LandyManLuke

DO NOT use a cigarette lighter, it'll melt or in extreme circumstances catch fire, either way, it's really not a good idea. Even if you were to make a suitable plug, the socket and vehicle wiring are not up to that sort of load. if you're talking 30-70A, your only real option, as has been mentioned, is something like an anderson connector wired direct to the battery.

guess it's being fueled ok then, as has already been said, if there's loads of torque and no top end, playing with the gearing seems the way forward.

that may well be the problem, I don't know the engine at all but my neighbour is adament that if you want the engine to do owt, it's going to smoke a little.

How much does it smoke? My neighbour has a cadillac with a similar lump in it, his belches smoke like no ones business when it goes. he has to turn the pump right down to get it through an MOT. so much so that here in Sheffield he has to take a specific route to get to the MOT station without going up any steep hills.

in the wing? like an fm aerial? that's about the best position you've left, i reckon.

Having read about 'smut' , Today i had another go, this time cranking the gas up to about 20lpm. What a difference, the weld pool is a lot more stable and there's a lot less mess to clean up afterwards. wire speed has gone up a tad to get the weld pool happy. The following are all seam welds, rather than stop-start. Bear in mind I'm left handed (i.e. welding left to right), each weld starts with a tack, so i can then use both hands with the torch. Also, it's worth saying i think the camera, the flash particularly, is a little harsh, I tried taking pictures without the flash but they are mostly blurred. A start, granted not a super one, but better than last time. A more constant bead, the rippling is not as harsh as it looks. These two pictures give a different angle Another one I was pretty happy with them, so i went back to RR roof to try joints on that. Throughout this, it's become very apparent why TIG welders like their foot pedals, the heat in the metal changes the weld considerably, the tack and start of the weld are very cold, and by the time i'd welded 1 - 2 inches, i had to crack along at a pace to keep the weld from melting through. Practice is shortening the time it takes to get the bead sorted, more work to do though Here is the same picture, sans flash, i think it really does show it in a different light. the tack is clearly visible seperately on the left. This picture shows trouble starting, then an alright bit, then a second pass at the end where i'd blown through (going too slow). I'm starting to run out of offcuts of RR, and i'm getting bored of welding on the bench, so i'm hopefully going to start on the RR itself soon. the rear doors have the door-handle holes to fill in, then it's the roof, which is going to be hard work.

Single Vehicle Approval Scheme Do a search on here, there's plenty of SVA info around. plenty of people choose to avoid the SVA. With a bespoke (unknown) chassis, you'd be wise not to, who knows what its like.

It should have been SVA'd as a kit car then, i imagine.

Mine came from ebay, 4 years ago, I think LinITX do them. Edit: Linitx have them here, I must admit i paid less than that off ebay. that said, I think it's starting to fail now, so i'll be looking for a new one. I reckon I'll get this one

Yup, it's still not open either.

Or just buy a 12V DC - DC PSU with switching capabilities, off the shelf. Benny, Yes, Laptop HD and CD drives can be used with an ITX motherboard to build a very small size built-in PC. Laptops win with screen size and cost, ITX win on installtion size. I've got an ITX and 8" touchscreen in my 90, it survives well. However, I cannot afford £600 worth of Computer in a challenge truck, so my RR will probably have a cheapo laptop for Nav and Megasquirt. something like a toughbook etc. I bought the components from Linitx and build the PC myself. there's not much point butchering an old laptop.

I think you'll need a pretty big air tank to run air tools off an electric compressor, unless its huge. an air con compressor on the other hand has high enough output that it won't need a big tank.

Yup they did, it's fitted to the Ibex, different setup to what's being discussed here though.

Yup...

They've had trade counters for a while, none in/near Sheffield though

If you can, get some PTFE or nylon washers.

Pipe caps, worth a search, they've been mentioned before. Exact Fabrications have these on the shelf. they look suitable.

Reel holder bodgery.

Thanks for the advice Nige, Not an option, I'm skint . My time is (relatively) free so i can afford to practice. Also, the roof would require getting someone to come here to do the work, and work alongside me as such, that'd be mega £££. I've got a bit of time tomorrow, I'm going to have another hit at it and see how i get on.

