So, in order to get the new gaz shocks to fit the rocker arms (originally sized for spax), i've needed to weld in a kind of hat type arrangement to give a little more clearance for the shock. I need the clearance because the original spax were on bushes and the gaz are on spherical bearings (good). However, the housing for the spherical bearing is a little bigger.

Here's a picture (most important bit).


Description

nice job,... I have yet to get the welding kit out, but today machined a new aluminium bracket for the alternator,... great fun and very satisfying!

Pictures added


new alternator bracket_1

new alternator bracket_2



[Edited on 5/4/12 by HowardB]

oh you beast

Man join metal with fire, ugh!

fire is good.

Looks good - Just a note though, you can get spherical bearings for the spax units.


Spax_spherical_fitted


Spax_spherical_kit

I Have fitted these to the tops of all my spax units to ensure a 'comfortable' fit.


Rear upper spax spherical

Here is a rear one located and you can see if it was a 'rubber bush' it would be under
a lot of preload stress.

Len.

Len

Nice work.

I wanted to move off spax - I've had cornering force work on the geometry with me, and they recommended an update to the shocks. It seemed a good idea to put better shocks on after what I've spent on anti-roll bars.

I cannot disagree with that advice.

When I started my build, it was definitly as locost as possible - eventhough I bought most
of the kit all at once.

The guys at Fisher were let down by the quality of the chassis fabricators, and the sphericals
were really necessary to get the shocks to fit...

I bought the sphericals after a chat with the guys at spax and retrofitted them to my 'cheap' purchase.

The end result looks OK, but driving will be the confirmation.

Len.

I have other issues with the chassis as well - the powder coat's falling off everywhere.

It appears that when times were hard, the chassis would stand around between being blasted and coated so a layer of rust developed between the two. I have also heard (unsubstantiated rumour) that the chassis weren't necessarily blasted and cleaned before coating. Mine was coming off before the build was finished.

Thankfully, 'most' of mine is OK.

There are a couple of places where there was no adhesion between the
chassis and the powder coating. Removed it , cleaned of the rust and dust
and gave it a coat of paint. Thankfully these areas are in the cockpit.

Also a couple of places I had to grind welds of to get the panels flat.
This was annoying as proper grinding of the welds in the first place
would have prevented damaging the coating in these places.

Oh well, still enjoying the build though.
Working on the electrics prior to the first spin of the engine.

Len.

So, now we're having a good whinge. Pull a chair up and off we go:

The bottom brackets for the front shocks have two wear-holes from the bottom bush housings digging in because the holes are at slightly the wrong height. So, my shocks weren't pivoting on the bush but scraping on the chassis. talk about sticktion.

Secondly, where there were 1/2" sleeves (say on the shocks, or the mountings for the IRS at the back), the chassis holes had had 12mm holes drilled and 12mm bolts used. So, they kind of rattled and were loose.

Your turn ...

No winge, just describing the build challenges.

I Sort of agree with the hole/bolt size, but as far as I know,
if the bolts are torqued up correctly, they should be OK.

The other problem I understand you had, should be catered for with the alignment of the
shocks - hence my use of spherical bearings from the start.

I have a friend with a tiger and he has also fitted them. This has enabled him to
set the front suspension up really well and he says he even has self centering now!!!

Steve at Fisher Sports cars is doing a great job now. He has the jigs under his own control and can
select the people doing the chassis instead of it being done by a company with what
seemed like a grudge against previous owners of the car.

Body work is what I am looking forward to.....cough, cough.
I am not going to have a concourse car - ever.
The masking tape - mostly out of sight is a challenge, and the surface blemishes.
Rubdown of gelcoat, filler and paint respray would be required to get a half decent finish.

Yet again, Steve has had new moulds made and from what I hear, the resulting shell is good
and it even has some weight to it.

At least it means I will not get upset from the stone chips etc....

Just bought some seats but it is raining too hard to get them out of the car and see how well
they fit.

Len.

HI Len

I agree the car's in a very different place with Steve. Also, don't get me wrong - I have a lot of pride in my car and am very pleased with what I've made it, and am very excited by it's third incarnation.

The 12mm 0.5" thing is a major issue. It relied on the friction between the bracket and the bush to hold things in place, rather than the bush and the bolt through it. What that meant was over time, the mating surface between the bush and the bracket used to rub and loosen, and had to be tightened up.

I remember one night driving home and it felt like the rear end was on ice. I honestly felt like the car was seriously unsafe. Mark's view was "just do a spanner check and keep tightening". This is when i used to despair at the problem of good design and poor implementation - I have the first version of the IRS - slightly heavy compared to some, but regarded as having very good geometry.

I took the back end apart, reamed the holes to the right size and put the right bolts in, and it was utterly reliable ever since.

I have some video footage of the most recent work whereby you can grab the lower wishbone and tug it and hear it clunk - and it's properly torqued.

The bodywork is a challenge. I wouldn't worry about concourse - I did feel a little like keeping it beautiful until i started competing in hill-climbs, and then all bets are off. The happy compromise between road car and occasional competiton car went out of the window. All concessions to a comfortable road car were righteously disposed of.

Now i'm putting this healthy duratec in and am going that extra step again. It's going to be a different car for the third time.

That is all encouraging.

I will keep an eye on my Suspension joints when it is on the road.

Maybe after a shakedown I will ream the brackets and change the bolts.

Len.

I wouldn't wait - if you have the car built, it's very difficult to get the reamer into some of the places.

Get your vernier calipers out and see - if your shocker housings and or bushes are 1/2" and your bolts are 12mm, you will most likely suffer.

I managed to buy some heavy-duty bolts and lock-nuts at the right size for less than £1 each, and a reamer will cost you less than £20. It's a very quick fix if you have lots of access now.

But, like I said - Martin before Steve had done a lot of great work improving quality and evolving the design, and in my (albeit brief) chats with Steve, he's doing more again.

Such a pity it took this long.

Yes, the car is built to the stage where doing the modification will be awkward.

So - I will hopefully get some action before a 'winter mod' is undertaken.

Len.