Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Timing chain seems to be universal. But having to replace the sprockets too. They only radiator I have seem where the matrix has expanded but the plastic side were intact.

I would go further, check that there are the right keys, as they maybe a (red) master key so you can program others ford, fiat group do this. If you don't have that key can be reprogramed but not cheap aftermarket.

Slightly odd one - I have a Worx Hydroshot which I put in the car to wash the MTB down.

The Hydroshot came with a hose that I drop into a clear plastic Gerry can of water, and it all works well enough.

However, what I'd like would be a water storage vessel/cap for my existing Gerry can that could be connected to a hose in a way that can't leak, with a valve to turn to let air in which when shut would not leak. I'm sure such things exist, but I don't know what they might be called so my efforts to search for them are coming to nothing.

This is the Gerry can.

Personally I'd DIY using Hozelock fittings.

What about something like this?
Also I think caravanners use water carriers with taps, have a look in that area.

These exist for campers, including a non-return valve for air:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/111988988013

But they're designed for widemouthed jerry cans that take a submersible pump.

(and thus also have a grommet to pass the power cable through)

What about something like this?

Also I think caravanners use water carriers with taps, have a look in that area.

Yes, like many things this would have benefitted from slightly more research before I made the initial purchases. I'd like to make the Gerry-can that I have work, and it has a single cap, which means that I need it to both admit air and allow water to leave. Tricky!

These exist for campers, including a non-return valve for air:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/111988988013

But they're designed for widemouthed jerry cans that take a submersible pump.

(and thus also have a grommet to pass the power cable through)

Something very similar/identical to this but for a 60x6 cap would be spot on, shame this one is a little too large.

How big is the cap? Can you get your hand inside? Otherwise I’m not sure how you’re going to retain a fitting through the blow moulded wall

In Hackney but can meet you somewhere.

Some pictures of the current jerry can lid would be good (If you can pop a measuring tape next to it to demonstrate dimensions that would be ideal)? I'm sure we can come up with a solution!

I know there are a few forumengers who would know such things so I'm hoping help will be at hand...

Say I wanted to undertake a wildly ambitious project to design and build my own car from scratch (or near enough), where would I start with my reading list for chassis and suspension design/ engineering?

I'm thinking tubular spaceframe with mid mounted engine and rear wheel drive.

I know there would be an extremely good argument for pilfering existing suspension setups from something else and just building a chassis to meet the suspension mounting points that otherwise would be in whatever car I've taken the suspension from (I've seen people mention RX-8 and 350Z as good donors for this) but I'd like to do as much homework as I can to be able to make as informed a decision as possible before committing to choosing donor suspension.

I've also had people recommend the best way to go about such a task is the LFGSS (@amey) approved method of starting with the tyres and working inward.

I'm reasonably competent with Revit as I use it for work but the specifics of engineering a chassis in Revit would be a little bit out of my comfort zone at the moment (I'm determined to learn!)

So... please direct me to the Sheldon Brown of building your own sportscar...

(A comprehensive and long winded build thread will ensue provided I can get past the early planning stage on this one!)

Not dissuade you, but have you considered a kit car? You could then go for some mild modification of that as a starter.

Sure someone here has a 'busa kit car. Maybe @Brommers or @bq (TBH I only recently realised they were two separate people).

Kit car builds were my first thought too. Unless you don't want to drive it on the road. Homologation is a massive pain and you may as well read those rules and design a car that fits them.

Caterham do a kit.

A rather more prosaic post than the above: Can you fix a deep bumper scratch at home? Or at the very least conceal it a bit? Some kind soul has bestowed one on me. It’s like they’ve rubbed off a 3 inch line along the top of a ridged bit of bumper. Looks like you can see the plastic underneath.

I did consider a kit car but any of them that I'm actually really interested in are violently expensive replicas and while they're described as kit cars they're really just big Meccano sets...

@Airhead I most certainly do want to drive it on the road so I'll be conscious of that and start looking into how one goes about registering the finished article in Ireland, I suspect it may be a case of finding some classic car to call itself a "donor" though and sticking some little bit of it's chassis onto the new thing...

If it's actually a deep one you'll want some filler to fill the gouge and be able to sand it back smooth before priming and painting it again. As long as you don't have some extremely obtuse paint colour that's hard to match it should be relatively straight forward with patience and preparation although the biggest problem this time of year will be the temperatures unless you've a nice warm garage to do it in. Paint won't adhere at all well outdoors at this temperature.

