MNR VortX Build

Progress towards SVA......

2009-02-18T20:31:00.002Z

Well, the paperwork has gone off to be checked by Chris at MNR, we should have that back in a few days to send off to VOSA and DVLA to (hopefully) get the SVA booked for around the end of April. What else have we been up to? Well.....

Last week I'd removed the old bearings from the rear hubs, but couldn't get the outer races out - they're in there quite tight and we don't have a suitable range of punches or drifts to remove them, so they got dropped off at Ron's, who took them into work. He also had the wheel studs pressed into the front hubs, so now we've got all the necessary bits to put Ruby on her wheels.....

We've also been trimming - Claire has trimmed the other seat holes, so they're ready to go, she trimmed the edges of the back panel, and the bit of the body lip which is inside the cabin area.. We also received the new throttle and clutch cables - the throttle cable fits great around the engine bay, and we've gently cable-tied it in strategic places to keep it out of the spring coils, etc. We just need to drill the hole through the pedal, mount the pedal in its pivot, and that bit's done....

We also rough-fitted the clutch cable (we'd lost one of the half-nuts for the adjuster, so I went and got one the other lunchtime), and that now fits over the clutch fork - thanks SpeedyCables!

Next, we fitted the headlamp bar. We wanted to get all of the bodywork cutting out of the way, and the nose needs cutting to come up over the bar, so we thought this would be a good idea.... The bar itself was easy enough - measure up, drill a couple of holes, bolt through it into a rivnut... Did I mention my measuring can be rubbish? I didn't take into account the relative angles of the bodywork and the bar, so had to slot the holes in the bar slightly to make it fit, but it clamps down nice and tight...

With the bar fitted, we figured out where we needed to notch the nose. It took quite a few goes to get enough off to get the nose over the bar (I never want to take too much off at once), and we finally got it fitted nicely over the top. We had to use one of the rivnuts each side of the car which were previously used for the nose, for the bar, so once we'd bolted the nose up, it could move on its mounts - not good! So, we took it off again, drille some holes in the flange on each sie, transferred them to the body, put the nose back on again, tried to bolt them up..... and another problem! Because of the location of the radiator top hose, it was impossible to get our hands in and get a nut and bolt through on the passenger's side (The driver's was fine). So, we mixed up some resin and glued in a bolt from underneath, so that the nose would sit down on it, and we could just put a washer and nut on top.

Fail! The first attempt just wasn't stuck properly (not enough resin on the contact side of the washer), so the next night we mixed up some more, and this time used some glass fibre tissue to hold it in with (we put some big washers and a nut on top to make sure it stayed tight - we tested it tonight, had to modify one part of the nose flange slightly, as this was catching on the headlamp bar, but it now fits!

I also wired the headlamps into the loom - the loom had some nice bullet connectors on, but no matching parts on the headlamps or in the spares bag, so they had to get cut off, and I crimped some new insulated bullets on (I'd thought the cables would go through a grommet in the side of the bodywork), rather than use a multi-pin connector. Another fail! The crimps (or my crimpers) are rubbish, so they didn't stay insulated after the first attempt at putting them together and taking them apart again.. Then Claire twigged that we could route the cable through the same hole as the headlamp bar, so off came all the bullets and on went some multi-pin things we got from Car Builder Solutions (which are also much easier to crimp and heatshrink). Doing the multiplugs took me much less time than the bullets, I know which I'll use next time!

We've also found out that we need some spacers for the seat runners, to lift them over the chassis rails on the floor, I've ordered these from MNR and we're just waiting for them - we need the seats in to be able to mount the steering column at the right height, and then to cut the slot in the scuttle, so we can mount the scuttle properly, mount the fuseboxes and the header tank to the scuttle - they're keeping some of the jobs from happening! We want to get the seats in while the cars still up on stands, as it's easier to get underneath it for mounting them. Ron also sourced us some spacers for the lower harness mounts, so we can get those fitted at the same time....

And finally, we've still got the problem with the exhaust - the new spacers arrived from Marc, but it still touches. We're just waiting to see if Marc or Chris have any other ideas before we take the hacksaw to the bodywork. I have sanded down the headers and collector to make them easier to slide on, and done the whole lot up with exhaust putty, so it should all come on and off as one piece now..

And finally finally, Ron's new engine now runs! There was a problem with the wiring for the fuel pump relay, which he's sorted out. It sounds really good, too! Some tidying up to do, then it should be ready for the next trackday...... :)

The snowy week off!

2009-02-10T19:39:00.006Z

Well, we're back at work this week after a week working on the car.... well, trying to, anyway!

First off, we had to source some inlet rubbers to replace the hose we'd been using. A quick post on locostbuilders turned up a set from a great guy called Wyn, who promised to send them on next day for us, and rather than wanting any money, asked that we donate to a cancer charity instead. They arrived Wednesday (because of the snow in Wales they didn't get collected from the post office till Tuesday), and were just what we needed. We found that the clamps that came on them didn't quite lock onto the manifold liked we'd hoped, so we fitted some silicon hose clamps, which worked out great! The throttle bodies are completely solid on the manifold now, and there shouldn't be any air leaking!

While we were waiting for them, we decided to re-fit the body. This took way longer than we expected, as initially we couldn't get it lined up the way it was before on the trial fit. Then we had to add a load of rivnuts underneath the car to bolt the body up to, to keep it nice and tight. I'd also been sanding down the exhaust headers with the dremel, to make them a bit easier to get on the collector (before we had them on about 5mm) - this still needs some work though. We fitted the exhaust up after we'd received the rubbers, with the intention of running the engine, and found that the no. 4 exhaust headder and body were touching....... not good news! Fibreglass doesn't like getting too hot, so we needed to think of something......

Another post on locostbuilders, and another call to Ron, and we figured that we could use spacers on the headers, to move them out from the head, and hopefully clear the body, and / or cut a chunk out of the bodywork and glass in a stainless steel panel behind. So, we found a steel stockholder in Swindon, who cut up some plates for us, got a second set of exhaust gaskets, and went back to try... The steel plate was only 3mm, but once I'd drilled the shapes for the manifold studs and re-fitted the exhaust with them behind, it was a definite improvement, but not enough. Worse, although the no. 4 header wasn't touching, the no. 1 was! Chris at MNR agreed to make up some bigger plates for us, which we're waiting for, but we may need to cut the bodywork away, or ask MNR to bend the pipes. As we're trying to get everything done for the SVA, cutting the body may be the quickest option!

So, what else did we do with our week off? hmmmmmmm...... Oh yeah. Claire trimmed the harness holes in one of the seats (to stop the harnesses being rubbed on the fibreglass), cleaned the old rear hubs (they were soaked in a bucket of vinegar for a couple of days, before being scrubbed with a wire brush, rinsed and then baked for half an hour in the oven) - this was a much better result than we've ever had with the commercial rust removal products, and at 26p a litre, it's much much cheaper too! It did make the garage smell like a chip shop though....

Back to the bodywork, we fitted the nosecone (we had to re-make the ali brackets at the front for this), and it had to be notched to get around the radiator. This is where my sometimes less-than -accurate measuring and marking reared its head, and I took off a bit too much, so it left a visible gap at the back of the nosecone. After scratching our heads for a while, I suggested that we could rescue it by making a bigger cut, and filling the gap with wire mesh (we were going to use this for the front anyway). Not only would it look like we meant to do it, it would let some of the hot air from the rad and oil cooler escape, without going through the engine bay. The photo is of the half-cut holes. On Sunday we did all this glassing in, as well as a strengthening plate for inside the scuttle, which the header tank is going to be mounted to.

