OK so here goes......here is a pic of My Fug-4, with 1.5 Alfa-Sud motor, am now giving it the low rider "street" look......bog horrible tyres have now been dumped for a set of low profile items......now I can actually steer the thing and go round corners......unlike before :D

OK boys and girls, I thought its about time to post some updated pics of my fug-4.....since I bought it in October 2004, I have done the following:-

New Nankang 50 series low profile tyres, 205 front, 235 rear both on 15" rims (chineese yokohomas so I'm told)

New slotted front cycle wings

New 8mm Polycarbonate windscreen - took 3 weeks to do!......its the stuff police riot shields are made from aparrently

new yellow 4-point seat belts

re-sprayed and re-positioned rear mudguards

removed the front rear and side nerf bars

sprayed wing mirrors, and air box cover

whip arial with yellow flag - very handy for car park finding your fug

new yellow roll bar padding cover

12" steering wheel

empi-hurst trigger shifter

sorted the fan electrics - kind of

sorted the front suspension with the addition of some bump stops to limit travel

next on the cards is a new exhaust system and a lowered front beam, also some spring dampers in order to stiffen up the rear suspension as the rear bounces around way too much.......

Hi ya Knighty

The fug looks great I must say :D

Viking, good to see ya back buddy....any luck on getting a fug?

I take it it's not a distant memory because your still on the forum site.

I ended up buying that low slung one on e-bay. It came up for sale again. That'll be the 3rd time in as many months - probably not a good sign.....

All the best mate,

Steve

looking good,might just see it in the flesh-so to speak,you going to harrogate or dorset kit car shows,i plan to do both,doing harrogate only on the sunday though,like the engine ,what radiator do you use

Nice outfit Knighty! I see you've been to the same minimalist school as dvd8n. :D Reversing up-to walls and such must be fun. ;)

Hi Guys, thanks for the comments

the rad is a standard alfa-sud 1.5 rad, unfortunatley the rad switch has been causing me grief, when I bought it, the switch was blown, so I replaced it with an intermotor item......then that one blew too......so replaced it again, this time also incorporated a relay in order to reduce the current through the rad switch.......it blew again.......and my motor lost about 3 litres of coolant, god knows how it didnt blow the head gasket, I was very lucky........I'm now convinced the intermotor rad switches are crap - no surprises there, intermotor have a terrible reputation for reliability and quality.

Nope, I cant say I plan to do those shows, they sound way too far away from Essex!.....if your near Essex any time bell me on 0787 9427945.

yup the minimalist street racer type look is my thing!

have just finished welding together my new exhaust, and have fitted a new lowered front beam, and new indicators, the front ride height is now 6 inches.......am well pleased with the results, here are some pics......I get married on may 20th, and dont come back from honey moon till mid June, but am hoping to get it road worthy for the meet up in the seven oaks area soon after I return.......only little jobs to do now like MOT, TAX insurance, and fith the headlights!

Exhausts looks much better B)

what they off remind me of Norton bike exhaust ?

(y)

from a 1300cc Harley Davidson Road King, the pair cost me £50 from e-bay.....there are plenty more on e-bay......being original harley items they have a nice thick layer of chrome and are good quality, the kit car type silencers were about £100 each, and I dare say - as I was using two, that it would have still been really loud......these are just right.....not too noisy, but not too quiet!

My fug is now doing a very good impression of a boat......this weekend I made good progress and managed to remove the engine on friday, then saturday the gearbox came out, then sunday I stripped out the front uprights in readiness to have them mechined to accept a bump steer kit, which allows the steering ball joint to be attached upside down, and keeps the tie-rod at a more sensible angle.

Have decided to ship the gearbox off to cog-box, as the ring gear and pinion upgrade is actually quite involved, you need a bench press, lots of spare shims, seals and gaskest etc, I dont want to do it myself and find out it wasnt correct then needs to come out again to be fixed, also the input shaft has a lot of play so I think it needs a new bearing.......and sure enough, I have found a load of other bits that need fixing, so I dont have time to do the box.

turns out my gearbox is an AA code, which is from a 1200, sure enough the diff ratio is 4.3ish......the worst for motorway crusing, so the conversion to a 3.88 will be ideal for reduced revs on the motorway.

