15th June 2002
Engine Day!
The day started early with an emergency mission to buy some bolts which appeared to be missing but I need to be able to prepare the engine. Good job I checked that I'd got all the bits before all my helpers arrived!

First job for me was to prepare the engine. This required me to fit the output prop shaft adapter to the engine. This converts the splined output shaft into a prop flange which the front prop will later attach onto. This was going smoothly, but then I realised that I needed to get the engine into gear so I could torque the adapter bolt up. So I tried fitting the gear selection lever to the splined shaft on the engine, but it appears to be very clogged up with powder coat and doesn't really want to play. So I'll have to fit that later, for now I carefully apply mole grips to the shaft to allow me to change gear.
Also at this stage I fit the clutch slave cylinder onto the pushrod next to the output adapter. This is a little fiddly and I've overlooked a missing a bolt, which I'll have to fit once the engine is in.
Next jobs are to fit the oil cooler connection adapters into the side of the engine. This proves to be a whole load tricker than could be imagined due to one of the nuts being particularly in accessible and in a poor state of health (probably related to the access problem though) *.
Also Jim fits the upper engine mounting brackets onto the engine. This will allow the engine to be lifted using these brackets, by the hoist, and then 'dropped' onto the matching mounting plates in the engine bay. The lower engine mount bracket remains in the engine bay and is attached to the engine once it is in position.
(* more about these oil cooler connections later!)
Whilst Jim and I were working on the engine, William and Tim were working on the chassis. It's time for the car to come down off the chassis stands and onto axle stands. This process starts by using the hoist to hold the rear of the car in the air, then placing the axle stands where the rear chassis stand was. Then a couple of people can to the same at the front, and lower it down at the same time/speed as the hoist lowers the rear of the car.
Finally we are ready to lift the engine into the chassis. Firstly the hoist is attached to the upper engine mounting brackets using nylon rope (glad Tim knows how to tie knots properly!).
Then the engine is lifted well up into the air on the hoist, the hoist wheeled across the garage such that the engine is dangling over the engine bay, then the engine is slowly lowered into the chassis until the brackets are sitting correctly on the mounts.
Simple! This bit takes about 10 minutes!
Now that the engine is in, the only real job I can do on it for now is to attach the lower mount, which is sitting in the engine bay. It's slightly fiddly to get the stud through the mount and the engine, but it is soon encouraged to do so, and I pinch tighten the nuts on both upper and lower mounts.
The rest of the day was spent working on the plumbing for the fuel tank at the rear. I ordered some convoluted piping from Vehicle Wiring Products which I need to wrap around the fuel pipe to avoid any chafing problems. This goes fine, although I cannot find any large P-clips which will allow me to attach the pipes to the chassis, so I can't finish attaching the pipes to the fuel tank.
Todays efforts have the car looking alot more like a car now - it has an engine!

16th June 2002
Had a visit from my parents today, so not a great deal of progress on the car. Though I picked a fairly easy task that I could get dad to help me out with, the front anti roll bar.
This is relatively straight forward to fit. The bar fits into aluminium blocks which mount onto the front of the upper wishbone mount. At the same time I have now received the headlamp mounting brackets, so they go on too. It is a little fiddly getting the combination of washers and spacers and things right, but it's there in the end.
The droplink attaches to a further small aluminium adapter which fits onto the front of the lower shock absorber mount on the lower wishbone.
Next I decided to sort out the upper steering column. I had tried fitting this before but it didn't seem to all line up very well. After speaking to Westfield it seems that the solution to this is the make the hole in the aluminium panel, which the column passes through at the end of the footwell, a little larger to accomodate the angle the mounting brackets for the column to be at.
This is easily done with a half-round file, then I put some PVC sleeving around the hole to tidy things up. Once this is done the column can be fitted, and I am actually able to tighten it down properly on it brackets (using the space at the bottom). Although the alignment of the column may have to change once I have got a dashboard to fit.
Also started working on the radiators. The radiator comes from a VW Polo, and has to have the plastic lugs on the sides tapped out to M6. I used a slotted bolt to do this, as it should be quite straight forward, but it was actually quite tough going. Done the job though hopefully.
The oil cooler mounts onto brackets which fit onto the radiator at the top, and the lower wishbone mounts at the bottom.

17th June 2002
Spent more time working out the radiator mounting. I fitted the fan to the rad by pushing those long nails through it and attaching the clips. Then I looked at getting it mounted onto the car.
The lower rad mounts are a couple of steel brackets welded onto the front of the chassis. These apparently have to be bent into the position appropriate for the rad in use. The upper rad mounts are two aluminium brackets which are rivetted down into the upper chassis rail.
Having had several attempts to get the lower mounts to face flush to the rad mounts, it's proving awkward. I can't bend the bracket in the direction I need to. I'll have to check this out with Westfield to see if there is a knack or trick.

