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Navy-ation - Wasp The last post


perdu

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That appeals more to me and my bizarre ways than a completely original one stored in a cocoon from new, actually :)

 

Mine is nothing great - it was acquired from a lady who's husband had (literally) run away and the car sat languishing for 3 years following an MOT failure for a brake pipe leak and a little hole beside the driver's seat belt anchor. We got it running and it made its own weather although oil pressure is excellent. I stripped the head, did a little porting using Vizard's book and replaced the rattly valve guides. I used a local machine shop to skim the head, fit hardened inserts and recut the seats for new valves. The SUs are neglected and need rebuilt. Both master cylinders are kaput, and when I stripped the interior out to get to the MOT failure rust hole I found new floors and inner and outer sills, and the whole was behind the driver's seat in the corner next to the inner sill. That's sorted, but the noses of the box sections over the back axle and into the boot weren't too clever and needed replaced. I've done the driver's side and have the passenger side still to do. I haven't worked on it much because there's a rusty MX-5 in my garage too which belongs to my dad that's been getting all the attention for the last 12 months.

 

20140824_165648_zps184682d4.jpg

 

I'm sure I'll want (much) more power as soon as I've had it out on the road!

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Round arches loads of room for 165 13s

 

:)

Yummy

 

Mine has a 1293 A series with MG Metro head, dizzy and  single HIF44 carb also ex-MG Metro

Spridgebits fast rod cam and Ford type 9 gearbox

 

Happy as Larry at 110mph maxed at 113 uphill on the main runway at RAF Marham track day a couple of years ago

 

Its taken me ten blooming minutes to write then correct this

 

I detest predictive text...

 

Its coming off the prefs

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I should point out, in proximity to Debs's 150bhp that SHE builds racing engines for A serieses and more than the occasional Coventry Climax whizzers for race cars

 

I don't but my mate and I (he used to knock together Racing Engines for Minis) put together a car designed to make the best of the Little British Sports Car on proper roads, legitimately

 

I'd love 150bhp but after the tender ministrations of Peter Burgess I have a car that was measured on his rolling road (boy, that was a scary afternoon) as giving 90bhp at the flywheel

 

I have better suspension and fibreglass front panels to maximise the beautiful whoosh when the throttle slams open

 

Best fun ever that isnt either making lurrrve or models  :)

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As is often the way on a build wot I do, a small update

 

I made the main engine body t'other day, as ye saw and today and yesterday I have been bending 3/16ths plastic tube in the hope of getting two reverse bent exhaust pipes

 

I knew from bitter/interesting experience that these wouldn't just throw their hands up and come along easily and I was right

 

The pipe comes off the impeller end with a short straight then starts to rise and bend away immediately, not a task I want to perform often in future

 

Still I think I got close enough for Bristol Siddeley work

 

P1110450.jpg

 

Also been trying to get a definite shape and size for the transferring gearbox under the pipes

 

You know what?

 

I can't find a single shot of the Nimbus's output shaft that enters the gearbox presumably under the Vee of the tailpipes so its all guesswork here


Here's the basic gearbox bits before I add the front machinery and the brake calipers and disk and fill between the rounded sections where the gears live inside

P1110454.jpg

 

For relevance here's where they will all fit together before I mount then and discover they are overscale

 

OK OK I don't actually expect that but...

 

P1110455.jpg

 

I have also been modifying the Scout to make its fuselage more Wasp

 

The ribs have been removed from the under-engine tapered body and the horizontal ribs along the fore part are being modified to suit a missile capable fuselage

 

(An extra horizontal rib shoehorned in at the bottom to act as stiffeners before the missile assembly can be added)

P1110452.jpg

The ribs are too thick anyway and will be substituted  with Slater's Plastic strip of which I hope I have a few left over from the 'Cab, Hansom'

P1110451.jpg

 

Also trimmed the tail of the fuselage to suit its new, slightly smaller size and location

P1110453.jpg

 

Inside is getting attention too, here's the cross beam that sits beneath the seats ready to link up with the vertical members at the door frames

P1110457.jpg

  And for fun

 

Here's another

 

"Can you see what it is..yet?"

 

 

 

This was a long defunct model which I dumped in the 85 purge

 

P1110456.jpg

 

Does anyone have any pictures of the place where the gearbox takes its output from the turboshaft?

 

I'm probably too late to change anything now but its very nice to see and understand

Edited by perdu
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In yet another small upsurge of inertial whoosh I embelished the transmission with the bits on the front

 

(I dunno wot they are but they look like this, right)

 

And the transmission brake disc, calliper and output shaft

P1110459.jpg

 

from another direction

 

They look OK to me, any one with any advice? I'd appreciate some input on this

P1110460.jpg

the above is the front view of the transmission box, there's lots more gubbinses and macguffins but frankly if I try to put them in a casting its never going to work so I'll leave that to the final build process

 

I have added the jet pipe thermocouples too, same rider as before, I am unsure if  that's what they are but it seems likely to me so I'll bung a label on 'em

 

P1110461.jpg

 

I'll trim the little nubbinses to length later when the Green Top has completely dried away

 

I know that Airwaves moulded a version of this engine all in one piece but I'm not sure if I'd get away with it so plan A is to cast all three items in resin then bung 'em together laters

P1110463.jpg

 

 

I also know that Freightdog has their engine in one piece so I'm kinda torn about it

 

Can we use the 'conflicted' word in here I wonder, 'cos I am

 

I also plan to cast a revised version of the canopy buck that I'll be trying to cast a little more detail for the rear view windows when I mould the screen and roof

 

I'm quite getting into the swing again, might make a start on the Frog Bucc which is getting the resin Gyron J intakes I scored on the  'bay

 

I need to put some stuff into the wheel bays, the absence of engines does show up quite prominently after all...

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Thanks Debs

 

Wish I'd known you were likely to be able to get intimate with the Nimbus's nether regions  :unsure:

 

I'd have asked you to do a little clandestine delving between the undersides of the jet pipes

 

Ho hum never mind

 

I think I'm close enough for now

 

Still wondering whether to try a cast of it as a single unit or stick three bits together

 

 

 

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I can't be of any help Bill, seeing as I know nowt about the Nimbus - but I can and will offer encouragement.

 

Here goes: Looks bloomin marvellous.  Hope that helps :)

 

If you're gonna cast it I can't see any down side in doing it in separate bits.  It's likely to make the casting easier isn't it? 

 

And after all - gluing bits of plastic/resin together is what we do isn't it.....

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I likes it Bill. The gubbinses and macguffins and engine stuff loike is looking the business.

 

"...which I dumped in the 85 purge" Mmm that sounds a little Stalinist for you Bill. I mean it's the sort of thing Hollywood may make a movie about sometime: "The Infamous Purdu Purge of 85"

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Does the fact that you're going to cast it hint that there may be more of this inspiring whirly-wing stuff in the not-so-distant future? The master certainly looks damn good!

 

Ian

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There's a chance of a later, to-be-arranged Rippling Raspberry if I find another cheapo Airfix so making this again enters the pain not pleasure category!

 

 Or a certain entrepreneur might get his cast master to sort out the bits he needs and mine can retire

 

Plus promises made in the heat…

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