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3/9/2003
Sanded and then rubbed down the edges of the passenger door where the
many gaps in the gelcoat were recently filled.
4/9/2003
Trimmed the sharp edges off the left top seatbelt plastic cover, and
cut up some small rubber U trim to go all the way round the edge, as
its too thin to be able to radius it enough and I don't want to take
any chances with these. I also set all 4 dampers to one turn of
adjustment, or 4 clicks, as this is the recommended setting for a
Six. Due to the extra weight of this car, I might need different
settings but that's something that can be played around with later on.
6/9/2003
Glued the rubber trim onto the edges of the upper seatbelt plastic
covers, and glued the bolt head covers in place with a clamp on to
hold them in.
Adjusted the front hubs to give maximum negative camber. With the spacers fitted, this leaves a small finger gap between the upper wishbone and the wheel, so hopefully this will help with the self centring. I also locked all of the damper adjuster rings, as they'd only been set for height before and not tightened up properly. I also checked that all of the front suspension bolts were tight, which was a good job as on both sides the top allen bolt which locks the top of the upright to the balljoint on the upper wishbone was loose. I have no idea whether these were tightened up properly before (into the threaded upright rather than with a nyloc) or worked themselves loose on the way to/from the MOT, so they were done up with a length of tubing over the allen key to make sure that they are tight. When the upright was moved around you could hear it thumping, so its strange that nothing was mentioned at the MOT...
While the front wheels were off, I fitted a couple of jubilee clips to the steering rack to limit the amount of turn it gives. Normally its around 3 3/4 turns lock to lock, but with these fitted its reduced to around 2 2/3. I don't know whether this will be enough to stop the steering falling over when it gets a certain way round, so it might need adjusting on the way to SVA if it still doesn't feel right.
I then started on a load of smaller jobs - filing the sharp edges off some old Sierra wheel nuts for the back wheels, putting bits of sticky foam on the lower edges of the bonnet to try and stop it moving around, tested the brake fluid switch button still works, centred the steering wheel, and trimmed a bit more off the rhs headlight surround to make it a better fit.
9/9/2003
Got a letter from Norwich test station saying that my SVA is booked
for Friday 3rd October. A bit later than I was expecting, but at least
it means I won't have to rush to get the last few things done...
Worked out what to do to stop the headlight covers from rattling around, as they are a pretty loose fit due to the bodywork being so curved where the headlights fit. 2 blocks of rubber were cut and then glued onto the inside edge of the lhs headlight surround, with the ends sticking out to press against the bodywork. I'll see what this side it like first before doing the same on the other side.
I also cut out some new door carpet sections. The original bits I'd done were the same size as the doors, but as the door seal on the bodywork is a totally different shape to the door (big surprise...) it doesn't actually touch either of the doors at the back, so new bits of carpet were cut with extra on the back to fill in the large gap.
11/9/2003
Trimmed the rubber blocks on the lhs headlight surround to the right
length, and then fitted it. Its much more stable now and doesn't
rattle around at all. The door carpet sections were also trimmed to
match the door seal strips.
Made a start on an alloy cover for the rhs filler neck as since the tank isn't fitted it needs covering to stop any muck getting into it, and being right next to the exhaust it has to be something heat resistant,..
13/9/2003
The rear edge of the doors have a sharp edge along the very top where
the skin sticks out past the main structure of the door. This isn't
thick enough to get a 5mm radius on, so when I cut the new carpet
sections they were long enough to cover up this edge. To provide a bit
of support for the carpet so that it stays in position, I made a
couple of alloy clips that were riveted to the doors, which
effectively increase the area that the doors sit against and should
stop the carpet moving out of the way and exposing the sharp edge.
Next, I cut 4 strips of MDF to use as clamps for the carpet along the top edge. To bolt the doors in position, I have to leave the carpet partly off to allow access to the bolts inside it. Just a few screws on their own wouldn't hold the carpet well enough, and glue will be awkward to remove if I decide to change the doors, so long clamps seem to be the best solution. However, as the top of the door isn't flat, 2 strips half the door's length are easier to make than a single long curved one.
Once cut to side, the edges were filed off to slightly greater than a 5mm radius (the MDF is only 4mm), and countersunk screw holes were drilled in them and in the door. The rest of the carpet is just going to be held in place with screws on their own, as it will be held in place with the rubber door seal, so holes were drilled for these as well, and matching holes poked in the carpet. As the grp isn't really thick or strong enough to screw directly into, a load of small wooden blocks were cut and drilled for the screws to go into, with the top ones glued in place as they'll be the last screws to be fitted.
The MDF strips were then painted, along with the newly made alloy clips and the various bits of filler on the driver's door. The rubber blocks were also glued onto the rhs headlight surround.
