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After asking Jim if he had a spare crankshaft washer, he told me to phone Richard at the London branch to see if he had one, and as I am after a larger passenger side petrol tank bracket I was to give him the details for that at the same time as he must be the one who makes them.
The rear lights were tested for the first time, as the battery just happened to be next to them and I thought I might as well check them. They were all fine.
The engine was checked for leaks again. There was a fair bit of water on the floor under the front of the engine, but as there had been a lot around there from the leaking thermostat and none of it had evaporated due to the damp weather, I mopped it all up on the floor and the engine so that any new leaks would show up. There were a few more drips from the bellhousing, but there isn't really much that can be done about it so its just going to have to be left until the engine has been run properly up to temperature to see if it gets any better or worse.
There was quite a bit of petrol on the underside of the carbs, so I tightened up the pump body screws a bit just to be sure. It could be that like the water it had just never evaporated after being filled with petrol, or possibly they just slowly leak anyway until the float chambers are empty, but anyway its something else to keep an eye on.
After checking the exhaust again, it looks like it has definitely moved off a bit after the engine was run, so I tried to hammer it back into place using a block of wood on the end of the collector, unforunatly with no success as it didn't seem to move at all. It seems like the exhaust paste hasn't set properly at all, as it has gone soft again and the bits on the outside are starting to fall off. So, it can either be left as it is, or its going to all have to come off again and be fitted the same day the engine is run so that the paste will be able to set properly...
An extra bit was added to the left side radiator lower bracket so that it is gripped from the front and the back, as it was still moving around a bit. The tacho and speedo connectors were soldered to the loom, as they don't use the normal spade terminals. There are a few different combinations for the tacho, both with its settings and with the loom connections. The tacho can accept a signal from the coil, or 2 different types of signals from the ignition module, and the loom has voltage and current connections from the coil, so I'm going to try the coil voltage connection and if that doesn't work one of the others will have to be tried instead.
4/2/2001
An extra support was added to the right side radiator lower bracket,
as the mod to the lhs bracket yesterday wasn't quite enough. The bit
of chassis engine mount plate that was chopped off to allow some
clearance to the side of the sump has found a use as these extra
radiator brackets. The brackets on the side of the radiator fan were
chopped off, as they won't be used and will just get in the way.
A couple of galvanised steel brackets were made to hold the battery in its tray behind the front nearside wheel. As its in a position that will get sprayed with anything off the wheel I'll have to make some sort of cover/shield for it some time as well, but that can wait until the body is on so that I know how much space there is going to be.
A hole was drilled in the chassis just in front of the throttle pedal for the throttle cable to pass through. The routing for the cable is going to be a bit awkward, but that can wait until later.
I made a start on a sheet of ally to block air passing under the radiator, as with the front 'wing' being panelled on the underside, the radiator sits on top of the chassis rails and all of the air coming into the front of the car has to be made to go through the radiator rather than under it. Once the body is on, panels will also be needed at the sides to stop air going round the radiator.
6/2/2001
I decided to have another go at the silencer today - using a harder
bit of wood than last time and hitting it harder as well, and it
actually moved this time, ending up back where it started. Hopefully I
haven't disturbed something else in the process, as I really did have
to hit it hard.
The other 2 rampipes were fitted, which is just temporary but should help to keep things even when the engine is run again.
10/2/2001
Went to the breakers to pick up a few things - a Polo heater and
steering wheel, the horn from a Saab with positive and negative
terminals (most of the ones I looked at were earthed through the
body), and the crankshaft washer that I was missing which keeps the
cambelt on the pulleys. Luckily, the Granada that I took the
crankshaft pulley off a couple of months ago was still in the same
place, so it was very easy to get hold of the washer.
Once back, the oily washer was cleaned and then fitted along with the crank pulley, and torqued back up again. The rest of the exhaust was fitted without any paste, as I just want to check that it all goes together and doesn't shake itself apart the next time the engine is run. Its a very tight fit, and the silencer will need spacing up a bit assuming there is plenty of vertical clearance between the bit that goes over the wheel and the underside of the body, but it does eventually go together when enough force is applied. I then made a start on an ally bracket to hold the top of the fan in place, as the bottom will happily sit in the gap in the radiator, using a few bits of inner tube to hold it in and stop it moving. Lastly, I ran a bead of silicone along the front top part of the radiator, so that the fan rests on something soft which will help to stop it moving and give a better air seal.
