Traditional Mono Alignment

[Guest muppetry]

Hi,

 

My brother and I are completing a traditional kit bought from someone a few weeks back. However given the poor instructions, I cannot be sure that the work completed by the previous builder was correct.

 

The main problem is ith the tail end. WHe nthe car arirved, the wheel arches had been fitted, however the wheels did not sit centrally in the arches. They were too far back by around 1 inch.

 

We have now removed the arches to get a better look at what could be wrong, and the rear panel alignment doesn't look right to me.

 

I would dearly like to have a look at someone elses and take some pics to make sure that everthing else is correct.

 

I have a shed load of pictures, which are unfortunately far too large to be attached here.

 

The rear panel has a cutout in the side art which looks as though it should be flat on top of the rear axle mounting. However it is currently at about 15 degrees off with the rear-end higher than the front.

 

The big question is is this correct ? If not, any ideas why the wheels don't fit properly ?

 

The other tell-tale sign of something not being right is that the 'boot' floor doesn't meet the rear panel which also makes me feel that the rear panel is not fitted correctly.

 

Any ideas would be very welcome !!!!

 

If there is anyone with a traditional in the Essex/Kent/Hertfordshire area that would be willing to let us have a look we would be very grateful.

 

Many thanks,

 

Andrew

[Guest daveg]

Andrew

 

You need to say what make/model you have

 

If you are not going to race it...then a few degrees probably won't matter. All you need to check is that the distance between front and rear wheels is the same both sides. The front is slightly more complex with castor/camber/toe/king pin inclination

 

Is the rear a Sierra sub-frame?

 

Dave

PS If the battery is in the rear that can make the rear seem odd

[Longboarder]

Don't panic Muppetry. The traditional kit had I believe a similar back end to a series three but used an early sierra front subframe. There was a gap of about a centimeter between the boot floor and the rear panel which allowed a sheet of ply to be stuck to the rear panel to reinforce it for the spare wheel support. Fitting the rear wings was always a problem on the three with the left being more difficult to fit than the right and the wheels usualy ending up not central in the arch (looking too far back, left worse than right) but they should be okay ref the tub. So it may be OK. Try and measure up the mounting points of the swing arm support tube. If these are symetrical in the floor of the car then the wheels are going to be positioned about right. The diff is not central. The back panels can be moved a bit by loosening the panel mounting bolts and rollover bar to make the rear more symetrical. You won't get the wing fit perfect because the wings are not identical.

Use Mats image resize program which works brilliant (and even I can use) to shrink your pics. Mats Prog. Then post some pics for comment.

 

Nigel

[Guest muppetry]

Great, thanks guys.

 

At the moment there is a 1 inch gap between the boot floor an the rear panel, which sounds like it may be too much.

 

I'll shrink the photos and post them up this afternoon. That should make the problem (if there is one) a bit clearer.

 

One other thing that is a little odd is the side panel touches the rear tyre at the front. This appears to be caused by the subframe mounting pushing the side panel out. I have so far assumed that this should just be cut out a little to relieve the stress, and this would then pop the panel back in again.

 

But just before my brother gets excited with his angle grinder, does this sound right ?

 

I have to say that working on a kit-car that someone else has started is probably not the best way to get into this :-))

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew