98cc

Was outside sanding this and the neighbour wandered over for a chat. He said he had some high build primer that's used for fairing up fibreglass boats spare and would I like It.  YEP! 

Jeez it was thick, just what I needed..... 

 

 

 

On 5/17/2018 at 13:29, 63Ragtop said:

220kgs! 

 

With the 100hp it probably would of had at the time the performance would of been quite exciting! 

 

On 5/17/2018 at 15:04, kws said:

Oh gosh that tub is bloody horrifying. Im amazed there is anything left of his legs looking at that!

Dude made some cool stuff though, that little single seater looked great.

Yeah man it sure is, i think one of his legs is a bit shorter than the other because of it... 

 

On 5/17/2018 at 15:54, flyingbrick said:

omg this is blending two of my most favorite things.... a good story and cars. So so so so so good.

 

Was there a practical reason for casting his own wheels? sizes not available here or something? These days virtually nobody would consider casting their own wheels for a race car!!!!

Its a great story, very lucky that Dennis is still around to tell all the history. I think one of the main reasons for casting his own wheels was to get exactly what he wanted as nothing available would do the job.

 

 

On 5/17/2018 at 16:35, nzed said:

this. because people dont have the knowledge and this sort of thing, people rather spend the money to buy stuff..  just such few people left these days like this and ol mate burt munroe. 

such a shame really.

 

Also, mean thread and build. you're quite talented!

Cheers man! All talent has to be given to the builder though, i just have to glue it back together... Coming up with something like this from scratch is a real engineering feat.

 

 

On 5/17/2018 at 18:21, Truenotch said:

I feel like @Snoozin would appreciate this thread. 

That single seater looked great! And the crash must have been horrifying... 

 

I have talked to a few people that were there the day of the crash. They remember it very vividly,  not nice. 

 

On 5/18/2018 at 09:02, Snoozin said:

Snoozin's been all over this since it was posted It rules, really enjoying the story as well as the workmanship. Looking forward to the day it sees some action again. Definitely an important part of Kiwi motorsport history! 

 Yep very important part of kiwi motorsport history,  Its going to be great to get it back on the track for everyone to see again. 

 

 

I got the car outside for a couple of pics,  Wrapped to see it all back in one piece again!

 

 

 

Now for a big session of sanding.....
 

Part 1 of the Smith Spider story....

 

In 1964 Dennis Smith started building a single seat race car. It created lots of interest in the race car community at the time as it was powered by a 1.5l 2 stroke outboard motor.

He finished it in 1966 and it had its first outing in October. He hadn't completed the gearshift mechanism yet so put it in third and bump started it, the session went well and he was quite surprised by the wheel spin in top gear! 

On the third outing, Guy Fawkes day 1966, the car was all finished and running well. He was timed at 130mph down the main straight at Pukekohe. The car was very light and only weighed 220kgs. Unfortunately a strong cross wind picked up and Dennis lost it down the straight a few laps later.  2 years of building and 1 month finished and 3 outings before the accident. 

He spent the next 6 months in hospital recovering from the crash and when he got out started building the Spider mk2 sports car. He used the engine and gearbox from the single seater and started fresh with the rest of it. 

 

A couple of pics I have found of the single seater

 

The car looking very smart at Pukekohe 1966

 

It was named the Spider because of the narrow body with suspension parts sticking out looking like Spiders legs...

 

A great pic of Dennis building the car in 1965 

 

Last weeked I went around to vist Dennis. He said he had the remains of the single seater and a few other bits I would be interested in under his house, this is what we pulled out....

 

Had to lay it out

 

I gave the tub a good scrub,  it's quite bent! 

Dennis's legs were not in a good way after this 

 

 

The original wheels are in very good condition and survived the crash unscathed. The wheels and the tub are all that's left from Mk1, as well as the engine and gearbox in the sports car. 

 

We also found the box full of all the wooden patterns he made for the cars including the full set of wheel patterns.

 

Laid all out to have a good look at them, They are all beautifully made just like the rest of the car 

 

Rear upright pattern for the sports car 

 

Front upright for the single seater 

 

Brake caliper pattern 

 

 

And the collection of wheel patterns 

 

 

 

Very happy to get this stuff, its great to keep it all together for the history of the car 

 

Update on the sports car this weekend 

 

 

 

Structural work on the body is now done. 

 

Two layers of glass done on both of the inner guards. This was the first layer going into the RH side

 

And another layer of glass over the front 

 

I gave all of the exposed plywood a couple of coats of Everdure, this is a marine product which is basically very thin epoxy that soaks into the wood and seals it off.

 

One of the things that happened in the accident was the front wheel got a bit damaged, Dennis's homemade rims are very thin so it would of not taken much to do it 

 

Had it welded up by a place in Drury 

 

Made up and mandrel and remachined it. It took quite a bit of hand filing and sanding to blend it in after machining and make the repair disappear. Had lots of problems turning the OD and ended up having to glue a big wooden plug inside the rim as it was flexing so much each time the tool contacted. 

