Next step was to make up the other parts of the body, the nose, bonnet top, scuttle, and tail.
These are all made from alloy sheet, thickness is 0.9 mm and 1.2 mm. What I did not know at the time was how different to work different grades of alloy are, nor did I know how to anneal alloy.
Kim is a pretty simple shape, with little compound. I was able to form the metal around pieces of pipe, use the method of two pieces of steel angle clamped in the vice and g clamps as a folder, and generally shove it around until the shape reflected what AFN did on the original. In other words it's rough, or patina if you prefer) After I had done much of the body, my son gave me a stretcher/shrinker for my birthday. That makes playing with alloy a whole lot more fun, and many new shapes to explore. It also meant I could deal with a couple of crimps that appeared on the lower edges of the tail and tidy that up a lot. I also learned about annealing. Some day I'll write in the "Techniques" section how to do that. If anybody needs to know before I get a round tuit, just ask.
My front springs, being quarter elliptic were made for me, they are each 2 full length leaves of approximately 4 mm, 38 wide, and 400 mm long. A single bolt passes through the spring, and each side has a pair of "square U bolts" 1/4" material. The bolt stops the spring sliding backwards or forwards, the U bolts can be moved to vary the spring rate.
Castor is currently at approximately 6 degrees, very slight positive camber and 1/8" toe in. I don't pay any credence to ackerman, so if it has any, it's by accident.
The castor is controlled by the arms of the friction dampers which locate below the axle. The dampers can be moved along the chassis rail to fine tune that.
Rear axle, brake, sprocket. All of this was from the ex hire kart, but hubs became a bit of an issue. (Remember I'm trying to do this all without spending?) The hubs use part of the kart parts, and pieces of 5 mm alloy welded to them with bolts directly onto the pitbike wheels. All the pitbike wheels I have seen have a tiny lip which prevents the plates bolting as they should. A flap wheel in the angle grinder deals with that in seconds.
All the bearings, bearing holders and other components, except the brackets came from the kart. I made the brackets from what is called sheet steel in this country, and it's possibly a bit too thin at 1.2 mm. right now I'm remaking them in 2 mm. All of this was cut using a 1 mm thick disc in the 42 angle grinder, super tool you need to own as it will do pretty much all the cutting you need to do. Drop saw un-needed. My biggest mistake was making it so that to change a chain, as I'm using proper kart chain, which is plenty strong enough requires an almost total dismantle of the rear. Another reason for the rework of the brackets.
Next big error when I was rushing to be ready for "The First Great British CycleKart Meet" was that I neglected to tighten all the grub screws in the sprocket carrier, brake caliper, and bearings. This allowed the axle to move sideways, which spat the chain off. Memo to all, spanner check everything, and if in doubt put more clamps on the rear axle.
That will do for this time! I need to do some study for build number 7.