Making a battery box cover

22nd April 2012

Last week I successfully relocated my battery so that it sat in the middle of the rear seat panel.

I knew that the battery was just lower than the edge of the box I had created and had intentionally made it this way so a lid or cover could be attached over the battery securing it  from fingers that may be on the back seat.

I started designing the lid by measuring the aperture in the top of the box. When I created the box I had noted that the two corners that I had used that was already joined flared  out slightly and had made my two new corners to look the same. This meant I had to measure the inside area allowing for a 2mm tolerance. You can see in the diagram to the right the sizes marked up. Once I had my measurements I made a paper template this size and put it through a plastic envelope heat sealer to make it plasticized. I found a piece of flat Stainless a tea tray and laid this on the surface so that I would be able to put the fibreglass on top and gauge the size I needed. I layered up four sheets of fibreglass with fibreglass resin  this took longer than normal to set because of the weather so I used a paraffin heater to raise the temperature in my workshop.

The matting I applied was just larger than my paper pattern that sat in the A4 plastic heated liner. This is the same machine that does plastic badges. This stopped the fibreglass sheet sticking to the tray. I left this over a day to dry and cure. Once hard the fibreglass was turned over to expose the pattern on the other side. I used an angle grinder to cut through the plastic and fibreglass around the edges of the template pattern so that the sides were clean cut and crisp.

I then removed the template which peeled of leaving a smooth surface The fibreglass panel was then sanded on the opposing side until the thickness of the fibreglass was consistent all over the panel. Once the panel was smooth I painted the rougher side with black Hammerite hammered paint. This sealed the surface on one side. So that I could concentrate on the other. I used Car under seal to spay the other side leaving a rippled effect . This was the same process I had used inside the car.

The underseal surface dried quite quickly leaving a slightly textured surface. This need no further preparation and I was able to spray m 1k black paint onto the surface . This sealed the under seal and fibreglass . I knew I had run out of thinners and would have to buy some more . I wanted to finish the panel and decided to try making up the 2k Lacquer and hardener and adding the gold leaf with a view to using a large brush to apply it.

 The finished lacquered panel looked amazing and you really could not tell it had not been sprayed  with a spray gun. The panel was then checked for size and it fitted neatly into the top of the box. I had purchased some stainless fixings to secure the top from a boat chandler I offered these onto the lid so that I could gauge how they looked against the finished surface. They fitted in four places and I was able to decide were they would fit.

I attached the eccentric / pull over fastener to the panel with M5 countersunk bolts I used these as I did not want them to interfere with the battery and to be pulled in flush to the fibreglass. Once these were all bolted in place I offered the panel up to the box and marked the positions of the stainless box to locate the eccentric keeps. I fixed theses to the rear of the box through my body bar . I used self tapping screw's to fix the front eccentric keeps.

The lid was latched in place and sat neatly over the battery . The eccentric / pull over  latches had little loops on them that either a wire and a single padlock could be used or four separate padlocks could also be used to secure the battery from theft. I was very pleased with this as it made the rear seat area a much safer place to be. I was also wondering whether I could build a seat to go on this new area.

Making a reinforcement rear body support bar

25th June 2011.

Having managed to get my front bumper to fit I decided that in the light of my fuel regulator not turning up I would have to finally get round to building a new rear body support. This would be version two as the previous rear support although strong interfered with the position of my exhaust and I had to remove it . I decided that I would try to make the new support so that it could use one of the existing chassis mounts. I choose the mount nearest the shock absorber mount as this was quite near the body work and had a clean flat position near the body work. I bought some 40mm X 8mm stock mild steel 4m which I had cut into 1m 1.5m and 1.5m so that I could get them home from the steel suppliers. This was similar material I had successfully used on the front bar.