We finished clipping in the silicon hoses (which required us to fit the lower steering column), so they can't be rubbed on the chassis or anything moving, fitted the horn (a couple of times!), fitted the new water pump (the old one was still leaking, so we ordered a replacement from Burtons) - the alternator and everything had to come off *again*, made a start neatening up the wiring (shortening cables where necessary, and taping it all together), and fitting the bonnet catches - getting the shut lines right here was difficult, as the rivnuts hadn't gone into the chassis quite where I'd wanted them to - only a mm or 2 out, but that can make all the difference...

There must be some other stuff, but we're struggling to remember what it all is! It was a bit of a frustrating week, with the problems with the exhaust and re-fitting the body, and waiting for deliveries delayed by the snow. It certainly didn't help that it was about -2 in the garage each morning, we were wearing norgies, fleeces, walking socks and woolly hats all week!

The lights, seat runners and wheel studs finally arrived today (well, we had to go and collect them - you'd think this was the middle east, the way we coped with 4 inches of snow....), so we can get the seats fitted while it's high in the air, which means we can fit the steering column at the right height, which means we can cut the slot in the scuttle for it, which means we can permanently fit the scuttle (once we've also mounted the fuseboxes, relays and sorted out the wiring).... So, once the seats are fitted, it can go down on its wheels - that'll be another milestone..

So, as well as the work to finish the car, we need to start organising paperwork, to apply for the SVA. We're going to apply, and if we're nowhere near ready when the test comes around, cancel it and get our fee back, then go through the IVA. If we're ready but fail, we've got 6 months to have it re-tested under the old rules. If we're ready and pass, we can enjoy the whole summer hooning around in Ruby! We've not got anything to lose by trying it, so we're going to give it a go. We might be pleasantly surprised!! Watch this space for more updates, plus more photos (when we've finished some jobs and taken some)......

She lives!!!

2009-02-01T22:03:00.004Z

Is there still anyone reading this? Hopefully the updates will be a bit less sporadic for a while....

To carry on from the last post, we needed to fix the fuel leak from the fir tree on the fuel rail - some Dowty washers (washers with a rubber insert in the middle) sorted that out. After fitting those, we started the fuel pump again - and got a fuel leak down one of the injectors! After taking a look, it was clear that the 'o' rings were knackered - so it was off to the local bike shop for some - they ended up being more than the throttle bodies! After fitting them with some vaseline, they weren't leaking any more....

So, a couple of weeks ago, Ron came round as we reckoned we were ready to start the engine. I got him to check my wiring of the starter, I'd checked that the laptop could talk to the megasquirt and the jaw, and so off we set. Turning the key, and..... nothing. Not even turning. Tried again, Ron checked the starter solenoid connection, and noticed that one of the starter cables was getting hot - it turns out I'd wired it up wrong after all. No lasting damage done, and once we'd sorted it out, we were ready to go again.

So we turned the engine over (with the plugs out to build up some oil pressure), that all looked good, the oil warning light went out after about 30 seconds or so. So, we zipped the plugs back in again, connected everything up and went for it, and - nothing. Out came one of the plugs and we looked to see if we were getting a spark - nope! We looked at why it could be - out came the multimeter, we tested the Edis, coil pack feeds, earths, VR sensor, HT leads, the little adapter bits that join the HT leads to the coil pack (which needed cutting down), and couldn't come up with it. Back to the wiring diagrams, and Ron spotted a capacitor earthing the coil pack, which I'm sure I'd read somewhere wasn't needed. But, it was on the diagrams, so off we went to Maplins to get one.

While I soldered up the capacitor, Ron went back to the manuals - and suggested swapping the cables from the VR sensor over. We did that as well, and it sparked! By this time, the battery was getting a bit flat, so we called it a day and put the battery on charge overnight. The next day, Ron came over again, and with a nice charged battery, we tried again - and she started! It was a great feeling to know that the engine we'd had sat in the corner of the garage, taken apart and put back together over the space of 5 years, with a new head, wild cam and big valves, bike throttle bodies and an open-source ECU actually worked!

Ron remarked that it was a bit lumpy (no real surprise!) and asked if we'd checked the valve timings..... erm, nope! So, off with the rocker cover and time to play with the feeler gauges. We did this and it ran much better - with video on YouTube here. So, after 7 or so starts and long runs, we could see that: oil was leaking from the dipstick, water was leaking from the thermostat housing and the water pump, the cam belt needed tightening, at least one sticky injector, and the VR sensor needed rotating to prevent the cables getting wedged in the spring coils.

Ron took the VR sensor fitting to do something with that, and we made a start on the other stuff. The thermostat housing was easy, some blue hylomar on the joints, and bolted back up. The water pump was more involved, as it meant taking the alternator off to get to the bolts, but I managed it OK. To sort out the dipstick, we needed to modify the sump, as we thought the dipstick was cathing on the baffle plate. After taking out all of the sump bolts, it was being stubborn and not coming off. So, we introduced the rubber mallet. Still nothing doing, so we started trying to "jack" it off the bottom of the block with steel plates and bolts.... Eventually, after climbing under the car with a torch, I spotted the 2 bolts I'd missed. After they came out (with dogleg bends in them), the sump came off easily! To add insult to injury, one of the bolts we'd used to jack the sump then sheared off, and I had to drill it out!

So, with the sump off, we needed to nip to the scrapyard to get a cable connector for the VR sensor. While we were there, we had a poke about (as you do) and Claire turned up a Zetec dipstick - it looked about the right size, so we picked that up as well, and headed off to see Ron and Pauline (Claire's Mum and Dad), as they're not far from where the scrappy's is. Ron was trying to get his new ZX12-R engine started, so I stayed to help him for a few hours. It still wasn't running, and we decided that he either had a knackered ECU, or he'd missed something in the wiring somewhere...

Back at home, we tried the Zetec stick for size. The bung at the top needed turning down slightly as it was too fat, but then it fitted in the tube nicely. And, it fitted through the baffle plate with no modifications needed! Doh! So we cut it to length, and marked where the max oil level should be, and bolted the sump back up!

While I'd been busy thumping the sump around, Claire had been cleaning the injectors with a mixture of petrol and injector cleaner, with more injector cleaner in the tank. Next, it was onto the cam belt. We've got a vernier pulley fitted for the cam, so after figuring out that there wasn't enough slack to move the belt another tooth round the pulley, we took the peg out, and tightened the belt by moving the pulley. So far, so peachy. Putting it all back together again, and tightening the camshaft bolt, I hadn't tighted the jackshaft again, so when it got to the point the cam wanted to move, it did - and the crank didn't. This was bad enough, but I managed to convince myself that I either hadn't moved it enough to make a difference, or that I'd moved it back OK. This was much worse...

After we'd put everything back together, we tried starting it again. It sounded awful, seemed really difficult to turn, was blowing air out of the inlets, so we thought the cam timing was out. Ron listened on the phone and thought we might be right, so the next day, after reading up again on how to time up the cam, we started with it again.... Turning the crank past a certain point was really difficult, so we shone a torch down the bores - and spotted marks on each piston, which could only be there from a valve... So, back on the phone to Ron, we described the damage, and he reckoned we'd probably have got away with it. We measured the valve clearances to be sure, and they hadn't changed, so we had got away with it. Phew!