11/2/2001
The car was taken back down off the front axle stands, the radiator
and fan were fixed in place, and it was rolled outside.
With the help of a friend I had another go of running the engine now that the cambelt should stay in the right place. The battery was connected up, the water temp, oil pressure and rev counter were connected, the rear petrol line was put in the petrol can (sat well out of the way of the silencer), the lead from the coil to the dizzy was removed to get some oil on the moving parts first, and the ignition key was turned. Nothing at all happened - apart from the clicking of the pump there were no sounds, meaning that the starter wasn't even trying to do anything. A couple of light taps with a copper hammer later, and it started straight away.
Lots of smoke from the exhaust, but the oil pressure started to climb immediately, and after a while the water temperature rose as well. After a while, the first leak was spotted, which was oil from the front right corner of the rocker box, enough to run down the engine and drip onto the ground. It had leaked here when the engine was first filled with oil, and I had tightened it up a bit then, but tightened it some more after the engine was stopped. It was then started again (straight away with no hesitation), and run for a bit longer. The oil was still coming out slowly, so it was stopped again, tightened, and then restarted. The oil pressure leveled off at around 50psi, which seems to be about right judging from what people on the list have said.
As I had been operating the key and keeping an eye on the moving bits the first time the engine was run, I hadn't noticed how loud the induction noise from the carbs was. I know people have mentioned it plenty of times, but this was the first time I'd had a proper listen to it. It was about now that the carbs started making a popping noise, and the engine was struggling to keep going no matter how much throttle I gave it. Looking at the fuel filter in the engine bay I realised that it was empty, and after stopping the engine and checking the petrol can it was just about empty. I knew the engine was running rich due to the black smoke from the exhaust, but I didn't think it would get through this much petrol. The 5 litre can had been filled up before the engine was started the first time, and then it was only run for a couple of minutes at most, so it had slurped its way through well over 4 litres of petrol in under half an hour of fast idle of around 1400 rpm (assuming the rev counter was reading correctly).
It was around now that we noticed how much the exhaust pipes had changed colour, from a normal stainless steel silver to a fairly deep golden colour. The four header pipes were all exactly the same colour as well, which meant that even though the carbs are set totally wrong, at least they are fairly similar to each other as a problem some people have is that one pair of pipes change colour but the other pair doesn't.
A quick pop round to the petrol station to fill up before the engine cooled down too much, and then it was started up again after giving the fuel pump time to fill the carb float chambers again. This time it was fine, with only a little bit of popping from the carbs to start with. It was then run for a bit longer, keeping an eye on the temperature gauge. It gradually rose, and once past the 88 degrees of the thermostat I was expecting the fan to come on, but it didn't, even when the temperature got over 100 and we decided to stop it to check things out. As soon as it was stopped, I noticed that water was dripping down from the large hose from the water pump, but tightening the three jubilee clips on that bit (where there is a metal tube insert to join two bits of hose) stopped that, which was presumably just caused by the increase in pressure once the temperature got up to 100. The resistance of the radiator thermal switch was checked, and it was closed which meant that it was working properly. It was all left to cool down, and I kept checking the switch to see what temperature it opened at, which seemed to be around 84 degrees, though as the water temperature sender is a long way from the radiator switch they could have been at different temperatures.
So, after wheeling the car back into the garage I set about trying to figure out why the fan didn't work. I went all the way through the wiring, checking that everything was connected up correctly, tested the relay to check that it was working, and connected everything up so that the fan could be tested with the radiator switch bypassed. Still nothing, even though there was 12V getting to the input side of the fan. The fan on its own worked fine when connected directly to the battery, so I checked that the ground for the fan was connected, which was the problem. There are a few earth connections in the loom at various places and I had just assumed they were all connected internally, as they had all been bolted to the chassis apart from the very front one as I hadn't decided where it was going to go. This is the one for the front lights and the fan, so as it wasn't earthed it was never going to work. After temporarily connecting this to the chassis, the fan worked straight away, so problem solved.
