1966 Triumph 2000->2500->4000

[Escadrille Ecosse]

A lot of Shreddies net their end to make that. It's bloody enormous 

[BiTurbo228]

Yeah luckily the other half supplies me with a steady stream of jumbo shreddies boxes  which have borne fruit!

It was going to be a complex shape to form in one go so I thought I'd break it up into sections. First one was the main loop going over the gearbox:

After a bit of fettling and a glance with the bead roller we had this:

Which nearly fit close enough to be getting along with anyway.

I've made the next panel as well which will have an access panel to get to the top bellhousing bolts like so:

And that's where we're up to so far. Will make another access panel to get to the slave cylinder too. Can never have too many access panels
 

[Nick Jones]

Good looking beads 

[BiTurbo228]

In this instance I'm aided by the fact the last beads I did are the most visible  took me a few attempts to remember how they worked properly. Wandered off course on the first one so it's a little wobbly, and did it up too tight on the second one so the die scored the metal. The three on top went well though 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

1 hour ago, Nick Jones said:

Good looking beads 

Like made at the makers 

[Sprint95m]

Given how good the Shreddies template was
I would have just went with that 

 

Ian

[BiTurbo228]

14 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Like made at the makers 

There's nothing quite like rolled beads and dimple-swaged holes to make something look proper 

31 minutes ago, Sprint95m said:

Given how good the Shreddies template was
I would have just went with that 

 

Ian

Haha I was wondering if I should just chuck some resin over it and call it a day  technically cardboard is a carbon fibre after all 

[Nick Jones]

Parts of the Vitesse tunnel are GRP over a shape formed in wire mesh. Worked very well. Not a monocoque shell though.

[BiTurbo228]

Interesting. I wonder if that's an easy way for me to re-make my transmission tunnel in the Spitfire...

Onwards and upwards with the transmission tunnel. Made a little closing plate to try and keep some vestiges of straightness in the panel as it's welded in place:

Welded that in place and made another CAD template.

Cornflakes for a change. Slightly larger package, material not quite as stiff as Shreddies but still perfectly adequate. In case anyone's making breakfast decisions with car fabrication in mind 

Transposed into steel with an access panel cut out for the slave cylinder (spot where I welded a captive nut in the wrong place. Measure once, cut twice and all that.)

Weld that all up and we have a transmission tunnel that looks 90% complete from this particular angle! 

[Nick Jones]

5 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said:

In case anyone's making breakfast decisions with car fabrication in mind

That’s taking dedication to another level 

Fair chunk of metalwork too. We’re you not tempted to simply section and “stretch” the original ?

[BiTurbo228]

That was my initial plan, and the more time I spent working out how it needed to fit the more patchwork it was becoming until I just gave up and made it from scratch 

If anyone needs most of a transmission tunnel in good condition I've got one going spare!

[BiTurbo228]

Some more of the same and I've got the other side of the tunnel boxed in

Next I switched ends a little as I've been pondering what to do with the radiator and coolant system. First job of which is to sort some sort of removable slam panel/top mount. Before getting to that I thought I'd make a flat section for it to bolt to at the front. That involved a big girder to try and keep it straight when welded.

For welding to terribly pitted metal I think it went quite well!

1x flat section to bolt a slam panel to  

It was about now that I realised I'd forgotten to weld the captive nuts in before welding it in place, so those will have to be sorted upside-down now...

Next up was the slam panel itself, which I got as far as a CAD template of before realising that I've got no sheet steel long enough to make it from, and all of the metal merchants had already gone home.

Ah well, shall have to find something else to potter on with over the festive break

Edited December 23, 2022 by BiTurbo228

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Good work.

10 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said:

It was about now that I realised I'd forgotten to weld the captive nuts in before welding it in place, so those will have to be sorted upside-down now...

Yup. All been there.

10 hours ago, BiTurbo228 said:

Next up was the slam panel itself, which I got as far as a CAD template of before realising that I've got no sheet steel long enough to make it from, and all of the metal merchants had already gone home.

Ditto...

But I'm sure you'll find something to keep busy.

