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Kenny's Kup
- Thread starter Kenny.s
- Start date
Cheers for the comments guys.
My mate and I put in another full shift today but once again never quite got as much done as we'd hoped :dapprove:
However, the cage is now fully welded into the car at the 6 main points, main hoop, A-pillars and the rear turrets. Most of the tricky bits are now also fully welded which is what took up a large part of the day, might only look like 25-30mm of weld but some of those small bits took over half an hour.
All the tubes are now in too so it's just a case of going round and finishing all the welds, then weld in the support gussets, again they dont look much but there's quite a lot of welding in those. Wasnt planning on it but now going to make one last push on Monday night to see if we can get the cage finished before I go offshore. Ill be glad to get back to work for a rest
My mate and I put in another full shift today but once again never quite got as much done as we'd hoped :dapprove:
However, the cage is now fully welded into the car at the 6 main points, main hoop, A-pillars and the rear turrets. Most of the tricky bits are now also fully welded which is what took up a large part of the day, might only look like 25-30mm of weld but some of those small bits took over half an hour.
All the tubes are now in too so it's just a case of going round and finishing all the welds, then weld in the support gussets, again they dont look much but there's quite a lot of welding in those. Wasnt planning on it but now going to make one last push on Monday night to see if we can get the cage finished before I go offshore. Ill be glad to get back to work for a rest
Cheers again for the comments guys.
My mate came up on Monday night after work and finished off the 2nd bottle of argon but unfortunately didnt quite get all the welding on the cage finished :dapprove:
Sure I read somewhere that at 10ltrs a min flow rate you get about 3.5hrs continuous welding from the size of bottle we're using so that pretty much adds up.
I had to come back offshore on Tuesday so that was as much as we could do until I get home. I'll need to pick up another bottle of gas and then hopefully he'll be able to carry on where we left off. All the tubes are now fitted and fully welded, it's just the reinforcing gussets on the door bars and the A-pillar supports to go in. The front X also needs to be finish welded but there's not much time in that.
Also need to order a seat and brackets so I can get the rails mounted in the car and start working out seating position etc, current favourite for the seats is this
My mate came up on Monday night after work and finished off the 2nd bottle of argon but unfortunately didnt quite get all the welding on the cage finished :dapprove:
Sure I read somewhere that at 10ltrs a min flow rate you get about 3.5hrs continuous welding from the size of bottle we're using so that pretty much adds up.
I had to come back offshore on Tuesday so that was as much as we could do until I get home. I'll need to pick up another bottle of gas and then hopefully he'll be able to carry on where we left off. All the tubes are now fitted and fully welded, it's just the reinforcing gussets on the door bars and the A-pillar supports to go in. The front X also needs to be finish welded but there's not much time in that.
Also need to order a seat and brackets so I can get the rails mounted in the car and start working out seating position etc, current favourite for the seats is this
Great build looks amazing Keep up the good work and keep the updates flowing when you return! I find the sabelt Titan really comfortable and is very supportive. I'm ordering the Sabelt Taurus for mine in the morning but I think the only difference is the head support. Where are you planning on buying the Sabelt seat from?
Keep up the good work and keep the updates flowing when you return! I find the sabelt Titan really comfortable and is very supportive. I'm ordering the Sabelt Taurus for mine in the morning but I think the only difference is the head support. Where are you planning on buying the Sabelt seat from?Well, home again, actually been home for just over a week but we may have a potential house purchase on the cards so thats taken up some of my time, could be an amazing renovation project and it's exactly the sort of thing my girlfriend and I are looking for with plenty room for a nice big garage out the back but it would potentially mean this would have to get put on the back burner for a while Just need to wait and see what happens, meantime I'll be cracking on with this as much as I can.
First job when I got home was to go and change the gas bottle for the 3rd time! Dont think there will be much left of this one either by time we're finished, who knows, may even need a 4th one. Read somewhere that a Y size bottle is good for about 3 - 3.5hrs of continous welding when set to approx 10ltrs a min flow so that gives you an idea of just how much weld time has gone into it.