Once that was out of the way, I carried on with the top radiator fan braket. The one I had already started wasn't very good, so I made a start on a differnt one that would bolt to the front of the radiator which should be a lot more secure.
12/2/2001
Picked up the roll hoops from the powdercoaters. They look much better
than when they were painted, and should be a lot more durable.
I checked for drips in the evening, and unfortunately there were 2 more, meaning that running the engine doesn't seem to have made any difference to the leak. I'll have to speak to Jim about this, as it looks like it could be turning into an engine out problem unfortunately...
13/2/2001
Checked the leak again - there didn't seem to be much more, so it
could be that what dripped out had leaked before the engine was run,
and its just what was already in the bellhousing and has run out from
there, and the plug has sealed itself now. I dried the tub lid I'm
using to catch the water, and will check again tomorrow to see if
anything else has come out.
Finished making the top bracket to hold the fan onto the radiator, which seems to work fairly well.
14/2/2001
Checked up on the leaking core plug again, and there haven't been any
more drips since Tuesday night. Its looking promising.
Did a bit more on the air blocker for under the radiator, along with a trial fit of the radiator fan and new bracket..
15/2/2001
Quick check on the dripping again, and there isn't any more
water. Looks like it might be alright, and the drips after the engine
was run could just have been from water that leaked out before the
engine was up to temperature and just took a while to drip out of the
bellhousing. I hope so...
Some more on the air blocker, including making some side bits for it. I also topped up the header tank with water to see if that makes any difference to the dripping.
16/2/2001
Still no drips, even after the topping up.
17/2/2001
Another trip up to Tiger, which will hopefully be the last one before
the car is finished. As my parents are coming down to stay for the
week to help with lifing the bodywork etc, and my car doesn't have a
towbar, we decided that the best thing to do was for them to call in
to Tiger on the way down, and for me to drive up there (with my
brother who can only stay for the weekend and came down last
night). Then, they can bring Jim's trailer down to my house, and any
other bits can be put in my car.
We got there first just after 10, to find that the bodywork was already there and on the trailer, as it had been kept at Jim's house overnight. Thankfully, it was black, as one of the concerns I had was that it was accidentally going to be uncoloured gel, though I had told them plenty of times that I didn't want to paint it if possible, so wanted black gelcoat (which is one of the standard options on the order form anyway). To start with, it looked much worse than it actally was. Lots of scrubbed grey bits where the flashlines had been removed, and what seemed to be around 8 starcracks in various places. Thankfully, these ended up just being copies of starcracks in the mould, but that was one of the first indications that it wasn't made as well as it could have been...
Basically, it seems like the moulds have been knocking round for ages, and no-one took the time to repair any damage that has been done to them before they made my bodyshell. I've already mentioned the star cracks, but the two sides between the wheels are at totally different angles to each other - the driver's side seems to be in the right place at the front, but the rear is slightly in from where it should be. The passenger side is also about right at the front, but the back is well over 6 inches out from where it should be, giving the impression that the mould has deformed itself and they didn't do anything to make it the correct shape first. If it was a case of the bodywork having moved then it would be a relatively easy matter of just pulling it back into shape, but as the corner of the body (between the flat top above the wheel and under the door to the side) has not been made at a right angle, just pulling in the side pushes this up so that its in the wrong place. It could be that the mould is fine, and the body was taken out of the mould before it had fully cured, and the distortion was created then. Lastly, around the back half of the body there are quite a few yellow dots in the gelcoat. Hopefully these will rub out, but if not then its either going to have to stay spotty, or they'll all have to be scraped out and filled with black gel. Either way, it'll take quite a bit to get rid of something that shouldn't have been there in the first place.
