Picture time!

 Time to post some pictures, first some useful ones. In the previous post I said I wanted to move from the bracket idea to the rose joint. This is what I'm aiming for now;

Now it does create a potential weakness in the roll bar strut, but it gives me more flexibility in the mounting. As long as I can get the rose joint securely screwed into the end of the support tube then I think it'll work (more on that later). 

Oh, one more picture from the same set;

Using string to find the route of the tube is a brilliant idea, it means that the hole starts small enough to make corrections before the bigger hole is cut. I'll be doing the same for mine. 

Now on to the show. Malvern as a showground certainly has it's advantages, not least of all it's location;

Nothing like blue skies and great scenery to really start the day off well!! 

First was the ANC Replicar, something I've seen multiple times and often turn to for inspiration. This time it was the finishing of the lower bodywork that caught my eye;

I probably won't copy it directly because I'm hoping mine will be boxed in, but it's good to see a strip of rivets used for a secure mounting.

The next photo was an idea for how to trim the boot;

This is just a fibreglass mould but it gives a nice usable finish to the boot space. I'll look at that probably after IVA?

Next was a method of boxing in the wheels. With the bodywork as it is, there is no protection at all from road debris (even a bog standard seven has wheel arches whereas I don't). This car is an example of how I'm planning to sort the arches;

Next, a bit more trim. This time behind the seats. I like the idea of plain aluminium that I'm working with at the moment, but in case it does there is always carpet. This is a pair of replicars, one with plain panels and the other with carpet;

It also shows examples of rear view mirrors (side and centre) which I will no doubt be following.

Next came this beautiful machine. It's an old version of the Healey (and it's a 100 rather than a 3000), and really gave me lots of ideas for how things will look in the end. I had a great chat with the owner who clearly had a lot of enthusiasm for his car. 

At this point I realised that I didn't have the measurements for the indicator or tail lights. While I can reuse the donor headlights, I don't have anything close to the other lights. I'll add that to the shopping list for Newark!

The one thing we did talk about was the number of sharp protrusions and corners that may have been ok at SVA (when he had it tested) but work with IVA. This car doesn't even have head restraints, and the spikes for the roof would never get past an IVA. But as with most kit cars, getting through IVA is one thing, the modifications afterwards are what makes it more like the finished product. 

He also mentioned a second one at the independent stand, and considering I didn't know these replicas existed I had to go look for it. The search didn't disappoint;

 This one had a bit more money thrown at it and you could tell, although I'll be happy if my car ends up even reasonably close to either of them. There was lots of little details on this one, like the chrome surrounds for the roll hoop. Of course the RAC badges and the rail is a nice touch, again for post-IVA.

Purely by coincidence, the next car I found was a Sebring in the same colour scheme, which made an interesting comparison;

I do like the Sebring cars, although just looking at this price tag shows they're in a different price range to what I'm dealing with. If they were still around I'd be looking at 25K to put one together. 

On the same independent stand there was another example of a car with a hinged bonnet and deflectors for road debris;

I don't recall the type of car, but as well as the flat plate deflectors under the bonnet there was also a very tidy exhaust install. The flexible joint out to the side mounted exhaust was well thought out, and the side mounted silencer looked really nice. No sign of a cat thought, which considering it was clearly an MX5 engine was quite surprising. Maybe the donor was just old enough to not need one?

The bonnet hinge here had some nice touches, like a metal wire to the engine to stop it swinging too far forward, as well as the foam tape on the body for it to sit on when closed. 

Todays progress

 After yesterdays trip to Malvern for the kit car show, I had a lot of ideas on what I want to do next. Photo's to follow, but first a progress update and thoughts on an issue.

Today I have;

1. Welded the driver side body outrigger.
2. Finished and tacked the cross bar for the roll hoop. 
3. Tacked on the rear support for the rest of the roll hoop.
4. Started to look at the brackets for the rear supports for the roll hoop. 

I'll come back to these in order, with photo's, but number 4 has left me with a problem. I got some brackets from the tube bender, on the basis that even with the slight angle I could still weld things up and get it working. Unfortunately that's not the case, even with a bit of trimming it's just not going to work. And on top of that, they are really ugly!! It's a big chunky thing with sharp points and just not what I want for a highly visible part.

