Dash instruments and bonnet

seats are made from the back seat from an EA Falcon

the transmission tunnel has a well padded arm rest

it weigh a little more than the fiberglass bonnet on MK 1 but it looks SO much better and it is hinged to make checking the oil or water easier

sleek or what?

the dash is seen here with the opening fro the glove box unfinsished

with a suitable prop the bonnet looks great.

The bonnet is lovely and shiney but will require a bulge to clear the front of the cam cover

starting to look like a Seven now

driver’s side

looking towards the front

3/4 rear

new scuttle is slightly deeper than the old because the dash angle has been reduced.

scuttle clad

Red and silver is a great combination

Some pictures of my progress.

Chassis now painted “delicious red”

Wipers and a very nice rear quarter

the wiper motor just needs a mounting strap and the arms need to be shortenedby about 75mm

The winscreen wipers were easier to set up than I expected.

the curved tubes give a very nice line to the rear quarters

I had the good fortune to find a metal sun chair with a circular base which was the right diameter to make the rounded section at the rear of the cockpit.

The curved tubes at the rear of cockpit will be clad in 1.6mm ally

the fuel tank is to mount lower in this frame so it will sit on the two pieces of angle which I have welded into the the rear of the frame.Also in this photo is the fuel pump mounting bracket.

Some photos of my latest progress

Enjoy

Cheers Comrade s

Some pictures of my new chassis

starting on a sheet of 19mm MDF the bottom frame was laid out and built up as per the book except that the frame is 50mm wider and 25mm higher

cockpit side rails are 25mm ERW tube to give a nicer rounded edge

those open tubes in the bottom of the transmission tunnel

round tube at the top and the bottom of the front section

An auto requires a large opening

the battery will sit at the bottom of the frame for a lower the centere of gravity

an extra cross tube for strength at the bottom of the picture

looking like a seven frame now

from the front

seet belt retractors will fit inside this 100×100 RHS

the cockpt scuttle is part of the frame proper rather than being bolted to it.

engine bay bracing

making the corners rounded

windscreen frame is made of 2O x 20 RHS and it fits into sockets in the scuttle

hand brake location on the top of the transmission tunnel is awful in practice as it gets in the way of the drivers elbow while driving. My solution is to move it to the passenger side of the transmission tunnel

to ensure the engine/trans will go in the right place I had to allow for some postioning adjustment so the gear box mount will be apiece of 3mm sheet that bolts to these tags

looking forward and you can see that the rear bulk head is higher and drilled fro the head rests

rounding off the corners

the trans tunnel is made of folded 1.6 mm steel this makes the whole kit and kaboodle much narrower than in the book .Also it is lower at the front.

being an auto there is no need to have the shift lever that far back

Roomy! for a seven

rather than re use my fiber glass bonnet/ hood I am going to use alloy sheet to cover the engine also I have decided to hinge it on the drivers side using the over center clips on the left to hold it closed this requires a frame which I have made from 13mm RHS

The bonnet/ hood frame in the open position I will have to make some kind of folding retainer

the section of the trans tunnel under the dash has a removable top for acess and mountying the shifter to

I went out and bought a spare master cylinder so that I can set up the brakes this time I am ditching the booster and the lpedal is to be set up to give the best possible lever ratio

this shows all of the little bits added to give the right shape to the scuttle

Rather than have individual mounts for the rear suspension links I made each side from one piece of 50 x 50 x 3mm RHS

reinforcing gussets for seat belt mounts

Coming together

Well after a couple of days swinging the grinder and stoking up the Mig I have got the main part of the chassis together. I spent most of yesterday working on laying out the floor tubes and the outline of the transmission tunnel.

My cunning plan is to run the fuel lines through the tubes on the left hand side of the base of the transmission tunnel and the brake line and rear of the car wiring  through the one on the right. This has necessitated some minor revisions to the tube layout (so the longitudinal tubes are continuous ) but I now have it all laid out and tacked together.

I want to have the heavy battery cited as low as possible to make the center of gravity as low as possible . to achive this I have shortened the  passenger side footwell by about ten inches and teh battery will now reside down in what was perviously wasted space.

I had a strole of luck finding a piece of 100 x 100 x 3mm RHS as my plan is to put two sections in place of the 1oo x 1oo pieces of 3mm plate at the top of the rear shock mountings this will allow me to mount the seat belt retractors in a more desirable position and provide a good posotion to attach the rollover bar hopefully with a conceled fixing  ( a single M12 bolt from below on each side ) this will also raise the real deck a little which should improve the proportions of the car and give a little more space in the boot as well.

