TomoTek - 182 Track Build here we come!...

[Martin.]

Love reading these too. Clean hubs look sooooooooooooooooooooo much better. Had mine refurbished recently too, exactly same as you.

 

[Tomotek]

Really good thread. I enjoyed reading through it all.

Subscribed

Thanks mate, I'll keep the updates coming.. been doing a lot on the car recently!

Love reading these too. Clean hubs look sooooooooooooooooooooo much better. Had mine refurbished recently too, exactly same as you.

Sweet!.. I do love to see parts looking all clean (the way they should be!) .. defiantly worth the time and effort!

 

[Russ Rallye]

Hey, had a quick look on the website, looks pretty interesting.. something for next year potentially.. I'll have to come to a round a see what its all about!..
Ah I had a brief look at your thread a while ago, had another look this eve, car looks really good! mega job on it!!!!.. I also noticed you bought a lot of bits off Chrispy Chris!... he's one of my best mates (went to uni together) Glad his bits went to a good home

Yeah definately get yourself along and see what it's all about. Yeah had a few bits off Chris, wheels and the Ast's that were on the shell originally.
Keep up the good work mate.
Russ

 

[Martin.]

I got my ITB kit from Chris too.

 

[Tony Hunter]

We have fun in the TricTrophy, its not just all about the racing.

 

[sonny172cup]

Nice, looking good...makes me want to use my friends sandblaster now!!

 

[Tomotek]

#7

Time for another update I think!....

I decided I would tackle the Front Lower Wishbones next. Earlier in the thread I mentioned that when I picked up the car that it had a strange dead spot to the steering, and once I started to remove the suspension I noticed that the lower ball joint was excessively warn. What I forgot to mention was that the lower wishbones had had the PowerFlex bush upgrade. Upon removal of the RH side it became quite clear that there was another issue. Whoever had attached the last steel sleeves had only 'poorly' tacked them in 2 places (this was not substantial enough) These tacks on the forward leg had cracked off and the sleeve was rattling around in the wishbone body... See video below (it was a late night and I think i was going crazy.. so excuse the random noises I made! haha)



I thought I would keep the poly bushes as they were in good condition. However I wanted to improve on the way the steel sleeves mount to the wishbone.

I took a few measurements of the wishbone and bushes and designed a new steel sleeve to spread the load better. I then took to the lathe and turned a set up ready to weld onto the wishbones which I had sandblasted. I also wanted to stiffen the wishbone body itself as the car will be used on track. I saw that there are a few kits online for wishbones with stiffening plates. I decided I would design and fabricate my own plates to increase the stiffness even more than the plate available.

STEEL SLEEVES - To house the bushes

SLEEVES ON BUSHES

STIFFENING PLATE - With swaged hole for increased stiffness

I then took all the bits down into the fabrication department at work and set about jigging the sleeves onto the wishbones and TIG welding them together. I used a threaded bar to ensure that the bushes were inline. A few tacks were welded on to set the position, then the rubber bushes were removed and the sleeves were fully welded (didn't want to melt the bushes!...)


JIGGING SLEEVES TO WISHBONE

FULLY WELDED SLEEVE

I then located the plate on the wishbone and ensured all the bolt holes lined up before tacking and fully welding them to the wishbones.


PLATE BEING WELDED TO WISHBONE

These were then cleaned up with some 3M Scotch Brite pads to remove all the welding discolouration.. The end result i was very pleased with..........

All that was left to do then was to give the wishbones a lick of paint, again Kephos was used, and assemble the poly bushes and inner sleeves ready for fitment onto the car!...

Next challenge I think will be to finish welding in the cage!...

 

[Martin.]

I'm so jealous of your skills mate. Proper good work that.

 

[Tomotek]

I'm so jealous of your skills mate. Proper good work that.

Thanks Martin!.. I worked as a welder/fabricator before I went to uni (back in the day) .. so I have had a bit of practice.. It's definitely come in handy.. Especially as I've just started to make my own cage and weld that in!

 

[Mini182]

I have never been convinced the wishbones actually need strengthening, even on track.

Can't fault your work and attention to detail though. Top job!

 

[Tomotek]

I have never been convinced the wishbones actually need strengthening, even on track.
Can't fault your work and attention to detail though. Top job!

Thanks, I have enjoyed doing it.. I think my slight OCD is showing! haha

Regarding why I stiffened the wishbone:

The standard wishbones are designed to have the original rubber bushes installed, These bushes are designed to improve ride quality for the road, their secondary function is to absorb the shock loadings within the system. These bushes have a large amount of compliance.

