1st November 2003

Our weekly visit to MK with the following agenda:

  • Collect Bonnet
  • Collect Battery Tray/Bulkhead
  • Collect modified 4x4 propshaft
  • Gather as much information as humanly possible to remember...
  • ... arrive home and promptly forget 1/2 of the information just gathered!

We succeeded in a few of the items, namely the Battery Tray and information. The 4x4 propeller shaft apparently cannot be modified successfully enough to justify it's cost. So we collected a standard unit which although very, erm, err.... oxidized, was suitable.

 

Also, collected was the bike/propeller shaft adaptor for connection of the propeller shaft to the engine (formerly the engine chain sprocket).

 

The bonnet was available but it wasn't what we required, which was with 'bonnet bulge', so this will have to wait until another day.

Another excellent morning info-gathering as usual, and making acquaintances with fellow MK'ers... to all those we spoke to, thanx for the information so eagerly parted with. It's great to be an MK'er!

Propshaft before cleaning


Engine/Propshaft Adaptor


Engine/Propshaft Adaptor
2nd November 2003

What was yesterday soon became today after a nights sleep... and today we have a whole new agenda:

  • Attempt straightening of Fuel/Fuel Filter Pipe.
  • Clean down and check Propshaft before assembling and finishing.
  • Fabricate a 'Heat Sink' for where the Regulator/Rectifier, Coils and CDI Unit will reside.
  • Complete fitting of Handbrake Cable.

Hmm... looking at it this way seems like we have made a 'tall order' for ourselves. Once we got organised we worked well into the night. Perhaps too late but... doesn't time fly when...

Anyway we attacked the Fuel/Filter pipe by heating it up in boiling water after inserting a 9mm drill bit to hold straight. This 'kind of' worked but gave birth to our next plan. Boil the pipe! After 10 minutes of continual heat, then allowing to cool. Removal of the 'bit' left a very straight piece of pipe... we then also fitted the fuel breather pipe and drilled a hole into the mounting plate for neatness.

Part II of our trio was busy making ferrous clouds outside, using our wire brushes on the Propshaft. He was performing a sterling job, probably the best value tools we have purchased was those Lidl Wire Brushes! (Yes... really!)

Aaargh... don't stand in the way when I'm taking pictures!

Dad brought some 'Jenolite' and with some of our trusted skepticism, his reassurances of "..of course it'll do the job!" and "it always works for me". We thought we would give it a try... WOW!!! It really does work, it gave us a shock by totally converting/destroying the rust and giving us a lovely clean surface to work with.

On went the first layer of Enamel... hmm, looking good already!

Wait for 20 minutes.. then final coat. GREAT!!!

Next job after leaving the 'prop' to dry was completing the Handbrake Cable routing... after a long discussion on route which is pretty restricted for choice. We found a use for the rear chassis brackets (formerly for flexi pipe!) drill it out... insert a grommet and use it for securing Handbrake Cable like this:

Once de-burred, insert the thin grommet supplied with the Handbrake Kit... 

Once this was done we needed to secure the cable's wander, by fabricating a bracket to slip to the upright giving an angle to provide a nice flowing line for the handbrake between the suspension and chassis.

However, all was not well with the Handbrake Adjuster... it was fouling on the Diff... Dad had this idea of shortening one of the through tubes to give more clearance between rear bulkhead and diff. Not an easy task but Dad managed it... to give a lovely easy access to adjust handbrake tension.

Time was running very late. It was almost Monday... YES THAT LATE!


Straightened Pipe!
Modified 'Prop'

'Prop' Cleanup using Drill mounted wire brushes.

'Prop' wire brushed, then 'Jenolite' to convert residual rust.

First Coat


Grommet Fitted


Cable Fitted


Cable routing


Handbrake Adjuster
3rd

Agenda for what seems like 'not very long' since we left our new lodgings...

  • Assemble Front Suspension in an attempt to get the chassis 'rolling' before the trestles finally 'give' way to what it almost 1/2 tonne!
  • Complete Rear Transmission Assembly.
  • Fit Brake Reservoir

Whilst Dad and Part II began Assembling the Front Wishbones and fitting the Prop (as it was getting in the way!) I began finalising fitting of the Rear Transmission. Removing bolts, cleaning up threads of old 'Locktite' and re-assembling to correct torque's.

once I'd completed my task of Transmission I began taking pictures of other things possibly missed...


