Winter rebuild
Discussion
Morning folks, currently the racer is stripped down to a bare chassis. Is anyone interested if I was to write up a "progress report" up periodically similar to Leigh's Tasmin rebuild? http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
If it's something folks will be interested in I'll put the effort in to do it.
Regards
Iain
If it's something folks will be interested in I'll put the effort in to do it.
Regards
Iain
i most certainly would as i plan to do a rebuild myself this winterOk ok, I get the message 
The current state of play is the chassis is stripped, and up on axle stands. There is an old SD1 Vistesse engine sat in it as a buck and thats it. The body is outside awaiting modification, I'm picking up a hard top today then the plan is to build up the suspension, starting at the front because thats all new, decide what I'm doing with my cooling system and a few opther bits, then once its been built as a dry build, strip everything back down, get the chassis, cage and suspension powder coated, body sprayed and a new loom before building back up and testing in the spring.
Regfards
Iain
The current state of play is the chassis is stripped, and up on axle stands. There is an old SD1 Vistesse engine sat in it as a buck and thats it. The body is outside awaiting modification, I'm picking up a hard top today then the plan is to build up the suspension, starting at the front because thats all new, decide what I'm doing with my cooling system and a few opther bits, then once its been built as a dry build, strip everything back down, get the chassis, cage and suspension powder coated, body sprayed and a new loom before building back up and testing in the spring.Regfards
Iain
Chassis 33 said:
Ok ok, I get the message The current state of play is the chassis is stripped, and up on axle stands. There is an old SD1 Vistesse engine sat in it as a buck and thats it. The body is outside awaiting modification, I'm picking up a hard top today then the plan is to build up the suspension, starting at the front because thats all new, decide what I'm doing with my cooling system and a few opther bits, then once its been built as a dry build, strip everything back down, get the chassis, cage and suspension powder coated, body sprayed and a new loom before building back up and testing in the spring.
Regfards
Iain
I would love to have the time & the facilities & the confidence to do that. The current state of play is the chassis is stripped, and up on axle stands. There is an old SD1 Vistesse engine sat in it as a buck and thats it. The body is outside awaiting modification, I'm picking up a hard top today then the plan is to build up the suspension, starting at the front because thats all new, decide what I'm doing with my cooling system and a few opther bits, then once its been built as a dry build, strip everything back down, get the chassis, cage and suspension powder coated, body sprayed and a new loom before building back up and testing in the spring.Regfards
Iain
Keep us posted
Techniques, bolt positions etc. Sounds fab. Good luck.Right folks, by way of introduction for those who don't know me and my car...
I bought the Chimaera in June 2005 with the intention of keeping the car as close as possible to standard road spec as possible. This went out of the window when my dad wrapped the backend of it around a lamp post the day after my 24th birthday in August 2005. The car was the first race car I had built from scratch, however I've been tinkering with cars most of my life and have a degree in Automotive Engineering.
2006 was a torrid season, my inexperience really showed and I had more mechanical DNFs that any other result, and the rest of the time the car and I invariably tried to throw eachother backwards into the scenery. 2009 I wholly intend to be a different story.
Right enough of that. The car. As I've already said the car is now stripped down to a bare chassis with just a buck of an engine in place. I have the main intentions with this rebuild of righting the mistakes of the 2005/6 build, where there are obvious performance upgrades to be had without wasting time or money reinventing the wheel to do them and finally to make the look worthy of a racetrack, not the shabby motor it was.
The first upgrade that's being made is to swap to rose jointed front suspension. Several reasons for this, firstly I had to replace the upper rear poly-bushes a couple of times through the season due to heat damage from the exhaust manifolds, also in 2009 I'm running slicks and the rose-jointed wishbones will allow me to run much more camber. This is what I've been tinkering with this weekend. I took delivery of the wishbones last weekend, on Friday I went to DT and picked up 8 rosejoints...sadly I got 7 of one size and 1 of the other instead of 4 of each, something I didn't pick up on that until this morning. Anyway I've been able to build up one wheel station (almost). Once I get my replacement rose joints I'll be looking at setting up the front geometry.
Right some photos...
New lower wishbone
NSF wheel station
Inside view of the (new) wheels...mmmm now have room for bigger brakes
Note how shabby everything looks, once everything is built and correct, I'll be stripping everything down, acid dipping the chassis and anything that is to be powder coated. However when doing the first build, things are as they are, when say three bolts are used in the example of the lower ball joints, I'll only use two for example.
Any questions just shout!
Regards
Iain
I bought the Chimaera in June 2005 with the intention of keeping the car as close as possible to standard road spec as possible. This went out of the window when my dad wrapped the backend of it around a lamp post the day after my 24th birthday in August 2005. The car was the first race car I had built from scratch, however I've been tinkering with cars most of my life and have a degree in Automotive Engineering.
