The Time has Arrived... RPR's Rolls-Royce Build(s)!

[Robert Reid]

So today started to get the front springs together. As we left off last week, I had reorganized the packs for large and small applications on Ghost Armoured Car and Ghost chassis... and settled on new lengths for the chassis. Not ciphered up the armoured car yet...



Basically, since the pack now has fewer leaves, and to get them spaced evenly, I arranged them and then used an extra spring to cut two extra leaves.

First, cut the leaves off with a zip tool/cut-off wheel at the lengths I laid out above.



Then use a Dynafile (small air sander... wonderful bit of kit) to reshape the leaves and also to taper them. Then used a second belt with a Scotchbrite pad on it to burnish.



After shaping and burnishing, the leaves were drilled in the center for a 10BA center stud. And two leaves were drilled on either end for clips that will be riveted on with one of the 1/32" rivets I mentioned in another post. Below is the rivet being pressed in a machinists vice. The brass clip was cut, shaped and drilled before riveting.



Here is the same rig close up. Using a dolly, the whole rivet can be pressed flat easily.



Here is the clip. Note that the riveted side was countersunk, that way the spring pack does not get spread by the rivet.



Here is the finished spring pack after adding some 14 BA cross screws





A few other things that I did today... I had to make a new firewall, as the first one I made, I cut the clearance for the flywheel too wide for a parallel bonnet. So I made another one out of German silver this time... as it will be easier to solder to. If anyone (who doesn't want to fit a bonnet) wants the Stainless one, it's free... I'll send it to you! I also modified and fitted the tie rods to the chassis. The Armortek unis are cut out of flat stock, so I used the dynafile to round them off. Not making it to neat, because the originals are a rather rough forging. Rather un-Rolls-Royce like. But with some minor modification these came out perfect!.


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I also modified the spring perch, which has to be fitted before the rear spring pack is assembled.



And, last, I made a boatload of 8BA square head bolts. Some for the 'trestles' and some for the chassis.



I need a lot more 8ba bolts...

That's all for today! Lots done and chassis is starting to look spectacular! Tomorrow is going to get interesting with some crossmember work and the rear springs, I think.

Cheers,

RPR

[Robert Reid]

Well, what should have been a relaxing Sunday turned into a sick kitty and spending 5 hours in an emergency vet waiting room where I swear that the owners should have been on leashes, not dogs... Good lord. But, kitty will be fine. Which is what counts!

So I did get a bit done on the chassis this morning, which was mainly to put on the rear spring hangers. That took a bit of lathe work to get everything toleranced the way I wanted it. Which is making sure that the pivots for the rear springs turned smoothly. But before that... here are the tie rods fitted. Note the home-made square head 8BA bolts. Also note that front spring hanger on the right is drilled for square head bolts. Needed? No. Wanted? Of course!! The 'blob' of epoxy is to seal over the countersunk screw holding the crossmember on. That will be smoothed before painting.



Here we have a small vanity project... which is to make the rear spring hanger look like the original, rather than a cap screw. Note that I did have to use a 5mm tap to slightly deepen the hole for the shouldered bolt/screw. But this was easy. Then, on the lathe, I turned the screw down and shaped it like the pressed cover on the original... that houses a long bolt and has a castle nut with cotter pin holding it in. I have never made an 8BA castle nut, nor have I ever drilled an 8BA stud for a cotter pin. But that's why I did it!



WIth the pivot now installed (not the 8BA bolts), I can mock up the springs. This will let me drill the center hole and, ultimately, line up all the leaves so that they will look like the fronts. That was supposed to happen today. But didn't. Thanks, cat. Note the rear crossmember that was milled out last weekend.




Just a preview of things to come.... front axle laid out.

The holes for the headlights are going to get filled and I am going to move the brackets inboard onto the crossmember. It's not very much, but makes a big 'visual' difference when it comes to the big CAV Bell lights.



This is a really amazing kit and offers so much opportunity to have fun!

