Mike's Cabrio Build

[dave_clutterbuck]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Nice one Mike
Regards
Dave

[Mike]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Kitcar magazine, November edition (no I don't know why its not called October's edition either.

Kitcar Magazine Front Cover.jpg

That's my fourth attempt at reducing the size of the photo, and I've failed again.
(I re-sized it in the Microsoft editor, but this site expands it back to the original size, sorry)

Anyway, my pre-issue copy of the Kitcar magazine suggests my Cabrio is to take pride of place on the front cover, and there is an 8-page spread inside
- I think they must have been short of articles this month................

(It's a shame about the missing apostrophe!)

But, the photos look good inside...........

[Mike]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Coming soon ......well it would be if my bl**dy computer would be civil with my scanner!

[philcoyle]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Oh yes great idea, How about a Marlin!

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

or you could put a piece of acrylic in and make a feature out if it, complete with fish?

[Mike]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Now the "little" jobs start.............

Tonight I have had to drill a drain hole in my Drivers side door: it has proven to be incredibly water tight - 3 weeks after driving up to Tatton Park in heavy rain it has enough water in it to fill a goldfish bowl !

[dbazdavies]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

VW Beetles have rubber seals that could be used on Marlins to seal the wiper spindles !!

[cabrioman]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

The 2cv spindles bolt onto the bulkhead and the spindle rotates in body of the spindle so if these are fitted to the Cabrio they could be bolted in and fully sealed to the bulkhead. The arm on the spindle is bolted to the spindle shaft so my idea is to cut the existing ford spindle off to get the ball to join onto the ford linkage and weld the cut down ford drop arm to the 2cv arm. There will be some fiddling around to work out the correct bend and length but should'nt be too difficult. Then just a case of finding wiper arms to fit on the 2cv spindles.

If you search ebay for 2cv wiper spindle there are lots for sale. The other contender is the vw beetle spindles but they look a bit long and the arm is fixed onto the spindle whereas with the 2cv removable bolt on drop arms I thought it would be easier to fabricate a bespoke arm for the Cabrio.

Thats the general plan anyway.

2cv http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2722041343...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Beetle http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1118178096...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[dogoncrazy]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Can you enlighten us on the 2cv spindle idea !

[cabrioman]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

The thing to remember Mike is you have tackled the 'Marlin" issues as you have gone along so most of this is just shake down gremlins.

I'm doing the same, thats why its taking so long and the list keeps going....

You changed your diff ratio I thought good idea I'll change mine, diff out, diff mount buggered, buy new poly diff mount, diff back in, mount hits tank, can't get new ford mount, get new custom fuel tank built that actually fits the chassis to give proper clearance around diff !!!

You get water leaks in footwell, someone suggest leaking wiper spindles, take a look at mine and decide mine will probably do the same, search ebay for solution, find 2cv spindles will solve the problem, another project ready to be started !!!!

So we are all in it together, but we still keep doing it.

The joy of kit cars, I'm 35 years in and still at it

[andyf]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Even after all that work production cars break down, I had a v6 cavalier that ate the engine bay wiring loom the first time my wife took it out and a friend of mine had an S-Type Jag that the alarm kept going off on!

[milliemarlin]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

I always comfort myself with this thought. For a production model to get from concept car to production model it requires:

Concept cars
Prototypes

Proof-of-Principle Prototype
Form Study Prototype
User Experience Prototype
Visual Prototype
Functional Prototype

Development mules
Any number of pre-production cars

Not to mention computer modeling.

All of which take many thousands of man hours and a collective including highly specialised teams.

After producing hundreds of cars serious faults can still be found.

So I believe building a car is an outstanding achievement.

Paul

PS: With all the production experience that goes into a simple relay you might consider yourself a victim of mass production greed.

[dbazdavies]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

Had a Rover Vitesse SD1 with fuel injection - would not start - removed the fuel injection relays and replaced them and it worked - seems the Bosche mechanical ones are quite used to doing this !! also my wife says TVR stands for Terrible Vehicle Reliabity on our Chimera !!

[Tony Stott]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

sort of same here bought my berly off danny, 2or 3 days later drove it from nth worcs down to portsmouth, no probs, caught the st malo overnight ferry to be awoke the following morning to the fact we were docking in cherbourg not st m due to adverse weather in the channel. this meant another 100 miles on my return home total of 250, set off with trepidation, but an uneventful journey followed, berly didn't miss a beat, about 400-450 milesin total, well pleased - short journeys subsequently caused probs, ignition switch playing up, so with a purpose made hotwire life was made easy. the switch has now been replaced, and now i'm a happy bunny!
THIS WINTER'S WORK, NEW DASHBOARD, NEW HEATERDISTRIBUTION BOX ETC - lifes never simple!

[peterboat]

Re: Mike's Cabrio Build

I flew down to Newquay bought my Hunter from somewhere past truro then drove back to Yorkshire it rained very nearly all the way!! In Birmingham there was 4 inches of water on the road, it never missed a beat and the screen stayed clear all the way.