Well it looks like I've got the go-ahead, provisionally at least. I've got to sort out some more detailed costings first. SootySport, have you still got that kit?

Do you reckon there is one Rog? Freecycle rocks, I don't reckon they've made it down there though, yet!

Bodged it! stripped the 15kg holder down to the spindle, the threaded section of which is just long and thin enough to hold the diddy reel. I'll grab a picture tonight. It's going down fast, wire feed is through the roof compared to mild. Trying to weld the thicker stuff together, the pool really wouldn't let me move it along with a weave, as you can see. I'll take your advice and try again without a weave. Long sleeved rugby shirt, collar up, seems to do the job.

Having decided a while ago i was going to cut the roof of the RR and then alu-MIG it back together, I had already acquired the bits requried for the mig, today i picked up some pure Argon whilst i was at the gas yard getting some more Ar/Co2. All-green is pure Ar, blue with green is Migweld Universal - Ar/Co2/o2 mix. New 4m teflon liner. 1.0mm tip, oversize for the 0.8mm wire Small reel of alu wire, next to the 0.8mm mild steel reel i took off. Changing the liner over is no hassle really with a Euro torch, it's easy to get the liner out. Here you can see the Euro plug, with gas, wire/current and trigger (x2) connections. Unscrew the cap, and pull the mild steel liner out. Then slide the new teflon liner in. I trimmed the end off once the liner was in. The torch-end of the liner is trimmed too, I left it a little long, so the tip butts up against it. The tip screws up fine, but i'm wondering if the liner is blocking the gas holes slightly, gas flow (pressure) is set high on the reg at the moment. The wire was fed through the rollers and into the torch, Alu wire is incredibly soft. the tip of the wire was sanded smooth and the euro torch was stretched out straight. Roller tension is set at an absolute minimum (normal is 2 -3), the alu wire will birds-nest easily so to have it slip is better than to waste 4m of wire. First impression on trying some welding was "wow, this is completely different!". wire feed has to be a lot higher and as exected the power setting needs changing once the metal is hot, hence the foot pedal on a tig. This end of the test piece show the first few goes i had, bottom right shows too much juice. the mess along the middle was one of the first goes, the alu weld pool seems a lot less stable than with mild steel, the wire will quite happily move around, or just burn right back to the tip. Welding leaves everything covered in a black/blue/white soot, that easily comes off with the stainless steel brush. This end of the test piece shows some improvment, trying a continuous run is pointless, the heat has a dramatic effect and you end up with too much pentration, then a hole. All of this was done with the stop-start technique. The porous welds are due to not enough gas, I found the reg had to be set much higher than on steel, this may be due to the new liner restricting gas flow a bit, or maybe alu needs more gas? With varying degrees of penetration. I tried welding some extruded alu (built-in cupboard door runners ) with not-so-great results, I'm not really sure why, it was difficult to get the arc and weld pool stable in the corner. Happily, results were better on thin sheet, especially as it's RR roof i really want to weld. The following pictures show sections of RR roof off cuts, cut in half and then welded together again. This photo shows the front of a weld. With too much pentration, blow-through can't have been far off. A different view This piece was done with less power, and with the alu against steel sheet. the top looks better. I've ground down some sections to show what penetration is like, and what the finish can be like. The back has less pentration than before, which has come up against the steel sheet, again i've ground it down to show a 'finish'. To finish, welding aluminium seems to produce a helluva lot of smoke and splatter (I had been warned of this), The visor shows the smoke from this afternoon. More practice required, hopefully i'll get some more time in a couple days. Comments? questions? p!ss takes?

Congratulations, nice to have something to eat your cornflakes out of too, i guess.

Looking at the picture, there doesn't appear to be any other bracing for the 2nd motor. Given that motors aren't light, and there's a significant moment on that second motor now, I'd be interested to see if there's any long term fatigue problems. I guess if the aussies have been running them for a while they'd know by now.