Manky Monkey Motors

No no no its not the one in the picture  ::), thats for reference only, so i know what one looks like.
Let me tell you straight away that this will not be quick, think Mr M`s pop & trike build times all rolled into one, money & time are limited, so i`ll be doing what i can when i can.
Right then, i`ve never built a car before, can`t be that hard though, can it?
Bodywork isn`t my strong point (all together....... you haven`t got a strong point), but i`ll worry about that later, chassis fabrication isn`t my strong point, but i`ll worry about that later, spraying isn`t.......well you get the general idea  ;D

Hi tbone.that's going to be some project.good luck with it plenty of questions and photos. will you finish the trike and any outher bits before you start :) :) ;) ;)

Hi Terry, i do keep sorta pushing the trike to one side don`t i, i`m lothe to finish it cos i`ve got no room and shall probably have to sell it,  but yep, i`ll still be tinkering with that too. The trailer is almost done, just the floor, wiring and a coat of paint needed, the whetstone is now assembled and i have started painting the frame, so thats nearly there, i have picked up another stationary engine but not looked at that yet.....where does the time go  ::).
I had intended chopping my Honda, but as there are already a couple of hardtail projects being posted i`ll leave that for now and see what happens with this instead.

Ive built and helped build a few T Buckets over the years ranging from a 1600 crossflow to a Daimler V8...if you need a hand at anytime give me a shout....Voodoo....

Woo hoo! Another lamb to the slaughter another hotrodder is born!
Welcome to our world of spiralling debt & the headlong gallop into inevitable madness fun & frollicks.
I'd suggest you have a word with MadRon, the fibreglassing Monkey. He was a well known face in the 70s/80s Midlands custom scene & built many a rod. Last time Taz & I visited, he had a T bucket body sat in his back garden & the moulds to make more.
Do you have any ideas on the sort of style/components you want to use?

Cheers Voodoo, I`ll bear that in mind  ;).
Andy, funnily enough Madron had crossed my mind too, maybe not for this first one but as you have confirmed what i suspected, the future could be looking easier  ;).
As for style/components, I`m hoping to try and stay as close as i can to the traditional builds and will be reviewing Brocks `Black Pig Two` posts so i can steal the steering set up, gonna stay within my means, mechanical and financial, and so i`m not looking at a huge V8 with lots of chrome things attached, but i`ll do my best  ;)

Here we go then, the backbone of any vehicle is the chassis, so this seems as good a place to start as any.
T Bucket chassis aren`t particuly complicated, just 4 rails joined together, sort of.....they do include a kick up at the rear though.
First things first,make sure one end of the rail is square, then measure the rail to the correct length and mark across it, next, mark the angle for the kick up, some guys do this at 22.5 deg, others at 60, Im going with 60.

Need to cut the rail now, so its into the vice to hold it and a spirit level makes sure its sitting true. This is important if you stand any chance of cutting that angle properly.

I used a cutting disc mounted on the angle grinder, but a hacksaw would have done just as well. You only need to make sure you cut the angle squarely as possible.

Now i can use the offcut from the end of the long rail and using my same 60deg, i cut the kick up rail.

this sits on the end of the long rail......like this, and forms the kick up at the rear.

And the final piece to the rail sits on the end of the kick up rail. this back part is where the rear bed is mounted and as i havent made a firm decision on the length of the bed yet, i havent cut the end to length either.

Clean up all the swarf from the cuts and the rails should sit nice and neat together.

Now they can be clamped in position on a nice FLAT surface, its important the rail is straight and runs true, so make sure its all flat before you weld.
Its also important to have some gas when you come to weld, so i`m now off to get some  ::)

Hopefully when i weld it up, it should be something like this.....oh wait that is mine, thats ok then ;D
Having done 1 i need to do a second one, identical to the first, so i`ll let you know when that happens.

With the second rail done to match the first, I can move on to the front one. The front rail will be on view and so for this i picked up some nice shiney stainless stuff and cut it to length

There are a couple of options when it comes to mount the front rail, as i said before, this part of the chassis is on show, so its all about asthetics. One option involves more work, cutting a slice out of the side rails then welding them back up, if my chassis rails were deeper then i would have considered this, second option is to mount the front rail then use the top of the side rail to wrap over the front one, this gives a nice round edge at the front. The third option, and the easiest, is to do the way I will be, mount the front rail then blank the open ends of the side rails.
To mount the front rail involves finding the centre line on the inside edge of the side rail, then measuring back half the diameter of your front rail.

Once you`ve got that marked up, simply drill a hole the same diameter as your front rail, using the mark as the centre point.

Then do the same again on the inside edge of the second rail, and slot the front rail into the holes, making sure the front stays square.

Now i can weld the front rail in place, and cap the open ends of the side rails with weld too.

Erm...just how big is this bucket of yours TB?

Ah you`ve caught me out already, if it were twice as big it would be full size  ::).
I got hold of some full size plans a while ago and have been umming n arring over them like you do, so i decided that rather than start something big that i cant put as much into as i would like, i would have a go on a smaller scale.
The build will follow the steps/processes involved in a full scale one, and use the same components, with the exception of the axle and engine, that way, assuming all goes to plan, this will be a practice for a full scale build in the future.

you had me worried  :o (And I bet a few more)

 ;D.
 the main rails are 1.5" x 1" 2mm wall, 44" long with a 3.5" kick up and i`ll probably settle for 4" length at the back, and the stainless front is an 1" diam with a 2mm wall, cut to space the side rails 13.25" apart, as close to half scale as i could find.

Good on you TB and very sensible doing a didy one first. When it's done put lawn mower running gear in it and would be sooo much fun  ;D

Cheers Taz, I`ve been looking at both quad and go kart axles, the quads are probably over the top but come with a carrier, go karts are the way i`m heading at the moment cos i can run a tube over it to simulate an axle housing/diff. I hadn`t thought of lawnmowers but they gotta be well worth a look.

Yes we were worried.

I was hoping no one would notice but i guess you can`t fool a Manky Monkey.
Today i had an hour or so free so knocked up these brackety things, proper builders will probably call them something posh like `front spring perch gussets`  ;). Anyhow they need to be made and slid onto the front rail before you weld it in, so thats what i did. I also cut the rear crossmember and tacked that in place after deciding on the final length of my side rails.

There's been lots of talk about your latest project Tim -been wondering how to tactfully suggest that your box section didn't look up to the job of buildng a chassis!
Looking forward to watching this one. An interesting project.
-shove a Reliant engine in it & dress it up with fake scoop, rocker covers, huge exhaust etc. It'd make a fantastic cartoonish adult sized "totrod".
Loony & I keep saying there seems to be a big market for adult toys -no, not that sort. A fun vehicle you can put in the back of a pick-up truck or on a small trailer, to buzz around show campsites on. Get MadRon to churn out some dodgem car sized T bucket bodies & they coud be a nice little earner.  ;)

Tactfully ? no thanks, i`d have hoped when you do spot something that doesn`t look quite right, you`ll all yell at me  ;D

i would go a 4 cyl engine and driveline with diff etc. are  there reliant-trees over there? seems an endless supply ;D

updates?

I too ws a bit worried about the choice of chassis materials!  ;D