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
-
Permalink Reply by Dave Adams on
-
there are a number of steel stockholders near me they tend to be a lot cheaper than B+Q. its often possible to buy the standard 6 M length from them for the same or close to price of the B+Q 1 M section.
-
Permalink Reply by Adrian Southgate on
-
Just a thought here.
My little brain tells me that triangulated thingies are stronger than square box thingies... am i right?
-
Permalink Reply by James Doulton on
-
No, I'm afraid not. A triangular section with the same wall thickness and the same width and height is 1/3 the stiffness of a rectangular section. If you increase the thickness to make it the same weight then it is still only 4/9 the strength.
Round tube is stronger at about 3/4 the strength of square of the same weight but it has the advantage of being equally strong in all directions.
An I beam is quite a bit stronger that a rectangle in the one direction but twists much more easily.
-
-
Oh well, that's another theory shot down in flames :)
-
-
Triangular is probably more difficult to crush, could that be what you were thinking of?
-
-
Sort of, I was working on the theory that 1.6mm wall box would weigh about the same as 3mm wall angle and if seam welded properly to the bottom of the existing rails would give more rigidity than box section, obviously better than Dave's was due to Scorhill's ineptitude with a welder. It would also give more gap between the modified rail and the floor as it was tipped at an angle. On a practical 'bend' test I think that 3mm wall angle would deflect less than 1.6mm box though, if anything it would twist rather than bend.
-
-
well after a week of holiday in which i have mostly been replacing a wall and door on my conservatory, and i needed to get it finished. That was done finally today so i got some time on the Legerra.
I have welded the chassis strengthening rail back on to the N/S by welding every 1" for 1". the door opens and closes with out catching now (it didn't before)
so i made a start on the O/S rail......it also got the bird poo welding cut off (there was hardly any on the O/S....because there was very little evidence of any welding at all) both the N/S and O/S had some strips of 20mm flat bar on the inside edge, which seems to have been used to align the rails to the car prior to welding them on.......only on the O/S that seems to be all that was used to hold it on.
you can see where the strips were fitted.....they were essentially all that was holding the rails on the car, and you can see how easily the brackets broke off. a gentle tap and they fell off.again the rail came off in two bits and again they were ineptly welded together.
here you can see that it was only welded on one edge.....but not actually to the other part of the rail.i should be depressed but after the N/S (which looked to be the better welded) i feel that i am lucky to have found it in my garage and not after it pitched me into a ditch when it fell off.
-
-
I was asked to do a bit of welding for a neighbour recently on a gate post to create hinges of about 1/2" plate and 1/2" steel hinge pin, having a pretty good idea that my 135A mig wasn't going to be upto the job i thought TIG. except that my gas bottle is a full sized one and very heavy.......then i remembered that the TIG was also an ARC welder so i gave it a try. thinking that it was rated at 165A and i was welding a 6mm plate to a 12mm support bracket and a 12mm pin to the whole thing. so what power? i gave it 130A and struck up an arc......the 6mm plate dissolved into slag! a bit much power i think.....
so down to about 90A and it welded ok. the TIG very easily draws an arc and is so much easier than the last ARC welder i used. to be honest i am very surprised how good it was.
-
-
the drivers side welding....
it should be better welded when i am finished.........but i am out of welding wire.. i have tried to weld using the TIG but i just get results like that above....it seems that arc welding on the flat is easy on a vertical surface.........er less so. a bit more practice is required me thinks.
-
-
spent a bit of time welding the chassis this weekend and it looks like it has already paid off. jacking the car with several trolley jacks and bottle jacks until the chassis was straight and the doors would open and close with out binding, before welding the strengthening sections back onto the car. When i was welding the final bit towards the rear of the chassis i jacked it a little higher for access. before the car had to have at least a couple of inches raised before the front would start to lift.....on Sunday the chassis at the front started lifting as soon as the rear was lifted on a jack. Result!
-
-
dropped the car on its wheels today and started with removing the engine, but before that i sat in it and tried the doors......they now open and close with no catching. Result!
just a little more work to the front suspension, but the engine needs to come out now to give me more room to ......er modify the inner mounts on the wish bones.
-
-
whilst picking up my wife and step daughter last night from a girlie night out in town the rear window regulator on my spare car "broke".....drunk birds...i ask you!
anyway for the first time i noticed the rear door handles on the Hyundai Atoz........they are perfect for the Legerra even better than the Citroen AX i am using just now.
They are about 6" long flat mounted and by two self tappers.....i really must get some more for the Legerra.
About
© 2024 Created by Tim Walker (The Bodger).
Powered by
