Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

Cool!
Latest update- Brock's been in touch with his mate who's building a Dutton type thingy & secured me a pair of Vittesse hubs & discs, condition unknown. I've got to wait a couple of weeks till he can get hold of them, but hopefully the brakes are sorted. No calipers included as far as I know, so looks like I'll be going for the new ones. Probably not a bad idea anyway.

[poprodder]

have you seen the price of new/recon calipers!!!

[Manky Monkey]

£76.55 each

[poprodder]

i know,
i got lucky and paid i think £43 a pair,

[Manky Monkey]

Another of Brock's mates is heading to a scrapyard at the weekend & will take a look at another Dutton type kitcar they've got there. Hopefully he can liberate the complete Triumph hub/disc/caliper assemblies from that.

[Manky Monkey]

Anybody remember my Pop project? Been a while since anything was done on it. Just been too busy -life in general keeps getting in the way.
Anyway, latest on the front hub/brake saga is that new forum member "Goforest" has offered me a complete set of Vittesse hubs, discs & calipers for the princely sum of 30 quid. Obviously I said yes please, so will be visiting his workshop soon to liberate them from the triumph chassis.
The Pop's still lurking in the corner of Lunatic's workshop, on the outskirts of Basingstoke, Hants at the moment. I called on the Loony Man today & found he'd got bored of waiting for me to reappear & had been tinkering. The chassis is now sitting on my own Pop front beam axle, rather than the one I'd borrowed from Richard at Valley Gas Speed Shop, thanks to Namco in Aldershot drilling it to accept the new repro '32 Ford spring hangers. About 4 inches of clearance under the nose at the moment.

[Manky Monkey]

Still borrowing Richard's hubs & wheels at the moment as the Vittesse ones will need adaptors to change the bolt pattern for my taxi cab rims.
Standard Pops have the transverse spring mounted in front of the axle. By using a new shorter spring & mounting it directly above the axle we can save 4 inches or so of room, allowing us to push the axle further forward & gaining more engine bay room.

[Manky Monkey]

The standard set-up also uses a "wishbone" -a V shaped linkage that locates the axle to stop sideways movement. The point of the V is in the centre of the car under the gearbox. We've used the usual rodders' practice of splitting the wishbone to make two radius rods, which will run down either side of the chassis, ending in a rose joint attached to the chassis below the doors. We're actually using the rear wishbone as it's longer. The cast ends of the wishbone have been countersunk to accept the spring perches & now need welding to the cut down rods.
Does that all make sense?

[Manky Monkey]

We've actually made a mistake here -alright, I've made a mistake, which is nothing new. The cast rod ends are upside down. They're countersunk to allow the spring hangers to pass through them, but should've been the other way up as they're offset to clear the steering linkage. The countersinks are different angles so can't just be turned over. Not a major problem, but means a little more work to correct. It'll mean the steering rod that runs across the car from one hub to the other will be a little lower than normal, which in turn means more clearance between it & the sump of the engine. If it works out O.K we'll tell people we planned it that way. 

[Manky Monkey]

Follow me round to the back of the cab & you'll see that Loony's been busy there too. He's added a framework of U shaped channel across the cab back & skinned it in 18 guage steel sheet. The body's a patchwork of little fill-in pieces of metal at the moment, but hopefully they can all be panel beaten into one smooth shape once they're all in place.
Anyone got a spare pair of Pop doors? Loony's had trouble filling the gaps where we cut the door tops to lower them. Would be handy if we could cut the complete door top section from another door.

[Manky Monkey]

The rear corners of the cab are double curved -as well as curving around the corner, they also taper from top to bottom. Loony's got an old Mini sat outside the workshop & reckons the tops of the front wings would be a pretty good match. He's going to try & source some cheap copies.

[Manky Monkey]

I really like the overall stance of Project Pop so far. It sits low enough to look pretty damn mean, but still has bags of clearance under the body, hopefully making it practical as an every day driver. We keep talking of welding the front sheet metal together & creating a one piece flip front, but might settle for welding the two halves of the bonnet together to form a single lift off panel. That would give plenty of access to the engine or allow me to run it open if I felt like it.

[Manky Monkey]

One of the next considerations is the radiator. I bought an ally racing one from Ebay ages ago, but it might prove too wide to fit inside the grille shell & may foul on the suspension dampers when we fit them. I might have to bite the bullet & buy a 400 quid ally one from "Pop Browns", specifically built to fit a Pop shell & cool a Rover motor. Or, as Loony pointed out, we could mount it in the pick up bed, up against the back of the cab in a purpose made housing & duct air up to it under the cab. Quite trick but might cause more cooling headaches than it's worth. It'd certainly do away with the need for a heater in the cab!
Oh, the big red box in the piccies is the new post box I made for our cottage by the way. It's in the workshop for a drop of hotrod pinstriping from Mister Loony's brush. Busy, busy!   

[TwistedPatience]

My word he has been busy, well done Lunatic, it's gonna be one sweet ride when done.

[panthershaun]

Blooming nice work guy's, looking good
Andy you may find it cheaper to get Pop Browns to convert your hubs to Ford pattern and get some Minx wheels (15") I know they will be 4 stud will still look the mutt's ****