The moulding of the boot lid (which has actually been taken from the lid of Jim's car rather than the original mould for some reason) has the marks in from where the bolts for the hinges and the rear spoiler go. It even has some yellow paint on it round the holes, which made us think that it was actually Jim's boot but painted black, though a closer look showed that it was in fact black gelcoat and not black paint. Thankfully these marks are mostly raised above the rest of the boot, but will need a lot of careful work to bring them down to the right level, and the bits that are lower are going to need filling. These should have either been cleaned up on Jim's boot before the mould was taken, or they should have patched the mould afterwards. Either way, its not the best thing in the world, but what are the alternatives at this stage?
I'm not sure if the removal of all the flashlines was done by Jim (who had mentioned he might do some cleaning work on it) or by the people who made the body, but it hasn't been done very well. Granted, there are no flashlines left at all, but it looks like its been done with an angle grinder, and hardly any care has been taken over it so that in quite a few places it has gone through the gelcoat, and there are places where it has left a step in the shape of the body, which might have been avoided if more of the flashline had been left there. Also, it has been done with something fairly course, leaving a grey band about 4 or 5 inches wide along all of the flashlines that will need to be sanded and rubbed down to get a decent smooth finish.
The rest of the bits don't look too bad, though a little less could have been trimmed off the edges of the doors so that tighter shutlines could be achieved (they are going to be huge), and there is one bit of the bonnet that has been roughly sanded for no apparent reason. There is a lot of work going to be needed to get the body into a decent state...
For some reason, a dashboard hadn't been made with the rest of the bits, and the door hinges hadn't been made either, so I'm going to have to wait for those, though they are going to be delivered rather than me making yet another trip up to Thorney.
There were a few other things I wanted while I was up there. The first was a windscreen, which was easy to get hold of as they have had a load of them standing round for a while, something to do with having to buy in bulk to get a decent price. The first one that was dug out had started to delaminate, but the next one was fine and didn't seem to be scratched at all.
The next was a windscreen rubber which they didn't have, even though I had specifically asked for one a while ago, so that is another thing that's going to be sent when its available. Lastly, I wanted two of the black plastic locking fuel filler caps (I'm trying to keep the chrome/silver down to a minimum so didn't want 2 alloy fillers, which are well over twice the price anyway), along with the filler necks and hose to join them to the tanks. Lastly, the allen head bolts that I have to hold the uprights onto the lower balljoints are just too short, as there isn't enough thread left to go all the way into the nyloc. The top ones are fine, as there is a threaded bit in the upright, but Sue had some slightly longer ones which are just the right size.
I also found out that Richard (in London) hadn't made the larger petrol tank bracket that I had requested, but luckily I had decided to bring the current one up with me just in case of any problems. So, this was extended in the right places by Simon after he had finished dropping off the weekly van-load of bits, which this week included loads of Cortina axles so it seems like they are stocking up on them...
We had a short chat with Jim about how the engine was running, and he suggested a few things to do with set up and balance the carbs, and adjusting the timing.
As Jim's car wasn't there, and I needed to have another look at it, we had a short trip along to Jim's house where the Storm was kept in his garage. The main things to look at were the body mountings, but as his chassis' outriggers are different to mine it didn't really help much.
Back at Tiger, the body was securely tied down with plenty of straps and rope, with cloths underneath to stop any rubbing, the other bits were put inside the cars, and we got back home with only one stop to move the rear of the body a bit as it had slid across and was rubbing on the side of the trailer.
Once home, the bits were unloaded and spread around on the drive, and some pictures were taken. Before everything was put away for the night, all of the bits were given a wipe with a damp cloth to get rid of the dust that was on them, which made them look a lot better than they had originally done.
18/2/2001
In the morning my parents took the trailer back to Jim's house, as he
needed it back fairly quickly and that was as good a time as any.
