tipo 184 build diary

[tricky360]

tuesdays delivery got cancelled,which was a bit unfortunate as i had booked the day off and primed a couple of mates to help with the frame
darren rung me and advised that it comes on a pallet and has wheels attached , he would need the wheels back ,so we need to set the frame on axle stands and trolly jack

so now delivery was today. , was told afternoon so i finished work at 12pm and waited for a call

driver called 1 hr before so he was due to arrive at my garage at 4.30 pm

managed to get hold of one of my mates who was available to help

the pallet is huge ! it’s about 15 ft long
so we had to cut off about 3 foot from the front and rear to get it into the garage
take front and rear clams off , screws holding on the wheels were rounded off ,so crow bar had to come out , doing this all in the dark with just phone torches to see what we were doing
the driver was very helpful ,so must pass on my thanks to him.
i’ll get better photos tomorrow of it crammed into a single garage when it’s daylight

[tricky360]

went briefly today just to secure the wooden pallet better, must say the quality is very good on the glass fibre and frame
they bolt the frame to the pallet so took them out and gave it a lift to see if i can move it

[Darren C]

tricky360 said:

tuesdays delivery got cancelled,which was a bit unfortunate as i had booked the day off and primed a couple of mates to help with the frame
darren rung me and advised that it comes on a pallet and has wheels attached , he would need the wheels back ,so we need to set the frame on axle stands and trolly jack

so now delivery was today. , was told afternoon so i finished work at 12pm and waited for a call

driver called 1 hr before so he was due to arrive at my garage at 4.30 pm

managed to get hold of one of my mates who was available to help

the pallet is huge ! it’s about 15 ft long
so we had to cut off about 3 foot from the front and rear to get it into the garage
take front and rear clams off , screws holding on the wheels were rounded off ,so crow bar had to come out , doing this all in the dark with just phone torches to see what we were doing
the driver was very helpful ,so must pass on my thanks to him.
i’ll get better photos tomorrow of it crammed into a single garage when it’s daylight

Apologies for the delivery being moved a day but as we explained the drivers young daughter was rushed into hospital on Tuesday morning and he spent the day & night with her.
Even with this the lead time was 22 days from order to delivery!
Really looking forwards to watching your build, if you have any questions please contact us directly via the Tipo184 email where we will be only to pleased to help.

Good luck with the build

[tricky360]

been awhile since i did anything as work with the run up to xmas was mega busy ,
got the chassis off the wooden pallet and on to axle stands ready for the second stage of building.
in the boxes of nuts and bolts etc was these round steel plates, not sure what they were for so called darren, it turns out that instead of them providing new top wishbones, which is mentioned in the build video,they now give you these plates to do yourself
i had to order new top wishbones because i thought i didn’t need the original ones.


i have no welding skills ,never done it before ,so i asked my local garage to do them, he will do them for free when he had time, turns out it was this week ,he had them for ages and then closed for xmas.


they are done now and i went passed a charity shop that had this model airfix type car, so iam now building two cars !

[Pflanzgarten]

I don't know enough about welding steel but is that a suitable replacement for a wishbone? If nowt else it looks a bit heath robinson. I'm sure the two that were the NEC last year had differences in the front wishbones as I pointed it out to my mate but don't recall the exact differences now?

One looked to have bespoke tubular wishbones and the other (what I thought) standard MX5 type ones like you have-is there an option for both?

[tricky360]

1.5 hrs today




painted up front wishbones




bolts are in individual bags so you can’t go wrong



i left front subframe stripped down to frame only as it’s easier for me to fit by myself

[tricky360]

2 hrs
put on the front wishbones and hubs , everything is loose so will tourque all bolts and nuts in one go and mark them with paint pen

[Alex Z]

That’s starting to come together nicely. How far through the estimated build time are you?