[Rosslin racing]

nice idea this.

 

[BiTurbo228]

Thanks both! I do have a good idea every couple of years or so 

Well, turns out there were plenty of non-Triumph things that needed doing, but I've managed to find some time to get a little more done now

Turned the slam panel CAD template into steel:

I've also drilled some bolt holes on the leading edge.

Attached to that are some little welded channels which will locate the radiator. I've ordered some 30x30mm poly rectangular bar from aliexpress to give a bit of vibration isolation. Until those arrive I've used some blocks of wood cut to the right size for test fitting:

There's some on the lower valance as well, which means it all fits together like so

Next up is the heater matrix I think

[PeteStupps]

Really impressed with your fabrication, it looks proper. Got me thinking about buying a bead roller...!

[Escadrille Ecosse]

On 2/2/2023 at 1:32 PM, BiTurbo228 said:

Next up is the heater matrix I think

That is going to be interesting!

Nice work.

[Nick Jones]

He’s a nutter….….. but a very talented and determined one 

No going back now, so keep at it!

[BiTurbo228]

Haha thanks folks 

Yeah there's nothing quite like a bead roller and a swage dimple tool to make stuff look professional 

Certainly no going back! I keep thinking it would have been a better idea to start with a car that's a little less crusty, but I've committed now  plus I can never quite bring myself to chop up a nice example when I'm not 100% sure it'll all work out. Best to pick something that needs a bit of work anyway (in my masochistic mind!).

Made a little progress on the heater matrix so far, before running out of materials.

Initially I'd planned to use a lightweight heater matrix from [url=https://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=23979]Rallydesign[/url], which at 1.15kg is very lightweight indeed. However, when I made a cardboard version of it it didn't quite fit how I'd hoped, and I figured for heating up a saloon car maybe trading a little weight for more heat, so I committed to making my own.

Spent a while looking for suitable heater matrixes and fans before deciding on an '84 onwards Mini matrix, and a SPAL VA31-A101-46A 5.2" pull fan.

So, previously I'd modified the existing intake for the heater like so:

So that exits out into the passenger's footwell, so I set to some more CAD modelling:

The only particularly interesting panel made was the one the fan bolts to. I cut out an undersize hole for the fan and welded some studs in place:

Then, gradually with a ball peen hammer I worked the flange around to make a big bellmouth. Initially knocking it straight, then using a screw with the threads ground off (can you believe, I don't own a single nail at the new place!) as a form to make the curve past 90 deg.

Chuck it all together and you end up with something like this:

For some reason the welds look terrible. Tons of spatter which has been a real pain to get off in such a tight location. The panels are spotlessly clean so it's not contamination. What I think is happening is the knackered old torch I'm using is a bit grippy so the wire speed is wobbling around too much and causing the arc to disconnect and reconnect in rapid succession. Will pick up a new torch and see how that goes.

Next up is boxing the fan in and making some ducts to pipe the air where it needs to go. I'm hoping to find some butterfly valves I can use to shut off the footwell vents from the demist and things, but if I can't find any suitable and cheap then I'll just take the weight saving and leave it all connected together.

[BiTurbo228]

Right! Long time no update!

I finished off boxing in the heater fan:

The Triumph heater hoses are 45mm diameter so I matched that on the heater. Turns out that 40mm waste pipe is 40mm ID and 44mm OD so in an effort to lightweight some stuff I made a little manifold out of that to take the air to the dash vents and driver's footwell.

Bit of a miscalculation as there isn't enough space to put the tees above the dash support so the flexible tube had to snake under it:

I think I'll do away with the upper pipe and pop one at the bottom as that'll give me some glovebox space back, but for now it'll do!

Next up my Aliexpress 30mm poly bar turned up so I could cut the radiator support rubbers:

They slot into the removable slam panel like so:

...and locate into the top of the 944 radiator in these channels:

They're a bit tight as they're slightly oversize (31/32mm or so), but I'll file them down until they're a nice snug fit. Went with Shore 40a which I think might actually be a bit stiff, but we'll see.

