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Friday 21st September 2007
Did I mention I booked a trackday? About 2 months ago I got an email ad from Motorsport Events who had a trackday at Pembrey on Sunday 30th September. I emailed to check if they'd allow a non-road legal car on track and since they said yes I cracked out the credit card.
So today I made it out to the garage again to see if there's any hope of having the car ready in time. I ordered a gear shift cable yesterday and Cable Tec rang today to confirm it's done and I'll get it Monday. Time to make a start on the lighting then ...
I've got the Le Mans style bonnet with a flush perspex headlight cover. Looks nice and keeps the headlights a bit higher making it easier to get through SVA. Trouble is the wheels are fouling the inside of the recess for the headlamps. So what I need to do is mount the lights as high up as I can so it's OK to chop off the bottom of the recess. First issues was working out how to mount the lights. They're fairly small diameter and come with a cowl and bottom mounted bracket. The cowl and bracket got ditched and I marked up and cut a hole to accommodate the lens unit leaving the black rim on the outside. I then made up a bit of aluminium to clip the top of the light to the top of the recess and riveted a little bracket at the bottom to fix the unit. I'm pretty pleased with the result - there's no scope for lowering the beam without some more work but unless I do SVA the car that doesn't really matter. Once the passenger side was fixed I spent a while making up a loom to connect it to the main wiring loom. And it works, I've got a functioning side light, dipped and main beams! No indicator yet as the one supplied don't look very nice in my opinion - there's actually a small recess at the bottom of the bonnet for round ones so I'll try to get some Land Rover ones in the morning. My local motor factor had just one otherwise I'd have got them today.
Doing the other side was pretty easy and by the close of play at 5.30 I had functioning headlights and the looms were nicely clipped to the bodywork and chassis. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow.
Saturday 22nd September 2007
First job this morning was measuring up for the rear lights, followed by drilling and dremeling the holes to fit. I have a slight problem in that having the rear tub removable is a great idea till I want to connect and disconnect lights. After a bit of head scratching I decided the easiest and cheapest way would be a plug and socket for trailer or caravan lights so I plan to go out and get them later.
I've decided to paint the bodywork myself - not really on grounds of cost but partly cos the thought of transporting all the bits of bodywork up to the body shop doesn't appeal much, partly cos I just fancy having a go. It's bound to pick up a few injuries along the way too and it'll make life much easier if I can sort out the paintwork myself then. I tried to speak to brother Andy who in a former life did quite a lot of spraying. Inconsiderately he was out on his bike so I rang my mate Alan who I know has also done quite a lot. After 15 minutes on the phone I had a reasonable idea what I thought I needed so off I went to Livermore's to get it. The chap there was very helpful - it took him all of 2 seconds to realise I didn't have a clue what I actually wanted so after a shat about what I was actually doing he sorted out my shopping list for me. So my credit card was £110 lighter and I had 2 pack etch primer, 2 pack high build primer, 2 pack blue (roughly Rizla Suzuki blue), hardener, thinners and cleaning thinners plus a litre of the black underbody spray. I'd thought it might well be more expensive than that so I was quite pleased. At Machine Mart I got a spray gun and mask, then nipped to Halfords for the wiring plug/socket.
I then spent most of the afternoon sorting out the rear wiring loom - first connected the trailer socket to the rear loom and fitting it to the rear bulkhead then making up the loom for the rear lights, indicators, number plate light etc. What was really pleasing was when they all actually worked, including the brake lights!
I trial fitted the rear wheel arch extensions with some gaffer tape and marked up the bodywork - once they're bonded on I can trim it back some more. With the tub off the car the angle grinder made short work of removing the excess.
I then had another look at the front indicators and decided the ones supplied with the kit will probably actually look OK if I fit them inside the headlamp housing. It'll be a pain changing bulbs as the cover will need to come off but it'll be a neat enough solution. Once I'd sorted out the mounting holes I made up a sub-loom for each side and checked they worked, which they did. Then it was time to clear up ...
Sunday 23rd September 2007
Before I can start any painting I need to get the wheel arches sorted out. My cunning plan has been to stick them on with some polyester resin but it's not actually very sticky and within a few minutes of starting I've managed to get the resin more or less everywhere. The problem is clamping the extensions in place and in the end I hold them with some gaffer tape then tack them on with some 3.2mm rivets. This works nicely and I can then run the resin into the joint. It still goes everywhere but I managed to keep on top of the mess and pretty soon had the job done. While this was going off I took the headlights off the bonnet and unbolted it from the chassis.