Heat Sink & lower view of Fan

Assembly of upper trackrod adaptor - note position of leading and trailing edge. This is quite important for handling to face the machined diameters touching to the front of the car, likewise:

as M. Keenan says himself it is made like this to rectify the angle of camber or toe away from the McPherson Strut as this suspension method uses wishbones so this angle needs to be as near to 0 (zero) as possible. It is a design feature to improve handling!

While this was happening - I was fitting the brake reservoir...

As bonfire night approaches - this will almost conclude this week's assembly.


ok... here we go!


almost there


Dry Summer...
our reservoir is empty!

 

4th November 2003

Exchange bolts for suspension as the ones supplied were strangely not long enough. Perhaps we had used the sussy bolts for shocker bolts, maybe.

Ordered 4 brake disc's from Car Parts Direct. Front (260mm) Vented, Drilled and Grooved. Rear 253mm Solid, Drilled and Grooved. Manufactured by Rossini, they certainly look the part, but time will tell if they perform good or not. For the same price I could have got some Black Diamond equivalent disc's. With hindsight, I should have gone for the Black Diamond disc's due to their reputation and market leading performance. We all make mistakes... depends how bad the mistake goes through time, as to whether I'll be 'black balled' for my place on the "Hellfire Board" or not ;-)

Although these are sales pictures it gives some idea what they look like. Later I will be posting the actual pictures on here! I eagerly await delivery!

 


Black Diamond
Vented, Drilled and Grooved


Rossini
Solid, Drilled and Grooved
6th November 2003

Disc's arrived today - great now we have something to do tonight! Hehe.. together with a few other things like:

  • Complete assembly of front suspension - exchange bolts collected from MK.
  • Fit front and rear disc's
  • Complete Handbrake Cable fitting.
  • Complete Steering Rack Assembly

Dad decided he couldn't work tonight due to his back having 'gone', so just the two of us tonight then. We decided to get cracking with fitting the disc's and calipers as we really need to lower the car off of the tressles. We are becoming increasingly worried about the stability of the Car (?) on these items. So on we went... assembling the front suspension units:

   

Once completed - we then decided to fit the rear calipers, taking care to fit them correctly onto the corresponding side of the car as they are 'handed':

that's the rear's on, now time for the front's!

that's the right side completed, now for the left...

Once this task was complete we could now fit and adjust the handbrake cable. We used a small Clevis which we got from an AA man, which they use to repair broken handbrake cables. As this is acceptable for the AA, it should be acceptable for the SVA (?) we shall see... upon completion adjustment of the cable was easy!

Final fitting of the Steering rack was done... arm threads were cleaned, Loctite 242 and tightened to the correct torque. Boots were placed on and clipped into place. Steering Rack fitted and tightened up central. Hubs straightened then arms adjusted to suit the straight ahead position... lots of work done tonight!

Next job - fitting body panels... better order them from MK.
Front O/S Suspension


Front Disc


Rear Disc


Good eh?


AA Clevis Pin
8th November 2003

Our usual visit to MK Engineering with our very small agenda:

  • Collect Bonnet
  • Scrounge around for anything useful.
  • Check progress of ordered panels. (side, rear)

Picked up front upper ball-joint locknut. A special size of thread not available off-the-shelf. Enquire about the lower ball-joint castellated nut as we didn't get these off the donor car, silly lads! So, it's back to the scrap-yard for these or buy new lower ball-joints - which @ £18/pair was our last option.

We also discussed with Mr. MK the problem of our broken engine lug. As a thoroughly nice guy, he suggested we remove engine and take it down to him, he would sort it out on Sunday being as he was designing and building his new GT2.

I know he reads this site regularly so thanks Martin you're a star!

So following the T.I.G., drill and tap we should be in a position to replace our manifold studs properly.

Being as Dad has done in his back and brother had a hangover, I had to relent to working today until 3~4pm when we could put our car on milk bottle crates and get rid of the very insecure trestles.

