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3/5/2003
Made a new spacer to move the throttle pedal away from the side of the
car, as the previous one was a bit too big, then I greased and fitted
the throttle pedal. The bolt used as a pedal stop was adjusted to just
less than fully open, and the cable was clamped in place.
Some bits of stiff alloy were cut and drilled to support the bolts for the isolation switch though the alloy footwell panel, and then it was bolted in place, with the battery cables also bolted in place. As its relatively vulnerable being behind the wheel, a small alloy cover was made for it.
To stop the carpets wearing out around the pedals, I measued up for some scuff plates to be fitted to the carpet, by sitting the seat in the car and working out where my feet ended up.
4/5/2003
Holes were cut in the carpets to that the battery isolation switch and
boot lock would fit through.
The rear edge of the upper windscreen surrond was scraped down to the correct radius (and also to remove some of the many bubbles along it), and then sanded, rubbed down and polished.
Now that the battery is fully charged, I tried to start the engine. It kick a couple of times, but the battery ran out before it got far enough so I put it on charge and will have another go tomorrow.
Some thin stainless sheeting (from an old twin tub washing machine) was cut to shape for the footwell scuff plates. Its relatively soft stuff, so fairly easy to cut through and file to shape.
The right front wing was sanded down, along the top and around the front light, and I started rubbing down the top with compound.
5/5/2003
Finished rubbing down the rest of the right front wing, and then
polished around both front headlights and the front part of the
scuttle.
The left engine bay removeable alloy panel was cut in half, so that most of it could be removed with the battery in place.
Tried to start the engine many times during the day (leaving the starter time to cool and the battery time to recover), but it never started to pick up. It kicked a fair bit more than yesterday, but never for more than one turn of the engine at a time. The rear carb seemed to be putting more fuel in than the front one, so I adjusted the float in it, and the rear 2 spark plug gaps were a bit bigger than the others, but adjusting them didn't seem to make any difference. Not really sure whether there is a problem somewhere, or whether its just going to take time to get going after being sat for over a year and a half.
6/5/2003
3 years, 1800 hours and counting...
7/5/2003
Fitted the winscreen washer jets. The left one was a bit loose in its
hole, so I cut some slivers of alloy which were wedged in the clips to
hold them in place, as they are designed to clip into a thin metal
bonnet, not a randomly thick bit of grp.
Got the wiper motor mostly fitted. The left bolt where it attaches to the bulkhead bracket is very awkward to get to, but once it was all bolted up it ended up being slightly too far forward so was rubbing on the front of the hole in the scuttle, so a 1-2mm thick spacer is needed on the right side to move it back to the middle of the hole.
8/5/2003
Cut and drilled a bit of alloy to be the spacer, then spent ages
actually fitting it. Unfortunately it wasn't a case of just undoing
the bolt for the rhs bracket and fitting the spacer - all of the
mounting bolts had to be loosened off to give enough slack in the
system for the spacer to be fitted. Once that was done the wiper was
in the correct position, so I filed a bit more out of the metal centre
of the rubber grommet thing I got for sealing off the hole around the
wiper spindle so that its loose on the spindle.
10/5/2003
Phoned round for quotes to have the windscreen fitted, but one of them
said that someone was already in the area and they'd really need to
see it before being able to give a quote, so he called round to have a
look at it. As with everything else in the kit, the glass isn't a
particularly good fit in the windscreen surround. The main problem is
the left side of the top, where the frame is well over 1cm lower than
the glass. Its hard to tell if this is just from the bodywork sagging
over time, or whether its always been like that, but he said that it
would be best to try and change the shape of the frame rather than
packing out the space as this would end up with a more even fit of the
glass instead of sticking up in some places.
So, as with the left side of the bodywork, I'm trying to pull it into shape over time, which hopefully shouldn't be too long in the current warm weather. An old scissor jack on the floor with a bit of wood pressed against the underside of the windscreen surround should hopefully do the trick.
The rear bodywork under the lights was sanded down. I had planned on only doing the bit above the fog light, but just carried on and got the rest of it out of the way as well. Found a fairly large starcrack on the lower edge where it curves around underneath. At first I thought it was yet another copy of a crack in the mould but this one is in the bodywork, probably from moving the bodywork around as its where the edge would get bent when the body was sat down on its own. No idea whether it was there when I got it or appareard before it was fitted to the car, but I can guess...
Tried to start the engine again, but no luck. Sparks on all 4 leads were checked, the spark plugs were regapped to the maximum recommended of 0.8mm, just to see if this would improve things, and the timing was set back to 4 degrees static advance then played around with by twisting the dizzy between attempts, but none of this seemed to change anything. The battery was put back on charge to have another go tomorrow...
11/5/2003
Started to fit the headlights, then found out that the mounting screws
were too short to fit through the thick fibreglass, so the simplest
option is to use some M5 bolts instead (though I need to buy some
extra nylocs). Some large alloy washers were made to go on the back of
the grp to spread the load a bit, as normal M5 washers are far too
small.
