Esprit

(lead is often used unpainted on house roofs and doesn't corrode even after decades in the weather) compared to steel, yet is much much softer

lead isnt a ferrous metal hence it dosnt rust

You're correct, galvanic corrosion occurs when two dissimilar metals are in contact with eachother in the presence of oxygen and an electrolyte. While it may be a rule of thumb that (automotively) softer metals are typically higher in the galvanic series, it's not entirely true and the mechanism for galvanic corrosion has nothing to do with the hardness of the material. Copper and Lead are EXTREMELY corrosion resistant (lead is often used unpainted on house roofs and doesn't corrode even after decades in the weather) compared to steel, yet is much much softer

It's strange that you say brass is used in spot-welding. Typically, spot-welds are a pure-fusion weld meaning that the only molten metal in the weld-pool is that of the two parent metals being joined. You're sure that a brass (or more likely bronze) filler-run hasn't been used on the spot-welds as a cosmetic finisher as is common automotive procedure. Brazing (molten bronze) is often used on older cars as a semi-structural and cosmetic inert filler.

Leadlining is extremely common in older cars for filling seams and other panelling imperfections (particularly in heavily curved areas). In an age before polymeric bodyfillers lead made an effective and easily workable filler. Of course these days, panel-pressing techniques are such that skim-filling on panels is no longer required.

As for the government curriculum..... don't necessarily believe everything they tell you. Hell they'll teach you that anthropogenic global warming's fact when, in reality it's anything but

sheet steel for cars, panel steel is thick as like 2mm + as far as im aware... mild steel for cars... i guess depends where and what you are patching up as old cars often use lead and brass as well ... keep in mind when you weld to differnt metals together the softer one will always rust out faster (galvanic/ electrolytic corrosion) and welding causes corrsion also (hydrogen embrittlement) which is usualy prevented with a interweld primer

Panel steel is nowhere NEAR 2mm thick. Even heavy duty panels like you'd find on utes is typically only 0.9mm or so thick. 2mm steel is typically only used on car panels for welded reinforcements and attachment brackets etc. Lead and Brass is typically only used for seam-filling.

As for galvanic corrosion, it's got NOTHING to do with how hard/soft they are, it's about where they rank in the galvanic series (see here http://www.corrosionsource.com/handbook/galv_series.htm). Stainless steel is a very noble steel and is pretty soft compared to carbon steel, yet carbon steel will corrode much more readily.

refrigerator and washing machine/drier bodys, roofs of old ladas, whatever you can find at the dump

yeah probably better to do what those other guys said.

Nothing like recycling. Panel steel from other cars and appliances is generally good as it's aged steel, which typically will form pretty well

For my money I'd be doing it in POR15. That stuff is harder than a coffin nail and will look as good in 20 years as it does the day you apply it.

They also do an inside-tank treatment that will line the tank with an epoxy to stop it rusting from the inside out. Their tank treatment will also fill any pinholes etc.

the standard escort tank is in the drivers rear corner.if it got hit there itd be fukt aswell...and its not burst proof,fuk they used plastic fuel lines!!!

True... but a drop-tank is a modification, which is judged differently. You might very well be alright but I'm just saying that it'd be heartbreaking to do all the work only to find that it's an illegal mod since it's not the sort of thing you can easily reverse like swapping out springs/shocks etc.

- '63 Jaguar E-Type S1 3.8L Roadster

- '65 Jaguar E-Type S1 4.2L Coupe

- '58 Lotus Type 14 Elite

- '62 Lotus Type 26 Elan S1

- '62 Lotus Type 26R Racer

- '68 Lotus Type 45 Elan Sprint (Twincam, Big-Valve)

- '75 Lotus Type 79 Esprit Series 1

- '82 Lotus Type 82 Esprit Series 3 Turbo (Essex Petrolium Special Edition)

- '77 Hillman Avenger 2-Door

- '77 Hillman Avenger 2-Door (TVR 5L RV8 Powered)

- '73 Triumph 2500S (TVR 4.0L Speed-Six Powered)

- '80 Triumph TR7 Roadster

- '80 Triumph TR7 Roadster (TVR 4.5L Speed-Eight Powered)

- '78 Triumph TR7V8 Works Rally Car

- '61 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato

- '68 Iso Grifo

- '68 Lamborghini Miura

- '55 Jaguar D-Type

That's pretty much my essentials for pre mid-eighties (to use an arbitrary cut-off for "oldschoolness") There'll be a bunch of newschool stuff that I'd have as well of course... most of them Lotus / TVR

Panel steel is typically pretty soft stuff so that it can be easily formed (malleable) with little springback.

Depends what you want though... if you're just doing little patchwork repairs and basic shaping pretty much any annealed, mild steel will work well. If you're looking at forming bigger sections you may want to look at either a deep drawing steel or a low-carbon mild steel as the forming will be easier.

Be very careful if you're forming bigger curved sections in cold-rolled low-carbon steel as you'll end up with the steel forming Luders Bands (ripples) via strain-aging after a period of time there a perfectly formed, painted panel will self-ripple over time. This can be avoided by using VERY low carbon/nitrogen steels (<0.003%), or by artificially over-aging the steel as part of the annealing process to try and encourage the formation of carbides in the steel to draw out the interstitial carbon that causes the strain-aging.

It's also possible to reduce this effect by performing a small-reduction cold-rolling pass (0.7%-1.9%) reduction after annealing. This introduces mobile dislocations that will allow a more continuous yield.

This should only really be relevant if you're doing large-scale deformation though such as complex curvatures in metal, which is a pretty advanced panelmaking skill.

Talk to a motor rewinder (there should be some around) as they rewind armatures in motors, which are the same deal really.

