The Build
Preparation
Getting Started
The Chassis
The Bodywork
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
December 2007
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
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Anglesey June '08
Cadwell July '08
Saturday 13th January 2007
Ha, yes, still alive! Hardly a week's gone by since last March that I haven't thought 'Really must get out to the garage and get going on the fury again'. It's been a combination of just having a busy life with a few different priorities and the frustration I was experiencing with the lack of progress. The bodywork's a right royal pain in the ass - it doesn't fit the chassis properly and there are no reference points to work from. It's also fairly asymmetric, so you can't just mark points on the chassis left and right and line it up. It all has to be juggled together in it's floppiness until it sort of sits on the chassis roughly straight. The main thing I think is getting the wheel arches lined up right on the wheels, with roughly equal overhangs in each corner.
So here I am on a Saturday afternoon thinking 'Where do I start? And can I remember where I left off?'. Answer to the first question is to clear a bit of space around the car, it's all got a bit cluttered. And it's not helped by the fact that the Fury's sharing the garage with a stablemate that I don't want to either leave standing outside or shower with dust! I part-ex'd the GT3 in August for a lovely Ferrari 360 Spider and I suspect getting the dust off the soft top would be a bit of a pain :-)
The answer to the second question is actually, yes, I can remember exactly where I was on the build. And I decide the first step is to get the front section of the body level. I decide the easiest way is going to be to leave the front mount bolts where they are as pivots and make the rear holes into arc shaped slots so that by slackening the rear bolts I can raise or lower each side. This is pretty easy to do and soon I've got the top of each wheel arch an equal height. Visually the clearance around each wheel looks and feels about the same, so that's some progress.
Next I have a look again at the front bulkhead. I don't seem to have documented it previously but in an effort to make the main tub removable Martin Bell recommended chopping the front bulkhead off it, which I duly did. I half wonder whether this was a good idea or not, it makes the whole lot floppier and introduces more difficulties getting it all to fit together properly! After half an hour generally fiddling about with it I develop a small concern that the front section is on lightly skewed to one side, but I run out of time and need to abandon for the day.
Sunday 14th January 2007
I lined the rear section up against the front today to check it wasn't all skewed. It looks like it isn't, as the rear wheel arches are in the right place and the inside rear lip of the tub seems pretty much parallel to the rear chassis cross-members. So I then slid it back and spent a bit of time lining up and marking the bulkhead so I can trim off the front edge. Once I'd trimmed the front edge straight I spent a bit of time sanding all the edges and corners. I was thinking of rivnutting the chassis and fixing the bulkhead with screws, but have decided that there's no benefit in having it removable, so I may as well rivet it. In which case it'll need painting - I haven't decided what colour the car's going to be yet, but I guess the bulkhead's best done black anyway. I'm not going to start painting it now, so, what next ...
I may as well make a start on sorting out the wiring at the front end. Once I've dug out the wiring diagram that came with the loom it's easy enough to separate out the wires for left and right lights/indicators, and there are 2 wires for horn and fan. One's labelled horn, the other the supply for horn and fan. After a bit of thinking I suss this out - the fan needs to be wired via the radiator switch, so the sensible thing to do is run the live feed via the horn, fan and rad switch with all 3 in series. I can then take an earth to the fan and rad switch, and connect the other horn wire to the horn as a switched earth. I make a bit of progress but realise the loom doesn't incorporate any earth wires, and I haven't got any. After a fruitless trip to B&Q I decide I can't really get much further till I get that.
Tuesday 16th January 2007
On Sunday evening I sent an order off to Vehicle Wiring Products, but that hasn't come yet. I did get a couple of reels of earth cable at Halfords so I can make a bit of progress in the meantime. A bit of crimping and soldering saw the rad switch, fan and horn wired in and that section of loom across the front of the car including the nearside lighting taped up and secured using some self-adhesive cable tie mounts. I couldn't do the offside lighting sub-loom as I ran out of the heavier 17amp wire, not much on those reels from Halfords! I also want to run a wire for a manual dash switch for the rad fan. I did finish off the wires to the brake light switch and had a look at the wire for the hydraulic fluid level warning but don't know where the reservoir's going yet.