The holes to allow the seats to be fitted to the mounting bars were drilled and filed out in the alloy floor panels. It will be almost impossible to fit them if the mounting bars are attached to the seats first, so it'll have to be done the other way round - bars fitted to the floor, then seats fitted to the bars using the new holes (which will need covering up afterwards).
Fitted the left rear engine bay panel next to the battery, and also the two left tunnel panels.
Many more attempts at starting the engine, but again no success. The plugs were regapped to 0.7mm, the timing was changed again, the 2 spare coils I have were tried, but it didn't even kick once, so when I know there is fuel and air getting in that just leaves one other ingredient that could be missing. I turned the engine over with one plug out and connected, but it didn't fire so it seems like the plugs aren't sparking. As the leads are fine, either the (new 3 years ago) plugs are knackered, or there is just so much of a build up of soot or other nasty stuff so that they can't fire properly. I had cleaned the plugs a few times with an old toothbrush and cloth, but will have to have another go to try and get them a bit nicer just in case the spark is getting to ground through a different path.
12/5/2003
In turn, I took out a spark plug, gave it a good clean out with a
small blunt screwdriver, cloth and toothbrush, turned the engine over
with it connected to check that it sparks, then refitted it. They all
sparked out of the engine, and when it was all put back together it
almost started on the first go, but straight after stopped doing
anything. I gave it a few more goes, but it seemed like it had just
been flooded after turning over too many times without firing, so it
was left to try again tomorrow.
13/5/2003
Tried starting the engine again, and it almost worked this time. It
would chug along while being cranked (belching out some lovely smoke
from the exhaust), but whenever I let go of the key it would die
straight away. After trying a few times, I checked the temperatures of
the exhaust headers. 1 and 2 were slightly warm, 3 was very warm, and
4 was cold, so it doesn't seem like they are all firing properly.
Looking at the condition of the contacts in the dizzy cap, the ones
that are worn the most seem to line up with the cylinders that aren't
firing properly. So, I'll get a new dizzy cap at the weekend and try
it again then.
Cut out the 8 alloy disks to go over the holes in the floor for access to the seat mounting bolts.
14/5/2003
Started rubbing down the rear bodywork with compound.
15/5/2003
More rubbing down of rear bodywork, and cleaned up the 8 alloy floor
disks.
17/5/2003
Bought a new dizzy cap, but that didn't make any difference at all. As
cylinder 3 was still cold but 4 was hot, I swapped round the plugs,
which also swapped round the temperatures, so obviously there was
something wrong with the plug. Out it came, and I thought I'd just see
what the resistance was between the body and the connector on the end
- 30k ohms. All of the other plugs were over 20M ohms (maximum the
multimeter can measure), so that was probably stopping the spark from
buiding up properly. I gave the end another clean, which got rid of
the connection and it was the same as the other plugs, so it must just
have been a buildup of carbon on the nose of the plug which was
creating a low resistance path to ground, and stopping it sparking.
So, with that fixed it fired better, heating up the exhaust, but it still didn't start and the front 2 only got warm where the back 2 were hot. I asjusted the carb linkage so that the front one was fractionally more open than the rear one, and also adjusted the pump linkage on the front one. After doing this it actually managed to run by itself for a few seconds after releasing the key, but after that it wouldn't start again and the battery was almost flat, so it was put on charge yet again to have another go tomorrow.
The headlights were fitted and tested. They were fine along with the associated dash warning lights, but this showed up that the fog warning light comes on at the same time as the headlights, though the fog switch and the light itself seem to work fine. After unwrapping the wiring, I found out that it was just connected to the wrong side of the fog switch - it was swapped over and solved the problem.
The coil was refitted properly after swapping them round last weekend, the left side tunnel panel was sealed on the inside of the tunnel, and some minor mods were made to the front of the tunnel so that it will get a better seal when its fitted and the edges taped over to try and make it waterproof. Also made some large alloy washers to support the screws for the front indicator mounting blocks, so that they don't damage the grp.
18/5/2003
Tried to start the engine again, but as before it was firing while on
the starter, but it always died straight after. I swapped the front
plugs with the rear plugs, fiddled with the carb idle screws, regapped
the plugs to 0.8, 0.75, back to 0.7mm, and adjusted the timing, but
none of that seemed to make a difference.
The battery was put on charge over lunchtime, and suddenly it was working! For a short time at least - with the fuel pump running (I had it disconnected while playing around as there was no need for it to be on all of the time) and the carbs filled back up, it ran for longer but started spitting back from the carbs, so the pressure regulator was turned up a notch and then it ran relatively fine, and would start again straight away after being stopped. Loads of smoke was coming out of the exhaust, along with some black splats of soot which were on the ground, on the bodywork around the exhaust, and some had reached my other car parked on the drive. There is still a lot of soot left in the exhuast from before, and all of the recent churning away will have messed it up a lot as well, so it will take a while for all of this to be blown out. The smoke from the new exhaust wrap on the headers was a little disconcerting to start with, until I realised what it was.
