| In this section, I am only covering tasks and operations that gave me problems and I am describing how I tackled them. I hope this may be of help and interest to fellow builders. If there are any points needing clarification please feel free to email me. Most of the parts had been stored in our stables and were liberally covered with Swallow droppings. Brand new Wilwood discs badly corroded , all very depressing. I spent some time cleaning and ......." It's probably useful to keep in the bit about only covering jobs that might cause people problems. |
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The Build
Surprisingly after a brief session on the lathe, the discs looked half reasonable. I started to think about panelling the transmission tunnel and then it occurred to me that it would be best to first trial fit all the mechanical bits, not the least, engine and box. Any alterations or hole drilling etc would be so much easier with full access. Lucky I did because the first problem was that the aluminium bellhousing fouled the footwell on both sides. The first thought was to enlarge the holes in the chassis for the engine mounts to allow the engine to move forward. This would not have been a great solution for the following reasons; one the mounting holes are very close to the apex of a V made by two chassis tubes and any further forward and the nuts would not turn and two, a large sloppy hole is really undesirable. I decided to make up a pair of stepped blocks.
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These moved the engine forward by 13mm, sufficient to give clearance. The mounting rubbers that I had intended using were 50mm thick but I was able to buy 35mm thick ones so the offset blocks would not raise the engine any higher!
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The diff.
This is an IRS chassis and we have a limited slip diff from a Sierra 4 x 4 with a ratio of 3.62:1. Sadly, only two out of the three mounts lined up no matter how I jacked and pushed and pulled. Out with the hacksaw again. The top mounting brackets were cut off, new ones made and TIG welded on. Again, such a shame on a powder coated chassis. I used a product called Cold Front which is a paste that acts as a heat sink and it really does work. Damage to the paint was minimal. Honest.Having fitted the diff, the rear suspension, hubs and brakes were assembled without problem. |
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Handbrake
I purchased a Sierra handbrake cable which is actually one piece with a captive yoke that attaches to the handbrake. This cable became a two piece model when cut! The ends were attached to the Sierra calipers and passed through the fittings on the chassis. Inners and outers were cut to length.
I had a couple of long M6 bolts that I drilled down the centre with a 3mm hole and I then inserted the inners and silver soldered them. I machined brass adjusting nuts from ½” hex bar and milled a ½” radius in the ends as picture. I then machined a stainless steel compensator rod.
A short cable is needed to go from the handbrake lever to the compensator. I made a stainless steel clevis and drilled another long M6 stainless bolt as with the other cables. These ends were then silver soldered onto the cable. I am hoping that the handbrake will be effective once the hydraulics are connected up and the pistons adjusted up. At the moment, being brutally honest, the handbrake is useless! |
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Steering
This caused more grief. The manual says “Bolt the aluminium yoke fitted to the Sierra steering column to the bracket on the chassis. This was not possible due to the design of the bracket. The transverse flat fouled the column. After much deliberation and even more consternation, out with the hacksaw. I removed the offending part of the bracket and replaced it with a curved piece made from mild steel. This seemed to do the job without any weakening of the mount. Has anyone else had this problem? A deformable mount using 4mm aluminium sheet and the Sierra bush took care of the lower location of the column. The rack bolted up easily and that left the gap between the triangular end of the column and the splined input shaft of the rack. The Mk 1 Sierra steering extension has a round rod terminating in a fabric coupling.
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This coupling needs to be removed. I purchased a splined rod from DJ Sportscars and a universal joint that mated with the splined rod and the Escort steering rack from Rally Design. The rod was cut to length and joined to the Sierra steering extension using a sleeve. I TIG welded it together but being a belt and braces man threw in a couple of roll pins for good measure! |
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Pedals
The brake and clutch pedals came with the kit but out man in Sylva must have been having an off day when he made these. The manual says they are ready to fit but not ours. True, they had the holes for the pivot bar but that was all. They both terminated in plain tube and the brake pedal had the wrong crank so it collided with the clutch pedal. I used a pivot bar, spacers and retaining clips from a Cortina. I also had a MK11 Escort plastic insert for the clutch cable which I fitted into the clutch pedal. On the braking front, we are using a bias system with two master cylinders.
