Australian Belly Tank

[Dr Goggles]

Freud has confidence in ya if you are drawing his ire....

you're right there , I am the talk of the place here at work after the inspiring T-shirt design he sent me t'other day......it has warmed the heart of many

[Milwaukee Midget]

When the world goes up-side-down, he will be on top.

It kind of depends on how you look at it - it could be argued that the Good Doctor is already on top, and we're the ones with our maps flipped . . .

[grumm441]

Doc, the wiring was our issue 2 years ago, managed to try to pump 20 amp max draw through a 5 amp relay and #18 wire....  the little electrons couldn't get through the chute fast enough to turn the pump pressure to the required number... for the required amount of time... sorted out the problem right after we got back from the salt.... #8 covers the draw with no problem

Freud has confidence in ya if you are drawing his ire....

I have every confidence in the 40 amp relay and the wire to the fuel pump circuit
Ohm's law was considered
G

[Stainless1]

Grumm, thought we did to, that stuff was lurking in the parts of the bike harness we had to use for the bike ECU .... I know, you don't have that issue since you built yours from scratch

[grumm441]

Grumm, thought we did to, that stuff was lurking in the parts of the bike harness we had to use for the bike ECU .... I know, you don't have that issue since you built yours from scratch

Well, not entirely from scratch!
But there was a lot of head scratching going on when i put the loom on and it worked and then five minutes later didn't work.
It turned out to be a fusable link hidden inside the loom that had fused. Which when i decided that I was "going in" and started to slice the loom open turned out to be in the very first place i looked. And of course i re used the original engine loom which had some issues with the alternator wiring.
G

[Dr Goggles]

Yeah, you guessed I am the kind of guy to be standing in the background pulling faces when they interview someone on TV, waving "Hi Mum" as the camera pans over the crowd, face pressed up against the glass behind the breakfast show, well not really but it fitted with the photo below...Paul McIntosh has built up a Vespa smoker.... http://www.vespalabs.org/  with a KDX donor.....he's a smart and determined cat ....well, smart enough at least to use our car in the background of his shot.....



We've had a great amount of magazine coverage for the car, nearly all positive , no-one more surprised than us ............., I haven't got tired of looking at it yet, and that's saying something because we sure as hail have a lot of pix.One guy had the cheek to suggest that the Rev and I had made our names up.....indeed

[Stan Back]

I can't imagine that!

Stan Back

[willieworld]

Dr.    how fast did the vespa run and does anyone know the speed rating on the tires     willie buchta

[Dr Goggles]

Wilhelm, the Vespa fell short of expectations, but he will be back. Grumm441 ( the short fat guy with the limp , not the tall skinny guy with the limp...that's me apparently)who has been answering your questions about the 10 inchers is tight with him...It was Paul I gather who turned upwiththe letter from the manufacturer of the tyres ......I'll shut up now ...Grumm is the man to PM over this one.
adios.

[jl222]

Dr.    how fast did the vespa run and does anyone know the speed rating on the tires     willie buchta

  Willie if you go to that Vespa site and search around under landspeed the guy has a site about the scooter and what tires he used '' P rated''

  Good luck JL222

    scroll way down to ''dry lake racer'' then when site comes up hit dry lake racer again.

[willieworld]

Dr.  i sent paul an e-mail and he wrote me back he is having the same problem as me  they did raise the tire rating that he is using but still below sheris fuel record--i did find some tires for a 10 in rim that are H and V rated i am going to build sheri a new bike basically around the front wheel and tire --so you can see the importance of having a higher rating than we really need --the good news is the H and V rated are made by the same company and will fit on the same rim  --i dont have the part numbers yet but when i do i will send them to paul---thanks for all of your help it is much appricated                              willie buchta

[grumm441]

Willie
Paul's problem is that he can only run a 3.50 x 10 on the back as even a little bit bigger runs into the engine case
And that picture is Paul internetscooter s vespa
I believe the top speed was 82.201
G

[Dr Goggles]

Ok Ok Ok enough of the scooter chat , crikey , what is this .....ITS THE AUSTRALIAN BELLYTANK PAGE that's what it is....anyway , you're probably wondering what has been happening on the tank front.....the short answer is not very much, at all. I have been busy on eBay looking for the kind of things we might want to put in it , mustering the readies to buy a tough bottom end that we have been offered and generally trying to keep the issue of Salt racing and expenses off the front page at home.....sort of like an anti publicist....it's a covert operation that ticks away silently in the back ground until the end of the year when it explodes into a fully blown panic driven dash to get the car ready again .Best at this point that we can hope for will be a tougher motor .The dreams of changing the rear end to a 2.6 FDR( no , not a dead President , Final Drive Ratio) or lower from 2.77 appear to be a little ambitious at this point.