20th June 2002
I'm going up to Westfield again tomorrow to collect my bodywork. So I decide it is probably sensible to have a good rummage through all the bits I've got for the engine wiring and plumbing. This will mean I can compare what I have with a car at the factory, and make a list of any obvious missing parts which I can collect while I am there.
I lay all the bits of engine loom and bits of plumbing out on the workbench, and take some photos. I'll print these out so I can ask the technical guys there about what's what and goes where.
The more I look at it, and other examples, the less daunting the wiring and plumbing (without any instructions remember) is becoming. Once I can identify what everything is and where it goes, it should be a fairly simple enough task to join everything up. Hopefully!

21st June 2002
Bodywork Collection Day.

Up fairly early to go and collect the van. This time I have a smaller van, just a standard long wheelbased VW. First noticable thing is that this van doesn't have a turbo, and is... sedate.
Call in to MarkC on my way out of Cambridge to collect a loan harness. I have concocted a plan that the blue Willans harness might be a close match to my blue bodywork - if it is Westfield have said that I can swap my black harnesses for blue ones (though they will have to be special ordered).

Arrive at Westfield shortly after 12pm. The loading bay is busy, so I spend some time inside where they have the orange factory built Megabird (now sold). I meet Mark Walker and they allow me to crawl over their car to look at all the engine wiring and plumbing.
After a short while it's time for me to get my kit loaded.
When I reverse the van up to the loading door, I am again greeting by a pile of my bits, though it's not quite on the same scale this time as last. All my bodywork (plus some extra bits!) are lined up and ready to go. It looks like it might be quite a close fit in the van, but it should just about go in between the rear arches.
Apart from the main section, each bit of bodywork is wrapped in sheets and blankets to prevent and scratches during transit. The main section is loaded into the van, and I make sure that it is tied down pretty firmly so it can't move about and get damaged on the journey. All the other body parts are loaded in and around the main section.
Whilst hanging around waiting to talk technical, I had a nose about at a couple of interesting cars in the factory.
The first is not that inspirational a car, but it is the car which is set to feature in a forthcoming new TV programme on Discovery, called "A Racecar Is Born". I don't know the details of the series, but in previous series the present (TV vet Mark Wotsit) has built a Cobra replica.
Second car of some interest is an Orange FW400. It's quite sad to see this car just sitting around gathering dust in the factory. It looks really well made and a very nice car, but I guess the reason they didn't sell in droves was the potentially very high maintenance cost - I wouldn't want to repair that bodywork!

22nd June 2002
Didn't really do a great deal of work on the car today. Firstly I have decided to fit some nylon braid over the stainless braided brake flexibles. This is partly tarty as it just helps to keep them looking neater, but it also helps to protect them a little from road muck and grime.

Also I collected some large P-clips yesterday, so I finished off (almost) the fuel pipes at the rear of the car. This involved covering the pipes with convoluted tubing, and attaching it to the chassis rails using the P-clips (apparently an SVA requirement).

23rd June 2002
I really need to get the rear end of the car finished off to allow me to get the main section of bodywork on the car, and out of Bonces parking space in the garage.
So, the first job today is to sort out the speedo sensor. This cannot be mounted in the normal position due to the different differential and driveshafts. The solution here is to point the sensor at the prop shaft bolts, but since they are not 'symmetic' around a revolution of the prop I have to fit a washer behind one of the nuts. To help the sensor out a bit, the washer is filed into a cam lobe type shape, which will produce a definite peak at the sensor as it passes close beneath it.
The next tricky bit is actually drilling the holes in the rearmost tunnel bracket for the speedo bracket to attach on to. The problem here is that I really needed to know that I needed to drill these holes _before_ the prop and diff were fitted! I can just about get a drill onto the bracket from inside the tunnel, but the holes are not ideally positioned, so I will have to drill the speedo bracket again to suit them.
At this point I am ready to mount the speedo, but decide it will be sensible to sort out the last bit at the rear, the handbrake, particularly the handbrake cable. This job starts by fitting the handbrake lever. This is a straight forward job of drilling the brackets in the tunnel and simply attaching the lever (with switch fitted) to it.

I then have a go at fitting the handbrake cable. This proves to be quite tricky, as I can't really work out which widgets on the cable fit into the pre-drilled holes in the rearmost tunnel brace. I can get it threaded around the wishbones via the instructions in the manual, but it doesn't explain how to fit the widgets. I'll have to refer this one to someone who knows better than I do.
The final job of the day is to mount the radiators (at last!). First thing to do here is to attach the upper rad mounts to the chassis - to ensure they line up properly I trial fit the lower mounts first. Once this is done, all the mounts are ready, and the radiator can be fitted. This is a decidedly fiddly task which required a the washers on the lower mounts to filed down to, and getting all the nuts started in the plastic mounts on the radiator is particularly tricky (and annoying required the whole thing to be taken off again to tap the mounts out a bit more on the bench).
Once the radiator is on, I am able to fit the oil cooler. This is comparatively easy, as it just bolts onto the mounting brackets (lower ones attached to wishbone mount, upper ones attached to front plastic lugs on radiator.
The end result looks neat.
Just thought I would include a picture of the main section of the bodywork which is sitting on the other side of the garage, waiting to be fitted. I am thinking about tackling this next week since it will allow me to fix the engine down and therefore do a neater job of the plumbing and wiring.

