Manky Monkey Motors

Well I have been working on this project for the last four and half years. I will start the built write up from the start. It’s going to take some time to get the write up to date due to time availability but pleases bear with me. Cheers Andy

The project is to build a car from scratch, a one off.
The cars criteria:
•   Fast (for a road car)
•   Good handing, brakes and steering.
•   Safe
•   Comfortable (water proof/heating as it will be in Scotland)
•   Environmental unfriendly 
•   Cheap as possible to build (minimum out sourcing)
•   Try to make it look nice (very hard)
The next decision is to select the type of chassis for a car. I looked at three chassis, ladder, space frame and backbone.  Decided upon a backbone chassis but would include a steel floor and doors with side impact protection.
The first job was to sort out the front axle from a Jaguar xj6 so I could use adjustable coilovers.

Iv used jag suspension on trucks..ideal for old yanks..good idea sir  8)

I'm hooked already  ;D

The next job is to de-cage the rear axle so it can be integrated into the chassis.
Because the car will be lighter than the Jaguar I intend to replace all the suspension units. After a few emails Gaz shocks came up best with coil overs/spring ratings to approximately match the weight of a cobra copy. This purchase has broken the first rule of the car criteria of being cheap! But they are very nice. I also changed various bushes, seals, shafts and also the discs.

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I knew I'd seen this build somewhere before..

Hmmm.

Oh well I suppose it had to happen in the end.  ;D
Think I'm building the complete opposite. :D

With both the front and rear axles finished I started on the jig. When the jig was completed and levelled and bolted to the floor I positioned the front, rear axles and engine/box onto the jig.

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Chassis build.

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Just a bit of paint

Floor

I got the sheet metal for the floor welded in and then started on the tunnel. After finishing the tunnel I sealed the joints and got some paint on the metal.

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The plan was to buy an XJS windscreen and seal, fit the seal to the windscreen and then build a frame to fit the profile of the windscreen/seal.
Anyway the aftermarket seal was too big for the windscreen so I checked the seal specification with the supplier who told me the seal is normally big on the glass (50mm) but not on the frame, two piece seal you see (I got a refund)
So I went to the scrappy to get a frame, once at the scrappy I found out that the windscreen wiper mechanism is a lift out unit that fits into the front valance (great stuff) so why not just cut out the windscreen frame and quarter of the bulk head. Then I look at the roof and thought why not. The scrappy man was a bit confused.

Trial fit of the roof. Always intended changing the intake and twin carbs setup for a lower intake and a single carb. But with roof in the position of the bulkhead is to far back in relation to the door openings and were the door seal edges need to be extended from the chassis onto the Jag frame/roof. So I need to change the distributor and make a new bulkhead so the bulkhead can be moved forward and sit over the distributor and up against the single carb. 

I'll bet the scrapyard guy was confused. Lucky really that you've got a scrapyard where you can still do that sort of thing. Most of the old fashioned scrappies where you can rummage for yourself have disappeared around here at least. It's all removed cleaned and sold on for a lot more now. H&S killed a lot of it, balancing two or three cars on top of each other. Fun days :)

Agree with you but this was some business repairing jaguars and taking them apart for parts. I was in a second yard with 20 odd old xjs and xj6 the scrapyard guy was great giving me a power cable form the grinder. I had to cut the bulkhead from the inside because of the engine. Andy   

Cut away all the old bulkhead just leaving the top panel and the fixing holes for the windscreen motor. Also put a semi-circular cut the top of the panel for the air filter this let me move the bulkhead forwards by 20mm.

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Some machining was required to level up the carb, 2 degrees off a 5 degree wedge (cheers Iain) and I had to machine a spacer to raise the air filter bottom plate up by 7mm.

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Trial fit of the roof. Always intended changing the intake and twin carbs setup for a lower intake and a single carb. But with roof on the position of the bulkhead is to far back in relation to the door openings and were the door seal edges need to be extended from the chassis onto the Jag frame/roof. So I need to change the distributor and make a new bulkhead so the bulkhead can be moved forward and sit over the distributor and up against the single carb. 

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I was wondering how this was coming along.

Gotta say what an interesting build........... nice write up and good photos too!

Maybe a little late, but welcome to the world of the Manky Monkeys!

I needed some sun after this so called summer, sorry to say i am back.

