bill van snorkle
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Posts posted by bill van snorkle
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Thanks for the reply Nigel. ARB locker failures are fairly common here in OZ and obviously in the UK too, yet the Yanks seem to be quite enthusiastic for them, aside from their 9" Ford versions. i wonder if ARB manufacture their lockers for the US market from higher quality materials and with better workmanship?
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I don't think box sections formed from 4 thin plates welded on all corners over the entire length have got a hope in hell of ending up square, straight and consistent. Surely there were better and cheaper ways of making chassis in 1948, even allowing for Rover's claim that there was no money available for press dies and other tooling.
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Great write up MN.
Not that I'd personally want to run a locker made by the Australian Ripoff Bureau, but is the new end cap of steel or cast iron ?
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LandRover chassis build tolerances are notoriously slack. Never assume symmetry from side to side or consistency from one vehicle to another.
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It's because you're not a supporting member, only those are allowed to like.
In that case, consider yourselves unliked Lol.
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I see the 'Like This' feature still doesn't work properly. I've been absent from this forum for going on 3 months, tried to 'like' a couple of posts in recent days but a notification pops up to tell me I have exceeded my allotted allowance of likes for the remainder of my life or some such thing ! WTF ?
Anyway everyone who has posted on this thread in recent days, consider yourself 'liked' Lol.
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I assume both the Escort /110 and the Morris Minor /RRC were on shortened chassis, Nigel, Frimodt ?
In other photos of the Red Bull Sugga I found, It still doesn't look quite properly proportioned Fridge. Maybe it's the
wheels ?
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I watched a 109 FC for 7 years in W.A. , the owner (an ex farmer) was a Gunner , in the end the new land owner sold it to me , as he had run out of patience waiting for the guy to move it from his land. ended up fitting a chrysler 4 litre hemi in it . better option than the holden 6 .
It was just a opinion re the rear wings , I can see your point , lots of potential there , even from the current view .
The Sugga over here, not far from me, is much better looking in the flesh ! Something seems wrong about the proportions on the one Fridge has put up. The flattened front guard tops are practical, but I wouldn't cut that deeply into the Vauxhalls guards as I want to leave room for unrestricted wheel articulation. I am presently playing with the ARB Rangey bullbar. it doesn't really match the lines of the Vaux, and protrudes too far forward for a good approach angle. I can re drill the mounting holes to bring it about 4.5 " closer to the wheels. I have posted a couple of pics on my FBook page .
A mate of mine used to make the Chrysler Hemi adaptors. They were brutal on Series gearboxes though, but a New Process 435 truck gearbox could be relatively easily adapted to the transfer case, and a Dodge truck bell housing enabled it to bolt straight up to the Hemi .
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I don't know what the project has cost you, but from the firewall back the result bears an uncanny resemblance to a '50's Volvo Sugga command car.
I sold all the Vauxhall mechanicals for almost as much as I paid for the car, and I found the RangeRover abandoned in a forest. Out of pocket expenses to date are mainly consumables,Welding/grinding/ cutting etc, and the engineers fee for first inspection, interview etc . A slightly smaller Sugga type vehicle,using common mechanical components is basically what I am aiming for.
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Maximum power for a 2.25 diesel from memory is developed at 4000 rpm. Final drive gearing is about 17 mph per 1000 rpm, so 55 tp 60 should be achievable .
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For everyone's viewing pleasure:
Widening out the front end as opposed to cutting the wings and fitting rubber extensions, was necessary, not just to cover the wheels, but more importantly to provide sufficient space under that sculptured bonnet for a radiator with enough capacity to keep the Rover V8 cool . As it is I could only just squeeze in a Series 2 4 cylinder rad , but with an 8 blade fan and suitable shroud, it should be adequate for the type of uses this vehicle may see . If I do actually complete the project, I may look into fitting a 300 TDi diesel later on, in which case the rad should be more than adequate and there is plenty of room beside the rad for a shorter but wider intercooler.
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Can't you just bolt on the hardtop side panels from a Series 2 or 3 SWB ? I think they are the correct length and same fitment .