However, I did see that Westfield use a rose joint as part of their roll hoop, there were quite a few of them at the show. A quick check on their page, and there it is, a 1/2 x 1/2 rose joint. It's a tidy solution, just requiring the rose joint itself on the end of the rear stay and two plates welded to the roll hoop. I already have 3mm plate so some brackets won't take long to weld up. 

But of course it's UNF, and I would prefer to stay metric. On this page there is a dimensions table https://www.mcgillmotorsport.com/1/2-x-1/2-unf-right-hand-male-xmr8-ultra-high-performance-rod-end-c-55-p-53. The 1/2 refers to the internal diameter of the hole, with the outside diameter being 1.3 inches (33mm) and the overall length being 2.4 inches (61mm). So the closest metric would be an M12 x 1.75 such as this https://www.mcgillmotorsport.com/m12-x-1.75mm-right-hand-male-xmrm12-ultra-high-performance-rod-end-c-55-p-257. Since McGill do free postage I'll get two of those.

So overall it's been a decent weekend, apart from a few more bumps and bruises. I'm not sure why but I seem to be extra clumsy lately. Hopefully it'll clear up at some point.

Right, that it's for now, I'll put a few more notes and photos during the week. 

Roll bar hoop installed

 This weekend was very productive, I managed to end up with a really painful ankle after a piece of wood jumped out and bit me, and half a pinkie fingernail missing when a piece of metal that I was drilling decided to grab and spin... Anyway, on to the real purpose of the weekend.

The first job was to cut some mounting plate from 3mm plate, then drill the holes for the bolts. That was pretty simple, and meant I had a platform for the roll bar;

Supporting the hoop from above I could see roughly where it would sit, but I could also see that it wasn't even. Not overly surprising to be honest, I specifically asked for the material to be cut at a right angle. It's clear from the pictures above that there was too much of a gap, and it was quite clear that one leg was longer than the other. 

Once I'd figured out how to measure the tube, I was able to cut and profile the ends. Oh, cutting roll bar tube with a hacksaw is an exercise in futility! The angry grinder and cutting disc came to the rescue, although I was still giving myself about 20mm of grinding and profiling to do. 

Eventually I got it level and flat across the surfaces, so I mounted it back on to the car. At this point it occurred to be that I can gain myself a few centimetres in order to increase the angle between the hoop and the brace. I therefore moved the roll bar forward on the plate until it was inline with the bolts. A quick tack and weld up, and this is what I have now;

The tube still sits within the four bolt pattern, but it's closer to the chassis frame which hopefully is a good thing? I can do the same with the rear braces, move those backwards. Every couple of inches gets me another five degrees, so with this being one inch forward I'm halfway there. Obviously I'll never go racing in this (maybe a track day at most), but at least if I aim for what MSUK suggest then I can have a bit of peace of mind. 

One thing I did note that despite me getting everything really hot when welding, the bolts loosened off really easily. There was no misalignment or similar issues. I thought I had twisted something when I started tacking it up as the right hand side had deflected a few mm. but after bracing it, welding it up then letting it cool it all settled down into a good position. 

For the rear braces it's back to the frame;

This was a little easier, with the frame not yet on the car I was able to cut and drill the plates for the braces without having to contort myself across the back of the car. Once this is welded up and on the back of the car I can finish the roll bar. Oh, I did notice that the passenger side plate doesn't quite line up anymore due to the captive nut weld, I'll have to bear that in mind when I finish the welding (they're only tacked in place at the moment). 

However there is a sequence to follow now. I want to get to the back of the car, which does mean that turning the car round in the garage would be the best option. But the bodywork supports can also benefit from the car being the other way round. So next job is to tack on the side support that is visible, then spin the car, then do the other side support and the rear. That way I can have the roll bar done and the bodywork support ready to go at a similar time. I still need to understand how the braces go through the bodywork, especially with the saddle clamps that I'll be using.

Oh, on the subject of saddle clamps...  I can see how they would fit and I think they'll only need a small amount of trimming to get the angle. It's going to be how close I can get the braces to vertical that'll be the tricky issue. Too far along and the angle will be off, but too close to the bend and it'll be the bend itself that causes the saddle clamps to need adjustment. And I've just thought of something, I need to find the centre line of the roll bar. Logic would suggest that it's the centre line of the car, but even that isn't straightforward. I might get the centreline sorted tonight as a mini-project, I won't have enough time to get all the welding done and turn the car around. Tomorrow I'm in the office and Wednesday will be making planters for the front garden. 

