Saturday 31 December 2016

It's a cover up

Decided to make a start on the bonnet. Not a huge amount to do - hole cutout for the exhaust and bonnet catches really.

Made a template for the exhaust cutout:


Transferred to the bonnet:


Bit of work with a saw and file and all done:




Trial fit looks good:


That's it for this year - have a great New Year,  folks!

Wednesday 28 December 2016

Satan's Elves

Yeah, while everyone else was getting visited by the big, red fat man from the cold, Northern place, I was visited by the big, red man from the hot south and his thieving minions...

Tried to fit in a garage session between various families and friends but the elves have stolen everything - I was sure I had another tube of black gunk but I couldn't find it and I also thought I had some tadpole trim left for the rear wheel arches but no...gone. Very annoying...

Spent some time getting the final cabin panel (passenger side tunnel panel) right - cut-outs for rivnuts and holes drilled for the other end of the speed sensor holder I made many months ago. I also briefly tried to engrave the VIN number in the chassis rail but the stencil I've got is useless - still not sure how to get this done.

All this took a surprisingly long time (2 hours), although 20 minutes was spent searching for stuff.

I've ordered the 'missing' items and also a few other details I'm starting to find I need now; trim for the bonnet edge, rubber trim for the chassis rails that the bonnet will sit on, bonnet catches and pedal grip tape.

Monday 19 December 2016

Ahead by a nose

Time to fit the nose cone grille. Strangely,  no one seems to have used the cheap and nasty grille that GBS sell so I was on my own in terms of deciding how to fit it.

The grille has 4 locating pins/pegs (just the ends bent at 90 degrees) so I marked the locations and drilled small holes. I had to make them a bit bigger with a file to get the grille to fit but once in,  it was quite firmly in place:


However,  I couldn't just leave it held in place like that obviously and I had a,  hopefully,  good idea. I drilled 4 small holes on each side,  fitted a cable tie through,  round the grille and back through the hole,  with a small washer for extra strength:






Nice and firm and almost invisible from the front - I'm quite proud of myself.

The grille gaps are a bit large and aren't  going to stop small stones but it will help cooling as it won't restrict air flow,  so swings and roundabouts - I'll have to consider changing it at some point in the future.

Also tonight,  fitted plugs on the front indicators and swapped the wires on the fan - I had it sucking hot air out of the engine bay through the radiator which isn't going to help :-)

A Dremel engraving bit also arrived and I tried engraving on a scrap bit of metal using a plastic stencil.  Not great results but the scrap metal piece is pretty rough,  so hopefully it will work better on the smooth chassis rail. First,  I've put a coat of Hammerite on the rail and I'll try the engraving next time.

Thursday 15 December 2016

Christmas lights

My temporary phone is a tad old,  so excuse the photo quality but here is the VIN plate I did last night:


The electrical connectors arrived for the rear lights so a quick session to finish them off.  I've put loom tape round the wires,  then a rubber sheath and then the armour you can see in the picture below. Possibly overkill but I can imagine this is a very harsh environment for a cable. I also P-clipped it to one of the bolts:


Result looks pretty good (arches just resting on the tyres so will be higher) :


Wednesday 14 December 2016

Stamping around

I guess couriers are kinda busy right now but my electrical connectors still haven't arrived.

What has arrived is a stamping kit to do the VIN number stamping. I could spend £30 and get GBS to do me a professional looking plate but seemed a simple enough thing to do myself.

Now,  my reading of the IVA manual says you only need 2 items on the plate; car manufacturer and the VIN number itself. GBS also add the axle weights but that is not required and how is that of any use or interest to anyone?

It just so happens that I need to cover the hole in the pedal box cover (normally to allow the Sierra brake fluid reservoir,  which I don't have,  to sit above the master brake cylinder) and that hole is VIN plate shaped.

So,  cut a plate out of ally and stamped 'GBS LTD' and the VIN number underneath. I'm afraid I've lost my phone so no photos at the moment but,  to be honest,  it does look pretty rubbish,  like it was done by a drunk ape. The saving grace was my genius idea of spraying black paint over the stamping and then wiping the wet paint off the surface,  leaving the black paint in the stamped characters - they show up nicely (if crookedly).

I also tried to stamp the chassis in the allocated space that GBS left in the O/S side panel,  on the top chassis rail but that didn't work - my stamp didn't do a neat letter in the powder coat. I tried sanding off the powder coat but then the stamp hardly made an impression in the steel rail, despite a decent hammering. I'll have to think about it...

Sunday 11 December 2016

The summit is visible

As I approach the end of this journey (deep,  huh?),  I'm slowed down more and more by little bits I haven't got; this week,  it's plastic electrical connectors to connect the rear lights to the loom.

I've made a list of what's left to be done before my first IVA fail :-)  - a mere 19 items. The most difficult is going to be the steering column shroud; as I'm not using column stalks,  the basic Sierra shroud is no use (well,  not quite true - if push comes to shove,  I could maybe get one and just re-cover it). I've got a sheet of ally ready to... er... make some sculptural magic.

Basically, front and rear wheel arches,  nose cone grill and indicator wiring,  speedo sensor setup, carpets,  seats,  seatbelts, boot panels and mirrors. I could probably get it done in a week if I had any holiday left from work...

But then there will be the inevitable missing bolts at some point.

Tuesday 6 December 2016

It's all Greek to me

With the recent ice age hitting us,  it's just been too cold to go out until tonight. Brief hour drilling holes in the rear wheel arches for the lights. I was planning to fit them as well but guess what?  Go on,  guess. Yup,  no #%&%£* bolts of the right size! On order...

Spent most of the last week thinking about probably the trickiest part of IVA - emissions. I have my engine idling pretty well but it's unlikely to be producing the right CO and HC levels to pass IVA.

There are 3 routes to go to try get the right figures:

1. Hope you (or an expensive specialist tuner) can tweak the ECU map.
2. Fit a narrowband lambda sensor (about £40) in the exhaust and then fiddle with the map (but less fiddling needed than option 1).
3. Fit a wideband lambda sensor (about £200) which will help with emissions AND will also help setting up a power map to optimise engine power.

I'm not bothered with power (yet) so option 3 is out. I've been advised to do option 2 but Richard L did this and still failed IVA.

So,  my cunning plan (!) is to take the car to an MOT garage (when it's pretty much finished),  hook up to their gas analyser and try tweak the map to get the right emissions myself. I've emailed Emerald and they've sent me a cheat sheet on what to adjust in the map,  so I'll give it a go. If it doesn't work,  I will only lose the cost of an MOT and then I'll consider other options.

The easiest route is to take the car to GBS for IVA. They charge a minimum of 6 hours labour but could be much more if there are lots of failures. I reckon I could fail IVA at least twice (retest is £95 a throw,  I believe?) for that much.

And apart from the cost,  I do feel it's a bit of a cheat getting GBS to do it. I've done the build,  I should stand or fall by my own hand,  if that isn't too pompous.

We shall see...