 

All done 

 

All shaped up. I made some formers from the other side to get the shape exactly right. Used 80 grit builders paper to shape the foam, very easy to do but jeez it's messy! 

 

 

And the first layer of glass on

 

Next up is another layer of glass over the whole front and then flip it over and do the inner guards 

Right hand side going back together

 

This guard was very broken but after a bit of cutting i was left with just the arch. This had 2 fairly clean breaks and glued back together and fitted back onto the body well. The front was very munched so needed a new foam block. 

 

It was good to be able to reuse the arch as this defines the rest of the guard shape.

 

I didn't get any pics but i rebuilt the inner structure so it looked just like this, a handy picture to have! 

 

 

And glued on the foam sheets. There is one more sheet to glue in and then its ready for shaping 

L/H guard repair:

 

first up was shaping a foam block to fill in this gap 

 

And sanded all the paint of the guard. The LH side had a fairly clean break from the rest of the body so it fitted back into place well. The front was a bit broken so I cut it off clean and fitted a new foam block 

 

First layer of fibreglass going on, I am going to be putting on 2 layers inside and out. 

 

And all sealed up with 2 layers of glass. It needed a very light skim of lightweight filler in one patch which was a bit hollow. I did this before laying on the glass.

 

Im very pleased this guard was able to be reused 

 

One more gap to fill! 

 

 

Thanks! Yep this one started out as 85hp, redline is 6k at the moment, i don't know what it would of gone to in a boat though.

 

First fit up of the new front section 

 

And the paint sanded of in preperation for gluing the front section on

 

Guled on, the joint will be reinforced with fiberglass later on 

 

Next up guards 

 

 

 

 

Yes VG it has an open diff, as Raizer says with one axle effectively broken the wheels wont drive. As the gearbox is bolted directly to the engine the main shaft is always spinning. This means that there is no need to double clutch but the clutch is used for all gear changes. Dennis made a new gearset for the gearbox which is dog drive and added an extra gear to turn it into a 4 speed instead of 3.

 

Quote

On 3/13/2018 at 09:32, Muncie said:

The only way it could be any cooler is if he drove it to work on Fridays.

The last wof it had was 1994.....

 

Quote

9 hours ago, Roman said:

My understanding is that the power to weight is absolutely bonkers. 

Dennis cant remember the weight but he thinks its about 400kgs, i will have to get it on the scales sometime. He also thinks that the engine is putting out about 150hp and there are still some things to be done to it, raising the compression being the main one. 

 

Quote

7 hours ago, Tumeke said:

I'd say MG Metro.

Yep spot on, he still has this in his garage! 

 

Posts without pictures etc etc...

 

The rest of the structure glued into the front box

 

And gluing the base piece on, various weights from around the shed helped with this task! 

 

Next job will be fitting this to the body 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple,  Its quite hard to get pics of it as its very tightly packed in. No only one small radiator at the front. The gearbox is a Renault 3 spd trans axle that Dennis made a new gearset and crown wheel/pinion for.  One of the very interesting details is the clutch, it is on the RH side driveshaft. The transaxle is bolted direct to the engine which i think is pretty unique. 

 

 

 

 

Sound sample will be coming shortly....  Yes Dennis managed to get the styling exactly right. Probably a bit of influence from the Mclaren Can Am cars of the period I imagine.

 

After piecing this jigsaw puzzle together I was able to make an accurate pattern to cut out the new top piece for the front structure plywood box  

 

Marked out

 

Cut out 

 

 

And the first bits of internal structure in. The air scoop box on top was able to be glued back together,  this has the original number on it so i have masked it out to protect it until the painting stage 

 

 

 

I have been extremely lucky and fortunate to have been at the right place at the right time to now own a very special piece of kiwi engineering.  It was built by a very clever engineer called Dennis Smith in 1969 and is powered by a 1.5L Johnson V4 2 stroke outboard motor.  

Dennis built every part of this car apart from the basic engine block and gearbox casing. He made his own wheels, suspension uprights and components, brake calipers and discs, designed and built a mechanical fuel injection system, the list goes on.... 

About 25 years ago it had a slight accident on track which resulted in the front of the body being damaged and it has sat untouched since then.  I brought it of Dennis last year and have set to work fixing the body. It is very important to me that it stays as original as possible and is preserved as an historic racing car. 

 

The car in Dennis's garage 

And back at home

Got pipes? 

 

And the slightly damaged front. luckily we found a large box full of all the broken pieces under Dennis's house, these will make great patterns and will mean i can get the body exactly right. The body construction is plywood with foam glued on for shape and then a layer of fiberglass for the outer shell. The body is extremely lightly constructed and it would not of taken much impact to do this damage.  

 

Here are some pics of it back in the day 

Dennis on the left.

 

If anyone has any pics or info from when it was active i would love to hear. There is so much info and technical detail to write about i will get to it all in the next posts.

 

 

 

 

 

And a big pic dump...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As mentioned earlier I have been working on another project. Here's a teaser pic, project thread to come....