From ‘72T to 2.5 S-R: GeLo Racing #44

[matteo68]

More welding primer applied to panels, old and new (check out the arches!), and also rear chassis leg sections taken from another lwb shell before Neil gets to work on cutting out the small pieces of rust here and there…

[IanM]

Looking good. Will the new door skins be aluminium?

[matteo68]

Yes. Repro alu door skins & rear panel (with exhaust cut-outs but no overriders), genuine ‘trim delete’ alu engine lid, repro grp bonnet with balsa strips & grp ST bumper & Plexi windows. All other parts steel.

[SeanP]

I have a right hand side chassis rail repair panel for sale if you need it. Bought it in error

Regards

Sean

[SeanP]

And the screen corner repair panel!

[matteo68]

Thanks but I think Neil already has all the panels and pieces of metal he needs to weld in after cutting out!

[matteo68]

So Angus has been trying to track down a complete rear crossmember assembly (as opposed to inner & outer skin & engine mounts) but believes he may have found one at Rose Passion, so hopefully Neil can crack on with the shell again next week.

In the meantime, Sam has completed the bottom end build including machining the crankcases for the 94.5mm cylinder spigots and is about to start gas-flowing the barrels:






At the same time, Central Scanning in Bromsgrove have brought some cutting-edge technology to the tricky matter of the Heinzmann extinguisher, given the no-go with Mike Moore’s Lifeline working repro system.

This followed some hugely-appreciated generosity from Paul Howells who kindly agreed to lend me his extremely valuable original Heinzmann bottle from his yellow 2.8 RSR…

This was taken with the utmost care to Central Scanning last month for them to scan and 3D-print an exact but non-functioning replica in ABS and resin which will be assembled, sanded and painted red & brass effect (for the valve assembly) and period-correct Heinzmann stickers made up and applied. Various ancillary fastening clips, copper pipe, pull cables and magnesium pull handles (the latter courtesy of EB Motosport) are being sourced and hopefully once installed in the rear passenger seat bowl it will look totally authentic…

























Onwards!…

[Rostrenner]

Fantastic progress, Matt - thanks for sharing!

Do you have a few more shots of the block?
I'd be interested to see the spigot area after machining.

Thanks alot,
Jan

[matteo68]

I’ll ask Sam.

[matteo68]

Here’s one he had on his phone but he’s left the workshop now. He said he’ll take some more on Monday…

[Rostrenner]

Brilliant, much appreciated!
Assuming that you started with a 4R/5R block, I am relieved to see that the spigot's flange still sports enough 'meat' for proper sealing (whereas opening the spigots to 97mm = 2.7L usually takes it too far).

[matteo68]

Yes indeed, 4R/5R crankcases.

[matteo68]

More spigot photos for Jan the spigot geek!

[matteo68]

Sam’s busy with a mock build this week…

“So I build the top end on one bank and fit everything as it would be and time it all up and then measure valve to piston clearances and piston to head clearance etc, then I can adjust or machine everything to have the correct clearances then rebuild again and repeat until everything is correct, then re-measure my volumes to calculate the Compression Ratio and then we can build the top end once all of this is verified.”

Dontcha just love a quality engine builder…

[hot66]

Some amazing details Matt. Love it