In this video I find out who actually makes the best steering in the car world, and it isn’t who you think. Behind the scenes & support option www.georgekare... PNM Parts www.pnmparts.c...
There's nothing better than waking up on a Saturday morning to a new video from George. Heading over in a bit to work on my friend's '88 XJS, and this was the perfect inspiration.
Adding Lightness is great. I would have considered replacing the shift rod with a thinner walled Cromoly version rather than all those holes which will probably lead to rusting. I am very pleased to see you getting back to this project.
Time and money! And yes the drilling is easily quicker than the jigging and fabricating that new rods would require. Internal rust will be mitigated for 🍻
Maybe could have considered carbon fibre tubes? Super light, strong, cheap and readily available in all sorts of diameters and thicknesses. I use them all the time on large RC model aircraft.
Today I am building an air dryer for my compressor using physics and chemistry to dry the air. Videos like this remind me why I continue to pursue perfection. Arrrrrggghhh. That washer is on backwards!
I'm sure the late great Colin Chapman would be proud of your methods of adding lightness. Lotus raided the Triumph parts bin for the steering and suspension on the oringal Elan.
Awesome video as usual. Interested to see how that drilled rod feels when in the car. I would think, with that much material gone, that is going to flex more... could improve the feel, or make it worse! Looking forward to the next video!
Again a great video about your resto story. Interesting to see that the rack looks the same as on my 1970 Lotus Seven. I totally dismanteled mine and after polishing the main assembly could not resist to let it galvanized (chrome). I fitted grease nipples to the flat plates. I was thinking about the quick ratio parts offered by Burtons but finally decided against this as the standard parts work great.
You never cease to amaze me with your commitment to this (and other) projects, but your willingness to tackle build elements, like the brake lines and this drilled linkage, are a testament to your dedication and determination. Your videos are always a pleasure to watch, your commentary often makes me smile and I always look forward to seeing the next instalment of your endeavours. Be well, stay safe and always do what you enjoy. Thank you for sharing.
Great content George. Excellent lighting and editing. I have missed your vids and it inspires me each time to complete mine to such high standards, I've never managed it though. Keep em coming.
wow One of your best videos George! Everything about this. I was wondering what the fish bowl was for in other videos. For me is the small projects that are the most exciting. Kinda hope you don't finish this BTW. Forever project indeed. Plus I likes the history wiki info detail part too. I just learned about the only part that is still on current cars that was used on the first Henry Ford cars. And go...
George (I just clued in that your name is George) I have been following you for some time now. The videos are just so well done and funny enough, crazy relaxing! Look forward to every new episode!
@@andersjjensen the stopmotion is bananas! Perhaps there are camera settings or editing tools to make it easier these days, but it’s still a ton of work!
That linkage is looking interesting. Sure you aren't making a Bond car, George? It's looking a bit like you're building a suppressor for the concealed machine gun!
Got an email from Patreon saying that GK had ‘done something’ and that I needed to watch. Anyhoo a couple of three days later I bounce into RU-vid and here he is having ‘done something’ so I may as well watch this here. I will defo ‘bounce’ onto Patreon though as no doubt he’s ‘done something’ else on there.. currently say in an Amazon on the wifi.. feeling the need to melt stuff and break parts, tools and maybe a few fingers but alas, I have another three shifts before I get back home .. and stuck into my own ‘projects’ .. latest ‘drive’ is on Moby Dick had to weld the chassis at a shock mount on the rear.. that would have been unheard of when I started following George.. however it’s a weekly thing and two welders is the minimum that anyone who claims to work on their ‘stuff’ must have otherwise do you actually work on your stuff. Cheers George.. BTW. Dare those the original steering rubber boots refitted?
I love that you are adding lightness into the car by drilling brackets and rods. Have you thought about replacing some with carbon fiber. They even sell flat sheets and rods that you can cut to replace the sheet metal brackets. I'm sure you want to keep it period correct but I think even lotus would have used it if it was available.
Super cool steering rack and way to produce this part. Kinda sad you decided to file off any imperfections, especially the fleshing is something youd never see were those two seperstely casted parts and then joined together. But its your car so you do you, have fun ;D
Why would you even expect that a steering rack would be made by a car manufacturer, all that stuff is made by suppliers ,sure sometimes those suppliers are owned by a car manufacturer and that type of vertical integration was much more common 50 years ago than it is now. Burman weren't getting a whole rack from Birmo they were component supplier of Burman. Even before WW1 manufacturers were savvy enough to know when to make and when to buy in. Just because something has a Ford Logo on it doesn't mean Ford made it ( in the US it's allowed to stop the supplier from putting their own logo on, but not in Europe so here you'll usually see both the car manufacturer and the suppliers logos and part numbers along with marks from foundries and pressing suppliers etc. )
I'm a fan of polishing the steering rack too, but in all honestly I'm a bigger fan of future-proofing, rust protection, etc. Personally I would paint it thoroughly to protect it, and protect it further in any other way I can - especially if it's an old car Although if you paint it you'll be adding back the weight you removed by grinding down the extra material on the rack :D every gram counts
While you're building this, have you thought about getting hold of a home zinc plating kit? Because for stuff like the rack mounting brackets and all the nuts and bolts it wouldnt be a bad idea. Even if you plated the brackets and then painted them it would last longer.
@soupclassicmotoring it's not dead straight forward, but I've had good results, and a few bad ones. However the bad ones were down to poor prep, leaving everything for too long and not adding brightener, and the power supply. You've got a background in photography right? It's kinda the same deal as developing film. Chemical process, get it wrong, the results suck. 😁
Evolution of language. "Tie rods" was a term only Americans used when I were a nipper. Everyone else called 'em track rods. Hence track rod ends. Funny how times change
a friend of mine refused to understand that welders... can in fact cause massive sunburns, so i did what anyone good friend would do. let em FAFO. after a week of welding he was so burnt he didn't wanna do anything. also had to slap him and hard explain why you don't breath in the fumes of welding. but ya cant fix stupid. so i had to bring him to my welding instructor who was a former MIT welding / forging instructor in the 60's and 70's, and guess what. because of welding and fumes as they didn't know in the time. caused MASSIVE muscle and neurological damage. like dawg, all the info is free and people just choose to ignore it is beyond me
Are the Esprit shift rods steel? Is aluminium an option? They are aluminium in the Europa, but they are straight in the Europa.- perhaps the bends necessitate steel.
Lets see if we can get GTK sidetracked off into carbon fibre fabrication, those rods could be sooo light! Tubing available in the RC aircraft section of your local vendor, epoxy some aluminum ends in and off you go...
@@soupclassicmotoring you'd have to consider replacing the body with carbon fibre if you went down that route, and all the fasteners with Ti, the glass with plastic. It's not heathly!