Cheers,

RPR

[Robert Reid]

I don't usually have time for Armortek during the week... but I was running some machine operations that largely required monitoring machines and making adjustments... so played a little in the background!

Working on the new firewall and on a bonnet. As the chassis will be a parallel bonnet car, it is quite simple. But still requires aligning the bonnet mounts on the radiator with those on the firewall. To do this, I opted to make a template out of some scrap aluminum as it would allow all the brass bits to get aligned before epoxying and/or soldering. Epoxy on the radiator end...which is aluminum. Solder on the German Silver firewall.



With the template made to the correct radius for the bonnet tops and the sides all aligned... I put the bonnet mounts on the back of the radiator. These were epoxied in place and will be supported with 1/32" rivets. Here we have the second mount being epoxied on with some weights... the hinge (for position) and the template all together. The first one I fitted (right side of bonnet) is visible. Just happened to be using an SGA directory as a soft, clean place to rest radiator in shop. Strictly unintentional! But funny!



Same setup, different angle. The Hinge is from Dumas Boats and is a wonderful bit of kit. Three of these will be my bonnet hinges. Soldered and riveted.



Now moving the template to the firewall... this lets an exact replica of the radiator mounts get reproduced on the firewall. There are some challenges there, not the least of which is the offset of the angles to clear other features on the firewall. I have it mentally cracked.... but won't built it until this weekend! The firewall is German Silver (white brass) so I can solder everything together which will be nice and easy!



And last, here's the beginning production of lots of little square head bolts for the chassis crossmembers and other chassis features. These will not be threaded, but will be cosmetic and epoxied into holes. I could thread them and turn them in. But I am not completely stark raving mad! These are made from 1/8" square brass and, using a parting tool, turned down at the rate of about 2 a minute on the big Monarch toolroom lathe. A square collet holds the stock. A Digital Readout makes cutting them a snap. The tough ones are the threaded shank square heads. And, yes, I have made a bunch of those, too!



Onward and upwards!

Cheers

[Robert Reid]

With the weekend here, it is time for the insanity to begin again. Though I just saw a red robin in my yard... an early harbinger of spring. So before long, it will be farm work and mowing and shooting cannons... and Armortek will hibernate for a while. Except on the days too hot to be outside. Model shop has AC!

So everything on a Silver Ghost kind of radiates out from the bulkhead... And as I am modifying the Armortek kit to be a parallel bonnet Ghost, I have to make sure that things like the engine clear, etc. First iteration, I cut too much out of the bottom and had to start again. This new German Silver firewall is Da Bomb... but I do have to still cut out for the engine.



Above is the engine in place temporarily, just to locate the firewall. And also the steering box. Which, to do a parallel bonnet car, I had to move inboard. That will mean cutting back the engine flange a bit. But that's easy. This is why I am testing all this stuff now!!!! As with anything Armortek... measure two or three times, cut once. Even when building out of the box. Pre-assembly is helpful and, remarkably, not time consuming! It's sure easier than the alternatives...



Here is the engine again, from the engine side. Note that I have soldered the bonnet rests into place. This was a fun operation, but quite easy with a German Silver (white brass) firewall. Using the template in the above pictures, everything was aligned, heated and the solder and flux sucked in wonderfully under the prepared brass and White Brass bits.



Here is the radiator, hinge, bulkhead and firewall mocked up. Ready to start making some bonnet panels. Got to get everything aligned before fitting the steering column... radiator... firewall... engine... Did I mention that the firewall locates everything? On the real cars, too!



One of the bonnet panels, cleved off a piece of shim stock. .017 seems to be about the right thickness. And I have a sheet of it. In the foreground is the more interesting project of the day... the steering box and column! Which needed some modification. Because I can.



So there were only two things that I thought 'had' to be improved on the Armortek chassis. One was the fan on the engine. The second is that the steering column needs to have a steering wheel that turns...while the Quadrant in the center stays still. It's consumed a lot of sleep cycles for several months, but I have it cracked!

