The Rocket ST159

[casesensitive]

Feb 15, 2015 23:10:51 GMT kiwicanfly said:

Feb 15, 2015 22:32:46 GMT casesensitive said:

Everything I buy has to come across the sea from a dominant economic neighbour at a great cost,

You are not going to bring up the potato famine again are you

I wouldn't dare.
But there was no famine, everyone knows there were plenty of spuds, they just got sold across the water!

[casesensitive]

And now something completely different.   

I've been planning ahead a little for my lighting, having a look at what's out there. I didn't fancy a big round repeater on the side of my car, and the though the clear triangular repeaters from my ST170 are pretty nice, and at least one build here did a lovely job fitting the orange versions of the same thing, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.

Couldn't resist these; faux GSXR mirrors with built in LED indicators.

[bazandgav]

Just a quick thank you for your comprehensive brake line build guide section - have used and adapted all you diagrams etc... to guide me through the minefield of braided brake line fitting!! Will just have to keep an eye on your thread now for the electrics section as we are using an ST170 as well :-)

Again, many thanks.

[casesensitive]

Feb 22, 2015 14:43:44 GMT bazandgav said:

Just a quick thank you for your comprehensive brake line build guide section - have used and adapted all you diagrams etc... to guide me through the minefield of braided brake line fitting!! Will just have to keep an eye on your thread now for the electrics section as we are using an ST170 as well :-)

Again, many thanks.

More than welcome :-> Built on the work of @bobn and Mark Harnett's now deleted build guide.

The wiring is a beast over a hill not too far away, hopefully be able to make some sense of it, anything I learn I'll be sharing here and in technical section if it's worthy.

[casesensitive]

Tying it all down

I've been a little conflicted on drilling my chassis to put rivnuts to affix my p-clips, but I've gone with as few as I can reasonably get away with. The IVA manual isn't explicit about what constitutes 'adequate' support, and there seems to be a consensus that it's less critical to secure braided lines than copper.

I can always put in more clips, but not with taking out lots of important bits.

Anyway, masking tape so the drill doesn't slip, and a little over my Powerhose plus lines to keep iron filings out. 3mm, 5mm, 6mm holes



Then, with the masking tape still on, smear a good glob of horrible black goop (stixall) in the hole and pop an M4 rivnut (with proper sides to stop it from running >:-<.






Bottom to top;M4 button head, M4 washer, L-bracket supplied by Venhill for the Ts, rubber washer from box of washers and grommets (Lidl; €4)






Added some hose clips to the low-pressure inlets, and we're largely done up front.
May take rad extension brackets out and pop p-clips in their undersides for a little more "adequate clipping". 

[casesensitive]

Tying it all down on the arms

I really hope this is right; when I came in SWMBO asked how the day went, I said
"Well, I spent two hours making two small holes, but I'm pretty happy with them."

Single M4 rivnut on the underside of the top wishbone towards the rear



P-clipped in. Centred, nothing snagging.



Hard lock right; plenty of length



Hard lock left, nothing getting caught for now.




T'other side

[casesensitive]

<Moved this from earlier in the guide, finished it here>

Venhill Throttle cable kit

I ordered the Venhill custom throttle cable kit and a short 6mm clevis



To say it came with a bewildering array of accessories would be put it mildly. There are different cable adjusters, but many of the parts are identical, and they don't come in exact sets; there aren't enough bolts to go through the clevis (3) are there are clevii (4).
The brass-coloured clevis on the right is the separate one, and while it's redundant to have so many, the Ven-303 one is far more reassuringly built than the meccano that comes with the cable.  



The cable inner has a soldered nipple at one end, a dirty great big long threaded 6mm bar at the other. As far as I can see, the soldered nippled needs to come off altogether, and almost all of the 6mm threaded bar needs snipped.  
I cut off the nippled below, and lubricating with plenty of brake fluid, threaded it through the teflon outer.  Which, it turns out, is quite a bit longer than the inner, but I'm not cutting it until my engine is in and it's all connected up!





My current plan, which I'll post about on the existing thread in the technical section, is to thread the cable through the M8 cable adjuster, and cut the M6-threaded section about 8/10mm from the cable end, leaving a touch more than the amount required to screw into the clevis pictured. I'm going to file the other clevii etc in the parts bin.

I tapped the pedal bracket to M8, and drilled out the pedal to M6, pushing the clevis through. Even at the

I chopped both the M8 threaded adjuster and the cable end as short as I dared.



Held the cable outer down with a p-clip in an M4 rivnut, it kept falling off, leaving an exposed cable inner. Action is pretty smooth, but a push return bunches the cable, so I'll have to make sure the 'pull' on the throttle body end is good and strong.

[ssmith764]

Feb 16, 2015 22:32:21 GMT casesensitive said:

And now something completely different.   

I've been planning ahead a little for my lighting, having a look at what's out there. I didn't fancy a big round repeater on the side of my car, and the though the clear triangular repeaters from my ST170 are pretty nice, and at least one build here did a lovely job fitting the orange versions of the same thing, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.

Couldn't resist these; faux GSXR mirrors with built in LED indicators.

