There Are Many Reasons To Learn More About
Engineering - Metal Fabricating & General
Car Restoration Skills.
But The Best Part Of Having Sound Practical Skills & Know How
Is The Savings Made In Cold Hard Cash You'll Put Back In Your Pocket!
I think it
would be fair to say that at least fifty percent
of people who become involved in the restoration of classic sports cars
end up
wishing that they knew a lot more about the actual engineering
side of
the restoration job of refurbishing and restoring a classic
vehicle. The cost as you would understand can be truly blown out
of the
water
when all of the hundreds of things both big & small are
considered that you will
either
have to buy, or engage a "professional" to recondition or remake for
the project.
But there
are also people who don’t want to know about the special skills
required to
carry out even the basic things such as disassembly and reassembly of
the
hundreds of parts that make up a complete
restoration, they are quite happy to hand ball eveything to someone
else and fork out bucket loads of money for the privilege of having an
expert do the work. But if the potential classic car
owner/restorer
would care to indulge themselves in learning more about many of the
facets
involved
in car restoration, they will find that they could save many thousands
of
dollars
throughout an entire restoration project.
The writer
has witnessed several people who have decided to tackle the classic
restoration, first off,
they purchase the basket case classic car project, they then proceed to
pull
it apart, but some where during the process, they discover that
what they are confronted with is beyond their budget, enthusiasm, and
skill level, it is not uncommon at that stage for some to suffer a mild
panic
attack
and then
wonder what to do, often times the decision is made to either
sell the car
off as an unfinished restoration project, or, they bite the
bullet
and take on the restoration and hang the expense, and
sometimes, "she who must be obeyed" weighs into the equation, and guess
who
wins out
then?
But could
you imagine taking on a total restoration without any mechanical
skills
to speak of – For starters, there wont be much of an understanding of
how to
pull things apart, and, we'll forget about putting all of the bits back
together again – Or, say you
need to repair or
fabricate some special metal parts, welding & fabrication skills
play a
huge part in
rebuilding old
cars… or would you be happy to continue to pay out a lot of money for
that
kind of work to be done to, yes, we are all familiar with the big
budget, no expense spared
restoration, after
all, money can buy just about anything... cant it.
But there is a very special personal reward when people complement you
on your pride
and joy, especially when you can honestly say to them, "Yes,
Thank you, I did pretty much all of this restoration by myself"
Then watch for the
reaction of disbelief on their face!
The typical
lotus elan restoration generally requires a huge amount
of painstaking fibreglass repair work; it is not unusual to spend
many
weeks, months, perhaps years repairing & finishing fibreglass work.
Often times
special parts also need to be machined on a lathe, again, knowing how
to use
a lathe to
machine all kinds of parts can be a huge cost saving advantage, not to
mention
the
time saved, and the convenience of being able to do almost everything
"In house".
Following
below
are just a few projects that can easily be acheived with a well
equipped home workkshop once you have learnt several of the required
skills. But you must also remember that honing workshop skills to a
high level
will
take time,
(Just ask any old time apprentice) but there is huge bonus in store;
once
these
special workshop skills are understood, they will serve you for the
rest of
your life, and effectively help to put cold hard cash in the form of
savings straight back into your
pocket
for a long, long time if you continue with car restoration projects,
and the more you
do, the better you get at it.
While you are reading, think about what you could be doing to make big
savings tomorrow, next week, or in the months & years ahead with
your projects. The following projects are not in particular order of
importance.
Adjustable front & rear spring platforms happen to be a popular performance mod carried out on the lotus elan, all of the parts above can be made in a well equipped home workshop, you'll need a lathe and access to a milling machine, and, oh yes, you might also want to learn how to melt and cast metal, yes, this is all very doable in the home workshop.
Want to learn more about DIY metal casting? (Be Surprised)
Click Here
Yes, that's right, build a rotisserie for $89.00. If you have just started on a lotus elan restoration project and you do not have a rotisserie at your disposal, then stop what you are doing right now and spend a few days building one, believe me when I say that this will be one of the best things you could ever build to help with a current restoration, or one that you are planning in the near future.You can use it to cut, grind, drill, sand, gel, do fibreglass repair, paint, in fact anything that you need to do during a resto, you'll find this device is the ducks guts.
If you look closely at the above photo, one end is mounted on an engine stand, the pick up points on the protruding arm are bolted to the tower bobbins and the body mounting bobbins in front of the steering rack.
The "A" frame support at the opposite end is constructed with an arm with brackets welded to it that pick up the chassis mounting points at the rear of the elan body, there is also an indexing plate with a spring loaded locking pin to allow the body to be rotated and held in any position so that repair work and fibre glassing can be easily carried out. Forget about using old tables, trestles and old bed frames, a rotisserie is the only way go to, this DIY unit cost ONLY $89.00!! And not the $700 to $1400 that the resto retailers want to charge you for the factory made job, that you will need to modify to fit the elan body anyway.
Photo above shows a view of the freshly painted elan body while mounted on the rotisserie, you wont realize how great this tool is until you begin using one, it just makes the job so easy for getting into all of the nooks and crannies of an elan body, not to mention that it is fanastic when it comes to doing really awkward fibreglass repair jobs.
The rotisserie enables easy rotation of the elan body and the index plate provides the facility to securely lock and hold the body in any position, note also that it's on wheels, one set are fixed, the index plate end has swivel casters for steering the rig when moving it around. It is also important to be able to lock the swivel caster wheels to prevent the rig from moving around while sanding or working on the body.