Once I've got that little bit done there isn't a great deal of wiring that I can get on with until I've got a few more bits in there - like an engine, the dash etc. I sat in the engine bay for a little while thinking about what I should get on with next. I suppose really the next step is to get the bulkhead painted and fixed onto the chassis, but I think the engine is fairly imminent. It's been sitting there a long time, hope it's OK! It needs a few things doing to it before installing it in the chassis - the water pump needs removing to fit the dry sump oil pump and the clutch springs need changing. Also give it a general clean/polish. It might be an idea to remove the spark plugs and drop a bit of oil down the cylinders and leave that in there to soak before trying to turn it over.
Wednesday 17th January 2007
The stuff from VWP didn't arrive so I gave them a bell to check they'd received the order. It was apparently posted out Monday :-)
Had a look at the bulkhead and decided to make a start on some aluminium brackets to fix the sides to the chassis. Soon got into it and an hour later they were done and drilled. Also had a chat with my brother about painting - I'm tempted to spray the bodywork myself, but he reckons it's not worth all the hassle if I can get it done for a reasonable price locally (which I can). Problems include shelling out for a decent gun, dust, partitioning off part of the garage with polythene, more dust, keeping the temperature up etc. Leaning towards pearlescent orange at the moment ...
Thursday 18th January 2007
The stuff from VWP arrived first thing this morning, so once home from work I spent an hour or so finishing off the front loom, including adding a wire for a dash mounted switch for the rad fan. I wasn't sure what current it would draw so decided to run it to check - just under 6A. The front end of the engine bay is looking tidy now with the loom wrapped, although I haven't fixed it yet, I'll wait till I see where the engine mounting brackets go first.
After nosh I managed another hour - first took some piccies of the sections of loom up front and the scuttle now it's trimmed to size:
Next I marked the chassis for the little brackets to hold the side of the scuttle/bulkhead and drilled those ready for rivetting. Then marked and drilled along the front of the GRP for the large flange rivets I plan to use to fix it in place. I'll need to sort out the tunnel top before fixing it, and spent a little while grubbing round to find all the aluminium panels. The one in question will need a hole nibbling away at the side to allow the loom to pass through it. Clearly the scuttle itself will need a few holes for wiring, fuse box etc.
Friday 19th January 2007
The good news? Day off today. The bad ... I was working overnight last night. So got home at 8.30am looking forward to a bit of garage time :-)
I need to cut a strip of aluminium to trim the rear edge of the scuttle bulkhead to give a flange for the rear of the bonnet and the front of the main body section. Looking through the bits and pieces I've got I haven't really got anything long enough. Ho hum ... don't really fancy a patchwork quilt, being curved I suspect I'd have trouble getting it right. Also I need something to extend the mounting column for my gear shift lever - when I had the boss welded on I had it extended by an inch or so to get the steering wheel a little closer and higher, meaning the shift lever is now going to be a bit too far away from the wheel. I reckon a block of aluminium would do it so later on I'll nip out to see if I can get both.
In the meantime I riveted the two brackets I'd made to support the sides of the scuttle onto the chassis. I also unwrapped the last package I received from KCW months ago - it had my Hi-spec rear calipers in it, with some pads, and my modified clutch pedal. It was also supposed to have 2 carbon fibre spats in there for the rear wheel arches but there was only one with a note to say the second was to follow. Unfortunately I heard last Saturday that Martin's given up work as he had to have surgery for a subdural haemorrhage :-( Very sad news, he's a really nice guy. I'll wait till the dust's settled up there and try giving the lads a ring. If no joy I'm sure I can make some in GRP.
Late morning I nipped over to see Terry O'Hara who has a little fabrication/welding workshop on the way to Ammanford. He had a nice 8 foot by 2 foot offcut of aluminium sheet, and although he doesn't keep aluminium bar he had a length of square tube 1 inch square with 3mm walls that looks like it'll do the job for my gear shift. I also called in John Rickard's in Pontarddulais and got a couple of cans of spray paint. I've decided I'll spray the scuttle myself but get Ian Davies to do a professional job on the main bodywork.
