Alan B
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| posted on 14/10/03 at 03:58 PM |
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Miss me?
Probably not.......but I\'m back anyway...
Been busy with work and had a few days off touring Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Virginia, North and south
Carolina........I\'m totally knackered....
So, bring me up to speed....where is everyone on their builds?...I\'m well on with re-modelling the body shape and should have all the new
moulds by the year end.....I ought to update the site soon...
It\'s great to be back...
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stephen_gusterson
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| posted on 14/10/03 at 05:25 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Alan B
Probably not.......but I'm back anyway...
Been busy with work and had a few days off touring Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Virginia, North and south
Carolina........I'm totally knackered....
So, bring me up to speed....where is everyone on their builds?...I'm well on with re-modelling the body shape and should have all the new moulds
by the year end.....I ought to update the site soon...
It's great to be back...
totally blatent name dropping Alan.
 
I have told Kylie and her sister to keep it absolutely quiet that Im in Chicago for the end of the month.
atb
steve
ps - some of it is in kenosha wisconsin, and thats not the top of my list of places to visit....
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Jon Ison
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| posted on 14/10/03 at 05:25 PM |
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no, not at all, Alan who ????
cause we missed ya
w/b
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Alan B
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| posted on 14/10/03 at 06:34 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
..............totally blatent name dropping Alan.
I have told Kylie and her sister to keep it absolutely quiet that Im in Chicago for the end of the month.
atb
steve
ps - some of it is in kenosha wisconsin, and thats not the top of my list of places to visit....
Nah, not much name dropping really....... most of them were just passed thru'....did 2500 miles in 5 days.......
Oh, BTW Kylie already told me about you...what a big mouth.......mmmmmmmm
I'm sure Kenosha is excellent...
Alan B
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Alan B
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| posted on 14/10/03 at 06:35 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Jon Ison
no, not at all, Alan who ????
cause we missed ya
w/b
Thx Jon.....
How's build going then?
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sgraber
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| posted on 14/10/03 at 08:09 PM |
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Ahhh good! You're alive.
Now if we can just find out what has happened to Rorty...  Anyone have any info?
Graber
Steve Graber
http://www.grabercars.com/
"Quickness through lightness"
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JoelP
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| posted on 14/10/03 at 09:01 PM |
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i was idly wondering that. been a month nearly?
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chrisg
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| posted on 14/10/03 at 09:09 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Alan B
Miss me?
I wasn't actually aiming at you
Cheers
Chris
Note to all: I really don't know when to leave well alone. I tried to get clever with the mods, then when they gave me a lifeline to see the
error of my ways, I tried to incite more trouble via u2u. So now I'm banned, never to return again. They should have done it years ago!
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TheGecko
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 03:09 AM |
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Hi Alan,
I was wondering about the lack of updates - worried you may have given up in despair like Greg at www.televante.com apparently has. Sad too, because
his work was looking good, although I suspect he was setting himself up for trouble by making the buck first without having finalised even his running
gear let alone chassis design.
My build status:
I've just picked up a set of 3-piece alloy wheels (15x7) with new 205/55-15 tyres with the right stud pattern and offset. A little bigger than
I had in mind but the price was right and they should look the part, particularly if I repaint the centres. Not outrageously heavy either, for the
size, at 17kg including the tyre. Photo below for reference.
I now have in the garage:
- engine with ECU and loom
- gearbox with 2 complete sets of shift linkages
- front suspension uprights, with brakes, calipers, new bearings and new balljoints (top & bottom)
- steering rack and column and new tie rod ends
- rear suspension struts, uprights, axles etc
- wheels and tyres
and arriving in the next week or so all suspension bushes, crush tubes and bush tubes from a bulk buy by one of the local builders.
A note on rear suspension. Some here would remember that I had planned to go deDion at the back, much like Steve Graber's la Bala. I've
now gone back to my original idea of struts for a number of reasons:
- looking at suspension photos of MR2's, lancia Stratoses (Stratii?) and so on reminded me how simple and effective it can be
- a coworker showed me where I can buy alloy sleeves to make the struts I already have into coil-overs for AU$37/ea (say USD25 or GBP15)
- I want to finish this car before I'm 90 
My intent is a layout very similar to the MR2 - Corolla FWD upright; a transverse arm (single tube) with an outboard plate holding the ball joint
(simple 3-bolt joint from late Corolla's); a single trailing link (just like a Locost one, but a bit longer) going to that plate; a toe-link
made from the Corolla tie-rod end, a spherical joint, and a threaded rod; and the standard strut tube, with coil-over spring seat and adjustable
damper insert. Advantages - dead simple; packages well around the transverse power plant; plenty of scope for adjusting toe behaviour by moving the
inboard mounting point of the toe link; requires the least purchase and/or manufacture of custom parts (eg deDion tube and ears, watts linkages etc).