We recently had some Aussie elan owners call in at our workshop, they could not believe how nice the finish was in all areas of the elan body, yes, even deep under the front and rear wheel arches, that is the kind of attention to detail a rotisserie will allow. The device is also great when sanding & preparing for priming and painting, the ability of being able to roll the body at an infinite variation of angles makes the painting job soooo much easier. A rotisserie really is a no Brainer… If you can weld and fabricate... just do it.
After the elan body is lifted from the chassis, what do you do with it? I guess you could just plonk it on a set of trestles and leave it there. But often, you'll want to be able to move it around the workshop. And all you need is a simple dolly cart as shown above to rest the body on while you do other things.
You might wonder why the dolly is built in a "Y" shape, well, this dolly is designed to roll over a floor pit, when the body is lifted clear of the chassis with a chain block, the chassis is rolled away to the rear, the dolly is then rolled underneath from the front, the body is then gently lowered down onto the dolly and moved away, it is a very simple method of handling the body, and you wont need to call on your mates or buddies to help, what we are showing you here is "one man handling stuff".
A special alignment & welding jig is also required to be built before you even begin the job. The A arm tubing is 7/8" Mild steel 16G ERW (Electric Resistance Welded), and there is no need to use 4130 Chro-Moly tube.
The inner & outer suspension bush holders are machined from 750 Hollow bar, the tube mitres can be accurately cut with special jigs and tooling mounted in the lathe, Welding can be done with an Oxy Acet gas welding outfit using Tobin bronze, or Nickel bronze welding rod, but most of all, you need to be a very neat & skilled fabricator, and very good at welding, if you don't have the correct skills, DON'T attempt this project. Yes, you can TIG weld if you have the gear and the skills.
No 7: Fabricate A Set Of Elan S2 Hard Top Holding Clamps.
Over a long period of time many original clamps and factory fittings tend to wear out, break, or become lost, but when a car is acquired with no original hardtop brackets, it is then time to set about remanufacturing the special parts to suit.
The photo above illustrates the rear fastening clamps for an S2 elan hard top, the project involves metal fabrication, bronze welding, lathe turning & machining work, the only parts missing in this shot are the fabricated bottom bracket hooks which the "T" piece locate into.
There could be aftermarket parts available, but the brackets shown are strong, easy to install, and very simple to use and not that difficult to make, the material cost was minimal.
No 8: Build and Fabricate an Excellent Differential Housing Strengthening Brace.
Most of the early series elan alloy diff carrier outer mounting ears were not that strong, cars that were used in competition suffered even more from casting fractures & failures, the only way to cure the problem was to fabricate a diff brace to strengthen & carry the excessive loads placed on the castings, a diff brace is designed to spread the load over a wider area, some diff braces are made from a piece of right angle heavy sheet metal with two holes drilled for the outer chassis mounting bolts, but a separate brace can be a real pain to install with the diff.
The diff brace shown above is designed to be an integral part of the diff and a far superior design to what is offered to most elan owners, it is constructed from 16G sheet metal and involves shaping, drilling and welding of the sheet metal, but as anyone can see, it is an excellent solution to the problem, and one that any accomplished home fabricator could build, the big plus with this design is that once assembled to the diff, everything is installed or removed as a single unit, there is no stuffing around jiggling with a separate diff brace while trying to get the bolt holes aligned in the diff, brace and chassis all at the same time, as you get older, you learn to work smarter, not harder.
No 9: Machine A Special Prop Shaft Rear Gearbox Sealing Plug.
Here is another good reason to gather and build your engineering and fabrication skill levels in order to be able to manufacture special items & tools that you will use during a restoration that would otherwise cost you money, by arming your self with special skills, you don't have to keep running to the lotus guru to buy this or that, and like most things bought, you'll use it once and then put it away to gather dust, but when you make things in your own workshop the material cost is generally almost zilch, and all you are doing is spending some time on the lathe, or on the welding fabricating bench building something valuable and saving money, it's a win win situation, and as simple as putting money back in your own pocket.
The amount of money that one could save over a period of 5 to 20 years, could be in the order of several thousand dollars, that’s not a fallacy, it is fact, just take note next time the guru does some work for you, look at the material cost, then check the labour cost, you'll begin to understand, but dont get me wrong, I'm not knocking the guru or expert, what we are trying to get across here is that there are hundreds of thngs the DIY home restoration worker can do to lower the cost of every restoration project, no matter what it is, and since the global financial crunch hit there's now many more reasons to sharpen those practical skills to help keep those resto costs in check.
You wont be able to do everything, as there are some things that you simply cant do in the home workshop, but if you learn & build as many of the required skills as you can, there’s no doubt that you can come close to being at least 95% to 98% self sufficient.... and save yourself a huge amount of money to boot.... Think about it.
So how & where do you begin learning about practical engineering skills?
Here's a few ideas for starters:
No 1: Attend night classes at your local tech/trade college.
No 2: Buy & read some good books, and practice what you learn... lots of it!
No 3: Seek guidance & knowhow from other people, ask them to show & teach you.
No 4. Don't be afraid to explore the inner workings of something.
No 5. Study & be guided by the factory workshop manual.
We trust you have enjoyed the projects, but we've barely scratched the surface with these home DIY fabricator-mechanic projects, we could show you a lot more, but these should help you to get the ideas flowing.
- How Twin Cam Oil Surge Can Be Cured For Ever.
- Awesome Australian Designed & Built CV Drive Shaft Conversion.
- Lotus Elan S1 to S4 Door Hinges.
www.elantrikbits.com
Australia.
That's Where.