MG Sports Cars

Jim

How you coming along on the hood hinges?

I have the cross rod and the main arms cut and polished but not buffed. They need welded together then a set of upper hinges, a set of lower pillow blocks, and an offset arm and small custom hydraulic cylinder and mount. Then lines and control wires to finish up. That is probably a week's worth of work that I need to squeeze into the schedule somehow. But I'll post photos once I have some shiny bits to display.

Jim

Sounds like you're 90% there - only 90% to go.

I guess you must know about that huh?
I think maybe I'd better make the upper hinges next before I weld the arms to the cross rod since there will probably be machine work involved. The tricky part is caused by the fact that the side hood lines are not parallel. What does that do to the hinge assembly as it goes from horizontal to vertical? Create a bind, most likely. Just have to try it and see.

I would think that you need to keep the entire hinge mechanism working in a plane that is parallel to the centerline of the car, not parallel to the sides of the hood. Sections of the hinge mechanism can lie in separate planes as long as both are parallel to the centerline of the car.

Or perpendicular? That can be done I think but it will take some accurate angle measurement and tricky milling set ups. Hopefully I will get a chance to do the final polishing of the arms this weekend and possibly some of the buffing also, then I'll look at the angles. The thing is, the upper hinge probably does not move more than about 30 degrees. It might tolerate some misalignment. But no doubt it would be best to avoid that. I'd also like to make the hinge a good bit beefier than last time around, and would prefer to be at 5/16" or larger on the hinge pin. But that will mean building up the ends of the arms. Perhaps the TIG is the way to go on that, as it will let me build up a more organic shape.

Jim

I need to make a pair of very small leaf springs. Their purpose is to bias the upper hinge downwards towards the cowl which will make the hinge mechanism articulate properly and I should be able to clamp the end in the hinge mount on the hood assembly. I'm sort of hoping someone has run across a suitable material somewhere along the line. It needs to be extra flexy since a short segment of just a couple or three inches needs to cover around 30° or more of movement and it needs to be corrosion resistant and stainless preferred. Thickness can be about 1/16" to 1/8" and width about 3/4".

Anybody have any ideas? I'm guessing somewhere in the range of 10-20° per inch of flex might work. Maybe there is a stainless grade, or maybe there is a place where I can get some of that nickel-titanium alloy that they make eyeglasses frames out of. Any leads would be great.

Jim

Just had a quick look on the net - just have to find the right supplier of SS spring steel product. Here's one product....
[www.alibaba.com]

Thanks Graham but I need a small quantity. Alibaba wants to sell 3000 pieces/20Kg,etc. A few ft would be plenty.

Jim

Could you use some other material like a plastic or carbon fiber strip?

McMaster has some spring stock [www.mcmaster.com]

I guess I'll try the. 031" thick full hard 301SS strip from McMasterCarr and about a 3 leaf spring pack. That should allow enough flex at about the right spring loading to get the upper hinge to articulate properly. Haven't seen a source yet for NiTi strip or for that matter any alloy of titanium in a hardened condition. I just hope I won't be overflexing the stainless. Probably will be pretty close to the yeild point.

Jim

Calling all Racoon Brothers! Shiny bits coming right up!

The hinges are done and mounted. Of course this just means more tasks but it's one more done.









The operation is smooth and correct. Standing in front of the car I can grab the front of the cutout and by pulling forward and a little upward the front first comes up and then the entire unit swings forward. No springs as of yet, I may not need them, but I'm working on a plan to open and close it remotely.

Jim

Driveshaft is in and the fuel rails are done except for a throttle linkage pivot, hold downs, and buffing. I plan to order the MegaShift later this week.

Jim

Looks great Jim, more bling. All the racoons are envious!

My brother racoons, I think you are really going to like the throttle linkage that I'm working on. I have a few more parts to make and some buffing and polishing to do but I will have some photos soon.

Jim

Got some pictures finally. They aren't great but at least it's something. Here is the linkage as it attaches to the throttle body. The arm is polished stainless billet:



Next is the forwrd pivot it attaches to. This translates the up/down motion to fore/aft and also modifies the arc-motion to give finer control to the off idle transition. The TPS is mounted on this shaft:



Then the rear pivot further modifies the arc-motion in the same direction and gives attachment to the throttle cable, also accommodating the pivot motion of the cable sheath:



And finally, the barrel nuts secure the fuel rail down to the intake manifold, providing a secure mounting for the linkages and regulator. Note that the barrel nut is not assembled in this shot, sitting alongside the threaded boss it attaches to:



I had quite a bit of fun with the anodizing of the parts you see in these shots, as I had never done it before, but as you can see the results came out quite good, and the camera really does poor justice to the colors. Some of the challenges were pretty significant ones. The bracket which holds the throttle cable is cast aluminum for instance, always a challenge in any anodizing attempt. The barrel nuts too, as they are hard anodized using a one-off composition and process, giving a greenish tint to the natural color.

Which brings up the last point. As you can see I have gone to great lengths to insure that my car has the utmost in eco-friendly features. The fueling system is about as green as I could make it, considering it is in a red car. Green fittings from Parker, green fuel pressure regulator as modified by Blackwood Labs, green brackets and hold down nuts for the fuel rails, and I even have a set of green injectors to go in it once I flush and flow them. So I just want everyone to know that I am doing my part for the planet.

Jim

Jim, We are just green with envy. Long live Mother Earth. Nice work, roverman.

I had no idea the environmentalists just meant the COLOR green! Now, it makes so much more sense. ;)

Well then, that makes this car, Super Eco-friendly:
[www.britishv8.org]