Looks like someones been busy ;).
Out of curiousity, what is the gearbox upgrade? As well as higher gearing, strenghning I presume?

looking good mate, are you putting the smaller headlights on it? :)

the gearbox upgrade is purely a bill of clean health for a 40 year old box plus the ratio change.......I dropped the box off at cog-box on tuesday and had a chat with Peter and he was a real help, he also said there were 3 types of 4th gear, turns out mine is currently the worst one, so he will be changing 4th gear from a 0.93 ratio to a 0.88, and the diff will be changed from a 4.3 to a 3.88, the net result is:

originally at 70 mph it was revving to about 4200rpm in 4th

now at 70 mph it will rev to about 3400rpm in 4th

so a 800 rpm reduction in 4th, and it will now be slap in the middle of the max torque figure for the engine. and I have also found out the alfas cruse at 3400 in top gear when at 70mph, so its spot on.

Peter did mention about super diffs and uprated side plates, but I said I dont drag race it, and I'm very careful when pulling away. so that stuff is just not needed me thinks......I'm bracing myself for an £800 bill anyway, so I dont need to add more cost :blink:

Hey Linden, I had the new headlamps fitted when I was at Stoneleigh!......those pics above are old ones ;)

managed to grab half a day in the garage today, I have had the uprights machined to accept the bump-steer kit, so now the tie-rod ball-joints are now on the underside of the steering arm of the upright.............fitted the uprights to the fug today and it is looking much more sensible steering rod angles!.......

after that, I have re-positioned the fuel filter, pump and coil, and wired in the new wiring loom section for the 1.7 alfa motor........

cog-box have nearly finished re-building my gearbox, will hopefully have it back for next weekend, and I'm preying I get it back into the fug before baby No2 arrives........the missus is now well round as shes 38 weeks gone :blink:

how are you finding the cooling side with the rad down there ? mines up on the cage so no rear vision but plenty of air when i am green laning it.

Hi Squirrel, with the original alfa-sud radiator, yes it overheated on a hot sunny day once while on a motorway stint, but on cool days it was fine, I knew it was borderline before it overheated, as its rather obvious that it was revieving minimal air flow, so I have since fitted a bigger & deeper radiator, see the pics on this link

http://forums.fugitives.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=655

the lower edge really does a good job of scooping up the air runing underneath the car, I didnt want a radiator mounted behind me, as it blocks the rear vision, not much air flow for me, as I'm running a wind screen and I think it ruins the look of a fug, but that just my opinion!........

what fug do you have?........cant say I have seen you on the forum before?.....any pics?

Knighty isn't that 2 in just over 2 years? - congratulations man....there's 360 days between my 2 boys - sorted now though we've bought a TV! Good job my Fug is a 4 - will need extra space one day for baby seats!

well the baby was due saturday just gone so its been mental busy time in the garage for me!........

gearbox is now back from peter at cog-box, fully re-built with a 3.88 diff and 0.88 4th gear, so motorway crusing in 4th has reduced the engine speed by about 800rpm........gearbox went in saturday, refreshed 1.7 cloverleaf 8v motor went in sunday, no sparks to start with.....had a fiddle yesterday and it briefly coughed into life, god knows what I did, I suspect a bad earth.......next job is to put the wheels back on and wheel it out of the garage for the first time this year B)

the wife went ape-5hit at me last night, trying to start the buggy in a garage under my 2 year old sons beadroom at 8.15pm in the evening while he is sleeping was not a good move on my behalf :(

tadahhhhhh B) B) B) .....all done!......started it up this morning, adjusted the idle and it runs like a dream, no smoke or rattles / knocks, took it out for a spin up and down the road and the clutchwas slipping, turns out the hydraulic clutch had a bit too much pre-load on the lever arm, loosened it off a few turns of the adjusting bolt and hey presto, was fine on the next run.

but I must say I'm a little worried the spacer bush between the VW release bearing and the alfa clutch is a little too long, but it was cerainly biting ok on the second run.

managed to set the front toe settings too, so all now ready for an MOT

well done. Maybe you could take it to the show then??.

nope, I'm busy that weekend, saturday I have a family gathering, Monday I have a 3hr enduro kart rake at Lydd in Kent, in Club-100 2 strokes....cant wait!......2nd nipper is still about to arrive, so I must do the fatherly thing and muck in.......my time is very limited nowdays, hence I paid someone else to re-build my gearbox, in my younger days I would have tackled it myself.

