Body final fix.....

So with two mates at the ready for bang on 10 am to help me lift the body into place I started to apply the adhesive to areas that are going to bond. This Wurth stuff is horrible and I would thoroughly recommend you don't get it on you as it will only come off when your skin sheds!

I applied the adhesive on the bare metal contact patches recommended in the manual, spread it out and then ran a final bead over the top. A couple of mates then helped me lift the body into position. It lined it self up perfectly with the drilled holes straight away so no adjustment necessary and I set about it with the riveter. I managed to get a decent air riveter from Ebay a couple of weeks ago for this job and I'm glad I did - doing this with a manual jobby would have taken ages!

After securing the cockpit and bolting down the scuttle hoop I placed the bonnet into position and the curvature of the body didn't need any adjustment to match so I riveted down the two inner wing areas and then attached the plates which I had previously made up.

200 rivets or so and 6 bolts later this body is not coming off again!

Body Final Fix Prep

When I had the body on last to drill the holes for final fixing i noticed that there was a gap of about 8mm between the rear crossbraces and the body. To get around this i made up some sandwich plates from 40x8mm aluminum flat bar. This was then wurthed and then riveted in place ready.

I also made up two bracing plates to attached the front wheel arches to the front horns. I'll admit to a bit of overkill here opting for some 4mm steel flatbar for this as it will be taking the most pressure in terms of the wind trying to lift the body from the chassis.

Tomorrows the day for final fix!

Oil Cooler & Boot Hinges

It would appear that Mr Huddart doesn't like Oil Coolers! In fact he went so far as to say he wouldn't warranty the engine if I used one as the oil never gets up to temperature and the oil bypasses the filter until it gets to 85 degrees. Fair one then!

As I dont want a gaping hole where the cooler should be i decided to fit one and then take Dave Brookes' advice and simply run the hose off one side, round the back of the rad and back onto the other side!

A quick sqiuzz on Ebay and a brand new 13 Row cooler came up and is mine for £25 - happy days...

As far as mounting it is concerned I didn't like the idea of simply bolting it straight onto the fibreglass in the mouth of the car so I have used a couple of lengths of alloy tubing (found this on an old light fitting!) and some threaded rod to give some support to the mounting flanges. A piece of steel flat bar will go under the body and the whole thing will bolt down onto this.....

Also fitted the first piece of brightwork, the boot hinges. Drilling holes into the bodywork and gelcoat is a nerve racking task! To get the holes aligned properly i fitted the boot lid rubber and then spent about 30 mins measuring from various points to get the absolute centre of the car. The build manual states the hinges should be 8 inches either side of the centre line so I ran a piece of string down the centre of the body and then double doble checked the measurements before sticking down some masking tape and taking the plunge. The hinges look great....sigh of relief!

It looks like the boot lid hasn't been stored correctly in the past so one side of the bottom lip is further into the boot aperture than the other. It isn't that obvious but I know its there and its annoying!

Im hoping that once i get the latching mech in it will pull it out otherwise im going to have to put a spacer in between the rubber and the bottom of the lid and hope that the force of the boot being closed will pull the distortion out.... This something that i have seen on other blogs so im not too worried.

Radiator 1

Spent a productive hour or so in the garage and have now mounted the radiator fan using 1 Inch steel angle iron which i've sprayed in silver engine paint. The Pacet fan comes with two types of mounting bracketry one of which I have decided is the best option. Dax recommend using cable ties that go through the rad and are fixed on the other side. Ive never liked this option and i've heard of issues with the plastic rubbing and causing problems with the rad matrix.

In the end I decided to use the posts sticking out of the top and bottom of the rad to mount it which leaves two threaded holes at the top and a couple of brackets on the bottom that I could use for the fan. Anyway pictures speak for themselves so to speak.....

The last couple of jobs needed - remove the blow off valve tube in the filler neck as this wont be used and thread the mounting posts. After unbolting the valve tube I ran an 8mm tap through the hole and bolted in a stainless dome head socket cap with some PTFE tape to seal it - job done. 

