Projects time to build a new car for the hills

Thanks for all the nice comments guys.

Last Tues morning it was -6, 21F, here but I had a bit of time between jobs at work so I jumped in the car and drove to work. Bloody cold, really bloody cold, but great to be driving it again.

So with a bit of time I started on the bonnet (hood) tops and sides, again, just like most of the car, they're not finished but that can be done later.










Pete

 

I'm gonna Holy Shit this one more time..... Holy Shit Pete, you just made the rest of us look like hacks, again. Dammit...!

 

You are an aluminum welding mad man! Nicely done!

 

fair play pete ..you didnt muck about turning that around !!!!!!
was good to catch up today

 

I'm going to donate all of my tools to Lincoln Tech and take up the lost art of letter writing after reading this thread. Thanks a lot!

 

I just finished reading this and have to say AMEN (to the holy shits goin' round here)!!!!! The roadster you've created looks fantastic in every way! I wish I had as much talent as you have in the very TIP of your little finger.

 

Totally Bitchin'!

 

Artistic talent and pure class is all I have to say, most impressive. Thank you for sharing with us.

 

I won't live long enuff to learn to do that kind of work...

 

how did you weld the aluminium tig or mig ?

 

Just caught up with this - first time I saw the thread and wow, have I missed something!
Glad registration wasn't a hassle with our points system and no single vehicla test needed.....

Looks amazing - outstanding vehicle fro the bare bones.
As said above - I won't live long enough to attain this level of skill.

Also bookmarked the hillclimbing thread (I'm building an OT climber) and will do my utmost to get over and be at one of the meets this year with my boy. Perfect weekend

John

 

All the welding on the whole car including the aluminium and the chassis is T.I.G.

Thanks to all for the nice comments.

I haven't progressed much with the car over the last few weeks, been taking a break while recovering from 'man flu'.

I will be taking the body off the chassis tomorrow, want to do some finishing bits and need to panel beat some of the imperfections out, so I'll take it to the workshop as I can make more noise there while not upsetting the neighbours.

Also, while the body is off I'm going to pull the motor to sort a minor clutch issue.

That'll all be about a month or so and then it'll all go back together and just driven to sort the carbs and get some miles on before the first run of the racing seasons at the start of May.

Pete

 

Cant wait to see this go up the hill Pete

 

Must of missed your thread before Pete, It looks great mate, nice job !!!

 

Thats nice friggen work!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Just saw this thread and I was glued to it. Had to go through all the pages. Amazing Nice job

 

Nice welding & custom metal fab work on your project!!

 

Speechless. Beautiful!

 

Well done Pete for winning class Z in this great car.

 

Thanks Mark, it's been a good first year for the new car.

Just to update a bit for those that are interested. Started the year off with the first hill climb of the season at the wonderfully historic Shelsley Walsh hill, the oldest continuously used race track in the world, and knocked a very respectable 5 seconds off my previous best time in the old roadster. Very happy with the car, although the internally stock flatty did lack a bit of grunt on the long finish straight.

The next couple of events had the same sort of gains, knocking 4 and 5 seconds off my bests. Then I tried it at the drags, didn't run as well as I wanted, running 16.01 seconds, but the car feels much faster so I think its down to the driver.

With Pendine Sands looming, and 4.11:1 gears in the diff not really suited to long drives and speed trials, I pulled the rear axle and swapped in a set of 3.78:1 gears. This has made the car much better, it still has great acceleration through the gears and slightly longer legs on a run, and with the 6.50 x 16 rear tyres I use for racing it seems just a bit faster with less gear changes.

I never managed to get back to the drags with the new gears, due to going to Pendine, so don't know if the new gears would have broken into the 15's.

So that's were I'm at with the car, a good first year without any problems, driven it to all but the first event, raced and driven it home, just how it should be. Time now to pull it apart to start the first stage of its evolution. I have some Edelbrock heads plus a cam to go in, and going to be working on a front anti roll bar, been lifting the rear wheel and losing drive on sharp corners.

Cheers, Pete.

 

Pete:
I'm late to the party, and just read through the thread.. Just fantastic! Please keep the updates coming. Damn nice work there.

s_f_l

 

After the last little update I reread some of the latter posts and realized that I've done a fair few bits that I haven't shown on here.

First up, I've made the cover plates that hide the gap in the body where the three back panels joined. The button head allen screws will be replaced with rivets later. Plus there's a couple of brass tabs for strapping stuff to the back.



Rik (KFC) on here made a tonneau cover for me.



For racing I needed a radiator over flow tank. A mate came up with this old BP oil bottle, which fitted nicely. Try to ignore the electric fan, I do in the hope it might go away.



And I also needed a breather catch can too. This ones made from an old flask with a temporary rubber hose. You can also see a little pouch on the left of the catch can, this is an old aircraft fuse holder but now has a few home made tools to adjust and tweak the carbs.





I wanted to make a mesh cover for the grill shell, one to protect the rad and two to finish the look. Looked at many different styles of mesh but none seemed to float my boat, until clearing out some crap in the loft I found an old Model A stone guard, that'll do! Held in place by an aluminium strip folded and bent to shape.







And finally I sorted the fuel tank gauge. This is just a simple float on an arm with a rod running up to a pointer in an up-turned Model A fuel filter bowl, simple eh?









Well that's it, fully up to date. I'll be starting the first stage of the evolution in the next few weeks so will try to keep you up to speed.

Cheers, Pete

 

Cool, Pete, I noticed that fuel indicator and thought what a neat job it was.

Mart.

 

Pete, that fuel gauge is industrial art I love it.

 

Wow, what a thing of beauty!

Your abilities are amazing, I just can't get over all the little touches that make this car shine!

 

I saw the fuel gauge at Pendine Pete and had a smile

Steam punk!

 

I think the Brit terminology is GOB SMACKED or something like that. I can only shake my head in amazement.

How do mere mortals achieve this level of skill?? I'm feeling pretty insignificant, like I wasted a lifetime of learning very little by comparison.

 

Damn you are crazy good. To me that is the best looking car hands down I have ever seen that was entitrely hand fabricated. You are an artist my friend.

 

Congratulations to that car, I hope I can see the car once in real.

 

This car is so killer! amazing work!