3:00pm - saw us lowering the Car onto the milk-bottle crates which made it a whole lot more stable. It's surprising how strong the crates actually are. So strong in fact two people could sit in the chassis in situ!

9th November 2003

Out with the worms this morning... taking the engine down to a 'close personal friend' who offered to rectify the broken exhaust manifold lug. Things moved on at quite a pace, but we were very anxious when out came the angle grinder and totally removed the lug. It wasn't what we expected at all! However, we knew the remainder of the existing manifold stud had to be removed as much as possible so this seemed to be the easiest way.


Lug removal

Grinding took place until all was left was a small 'ring' at the bottom of the lug.

We then attempted to remove what was remaining of the steel stud by drilling further into the lug.


Almost gone

Then came the T.I.G. welding with Magnesium/aluminium alloy which we think was for increase strength whilst retaining the lightness of aluminium.

 

Marvelous bit of welding!


Rebuilt Lug!


Grinding down...


Re-drill 6mm
Following re-drilling, we got the engine back to 'base' and begun to clean up the engine using wire-brushes. It is while we were doing this that we discovered another flaw in the engine...


Engine Buff
A weak oil cooler branch!!! This simply came away while wire-brushing... although upon examination it was evident that it had been leaking quite badly before we broke it off. So, another job to do - remove the casting and replace with a new/2nd hand one!
By this time we began to think about re-tapping the exhaust manifold lug... M8 x 1.25P - using 3 stage hand taps acquired from other sources - we aligned up the tap and proceeded to re-cut the thread... after a few small hiccup's with depth... it was finally completed satisfactorily

Once this task was complete - starting on mounting the CDI Rectifier/Regulator and Coils was next... mounting them on our specially designed 'Heat Sink' for maximum cooling.
We positioned the coils so as to allow easy routing for the HT Leads whilst also getting some of the cooling from the 'heatsink plate'...
All parts in position... just securing to do...
Jobs complete for the day...
10 October 2003

Not lots to do tonight as we need plenty of bits now... could not find a replacement Oil Cooling Casting. All my searches did not come to fruition... but on my travels I did come across one 'bad a*se' bike dealer, one called Ken Urwin - based in Thorne, Doncaster. Maybe he had experienced a bad day, 'cos he treat me like I was something stuck to his shoe that smelled very badly. If he reads this (which I hope he will!) maybe he will treat his customers much better in the future... maybe?

 
I asked for the said Oil Cooler - he said "...new £40, second hand £1000 as the Kit Car boys want these badly. They break all the time, so I'll sell it you with the engine. I'm not taking it off the engine. Weld it up..." I replied, "it is quite badly corroded", his answer of "you're not listening are you - I said weld it up"... by the time he had said this to me a few times to be honest I had heard enough. I walked out with the thought that I would never set foot in that place again if my life depended on it. So, anyone around this area beware...

Many, many chat's about the method we were going to employ for retaining the clutch/accelerator pedals and we have arrived at a novel idea which is easy, quick, light, virtually invisible and adjustable. To be posted soon...

We re-tightened the front wishbones and placed locknuts...

Final coated the pedals to look something like better...
12 November 2003

Exchange XR4x4 disc's for XR4i disc's from the friendly man at Car Parts Direct, treated us very well. Recommend this guy whole heartedly!
14 November 2003

By the time the main men had arrived... said personage had decided he could "twiddle thumb" no longer. The front disc's had miraculously decided to 'fit' themselves - apparently! Must admit though, looked pretty darn good... all fitted and correct. Correct offset this time and they even had a fixing screw which we could not fit due to the hubs being original standard sierra's, so I guess the XR4i hubs had the mating screwed thread. Never mind...

