G46 No.6 Blackbird

[HouseMartin]

Thank you Guys,
Gary L, I still have work to do so more photo when I get time to upload them.
C.T Maybe you could post a picture of how your Garage is progressing and make us all jealous again.
LL, I am not sure the little and G46 go together, but I just love driving it.
Cheers
HM

[SteveD]

Hi Guys
I'm new to this forum, I am the owner of G46 no5, the ex WCA car.
It was on the road for a while, great fun to drive, and is now being rebuilt as the original construction was quite rough. At the same time I am upgrading the frame to an SE5A and a fast triple carb engine.
Steve D

[Mister Towed]

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum. Nice to hear about another Sammio model being restored and upgraded and it would be really nice to see some pictures as you go along.

Shame it's a bit rough at the moment. Mind you, during its time in WCA's hands it quite possibly fell off the roof of a conservatory, somersaulted down an Alpine black run, fell off a motorcycle at speed and accidentally cut one of its own wheels off with an angle grinder.

On a more positive note, if it's anything like its first owner it's probably held together with enough titanium rods to pay for the restoration if you weigh them in at the local scrappie.

[HouseMartin]

Hi Steve,

Welcome, great new that you have joined the forum.
I have had lots of great support from everyone on here.

Every G46 is unique so it would be great to see some photos of it out on the road, especially as that blue colour looks so good.

If you have any question on your rebuild, just post and I will let you know what I wished I had done on No6.
I am sure Andrew Hush No3 or Chairman No2 will also contribute their experiences.

I like the sound of the triple carbs and great to look at.



HM

[HouseMartin]

Just got the V5 back from DVLA so I did a vehicle tax check.



I wonder what the other G46's have on their V5C

HM

[SteveD]

Unfortunately, what I mean by a bit rough was the original build, the body is bodged on with lumps of wood and 2 part foam, internal panelling is cheap ply and the engine was a complete nightmare.
The car looked great from the outside and drove quite well although skinny tyres on 4" wide TR4 rims made for lots of sliding around.
I am going to replace all the panelling and the front bulkhead with aluminum sheet. I am fitting a balance bar pedal box to get twin circuit brakes.
The car should be back on the road in the Spring, should have around 200 or so horses so will be an exciting drive!

I have also found an easy way to gain twin circuit brakes on early cars if you can do without a servo. Much safer than single and makes the handbrake easier to get through an MOT!

SteveD

[Charman.tech]

Originally Posted by SteveD

Unfortunately, what I mean by a bit rough was the original build, the body is bodged on with lumps of wood and 2 part foam, internal panelling is cheap ply and the engine was a complete nightmare.
The car looked great from the outside and drove quite well although skinny tyres on 4" wide TR4 rims made for lots of sliding around.
I am going to replace all the panelling and the front bulkhead with aluminum sheet. I am fitting a balance bar pedal box to get twin circuit brakes.
The car should be back on the road in the Spring, should have around 200 or so horses so will be an exciting drive!

I have also found an easy way to gain twin circuit brakes on early cars if you can do without a servo. Much safer than single and makes the handbrake easier to get through an MOT!

SteveD

Steve

Good to see WCA's G46 getting a new lease of life our car has been put on hold whilst building first a barn conversion for my family home and now the conversion of an old barn as my garage / office etc. Hope to have mine back in the garage for the new year and looking forward to progressing it. As HM said if we can be of any assistance please ask.

[SteveD]

Mine is registered as a Sammio/Ribble G46.
I will post some more pictures as the rebuild progresses.
SteveD

[Mister Towed]

Would love to hear about your easy way to switch to dual circuit brakes - balance bar pedal box by any chance?



I'll definitely include dual circuit brakes on future projects as the handbrake on my Spyder is the only weak point for the MOT and is always marginal. With dual circuit brakes it only needs to pull half the negative 'G' for a pass so would breeze it.

Dual circuit servos are available btw, but they're fairly expensive -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Compact-Du...UAAOSw5IJWb9Xr

[SteveD]

Balance bar pedal box is the ultimate but very difficult to retro fit in most cars.
The picture you have is one floor mounted, Burton,s do a bulkhead mounted one with hanging pedals which I am using in my car.
However, look at E-Bay number 282234925508, this fits straight onto the standard Scimitar pedal box, change the pushrod for the existing one and a little bit of re-piping to do.
As to servos, I have had two of the remote type fail on me, luckily at slow speeds, so I dislike them and run all my cars without them. If you can cope with a slightly higher pedal pressure, I find the Scimitar brakes to be better without a servo and the MOT tester has no problems with the setup.
SteveD

[HouseMartin]

Originally Posted by SteveD

Balance bar pedal box is the ultimate but very difficult to retro fit in most cars.
The picture you have is one floor mounted, Burton,s do a bulkhead mounted one with hanging pedals which I am using in my car.
However, look at E-Bay number 282234925508, this fits straight onto the standard Scimitar pedal box, change the pushrod for the existing one and a little bit of re-piping to do.
As to servos, I have had two of the remote type fail on me, luckily at slow speeds, so I dislike them and run all my cars without them. If you can cope with a slightly higher pedal pressure, I find the Scimitar brakes to be better without a servo and the MOT tester has no problems with the setup.
SteveD

SteveD, great link.
I had looked at fitting a balance bar with dual 0.70 master cylinders as the early scimitar had no brake bias for the rear.
But I had not come across this combined solution before.
Have you any idea what the diameter of the morgan master cylinder?
I too have no servo fitted and find the brakes more than powerful enough to lock the front wheels in anger on a dry day.
I did struggled to get the required 25% from the handbrake on the MOT.
So ended up extending the arm onto the handbrake lever at the rear hubs and now the handbrake applies more force than the rear service brake!