After more phone calls and some guesswork, we had the cam timed nicely against the crank again. This time we painted marks on the crank pully, block, cam pulley and cam cover, so we could easily see if we ever made the same mistake again! So, we turned the engine over - and it started again! It sounded a bit better than before as well....

The next evening, 5 minutes or so with the laptop, playing with the ignition timings, had it running even more nicely and was an encouraging step after all the mistakes I'd been making! We've got the next week off work to make some real progress on the car. The reason for the sudden acceleration is that VOSA are changing the SVA test rules, and calling it an IVA. In addition, it's going to cost almost £400 more to take an IVA. The last applications for the SVA test have to be in at the end of February, with the last test at the end of April (if you fail first time, you have 6 months to take a retest at the old standard, and for only 30 quid). With this in mind, we ordered a load of stuff, so we could fill the week.

So far this weekend, we've trimmed the edges of the seats, played a bit with the engine tuning, and realised that the fuel hose we've been using to mount the throttle bodies to the manifold haven't been clamping (it's reinforced with spiral steel), so had to try and find some matching bike rubbers, painted the backs of the seats, mounted the fan to the radiator, figured out that the alternator wasn't charging (I hadn't wired it in properly!), temporarily wired in the rev counter and fuel gauge, put grippy tape on the pedals, mounted the electric speedo adapter to the gearbox, wrapped the loom which goes under the exhaust with thermowrap stuff, and added more bits to the shopping list! Tomorrow the exhaust is going to come off to be mounted up properly, and the body is going to go on (probably not for the last time), so we can get on with body stuff while we're waiting for the inlet rubbers (there's not really any point in tuning the engine without them).

Will try and post more updates as the week goes on. Time for sleep soon I think!

A progress update!

2008-12-07T20:41:00.005Z

After some months, finally we've managed to get back to the garage (and laptop), and make some progress on the car, and put an update on here.

So, in the last few months, what have we been up to? We went away to get married, went to the Renault world series day, went to Normandy to visit the D-day beaches and museums, and some work on Ruby. Like:

Fitted the alternator into its bracket, complete with the VR sensor bracket and alternator belt - which involved fitting the alternator to its bracket and fitting it to the engine about 600 times, cutting a gap in the VR sensor bracket to allow the belt through, and get the VR sensor lined up to where the trigger wheel would go, and took us about all weekend!

We cut the distributor into pieces as we don't need that any more, this was much easier than expected! 10 minutes with a hacksaw, then cut out a circle of ally to top it off, and a bit of chemical metal to hold it down. We had to do this as a) we don't need a dizzy any more b) the dizzy wouldn't fit under the throttle bodies and c) you need the bottom shaft of the dizzy to run the oil pump!

We made a bracket for the coil pack at the back of the engine, and chewed up quite a few dremel cutting discs doing it, and fitted the HT leads nice and neatly to the coil pack..

Sorting out the inlet manifold came next, adding chemical metal to the lumps and bumps, then smoothing them out with file / sandpaper. While the chemical metal was out, we also filled in the holes in the throttle bodies left when we removed the secondary throttle spindle. The throttle bodies are fitted to the inlet manifold with fuel filler hose and clamped tight.

We figured out where the megasquirt would be going (under the scuttle, so we can get to the serial port and it's out of the weather), and fitted it, along with the JAW we got from one of the guys on locostbuilders, and the EDIS unit, on the top of the scuttle panel under the bonnet, so it's close to the coil pack.

Next, we started with the wiring. This started on paper, with me figuring out the conncetions between the EDIS, megasquirt, Jaw and the main loom. then, with a load of terminal blocks, we started connecting stuff together, to then test what works and easily troubleshoot and fix any problems that come up....

Finally, this weekend we had the trigger wheel drilled to fit on the crank pulley, which we've done (we had to wiggle the holes about a bit to get it to fit), then carry on with the wiring (fitting all the earth straps and earthing points on the chassis). Next, we started to test the electrics.....

after wiring up the ignition plug, we fitted the fuse for the fuel pump, wired up the battery, and turned the key..... Nothing happened! turned the key to the ignition stop and the fuel pump started! Obviously we've got the ignition switch wired in wrong, but the pump does work! Letting it build up the pressure to the throttle bodies, fuel started leaking out of the joints into the fuel rail itself - the hoses are fitted OK, but the fir tree fittings aren't sealing properly - they got up to 2 bar before letting the fuel out - a copper washer should sort that out. It's nice to know that the rest of the fittings are good!

Next up is to fix the ignition switch wiring, then carry on testing the electricals, before starting the engine..... maybe not next weekend, as we're off to the Race of Champions at Wembley. I'd like Ron to check over my wiring before we blow anything up as well!

A quick update

2008-12-04T22:21:00.003Z

Hi to everyone who looks at the blog every now and again - just a quick update to say that we have been working hard on Ruby recently - getting the engine ready to be started. Finalising the coolant system, wiring, mounting the alternator and VR sensor and making it all fit around the suspension, fitting the oil cooling system, coil pack, cutting the dizzy, adding a wideband lambda in, finishing the throttle body arrangements and inlet manifold, and making a start on a new engine loom - hopefully we'll be able to try and start the engine this weekend. Pics and a full update to follow......

It's been another of those breaks....

2008-07-21T10:59:00.002Z

Where we haven't really got much done on the car. We seem to have been doing loads of other stuff, I'm just not sure what. Certainly we went to Bruntingthorpe a couple of weeks ago with Ron's car - it was a kind of a mini-show weekend that didn't really live up to its billing. It was the weekend of the British GP, and the crowds weren't great. It hammered down with rain first thing, which didn't help. Ron also had a gearbox failure on his Blackbird engine, which meant we didn't really get any track time in either.

This weekend just gone, we met up with some of the other MNR owners in North Yorkshire, a bit of a trek for us, but it was good to put some faces to names, as most of them we only know through locostbuilders. There weren't any spare seats on the run out around the dales, so we took ourselves off around the moors for a few hours and found a nice pub for lunch. We met George again, who was picking up his kit when we came to order - I didnt' recognise him as he was sick when we met him first time (and we were quite excited). He's been keeping up with the blog and progress, and it was a bit weird, feeling like we've been internet-stalked. Good luck with the rest of your build George! :)

It has given us a bit of a wake-up about how much we have left to do, and so while watching the GP yesterday (well done to Lewis for a great drive!) we set about figuring out a list of which jobs we have left to do. There's quite a few! We also put time estimates against them. Hopefully being a bit more organised will help out a bit, as when we have a free evening, we can go out and just do the next job on the list.

The first big thing is going to be getting the engine running. We've a few jobs left around this, so we need to crack on with them. Once the engine is running, we can fit the bodywork completely and then build the suspension up! then put it on its wheels..... :)

We've done a few small jobs recently, we've been working on the routing for the coolant pipes, and angled the oil cooler back slightly, to make sure the pipes didn't foul on the rad. We've done the brake MC to resevoir piping and made a bracket for the res. Ron also looked at the cooling pipes where we'd placed them in, and didn't like a high-point we'd built into it - after pulling them apart and putting them back together again, he couldn't come up with a better way of doing it, without the pipes having to have cut-outs for the steering arms! The high point is in the bottom hose, so I'll put the fill from the header tank here, and any air which collects can vent back up to the header. The top of the system is already vented.

That's enough of an update for now, hopefully more to come soon (with some work actually completed!!)

It doesn't look like a car any more....

2008-06-04T19:19:00.004Z

For a little while, anyway. We took the main tub off to paint the inside in black once all the suspension holes had been finished off. While it's off, there have been a few jobs to do to the interior.