I then turned the main tub over and trimmed the excess GRP away with the angle grinder and reinforced the joint with some chopped strand mat and resin. Once that went off I turned it back over and set to with the filler to blend the arch extensions in. Working on this essentially took quite a lot of the day - sand it all back with the drill and sanding disk then fill again and repeat ....
Once I was happy with the arches I could have a clear up and sweep up some of the dust. Next on the list was to paint the inside of the bodywork black - it looks better than plain old vanilla GRP and will prevent the panels being translucent. Time to get my new spray gun out of the box - it's still only a cheapie (£32 from Machine Mart) but it looks a lot better than my last one, having adjustment for air and paint flow rates separately. I found the black underbody paint just about sprayed OK without thinning it and once I'd got the gun adjusted OK it was easy enough to get on and didn't actually make too much mess with overspray etc. Unfortunately the litre didn't go very far and I only got the sidepods and half of the bonnet done.
I decided to make a start on the primer, so set to wiping down the panels with paper towels and cellulose thinners to clear some of the dust. I've no plans to enter this car into any concours events - it's really a track car - but I don't want it to look too shabby! With that done and the bonnet and sidepods propped ready it was time to crack open the etch primer and mix some up. I've never use 2-pack before and had no idea whether I'd need to thin the stuff. I mixed it 50:50 with the activator in the spray gun reservoir and it seemed pretty thin - certainly much thinner than the black stuff I'd sprayed earlier, so I didn't bother with any thinners. It's a funny mustard colour but without much pigment in it, and when spraying it on it's pretty translucent. So, you know what's coming next, don't you ... yes, I sprayed too much on and had runs all over the place on the bonnet :-( I fared slightly better with the sidepods, but the bonnet will certainly need some sanding once it's hardened. Once it was dry I stuck the bodywork back on the car and cleared up. I'm a bit concerned that the passenger side wheel arch seems pretty close to the wheel, bit difficult to understand as I'm sure I put it where I'd marked it. There's nothing much I can do now anyway, it's pretty firmly bonded in place and I can't check it accurately till I refit the bodywork and if it needs redoing the car won't be ready for next Sunday.
So, a weekend mostly spent in the garage draws to a close. I've really enjoyed it and feel it's coming together. There's every possibility I just won't manage to get everything done in time for the trackday, but it's still possible so long as there are no hitches. I'm off all day Friday and Saturday, and I plan to get the remaining bits and pieces ordered tomorrow and try to crack on in the evenings.
Tuesday 25th September 2007
Am I much closer? No, not really. But I have been ordering stuff like billyo! Harnesses, more 2-pack foam, bonnet latches for the rear tub, mirrors etc. And the gearshift cable arrived yesterday - haven't had time to try it for size yet though. I woke up at 2am Monday morning suddenly realising I'd forgotten about the front wheels rubbing on the headlight recesses which means quite a lot of work before I can paint the bonnet :-(
This evening I did make a start on the headlight recesses. I've been refining my cunning plan. I've basically chopped off the bottom corner, cut a cardboard template just a bit smaller than the resulting hole, used that to make an aluminium plate which is then taped to the top side of the recess. After slapping some release agent onto the bottom side of the plate it gets a coat of gelcoat. I got this far before having to abandon for the evening. Tomorrow I hope to trim the GRP to the level of the gelcoat, get some chopped strand mat and resin over it then pull the plates away. The plan is that it'll just need a bit of filler in the top side to make good ... yeah, I'm not convinced either!
Wednesday 26th September 2007
Up early this morning so nipped out to make a bit more progress with the headlight cowls. First of all sanded back the excess of the 'lip' with the Dremel, cleaned it all up with some cellulose thinners then set to with the chopped strand mat and resin. Looks messy now but it'll look OK once I've sprayed it all black and hopefully that'll happen this evening. Hopefully also removing the aluminium plates won't be too tricky!
During the day in work I checked up on my Demon Tweeks order (harnesses) to find they were still 'in progress' according to their website. A quick phone call told me that was because they only had one blue Sparco one in stock. And one red one. I don't really mind much what colour they are so long as they're the same! I spoke to Paul in sales who was very helpful and suggested a Sabelt alternative and said he'd get them out to me today. In between seeing patients I checked and this looked like it had 8.1mm mounting holes. I had a feeling the bosses on my chassis are 7/16" UNF, so these would be no good. I rang them back, spoke to Paul again who said they were all 8.1mm holes, including the ones I'd originally ordered. He said he'd go and get them off the van ...
