Westfield

🥰 🥰 🥰 🥰 🥰 🥰 🥰 🥰 🥰 🥰 I love my Elise!

😬 I love my Elise!

Looking for some advice for my mate… He has recently put up a large shed at the bottom of his garden… it’s about the size of a large single garage. It’s right at the bottom of the garden, well away from any of the houses and does not contravene any planning regulations. Some of the neighbours have been grumbling abut the size of the shed and the fact that its “an eyesore” A week ago he had a letter drop through the door from the local council saying someone had complained that the shed was going to be used for business use. Its not. It’s purely for his hobby which is building sailing dinghy’s. He has not responded yet to the letter, any advice where to go from here? I love my Elise!

Doh I love my Elise!

Ok, i must be missing something here... Care to explain 😬 I love my Elise!

how old? the car, not the girlfriend 😬 I love my Elise!

Have a BTTT on me. Pity this is out of the price range our son has…..Its just the sort of car he wants. I have been trudging around car sales yesterday and today looking for a car for him… freezing cold! I love my Elise!

I toyed with the idea of a Dremel for years… I kept thinking “I will never use that” In the end I bought one and I have to say it’s a most useful tool! Loads of used and it works so well. I would not be without one now. Glad you got the bearing out I love my Elise!

Dremel is your friend here… used full speed with one if the small grinding wheels, grind through the bearing outer shell until it’s very thin and then use a small chisel to break it out… I actually have an old screw drive blade I use for this (I used to do loads of engines years ago) Unlike Peter I have NEVER managed to get a needle roller bearing out with the grease and mandrel method. I have done it with the bronze type bearing but only if it was lose anyway. If they were tight I used to tap it out which is easy as its soft material, then drop a ball bearing in the hole and tighten a bolt in the new thread. Be careful putting the new one in… I have seen them damaged by using a first motion shaft as a mandrel to knock them in. The radius on the shaft damages the bearing. I used to make a mandrel in the lathe with a nice 90 degree sharp shoulder for the purpose. I love my Elise!

Anyone got / used one? I have seen them on Ebay for £25 and wondered if it was worth buying one? I already have one where it uses the tyre to pressurise a container with the brake fluid in but a couple of cars I have tried it on have different types of caps to those in the kit. I love my Elise!

perhaps he is like me... never drives it in the rain *tongue* 😬 For what it’s worth, I have always used Waxoyle…. I had a Lancia Montecarlo which I bought in 1980 and only sold it a few years ago. When I first got it, I sprayed in all the cavities with waxoyle thinned 50/50 with white spirits to get a good soaking and run into all the folds and joints. I then sprayed the underside with some straight out of the tin…. Over the years I did his a few times and the only bits on the car that did eventually rust were the bits I had missed. We all know how bad Lancias rusted! I had also sprayed around the engine bay on the car, which if I am honest looked a bit of a mess; even though I had used the clear stuff… it attracted the dirt somewhat. When I came to sell the car, I washed the old waxoyle off with some white spirits… even though it had been on there 25 years it came off fairly easily! The engine bay came up like it was a new car! There was no rust in any of the seams; brackets, engine mountings still had the paint on them, it came up a treat! The new owner thought the car had been restored! It’s a product I have come to trust, I am sure there are other better products out there but the way it kept that car in good condition for all those years, I have continued to use it…. I love my Elise!

These are the best…. Dead accurate, nothing to go wrong (except breaking the mirror which is cheap and easy to replace) and they can be self calibrated before you use them…. Always amuses me that tyre places offer to check the track for free when you have tyres fitted…. Then pronounce the “track is a mile out mate” I always ask what I “mile out” means and the figures they give never correspond to the figures I get with my carefully calibrated gauge… I love my Elise!

I used a couple of pre S type seas in my old Westfield… they replaced some bench seats which were fine in terms of leg room but the Pre S type sat me too far forward as the back was more “laid back” I ended up taking the trim off the seat back and bending the back until it became more upright, if that makes sense. That gave me 2-3 inches more leg room… very comfy seats…. I love my Elise!

me me me 😬 😬 😬 Oh i forgot.... I have sold the caterham ☹️ 😬 😬 😬 😬 Ex 1997 HPC Owner

Caterham has now gone… Just noticed there is no puncture repair kit in my Elise…. What do you guys recommend/use that don’t use a spare wheel? Ex 1997 HPC Owner

Very very nice 1997 HPC

🥰 🥰 🥰 🥰 must resist.... must resist... 😬 1997 HPC

*thumbup*My old Westfield had a receipt in its history file that confirmed the engine had been built by Steve Parker. It had done a fair few mile when I bought it, I did around 10,000 miles and the subsequent new owner who still keeps in touch has done a further 15,000 miles. It was a 155BHP engine specification and went like hell! I guess it’s a thumbs up from me! He was also helpful when I called him to ask a few questions about the engine 1997 HPC

Will we be having pictures? *nono* 😬

Someone buy this quick! 🥰 LHD I presume? Must resist, must resist… *nono* *nono* *nono* *nono*

Burton Power still do these by the look of it, they do top and bottom mounted ones… linkage 1997 HPC

From what I remember Roger King posting once, its best not to use a spring at the outer of the spindles as this leads to slight misalignment of the butterflies due to twisting. This causes poor idling. I have used various set ups over the years, see the links below. One of the problems with the Weber carbs is that the internal springs break. (Dellorto have external springs) If you are luck it breaks at the bottom and just dangles there. If you are not, it breaks at the top and drops down and jams the throttle open! Not good news for sprinting. I have ALWAYS removed the internal springs because of this and I believe most racers do the same. I then rely on 2 external springs. I like the Weber linkage. It comes with 2 external springs and gives a good throttle action which makes a lot of difference to drivability. Over the years I have fitted many different sorts of the cheaper variety… never been very good and I always went back to the genuine article. Expect to pay around £80 though… Westfield linkage caterham linkage 1997 HPC Edited by - Tony L on 20 Apr 2008 16:55:05

Better to use the proper oil... you can get this from motorcycle shops for motorcycle front forks. They sell different grades as well. It has an anti froth additive I think, smells like cat pee though! I used to use it in the struts on my old Lancia! The top seals weren’t available so I used to take off the lip spring and shorten it… this applied a bit of extra pressure on the centre strut and stopped the leaks ! 1997 HPC

A medium grad aluminimum oxide grit will clean it up a treat…. But, this leaves a very “open” surface which quickly corrodes and does not stay looking good for long. Oily or grubby finger prints are difficult to remove. If you lightly grit blast it first then use a medium or course glass bead, this has the effect of closing the surface and the finish lasts a lot longer, especially if you spray it now and then with some duck oil or WD40. Probably the best suggestion has already been made for something that sits under the car, paint it. For a really good long lasting job, a ligh grit blast, followed by a de grease and a coat of etch primer and topped off with a good coat of pain will last. If you omit the etch primer the paint will quickly peel, flake. If you do blast it make sure that EVERY bit of grit is removed… it lurks in all the little nooks n crannies! Not quite the same but there are a couple of pictures on the link below of a Lotus engine case that has been grit and then bead blasted and also a couple of some DCOE carbs that were bead blasted with fine glass bead. With these the key is thorough masking off to stop the glass bead getting into the insides! Fine glass bead is as fine as flour! bead blasted cases Edited by - Tony L on 10 Apr 2008 19:30:45

Ralph Just measured a new 185 60 13 for you with a digital calliper. New tread depth is 5.41 mm total tread depth measured in the centre grove. Also remember that tread wear is not linier…. When there is lots of tread they wear faster then when they are close to the limit. 1997 HPC