Commiserations to Dennis

[Hamish]

Hi Dennis,

 

Thanks for the latest mag and commiserations over not passing first time.

 

At least it appears that you do not have a major rebuild to do as I had with the rear seat top supports.  That side top support has been an issue since the introduction of SVA, I had to raise the height of the supports on my Q by 25 mm to pass – that was splitting hairs as the supports passed on other q’s and were higher than the statutory requirements but I had used high back seats (seat squab height the same) so they had to change.

 

My examiner was a bit busy on the day of my Beauford IVA retest and generally only went for the things on the list with the exception of the lights, which he insisted were realigned again despite there having been no alterations between tests.

 

I pity anyone taking over the Beauford Company as they really need to examine the design in detail and sort it out once and for all, getting the details right without all of this phaffing around to pass the relevant test of the day.  This includes the chassis with its relevant fixings for the rear seat belts – basically a rear hoop that forms the support for the rear body and is triangulated back to the rear of the chassis, the top fixings for the front seat belts – why not an integrated roll bar that would enable a Targa front roof and better foldability of the soft top, the rear body alignment together with the redesign of the rear wings to actually cover the tyres.  An extension to the front suspension turrets to hold the wings is also in order – I did this as a mod with some studding and a spacer when fitting the lights to make the wings solid to the point that one could sit on them – even so I am not keen for people so to do!  The real bug-bear is the door handles!!!!  I am tempted to go for the Triumph Spitfire type with a push button and blow the authenticity if there is such a thing with this model. 

 

No doubt each builder could add their own list. 

 

Some time in the future, if I keep the car, I would like to make a hood cage similar to the Duesenberg on show at Haynes, which is a mastery of minimalism over Ludditeism.  Out with the Mechano!

 

Good on you for having got this far!

 

Best regards,

 

 

Hamish

[Dennis Murphy]

Thank you for writing. I am cracking on with the required work. Hope to see you at Stoneleigh when we can compare notes.

 

kind regards

 

Dennis

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[Tony Harkett]

Hello Hamish

I see that you have a fancy to duplicate the fabulous Haynes Duesenberg hood frame, well I have already gone down that route (after taking many photographs of the original) and I now have a pretty good one in polished stainless steel and varnished wood on my Beauford and working quite nicely. It is still in need of much fine tuning, but I am balancing that against keeping it operational so that we can use the car.

The whole project is fraught with problems and unseen pitfalls, and so my version is in the spirit of the Duesenberg but with a few ideas stolen from other frames. Once you have worked out the geometry of the mechanism, the biggest hurdle is to get it to fold within the length constraints of the existing body (2 door) and not extend too far rearwards over the boot. I have fitted additional pivot arms close to the originals in order that the mechanism will  automatically 'self-fold' but the advantages of this are that it does not have the uprights at the rear of the doors, it is entirely self supporting from the rear pivot point to the windscreen and it folds easily with one hand, although the hood material can tend to get in the way a bit (just another little hurdle to overcome).

If you would like any information and to benefit from the countless hours of brainstorming please feel free to contact me. I have made two of them so far, one for myself and one for a friend and so development is progressing on two fronts.

Best Regards

Tony Harkett

[adibe...@gmail.com]

hi Tony 

any chance to get the sketches with measurements for the top you made ?   I've seen the top photographs on the Magazine and honestly I'm quiet impressed.   I would love to get one on my two door 

regards     Adrian