Next port of call was to ring the guys who've taken over the Kitcar Workshop to check on the boss size etc. They were very helpful and confirmed that they are 7/16" UNF and said everyone just uses the snap hooks with eyebolts. They also confirmed that if I have buggered up my rear wheel arch they can supply replacements. So, back to Demon Tweeks and some humble apologies to Paul for messing him about. The switch to eyebolts opened up lots of options but his recommendation was a Sabelt lightweight saloon pack with a pair of harnesses. These will be quite long but once I've got them fitted I can trim off the excess. When I got home the mirrors and bonnet pins I ordered from Rally Design had arrived along with the seat foam from CFS and some fasteners from Tifosi.
This evening the aluminium plates did pop out OK and I'm pretty pleased with the result. It'll need a bit of tidying up around the edges but that's no problem. I then got the spray gun going again and sprayed the inside of the bonnet and rear tub. Cleaning the gun took a while - the black stuff is pretty horrible to get off everything. Once they were dry I cleaned the overspray off the edges of the wheelarches etc. then cleaned up the runs in the primer on the bonnet. I started off with some wet and dry but got bored with that and attacked it with some thinners.
Next was to prop the rear tub and bonnet for a coat of the etch primer. I learned from my previous mistakes and turned the air and paint flow right down and then adjusted up slowly until I was getting reasonable coverage without blasting the stuff everywhere. First of all I filled in the bits I'd cleaned off on the bonnet then sprayed the rear tub. Much better this time, nice even coverage and no runs :-) The bonnet still looks shabby but more importantly the surface feels OK and I'm sure it'll be fine with a layer of the high build primer. I've never used the stuff before but Andy assures me it's pretty good at hiding minor imperfections.
So, there's still a chance I'll go to the ball on Sunday but I'm going to have my hands full in the meantime! I'm in work all day tomorrow but once I get home in the evening it's going to be a mad sprint for 48 hours trying to get everything done. Following my early morning wake up on Monday I've become philosophical about it - if the car is done for Sunday great, if not at least I've got loads of stuff done and I can sort out another trackday - there don't seem to be any more at Pembrey but there are a couple coming up at Llandow which is pretty near and is another place where noise limits aren't an issue.
Thursday 27th September 2007
The harnesses arrived today from Demon Tweeks and look well up to the job. I couldn't remember whether I had crutch strap bosses on the chassis or not when I ordered them so Paul stuck a pack of plates in case, but the chassis does have the bosses so they should be a doddle to install.
I was looking forward to making a start this evening - the grey primer should transform the body panels. I decided to have a go at the sidepods first. I only mixed half a gun - I haven't got a viscosity measuring cup but with just the hardener added it seemed pretty viscous to me. I guess that's partly the idea with filler primer but it still needs to come out of the gun OK, so I added about 20% thinners. It went on fine and seems pretty resistant to puddling/running. By the time I had covered both sidepods I realised I had loads left in the gun so I carefully moved them and propped the rear tub on the old chairs I'm using and set to on that. It did transform it - as I expected the primer has revealed a few blemishes in the surface but nothing too major and I reckon after rubbing down a few bits and slapping a bit more primer on it'll be ready for the top coat.
I left them to dry while I went in for some food. Once back out again the rear tub was stuck back on the chassis and the bonnet was positioned ready for its makeover. Again no dramas and no runs. Here's a couple of before/after pics - told you it looked scabby before!
Friday 28th September 2007
Early start this morning - not sure how much the neighbours appreciate the Ferrari clearing its throat to be moved out of the garage at 5.45 but I needed to get going. Quite chilly so I stuck the electric heater on in there so I don't have problems with paint taking years to go off. The first bits I need painting are the sidepods cos they'll need to be fitted to the chassis first and will give the reference points for the bonnet and main tub. I decided I may as well spray the main tub at the same time though as there's just about room to prop them all up.
Opening the tin gave me my first glimpse of the colour and it looks spot on, just what I wanted. By the time I'd mixed it at 3:1 with the hardener I reckoned it was still a bit thick so added about 10% thinners. It seemed to cover nicely and I managed to spray all 3 panels without any runs although I ran out of paint just as I was getting towards the end of the main tub so there's a stretch that's not very glossy as a result. I did get the feeling it might have flowed better onto the panels with a bit more thinners.