The posts are 9mm in diameter so I spent a while trying to find a supplier of some M9 nuts which are like the perverbial rocking horse &*@*! As it turns out the Citroen DS uses M9 nuts somewhere in its suspension so a call to a specialist had this sorted - £4 though! 

The use of a standard M9 die was employed and the nuts are on. The Rad is now complete and ready for mounting when I have got the body on.

 

Definitely need to improve my photography!

Body drilling

So this post brings the build blog up to current date. The body has been removed to get on with the fuel lines and brakes etc and then put back on with the aid of a couple of mates. I've now drilled the holes after spending about an hour making sure everything is absolutely square with plumb lines over the wheel arches. I then ran bolts through the seatbelt anchorage points to secure it before drilling through the scuttle hoop base in three places each side and lacing bolts through these holes too. 5mm holes for riveting - about 150 of them! were then drilled.

The body is now back off again and I've taken the paint off the chassis in the correct places ready for bonding with Wurth adhesive. 

So with the body now off for hopefully the final time I've fitted the pedal box and drilled the holes in the bulkhead required for the Servo and Master Cylinder. The pedal box itself is supposed to 'practically position itself' according to the build manual. This is true of the back plate only. After marking the right position for the clutch arm in the top of the footwell I set to with a Dremel and opened the hole out. All went well until I tried to actually fit the clutch pedal and discovered that you can't get the back plate in with the pedal attached and you can't get the bolt through to hold the pedal when the backplate is in place! After some head scratching and resisting the urge to set fire to the bloody thing I finally bit the bullet and drilled a hole through the side of the foot well to allow me to feed the bolt in from the engine bay. I've put a rubber bung into the hole for the time being but I'm going to put an aluminium plate over it eventually. So with the pedals in I then discover that the clutch fouls on the corner of the top part of the footwell - bugger! Took everything out again and placed a small bend in the pedal itself so that it clears. The pedals are now sorted but it has been an eye opener.

One of the things that is becoming apparent with this build is that it isn't a case of simply bolting parts together and hey presto you have a finished car. At virtually every step so far I've run into an issue that has to be worked around before the job in hand can be completed. Still it does lend itself to a greater sense of satisfaction when the job is done I spose!

Latest update from Mike.... cam bearings have been inserted the wrong way up, the oil journals feeding the big end bearings are blocked with swarf and nothing internally has been torqued to the correct value! Quote "you would have probably made it to the end of the village"! On top of this the skirts of the pistons have been butchered in an attempt to balance them, not that this would have made any difference as the likely hood is that a con rod or such like would have let go before this caused any problems. I'm glad I had this checked out!

Mike has sent over the details of cost implications and all things considered it is a no brainer at a couple of hundred quid difference to have the engine rebuilt properly as a 383 stroker rather than stay at 350ci. This should give somewhere around 400bhp+ given the performance goodies - too right it's a no brainer!!!

Whilst the engine has been out I've fitted the aluminum skin to the engine bay properly as it was just sitting in place and not attached. Rather than just bonding it in with Wurth as Dax suggest I've used Rivnuts (a rivet with a thread in it - who knew!) and domed socket head bolts. All things considered I'm happy with the look of this. The job was a pain as the lining doesn't fit particularly well especially the long thin bulkhead piece which was sitting proud of the bulkhead itself. In the end after much fetling and the application of the no. 1 tool it all looks like it should. I've also polished it to bring back the shine.

I now have some more room in the garage as my other car has gone to her new owner in France...

Built by my father in '98 (Blackjack Avion) she's was massive fun over the years. Fare well my beauty.....

Engine Time

So I removed one of the heads to see what's what with the 350 that came with the car. All looks brand new but to be on the safe side I have spoken with Mike Huddart (All time god of American V8's) and he is going to come and pick up the motor, strip it and make sure all is as should be. One other bonus is that I'll be able to get into the fuel and brake line runs properly and attach them correctly to the chassis.

