Dutton Dementia

[Paul L]

Mick - Very belated Happy Birthday wishes!

Sorry to hear you are having so many technical difficulties.

But I am sure you will get there in the end.

Good luck, Paul.

[Mick O'Malley]

I've also been very happy with them over the years, but yesterday all I got was complete intransigence from a supercilious jobsworth. Apparently it was all my fault for not buying and having pressed in (at Merlin) their Timken bearings. I lost patience in the end and motored back, pausing at Maynard, who agreed to perform the necessary machining and pressing in. This won't be cheap!

However, a little further down the road I dropped in on my ever helpful welder. His first job for me was to attach the flared end of the donor car's exhaust downpipe to that of my Mini van, into which I'd dropped an MG1100 engine and 'box. It was in '80 or '81 - he gas welded it and charged 40p! Anyway, his two sons now run the gaff and said to bring the Phaeton's frame in (another Dutton Towing Gizmo outing), together with the prepared metal, and they'd do it as a folding money foreigner. This cheered me up no end!

Regards, Mick

[Lucky@LeMans]

I wouldn't have put up with the jobsworth at Merlin. They supplied you with a bodged part that wasn't fit for purpose and refused to replace it or refund your money ! You have consumer rights that you can exercise if you want to, so I'd send them the bill for reworking the hubs and insist they pay it, in full !

[Mick O'Malley]

This morning, whilst down in the cave, I heard my house 'phone ringing but didn't get there in time. A 1471 revealed a Chippenham number. Hmmm, could it possibly be? I called back - Merlin Motorsport . "We're very sorry sir, but the batch of ally hubs yours came from is faulty, and we will replace them, transfer your UNF studs, and press in your bearings all FOC." The voice on the line was a young one so the above mentioned jobsworth clearly didn't want to grovel, unless he will when I return the duff hubs. I quickly 'phoned Maynard who thankfully hadn't got around to modifying them. Phew, as their machining charge is 80 quid an hour + VAT!

On to the Phaeton. In January I had offered up the engine cross member and decided to mount it under the frame rails, but this meant cutting and shutting the gearbox cross member. Not an elegant solution. On Sunday I had a good think about ways around this and decided that the channel under each end of the engine cross member would sit nicely over stubby lengths of 1.5" box sitting on the frame rails.



Yesterday I cut the lengths of box and this morning cable tied them in position on top of these rails (the middle of the cross member has to align with the white mark).



I then craned the engine into the frame, after bolting the cross member to its mounting rubbers and lowered away - rubbish photo' alert!



After the last few centimetres of lowering the engine sat very nicely in position.



I now need to decide whether to have the stubby bits of box welded to the frame or to the cross member, and how to secure the other side of whichever I plump for. That will only leave gearbox mountings to be fabricated before welding can be organised. Woo Hoo!

Regards, Mick

[Lucky@LeMans]

Sounds like the entire batch was machined incorrectly and then botched by the machine shop to get them out of the door.
Shame they didn't want to listen on the day you took them back !

[Mick O'Malley]

Originally Posted by Lucky@LeMans

Sounds like the entire batch was machined incorrectly and then botched by the machine shop to get them out of the door.
Shame they didn't want to listen on the day you took them back !

Absolutely! I'll work out how much petrol I'll have used in the two round trips and send Merlin the bill. A grovelling apology from the intransigent shop assistant would also be most welcome. I won't hold my breath.

Regards, Mick

[Dpaz]

Just mention him to the management, apart from that it is coming on well.

[Mick O'Malley]

Well, that's what it looks like. These are my replacement front ally Ford PCD hubs c/w 7/16 UNF studs. I have to say that Merlin has bent over backwards to rectify the error with timely communications and speedy despatch, so no hard feelings .



I'm still wrestling with how best to mount the engine and 'box. My previous imagined solutions would have resulted in their being either too high or too low, and probably insufficiently strong. I'm currently chopping some square plastic down pipe as a cross-member template for some 1.5" box. Time will tell!

Regards, Mick

[peterux]

Hi Mick,
spotted this lying by the side of the road whilst on holiday...........

RIP Dutton by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

RIP Dutton by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

No sign of a chassis or axles.........

cheers, Peter

[Dpaz]

Giz a clue, wherezit!

[peterux]

Originally Posted by Dpaz

Giz a clue, wherezit!

Highcliffe-on-sea, Dorset

[Dpaz]

Far enough away to be out of temptation!

