jw4 Smokey's JW4 Formula Four Rebuild Thread

[Nic Chase (NICO) - Shropshire & Mid-Wales AO]

Looking good Mark. Keep up the good work.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

I hadn't realised quite how many weeks had past since my last update but since Chrismas I've largely been trying to get the fit of the bodywork right so there hasn't been a great deal of progress to show.

Once I was happy with the position of the body on the chassis the first task was to open up the holes where the suspension arms pass through to give them enough clearance for the suspension movement. I lost track of how many times the body ws taken on and off to do this and plenty of blue dust was created in the process The final task was then to fit the Dzus 1/4turn fasteners that hold everything together.

So this is where I'm up to as of today

Last month I dropped off my seat buck to John Danby Racing who made the wishbones for me. They'll be using my original buck to produce a new mould and then a New GRP shell seat for the car. I'm going for a shell seat rather than the original padded vinyl as firstly it'll be easier to keep clean and dry, but also secondly the padded seat is quite snug even for my racing snake frame.

[pete g]

looking good mark

[alexander72]

looks magic - great work mate 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Its been a couple of months since my last update, during which progress has been steady but slow.

The most noticeable item though is that the car now has a seat

I had a few options with seating and indeed had a selection of the old and damaged amongst my ever growing pile of parts. The original seats were a fibreglass shell covered in vinyl and even for my 30" waist they were snug so it was obvious I'd need to do something to improve the fit. As my plans are to both use and show the car I wanted a seat that would be suitable for the typical British summer.

Amongst my pile of parts and moulds I had a fibreglass buck that had been taken off an old seat shell and this I decided would form the basis of a new fibreglass shell seat.

Whist I've done some basic glass fibre repairs and patches in the past I didn't feel confident taking on the task of modifying the seat buck to make a new seat so for these stages of the build I handed over the John Danby Racing who had previously made the replacement wishbones for me.

Their first task was to take the rough seat buck, extend the flanges and generally get it into a condition where it could be used to make a mould.

Then having modified the buck a seat mould was then produced.

And finally the finished article. two seats were made; the first for the JW4 and the second will eventually go into the Carburol Special.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Time for another update

After having the seats made a few weeks passed before I was able to find the time to trial fit them in the car. The installation is actually fairly basic, a pair of simple brackets support the back of the seat whilst the front clips onto the chassis rail.

After some light fettling the seat dropped in easily.

In another lucky find I managed to pick up a brand new harness for a bargain price on ebay. Out of date for racing but perfect for my needs and sprinting.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

One of the bigger jobs I'd been putting off until now was the fabrication of the engine cradle. In reality its a fairly basic design but I'd been leaving ordering the parts from the laser cutters until i was absolutely certain that everything would fit as intended.

Back from the laser cutters and this is what it looks like mocked up before welding.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Jumping ahead a bit to bring this thread fully up to date, much of the progress of late was to prepare the car for it's first journey outside of the garage.

There's still much to do and the car is nowhere near complete, however I was keen to start showing it and generating some more interest so I booked an entry for it to appear at the Fordham Vehicle Show in my village together with my Impreza and the Westfield.

The last few weeks saw a flurry of activity, first dropping the engine into the newly fabricated cradle and then "mocking up" several parts to make the car look more complete that it really was. Well the show was yesterday and following the efforts over the preceding weeks I was pleased the JW4 was popular and sparked several conversations and admiring glances.

The next parts to make on the shopping list is the roll hoop, Exhaust expansion chamber and fuel tank

[luxseven]

The pic shows how small it is compared to the trailer it sits on.

Excellent work as always and it certainly gives a boost when you can display it!

Cheers.

 

Jos

[Rory's Dad]

I'll need to go back through this wonderful thread to check but it looks like the front wheels are back from where one would expect.  I know that's how it was designed and built     

[geoffd]

A picture of your car was posted on Autosport's The Nostalgia Forum. http://forums.autosport.com/topic/199312-johnny-walker-jw4/  I gave the link to this thread - I hope you don't mind.

 

Geoff

[benedwards64]

Read through this morning - a thoroughly fascinating read. Keep it coming!

[Mark (smokey mow)]

A picture of your car was posted on Autosport's The Nostalgia Forum. http://forums.autosport.com/topic/199312-johnny-walker-jw4/ I gave the link to this thread - I hope you don't mind.

Geoff

thanks Geoff, I'm grateful for you posting the link

[Mark (smokey mow)]

The pic shows how small it is compared to the trailer it sits on.

Excellent work as always and it certainly gives a boost when you can display it!

Cheers.

 

Jos

  

I'll need to go back through this wonderful thread to check but it looks like the front wheels are back from where one would expect.  I know that's how it was designed and built     

It really is quite a small car and there's no room for any excess fat. The Mk1 was even smaller than my Mk2 and can be seen here dwarfed by a mini

http://images.britishpathe.com/?id=55162&num=5&size=still

The front overhang is as long as it appears the cars wheelbase measures only 74-1/2" which compares to its length of 120"

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Whenever I look back at this thread I realise that way too much time has passed since my last update. Progress was slow through the summer while i enjoyed the good weather and several holidays, but now the cold weather and winter has returned I've had more time to focus on sourcing parts and getting some others made.

One of the items I've been putting off purchasing for ages was the shocks. I simply couldn't decide what to go for. Period specification allowed me to use an aluminium damper, but to remain true to the original I wanted to keep with bonded rubber bushes rather than spherical joints on the ends. After trawling through countless manufacturers websites and pricing up the options I eventually settled on Protech's as they suited the budget and and the right look for the car.

Once I'd settled on the dampers the next challenge was springs. I thought the springs would be the easy bit, but not so because of the cars light weight of 200kg. A few of you reading this might have seen my post on the forum asking about springs, the fronts needing to be 85lbs/ins and the rears 105lbs/ins. Eventually D.Faulkner came to the rescue and I had a set custom wound at the correct lengths and spring rates.

This weekend I finally got them trial fitted to the car