Cheers Andy

With the roof in position I cut out the sheet metal for the new bulkhead and then welded in the new panel. I then machine a couple of drain plugs out of round bar and welded them so water can drain from the wiper box.

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Nice.
Can't quite see, but are you fitting engine access panels in the footwells ?

rear plugs   ::) ::)

remember ,jensons,, :o

Only one hatch inside the car (please see picture) access around the engine is ok the main problem with putting the engine so far back was the duel point dizzy and the bulk head height. So old duel points dizzy got binned and replaced with a crab cap crank trigger dizzy this uses a crank trigger and is controlled by a digital ignition controller. As for the bronze drive gear this has been replaced with an iron alloy gear for longer life, so should be ok for a road car. Andy

A few pictures with the steering column mock up, space for the manifolds and the brake servo should fit on the end of the foot well. Andy

Inside.

Well the steel has been delivered. So out with the rotabroach and a few days later the car is now sitting on the jig. Just need to make up the sliding arms which will run over the body so I can take measurements from any point in the x, y and z plain.

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Well I have got the engine back in and finished off the sliding arms for the jig.

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Spent a couple of hours today playing around with the tailgate. I don't like the roof line at all and will need to change the roof angle to match the tailgate better. I will also cut off between 300 to 400mm from the rear boot section when the time comes. This was just a first look.

I never liked the idea of having a solid front end with nothing to absorb any crash energy. So I decided to install a front impact beam incorporating two Audi A4 crash shocks. It’s basely a mechanical system that compresses to absorb low speed crash energy. I had to make up a fitting kit to suit the Audi components. The impact beam is 80mm*40mm*3mm box and is sectioned at the back of the box to allow for the locators/adjuster to fit inside the box.

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Pictures of the radiator mounts and the radiator in position.

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First go at the wire buck for the bonnet still need to think about the headlights, wings and grill, but interesting none the less.

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I made a small jig out of MDF so I could make a pair of wire arches for the front wheels. This would let me see how the arches will look against the bonnet lines. Rolled the 8mm wire to the required diameter which gives a 40mm clearance between the tyre and the top and the arch and the overhang is 16mm. 

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Well that’s what the bonnet and grill surround are going to look like. Next are the wings incorporating the front headlights.

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Decided the front arches were too wide so they have been moved to the rear and new smaller arches have been made for the front to allow more room between the arch and the bonnet. With the headlights on order and the front and rear arches in position I decided to mock up the lower cover panel to see what it would look like.

I decided to work on the front spoiler/front wing edge so I could then build and locate the head light cluster, since I have had no luck with choosing a head light from any of the car manufactures. I needed to brace the grill surrounded so I bolt a piece of angle to the roll bar brackets and braced to the grill surround to the angle. This allowed me to move the jig cross member to support the lower spoiler wirer.

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I needed to mount the headlights in position before I could have a go at making the lens covers so I made a bracket out of sheet which would hold both lights but would also bolt in and out for quick removal.

Well this is the seconded design and attempt. The buck is made of MDF with a wood filler top coat to give a smooth finish (aluminium epoxy resin would have been better). I used 2mm thick acrylic sheet heated to about 185 degrees for 50 seconds before applying the vacuum and then raising the buck into the heated acrylic sheet. Finish is very good just a couple of imperfections which will be sorted out before the final lenses are made which will be 3mm thick. Also need to check what the light scatter is like.

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Now I know I can make the lens I needed to make the headlight housing. The housing was made of 1.6mm sheet steel. I also wanted to include the side light inside the headlight housing so I turned down some aluminum bar to mount the LED side light. The next job is to finish of the inside of the housing by making a buck and vacuum form some styrene to form a reflective inner cover.

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I needed to make two bucks for the inner headlight case because of the design but I have made it so the two parts inter lock when fit into the metal case (they will also be bonded in when I have decide on the final colour). Since a lot of cars using projector lights do not use a reflective inner case I decided to play around with different colours of styrene sheet. After forming a couple of sets I decided to try out the silver grey since I think this would go well with a white car which is the favor of the month at the moment.

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I'm deeply jealous of your talents Sir.

So am I. Great work sir.

I'm always totally amazed by the stuff that some people can create!

Could temperature build up, cause problems with the thermo form components ?

