Elio Type Vehicle Resurection --- AKA the BEX

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

Lasered and folded the upper firewall today, the master cylinder is particularly long, and hitting the engine, figuring out out to resolve this hiccough.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

Had a win today.

The brake master cylinder and booster from the NP1 (naked prototype 1) can be adapted to the CPTNCJYBWHEIEGS 1 (covered prototype though no cover just yet but will happen eventually if everything goes smoothly 1).

I laser cut a pattern for the new holes that were then drilled into the CPTNCJYBWHEIEGS 1's brake pedal bracket (picture 1), and of course new holes for the new firewall as well to match.

You can now see how much shorter it is in picture 2, and another good thing, it's much lower too.

The pushrod clevis pin adapter comes up short, easy enough to make new ones of those though.

There is a small difference in pedal leverage, that will increase pedal pressure, can't tell the real difference till I drive it. Goes from 240/100 to 250/120, or 2.4:1 to 2.1:1.

Quite lucky I could make the change, and lose just one day on this, I could have been at this for a week searching parts shops for the right combination.

Note I had a bench full of boosters and mst cylinders, and that was just what I had laying around in the shop

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

I bent up a set of roll cage today, very easy as I now how the patterns to work from, and they are bent on a flat plane. The people at Boeing weren't impressed.

The only change is clear, the forward cage tube goes all the way to the main engine rail.

Just standing in place by the grace of one loose clamp, later to fall and scissor my finger when I went to remove it ... I am in pain and suffering, but on the other hand, I'm just fine.

[Cofisher]

The joys of mechanicking. Lol

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

The last few days have been the Dragon Boat Festival for yet another National holiday, and the laser shop closed, but I am ready to go first thing in the morning with my B pillar file to be cut and folded, and the A/B pillar jig is sitting in place just waiting.

As you can see in the CAD drawing, the pillars are critical to positioning the roll bars, so tomorrow cometh please ...

I know some are techinically interested in the build, and the changes, so one thing I can mention I am pleased with, is I have lowered the dash bulkhead by 2", which will improve forward visibility of course. Red arrow ..

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

B pillars (center pillars) were fianlly lasered and folded today, letting me weld them into place with the aid of my longitudinal and lateral jigs holding them in place.

This allowed me to sit the side panels on so i can line up the roll cage tomorrow, and everything gets so much easier after that.

[JEBar]

Lot of time sorting the rollbars today, and I had to add a 4th bend to them for decent fitment.

The 4th bend is also on a different plane, arrow, so that means now that I have to have left and right rollbars, although the bend is perpendicular (90 degrees) to the other 3 bend's plane, which makes life a bit easier to replicate, as well as lining up with the main engine rails, which I wasn't worried about, I was more interested in tucking it into the side panels A pillar, but makes it look neater.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

I have revised the rollbar structure to make production easier. The B pillars now have a larger diameter, 4" long piece of tube each end, that the now 4 rollbars simply slip inside of. This allows me a lot of leeway while fitting and aligning the bars, just makes it all easier, while also a tighter fit into the bodywork. Win, win.

[Cofisher]

Jim, watching the evolution of an intricate engineering project has entertained and educated me for months. Thank you for taking me along.

[markiver54]

Watching from here as well! Cannot wait to see the completion of the project!!

[JEBar]

over time we've followed some other attempts to bring a reverse trike to production and none have made it .... unless something totally unexpected happens, we firmly believe that Mark is going to do so .... when it does, we fully intend to purchase one

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

The new setup for the B pillars has allowed me to eliminate the "4th bend", which I only added a few days ago (red arrow), which is great, as now the front sections of the roll bars only need the one bend, and simply twist in at the top to tuck them into the bodywork.

Today was spend measuring and designing engine mounts, because they have to fit in with the roll bars on the main engine rails without clashing. You can see the gearbox mount in the picture above, not quite sitting on the rail, it's not a problem, the problem is the engine end.

Engine mount file sent to laser shop, hope to have part tomorrow morning.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

This ugly thing is the RH engine mount. A simple affair at the moment, just a laser cut plate with a rubber isolater bush in a housing with a bolt welded to it, as I wanted it adjustable for the moment.

As often happens, the moment I bolted it on, I immediately saw a better way, one of those "Doh" moments that you just don't see until you make something the wrong way, that shines a light on the right way.

But anyway, that's easy now, the plate will be half the length, and the rubber isolator bush will sit on top of the rail as I now know it will miss the rollbar front leg. By the way, the bush is a Toyota HiLux suspension bush, another easy to get, off the shelf item.

The next drama was, when I made the mount, it showed me where the engine will be positioned, then I noticed the CV driveshaft interfered with the frame at the lower control arm mount, arrow above, luckily I was able to modify that frame area, rather than needing to reconstruct it for now.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ...

Back on track after losing a couple of days with my passport/visa issues, finally sorted and in the clear now.

Might not look like this tomorrow, as I think I can also do the rear roll cage legs also with only one bend.

Will be a bonus if so, then it just means throwing a cut length of tube into the bender, and getting it within a degree (easy done), and not worrying about accuracy as much was when you have 2 bends, where double the degree variation can happen, as well as the plane being out. So it doesn't take half the time to bend, it takes about a quarter of the time, and plenty of leeway while fitting.

What that also means is any idiot like myself can stand there for a day and make a whole bunch of them rapidly without affecting the quality of final fitment.er

For those interested in how I am achieving this, (second picture) I am using a slightly 'too large' tube at the top of the B pillars, and this is allowing me to kink-fit the smaller roll bar tubes inside it, rather than bending them. KISS

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

Ok, it seemed to have worked out, now the front and rear rollbar sections now only have one bend each, and joined with a kink at the B pillar..

I was confident after lining them up, that I even semi welded them into place, just enough for strength, but also the ability to remove them if there's an issue later I didn't see.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ...

I am currently redesigning the rear wheel swingarm, and using the Honda engine donor rear wheel assembly for it, for good reason.

The rear wheel assembly bolts on to a flat surface with 4 x bolts, see picture, drawing of the car's rear beam axle showing the flat mounting plate, and a rear wheel bearing. I will laser my own mounting plate of course.

This allows the use of shims to adjust the rear wheel alignment much easier than what I had built on the prototype, now simple adjustment can be made for tracking and tilt.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

I've had a few days of silly errors, wrong measurements, got some files mixed up and lasered some wrong bits, happens every now and then, so I also took the time last night to go through a bunch of files, and trim off the excess.

So the swingarm is done, came up very well indeed, when I got the right files together that is. Easy to make, and reasonably neat looking, not that it's something that will be seen, or that you want to see.

Because the swingarm needs something to swing off, I also did the rear bulkhead.

[JEBar]

You can't see any difference from the last rear bulkhead picture on Friday, but it is completely revamped, including new laser cut bulkhead, resetting of the rear rollbar angles, and resetting of the main chassis lower rails' angles.

Happy now, and what you can see extra is the 2 swingarm pivot mounts.

[JEBar]

The swingarm has turned out quite nicely, easy to build with minimal common materials, and self jigging for welding.

Importantly, fully and easily adjustable for tracking and camber.

[JEBar]

Per Mark BEX ....

Fuel tank, fuel pump/sender, and 3 suspension struts arrived this afternoon.