Real roll bar

 After deciding how things were going to be set up, I placed the order. And here it is!

OK, yes it's just a bunch of tubes at the moment, but just by the weight of them I can tell they will do the job.

A big shoutout to Race Spec Cages, AKA Tube Bender on Ebay. I asked about the removable links between the hoop and the struts, and he suggested the clamps could work even though it was off centre. The clamps are lying on the hoop in the picture above. With a solution for removable links in hand I went ahead and ordered it. It cost me £140 all in, which is roughly what I expected for the three bars, the bent hoop and the brackets. 

A quick fit against the drain pipe version shows that it's slightly taller, which isn't a bad thing. I've got to finish the ends ready for the plate, and the struts are actually long enough to reach the taller hoop so I'm tempted to run it at the slight height increase. It doesn't affect the cross brace, as you can see in the photo I requested a bar long enough to fit anywhere in the hoop. 

Next step is to make the mounting plates ready to weld to the bottom of the hoops and struts. Then I'll level off the hoop and angle the ends correctly, then start lining everything up. It's a fair bit of work to be honest, but it's a nice 'isolated' block. I don't have to rely on anything else included in the test fit.

Of course, it'll all change when the bodywork goes back on as I'll need to thread it through, but that should be a minor challenge. 

Oh, and it all needs cleaning! It's all scaled up and oily, as you would expect out of an engineering shop. A quick degrease then ten minutes with an appropriate cleaning disc on the angry grinder will sort it. 

Tank platform and roll bar brace

 This weekend was another busy one, bringing out the rear of the diff cage to provide a good platform for the fuel tank and somewhere fort he rear braces to go. 

The first thing that had to change was the position of the roll bar support. I had originally planned it for right on the corner of the fuel tank like this;

But in real life that wasn't going to be possible. The platform for the roll bar would be sticking out into thin air and very difficult to support. Instead I went for bringing in the support to line up with the tank;

Using 1 inch steel in a U shape off the back of the diff cage means that both the fuel tank and the roll cage support get some pretty beefy metal. I reproduced the roll hoop base to make sure it's consistent, so it's a 110mm pad with 70mm bolt distances. The whole thing will be braced to the bottom of the diff cage, and I also cut some more 3mm plate to form a box. That might seem a bit 'excessive' but does that word have meaning when it comes to roll cage strength?

The only doubt now is that the angle of the bar is lower than MSUK yearbook requirements. It's sat at 25 degrees instead of the required 30. To get the 30 degrees I'd have to move it back 50mm. That might be possible if I can get the captive bolts in place inside the rear tube (which isn't a bad thing, I just need to cut open the tube in order to weld them in place).

[Maths reference, with a 734mm long bar, 20 degrees needs 251mm from base to base, 25 degrees is 310mm and 30 degrees is 367mm]. 

In fact, just thinking about that step... I could take the plates back off, weld the nuts to the bottom of the plate (the same as it's done for the normal suspension top), then just cut an appropriate hole in the bar. That would mean the nut is in place but the bar itself doesn't have a big gaping hole in it. Thankfully I've only tacked the plated in place at this stage, it won't take much to cut the tacks and start again. I just need to drill the holes first to make sure it lines back up when I'm done. That's this evenings job I think. 

For tube lengths, I've got each strut at 800, the cross bar at 1000, then whatever is needed for the hoop. 

In other news, I got the captive nuts welded in for the seat bases, and the matching holes drilled in the wood. It looks like the bolts screw through far enough to come up flush with the wood, so that should mean I won't feel the bolts through the seat. I'm still worried about the movement on the drivers seat though, it seems to bind very easily. Still, given that it won't be moving very often I am hoping it's ok as is. 

Final roll bar design

 Well, I think I finally have a good solution. As per my previous post, I will be able to go backwards for the support bars. With the fuel tank in place, I was able to measure where the corners ended up, and how I could brace them. This picture shows the angle of the first support in relation to the swirl pot;

Coming straight up from the bottom joint gives clearance up to the corner of the fuel tank. For the horizontal support I have plenty of options;

I'm tempted to come off the open tube as that needs sealing up anyway. With those two as the triangle to support the tank, I can then add a bar straight across for the tank to sit on.