2006 was a torrid season, my inexperience really showed and I had more mechanical DNFs that any other result, and the rest of the time the car and I invariably tried to throw eachother backwards into the scenery. 2009 I wholly intend to be a different story.
Right enough of that. The car. As I've already said the car is now stripped down to a bare chassis with just a buck of an engine in place. I have the main intentions with this rebuild of righting the mistakes of the 2005/6 build, where there are obvious performance upgrades to be had without wasting time or money reinventing the wheel to do them and finally to make the look worthy of a racetrack, not the shabby motor it was.
The first upgrade that's being made is to swap to rose jointed front suspension. Several reasons for this, firstly I had to replace the upper rear poly-bushes a couple of times through the season due to heat damage from the exhaust manifolds, also in 2009 I'm running slicks and the rose-jointed wishbones will allow me to run much more camber. This is what I've been tinkering with this weekend. I took delivery of the wishbones last weekend, on Friday I went to DT and picked up 8 rosejoints...sadly I got 7 of one size and 1 of the other instead of 4 of each, something I didn't pick up on that until this morning. Anyway I've been able to build up one wheel station (almost). Once I get my replacement rose joints I'll be looking at setting up the front geometry.
Right some photos...
New lower wishbone
NSF wheel station
Inside view of the (new) wheels...mmmm now have room for bigger brakes
Note how shabby everything looks, once everything is built and correct, I'll be stripping everything down, acid dipping the chassis and anything that is to be powder coated. However when doing the first build, things are as they are, when say three bolts are used in the example of the lower ball joints, I'll only use two for example.
Any questions just shout!
Regards
Iain
Edited by Chassis 33 on Monday 20th October 08:27
Hello again folks, right the past few weeks I've been doing quite a bit of stuff that can't really be put into words and pictures, wondering about chassis stiffness and scrub radii and the like, any way recently I've been going all Blue Peter! My mind visualises things and I need to sometime mock things up either on CAD or in real life so some thoughts about stiffening the chassis have been made into cardboard reality, well not really just a few bits of gaffer, a saw and some cardboard tubes from the inside of plotter rolls. 
It's all a bit best guess TBH, I haven't the time to model everything up and do an FEA analysis on things, sadly. Maybe if I get my hands on a spare chassis next year I will do.
Anyway some photos of random bits of cardtube, to try and stiffen the engine bay area.
I've also been asking folks for a few bits of help http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a... so thanks to those who've replied. I'll be ordering my wheels in time for Christmas.
Hopefully this coming weekend I can sit around and measure various different bits of geometry to see what happens when I do X Y or Z, with the suspension very roughtly set up I'm getting about 2mm of bump steer from straight ahead position through the travel of the shock, so I'm hoping to reduce that.
Regards
Iain
It's all a bit best guess TBH, I haven't the time to model everything up and do an FEA analysis on things, sadly. Maybe if I get my hands on a spare chassis next year I will do.Anyway some photos of random bits of cardtube, to try and stiffen the engine bay area.
I've also been asking folks for a few bits of help http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a... so thanks to those who've replied. I'll be ordering my wheels in time for Christmas.
Hopefully this coming weekend I can sit around and measure various different bits of geometry to see what happens when I do X Y or Z, with the suspension very roughtly set up I'm getting about 2mm of bump steer from straight ahead position through the travel of the shock, so I'm hoping to reduce that.
Regards
Iain
Still no pictures to show you, however the tinkering with the suspension has been very useful, the chassis is now being prepped for welding in new tubes to stiffen the car, the idea is to increase the torsional stiffness of the chassis and reduce the amount of deflection of the top wishbone mounts. I've also been in conversation with Gaz (well Derek at AbShocks) regarding damper option for the 2009 season, so watch this space.
The other interesting bit that has happened, well intersting to me, is that the shell has gone to a secret location somewhere near Kidderminster for a nose job, and some other bodywork fettling. The idea is that front end will lift away, as per the Tuscan racers and some of the Tasmin racers and improve access to the engine bay of the car, not to mention the weight reduction. When I next head down to Kiderminster I'll take some photos and let you know whats happening.
Regards
Iain
The other interesting bit that has happened, well intersting to me, is that the shell has gone to a secret location somewhere near Kidderminster for a nose job, and some other bodywork fettling
. The idea is that front end will lift away, as per the Tuscan racers and some of the Tasmin racers and improve access to the engine bay of the car, not to mention the weight reduction. When I next head down to Kiderminster I'll take some photos and let you know whats happening.Regards
Iain
Good info so far!