A few more shot's of the disc's 'cos they really were impressive!
...so tonight what was on the agenda - hmm, not much. We were waiting for the side panels and rear panel still so other things had to be done. We were also having difficulty locating up-rated clutch springs manufactured by Barnett, as most people seem to swear by these, so we thought we could not go far wrong using that experience.
  • Manufacture brake pedal reinforcing plate.
  • Manufacture bracket to mount fuse box(s) and relays.
  • Discuss plans for our usual visit to MK.
Began to fabricated a bracket wide enough to accept our 8 fused box. Mounting the bracket from scuttle under-brace to front of front bulkhead/battery tray. These were placed here to hopefully keep away from flying knees, also to avoid wiring being caught by awkward boots/shoes. Within easy access in case fuses actually blow, it seems a popular place to locate the fuse box for obvious reasons it being behind the battery! Whilst I was fabricating these brackets, Dad and Ph were manufacturing a reinforcing plate to go underneath the brake pedal tag.
...okay so this picture is mid-build, but you get the drift of what they were trying to achieve! This was blind riveted from underneath so as to retain the smooth surface of the under-floor pan. Also this protects the steel pin which remains in the rivet. It may also increase our Coefficient of Drag by 0.000001 which may give us 0.0001 mph more - maybe? Maybe not!
for some strange reason Ph seemed to have lots more time on his hands than maybe (?) the rest of us - in true Ph style he decided to take his perfection levels to an 'all-time-high' by manufacturing a special rubber foot - come softener, to go on the brake pedal adjuster. Not that I'm complaining you understand; but I ask you: Is this the work of a busy man? Hmm... I'll let you answer that one yourselves!
ok then - time taking a beating and more discussions than working. But, this is a good thing as to plan is to succeed, and succeeding only comes with a plan. Our fuse box mounting bracket's were almost complete and looking good. Also, the fabricated bracket mounting's would hold our relays...
like so... This allows for minimal cable routing and keeps all the wiring central and within easy reach.

Following this we began to discuss the MK visit and requirements for the next phase of build. Dad had to manufacture bush's and spacer's, whilst I went shopping for other bits and pieces required:

  • HT Leads
  • Internal lining material
  • Exhaust Manifold bolts
  • Spray Adhesive

Should keep me busy... for a while!
15 November 2003

Our regular visit to MK on Saturday always fills us with joy. Today, was no exception! We collected and made loads of things... due to Dad being ever-so-slightly good at turning, he bagged for that! So on today's agenda was the following:

  • Collect Side Panels
  • Collect Rear Panel
  • Make spigot adaptor ring
  • Make 'top hats' for clutch and accelerator foot-well tubes.

All this was being done while I St; was 'shopping' for other 'car bit's':

  • HT Leads
  • Internal lining material
  • Exhaust Manifold Bolts
  • Spray Adhesive

Had a cracking day in Doncaster whilst doing so...
16 November 2003

We managed to (hopefully) re-claim our oil cooler casing by a 'close personal friend' who welded it all up after much to-ing and fro-ing. With all our newly acquired bits - we could once again start on anew, and get things really moving... the end of the tunnel was finally in sight despite our little set-back's!
So armed with our 'top hats' we decided to fit these to complete the pedal linkage... however, things as usual didn't quite go to plan. We had to mount the drill in our vice, spin it up and remove the excess material with a file... not a proper engineer's job - despite the digital vernier. But, how else could we do it? We persisted doing it this way until it finally fitted and then we repeated the process for the other pedal...

before we even knew it - Ph had slipped on the side panels and was admiring the result... it was beginning to look more and more like

 

