My Type 54 to sort of 47 Conversion

[Bainford]

Very impressive stuff Rod. I really like where you are going with this. And that raft of carburettors just makes me giddy.

[RoddyMac]

I've managed to make some minor progress over the last few weeks.  I wasn't pleased with the existing gearbox mount, so a Mk 2 version was created, unfortunately it didn't quite fit, so this past weekend was spent cutting it apart and rewelding:



I still have to sort out the rear body mount, but I think it should be relatively easy and be fairly elegant. 

I've also started on the shift mechanism.  I picked up a pair of 84" cables that are slightly too long, but I'm sure I can tie them back to the chassis to take up some length.  I fabricated a bellcrank for the side to side cable and re-used a lever I had left over from a Coventry Climax firepump:



The lever required a bit of filing to get it over the splines on the NG3, luckily the pinch bolt lines up nicely with the hole through the gearbox shaft.  Keen viewers will notice the CV axles in place, the output shafts aren't fixed to the splines just yet.  I still have to measure a few more times before cutting them up to mate up with the Renault bits.  The shafts themselves are Golf Mk 3, which have turned out to be the exact length I needed for my build.

And, I rolled it out into the sun to have a look at it again in natural light (and to get me motivated again):



This upcoming weekend I'm picking up a used seat cover that a friend kindly donated.  I'll be making up patterns and sewing some covers for my seats in the near future.  There most likely will be a CAD file created for the patterns, should anyone be interested.

Rod

[BDA]

It keeps getting better and better, Rod! The paint is beautiful!

[Rosco5000]

Looks great as always.  So are you using Mk3 golf axles straight out of the box or are they Mk3 axles with porsche 930 joints?  I have a VW transaxle from a 2003 passat and I am going to be looking at VW bits to make that work and some sandrail bits to make my outer hubs work but I thought I would make an adapter for the Passat output shafts so I could run all 930 joints like the sand rails.
Ross

[RoddyMac]

Ross,
Straight out of the box Mk 3 axles, so 100mm inner CV joints.  The bearings and hubs in the uprights I fab'd are Mk 3 as well, though the gearbox output flanges that I'm going to carve up are late Mk 2 items (but still 100mm). 

As far as adapters, I found this website that has weld on and bolt on adapters to go from 100mm to 108mm:
http://www.shop.drdracingproducts.com/Rear-end-parts_c3.htm

Depending on what my machinist says about cutting the stock VW bits, I might have to have a pair of the weld on 100mm adapters sent over unless I can find a source a little closer to town.

Rod

[RoddyMac]

A long overdue update, back in June I made a stand to elevate the body to allow the chassis to be rolled out from under it.  This has helped immensely with working on the mechanical bits:





I've also spent some time (and a small amount of money) fabricating the CV adapters.  I ended up welding on some steel donuts rather than chopping up the VW bits.  I welded the flanges on, faced them off in the lathe then handed them off to my machinist to have the holes drilled and tapped.  I'm very pleased with the results:





The next step is finalizing the shift cable brackets, then finalizing the coolant pipes.  Also, over the next while I'll re-link the photos (there's no way I'm going to pay Photobucket to host, so I'll have to go through each entry in the thread and replace the links).

Rod

[BDA]

More great stuff, Roddy! I can't wait for you to get the body on!

[andy harwood]

Your work looks great!
I like the way you constructed the CV adapters. After welding the donuts on the yoke, and facing, did you true up the circumference for the machinist to index on for drilling the bolt holes? (just curious, as someone who seems to excel in making scrap metal on my lathe).

[RoddyMac]

Andy,
I did true up the edge.  I had the metal shop I buy from cut me two pieces of 4" diameter 1018, I started off facing them on one side, drilling and boring the center to the diameter I decided on, welded them to the turned down Renault bits, then faced off the CV joint side and truing up the edge.  Luckily 100mm (I'm using 100mm VW CVs) is slightly smaller than 4", so I had some material to play with. 

Rod

[4129R]

And then you have to find something to brace the seat belts to.

On normal cars they are connected via bolted brackets to the top mount for the rear shox.

[Certified Lotus]

Very impressive work!

[RoddyMac]

And then you have to find something to brace the seat belts to.

On normal cars they are connected via bolted brackets to the top mount for the rear shox.

Alex,
I think that's only true with Twin Cams.  My car didn't come with any braces and doing a quick search through the parts books, the seatbelt section for the S2 only shows the belts, no braces or brackets.

Rod

[jbcollier]

The S1 has a brace back to the chassis on the upper seatbelt mount.  I'd have thought the S2 would as well.

[RoddyMac]

John,
You would think they would have one.  Looking through the online S2 parts books shows the 46B1177 & 46B1178 part numbers but only lists them as fitting the S1.  I do know that the bobbin for the upper seat belt mount on my car is threaded, is the bobbin on the 46 and the TC body threaded or is it a through hole type bobbin?

In any event, If I wanted to add a brace I could.  All that would be required is a few tabs welded to the chassis and some braces fabricated.

[skippopotamus]

Hey Rod, the upper seat belt mounts on the S2 are pretty wimpy.  Mine just broke out of their bonding and started spinning when I tried to remove the eyes that hold the belt.  I was going to make something like what the Twin Cams have that ties into the rear shock mounts but yesterday I saw a car with this roll bar.  I'm sure it's heavy but it looks like a much better way to go.  I'm going to make one for my S2.

http://www.safetydevices.com/motorsport/products/roll-cage/Lotus+Europa+Twin+Cam-1971-1972-2-door/100/961/