I think you'll find that a droptank should run a bladder..... basically you may have trouble come WOF time not running a burst-proof tank positioned there. Given that if you get rear-ended the car is likely to crumple there as well as the tendency for the rear-ending car to submarine beneath the rear of the car in front, I'd check out the legality thoroughly first.

why dont these have the standard 4g63 thingy? why would you put a crapier motor into one of the bigger cars...

Peaky 4G63 in a ~300kg heavier car wouldn't have worked.... VR4 with two smaller turbos would come on boost nice and quick and wouldn't *feel* like a turbo'd car.

4G63s might be a tuner's wet dream but manufacturers usually don't think about the tuning aspect unless they're building a car with a specific race series in mind. They generally like lazy performance engines that they know will go fine for their warranty period while still producing good power.

nope! Most leaf spring setups that I've seen just rely on the springs to locate the diff in that direction.

Fair enough... I guess that most of the settings I've dealt with have also had some kind of lateral linkage.

de Dion setup makes it a little different, but you still want to look at improving roll stiffness. One good book to look at with regards to what suspensions setups to use is "Race car vehicle dynamics" by Milliken and Milliken... this book is the bible, read it, know it and ye shall be forever knowledgable! (I've not read all of it yet... it's a weighty tome)

A panhard rod setup could help a bit too,

Surely the rear end is located with a watts-linkage already? Or at least I'd have thought it was.. but yeah, if it's not got any form of anti-roll, you're better off stopping it rolling by adding some rather than trying to just stiffen the heck outta it.

Do you have a rear anti roll bar? If not, is there a variant of the car that does? Will make the biggest difference to increasing the rear roll stiffness and prevent you having to go uber-hard on the rear end to control roll.

What's wrong with Strombergs? I can't really find any arguments for or against either carb option on the 2000's eh.

Not so sure about the 2000s, but on the TRs, the Zenith Strombergs always came out on the "emissions spec" cars, for the yank market. The SUs were always fitted to the "full fat" sports cars. The TRs that I've seen that don't run injection often run SUs unless they've gone the full weber route. Nothing terribly against the Zenith Strombergs, just the SUs were always consensually preferable.

Get a couple of HS-6's on there, they're pretty common

Sure it's not a lazy battery Richard? Just recently had similar trouble with the E-Type and it ended up a mixture of timing being a bit out and too much voltage drop when cranking for more than a second or two.

When it runs it's soooo smoooooov.

Get a good one, or restore one to top condition and they ride as well as any modern luxury sedan.... rich and creamy

I discovered they suck at cold starting this morning!

Bit of TLC should sort that.... new points/plugs and perhaps a bit of tweaking of the SU's (Or Zenith-Strombergs?) should see it behave a little nicer for you

FJ20ET weighs around 180kg with all ancillaries.

That's quite the boat anchor! Also an indication of how they're so rugged, I can't imagine you can make an engine that weighs so much without it being a base for good tuning.

Any idea what the weight breakdown is? I'd imagine much of the weight is in a nice beefy block casting but I'd imagine if the cranks are good for such huge horsepower they'd be pretty solid too.

The six was possibly a development on that, but I don't see how much of a similarity it may have held, being a 6pot 2l vs a 4pot 2l.

Your assumption is right. The Triumph 2L Six was an all-new engine, so designed because it was believed that four cylinder engines weren't refined enough for the market Triumph was trying to target with its larger Saloons and sports cars after the late sixties.

Thing with Euro roads, they LOOK so much more spectacular. In NZ, we have some VERY VERY good driving roads but typically, due to our landscape, you don't get that vista of the road winding on and on and on and on towards the horizon that you seem to get in those European alpine passes.

Case in point.... the Stelvio:

Having said that, I need to get back down south at some point. I've not driven South Island roads in anger in about 7 years. Now that I've got a driving tool worthy of doing the roads justice, I should really go a road-trippin' again.

Motors are based from the Massey Fergusons....

No they're not. The only Massey Fergusson that used a Triumph engine used the engine that was in the TR2/TR3/TR3a/TR4/TR4a 4 cylinder. The Triumph 2000 sedans all had inline sixes.

Those ROADS!!!!! That's motoring nirvana on the Emerald Isle right there!

The Exige is an Exige S, which has the Supercharged, intercooled Toyota 2ZZGE engine (either 220 or 240bhp depending on age and spec).

Name: George

Location: GI, Auckland

Cars you own: 1987 Mitsubishi Mirage SpaceWagon, 1980 Triumph TR7 Convertible (currently on-hold project car) and a boring modern thing

Mods to them (can be brief or detailed): Spacewagon = Stock apart from custom dentage and lichen growth. TR7 = Balanced+Blueprinted engine, Stiffened suspension, freeflow exhaust, K&N Pancakes with stub-stacks, 16" MG wheels, 4-pot front brake conversion.

Link to pics (if you have some, and keep it a link to keep 56kers happy)

Spacewagon Clicky TR7 Clicky

How you found out about oldschool: Long time lurker and know a couple of the locals.

Anything else you want to add: HEAVILY into my Brit classics. TVR, Morgan, Jaguar, Triumph, Marcos, Lotus all really float my boat. Also into my moderns as well for a bit of balance. TR7 project currently on hold and has been languishing in the back of a shed for 4 years now. Had a TVR 500 RV8 engine to go into it as a mad conversion but sold the engine as "it's been done". Keeping an eye out for a TVR 4.5L "Speed8" engine (AJP engine, not a Rover-based engine like the RV8) to make a manic, 400bhp TR7 street machine. Still a few years off yet though as I've got other projects that like to eat the contents of my wallet.