That bar will then become the support for the roll bar;

So the fuel tank will be sitting between the roll bar supports, and the roll bar itself will be braced against the suspension brackets on the diff cage (which is probably the strongest part of the car at the moment!!).

to check the angle I took a picture of the side view;

That angle is 35 degrees, and considering MSUK yearbook says 30 degrees minimum I'm happy with that. 

So this weekend I'm going to weld up a platform for the tank. However, I've just realised the support structure for the rear of the chassis also needs to be included. I'll have to look at that and see if they can both be added at the same time. If not it's just an extra task a bit later on. 

Change of plan for the roll bar

 Once again locostbuilders to the rescue. I posted my pictures for the roll bar design and the feedback was, erm, not good. Some of the points were similar to what I was thinking, others I'd not really thought about.

MrWhippy was the most succinct in feedback;

1. Angle is far too steep. I wasn't sure about this, but it wasn't a good sign that 'the tube bender' only cuts roll bar fish mouths for up to 45 degrees. At what angle does a triangle no longer become a triangle? This MX5 roll bar is a perfect example;

Are those 'support bars' actually supporting? 

2. The brace is not mounted to a strong part of the chassis. This one I wasn't sure about, I think it was the picture angle. The brace comes down to the triangulation point of the chassis, as well as very close to the lateral support for the seats. That's five lengths of 25mm steel converging at one point. As long as I got the fixing right (welded 5mm plate for example) that would be more than enough. 

3. The brace is only supporting half the height of the hoop. Yep, very accurate. I'm introducing forces to the edge of a triangle rather than the corner. It needs to be brought all the way to the top. That would mean a tighter angle on the side bar though.

After a few back and forth discussions (thank you Russbost, Mr Whippy, adampage and adithorp) it is clear that whatever I do on the side I'll just be swapping one compromise for another. I wouldn't actually get the structure required to keep my head off the floor with the car upside down. 

adampage had an interesting idea though. Why not bring it down to the diff cage? Initially it was a no-go, that's where I have my fuel tank;

But as I looked at those photos I realised that I still need to build out a platform for the fuel tank. That strap is currently the only thing holding the tank on to about two inches of metal! Since I have to support the fuel tank already, why not simply build it out to either side to make platforms for rear braces. They could be triangulated to the diff cage (which is a substantial cube already) and I wouldn't lose any boot space because of it. 

The only thing I'd need to consider is getting the bars through the bodywork. I'd need to make sure that at least one end of the roll bar is as thin as it can get. There's a couple of options, both appear on this roll bar;

The first option is a sleeve with bolts through, the example can be seen top left and right and is a 'double bolt' arrangement. That would require finding some tube that fitted tightly inside the roll bar tube.

The second option is a double shear bracket with a bolt through, which is what is used on the diagonals in the image. I prefer that one to be honest. Demon Tweeks sell the OMP gudgeon pin and weldable roll bar connection, but I could also use steel plate. 

Hmm, looks like Race Spec Cages (AKA Ebat Tube Bender) have the sleeve option; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331096168053. I'm not sure it would work though, to keep things tight the bar would not have any 'wiggle room' which would make it difficult to fit. 

Anyhow, first thing is back to the prototype stage to build out the platform and see if the rear stays would work around the fuel tank. 

Edit: A quick note on angles. Looking at the MSUK yearbook I can see that a minimum angle of 30 degrees is required. At least that gives me something to work to. It also gives some guidance on bracket types and there's a few options. I'm assuming if they're MSUK approved then they're good enough for me. Images K21 to K30 show the various brackets, starting on page 200 of the rule book. 

Seat belts

 When I was putting the seats in, my attention came back to the seat belts, in particular the buckles. The Mark 1 are on a large stalk and wouldn't be suitable. I bought some mark 2 buckles off Ebay, I had 'lost' them but managed to find them in my tool box.

Unfortunately while they are shorted than the mark 1, they're actually so short that they interfere with the seat! So they're not suitable. Back to the mark 1 buckles.

I did notice that the buckle was covered in a hard plastic with a metal support bar. I realised that if I remove the plastic and the bar it becomes a regular buckle. This picture shows what I'm working with;

The far right is the mark 2 belt, originally it looks like a good idea but turns out it's not. The far left is the original mark 1 with a plastic shell keeping it stiff. The centre is the one I'm going to use, it has a suitable length of webbing so that it doesn't interfere with the seat, but it also means that it's floppy enough to work as a seat belt. The buckle should sit roughly at the hip depending on where the seat is positioned. 

