Lambda....the journey begins!

[Dikappa]

And a little something that popped up on the local ad site here.  A complete and brandnew Lambda in parts for 10 Euro, I just could'nt resist...

[davidwheeler]

Lucky you!

[frankxhv773t]

Lucky you, it's an old model but quite wonderful. I too have one to build but have held off because I can't establish to my satisfaction the correct factory colour for the bare monocoque. It c an be built so the body slides off to reveal the monocoque like this. The question is, are you going to convert it in to a two seater?

[Dikappa]

It is a nice model, maybe I should assemble it one day.  And no, will not alter it to a two seater...

After another day of making cardboard templates, and discovering the car is not exactly symetrical (so no shortcuts are to be taken....) I got the alu panels in place...

Two cars for the price of one!  The big screen still needs fitting its messing frame.  Have to figure out height first as it will be a very tight fit in the back I discovered....

[Dikappa]

Bit more done on the window frames...
I was thinking if the seperate windows could have been lowered, so I fitted the wiper motor for a 'seating' test.  This confirmed (luckily) that I may not lower the windows any more, as then the wiper motor would be too much in the line of sight.

While at it I started fiddeling with the electrical wire to the motor, and made some (tiny) brackets to fit it.  I first fed the wire through a rubber grommet, but this was not very nice, so a little alumunium plate was hammered, feeding out the cable flat and giving a nicer touch (I think)
Al the alu will be painted in body coulour, the steel parts will be nickel plated.

More work done this week is blasting and painting of the seat frames, and making the ALU back panel for the passenger seat.

Hopefully tomorrow more work on the window frames!

[Dikappa]

Today some work done on the full width screen.  Find the appearance quite heavy, maybe it's the colour of the messing.  The messing profile is 20x20mm.  I wanted 18x18mm, but that does not exist....and 15x15 mm I found a bit thin on top....
Off course it's just for the rainy days or long trips...I guess it will be spending most of its time locked behind the seats....

Another interesting activity in the workshop today: my girl making honeycomb in wax for the bees....I'm still looking for radiator honycomb, sadly this won't work!

[Dikappa]

Again a little progres over the weekend.  I finally fixed the front subframe to the body.  As I did not thrust the 4.6grade domed bolts that are available (4.6 is what IKEA uses....)  I asked a friend who's good with the lathe to make me some decent bolts.  As base material he used 12.9 steel bolts.  I then still had to insert locking pins, paint 'm, cut to size and drill the little holes for the split pins, so by the time all 18 bolts were fitted a whole day had gone!

Now this allowed me to finally fit the copper conduit with the front wiring, which has been sitting on the bench for way too long.
Today  assembled the hand-brake lever and gearstick base and fitted it to the car, which then enabled me to do a trial fit of the (mostly still empty) gearbox.  This learned me that the interconnection tube will need slight shortening for the gearstick to be straight up in the mid position.  (the gearstick in the pic is a spare one, the other one still needs to be assembled)

[simonandjuliet]

Beautiful as always

[davidwheeler]

I am sure it has been mentioned before but there is a slight backward lean (castor angle, 3 degrees) on the pillars isn't there?

[Dikappa]

Yes David there is.  Although I must admit it is not completely the same on both sides...(slight difference)
It will be more as the car is now on blocks and the front end is lower then where it will end up eventually.

@Simon: thanks, I still think we have the most beautifull hobby in the world, I enjoy every minute of putting this car together....

[Dikappa]

Another problem resolved!  A thing that bothered me since I got the car were the very crudely made steps to get into the car.  On another replica of the same car (the Peter Giddings Lambda) these are very refined, and to my feeling much closer to what it could have been original.  
So I had to give it a try!  After some consulting with my metalworking friend Cas, a small cutting disk for the milling machine was ordered (not even 15 euro including the tool holder...) and after some trials the inlays for the steps were made.
Today I bent the steps, ground one into shape and welded it to the plates attaching it to the body.  At least it withstood the test!

[Dikappa]

This week I felt some mechanical work was to be done, and with all front supension parts painted and waiting I thought this would be a good starting point.

First job attacked was testing with the 'empty' pillars in the suspension frame with the new bottom guides firmly fixed.  It was found that on tightening up the bottom guides, the pillars would seize in the guides.  A light hone of the guides cured this problem.  I then reassembled the pillar internals.  Basically there is two valves inside the pillar, one is coil spring operated, and the main valve consists of a ring made out of 0.16mm spring steel.  (where the new supplied spring plates measured 0.32mm....and were consequently disregarded)
Inside the bottom guides is a 'snubber' spring, which is originally a heavy gauge coil spring.  As damage to the precious pillars could occur when this spring breaks, I followed other Lambda owners who have replaced this spring with a PU variant, which is 'unbreakable'... I have decided to monitor this 'spring' closely, as most plastics are not happy when in contact with oil.  In the bottom of the guide I further made a small screw allowing water to be drained easily from time to time.

The original felt seal in the top gland of the pillar was replaced by a modern oil seal, and on top of that I placed a small felt seal, hoping this will help to lubricate the damper shaft.  The bottom plugs were replaced with a teflon inlay as opposed to the original red fibre bottom.  It needs mentioning here that the consortium supplied castle spanner had to be turned down in the lathe before it could be used.  I mention this here because in it's original form it could easily damage the very fine tread in the bottom of the pillars, with very dire consequences.  This issue was also reported to the consortium.