The first thing I needed to do was open up the steering worm to 1/4". It is a metric size. But I have a lot of good nesting tube in Imperial sizes. And so decided to make the actual steering column from 1/4" brass tube. This 'should' have German Silver close plating...but I'll cross that bridge later. Like tomorrow. By fitting a hollow tube to the worm, I can put a static shaft in the middle to carry the quadrant and hold it still, while the steering wheel does its steering thing.



Here is the shaft slid into the worm. This will be secured later with the grub screw and probably an anaerobic adhesive.



I mentioned that the steering box had to be moved inboard a bit to fit inside the bonnet of the parallel bonnet Ghost. Here is my solution. A couple of cap screws... tapered and cut undersized and countersunk into the brass. Then a couple of 8BA studs will hold it on the engine mount. These were soldered in place. In addition, I set it in the mill and changed the angle of the box to lower the rake of the steering box. RR Steering had rakes from A-F. WIth F being for sports cars... A being for busses. You get the idea. The Armoured cars are bus-like. A nice parallel bonnet sporting car... had a sporty F-rake. So by cutting the angle on the steering box a bit, I could lower the rake and make for a more sporty driving position.



Here is another view showing the 8BA bolts that will hold it on the engine mount. As I mentioned, I have to relieve the flange on the engine a bit, but easy enough to do.



The column base on a Ghost is a piece that bolts to the steering box and then carries the column internally with an intermediate bearing cup that locates the column. And it is close plated...German silver sheet soldered on steel. So I made it out of German Silver bar and soldered on a flange. It's held to the steering box with 10BA bolts. Here it is test-fitted. Note the knurling as I could not help myself.



Here is the unit from another angle, ready to start putting the whole column together tomorrow. But first I have to cut a slot in the bulkhead. Most of the other instruments, etc. are already located and their holes drilled. But until the steering column is done... I can't put in the two gauges.



An upcoming engraving project. If anyone wants to make their own... I can post dimensions. This is an early London and Manchester plate. By 1914, they were in Derby. I can post one of those if anyone wants. Love the lions!

That's all for today!

Cheers,

RPR

[Robert Reid]

So today was all about the steering box and steering, even though I had sort of been hoping to get to the rear springs. I ended up doing the quadrant and, really, finishing the whole column except for detailing and painting the steering wheel. Ultimately, it was quite a bit of interesting engineering, and making a whole new steering column. But it could not have worked better! If anyone wants my original sketch, I am happy to share.

Here is how the day started... with cutting the firewall to clear the engine and the steering column.



After a couple of assembly/disassembly cycles to clear everything, the bottom of the steering column and steering box are all right where they should be.



Unfortunately, the focus on the camera went for the chips, not the new steering column, but this is a solid bar of German Silver being turned into the upper column. It was bored all the way through in 1/8" to accomodate a solid bar that will remain static (and hold the quadrant) while the steering wheel rotates around it.



After finishing the column, set up the thrust in the steering box. Did the same thing on the 25 pdr gearboxes... which is to remove any lash from the worm and sector gears. In this case, by cutting the face of the cover a few thousandths of an inch until the thrust was minimal. To cut it 'true' used an expanding center mandrel. This lets the part go in and out of the setup several times to set the thrust.



Once the side thrust was set, set the end thrust. Here you can see the finished steering column. The bottom is brass tube. The top is German Silver Bar bored to take the 1/8" fixed shaft. The bottom thrust piece was bored 5BA (which is perfect with 1/8" rod) and a 5BA nut was used to lock it. That way I can take the steering wheel on and off... and can 'level' the quadrant upon final assembly. Note the BA nuts on the cover and the 'relieved' cover. Also that I used my plenishing tool to make the steering box look more like a casting. See the engine article for how that was done. Note the @dave_dibb Armorpax Enots fitting on the steering box. Also the relief cut in the cover. Details, details.