I'm pretty pleased with the result - it's by no means perfect mainly due to the amount of dust about but as I've already said it's a race/track car and there's really no point wasting too much time getting a pretty finish. I left it for a while to dry and popped off to Tesco to do the shopping while I waited.
Once back I uncovered the chassis and checked the eyebolts fitted OK in the bosses which they did without any thread cleaning. I need to get the tunnel panels back on but first the prop restraints need fitting - they're only really needed for race scrutineering but it's always a concern having a prop flailing about close to your legs and it's much easier to do them now than later. Once these were drilled I gave them a coat of aerosol primer and left them to dry.
I really need to get the gearshift cable sorted out - I bought a length of hefty angle iron in B&Q the other day and started thinking about how I'm going to go about it. I fitted the cockpit end of the cable to find that the length's fine but the bracket will need to hang down below the top of the engine bay. After about an hour of hacksawing, grinding, filing and drilling I had a bracket that looked like it should do the job - it's fairly hefty and agricultural looking but I don't want any flex, I'm worried enough about using push-pull cable as it is. Once I was happy it fitted OK and would give me enough adjustment I took it back off and sprayed it with some primer.
Meanwhile I'd sprayed the prop restraints black a while before and they were now dry so I could go grovelling under the car to fit those, then sprayed the gearshift bracket black.
Inspecting the paintwork the sidepods are fine but the main tub needs another coat - apart from the bit where it was running out it's generally fairly bitty, should have sanded the primer down before painting. I stuck the sidepods outside and propped the bonnet ready for paint and spent a while with some wet and dry fettling that but couldn't do the same with the main tub as the paint wasn't hard enough.
Time now to fit the gearshift bracket and cable which went without drama but as I suspected I haven't got enough range of movement of the U shaped paddle. I rectified this by undoing the steering column and adding some spacing washers to bring the steering wheel out a bit more from the dash and bending the actual paddle a bit. It all seems to work nicely but I can't really test it properly till the engine's running again.
I nipped round to our local garage to see if Glenn had an old spark plug that would fit in my Lambda sensor bung - I've been using a wine cork till now. It's an 18mm thread I think and he didn't have one. He said he's thrown out an old lambda sensor this week but couldn't find it. By now the paint was dry enough to rub down gently. Once I'd cleaned it all off with a damp cloth to get rid of the dust it was time for spraying again which went fine. Once the panels were dry enough they were moved outside to harden off and to give me a bit more space in the garage
I could now get the roll cage off to sort a few more jobs out. first off to run the wires for the rain light which has a bracket at the top of the back of the roll cage. I needed to drill a hole through the base plate on the passenger side, run the cable then add a protective sleeve where it runs through the base plate - I can't use a grommet as the plate wouldn't then seat properly on the chassis. Once it's on there'll be no movement there anyway. Next was a bit of cleaning up and vacuuming inside the car followed by fitting the tunnel panels back on. Then a trial fitting of the harness eyebolts to find that all the ones on the outside of the car did need the threads cleaning out. This took ages as there's no room to get a proper handle on the tap so have to use a small spanner instead. Same process needed to be done with the eyebolt bosses on the roll cage.
Trevor and Andy came round while I was finishing off the roll cage threads to have a nose around and by the time I'd finished that off it was time to clear up and bring the bodywork back in. I've got loads done today - loads more to do tomorrow but it's still on. My main concerns for tomorrow are getting the engine running properly and checking the clutch works OK. Here she is with her nice bright blue panels roughly dropped in place. Well chuffed!
Saturday 29th September 2007
The bottom line is I didn't make it :-(
Even as late as 2 o'clock this afternoon I still thought it was doable. But as was always a possibility a couple of things cropped up that put the kybosh on it. I even found why the engine was running badly and sorted it but I suspect the plugs are too badly fouled by now and towards the end of the afternoon I couldn't even get her to start. Once it got up to temperature it started leaking some oil from the cover over the end of the crank just in front of the clutch cover. Not a huge job to fix but just another little problem. Then to cap it all I tried sticking the bodywork back on to find I didn't have the right size peel rivets. So I gave up, cleaned the garage and went for a pint.
Anyway, I'm not too pissed off - it's looking really good and I've sorted loads of issues this weekend and am confident it's going to be a great track car.
First job of the morning was masking the headlight covers using some fine lining tape, it goes round corners nicely and has a really smooth edge. Once that's on the rest of the middle area can be filled in with ordinary masking tape. After cleaning with some acetone I sprayed the edge with some black 'multi-surface paint'. When I did the same job on the Ultima I initially used some Tamiya model car polycarbonate body paint but that flaked off. I also used specialist glass paint but that was very much solvent based and ran under the masking tape. So I'm giving this stuff a go.