Spoken with Ed @ Wards and ordered new bolts, nuts and caliper seals to replace some of the nasty ones left over from Mr Hammerite. He's also sent the correct nuts for the upper wishbone pivot shafts.

Decided to paint the calipers silver instead of the blue they came in. The receipts I have stated they're refurbed units but I've changed the seals anyway to be on the safe side. 

 Next order of the day is sorting the battery + cable, fuel line run and brake lines. I think these must have been done prior to the new IVA ruling as they are not well secured and completely the wrong spacing. Also the clips used are nasty so I ordered some stainless P clips and have set about it!

End result is a damn site better than before but has been a pain in the arse trying to bend round the gearbox and drill holes with a 4 inch clearance. I think this engine is going to have to come out.

Ive also checked the alignment and general geometry. Stupidly I didn't take any photos of this but I used this as a guide:

427 AK Geometry Setup

Chassis strip

Looking at the chassis and respective components it looks like the previous owner went mad with a tin of Hammerite! Everything is covered in the stuff. To keep the car and the build 'all mine' I decided to strip the lot and rebuild it all, firstly because I don't trust anyone else's handy work with a car that is going to be capable of the silly speeds this will be but also because I want to learn as I'm going along.

After stripping the front near side suspension etc I'm glad I made this decision as the two bushes in the lower wishbone are supposed to have a washer either side and there is only one on one side. This doesn't bode well.....

Same on the other side. After a couple of hours I've stripped them and taken off the horrible paint.

One thing I have noticed is that the nuts on the upper wishbone aren't the correct depth and ill need to replace them as they aren't shallow enough. Ye Olde IVA inspector will pick up on this as the requirement is a minimum of two threads showing. 

I think a phone call to Ed at Wards is in order.....

Safe at her new home!

So Eleanor is now safe and sound in the garage. It would appear that there is a mind blowing amount of research involved in this building stuff. To date I have done some work on cars in varying degrees and consider my self to have an average knowledge of mechanics etc. The rest I'm going to have to pick up as I go along. One thing I have discovered is not to rely on the build manual. I was given the original manual 2003 version with the car and it is different from the latest one I've subsequently purchased. These differences are in part down to the current IVA requirements but there are also some changes and omissions that mean further purchase from the manufacturer rather than being able to either fab something yourself or source elsewhere more cheaply.....

The body is now off and I have built a 'dolly' to house it until I can get some space in the garage. This should give enough support to the body to avoid distortion and allows me to put the other car underneath as well as my bike! Getting crowded in here...

With a little help I've managed to get the body up onto the dolly and it leaves me enough room to work for a little while.....

The Decision

So after much research, lots of discovery followed by further head scratching and then even more research I am now the owner of Eleanor! She came up on a well known auction site as a part built rolling chassis that the orignal owner had decided was now not what he wanted - apparently he preferred to tinker with classic cars..... Anyway his loss and my gain and I duly hired a trailer and went to pick her up...

Absolutely chuffed to bits! Also as part of the deal a vast array of parts had already been purchased for her. This is what came with the car:

Alloy engine bay
Chevy 350 Small block and Tremec 5 Speed Trans with most of the chrome bits i need and some tuning parts (all brand new!)- Edelbrock RPM package alloy heads, RPM camshaft and hydraulic
lifters, Edelbrock 600CFM Carb.
Front and rear bumpers with overriders,
All lights bar one indicator?
Windscreen and finishers
Doors, Bonnet and boot
Door hinges
Fuel tank
Pedal box
Hood bars and catches etc
Steering column and switches,
Dax side vents
Roll Hoops
And the list goes on!

I've decided to have a go at this blogging malarkey on the basis that their are only a few out there but they have really helped my build so far so I want to add someone to the knowledge base - little as that may be! On the basis of simplicity I'm going to keep it to minimal explanation as I'm sure if you're reading this you're probably in the process of looking to build a beast yourself and will already have some idea. Also I'm doing the first few posts retrospectively so will let you know when the timings are current as it were. Thanks for reading!