First off was to mount the rear panel. This isn't too difficult, but it needed a lot of trimming to make it fit - it took all afternoon to get it right! once it was done, we secured it with rivnuts, to make sure we can remove it easily-ish if we need to. Claire trimmed some foam to put along the chassis bars to stop it rattling too much, it just needs some silkaflex along the top rail, we don't want any foam visible there.

We also trimmed up the Ali panel which is visible under the scuttle. The finish wasn't great on the bare panel (I'm much better at metalwork now!) so we wanted it covered. Some more foam with some leatherette and spray glue gives it a softer finish.

On Sunday we decided to mount the oil cooler- we had to make up a bracket to make it fit, and make sure that the pipes we had made up at Merlin fit (they do! We're getting better at this...). Some Ali strip, a couple of rivnuts and some nuts and bolts had the cooler in place. We've also mounted all of the radiator hoses now, as they run close to each other in some places, and we need to make sure it all fits together.

Finally for this update, last night we started on the other water pipes. We cut and fitted the pipe between the water pump and the manifold, this is black braid rather than steel (to do it all in steel would have been hideously pricey!), and figured out that we had the right bits to do the rest, and roughly where they're all going to go. Another job for the weekend! We need to glass an ali plate into the scuttle to mount the header tank against, fit the interior panels, refit the bodywork properly, and carry on plumbing the engine
... Not all this weekend, we're off to the Renault World Series on Saturday, which should be fun...

As usual, more piccies in the picasa album here.

She looks like a car!!

2008-05-26T19:22:00.006Z

Well, almost! We've made a fair bit of visible progress today, trial mounting the scuttle, the bonnet, and the nosecone. This is more straightforward that it sounds...

The scuttle goes on first. It's quite easy to do - the pointy bits at the back of the scuttle meet with the crease line in the bodywork. There are just a couple of notches to make underneath the scuttle so it clears the bar holding the steering column mounts. This was then taped in place. Then the bonnet went on, with the shut lines to the scuttle nice and tight, and taped to the bodywork as well. This was difficult as our bonnet has sagged a fair bit in storage. A tip - store the bonnet upright on its end, not flat, so it doesn't sag under its own weight.

Next, there's a fair bit of excess GRP at the front of the main tub - we had to take off about 4 inches or so. To measure this out, we offered up the nosecone and looked to see how much was left to go. The nose went on and off about 20 times, to trim it gently without taking too much off it. It's not quite perfect, but for our first go fixing bodywork, it's not bad! We did find that the brackets we mounted at the front of the engine bay to support the bodywork were a bit too narrow (we used 35x20mm ali angle, with the 20mm side on top), and there's not enough overlap on the nosecone lip to drill a hole for a bolt. We need to change the bracket for some 35x35 angle to make sure we've got the room. With the nosecone in place, we can take off the bonnet and put it back whenever - we've taped it in for now to try and persuade it back to shape.

How long since we posted?

2008-05-26T08:33:00.014Z

About two months!!

Well, in the last post I was confident that we'd have the engine ready to run by the May bank holiday. Doh! The silicon hoses we ordered (Red is a special order colour) actually didn't get ordered when we expected, so they only arrived last week. The good news is that with some trimming they all fit nicely, so my angle measuring must have been right!

So, what have we been up to since last time? We've bought and fitted an Odyssey battery, Claire making a great little braket to keep it in place at the back of the engine bay, making a start on cutting loads of holes in the bodywork (these are all cut now, I just need to tidy them up and make sure they're the same on both sides). We had to take off the brackets we made in last month's installment, as they were holding the body up too high, so we've just got the fronts on for now. These are actually bolted in place too - exciting!

We went for a track day at Llandow with Ron in his Spire GT-R - we bumped into TimC there, watching his mate in a Mk2 Escort spending most of a lap sideways was great! More problems with the gearchange on the Spire (I think this time we might have bent it) meant we were done by lunchtime. A nice little circuit though, and I've never seen so many 911 GT3 RSs in one place - someone turned up in a Carrera GT as well, mmmmmmmmm :)

Back into the garage, and we lifted the engine out so Ron could borrow the crane. We had to refit the front brake pipes as with it in the old position, the trigger wheel for the VR sensor would hit it. So, that was moved back along the chassis rail and the pipes out to the bodywork re-made. Lucky I made them slightly longer than I needed, as I kept forgetting to put the union on the pipe before I flared it!! Doh!

We also measured up where we wanted the throttle bodies to go and one of the guys at Ron's work welded them up for us (thanks Taff), they had a job getting them held at the right angle, but they look pretty good now. Just some work with the dremel and some paint and it's good to go. We also got some fuel tank filler tube the right size to mount the throttle bodies to the manifold.

Some trial fitting of the silicon hoses followed - some needed trimming (the bends were longer than I expected them to be), but the angles were all right, and it all fits in, even if it is a bit tight (but what hasn't been so far??). Claire made a bracket to hold in the brake fluid reservoir and we've got some flexi pipe to connect up the reservoir and the MCs.

Finally, we started to fit the bodywork. Claire painted the inside of all the panels (except the tub, as it's still mounted), in gloss black, and it transforms them I think. The scuttle went on without *too* much trouble, but the bonnet has sagged quite a lot where it's been sat for a long time. We've taped it in place for now, and it looks like it will fit eventually. Last night I started hacking lumps off the front of the tub to make the nose fit, so finishing that slightly more delicately is the first job for today.....

The end of the bank holiday....

2008-03-25T18:03:00.004Z

And four days in the freezing cold garage! On the Monday, I tried my hand at arc welding (rubbish, but after reading a tutorial today I know what I was doing wrong), installing the throttle linkage whadjamacallits to the throttle bodies, and making the bodywork fit better at the front.

My experiments with welding didn't go especially well. I kept sticking the arc rod to the piece, but I've read up on it today, and I was striking it but then not moving th tip away! I didn't have the workspace set up well either, so I may have another go this weekend.

The throttle bodies were much easier, with Ron having bent some small pieces of steel to fit betwen the throttle linkages. I had to shorten them by a couple of mm, but easy enough. Ron had bent them at just the right angle, with me having to just pack them out with a single washer to get them perfect. Now all four throttle bodies move together again, all completely close, all we need to do is the fuel rail (a card through th door this morning tells me that it was delivered while I was out), and the inlet manifold. I'm getting quite excited about being able to get the engine running again! We should be able to do that around the first bank holiday weekend in May, if everything turns up on time (and if I haven't forgotten anything!)

Next, the attention turned to the bodywork again. We'd had some replies from other guys on locostbuilders, including from Marc Nordon, indicating that we needed to pack up the front end. So, off to B & Q, along with half of Swindon - lucky we live close to it! - for some Ali angle. After some deliberation, we worked out how far up we needed to lift the body (we did this by measuring the side that naturaly sat further down, and basically filling that gap). With this support further up than the chassis was, we can now comfortably hold the bodywork in at the sides with tape, and squeeze the drivers' side bodywork down to it. There is still some stress there, but nothing like it was. We also took a bit more out of the bottom of the fibreglass, and this helped too.You can see the four new brackets in the photo, for once I fabricated something that Claire was entirely hapy with! Maybe I'm getting better at this after all..... :)

Like I said, we're aiming to get the engine running over the May bank holiday weekend. In between now and then, we're going to try and get the bodywork finished, it needs to come off again so we can fill back in any areas we've had to take out, and touch up those areas where we've had to take off the gelcoat. We also need to hoick the engine out again (last time this time) to do a couple of jobs around the engine bay - refitting the brake t-piece for one. Then the engine can go back in, and the body can go on, and we can get it on its wheels. I think we have everything we need up until that point - then we need some seats, harnesses, gauges, and lots more hard work!