Sure someone here has a 'busa kit car. Maybe @Brommers or @bq (TBH I only recently realised they were two separate people).

I don't have a 'busa powered kit car. I do have one with a ZX9R engine, one with an R1 engine, and one incomplete car with a Blackbird engine though.

Designing a car from scratch would be a bold move unless you've had a lot of experience in building cars before. Working out roll centres, spring rates and damping ratios from scratch is hard, and while there are rules of thumb you can work around, it's far from simple. If you're determined to give it a go, then a reasonable starting point would be the Ron Champion book on how to build your own sportscar, which gave rise to the Locost craze. The car in the book is front-engined, but it would be a good starting point to learn what's involved in the process.

P.S. The other issue would be bodywork. If you're building a one-off with a custom chassis then presumably you'd need custom bodywork. And that's a big, big job. It can be done - a friend of mine made a custom bodyshell for his race car from carbon fibre using resin infusion technology. However, it took him the best part of 9 months solid work (he's retired) to make the buck, the moulds, and the bodywork and he swears he's never doing it again.

I definitely appreciate it's a fairly mammoth undertaking alright and I'm conscious of not making it unpleasantly difficult so I think it may definitely be a better idea to try and utilise some existing suspension from a donor car and working from that but it would be nice to read up on it all first to have an idea of why I'm choosing a particular donor car and why it works well!

I feel like removing the actual suspension geometry from the equation makes it a lot more manageable possibly? I don't doubt the bodywork will be a big ask too, I was loosely thinking kevlar would be a good way to go but again I'm only beginning to think about this whole idea for a project so I'm not in a rush to get started until I've done the homework and come up with a good plan that should be achievable rather than diving head first into something I'll never finish!

I feel like removing the actual suspension geometry from the equation makes it a lot more manageable possibly?

It does, as long as you keep the overall weight of the car and the weight distribution the same. If you don't, then you'll end up with the wrong suspension geometry for your car. You can't use the same suspension geometry from a front-engined car on a mid-engined car as the weight distribution is going to be totally different, so the roll centres, anti-dive and anti-squat are going to need to be different too. You could use it, but it's likely it'd handle like a total dog and at worst leave you in terminal oversteer situations.

You're also likely to have the issue that most production cars use McPherson struts up front, and they won't work with a low-level spaceframe chassis - the tops of the tower struts would be at eye height. On the Sylva range of cars they got round this by chopping the McPherson struts down and welding in a top-eye with a taper to turn the strut into an upright which could be used with a double wishbone suspension system. However, once you start doing that, you're moving so far away from the original suspension system that you're basically working from scratch albeit with some fixed geometry limitations.

I don't doubt the bodywork will be a big ask too, I was loosely thinking kevlar would be a good way to go

Super bold. I've done quite a bit of work with carbon (wet lay-up and pre-preg), kevlar and GRP. Kevlar is a total and utter swine to work with. I do use it, but only very sparingly and only for reinforcing carbon honeycomb panels to prevent intrusion into the passenger cell. It is a total unmitigated bitch of a material to work with.

There's a strong likelihood I'm talking absolute nonsense on certain aspects of this idea at the moment so I may well revisit some of these ideas! I'm hoping someone can point me in the direction of the "bible" for this sort of thing so I can start reading up and realise how foolish I am!

I do also like the idea of alloy bodywork but I feel like the amount of equipment required to get into doing it would be a bit prohibitive...

Good youtube rabbit hole here - https://youtu.be/Jdj-kGo4j3U

Excellent! This is the sort of thing I'm after to get on the right path.

...At the other end of the car chat scale from designing and building your own mid-engined beast from scratch. Has anyone any experience of any of the big car supermarket-style places for buying a used car? e.g. Cazoo, or CarGiant?

After years of having a licence but not actually owning a car I'm finally in a position where I need to get some wheels, ideally in the next couple of weeks. I've settled on a Mk7 Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost and, as I'm not massively fussed about trim level or colour, and there are so many of them about, and lockdown makes shopping around or actually seeing a car in the metal a pain/not possible, the supermarkets look like a decent option.

^^ Very clever dude and at least you know he follows through