Maybe....some of us would have made in ally and triangulated it in that case though....

He does love his holesaws.

One for old Renault fans  - the new drive system, soon to meet the lathe for some serious weight reduction and some aluminium centres - shouldn't have any issues with any mud/stones that get through the seals either with these!
They also run a lot quieter with less vibration/stress as an extra bonus.



And of course, can't go without more wings.....now they're red. Red cars are fastest, well known fact. You knew it was going to happen:





And no, your eyes aren't going, it really is fuzzy - it's the weave from the cloth.

...can't be leaving those pulleys like that can we? Where's the lathe gone...





And a bit more lightening and tarting up with a bit of yellow chromate and some of Homer Simpsons 'speed holes'





I reckon that's a winner without going silly on machining time. Best get it made.

More odds 'n' sods ticked off the list, this time it was the Magic Box of Ultimate Power!
Has those electrikery pixies inside. Aligns electrons in the wiring. Obviously that means it's worth at least 30bhp.



Alternatively, might just be a soft starter/fan speed controller to reduce the electrical load spikes when the fans fire up. Your choice. The pixies are more fun.
Also means they can be left on low speed just to dissipate engine bay heat in the pits instead of going flat out SO YOU CAN'T HEAR. CHECK WHAT? THE FANS ARE STILL ON, I CAN'T HEAR WHAT YOU'RE SAYING?!

Attention to detail appears paramount so will this machine also be used on long distance events abroad.

Far too high tech, always remember seeing pictures of Steve McQueen's Baja boot, the electronics consisted of a bank of knife switches
http://www.filnor.com/products/type-a-knife-switch.php
No fiddly contacts to fail, and you can really see what position It's in, Plus every time you throw a switch "its alive, my monster lives"
Yes I am having my medication looked at
Ttfn Glenn

We'll hopefully be doing some 3 day cross-county events in France and Spain, so I want to make sure everything is well sealed and durable so it's up to running for long periods without a check, especially on the loom and electrical side as usually you're in trouble trying to service those in a forest knee deep in mud.
We also were spending far too much time checking and servicing it between events so some things have been made overkill to reduce that and spend more time driving it.

93fxdl - the box is modular, sits between the fan connectors, so if the internals fail you just unplug the box and clip the plugs together and the fans run flat out as normal.

Bare pulleys all machined up today, awaiting brazing and plating:

Bit behind on here but only odds and sods so far:

Small pulley got brazed up - the heat required discoloured and burnt off the protective layer of oil on the surfaces - which mean the cast iron on the pulley rusted before my eyes where my fingerprints were - not much good even for mockup, so I raided my cocktails bar (Careful what you drink in my house )....back in black and shiny again, crisis averted









Anyway, enough pulleys for a while, they'll go off to plating later on as the front bumper and some other odds and sods need doing before paint.


The guy that was sorting the fibreglass bonnet out has vanished into the aether so we've put that bonnet to one side (as it's full of filler and sealing bits to take a mould from), really haven't got time to be knocking moulds up ourselves at the minute so out comes the ally sheet and another bonnet made just to tide us over so we're not taking another 6 months to get it moving.



Mainly been sorting a customer car out with some upgrades, so little work on ours really bar these odds and sods - anyway, the rest of the pipework has been measured up so any temporary bits can be replaced along with getting the proper brake lines in and machining for fitting bleeds to the fiddle brakes, etc.
Whilst they get made up to size everything else is coming out to weld some small lug washers around the pipe runs to secure them to, at the same time a pair of a-pillar support bars is going in to stiffen the cab and some gussets in the side and roof of the cab are going in to make it legal for French racing regs.
We'll crack on with the new front mudguard mounts at the same time and with those bits out of the way the frame is getting blasted and painted ready to go back together.

Due to ongoing lack of shiny pictures, found some from this time a few years ago when it was running at Kirton.
It looks like it was fun when it actually moved. Not sure if I remember that bit....





A while back there was a bit of a discussion about why we didn't use the Corsa electric power steering column or similar, the same as much of the rally guys use - and the reason we don't was the shock loadings that kind of system inflicts on not just the column joints but the rack and pinion itself too, along with a few other minor issues.

Unfortunately the owner of one of the 4wd cars listened to some of the hype about them whilst having his engine wound up a bit by a local firm, and had the conversion carried out. He liked it initially. Then the steering got vague. Then the car started wandering, and eventually it started making strange noises up front. So it along with many other parts are now up here for repair (yep, buggy got delayed again, sorry, been making uprights/rebuilding diffs, etc, and it looks like he's not happy with the engine anyway so the entire car is coming up over winter - along with another with the same engine for similar work.....we might get our own finished one day :hehe:)

Anyway here's the rack after 5 events with it fitted (compared to ~8 years previously with no issues) - check out the width of the teeth in the middle:



I'm also pretty sure there shouldn't be a gap here - there wasn't when it came off the milling machine!



Anyway, repairs are at hand:



I keep pressing 'print' and all that happens is a picture comes out, not a nice steel rack. Must be something wrong with my printer.

Perspex steering rack cases, you saw 'em here first.





Soon to adorn every stanced showcar in the land!
I blame late night modelling sessions and lack of coffee.

Then the dry sump pump fell apart...that was careless



However it's okay, I walked past it and it fell back together again. Better put it on the car before anything else happens to it...



(The endfloat issue we'd been having was that ball bearing there - there was a flat spot on the outer race and some spalling, possibly had a knock in storage/transit as it's been there since we got it)

Interesting stuff., as for the mud you will get there one day.

Eventually 

Anyone else missing the pics or is it just me?

Quote from: fugglededumm on November 04, 2016, 04:57:10 PM
Anyone else missing the pics or is it just me?

http://www.beachbuggy.info/index.php/topic,9243.msg95838.html#msg95838

Should be back up now.

Some reinforcing to the cage to help stiffen things up and make it safer in a roll, just in case, gussets going underneath it in the cross to spread the load.



Downside - no mince pies this christmas!

Fiddle brake frame has been knocked up in some scrap steel using the plastic one as a template - as the laser cutters are packed from overspill over christmas - had to shift the levers a bit anyway as the new gearlever got a bit close, aside from that Ed's finished off those pesky hydraulics this weekend, brakes, steering, dampers, etc.
He's forbidden me from putting them on here as the damper interconnects are top secret and the hoses are neat and far too sexy (actually, I think he must just have a rubber fetish).
So here's the pre-watershed pixellated version - cor, look at them blue pixels!





Made some new waterproof covers for the brake light switches and some other sundries that weren't well enough sealed for my liking, just need to alter the dashboard wiring for the new screen and then that's pretty much it, bolt more bits on and fill with fluids - getting closer...cue lots of swearing from yours truly to follow whilst trying to refill and bleed the interlinked dampers mind...

She's also been treated to a new dashboard since the last update:

The dash photo cannot be seen. Take it the shocks have a common remote accumulator unit.
Should think you are itching to take the beast for a blast now then end is in sight.