Armortek

Panther G Project number 6

A lot of things in mind in which way to go with the build and what is needed to achieve this.
The lines are set and the build can start.
I will try to keep updates on regular base but i know im not very good at it.

So after preparing the build i started to assemble a road wheel.
As u can see on the pictures the edge of the wheel sticks out of the rubber part.
Any others that have this issue??
Now i need to find a solution

Riny

Riny,
What I did was pulled the tires to flush on the wide pair of rims and pushed the tires to the flanges on the inside pairs-this resolved the appearance of the excess metal rim.

DaveMacri wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 18, 2023 3:21 pm

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Thank u for the input Dave, i will take this in mind because im affraid it will affect the quality of driving.

Riny

My Panther has about 4 hours on it now and runs perfect, I had to do a small adjustment to the left drive sprocket for alignment but that was it with this resolve to the tires. yes the paint will wear off the inside wheel sets on the rim flanges as you can see in my pic but there isn't a way around that. I did have a bit of tire rub on the inside pairs against the wide wheels but inserted spacers(washers) on the wide sets at swing arm side to push them out just a small amount and this resolved that issue.

Thanks for the explanation, it is a way to work around this problem.

Riny

Hi Riny,

Unfortunately I do not have the tools to machine the rims so have limited options as it stands.
I will fit spacers on mine, as dave has said i will space the front and rear forwards as Dave has mentioned.

Cheers
Gary

So i prepared the wheels but still need some attention which will be a bit later.
Now onto the start of the Panther itself i found a problem which have to be resolved.
The bushings for the suspension did not go in all the way into the suspension bar and it was with all holes

So i decided to fix it and now all fit well, so now cleaning up the suspension bars and get it ready for a coat of etch primer.


Riny

Started to build up the suspension bars and i am not afraid to show the bling, so i decided to not paint the brass bushings. Enough for today, saving a little work for tomorrow

So i found a little time to progress the Panther, but in stil very far behind the rest of the Panthers.

Prepared the floorplate, suspensionbars and the torsionbar holders. Testfitted all togheter and so far im happy with the result.
I just need to clean up the torsion bars and prepare them for the final fit.
So 2 steps forward and one back again.

Riny

Do the suspension bars need to turn inside the brass bushes ?

I ask because I had trouble with brass bushes when I built my Mark IV. There’s an interaction between the brass and the steel (or aluminium) that tends to jam them up. I eventually replaced all the brass bushes with bearings, which allow everything to turn easily.

Just a thought …..

Chris

Now all of the bolts on my first set of torsion bars are fully tightened it is very difficult to move anything by hand.
The holders for the bars are all silky smooth in the brass bushes.
I even added a coat of Oxylube before assembly.

@Chis,

Suspension bars are the 2 big beams where the torsionbarsystem goes through so no, nothing turns with the suspensionbars as all the bushings are supposed to be locktited in the suspension bars.
But everything what goes trough/in the bushings need to rotate in it with minimum resistance.
All the torsionbars (the black iron rods) need to be fixated with the bolts and should not be able to turn.

@Malcolm,

The suspension should be designed to keep up 100+ kgs.
16 arms so about 7kgs per arm so yes, it will be pretty hard to move it by hand. But if it is not possible then something is wrong.

I am still not satisfied with the rims sticking out, so i decided to take a shot and put a rim on the milling machine.
One hour about to get the first one done, but i had to find out the best way to do it.
During this process i damaged the rim a little and now it have a dent, im not fixing this because it reminds me of the work i have put into it.
The gap will be filled with locktite 480, so no concerns on that.
Im pretty pleased with the result, still a lot work to do.

Riny

Battle damage.