Checked the hydraulic clutch arm travel again last night, and its getting caught up on the mangled ali butterfly adjusting nut, so I loosened it right off and sure enough I can feel about 2mm of free play on the spacer between the vw release bearing and alfa clutch.......phew!......I was pooping myself the release bearing was too long. So I'm 100% sure the clutch is fully biting ok.

took the fug out for a hard run last night in preparation for todays MOT - had a good fiddle with the clutch release mechanism to ensure no pre-load and it pulls away ok, but when I acellerate hard the engine just spins away and the fug slowly increases speed.........bugger, I'm now convinced the clutch is shot.......so just ordered a new 3-piece clutch........

now let that be a lesson to me and everyone, inspect your clutch when changing engines.......but still going to MOT it tonight..........will start the clutch change this weekend.......missus and new nipper allowing........by the way , on the 13th April we had an 8Lb 8oz girl which we named Penny, all going well!

well congrats on the little girl, hope all is well. And not so congrats on the clutch, what a bummer. Anyway did it go through the mot??.

Congratulations on the arrival of Penny Fugitive Knighty! :lol:

I like that anme it has a ring to it ;)

Congratulations :D :D




....so, is it now fixed and road worthy?

Congratulations on the extended family Knighty !

best wishes to you and your family

congratulations

cheers guys, yeah, the fug flew through its MOT - thank god......just stripped out all the necessary stuff in order to crack-off the engine to do the clutch change, its actually not that bad as I originally thought........but didnt actualy take the engine out out, as I'm waiting for a bike central scissor stand to arrive (£50 from ebay) as it will support the engine better while working on it, as when I balanced the engine on a trolley jack during removal and installation last time, I promised myself I would never do it again as it was a tad dangerous!

more frustrating progress today, whipped the clutch out, and it wasnt as bad as I expected, the old plate measures 7.2mm thick, the new one is 8.2mm......book says 6.2 minimum....erm????......so it must be something else........measured the bobbin which floats on the input shaft, and sure enough the numbers dont stack up.......it turns out where the thrust bearing has been changed from an early to a late style, it is now pre-compressing the clutch by about 3-4mm when installed............faaaaarrrrkkkkk.....:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry..... how very frustrating, anyway, am going to take the bobbin into work on tuesday and machine it down by about 4mm in length, so the clutch will fully disengage when the pedal is not applied : ........but will deffo be ready for Stonor!

just been tinkering with my fug all summer and thought its about time for some update pics......so what have I done......slash-cut the front wings, changed the 1.5 to a 1.7 engine, fitted roll cage padding, just fitted the rear LED lights, and today have cut the rear off the rear cycle wings which looks much better I must say........also removed the fog and reversing lights just to tidy it up a tad......and added two 9" cooling fans with a duct to the rear radiator to keep things nice and cool

next mods will be fitting some LED front indicators to the leading edge of the front stash-cut cycle wings, have just ordered 2 off 30cm LED amber strips from Hong kong, a snip at £9.50 delivered.......am also toying with fitting a front splitter as the front does look a bit odd and lost on a fug........I also have the rear wing from my old formula renault single seater still in the garage, so that may end up on the rear too

Nice one Knighty B)

Can't really remember the summer just odd days, most of which I was at work :ph43r:

Lets hope 2009 is better Fug weather, otherwise I'm going to have to make a roof

well its christmas, and in line with this time of year there are tumble-weeds rolling accross the fug-forum, so thought I'd post an update on progress.........I have bought a pair of Sabelt 6-point harness's, black with yellow labels! with 3" straps.....courtesy of a mega bargain from Mr Ebay......as the lack of crotch straps on my current 4 point harness's really worried me if I had a heavy shunt, as I suspect I would have just submarined under them.