On a final note, Ron sent me a link to JAW, a DIY wideband O2 controller kit, which works out quite a bit cheaper than buying an innovate LC-1. I'd welcome any comments from anyone who's used this, especially with megasquirt!

Some advice from locostbuilders (and Marc)

2008-03-24T07:06:00.003Z

Quick post before we head into the garage for the day - advice from some of the other MNR builders on locostbuilders said that we'd need to support the bodywork at thr front, higher than the mounting points currently are. Marc confirmed that they had to do this on slightly older bits of bodywork. Also a possibility is flattening down the rivet that the bottom piece is catching on, and thinning the ali plate on the bottom there (two pieces overlap just under where the body pops out). Hopefully we can get this bit cracked today, and finish off the locating holes for the suspension. Then it can all come off again! :)

Pink dust!

2008-03-23T18:39:00.006Z

Well, this weekend has seen some dremel action in the garage. As I mentioned last post, we asked Ron to come over and lend us his hands to trial fit the body work. First off was to get the chassis down off trestles and onto axle stands. No worries. Next, the difficult bit.

We'd had some excellent extra tips from Redback Racing, MNRs agents in Australia, on how to get the body fitted. First, we offered up the tub and marked out where we needed to relieve bits to get the body around chassis tubes, etc. The body was probably on and off about a dozen times as we got it right. There are pictures of the process on the Picasa album. We did find that one side of the body is under a lot of tension when fitted properly, to the extent that it's started to crack when stressed into place. Coozer and Tim both seem to have had the same problem, and have added spacers to the bodywork mounting rail to help the bodywork out a bit. The pic to the right shows where this is starting to go.

On Saturday, we trolled down to Merlin again, to get a battery and some more fuel pro-clamps. The only problem was they didn't have either! We had decided on a Varley battery, because of their small size for their power, and the ability to mount them in any orientation except upside-down. And we wouldn't have to pay postage if we got one from Merlin. Apparently though, the UK importers sent their order off, with a requested date of 11/03/08, to the manufacturers in the States, who looked at the date, and presumed it was for delivery in November! So, there are very few in the UK, and the racing season is rapidly aproaching! Ehhhhcxcellent.....

So, once we were back, it was onto Ebay to find a different thing. We found an Odyssey battery, which I strongly suspect is the exact same battery as the Varley - same size weight, power, rough cost, different badge. Postage wasn't too bad on that either. We also ordered in the last week a header tank, HT leads, a header tank cap, some fuel rail, pro clamps, filler hoses for the water system, and I now think we've got everything that we need to start the engine either here or on its way shortly - hopefully we can get all that plumbed in and the engine running by the May bank holiday. Also yesterday we started on the holes for the top front wishbones, and stopped to figure out what to do about the stressy chassis.

So, today, we went out to take another look at the twisting and cut out the v shapes at the rear, that give the rear wishbones room to move. Marc's instructions were pretty clear on this, and with a cutoff disc and sander attachment for the dremel, we got those done without too much fuss. This didn't have an effect on the twisty front, so we tried locostbuilders for some help. Tim and Coozer have both had the same problem, and fixed it by supporting the front end higher up. Looks like we need some steel box or Ali angle to lift the front end up. This would give some extra clearance for the oil filler cap, which pretty much touches the underside of the bonnet at the moment.

Also on the to-do list is to make the inlet manifold - Ron's lent me his arc welder, so I'm going to have a play with that and try to tack the tubes onto the fitting plate. Then the welder who's done a load of Ron's car so far is going to pitch in and finish it off for me. I've never done arc before (I've only done oxy-acetelene a few times, while I was at college over 10 years ago), so that's going to be fun! with some old bits of steel I'll see what I'm capable of. My practical skills have been getting much better over the last few years, so I think I'll be OK. If not, Ron will come back over and tack it on there.... :)

That's it for now, another bank holiday tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get a bit more done. Finally, a pic of the driveshafts we mentioned last week....

Some more work done...

2008-03-16T21:22:00.002Z

But not a lot. Every little helps though....

We're getting to the point now, where we're having to decide where things will go in relation to the bodywork. As we only have a vague idea of how all the bodywork goes together so far, we need to get it fitted to check it all out. So (hopefully), next weekend Ron will come over and give us a hand with the fitting, so we've an idea where the battery, header tank, coil pack, ECU, EDIS unit will fit...... :-o

We've also been ordering stuff - we've ordered Red Samco coolant hoses, with some alloy joiners to go with them, fuel rail for the throttle bodies, vacuum tube for the throttle bodies and decent hose clips. Amazing how all this stuff adds up! Got a new tool as well - a right-angled attachment for the dremel. I've not had a chnce to try it yet, but it looks cool.. We need this to make up the throttle spindle extensions for the throttle bodies. We spaced the bodies themselves out on some studding, with ally sleeves to hold them the correct distance apart, now we just need to extend the throttle spindle. And the fuel rail. And the injector loom. And mount them on the new manifold.... Not too much work, but on the bright side, my measuring (and Ron's cutting) were spot on!

Finally, we've also been battling with CV boots this weekend. We cleaned up the old driveshafts, and we'd bought some new boots with the kit, so off came the old ones, then a bit of head-scratching about how the joints come off. It turns out that these nice one-use metal covers (that we'd just spent 45 minutes cleaning) need to be cut off and replaced. Surprise, surprise, there weren't any in the kit. Off round the motorspares places we go, and no-one has any. The last place we tried didn't know what we were talking about, but they did have a large conical tool for stretching cv boots over. So, today, after 3 hours, much swearing and CV grease messiness, the driveshafts are complete with their new boots and have been painted a nice sparkly hammerite black.

Will put some more pics on showing progress, but we haven't really taken any yet! :)

Very quick post

2008-03-12T21:46:00.003Z

Just to link to the photo album. I've commented on all 200-odd pictures charting the progress of Ruby since May 07.

You can get to the picasa album here - I'll aim to keep it up to date, as doing it all from scratch was a bit much!

Laters!

Shiny bits!

2008-03-09T07:10:00.008Z

Well, yesterday was a first - a day in the garage where we didn't have to go out and buy tools or nuts and bolts!

In the last post I mentioned that we had been out to get the fuel flexis and clamps to fit out the car with. Now, it was time to mount it all up (wel, the rear end at least). We had ordered a spacing kit for the throttle bodies at the end of Jan, and it still hasn't arrived, so we're going to do it ourselves instead (when I say we, I mainly mean Ron).

So, out we went with the drill and rivetter. We bought a right-angled drill from Screwfix the other week, and it's been brilliant, one of those tools you never thing you'll need till you get one! We started of with the flexi from the tank to the pump. Usefully, we mounted the pump on the opposite side of the chassis from the tank (thinking back, we did this because we were taking the loom the other way around the tank and wanted to keep them apart), so this meant we had to take the fuel flexi all the way across the back of the car, under the tank. Plenty of driling and rivetting, nothing very exciting.

Next we had to figure out the pump to the copper line, and the return line as well. We figured out a route for them to meet, and then took them along a chassis rail together (P-clips turned with the centres towards each other, and one rivet through both). It all looks quite neat, I must be getting better at it!