Cheers for the comments guy’s.

Good question the projector lights are ‘E’ marked and you can see in the pictures the light and its location in the casing. The bulb sits at the bottom part of the silver section of the light and the convex lens sits in the black section. The position of light the silver section sits outside the light unit for better cooling with only the lens inside in the light unit. There will be some heat transfer and from the light beam but static tests for an hour were ok, but we shall see. Andy

I needed to change the front wires which ran from the bonnet/grill to the wheel arches because they finished to low on the wheel arch and they just did not flow right. So the new wire start in the same place on the bonnet/grill but finish at the top of the wheel arch. I have also made up the other headlight case and finished off the spoiler.

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Now I have the both headlight casings finished and in position I then needed to make up the wirer headlight surrounds for the buck. The former will be used to form the wire to shape of the headlight case and also to position the wire surround in the buck. So I cut a wire former out of 10mm plate and then bolted it to a face plate so that I could heat the wire up to temperature and wrap it around the former. The next stage was to set up the jig cross members at the required angle so that I could use a piece of 30x30x3 box section to bolt the former to and then hang the box from the jig cross members, for the other side it was just a case flipping the former a box over and re-bolting them together for the opposite hand.

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I wanted to move the front jig section and relocate it to the back of the jig. Before I could do this I needed to brace the front and to finish off the front wire arch to the spoiler.

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Well the Jaguar doors turn up so I took off the door skin to see what was involved in making up a frame which would locate the runners, glass, and motor mechanism and also to see how it would fit to my door beams. The frame is made of 16x16x1.5mm box. I had to cut off the top brackets on the runners and make some new ones because I wanted the top box to also act as the bump stop for the window mechanism (Also has a small cam for fine adjustment). The next stage will be to fit it to the door beams. 

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Now I have finished the window frame it was time to fit it to the door beams. I put the seat in to see what it would be like when the window is down from a height point of view and its fine.

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Well at first I did not plan to use electric windows but now I have them which means I needed to change the door hinge location so I could get a nice size panel gap between the door and the wing.

With the hinge in place I mocked up the front part of the door inner frame so I could finish the wire frame for the front wing/bonnet section. The reason for the mock-up section was just to get the profile shape because I am in two minds whether to make the frame/body out of aluminum.

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I haven't seen a single hinge on a car door before. That's nice.
I'm watching this build in stunned admiration -way beyond anything I could envisage, yet alone attempt. Amazing.

Thank you Sir

Well the plan was to build the e wheel and then finish off the door inner panel and then continue with the wire buck/roof. But once I had finished the e wheel I wanted to have a go so had a bash at the bonnet cowling which made of aluminum.

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Picture of the e wheel I built

Nice work sir.
 Liking and very envious of your English wheel (and slip rolls, and space, and......)

Yes I am lucky but I have work hard for them. Picture of the old 8'x4' work bench which made up the side of the e wheel frame. Andy

Well its back to the plan. Since I needed to make a few end panels the same shape for the door frames I decided to make a jig out 8mm flat bar. I used 1.2 mm steel for the entire inner frame work/panels. The only job left is to weld the frame to the cross members.

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So is this going to be registered as a New Build ?

No way was I thinking about registering it as a 1932 Bentley  ;D

Now please do not take this the wrong way, but this thread, whilst interesting in its own way, is a little like "Shed builder" meets "British Leyland", or is that an unfortunate comparison, whatever, I'm sure y'all know what I mean! :D, and if not, the range of kit available on this build, plus of course the abilities of the builder, are over and above your "average" forum member. Now you might think, 'So what', in which case I have obviously not clarified...well, I'll exit stage left then...... :-\..Morrag

I know what you mean Morrag. I think there is most definitely a place for this type of build though.
I consider myself reasonably skilled but I could not consider a build like this.
I can still learn and ask questions, critique and steal/borrow ideas.
The home built English Wheel for instance. Great idea well executed.
We all need to be able to aspire towards those who have more skill, better kit, better/different imagination and build methods.
I don't build or restore cars, I am into bikes. The older the better. I am still inspired and very impressed by the car builders as construction methods are usually transferable.