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There is AFAIK only one Sugga here in Australia, and about 20 years ago i was prepared to put myself in hock for 25 grand to buy it at auction, but it didn't meet the reserve. I secretly lusted for something similar ever since. The good thing about these old vauxhalls, at least for my purpose, is that they are not considered to be a desirable classic car here in Aus, so reasonable examples can be bought for a fraction of the price that people are asking for their contemporary Holden equivelants .
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It was looking really good until you put a flat spreader strip in the rear guards , it spoils the balance , as there is no compatibility with the rest of the lines of the car , needs some sort of curved infill , JMHO
How long were Vauxhall in Australia , before Holden took that market ?
it was difficult enough to do the rear guards as it was, because they bolt to the shell on 4 different planes. With body work and compound curves, I definitely know my limitations .Anyway, a Volvo Sugga has flat surfaces on basically a similar style of shell, and that to me is part of their appeal. I would actually like a few more flat surfaces, particularly around the front wings, because there is nowhere to put tools on them when working under the bonnet, as spanners keep sliding off onto the floor.
Vauxhall bodies in Australia, like quite a few other British and American/Canadian marques were built by Holden Body Works, although when I look at the complexity of the Velox shell and panels, I think that would be near impossible without installing some very expensive press tooling for what was a relatively tiny market. They were probably CKD, welded up from pressings supplied from the UK. An interesting aside is that Vauxhall built all the engines for Holden cars right up to 1963, as GMHolden didn't have a foundry before then .it was common for early Holdens when built for touring car racing to be fitted with superior Vauxhall forged steel crankshafts, which were interchangeable with the carp Holden spec cast iron cranks.Most of the other internal mechanical componentry appear identical to early Holdens too, although complete assemblies are not interchangeable .
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Also nice to see it doesn't just rain on us in the UK that are using the 'outside workshop'
Yes I had the choice of working in a shed down the bottom of my property, but security from thieves is an issue when I am away at work, not only for the vehicle, but for my generator set and power tools as well, so i work out in the open up a steepish hill beside my cabin, the access to which many people find a daunting prospect to drive up to . It has cost me a small fortune in fish oil and other rust preventive sprays to keep corrosion at bay whilst I do all the cutting/welding etc.
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Due to my laptop dying a couple of months ago and being short of the readies, I have been offline for a while. To fill in my idle hours I decided to bite the bullet and begin a project that is tenuously related to the subject of this thread.
I got hold of a very rust free and tidy for its age, 1950 Vauxhall Velox saloon, stripped the running gear and front subframes out of it and began fitting the body shell onto the rolling chassis of a 1978 RangeRover, after obtaining official engineering approval in principal for the swap. The Vauxhall had a wheelbase of 98 " vs the RR's 100", but the Vaux's bulbous mudguards easily swallowed up the difference after a spot of trimming.. The Vaux wheel track width however, at 51" on skinny 5.90" tyres " vs RR's 58.5" required that the rear mudguards be widened out by 4" each. I was able to get away up front by leaving the mudguards attached at the bulk head and spreading the front of the guards further apart, unbolting the two halves of the bonnet ,which Vauxhall Motors conveniently split longditudally, and fitting a tapered filler panel to the gap. I now only require a narrow rubber lip on the outside of the guards to legally cover 235-85 x 16" tyres on Disco rims. The engineer said he would approve up to 34 " tyres if I wish.
To mount the body shell as low as possible on the chassis, I had to cut a bloody great hole in the floor to provide room for the massive LT95 4 speed gearbox and transfer case , and building a transmission cover for this whilst giving sufficient room to operate the clutch and brake pedals in such a narrow cabin has provided the biggest challenge thus far, but i am getting there slowly. There is still a mountain of work to do in order to comply with some of the Australian Design Rules that the engineer requested that i do, and in my old age I have tended to go a bit hot or cold on projects, so I may not actually complete this one, but if I can maintain some enthusiasm after summer i hope to have the vehicle on the road and registered by the time I retire in August and drive it up to Cape York Peninsula, possibly the only Vauxhall to ever see that part of the world . I remain quite hopeless at posting photos to forums, but if anyone is interested they can go to my Timeline (William Larman) on face book for a few progress pics. some here should refrain from having breakfast ,lunch or dinner before viewing the pics
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In Australia, these blokes would have to be big,tough and supported by the hells angels bikies to get away with those kind of trading practices and still retain all their body parts .