[Mick O'Malley]

Originally Posted by Mick O'Malley

I'm still wrestling with how best to mount the engine. My previous imagined solutions would have resulted in its being either too high or too low, and probably insufficiently strong. I'm currently chopping some square plastic down pipe as a cross-member template for some 1.5" box. Time will tell!

I'm now happy that my Moss Monaco next door is, after yet more minor fettling, fully operational, so I've turned my attention back to the poor neglected Phaeton. Having abandoned the above plastic pipe abomination as being too flimsy, I dreamt up the idea of a 'virtual engine' in the shape of a lightweight template that I can much more easily dangle in the engine bay whilst cutting steel for mountings. I can also easily transport it when the day comes to take the frame to my welding buddy for the various prepared bits to be stuck together.

Having purchased half a metre of inch square aluminium box, I transferred the mounting rubbers from the engine block to the Talbot Sunbeam cross member and, after lots of careful measuring and marking, fetched the hacksaw to it for the two birdsmouth cuts. I lay it across the mountings, bending it a little at a time until it lay snugly and symetrically. I then drew around the mountings' metal plates, put the gizmo in the vice, and lay a removed mounting on the marks to draw where the bolt holes were needed. I super carefully drilled through the box and firmly bolted the whole thing back together. It sat perfectly.



All that's left for its completion is natty little fishplates pop rivetted on each side of the birdsmouths to preserve their angles, its removal from the crossmember c/w the mountings, and my creation will be ready for engine bay action.

Regards, Mick

[Mick O'Malley]

Digging out my Machine Mart aircraft quality tin snips, and searching through my scrap metal heap, I assembled the necessary, made a cardboard template and cut out two fishplates. I'd intended four but decided that was overkill. I drilled their rivet holes and G clamped them to the box section. After carefully and very lightly centre punching the box through the holes, I drilled and rivetted them in place. All that was then left was to remove the cross member and dangle my creation from a length of the ever-useful paracord for a photo-call.



I'm now reasonably confident that with its easily manipulated assistance I can accurately fabricate mountings. It's certainly considerably less unwieldy than the engine it represents!

Regards, Mick

[Mick O'Malley]

In yesterday's sunshine, after a short drive in the Monaco, I decided to dangle my gismo from the frame's top side rails in position in the engine bay. It was quite a fiddle to get it aligned in all three planes: fore and aft and laterally weren't too tricky but the correct height (as determined by my fruitless earlier attempts to utilise the Talbot's cross-member) took a great deal of patience and not a few profanities .

It was then clear that the new mountings would need to sprout from the diagonal horizontal 1.5" square frame braces, so I dug out my length of matching section steel box, made a card template of the angle needed for the mount to protrude parallel to the car's lateral axis, and carefully hacksawed one end of a suitably oversized 'one mounting' length and offered it up. It was OK. Knowing my concentration limits, and tendency to commit schoolboy errors I called it a day, pleased with the tiny progress increment .

This morning I pitched in again, offering up my stubby blank and imagining how it would best mate with the gismo - a downward angle was clearly needed. More careful measuring, a saw cut through the top three sides of the box, and judicious bending with the aid of another card template had the engine end sitting at the correct angle. I marked where the bottom mounting rubber's stud met the box and drilled a slightly oversized hole (which I imagine will eventually need to be slightly oval). I then cut off the redundant end length at 45 degrees which both tidied it and provided access for the stud's nut to be tightened. Bolting my creation in place I took the picture below.



The open cut will obviously need a fillet, TDW's forty year old diagonal beefing up, and a diagonal strut to another frame member for full belt and braces effect. I didn't check to ensure the gismo had stayed central so this effort may have to go down as a prototype. However, if necessary, I have more than enough box to remake it as well as its mirror image twin.

Regards, Mick

[Mick O'Malley]

After a grey start to the day, the sun appeared at around ten tempting me down to the cave for further metalwork. Careful measuring revealed that yesterday's effort would indeed be merely a prototype, as it was a couple of centimetres too short to ensure the engine sat centrally. To cut the box for its replacement, I decided to use the hacksaw rather than the disc cutter, as I can no longer hold the latter steadily enough for sufficiently accurate cutting. A bit of a pain but necessary. My first cut was angled as per the template, one mountings length from the end of the length of box, so it only needed doing once. Yesterday's effort was also a little short of bearing area where it met the mounting rubber, so I re-positioned the birds mouth cuts a little to compensate and opened them up using the prototype as a template. The bends will doubtless need tiny tweaks so I'll leave cutting the fillets until then.