My mate brought the tig set back up to the shed and carried on where he left off 2 and a bit weeks ago.
Where possible he's been doing the door bar gussets etc without filler wire, known as autogenous welding I believe, looks really good when it's done like that, but occasionally he's had to add a wee bit of wire due to dirt or a bit of crap spoiling it, but thats my fault, as much as you try to have things prepped and cleaned sometimes you dont always get it clean enough
Then put the A-pillar support plates on
Today I didnt get to the shed till after lunch so never got that much done, or at least it doesn't feel like i did, got the plates for the strut tops ground to shape and prepped for welding, just waiting on the actual top mounts to arrive to do a trial fit before committing to welding them on
I then started making up some plates to fill in the holes in the bulkhead
I also spent some time on the phone enquiring about bits to make up a new steering column, still not 100% sure on what i'm going to do so as with most things it'll probably just evolve as I go.
Today I recieved a set of powerflex wishbone bushes, dogbone and arb so I can get the wishbones done and then start modifying the pick up points on the subframe.
Kenny
but it would potentially mean this would have to get put on the back burner for a while Just need to wait and see what happens, meantime I'll be cracking on with this as much as I can.First job when I got home was to go and change the gas bottle for the 3rd time! Dont think there will be much left of this one either by time we're finished, who knows, may even need a 4th one. Read somewhere that a Y size bottle is good for about 3 - 3.5hrs of continous welding when set to approx 10ltrs a min flow so that gives you an idea of just how much weld time has gone into it.
My mate brought the tig set back up to the shed and carried on where he left off 2 and a bit weeks ago.
Where possible he's been doing the door bar gussets etc without filler wire, known as autogenous welding I believe, looks really good when it's done like that, but occasionally he's had to add a wee bit of wire due to dirt or a bit of crap spoiling it, but thats my fault, as much as you try to have things prepped and cleaned sometimes you dont always get it clean enough
Then put the A-pillar support plates on
Today I didnt get to the shed till after lunch so never got that much done, or at least it doesn't feel like i did, got the plates for the strut tops ground to shape and prepped for welding, just waiting on the actual top mounts to arrive to do a trial fit before committing to welding them on
I then started making up some plates to fill in the holes in the bulkhead
I also spent some time on the phone enquiring about bits to make up a new steering column, still not 100% sure on what i'm going to do so as with most things it'll probably just evolve as I go.
Today I recieved a set of powerflex wishbone bushes, dogbone and arb so I can get the wishbones done and then start modifying the pick up points on the subframe.
Kenny
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TrackCar & F30 330d
Bloody good work! Looks fantastic!
Really really looking forward to seeing the car come together
Really really looking forward to seeing the car come together
Cheers again lads, progress has been painfully slow recently but thats just the way it is sometimes.
The main reason for the alterations to the strut towers was to allow me to run a bit more castor, the struts are going to be made to suit, once the top mounts are in position I can get some measurements and then get going with that too.
The top of the tower is slightly higher than the standard position so once it's all together it should allow me to run a slightly longer strut for the same ride height if that makes sense?
The main reason for the alterations to the strut towers was to allow me to run a bit more castor, the struts are going to be made to suit, once the top mounts are in position I can get some measurements and then get going with that too.
The top of the tower is slightly higher than the standard position so once it's all together it should allow me to run a slightly longer strut for the same ride height if that makes sense?
While i'm waiting for bits to arrive I thought I'd make a start on modifying the subframe to raise the front roll centre. I'd had a chat with a mate who's pretty good with stuff like this, obviously we dont have access to gucci suspension or chassis set up programs/software so we just took a few measurements and made an educated guess at what to go for, we settled on raising the wishbone pick ups by 40mm. The steering rack will also have to be raised to maintain the relationship between the steering arms and the wishbones. Unfortunately we cant raise the rack by 40mm as the arms are going to get too close to the underside of the chassis leg and in the event of the suspension being heavily loaded with some lock on they could touch-not good! So we can only raise the rack by 20mm and then we'll drop the ends of the arms in a similar way to how the cup racers are done. Will need to get some bits made for this and use some rose joints at the ends of the arms.
