MatthewD's Westwood S1200 Build [2016 Build-Off Entry]

MatthewD wrote:

Hi,
I played some Matt black on the front rims, but it all started to wrinkle up. Why is this? Need help!

kid you need to go to bed lol, Its been crap weather for spraying/painting over the last few days for sure, had you a primer down before this coat?

Oh I know I should. And Yes, I did have primer on before this coat. Maybe I should wait till it warms up a bit.

I'm debating on whether to run the engine with out the governor (bypassing it) or try and get a throttle body. I'm now planning on doing a foot throttle

Possibly messed up due to the cold, unless you primed it first and didn't let it dry enough or something like that. For instance, most spray paints say to make all coats within one hour or else wait 4 days. Something like that anyway. I think I had that happen to me once where the paint wrinkled up. The only other issue I've had with paint is high humidity. Too high humidity with black paint and it turns greyish as it drys. All the important specs are on the can though. A couple of cans I've had small chunks spray out now and then. Maybe they were sitting for a long time and had some dry paint inside. That messed up one of my engine shrouds.

Yeah. I'll try and get them painted again when it warms up.

Got some more work done this weekend. Clutch is almost done.

This is the butchered Rally clutch pedal, with a wee piece of bar welded on the end to slide into the original clutch pedal.





Made a bracket to hold the left side of the clutch pedal.


Rough mock up of how its going to go


Welding in the bracket


Clutch linkage bit spot welded in


Clutch in


Clutch out


After this, its just fine tuning really, but the bulk of it is complete.

Got some work on the front axle done today. I had to make the linkage that connects the two spindles as that was missing.

Dug around and found two bits that I could use. A steering arm from the parts Rally and a shifter linkage that had broken and been rewelded so many times that it was threw in the scrap pile.


First job was to remove the bit that had the adjustable arms on it off the rest of the shifter linkage.


Then I had to cut the adjustable arm linkage in half and trim the ends off the Rally front axle linkage.


Then I cabled tied the bits together ready for welding it.


Burned her in.



The frontaxle usually sits infront of this axle hanger but I dont have the front one so I'm thinking of making one or putting the axle behind the axle carrier.


After this, my welder blew a fuse so I quit for the night.

When I was cleaning the 12hp carb (for testing) I found that there was no jet in it. So I'll have to look for that. I also painted the shroud gloss white.

Looks like a really cool project cant wait ti see it

Thanks.
I have been sandblasting the rims and the primer below the topcoat is just mush so maybe it wasn't totally dry before I got the black on. It's still tough to get off though. Got a second coat on my shroud as well.

Awesome

Nice. I should repaint my tractor, I did it once. I had an auto body shop paint one, it turned out nice, but It was a tractor so it got dirty and the paint got scratched. Cost me an arm and leg, but looked good.

Yeah I'm just doing it myself with spray cans.

Just realized the stock westwood colors are sort of like Maico colors.....

Sort of. It's more orange though than red.

So, doing some work on the front axle. Will post pics when it's all done. I'm doing a pivoting front axle. I'm not sure whether to cut into the front axle to take out the bushing or not. Not sure how else I would get it out tbh.

Your not using the bushing as it was from the factory?

No I'm taking the bushing out of the rally front axle to weld it in to the Westwood one

Rally front axle donating it's center pivot bushing.


Bushing being welded in to the Westwood front axle. The gaps will later get plated in.


Test fit. I did actually weld a piece of steel plate onto the rear front axle carrier to accept the bolt to allow the axle to pivot. Usually they are fixed on Westwoods.


This shows how much potential flex there is with the axle being forward of the frame. There is actually more, just my axle stand doesn't go high enough!


Start of the front mount/bracket. This only serves to stop the front axle going all over the place when it pivots so it doesnt need to be extra strong.


Bracket to mount it to the frame welded on. I just used pieces of steel that I had laying around to make this.


Finished mount. Got some spare front tyres on as I still have to get the other ones on the painted rims.



Also got my rear rims painted. Using Chevrons this time, instead of the turfs I intended.


Made a spacer for the right hand side spindle just like the one on my other Westwood. You can also see a bit of how the stock Westwood front axle configuration works. The main reason I done it the way I did is because I was missing nearly all the parts and had to make them. So I made it better.



Next thing to do is working on the steering (I have it mostly done, just need to set it up right) and the steering arm for the left hand side spindle. Watch this space!

Right, another update. This one covers the fabrication of the left steering arm.

This was my first attempt, a bit of tube welded to the top of the spindle with a length of plate welded to it with a hole in it.



This didnt work because the tubing was too thin to get good penetration and the welding just broke. So............ a Mk2 was on the way.

This is the Mk2 steering arm. It's just really a piece of Westwood deck hanger, put in the stove until it was red hot and then bent and a 'semi circle' cut in one end with the grinder.


This is the finished one welded onto the spindle. So far this has held up when we took it for a 'test drive', towing it with the wee quad until the back left tyre nearly come off because the C-clip was missing!



Like the clutch pedal, it still needs some more 'fine tuning' but we're getting there

Thats a neat way to get the steering arm out of the way. How sharp does the steering get?

Steering and your clutch is always a pain to get figured out. I'd rather just work on making bumpers on my stuff. Oh well. Coming along anyway.

Thanks, steering is quite sharp, about just over half a turn lock to lock.

I've been sitting the last few days just looking at it and wondering whether I should go for a more sophisticated approach to building this. I'm thinking of putting in a V-twin (likely somewhere around 14hp) and front suspension like I've seen a few of the guys doing it this year. Also may go for an 820 and bigger tyres now too.




I need your opinions on it, you're the experts, I'm not!

So, apologies in advance. I'm quite renowned for changing my mind with my projects and this build is no exception.

When I first planned this, I was going for a simple, basic tractor for general use. But then, I already have one, my Westwood T1200. So I've decided to turn this in to a go-anywhere offroader. I'm also gonna run 18" tyres all round and I'm doing front suspension as well. The rear is going to be lifted 1-2" and if I decide that I'm gonna use the MST-205 that I have bolted in now, I'll lock it. I would like to find a 12hp pull start Briggs for this one aswell, my uncle has one on a go-kart which he has always said that he's for vamping up with a Peerless 801. It has a Foote 3 speed at the minute, bit like a 700. I might get it if he never does anything with it.

Anyway, I hope you have endured that block of speech and I'll have an update coming very soon.

Huh? Need some speech man!

Anyway, due an update.

Ripped the clutch mech I done apart (was gonna get in the way so will redesign it later when everything is in place) and took the pivioting front axle brackets off.

Got my shocks in the post, seem reasonably good quality. They're rated for 200lbs each and are about 8 inches long.


Started extending the frame to mount the shocks. I'm aware it does need more welding! This will become the front bumper and will also serve as a mounting point for the hood.


Then started on the trailing arm suspension. I have this setup on two of my go-karts and it works well, so I thought I'd try it on this. Got some pretty good welds for an old stick welder!




Here's the rough mock up for the front.


The rear will need to be lifted 1-2 inches because of the bigger tyres going on the front and the front suspension which lifts the front end to avoid the thing bottoming out on the frame. Will probably just make some spacers with 40mm box. Still waiting on getting a set of 8 inch rims for the front so I can do my measurements.

Are you going to keep the front axle tipped out a bit on the swing arm? Unless you already welded it, but then the spindles would be straight up and down at rest and have a little rake when the suspension pushes down. Looking good. Stick welding takes some getting used to compared to wire setups. At least for me.