We may get to build the blower manifold and get the M90 set up organised but that remains to be seen.What will definitely happen is the cosmetic tidy up on thescreen/canopy and some rejigging of the fire system and possibly the front tyres will be changed to Eagles from the current M/T Front runners.

As it stands we're thrilled that Jon chose to use an image of the tank on the Salt Talks T-shirt ! it's a great honor that we haven't taken lightly....along with all the local press we got this year. It just seems that we kind of hit the wall after five years of work to finally get the car to where it belongs, on the salt.

[Reverend Hedgash]

Now that I am a dad   and pretty much living over 200 kilometers from the shed tank days are getting a bit thin on the  ground so we have got to make them count. (Final name for the kid: Alice Orlando Forrest-Jarman... we got lucky, she is great fun already)

Sooooo... having spent half the day fixing the old motorhome's suspension we got to the important stuff of working again on the tank.

Order of the day was to start finalising the design trim for the canopy. I reckon this is one of the most important trim details on the car as it completes the face of the car and creates the attitude.

So much of Hot Rodding is about "stance" and we spent a lot of time getting the wheels in the right position for the right stretched out feel. There was not much we could do about angle of attack but we felt it was very important to have the axles down the centreline to tie up a lot of datums into one simple line.

Now we have a similar design issue where we are trying to smooth out a lot of "looks" or stance of the face into one cohesive whole.

We don't want the car to look too much like a jet fighter (which the glass from our canopy is from ((a Jet Maachi trainer))) as that will take away from the traditional bellytank look too much, but maintaining some hints of it is ok.

We don't want it to be too curvilinear as it will be a bit too spaghetti like I think so a balance is required.

I love the great Italian car designers of the 60's and they have a dreamy balance of the straight line and the curve. They also have a cool blend of the animal and the machine which I think is also the attitude that we are after.

So with much masking tape and adjustment we got to a point which I think is getting very close to what are final canopy trim will be. I am also trying to keep in mind how it will relate to future liveries as although the current paintjob looks grouse it is a little too derivative of SoCal for my liking and we need to explore other ideas.

The two side windows of the main canopy we are treating like eyes. We were influenced by the chopped Pierson coupe for the side windows further back which have a knowledgable squint in them (very appropriate for the salt...), and we are looking at blending in with these lines.

There is a crease running along the side of the body of the car that we haven't quite ended properly at the canopy yet and so part of this exercise is to incorporate and finish this element in the trim. Part of the drawing of this eye then has been trying to give it the right glint of menace, without being stupidly angry or otherwise. We are getting close and it will change the feeling of the car a bit which is not a bad thing.

It is really nice to be able to spend time on details now and not just on the have to's.

I forgot to take an image, hey Stew! Go out into the shed and snap one off willya?

rH+

[wobblywalrus]

Its good that you'all are back to thinking about belly tanks with time to work on the small details.  Scooters are dangerous at any speed based on my experiences.  Beer and adolescence may have been factors in most incidents, but I am afraid to ride them sober or otherwise.

Its a very hot night here and I have been thinking about belly tanks.  Has anyone made a tri-belly tank?  The main tank would be similar to the ones used now and the pilot would be in it.  The right tank would cover the right wheels and the left tank would cover the left wheels.  The wheels would project out of the side tank bottoms like the wheels of a motorcycle streamliner.

As I understand, air turbulence around the naked spinning wheels limits belly tank speed.  Covering the wheels tanks may cure this problem and make belly tanks go faster.

Enough for now, its time to go to bed and work on the Triumph in the morning.  We are in the pre-speed trial panic stage.  Lots to do and little time.