Disadvantages - may not have the ultimate dynamic and geometric excellence of a well sorted wishbone setup; needs relatively stiff mounts at the top
of struts to take cornering and braking loads as well as spring loads. We'll see how it turns out once it's on the road
To top all of this off, I start 4 weeks of holidays this weekend and the garage has been cleaned up and (somewhat) organised in preparation for
chassis cutting and welding. I'm hopeful of having the basic outline of the chassis finished by the time I go back to work. Then I have a
further week off at XMas when our offices shut down (and my wife will still be at work so less 'honeydo' factor too).
Am I the only one who took Alan's question seriously? What's everyone else doing?
Dominic
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sgraber
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 03:22 AM |
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Aaargh~~!!!
I typed an entire discourse, posted it, just to find out I wasn't logged in.... When you hit the back button, the post is erased...
AAAAArgh...
In any case - Gecko-man: Congratulations!!!! It's great that you are finally getting into the physical aspects of the build - Exciting times for
sure. Wish I could travel the world visiting all these cool guys that are building cars. Ahh to be wealthy...
In any case - I did make some forward progress on la Bala this weekend
http://www.grabercars.com/diarymain.html
check it out if you wish.
Graber - red, red wine.....
Steve Graber
http://www.grabercars.com/
"Quickness through lightness"
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TheGecko
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 04:15 AM |
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quote:
It's great that you are finally getting into the physical aspects of the build - Exciting times for sure.
Very exciting for me
because of the history of this project:
- 6+ years of dreaming and planning
- 2 years of looking for budget and space
- 1 year of specifying and scrounging parts
To be at the point of actually welding chassis tubes is almost unbelievable after all this time.
I suppose I should update my website too - it'll provide a time-line and history that I can refer to when it all looks too hard some night
Dominic
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Spyderman
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 11:20 AM |
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Nice to have you back again Alan!
It's been awefully quite on here!
Spyderman
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ProjectLMP
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 03:09 PM |
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Glad to see your still alive, I thought you had succumbed to inhaling plaster dust or something
I am back on my project after a little break. Just posted some updates on the website:
http://members.rogers.com/projectlmp
Good to see everyone is making progress.
Home of the Astronomicalcost Mid engined LMP project
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robinbastd
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 08:23 PM |
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Good to have you back Alan,it had gone rather quiet here.
My build now depends on time and finance. No time off until after Christmas,and the finances also depend on the Christmas bonus. Plenty of
thinking/reading going on!
In response to Dominics thoughts on the strut set up at the rear- I think it is also the way for me to go and have been searching around for the
sleeves for the shocks. do post some pics/drawings when you get them.
Regards,
Ian
Only a dead fish swims with the tide.
http://smuttygifts.com/
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Alan B
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 08:33 PM |
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Thanks all for the updates and welcome back....
Funny how some of you said it had been quiet......cos' in real life I am quite a noisy git...
Dominic.....nice wheels, and yes I do agree about the simplicity of struts.
Chris...Who WERE you aiming at?
Paul....Chassis is looking very nice.
Rorty...Helllooo....Rorty mate....where are you?
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chrisg
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 09:06 PM |
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I think Bob( Rorty)'s in hospital again
Cheers
Chris
Note to all: I really don't know when to leave well alone. I tried to get clever with the mods, then when they gave me a lifeline to see the
error of my ways, I tried to incite more trouble via u2u. So now I'm banned, never to return again. They should have done it years ago!
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Alan B
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 09:30 PM |
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Thanks Chris,
I suspected as much....I hope it's just routine again.
Alan B
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JoelP
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| posted on 15/10/03 at 11:04 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by ProjectLMP
I am back on my project after a little break. Just posted some updates on the website:
http://members.rogers.com/projectlmp
thats pretty nice stuff. how did you design the chassis? computer or pen and paper?
oops ignore me, just read it and found out!
[Edited on 15/10/03 by JoelP]
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TheGecko
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| posted on 16/10/03 at 03:04 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by robinbastd
In response to Dominics thoughts on the strut set up at the rear- I think it is also the way for me to go and have been searching around for the
sleeves for the shocks. do post some pics/drawings when you get them.
Ian,
The coworker who put me onto the sleeves has taken a few photos - here's one of the sleeves, a hat (undrilled), and one of the C-spanners. I
won't be using the cast hats (they're sold as extras anyway) but building a spring seat into the top suspension mount on the chassis -
probably just as simple as a short piece of tube welded onto the mounting face to act as a locator on the inside diameter of the spring - very low
tech
I believe Demon Tweeks and so forth sell similar sleeves in the UK. Have a trawl through the various catalogues.
Good luck,
Dominic
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robinbastd
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| posted on 16/10/03 at 09:45 PM |
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Thanks dominic,
I'd seen them in a mag (retro car or similar) but had not engaged brain at the time. All I need to do now is find the catalogues.........the
wife "tidies up" more than I can cope with!
Ian
Only a dead fish swims with the tide.
http://smuttygifts.com/
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