a boat!
finally we had both units in place...
next job up was to complete the rear bulkhead panel... this comes already 'rough-cut' all you need to do are trim it to your own standard of fit. As we like to do things to excess perhaps... we we're going to use large head rivets to secure the said plate into position... so we placed the bulkhead into position and marked out the rear chassis spar's so's we could easily drill into our target material easier...
to make things a little easier we tried to 'bend' the rear bulkhead in position with a length of timber... it never really did put a crease in but then it fit the top chassis member better and this would reduce buttoning of the aluminium when riveted.
next we began marking out for the rivet locations... to keep rivets equi-spaced, the rivets worked out between 88~120mm spacing. Once completely marked out we drilled all holes 5mm followed by deburring. This was then offered into the chassis whereby we could mark out and drill the chassis. We noticed that to the rear centre of the bulkhead the section above the transmission tunnel was very weak as there was no support to it - so we fabricated a piece of 3mm thick aluminium to fasten to the chassis and support the bulkhead by means of an additional rivet and Texflex... the only problem being we had to shorten a rivet...
once this was complete we began 'popping' the rivets in... things soon began to drift nasty again, as we noticed the rivet-gun had begun to protest with a small tell-tale crack around the head. It's such a shame really about the rivet gun as this has been a pain in the *aris* since we bought it. Considering it has only rivetted 150 times we did expect better - never again will we buy an eclipse rivet gun - they are truly NAF when faced with hard work!
so if you see one of these and are considering buying it... DON'T!!!
...however, the reinforcing bracket was secured and operative - it makes the rear panel much less flexible. Needs a good fettle and paint, but idle hands make for...
a result - the rear bulkhead was fixed, secured and in place - albeit to a few rivets where the rivet gun eventually won it's argument and resigned from service! The rear bulkhead now look's the business, shame it's going to be covered with seats!
now onto cutting out the side panels - using a hacksaw we began cutting out for the roll-bar screws... this saw together with a 'tile saw' for cutting around corners gave us the perfect fit...
nicely done it - all the side panels were then clipped up and secured for us to begin cutting out for the interior trim... we decided to use leatherette (plastic/vinyl to you or me) - and some type of padding. I was advised by a 'foam man' against using standard foam as:
  1. It rot's
  2. It's terrible to glue straight without creases.
  3. The skinned type which we required was quite expensive.
  4. It doesn't like being glued to anything.

...so even though he was a 'foam man' he advised me to go over the road to "Army Surplus" and buy two camping mats... the flat roll up kind! They (apparently) are much better for bonding and easier to work with. He has fitted this onto dashboards in car's and all sorts of odd mouldings to flatten profile's... who am I to argue?
so away we went cutting out the sponging and trim until it was almost Monday...
time had really flown by - so we decided to clear up a little - fitting the rear panel was just one way of putting it together for a photo opportunity... ;-)

 
16th November 2003

Ordered heavy duty clutch springs - following extensive research and advice, we decided to replace the standard spring with one from the USA made by Barnett. These were supplied by a company called PDQ in Maidstone for £13.76 including P&P+VAT.
17th November 2003

Springs which I ordered yesterday arrived today - fantastic service PDQ!.

Completed the cutting of trim and sponge ready to be fitted. Re-placed the oil-cooler casing after cleaning up and rubbing down the mating surfaces... refitted the engine into position... rubbed away at lumps and bumps on the inner surface of the fiberglass for it to sit correctly...

As you may be able to see the 'masking tape' on the picture above... this is where the rear panel will be SPLIT. The rear panel is approximately 25mm too wide, which will create an angle between this panel and the side panels. By splitting the panel we can remove the 25mm and gain a flat surface on which our rear wheel arches will be fitted. This should hopefully negate the need for piping etc to fill the gap... we shall see!
20th November 2003

Tonight was always going to be difficult as two of us were suffering from some strange 'leg weakening' virus, which although feels terminal; wouldn't be enough to keep us from being in the garage. So saying that our agenda for this evening would be:

  • straighten up front hubs  ready for aligning properly.
  • tighten up brake piping
  • fit side panels, snow cone and bonnet
  • Order 7ft of YELLOW Spark Plug Lead from PDQ (best price, best product... can't go wrong!)

Ph had already started on the front hubs when I arrived - (well I was only going to be there for 30 minutes - such did I feel) so we soldiered on. 

After aligning the 'snow cone' we collectively came to the conclusion that the scuttle would have to be the datum body panel as this was crucial to be lined up to the side body panel. From this the bonnet and snow cone followed suit. We continued lining up the scuttle marking out and drilling, small slots to file out to make way from the cross member then it was continue to drill out through the side panels and into the chassis.

Drill core diameter of rivnut (for 6mm core dia. is 9mm x 2 insert into holes (just to check)
thread rivnut onto mandrel - FULL thread and using two spanners... wrench up the nut... until rivnut sits in hole tightly. DO NOT over-tighten or you risk stripping nut or worse snapping mandrel. unscrew rivnut tool and check again security of rivnut.