Once I've cut a 1.5 inch wide aluminium strip I realise I'm low on the smaller rivets, so nip out to Swansea Fasteners for some of those. Time then to bite the bullet and get the strip fixed on - Martin had said to use some body filler underneath it to get it to seat on the lip in a more stable fashion, and I wasn't really looking forward to this as I figured there was plenty of scope to make a dog's breakfast of it! I drilled a hole in the centre of the strip/scuttle, mixed some filler and started riveting working out from the middle to make sure I was getting it seated tight to the curve. It was actually easier than I expected and I was quite pleased with the result.
Next job is the spacer for the gear shift. This was fairly straightforward - cut it to length and drill a pair of holes in each side making sure they're spaced exactly right for the existing holes and the little rose joints the lever's mounted on. This looks like it's going to work fine, but it's tricky getting the nuts on inside the tube and I run out of time before getting it fitted. By 5pm I'm getting a bit knackered anyway and having trouble thinking straight, so decide it's likely to be a whole heap easier tomorrow - I only had about 2 hours sleep last night.
Saturday 20th January 2007
First job of the day is to clear some toys out of the garage to make a bit of space, so the Aprilia and the Ferrari get to sit outside in the sunshine for the day. I decide to dismantle the spacer as I want to paint it black before fitting, so off come the rose joints and on goes some primer. The aluminium strip on the scuttle needs its ends trimming, then I sand off the scraps of filler and tidy it all up ready for some paint. Getting adequate coverage used up my whole tin of plastic primer.
Next is to fit the forward tunnel top panel, which needs a hole cutting in it to allow the loom up from the tunnel into the scuttle area. The nibbler makes short work of it, followed by a bit of tidying with the file then superglue some trim strip as a grommet to protect the loom. I'd forgotten how much like hard work it is putting rivets in by hand until I fixed the little brackets yesterday. Today the air powered rivet gun makes a reappearance :-)
By this time the primer's well dry, so I used up a whole 500ml can of black paint on the scuttle. I decide to make a start on the engine next and pull it out on its stand. Removed the spark plugs, then removed the cam cover to have a look. I suppose I'd had a nagging concern that I'd take it off to find the cams all rusty and pitted from standing for so long, but no, they were shiny and immaculate. I used the oil can to squirt some oil over each cam lobe and down the plug holes. I had a couple of other errands to do so nipped out on the Aprilia. Once the errands were done called in JT's to get a new filter, plugs and 4 litres of oil, then up to Halfords for another can of black satin finish paint. I tried to find out the model year from the engine number at the dealers, but they couldn't tell me as the Suzuki computer references everything by chassis number. Good job I took the Aprilia, the traffic was appalling. The Ospreys were playing so the roads were like a circus, but of course on the bike you can sneak up between the lanes of stationary cars :-)
I grabbed all the engine related stuff from the garage loft - dry sump kit, clutch slave cylinder kit and engine mounts. The dry sump kit is from TTS and comes with a nice 2 pages of A4 instruction leaflet. Some pictures would have been helpful, but I managed to work most of it out. With some nice padding on the garage floor I tipped the engine forward to get at the sump. Removing the sump was easy enough, and I then realised why the engine had leaked oil onto the garage floor - via the connection points for the oil cooler. Once the sump pan was off the plastic oil pickup had to be removed, followed by the little tube next to it. The oil pressure relief valve has to have a cross filed into the bottom of it to prevent hydraulic lock, and while it was out I checked the spring action was OK. Then with the oil filter removed I was supposed to remove some grub screw but it looks to me like someone had beaten me to it at some stage. It was also clear from the bits of silicon sealant that not only had the sump pan been off before but it looked like the block had also been split at some time. The outlet to the oil cooler is off the oil filter housing, and needs to be blocked off. I followed TTS's advice and tapped it with a 12mm tap and cut a bolt down to the right length. I'll need to get a copper washer from somewhere to seal it.
The water pump was easily removed, the O ring swapped to the Pace oil pump which was then fitted in place of the water pump. The instructions say to reuse the bolts but they were too long so I found a couple of stainless ones from my collection to do the job. I then got a bit confused as the instructions refer to hoses and clips, but I then realised TTS had changed the spec of the kit and supply the metal pipes as single pieces rather than as pairs linked by flexible hose. On trying to fit the beautifully CNC machined sump pan I hit a bit of a snag - the tube that butts up against the oil gallery inlet was holding the pan just a little further away from the block than I was happy. I was hoping to use silicon to seal the sump, but it looks like I'll need at least 2 gaskets. I'll give TTs a ring on Monday. Time to pack up and clear away again, so pick the engine upright again and it's clear that the oil galleries are nice and patent as all the oil I'd squirted over the cams etc. found its way promptly onto the garage floor.
