The Project Dixie thread!

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Rich, do you think that the rollcage is out of a car that has been crashed? Perhaps that's why they sold it?

I can't understand how it was so far 'out'. Anyway good job. Can you remember Safety Devices designed the cage by using my old car as the jig and fitted one FoC for me - so perhaps that's why they are all crooked ha ha!

The bolthead in the driver's footwell (the one on the vertical face) used to dig into my ankle when 'heeling and toeing' on circuit. Originally all the bolts had plastic covers on them. I removed the cover and ground the head to make it 'rounded' (but still left some 'hex' on it).

Worth thinking about because it does protrude a long way into the footwell.
 

richiep

Club Member
Its a possibility re: crash damage, but the shortened leg length seemed deliberate. The rest of the cage structure is dead straight though. It was not in the factory satin black powder coat, which suggests to me its been fiddled with before and repainted. Also, I think some of the brackets on it were really poorly positioned for a neat, easy bolt-up without putting tension in all over the place. However, at least its done now. I'll be getting it blasted and then freshly powder coated further down the line.

The point about the driver's footwell: I'm aware of the potential issue. Dave Porter had his cage modified at the front and didn't use the SD fitting box because of the protrusion. I'm going to have to see how it goes, but I realised that the way I drive, with my long legs and size 11 feet, is generally with my foot angled outward, i.e. heel on the floor under the brake pedal and toes on the accelerator. So my ankle is well away from the sill. Thus it may be less of an issue. However, if it irritates me, it'll be out with the grinder and the welder again to come up with a lower profile solution. Reckon the door bars are mostly likely to wind me up as I ride with my right knee often touching the door!
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
The door bars are probably the best part of the cage for road use. Side impact is your most likely injury situation and these cars are nowhere near as safe as a modern car in side impacts.

Loving your work by the way.
 

richiep

Club Member
Post arrived!
QpAykxB.jpg

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Thanks to a tip from Atomman, I grabbed a pair of R32 Skyline GTR calipers from eBay - pretty freshly rebuilt and ready to go. Some discs and titanium brackets are on the way from Gary now too, so that’s Dixie’s front brake situation sorted. Rear disc setup TBC...

Car is going on the rotisserie hopefully tomorrow. Front is already attached with my new L-mounts:
82oi6R1.jpg
 

richiep

Club Member
Well this doesn’t seem natural:

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Took a bit of fiddling around, but got there in the end. I’ve not rotated past 90deg as it gets a bit tough at the point. I’ve fiddled around with the balance adjustment but can’t get it to rotate with total ease. How have others fared with Zs on rotisseries in that regard?

The underside has plenty of jobs to do; I’ll cover the major ones as I deal with them, but the irritating ones will be where residue from the treatment process is still present and some localised corrosion is breaking out here and there. Lots of scuffing and sanding to do before seam sealer and epoxy. Once all the work has been done, I will be spraying the underside with tinted Upol Raptor.
 

tyroguru

Club Member
I don't have anything else to compare it with so not sure how much effort you should expect to put in when rotating the car. Saying that though I usually just do it one handed using the sill or roof areas and it moves fairly easily and I'm not very strong. All subjective though I know.
 

peter_s

Club Member
When I had my MG on the rotissery everything could turn pretty easy.

If it doesn't the centre of balance could be off. I would be very cautious, you don't want it to tip over because of them when turning the car.

Can you offset the mounting points up or down?
 

richiep

Club Member
I mean, I can rotate it with one hand without much difficulty up to about 60deg; after that though the weight kicks in and it requires some effort to keep it from trying to right itself. I guess that would imply it’s bottom-heavy and the pivot points may be too high. I could lower the car back down onto the axle stands, loosen the connections to the mounts, and then lower the end beams a bit further to shift the pivot points down. That might dial out the top heaviness.

More faffing around to come!
 

peter_s

Club Member
You'll never get it perfect. My rotissery has a lever arm that cranks and turns the whole assembly. There was some resistance for sure, but not If you are worried you can just strap the legs of the rotissery with loading straps. See what happens, it might be a non issue. You might even leave a little slack on the straps, like an inch so nothing can happen, but you can check if there is any risk of tipping.
 

richiep

Club Member
Just been and played with it and I think I was probably overthinking things last night. It does turn pretty easily to 90deg and is stable. I’ve got problems with my left wrist and arm and need physio, so that might be exaggerating the problem as I can’t take much weight at all with that side at the moment.

I may have a play tonight with lowering the pivot point slightly as I think that might reduce the tendency to want to swing back to horizontal when at greater angles.
 

richiep

Club Member
Nailed it. Dropped the end bars down relative to the shell mounts, making the pivot points about 50mm lower. It’s now dead easy to turn with one hand and it stays in whatever position you leave it in without needing the spring pin to hold it.

Now the work begins!
 

AD240Z

Club Member
Just been and played with it and I think I was probably overthinking things last night. It does turn pretty easily to 90deg and is stable. I’ve got problems with my left wrist and arm and need physio, so that might be exaggerating the problem as I can’t take much weight at all with that side at the moment.

I may have a play tonight with lowering the pivot point slightly as I think that might reduce the tendency to want to swing back to horizontal when at greater angles.

I understand this is a problem some men of a certain age can suffer .
 

richiep

Club Member
Good work Derrick! The pivot point on your setup is way lower than where I had my rotisserie set. It was a product of where the car was height-wise when I loaded it onto the rotisserie and it was just a case of trial and error to get the balance right.

I’m happy with things now. I could probably raise the car a bit further if I wanted to tip it completely upside down, but don’t really see the practical need for that!
 

candy red

Club Member
Good work Derrick! The pivot point on your setup is way lower than where I had my rotisserie set. It was a product of where the car was height-wise when I loaded it onto the rotisserie and it was just a case of trial and error to get the balance right.

I’m happy with things now. I could probably raise the car a bit further if I wanted to tip it completely upside down, but don’t really see the practical need for that!

That was the first time I turned my car on the homemade rotisserie so was really pleased that it even works a little nervous also don’t feel the need to go completely upside down,glad you sorted yours out
 
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