Build Diary
July 2008
More good progress, and then it started raining, and then it continued raining, and then I bought a shed (in the rain)
Not quite sure was end of June and what was July, but who
cares (difficult to keep an accurate diary when progress is fast, much
easier when I am doing almost nothing).
Finished panelling the top-side. The big time element was cutting
the panels. The tunnel sides are not flat on a Phoenix, which
isn't great. Also as noted last month, the panels from STM are
"laser cut" but as the space-frame is welded by a bloke in a shed it
isn't surprising that they don't fit. I guess that the new
"caged" manufactured chassis are spot on but mine wasn't (although it
was nice and square).
Sikaflex is great for sealing the panels to the chassis. It does
stick quite well to things "s**t to a blanket", in my experience use
lots of clean rags to wipe it off works nicely (I guess blankets would
also work). The nice thing is that it dries in a day, so you can
use the same rag the next day. The other thing that is good is
"Gunk" engine cleaner, I have no idea what is in this stuff, but it
cleans of Sikaflex, and also dissolves your rubber gloves (best keep it
off your hands). It doesn't seem to damage powdercoat, but I
wiped with a damp cloth to make sure.
Removable tunnel top.
Not sure what to do here. Aluminium is obvious choice, but
>2.5mm radius is needed to satisfy the SVA-man. Bending it
over each side works, but you should use countersunk rivets for the
side panels (I didn't). Latest plan is to use 3.5mm Tufnol.
Mostly because I have some hanging around, but also because it is
waterproof, I can use my router to put a nice edge on it, it is black,
and it is fairly light. More as this develops. The plan
will be to use rivnuts to fix it, as this will giv eme access to the
prop/diff/handbrake/gearlever and all those other things that will need
checking/remairing/fettling.
FLOOR PANELLING
So, just the floor to panel. My dad was round at the weekend with
a friend of his, and we took the engine out (yes, it doesn't need 3, it
needs 1 and a half), but many hands etc. Then Niki and I turned
the car onto its side (photo, maybe). Reasonably progress on
paneling, then it started raining.
Interesting problem about the front floor. This goes under the
engine to give a nice smooth undertray. Many people don't bother
as it restricts cooling, gets in the way of maintenance and has no real
structural function. I like the look of it, so am going to put it
in. The problem is how to attach the rear edge of this. If
you overlap with the main floor panel (which is structural) then you
get a step, if you butt them up then you need to double rivet into the
chassis rail (not good structurally). I asked the sylva-chat
group http://groups.google.co.uk/group/Sylva-Chat/ for their wisdom.
Lots of good ideas and thoughts.
Basically I think I will fold up the rear edge and rivet (quite
sparsely) into the chassis rail. The other thing that I want to
do (and had planned) is to make a hole in the middle with a cover panel
(attached with Camloc fittings) to provide access to the engine
(especially the water pump). The alternative for me would be to
put a 90deg angle section in and rivet to that, but that adds weight so
I'll try folding.
RIVETS
Oh, one other thing. I had been unsure of what rivets to get.
Lots of comments. In the end I contacted prifast.com and
they were excellent (Birmingham based, which in my book is a good
thing). They seem to stock everything, they are cheap and they are
pleasant. In the end I used ~500 normal (steel with aluminium
open) 4mm x 10mm rivets for the topside, and ~300 gas
tight/closed/sealed steel and aluminium 4mmx10mm rivets for the floor
(these were passivated). The argument for the sealed ones
is that they don't let the water through. There is talk of using
normal rivets dipped in paint to seal, but the closed rivets only cost
3p each (there is tight and tight). You can't seem to get
big-head rivets which are also closed (some like big-heads for the
floor). The closed rivets are toughter to pull (air-rivetter me).
Stainless is tempting for rivets, but if you rivet stainless to
aluminium then you have a galvanic disaster (worse than steel to
aluminium, as the stainless gives such good electrical contact!),
so don't do it.
5-6th July
Then I decided that I needed a shed (as my workshop is full of garding
stuff and childrens bikes), so that needed collecting on the trailer.
Base installed Saturday, shed built Sunday. Bit of Creosote
(substitute) and another pair of trousers in the dustbin. Now I
have space to swing a car in the workshop (although I can never find a
cat when I need one to confirm this).
9th July
I have been trying to work out what to do about a manifold for ages. Options are:
1) Pay for one to be made specially. Need a trailer to take the
car to them. High cost. But good quality, and probably better
power output than other options.
2) Buy pre-made, and hope it fits or can be made to fit. (S&S
Headers make these for some cars in the USA that run the GSXR1100WP,
interestingly their model is common to GSXR1100WP and Yamaha 1000FZR,
unfortunately FZR [not R1] are not common, so this is another piece of
useless trivia that I have learned)
3) Hope that one comes up on e-bay (unlikely given that there are only
a few people doing this with GSXR1100, and my chassis rails are
probably in a different place to theirs). This hasn't happened
yet.
4) DIY a nice free flowing manifold. This is difficult, and I can't weld, so I have ruled this out.
5) DIY a crude manifold. Looking at turbo installations their
manifolds are pretty simple. I have tried to get a GSXR1100 turbo
manifold (they are cheap-as for GSXR1000) but not 1100. Not sure
what I would do about the other turbo stuff, but ....
Anyway, I am gradually creeping towards the inevitable of having
to buy a manifold (option 1). BUT, I don't want to spend
£500+ on a manifold only to discover that the engine doesn't run.
So I have bought a standard manifold, which I can mount upside
down to test the engine. Should everything seem fine, then I will
get a manifold made. Here is a picture of the standard manifold
(missing annoyingly two exhaust clamps, on the WP and WR models these
are removable, so my bike breaker friend has removed them!).
Anyway its only for testing. I guess I will also need a big
exhaust (6inch diameter silencer and as long as possible seems to be
the consensus) as the noise police are getting more touchy these days.
Photo of cage for Lee C. on the chat-group (yes, I agree quite ugly)
Note left leg shorter than right (on mine) to accomodate the exhaust.
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