Unfortunately you will still need a repeater on the side or the mudguard as the side indicator needs to been seen at angles towards the back of the car

[casesensitive]

Feb 23, 2015 18:25:33 GMT ssmith764 said:

Unfortunately you will still need a repeater on the side or the mudguard as the side indicator needs to been seen at angles towards the back of the car

Thanks for the really useful image, I've saved that to my Google drive bucket of photos telling me what I need and where :-)

I found the ST170 clear triangular repeaters there yesterday, wonder if I fit them to the widest part of the bonnet will the angle be visible from the rear.  I know that Mark Harnett spoke in his guide about being unsure about the triangular repeaters and having RTR fit mirrors with indicators in them for the test.  

Here's one from the internet until I get a picture of mine. 

[mawdo81]

Think you might struggle for the angle of visibility from down,by the rear wheels. Unfortunately it's from the floor up that they need to be visible.

Btw you can get the full IVA manual online for free from the vosa site.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/iva-manual-for-vehicle-category-m1

[casesensitive]

Yeah, I have a copy of that saved, I just haven't spent much time in the bits around lighting yet

[carlyd]

Feb 23, 2015 18:25:33 GMT ssmith764 said:

Feb 16, 2015 22:32:21 GMT casesensitive said:

And now something completely different.   

I've been planning ahead a little for my lighting, having a look at what's out there. I didn't fancy a big round repeater on the side of my car, and the though the clear triangular repeaters from my ST170 are pretty nice, and at least one build here did a lovely job fitting the orange versions of the same thing, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.

Couldn't resist these; faux GSXR mirrors with built in LED indicators.

Unfortunately you will still need a repeater on the side or the mudguard as the side indicator needs to been seen at angles towards the back of the car

I have these too but in carbon Fibre, they look ok for less than £20.

[casesensitive]

Feb 24, 2015 12:53:55 GMT carlyd said:

I have these too but in carbon Fibre, they look ok for less than £20.

I considered those, but everything's getting painted the same colour as the body panels when I'm finished, so I stuck with black plastic.
Especially the brass piano hinge I put on last night, yuck!

[casesensitive]

Bonnet

Weapons for the today; found it very handy to have the two SDS adapters and two drills, meant I could keep the 3, 5 and 6mm drill bits ready to go.  Lots of Stixall just out of shot.



I'm using a pretty ugly 6ft piano hinge, but it'll all get painted dark grey towards the end anyway. I may need to rough up the surface a bit to get it to take.
Fit hinge to the mobile bit first, too hard to hold the bonnet up solo. Note I've only put an M4 button head in every second hole, this is because the height of bonnet bolt and chassis bolt hitting each other would prevent the hinge from closing.



My first mistake. This masking tape is old and very crap, and didn't come away when I pulled it up. Buy new stuff lads. Or put down duck tape first, then masking tape for a writing surface.



I placed the bonnet by eye, adjusted about 20 times until I was completely happy, I found the 'latch' at the front helped locate it against the front chassis bar.
M4 rivnuts again, put in the offside and nearside-most bolts first, and by eyeball marked out the remaining holes, checking their distance with a calipers.





Drilled the holes, and with the masking tape still on, filled with stixall to prevent water getting in.



And, all done. Focus gas strut is too strong, real shame, I'll see if I can find one that needs less welly to close.

[casesensitive]

Aero catch

Got James's spare aerocatch, nice bit of kit, comes with a handy template to mark the cut. Started with 2x 12mm holes, and after breaking a few hacksaw blades, gingerly went in with the jigsaw. 



Finished edges with a couple of files and sandpaper. Tighter than a trainee nun.

There were quite a few scratches here and there, and even on downward filing, a pretty big chunk of grp flew off >:-| Bottom right of cut, pretty visible, but was covered nicely by aerocatch. 120, 180, 320, 400 and 600 wet. Drilled 3mm and then tapped M4; just because.





On the underside I found that the bolts come VERY close to the body; middle and lower right nuts were only able to be tightened by open spanner rather than socket/ring. Might be worth aiming the drill a couple of degrees away from the catch.

Making the panel
The pin that the catch marries up with is M10, and needs a pretty sturdy bit of metal to stick into. My little sample of dibond was so close to being wide enough, but I went with 2mm mild steel.

Starting with some election poster, and then on to a 50mm wide offcut of aluminium, which is easy to shape, I ended up with these. Mild steel was cleaned up with a detail sander, then given a horizontal brushed pattern with 320 and 400 grit.
Bent in the vice with a rubber mallet; finally got vicejaws so I don't ruin the finish off metal parts.



An old 50mm scaffolding pipe acted as a form, around which I bashed the approximate shape of the outside chassis bars. I rounded all the corners a bit with a file. Will probably need to be ruined with edge trim for IVA.



I decided one hole each side could result in spinning, so as much as it pained me to make 4 more 7mm holes in my chassis, I went for it. It was going to be rivets, but after trying unsuccessfully to get it work, I think my scissor-riveter is busted. Hundreds of rivets sitting around too.
If I was doing this again, I'd have drilled the 4 holes before bending!





And the bonnet pin screwed almost all the way in. Tapped the panel M10.



All done. And a video of the opening mech, pretty nice.