[Project] The Rattlebox

[qwerty 9]

now thats the workshop i need!

 

really enjoying following this project

[davenport 51]

yeah the "social club" REALLY makes life easier...

 

as for updates....

 

well, a LOT of biking on a poxy BMX saw 14miles clocked up, a saw crotch, and some fuel lines... so thats ok..

 

 

 

 

at the sight of this i felt a little aroused so took some pics of the ol girl!!

 

 

knob shot!

 

 

cockpit!

 

 

throne!

 

 

 

with all the pipework done, it was time.......

 

 

loaded up we hit the A1 and the A14 and ended up @ Matts...

 

 

 

i`ll be heading over there later this week for a final spec but basic outlines are

 

Raychem

launch control

pit lane speed limiter

closed loop lambda

"deutsch" mil spec connectors here-n-there...

[davenport 51]

Took a late trip to TDF thursday evening.. armed with jaffa cakes and some redbull (gotta look after the people working on your car folks!!!).. Matt was busy finishing off a couple of customers cars, 1 of which is a bit special:

 

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?619576-James-BigAsh-182-Race-Car-by-TDF...-It-doesn-t-get-much-better-than-this!-*Pic-Heavy

 

i`m proud to say i`ve done a bit of welding on this, not much, but a bit...

 

 

anyhow, inbetween pushing cars around in and out of the dyno, eating pizza, and drinking redbull... we had a chat about my car..

 

 

a few things i`ve done wrong but nothing a quick bit of rework cant solve.. basically i`ve massively underestimated the amount of circuits in the loom and therefore the amount of relays...

 

but.. he can get round it!!

 

engine bays gonna have the raychem treatment, and some autosport connectors..

 

the injectors and TPS will all be routed through a connector so when maintenance in needed i can just pop the fuel lines off, whip the cable out and disconnect the lot neatly..

 

the coiplpack will also be fitted with a autosport connector..

 

the break out for the fuel pumps/fuel level sender will go through 1... so all that can be dropped out easily..

 

all wires tagged up neatly...

 

launch control.. pit lane speed limiter.. and closed loop lambda control will be fitted...

 

he also mentioned re-casing my ecu into the latest spec casing... (love service like that! remember what i was saying about looking after the people working on your car?? THIS is why!!)

 

i`d LOVE to go crazy and fit a pukka PCM but simply cant afford it at the minute....

 

 

thats about it for now... but i`ll leave you with a pic of what to expect!!!

 

 

BOOOOooooooom!!

 

 

 

 

motorsport PIMP spec!!!!!! hahahahaha love it!

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

This is looking schweeet! Too much money.

[davenport 51]

hahaha not sure about the "too much money" comment...

 

after the mortgage/bird/living theres not much left to put into this but i work hard and from what i`ve been told i`m pretty good at it so my wage aint too bad...

[Cameron 16]

Thanks for the Clio link, that's gonna provide me with a good few days of reading!

 

Coming along nicely by the sounds of it, any ideas when it's gonna be finished? Can't be too far off now!

[davenport 51]

haha yeah James clio is very nice... the cage has some clever touches, the main hoop is back a lot further than normal allowing the seat to go WAAAAAaaaay back (james is a big fella!!) so weight distribution is better.. and it ties in with the rear suspension mounts...

 

anyhow...

 

i`d guess Matt will be playing about with it for a month or so then once its back its strip down, back on the spit for the last bits of welding, then paint and reassemble... back to Matt for the final map tweaks and suspension setup and get using it!!!

 

 

if you get time have a look at a friend of mines ford build...

 

Jimbo`s saff:

 

http://passionford.com/forum/restorations-rebuilds-and-projects/367359-my-2wd-saff-cossie-project-2-1-12-a.html

 

enjoy!!!

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I've got a real soft spot for fast, retro fords. I even spend a bit of time on that forum looking through builds, also bought fast ford a couple times! Must be my dad, he had a couple Mk1/2's RS's and mexico's back in the day, one with a 2.1

[davenport 51]

and so........... it begins...............

 

 

 

[davenport 51]

another day, another purchase!!

 

i first saw 1 of these in the black clio that occasionally frequents TDF,

 

 

and i think i spotted 1 in James clio recently built by the TDF crew...

 

 

 

BOOM!!

 

 

wide angle rear veiw mirror!!

 

i ordered just the mirror off Ebay (ram motorsport iirc) and got a phonecall monday morning....

 

"sorry mate, the longacre mirror is out of stock, however we have the Joes racing version WITH brackets... i`ll send that instead"....

 

so i now have some trick brackets which i dont think i can use as my roof bar sits hard against the shell.. i think some dremel action may create clearance if not, i`ll weld some tabs onto the shell and mount it off them, and use the trick little mirror brackets for something else...

 

 

got a couple of cool ideas if they become spare but lets see how things pan out...........

[davenport 51]

Matt recently asked for a set of stands to raise his cornerweight pads up off the floor 300/400mm so he can use his 2 post lift to raise/lower the car onto them and work at a nicer height...

 

a bit like these:

 

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/oncirrus/system/trans.png

 

but higher....

 

so i set about having a play on autocad, he`s just launched a re-vamped website so i thought it`d be nice to incorporate his logo/website in the same font.(he didn`t ask for this but f*** it, they were always gonna be laser cut so might aswell make them trick!!).. bit of a PITA transfering JPEG into DWG format but i got there in the end and fired this over to my local laser profilers:

 

 

3 days later and 30 minutes on the press i had the building blocks:

 

 

fired up the tig and got them all tacked up:

 

 

really pleased with the quality of the cutting:

 

 

then came the bit i was dreading....