So that means at the end of the weekend I have;

1. Seats on working seat rails.

2. A roll bar ready to be measured and ordered.

3. Seat belts ready to be bolted in place (although the top seat mounting needs the roll bar). 

There's a few details to be finished up, then I can get the foam and cover on to the seats. 

Next big job, engine fit and propshaft measure.

Seat mounting rails

 Another job finished up this weekend was the chassis mounting rails. This was a pain because it wasn't until I tried to fit the drivers door that I realised they're not matching! The passenger seat went in ok, and it works;

I put the aluminium panels in just to make sure it all moved correctly without binding. It does go back far enough to touch the seat belt reel but it doesn't stop the mechanism from working. I could also put a stop on the rail if needed. 

The drivers side went in and I immediately realised there wasn't enough tension on the seat rail wire. Only one side would release. So I had to reposition the drivers side rail, but eventually I got them both fixed in place;

The seat bases need to be fixed in place, and the nuts need to be welded in place. Once I have the foam and covers on I'll only be able to get to one side, so I need to weld those nuts on. To bolt the seats to the car I have access top and bottom so don't need to weld them in place. 

This did present a problem though, there is very little clearance on either side. The seat belt locks won't fit...

Roll bar prototype finish

 Apart from an old geezer getting a posh hat, this weekend has been very busy. I'll split it into several posts because otherwise I might miss something.

First task was the roll bar. With the hoop bolted in place, I ran a second tube down the side of the car to get an idea of how to brace it. I wanted to minimise bends on this part to make sure the loads went into the chassis and not into the bends. 

I've attached the brace as high as I could before the bend starts on the hoop. It then comes down to halfway down the top bar, then parallel to the same bar all the way down to the floor pan. 

This picture shows the final result once it had been glued and taped up;

A couple of things to note. The bar bends upwards and inwards, but I actually managed to do both in one bend. That does mean I can just have it bent in one (and I know the angle now), but I can't get them to cut either end. I'll have to order them longer and cut them to suit. 

The other thing is the forces involved. With the plastic bar I can see how it would deform, and as expected it's the side bar bend. However what I can do is add another bracket so it's not just fixed to the bottom. 

So now I can get this ordered. It'll be four pieces. The roll bar hoop, two sides and the centre bar. I still need to prototype that length but it's not going to be difficult. I then need to figure out how to get the body over the top of it, I might do that before I have the real thing. 

Looks like I'll need about 5 metres of tube, and 4 bends. 44.45mm tube for 5 metres is £66, I don't know how much the bending is though. Hopefully because they're only small bends in a single line it won't be too difficult to produce. It would probably cost more to post than to bend!

But that's it for the roll bar mock up, the next time I'll be working on it will be to weld it up. 

(Edit) A couple of extra photos;

Bodywork brackets

 One of the things I've been working on is the bodywork brackets. The outriggers will stick out of the car around 4 inches or so, but I wanted to have them removable as well as load bearing.

I came up with this set up;

It consists of an outer sleeve that will be welded to the chassis, and an inner sleeve that will be welded to the rail. The left hand one is tack welded to the rail. When on the car, the rail will slot into the sleeve (centre), then an M8 bolt, washer and nut that will go through both (right). 

The 'cup' of the outer sleeve will provide support, with the length of the inner sleeve providing leverage. The bolt is in single shear which I wanted to avoid, but it does provide the clamping force needed to keep things tight. 

Roll bar prototype

 

The picture says it all really!! This was a fun task, making a prototype roll bar out of waste pipe. The CDS used for roll bars is either 44mm or 50mm for motorsport compliance. Not that I need compliance but it's nice to have a standard to work to. This waste pipe is 40mm, so basically 2mm out either side.

This is the main hoop with the correct bend radius. The distance between blue marks is the 140mm centre line radius that 'the tube bender' (AKA Race Spec Cages in Rugby) quotes on his ebay listing. 

This prototype has given me so much information. First is the expected height, I could see that from the top of the roll bar to the front of the car drew a line that was above my head height. Well, only slightly above my head height, I'll need to wear a helmet as well. The side angle is a decent look, it's not really clear on this picture but both sides are angled in a bit. 

