25 August 2021 Undid a few wires and rerouted them so they weren't draped over the top of the chassis, removed the fuel filler and generally checked over the chassis in preparation with putting the body on. I checked how the dash hump aligns with the steering column and I think I need to bend the bottom bracket to move it towards the centre of the car a bit. A few friends came round to give me a hand with lifting the body on. Dropping it on was simple, I spent a bit of time shifting it around to even out the gaps between the wheels and arches and to even it up side to side. With the front and rear brackets as I put them on, the front sits quite high in comparison to the rear and looks all wrong, but the bonnet clears the VVT. Taking out the front brackets drops the front and gives a decent stance but then the bonnet hits the top of the engine and would need a big bulge to clear it. I posted a few pictures online and a number of suggestions were given for making changes. 26 August 2021 Did a bit of measuring and playing around with bodyshell heights. With the front brackets back on the car and the rear bodywork raised by about 40mm, the front to rear stance seems about right but is too high. The bonnet clears the engine quite nicely and with a 30-40mm drop in suspension I think would be about right, but that's quite drop in suspension height and I'm not sure how that will affect the geometry. The rear bulkhead panels are just about big enough to close the gap to the body so I don't want to lift it more than that. Spacing the chassis from the subframe might be a a way to lower the engine and reverse the geometry changes when I drop the suspension. I need to check the dash positioning relative to the body and see how much gap there is with the body as it is now, the steering column needs to come out before I can do that. If it's too high then spacing the chassis could give me the clearance and I might not need to raise it as much. Chassis ground clearance on my standard shocks is 180mm front, 190mm rear, compared to my TVR which is 140 front, 145 rear; a 40mm suspension drop would bring the Replicar to about the same height, I don't think I want to be any lower than that. As it is now, the rear arch gap is 90mm and the front is 75mm; I want the front and rear arch gap about the same or with the rear maybe 5mm bigger than the front. 27 August 2021 Started building a frame that I can lift use to the body off and on the chassis as I need. I removed the steering column and the gearstick so they didn't get in the way. I cut some lengths of timber so they would fit down the side of the car and built up the ends so they supported the wings. I added some very firm foam that I had lying around to cushion the ends and form to the shape of the bodyshell. Then I cut some timber to run across the car and join the two pieces down the side. Need to get some long bolts to fasten everything together. 30 August 2021 Finished building the frame and also got the hoist mounted on the rafters. Tested it was strong enough by lifting my engine hoist! It was tricky getting the balance of the bodyshell on the frame but with the help of my engine balance bar and adjusting the ropes I got it working. I set about aligning the body shell on the shell. I started by measuring the distance from the top edge of the wheel rim out to the wheelarch, I used a spirit level to get a vertical line and a ruler on the wheel rim. Once they were equal each side I put some tape on the front edge of the bonnet opening and on the front chassis rail and marked a line on each using a set square on the chassis rail. I repeated the measuring at the back and used a piece of tape on the top of the rear bulkhead and on the top edge of the boot opening. I then checked the gaps between the front and rear of the wheel arches to the tyres, when I was happy they were approximately equal I put some tape on the front bulkhead rail and the sides of the bonnet opening and made marks on both with a set square. It's quire tricky positioning the body as it only takes a tiny movement to make a big difference and the shell seemed to move every time I touched it. I checked the gaps above the tyres to the wheel arch to make sure they were even front to back and side to side. The front needs to be the same or slightly smaller than the rears to get the stance I want. I added packing to the rear body mounts to achieve this. I checked that the chassis sat level left to right at the front and rear and also the bodyshell with a very long spirit level. I put the bonnet in place to see if it fouled on the VVT – I could look under the shell from inside the cockpit with a torch and it looks good. I plan to repeat this by placing an action camera in there so I can video the gap. It looks OK but pretty tight so I think a 10mm spacer between the chassis and subframe will give me a bit of wiggle room. 31 August 2021 More checking and trying different arrangements of spacers for the body. put a video camera on top of the engine so I could video the clearance to the bonnet, there is clearance but not much. I think spacers between the front subframe and the chassis is the way to go, waiting for some steel to arrive for that. With the 40mm blocks on the rear pads there is about a 20mm gap between the rear body shell and the rear outrigger. Ideally the bodyshell should rest on the rear outrigger plate, I could bend it slightly, I think I need to try and drop the rear a bit, while still clearing the bonnet. Had a chat with Andy at ANC and decided to do some more fiddling about. Checked the position of the dash relative to the bodyshell, there's not much room for movements side to side so that means the steering column needs to move to the left a bit. Tried to bend the column bracket to achieve this with only minimal success, it mostly ended up twisting the upper mounting plate so I will need to live with the alignment as it is I think. I checked the rear light to floor measurement as that is a requirement for the IVA and some builders have had issues, . The minimum is 350mm from the floor to the bottom of the lens, mine is at 400mm so the planned suspension drop I have should be OK. I've got some rubber blocks on order to cut up and finalise the rear height. I made a mistake when building the frame as I can't lift the frame with the steering column in place so will need to modify it, shouldn't be too hard to do.
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AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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