Just a thought, I work for a major oil company, and we are now using thermally sprayed aluminium rather than paint on 'new/replacement steelwork.
I mention, because our inspection guys are quoting a 25 year life cycle for items so treated. As you can imagine, the steel has to endure some fairly aggressive environments so, I've wondered if this would be a viable alternative to powder coat? Unlike galvanising, the steel does not have to be heated to the same temperatures.
Just wanted to garner some views on this.
Nick
Just a thought, I work for a major oil company, and we are now using thermally sprayed aluminium rather than paint on 'new/replacement steelwork.
I mention, because our inspection guys are quoting a 25 year life cycle for items so treated. As you can imagine, the steel has to endure some fairly aggressive environments so, I've wondered if this would be a viable alternative to powder coat? Unlike galvanising, the steel does not have to be heated to the same temperatures.
Just wanted to garner some views on this.
Nick
Sprayed aluminium eh? Tell me more 
Right I think its about time you mighty fine chaps and chappesses had an update.
Unfortunately due to the cold weather and one thing and another I'm still waiting on my body to return from having all its modifications, and as such its somewhat hampering progress, as I need the body to complete the chassis alterations. Until the chassis is altered I can't send it for dipping and can't get on with building it up. However...
I have spend a hell of a lot of time prepping various bits and pieces
So far all the suspension components and many of the engine components have been cleaned up, spruced up and had replacement bearings, ball joints, bushes etc. throughout.
I've sent a rear upright assembly off to Keri at WMS to have some brackets made up to run 4-pot calipers at the rear. The initial plan was to compliment these with a set of 6pots at the front and about a 330mm disc; however because of the current £/$ exchange rate the cost of ordering in a pair of 6pots from his supplier has gone through the roof so initially I'll "only" be running a very large 4pot at the front with a view to running the 6-pot when either the exchange rate is more favourably or I win the lottery.
Once the body is back the chassis work that needs doing includes
Once that's sorted, I plan to build up the rolling chassis and get the suspension geometry fettled, before the body goes on as it improves access.
Then its something like
If you want any more specific details just holler
Regards
Iain
Right I think its about time you mighty fine chaps and chappesses had an update.
Unfortunately due to the cold weather and one thing and another I'm still waiting on my body to return from having all its modifications, and as such its somewhat hampering progress, as I need the body to complete the chassis alterations. Until the chassis is altered I can't send it for dipping and can't get on with building it up. However...
I have spend a hell of a lot of time prepping various bits and pieces
So far all the suspension components and many of the engine components have been cleaned up, spruced up and had replacement bearings, ball joints, bushes etc. throughout.
I've sent a rear upright assembly off to Keri at WMS to have some brackets made up to run 4-pot calipers at the rear. The initial plan was to compliment these with a set of 6pots at the front and about a 330mm disc; however because of the current £/$ exchange rate the cost of ordering in a pair of 6pots from his supplier has gone through the roof so initially I'll "only" be running a very large 4pot at the front with a view to running the 6-pot when either the exchange rate is more favourably or I win the lottery.
Once the body is back the chassis work that needs doing includes
- fabricating radiator mounts
- straps for the seats mounts and the pedal box mount (granted these can be done without the body as I marked the positions before the body went)
- mounts for front body work and splitter
- lower mount for the steering column
- chassis pickups for rear spoiler (if i choose to run one)
- brackets to attach flat floor (unless I mount it to the body of the floorpan)
Once that's sorted, I plan to build up the rolling chassis and get the suspension geometry fettled, before the body goes on as it improves access.
Then its something like
- body on
- exhaust system fabricated
- plumb all the fluids
- new wiring loom
- map the Megasquirt ECU
- the other 20million little bits and pieces that should only take 5mins but end up taking an eternity
- shake down at a local airfield
- test at Oulton
- hopefully be out for Donington in May because to be out for Cadwell is going to be a very close call.
If you want any more specific details just holler
Regards
Iain
im said:
^^^
Thats excellent update Iain - keep them coming.
BTW you do realise your parents mis-spelled the name Ian right?
Carry on.
Nah, they just copied it off a friend whos parents had mis-spelt his name. Thats excellent update Iain - keep them coming.
BTW you do realise your parents mis-spelled the name Ian right?
Carry on.
Tyre_Tread said:
Ian, I only just found this thread. Well done my man.
I wish I was closer as I'd love to see it in the flesh and maybe lend a hand.
I'll tell Steph that you're campaigning again this year (spoke to her earlier today).
Cheers I wish I was closer as I'd love to see it in the flesh and maybe lend a hand.
I'll tell Steph that you're campaigning again this year (spoke to her earlier today).
How's she doing these days?Regards
Iain
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