With the main part of the steering box done, time to get the quadrant done. The wonderful kit plates were used, but I modified the spacing with some 12BA bolts (turned into tapered screws) and aluminum tube to create the separation. And modification of one lever to create the mixture lever... and creation of two more to create the advance and throttles. It was a bridge too far to try and have them move. So just made static. Now trying to figure out how to make the knobs. Need some black beads...



And here we have the front of the quadrant, on its shaft.



And now we have the whole day's work coming together with a finished steering box, temporarily fitted in the chassis and with the firewall mocked up. It's a lot of work... a ton. But for the display chassis with the parallel bonnet, makes a really authentic steering column that actually works like the original.



Here is the 'engine side' view. The whole thing is now moved towards the center line of the car a bit, and as mentioned in an earlier post, the engine will get relieved to fit. And in case folks think I have an aversion to cap screws... I don't! I just use them in hidden locations.



Here is the Drivers view...



And close up showing the spacers, etc.



For the full-effect of how the modifications work, here is a short video showing how the steering wheel moves and the quadrant sits still. Sorry about the Ricky Nelson music in the background. It was a documentary. I swear!

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That's all for this weekend! Thanks for the encouragement!!!!

Cheers,

RPR

[simon_manning]

Sunday evening building extravaganza, always worth checking in on, keep at it RPR, Regards simon manning.

[Robert Reid]

Thanks, Simon... and as the weekend is here and it's too cold to farm and are being urged to stay at our houses and build Armortek kits... I channeled the efforts into a couple of fun little projects today.

As the Ghost chassis would be a bit 'bare' without a self-starter and Lucas Generator, it was time to make them. And also to make the first of a lot of modifications to the transmission housing to take it from structural Armoured car bit to show chassis bit. So far, working perfectly!

So to start, made a little Lucas dynamo. This runs off a belt that is on a drive pulley connected to the Carden Shaft (output shaft from Clutch). Step on clutch, charging stops. But otherwise a good system! Generator has a very distinctive shape. The pulley was re-purposed from the armortek steering box bottom plate. Reduce, Reuse Recycle, I guess.



Dynamo from the rear. The bolt is actually an oiler cover on the real thing. Here, just glued in. Still need to drill and fit some tiny 14BA bolts/nuts to simulate the long rods that hold the dynamo together. Whole thing is about an inch in diameter. The brass bits will get painted black. But for now, the brass looks very pretty!



With the dynamo (mostly) done, time to create a starter. It has a similar diameter, but is a bit shorter body. And has a gearbox at the front to reduce the drive speed and increase torque. Complicated spherical shape. I almost made from brass, but decided to use aluminum and use cyanoacrylate for the bolt studs (you'll see those later.) The brackets on both dynamo and starter were turned from a solid bar and then cut into sections and soldered on. The rings, too, were soldered on. Lots of very tiny wire solder! Note the castellated nut, cut from German Silver. I could not help myself.



Here is the starter with its gear and gearbox fitted. It won't turn, but as it is from Lucas, that's not an issue. Adds to the realism. The little holes and the 'tubes' will have 12BA bolts/nuts/studs in them. Again, all but the aluminum will be painted black.



One of the two brackets that will hold the 'bar' on the transmission side. The mounting bars extend between the front intermediate crossmember and the transmission. The dynamo and starter both 'swing' on pivots and are tensioned with a turnbuckle (for the starter) and an external screw for the dynamo that extends through the frame. A feature I'll add later.



The whole arrangement mocked up in the chassis, with the transmission temporarily in place. You can see the bars and the brackets. The starter connects to the transmission with a chain. The dynamo uses a belt.



The same arrangement from a different angle. Showing gear. There will be some additional modifications to the front of the transmission to add a gear and the wheelcase.



Here is the whole effect with the modified firewall and other details. Part of the reason for this little adventure is not just short attention span... (squirrel!) but is because these have to be sorted out before other steps. With this much modification, it's best to get stuff like this out of the way early and then set it aside... for example, the gearshift mechanism matters when putting in the dynamo.... Just staying ahead of backward steps where I can!