Finally, we just had to mount the tank breather valve. This is a one-way valve to allow air into the tank as the pump sucks fuel out of it, but not let fuel out if you tip the car upside down. This was a bit awkward, as the pipe from the tank is 10mm, and the tail on the valve is about 6mm! Thsi meant we had to use an inline reducer and two bits of flexi. It's mounted to the rear stay out of the way.

We also (had a productive day, didn't we?) trial-mounted the new alternator bracket Ron made for us. It fits nicely, and the alternator fits in well, even with the front exhaust manifold fitted, we just need to find a shorter belt, and work out the mounting for the alternator top mount it can be adjusted to tension the belt. There's not an awful lot of clearance (we can make a little extra by taking out a chunk of strengthening gusset from the chassis), so we need to get the belt as short as possible. Next we need to figure out the mounting points for the VR sensor, and the runs for the water hoses. It all gets a bit tight in there!

More updates and piccies to come soon!

Something's happened to the car!!

2008-02-06T20:51:00.000Z

We've managed to spend some time in the garage, we measured up the car for the flexible fuel hoses we'd need - we were going to run flexis through the tunnel, until Ron mentioned a post on locostbuilders about how long they last! We decided to keep the copper pipe through the tunnel and add another for a return line. So, we re-measured, then it was off to Merlin motorsport in Chippenham to hand over some dough for some flexi hoses and clamps, a fuel pressure regulator and gauge. We then decided to have some dinner and watch the Rugby (we'd have been better off in the garage!)....

The next day we were off to Screfix for some more rivets (I thought we had enough - oops!), and then remember how to flare copper pipes and use our new pipe bending tool. Next we cut off the rear bit of the old copper pipe and flared the end, so the join sits just inside the tunnel. We then decided to move the loom up off the floor of the tunnel, so we could lay the new copper in its place - this keeps the leccy away from the fuel lines....

The photos aren't brilliant, but you get the idea. It was a bit of a painstaking job to bend the pipe to fit through the tunnel and rivet it in pace, especially as we left the engine and box in place... :)

This week we also ordered and received an oil cooler and thermostatic sandwich plate - we wanted to fit it all from the start, as it would be more difficult to organise once the car was running. More to come after this weekend, when we should have put in the flexi fuel lines, the pressure regulator, and (hopefully) made up a bracket for the oil cooler, to measure up for the flexi oil lines. More money down at Merlin's next week!!

More next time!

Well, it's been a busy time

2008-01-19T14:29:00.001Z

Though not on the car! I can't believe that the last post was in September - some work's been done on the car since then, but not a lot! :(

The engine was timed up, after a couple of hours searching for the cam specs online - thanks again to Ron for his help with that. The alternator arrived and Ron's started making the bracket up to fit (he's an engineer, with access to all sorts of useful stuff like lathes and bits of scrap metal, and I work in IT, I'm not copping out, honest!). As we mentioned in a previous post, we also went with bike throttle bodies, the megasquirt injection & ignition system, and we've got all the bits for this (except I think we still need a fuel pressure regulator - on the GSXR it's built into the fuel pump in the tank).

We're also making an inlet manifold for the throttle bodies - I'm going to buy a spacer kit to make them the right width for the pinto, and the manifold itself is going to be made from a fairly chunky steel plate and CDS tube - the inlet ports are 1.5" and the tb's are 1.75", which matches the inside and outside ODs of the tube. Cut at an angle it should do the job nicely.

We've been busy with a lot of stuff over the winter - we're getting married in September so there's a fair bit of organising there, we managed an actual holiday in November (went on a plane and everything!), and Claire had a car accident in December (she wasn't injured thankfully, but it wrote off the M3), so we had to spend some time looking for a replacement (we ended up with a 99 BMW 540 - mmmmmm V8, I wonder if that'll fit in an MNR), and helping Ron out with some bits on his car. On a track day last September, we found that the laminova oil cooler wasn't quite up to the job - after about 3 laps of castle combe, the oil temp was reading about 130! Ron's modified the bodywork to fit in a larger air cooler, and also fitted new Hi-spec calipers to the rear - there just wasn't enough rear braking with the old setup.

So, it's on with the show. Once the garage has had a bit of a tidy, it'll be back to it, trying to get the inlet finished off so we can move on to the next bits.

hopefully there'll be more to report (and more piccies) very soon!

It's flipping tight in here!

2007-09-23T19:12:00.000Z

EEEp!

I said last week that Marc must have had fun building a chassis around our Pinto engine. hahaha - if only we'd have given him all the bits that bolt onto it! A piece of advice for everyone not yet building a car - if the manufacturer asks you for your engine to make the chassis with - give them everything! Carbs / fuel injection, alternator, starter, gearbox, everything you can think of!

The reason? After fitting the engine last week, we started to bolt bits to it this weekend. We went to mount the alternator, and - it didn't fit. Not by a very long chalk. And at this point we hadn't even put the steering column in. Hmmmm. The problem was that the Ford alternator is a) fecking huge and b) has a fecking huge bracket, and c) the pulley wanted to be exactly where one of the chassis tubes goes...

So, after some head scratching and phone calls to Ron, Claire's dad, we strike upon the idea of seeing if we can steal the alternator out of his dead Honda Blackbird engine. So we toddle over to theirs to find out that it's fairly tightly integrated with the engine, being driven directly off the crankshaft. Bugger. So, onto locostbuilders and Ebay to see what we could find out. After some investigation, we found that some Daihatsus come fitted with a 93mm alternator. Usefully, the lugs are directly opposed, meaning it can be mounted vertically, which makes life easier. Ron happened to have some 90mm cardboard tube handy (?) so we tested out where it could go in true Blue Peter fashion. Even better news is, we reckon its a go-er, so I just need to keep my eye out for one now!

Definitely, if you're going to build a car, give the manufacturer everything that bolts to the engine!! We also tested how much clearance we have under the bonnet, and it's pretty tight over the top of the cam sprocket. That should be fine though. Touch wood.

So, what else did we do this weekend? I fitted the throttle pedal bracket - well, almost - as I realised that I'd given Ron back his Rivnut tool, and needed it. Usefully, Sunday opening hours meant I couldn't get one. Bugger again. It's ready to go in once I have the tool though. Apart from that, the engine came out, as we weren't going to have enough room at the front to time up the crank / cam. We also need to move the front brake t-piece to give a bit more clearance down there, but we need the rivnut tool for that as well.

We've also ordered a few bits from Burtons - a TDC finder (as we painted over the markings I made on the block when we took it apart - doh!) and fitted the head without marking it up again. The tool wasn't too expensive, but the adapter to fit a 14mm spark plug hole was! We also got some adapters to fit the coil pack, and be able to put standard distributer-type leads on them. Something useful from Halfords! :)

This week, hopefully we can get the engine timed up, the brake t-piece moved and the front pipes re-made, and the engine back in. We then need the alternator and oil cooler to be able to figure out where the brackets / pipe runs, etc., need to go. Ron's taken the trigger wheel away with him to get the centre turned out on a lathe, so we can mount it on the crank pulley. There's so much to do, but we need all the bits together to be able to do it - it's costing a fortune at the moment!!

I'll stick another update on later in the week, we'll see if we manage it!!

Two posts in one week!

2007-09-20T21:22:00.000Z

Well, we've been back in the garage. The engine has mostly gone back together and made it into the car. Marc's work must have been cut out making the engine and box fit into the car - some of the clearances are a bit fag-paper like!

The engine needed the new head fitting, the new clutch put together, and all bolting to the gearbox. This was the first clutch we'd done, but with the Haynes manual and the clutch alignment tool, it didn't take too long.

