Dutton Kit Cars and their owners
Project Legerra
one of the car with hard top.....
and one with the soft top.....
the phaeton is still in my drive and it really really has to go.......ebay this week some time i think.
as for the Legerra, well it has given me some fun and games, first it boils up like a kettle....er well it did it now has a much larger radiator and some ducting on the radiator. it seems to make a difference.
the car goes quite well but it did have a hot staring issue which turns out to be a duff ballast resistor even though the car has electronic ignition. easy to fix and the car now starts hot reliably.
the suspension is very stiff and it will be softened up a bit, but the car handles quite well.
it has a MG miget dash in the car and i feel it really suits the car....more pictures later
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by James Doulton on
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That looks really nice, Dave.
It looks to have a bit more vertical clearance between the rear wheel and the wheel arch than mine has.
If it feels hard then I believe that might be the dampers, rather the springs. I don't think that 200lb/in is high for a Legerra. For most road imperfections I think that the dampers give most of the 'shock' that you feel - "shock absorber" is a real misnomer. I changed the dampers on the front of mine to Gaz adjustables because the Spax adjusters were seized. Running with them on a low setting has made the front feel really good, without changing springs at all. I would like to do the same at the rear but I reckon that I need greater movement as the leverage ratio is about 1 on the back, so the 2.5" movement until I hit the bump stop is just too small, so I hit the bump stops quite a lot over undulations.
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Yes, it looks good. However, the sun roof looks to be exactly where most Legerras have a puddle - I bet it leaks. Probably why Dave put the soft top on.
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Permalink Reply by James paton on
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yes is a good pic daryl I'm going to try and save the one you gave me will be worth the effort
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Permalink Reply by Dave Adams on
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the stereo stopped working and i thought ....yeah no sweat....so out came the centre console and a rats nest of wiring was found. this car will be getting rewired sometime soon the hazard switch has some real bodges done to it. and now also doesn't work...just yet... some things are connected to wires that don't finish anywhere other than behind the dash,, all loose and dangling. there is the original ford earth wiring connections most of which have been trimmed back to the multi "spider" connection and just one has been used with some speaker wire to earth most of what is behind the dash....!
the time clock was a bit of a laugh.....the clock earth had a huge long wire running across the dash to the steering column mounting bolts and was connected via a crocodile clip to the terminal on the clock......and yet just 6cm's away was the main earth "spider" with loose ends on it unused.
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well i spent a fair chunk of the morning ripping out excess wiring......handfuls of the stuff and several spare connector blocks. whilst having fun i was utterly baffled by the heater fan wiring until i cut it all out and redid it......i now have a two speed fan....well it always did but now its wired up correctly.
the hazards gave me a bit of grief as its a collection of unmarked black wires on spade connectors, but it got there in the end. what i have found is a whole bunch of bulbs behind the dash all loose and doing nothing?? and my main beam light is green not blue??
oh and more fun with the clock....the live was connected to the battery +ve with a 30A fuse and 6 connectors along its length, and again there was a live terminal behind the clock labelled "clock" so it got put on and yet another wire to the battery+ve terminal is removed (6 so far)
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Permalink Reply by 1midz0wwbl268 on
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it seems to be the electrical problem day today, the gremlins have been busy down in sussex also, went to sort out hazzard flashers today, and everything flashed, indicators, oil battery lights, my dash lit up like a christmass tree, sorted that out after almost rewiring the hazzards , then lost supply at lighting switch, live at fuse, tracked wire, live to where it was soldered to switch,then nothing, so ive ordered a simple 3 pos rotary switch, and im going to re wire it wednesday, be simpler to remove existing wire run new from fuse to switch , then rejoin sidelights and headlight feeds, will have to fit a new fog light switch, but its easier to do that than try to join and re join existing wires
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some pictures of the dash.....the centre consul is a bit.....er....crap i am going to make a new one. However i do like the dash and when i re-plumb everything it should be just brilliant, i plan for the centre grille vents to be fully working as well.
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here you are Rob my dash in the Legerra.....
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Permalink Reply by Tom Ger_Phaeton S2 on
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Hi Dave, nice Legerra you have.
Congratulations from me and Alexa
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well....i have been doing some work to the Legerra......or should i say its fuel tank. it was full of what looked like ordinary furniture foam! no wonder it was a slow filler. i cut the end off the fuel tank to remove it and check out the interior of the tank with a view to reusing it, and to do that i filled it with water first and used my angle grinder to cut the end off. inside the tank is one of those fuel catalysts......not sure if they work but it will go back in the tank.....just hedging my bets.i left the tank to drain after i cut the end off and tried to lift out the foam.......it was still full of water, and weighed a ton, for the rest of the day it was draining water.....absolutely useless.
A quick calculation of the tank volume gives it at 41.5L i never have put more than 35L in the tank even when i thought it was empty....and it took ages to fill as well. the foam seemed to be taking up 5-6L of space.
also i have an end mounted tank sender.......i don't like it especially as the float fouls the tank baffle, some mods are required. not sure if the sender will get moved to the tank top yet.
Also i had a play with the Zetec engine today, and made an interesting discovery.......it had occurred to me that Ford started developing the Zetec about the same time as acquiring Mazda motor company.......now if you were looking to develop a new twin cam multi-valve engine wouldn't you look into the new company's bits box for engine peripherals?
so i have a Mazda MX5 inlet manifold and a laser cut inlet manifold adaptor for the Zetec. They are almost exactly the same shape and size.
that is the laser cut adaptor laid over the MX5 manifold.....
A view from underneath....you can see that the Mazda manifold will bolt onto the ford Adaptor plate with no interference with the ford mountings.......
a little work with the dremmel will get the ports fully matched.....Why?
Well the ford manifold is a plastic and restrictive horror......that runs down the whole engine and over the top. whereas the Mazda manifold is an alloy side mounted and not higher than the cylinder head......a real bonus for the kit car enthusiast with restrictive height.
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Well I have swapped one of my cars for a set of 14" wheels and given my self an empty garage......for about 1/2 a day.
The phaeton is getting dismantled and stored and the Legerra will get a new engine and gearbox fuel tank, new wiring loom and a new interior trim. Oh and a new heater. So not much then.
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Ok.....ish wheels in need of refurb and a decent rolling chassis with logbook. Worth it to me just for the space.
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