June - July 2010

Diary

We have had to make a tough decision about our cars. The original plan to build and race two cars this year will not happen. Time constraints are the main reason, not knowing the size of the new batteries is a major handicap, and having to buy four brand new ‘old’ batteries to race the car twice is another pitfall.

We are now building one car for the moment with a plan to still build a second for next year. This car will be based on some of the components of Blade including the current bodyshell but in essence will be completely new. The main construction of the car will be Cellite panels bonded together. We will also use aluminium tube for strength in certain places and fibreglass to reinforce where needed. Some problems we had with the Blade will be addressed and this will be battery position, ground clearance, and roll bar height. The wheel and axle bearings will also be changed for some special ones and the brakes modified to meet the new rules.

The old floor pan was used as a template for the new one and this was the first thing that was cut out. The Cellite is remarkably easy to cut, however the dust is so itchy! A hand jigsaw cuts it beautifully, as does our large band saw. Styrofoam blocks were then cut to the required thickness for ground clearance and placed under the floor pan. This then allowed us to measure the depth of the wheels and work out where the mountings need to go. Cellite struts were cut to support the wheels in this position. A little complication is that we will need to remove a wheel relatively quickly in case of a puncture etc Aluminium tube was used to bolt into through the Cellite to allow us to do this. Everywhere a bolt passes through the Cellite, aluminium bushes have been made which will be bonded in later. A little overkill is that we have also made bushes for the aluminium tube which will prevent it being crushed when bolted in to the car. A complication is that we are determined that we will not bolt through the base! Two new roll bars have been made. The rear is slightly higher than the original to make sure we are definitely within the 50mm rule. The ‘mid’ roll bar is also used to mount the instrument panel and to give a more positive mount for the steering. A lower roll bar will also be produced but only when the batteries are positioned correctly.

Although we have decided on the position of components etc we are loathe to glue anything in yet in case we have made a mistake or we have to add things. This means that components are constantly moving and we have to reset things all the time which is a pain. We are looking forward to getting the gluing done so we can see how solid everything is!

The seat belt position is causing us a problem at the moment. Although the belt was bought from Greenpower and is a low mount one, the waist straps are very wide (to allow robust stitching!). Even when fully adjusted on the old car they would not pull down onto the driver really tightly. We do not want this to happen again and we have a chance to sort this out but are struggling to put them in a position where they will go tight and will be accessible to adjust.

The braking system is also a headache! The new 2010 regulations demand a pair of wheels being braked. The previous cars all had one brake on a rear axle. It is going to be really tricky to sort this out and although we have bought the parts this is not going to be an easy fix. The parts were taken down to Gordon and Pat, those fine gentlemen at Claro Precision Engineering Ltd. who are going to have a go at this for us…..hopefully!

The batteries have been set in position and a tentative attempt to design a battery box has been made. This is difficult because of the weight of the batteries and access. We are considering some form of removable frame which will pivot to allow access to the batteries but will also give us the strength we need as well.

24.06.10
At last we have bitten the bullet and started to glue things in position. The plan is to have everything glued by the weekend so we only have finishing off to do next week.

	Milling
	Glueing wheel supports

We are really up against time as usual but are still relatively confident we can have the car completed in time. All the roll bars have now been made and it is just the front one that needs fitting. We are in the process of making a hydraulic brake line splitter which will also incorporate the pressure switch. At the time of writing I have still not heard about the front wheel brake conversion and I just hope that this is underway!

We are going to use the old electronics for the Croft race but the wires will need adjusting for the position of new components etc. Hopefully this can happen over the next week as well!

It is amazing how long everything takes to do! Even the smallest jobs are taking ages at the moment. Radar and Bodger have been coming down in their frees to progress things and again the deadline is for this Saturday morning to get the gluing done. Radar finished off the front roll bar and this is now fitted to the car. A battery box has also been made. This has been designed really tightly so the batteries will not move at all. Hopefully it can be adjusted for the new batteries when we find out the sizes!

Some good news! The wheels have come back from Claro with the new braking system in place. Because we are using bicycle callipers and disks, and having to buy the same handed calliper, each wheel has a different bracket. Massive thanks to Pat and Gordon who have given up their time to do this for us. The bearings just need changing and aero covers fitting before the wheels can be refitted to the car.

