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Trimmed the ends of the two rear bodywork support brackets to make them a better fit, as with the inside of the bodywork being so lumpy there were a couple of bits where it was touching the brackets.
A start was made on a 3rd rear bracket to hold the very bottom of the bodywork. As the 2 current ones are only supporting the middle of the rear bodywork, something is needed to stop the lower part flapping about (like a Mk 2 Mondeo rear bumper), so a bit of metal attached to the chassis and the body to stop it moving should be enough. A cardboard template was made initially, then I cut a bit of steel strip to make the bracket from.
2/5/2001
More work on the rear bodywork bracket - cut and shaped the bracket,
then drilled the holes in the bracket and chassis.
3/5/2001
Finished off the rear bodywork bracket - drilled the holes in the
body, cut some rubber spacers out of old inner tube, and made a metal
clamp to go on the outside to spread the load of the bolts.
5/5/2001
With help from my dad and brother, we shaped the speedo sensor
bracket, then (carefully) drilled the holes in the diff casing
webbing, then drilled the holes in the speedo bracket for the two
bolts and the sensor itself. It lies flat on the lhs of the diff
casing, then bends diagonally upwards until it is at the end of the
casing, then has a right angle to the left where the sensor is fitted
so that it lines up with the propshaft bolts, as they seem the best
place to stick the magnets (as they should be equally spaced). It
seems like it should be a good tight fit, and hopefully shouldn't
bounce around too much when the axle moves, as that might affect the
stability of the speed reading.
6/5/2001
A year to the day since I picked the kit up. I really had expected to
be finished well before now, but the numerous problems and delays with
things like the exhaust and bodywork, and all the extra complications
due to it being one of the first kits have meant that its quite a bit
more than the 120 hours mentioned... Unless there are any serious
problems, I really don't expect to still be building it this time next
year.
First visit to the Stoneleigh show. Picked up a few more things that are needed - exhaust wrap for the rear section near the fuel tank, a chromed tailpipe to give the correct radius for SVA (I just decided to go for one the same size as the exhaust (2"), rather than one of the 'boy racer' 24" types...), a rear fog light, some rear indicators (as it turns out the indicators I picked up at Donington last year were E marked as front indicators), some rubber sheeting to protect the body above the wheels (as the rubbercoat paint seemed very expensive in comparison), and some jubilee clips and zip ties.
Didn't really get enough time to look round the club stands outside, but had a quick chat with Andy McMinn and Neil Wain (who was kind enough to give me one of the welded stainless gear remote linkages that he's made).
7/5/2001
The new light positions were thought about, and they aren't going to
be particularly easy to do. As the fog light has to be mounted
vertically, it will need some sort of surround for it as most of the
rear bodywork angles inwards, and I'm planning to mount it in the
centre (or just slightly off to the rhs to be safe), so the vertical
bit at the top is take up with the boot lid and registration
plate. For the front indicators (which are basically exactly the same
as the rear indicators), a good place seemed to be in the corners of
the grille, but after checking the minimum height for SVA that was out
of the question even if the front suspension was raised as far as
possible. So, the only decent place seems to be in the recess under
the headlights. The shape of the lights wound mean they would stick
out a long way if just mounted flat onto the body, so they are
probably going to be recessed slightly and mounted vertically, though
if I find some other SVA compliant indicators that would be easier to
fit I might just use them instead.
My dad made a rubbing pad from some packing foam that came with my seats, that could be attached to an orbital sander, and then had a go of polishing the rough bits of the bodywork. It ended up working quite well, though the bigger scratches have to be removed first, using either wire wool or 800/1200 wet and dry paper before using the rubbing compound and final polishing.
We had a look at Neil's gear linkage, but it looks like it won't be any use as its over two inches too long. I don't know if its because the gearbox/engine or the chassis bracket for the remote are in totally different places on his and my chassis, but without chopping it down a lot and slicing out some of the welded middle section to allow it to fit beween the tabs on the levers, the only way it would fit would be to have the remote lever angled back a long way, but this is limited by the position of the bolt for the reverse stop and the hole I recently cut in the grp tunnel top. So, I'll probably just end up getting my current bracket welded up the same way for the moment, and let him have the bracket back as someone else could probably make more use of it.
We managed to figure out a bit of the wiring and how it works, for the headlight main/dipped circuit, and the indicators and windscreen wiper which I had incorrectly labelled originally.
Jacked the front of the car up, and drilled a hole for the horns, on the vertical plate that the front lower wishbone mount attaches to.
8/5/2001
Scraped the paint from around the horn mounting hole so that the one
without the -ve connection can earth through the chassis, and tried to
figure out the routing of the cables at the front of the engine
bay. As the loom is a couple of feet too long here, it will have to
double back on itself to take up the length but still put the lhs
light connections in the right place and provide a half decent place
for the earth connection.
10/5/2001
Chopped a spare bit of 5mm steel plate to be welded in the middle of
the gear remote, as it will be easier to do this than use the
stainless one from Neil which is a lot bigger than I need, and only
has a 4mm spacer in it so will need the gaps at the ends widening a
bit. I also made a couple of temporary spacers to go at the ends
around the bolt holes to stop them bending in while its being
welded, just in case they decide to move..
