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Aug 12, 2017 19:51:59 GMT |
So, as i've said on my morris thread, i've got to clear the floor for something coming which means getting all the steel up on the racks and using what needs to be used. This has forced the start of the project substantially earlier than planned, but hey ho. So, the escort needs a number of repairs to the underside, so it needs to go on a body spit.  P1063386 by jono_misfit, on Flickr My present body spit needs an upgrade, and will also be needed concurrently for the morris. Only thing for it. Make a new one. CAD time first.   Inspired by page 13 of the CJ auto's catalogue. unpacked some bits  steel that needs to get out the way  and some more of it  drawings to help turn it into something else  cut  cut some more  mark out (this is where the problems started.....)  cut  brace for welding  welded  tack on the front piece  it was at this point i realised i'd messed up a dimension somewhere. It was sloping downhill from the front wheel to the rears. The step ups were intended to prevent the reverse of this issue so thats where the problem lies. The offset is 20mm too much  as checked by 19mm box bringing it back to level I eventually worked out i'd offset one of the line by 25mm extra, meaning the diagonal rising piece is slightly too long bumping up the heigh. I was not happy. In fact i'm sulking now. The correct fix is to re-make it (joys) so i'm now sulking and it can wait for a bit. So, cant have a car thread and no pics of a car. Some of the escort           Its in surprisingly OK condition, it has some rust repair needed but not too much. Having gotten access to the escort cosworth forum and looked at some of the resto threads, there are a number suffering from some pretty horrific rot (mostly inner sills, outer sills at the mid sills joins, bulkheads, battery trays, spring mount points, seat and seatbelt mounts, and A pillars. Mine is better than a number of them despite blatantly having been left outside for a long while. The rust on them shouldn't be surprising though as they are a a 90s ford ..... i'm surprised with how few other threads there are on them (a few on passion ford) on the general web. I guess with the prices owners have a vested interest not showing just how rotten they can get despite looking ok. The shells had a little bit of a light tap around the front corners, probably during its life as a race car, and the floor is bumped up in a few places. Nothing major a hammer, some wood, and (if worst comes to the worst) a light jacking. My escort is fitted with WRC rear turrets, although no mounting points for the subframes exist so they didnt get that far. This prompted my thinking, i wonder how hard it is to design something to fit it. Someone has posted dimensions online for the rear subframe which was useful (or rather some of the dimensions, the rest have been engineering judgement) and allowed me to mock up this.    Still a work in progress. I'm not convinced i like the suspension system though as you always get bump steer (toe out) in full droop. I need to look at it a bit more and think if a wishbone arrangement suits me better. Plans wise, i fancy making it a fun car for road / track use. I did think about using it for rallying, but the price of parts is ridiculous compared to an equivalent impreza or evo, so i think road it is. I like black and white, so at the moment i'm thinking Satin Black with white wheels. I don't think there will be much progress on this for a while once the spits done, but the threads started so i'll update it if there is. |
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Last Edit: Jan 23, 2021 18:32:39 GMT by jonomisfit
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Aug 13, 2017 11:02:13 GMT |
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Love the Morris build thread - so looking forward to more on this!
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Aug 20, 2017 17:38:15 GMT |
After a busy weekend doing other things I managed to get today out the back working on the escort spit. I thought about the best way to fix my F-up and decided cut it off and weld the leg on higher up, and just make the other side the same. welds cut and cleaned  start marking out for the vertical section  Drill drill drill  clamp  clamp some more  weld position other tube  much better   mark out a round tube to get a square end   weld onto upstand lowest (1300mm)  tallest (1800mm)  make the other side of the spindle  slot the tube for position and weld length  in position  vertical dropper in place  I think i'll need to take 200mm off the upstand to drop the height a bit. i cut the tube longer than the design, but think ive gone too far. i then swapped to tidy up mode ready for the new tool to go in.  ive also been doing some cad work working out what to build.  still a work in progress   |
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,458
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Definitely looking forward to the project.
I guess they were aiming for toe-in under load for passive rear steer?
Certainly looks like a layout designed to need flexible bushes somewhere.
I remember Mazda 323 slightly shorter frt transverse lower arm for that purpose as compared to Lancia Beta's equal arms.
And my Accord's getting progressively longer transverse arms as the design evolved, early ones developing roll-oversteer due to camber & toe changes thanks to their short arms (evolved from Civic's need to package spare wheel between them).
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Last Edit: Aug 21, 2017 9:31:42 GMT by 79cord
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andy-v
Part of things
i like cookies :D
Posts: 358 
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bookmarked  |
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Aug 21, 2017 17:14:18 GMT |
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It's about 50% engineering guess so it's likely my suspension moves in a way the real wrc back end doesn't.
I'll develop it a bit more and see how it looks. It's the mk2 back end anyway so it's a long way off getting made and fitted. Plenty of time.