[tricky360]

alex z
iam probably about 36 hrs in total from getting the doner car stripped to this point, including the time to do rust treatment and painting

[Darren C]

Just seen your pictures of the upper arms.

Reading your post, there has never been any other Tipo upper arm, it has always been this 6mm reinforcing plate that replaces 1.5mm steel so it is far stronger when installed as intended

VERY importantly, you or your garage have NOT followed our instructions on welding this

In the photo with your airfix model kit the cut section of old arm is MISSING the underside weld to join it to the reinforcing plate (as per our instructions, you need to weld the cut out from the underside)

For safety can you please remove your suspension arms and weld them as per our issued instructions or take up our factory service of welding them for you

Thanks

[tricky360]

had my van in the garage for repairs today so asked if they could re weld the under side

hopefully this is better darren c ?

[Darren C]

Perfect

[C-Beams glitter]

Good to see the care/concern/interest shown by the kit purveyor, and the attention to those concerns paid by the builder.

Well done, both parties.

[tricky360]

2hrs today

got a quite week this week at work so i went today to carry on with the front

got the gaz shocks fitted today on the front





next was new hubs fitted



followed by fitting the new brake discs and hub adapters



started fitting front callipers but i only bought two new calliper bolts ,so only can do one side
ordered two more for the front and four for the rear as they are different for front and rear
also tourqued up the front bolts and nuts everywhere and put on the split pins

[tricky360]

30 mins
rained off work so went to the garage to put on the other two calliper bolts on, also fitted the brake pads and braided hoses



last week i went to the dowsett unit to look at a finished tipo and the demonstrator chassis ,
as i have never seen a finished one, i only bought my kit unseen , only from the website and build youtube

darren showed me all that i needed to see and answered a few unknown questions i had , very helpful and they have a good set up there
i spent about 2 hrs i think .
i bought the brake kit and the closing panel set while i was there also

[tricky360]

30 mins

went to the car today during my lunch break to cut off the metal wings from the steering rack

next i fitted it to the chassis

done it like this as i haven’t taken off my steering wheel yet, i need to hook up the steering rods to turn the wheels to get it out of the garage, plus i have something to pull against when i need the wheel off

i still have to drill out the lugs that hold on the indicator stalk and the ignition system which will be re used

[tricky360]

2 hrs

drilled out the two nuts that hold on the ignition barrel, was quite easy to do ,only broke one drill bit
next was to get the steering rack on, it took ages to do ,i put the expandable steering rack all the way in and worked backwards towards the front(if that make sense!) then once everything is in , you tap the rack back up to the steering wheel
swearing at it helped
still can’t get off the steering wheel from the hub , every time i tug back on it ,it moves the chassis on the axle stands, so i’ll remove it once the car is on the ground

[C-Beams glitter]

On that steering shaft, you need to 'clock' the UJs so they all line up properly. As you have that middle section at the moment, it will try to grow and shrink as you turn it, making the steering very notchy. It looks pretty constrained, so it might even cause damage to the joints or bearings as it is.

The joints want to be at 90 degrees to one another along any given shaft. (I think!!! It's been many years since I messed with that setup - it's either 90 or 0 anyway, not some odd value in between as it currently is).

Test how freely the steering column moves now, then adjust and try again. It should be free and smooth with no 'notchyness'.

Had a Marcos that had been put together like that and until I corrected it, the steering was horrible....


EDIT, found an example:

Edited by C-Beams glitter on Wednesday 6th March 17:09

[tricky360]

30 mins
Went to take the steering wheel off today
Had to tie a rachet strap around the wheel and onto the rear frame to get it off as it wasn’t budging with me yanking on it.
Once it’s off the indicator hub slides off



Took a couple of better pics of the union joints also



The collapsible column will have to come off to get the closing panel on so I can straighten it then

[C-Beams glitter]

Hard to be sure, but that one running along the chassis might be one spline out...but check them all - it really makes a difference to how it drives, and if wrong, could well be an IVA fail.