jw4 Smokey's JW4 Formula Four Rebuild Thread

[Mark (smokey mow)]

With the excitement of collecting the Costin now out of the way and the trailer unloaded last weekend it's back to working on the JW4 again.  Last week I had a rather big delivery of laser cut parts so I can make some more progress on some of the remaining jobs.

 

The fire wall panels I'd had cut to roughly the right shape but I'd left a small allowance for final fettling to get them to fit the body profile exactly.  

 

Footwell panels fitted as well for extra crash protection.

 

And finally I turned up a some top hat spacers for the steering rack bolts.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

A day off work today gave me a chance to complete another couple of jobs.  

First task was to make a bracket for the throttle cable.  The new master cylinders I'm using have a taller reservoir compared to the original parts which meant they would fet in the way of the throttle cable run to the pedal. The easiest solution was to make a bolt on extension bracket for the oringal mounting that would raise the mounting slightly so it would clear the top of the master cylinder.

 

The other job for the day was fitting the windscreen. I'd had some screen blanks made recently by the laser cutters from perspex but these needed to be formed to the correct shape.  I'd been hoping to use the oven but the blanks were slightly too big to fit so I had to resort to using the paint stripper gun to soften the perspex. Once softened sufficiently it was laid over a curved former that I'd made using hardboard and then left to cool. (Sorry for the lack of pictures from this process).

 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

A little update today as after a 3-month wait (yes really!) I finally collected the wheels from the painters. Things didn't go exactly to plan for them as after two failed attempts at powder-coating they eventually 2-pack painted them as they were having issues with the finish bubbling during baking. We suspect it was some residue left behind from media blasting the original 1968 paint off as there was some soft gunge left behind in the corners of the webs that had to be cleaned out by hand but they didn't want to risk a third attempt at powder-coating hence why they sprayed them.

 

To be fair to Impact Coatings though they honoured the original price we agreed which was actually from a quote they'd given me three years ago.

 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Although the weather outside hasn't been too favourable for working on cars over the last couple of weekends I've still managed to make a small amount more progress, this time with the headrest.

in the traditional fashion, i started with a bit of wood... Well technically it's an off cut of oak from when I built my staircase several years ago but the thickness was just right for the job.  I don't have a wood lathe but after getting it roughly to the right size with a saw I could then mount it in the metal lathe to turn to the final diameter.

 

A quick sand to smooth the edges off and then several coats of paint later.

 

Meanwhile, while the paint was drying I made the vinyl pad on the sewing machine.

 

and then a bracket made for mounting it to the chassis.

 

and finished

 

 

 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Wheels collected from the tyre fitters earlier today.  With wheel sizes having grown quite considerably sine the 1960's its actually quite difficult to find somewhere that still has machinary that can fit tyres to 10" rims, most I spoke to locally can only go down to 13".

[pistonbroke]

Chapman would turn in his grave if he could see the size of those mounting bolts 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Another order from the laser cutters arrived just in time for for the weekend.

whilst I could have bought a battery cradle and saved myself some time, having my own laser cut from Aluminium works out at 1/10th of the price and just needed a few folds to shape. The spare is for the other JW4.

 

And mounted to the firewall behind the seat.

 

That photo also highlighted that I'd missed a rivet out when fitting the fire wall.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

On to the upper firewall next, and again this was just a simple case of forming a couple of bends and then fitting into place. A few weeks ago I'd made a mock-up from carboard so I could fettle it exactly to follow the contours of the upper body and then I transfered the co-ordinate data into a CAD drawing so I could get it cut from aluminium at the same time as the other parts.

 

Wheels and graphics also added. I haven't fitted the number roundels to the engine cover yet as this still needs fettling for the roll bar backstay and the cylinder head.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

I'd also had the steel plates for the engine cradle fabricated so these were temporarily bolted to the engine and dropped in the back of the car so I could take the measurements for the gear change linkage.

While the engine was in the car I also took the oportunity to cut the hole in the fire wall for the gear change rod.

There was some trial and error to work out where to drill the firewall, but with some guess work and a couple of attempts the right centre spot was found, before the pilot hole was opened up to its final diameter.

The grommet is made from an old off cut of mountain bike inner tube :D sandwiched by a small aluminium collar.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Final picture for the day before I zipped the car back in its Carcoon

.

 

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

Yet more meticulous work Mark. Great to see it with body and wheels on. Very sleek machine. Keep up the good work.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

More progress made.  My evenings in the week were spent painting the various of the engine cradle so I would be able to bolt it in at the weekend, only a slight amount of fettling needed then it dropped straight in.

 

Ŵ

 

With good progress made early on I could then move onto the gear linkage. No photos of the next bit (sorry i forgot) but essentially the triumph's foot change was cut down and then milled to get both faces parallel so it would accept a clevis. 

 

Then finally the link rod was bent to shape so it would clear the side of the seat and the ends tapped for screwing into the clevis. 

 

Also a bit of period switch labelling completed

 

 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Ah the wiring loom! At least a 2-cylinder motorcycle engine doesn't need that many wires.

many of the wires and bulkhead grommets came courtesy of an old MX5 loom that was orignally destined for the tip until I realised at the last minute that a few bits from it might be useful for this build.

First job, the dashboard was assembled..... Well that didn't take too long!

 

Next all the various wires were laid out in the car to check the routing and work out the lengths. Fear not the use of cable ties is only temporary and all of them will be removed for the final fitting.

 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Once I was happy with the layout, the loom was pulled out of the car the cable ties were cut off and everything was wrapped in loom tape.

the finished loom.

 

Refitted in the car, just a few clips and some tidying left to complete.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

A few more jobs ticked off the list.

Plug leads assembled and fitted,

 

Silencers mounted.

 

final job for today the rain light