Excuse the poor pictures, camera clearly didnt want to focus on the bits I was working on!
Marked up oe mount ready for the chop
Wedge chopped out
Both done and the top section bent up
I then spent quite a long time measuring from the location of the old bolt hole to give me a reference for the new position, cut a couple of bits of 3mm plate, drilled and tacked in position
Once I was happy the position etc was good and they lined up I trimmed the plates and ground to shape, still to be finished off but close enough for now
Once i've done the other side, ill make some gussets to stiffen them up.
Excuse the poor pictures, camera clearly didnt want to focus on the bits I was working on!
Marked up oe mount ready for the chop
Wedge chopped out
Both done and the top section bent up
I then spent quite a long time measuring from the location of the old bolt hole to give me a reference for the new position, cut a couple of bits of 3mm plate, drilled and tacked in position
Once I was happy the position etc was good and they lined up I trimmed the plates and ground to shape, still to be finished off but close enough for now
Once i've done the other side, ill make some gussets to stiffen them up.
TrackCar & F30 330d
Very impressive! Are you going to be modifying the wheel arches? Just because with all your turret and subframe modifications you can probably sit the car quite low. But your wheels will probably rub on the arches.
While raising the roll centre would allow the car to be run pretty low there's a limt to how far you can go before you run into issues with cv joints and driveshaft angles so we were just focussing on getting the car to handle well at a sensible ride height.
This is all very much a case of suck it and see but ultimately there's not really going to be much cost involved in raising the roll centre, bar a subframe which can be had for what, £120? some bits machined to go into the steering arms on the hubs and a bit of time, so as they say, nothing ventured nothing gained.
Just watched the GP, quick cuppa and then think about heading up to the shed to get on with the other side.
This is all very much a case of suck it and see but ultimately there's not really going to be much cost involved in raising the roll centre, bar a subframe which can be had for what, £120? some bits machined to go into the steering arms on the hubs and a bit of time, so as they say, nothing ventured nothing gained.
Just watched the GP, quick cuppa and then think about heading up to the shed to get on with the other side.
Struggled a bit to get motivated today, had to drag my self up to the shed, still, managed to get the other side of the subframe done, pictures came out a bit better today. The subframe had been shotblasted a few months ago, was pretty much spotless when it was done, never realised it had started to rust up again until I went and dug it out, will need to get it all blasted again once welding etc is finished and it's ready for paint or powder coating.
Wee action shot just for the hell of it
Now at the same stage as the other side
I'll get my mate to weld them properly next time he's up.
Sat down for a cuppa and pondered about what to do next, view from my thinking chair lol
Decided to pop the tailgate on and spot prime some of the bare bits then start flattening it back, stark reminder of just how much bodywork i've got to do :dapprove:
Wee action shot just for the hell of it
Now at the same stage as the other side
I'll get my mate to weld them properly next time he's up.
Sat down for a cuppa and pondered about what to do next, view from my thinking chair lol
Decided to pop the tailgate on and spot prime some of the bare bits then start flattening it back, stark reminder of just how much bodywork i've got to do :dapprove:
Looks great Kenny, Cant wait to see progress and the completed car
PS Mode racewear sent that seat really quickly and received it the following day but unfortunately it was 3 years old so the FIA only had two years to run but they are sorting out a brand new one from Sabelt in Italy so in the end it should all work out and I would recommend them! Thanks again
PS Mode racewear sent that seat really quickly and received it the following day but unfortunately it was 3 years old so the FIA only had two years to run but they are sorting out a brand new one from Sabelt in Italy so in the end it should all work out and I would recommend them! Thanks again
Hard to believe thats 3 weeks over already, didn't get quite as much done as I'd hoped but these things happen, made some progress on some stuff that will help later on.
My mate came up yesterday and and finished off welding the cage,there's still some things to do inside the car, seat rails, steering column, pdeal box etc so it wasn't strictly ready for primer but I just wanted to get the cage primed to stop it rusting up, other wise it would just make it a nightmare to rub down and clean later on. Obviously some of it will get marked or buffed off during the rest of the work inside but it's easy enough to spot in any wee areas.
