We have steel at last.

Good evening / Noswaith dda

At last the steel has arrived and I do have to say very good service. In my boredom over the last few evenings I decided to construct a leg for my Christmas gift off the wife

Yes I had to have a start and after sorting the steel out took the opportunity to use my chopsaw to good use.

 

  It was nice to get back into the building mode and having the time and tools to make life just a tad easier than it was 15 years ago. Got too late to tack weld so will leave it until the new year now, will have to get some more clamps though only £1.99 each so not too bad.

 

Also keeping an inventory of the build, tools and materials.

  May I wish all of you a Happy New Year, as I move along with the build I will try and keep up to date on the blog but as you well know time takes over. 

 

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda.......

 

 

 

Happy Christmas, Nadolig Llawen

Just a quick post to wish everybody a happy Christmas, good news steel will be delivered on the 29th from The Metal Store, £55 cheaper than B+M Steel in Bangor. Sorry did try and buy locally.

Also bought a chopsaw and a metal cutting disk, waw what a machine gone are the days of using a hacksaw, getting too old.

 

Good evening / noswaith dda pawb

Getting a bit bored not having any steel to start the build and keep kicking the table so having to check the levels.

Therefore got a steel clothes line from a well known supermarket for £1, two M10 raw bolts from my stock and now the table is solid and will not move. 

 

 

Hopefully will get a chance this week to frequent B+M Steel in Bangor.

Good evening / sut mae'r hwyl.

Another good day at work and back to the single seater mode. Got the below quote on line for the majority of the steel I would require. Will take a copy to B+M steel, Bangor (Stockwell) to see if the price makes some sense. Not a very good picture but it will give you an idea.

 

 

Good evening all / Noswaith dda

First of all let me introduce myself. A proud Welshman, 49 and happily married with two children which by now are adults themselves. I have always been interested in cars and a bit of speed even since I was old enough to ride a bike. 

I have just started planning my second self build car which will hopefully be a single seater mid engine bike powered monster.

Now older and wiser I have been toying with the idea of building a single seater car for hill climbs and sprint days. Scouring the Internet I came across this picture which took my eye. 

My first build started 15 years ago in which I followed a book by Ron Champion.

  It took around three years to build at a budget but the car made it on to the public roads.

The car was built on a budget with the donor Sierra only costing £30, by now a Ford Sierra is worth a few pounds more. Since then I have been restoring a few Golf GTIs and then VW Transporter conversions.

I joined the grabcad community and was able to download a chassis design which I could measure and get an idea for what I was going to build. Technology has come a long way in 15 years which will make my life a lot easier in collating information for the build.

The website allows you to measure the chassis but a bit of common sense is required here and its going to be a slow road to a rolling chassis.

The first task is to build a table, on my previous build it was a wooden table so I will opt for the same here.

With the table in place and using the drop test method to get it level, the floorpan of the chassis is marked up and all I now need is steel.

  The next step is to order the steel, an unknown when it comes to the gauge. Yes I can measure the outside diameter of the steel tubing and box section but unsure of the thickness. The information on the web is vast but starting to get an idea. 

As I am building a sprint car and looking for a strong, safe, rigid chassis not so much racing impact strength as I need to keep an eye on the weight so to get the most out the powertrain. I am looking to use the engine out of a SUZUKI GSXR 750 or something similar.

The build will have double wishbone suspension front and rear with a chain driven differential not sure as to which uprights and hubs to use yet. Again weight is the issue here and without spending an absolute fortune, its going to be a challenge.........