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| The bias bar was purchased from Rally Design. The outer bush is welded to the brake pedal. I have absolutely no experience with setting up such a system and will be pleased with any advice you can give. I am using remote reservoirs which were also purchased from Rally Design. The accelerator pedal was not included in the kit so this was fabricated using the Cortina unit as a basis |
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Plumbing
With a fuel injection system there are a lot of pipes in the engine bay, both brakes and fuel. It is important to me to achieve pipework that looks good; sharp bends and straight runs. To this end, I fabricated an aluminium tray that I riveted to the round chassis tube as in the photograph. This will accommodate not only all the pipes but the wiring loom as well. I did a similar thing in the transmission tunnel. The tray idea is not only tidy but it is also a very easy way to manage the pipes and cable. While on the subject of brakes, Rally Design supply Euroquip stainless steel flexible lines that you can make up yourself using their demountable fittings. They really are excellent and very easy to put together.
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Propshaft
Amazingly, the propshaft from the CJB was just an inch too long. This had originally been made from a two piece prop. The rear portion was cut to length and the front UJ removed from the front shaft. This is quite straightforward as the joint is on a short spigot that is pushed into the tube before welding. Once removed, the weld may be turned back on the lathe to produce a sharp shoulder. One point here is to make sure the front and rear joints line up with each other. I shortened the shaft and re-welded. I have done a number of propshafts in this way and none has needed balancing (yet!).
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Panelling
The first thing I noticed was how tight the reversing light switch was to the side of the transmission tunnel. This is because the engine is offset and comes back at an angle. The offside tunnel side would need a bulge if I was to fit the connector for the reversing light switch. An inspection cover would also be useful for access to the speedometer able. I cut out the tunnel side and marked where the removable cover and the bulge needed to be. A rectangular hole was cut and a step joddled. I used a swaging machine with appropriate tooling but there are a number of hand joddlers available. The bulge was made using a hammerform.
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This is carried out in the following way. Using a suitable piece of wood, cut out the desired shape of the bulge. This is placed underneath the aluminium being careful to make sure it lines up exactly with the markings on the aluminium. A second piece of wood with a similar but larger all round hole say about 10mm is placed on top, the aluminium being sandwiched. It is important to clamp the assembly very tightly. Use a suitable metal dolly ideally, having similar radii to the desired bulge, to form the shape. Metal responds to a lot of lightish blows rather than a few really heavy ones. What you are trying to do is to stretch the metal. It can be quite satisfying and look very professional. This technique is very useful and can be used for many different jobs. If you anneal the aluminium first it will make it much easier to form. |
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| I couldn’t face hand setting all the hundreds of rivets that were going to be needed for the panelling so I invested in a pneumatic riveter and I must say how good it is. 350 rivets set in an afternoon was no problem at all! I used 4mm countersunk aluminium rivets which not only look good but being flush will not clash with anything you want to put over the top. My tunnel cover is folded as shown and will be fastened using 3 M4 screws on each side. This avoids a cut edge and the need for beading if the cover is screwed in to the top of the tunnel (which would be unavoidable if countersunk rivets were not used) Before fitting any panels, it is necessary to cut them all out first and drill the holes for the rivets. This allows full access for drilling. I have been following Craig’s Phoenix build (http://craigsphoenix.se7ens.net/rss.xml) and found a wealth of very useful information and tips from him. For marking holes where the rivets go through the aluminium into round tube have a look at his magnet method for finding the diameter of the tube. An absolute stonking idea and so simple. Don’t forget the access holes in the panels for suspension, seat belts and differential. I used a hole saw slightly larger in diameter than the socket spanner that would be needed to do up the bolts. I marked the centres by inserting a scriber through the holes in the clevises. This works particularly well for the rear bulkhead that is angled with respect to the suspension bolts. I allowed room on the vertically angled chassis tubes to panel in the boot opening as a firewall which would be required for racing. |
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If possible, I wanted to build in boot space and having offered up the Caterham tank from the Special, it looked as though this would be possible. The filler neck is right over on the offside and so will be clear of the bootspace. My philosophy in life in general and cars in particular is to make everything demountable for easy access and maintenance. With this in view I wanted to avoid bonding the body to the chassis. Craig has done the same with his car and I thoroughly approve of his approach. I wanted to make what I would call a boot liner that would do a number of things including hold up the petrol tank and provide a solid surface to bolt up to the rear bodywork. I went ahead and made the tray from 16swg NS4 aluminium and TIG welded an upstand that the body would be bolted to in the number plate area. |
