Completed polishing my Seven project

[dvl]

After months of work, I can now start assembly...

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/dvanlue/SuperSeven?feat=directlink

 

-Dave

[twobone]

what is the engine spec?

[BMW RACER]

Dave.

 

That looks great. Can you tell us a little about what you used to polish it?

[southwind25]

Very very nice...

[readysetgo]

I ran out of patience just thinking about polishing that much aluminum.....

[DeanG]

Looks good. The left side seems to have a bit more haze that the right. The back, which will be covered by the spare tire, looks awesome.

 

Give us some details on the polishing procedure that you used.

 

Those Dell'Orto are rare and worth a few bucks.

[dvl]

Thanks for the compliments. I'm pretty excited to finish the build now.

 

The haziest section is actually the hood, but that's mostly a function of how the car is viewed and/or the last time a section was polished. The hood and left side were polished first, so they are oxidized more than the back and right side. There are several coats of wax over the polished surface to slow oxidation, but it will slowly lose its shine. There are many little imperfections, but overall, I'm really content with it and can always buff it with a little Mother's and wax to clean, now that the hard work is done.

 

So...here's my polishing process...i.e., the hard work:

First, I read about every article I could find on polishing aluminum and converged on a process that's a hybrid of several methods, after trying many approaches.

To smooth the surface, I wet sanded with 1500 grit against the grain of the aluminum until only cross-grain scratches were visible. Following the 1500 grit, the car was wet sanded with 2000 grit, with the grain, until the 1500 grit marks were all but gone. I lightly sanded a few small sections of the car with heavier grit to remove deeper scratches, before moving to the fine grit papers. All sanding was performed with a soft foam block.

After sanding, I hand polished (fearful of the power buffer) using Mother's polish, in areas of about a 1 square foot at a time. I tried many different cloths and converged on generic auto parts store microfiber, after talking with a Mother's sales rep at the Long Beach Grand Prix. Cotton of any form left far too many scratches and swirl marks. After polishing several square feet to a bright shine using a somewhat random polishing method, I went back over the area with Mother’s, with the grain of the aluminum, using very light pressure. This last step masked the random swirl marks with small linear scratches that blend with the grain of the aluminum. After polishing a section, the area was coated lightly with paste wax, also applied with microfiber.

 

Needless to say, it took a long time.

 

The engine I am starting to build is a 1700cc crossflow, with forged pistons and rods, an A6 cam, and an SCCA crank. Once the bottom end is together, I’ll start saving for a head.

 

I’ll add more pictures are the project progresses.

 

Thanks again for your compliments on the polishing,

Dave

Edited September 8, 2010 by dvl

[MightyMike]

Shiny! Like it a lot!

[WestTexasS2K]

Man that looks nice I can't believe you polished that all by hand. I wouldn't have the patience. I would have broken out the orbital polisher after 10 min. Good job.

[KiwiBirkin]

Great job dave the ali looks fantastic.

 

Any chance you can tell me in in what kit it is ?

 

Cheers Stephen

[dvl]

Stephen,

The kit was built by Arch in the UK about a year ago, to my friend Tony Ingram's specs. The chassis geometry and suspension are LHD Lotus 7 S2/S3 or early Caterham S3, with many extra tubes for stiffness, built in harness mounts, provision for a modern Caterham rack and pinnion, front mounted radiator, and a handful of other tricks. The body work pieces are Caterham, as well.

 

I'm happy to have it, because it fills my need for an extremely basic yet somewhat modern Seven, with the benefits of using predominantly new Caterham parts.

 

A friend who helped me pick the kit up, called it an "Ingram Seven."

 

Dave

[Kitcat]

Add me to your car's list of fans! I loved the reflection of the yucca bush, or whatever, on the boot, where the spare might go.

 

I think my Griot's Garage random orbital and their 3 levels of polish might be a less labor intensive way to go-tho I can't imagine anything duplicating your results.

 

Why a built up Crossflow rather than the much more powerful Duratec? Obviously ultimate speed is not an issue. Have you contacted Jay Ivey in Portland (Google Ivey engines) for Crossflow parts? He makes a nice aluminum head (for a mere $2K as I recall) + everything else needed to extract power from our ancient, but lovable, Crossflows.

 

Mike

Edited September 8, 2010 by Kitcat

[dvl]

I had many internal debates about engines and was set on a Zetec or Duratec originally, but somehow the purist in me sided with a well built crossflow or pre-crossflow.

 

How I convinced myself to build a high strung antique engine over something modern and reliable, I'll never know .

 

Anyway, with the parts collection I've aquired so far, it should make for an exciting little engine. I've spoken with Jay Ivey already and will likely go with one of his heads. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

Dave

[Kitcat]

Clams or cycle fenders? Looked like a photo of the latter in your photo section, but hard to tell.

 

What color will the fiberglass parts be?

 

Acknowledging my profound bias in favor of Crossflows, I think the engine's basic crudeness fits the character of your car. It also makes a great sound and the modest power forces you to exploit its handling advantages. Also keeps you from getting too far over your head and beyond your skill zone, driving talent-wise.

 

As you probably know from reading other posts, the assembly stage is the perfect time to add as much heat insulation as possible, wherever possible. These cars run (really) hot and cockpit temperatures can be very taxing.

[dvl]

The car will have cycle fenders because I prefer the look of them. The fenders are green and the nose is yellow. At some point, I may revert to a green nose, but for now it's yellow.

 

Thanks for your advice on the insulation.

[SkinnyG]

And seal off as many holes into the engine bay as you possibly can - especially the pedal box & brake stuff. My feet melted into a puddle from the heat after I converted to twin masters and a balance bar, and did not seal the holes up effectively.

 

I love the polish.

[7evin]

Be ut iful ! Great job....

[11Budlite]

Beautiful job Dave! I hope you keep us updated as you put it together.

[Jawfish]

Fantastic job.

 

I really love this kit of yours... Keep us posted on your progress this is going to be one sweet Se7en.

 

Cheers,

 

Fred

[dvl]

Hi,

Here are some more recent pictures of my car. Work and life have been getting in the way of the important stuff like building my Seven, but I have been making some progress. I've mostly been aquiring parts of the past 6 months or so, but as of last night my stainless steel brake lines are nearly complete. I'm planning to really crank on the car have it completed this year.

 

Most recent photos are at the bottom of the page.

https://plus.google.com/photos/107842303641673876589/albums/5513939936660402577

 

Cheers,

Dave