While they were doing that, we popped round to the garage to fill up
the petrol can again, rolled the chassis out of the garage, put the
back up on axle stands, and got it ready to start the engine
again. The carb idle screws were put all the way in and then taken out
two turns, and the fuel regulator was turned down to its lowest
setting. I made sure the radiator fan was connected up properly this
time, and the three important instruments were plugged in. It started
straight away this time, and we fiddled around for a bit with the
carbs. The first thing to do was to set the return stop for the
throttle lever, so that it would idle by itself without anyone holding
the throttle open, and the aim was to get it to stay at 1000rpm, after
it had had a chance to warm up a bit. Next was to set the balance
between them, using the adjuster on the linkage between the two
carbs. I had originally set this so that they both opened/closed at
exactly the same time, and using the plastic pipe off the petrol can
it sounded like all 4 barrels were popping exactly the same
amount. The idle screws were then adjusted, starting at the front and
unscrewing it by 1/2 turn and then checking to see if the revs went up
or down. According to Jim, if the revs rose then it the screw should
be left in its new position, if the revs stayed the same then also
leave it, but if the revs dropped it should be put back to its old
position. This was done for all 4 barrels, adjusting the return stop
each time to keep the idle at around 1000rpm. It all seemed to be
working fairly well, and the amount of black smoke coming out of the
exhaust was reduced quite a lot, but it still never went away (though
this could have been due to the amount of carbon build-up left in the
exhaust system gradually blowing out).
After that, I had a quick test of the clutch and putting it into gear while the engine was running. With the clutch fully in, as soon as a gear was selected the wheels started turning (which was either due to the clutch not being fully released, or due to the oil moving around in the gearbox and driving the propshaft like it does when its in neutral), and when the clutch was gently released they started turning even quicker. The biggest worry was that when the wheels were turning something started vibrating quite a lot, which could either be a problem with the gearbox, a very unbalanced propshaft (though as its a Tiger modded one it is supposed to be balanced), or one of the rear wheels being off centre. We didn't try this for very long, and will have to check these things later on to try and work out what the problem was. It could all just be due to the fact that things work differently when its off the ground and there is no load on the drivetrain, and it could be perfectly fine when its trying to move itself around. We'll have to wait and see...
After the chassis was lowered back onto its wheels, the body was sat on top for the first time, to get an idea of where it was going to be touching the chassis, how close to the mounting points it was going to be, and just a general impression of what the fit was going to be like. It didn't seem too bad, with the back sitting on the high rails at the back above the wheels, the sides sort of sitting on the top side rail, and none of it sitting on the lower chassis mounts. The side mounts all seemed to be sort of in the right place, but at the front the body wasn't that close to the wing at all, as it was a couple of inches in front and just touching the sides, so long brackets are going to be needed on the front.
After this, all of the GRP bits were brushed out to get rid of the dust still inside them (wearing suitable mouth, eye and hand protection). We also had a quick test of scraping off lumps in the gelcoat to see how it went, using the tunnel first as that is going to be covered so any mishaps on that wouldn't matter too much. Just using the edge of a sharpened metal scraper it took the raised bit off fairly easily, so it doesn't look like its going to be as hard as expected.
19/2/2001
Trip into Cambridge to pick up a few things. Got some Farecla G3
rubbing compound and some 1500 grade wet and dry to get rid of the
rough bits on the bodywork. Not sure if G3 is fine enough, but its
something to start with anyway. Got some large penny washers which
will be used on the body mounts to spread the load of the bolts, and
try and avoid any cracks appearing. We also tried to get some 16mm
radiator hose that was longer than 1m, but nowhere at all had any, so
the only solution was to get a bit of steel pipe with an outside
diameter of around 16mm which could be used to join shorter lengths of
hose together.
After getting back, we had a quick go of rubbing the grinding marks off the body using some wire wool to start with which removed most of the bigger scratches and changed it from grey to black, and then went over it again with fine wet and dry, which smoothed it off but still left some of the scratches. It looks like it will be possible, but its going to take a long time.
20/2/2001
A start was made on trimming the hole for the boot lid, as the lip was
left too big (over an inch too high) using a hacksaw, and a power
sander and angle grinder to smooth off the awkward bits. Apart from
the dust, the cutting wasn't too bad and didn't crack the gelcoat
which I was expecting, but it doesn't half wear out hacksaw blades
quickly. A slight problem is that the channel round the boot hole
doesn't quite seem deep enough, as when the thickness of the boot lid
is taken off to get it level with the back of the body, the lip is
going to be very small, but hopefully just big enough to take some
rubber edging trim. We also found out that the double skinned boot lid
is slightly twisted, so it won't sit flat on the body anyway.