 

MIG`ing them up, i make no excuses i fecking hate MIG welding, its dirty, smelly, and i`m no good at it hahahaha

fortunatly luck was on my side and things went ok:

 

 

a quick hunt on Ebay sourced some M10 feet and the stands were ready for delivery and powdercoat * :

 

 

*- well, not quite finished, i had to holesaw a 35mm hole in the top flange of each stand for the power wire to pass through....

 

 

and thats about it, putting the feet inside the corners rather than outside would have been easier, and probably stronger but then they wouldn`t be stackable, and i know workshop space is precious so went this route instead..

 

should fund a few more trick bits on my loom.......

[stu8v 68 1 Cars]

Real nice work

 

Do you laser cut for cash? Can you do Ali?

[davenport 51]

i dont do it mate, theres a few companies i use, i tend to stick with laser for mild steel and stainless.. and get ali water cut...

 

the 3 main companies i use are:

 

mill stainless - wisbech

polar systems - kings lynn (jason is very helpful)

optima - kings lynn (toby or dom are good guys)

 

theres also a place called h2o profiling over in kimbolton, Thom is a sound guy but he seems to be a little more expensive than the regulars i use...

[davenport 51]

with the missus due to pop out out first sprog early november time my time/money/efforts have been concentrated on turning this:

 

 

into this:

 

 

and working my arse off to afford this!:

 

 

 

anyhow, things seem to have gotten to a point now where other than a couple of items, its now a waiting game and the "boy" front.. so i set about rounding up all the bits needed to get the car driving once Matts done the looms..

 

so the list:

 

 

find paddle clutch + cover - EASY! in a box in the workshop....

clutch release bearing - EASY! went and bought a new LUK item...

clutch to flywheel bolts - ahhhhh things got tricky, pug no longer sell them so after a frantic search in every box i eventually found them!!

 

 

what else....

 

ahhh yes the wierd L shaped bolts that hold the bearing in the intermediate carrier behind the block and the nuts for them...

these remain AWOL in the workshop so had to buy new ones, and being pug they had minimum quantities so i now have 4 bolts and a bag of 10 M7 nuts.....

 

but at least i have everything!!!!!

 

as for progress over at TDF, things have moved on a bit!!

 

 

thats the "upper" engine loom but still needs labelling and the autosport connectors thrown on...

[davenport 51]

starting to forget what the ol girl looks like so took these pics the other day....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

as for updates, not much i`m affraid.. treated myself to some of Colins wishbones:

 

 

and a lower strut brace:

 

 

 

hopefully they will appear soon and i can get the TRi outer balljoint pins modified to fit the spherical bearings.. (the TRi pins are 16mm and Colin uses a 5/8th (i think) outer ball joint) should be easy lust a little skim off the O/D 0.125mm to be exact lol

 

 

after a LONG wait from alcon regarding the discs i eventually told Matt to tell them to stick `em and hit the AP`s....

AP then sent some discs.. they looked great.. but a bit big.. a tape measure confirmed they were 330mm the thought of 17s on my car actually made a small piece of sick rise up.. so Matt phoned again and today the correct size arrived..

the prototype bell fits the disc spot on and the offsets seem to tally up with a standard disc so thats a good start.. net job is to mock up on my spare strut and get to work on the caliper mount..

 

AP sexyness-

 

FIA (feline inspection association) Approval-

 

BURTONpower seemed to be cheapest for the AP fixing bolts so there ordered..

 

the caliper mount has been drawn up and hopefully will be CNC`d into a couple of billets i have had kicking around...

[Batfink 201]

What sort of weight do those discs/bells come out at?

[Cameron 16]

The rotors are 5.4kg each according to AP's web catalogue.

 

Sorry, I read the part number off the box and couldn't resist!

[davenport 51]

hahaa detective Cam is on the case...

 

 

[davenport 51]

speaking of Cam....

 

taking inspiration from his caliper mounts.. and inspiration from another friends disc bells.. ive come up with these:

 

 

 

 

now, a warning!! i have no issue with people copying these parts, however i do not guarantee anything will fit or indeed line up where it should... who knows! i may even have altered a dimension or 2 just to piss off anyone who does copy these drawings!! hahahahaha

 

anyhow... these parts are currently being CNC`d so hopefully the front stoppers will be ticked off before xmas... maybe... depends on nappy changing duties...

 

much love

Stu

[Cameron 16]

Student version.. love it.

 

My version of Catia is still technically a student version, as is.. err.. pretty much every program I have actually!

[davenport 51]

Student version.. love it.

 

 

 

 

Hahahaha well i used to be......

[davenport 51]

courtesy of the machinist....

 

 

 

lets hope the buggers fit!!!!

[welshpug 1,626]

Do they fit then?

[davenport 51]

dunno... i aint got them

[davenport 51]

ok, so been doing a bit of running round today.. bit-n-bobs and hoping the clios suspension will shake the yob out of the missus... no luck on that score, but!!

 

i got my sweaty hands on the adapters so headed to the social club to see if my measuring worked out...

 

 

first hurdle cleared in a "f*** yeah" style....

 

 

 

disc + mock up bell on and things were looking good..

 

 

 

 

 

as with 4 pots and these 2 pot calipers, the caliper isn`t on sliders so the disc has to sit bang on in the middle of the caliper........

 

 

that`ll do for me!! its a bit tricky to get the camera angle to prove this but after poking a feeler guage in both sides, its all good!!!