MG TD TF 1500 Patch panel Eng. Wheel BBS discussion at MG-Cars.net

MG TD TF 1500 - Patch panel Eng. Wheel

Hi All: I posted this on the MGA side and thought that I would share it here as well. http://www.roddingroundtable.com/tech/articles/12ewheel.html This site shows how to build a miniature English Wheel often called a patch panel wheel. Patch panel wheels were common in the days of open fendered cars since you could use them with the fender still on the car by moving the whole wheel back and forth while it is around the fender but these have not been available for years. Keep you eye out at antique sales, you may get lucky . . . or build your own for just a few dollars. I built one and it really works. I did not flatten the rounded bearing at first and it was not quite right - after I did it was perfect. It will take a hammer dint out of a domed sheet metal part in about 3 or four passes. To flatten the center of the bearing I built a spinal for it to fit on and then clamped that to my Delta mini belt sander with a fine emery cloth belt on the sander. Have it just touch and let the bearing rotate until there is an 1/8th inch flat on the crown. The key to this design is the hardness of the bearings - most cheap wheels will not roll a weld without denting the wheel - this one will do it time and again. You do not need different curved rollers if you work the metal with various pressures and pull down a bit on both ends of the metal as you wheel. Using a good size metal hand wheel on the bottom instead of a nut helps. I have sourced a 6 in floating bearing and a 8 in. roller bearing from a gravel crusher and am going to make a large sized eng. wheel using this design. Most of my single seater (see pix) was built with mine. Let me know how you make out if you make your own Patch panel wheel... Godspeed in Safety Fast Jc

John Crawley

Another pix on my single seater Jc

John Crawley

PJ: My monoposto is a car-that-never-was; therefore is named “The Littlemore Ghost”. (Littlemore is what we call our acreage.) I built it as a replica of an Austin Factory racer of 1954, using a Matchbox toy as inspiration for the body shape. I used materials, construction methods and parts that could have been available to Austin if they had in fact built the car in mid 50s. The front suspension is bug-eye Sprite with MG midget disk brakes. The rear suspension is of my own creation - 1/4 elliptical springs, trailing adjustable top links, tube shocks and Watts linkage on a Sprite differential. The transmission is MG midget with an L shaped remote shifter offset to the left hand side of the cockpit. The engine is a midget 1275, balanced, ported, 3-angle valve grind, ¾ cam. etc. I have just acquired a supercharger for it but have yet to install it. The frame is of my own design and is a simple ladder construction. I hand hammered the body in metal (not yet finished). I used period English parts throughout including wiring from a ’54 Austin and period leather for the upholstery. The charging system, radiator and all auxiliary components are from Sprites or MG midgets. I consider the car to be as close to a recreation of a period Austin Team Racing monoposto as I can make it. (see pix) I have made a few concessions to “originality” with the rationalization that if it really was a surviving ‘50’s race car a few things would have been updated to keep it competitive. Anyway I am building it just for fun in solo events – I am too old, fat and smart to run wheel-to-wheel in anger. As well I wanted to show the Rice Rocket Racers that there is an alternative to having big bucks and sticky tires. If you get serious about building one let me know off-line & I'll send you lot of pix. Godspeed in Safety Fast Jc

John Crawley

And the dash Jc

John Crawley

This thread was discussed between 28/11/2014 and 29/11/2014

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