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#Post#: 3086--------------------------------------------------
Riley Special chassis (Bridget the Riley)
By: synthpunk Date: October 31, 2020, 9:02 am
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So here goes then....
Ive decided to take the plunge and start building. Initially I
wanted to do a GN but because of Springs based reasons ive
decided to do a Riley- the composite springs i have arent really
suitable for quarter elliptics so riley it is.
My chosen car is the White Riley of 1933. Nice lines, lots of
history and lots of quite detailed photos on the net.
Parts aquired so far; 2 sheets of plywood for the chassis and
tub. I dont have a welder and ive been a guitar maker for twenty
plus years so wood is my specialist chosen subject/happy place.
Ill be laminating the chassis up in strips, so i can get the
swoopy lines.
4 carbon composite springs of various strengths, sourced from
‘pro jump’ jumping stilts
A dashboard clock from a Mig fighter jet
Lots and lots of offcuts of metal
A single headlamp that i found in the woods next door. (This was
of more relevance when i was planning on making the GN Jap...)
And quite a well equipped, if slightly small workshop with a
lathe, drill press, mini mill, bandsaw and a family of mice.
I've made a 1:6 scale model of the chassis and tub out of
modelling ply in order to plan the cuts and work out the forming
process. I think it might just work...
Im planning on sourcing the rest of the bits over the winter,
ready for test running next year. I live on a farm, theres a
mile of private road up a hill next to the house. Hooray!
Pics to follow!
Cheers
Rich
#Post#: 3087--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: StefanN Date: October 31, 2020, 11:10 am
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Sounds great and give choice of car. I like the idea of
laminating the wood to get the curves so will be following your
posts with interest. As for the 1 mile private road up a
hill....well we need a venue for a hill climb ;)
#Post#: 3088--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: M.Z.Nahajski Date: October 31, 2020, 11:46 am
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Sounds like a brilliant build. Will be an interesting test of
materials as-well. I know that Rhys made the GN Kim which had a
wooden chassis but this will be the first use of laminated
sheets to create a chassis in the UK that we have seen and I am
very interest to see how it holds up. composite springs will
also be interesting to see in action! great car to base it on.
Can we see a picture of your model of the chassis and tub?
#Post#: 3090--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: synthpunk Date: October 31, 2020, 2:20 pm
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Right lets see if this works... couple of pics of the work in
progress model. I think ive sort of captured the general upwards
sweep of the chassis. Needs some finessing...
HTML https://i.imgur.com/6kcgbTS.jpg
HTML https://i.imgur.com/j1sIFzf.jpg
Its quite useful, you can sort of feel the bendiness being built
out of it as you add bits, or decide youve gone down a blind
alley and need to back up a bit without generating loads of
excess sawdust.
Hopefully after a few days of trial and errorin on this ill have
a cutting list and dimensions together and can make a start on
the big sheets..
#Post#: 3091--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: synthpunk Date: October 31, 2020, 3:10 pm
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Some ponderings on the construction-
Im using 6mm baltic birch furniture ply laminated together to
make 1” rails. The rails have 2 bends on them, so ill make a jig
and laminate both sides at once. The rails will be joined by two
solid longitudinal trusses, one at the front, one at the back
between engine and driver. Theyll be morticed into the rails,
and secured via bolts secured via a method that will probably
take another post to illustrate, once I've drawn a picture. Im
trying to rely on the strength of the wood in any particular
joint, using glue and bolts to just hold it in place. Ie no
relying on the strength of a glue joint to guarantee a join, but
having the strength intrinsic to the structure.
The back end may change, depending on how my experiments over
the next few days go. The original car rides fairly low at the
back and high at the front, so i initially tried replicating
that by hanging the chassis off the axle, rather than passing
the axle through the chassis rails. Im going for a 5 Inch ground
clearance. Ideally id like the engine and axle and brakes etc to
be built onto a steel subframe so they can be removed as a unit.
So im going to play with the Chassis design with a focus on that
for a bit.
Im also pondering changing the tub - the seat is the main source
of rigidity within the tub, its basically two triangular section
trusses joining the sides together. Very rigid, very strong. The
front end is less so. Its just 3 bits of ply glued together.
going to try and rework the design with some more strength
enhancing structure at the front end.
Generally though im a big fan of models during the design phase.
Im terrible at CAD etc so i tend to make physical models but i
find that having something in hand helps with sketching out the
next phase immensely.
Cheers!
Rich.
#Post#: 3092--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: RhysN Date: October 31, 2020, 4:45 pm
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In my honest opinion (having built a few wooden cyclekarts) and
having been involved with 4 others, this will be amply strong.
Do have a look at www.gittrevillegp.com and check out the car
builds of the Blower Bentley and Bloody Mary. Both are all wood
builds. Also Mike Thorpe and Brian Smith did all wood expedition
cars which did hundreds of off road miles without issue.
#Post#: 3094--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: M.Z.Nahajski Date: October 31, 2020, 5:26 pm
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Looks like you have thought of any possible issues and accounted
for them. Brilliant design. cant wait to see it
#Post#: 3111--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: synthpunk Date: November 2, 2020, 10:22 am
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Further sketching, whittling and supergluing myself to small
bits of plywood has revealed some changes I should probably make
to the tub, and helped solidify the design of the rails and
suspension points a bit more. I picked up my timber today, I had
it sliced into two 2x8 sheets (for the tub and bulkheads) and
four 1x8s (Rails- should be able to get two laminations from
each one).. so I guess next task is to clear all the rubbish off
the workshop floor and start working it all out full sized. I
may have to do some full sized modelling in cardboard to make
sure I fit in it before finallly cutting wood though. I’m pretty
skinny but also 6:3....
The plan is to make a master pattern from MDF and rout all the
laminations to exact size using a pattern following bit in the
router. Then glue them up, and then start on the seat, the
framework of which will lock the two rails together, then build
the tub round that.
Another exciting thought I had over the weekend was prompted by
seeing a Wolsely Hornet at the local garage- namely that a Riley
Elf grille and badge look like they’ll be exactly the right size
for a Riley cyclekart. Ace...
Cheers all, stay safe...
Rich
#Post#: 3115--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: synthpunk Date: November 4, 2020, 4:46 am
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Small update- I’ve been given an old but fully functional arc
welder. Which is quite exciting.... I haven’t done any welding
since college 25 years ago... time to go out scrap hunting and
find some bits and bobs to practise on...
#Post#: 3124--------------------------------------------------
Re: Riley Special chassis
By: synthpunk Date: November 6, 2020, 3:40 pm
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I found a very informative (and quite long) discussion about
wooden chassis here
HTML https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=17162<br
/>which has given me some new ideas to explore, and also
reinforced some ideas is already been having- namely, that the
box section seat will be amply strong enough to act as a rear
cross member, and also that i don’t want to bend the frame
laminations to follow the shape of the inspiration car- instead
ill add further box sections to the outside of the straight
rails. Ive probably generated 5 or 6 drawings a night over the
last week Varying seat position, wheelbase, height, width etc in
order to more closely follow the inspiration car, and i
definitely feel another model coming on that reflects the
changes in thinking but i reckon its beginning to come together
now design wise.
Im trying to leave enough space in the design for the engine to
sit as far forward as it can. Im leaving 10 inches forward and
aft of the rear axle to allow for experimentation when i get
round to doing the axle mounts and drivetrain.
I think im going to mock the tub, seat and dash up full size in
cardboard first to check if i can actually get in and out of it
though....
In the meantime, heres a rough sketch and the MiG clock...
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