Vintage rides

It seems like ehen I have a spare minute I try to weld something to the Elan frame:)


Looked at the frame and tried to weld all the holes along the footrests. Lots of grinding ahead...
Here are the pictures:








Read more...

It was busy week for me.
Still working on the Elan's frame. Still need to upload some pictures... Will do!
Wednesday and Thursday I spent at the cottage working on the Yamaha sled and boat trailer. Yamaha is almost done for the winter season. Almost - because I need to pressure test the crankcase. Last season I had problems with lean mixture and I couldn't find any obvious reason for that. I got the low pressure/vacuum gauge, so I am going to test the engine next week.
Another thing I am going to do next week is moving my boat from cottage to city. I got some space on the driveway where I can park it and it's much easier to work near the home - much more productive. I changed the wheel bearings yesterday and installed new trailer lights, so it's safe on the road. The longest trip I made with that trailer was to the nearest marina which is in front of my cottage:) Now I can go as far as I want:) Trailer wheels still need to be cupped, but I am going to do next week. Also, towing vihecle (Toyota Corolla) has to get trailer lights converter because it has separate circut for turn lights. I was thinking about making the convertor myself but ended up buying it for $17 at Princess Auto. Not THAT cheap, but I can live with that:)

Read more...

Couple more things done to the frame: I am getting close to the finish here!
So far I finished 1lb spool of 0.25” wire and emptied the bottle of gas:) Working outside requires a bit more gas flow for welding, so I can’t do much about CO2/Argon consumption…
The long edge strips welded in place: footrest getting rigid again!!!



I was thinking about reinforcing the tunnel along the footrests and around axles mounting plates: finally I decided, that two goals could be achieved at once! I just integrated two parts together!
A bit of measuring and playing with templates produced a good result! The angled piece will give an extra support for the tunnel and will spread the load from the mounting plates for axles. Just for an extra strengh I drilled series of holes, so I can weld the reinforsment to the frame not only around the edge but in the middle as well.

Here are the pictures(pictures in daylight would be better, but I just wanted to document the result and didn’t want to wait):









Here is the part welded to the frame:









Read more...