The distance between the bolt holes on mine is around 115mm, while Neil's stainless one is around 160mm, which shows just how different the position of the chassis remote lever bracket is on my chassis. Apparently, new Sixes are the same as the old ones, so its just mine that is different for some reason.
11/5/2001
After getting a load of cable ties recently, I was able to tidy up the
loom that runs next to the engine, as with the ignition module, coil,
dizzy and water/oil senders there it was a big congested, so its now
much better and hopefully SVA-friendly.
Made some large alloy p-clips for the bit of loom near the starter, and fitted them. The only wiring there that is loose now is the battery leads and the washer pump connection.
12/5/2001
Received a reply from Ford about the date of the engine after I posted
them all the details last week. They said that they don't keep the
build sheets for engines before 1994, but that they can confirm that
the engine was fitted to a car in August 1987. Unfortunately, the
start of that month is the cut-off for the 2nd set of emissions
levels, so I won't be able to get it through on the minimum levels,
which makes getting the carbs set up properly even more important.
Popped round to the garage to pick up my welded throttle cable bracket, and he had forgotten to get it done. Not really a problem, as I took round the gear remote to be welded as well, and there is no huge rush for them, so I'm going to pick them up in a few weeks time when he has hopefully been able to get them done.
Finished off most of the engine bay loom by attaching the front section to the front upper chassis rail. Being a round tube it was a bit more awkward to attach alloy p-clips to, but it should be fairly secure. It now runs straight up past the engine, across the front, then doubles back on itself to the lhs side where the horn and lights come out, and then goes back to the rhs again for the other connections on it. The front earthing point ended up on the round rail, but rather than extend the connection I just shaped a small bit of steel to the radius of the rail, and bolted that through to give a better earth than just the loom connector would do on its own.
I attached the extra wiring and connectors needed for the 2 horns I'm using, and made a new bracket for one of them as the one it used originally was a bit too springy and it would rattle around a lot.
As I plan to use the nicely padded Polo steering wheel to start with, I found the horn connection for it on the column, and discovered that it isn't connected up on the loom. So, I found a clip that was the right size to fit in the connector, and attached the horn wire to this, so now I should be able to use the horn button in the middle of the steering wheel.
Made a start on reshaping the front of the grp tunnel upper, as the bend to the left doesn't match the bend in the chassis, so the tunnel upper sticks into the passenger footwell. I chopped a wedge out of the flat bit so that the lhs could be bent in towards the centre, and then reattached so that it was in the right place.
13/5/2001
Finished off the tunnel mods - cleaned up the cutout and extended it a
bit, then rivetted it together using a few small bits of alloy to hold
it together.
Started to work out the position for the headlights, which is fairly difficult as the spaces on the body aren't circular or symmetrical, and just aren't tall enough for the plastic light surrounds which will need some of the bottom chopping off. So, I ended up making a couple of paper templates of the surrounds, which were positioned on the bodywork and the lower section trimmed until it was a half decent fit. This then allowed me to work out where the centre of the lights was.
Open day at Tiger. Went up in the afternoon after working on the car in the morning. Fairly good turnout, though I passed a few people going the other way so there were probably more around before I got there, but it was almost as busy as the one in August. Had a look round the cars and chatted to a few people. The Storm wasn't on display again for some reason. I picked up the replacement door and compared it to the first one - its slightly bigger but probably not enough, so Jim took the first one and will compare it to the one on his car. Also got the door hinges, which will take a bit of figuring out to see if they are worth using or if there is a better way to do it.
15/5/2001
Started trying to figure out how to fit a pannel to stop air going
over the top of the radiator, as there isn't any obvious position for
it. A 10 minute power cut and heavy cloud made it too dark to carry on
though.
16/5/2001
Decided how to fit the air blocker, so measured up and started making
it. It will sit flat on the front of the top of the radiator, with the
edge under the fan so that it is held down, and it will go diagonally
up and then horizontal to be either bolted or rivetted to the edge of
the bonnet hole, as there is going to be loads of clearance to the
front of the bonnet.
17/5/2001
Chopped and shaped the alloy so that it now fits fairly well. Just
need to drill the holes and sort out filling in the top corners where
it will have to join on to the two pannels on the side of the
radiator.
19/5/2001
Shaped the sides to be a better fit, and marked and drilled the holes
in the body.
20/5/2001
Marked and drilled the holes in the lower side of the alloy, and bent
it back on itself so that it is on top of the body as well as under
it.
21/5/2001
Marked and drilled the holes in the top side and bent it to follow the
curve of the body. Also rounded the corners off.
23/5/2001
Trimmed the top edge of the alloy and rounded the corners off
again. Made some little fillers for the top corners where the sides
don't go all the way to the top, which will just be attached to the
sides and then any gaps round the edge filled in with a bit of
silicone.
24/5/2001
Attached the corner bits to the main sides, and drilled some holes in
the top panel so that cable ties can be used to hold the radiator fan
wire in place.
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