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I am back finally after a few months without a computer . Have to catch up with how the One linked Wrangler turned out Dan. Yes the patrol RA's are made of some carp alright. Workshops over here regularly snap the chassis ends off when attepting to undo the nuts to change bushings. And nobody ever attempt to bend them for castor correction, as they shatter.
Been playing around a bit with roll centre heights and comparing ease of articulation of both my antiroll bar equipped 86 RR and Wildfing. The RR's front wheels just seem to step up and over obstacles much more smoothly than the much higher roll centred wild one . A mate of mine replicated a RRC 3 link rear suspension on his very capable Suzuki Sierra, and shortly after I laid it on its side for him, trying to follow Wildfing's tracks, he lifted the rear roll centre at the A frame ball joint. He reckons the Suzi is much more stable now in the twisty off cambers, and it doesn't appear to me to have lost anything in off road ability, but he says that the rear end does wiggle a bit more on rough higher speed tracks.
However, riding shotgun in Wildfing last weekend on my knarliest gulley track, he did comment how my truck stays remarkably level, so who knows , suspension has become a bit of a black art to me lately.
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Sometimes, depending on locality, replacement brake shoes are not so easy to source where and when you need them. I have recovered oil soaked brake linings with an initial wash down with Brake Clean, followed by a bit of heat from a gas torch to sweat out the remaining oil, followed by a second wash in brake clean.
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I'm not saying it doesn't.... just that instead of the RC height being half way between chassis and axle mounts on the panhard as is in all the automotive books I think due to our slow speed I see the body pivoting on the axle mount of the panhard which makes this lower
I think you have a point there. When doing front axle articulation cycling on a hybrid I was building with a 3 link plus panhard rod some years ago, I discovered that with the R/H/Side tyre at full stuff, the inner sidewall would foul heavily on the upper coil spring mounting, whereas there was adequate clearance when the L/H/Side wheel was at full stuff. Legalities prevented the fitting of rims with less back spacing, so I tried a Watts Link which gave equal left to right roll geometry, and surprisingly didn't cause massive bump steer on whoops.
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I would have swapped you my station wagon body for your ute body if you were in OZ, Lol.
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Bill my wife says that the suspension on your car looks unnatural
. Admittedly, in that situation, when the car is perfectly horizontal, I think more travel is better. How would you say your car on side slopes and off camber situations?
daan
It behaves much better on off cambers than when I had normal shackles Daan. I can confidently turn onto steep downhills from a level surface without having to bother much about hitting the slope squarely. Initial body roll on full side slopes is similar to any SWB LandRover, but the uphill side rear springs run out of push after a few inches, and the downhill spring rate becomes quite a bit stiffer against the twin bump stops that are mounted on the springs around 12" for and aft of the axle.
I would like a bit more up travel to cushion the bumps, but with portals it's difficult to keep the ride height relatively low and retain good uptravel without notching the chassis rails above the axles, and that is a big no no in this country, so I live with the compromise .
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Double diaphragm boosters are equally effective with drum brakes. Mate of mine fitted one to his 101 and decided it was good enough that he abandoned the plan of fitting a disc brake kit from Zeus.Can't say I have ever experienced severe brake fade with the larger 11" drums, but then again, if I'm doing a bit of mountain road work I tend to use the gearbox for retardation more than the brakes.
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Well as you can see from the level attitude in those two photos, the suspension is quite close to evenly balanced. Even progressing up the ramp, both front and rear axles share articulation fairly consistently all the way up to their 30 degrees maximum each. For video of it walking over uneven terrain, you could go to page 4 of the Members Vehicles forum and on page 11 of the thread titled Bills LR's there is some video footage.
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Bucket list.
in International Forum
Posted
Never store your list in a plastic bucket and leave it outdoors , at least not here in Melbourne as the UV rays destroy the bucket within weeks !
Now I can't remember how many things on the list i managed to tick off , and will have to compile a new one ! Hmmm, I've hear'd the Darien Gap can be a challenging adventure