Sunday 21st January 2007
It would have been nice to have had a whole clear day in the garage, but unfortunately it's not to be. I'm going to a Bridal Fayre. There, I've said it. But it's worse than that. I have to go early to help my wife set up the stand for our hair salon. We bought the business about 18 months ago, and today's the South Wales Evening Post's Bridal Fayre at The Liberty Stadium. Our staff are doing all the models' hair and it should be good publicity. I plan to help set up and run just as fast as I can! In the end I'm home about 9.30 and after a quick change I'm in the garage.
I decide the time's right to fix the bulkhead to the chassis - I feel like it's a bit of a milestone as it'll allow me to then move on to lots of other stuff, like fitting the steering column, the dash etc. As soon as it's riveted on I realise it's a bit more of a milestone than I'd realised as it was getting this sorted out that held me up so much all those months ago. I now have a fixed reference point for all the bodywork. The returns on both the bonnet and the rear section are going to need quite a lot of trimming back, but after 15 minutes with the jigsaw and the B&D Wizard with its sanding drum the bonnet just drops straight into place and the rear section can be fairly easily persuaded to butt up to it. I've been tripping over the nearside sidepod for the last week so decide to stick that on the chassis, at least it'll be out of the way. It slides nicely into place and all of a sudden the whole thing actually looks like a car!
I turn my attention next to the gear shift support. The tricky bit here is getting the washers and nuts into place inside the tube, but by sticking the nut temporarily onto the washer using superglue the whole operation gets easier. Once this is fitted I can fit the steering column, and at this point I realise that the sliding part at the front end of this needs to be compressed a bit to make it the right length. Then I realise that the gear shift U shaped bar is now more or less butted right up against the steering wheel. Doh! Oh well, it only took a couple more minutes to remove the nice spacer I'd made ...
Once that's all sorted I can get on with painting the steering column which is bare metal at present. A quick rub down and a spray with primer and it looks a lot better. Once it's dry and I give it a coat of satin black then leave it to dry while I have some lunch.
Fitting the steering column only takes a couple of minutes, and I decide then to move onto the dash. This bit I hadn't been looking forward to as the top edge needs to be profiled to fit under the front of the main tub. As it was though I was able to butt it up against the front of the aperture in the tub and trace along the back of it with a felt pen then cut it down with the jigsaw. I was fairly conservative with the first cut then spent half an hour or so trimming it to fit properly. Pretty soon I was fairly happy with it and decided it was time for me to clear up, get changed and head back down to the Liberty Stadium to see how Jen and the team were getting on.
All was well at the show and it was clear I wasn't needed so I headed back for another hour or so on the car. I need to make some aluminium sheets supports between the bulkhead and the dash to stabilise the dash - at present it's only fixed along its bottom edge. It'll also be an idea to install a sort of flat tray/shelf between the two as an area to fix all my electrics - fuse box, ECU etc. I decide against making a start on this partly as I don't have much time and partly because the Ferrari's back in the garage and I thus don't have much space. Getting it in and out is a bit hairy - it's very wide and there's only about an inch and a half clearance each side between both front and rear wheel arches and the door jambs.
So I decided to have a look at the brake fluid reservoir. Now the bulkhead is fixed I know how much room I've got and picked a spot on the offside chassis rail just in front of the bulkhead, The lower fixing hole can have a rivnut in the chassis rail, I'll need to fabricate a small aluminium bracket for the upper fixing. This doesn't take too long, and once I've sprayed it black it's time to head in for a shower.
As I sit typing this I reflect on the progress over the last week and I'm really pleased. I've made some good progress, but more importantly feel I've got a good grasp on where I'm going now. Sorting out the engine mechanicals will be a lot of work, but it's fairly logical, and I don't think there are any real problems. I'll try to speak to someone at TTS today about the sump. I did have a look at the engine mountings yesterday and have worked out how they all go. I'll still have quite a lot of work sorting out support for the rear of the bodywork, but now I have a fixed reference point I'm not too worried about it. I'm a little worried about the dry sump tank - my chassis has a cross member at the front which I suspect might get in the way a bit, but I'm confident there'll be a solution.