Cut out side panel to avoid protruding rivnut head above chassis..

Fit scuttle after marking out and drilling to suit rivnut dimensions. We used 6x25 washers to displace load reducing risk of cracking scuttle/side panel.

Tighten up to hold scuttle...

Insert other bolt and secure by tightening all four bolts.
After removing all relevant panels we could fit a rivnut, file a nice 'U' shape into the side panel then offer up the panels. With a little mechanic's license (half round file) we adapted all panels to fit flush. Repeat the operation on 't other side. Offer up the battery tray/bulkhead and discover there is 1" too much intrusion into engine bay - after some discussions, we arrived at a plan, which we can't tell you here as it is still top-secret!

 

So my 30 minute quick call turned into nearly 5 hours... where does the time go? "Sorry love... my watch stopped!"
21 November 2003

YELLOW Spark Plug Leads which I ordered yesterday - arrived this morning. Excellent service PDQ... can't say it enough to recommend them high enough.

Drain oil ready for replacement of new up-rated Barnett Clutch Springs and relocation of sump-plug.
22 November 2003

Tried to quickly fit the Plug Lead... hmm looks like it's not suppressed. Not good for Mr SVA man! Also the diameter seems to be too large to fit into the coils/boots. Our assumption that 7mm and 8mm will fit into the same coil/boot appears to be wrong... now there is an alternative - order some 7mm we know is suppressed too! Maybe another mistake - but not such a costly one... we hope!

Remove oil sump ready for modification of the drain plug. As clearance is by no means "4x4 like" we preferred to relocate the said plug to the side of the sump so giving us a valuable 12~13mm extra. Once again "close personal friend" came to our rescue - as always - a BIG THANKS!!!
23 November 2003

Sunday morning, and a cool one at that. The winter temperatures are now dropping down to a level where outside working is painful... good job we're inside then!

On today's agenda:

  • Fit bulkhead
  • Paint none friction part of brake disc.
  • Drill, Tap and generally clean up and paint sump pan.
  • Fit up-rated clutch springs.

Cleaned up gasket paper from oil sump and clutch cover plate faces. What a job! Lot's of scratchy scratchy... taking care not to deform or gouge out any material. Then generally clean it all up internally and externally ready to have the external side HT painted, ('cos we had some left). Then set to work on de-gasketing the mating parts on the engine!

   

Run a ring of HT paint also around the non-friction faces of the brake disc's just to make them look better for longer.

Remove the old clutch springs:

 

Compare the difference:
Up-rated 2mm longer @ 47mm
Same coil number
Wire 2.7 instead of 2.5mm
Fit the new one's: 

Gasket to remove


Gasket removed

 

Now to fitting the bulkhead...
as the cable's are renown to cease up in the outer sheath's due to the heat drying up the grease etc it is becoming common practice to split the bulkhead to allow for easier repair of the cables. So we marked out the rear-side of the panel using marker,
using a pad saw we began to saw following the centre line of the chassis tube.
once split we put back the panel ensuring the gap was closed again...
then we tape is all up again using masking tape... looks great eh?

once this is done we began to profile the outside to the scuttle line making for a clean presentable edge which would eventually become two parts of the same panel.
 keep filing away until the desired shape has taken effect...
marking out for the stainless steel button heads next, making them equi-spaced again of high importance for the good overall effect we required. We then proceeded to drill 3 hole along the split line, so that when it was secured the bolt and washer would hold down both halves of the panel.
As the down-split was going to be unsupported we thought it best to manufacture a small plate which would restrict lateral movement of the bulkhead, This could be supported by the chassis cross member and scuttle. Ph came up with a novel idea of making a simple low stress captive nut system which would work for our application in hand.

First drill the plate:
tape a nut upto the back of the hole so that the chamfers on the corners on the nut provided a lead...
like this...
then place in the vice jaws, true and square then "wrench " in the nut... until jaws have closed on nut to within 1mm or so.
looks like this on the back
this on the front...
Once this was done three times we had our bracket complete with captive nuts to secure the rear face of the bulkhead. As we had no button bolts our task here was complete.

