Not a huge amount of progress, fewer hours spent in the workshop, and the hours spent there seem to have had many interruptions and visits etc. - nice to see people and it's great that they're interested in the project, but it sure does slow you down!
The week begun by fitting the panel on the offside front of the chassis. Even with the right-angled drill I couldn't get underneath to drill the rivet holes, so had to hoist it back up in the air temporarily
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| Panel Fitted and rivet holes drilled |
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| "Arty" shot of the underside, proving it's more and more like a car! Also that I think I'm going to have to do something about that sump |
Once this was complete and taken off, I then fitted the manifold - which truly is a wonderful thing. Can't decide whether it's more art than science, but it sure is beautiful and incredibly well made. As one line item it's incredibly expensive at about 10% of the whole build cost, but, worth every last penny. Bet it's going to sound awesome as well!
Took me a few goes to get it fitted correctly, and I found the correct order was 1,2,3,6,5,4 in order to be able to get to the studs. Some of them were a bit tight going in, hope the threads are OK as I wouldn't like to imagine how on earth you could helicoil a thread on cylinder 6!!
Next up, make a cardboard template
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| Weight saving measures - make all body panels out of cardboard |
I then used this template to cut out the original - and as suspected I had to make the hole much bigger than the template, as the ally panel didn't flex as much as the cardboard!! I'm only about 80% happy with the hole at the moment, I think it's a bit too big, but necessary to get it over all the pipes. After it's painted I'll re-assess the situation, and might make up a closing piece out of brushed stainless and have it in 2 pieces with a row of shiny cap head screws riv-nutted into the panel. We shall see.
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| Panel fitted (for now) Got to be painted soon |
radiator was relatively easy to fit, had to dry-fit the nose cone to ensure it was positioned correctly up and down. I then tried to fathom out the mystery of the hoses and how to plumb it in, but didn't really get anywhere. Any ideas?
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| Coolant pipes... but which way around? |
I then fitted the fuel tank, which went reasonably well, but not happy with the straps. Also the piece of pipe to connect the filler neck on the tank to the fuel cap was just a tiny bit short, but didn't find that out until after a good bit of grunting and swearing. Once more, decided to give up as it didn't seem to want to work, plus other builders I've seen have a pintle which the breather connects to - mine didn't. So where does the breather go from the top of the tank?
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| Fuel Tank Fitted, but not happy with the straps |
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| Aforementioned strpas - not touching the tank in the middle |
Next I started to put the senders/pump assemblies in, once again coming up with a few queries. I did a great deal of lunchtime reading at work this week on the BMW Fuel delivery/return system and learned quite a lot. I even found a great paper that looks like some guy's thesis (HERE PDF download) where he fits twin fuel pumps in either side. I got the pump/sender assembly in the offside, but the nearside has this huge hose attached to it. Apparently the 328 cars suffered from fuel starvation, beacuse the tank is a huge saddle shape and the pump can empty one side faster than the other. This device effectively splits the fuel return coming back to the tank and the hose sends fuel up and over the "saddle" right into the pocket where the pump is operating from. Nice idea, but the GKD fuel tank is a straight tank, so shouldn't have the same problem. Ergo - do I need that whacking great hose? Considering it's incredibly difficult to get in the tank - plus it seems to be getting in the way of the float arm for the resistor. Shall I just cut it off??
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| What to do with you...? Nurse - Scalpel! |
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| Progressing towards that ever-important engine start |
Good news is that someone from GKD is going to be in the South West this week, and he has the one remaining Ally panel, the driver's side main panel. Which means I can get that drilled and then crack on with the next batch of painting.
I've been stumped by a few questions this week and if anyone can help I'd appreciate it:
- Fuel tank fitting - do you need to Bolt through the top of the bracket, or is it enough that the tank straps wedge it up against the top bracket? (e.g. the one just beneath the boot floor)
- Are the straps OK like that? They don't look quite right to me, only way I can think of rectifying it is cutting and welding them shorter.
- Which way around is the rad connected up - I'm thinking the nearside exit of the thermostat housing goes to the top of the rad, the offsite exit goes to the bottom of the rad, and the radiator pressure cap pintle goes to the expansion tank?
- Suggestions on what to do with the nearside fuel sender?
And if anyone hasn't seen it... I've made a short montage of progress to date
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFNOxqstGKE&feature=youtu.be
Steve
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