The edges of the bonnet and windscreen holes were marked up for trimming, by just evening out the bonnet hole and using the windscreen to find out which bits of the body were visible past the black border on the screen.
21/2/2001
I had got a spare ignition key cut yesterday, but it just didn't want
to turn, so as it was convenient to do I just removed the ignition and
steering lock bit from the steering column and took that back to the
key cutters so that they could get it working, which they did
manage. The problem seemed to be due to the big plastic bit on the key
that was too long and was stopping the key going far enough into the
barrel to be able to turn.
The bonnet and windscreen edges were trimmed using the saw and sander, and a bit more was taken off the boot hole. The body was sat on the chassis again, and we made a start on brackets to hold the rear of the body. The rear outriggers are about 6 inches higher than the lowest part of the rear bodywork, and the ends are around 4 inches from the rear of the body, so they can't be directly attached to the body without some extensions. The plan is to have a big bracket going straight back to hold the middle of the rear section and stop it flapping, and then use something smaller to hold the bottom edge of the body in place. As the body rests on the two chassis rails that go to the rear corners, there won't really be any weight on these brackets.
First, the chassis rails were extended using the same alloy channel that was used for the lower radiator brackets, which were just laid on top of the two short chassis rails. Then, 2 bits of 1.5" angle iron about 5 inches long were used to attach the alloy to the body. As it isn't possible to bolt these through the body without the bolts showing, they are going to have to be glassed onto the body. So, we first flattened them out a bit as the angle between the two bits is more than 90 degrees (using a big hammer and an old brake disk), then cleaned the rust off them. Next, some 8mm holes were drilled in the side that is going against the body, which will hopefully increase the strength of the fibreglass join. Then, the rhs bracket was glassed onto the body, after first giving that bit of the body a clean. Not the easiest of things to do, and the results end up looking pretty messy, but hopefully it should be more than strong enough.
Due to the angle the radiator sits in the body, most of that air that will go through it will come from fairly low down, so to maximise the amount of air getting to the radiator easily, bits of the lower part of the fan shroud were removed, but still leaving a framework there so that it isn't weakened too much.
22/2/2001
After having a think about the brackets for the rear bodywork, we
decided it would be best to chop the corners off the horizontal parts
of the brackets to make that bit as wide as the outrigger, but leave
the vertical bit as long as possible to help spread the load on the
body. Cutting these bits off will allow fibreglass to be put all
around the bracket on the body, not just on the top and sides as it
was initially. It was easy to do this to the one that hadn't been
fitted yet, but the one that we put in last night had to be chopped
down using a cutting disk in the angle grinder, being careful not to
slip and chop the bodywork. After this, the 2nd bracket was glassed to
the body, and more was applied over the lower edges of the 1st one.
Due to the gaps between the body and the front wing, some long brackets are needed. I didn't have anything suitable, but an engineering company 3 minutes walk away had some suitable 3mm thick 1 inch steel bar, which is thin enough to be able to bend using a vice and hammer, but thick enough to be able to support the body without bending. The side brackets are also going to be made out of these bars. The four front brackets were shaped and drilled, and a start was made on the side brackets. The rear outrigger extensions were drilled, but the chassis won't be drilled until the extensions have been attached to the body brackets so we know they are in the right place.
23/2/2001
Careful measurements were made of the position of the roll hoops when
the body was off the chassis, and these were then transferred onto the
body when it had been put back on the chassis. Due to the shape of the
bodywork where the roll hoop holes go, its very awkward to match up
the position of the hoops relative to the body, but we ended up with
something that we thought was fairly accurate. So, off with the body
again, out with the drill and hacksaw, and the holes were cut in the
body. Once the holes seemed to be about the right size, the roll hoops
were clamped to the chassis with a bit of tape down the sides to stop
them getting scratched, and the body was put back on the chassis. Once
it was on (which included having to slacked off the clamps so that the
hoops could move round a bit), we found that the holes had ended up in
slightly the wrong place, as they were both a bit too far back. This
wasn't really a problem though, as the holes needed to be made bigger
to increase the clearance around the roll hoops, as I plan on putting
some trim around the holes to make them look a bit neater. So, it was
off with the body yet again, and the holes were enlarged a bit more.
