Sport E Sprinting - The rebuild (more welding than wiring so far)
Entry posted by johnev
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Fixing the car has proven to be quite a task - big surprise! The chassis needed repair and modification to remount the diff, motor and new prop shaft and to add fixings for the new rollover cage.
This involves welding - and a lot of it. So far I've used the services of an expert welder but this is expensive. This time I elected to do it myself - how hard can it be?
I bought myself a Clark 151TE welder, some CO2 and Argon mix gas bottles and various wire sizes. After two months practice and a load of scrap metal, I can just about weld - as long as I have the grinder handy to smarten it up. I then set about making the brackets (and some more scrap in the process).
First, strip the car down to the chassis.
The electric motor needed new mounting brackets to remount it at the front and I had to make the Freelander diff mounting brackets from scratch since Westfield had no stock. I had these parts designed by a colleague at work using CAD. The brackets were designed as assemblies and were cut from 2mm and 6mm steel sheet by a local water jet cutting firm.
I initially tacked together the brackets and checked them for dimensions and fit. Once satisfied I fully welded the assemblies. The motor brackets were linished to remove excess weld and create a good finish.
Then it was just a case of painting the finished brackets. I had about a dozen or so brackets and frames to paint so these were sent away to be powder coated.
A new two section prop shaft was made to order and a centre bearing bracket welded in place.
Over the summer I was unable to do much work on the car due to other commitments but with the new brackets finished and the chassis repaired and rebuilt, new propshaft in and a roll over cage fitted, I've able to reassembled the chassis. With the addition of the cooling system I now have a complete rolling chassis.
The cooling system has been upgraded with a much bigger radiator - high power electric motors need to be cooled! The power controller is mounted low down in the engine bay with the charger and power switching box above.
The original bodywork was badly damaged. Luckily Potenza had lightly damaged and hacked red and black FW body kit from one of the early prototype cars gathering leaves and slugs behind the factory. Potenza Technology (not Westfield) are unofficially sponsoring this rebuild so this was donated to the cause (along with the roll cage, wheels and suspension parts). When the car is finished it will look quite different with it's new red bodywork.
Then next stage is to either fit the body work or I start the body electrical and power train wiring (at last). Another 6 months of effort probably.
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