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Welcome to page two, below is a pic of a transaxle on adjustable stands. Prior to the excess metal been cut off in front of the torsion tube. The old box is placed on the transaxle and the stands are adjusted so that the gearbox nose is 10 degrees below the horizontal. This ensures you don't end up with an engine canted downwards at the rear when completed. The transtunnel is marked flush to the torsion tube and is cut so that the edges are vertical.
After this it goes onto the jig.
2nd pic down shows the torsion bar on the jig with the trans tunnel cut flush to the torsion bar.
The silver line on the jig is a groove which is the jigs centre line to which almost everything will be referenced.

The third pic
shows the base plate offered up and lightly tacked into place after centralising it and checking the levels. Although it seems wider than needed, i cut them that size as it allows me to weld extra bracing pieces from the base plate to the torsion bar, rather than just relying on the gearbox frame horns which are only 3mm steel. The corners will be rounded off and all will be hidden under the bodyshell.

4th pic
shows the main spine tacked onto the base plate.
There will be extra gussets welded between spine and base plate. There will also be extra plates welded onto the spine at the angle change.
   This frame will be having a quickbob on the front so we have left the main down tube over length  until we have mocked the tank into place.
  5th pic
shows the gussets tacked and partly welded onto the main spine.
The weld is longer than the gusset plate itself; this relieves a potential weak spot that can arise when using gussets
6th pic.
Shows the main body mounts in place plus the base plate has been notched to allow fitment of the gear linkage
the mount on the right of the pic is not fitted to our standard frames. But as the bodyshell is having 300 cut off the front of it for this design. A mount was needed here, angled to suit the now front leading edge of the shell.
7th pic.
A few hours were spent putting the tank at different angles to try and find a position that would both fit the lines of the shell  and still give a usable range from the fuel capacity.

Quickbob tanks are designed to run horizontal along the lower edge. If you lift the nose up then you lose some fuel capacity due to the placement of the fillers, also the petcock is situated half way along the lower edge so lifting the nose again robs you of fuel.

This tank is lifted just a few degrees from horizontal, but carries on the flowing line from the seat base.
We will mount the foot rest bar from the main spine where the front of the tank drops below the main frame. This should  help disguise this area.
The bodyshell will be shaped under the tank and the sides pulled in towards the main frame
8th pic.
The extra reinforcing plate has been welded to the area were the two sections of the main frame join.
The tubular cross brace adds some bracing but also serves as a mounting for the new handbrake, which was destined for a lotus 7 before i gave it a classier home.

The bodyshell will need to have a slot cut in it to allow operation of the brake lever, that slot will then have two extra layers of glass mat applied around it to give back strength and prevent any cracking happening
plus the tubes will be used for the gearchange and the rear passenger foot rests.
All shaping and smoothing of the metal edges will be the last job to be carried out before the customer takes over.

Pic 9- Shows the headstock tacked into place prior to welding. Also shown are the foot pedals. Due to the quickbob tank fitted to this frame it was not possible to insert the machined pedal mounting through the main frame. So a short mounting was turned and mounted through the rectangular section shown below the main spine.
The pivots are bushed using oil light bushes which are 20x18x14mm
the steering head rake is at 42 degrees
which is normal for a standard jap front end.
Even with this much rake the steering will not be heavy at low speed do to rear engined trikes having very little weight up front.
At the moment we are fabricating a linkage and mount for the motorcycle master cylinder which will operate the rear brakes.
  In the past we have always preferred to use early metro 4 speed remote gear changers. But these are getting rare these days. This one will be fitted with a shortened vw beetle gear change which will exit on the left just below the riders thigh and will be 30 degrees up from horizontal.

We hope eventually to make our own cable operated gear change mechanism. Which will allow the shifter to be mounted almost anywhere. They are available at the moment from bugpack at $380.00 and even though the pound is very good against the dollar at present. The government will want a fair share and then some just to let it into the country.
Pic 10-
shows the brembo rear brake master cylinder fitted into place. We have used some of the existing motorcycle rear brake assembly to make up the new linkage. The original pedal had a ratio of 6 to 1 meaning the distance from the brake lever pivot point to the end of the lever was 6 times longer than the pivot point to the master cylinder actuating rod.
We shall set it up using that same ratio taking into account that the rear brake lever is now 12" long. A rod running from the foot brake lever to the master cylinder lever will pass through two tubular guides; will have clevises at both ends to make adjustments. The reservoir will be retting in a suitable location.