For track purposes we need to remove all compliance within the suspension system to enable maximum control of the suspension geometry.
Hence why replacement poly bushes are used, and spherical bearings for pure race cars.

When the compliance is reduced from the bushes, the loadings in the suspension system which are normally absorbed by those bushes is then transferred into other components of the system, in this case the wishbone. Lets not forget Race cars also run slicks or semi cut slicks which will also increase the 'g' force and subsequent suspension loadings that standard road car parts are not designed for.

The standard wishbone design is of a 'U' section profile, which coupled with the load paths and the increased forces in the system will cause the side faces of the wishbone to flex inwards at the top. (I observed this when jigging the steel sleeves, upon measuring both the wishbones it was seen that one of them had bent inwards, which I subsequently straightened out). This flexing is probably why you see so many subframes with elongated mounting holes once the poly bush upgrade has been installed.

By welding the plate on the top the compliance in the wishbone is reduced/eliminated which increases the performance of the suspension.

I also intend to eliminate the compliance from the bushes completely by replacing them with spherical bearings in the future (want to use the car for a bit first).. I know there are kits you can buy online for that.. However I have designed the steel sleeves to accommodate a bearing in the future.. when funds permit.

I hope I explained myself ok.

 

[Martin.]

You're not too far from me, would love to come and have a nose around all your work when the car is done

 

[Tony Hunter]

A lot of work gone in there.

 

[harry289]

Any updates?

 

[Tomotek]

Any updates? :smile:

Hi Harry, and everyone else that reads my posts (which I am hugely grateful of)
sorry for the lack of updates recently, has it really been over a month since my last post!!.. I have just moved house and started a new job so I have been mega busy and had to take a break from the Clio

Finally getting everything sorted so I have found sound time to do a small update. I will endeavour to do a proper update this week!, I have done a lot more work on the cage!

Sooo... I have relocated to Warwickshire for my new job and my new flat doesn't have a garage :weary:, however on a positive note my parents only live 20 minutes away so I went home and cleared out the garage in preparation for the Clios arrival where it will live for the time being!.. Their garage is a lot bigger so will have a lot more room to work on it too!:laughing::laughing:

Getting the Clio to my parents was another story!.. As you could see from previous posts I had stripped it down to the bare Chassis, Which it remained until the day before I had to move it!..

As you can see below there wasn't much room around it!

Luckily a Clio isn't the most complex car to get rolling.. Therefore I managed to get the engine back in (using 2 trolley jacks!!:grimacing and built all the suspension back up over night... ready for a good friend to come down with his trailer to get it to my parents! As you can see it was pretty rammed full of parts and boxes!....

2 hours further North on the M1 and we had arrived at our destination!.. Where we unloaded the car and pushed it into its new home!.. I spent the next day stripping it all back down to a bare shell again. It was a little easier this time as I had all the right tools for the job! which I have massively missed! (i.e engine crane!). I also utilised the racking to properly store all the parts (no more bumpers on the roof! :up The bonnet and boot lid were also removed to aid access to the car.... Here you can see the end result!, can't wait to get back over to work on it with all the room!! (garage still needs a tidy out mind).......

I will do a more in depth post soon! watch this space....

 

[JP83]

Dat workspace!
Where abouts have you relocated to Tomo?

 

[Tomotek]

Dat workspace!
Where abouts have you relocated to Tomo?

That's what I thought when I got the car in there! I had forgotten how big it was (I did dig the footings for it one summer so I should have remembered haha!!)
I have moved to Warwick, got a job at Jaguar Land Rover. (was in Woking with my previous job)

 

[JP83]

Sweet! Isn't that where Chris off here works(cswalmsley?) ?

You'll have to get along to a meet. You've got the West Midlands gang not too far away.

 

[George@RTR_Parts]

Great work mate, lot of effort gone into this. Liking that garage/workshop aswel

 

[Addicted]

Awesome build so far, attention to detail is brilliant!

 

[bozothenutter]

Love the work done on the car mate1
any chance of doing a set of those sleeves as a small run?
or care to share the measurements?

 

[ACS_Motorsport]

workspace jesus more like a small warehouse! Is that your home garage scott? Well jelaous buddy! Like I said before mate more than happy to nip down and give you a hand if your ever need it, just give me plenty of notice! haha

Looking good though as always!

 

[Robclio98]

Excellent build so far, keep up the good work!!

 

[Saucyboy]

Wow, fantastic work mate. Very impressive indeed. Will be following this one ; )

 

[Tomotek]

Thanks for all the kind words and support!.. It will probably be nearer Christmas when I get to work on it again. I've got a busy few weekends coming up.. I'm co driving for a friend who will be rallying his Vauxhall Chevette in the Regency Stages @ Bath on the 29th of Nov. First Rally so should be entertaining!!

