Adsense

A bit of music from the lamented Radio Blog Club

Le Français

Toujours, je suis désolé pour mes amis( et amies) français(es), mais il est difficile pour moi d'écire en français. Peut-être un jour...
S.V.P. regardez ce LIEN

Saturday, February 23, 2008

With Added Body - Part III

Hello again.

Here is the rest of my 1996 article which summarises the specification as it then was and gives a few more details. I should add that quite a few changes were made between 1996 and 2003, in particular, the front brakes. Sorry about the layout: the text was copied over from Word and is impossible to format, despite my best efforts with the HTML - it just refuses to respond.

Next I shall, as requested try to write a little about the way we managed to fabricate the body work, with some pictures of work in progress.

À bientôt


SPECIFICATION

Body/Structure

1967 Fulvia Coupe. Sills reinforced with central membrane, all seam-welded. Sub-frame boxes removed, triangular sections rebuilt in 12/16g steel, seam welded. Rear of sub-frame removed. Sub-frame modified to use 2000 rear mounts. Gearbox tunnel removed and replaced with extended SII tunnel, triangulated to scuttle. Centre and rear sub-frame mounts triangulated with square tubing. Front flitch panels triangulated to "A" post. Wheel arches seam-welded to wing tops. New wings and rear panel fabricated from 18g aluminium sheet - riveted in place. Rear quarter lights removed and welded up. New front panel fabricated; front valance replaced with modified Porsche spoiler. Dash panel replaced with tubular structure; steering column lowered.

Engine

82 x 75mm, 1584cc. Block bored & sleeved; flywheel lightened; head gas-flowed; 40mm inlet valves, 35mm exhausts.

c.r. approx 11.5/1. Ex-works rally-profile camshafts(BWE) timing approx 50/70/70/50; lift at TDC: 4.3mm

Lucas mechanical injection Mk II. Bosch electric fuel pumps. Throttle bodies 42mm bore. Exhaust manifold 4-into-1, primaries 39" long, bore 35mm opening to 38mm; pipe after collector 60mm.

Oil and fuel coolers. Approx. 145 b.h.p. @ 6700 r.p.m.

Transmission

Fulvia 1600 sport gearbox 11/39 diff. Extended remote-control with revised lever ratio and shortened gear-lever. Solid rod clutch throw-out.

Suspension

1600 SII coupe suspension with Nylatron bushes. Rubber spring-to-wishbone mounts replaced with ball races in HD-30 supports and hardened steel plates on spring. SI rear axle, extra (inverted) leaf added to rear springs, solid bushes.

Brakes

AP racing magnesium 4-pot calipers mounted on special adapter plates at front. SI Dunlop rear calipers lined with stainless steel. Pressure limiting valve. master cylinder: SI 18mm bore. Shortened, fly-off handbrake lever.

Wheels

Cromodora 6x14, 185/60-14 tyres (to be replaced with Porsche 7x15 wheels with 195/205/50-15 tyres)

Performance

0-60: 7 secs, top speed: I haven't found out yet!

DONORS

Alfa-Romeo - Radiator and fuse-box (Sud) fuel-guage (Duetto)

Ford - Fuel pump (XR3i) injection (Cosworth FVA)

Jaguar - header tank (XJ6)

Lancia (other than Fulvia) - Alternator, sub-frame parts & mounts, catch tanks, anti-roll bar (2000);oil cooler (Delta HF) silencer (Thema)

FIAT - various brackets, linkages (various),brake limiter (Panda)

TAXI - headlamps

TVR - rear lamps (Tuscan race-car)

Porsche - Spoiler, fuel-pump, washer-pump(911)

Honda - passenger seat runners (Activan)

Rank Xerox - Throttle linkage bearings (10-90 copier)

WORKERS, ADVISORS AND SUPPORTERS

Many thanks to:-

Martin Hall - bodywork fabrication and swearing lessons

Justin Hildreth -"Captain Bracket" - all sorts, notably exhaust manifold, injection installation, fabrication and the handbrake.

Doug Ellis - machining; throttle bodies, suspension mounts, brake mounts.

Barry Waterhouse - solid bushes, cylinder sleeving, flywheel lightening, lining of rear brake cylinders and what Harry would call "Facilities" and advice.

Peter Ward - design of front caliper mounts, advice re injection, concepts and technical theory.

Bob Blurton (BBI)- THE Lucas man - for advice and an entertaining Sunday afternoon.

Gary Crawford - preparation of bodywork, loan of MIG and spraying equipment, lots of good ideas and encouragement.

Dave Tweddle - advice and encouragement in the early days

Paul Collins - for the door handle idea.

Harry Manning - apart from everything else he sold me the car!

SUPPLIERS

BWE - all sorts of things, far too many to list (but see above)

Goodwins - aluminium

George King Metals - aluminium, alloys and steel

Thos Tingley - steel tube

Think Automotive - Aeroquip tube and fittings, gauges

ADA racing - brake calipers

Ken Mills Injection - Lucas parts and overhaul of injectors

Wurth UK - Nuts, washers, rivets, connectors.

GSJ - stainless and standard bolts and nuts

Lucas - fuel system parts

Strand Glass - fibreglass cloth

Cannons MSA - Exhaust tubing paint etc.

Car Paint & Panel - paints

Fay's metals - copper sheet, aluminium and steel

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Paul.
I remember the fiat coupe brakes but forgot you were going to swap them. Were there problems with the fiat brakes or did you swap to save weight?
Mind boggling to think of the amount of time and effort sunk into projects like these. Worth every penny and second though!
Robert

Paul said...

No Robert: this was the 1996 spec. The FIAT brakes came later, together with th big ventilated discs.

Anonymous said...

Are there easy modern caliper replacements fittable to the S1 or S2 uprights? Both Dunlop and Girling calipers are so heavy! And the pad area of the Dunlops is postage stamp like!
By the way, what is the purpose of the welded up quarterlights? appearance or noticable stiffening?

Anonymous said...

last postage was William. you can add my name under that texts.
thanx,
William

Paul said...

The answer is "possibly". The Jaguar enthusiasts are well looked after and you just might find something that would work. Personally I wouldn't worry too much about the pad area of the Dunlop brakes; they were after all, good enough to stop a 3.8 Jag, and even more impressively, a Ferrari 250GT SWB...

The quarterlights were going to be made from plexiglass; having made the the pattern in hardboard we decided the car looked quite good that way. But on thinking about it i realised that the steel is not only lighter than glass but the area is quite important when considering stiffness, so it's a double benefit.

Steve said...

Hi Paul,
Really enjoy these technical articles. Any chance of some pics of your modified front brake setup, specifically the design of the adaptor plates. I am really struggling with the Dunlops on my Series 1.

Regards
Steve

Paul said...

Hello Steve.

I do have drawings for the aluminium alloy bells that mounted the Willward discs but I don't have drawings for the plates (which it must be said are rather "rough-hewn...). The FIAT coupé calipers are big and can only be used with 15" wheels. If the Dunlops are giving you grief, it is possible to fit S2 front calipers (I have done it on a Fanalone). I will write this up when I have some pictures. You might look at Jaguar parts, there are many improvements available for E-types etc. which may just bolt-on

Sod the Law!

SMOKING IS NOT ONLY PERMITTED ON THIS BLOG - IT IS ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED

New Internet Speed test

Music and Radio Blog Club

Radio Blog Club, a good friend for a while appears to be in some legislative difficulty...

However, in tribute to its brave effort, I shall leave the existing track on this page (which amazingly still works)

Sadly my Playlist no longer works (hence its removal) thanks to the absurd "Hadopi" legislation in France. Apologies to all.