Time to call on another mate who's a spray painter
First up was to get the inside of the car masked off as best we could so it was just the cage that was getting primed, no point adding extra paint (&weight) if it's not needed. We'll just key the existing paint inside the car and spot prime any bits as required before the finish topcoat goes on.
Masked up and first coat of primer going on
They were all taken after the first coat,(battery in the camera died shortly after) he put about 3-4 on most of it, they were thinned down quite a lot though so there's not really that much paint on it, but even for primer it looks pretty good, gives a good idea of what it's going to look like once the topcoat is on.
Thats pretty much it till the next time home, tomorrow will just be tidying up and getting the workshop cleaned up a bit, the place is covered in overspray.
Kenny.
My mate came up yesterday and and finished off welding the cage,there's still some things to do inside the car, seat rails, steering column, pdeal box etc so it wasn't strictly ready for primer but I just wanted to get the cage primed to stop it rusting up, other wise it would just make it a nightmare to rub down and clean later on. Obviously some of it will get marked or buffed off during the rest of the work inside but it's easy enough to spot in any wee areas.
Time to call on another mate who's a spray painter
First up was to get the inside of the car masked off as best we could so it was just the cage that was getting primed, no point adding extra paint (&weight
) if it's not needed. We'll just key the existing paint inside the car and spot prime any bits as required before the finish topcoat goes on.Masked up and first coat of primer going on
They were all taken after the first coat,(battery in the camera died shortly after
) he put about 3-4 on most of it, they were thinned down quite a lot though so there's not really that much paint on it, but even for primer it looks pretty good, gives a good idea of what it's going to look like once the topcoat is on.Thats pretty much it till the next time home, tomorrow will just be tidying up and getting the workshop cleaned up a bit, the place is covered in overspray.
Kenny.
TrackCar & F30 330d
Excelent! When do you think you might have this project finished?
Not sure when it's likely to be finished Chris, haven't set a deadline but would quite like to get it out before the end of next season, even one or two sprints and a trackday would be cool.
It's going to be white inside and out, most likely with black wheels. I'll see what it's like once it's painted but I may opt for painting the inside of the A-pillars and where the bracing plates are, satin matt black to help cut down on any glare.
It's going to be white inside and out, most likely with black wheels. I'll see what it's like once it's painted but I may opt for painting the inside of the A-pillars and where the bracing plates are, satin matt black to help cut down on any glare.
I did look at this when I got the cage, the tube which goes between the rear turrets has the thickest wall of all the tubes in the cage, 2mm vs 1.2 or 1.6mm for everything else.
This to me suggests Custom Cages intended for that to be used as the harness bar as there is no other reason for it to be that thick. It may look too low from that picture but having done a few measurements, the path the shoulder straps take from the seat to that tube is well within the recommended 20degs. If however once the seats are in and the harness us physically offered up, the angle doenst look right I can easy add something into the rear cross.
This to me suggests Custom Cages intended for that to be used as the harness bar as there is no other reason for it to be that thick. It may look too low from that picture but having done a few measurements, the path the shoulder straps take from the seat to that tube is well within the recommended 20degs. If however once the seats are in and the harness us physically offered up, the angle doenst look right I can easy add something into the rear cross.
Gman
ClioSport Club Member
Mt10 Zx6r golf tdi
I hadn't realised it was Custom Cage's cage, a friend of mine has one in his clio, but it's slightly different to yours, the fit of those cages is excellent, would really like to change my SD cage for one or these when i find some space and time to install one.
This guy has the same cage and he uses that bar as a harness bar. Scroll down.
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/show...ndurance-project-182/page40&highlight=harness
Nice one on the white clios look mint white.
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/show...ndurance-project-182/page40&highlight=harness
Nice one on the white clios look mint white.
Home again, was working nightshift this time and my bodyclock is shot to hell :S got this for the next 5 or 6 months so I guess I'd better get used to it.
