[legendlives]

Jewellery.
With the newly plated parts, and the sparkle from the metallic there's no other word that does it justice

It'll all be jewellery soon!

 

[blackpopracing]

Looking good!

 

[ivanhoew]

golly

 

[legendlives]

golly

No, just got a bit of a suntan from the booth lights............

 

[legendlives]

I stripped the throttle pedal apart a few weeks ago for clean/paint and plating of the components.
Came to re-assemble it today and I'd lost the nylon bushes that it moves on. Bugger. One was broken anyway.
No worries, Rummagings around the workshop and found a brass fitting (from the 'soft drinks' bottle that I made the expansion tank from), and within a few short profainties I had a nice set of brass bushings. Made these long enough so that the spring doesn't contact the shaft:

Bolted on the front spring hangers. These are mounted on turned-down Nolathane bushes from an unknown vehicle that I bought from a swap meet for a couple of bucks. Bushes are pressed into the tubes that go through the chassis and a nice pair of SS cap-head bolts, washers and nylocs finish the assembly:

The motor-plate has been mounted for a few days and has already seen rain (and lots of it!).
SS Hex-bolts are the only hex-headed bolts I intend to use on the car, but I figure if they should require re-tightening it's easier to slip a spanner into the tiny space behind the engine than trying to wedge an Allen key in there:

Have you noticed how weak over-the-counter degreasers are these days? They don't seem to degrease worth a shit and the labels are covered with 'You're gonna die!!!' warnings.
I needed to degrease the rear hub carriers (the last really dirty thing left to do) which have sat beneath (presumably) an old XJ6 for 40-odd years. They were minging!
So, rather than spend the remainder of my life trying to break through the grime with 'degreaser' I purchased a couple of litres of BP's finest 91 octane and put that to work, then scrubbed off with a scouring pad and dishwash liquid (or washing-up liquid if you're not in the colonies).
Here's the 'before and after':

and the 'after and after':

A couple of the bearings were less than inspiring, so I will treat them to brand new bearings and seals.
Top tip if you're buying rear bearing kits for a Jag axle go to a bearing supplier rather than your local autofactors. I bought two kits for over $200 less than exactly the same kits from the 'factors.

Another Top tip: use petrol instead of degreaser. Probably a quarter of the cost, far more efficient and if all goes wrong you get to die like a man!

 

[legendlives]

A year or so ago the directors of SpeedFlow fittings in Australia came over to see my boss' new drag car which was in my garage at the time.
They took a long time looking over 'reaper and voiced an interest in helping the project when it came to plumbing fittings.
The deal was that they would supply all of the fittings I needed to finish the project, plus any needed to replace non-SpeedFlow fittings that were already on the car.
Last week a box of stuff arrived:

All in my chosen shade of silver:

I cannot thank SpeedFlow enough. They have saved me $1,000's.
Any of you who have not used SpeedFlow fittings before, they are absolutely superb quality, and the flow rates are second to none.

 

[blackpopracing]

Very nice, free stuff is always excellent.

 

[mylesdw]

Like those silver fittings much better than the blue/red ones. Had a couple of the latter tigged together long ago and they came out a lovely bronze/gunmetal colour from the heat.

 

[legendlives]

Like those silver fittings much better than the blue/red ones. Had a couple of the latter tigged together long ago and they came out a lovely bronze/gunmetal colour from the heat.

Yes, I didn't want the red/blue or the plain black. Silver looks understated and somehow more 'retro'.

 

[legendlives]

Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother, man?

Can ya dig it?

(Sorry, couldn't resist it.)

 

[legendlives]

4 years between the photo's

From stinky to shiny. SS bolts & washers where I could. Cad/Pass plate where I couldn't.

 

[legendlives]

On the fly.....
A small diversion from assembling shiny bits. Back into the workshop.
As I have the BOFO 32 valve V8 and 6 speed manual gearbox it is customary to have some type of clutch device between the two.
It will come as no surprise that I had already bought two clutches for the car (1 x single plate Puk clutch and one twin plate), neither of which I was 100% happy with, but a couple of weeks ago I found a larger, sexier twin plate clutch which came on an LS flywheel. Good for 1000bhp and over 800lb/ft it fits the bill nicely.
'But" I hear you cry, 'the LS 6-bolt flywheel will not fit on the 8-bolt mod motor crank.' No, so the plan was to unscrew the clutch cage from the steel LS flywheel and bolt it on to the stinky Boss cast flywheel:

But to scupper that plan slightly, the ring gear on the LS is only about 4mm smaller than the Boss one with the same tooth pitch, so I figured that if I can move my starter by 2mm (easy-peasy) then modifying the LS flywheel would give me a better, stronger and probably lighter set-up.