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| For the jolly down to Le Mans, I would like gearing that will give about 20mph/1000 revs. This should make for a relaxed gait. The following website contains a lot of good information on tyre sizes. http://www.maserati-rc.org/techtips/Techtip045.htm. To calculate mph/1000 revs you can use the following formula: |
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I happened to have a set of 15” 205 GTI alloys fitted with 185 55 15 tyres that should give the gearing I need. It must be said that these wheels are not suitable for anything other than touring. All wheels are supposed to locate on a register(shoulder) on the hub. The Ford register is smaller in diameter than the Peugeot and this means that the wheels are centred just by the wheels studs. This can cause eccentricity. A trial fit of body and sidepods showed that on full bump (jack up rear suspension without coil springs fitted) the tyres would foul the wheel arches. By raising the body by 30mm they cleared, just! By cutting off the floor extensions (onto which the sidepods are attached) and using 30 x 30 x 3mm aluminium anglethe whole lot can be raised by this amount. I hoped that by doing this, the Cossie cam cover would not clash with the bonnet( this was not to be) and of course, the aero screen would be that little bit higher. |
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Running a straight edge along the vertical face of the scuttle showed that the fibreglass was extremely wavy and this would cause the aluminium bulkhead to buckle when screwed to it. I fabricated an aluminium square tube stiffener and attached this to the inside of the scuttle using M4 rivnuts and countersunk s/s screws. This did the job but it is surprising how stiff and unyielding the fibreglass is and it still bulged slightly between the fixings. I discarded the 20 x 30 x 3mm extruded aluminium angle supplied with the kit and replaced them with 30 x 30 x 3mm. Propping the rear body tub in the position where the rear wheels cleared the wheel arches under all suspension conditions I was able to mark the position of the top piece of angle/sidepod mounting. |
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This was clamped in position and holes drilled through into the brackets on the chassis. Rivnuts were inserted into the aluminium so that it could be removed by undoing the screws from inside the car. By sheer chance and good fortune, the vertical side of the lower angle finished flush with the bottom chassis rail. In this case rivnuts were placed in the lower chassis rail. Having established that the body was in the right place, it was screwed at the front to the aluminium bulkhead and at the rear, to the back of the boot tray. I used rubber beading between the scuttle and bulkhead to give a nice finish. With the aluminium angle is position, the sidepods were offered up and trimmed where necessary to give the best fit. I riveted the sidepods to the angle using peel back rivets. These are specially designed for use on plastics and are quite amazing. |
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I purchased them from Primary Fasteners who not only supply rivnuts and many other fasteners but they offer a wealth of technical information and next day delivery. Highly recommended! I now have a removable body and removable sidepods. Rivnuts were used to fasten the body to the sidepods. I wondered if they would grip sufficiently and on the offside, I fitted the rivnuts to a piece of shaped aluminium sheet rather than into the fibreglass. I thought this would be better for the fibreglass and reduce its stress. I have to say that it was fiddly to shape the aluminium being so close to the irregular inside of the sidepod that I didn’t do it on the nearside. The rivnuts went straight into the fibreglass. Time will tell if this was a mistake. |
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Petrol Tank
I wanted to use the Caterham tank from the special in the interests of cost saving and the fact that it would allow me to use the boot liner and enjoy the advantages of dry storage. The tank needed to fit as closely as possible to the underside of the bootliner but a small gap was necessary to give the fuel sender clearance. Two pieces of aluminium square tube took care of this. I used stainless steel straps, 32mm wide to support the tank and at the back these screwed onto the rear chassis transverse rail. Woolies supply a tremendous range of rubber mouldings and they have one especially for petrol tank straps. Predictably, when lowered into position, the rear valance of the body fouled the tank.I cut |
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| a piece out and added an aluminium piece with upstand to retain stiffness. The fuel injection pump is gravity fed and therefore needs to be no higher than the base of the tankSpace is very limited but by making up a plate onto which I mounted the pump and filter I was able to bolt this up to the underside of the chassis. This is the bit between the lower suspension pick up points. When in position, everything cleared but only just! Predictably, when re-fitted the valance under the rear body fouled the tank. I trimmed sufficient to give clearance and folder a piece of 16swg pure aluminium. Using a stretcher, I curved the ends and riveted it on. This gave back the stiffness to the valance. |
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Having fitted the body and sidepods it was then time to offer up the bonnet. Sadly, over the years in storage it had badly distorted. The sides were splayed out and the top had sagged. Worse than that, it fouled the cam cover big time. All was going too well!
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| The car is off to have an exhaust system made up so I shall have a chance to recharge my batteries before getting it back and attacking the bonnet. My email address should you wish to contact me is jkbonnett@tiscali.co.uk |
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