or maybe a Bugatti ? ::)

well I admire what he's doing,not that I don't have the skills to do it because I do,but because he's doing it and sharing with us, I have two buddy's just within 2 miles of me doing builds of amazing quality like this..one is a hotrod hobbyist and other is pro restorer..for me it's iv been there can't be bothered anymore syndrome ? Plus health issues..but I hope he cracks on with it.. 8)

Variety is the spice girl of life I think someone once said.
Nope, like a 5 year old watching a proffesional artist at work, I haven't got a hope in hell of reaching this level, but I can appreciate the skills that are going into it & as Mr Slam said, learn a little along the way & file away info for future use. I think it's fascinating to watch. Keep posting please Andy! :)

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Well I don't build anything but I still find it fascinating!  Partly because it's so different from most of what we see on here.

lets stop talkin about it and let the man get on with building it ,, i want to see it finished  ::) ::)

It's a forum..I like talking on here..otherwise I'd be talking to myself :-\

 ;D..got you talkin' though...hey, I'm far from criticising the builder, far from that, I of course congratulate his skills, its just that for me its a bit like spending an afternoon at the local VW agents bodyshop! watching them pulling bent Golfs and Polo's straight, and before anyone says it, I know I don't have to read this thread, but that would be missing the point really, personally, I enjoy far more the efforts of some of you guys, with little equipment and limited resources, but not lacking ability and certainly not enthusiasm! such as angle iron folders, large lumps of timber and even larger 'ammers, where as here the "buck" for the body, alone, is beyond yer average punters wish list!....I'm sure y'all get my drift. As far as the item then, well more power to his elbow, but not what I consider interesting reading of an evening..... ??? ??? ???..Morrag

Well I agree with you in some ways for sure..Iv seen it done before but am glad he's sharing with others and after all that's what the forums about,after all we all want others to see our projects and hopefully give us praise and tips etc.. ;D

i think this is an outstanding thread and although I'll never be of this standard it's something to aspire to, it is clearly being built in a domestic garage. above all on this forum the inspiration and sharing of knowledge is one of the things that keeps me here 2 years after I've finished my trike

Oh no a breach forum rules, an upset member, before I get the boot from Manky I will rectify with a picture of angle iron folder (homemade) large lumps of timber (free) and even larger 'ammers and a small one (not in the remit I know but I like it) I am redeem……..?????

“where as here the "buck" for the body, alone, is beyond yer average punters wish list!”

Interesting your remark about the buck because that’s not true making it was the easy part, all the work was in the design which many builders are capable off. The buck is made of 8mm black bar £3.30 a length (6.1m) total cost of buck about £50. The holy bench (no stinkey you cannot have the holes) was out of the scrap bin and marked out, angle framed and drill by me (pain in the backside to do) in the picture you can see how I form the bar to shape it around the air filter, not that high tec but accurate the rest was shaped on the rolls (which are borrowed) old pipe flanges and I have even used the wife’s cooking pans. Look at the English Wheel it must have cost me 100 hours of work to build a tool I do not even know use but it’s the gamble I take to build my car. So like most builders I will beg, borrowing and improvise in order to get my project on the road. I am a great believer in sharing knowledge, skills and best practices for the common good of our hobby. Please remember it’s only me it’s not in some bodyshop with 10 guy’s to help out and £100k of VW tooling.

Anyway thanks to all builders and non-builders for your support.
Cheers Andy

I love the bench. I guess a wooden "pegboard" would work as well for setting parts out on, though it would obviously wear & become innacurate with use.
You don't have to justify yourself here mate. We're all here for the same reason -we're all afflicted with the building bug, whether it's TIG welding things, vacuum forming things, casting things, or in my case, just hitting things with a hammer.  :P
Onwards!

Fair enuf! point taken ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D...Morrag

Oh that’s bad if I am trying to justify myself which I have no reason to do. I was just trying to explain to morrag, oh well never mind.

Nothing here is beyond what you can do in your own garage, even building your own vacuum former, English wheels are available as an affordable kit these days. I don't even look in the trike section as it doesn't interest me, but I wouldn't dream of going and moaning about someone's build.

But those holes do look like special ones !  I like special holes...and you've got a big hammer ?  What a posh workshop .. :o

That's not moaning! purely an observation of personal taste, likes and dislikes, now, if its moaning you want....... :D :D :D :D

Oh gawd !  Give him a Jaffa quickly..Mankeys back soon..he will sort it ::)

Morrag I cannot be bothered with this, you don’t like the build as you keep saying so just move along. Surely you have better things to do with your life than keep looking at a build you do not like.