Monday 22nd January 2007
I called in JT's today and picked up a couple of sump plug washers and ordered 2 sump gaskets. They should be in before the weekend. I also spoke to TTS who said the only thing to watch was that I'd made sure I'd seated the alloy tube firmly into the sump pan, and that since all the parts were computer machined they reckoned the odds on there being something wrong with mine didn't really stack up, which sounds about right. I'd already thought of that and had pulled it off and re-siliconed it in having made sure it really was firmly seated by grinding it in as hard as I could. I hadn't tried it again since, and since it means turning the engine upside down I'll wait till I've got the gaskets to have a look.
I also exchanged a couple of emails with Tim Hoverd who reckoned the chance of me getting any info from the factory were about nil :-( I also posted a help message to the BEC Yahoo group to see if anyone on there has faced a similar problem.
In the evening I managed an hour or so. First off I had another fiddle with the clutch slave cylinder to see if it will bolt on with just 2 of the 3 spacers and it seems it will. In the first pic below I've labelled the three intended fixing points for the slave cylinder. The first is clearly obscured by the oil pump. In the second picture you can just about see that the 2 available bolt holes aren't actually exactly diametrically opposed - this means that when pressure's applied it'll tend to bend the cylinder slightly off line. The third pic shows where the cylinder sits when using the spacers, showing the third mounting lug floating in thin air. I guess this is just how it will have to be. Also I definitely couldn't get the clutch pushrod in there as it's a bit too long. Before cutting any bolts or pushrods down I'll wait for some definite confirmation from someone who's done this before. Might be worth speaking to TTS again.
Time was by now running out so I just made a start on a 'shelf' to sit between bulkhead and dash on which to sit the electrical gubbins. The first one I scrapped as I cut where I'd intended to fold it, so I marked another one out then packed in for the night.
Tuesday 23rd January 2007
Not a lot of action in the garage today but quite a few emails via the BEC list. I'd sent an email the other day t the KCW help email address and received a very helpful reply today from Martin via his wife Teresa. He recalls making an additional bracket to support the 3rd lug from a spare fixing point on the oil pump. A quick look this evening confirms that this should be possible, I'll have a go at that at the weekend. I also had an email from Walt in the States who has a Busa engined Firkin. He has essentially mounted the slave cylinder up above the crankcase with a 2:1 rocker arm which also increases pedal travel. Food for thought ...
I did get the aluminium tray I'm making for the space between bulkhead and dash cut to size, trimmed to fit and corners roughly rounded off etc. It did mean taking the steering column and dash off temporarily, but it's only a 2 minute job.
Wednesday 24th January 2007
This evening just finshed off the tray I started yesterday. It needed recesses cut out for the steering column mounting bracket, dash earthing point and a hole in the middle for the main loom to come up through it. This all took a while, but it's now a nice snug fit with a return on the front edge to butt up against the bulkhead and the back edge resting on the return at the bottom of the dash. It's to be held in place with some 5mm stainless screws rather than rivets so it's removable if need be. Next job is to fashion some narrow strips to support the top of the dash then I can paint the whole lot and get it fixed and reassemble the dash and steering column. Hopefully tomorrow the sump gaskets should be in.
Thursday 25th January 2007
A sunny but cold and frosty morning, and I decided to take the bike in to work. Great start to the day, leave the house 15 minutes later, arrive 10 minutes earlier than usual ... at lunchtime nipped to JT's and collected the sump gaskets. Then over to Rickard's auto factors for a couple more cans of paint. Got a can of etch primer for the bigger aluminium panels, I did think of getting them powder coated but unlike the ones panelling the inside of the chassis these shouldn't get scuffed and don't need to be so hard wearing.
In the evening I made 3 strips an inch wide to support the top edge of the dash - it's fairly stable just fixed at the bottom but of course will have switches in and will flex quite a bit when pressed on. I've got a day off tomorrow but have to take the Cayenne over to Cardiff for a service in the morning.