Made some large alloy washers for the rear fog light mounting screws, and ground even more off the bonnet to make it a less tight fit. Something must be moving, as whenever I think its alright the next time its fitted it needs even more removing. As the engine has never been run with the bonnet fitted, that will probably change its shape as well...
After pondering the problem of fitting springs to the bonnet to make it pop up when released, I came back to the idea of a couple of strips of steel bent into a curve and attached to the bodywork at one end, rather than using pull/push springs which would be very difficult to fit. So, I dug out a couple of thin strips of steel (which were off a horn mounting bracket made of 4 of these strips) that were fairly springy and held their shape well. When flattened, they did lose a bit of their shape, but kept enough of a curve in to work, so they were loosely put in place and did pop the bonnet up a bit. The thing is that put in loose is like attaching them in the middle rather than the end, which isn't quite as effective, so its hard to tell exactly what they will be like until they are fitted properly, as there is not enough space to clamp them in position.
So rivet holes were drilled in the steel strips, some thin steel backing plates were made to go on the other side of the grp, and holes were marked in the grp lip around the engine bay.
19/5/2003
Filed off the sharp edge on the ends of the bonnet springs, then
drilled the holes in the bodywork and riveted them in place. One side
of the bonnet seems to stick more than the other when the releases are
pulled, but if the right is done first with the left side second it
pops up far enough to get hold of, which is nice. My only concern with
it is that if its left a long time will the springs become flat, so it
has been left with the bonnet fitted to see what happens tomorrow.
The other alternative is to modify the bonnet so that its easy to get hold of, either by cutting a hole in it somewhere, or fitting a vent of some sort. Depending on the engine bay temperatures when its run properly, I might end up fitting a vent or two to the bonnet anyway to help with cooling, but as with the rest of the bodywork the problem is that it isn't very flat or even, so finding suitable vents that would fit right would be a problem...
20/5/2003
Enlarged the hole in the rear bodywork for the tailpipe by filing a
bit out of the top, as its ended up in a slightly different place to
when I originally cut out the hole, and its always been a little bit
too small anyway. Checked the bonnet release and it was fine, and then
carried on rubbing down the rear bodywork.
21/5/2003
Sanded down some of the front bodywork with 800 paper, as the bad
weather meant I would have got wet carrying on with rubbing down the
rear bodywork. Got the big flat area between the lights done, and then
all the way round the radiator grille, which is incredibly awkward.
22/5/2003
Finished sanding down the front bodywork with 800 grade, finding 2
more starcracks along the lower front edge to match the one on the
rear edge. The strange thing about these ones is that this part of the
body would never touch the ground when its sat down (as its a bit
higher than the corners just ahead of the front wheels), so must have
been caused some other way.
24/5/2003
Gapped the plugs back to 0.8mm to see if it would run like this, and
it started almost straight away, so no problems. I then temporarily
fitted the airbox and filter to check that it didn't cause any
problems, and it ran just the same as before, so it seems alright. I
did cut a new section of the flexible hose joining the filter and
airbox, as the previous section was just a little bit too short.
A thick alloy strap was made to go over the top of the battery, using the same bolts as the lower steel clamps, just as some added security to hold it in place. A ply cover was then made to sit on top of the battery (cable tied to the alloy strap), to hopefully keep the battery dry, with the alloy shield in front to keep any stones away.
The inside edges of the front wheelarches were rubbed down with normal sandpaper to get rid of the deep scratches that were covering them, as this is much quicker than using the relatively fine 800 wet and dry paper.
25/5/2003
A couple of Granada dash speaker grilles which I got ages ago were
modified to fit into the recesses at each end of the dash. They are a
good match for size, but as the recesses aren't perfectly circular,
the grilles wobbled around so needed bits filing off the back to make
them sit flat.
The top inner edges of the doors were radiused (opening up numerous bubbles on both of them), and then sanded down.
Sanded round the rear wheelarches to remove then scratches, then scraped and sanded down the step on the left side of the bodywork where the windscreen pillar joins the main section, as this will be visible through the huge gap past the door.
I then finished off sanding down the front bodywork, and did all the way round both door recesses. Also did a bit more rubbing down on the rear bodywork.
26/5/2003
Cut out and shaped some carpet sections to go over the insides of the
doors, and to fill the recess in the left side of the dash. Some
strips of vinyl were also cut for the door carpet to be attached once
I have access to a sewing machine again. The speaker grilles were
glued in place in the dash.
The whole left side of the bodywork up to the rear wheel was sanded down. The large flat area was relatively easy, but the recess along the lower edge was a bit on the awkward side, so took a while to get done.
28/5/2003
Yet more rubbing down of the rear bodywork.
29/5/2003
Started rubbing down the front bodywork.
30/5/2003
More rubbing down the main angled front section of bodywork,
31/5/2003
Sanded down the whole of the right side of the bodywork between the
wheels, along with the edges of both rear wheelarches, and made a
start on the right rear corner.
Total hours this month -
92.5
Total build hours -
1892.0
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