With these ridiculous temperatures this week it's taken some dedication to keep focussed on the build and not run away to a beer garden in the sunshine! Actually, wait, who am I kidding? Of course it hasn't :-)
All the painting I did was dry by Monday so I went up and arranged the panels and check them over for defects / colour match etc.
Again, not strictly necessary as the paint is all from the same batch, but it looks cool and makes for great photos on the blog!
All looking good. I also sat in the "seat" for the first time with the bulk of the panels on to see the view of the road ahead. Bit of a different driving position from that of my 4x4s... looks like I might be able to sneak under my Rangey from this angle!
So, on with the serious stuff then. I finally decided to launch into the securing of the panels. As I haven't got the loom yet, or torqued the suspension bolts I can't button them all up, but I figured the forward transmission tunnel ones should be OK, and as they are steps 3 and 4 in the assembly instructions, figured it was probably about time I tick them off!!
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| Note the expanding foam to fill the panel gaps and make waterproof |
A note on building out of sequence - for various (good) reasons I haven't done things in the "correct" order, and that has caused a few minor inconveniences along the way, but I totally accept them and if it weren't for the fact of getting things moving and progressing I'd probably still be looking at a big pile of bits on the floor. At the end of the day, it's a hand built car, and if you encounter problems, you solve them. So far that mentality has both solved and caused problems, but it's still going well!!
I then riveted the ally bulkhead on, and just as the last pop rivet was banged home, I realised why you aren't supposed to fix it in place yet... (remember earlier paragraph... this is one of those times) I quickly chucked on the nosecone and threw on the bonnet and scuttle... and yes, sure enough, the scuttle is about 20mm too far back. D'oh! But that's OK, I'll just trim the nosecone to move it back slightly to suit., or think of something else to solve that little pickle!
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| Nice and shiny, well secured and sealed... just 20mm too far back |
I then put on the side panels and sealed them in place
And the little quarter panels that caused all the grief last week
Then, Saturday I came up and set about a few jobs. I was supposed to be looking over Emma's Morris 1000 as it's MoT is due in <2 weeks, and I failed miserably (totally actually) and ended up spending the whole day on the kit car. Oops. Don't worry though dear... I'll get the moggy sorted!
During the week I'd had five attempts at trying to source a fanbelt. I know it was 5, as does Emma; because on the way home from work every evening I stopped off at GSF to buy yet another different type of belt. I knew it was 6 ridged, but all attempts to guess, measure, calculate, make wire templates and ask around; drew blanks on the precise length. Even the guys at GSF were wondering what on earth I was playing at. In the end, the goldilocks belt was a 1,045mm long, and the DAYCO part number is 6PK1045. For the benefit of search engines: GKD LEGEND 328 Fan Belt Auxiliary Drive belt Alternator Water Pump 6PK1045
It was still a bit of a struggle to get on, I had the 1050 on first and it was too loose, but to get the 1045 on I had to loosen the alternator and find the "sweet spot" on the tensioner. Now it's on and on the longest stretch of the belt you can twist it 90° and no more. Perfect. Not too tight, not too loose.
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| Fitted! At last! |
Because you are changing where the tensioner applies itself to the belt it's a little more tricky to fit. The tensioner moves in an arc, and before hand that didn't matter, but now the arc is right in the path of the belt, therefore move it too much and it begins to tighten the belt again. Once I figured that out I realise why I kept having a hit-and-miss time with all these belts!!
Next up was to re-fit the steering column. I got so fed up of the ruddy thing sliding off that I made myself a home-made speed clamp using an old silicone sealant gun and welded some box section on it:
That all went to plan, and with the now straightened steering column on, steering is restored and it doesn't foul on the chassis (hurrah) but it is very very close. Time will tell if that's a pass or fail. If that's the only thing it fails IVA on, then I'll eat my hat / be very happy.
Next up - Radiator hoses. Fixed them on thanks to pics and inspiration from Dave Rodgling and Steve from Tullinge. I don't think I was supplied enough jointing pieces in the kit, and I wasn't quite sure if you were supposed to use one length and chop up into thirds (although it was quite small already) I cut it in half, and made up another piece from some pipe I had of the correct diameter. They passed the "blow through them like a trombone with your glove on the end" leak test, but if they leak water I'll have to re-do them in the future.
With the heater hose and coolant pipe on the block blocked off, the cooling system just needs the expansion tank, radiator cap and fan switch; and then it's complete. Expansion tank connected to the top of the rad with the little rubber hose:
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| Expansion / de-gas bottle fitted |
I'm still waiting on the fan switch and I need to get a radiator cap, but otherwise it's complete. When they turn up I can fill up the cooling system and leave it for a while to check for leaks.
Regular readers will recall last time I had a problem with the fuel tank mounting. I had a good conversation with Peter in the week, and he informed me that the brackets were designed to go on top of the chassis box section, where I had installed them underneath. So this was the first thing I tried.
Sadly, this was to no avail. There simply wasn't enough room to get the tank any higher up. I tried twisting, wriggling, shimmying - all sorts of "ings" including swearing... but it wouldn't work. I then came to the conclusion that either the tank was larger, or the stop on the chassis had been welded on too low. Perhaps a consequence of having a 2012 chassis and a 2013 fuel tank? Who knows, but a good Engineer doesn't give up. So I solved the problem a different way.
I cut and re-welded the brackets so they would support the tank all the way along and still bolt onto the bottom of the chassis
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| Chop-n-weld |
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| 2 coats of satin black, ready to be refitted |
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| Job's a goodun! |
So that leaves us this week with the car looking like this:
And owing to a need to sweep the workshop... and satisfy the inner child in me... another low-power test drive
Progress wise, we are getting close. About 60% of the list is ticked, the "snagging" list is growing and getting ready for the all important engine start.
System checklist using the Haynes book of lies as a guide
Engine - check. Needs oil and a filter but otherwise complete.
Cooling, heating and air conditioning - need radiator cap and fan switch then fill.
Fuel system - need to connect fuel filler neck hose, otherwise complete
Exhaust and emission control - need to fit 3 into 1 (twice) and 2 into 1 and silencer, fit lambda sensors
Starting and Charging - complete
Ignition - complete
Clutch - complete and working
transmission (gearbox/prop/diff/halfshafts) complete
Brakes including handbrake complete, handbrakes need adjusting
Suspension - torque up bolts and set camber/castor/toe-in etc.
Steering - complete
Electrical - FAIL :-( due to the pesky IVA regs changing the rules on the foglight, Peter will have to re-design the foglight arrangements. Which is a real pain because that's the only thing holding me up now!! Hopefully a solution is on its way...
Thanks for reading, see you next time
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