I've also got a course to got to next week so thats 3 days lost out of my time off but hey ho nothing I can do about that.
My daily runner is going in for some bodywork too so there's a lot of other stuff going on this month, might not get as much done to the car as i'd like but will just need to press on and see how it goes.
I'm hopefully getting a seat today so once I get that I'll be able to crack on with getting the mounting rails made up and sort out the seating position.
I've sourced some parts to make a new steering column, just waiting for them to arrive, ordered one of these
and one of these
Caliper adapter brackets to mount these are ready
so need to go and collect them. It was a tight fit to get them to go onto the hubs due to the location of the lugs on the hubs and the position of the mounts on the caliper, we had to machine the calipers slightly and make the brackets from billet steel due to limited space for material, we didnt think ally would be strong enough given the lack of cross section in certain places, now that they've been made though and you can actually hold them in your hand, wonder if we might have gotten away with ally after all, will get them on meantime and if we decide to make new ones the cad file has been written now so wouldn't take long to knock up another pair from ally, lightness is the name of the game but brakes and safety is one area i'm not going to get too greedy on regards weight loss.
Once I get the hubs back (guy making the caliper brackets has them) I'll need to do a mock up on the front suspension and make sure everything is going to fit and line up, these arrived when I was home last time but never had time to do anything with them
Plan for today is to see about making a bogey to move the car around on, when we come to paint the various panels etc, the car will need to get pushed outside so figured it would be alot easier to have it on wheels. I bought some castors while I was away so just need pop into town and see about getting some box section
Kenny
I've also got a course to got to next week so thats 3 days lost out of my time off but hey ho nothing I can do about that.
My daily runner is going in for some bodywork too so there's a lot of other stuff going on this month, might not get as much done to the car as i'd like but will just need to press on and see how it goes.
I'm hopefully getting a seat today so once I get that I'll be able to crack on with getting the mounting rails made up and sort out the seating position.
I've sourced some parts to make a new steering column, just waiting for them to arrive, ordered one of these
and one of these
Caliper adapter brackets to mount these are ready
so need to go and collect them. It was a tight fit to get them to go onto the hubs due to the location of the lugs on the hubs and the position of the mounts on the caliper, we had to machine the calipers slightly and make the brackets from billet steel due to limited space for material, we didnt think ally would be strong enough given the lack of cross section in certain places, now that they've been made though and you can actually hold them in your hand, wonder if we might have gotten away with ally after all, will get them on meantime and if we decide to make new ones the cad file has been written now so wouldn't take long to knock up another pair from ally, lightness is the name of the game but brakes and safety is one area i'm not going to get too greedy on regards weight loss.
Once I get the hubs back (guy making the caliper brackets has them) I'll need to do a mock up on the front suspension and make sure everything is going to fit and line up, these arrived when I was home last time but never had time to do anything with them
Plan for today is to see about making a bogey to move the car around on, when we come to paint the various panels etc, the car will need to get pushed outside so figured it would be alot easier to have it on wheels. I bought some castors while I was away so just need pop into town and see about getting some box section
Kenny
Didn't have much time today, a lot of it was spent sitting in the house waiting for stuff to arrive but thankfully most of what I was waiting for turned up, eventually.
Popped up to the shed late this afternoon and offered up the seat to see what i've got to work with
The wheel and the quick release boss arrived too, both look vey nice.
Plan for tomorrow is to make a start on the seat mountings, from what I looked at today I think I should be able to get a pretty good driving position, further back would be good but will just need to make do with what I've got and peace it together as I go, once the seat is in next up will be pedals then finally the wheel.
Kenny.
Popped up to the shed late this afternoon and offered up the seat to see what i've got to work with
The wheel and the quick release boss arrived too, both look vey nice.
Plan for tomorrow is to make a start on the seat mountings, from what I looked at today I think I should be able to get a pretty good driving position, further back would be good but will just need to make do with what I've got and peace it together as I go, once the seat is in next up will be pedals then finally the wheel.
Kenny.