Also my exhaust is shite.......so I have bought a single oval silencer and 90 degree bend from merlin motorsport, and simply welded it to the standard alfa 1.3/1.5 boxer exhaust which is 1-3/8" primary OD, which is perfect for the sort of power levels on the 1.7 (120bhp).....I fitted it up yesterday and it now sounds perfect, quite raspy, but not too loud....which I was worried about as the silencer was an absorbtion type, which is basically straight-thru!.......and it now exits just infront of the passenger side rear wheel, havent driven it yet, but I'm sure it will be a vast improvement on the previous system which was way too short, with primary OD's which were about 1/4" inch too big.......even just blipping the throttle it was noticably more responsive.

am now also seriously considering putting the radiator in the fug-nose......but just toying with the idea

also I dropped the main bearings off the con-rods to inspect them - in order to find the source of my tapping noise - but for an engine that has done 90K they looked like new, so i'm now convinced its a sticky hydraulic tappet, which is a common failure........I bought 8 from my local motor factors for £108......then did the corect search on ebay only to find out they cost £50.......fook :angry: ......you live and learn!

anyways, have a merry old christmas and prosperous new year to all you crazy muther fuggers ;)

Knighty you're making me feel way too guilty! I still haven't fully finished the GP yet (so near yet so far it seems), though I did manage to get the Zetec out of the old Mondeo in preparation for the UVA. I'm still waiting for an adaptor kit to arrive so I can start modding it to fit. I'm hoping to make some serious progress in the New Year though as the target has to be to get it done for the Stoneleigh show. How realistic this is is anyone's guess!!

Your 4 has got the full bodykit on and I'd be interested on what you think about it. I had been tempted to go naked :o but have heard that flys and stones in the face and crotch don't make driving much fun :blink: so I may have to conceed...

Another quick question - your lights look like the streetfighter bike ones with the side mounts - is that right and do they work well. I'm looking out for all sorts of bits I can get together now in preparation...

Have a good Xmas

Hi Jimbo - body wise I'd say its ok to lose the side pods but plan on keeping the nose cone and windscreen.......I have driven with and without, and I just find without a screen to be nothing but farkin dangerous......but others will disagree for sure

yup, thats right bates street fighter style front lamps, they wont pass SVA but will pass an MOT no probs, very popular on kit cars now.

I don 't run a screen, and for appearance really don't want to. That said Knighty is, of course absolutely right, it is dangerous and pretty stupid not to. I'm going to do a screen very soon, due to the fact that teeth and eye sight are a little more delicate than a lump of Plexi or laminated glass. I will make the screen removable for driving round town, but feel too vulnerable on main roads, especially as I have no mudguards either. I'm too tall to get away with a crash helmet, but concidered a paintball mask. Please remember, Polycarbonate or lamimated glass is fine, but some acrylics would be just as dangerous as having nothing at all. Choice between Poly and glass is a tough one, I've worked with poly for 25yrs and it's not the answer, not sure if glass is either though. Thing is weight, that's where poly wins every time, if you can't get it trade, it's probably about the same price as glass as well. Guess it really depends on on use, road use Poly, cleaning the mud off the screen with the wipers, then it's glass.

well its the last day of my christmas vacation so thought I'd post an update on progress.

The new xxhaust is now made, I have taken it off to finish weld the silencer brackets and apply some heat insulating tape, as the gearbox and fuel lines are just above the taped up section.......the old system weighs 12Kg.....new system is 9Kg......which is nice.......from the pic below you can also see how far forward the new system reaches.......I'm not the first person to do this with an alfa engine......I think retro buggys fug-2 did exactly the same.......for my 1.7 engine I used the exhaust manifold from a 1.3/1.5 sud which is 1-3/8" OD pipe, which is just right, I honestly believe alfa cocked up with the exhaust design for the 1.7 engines, as 1-5/8" is just way too big, which kills low and mid range performance.

Also have now installed both 6-point seat belts......which I must say I'm thrilled with, now I'm well and truly planted in the seat, and I just cant slide or move anywhere.......4-point harness's are a touch to risky for the fug seats as they lay back quite far, you really do need the crotch straps.....so I advise a 5 or 6 point harness

Looking really nice Knighty! :D love the colour coding puts my fug to shame . Did you have any problems moting it without a fog light ? im assuming it was built after 1986 as my mot tester had a look in their bible for me and it states that any q plated vehicle registerd after 1986 must show a fog light ? just wonderd ?

Hi Jacko - it seems a contentious issue this fog lights polava!......read this post.

http://forums.fugitives.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=847

.

Hmm maybe i should have not mentioned it to my mot man and just winged it ill have to put one on now as he will definately notice thanks to my big mouth :angry: still plenty of led ones on evilbay so ill look now cheers bud