Friday 26th Jamuary 2007
Only got back from Cardiff at about 1 o'clock after hanging round for bloody hours at Dick Lovett's. I dropped the car off for a minor service at 8.30, they said they were getting it straight in the workshop and would have it ready by 10.30. At 11.25 they announced that it was on its way back from the valeting bay, but there was a software update for it, did I want it doing now? How long? 'About 45 minutes'. So why wait till now to mention it? Grrrr .... I told them to leave it.
Anyway, back home and the toys get moved out onto the drive so I can paint the aluminium panel and brackets. A quick clean with some cellulose thinners then a coat of etch primer. Next I dragged the engine out into a bit of space and got going on the sump. Sure enough with the 2 gaskets it's fine, but there's a slight delay as the supplied allen screws don't all fit. they're OK for length but some have that knurled type finish and won't fit into the recesses for the heads. A quick twirl with the grinding wheel and I soon had them down to size.
With the sump pan on I could fit the two pipes connecting it to the pump which took less time than I expected mainly because they were a very good fit and just dropped straight into place. The spigot on the other side needed fitting, then I fitted the sump bolt washers to the sump bolt and the bolt I'd used to plug the old oil cooler hole.
Once that was all done I tipped the engine back the right way up and gave my aluminium bits a coat of black paint. Martin had supplied a pack of heavy duty clutch springs, and I decided to fit those next. A quick check of the Haynes manual confirmed that the Busa clutch is the same as most bike clutches, remove the cover and the bolts holding the pressure plate are facing you. Once I had the pressure plate off I pulled a couple of the friction plates and plain plates to see if it was going to be worth replacing them. The friction plates looked pristine - I couldn't accurately measure their thickness cos I haven't got a proper vernier gauge, and the spec differs for different model years so I don't know what they should be. In any case, I know what worn ones look like and these weren't worn. The plain plates had no signs of bluing so they were OK too. Also the edges of the slots in the basket were in very good condition - I remember on the FireBlade engine in the Westfield the basket had some signs of wear. So I replaced the plates, then the pressure plate and replaced the bolts with the new springs, which were a couple of mm longer than the old ones.
Then started thinking about the clutch. I decided to try to make a little bracket to bolt the 3rd lug to the outer mounting tube on the oil pump. It looked like it was going to be a bit fiddly as a straight right angled bracket wouldn't fit in there because of the alignment of the two lugs and the crankcase intervening. I found a small piece of fairly thin steel that I thought I'd be able to put the requisite bends in, then decided to make a template out of aluminium as it's much easier to file and bend to shape. This actually went quite well, and I was soon at work on the steel bracket. Obviously the distance it holds the cylinder away from the crankcase is fairly critical, so I decided to make the hole to bolt it to the oil pump with into a slot so I could tighten up the other end, tighten the other 2 bolts holding it on then tighten the one through the slot to hold it in exactly the right place. Once that was done I gave it a coat of etching primer and cleared up. By then the primer was dry and I gave it a quick coat of black paint then put the toys to bed for the evening. In the morning I can cut the slave cylinder mounting bolts down to length and re-tap them then the engine's pretty much ready to drop in the chassis. Progress indeed ... I'll need to nip out to try to get some bolts, I think the engine mounts are 10mm metric fine thread.
Saturday 27th January 2007
Got the bolts - they're standard pitch, not fine. Also got some more stainless 5mm button headed screws for fixing the dash and associated aluminium panels. The stainless nylocs were a silly price - worked out at over 40p each! Also called in Machine Mart and bought an angle grinder, a couple of disks for it and a digital vernier caliper.
First job was to fit the clutch slave cylinder. All 3 bolts needed cutting to length and some extra thread tapping onto them, which took a while. Then I had to get the pushrod the right length. I measured up and marked it allowing a good bit extra and cut through it using the corner of the stone on the bench grinder. Once I was through the surface I thought I'd have a quick try with the hacksaw but no dice, very hard stuff. After about half an hour of grinding then refitting I was happy with the length with probably just over a millimetre of free movement with the cylinder bolted up tight. I'm less worried about the bracket than I was - even without it on the thing just doesn't move.
I dragged the engine out again into the open and made a start on fitting the engine mounts. The ones for the cylinder head were a doddle, but the cradle that mounts the rear of the engine was a pig. It simply didn't fit! It's shaped to go around the back of the gearbox but there wasn't enough clearance at the kink. Options at this point seemed to be to get new lugs welded on it which would take some time, or grind off some of the mount. I decided the bits that needed grinding weren't terrible critical strength-wise so the new angle grinder came out. Half an hour later and it fitted. Once I was happy with it I cut the bolts to the right length, added a bit more thread to the upper one and tightened the whole thing up. It was now ready to go in the chassis.