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Aug 26, 2017 19:52:11 GMT |
Fridays operation get the new tool in to position worked out well, so that left today free for some work on the escort. As it had been out the garage i took the opportunity to get the last stuck bolt out of the battery holder. I thought race / track cars were meant to be light? The battery holder felt like it was made from pig iron. It weighed about 5 - 6 kg. quite impressive for something so small. Anyway onto something more productive. cut out tabs for rear mounting point. These very nice line up so that when fitted with welded in cap head bolts, the 60x60 box will still fit over the top, making mounting a lot easier  I didnt have any bolts the right length left, so need to buy them before I can weld up. So i thought as the first one worked out OK i should make the second spit. cut cut cut and bend. The other box section is there to ensure it all pulls square.  Tack it, then do the other bends.  weldy weldy  i extended the wheel clearance by 25mm as its fractionally too tight on the other side and i need to tweak it slightly as it interferes with the wheel. Loads of room here though.  drill the vertical section  tack it all together  bolt the wheels on and check next to the other one  You can see the wheel mount mod I need to do to the other stand, move the plate out by 25mm each side.  forget to take some pictures.... make the raising vertical tube and pivot  start making the pivoting piece   Get it all square  bore a turn handle hole  weld check it in position with the dropper.  And i ran out of time. Hopefully get some time next weekend on it. I need to order up some PTFE sheet this week to line the spindle with, and act as sliders on some of the other pieces. |
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Sept 9, 2017 19:47:18 GMT |
I managed to get some time in the workshop today, So cracked on with the cross bar   start lining it all up for the rear brackets  I welded the bolts to the plate and tacked on the bridging tube.   then lined up the cross bar in the right place  i forgot to take pictures for a bit.... Started a strengthening gusset.   I was going to put some swaged holes in it because... you know..... swaged holes.... but the metal was a bit thick and i was worried i'd destroy my tools. go on here  just tacked on so far. One either side. It stiffens the joint and gives a nice overlap rather than rely on a butt weld.  and the whole lot together looks like this  I also re-set the caster plates so they now actually turn round fully.... One side has a strengthening plate on the bumper mount, this side doesnt.... So made a spreader plate  Which is a really odd shape as there isnt much clearance I also decided a better option for the rotating part was to buy some DU bushes. These are bronze with PTFE lining. perfect fit  I need to change the tube on the top of the upstand to the correct wall thickness (4 v's 3mm) to get it the right size for the bush. I've ordered it and it was meant to be here tuesday and its still not arrived..... I also changed design a bit a bought a couple of jacks to help raise the body, but they havent turned up yet either. I then spent about 2 hrs trying to sort tool offsets on the lathe to get it to turn things right, and not smash up any more parting tools. That was it for today. Might be a couple of weeks till an update. I did some more CAD doodles for the front suspension as well.  The front steering arms arent the right length here  This is the design of rear upright i'm contemplating. It apes the WRC rear end, but is made up from the standard bearing carrier. I might look at a different design all together as its complicated and messy!   Front i've only just started.  |
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Sept 17, 2017 10:30:09 GMT |
Yeah, so i decided to do that thing you should never do and change the spec after i'd got quite far in the spec of the spit build.... Found these on ebay (8 ton, 600mm lift jacks) for cheap, and decided wouldnt it be nice to have jacks on the spit....  I also decided the minimum pivot point was too high and decided to lop off 200mm (see the box above^) cut from here  I worked out a cut point on the box and it can act as the bottom mount for the jack  Jack goes here  This also means the nose of the lifting spindle needs to be longer, so whilst doing this i got the right size tube for the DX bush to be a tight fit  75mm x 4mm = much hacksaw arm  Dx bush goes in like so  I also need a way of locking off the spindle in fixed positions, so bought some laser cut rounds and hole sawed a hole in them   time to cut off the old tube  then jig up the new one. The photo shows the difference in tube position and length   tacked on. Looks like this  need a mount to go onto the spindle nose  like so  at full height the spindle centre line is about 1.4m above the ground I cant see me needing to jack up this high, but it does.  lots of clearance  weld the spindle tube on properly  overlapped  drill some locking points  tacked in situ (and the second spit modified as well)  on both  bearing pushed in.  Its a very tight fit with them in. it doesnt freely rotate, you need to apply a bit of effort by hand. I think this will get easier with the weight of a body on it, but equally i might well pull them out and try polishing the inside face of the tube to take a small amount off it. It wont fit in the lathe There's some gussets to make for both ends of the jacks to spindles, for support. And some diagonals to stiffen it vertically. Then its final weld. |
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Sept 24, 2017 19:14:38 GMT |
Was back on with the spits again today. There is light at the end of the tunnel thankfully. These things have just gone on like the energiser bunny! I just want to get back onto the morris for a bit of that! Make up link plates / gussets  go here   gussets for the top section  go in something like this  weldy weld   tack on   weld  time to start the other body mounting points  these go onto the chassis legs  and attach to the spit on the sliders on the cross bar  access holes  fit some captive nuts    mark some centre lines  bits fit like so  and go in the end of the chassis legs like so  The bolts go in from underneath into the captive nuts  So main jobs left now are some vertical lateral stiffeners that go from the offset in the wheel plate to the vertical column, fit a stop position to bolt it to, and then its mainly weld the whole thing solid. After that it should be good to use once i add some shim material to ensure it runs square. I also need to buy a drum sander of the right size so I can tickle the bearing tube out a bit in the right place. Its a fraction too small so the bearings are tight and I want them to run a bit looser. I might get onto it next weekend. |
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Deleted
@Deleted
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Sept 24, 2017 19:40:50 GMT |
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Great fab skills and real craftsmanship! Can't wait to see your work on the car.