Then came the time to press the pillars into the brand new stub axles.  That went surprisingly well.
Last thing to to before offering the stub axle/pillar assembly to the suspension frame was fitting the small brake cable guide pulleys and their housings, which are locked in position with a circlip.
I found the pulleys to foul the new stub-axles, which would have been easily rectified without the pillars in situ....
After some consulting of the drawings and knowledgable people I this morning decided to get the dremel out and carefully mill away the offending material from the new stub axles.  Not my favourite way, but seen I did not want to press out the pillars again in fear of compromising their good tight fit.
All went well, and after some carefull grinding the result looked OK.  Findings were reported to New Vintage Parts who responded in the mean time they would look into this for future batches.

So following this I proceeded with the re-assembly, which all went well, untill I found the main sprins (brand new coonsortium supply) to foul the top snubber springs....
Seen compression tests had already learned me that these springs are not according the desired 'Light' rate, but somewhere in between 'Light' and 'Heavy', I now decided to order springs from another supplier.

The attentive reader will have noticed by now that these proceedings were not all going to plan, and to find part after part not up to specification (the bottom guides were the THIRD set delivered !!!!!) is rather frustrating I must admit.
I have now changed my attitude towards new parts: by expecting that they will not be usable at all, one at least has on some occasions a positive experience when a part unexpectedly performs or fits as it is intended!

Anyway even with the main springs not fitted I succeeded in fitting the steering arm and rod, so at least something happens now when the wheel is turned! 

[DavidLaver]

Love those steps.  A real labour of love.

[Dikappa]

Last week I put the wings on, first of all to try the fit, secondly because the filler plates for the gaps where the subframe passes were missing.  Since I aim at getting all these small parts painted in one go I needed to make those.
The supporting plate under the wings were made with a very small edge (only 1 mm...) to carry these plates , so I chose to fix them to the body with an extra bolt for safety.

Luckily the wings did fit perfectly with the headlamp supports in place (this was the first time I could fit them with the subframe attached), and so I drilled all necessary holes, made and fitted the tiny 'nut with plate attached' inside the engine compartment.

Having fitted all this, I could now proceed with fitting the conduits for the electric cabling.  I did not mark the wires so will have to check 'm out one by one....
As the additional wires for ignition and direction indicaters seemed to fill the conduit quite well, I chose to route the heavy gauge battery cable to the starter motor under the car, in a purposedly made conduit.  It then enters the conduit from the bottom, so that it does not need to make an almost impossible 180° bend in the small alu angle piece.

I now attacked the restauration of the wheel spinners, as they need to go along with the rest of the stuff to be nickel plated shortly....quite a lot of material missing....

[Dikappa]

Pfft, it has been way too long since my last post, sorry for that!  It's just that time was quite limited, although between work quite a few things got done.

The wheel spinners were all welded up and ground to the correct size again, after which they had fresh centers soldered in and then they were ground AGAIN!, but at least they're ready for plating now.  I was surpised to find the original centers where pressed in.
The boot locks, which were not in the best condition, got new 'home made' shackels, and the hooks were welded up and reshaped, so that they regained their original tight (and secure) fit.  Will now also need plating.
The full width windscreen frame that I made, but was not happy with at all, got remade.  As I could not locate a profile to my liking I ended up getting some strips laser cut and welded the U-profile together.  Although a jig was made up in an attempt to keep things in shape, it sort of jumped out after cooling down, being 7 cm out of straight!  Luckily with some heat and carefull hammering it ended up as intended.  Having the profiles laser cut gave me the opportunity to add mounting points for the Bosch wiper motor in one go.  Needless to say this was a rather time consuming operation!  But I'm now happy with the result, and that's what matters.

I then attacked the gearbox re-assembly.  I followed Iain Simpsons advice (and write-up!), and left out the outer bearing on the input shaft, replacing it with a purposedly made bushing (see pic) Seen the shafts nose is carried in a bearing inisde the flywheel, support is well taken care off, and this setup allows for a slight misalignment between engine and gearbox.  I thought (wrongly!!!!) that a gear is just a gear, and selected the best looking ones and assembled the box.  Well I couldn't have been more wrong, and ended up building it three times, as very little deviations between individual gears made for a very noisy, or even unworkable combination.  But practice, and some specially designed and modified pullers helped, as I did the last dis-and re-assembly in exact two hours.

The rear chassis tube got renewed, painted and mounted to the body, so it now proudly carries it's chassis number again.  I already attached the rear spring hangers, all new bronze bushes off course.  I then could also fit the supports for the rear lights and number plate, and finish the electric conduits inside the rear body at least.

Finally the missing correct dumb irons for the rear springs arrived from Australia (with thanks to Iain Simpson and Bill Jamieson!!!) They needed rebushing, but otherwise were fine.  With these being the final parts needing to be painted in body colour, I'm currently prepping all the stuff to bring to the painters.  When these items return, hopefully soon, there will be a lot to do!

On the new parts manufacturing side I decided to make a press tool to fabricate the bolt locking rings for the brake drums.  I only had two original rings in a very shabby condition (mostly because they are abused, their function is to prevent the bolts from moving, but not on assembly....)
So if anyone ever needs those, the tool is there now.  I decided to make the plates in slightly thicker (0.8mm) material then original, this allowed me to get rings and nut locking plates cut out of the same material, giving better strenght and economy!