So starting with the LS part:

I turned up six 'slugs' to fill the bolt holes, welded them in place, and smoothed them off:

But not only does the LS have fewer bolts, it also has a larger centre hole. What it needs is a 'top hat' type flange to reinforce the 8 bolt fixing and step down the centre hole.
I didn't want to pay the $50 that the local steel merchants wanted for a bit of steel to make it out of, but I did have a Toyota Hilux halfshaft (that I'd previously cut up to make spacers) which had a hub easy large enough to get my flange out of (I'd already faced it off in this pic) :

So I made the stepped-flange with LS size outside diameter and Boss size inside, then made a madrel the same size as the Boss flywheel, then dropped the flange and flywheel on the mandrel to drill the holes through. Top tip is this bolt 'spigot' which has been cut down and drilled to accurately mark and pilot-drill the centre of the holes. Nicked that idea from those Binky boys:

And after all of the holes have been drilled in the flange, this was fitted to the LS flywheel, and once again using my little centre spigot the holes were marked, piloted and drilled:

And after far too much time, the LS/Boss flywheel lives!

Sneaky-peak of the sexy clutch grippy bits:

More on the clutch mods later.

 

[legendlives]

Is a 'Half rolling' chassis even a thing?

 

[budetta]

Had one of those for the last 6 months only the other end!!!!!

 

[legendlives]

First of the f*ck-ups:
The steering drag link fitted fine before everything was painted. It had been assembled for some years and worked perfectly, so it was cleaned, primed and painted along with all of the other steering/suspension components:

Come to fit it though, and either the paint had stretched it, or the chassis has shrunk in the rain because it didn't fit anymore. It wasn't even close. Waaaaaay too long, and to compound the issue the balljoints were binding on full bump. No problem, out with the grinder and the electric glue gun and a few short moments later:

The kinky tube came from a Lancia or Alfa and was originally a suspension arm so should be able to cope adequately with the push/pull of the drag link. It even fits:

There's more stuff to paint so it's no great shakes to bung it in with the next batch. Just hope the chassis doesn't expand again when the warm weather comes back!

 

[legendlives]

Diff-rent strokes. The Spacer Cadet part 1.

By now I should have had a fully rolling chassis, but those of you who have had any dealings with the Jag IRS know that the diff needs to be complete to hang the suspension from it.
Started to build the diff with my sexy new 4.11:1 CW&P, and....err....B*ll*cks!
It seems there are two types off diff unit, one that will take the narrower crownwheel and one that won't. Guess which one I had
Trawling the interweb showed me that I was not alone, and there is a perfectly acceptable mod in the shape of an 8mm crownwheel spacer. Readily available in the UK, not at all available in NZ, and as both cost and shipping would delay the build too much I decided to make my own. I couldn't find any 8mm plate, but I did have a small 12mm thick plate in the darkest corner of the fab room. Result! I rough-cut the outer radius with a cutting wheel (or 3) and then stuck the external jaws on the lathe. B*ll*cks mk2, the chuck wasn't anywhere big enough.
Rummaging through the lathe tools I found a suitable attachment, and with the help of two of the original spare-wheel spacers from the car I bodged up this:

...and you wondered why I called it 'Cheatin' The Reaper'!
The two bolt holes were plotted on the crownwheel bolt PCD so they can be 'repurposed'.
So with the centre bore accurately turned:

It fits perfectly but doesn't look too hot.

That's better! Using the internal jaws on the lathe chuck I managed to turn the outside diameter and face it off. It's still too thick in this picture at 10mm.

Using the two existing bolt-holes to secure the plate to the diff I used the 'small drill and mandrel' method as used on the flywheel flange to get the other 8 holes accurately drilled. The plate measures 7.95mm thick and should work OK.

The new crownwheel bolts are (predictably) longer, and also have longer shanks that will locate into the spacer.
Should have the diff fully built by next weekend, and if I do the chassis should have all 4 corners on it then!

 

[ivanhoew]

quality lathetasticness.

 

[legendlives]

The Spacer Cadet 2. Bowie & Bing.

With the spacer made, and all of the bolts 'adjusted' to their correct length, there was nothing to do but bolt it together.
Spacer fitted, bolts torqued, Locktabs....er....tabbed:

Surprisingly (and believe me I'm as shocked as you are) everything fitted with the lash and contact area well within spec for a drag race diff.

So there was nothing left to do but slide in the shafts and fit the rear cover. As I have become a real tart the sealant is colour-matched to the Ford blue casing....

Speedflow hose end fitted to the breather. This will have a hose going to the catch-tank/breather that sits behind the LHR wheel.

I'll wire-lock the bolts when I fit the diff as the diff mount and lower wishbone mount bolts also need lockwiring.
What are the odds that the chassis will be rolling this weekend?

 

[budetta]

Open diff? Thought you would have fitted a LSD.

 

[mygasser]

Open diff? Thought you would have fitted a LSD.

i wondered that.