I started fabricating the bracket by measuring the distance from the bracket to the body work. This enabled me to make a piece up that would reach onto the body. I welded another piece onto this at right angle so that it would come out from the bracket and run flush. I placed this on the body work and measured the mounting hole coming through the chassis. This fixing was a M10 fixing so I drilled a 1.5mm hole in the bar. This could then be bolted onto the mount. I then used a different piece of bar held horizontal to work out the height that i wanted the bracket to be on the body. I welded this on and made another bracket mirroring the first. I tried to bolt this on but found that the body work was concave and not flat and therefore the body was sitting away from the bracket by some 25mm. I would need to bend the bar to make it follow the shape of the body work. This turned out to be more simple yet more involved than I anticipated. I first of all tried to heat up the bar, this could not get the bar hot enough to even start a bend. I eventually found three 22mm tubes and used two of them one side of the bar and one the other against the metal in a vice. The vice could be then be tightened to bend the metal work. I put three of these bends into the bar and repeated this on the other bracket. With the side brackets made I bolted them onto the car and measured the width of the body work to create a join between the two side brackets i measured this as 94cm and welded a bar on. I also added some small tabs to the side bars so that I could add an under seat support bar. I then tried to refit the bracket and to my dismay found that even with the 80 mm body lift kit there was not enough room to get the bar in without removing the engine. I decided the only option was to cut the bracket in half and lap another piece of 40mm x 150mm to splice the two pieces with bolts. I welded this to one half of the bracket and drilled the other half whilst the bar was still together before cutting it through one side. The resulting two bars then were fitted to the body work the bracket had to be pulled into the body work to allow the two bars to meet. The next problem to overcome was how to drill the body work behind the fan housing to get the bolts through the bracket and fibre-glass. I found that I could heat up a small wood working bradel and use this hot to push through the bar into the the fibre-glass marking the position of the hole as this would push tight through. I could then frill the holes from the inside of the body work. With the brackets mounted I started to fabricate the cross bar . This was made by measuring the distance between the two drop down brackets a length of 935mm bar was cut and some 90 degree up-stands welded on each end. This was then drilled so that it could be bolted to the tabs. I then took the brackets of and painted them with Acrylic black paint before refitting them to the car.

Whilst I was making this bracket I also found some Stainless steel and made a bracket for my front number plate. I made this is in a similar construction to my rear plate. I used an angle grinder to cut the perimeter after drawing around my number plate. I then drew diagonals onto the square plate so that I could drill the corners of the intersections. This meant I could then use the Angle grinder to cut out the inner triangles from the plate making it lighter. I then bent a piece of stainless steel 10" long x 4" this was then bolted onto the number plate backing and protruded enough over the bumper to allow two bolts to be used to bolt it securely on. The finished plate was then cleaned and thick number plate pads where used to secure on the the number plate.

I was still waiting for my fuel regulator to turn up it was the second one i had ordered that had not so far turned up and I was beginning to despair at eBay this rendered my engine not running and I was beginning to worry about time. I found out shortly later that the seller of my item only ships out Saturday morning. It would have been useful to have known this when buying. Hopefully this does mean that it should be with me by Wednesday latest.

Drilling the 80mm body Lift kit

3rd January 2010
The buggy was housed nicely in a friends garage and the snow was starting to flurry when a call came in this morning.

I got to the garage and we pulled the buggy out . I had decided that the 80mm body lift kit would need to be drilled before it was to be blasted and Zinc plated. This meant it had to be accurately positioned on the bare chassis. So that the holes in the buggy floor pan could be marked with a felt pen. This would have been easy if I had remembered to take a felt pen and my friend had not bought some from the pound shop.

We finally found a working felt and marked up the holes after taking measurements across the chassis to ensure that the frame was central. The body lift kit was then removed and the marks were spot marked with a punch and a hammer. I had previously used 8mm bolts to hold my chassis to my body and after a short discussion we both decided that 10mm bolts would be a better bet. new I would need 22 x 120mm x 10mm to bolt down the body through the body lift kit and chassis.

