289 build

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catsx11
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Post by catsx11 »

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Last edited by catsx11 on Wed Aug 23, 2017 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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amulheirn
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Re: 289 build

Post by amulheirn »

Thanks Alan - yes, it's moving on slowly. Trying to keep the momentum up in a cold garage :D

I did the aluminium myself in the end, yes. Got two sheets of 1.2mm, and one sheet of 2mm, made card templates and cut it all with a jigsaw. I tried a grinder and a nibbler, but careful use of the jigsaw followed by some filing worked out the best. Malcolm our treasurer kindly gave me some rubber edging strip to finish the lower edges off neatly.

Andrew
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Roger King
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Re: 289 build

Post by Roger King »

Looks great - and yes, I think that's the best way to make the ali sheets. I found that if you plan carefully, you can use the stamped edges of the sheet for the long edges that will be visible. To tidy up and keep straight any edges you have to cut yourself (yes, jigsaw's the best), if you can clamp them between substantial bits of wood in a vice you can use a big handfile lengthways to straighten and remove minor imperfections. You need a pretty big vice, mind.
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amulheirn
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Re: 289 build

Post by amulheirn »

We fitted the radiator the other day - the thing had to go in and come back out about 20 times before I was happy with the fit. Think I drove my colleagues up the wall. We used a couple of axle-stands to support the bottom of the rad first, then held the brackets up, scribed them and drilled the holes. Once the brackets were on the rad, re-fitted it to work out where the holes in the inner wings should be.

Image

After that, on PeterC's advice, we started making a cowl to stop air going over the top of the radiator too much. As you can see from the photo above, there's a bit of a gap. Started with a bit of masking tape across the top of the rad, with 1-inch intervals marked on it. Then measured from the radiator face to the underside of the nose at each interval to get a cardboard template sized correctly:

Image

Then transferred the template to aluminium and cut/folded it. Here's a photo of a trial-fit that still needed a bit of adjustment - not the finished article:

Image

Image
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peterc
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Re: 289 build

Post by peterc »

Andrew,
I'm surprised that you had to support the rad on axle stands. Whilst positioning the mounting brackets I just rested mine down onto 5 mm of foam strip laid on the fibreglass. Has Gerry cut the bottom of the nose area away? I guess it would make replacing the rad easier to drop it out rather than feed it up and over the front of the chassis.
The top piece of ducting is looking good. Just need to adjust the two corners a little to finish. It doesn't need to fit perfectly. As long as it deflects most of the air it will be fine.
Peter C
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amulheirn
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Re: 289 build

Post by amulheirn »

peterc wrote:Andrew,
I'm surprised that you had to support the rad on axle stands. Whilst positioning the mounting brackets I just rested mine down onto 5 mm of foam strip laid on the fibreglass. Has Gerry cut the bottom of the nose area away? I guess it would make replacing the rad easier to drop it out rather than feed it up and over the front of the chassis.
The top piece of ducting is looking good. Just need to adjust the two corners a little to finish. It doesn't need to fit perfectly. As long as it deflects most of the air it will be fine.
Peter C
Hi Peter -
Yeah - the axle-stands were just for assistance positioning it really. But when finally fitted I think it can be dropped out if necessary, which could be an alteration Gerry has made to the fibreglass mould since yours.

Those two red-marked bits were for a bit of manual adjustment with the file to make it fit better.

Andy
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Roger King
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Re: 289 build

Post by Roger King »

Looks like you have your rad vertical - I angled my Hawk one forwards to get it further down the nose and minimise the amount of shrouding necessary.
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peterc
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Re: 289 build

Post by peterc »

The air flow through the grill will already be turbulent / compromised so I having the top of the rad leaning forward would assist a bit as air doesn't like changing direction. At the time of my build I just had the impression that Gerry had designed the brackets for the rad to be vertical so that's how I mounted it.
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amulheirn
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Re: 289 build

Post by amulheirn »

Yes - Gerry's manual says to make it vertical. I did think about a forward tilt, but decided to go the other route as I didn't know how hard it might make it to route the radiator hoses between chassis members.

Cheers,
Andy
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Roger King
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Re: 289 build

Post by Roger King »

Well, as my wife says, I never read the instructions.

It's still going strong at over 30,000 miles as far as I know - never overheated in my ownership
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