Davrian Mk3 1968

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

Had a bit more of a go at the trailing arm today. I cut the rotten metal out from the under side and made a replacementpiece, I deseamed and rewelded most ofwhat i want too and i started to mock up how i plan to reinforce the bearing carrier. I need to remake this area as i threw it together quickly, i wont weld it fully for now until i decide mybrake set up as i may want to wed the caliper brackets to the bearing carrier.






















































Comments appreciated

Cheers

[Stakhanovite]

TrailingArms001.jpg (74.42 KiB) Viewed 4586 times

These were done for A G15, I dont know if the jigs are still available though. Group of G15 owners may be looking at getting another batch done if sufficient interest.

[plasticfantastic]

Hi Stakhanovite,

They are a nice set of arms, id be interested to hear the weight and cost of them? but i think my modified ones will be good enough for my purposes as plan for it to be a road car not a competition car.

Cheers

[tom.goldsmith]

Good to see my old front end going to some use, I have got to finish my car this year just need to find some motivation from somewhere
Tom

[davrian6140]

Hi Tom,
If you wont to get motivated and you are not to far from
Stedhan in west sussex I will give you a go out in my
davrian .Just give a p.m and I will try and fix it.
Dave

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

With the trailing arm design pretty much there now i decided i need to look at brakes and decide what i want to do. With the hubs back on loosely i picked up a mk2 golf front disc (239mm x 12mm)and it goes over the wheel studs but the centre needs opening up slightly so it sits all the way down (it's currently 2mm from the surface of the hub). A quick rummage through the workshop and i came out with an armful of calipers my father had collected for a project but no longer plans to use. The rears are from a nissan of some kind and fit fairly well I'm my application, although the handbrake cable could be in an easier position. The caliper doesnt actually go over the disc as its made for a 10mm disc,so i plan to change the discs to mk1 golf discs, being 239mm x 10mm.

The fronts are AP 4pots and i think they are from the new mini. The biggest issue with fitting these calipers (except the weight and the fact they are overkill) is that i need a large off set disc to fit them behind the wheel, its not a major issue as I'm pretty sure BMW E30 discs will solve the problem.

So the big dilemma i have is that so far these brakes have cost me nothing, they are brand new and if I'm right about discs i can have a new set delivered tomorrow ready to continue making brackets, and the whole set up will only cost methe discs. Although, i had hoped to fit alloy calipers front and rear (i planned peugeot 106 front and corsa c rear) But going this way would leave me needing to go to the scrap yard to get the brake setups of said cars, I would then need to exchange them for replacement calipers,then theres new pads and discs. This is alot more outlay of time and money than i would like at the moment but like the idea of the weight saving.

Thoughts or opinions?!




















I now have my hands on a new pair of rear audi 80 1.6 discs, 245mm diameter (i will turn down to 240mm later), 10mm thick. I presumed it would be 4x100mm being audi but they are 4x108mm, ishould have checked before hand! its not a major issue as a little touch with the die grinder and they slid right on. I still need to pop it in the lathe and open the centre up a little as its sitting about 1mm off the hub at the moment. With it all in place i made a rough cardboard template of the bracket then cut it out of 8mm alloy. It's now fitten to the caliper and i will finish fitting it to the upright once i have machined the disk.


























Today i decided to have a ago at the front wishbone/steering bracket as i hope to refit all the front soon to check fitment. As posted in the link by Darkspeed, i have started to adapt the bracket to drop the front pivot points by 1 1/4", I'm hoping to then drop the pivots in the front armby the same amount to regain the ground clearance. I held the bracket under the car earlier and the support i put between the two extended pivots is pretty flush with the floor of the car.
























Today i got the last few front end parts ready to bolt back on to do a dry fit hopefully tomorrow. I cleaned up the steering arms and stripped the steering rack. Does anyone know of any ball joints that have the same taper as the imp steering arms? I need to replace them but its around £90 to replace the 2 then an extra £30 to upgrade the inner bushes to poly bushes. Id like to fit the poly bushes to this set then to cut off the original ball joints and put a thread on the arm ready for the new ball joint. The taper of the original imp one is around 13.5mm - 11.5mm and about 13mm long.

I have used extended bolts to drop the steering rack 1 1/4" the same amount i have dropped the front pivot points. At the moment i amusing nuts to space the rack but i will make alloy spacers eventually. I have also made a pair of plates that acted as drilling jigs so i could drill the new pivot points in the right position, but these will also be welded in position once the otherwelds are done. The extra thickness around the pivots will stop them from opening up over time. With the mount now ready for fit up i decided to drop the pivots in the front arms to gain back a bit og ground clearance plus itwill make the pivotpoints stronger and a little neater.


























































Comments appreciated

Cheers

[shammycoupe69]

Mk2 ford fiesta track rod ends are the same taper. just needs a thread putting on the end after you have cut off the old imp one

[plasticfantastic]

Thank you very much mate, just what i wanted to know, i will order some in the morning.

Cheers

[edgedj]

that looks so much like my mk3 which became a mk6. I can see the same trauma's being uncovered and solved like the fuel tanks and manly roll bar. Fantastic stuff!

[plasticfantastic]

Hi all,

Sorry if this update is a bit of a photo dump.

First are some pictures of my engine build so far. It started with me stripping down the 875cc Imp engine, and i cleaned up the pieces i needed for the build and boxed up the rest for sale. Then once my ZX7R engine was delivered i did the same too it. Next a quick trip to the local scrappy armed with £10 and i went on the hunt for a peugeot 1.0 or 1.1, sitting in the corner was a 1.0 205 so 20 minutes later i had whipped out the piston liners and was on my way home. I also had a quick go at lightening and balancing the standard imp rods as i have never done it before so wanted to have a practice before doing it on the propper rods, didnt quite finish as i learnt what i needed, but they are bagged up incase i need them. Which now leaves me with a cupboard full of bit to build an engine, but i probably wont touch it much more till the end of summer. The last pic shows the zx7r head gasket on top of the Imp block it shows how the two inner cylinders need moving closer together. Next job when i have time is to bolt the imp block onto the mill and i will use the DRO to locate all the bolthole centre points and piston centres.



































































Over the long weekend i have had a few hours to have a go a putting the rear of the tub back together. Sorry i havent got all the progress pics, we jump into me fitting a panel a made off a wooden mold to create a rough shape to work with. The then got cut and refined a few times until i was happy. This corner is almost there now, a few last bits to bond then i can rinse and repeat on the other side. While working on the rear buttress i decided to incorporate a mk8 style of aligning the panels together, it also makes it all a little stronger and means you cant look through the panel gap.





























While i was bonding inside the back of the tub i decided it was time to tidy up the rear window surround. Originally the cars have a perspex window held in with a rubber seal but i plan to have a glass toughtned window cut and it will either be sealed into place, or i will make it hinge open and it will close on a seal. I havent trimmed the lip back all the way yet, I will do it later ut you can see it marked in pen and will only be about 10mm wide.






























comments appreciated

Cheers