Before I blocked off the engine bay I thought I may as well fit the try in the scuttle area and refit the dash. I made sure I left the heads of the screws on the cockpit side so I don't upset the SVA inspector. I also stuck some rubber beading around the hole for the loom.
I nabbed the boys to give me a hand to lift the engine into the engine bay. Once it was there I supported it on my quicklift jack which made life easier adjusting the position. One of the mounts turned out to be the wrong way round, so I swapped that round. I figured the least stable one should be the first mount to get fixed, and this was the one onto the bulkhead. The angle bracket on the mount could have done to be a bit bigger really, but it's OK. The car really does look different now, and I've gained a lot of space where I was tripping over the engine all the time :-)
Sunday 28th January 2007
Looking at the engine this morning I wondered if I could get it in with the bottom mount reversed - it has a U shaped channel that sits on the chassis rail, the bush that the mount then bolts through is slightly offset. By turning it round I'd move the engine further over to the left of the car, giving a bit more space in the engine bay. So I tried it but the PAIR valve stuff on the front of the block was hitting the chassis diagonal rail and the oil filter was more or less impinging on the lower chassis rail. So I put it back the way it was. I then drilled and bolted the other 2 mounts onto the chassis.
Once that was done I refitted the steering column and cleared all the junk from inside the car and cleared some of the dust out of there. I also had a look at the gear shift mechanism. I've worked out where I can but a bracket to support the engine end of the cable, but the cable I've got is woefully short as it was supplied to go with the shift lever mounted on the tunnel. I might nip down to the marina during the week and see what they have in the chandlers down there, I think they use these cables for boat steering mechanisms etc.
After lunch I decided to make a start on the rear bodywork. The kit's supplied with a shaped black GRP tray to sit on top of the boot floor with walls at the side to support the bodywork. Martin had recommended I ditch it and use some aluminium panelling, but I decided to trim it to fit round the suspension mounts to see how it looks. I can then use it as a pattern to fabricate the aluminium. I also sorted out the returns of bonnet and rear section where they meet to get them to sit cleanly on the bulkhead. It's clear that the back end of the bodywork has to be at just the right height otherwise it won't sit right on the sidepods. And you can't fix the sidepods till you know where the rear bodywork goes ...
After an hour of fiddling about and thinking about how to sort it I was out of time.
Monday 29th January 2007
First thing this morning I'd completed the finishing touches to a bit of coding I'd been doing over the weekend. I know when I'm following other peoples' build diaries it can be frustrating visiting and finding no update. I decided it might be nice to write a script to send an update email to subscribers when any of the pages have changed. That way if there's no email no need to waste time visiting. I think it works OK, feel free to give it a go - click here to subscribe. Don't worry, it's easy to suspend emails or unsubscribe, and I won't be selling any email addresses on ...
At lunchtime I found a place that sold stuff for boats but they'd never seen anything quite like my cable - the ones they use are apparently branded for individual applications and have quite different fittings. They reckoned mine was custom made and couldn't suggest anywhere to get one. So I posted a query to the BEC list.
I was keen to make a start on fabricating some aluminium panels to go around the boot area but on investigation I haven't got enough aluminium sheet. I've got one piece that might just make the bit across the back but I need more for the sides and to panel the top of the side impact bars. I don't know any local stockists so I might nip up and ask Terry who supplied me with the other bits.
I decided to have a look at the gear cable, to try to fit one end to the shift lever so I could look at a routing out of the footwell into the engine bay and to try to suss out the length. First off the hole in the bracket is too big and needs bigger washers on the bulkhead fitting on the cable. Then it looks like the reach from the bulkhead fitting to the end isn't quite long enough for my application. So I gave up a bit disheartened.
