Water pump

While collecting some parts I asked if I could just jump on the lathe for a few moments as the standard cooper water pump has a 6pk ribbed pulley. I locked the end of the water pump in the chuck and began to rotate the item at 20rpm and to my surprise the body of the water pump stayed still and did not rotate with the pulley. After a while I decided that I could get away with 80rpm and got the job done in no time. Other machine shops said the pulley had to be off the pump before it could be machined but I can confirm this not to be true especially as the pulley is plastic with a steel insert.

Job done and on the car

I may need to add a grip surface to help the back of the belt but that is not too much of an issue

From prototype to steel

Hot off the CNC machine my brackets for the supercharger and alternator are here. This is the final few parts I need to fully assemble the engine. Quite excited about recieving the parts and think once painted and installed they will look really nice.

I hope to get the parts fitted soon and to the final parts of welding on the outlet flange. Should be good fun

Prototype brackets

Having printed my prototype brackets quite a while ago I finally really had time to get them on the engine.

The past few months have seen me out of action with a very poorly back to the point where the project has been on hold. Thank you for all the support messages and given a month I have a real want to push this project onwards. Some of you may have also noticed that I have another project, this is one for myself and my other half to do together, a lovely example of a late 72 build 73 plate bug... Looking forward to making it into a show winning example one day (2 year project)

Any way just a quick update to show the bracket in place on the engine, they are quite simple brackets and seam quite strong even in the printed abs plastic.

Really pleased with the alternator bracket, it looks excellent. I did not want to tuck the alternator into the space of the sump as I want as much road clearance as possible. I am really pleased with how it fits

 The supercharger sitting snugly on the bracket fully bolted down. Now all I need to do is get the steel item made

 Again another photo of the blower in place, really saddens me to see how much paint I have taken off the blower putting it in and out, oh well nothing a little bit of paint will not fix. When I have the steel item I will be able to triple check the length of nose required for the blower and I can then add the last bits and store the engine ready to go back in.

 

R56 bumper moulded again for the R53

After making what can only be described as the thickest heaviest front bumper in the world I sent it off to the fibre glass company for them to make a mould and a bumper off it. Have to say its looking mighty fine and I am really pleased with it.

I have suggest that I will do a limited run of the bumpers over on minitorque.com but at the moment health issues stop me moving much and hope that I can just man up and get over it. However this means I can get on with little jobs that need doing

First bumper off the mould, it has the curves and features I wanted with the bumper, probably still some work to go but not too far off now

The bumper is very pleasing and while its not quite my first I think I am happy to say its the most successful I have ever made.

Other items on the go at the moment are the remaining brackets to hold bits on the engine. I am fortunate enough that my design consultancy has a very good 3D printer which has enabled me to print the items out before going to metal. Can't wait to bolt them on and try them as its just one step closer. The alternator bracket I wanted to add some old school hot rod feel to it and decided to just add the three holes. The supercharger bracket I added triangles between the ribs as it was material not required, I may make some changes to this...