The easiest bit of the day was getting the engine and box into the car and mounted, though I have got a nice bruise on my forearm to show for it! One of the engine mounts only needed a minor adjustment - one of the boltholes in the steel plate that the mounts sit on was too close to the chassis tube to get a nut on the other side of it, so it needed adjusting slightly. The nuts are just plain for now, as I have a feeling the engine might be out again at some point when we realise we've missed something out!!

Next we checked the exhaust fitting - this was fairly easy to figure out with 4 branches coming off the head and through a 4-into-1 collector. Nice and easy, except for me getting one of the branches stuck in the collector :) I reckon the easiest way to fit them all is into the collector first in any case, as then you've got some wiggle room...

After trying the exhaust, we decided to give the carbs a go. We'd bought a nice set of twin webers, linked, set up for a standard 2 litre pinto and on a manifold, last winter before we'd even decided on a car. So, we offered them up to the manifold, and...... clunk. As you can see from the photo above, the inlet side is quite close to the chassis rails - too close. Marc didn't have the webers with the engine, so didn't know quite how big they were - and they're pretty big. There's about 5-6mm clashing on the bottom of the carb (and that would make it an "interference fit"), so there was a bit of head-scratching.

We decided that we didn't want to lift the engine. Though it's not an all-out racer, it is going to be used for the odd trackday, so I didn't want to lift the centre of gravity. Claire didn't want anything poking out of the top of the bonnet. So, we started looking at bike carbs and a megajolt system. Then, we decided to go the whole hog, and decided on bike throttle bodies and a megasquirt system. We decided this on Monday evening. It's now Thursday, the bike injection system (GSXR1000) has already arrived, the V3 megasquirt is a couple of days away, and the trigger wheel and Ford EDIS components will be here tomorrow. The new injection pump should be here by Monday... And I've got a massive manual about fuel injection and ignition to read.... :)

This weekend, I'm getting a polo rad to fit, so we can work out the plumbing runs required. I wanted to do this pretty much as soon as the engine was in, as we've decided to use red Samco hoses in the engine bay, to match the car colour, and they're a 3 - 4 week special order. I'm also going to try and get the cambelt on and the engine timed up properly, and the driveshafts cleaned and fitted with new boots. If time allows I may also figure out where the bearing carriers fit, as I found them in a box last weekend, and they could do with a clean.... :)

The final picture shows how close it is to the front - we may have to find somewhere else for that brake pipe termination...... details, details. Finally, I've changed the settings on the blog to allow public comments. Please feel free to give me feedback on how we're getting on....

We're back!!

2007-09-13T18:30:00.000Z

Well, the last few months has been pretty hectic. The July storms resulted in my tintop being written off - water got into the cabin as well as the engine, so the insurance company wrote it off. So, had to spend time sorting out the insurance company, a car so I could get to work, and we decided to replace Claire's car as well.

The blog wasn't really up to date at the last post, so I'm going to try and show where we're at right now....

After the MCs at the front, we tackled the top ali panel, which has the MNR Chassis number stamped on it. This was a pretty tricky job. Because of the lovely round tube chassis, you need to be precise where you mark and drill your holes. Because of the fairly complex structure around that part of the car, it's also difficult to get this odd shaped bit of ali into place to mark it. It has to be bent in the middle to get it into place, then you need to try and bend it back again to make it flat.
You can see from this picture the shape of the ali piece. There was a fair bit of cursing at this stage (mostly from Claire to me), as the panel had moved slightly as I was clamping it up. It's not the neatest job ever, but it's going to be under the bodywork at some point, so hopefully it won't be too visible.

Next up was to fit the diff. This was fun... :) The car's on trestles, so is quite a long way off the floor. Diffs are heavy. So it was with much heath robinsonism that we made a platform (out of toolboxes and Haynes manuals, mostly) to sit the diff on, while we spaced out the diff with nuts and washers so it was sat centrally in the tunnel.

To help with this, we also trial-fitted the propshaft, and to figure that was in the right place, we needed the gearbox as well. Thankfully it was already disconnected from the engine, so on it went. I could see where Marc had had to take a chunk out of the bellhousing to fit into the tunnel, and it's pretty much fag-paper clearances against the bulkhead when it's in. That's gonna be fun when it's all bolted to the engine again!!

At this point, we were kind of getting near-ish to thinking about fitting the bodywork. Before getting that far, I wanted to trial-fit the front suspension, as I wanted to figure out how the pushrod bits work, and I wanted to find out about any possible problems before we got anywhere near the body tub, as that needs to be cut to fit around the suspension pickups. The first bit of that was to fit the inboard suspension coilover shocks. Tricky!! As you might imagine, they're quite stiff. With some persuasion (and a crowbar) they were bolted in place. You can see the first one here...

With them both in place, we started on the front wishbones. Here we came across a snagette. Or maybe a whole snag. One of the wishbones didn't fit! Out came the vernier calipers, and true enough, one set of the top mounts was 3mm further apart than the other. This being the first car I've built, I was pretty worried about bending the bracket to make it fit, and worse luck, it was over the week Marc was off for his wedding! We found other things to do till I could get hold of Marc again. He said that it wasn't a massive problem - the jig for making the chassis needs some movement on the pickups to compensate for the heating during welding. He said that bending the brackets slightly to push the wishbones in would suffice - when bolting them up, it would tighten against the polybush. Phew!

The rears went in with no trouble. The uprights haven't been on yet, as they all have to come off to fit the bodywork, but I've had a play with them and figured out how they fit, so I don't think they'll present a problem.

Next up was the fuel tank fitting. This wasn't too drastic, some superglue and foam strips from the local craft shop, some rivnuts and then some washers and nuts. I like the easy jobs :) We also had a Racetech fuel level sender (I decided I liked the racetech analogue gauges, they remind me of aircraft ones), which went in without a struggle. We found that the best way of getting the swarf out of the tank again was to put the vacuum nozzle into the filler hole, put our fingers over the rest and shake it. We also mounted the fuel pump at this stage, but the fuel hose we had knocking around the garage wasn't marked - this is needed for the dreaded SVA, so we need to get some more.

We've also started to put the engine back together. It came apart for an inspection, so after being given a clean bill of health by Ron, it was cleaned inside and out, painted (outside only) in VHT silver, and left in a corner of the garage.... We spotted a tuned head with a 285 cam on Ebay, and it was not far from my work, so we went for it. 100 quid turned out to be pretty good - the guy had bought it to go onto his westie about 7 years ago but never fitted. It still had the waxoyl all over it. It had been kept wrapped and dry and looked pretty good (we were also struggling to get the sparks out of the original head...), and that's now been bolted and torqued down onto the block.

This weekend, hopefully, the engine, new clutch and the gearbox are going to be assembled and mounted up. Then we need to figure out where the exhaust manifold comes out, as we need to make a hole in the body for that, and then trial-fit the body and see if / where we need to cut holes in the bonnet for the twin webers and their filters.

One of the locostbuilders fraternity (Sonja from Sydney, who races a VortX), has promised some pictures of the necessary holes in the body. They should help no end in the fitting!

That was a mammoth post. I'm knackered now - I'll have to keep it more up to date in the future!!

They're coming a bit faster now!

2007-06-22T12:51:00.000Z

Especially as I've figured out the easiest way to get photos into the Blog! :)

Next job was to fit the clutch and brade pedal assemblies. The pedal box is already welded in place on the chassis, so that's not too bad. First I had to make some nice neat holes for the two master cylinders. The Dremel is a damn useful thing - if you don't already have one, get one!