Thought my last but one comment had covered it, but if your that touchy', then you're right.....exit stage left!!..................but I'll be back! ;D....me that is, not Arnie ::) ::)...Morrag

Right, you two, in my office after school. Bloody kids   >:(

I love the Holy Bench!

Bugger getting a detention for that twerp ;D so I will get back to the build.

Because of the height/location of the bulk head the roof angle ended up wrong. I made up a couple of jigs, the one made of angle was to help hold the shape of the roof before cutting and during welding and the MDF one was to form the new shape at the back of the roof.

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i think this build is great,looking forward to seeing the end product.

Ahh, I couldn't imagine how the back end was going to look, but suddenly it all makes sense. Nice.

 

I'm with trev on this
  

 

bagsie  havin a go when she,,s up n, runnin,, ;) ;) ;)

Me first but no work in the last 4 weeks  :-[. I think it could take longer than Manky's street machine Pop  ;D

Oi!  :P
-actually, fair enough.  :)

It seems unlikely!


Sorry Manky!

 :P bleurgh.

I needed to box in the roll bar for the interior finish and the original plan was to weld the Jaguar and Audi roof/hatch together but this could give me access problems later. So I decided to make the hatch part removable. Since there will be no boot just a parcel shelf and also because the two panels are different shapes in both directions I decided to make the hatch a bolt in/out affair. So I needed to flange the roof end section and to machine two locating lugs/pins. The lugs are to be welded to the hatch and the 16mm diameter tapped pins will be welded to the roll bar. The next job is to flange the hatch and make the rear support brackets.

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Rear support bracket, the bracket is made of 1.6mm sheet steel and will support both the rear hatch and the diffuser. Andy

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Welcome back! I was starting to think we'd lost you. Lovely work Sir.

Glad you're back, this is a really interesting build.

Cheers all, looking at a PC is just like work at the moment. Andy

Well the next job was to flange the hatch to match the roof flange in one plane. The hatch had to be shaped (cut) in the opposite direction from the original panel to make it match up. Now I just need to match up the roof and the hatch in the other plane which you can see from the last picture requires a bit of design/tin work to make a rear spoiler. Andy

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I made up the outer part of the spoiler out of 1mm steel. I want to avoid welding on the outer section so I flange both sides and then using the shrinker/spoon to form the curve. I still need to make the inner part but first I will need to position/lock the hatch into position. The spoiler can then be positioned and welded onto the hatch section. Andy

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Well spoiler is in the bin, so new design to come.

If interested a few pictures of the hatch.

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Not happy with the spoiler mate?
A really imaginative build. Enjoying following it's progress.

me too,looking good.

So am i  :)

Cheers all

Spoiler was OK and worked but just too conservative (boring) so I have a new design in my head just need a bit of time on the car. Andy

I made up the rear closing panel which fits behind the rear of the door frame using the same jig I used for the door frame. The gap between the closing panel and the door frame will reduce by 3mm from 8mm to 5mm when the door skin and rear wheel arch panel are folded around the frames. The panel will be welded in when I have all the panels/air inlet in position. Andy

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Before I can start the air scoops/wire frame for the rear I needed to make up the sheet metal work for the hatch and the lower panel for the bracket. The retaining pins on the roll bar are angle at 6 degrees from the horizontal so the steel metal work had to match the angle so the hatch can be removed. Andy

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Precision fabrication is a joy to watch -just wish I could do it.

Lovely work.
Are you using wood formers or do you have access to a pullmax ?

Thanks all

I would love to have a pullmax but I do have a bead roller which helps with strengthening thin sheet.

 

Sorry for not being around but this will improve over the next month. Anyway the last of the updates until the new work restarts. Cheers Andy

Adjuster/lock for the door plate so I can position the door better and lock the door plate in position (adjustment is made from inside the foot well). The rest of the time has been welding up the rear frame and hatch. I had some old white paint so gave the buck a paint.

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wow

it looks like a CAD render with the white applied

love it

Nice. The white makes it easier to see the shape.

I thought exactly the same Mr H -looks like a computer drawing or something out of "Tron"!
Great to see you back Sir. I was wondering how this was coming along.