Dutton Dementia

[Mick O'Malley]

In yesterday's sunshine, after a short drive in the Monaco, I decided to dangle my gismo from the frame's top side rails in position in the engine bay. It was quite a fiddle to get it aligned in all three planes: fore and aft and laterally weren't too tricky but the correct height (as determined by my fruitless earlier attempts to utilise the Talbot's cross-member) took a great deal of patience and not a few profanities .

It was then clear that the new mountings would need to sprout from the diagonal horizontal 1.5" square frame braces, so I dug out my length of matching section steel box, made a card template of the angle needed for the mount to protrude parallel to the car's lateral axis, and carefully hacksawed one end of a suitably oversized 'one mounting' length and offered it up. It was OK. Knowing my concentration limits, and tendency to commit schoolboy errors I called it a day, pleased with the tiny progress increment .

This morning I pitched in again, offering up my stubby blank and imagining how it would best mate with the gismo - a downward angle was clearly needed. More careful measuring, a saw cut through the top three sides of the box, and judicious bending with the aid of another card template had the engine end sitting at the correct angle. I marked where the bottom mounting rubber's stud met the box and drilled a slightly oversized hole (which I imagine will eventually need to be slightly oval). I then cut off the redundant end length at 45 degrees which both tidied it and provided access for the stud's nut to be tightened. Bolting my creation in place I took the picture below.



The open cut will obviously need a fillet, TDW's forty year old diagonal beefing up, and a diagonal strut to another frame member for full belt and braces effect. I didn't check to ensure the gismo had stayed central so this effort may have to go down as a prototype. However, if necessary, I have more than enough box to remake it as well as its mirror image twin.

Regards, Mick