scratch built Mazzer roadster

Thank you for the compliment.

I'd love to see the projects you listed. Could be dangerous though. If it starts looking like a trend we may all be rounded up and put in the nut house!

Regards to you also.

Wil

 

I just saw pictures of Graeme's car. It's an interesting project. He's got sort of a Dino-ish body on a real race car type space frame and a mid mounted Montreal V8 hooked to a trans-axle (Hewland?)

 

Hello everyone. Well, I'm back working on the Mazzer. Still have a lot of distractions but so far this weekend I installed the new adjustable GAZ rear shocks with the new (new last year) Hypercoil springs. I also re-installed the modified rear sub-frame which was painted black early last year and has been hanging from the ceiling by a wire ever since. Tonight I applied black duct tape to the top surfaces of the sub-frame, hoping to prevent electrolysis between the steel tubes and the aluminum body panels. Also made up and installed the first brake hydraulic pipe on the chassis, running from the rear brakes up to the fire wall where a second section will connect it to the rear brake master cylinder. The brake pipe was installed in anticipation of installing aluminized fiberglass insulation blanket inside the transmission tunnel. The final photo shows the flare being made on the forward end of the brake pipe.
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Below, a few photos here of the nose/bonnet which is now basically ready for primer and paint. The aluminum skin has a very thin coat of high-grade polyester filler on it to smooth over minor waves and imperfections. Here and there the metal under the filler can be seen poking through. It's always important to stop sanding when the metal surface appears through the filler. If you keep sanding the surface will become wavy again. A final coat of polyester will be sprayed on now and sanded very lightly to avoid breaking through to the metal. This will prevent "ringing" under the final paint.

The aluminum headlight cover forms were skin coated and sanded along with the nose to keep the lines tangent. The forms have now been removed and will be enlarged around the perimeter by about an inch (25mm) so that the edges of the clear headlight covers don't get ripples when the hot Lexan sheets are draped over.

 

photos for above post
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Meanwhile, I also have some photos showing the aluminum rear clip (tail section) back on the car, temporarily, and the beginnings of a diffuser to make some down-force or at least cancel out some of the lift a body shape like this tends to produce. There isn't a lot of room for a diffuser so it won't be too radical but a little bit is better than none at all.

Since this is all experimental, I'm taking the low-tech/low-cost approach on this (no CF yet). After taking a bunch of measurements under the car and making a design I cut the parts out of 5 mm luan plywood and 1/2" (12 mm) pine cove-molding and assembled it with glue and temporary staples. It's only the core and is actually still quite light. The assembly will be covered with fiberglass cloth and polyester resin and that is where it will get its strength.

The plan is to cut out the center portion of the rear valence and under-tray so the diffuser can tuck up into the "trunk/boot" area and pass under the differential and rear suspension and to connect to the back of the flat floor of the cockpit.

The idea is that as air under the car flows along the flat bottom it reaches the backwards funnel shape of the diffuser and starts expanding, creating a low pressure area under the back of the car. The higher pressure on top of the car pushes down, creating down-force. I may need to make a spoiler on the back out of clear Lexan to make sure I don't have low pressure on top too.
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I should ad that the 3 piece front valence, which includes the splitter, will be very vulnerable to ground damage. The plan is to make molds and lay up thin fiberglass copies to mount on the car. I definitely don't want these made in CF since I need them to crumble easily to keep the damage from grounding on a speed bump, driveway ramp, etc from traveling up into the bonnet. I want to keep a couple of spare sets on hand, all painted and ready to mount. The car has skate-board wheels under the nose to help prevent ground contact but **** happens.

 

Thank you George.

 

Thank you Graeme. And good luck on YOUR project car! It'll be a stunner when it's done.

Regards,

Wil

 

Jack,

Thank you for the compliment.

The QP rear suspension is VERY similar to a Jaguar set-up. It's basically a copy. It uses the same differential housing, very similar Girling brake calipers and the other components are slightly larger, close variations of the Jag system. The trailing arms serve the same function as on the Jag but vary by the way they attach to the chassis and the length is adjustable but I eliminated the trailing arms. I replaced the inner fulcrum shafts for the lower control-arm with longer shafts. The extra length of the fulcrum shaft is used to connect to the chassis and also to locate an adjustable link (with rod-end bearings) on each side from the outboard ends of the lower control arms. Basically I made an A-arm out of the lower control arm by adding a forward angled link which pivots on the same axis as the control arm.

I've described it on this thread earlier but the problem with the Jaguar (and QP) IRS trailing arms is that the aft end has to travel through an arc which made it necessary for Jaguar (and Maserati) to rubber mount the sub-frame carrying the rear suspension. Triangulating the link with the control-arm so it swivels on the same axis allows the rear sub-frame to be rigidly mounted, which is what I did. If you go back and look at some of the photos of the rear suspension you'll see what I'm talking about.
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Maybe you digress but it's an interesting tangent. A lot of what you say above is new to me and fascinating.

 

Thank you for the sentiments. Unfortunately, after going though quite a bit for 3 years, she died very early on New Years day. It's too bad because mentally she was still sharp until they started upping the morphine doses. It is sad that she never got to see the car finished. Not that she was a car nut but it would have been nice to give her a ride in it.

Anyway, I still have a lot of things going on but I'm back on the project. I did some more work on the diffuser today and last night the bonnet was sprayed with polysurfacer. I'm also scrounging for some metal to make a stand for the tail so the same work that was done on the nose can be done on the tail. It's a lot easier working large body pieces on a stand. You can flip it around and attack it from various angles.

 

Ron,

Thank you for the kind words. As for this project, it takes a certain amount of naivete and blind optimism to start on it.

 

Finished making the diffuser out of 5mm luan plywood and modified the rear valence to accept it. The license plate nacelle had to be cut out and moved up a little bit to make room and some flanges were made up and tack welded in place to support the diffuser.

Some horizontal aluminum bottom panels will be made up and installed around the rear wheels to keep most of the air under the car from coming inside the tail. I have to leave slots for the lower control arms, since they drop below that level when the rear suspension is in full droop. Some notches had to be cut into the sides of the diffuser for the same reason, clearance for the control arms.

I wanted to get this part done now because the tail is coming back off the car for final plannishing, filing, and paint prepping. In the mean time I'll cover the diffuser with a layer of fiberglass cloth and resin for strength. As I said before: If everything works out I may make a second diffuser out of carbon fiber although this one is still reasonable light at this point.
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