I have been trying to keep away from using wood in the interior and instead sticking with fiberglass panels like the original scimitar.
The interior really makes the car, especially to the driver, so will be outsourcing the upholstery to a local craftsman.

The white G46 had a nicely finished interior.



HM

[SteveD]

Slight mistake in my previous post, the pedal box I have with hanging pedals is from Demon Tweaks not Burtons.
The Morgan cylinder is either .7 or .75 so should be good for our needs. I will probably also fit an adjustable restrictor in the rear line (Demon Tweaks again) in case the cars lock rear wheels.
The white car certainly has a nicely finished interior but I plan to go for a much more basic 50's racer style.
I have an SE5 and a SE4 coupe for everyday use, neither of them have servos so the Morgan cylinder is headed for one of them, probably the coupe as I am doing some other jobs on this car at the moment.
SteveD

[SteveD]

[QUOTE=HouseMartin;63841]Jim, Nice of you to point that out. What were the production rear light like?

I do wonder if the the G46 will ever go back into production.

It's not impossible, I do know where the moulds are safely stored away!
SteveD

[peterux]

Originally Posted by SteveD

As to servos, I have had two of the remote type fail on me, luckily at slow speeds, so I dislike them and run all my cars without them.
SteveD

Hi SteveD,
can you please elaborate about your remote servo failures?
I am building my car with an Iruna dual circuit remote servo (linked above in post #149) so I'm interested in your failures.
Was it this type of servo??
thanks, Peter

[SteveD]

Hi Peter
The first failure was on an Alfa Romeo GTV (1969) when the seals failed and all the brake fluid was sucked into the engine, hey presto - no brakes!
The second time the servo started to hang on, the car would stop but the brakes didn't release immediately culminating in an embarrasing struggle to get going at a set of traffic lights.
More modern servos incorporated into the master cylinder / pedal box asssemblies are more reliable but I still prefer my brakes without assistance.
I find I can easily lock all the wheels on my Scimitars in the dry and they sail through MOTs.
What car are you building?
SteveD

[peterux]

Originally Posted by SteveD

Hi Peter
The first failure was on an Alfa Romeo GTV (1969) when the seals failed and all the brake fluid was sucked into the engine, hey presto - no brakes!
The second time the servo started to hang on, the car would stop but the brakes didn't release immediately culminating in an embarrasing struggle to get going at a set of traffic lights.
More modern servos incorporated into the master cylinder / pedal box asssemblies are more reliable but I still prefer my brakes without assistance.
I find I can easily lock all the wheels on my Scimitars in the dry and they sail through MOTs.
What car are you building?
SteveD

Thanks for the feedback. I'm building a rather unconventional Royale Sabre.
So if I understand you correctly, the servos were Alfa Romeo parts?
...peter

[SteveD]

The first one was an Italian servo but the second was a girling.
I have been a race and restoration engineer most of my working life and have seen at least another dozen failures like my first one where the servo sucks out all the fluid. I have seen this with several makes of servo, only with the remote ones though. The bulkhead integral type don't do this as the fluid doesn't enter the servo.
SteveD

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by HouseMartin

…The big rub down will keep me warm over the winter for a respray in British Racing Green for the spring.

Sorry, I keep forgetting to ask if you managed to find the time to paint the car?

Cheers, Paul.

[HouseMartin]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Sorry, I keep forgetting to ask if you managed to find the time to paint the car?

Cheers, Paul.

Paul,

Nice of you to ask

It seems the excitement of the MOT pass caused me to engage my fingers before thinking through the body work issues still outstanding.
I wanted a bigger boot to get the spare wheel in so put the rub down on hold.

I have also be at those unseen jobs, such as finishing the rear inner wheel arches, making sure the bonnet fits flush at the top, aligning the doors, fitting the behind the seat trim panels. Adjusting the steering wheel height and position. Trimming the door opening and flowing the shape of the dash into the doors.


Boot Before


Boot After


It's MOT is due again this week so the photos show how little time I have spent on it.
House maintenance has taken priority so just a few drives through the muddy countryside.

It does now have lights covers so the bowls don't fill with water!



but the engine has developed a troublesome habit of stalling on the overrun with very low oil pressure at idle and I think it will have to drop the sump over the winter.

Without Hoops


With Hoops


Subconsciously, I think i don't want to finish it as I will be worried it might attract to much attention and I would have to polish it a take it to shows.

Someone else, however feels quite at home in the Spyder.
She cant wait to pass her test, so I have a dead line for the paint job of 2020!



She has offered her services for the photoshoot provided we go via McDonalds!

In my dreams I have a plan for a hood, so I am still working on the metal work behind the rear seats for fastening the hood loops.

I would like something like this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDbRCTNZJaU

Finger crossed for the MOT

HM

[Paul L]

HouseMartin – Thanks for the update.

I certainly know how long all those little ‘unseen’ jobs can take.

But it is amazing what a big difference the headlight covers make.

Really pleased to see your daughter likes the car.

As my two teenage daughters wouldn’t be seen dead anywhere near mine.

Good luck for the MOT and I am sure the car will look spectacular when it is finally painted.

Cheers, Paul.