I clamped a cut to length piece of surplus skirting board under the frame and marked it at the ends, and where the mountings would sit. Tomorrow I'll put it on the bench, sit the mountings on it upside down, lie the gismo next to it, and mark where the holes will need to be drilled. I'm certain that these will need to be slotted a little but I have a burr bit for the drill so it shouldn't prove too irksome. Note the L&R in correction fluid - I know what I'm like!

Regards, Mick

[peterux]

Enjoying your updates, thanks for posting them 👍

[Mick O'Malley]

Yesterday I delivered a couple of post items to my pal who lives on a 'continuously cruising' Dutch Barge. This involves a few miles' drive, a small hike down the towpath, and putting the world to rights at length over cups of coffee. By the time I got home my get-up-and-go had got up and gone, so I took the afternoon off. This is the tub as photographed by its previous owner.



This morning I pitched in with marking and drilling the necessary holes in the mountings. Reference to those in the old cross member guided me in how long the ovals needed to be and it proved a doddle with the box g-clamped to the workmate. In my excitement at putting the bits together and offering them up to the frame I neglected to take step-by-step pictures. Balancing my creation on the trolley jack, loosely clamping one end to the frame (the cave's floor is far from level!), and sliding the mounts outwards on their oval holes until they butted up to the diagonal frame members resulted in an encouragingly acceptable fit. Miracle!



Thoroughly pleased with this outcome I quit while I was ahead .

Regards, Mick

p.s. Many thanks Peter for encouragement!

[Mick O'Malley]

Since my last post I have made the 'spanner access' diagonal cuts to the inboard ends of the mountings and pondered how their proposed diagonal braces up to a frame tube could be made. I found a rusty old piece of 1" angle and offered it up to TDW's side diagonal frame brace. The old mountings were braced to these so I reasoned that mine would be OK. I bought on Ebay a one metre length of 30x30x3mm mild steel angle (which the delivery guy simply rammed though my letter box) and wondered how best to cut the necessary angle where it met the mounting. Its top end will simply rest over the box section diagonal, possibly needing a belt with the lump hammer to open its angle up a little with it resting against one jaw of the open vice. I hit on the idea of making a cardboard template, found some stout card, cut it 60mm wide to the length-ish needed, and folded it to replicate the angle. Snipping off small amounts at a time with repeated offerings-up soon had it nestling snugly at both ends.



The mounting was both tied on and bridged to the frame with a magnet to ensure its correct location.

Together with the rear seat belt mounting frame, the rear fuel tank support, and the headlamp mounting stubs, that's now all the metal cut for the welding sortie, towed behind the Jazz using the Dutton towing gismo. I discovered the other week that there is a legal requirement to have a safety line in case the massively strong towball should snap off . I bought and fitted one to the gismo as the frame as towed will probably weigh almost 100 kilogrammes/two hundredweight. One can't be too careful...

I scan Ebay each morning for a Hillman Imp sport cylinder head and yesterday I snapped up for a thoroughly acceptable sum a tubular steel sport exhaust manifold for said head. I'm sure this can be pressed into service with a side silencer for that distant 'firing up' day

Regards, Mick

[Mick O'Malley]

Once the sun was high enough, I wandered down to the warming cave and grabbed the necessary to fashion my first diagonal brace. Transferring the angles from my card template to the steel angle, I set to with the hacksaw and, after discovering that I'd made the RH brace, offered it up. The cut lower ends needed bevelling into the V - I used a coarse flap wheel in my angle grinder. The top angle needed to be closed a little, rather than opened as I'd imagined. A couple of lump hammer blows with the angle in the vice did the job . So, onto its LH mirror image twin . Clamping the RH one to the angle made marking the cuts a doddle.



Once cut and offered up, it needed similar attention from both flap wheel and lump hammer. Here's the RH one sitting in position. Excuse milky picture, the camera decided flash was necessary as the sun went behind a cloud



Now I need to cut the fillets and possibly some flat steel straps to bridge each side of what is probably the weakest part of my design. I can then clean all mating areas back to bare metal, drill out the remains of the pop rivets and deliver the skeleton for welding. I'll arrange this rather than just show up as the guys have real work to do, and could well be very busy.

Regards, Mick