Love the work done on the car mate1
any chance of doing a set of those sleeves as a small run?
or care to share the measurements?

I could get a batch made up no problem, send me a PM we can discuss this further.. Do you know anyone else who would be interested?

workspace jesus more like a small warehouse! Is that your home garage scott? Well jelaous buddy! Like I said before mate more than happy to nip down and give you a hand if your ever need it, just give me plenty of notice! haha

Looking good though as always!

Hey Ant, yeah this is the home garage, in need of a bit of a sort out!.. No Alpaccas roaming round this one one though, so i'm jealous of u!! .. Yeah I will let you know, maybe hook up with Ben as he is on his way down?..

 

[Tomotek]

On a side note...

I shall be putting my standard Clio Sport seats up for sale on here this week, so if anyone is interested let me know. :grinning:

They are in really good condition. I'll put a link up to the post on here once I've done it.

 

[ACS_Motorsport]

Hey Ant, yeah this is the home garage, in need of a bit of a sort out!.. No Alpaccas roaming round this one one though, so i'm jealous of u!! :tongueout: .. Yeah I will let you know, maybe hook up with Ben as he is on his way down?..

haha you say that but they are a bloody nightmare to work around! So nosy and literally stick the head under arch with you! Got a pic of me and my bro working on my mums car with them prancing around 🙈

 

[ACS_Motorsport]

Coming up with ben is a good shout buddy! down even!

 

[Apg100]

Blimey Ant, what's that all about?

 

[ACS_Motorsport]

Blimey Ant, what's that all about?

haha my mum has some what of a small holding at my home back in Doncaster, she breeds Alapcas, Dogs and Poultry 🙈 the Alpacas are absolutely hilarious!

Sorry for the Alpaca-jacked thread @Tomotek Scooter

 

[Michaelfoz]

Hi, yeah I can imagine, I wouldn't have liked to even attempt the refurb if I didn't have a sandbalster! (I suppose a wire wheel on a grinder would do a good job too, but it would be hard to get into all the tight corners!) ... I didn't realise there was a section for guides??.. If it would be helpful to people I might write up something in more detail?...

+1 to this, fronts are straight forward. never really stripped down a rear caliper tbh.
I'm pretty sure i'd manage after a bit of head scratching but it'd be handy to have a guide lol

 

[Martin.]

Love the Llamas @Ant_Smiggy

 

[Tomotek]

You're not too far from me, would love to come and have a nose around all your work when the car is done :smile:

Hey Martin, sorry I haven't got back to you. I'm probably a bit to far away now but your more than welcome to have a nose when its done. I'll definitely be bringing it down to Brands for a track day though when its done, so maybe see you there!?

+1 to this, fronts are straight forward. never really stripped down a rear caliper tbh.
I'm pretty sure I'd manage after a bit of head scratching but it'd be handy to have a guide lol

I'll have to try and dig all out my pictures and see if I've got enough info to produce a guide then!.. They are more complicated for sure!.. Especially with the O-ring/Sleeve/Belleville washers/Spring Assembly!

 

[Martin.]

Hey Martin, sorry I haven't got back to you. I'm probably a bit to far away now but your more than welcome to have a nose when its done. I'll definitely be bringing it down to Brands for a track day though when its done, so maybe see you there!?!

Haha yeah just a bit too far now! Will no doubt see you at Brands then. Love a bit of Brands.

 

[Cub.]

Great build! I'm in Warwick and Leamington a lot due to friends and relatives being there.

 

[Tomotek]

Great build! I'm in Warwick and Leamington a lot due to friends and relatives being there. :smile:

Thanks!... On the garage theme, I just noticed one of your threads on here!.. Looking very tidy! Defiantly a requirement when I buy my first house!
Warwick is a lovely place, very quaint.. Not sure how they would take to me getting the good old power tools out once I have a garage though :smilingimp:

 

[Tomotek]

Also finally got round to putting my seats up for sale.. check out the post here:
http://www.cliosport.net/threads/182-interior-seats-front-seats-rear-bench-seat.763415/

 

[thedjse]

Excellent work looks like you have an OMP obsession like me lol. Love the strenghtening plates i did the same on my nova bottom arms and will be doing the same on these when i change the engine.

 

[andy1982]

Loving the car mate up the Rd from you in Deepcut

 

[Aaron87]

Just joined the forum..
Great car & awesome work on the build.. Impressive! ..
A small World tho.. I previously worked for an Automotive/Motorsport company in Woking and now work for JLR.. Are you @ Whitley or Gaydon?