Dutton Kit Cars and their owners
S1 Rebuild(s)
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.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dave Adams on
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The engine is known as the Fiat /Lancia twin cam. that said the Lancia twin cam was developed during the 50's and the Fiat sohc 1300/1500 (Fire engine?) during the 70's. By then Fiat and Lancia were joined as one company i think. but to find that Fiat used the Lancia shims for their own later engine was never a certain bet....however it now gives me a supply of about 40 shims to choose from to adjust the tappets when the time comes.
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Permalink Reply by Big Vern on
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As Posted above the 'argenta' engine used by both fiat and lancia. Last time I saw one was in a lancia dedra
When it comes to tuning these engines Guy Croft is very much 'the pope'
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yeah and Lincoln is local to me...he has head bolts for 35 quid standard and 110 race spec....guess which i am looking at?
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Permalink Reply by Dave Taylor on
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Going of the look of the RH side the impact shock as gone straight down the chassis on the RH side may need more than chalk lines on the garage floor there Dave.
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luckily i have a spare S1 chassis to compare and if it comes to it to use.....
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Permalink Reply by Pete Clayton on
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They will be like the ARP ones, reusable
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Well i cut the front off the green S1 and will look to make a new front end.....maybe. the bend to the O/S chassis rail sprung back into shape once the front was cut out. Then i looked at the lancia engine......the head is brand new never run on a car it even still has masking tape over all the gasket faces. however number 2,3,4 cylinders are water damaged and have rusty bores, hopefully they will hone out because there is also a set of new high comp pistons in it. someone has spent some money on this engine then wasted their efforts. shame really.
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well i have new steel for the car, the old chassis rails are 2 1/2" by 1 1/2"....not a size you will find these days so i bought 60 X 30 mm X 2mm tube.....heavier gauge but close enough (and easier to weld) no off cuts available so a full 7.5m length for £40 inc VAT had to be bought.....bummer.
However the new roof rack that i made for the sierra did me proud as as well as the 3 2.5m lengths of steel (they cut it for free) and then down to the caravan surplus store for some exterior 1/8 ply in sheets 8' X 4'.... 3 of them, thinking on i should have got a few more. But it all went on the roof rack with no problems.
If i ever get a chance tomorrow i will start to rebuild the front of the car.
the Lancia engine and 5 speed box is likely to end up being sold, it will be cheaper to acquire a Zetec or a puma engine and a type 9 than to rebuild the Lancia, shame really it looks a lovely engine.
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Some small luck this week, as i have said i bought some steel that was close to the larger sections used in the Dutton chassis, however it had to be a full standard length at 7.5m at £40 i also need some 35-40 mm square tube but was loathed to buy another 7.5m length for only 1 to1.5m at most needed, the stock holders only had a heavy gauge in stock as well.
At a Tank cleaning station (i drive chemical tankers) i asked about for a look in their scrap bin, to be told that something suitable was used in normal "box" containers when they were used as tankers and lined with a plastic bag (used for transport of wine very commonly) they use several 2m lengths of 1.5mm wall 40 X 40mm tube as strengthening to the bag structure, and i could have almost as much as i wanted for free as they just dispose of it. So i took a length, and may well grab a few more for the future. (would be very useful for making a new trailer) Just goes to show that if you don't ask you never get.
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well i have started on the front....i thought about copying what was there but decided to see if i could weld the bottom wishbone brackets onto the chassis instead of through bolting onto the chassis.......and there is the rub. the rack and steering column are in the right place to make it very difficult to weld them on.....some thought is required. its never easy is it?
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I post this with immense trepidation...i an not sure if i may offend anyone by not absolutely copying the Dutton chassis......
its not as if it hasn't been an active topic of late....what do you think? should i go for it?
here is the standard triumph front end on a S1/2..
with a Pinto in my car those front springs should be fine, but this is where my problem lies...
The steering column runs over the chassis rail, that makes very little room between the rack mounts and the upper wishbone mounts. its an issue for me because i really don't want the lower wishbones through bolted on the lower chassis leg. the upper ones will be however so that the camber can be made adjustable. (the opposite of how Triumph and Dutton did it.)
so i have the lower chassis rails replaced and i have them parallel to the lower side rails (slightly up if honest, but not as it is seems to be in this picture, the chassis is tilted up a lot for access) so now i am pondering how to mount the upper wishbones so that i dont have to bolt the bottom wishbones on to the side rails.....
do you know it really would be easier to just copy Tims setup.
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