Last, a bit of poor man's plating... which is the cover of the transmission. A lovely little casting! But it's brass and the original covers are aluminum. No problem on this end! Use a bit of tinning compound (for soldering) and just tin the cover. It looks absolutely like aluminum with minimal work and no paint headaches.



More tomorrow... May get the bonnet finished if I have enough brass. But to do the bonnet, I have to get the chassis bonnet rests/mounts done from brass. But it's all fun!

Cheers,

RPR

[Marcus Kwa]

Speechless.......

[Kevin Hunter]

This is an outstanding thread. I don't pretend to understand all the technical bits of an ancient RR (or any car for that matter) but I so respect the quality of your engineering. This is compelling reading.
Kevin

[Robert Reid]

Thanks Kevin and Marcus! Just trying to keep up a tradition around here of sharing interesting techniques and ideas and modifications... I am finding that the RR chassis is really one of the most amazing kits as far as having potential to turn it into a blank canvas! So much fun detailing one can do, especially on a car that was hand-built to begin with!

Short day today. Been a long week and I had to get a column written that was due Friday... priorities priorities.

But did get a number of things done, not the least of which was a couple of little braces for the front crossmember. As you may recall, I am moving the headlamp posts inboard a bit and also wanted to get these diagonals in place. Just used little collars of brass with German Silver bar soldered on. And Bob's your Uncle... looks perfect.



The Main event of the day was to make a pair of brass chassis rails that serve as the lower bonnet mounts. The original parts are 1/8" aluminum, but I used .016" brass and 4mm angle to make a left and right pair. This lets me start mocking up the bonnet parts properly. Until those chassis rails are on... you can't get the bonnet aligned. Which I want to do at this early stage. As with lots of Armortek things... plan ahead! Test fit! And if you are modifying things, make sure that the laws of unintended consequences don't bite you!

Anyway, you can see the chassis rails (a bit) taped to the top of the actual chassis.

One other thing I learned is that my 'brass hinges' are not brass at all, but mild steel brass plated. Which will make soldering a giant PITA as the brass plating refuses to accept tinning. So I will revert instead to an anaerobic and rivets. Epoxy will stick just fine! I have some 3M epoxy that's used to glue the wings on planes (really!) so that will hold a model hinge, methinks! Especially with 30 or so 1/32nd rivets backing it up.



Last, just a quickie... re-shaping the bracket for the Klaxon horn to match the original three-bolt pattern. I have not decided if this will go on the firewall/bulkhead or on a bracket on the running board. Of course it'll have Running Boards!



That's probably all for this week, though I may bang out a couple of shock absorbers for the front. They seem like a good idea!

Cheers,

RPR

[Jeffrey Goff]

Great work on the Rolls, brings back fond memories, watching with interest
Regards Jeff

[simon_manning]

excellent instalment, weekly treat, regards simon manning.

[Robert Reid]

Thanks, Simon.

As I look to distract myself from an appallingly pathetic news industry... I find that making insanely small parts to a high-standard keeps me sane! Or as sane as can be expected!

And on that note, spent a bit of time today playing, having decided that the chassis needed shock absorbers. And the idea was running around in my head and would not go away. So... I scratched the itch.

Here is the parts book showing the basic shock parts. Of course, I simplified them somewhat. But they still do function! If I wanted to build a little 1/6th scale spring scale, I could calibrate the friction setting!



Here is an exploded shock. The base and pivot, the arm, the friction lining (aluminum washer), the pressure cup and the locking/adjusting piece. The originals had friction linings made of oiled, compressed leather. But I could not quite come up with a scaled-down method for the precision engineering of dead cow parts... especially as hamster skin is just not readily available here.



One of the fun parts was the .150 ball with an 8BA thread for the shock damper link. That will get made next weekend. Ball is German Silver which turns much easier than steel!



Here we have a finished shock close-up.



