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Will the corners of the frames be 'rounded off' to avoid any potential of damage to the body when fitted, or would you 'pad it' with rubber or builders foam?
Thanks Nike. Where possible, the corners should be rounded off but there will inevitably be the odd place that some extra padding will be required. Looking forward to fine tuning it with the new Navigator body
I'd like to get the front frame finished and at least a test fit of the shell and pedals to gauge the clearance of the front floors. Also looking at an idea of putting in a vertical flange at the outside edge to bond the body on to.
Thought i would just post an update.
Well things are a bit in limbo at the moment with my build as i have been temporarily seconded to team Ribble to help out with the new Navigator buck, the combination of having a mate who runs a body shop and some free time led to me getting very hands on. Im glad to say that the new buck is now done and im sure Andy will be publishing the details when he sees fit.
This obviously means that i have no body as the the one that has become the new buck was in fact supposed to be mine. It also means that i have no frame as work on that has stopped until the first new body is pulled from the new mould so that exact fit can be assured. Although no massive redimensioning has taken place the efforts put into making the body as symmetrical as time and budget would allow means that any current frame is unlikely to fit well.
Luckily i have the race car to play with so am currently getting the engine and box package together but that means a few custom ally machining jobs for the gearbox to bellhousing adapter and the custome dry sump setup im putting together.
Did have a good day today though as my man cave buddy Dave and i commissioned out new ( to us) mega huge blasting cabinet, doors at both ends and it will take two wheels side by side, the seller threw in a new bag of garnet blasting media as well so we practised by doing a wheel and the water pump housing off the Navigator. Also got round to painting the block of the Navigators engine which came back from the engine builders all in black and needed some brightening up, luckily another side project is my Grayson lathe rebuild for which i bought some blue grey machine enamel, guess what colour the block is now....
i dont think anyone who is building a Sammio is "just" putting the kit together!!!! hopefully the Ribble version should be somewhat simpler!
Simpler? Simpler? No no no.
OK, it might be nice if one or two things fitted a bit better, like the internal frame, but where's the challenge if any Tom Dick or Jeremy could bolt one together in a weekend?
The people building these 'kits' all have one thing in common - we understand that we've bought a low priced, basic package that we need to add value to with our imagination and mechanical skills. Good luck to those who want the car and can pay someone to build it for them, but the average customer will relish the process of building it more than they desire the finished article imho.
Mine's taken two years of tinkering to get it the way I want it and I wouldn't have it any other way. Improve quality by all means, but leave simpler to the Caterham crowd.
On the other hand, I suppose if you want to sell to a wider market you could make it simpler. Sniff.
With you all the way T. Simpler isn't really the right description of what we want to do with the kits. More a process of getting it 'right' so when you receive a frame, there's a good chance of it fitting. When you get a body shell, there is an acceptable level of symmetry and the options such as doors (once designed) shouldn't present a year of head scratching.
Sure, there will be work to do and we're aiming fair and squarely at the budget end of the market but you should end up working with the kit and not fighting it. 'Phoenix', our first Navigator demonstrator, is being built from the kit as it will be supplied so we can have the experience of building it as a customer would and, if necessary, tweaking the design so subsequent kits will have problems removed. We are lucky in having a guy like Mac (Viatron) as the first customer of the new kit who understands this process and is actively helping us get it right.
Towed, notice i also said "somewhat simpler" not simple! by the nature of what it is it will always be a more involved proces than assembling a seven alike from a kit for example.
Well was booked to be in Sunderland on Monday but customer called at 07:00 as i was ab
Out to set off to tell me that they had no power so a free Day and as the cancellation was less than 24 hours i was being paid as well! What do do with my time......
Since finishing work on the Navigator buck one glaring issue has annoyed me so i took
My life and a cutting disc in my hand and got stuck in.
Dont lnow if it exists on previous cordites or whether its just as a result of the state of the moulds or the modifications done to the moulds but the Passenger rear quarter needed moving back a fair bit.
And, as a result, which will soon be seen in full, pictorially, the end product is MUCH better than before with a good degree of symmetry, cockpit shape and finish. Can't wait to see the first shell out of the new mould