[BiTurbo228]

The next (and current) big task is sorting out the front subframe and steering rack. The first issue is that to get the engine under the bonnet the sump is resting on the subframe:

Easy enough to sort with a zippy death disc.

Bit of a clean up and paint with zinc primer, and made a new top for it.

Easy peasy.

Far more challenging is the steering rack, which is the last major obstacle before everything is just regular swap stuff. Normally it sits above the level of the subframe, right through some important bits of Jag engine. My plan is to drop it down underneath the sump, but space is truly at a premium here.

I tacked some bits of angle iron on the bottom of the subframe to act as a level resting place for the rack and started work. Got it to within 1mm of level, so a little shim came in handy.

First obvious issue (which luckily I'd forseen before clearancing the top) is that the crossover pipes of the rack would intersect the subframe as it kicks forwards to clear the Triumph sump. Luckily, a bit of measuring showed that the subframe is in fact completely reversible (bar the rack mounts which are changing anyway). Flip it around and it kicks back, away from the crossover pipes.

Just needed some cutting to clear the turret thingy.

What became immediately obvious after getting it into position was that ground clearance was going to be pretty badly effected if the bottom of the rack centre tube was made level with the bottom of the subframe because various gubbins stick out below it. Having the rack as the lowest point of the car by well over an inch is less than ideal.

Cue lots and lots of measurement to work out where I can steal a bit of clearance. At its current position there should be 12mm of clearance to the bottom of the sump so most of that can go. Next place to look was in the sump itself.

There's oil pipes running from the front-mounted oil pump back to the sump, but using some oily tissue in lace of play dough I worked out there was some usable space beneath them I could make a cutout with. Cue some more chopping (made less tense by the fact that I have another sump if I mess this one up).

That allowed some more precise measurement showing there was maybe another 9mm I could sneak if I kept the same 4mm thickness of sump.

So I plumped for spacing the rack up by 15mm:

...which means the lowest immovable point is only 13mm lower than the subframe, which can be protected with a skid plate or something like that.

Next up is mounts!

Edited March 11, 2023 by BiTurbo228

[Escadrille Ecosse]

The thing you find when you start changing something on the car is that it usually requires another two things to let it happen. Which in turn require another two things. And so it goes....

Getting on there though.

Edited March 11, 2023 by Escadrille Ecosse

[BiTurbo228]

1 hour ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

The thing you find when you start changing something on the car is that it usually requires another two things to let it happen. Which in turn require another two things. And so it goes....

Getting on there though.

Haha and at some point you just go 'sod it, I'll just make a tube frame' 

I've already forseen some of the issues dropping the rack will cause with steering arm/balljoint clearance on the wheels and UJ clearance with the chassis legs. Will be investigating those soon...

[Nick Jones]

4 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

The thing you find when you start changing something on the car is that it usually requires another two things to let it happen. Which in turn require another two things. And so it goes....

Getting on there though.

Absolutely this. The law of unintended consequences takes no prisoners!

Steering rack positioning is a big issue with T2000 engine conversions. Both the BMW engine conversions I’ve seen struggled with this. One of them looked horrible and drove accordingly, the other (the one Andy Boris did and documented mostly on RR) had considerably more thought put into it and worked better. Wonder what happened to that car…?

Suggest skid plate is a smart move. No doubt you’ll be looking at bump steer and Ackerman too?

IIRC there’s a guy on Old School NZ sticking a lexus V8 in a saloon and he’s also fighting this issue

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/57911-adooms-1972-triumph-2000/

[BiTurbo228]

Ah thanks for reminding me! I was going to let that chappy know the measurement differences between the manual and PS rack steering arms.

Yeah the hope is to retain the same steering geometry by just dropping the balljoint the same amount as the rack, although that may be a little too simplistic an understanding of it.

From what I can eyeball the ackerman on the standard setup doesn't look great anyway. My understanding is that to get good ackerman you should be able to draw a neat line between the steering balljoint, through the kingpin axis, to the centrepoint of the rear axle. That should put the balljoint quite far into the wheel, but it seems to be in line with the rest of the hub.

Should do some tests really...