I decided to have a look at the rear brakes next. The Hi-Spec calipers were still in their boxes, so I dug them out. I think Hi-Spec must be one of the most disorganised companies on the planet, it must have been over 18 months between them announcing their handbrake calipers and their actual appearance. Then it had taken Martin quite a while laying hands on a pair for me. First I couldn't find any bolts to fit the mounting thread - they looked like 10mm but a 10mm bolt wouldn't go in. So I rummaged in the box the old Sierra calipers were in and found some in there. They wouldn't go in either. Odd ... until I tried screwing them in from the wrong side - they went in fine until they reached the far side. Obviously either Hi-Spec didn't finish off the very last bit of thread or the gold anodising is clogging it. Once I'd screwed a bolt through it was fine from the right side. Next I couldn't get the pads to fit. Definitely not having a good evening here! I decided they had to be the right pads, so used the bench grinder to take a bit off the sides and found that I didn't need to take much off to make them a nice fit. With the back end of the car jacked up and the wheel off the nearside caliper went on easily enough using spring washers and some thread-lock on the bolts. The handbrake cable fitted on easily enough and the brake hose banjo fitting was soon on. Some brake cleaner and a bit of elbow grease and the first rear corner was looking good. The calipers really are very nice, and dramatically lighter than the Sierra items. Which is a good thing cos they cost £350 for the pair! The driver's side didn't take long and I was then pleased with the evening's progress, all I need to do now is go round tightening up all the hose unions, fit the pipes from reservoir to master cylinder and I can add fluid, bleed the brakes and check they all work OK.
Tuesday 30th Janury 2007
Popped over to see Terry O'Hara at lunchtime, he directed me to Aalco who are just up the road from him in Capel Hendre. And a very friendly and helpful bunch of people they were too. I asked about 1.5mm sheet, the guy asked what it was for and suggested quite a few use 1.2mm as its cheaper. Took me out into their warehouse to look at the difference. I decided to stick with the 1.5mm, so they got a sheet out and cut it in half lengthwise so I could get it in the car. Not cheap at £60 but there you go, I gather aluminium has gone up a lot in price. The guillotine they cut it with was very impressive - at the press of a button a perfectly neat straight cut in about half a second. I'd love one but would struggle to fit it in the garage ;-)
Decided not to attempt cutting up aluminium in the evening as it would mean moving the Ferrari out. I looked at a few pics I've got of how people have tackled finishing off the sidepods and the return on the main tub and decided to start trimming some of the excess GRP off. It'll make it a bit lighter but more importantly it'll make it easier to lift on and off the chassis as the front end of the main tub was fouling the dash. Once I'd got about as far as I thought I'd get on the nearside without making a start on the aluminium I left it and moved on.
Decided to fit the fuel tank next. I'd already fabricated the fixing straps and fitted the fuel gauge sender to it. After bolting it on for some reason I decided to blow into it to find that it pressurised rather nicely. Which was a bit worrying as I'd expected air to come out of the fuel inlet/outlet and breather! I removed the fuel return spigot to find that although the brass spigots are moulded into the tank there's no hole through the plastic. An 8mm drill sorted that out, and I pressurised the tank again while drilling hoping that the plastic swarf would then come out rather than staying in the tank. Next up was securing the flexible fuel hoses with some p clips riveted to the chassis. I came to the outlet which is in a little sump sticking down at the bottom centre of the tank to find that firstly there was no way the hose I had was going to fit on the spigot and secondly that needed drilling out too and couldn't be done without removing the tank. So off it came again and after drilling this hole out I tipped the tank upside down to get the bits out of the filler spout. Glad I did all this as a few other bits of plastic came out apart from my swarf. I refitted the tank and dug out some larger hose that I think was left over from the Ultima, but then ran out of time.
Wednesday 31st January 2007
First of all finished off the fuel hose at the bottom of the tank and clipped it to the chassis. I need a couple of bigger hose clips as well as a couple of large jubilee clips for the filler tube. I then crimped ring terminals onto the fuel gauge sender and connected that up.
On to the aluminium panelling around the boot floor next. This needs to be in multiple sections as I want to bend it outwards away from the cockpit as it goes forwards. I started off with the rear panel, cutting it to size and marking up for all the recesses it needs in it to clear the suspension mounts, harness mounting points and the earth point. I got this pretty much finished and drilled ready for some rivets, then made a good start on the nearside panel - I plan to overlap them vertically in the corner. Once it's all fabricated I'll need to get the top edge trimmed just right so it's supporting the body at exactly the right height.