On that subject, I have had to send my wiring loom back to Westfield because a couple of the power connectors for the coil packs were somewhere at the front of the fuel rail - a bit far away from where they are actually sited.

29th June 2002
Haven't really done much to the car this week other than trying to sort out the handbrake cable, to no avail. I've been focussing on getting the website up to date and thinking about tackling the bodywork. Doing this will mean I can align and fix down the engine, which will in turn mean that I can do the plumbing and wiring properly.
So today it's time to start fettling the bodywork. First thing I do is to move the axle stands so that they are more inboard to allow the bodywork to overlap the bottom edge of the sides of the car. Next job is to drill the holes to attach the rear arches. Fortunately, Tim turns up in the nick of time!
This job requires the rear arches to be clamped into position on the main body, then the holes to be drilled. We take the arches off again to make it easier to fit the main body on the car - the holes should all line up ok later.
Now it's time to think about fitting the main body section. Before we can do this, we need to cut down the part of the main body which would normally be sandwiched under the roll bar. In my case, clearly this can't be done because the roll bar is welded in. So we take some careful measurements using the top shoulder corner as a reference point.
I cut some of the body mount off, then it's time for a trial fitting to confirm that we are cutting in the right direction. This is going fairly straight forward but it's a tight fit and awkward to manouvre with just two of us. Then...
CRACK! Oh sh*t. I notice that the bodywork has just cracked, outwards, from the point where Westfield had cut away some of it where the hood frame mounts would normall be. I guess we had stressed it a little too far by trial fitting it before cutting more of the roll bar bit off.
Well the sensible thing to do now is to finish off cutting the roll bar mounts, and set about doing something with the damage. Fortunately, Tim has already been doing some work with fibre glass, so he is able to sort out a patch on the inside for me. Hopefully this will stop it from spreading and getting any worse. The outside should be able to made much less visible with some gelcoat, wet and dry sandpaper, polish, and plenty of elbow grease.
Another job which needs to be done before the main body can be fitted is to measure up where the hole for the exhaust manifold will need to be cut.
Tim and I spend an age trying to get the exhaust manifold fitted to the engine. It is very fiddly and is likely to be impossibly so once the bodywork is on! Eventually after much effort it is on enough to be able to take accurate enough measurements from.
I've taken up more than enough of Tim's time for today, so he is off. While the manifold is fitted I poke the exhaust onto the end to have a look at the clearance against the side of the chassis.
I also decide to have a go at removing the mount. This is normally fitted onto a bracket which is bolted onto the side of the bodywork. I am going to have a go at fabricating my own bracket which will use the proper captive nuts in the chassis. Fortunately the existing mount comes off completely cleanly, so making something new should be fairly straight forward and give a much cleaner and stronger result, which will also mean changing to a different exhaust will be easier without any damage to the bodywork.

30th June 2002
Time for the second attempt at getting the main body onto the car. The GRP patch which Tim expertly applied to the underside of the crack has gone off good and solid now - hopefully this will stop it from spreading any further. Unfortunately some of the resin has gone through the crack onto the surface, but it should be able to be cleared up ok.
First job is to clean up the patch to make sure it is not impedeing the fitting of the body at the top corner reference point we were using yesterday.
After that it's time for the next trial fit. Fortunately I've got two helpers today, Tim has had his invaluable arm twisted again, and I bumped into Craig earlier who it turns out lives just around the corner.
After a load more fiddling, and some extra cutting and dremelling around the roll bar (and a reasonable dose of worrying about making that crack worse), we get the main bodywork fitted. There's more been cut away around the roll bar than I had originally anticipated but it was the only way be could get it to fit without stressing it too much.
In order to properly align the main body section I need to fit up all the rest of the body panels (scuttle, bonnet, and nosecone). To allow the scuttle to be fitted easily for now I have to remove the upper steering column - the scuttle will need a hole cutting in it to allow the column to pass through the bottom front edge.
There's no getting out of having to modify the nosecone to fit around the front anti roll bar though. We won't be able to check the alignment of the front of the car without doing this. So I stick plenty of masking tape on it, take some careful measurements and sort it out with the dremel. They will fit more accurately once the nosecone is fixed finally.
Now we have all the body panels fitted, we align the main body section into the optimal position - this is made easier by fitting the headlights to check the gaps are symmetrical between light and nosecone.
Also to help ensure that the main body section is correctly positioned before fixing it down we re-attach the rear wheel arches. Also the manual suggests fitting the rear wheels to check the gap between wheel and arch is even on both sides of the car.
I have used nylon nuts and bolts to attach the rear arches, the theory being that if you hit something hard enough to remove a rear wing, that the bolts with break before they can cause damage to the main body part which they are attached to.
That's enough for today. It's really looking like a car now! Just before I the others depart and I spend some time cleaning up some of the dust and muck in the garage, I am persuaded that I should have my first sit in the car...

©2002-2009 David Hackett UDM4