These get bolted onto the chassis rails so that the shock link connects to a pair of balls that are fitted to the axle beam on tapers. The links are about a foot long (You can see them on the parts book page) and have an inner and outer tube with ball cups. I won't be going full-exact replica on the tubes, but they will function.

Cheers and thanks for the kind words everyone!

RPR

[Robert Reid]

And we have sort of an impromptu three-day weekend, and I spent Friday doing the shock links and axle mounting bits. Some of the most challenging brasswork I've ever done! Little holes, balls, sheetmetal... Then again, this is relaxing, right?

First, some helpful photos for my fellow builders. In case anyone is going crazy on a Ghost chassis.

Here is an axle General Arrangements Drawing that shows some of the details that I'll probably be doing over the weekend. Here is the kingpin/axle drawing.



And here is the ball joint that I'll be replicating. The kit parts are great for remote control but for display, I can get closer with some lathe work and a bit of brass scrap.



After working on the spring pack and putting in a center stud, the axle itself needed an initial modification to locate the center bolt. From there, I can set up the shock links. Everything is a system so has to be fitted and tested before assembly/fabrication.



Axle mocked up. But I still have to put in lower shock damper link mounts.



With the axle located, I wanted to make some realistic axle U-bolts. These were really challenging, but I used some very small brass tube and cut a V-groove in it and then bent into a U. And soldered in brass threaded stock. The stock was actually some of the threaded sections snipped off hex bolts I used on the engine. So recycling, really.



Here are the u-bolts finished and temporarily fitted. I used the threaded studs and turned the ends to fit inside the pipe that I used for the U-Section. Then soldered everything.



With the springs located (and held in place with a couple of drills of the 'correct' diameter... went to make some ball pins. These are made in German Silver Rod as they are really not structural on a display model. Infernal little devices...



Finished ball. This is one of two that will go on the lower shock link. I'll make some more tomorrow for the steering and cross tube. But these are smaller. Sorry about the focus.



With the springs mounted and the balls made, just had to make up the mounting plates to go on the axle. These pinch between the axle and the springs and locate the lower balls for the shock links. This was just a .018" shim brass piece drilled and bent.



WIth the springs all set up and aligned/mounted, it's time to make the actual shock links. These made the rest look easy!

Off to make some dinner an I'll post the rest of today's progress after some Chorizo in pasta with alfredo! Making Armortek Kits builds up an appetite!

Cheers,

RPR

[Robert Reid]

WIth the axle together and the mounts done, time to go forward with the shock links.

But first, a helpful photo for my fellow builders, here is a copy of the GA drawing showing the chassis. You can see the shocks and also the position of a lot of other bolts. I actually drilled the chassis for some 40 hex and square head bolts that will complete the chassis. Tomorrow, I'll post the hex bolt heads and square head bolts that will complete the chassis rails.



Here is the shock mounted to the chassis rail. I drilled about 40 holes in the chassis for bolts today. But here is the actual mount for the shock absorber and the shock on the frame. Lovely bit of brass!



Here is a shock damper link as an exploded part. Top has the square end and the bottom is a cap. Both ends have spherical seats and just clear the balls. The top will have a pair of 14BA bolts/nuts holding them together. Bottom cap has a spherical spacer and a cap that will get glued, not soldered. Way too many parts just to make shocks. But worth it. They work!



Here is the relationship between the shock and the bottom ball wIthout the link in place. The link connects the balls.



Here is the shock link in place but without its cover. The bottom is on the sheetmetal piece from the earlier post. The top has a piece of bar stock soldered on and then machined.



Here is the link with the top cover on, using a couple of wire drills to hold everything together.



One last picture for the armoured car builders. I found this today while doing some suspension research and before it slips my mind. Armoured car interior of a 1914... early pattern. They modified these a lot in 4 years. But this is the early pattern and would have been about what the Duke of Westminster used on the Tara raid and similar.



@dave_dibb... do you think you can make an Armorpax GE fan for the inside?

Cheers and have a great evening all!

RPR