what steering wheels do you use?

[JohnK]

Hi Mike,

Using the bits I saw in the as-delivered kit as a guide on to how to construct the car, I cut a slot through the Tach and Speedo so they would fit . . . uh oh - you're not gonna buy that, huh? OK, here's some help.

 

The immediate issue: I took one look at the dash setup and thought (insert suitable expletive here)! Because the engine's so tall you wind up with a huge amount of dash in front of your face, which is not so bad if you look at the view of the world that a F1 driver has, and consider the power and reliability you're getting - but running a support tube through the middle of the dash which makes much of that space unusable struck me as just stupid. On top of that, the 'suggested approach' was to screw the dash directly to the frame. With metal-metal rod ends on all the steering and suspension members and stiff springing to boot, there's a ton of instrument-killing vibration connected directly to the dash. Some thought and the advantage of having a distinguished Mechanical Engineer (PE qualified, too) looking over my shoulder, I employed rubber-bonded metal vibration dampers as supports for the dash (these are rated at 45 lbs axial and 15 lbs shear, each - so 6 of them are safe for a std collection of instruments). No one around had a tubing bender for the radius I needed so I cut sections out of a piece of 16 ga. 1" and bent the curve and welded everything to fit (a good afternoon's work :-) ). The pics should explain enough - if not let me know. NO LAUGHING AT MY WELDING- although I'm open to suggestion for how to do it better.

 

 

Tubing reloaction.

http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/519875306_Dash_C_Support.jpg

 

Dash support.

http://www.usa7s.org/aspnetforum/upload/421115172_Dash_C_mount.jpg

 

 

Re. the time to complete: There were things early on in the build that I had to fix that were, to put it very mildly, wrong. They were so wrong, that, not being one to ignore a collection of conspicuous hints. I've approached completing the kit as if it were a final exam in some bazaar race car designer/builder/mechanic/... test. As a result I've learned how to use a TIG machine (an Inverter!). deal with industrial drive train specialists, machine shops, use a commercial CAD package, and understand the true meaning of "weight transfer". By the time I get done, this will have been as much fun and just as satisfying as the work I did that earned me the title "doctor" - AND I'll have a gonzo sports car to drive.