Thanks for sharing your project with us.
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My dad was down on the weekend and brought some bits that were lying about at the farm. To start with at least, the escort will have this in it, a BOA cosworth V6.  The price on YB engines is insane at the moment and with he baby etc. I just don't have the cash to be spanking 5K on a engine that likely needs a complete overhall. Will see how it develops, but the BOA will get me moving to start with. gearbox  rear beam.  There's a beam and arms on the car, however I have no idea what state they're in and if they are bent etc. Hence this as a spare. other assorted bit.  and a diff. Although at 7.5" i think this is unlikely to be the right ratio for the front diff, so will need to go find one of the 7" ones that are kicking about next time i'm up. The 7.5" will be used on the morris as its a Viscous LCD one. There was a lot more stuff, but the van was in danger of being over loaded so it was left behind. Another trip beckons. I was hoping to get on with the spit, but it took most of my time to get the bits into sensible locations so I can still work on things. Its getting very very crowded. Should get some more work done on the spits etc. this weekend coming. |
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Fantastic skill and great project. Bookmarked!
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brawr
Part of things
Posts: 650
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Nice bit of work with the spit, keen to see this develop.
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quickrack1
Club Retro Rides Member
It'd be nice to have a friend!
Posts: 3,246
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Thats a serious spit!
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davidpallister
@davidpallister
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trying to get my head around the mods on the shell.
is it a proper escort cosworth (which Ford built on a sierra floor pan) or has it been modified to run sierra suspension?
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I drove a rwd V6 Cosworth Escort many years ago, in many ways it was a better road car than the YB engined ones.
I assume from the parts you are building this up as 4wd using the V6 sierra sump etc?
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Cheers dudes. It is indeed a genuine escort cosworth shell. Its started its days as a road shell then has been converted to a rally / race shell. The guy i bought it from said it was used as a race car and with the way the battery and fuel cell etc was done i can see this. It has seem some mods in its days though, as its converted to front and rear WRC turrets and few other bits as well (like double skinned inner arches. Some of it seems very nicely done, and a couple of bits not so great (which makes me think these are later mods). I'll see what its like on the BOA. Its a big heavy lump so may induce a bit of understeer. My next option will likely be a MK1 focus RS / zetec turbo engine as this matches the bolt pattern on the gearboxes. Yes, converted using the bits from a 2.9 Xr4x4. I'll see the details of the shell once the cars on the spit and stick up some pics (along with the rust...). Spit time. Welded everything solid.  I trimmed the corners of the wheel plates so they have a bit less chance of slicing into my foot... They need radiused a bit further once i'm happy with it all. not that it needed it, but i've added in a couple of stabiliser bars to ensure its all stiff. I may have to look at swaged holed stiffening gussets as i'm getting withdrawl from swagey holes....  welded on a locating tab for the rotation stop.  then on to try and open the bearing clearances out a bit. using this  i honed it out for quite a while. Definitely got some material out. What was the biggest issue is the inside isnt nicely round. It has many longitudinal ridges in it. Polishing these out helped the bearing fit a bit better. Still a bit tight but can turn freer than it did.  welded the rotating stop plate and added a couple of stiffeners.  then needed to make some spacers up. Turned down some bar stock  cut to length  bored out  and fitted. These are crush tube / adaptors for the jack bottle.  Very blury, but back together now.  Just the other side to do now, then i can try lifting the car with it. Hopefully it works ok. If i'd just built a normal a frame spit it'd have been done about 6 weeks ago..... still it should be useable a flexible for any cars in the future. |
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quickrack1
Club Retro Rides Member
It'd be nice to have a friend!
Posts: 3,246
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There is more work, thought and effort in the spit than in some of my projects ,start to finish :-)
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Not sure about that.
Its mainly me trying to make a version of one you can buy. I just can't afford the price so have to make my own version.
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