1970 Ginetta G15

Making hinges .... with 5 sets of hinges there are 120 holes to drill in 3mm stainless steel all drilled with a 3mm to start then all out to 6.5mm - so that's 240 times - then a further 50 to 8mm then 30 to 11mm and then 20 to 12.5" 340 !
Drawing them and having them Lazy(er) cut from polished stainless would have been a far better and smarter option.....

Still just the final 20 12.5" holes to do now and I can start the welding

20 off 3/8" full nuts
20 off 1/2" tubes
30 off 1/4" UNF setscrews

There will be two sets that will be up for grabs but no more after that unless accompanied by a letter from the Queen.

Hmmm - polished stainless - I may just polish all the bottom plates on these sets as that's the only part you see and may look quite nice if I can get a near mirror finish on them.

I had my cylinder head recalibrated for 4 Star by Holbay, and wasn't very impressed by the quality of their welding...

Geoff

Starting to become a bit un-hinged now.....


They will take a polish - this was a quick run over with a 120 grit flap wheel and a stainless buffing pad, I could grab the metal polishing wheels and go at them but just smoothing them out a bit is more than enough - I may do all Ten in this way and then really polish my two sets. Stock finish on the right.






So all prep'd and ready for a final deburr and degreasing before a last wipe down with Acetone prior to firing up the TIG.

must also remember to order up some polypropylene sheet for making some shuttering for the GF work on the white G21 and BOY as its time for a bit of progress to be made on my G15.

Don't look up



Then the cleaning and throwing out commenced









That's a bit better.

Some of the wiring may need to be looked at.



Going to get it up in the air tomorrow and have a better look at the chassis - there are some big holes that I know about - lets see just how many there are + need to chop off some bolts to free up that drivers seat and a few other rusty remnants.

Its going to be Silver - found some more paint and will look at it a bit closer - it appears not to be a metallic its a flat for want of a better description Silver.

On the up side the window frames look to be salvageable and I know a bloke that does a nice line in stainless steel door hinges.

May have to bite the bullet and go on the lookout for a pair of original Webers and the full Holbay air box and filter arrangement. And I have to admit its growing on me now its a bit cleaner.

Cheers georgeb it also smells a bit better as well - Really nice sunny day today so had the covers off and let the warm air get to it all a bit more.


Got stuck into the G21M today as I wanted to get the steering progressed as it's the next big part of the modifications. So I offered up the rack took a few measurements cut some spacers/anti-crush tubes and got stuck in.

The standard Mazda track rod converges to the track rod end and upright due to the rack being mounted quite high in the G21 in relation to the mount position in the MX5.



Using a rose joint and mounting above the arm gets the angles much closer but the "twist" in the steering arm on the Mazda upright creates some issues with alignment of the rose joint - I have some angle spacers but I may well need to use high angle rod ends. Once its there or there abouts we can start looking closer and measuring bump steer.



Drill tubes prep weld









A bit of upside down welding



Flap wheel them flush



Find a few temporary bolts and nip them up and job done move onto the next stage of the job




The next stage being fitting the clocks! - Well not strictly required but I want the clocks in to make sure nothing will clash ad to check all the alignments from the wheel down to the rack.

But before that I dropped the lower UJ and Mazda lower column on - I new it would be tight due to the angle of the shaft from the MX rack and the UJ does hit the suspension so I will need to cut a clearance slot in the back of the tower.





Upper UJ.

Got stuck into some welding this evening - around 3 hours on the TIG

Parts getting degreased stage 1 with some gun wash - after this all parts were given a quick wipe over with Acetone prior to welding.



First off weld in the sleeves to the door mounting parts. Only to find that one of the sleeves was missing from the degreasing bucket



Found it in the drill bit container!



20 circular welds competed

Next studs onto the upper mounting plates



6 short welds per plate - 10 plates



Weld 3/8 full nuts to upper plates 3 longer welds per plate - 10 plates



So 110 welding operations down - thankfully just another 60 to go.

I may even fit a set to the G21S at the weekend - who knows.

A bit of work today that did not involve the works stainless steel or hinges.

Steering on the G21M

Started off by modifying the column to drop the brackets so that the column can sit closer to the dash.

Mark cut prep weld









Then I thought I would have a look at the column as I am going to have to extend in a few inches - where's Frankie Howerd when you need him - Oooerrr misses....

So a bit of careful work with the hack saw made short of the weld and - well really!







The fuss that I have seen made on forums when people cut and weld steering columns and that is what an MX5 has as stock. Then again I also see plenty of welds on structural and safety components that just make me wince.

Here is the standard Ginetta dash rail - Angle iron failure in my book so its for the bin.





So we mark up a nice fresh bit of 25 x 1.5 Box.



Now the dash is at a different angle to the point where the rail bolts just by the upper door hinge - ah - used the word hinge and did it again... They make this angle by just putting a twist in the angle iron and the fact that you can do that is why angle iron is only fit for brackets. We will have to cut and weld the support rail at the ends to provide the change in angle which will be much stronger.

Angle iron put to good use.







The next work will involve drilling and sleeving the outer supports which will be cut off of the dash rail - to alter the angle I will insert tube into the box at these junctions so that the centre part of the rail can rotate and then it will be welded up. I will then make a centre support - in angle to replace the original strip support and then to tie it all together bracket the column up to the pedal box assembly. Took a bit of thought and figuring out but got there.

You are certainly improving your tig skills mate. Look how much you can get done without interruptions from motorcyclists. That's some impressive fabrication and welding. I think I will have to invest in a Rivnut as I feel I may have use. Dash on the Gemini for instance.

I know I should know where these fit, but I am struggling to visualise. Green (BR) and blue suggest the Geminis but they already have light pods, so the 21?