The main thing it gives me is some guidance on how the side impact bars can come down and triangulate the roll bar. From the previous post I was aiming for this;

And I'm happy that it will work like that. I do need to get the body on though, I'm going to need to cut it for the roll bar but I may also need additional cuts for the side bars. I'm pretty much certain that I'll be removing the side pods inside the body though, I can't get them to match my chassis and I'd waste a lot of time trying to do so. I do need to figure out a shelf or something though, again from previous posts it's this look I'm after;

That reminds me, I do need to get some more photos from the kit car show for this particular layout. It also needs to be fixed to the body, so that'll be some angle brackets and more glue!

I'm digressing, this was a roll bar post. Next job, a bit more pipe and figure out how it can mount to the chassis without interfering with the body. 

Change of approach for the seats

 Along with a few other jobs (photos of my 'roll bar' to come next!), I've been looking at the seat mounting again. First job was to shrink the holes to M8. Using M14 bolts in the first place was just completely wrong, I'd decided on it based on the holes in the seat rails and not realised the Mazda screws are a 'top hat' design. Basically the head of the bolt is M14, the rest of it is much thinner. Anyway, some M8 penny washers welded in place seems to have done the trick. I won't change the frame, mainly because it's too awkward but also it's good to have a bit of tolerance.

So now it's on to the fixing. My first plan was to use self tappers into the wood. Now that was a really stupid idea!! Any impact at all would have left the seat torn from it's mountings, folded up like a deckchair! I need to fix it to the frame, either by welding directly or by mounting some plates on the frame and securing it to those. Thankfully the positioning of the rails is right up against the sides of the seat, so it wouldn't take much to weld some plate where the fixing holes go. 

It also means that I avoid a problem that I was seeing. The rail mountings have a slightly raised section where the locking mechanism is. Trying to mount that to the seats would have meant either channelling out a section of the wood or raising it up on yet more wood. I don't need to worry about either of those now as the plates will raise the seats slightly anyway.

And then it's on to the fixing. Now that I'm bolting metal to metal it becomes really simple, a captive nut (or bolt?) welded to the plate will provide the relevant anchor, a small recess in the wood will host the head. Actually, thinking about it I'll go for a captive bolt. Or can I... Hmm, I'd best check the clearance before I head out to the DIY store. Yep, it's a bank holiday so I'm going to a DIY store. Shelves to be put up and all that. 

(Later that day...)

Rather than start a brand new post I thought an extension to the existing one would be better. Back to seat belts. The rules are pretty straightforward and common sense, the main one is that the belt cannot be affected by the seat. They class it as a 'change of direction' and basically means that if the belt could apply force to the seat, the seat has to be able to take it.

The upper fixing also needs to be 450mm off the R reference point. That does mean I need to either lift the bracket, or simply work off the roll bar. I think a welded bracket on the cross bar is the easiest option there, it's how they do it in the book.

Time for an obligatory photo;

Yes, this is the passenger seat. I decided very early on that the seat belts would work better 'backwards'. That is the inertia reel and upper mounting would sit inboard rather than outboard, then the buckle sits on the outside.

This shows a few things. First, I need to remember to leave space for the inertia reel. I had forgotten this, but this doesn't cause an issue as I just need to remember to mount the seat on the runners so it can't go that far back. To be fair it doesn't take up that much space anyway, so I'm only losing maybe an inch of rearward travel. I've already figured out that having the seat that far back leaves me completely out of range of the pedals and the wheel!!

Second is the fixings. They need to be proper seat belt fixings that allow the belts to rotate. The standard belts do this by using a sleeve and a series of washers, I'll probably do the same. That'll be for both hip fixings and the shoulder fixings, the inertia reel needs to be fixed. And I mean fixed, these reels only work if they are vertical so they can't be allowed to move. 

Third is the buckle, I need to find out where I put the shorter buckles. I remember ordering them off Ebay, I remember receiving them, I remember having to strip one down to find out why it wasn't working. I just can't find them now!! I might go back through the blog and see where I last had them. 

Fourth is the sleeves. The inertia reel is currently clamped to the chassis rail, however I'll need to put a bolt through to secure it. This will mean drill, weld a sleeve, grind it flat, then bolts in place. Thinking about it only the inertia reel fixings need the sleeves for now, the two lap fixings are there by design and the shoulder fixing can't be done until I sort the roll bar.

So back to the seat fixings to the runners... there's still a few hours of today left so I'll get stuck in.