Then we set to work finalizing the sump pan...
mark out centre
drill square and true to new sump face...
until through both the welded aluminium disc and the sump pan itself... once this is complete then tapping can begin...

to prevent "deposition" as what happend usually when cutting with no lubrication we used white spirit - this gave us a lovely clean hole with little no furring up... we used the same sutting medium for tapping
once tapped through we could insert the bolt and manufactured an aluminium replacement sealing washer and squared up the face to the bolt for good measure.
once complete all that was required was a coat o paint!
25th November 2003

Continue fitting bulkhead.

The captive nut bracket in place which will hold the split bulkhead in place.
Cut out the side panel return to accommodate the bolts which we will be using to secure the bulkhead.
Secure rivnuts into place mid-section to secure the 'split' part of the bulkhead.
A manufactured captive nut clip we manufactured to secure the bulkhead onto the scuttle.
continue until they surround the scuttle...
continue until bulkhead can be mounted in position and washer placed and bolted on using stainless bolts and brass washers.
until when it's complete it looks something like this...


Continue routing and identifying wiring loom for cross-matching. Engine/Sierra manufactured loom cross matching taking place - (Ooh my brain hurts!)
27th November 2003

Further continuation of bulkhead.
Further identification and routing of wiring - sidelights/headlight/fog light circuits. Re-fitted oil sump pan and clutch cover plate - refilled with old oil for now to offer some protection until engine is fired up.

Tightened up engine cradle bolts... TAF tight.

Tightened up sprocket adapter flange nuts (x4) very tight and used loctite 242 on threads which is vibration/oil resistant.

Fitted electrical P-Clips t rear sub frame and transmission tunnel to complete this section of wiring. Lighting and ancillaries purchasing is now becoming imminent. We'll need to identify and source some proper lights. Our initial toying with the idea of using LED's has been brought to a very abrupt halt due to cost. £50 per rear cluster lamp is very excessive considering it's still fitted in the original lamp holder molding... which is unnecessarily very deep!

Discussions regarding coolant hoses etc took place - decisions regarding many issue's need to be discussed in depth between our team.
28th November 2003

The agenda for this evenings work was decidedly 'tidy up' ends.

  • Complete painting of coil mounting brackets
  • Complete assembly of propeller shaft/differential bolts
  • Design and manufacture pedal stops

As Ph wasn't 'in action' tonight - Dad and I decided finalize these few details. So, whilst I began cleaning and re-assembling bolts Dad painted the coil mounting brackets.

This complete we designed the pedal stops and began manufacture. Using a piece of 25mm brass bar we decided the overall length of the stops was 40mm. We decided on offsetting the mounting bar as the radius of the foot well would interfere with the angle of mounting. We calculated that 30mm should be enough to avoid the radius on the foot well and connect with the pedal squarely. So we drilled radially through the bar 6.5mm diameter and tapped it through M8. Split the bar down the middle axially and threaded some bar into it. Soldered the bar into the brass D-shaped stop polished up and completed. Ended up looking like this... we think they look quite good.

Drill through Clean up after tapping M8 and soldering Polish up to finish
29th November 2003

So today is MK-day - err sorry Saturday! Another visit to MK to collect pieces and make bits for our Hellfire. Collected today was:

  • All components to assemble the gear change - commonly known as the Gear Change Linkage.
  • Dad made some bushes for something or other.
  • We cut out bits to make a gear lever bracket - which does not come as standard on the chassis.
30th November 2003

Bit's Dad made from aluminium were completed - have yet to decide what they are? No, seriously they are the pedal retaining lugs which fit around the pedal bracket and 'stop' on the bottom of the pedal bracket. Very simple easy and quick!

Collected the Gear Linkage but unfortunately it must have been damaged after manufacture as it was broken. Arranged with MK to collect another following week.

Generally made good of the day by tidying up loose ends... painting and sealing tightening up nuts, bolts.

Manufacture of spacers for prop-shaft began - trying to keep the prop as 'in-line' as possible. The spacers were made from aluminium sheet 10mm thick, using three pieces (30mm) top and bottom we obtained the objective of a nearly straight prop.

 Pictures to follow