28.06.10
The gluing is now done! This took place on Friday evening as everything was ready to go. This was a bit of a messy job and it is not quite as tidy as I hoped. Already on Monday morning the car feels very firm although I don’t want to shake it too much as the glue needs time to dry properly. A couple of small gaps have also been filled as well in preparation for fibreglassing on Wednesday evening. Regular readers of the diary may remember that the last time I used fibreglass, I ended up with mixed resin in my eyes and a visit to Harrogate Hospital! So it is with some trepidation that I will be fibreglassing again!

Today’s job was to work out the position of the bodyshell mounts and get these glued in place. These are the last of the gluing jobs but as they are non structural they are not as important as the main chassis parts and so were OK to wait.

29.06.10
Dave from Marell is coming into school tonight to help with the electronics. The main thrust today has been to sort out the final position of the electrical components. Essentially we are using the same system as last year and all that really needs doing is replacing the wires that are too short now the batteries are at the front and adding a new wire for the brake light switch.

	Being built
	Trial wiring

The lid has been made and fitted for the battery box. Easy I hear you say! Not so as the hinges would not close with the screws we had. All the heads had to be turned down on the lathe so they were not as thick and this eventually allowed the hinges to close. We have had two very nice over centre catches donated to hold the lid down and these are now also fitted. At the moment I seem to cross one job off the ‘to do’ list and put two more on!

30.06.10 Wednesday (six days to race)
We attempted to fibreglass tonight. Oh my god! What a mess! The guys looked like mini teddy bears with bits of fibreglass stuck to every part of their bodies! This was an extra job just for reassurance with the glue and it was really difficult to do. The main reason is that I made a mistake and bought the wrong tape which was extremely thick, wide and heavy. This combination made it really difficult to get the fibreglass into the joints but we just about managed to do what we needed to! With just six days to go to the race, this was one of the main jobs to do and it is reassuring that it is over with now.

1.7.10 Thursday (five days to race)
The Solartex arrived this morning which means aero covers can be made for the wheels. We have decided on a different colour for this car and have gone for fluorescent yellow instead of the black we had last year. Radar worked out the diameter of the wheels and cut 8 circles ready for fitting. This was started this evening ready to finish off tomorrow.

Wheel covering

2.7.10 Friday (four days to race)
All the wheels have now had the Solartex fitted. Unfortunately the brakes are catching the front inside covers and these had to be redone without the wooden disks which allowed the clearance we needed. All these little problems waste so much time and what should be a relatively quick job ends up taking ages. This was the case when refitting the rear wheels as nothing seemed to line up anymore. It was also really difficult to get a drill into the space to open up the bushes and they kept on spinning in the aluminium tube! What a pain! In the end we had to make some new supports and with a bit of fiddling the bolts finally went in. To ensure we had the strength we needed, we have used some of the £50 credit we had with Pro-Bolt and invested in some stainless steel bolts. The front wheels are also finally fitted and another late night and now the brakes are ready to pipe up and bleed. All the wires were rerun and tie wrapped in place including insulating the battery box.

Wheels fitted

3.7.10 Saturday morning (three days to race)
Again another problem! None of the brake components would fit together. The Nuts and Olives supplied were all too small to fit over the old pipe. It took a while (and lots of swear words!) to realise that we had been supplied with a different pipe to the one we already had and this was the one the new components fitted to. The brakes were piped up and the bleeding process started. Ages later, we found the leak. Ages after that we found that the cycle master cylinder was not of sufficient capacity to move two callipers! Another sleepless weekend for Mr. H worrying whether the car would be ready!

5.7.10 Monday (1 day to race)
The master cylinder problem was a relatively easy fix in the end. One of our previous cars used a motorcycle master cylinder. We used the existing motorcycle banjo bolt which was drilled and tapped M6 to accept the new Hope fitting and this allowed us to then use the larger Motorcycle master cylinder to operate the two Hope callipers. This was then bled through and the lever had a really solid feel to it. A little adjusting of the position of the controls on the handlebars enabled everything to work with the larger master cylinder.

Seatbelts were the next job and again this went relatively smoothly although we did have to make some large washers just to make sure the belts would not pull over the bolt heads.

Bodger fitted the absorption foam to the sides and front of the car as well.

6.7.10 Tuesday (0 day to race)
All the major jobs have now been done which just left some of the more fiddly things. The front wheels were aligned and the steering locked in place. The sharp edges on the cockpit were covered with trim to protect the driver and finally Radar fitted the seat back support! The absolute last job was to make the roll bar aero and this was finally completed at 5.00pm.

We are ready!!