I will post some pictures later today after i have done some more welding Today I plan to make the framing for the dash and scuttle

Cheers Comrades

The big plan

Once you have finished a project like building a car there quite naturally comes a time when you are all too aware of the parts of the design that are really not quite right. The little things that niggle at you. All of my fellow builders out there will know exactly what I mean but for the benefit of new builders or those who have yet to start I’ll list some of the issues that I hope to address.

Ergonomics:

There are a few issues with the control layout , the steering wheel is too low for a start I reckon that it needs to be at least two inches higher and it could also be between two and three inches closer to the dashboard.

Instruments and Dashboard

A great find on Ebay UK which cost only $25 aud (including postage) which is great for a brand new in box instrument.

While the current set up using the original instrument cluster from my engine donor works OK I am rather unhappy with appearance of the dash and the tacho has never worked anyway so I was faced with a dilemma either get another cluster and live with the aesthetics or get rid of the cluster and  fit individual instruments . As my car has an automatic transmission and  a rev limiter I really can’t see that there is any good reason at all to have  a tacho.  So I will be going for the absolute minimum in instruments   speedo, temperature and fuel along with warning lights for ignition high beam and turn signals and to that end I have bought  a speedo that I found on Ebay. I just have to find a suitable fuel and temperature gauges  which will probably be fitted in this pattern     oOo  in the centre of the dashboard .

Ignition switch

The current location on the steering column is not viable if I want to move the steering wheel closer to the dash so I will be mounting it so that it fits in the dash itself  probably between the instruments and the steering wheel . Because  of the way it mounts I will have to make a suitable bracket but this is a small price to pay for retaining the  coded key  immobiliser.

The handbrake leaver

This really annoys me because it sits exactly where my elbow wants to be. I want to relocate it to the passenger side of the transmission tunnel where it will still be easy to operate but well out of the way
The transmission tunnel could be a fair bit smaller especially if it were made from folded steel rather than the present RHS tube structure without compromising the strength of the chassis.

Engine bay:

The way the engine requires a large bulge in the bonnet really gives me the hump and spoils the look of the car.

Roll-over bar

Although not actually required by law for a road car I have one fitted but I would like it to be a few inches higher.

Centre of gravity issues

These cars do have a very low centre of gravity but there are always way that it could be made better , for instance by ensuring that the heavy battery is mounted as low as possible  and that  the fuel tank is  mounted as low as possible .

Weight:

I know that I have made the car too heavy by overdoing a few things and I expect to be able to give the car a serious diet. I think between 40 and 50 kg should be very possible without the use of any exotic materials. I am taking to heart the Colin Chapman philosophy of adding lightness.

OK  that is a lot of things to deal with and after a great deal of thought I have decided the best way to address all of the issues is to build a new space frame that incorporates all of the improvements on my list above but more about that later.

I still love this car

OK I realise that liking this car completely blows my image as an “anti Greenie” but I can’t help but admire its sleek design, the use of modern light weight materials and the fact that it is versatile enough to have a IC engine as well as an electric variant.

Futuristic: The Aptera 2e electric vehicle is seen at an assembly line at the company's new facilities in Vista, California (click to enlarge)

Crowd-pleaser: People stop to look at the Aptera parked outside a Starbucks outlet in Carlsbad, California (click to enlarge)

High hopes: Aptera co-founders Steve Fambro (left) and Chris Anthony pose with their baby (click to enlarge)

Forward thinking: The interior of the Aptera. It is an egg-shaped two-seater often likened to a space-age car from the futuristic 1960s cartoon The Jetsons (click to enlarge)

Oh and I can’t help thinking that a set of fairings like the ones on the front wheels would be damn nice on a Seven like mine and that they would really help its aerodynamics as well.
Cheers Comrades

Article here

It’s all about range vs performance

Not a week goes by without there being another story about some new electric car coming onto the market and they are all without exception grossly deficient in one very significant way.
None of them can continuously travel anywhere near the sort of distances that we can expect from any liquid fuelled machine and none of them can be made ready for reuse in a reasonable time frame once their batteries have been discharged.

Mitsubishi i MiEV. Click for article

Impressive: The Ultimate Aero EV will prove that electric-powered vehicles will not only match but outperform internal combustion cars, the makers claim (Click to see details about this car)

Maybe we will see the development of viable (and affordable) fuel cell cars in my life time which will redeem electric propulsion for transport but until that happens I think only a religious zealot or a total idiot would spend money on a battery car that will not get you to the shops and back .

Cheers Comrades

The importance of testing

David Hempy learns that tackwelds are not enough

Now this is a great story

Superblast from the past: The 1937 Bugatti - one of only 17 made in the world - stunned Dr Carr's family when they opened his garage

Classic car: The Bugatti Type 57S Atalante

I love stories of long lost treasures found is dusty barns and this one is a beauty.

Cheers Comrades