At least the colour will work nicely with the leatherette seat covers, but they do still need a good clean.

(Edit: It doesn't look like I posted anything about the seat buckles, they arrived September 2021 and the only thing more recent was the batch of ones from the last few weeks. Looks like I might have to find myself some new ones)

Roll bars

One of the things to be sorted is the roll bar. Due to the rear aspect of the car, there is no bracing available like on the original locost. It could be fabricated, but then I'd lose boot space, possibly part of the bodywork, and overall I'm not convinced the strength would be there. I also can't extend forwards into the seating area, because I want to keep it open. 

This leaves me with a piece of metal that is bolted in place with a handful of bolts, and I'm not convinced it would work. The leverage alone on the car would tear the bar off or even destroy the mounting plates, even thinking about it makes me cringe!

However I think I can bring extension bars down between the bodywork and the chassis. This roll bar from MK shows the sort of thing that could be possible;

The highlighted section looks like it would drop down from the rear overhead bar, it could then be mounted directly to the bottom of the chassis. As long as it mounted reasonably high enough it could be both decorative and functional, without losing much/any cabin space. I suspect I'll need to remove the parts of the bodywork that sweep down towards the body, but to be honest they don't fit very well, it's going to take a lot of work to get them in the right place, and I was 80% sure I'd just remove them anyway! 

The next steps for this particular job, in parallel to the seat trimming and the outriggers welding and gluing, will be to fashion an example out of drainpipe. It's an old trick used to route exhausts but it should work to show this as well. The CDS used for roll cages is 44.45mm OD, whereas waste pipe is 40mm OD. As long as I maintain a 2mm gap where required I should be able to replicate a roll bar. So I need a couple lengths of pipe and a roll of gaffer tape!

Just as a quick note, the fixings needed to attach the tubes together are known as saddle clamps. Here is an example; https://www.tomcatwebshop.co.uk/set-of-six-45mm175-roll-cage-saddle-clamps-3012-6-571-p.asp

This is how they're used;

In this example that are at right angles, but I suspect for my roll bar they will need to be at an angle. It is possible to get a hinged joint but I need to make sure they're strong enough and do the job. 

(Update). Here's a quick scribble based on some pointers from the great people over at LCB;

Interesting observation

 I've just been going back over this blog, to where the bodywork was first trial fitted. On that occasion it was the front panel that I fitted and took pictures. Here's where it get interesting;

This is a pair of pictures, one taken 'back then' for the front, and the other showing the current body panel. The assumption has always been that there would be a gap between the two panels, based on the wheelbase suggested by the creator of the bodywork. However this suggests that while the bonnet comes up to just short of the steering wheel frame, the body actually extends a fair bit underneath. 

This means that instead of having to add bits, I might actually have to trim the bonnet down! This is fantastic if it's true, as it's so much easier to take things off than it is to put things on (ask any barber!). 

So my mission for this weekend (if weather and wife allows) is to get the bonnet out of the shed and get it on to the chassis again. Or it might be to get the body outriggers sorted, then at least I have a known predictable base for the body.

Update: It's actually clearer with the 'straight on' picture;

You can see the bottom edge finishes halfway up the rail, but the bodywork actually ends up further along. So it's definitely an overlap, which is good.

More bodywork notes

 Since the weather has been absolutely shocking here, it's forced me to do some more theory instead of practical. Here's a few notes.

For outriggers, the main bar will be bonded to the bodywork, in general the view is that it's more than strong enough as long as it's done according to the instructions. I could use rivets or screws as well, but the way the bodywork works I think they would be visible. 

The outriggers will need some sort of bolt mechanism for easy removal. I did think about this initially, but it does seem to be a good idea for lots of reasons. A quick discussion on LCB suggests 6mm bolts will be fine. The plan will be to weld the triangulated sections on to the chassis, then bolt the beam/bodywork on the end. I've still not decided on the best option, I suspect something in double shear will be the most sensible. 

Behind the seats there will be a filler panel. I did think about wood for this one, and it turns out the Tiger GTA also uses a wood panel. The only thing will be water absorption, so if I do go for wood it'll need a fair bit of sealing. But I also need it to be securely fixed to the chassis, so at the very least it'll need to be skinned with metal to provide a solid fixing. 

The boot is looking quite promising, this should also be skinned to make a usable area. More aluminium, rivets and bolts as required (I'll make the entire boot removable). 