The position of the bolt holes that had been transferred to the chassis where then pre-drilled with a 6mm High Speed metal drill bit at a slowish drill speed.
Once the holes on one side was pre-drilled they where drilled using larger sizes until a 12mm hole was achieved. The body lift kit was then placed back onto the chassis with the body work on top of it so that the holes from the body work could be marked. These were spot marked with a punch in the same manner as the underneath holes. The drilling process was then repeated leaving a hole on the top and bottom of the lift kit. Once this was done the 12mm drill was then used to run through both holes to ensure that a bolt would navigate through.

With the hoes drilled it was noticeable that the body work looked untidy and overhung the body lift kit. The body work was marked were it over-hanged the lift kit . This was then trimmed off by my friend with a jigsaw so that it neatly sat along the inside. The picture to the right shows the underneath of the body work it also shows the areas that I had cut out to fit the traction bar. I would need to finish repairing these areas at a later date.

With the snow starting to flurry harder we placed the chassis and the body back in the garage and turned our attention to the troublesome engine. There was a large amount of power all over the clutch which looked as if the clutch had been slipping. The clutch cover plate was removed by undoing the bolts that run round the outside of it as the clutch pressure plate came of the clutch plate shattered into bits on the ground. Luckily both the clutch pressure plate and the fly wheel seemed to be unscathed with no damage. I asked my friend if he had a bar that we could try to turn the engine over with. Amazingly the engine seemed to rotate. It got as far as the number one firing position on the distributor and would not go any further. Counter rotating it allowed it to turn freely round to the number three firing position. This seemed very perplexing . We wondered if a gudgeon pin had come out. But the real reason probably would only been seen when the engine was took apart. In the mean time I had to get the body lift kit blasted and zinc plated.

Fitting the turbo lump to the strengthened gearbox - part one

12th December 2009.
The installation of my turbo engine back into my buggy was something that I had long awaited. I had had the engine with some parts mounted for the turbo sometime ago but it was going to be interesting fitting the completed engine and my spirits were high as I new with it fitted I only had to plumb the fuel up to the engine through the new pump to get the engine fired up.

From the onset this proved more difficult than I had underestimated the extra height the pressure caps took and the cross air intake ducting had took the engine height much higher. I decided I would have to jack the rear of the car up and allow the engine to go under the rear boot area. This soon became difficult and I realised that the caps and engine would not fit under the engine compartment. In addition there seemed to be some interference with the ceramic drag exhaust and the CSP Torque bar. The exhaust J tube went right through where the torque bar anchored. My own bar that I had made up to support the rear seat area fitted perfectly.

I decided that I would have to remove the CSP Torque bar diagonal triangulations to the frame horns and remove the pressure ducting and caps so that the engine would fit and the Clarence issues could be seen. The engine fitted perfectly after these items had been removed. I had enlisted some friends to help me lift the engine.

With the engine fitted the top of the carburetors and the clearance can be seen in the photograph to the left. It can bee seen that the wooden block and the lower tear of the back was obstructing the pressure caps from going on. It was clear I would need to do some re modeling of the rear to allow for these parts to be fitted. In addition I knew that the CSP Torque bar would never fit with these J tubes I wondered if different tubes could be made up which would not interfere with the CSP Torque bar.
I was gutted my turbo engine refit was slowly turning into a disaster and a new list of jobs to complete. I started looking at the rear body work on an attempt to figure how to modify the rear of the buggy to allow the components to be fitted. I new I would have to sketch out some ideas for this before starting to cut the rear end and re-fibreglass it to shape. I tried to see whether I could modify the rear of the chassis by moving up the rear wing. This looked like the most easiest and best option and would mean with careful cutting the approximate shape could still be captured giving enough clearance underneath for the new turbo pressure ducting system. I would have to remove the engine and cut the fibreglass before re-bonding it in place. |The photo above shows the approximate difference with the area moved up. You must ignore the lover light clusters which would not be there after the wings were highered. I used a photo to see how it would look.