New Olds (boat tail speedster)

[Olds]

  Think it was more luck than judgement.
Unable to get on with anything serious but needing something to do, I altered the rad shell a little. It was a bit boring so a new top centre section was beaten out of sheet brass and soldered into place. It's not a lot but it does add some detail to an otherwise, very plain shell.

[Manky Monkey]

Looks cool Dave. How's your neck/back now?

[Olds]

Not great but seems to be slowly getting better. So tired but can't sleep !

[Manky Monkey]

Hang in there matey.

[merv]

Hope you get well soon Dave

[Olds]

Cheers guys. Feeling a lot better now, well as good as I'm likely to ever get, so it is time to get on with the speedster.
 Realised a while ago, that I am going to have to  put the car through IVA. This means that some (quite a lot) of the work I have done, will have to be re done. The steering column will need much modification, possibly easier to start again. The front drum brakes and master cylinder will have to be scrapped and modern alternatives sourced. All the louvres in the bonnet etc need to be reworked and the aluminium bodywork will need modification. I will also have to panel in the inside of the body frame which is a shame, as I really like the look of all that tubing with all those holes.
Work done more recently such as the upper seat belt mounts were done to IVA spec, so at least there should be no problem with these, as long as I get the seat height low enough for the belts but high enough to satisfy the field of view requirements. 10mm high and the belts are wrong, 10mm low and it will fail on forward vision, but there are ways around this.
Pics as soon as I have something worth showing..

[Manky Monkey]

Perfectly legal to modify it after the test as long as it still meets the MOT requirements, so any changes you make only have to be temporary don't they?

[Olds]

Technically no, but in reality, for the some things like the internal paneling, yes. For lights, brakes, seat belts and steering you can't go back to the 1940's. Certain items like the gear lever that took so long to make will not pass scrutiny but then again the original Morris one wouldn't either as it's too small in diameter.
 If you think MSVA for bikes and trikes is tough you should look into IVA. The MSVA manual is 207 pages of which only a third of it applies to any one type of vehicle, whereas the IVA manual is 299 pages and virtually all of it applies to all vehicles.
 The old point system and the IVA are at odds with each other, in that in one you are trying to keep as many parts original as possible and the other says these parts are not allowed. At some point you have to make a choice which way to go. Bearing in mind possible future legislation or changes in how existing rules are applied, I figure that IVA is the safer bet.
 Luckily I am not fitting doors or a roof so that makes things simpler. I also won't be fitting aero screens or a lot of other stuff  

[Mendalot]

Mr Coppersmith has put a few cars through IVA, he may be able to give you an insight towards it.

[Olds]

Yep and I may well pick his brains at some point. Think I know what needs to be done but to get this style of vehicle, based on a pre war designed chassis, through without compromising the look I'm after may take some 'alternative thinking'.
A disc brake conversion is very obvious on an open wheeled car with wire wheels, but suitable covers can be made to make it look like it has huge drums up front.

[Stix]

On some hot rods to preserve the old timey look yet have good brakes people used discs and kin huge Buick finned brake drums as a cover,I think you can buy repro drums for this purpose but wouldn't know from where as it has been some time since I was messing with old cars.

Stix

[Olds]

Yep , have seen kits available in the states to fit Ford axles, at horrendous prices ($2000) but to be honest it's probably easier to make your own. Self adjusting drum brakes are out there, but at the moment I am looking into doing a Manky type rear axle disc conversion but on the front, as it means I can keep the six stud hubs.

[Stix]

Can you make what you want in wood and then get some cast in ally, I have used a place in Hastings that where happy to do one offs and at that time they where very reasonable with the prices. Bit of bendy ply some glue and your experience you could have just what you need

Stix

[Olds]

Thanks stix. Not sure what I will do about the covers at the moment but that's a long way off. First thing is to sort out calipers, caliper mount plates and discs. This sort of thing was so much easier when I lived near a scrappie who would let you climb among the stacks of cars with a tape measure in hand.
Got the left hand hub dismantled and backplate off so I can sort out dimensions.

[Olds]

After about four hours trawling the net looking at discs and calipers ad their relative dimensions, I think I may have a plan.
Peugeot 106/Citroen Saxo discs and drums from the early models with three wheel studs. This means that it will be easier to re drill the discs to suit the six wheel studs
The hubs will need machining to suit the slightly smaller centre bore of the discs but that was expected.
 I can just get the discs in the lathe, will try to bore out the centres to suit the hubs rather than modify the hubs.
I will buy new discs as they are pretty cheap, but cheap second hand calipers to allow me to make the mounting plates and check everything will work before spending hard eaned cash on new ones.

This is the cause of most of the problems.