S1 Rebuild(s)

[Dave Adams]

some pics of the rebuild process,

the top trailing arm bracket is broke......

the diff is sloping back a little (looking up) so that will need sorting.......

As you can see there isn't a lot of bracing in an S1 chassis, that will be sorted.

[Dave Adams]

Well my car passed its MOT first time after its rebuild, 0900 16-6-12.... 2 days short of 6 months. Almost exactly double the time it took to put it together the first time when i bought it 4 years ago as an abandoned project. But i have modified almost everything. The car is much tauter to drive and the "nervous" handling is gone. It also felt very secure on the roads and corners, even in the wet. The car still feels stiffly sprung but much more compliant and comfortable, the new rear 120lb/in springs seem about perfect.

So far i am very happy with the rebuild, only a few niggles to sort.

P.S. the hand brake on my car has always been marginal, the work i have done to it to get the cables in a smooth run has paid off the hand brake now locks the wheels on the MOT rolling road, something that it didn't do with the foot brake.

[Big Vern]

:-)

[Dave Taylor]

Result, well done.

[Dave Price]

Great, fantastic getting the MOT.  Nice one.  The hard work  is done, time to enjoy the car.

[Dave Adams]

The pedal box is not as nice to use as i hoped....the spacing is good but the pedals are too low (didn't think about that) but if i shorten the pedals they become harder to press (the brakes will be particularly affected) i can live with it but some effort is going to be put into making a new floor mounted pedal box.

[Big Vern]

Ahh the pedals - the bain of most Dutton owners, unless you have small feet and short legs and can operate the pedals without your heels touching the floor then they're always trouble. and usually have a steering column ghetting in the way as well :-l

[Paul Sheridan]

A floor mounted box is more suited to a car like the Phaeton. A couple of points to think about when making it, as the pedal action is totally different from the normal pendulam box, ........   1,  the heel of the foot stays on the floor when depressing the pedal, so pedal height is all important.    2,  make the pedal pads adjustable to give you some fine tuning ( important when sitting on cushions as we do )  

Another point, when I made my one, I set the pad height to be at the center of the ball of the foot, but did not take into account the 25mm box section it was sitting on top of when fitted ...... Hmmm  so I have had to put a small floor plate in as well.

[Dave Adams]

I have the haynes roadster manual, and it gives plans for a floor mounted box which is narrower than my existing box. i will only remake the clutch and brake pedals.

[Big Vern]

I had planned to do this as the intake manifold and master cylinders are all after the same space. Not so easy to do on the S3 floorpan.

[Dave Adams]

it looks like this post is going to be extended somewhat.......

[Dave Adams]

since i am about to do this whole thing over, i think i will change the colour this time.......but to what? Sandra still wants orange me i am thinking of pink/lilac......

[John Allen]

how about a pearlesant white with light blue wheels????