For the sides, the initial thought was to 'sweep' up from the edges of the chassis up to the bodywork. But thinking about it, that makes things very claustrophobic. It would be better to go for a 'side pod' arrangement, basically a shelf from the chassis out to the bodywork. This is a great example from a Sylva Fury;

(I think I've taken photos of this car before, I remember feeling that the aluminium corner trim looks really nice). 

This should be fairly simple to do, although it will need more aluminium. The original panels were from the Metal Store, although I have no idea how expensive it might be now!! I might need to raid my existing stock for leftovers, which will inevitably mean steel rather than aluminium. 

The support for the bulkhead will need to be curved steel, something like an inch wide and maybe 2mm thick. This will be supported from underneath and welded to the car, then I'll figure out some other fixing to attach it to the bodywork. 

In the meantime, I have some runners and some leatherette to fix to my seats. 

Seats and bodywork

 Well, that was definitely the biggest gap there's been for working on the car. I guess that's what happens when you buy a second house and spend every bit of money and time getting it ready to be lived in!! Still, I got a nice office out of it and both kids got a room upgrade. 

Anyway, on to the car. I have been working on the seats on and off, but that'll be a separate post. This is going to be related to this;

This is the rear bodywork as it will sit on the car. It took a fair bit of fettling but to be honest I'm happy with how it sits. I have had trouble with the dimensions though. Setting things up with a centreline shows that the two sides are not in parallel. This could be how it's been stored (for MANY years) or it could just be the mould. Either way it took a lot of moving, positioning, clamping etc. 

The main task for this is to build the outriggers. There will be one each side and one at the back. The ones at the side will fit inside the body, and I need to fix the body to the bottom of them (more on that later). Here is a diagram showing a small steel section running in the right location;

As you can see there is a gap from the chassis to the outrigger. This is fine and actually desired, because I'm hoping to squeeze an exhaust in there!!

That will be either side, running the full length of the body. Using many clamps and braces I could see how it would be when it was fully installed, and it feels really stable. Well, at least in the Y and Z directions, the X direction at the top needs more work!!

The rear outrigger will be similar to the book;

This is just for measurement, there will be a decent amount of triangulation here. 

Along with this rear outrigger, I wanted to trial fit the tank;

This is where the book suggests it should go, right behind the diff. It looked 'ok' but I wasn't overly convinced. It seemed to intrude into the rear compartment, and the distance to the filler cap was excessive. I think it's only here on the Locost cars because it's the rear most 'thing' and they want to preserve the space above it for luggage. The Healey bodywork has a different setup so it doesn't need to be set so low.

In any case, there was a far more pressing matter;

The swirl pot actually ends up being the lowest point of the car!! you can see from the picture that even when I mount it as high as possible, the swirl pot is still in line with the bottom of the chassis, But because the Healey back end sweeps upwards, that means that if somehow I hit the ground then the swirl pot would be first to strike. 

Of course, I think I'd be in more trouble than simply losing a tank full of fuel (the wheel itself would need to come off and various other things break as well), but together with it not making best use of the boot I decided to move it;

Having it above the diff makes so much more sense. First the filler is a lot shorter. The tank itself is on some pretty substantial metal (it's the diff cage after all!!). The swirl pot is safely away from being vulnerable, the diff is easily accessible, and lastly the boot space is much better utilised. I doubt the proximity to the occupants will matter, after all one of the Toyota's has their tank running down the middle of the car!

So I have the measurements and the metal cut for the side and back outriggers, they'll get welded up soon (along with suitable triangulation). I now need to figure out how to fix the bodywork. My first thought was rivets, but they'll pull through the bodywork. Even using rivets with  washers will be challenging due to the thickness that they'll have to go through.

But then I thought back to my original plan which was Sikaflex/Tiger Seal. Bonding the body to the bottom of the braces would be easier, I just need to make sure it's strong enough. 

Well, that's it for now, this was a really productive day and it meant I could get a lot done. At some point I need to get the front out of the shed and do a similar bracing exercise, as well as understand the gap between the front and rear. I know from earlier discussions that the wheelbase of the original bodywork is shorter than the car I've built, which will mean an extra section in the middle. Oh, and while I'm talking about sizes, the wheels are very likely to stick out the sides of the body. I don't mind, I was torn between the narrow body Healey and the wider example from the likes of Sebring etc.