Ron Pope Motorsports                California Custom Roadsters               

The T in my head, thoughts?

Drilled some "Speed Holes" in my home made steering arm. Helped blend the piece into the rest of the car.





With the headlights off of the steering arms I've been experimenting with different headlight styles and mounting:

Small diameter Grote Per-Lux 200's





Even moved them behind the grill as an experiment... Big nope.



Despite that the small lights are cool, and actually do suit the entire car. They just didn't have the same presence and feel as the big lights.
With the big headlights mounted off the grill they do look good enough, but it's tight to the steering. I predict that steering arm will contact the headlight at sometime under certain curbs, driveways & driving conditions. But for now, I'll run them like this until it is a problem.







I am also considering adding those Per-Lux 200's back behind the grill as amber driving lights.

But, enough with the peripherals and small details. I need to start focusing on finishing the electrical enough to crank and fire the engine.
 
Ooowww, I like the small lights down low and outside the grill ! Although they won't be as effective
down low. I read somewhere that a headlight should be at least 24 inches off the ground.
 
Using Guitar Amp power jewel lights as indicators, just mounted two green jewels to flash with turn signals. I have red & yellow jewels on order for Nitrous Active and 2 Step Active. Other then the Start light above the Start button that I have active with the pin 87a of the fuel pump relay (so it turns off when fuel pump is on during prime pulse and while engine is running) I can't think of anything else I'll need an lighted indicator for.





 
Getting it titled in OK. wouldn't be a problem. The police would be the only problem. I doubt they would stop you for it but,,,,if you get stopped for something else, they may wanna nit pick a little. I would just go for it. Heck I always thought it meant 24 inches to the top of the headlight.
 
Towed the project out to the first Cars & Coffee meet up since the world is opening back up, it really did get alot of attention.








Got back to the shop and will focus on the bare essentials to get it to fire up, run & drive.

Also started making a floor:









Got the BMW transmission adapter to U-joint & flange for a 1310 Ujoint, now I can measure for and order a driveshaft to be made.

 
Are you going to run the Jag IRS with that amount of negative?
 
Are you going to run the Jag IRS with that amount of negative?
Long term, no. I'm going to make spacers for between brake rotors and axles. But for now in the name of gettingit running it will be like this until I can make said spacers
 
Like this. I made 3 sets to give me a choice...
I also built in 1/2* of toe in to help the cornering; abut the same as the standard saloon.

drive shaft spacers.JPG

drive shaft spacers on disc.JPG
 
Mykk, have really enjoyed following your build thread. Am sure you're looking forward to first drive.

Gerry, thanks for your input and experiences. Can you elaborate a bit on your toe-in comments. Guess I thought that was fixed if using the Jaguar stock lower control arms and outer housings..
 
Toe in can be varied by using shims between the diff casing and the pivot brackets. Shim either front or rear bolts to vary the toe in/out. Toe in is always used to help the rear end under acceleration out of a corner by counteracting the flex in the rear end and ''pointing'' the tyres in the right direction, if you see what I mean.

For a starting point with the camber I loosened off the bolt between the disks and the D Shaft flanges and put various thickness's in between, then giving it a quick nip up.
Once I had got somewhere near and with less negative than I wanted I turned up the spacer. Bolted them in and measured the camber. By 'over estimating' I then turned off a small amount and re measured it again. This gave me a datum to get more or less what I wanted on the final machining. A few thou adjustment and it was done. This could be achieved with shims but I preferred to get the solid parts correct

Took a bit of time but worth it
 
Like this. I made 3 sets to give me a choice...
I also built in 1/2* of toe in to help the cornering; abut the same as the standard saloon.

Gerry, if you're able to still make these would you be interested in fabing and selling a set?
 
Gerry, Thanks for the quick response with camber and toe in explanations. Very informative and easy to understand.

I started my build with purchase of a "roller" chassis from an individual. Configuration was CCR frame with Jag wide sedan rear already mounted. I didn't like the rear wheels out that far, even with maximum back spacing, so had Hamilton Automotive in Van Nuys, CA narrow to 57". Curt has done a lot of Jag rears over the years and turned out great. Of course, as typically happens, found a complete 55" wide within days of getting the first one narrowed. Oh well, maybe another car when this one finished.

With the narrowed rear, that put the shocks in a more upright position with the existing CCR upper shock mounts. I considered repositioning mounts but decided to go with slightly shorter shocks which has worked out OK. In retrospect, with the car fully weighted, I could have about a 1/2" shorter to get the get half shafts and lower control arms at full horizontal.

Looks like Mykk is using even shorter shock resulting in a "negative" stance. That meets his objective of keeping the car low but he might want to consider slightly longer shocks if not finalized. This would raise the rear a bit but also display the rear end more. I'm sure it will turn out well. Looks like he has done really well thus far and is quite talented.
 
Last edited:
Gerry, if you're able to still make these would you be interested in fabing and selling a set?

Problem has always been the cost and the shipping. If you have a narrowed rear end they have to be made to suit. In fact mine are two different thickness's because its not easy to narrow both drive shafts and dog bones to exactly the same dimensions; so one side needed a slightly thicker spacer than the other.

I seem to remember that blanks were available to be turned by the owner to their final spec.
 

     Ron Pope Motorsports                Advertise with Us!     
Back
Top