Centre Tunnel Strengthening....
.....so now the fun starts and first the RS centre tunnel strengthening :cool: .....in Barry's words....
......This takes some explaining.
As supplied, the piece is too long, has no details as to how to scribe into the tube, or where to place the edge bends.
We needed to remove the existing impact bumper reinforcements.
The RS reinforcement (RS r.) sits directly on top of the tunnel, not the raised flange behind it. Therefore to be able to attach the RS, you need to remove a section of bulkhead plus the raised portion right at the end of the tunnel.
This then leaves the tunnel main pressing and end plate detached from each other, so these need tidying from the drilling out and welding together.
You then have to template a card version of the RS r. so that it fits in the correct place on top of the tunnel, meets the tube correctly and has the information needed to create the end bends.
With the new RS r. prepped, it can be welded in.
Then the portion of removed bulkhead has the thickness of the RS r. subtracted from its base and the remains of the original reinforcements removed.
This is then welded into place and also welded to the RS r..
The whole area is tidied.
Later the underside of the area will be checked and welded where required.......
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Short Trailing Arms Brackets....
After the centre tunnel mod Barry moved on to the brackets for the short trailing arms which Marek Lappock supplied.......as far as how you fit these correctly with the car pointing in the right direction when fitted up my contribution was little more than to supply Barry with a copy of Bruce Anderserson's Performance Handbook which highlights a few basic dimensions......
.....for what is ultimately a few minutes of welding the brackets in place, exactly where is a whole different science! Again I'll let Barry explain.....
Using the info from the Anderson book and confirmed by Josh (via Gary) and Ben, I made up a little jig using the milling machine as a plotter.
I keep an engineer’s level at work, and used this to ensure my jig was kept level relative to the Celette. It’s more than accurate enough for the job.
I couldn’t remember if the forward adjustment on the spring plates also had an element of eccentric adjustment so didn’t dare not look at these. The bolts were stuck solid and took an awful lot of shifting. As it happens, it turned out there wasn’t an eccentric element anyway! Nevertheless to be able to have everything on the rear end in the middle of the adjustment travels during set-up was very useful. It meant I could aim to leave you with maximum adjustment in all planes from the start, rather than kicking off with one or more adjusters near their limits.......
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