15/9/2003
Put another coat of paint on the MDF strips and the driver's door, and
then trimmed the rubber blocks on the rhs headlight surround to
fit. One thing I noticed while fiddling around with the surrounds is
now that the headlights have been adjusted, the metal edge of the rhs
one now sticks out from under the plastic surround. Of course, this
isn't a 5mm radius (maybe 4mm so not exactly deadly), so will need
covering. I tried sticking some foam strip onto it, but the glue on
this isn't quite strong enough to hold it on around the 90 degree
edge, so I'll either have to find something else to stick on or use
some stronger glue instead.
16/9/2003
Painted the rest of the bits of filler on the driver's door's lower
edge, fitted the carpet to the passenger door along the lower and
front edges, and made a start on fitting it to the car.
17/9/2003
Jacked up the rear of the car to remove the wheels, and fitted the
passenger door. The carpet was then attached along the top and rear
edges, using the MDF clamps. It doesn't look too bad, but as its
probably only a temporary thing its not too important. The bolts in
that area were snugged up as well.
19/9/2003
Stuck alloy disks over the holes in the floor for the seat mounting
bolts, and fitted the alloy cover for the rhs filler cap.
20/9/2003
Made an alloy clamp for the exhaust rubber sat on top of one of the
rhs outriggers, which is rivetted in place so that it won't fall out.
Made and fitted alloy cover for the breather pipe on the rhs filler
neck. Painted the wiper arm where it has been cut and riveted
together.
Started the engine up for the first time since the MOT. Took a few attempts to get it going, but once it was running it was nice and stable, and I left it to warm up enough for the idle to slow down. I stopped it once it was warmed up and it started straight away, so hopefully it'll be fine in less than 2 week's time for the SVA, though it will be tested the day before to be certain.
2 cans of petrol were put into the tank and the gauge now reads almost full. The difference between the levels before and after the 2nd can sort of match the volumes I calculated, so the sender seems to be about right.
Made some labels for the dash rotary switches and LEDs. Fitted a brighter bulb to the brake warning light and darkened the front of it so that its a bit more visible in bright daylight.
Chopped bits off the battery isolation switch so that its a bit smaller and doesn't stick into the footwell as much and can't be touched with a 165mm dome.
21/9/2003
Fitted some sticky pads to the rhs headlight rim, this time chopped in
half so that the sharp corner doesn't stop them sticking like last
time. A bit of alloy was stuck over the air filter mounting holes in
the bulkhead, and a bit of carpet was attached to the main pillar bit
of the battery isolation switch.
23/9/2003
Started the enjoyable task of finishing rubbing down the rest of the
bodywork. Did all the way round the driver's door recess.
25/9/2003
More rubbing down on the rhs bodywork.
27/9/2003
The speedo was removed to recalibrate it slightly. I decided that to
be on the safe side, I'd adjust it to hopefully overread slightly so
that it says its going faster than it actually is, by pretending the
wheels are slightly bigger than they are. As the dip switches are on
the back, it has to be removed to adjust it, which means taking off
the steering wheel so that I can squeeze in under the dash far enough
to reach it.
While the wheel was off, I filed the edges of the throttle pedal to aprroximately a 5mm radius. The backs of the other 2 pedals are sharper than that and I don't think anyone has failed on that, so I only did the front of the pedal. I also put a bit of inner tube over the speedo pivot nut and bolt, in case this is seen to be a sharp edge in a dangerous position.
The car was then jacked up, the right rear wheel removed, and the driver's door fitted. Its a tighter fit against the rubber seal than the passenger door, but wasn't too bad to fit, along with the carpet on it. The wing mirror was also fitted.
I then did a bit more rubbing down of the right side of the bodywork, getting the main flat section in the middle done.
28/9/2003
Rubbed down the bodywork all the way round the right rear
wheelarch. While doing this I found that a section of the edge of the
wheelarch wasn't 5mm radius (I've no idea how I missed this), so it
was scraped down to a nice blunt edge ready to be sanded and then
rubbed down again.
29/9/2003
Sanded and then rubbed down the bit of the right rear wheelarch that
was scraped to the correct radius, and then started on the main flat
section on the left side.
Spoke to the owner of the first Storm kit for the first time in a couple of years. Due to various reasons he hasn't done any work on it over the last 2 years. Before then, it was driven around a little bit without the bodywork on so the mechanicals and engine are all sorted out, and he was in the process of preparing the bodywork ready to be painted before fitting. He should be due to start on it again some time over the next few months.
30/9/2003
A bit more rubbing down of the left side of the bodywork.
Total hours this month -
42.5
Total build hours -
2144.5
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