Next I tackled the LED rain light. I've already run the wires up through the roll cage to the bracket on the top tube, it just needs connecting up. There's a slight complication in that it needs a resistor wiring in series but that was soon soldered in with some heatshrink tubing over it. The mounting plate is welded onto the tube and I couldn't get a nut behind it so resorted to a pair of cable ties in the end. I've simply wired it in with the rear fog light and a quick check with the ignition on confirmed that it works fine.
I fitted the central rear view mirror next. Although it has an adhesive pad I didn't trust that and have drilled and screwed that on.
Time to start refitting the bodywork, and the first bits to fit are the sidepods. The one on the passenger side needs some insulation as it contains the exhaust, although much of the sidepod is cut away. I got some heavy duty kitchen foil from Tesco and will see how this stands up to it - the proper motorsport stuff is hideously expensive for what it is.
The sidepods were easy enough to refit along with the aluminium panels that sit on top. I then fitted the two bonnet pins to the rear bulkhead and will need to work out a way of making sure I drill through the rear tub in the right places. I decided now was the time to get the engine sorted - now the sidepods are fitted the whole thing can be lowered back onto its wheels, but I want to make sure everything works first. I went over the various bits of sensors etc. on the bike loom and found as I suspected that I had got something wrong - the atmospheric air pressure sensor and the inlet manifold pressure sensor look pretty similar and I had them the wrong way round which probably explains the rough running! Once the plugs were cleaned the engine ran much better, much smoother and idling comfortably around 1k rpm. Well pleased with this I then tried to test the gears but ran into a problem in that the clutch seemed to jam. It suddenly freed itself and the gears worked great. So in a state of excitement I started clearing everything from under and around the car and lowered it off it's stands. Only to find the clutch had jammed again! I decided it was because the pedal was pushing the pushrod in too far and it was then getting stuck. After about an hour faffing around trying to sort this (and failing) - also the engine was now refusing to run - it was about 4 o'clock and I realised the game was up :-( There was no way I could sort the remaining bits and pieces, fix the oil leak AND deal with the clutch. So I moved on to the rest of the bodywork and hit yet another snag - I thought the over centre catches needed 5mm peel rivets but they didn't fit. I was sure I'd saved enough rivets when I originally fitted the catches but couldn't for the life of me find them.
I decided to have a last stab at running the engine without any success and I reckon all this running with the sensors connected wrong has buggered the spark plugs. Even cleaning them with a soft wire brush and some petrol didn't help. On the plus side though the clutch unjammed itself and I screwed a bolt into the back of the end of the pedal to restrict its travel. By then it was 6.30 and I was feeling pretty demoralised as I cleared everything away.
However, the car is now sitting on its own 4 wheels and I suspect as soon as I stick some new plugs in it will be drivable. I need to sort the oil leak which shouldn't take more than about an hour then it's a matter of refitting the lights and fitting the bodywork. I suspect I'll need to rework the passenger side rear wheel arch too but can't be certain till the bodywork's fastened on in exactly the right place. In the first pic below you can see the cockpit is pretty much finished apart from labelling the switches and fitting seats/harnesses.
Sunday 30th September 2007
Well it's the trackday today. No Fury but Cinderalla's going to the ball anyway! David and I are going in his Civic. He's not very happy about it - worried about crash damage, damage through abuse and it being much slower than all the other cars. I reassured him as best I could last night but I don't think it helped much! I knew from previous experience that we wouldn't be the slowest there and I was confident in his driving ability- he did fine at Palmersport in the summer.
So I was up at 5am, watched most of the Japanese Grand Prix (well pleased Hamilton won, I wouldn't wish Alonso's crash on anyone but in my opinion he's been a snivelling shit recently!) then off we went. The paddock at Pembrey was mostly full of Caterfields with a few fast road cars - Noble, GT3, and a rather serious looking race prepped M3, then I think the briefing added to David's anxiety! But we had a great time, drove 4 sessions each, no 'moments' and weren't the slowest out there by any means. Alan was there in his TVR too and I had a few passenger laps in that - it obviously had much more grunt than the Civic (which is a 1.8 S Type) and understeered less but on a circuit like Pembrey wasn't dramatically faster. and it reassured me that Alan was taking all the same lines I had. Can't wait to get the Fury out there but I'm off to London this evening for the week.