Tuesday, 21 February 2017

Cycle wiings and modified exhaust

No work has been done on this project since August 2016. Lots of fun was had on the track at both Forrestburn and Bo'ness hill climbs in the autumn last year.

It is time to renew enthusiasm again and tackle some of the development issues, the cycle wings is a good place to start.

I managed to purchase some used 17" wheels from ebay (where else), after having them cleaned up by my favourite san blaster they came up looking well. I put some Longstone road tyres on them with a view to entering some car trials.

I drew up a diagram to  design the cycle wings I needed, however I discovered exactly what I required from a company called https://www.britishbikebits.com/. They have some universal alloy mud guards that for 18-19" wheels that exactly fit the tyres fitted to a 17" Austin seven wheel.

The challenge was then to design a method of attaching them to the Austin Seven brake back plates. This is no easy task but eventually decided on a design approach which was initially implemented in cardboard (of course).

 The above half moon back plate (above)was fabricated for each corners. The back plates were attached by 6mm cap head screws to the existing brake back plate..The rest of the wing stays etc were fabricate in 2mm thick x 15mm ERW tubing + some 20mm flat plate on the ends to secure the wings.


 The above image shows the flate plate to attach the wings.


 Wing stays cut to size ready for welding

The final result




I am very pleased with the final result, it has transformed the look of the car.

Exhaust mods

One consequence of fitting larger wheels and cycle wings is the exhaust fouls the offside wing on full lock. This was sorted with some new 38mm bends in the front section of the exhaust assembly.

Update 4th Aug 21

These wings and wheels still exist but have been upgraded with 5" rims and cycle wings to match. The original wheels and wings can still be fitted if someone wants a more period look. The stock cycle wings were not wide enough for my track wheels so I used an air fed plenishing machine to adjust their width (noisy beast).








Here is an Index page for the build





1 comment:

  1. Hi, If you still have the Austin special, Accuspark now produce a direct-fit 12v alternator conversion (looks like a dynamo on the outside) i have fitted one & it seems good so far. PS your blogs are a good read

    ReplyDelete