A few more bits were chopped off the radiator fan, and some holes were drilled in it as well. Hopefully this should be enough to allow plenty of air through.
The holes in the chassis for the rear body brackets were drilled in the chassis, after carefully lining up the body so that they ended up in the right place. Also, holes were drilled in the front brackets.
As there weren't enough 10mm bolts provided in the kit for the roll hoops, and I didn't think of asking for some when I picked up the body, I bought some from a local shop as there isn't time to get anything posted from Tiger.
24/2/2001
The side brackets were given their first bend, and the holes to attach
them to the chassis were drilled in the brackets only. The inside of
the bodyshell was painted (by my parents while I was getting on with
other things) with some black gloss, which is supposed to stop any
light getting through the thinner parts of the bodywork. It also makes
the insides of the wheelarches etc. much darker.
While that was being done, I finished off the air blocker for under the radiator. A few more bits were chopped off it to make it a better fit, then the holes were drilled.
Next, the holes in the chassis for the roll hoops were drilled. This ended up taking quite a while, as the chassis rail they attach to is fairly thick (thicker than all of the other chassis rails), and some of the bolts have to go through both sides of the rails. In total there were 20 holes to be drilled, but rather than just using a tiny pilot hole and jumping straight to a 10mm drill, it was much easier (on us and the drill bits) to makes the holes progressively larger, so we ended up using 4 different drills, which was 80 holes. Once this was done the hoops were bolted down.
The two ends of the chassis rail that the roll hoops are attached to are longer than they need to be, and due to the offset of the wheels that I have they would be a bit close to the tyres on full suspension compression. So, the ends of these were chopped off to give a bit more clearance, the edges were painted to stop any rusting, and my dad will make some wooden blocks to go in the ends to minimise the amount of water etc. getting into the rail.
The front brackets were lined up on the chassis, and then the chassis was drilled. Due to the shape of the body, the two middle brackets sit on top of the chassis, while the two side brackets are mounted underneath the chassis. The brackets were then painted.
Where there was access, the insides of the chassis rails were coated with waxoyl to try and stop any corrosion, and the plastic end plugs supplied with the kit were fitted to some of them. Lastly, some rubber pads were cut out of an old car inner tube for the front and rear body mounts, which will allow the body some slight movement.
25/2/2001
The front body brackets were fitted, and then the radiator and fan
were attached for hopefully the last time, and the air blocker was
rivetted into place. A trial fitting of the body was done to mark on
the front where the holes needed to be drilled for the brackets, and
as the roll hoop holes were still just a bit too small extra lines
were drawn round them to try and get a more consistent gap.
The extra bits were chopped and ground/filed/sanded out of the roll hoop holes, and with the front of the body propped up on axle stands the holes were drilled for the front mounts. Unfortunately, the drill moved a bit and the pilot hole for one bracket ended up in the wrong place, but rather than struggle to get the 8mm hole in the right place using a drill I will just file it out once the body is fitted as the other three were in the right places.
As the exhaust can't be assembled once the bodywork is on, that was put together using exhaust paste at the joins, and as the engine has to be run for it to cure properly we set everything up to start the engine. But, it just didn't attempt to fire at all - all it did was turn over. We tried a few times, but then gave up as time was running out so I just went over the joins with the hot air gun to sort of cure the paste (or at least seal it on the outside to keep the inside wet until the problem can be sorted out and engine can be started), and then the bodywork was lifted into place for hopefully the last time, and loosely bolted down.
So, at the end of a whole week, the body has been fitted and the engine has stopped working. The only problem now is that the engine can't really be started again until the tailpipe can be fitted (otherwise the exhaust will just blow straight onto the left rear wheel and the fuel pipe for the left tank), and the hole in the bodywork has to be positioned and cut out to do that. There is still plenty of work to do...
Total hours this month -
69.0
Total build hours -
493.0
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