As you can see, they're nice and round now. As with most of these things, it's important not to take too much off in one go. It's much better to take little bits off and take it easy.

Once the holes were made and the cylinders fitted snugly without snagging anywhere, it was time to fit the clutch pedal assembly. MNR supply a chunky steel rod to use as the pivot bar, which needs to be cut to length for the pedals.

Actually, it needs to be a bit wider than the pedal, as you need a split pin on the outsides to keep it in place. I only just managed to drill the holes through it to allow for this - thankfully! It does fit snugly in there now though.

Once the clutch pedal was in, it was fairly simple to just drill a hole for the clutch cable to come through. I did need to modify the pedal slightly, as it was fouling the pedal box at the bottom. Some re-profiling with the dremel gave a nice, non-sticky movement. You can see it here with the rose-joint joining the cable to the pedal.

With the clutch pedal in and fitted, it was time to do battle with the brake bias bar and the master cylinders.

With the holes drilled, the MCs were fitted to th bulkhead. the MCs are a different make, one wilwood, the other something else. Which is fine, as long as they do the job I'm not concerned, but the wilwood one had a freely-rotating thread for the bias bar fixing, and the other didn't.......

I worked around this by putting the fixing on the non-turny MC first, then threading the bias bar onto it. Then I adjusted the fixing for the other MC and got the MC threading into it. It was a bit fiddly, but we got there in the end! Finally a photo of the almost finished footwell:

The last job was to connect up the ends of the brake pipes to the correct MC and p-clip them in place to the bulkhead. Next time, fitting the ally top panel....

Another 3 weeks!!

2007-06-22T09:15:00.000Z

Well, we're trying to get through the backlog of posts! My boss looked at the blog the other day and said we had a long way to go - we've done quite a lot more to Ruby, but not the blog! Day off today, so here's a catch up of where we're up to so far...

Next job was to fit the brake and fuel pipes to the car. Queue loads more drilling and rivetting to fit the pre-flared pipes to the car, p-clipped every 6 inches for SVA compliance. It was fairly straight-forward to fit the pipes - I started at the T-piece at either end and worked back to where the master cylinders mount on the front bulkhead. I tried to route the pipes in the most logical way I could, bearing in mind that I didn't have too much of an idea where all the suspension bits would go! As this is our first build, there was some head scratching, but I think we got it pretty well. I did struggle getting the things straight, they'd been coiled up and I couldn't manage to work some of the kinks out of it, but they were pretty well hidden, so I don't mind it too much.

We then mounted the smaller copper pipes which will eventually connect to the flexis at each corner. That was a fairly simple job.

Next up was the fuel pipe. This was a more difficult job, as a) it was much longer, and b) thicker tube, so more difficult to bend to shape. I ended up with a couple of minor kinks in it, but nothing too drastic I think.

I've put some piccies into the post, but you can see all of them here on my Picasa album. If you're working with lots of photos, especially for a blog, a really handy little tool is the Microsoft Image resizer powertoy, which you can get here - it lets you resize multiple images, all by the same amount. V. useful, as we've got quite a high resolution camera, and the images at high-res are too big for the web.

More on the next job, the brake Master Cylinders, after I've done some housework and had some lunch.... :)

It's been two months since we posted(!)

2007-06-02T07:43:00.000Z

Well, it's been two months since the last post, I've no idea where all the time goes. We picked up Ruby on the first bank holiday weekend in May, (thanks to all the lads who were there and pushed the van up MNR's driveway!), we made it the 250 miles home with not many other hiccups.

With the kit safely tucked into the garage, it was time to fix Claire's tintop, as it had failed its MOT on a wheel bearing. 6 days of working, including the traditionally p!ssing bank holiday weather, got the wheel bearing and the diff changed (that was getting noisy), and so we got started on Ruby.

First job was to sort out all the boxes of stuff we'd received from MNR, and try and figure out what some of the things were, then check out the manual to find out where to start. First up was to put the front bulkhead ali panels in. Lots of putting them on, marking them up, figuring out where to drill the holes, drilling the holes, rivetting the panels. They did take longer than I expected but the final result was ok.

More to come in the next post - it's time for Breakfast! I'll catch up on our progress so far over the next few days....

Oh my God, it's the weekend again!

2007-03-30T21:43:00.000Z

Why is the ratio of 5:2 considered a good idea? We spend far too much of our time working....

Whinging aside, looks like we need to take the Pinto block and gearbox up to MNR to make sure it all fits together nicely. Shame that it's still in quite a few pieces, but that's sod's law for you... :)

Not much is going to happen this weekend, we're having the house valued next week, so there are some diy jobs that need doing before they come, mainly hanging 4 doors upstairs.... I think Claire's dad is going to come over on Sunday and give us a hand with that.

The weekend's work

2007-03-26T11:54:00.000Z

Swmbo and I made it out to the garage on Sunday for some graft on the donor bits. We cleaned up the engine block (a combination of the wire wheel attached to a drill and kurust stuff), then painted it in VHT silver. It now looks pretty shiny (more so than I was expecting), but I reckon we'll need some more for the gearbox housing.....

Also stripped the valves & valve gear out of the head, remembering to keep them all in numbered freezer bags. The valves were pretty well coated in coke, lumps of which had already started falling off, so they were given a bit of a clean up with some emery cloth. The rest of the stuff had the oil washed off with paraffin.

The rear brake calipers that Claire's dad gave us are pretty well rusted tight - a soaking in plusgas should hopefully get the pistons moving (although the tool to twist them properly would also help), and I need to find somewhere to get a service kit for them from......

Some progress so far pics to follow when I've dragged them off the camera.....

First post - 6 weeks to go........

2007-03-25T07:48:00.000Z

A Long, long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (well, Oxford in about y2k)..........

Claire (my girlfriend - aka swmbo) and I started getting into the idea of building a kit car after the departure of our Mini 1275 GT to the great scrapyard in the sky. We were further egged on by Claire's dad Ron, who was interested in building a GT40 replica (until he saw the costs!) and visiting loads of shows, so we tagged along as well.

After we finished Uni, we decided we were going to go ahead and build one. Over the years we had looked at Tiger, Dax, F27, MK, Luego and Mac #1, but without the money to go ahead and buy one.... 3 years ago however, we took the first plunge and bought ourselves a 2.0 litre sierra sapphire, E reg, from Ebay for 99 quid. We drove about 200 miles each way to collect it, then the next day started taking bits off it.

A house purchase got in the way slightly, and we ended up moving the Sierra, half of it in boxes, to our new home (and nice big garage), where it got in the way for about 18 months....

Fast-forward slightly to today, and all the useful bits (at least I hope all the useful bits) are in the garage, the body shell has been cut into small pieces and recycled, and the kit car is on order!

After recommendations from other users at locostbuilders, we looked at the MNR VortX kit, and went up to North Yorks to meet Marc and Chris Nordon (and Bob and Lulu the dogs), and were taken out by Marc's friend and customer Iain in his rover V8 powered beastie. The car is going to be a VortX RT with inboard suspension, in Ruby Red, with black wheelarch inserts. It's going to be powered by the 2 litre Pinto out of the sierra, but Marc's going to build the chassis to accept a bike engine, for a future upgrade once we've learned how to drive it....

It's been about 7 years coming, and now there's six weeks to go until it arrives, there's too much to do!! Over the coming weeks we'll be cleaning and servicing donor bits and getting the garage ready to take Ruby...