brilliant work your doing !

just too pretty.

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Thank you for the comments

Plan is to fit both top and bottom wishbones to check everything is OK and then sort the lower damper mount on the top wishbone.

In hindsight with both wishbones in situ they are both a bit heavy weight so if I need to change anything I will probably go down a gauge on the tubes and / or O.D. but it looks OK with the little of mock up work I have done today.

Cheers