Craig's Xe track Nova (pb fixed to page 10)

[8valve-craig]

Bloody hell you have a good eye. Yes i have 20 or so, but until they get welded in they are being used as very handy spacers.

Not sure on how much it helps the shell, but i would preffer to do it anyway before paint.

(Oh, I did notice earlier that your alt belt had flipped over, Didnt like to say though. Love your thread / Car)

[Iain]

Fair play, I wash my footwells out with water and drain it so wouldn't be able to live with no drainage.

Now whose got the good eye! Noticed that myself earlier also, you should mention anything you see wrong though!

[8valve-craig]

Quite a big update, considering not a lot has happened, But basically went down there intending to spend a full day getting the seat finished and the front section of the cage located.

To call it a nightmare is an understatement, Put the seat in place and the bars i had welded in nowhere near ran through the holes i wanted to use on the seat mounts. Not even close. Couldnt understand it, as they are completely spot on. I have been using the rear step in the floor pan to take my measurements from, which is perfectly straight.

Picture here of how i wanted to mount them, With a straight edge to show they are level.



And this is how they are, after being bolted to the seat, putting the seat where i want it, then removing the seat but leaving brackets in place.



As you can see the mount closest to the door sits about an inch further forward than the one closest to the tunnel.

I couldnt work it out, as these next two pics show the rails are square, (may have to zoom in) and the seat had been fitted pointing dead straight forwards.





This picture shows where the back of the seat mounts would be in order to get it straight. (left hand side of the straight edge)



So, Once i had convinced myself the rails were straight, I rang a friend who simply said "go and get the other evolution and try that". I had been doing the work with one seat, as i take it home at night incase the mice get it, so popped home, got the other seat, fitted the side mounts and it fitted perfectly.

Further investigation shows that the seat i started with is badly warped, so after speaking to the supplyer it is going back for an exchange.

These picture's show it with the mounts fitted, and on a dead flat surface





And this is what happens if the mounts are all pushed into their seated positions. Which was the decider as i couldnt put up with a wonky seat.



That doesnt instantly explain why its pissed front to back, but is a good indication that the seat is the problem.

[8valve-craig]

So, onwards and upwards, Quite literally actually, as whilst i was at home i picked up my lid, and found that with the seat where i wanted it, the helmet hit the cage.



Decided that instead of dropping the rails down, which actually wasnt really an option, i would re-drill the side mounts, as to be honest i would have quite liked to have layed back a little more anyway. That meant altering it to miss the harness slot too though.

With that done, the back of the seat now hit the cage main hoop before the centre holes were on the rails, so i had to either make some L brackets on the fronts of the rails, or run some forward facing box to drill and fix to.

I thought the box would be a better bet, so cracked on with that



Made some forward facing tails for my own seating position too, then zinc'd, but on reflection will probably need to triangulate those



After that was sorted, and with the seat back in place it was still posible to ever so slightly scuff my helmet on the cage, So decided to make some extra feet to lift it up another inch or so.



A little crude at the moment, but il fillet the ends and get them welded properly by the guy who's doing the cage.

Main thing is though that this has now got the cage well away from my head.



But the downside is that the front section is now just a fag paper away from the windscreen.



Hopefully wont be an issue though, and still a little room for trimming and pulling it back into the car a little retaining the height.

Final seating position.



All done for a while now as i have a bit of work to be getting on with. Will hopefully get another day this weekend, and plan on getting the bulkhead drilled for the turret pickups, so that i can tack in the front section and get the roof bar bent and tacked.

Still enjoying it though...... Thats the main thing.

[skud52]

Great effort your putting in mate, really like reading how youre doing, makes me feel a bit better about mine when i see the all the hard work your putting in!

[8valve-craig]

Thanks very much. I do enjoy doing the work myself, Il have a look at your build now, must have missed it.

Spent a bit of time on it yesterday. Really wanted to get the windscreen bar bent so i could drop the tube bender back. First was to finish those extra feet for the front of the cage so it could be tacked into place



Then after taking many measurements started preparing to bend a piece of CDS tube. Using a 2.65mm wall thickness, and using Lee's advice i plated one end and packed it tightly with damp building sand.







Then capped off the other end and started preparing the bender.



Its got old imperial die's fitted, and none quite fitted the tube perfectly which i imagine would have resulted in a crush, so i chose the one with the closest fit and cut an alloy plate to drop in front of the former, which my reasoning suggested would form around the tube and take up the free space at the top and bottom of the tube.



First bend was the upward kink in the middle, which went well. Much better than i expected to be honest and only a very slight crush.





Then measured up for the outer kinks, which was a little more technical as the tube had to be MM straight. But using my nice new table it was pretty simple to just mark a center line and measure down to the work-surface.

Came out spot on first time. Still cant quite believe it myself. Pic below shows a comparison between the old bar and the new one. The old one was a bolt in section, But was always in my opinion too low anyway, so instead of copying it i made my new one lift up a little more.



Next was to profile the ends, which was a nightmare.





Really didnt want to mess it up, but measuring for them took some real thinking as the bar doesnt just rise up in the middle it points forward towards the top of the windscreen too. Not able to fit it in place due to being too long until cut meant i had to get it right first time.

[8valve-craig]

Got the bar fitted exactly where i wanted it, and miraculously that too was done right first time. Bit of a moment where i wanted to cry when offering it up as it looked like i had done a mirror image of what was required, but then i realised i was offering it up the wrong way round, and once turned 180deg it fitted perfect.















Absolutely chuffed to bits with it and i would expect it to be probably the hardest bar in the whole cage to get right. Doing it first was not wise atall, but at least now i feel at ease knowing that none of the others can be anywhere near as technical.

Onwards, will be doing another day on it soon, so will hopefully get the firewall cut out and drill through the bulkhead to pick up the turrets.

[Iain]

I found similar with my seat mounts, they didn't sit exactly flush on the floor, however bolting them in seemed to straighten them up without too many problems

Those front cage legs look like they sit far too low, shouldn't they be closer to the top of the A pillar?

I welded my rails in as close to the floor as possible and my helmet is still close to the top bar too, have to remove the padding if I'm using a helmet.

[8valve-craig]

I wouldnt want to force a fiberglass seat into a position it wasnt resting in, it will constantly be under stress. I took it back and they have another new one waiting in store for me to collect.

Yes, The cage fits like crap, always has, changing it isnt an option though. It cant really go through the bender, and cannot be lifted up any more as the 45deg bend will hit the windscreen.

The only fix would be to fabricate new front sections, which i cant do myself due to the mandral bends required. Cant order them as they will 100% not match my feet or dash cut-outs, meaning the only option's are to either trailer it 120miles to Custom Cages or put up with it.

I have done the best i can with it, and its better than last year. The roof will have twin diagonal's meeting the windscreen bar with kink's downwards too, so will tuck up close to the roof.

[turbojolt]

how thick was the steel you used for your spacer plates and the box section for the seat rails?