Manifoldly exhausting

I worked out that,  with postage,  it would cost over £40 to send the air inlet manifold off to GBS to be filed flat, which seemed a bit much for something I should be able to do myself, so of I went.

I started off with the best intentions - I would start with my big file,  get down to a couple of mm and then use wet and dry or emery paper or something,  to get a nice smooth finish. I made a mask out of cardboard to prevent the file scraping bits it shouldn't :

... then paper as I got lower:

Got down to a few mm and started with emery paper and then it went a bit pear-shaped. After 10 minutes of paper,  I didn't seem to have taken off anything - 5 minutes more and my patience had run out. Out came the big file again and,  very carefully,  the last few mm were done:

Despite my resorting to brute force,  this still took me about 3 hours! And I still haven't done the final fine sanding down. 

Sump tomorrow,  hopefully... 

Stand back - master craftsman at work

OK,  'master' may be pushing it but I have made (drum roll please) - A BRACKET! From a flat piece of metal,  I have fashioned a piece of art (almost).

Can you tell I'm proud?

OK,  so I needed a bracket for the speed sensor.  GBS do one for £13 but,  hey,  why buy one when...? So,  from my sheet of ally I bought before,  magic!

         

                        

Lurverly....

I've riveted it to the drivers side tunnel and roughly fitted the speed sensor after putting a single bolt into the propshaft for reference:

                    


 I had a bit of a panic with the propshaft -  I was told the end with 8 holes connected to the diff but that has a larger flange than the other end and it is too big to fit through the chassis rails:

I've turned it round and I'll just have to confirm with GBS that it's OK.  There's no way it's going in the other way unless I can trim a few mm of the flange which is probably not a great thing.

Also trimmed and fitted the gearbox mount:

I've also managed to borrow an engine crane from Jon on the RHOCAR forum - many thanks Jon and to the 3 others who so kindly offered their cranes. Didn't realise the darn thing was so big:

Finally,  I cut the original air inlet manifold to free up the bit I need to keep and re-use. I was planning on smoothing it down myself but I think GBS can do it for £20 or so and they'll do a much better job,  so I might send it off to them.

Badly need to get the engine in - almost nothing else I can do until then. Now that I've got the crane,  I can make a start on the sump. The only problem is finding the space to get the engine on the crane - my driveway is gravel so the crane won't roll on it.

POWER!!

In best Top Gear fashion,  we have power:

This is how it arrived and the delivery driver couldn't get the pallet up my gravel drive - it took me 10 minutes and some straps to drag it this far. A bit more heaving and it was dragged onto my GBS mOne:

As it was still early,  thought I might as well take some bits off the engine.  Being new(ish),  there  are no seized or rusted bolts so it's very quick. Took off the exhaust manifold on one side and the air inlet manifold and fuel rail on the other side:

... which left the engine looking much smaller:

... and me with a pile of parts:

Felt like Xmas today - as well as the engine, the sump,  alternator kit,  starter motor, plenum, gear quickshift and a few other odds and ends all arrived - darn exciting!

I haven't ordered a water rail - I'm hoping to save some cash and not get one. However,  I don't know exactly what's involved in using the standard cooling system,  so I'll probably end up getting it - we'll see. 

New GBS model

Just finished the latest GBS kit car,  the GBS mOne (minus one,  geddit? ) :

                      

Not sure if it will get through IVA with those edges :-)

OK,  it's a dolly for the engine which should be being delivered tomorrow. Nicked the idea off Richard L and seems a great idea.

Very little else done - trimmed the accelerator pedal to fit in the pedal box and fitted the number plate light:

After  tomorrow,  I will have a load of work to do - engine,  sump,  alternator and several other bits arriving in one go.

Bit annoyed about the gearbox - a few months ago,  I'm sure I saw it for sale for about £500. Contacted the same company and it's now £800,  the same as GBS. I was hoping to save some money there - darn. So that's on order but might take up to 3 weeks.

In my previous post,  I had forgotten to include the windscreen and wet weather gear in my spreadsheet,  so that's added a £1k to my forecasted cost - doh!

Power up

As it's such a big decision,  I'm devoting a post to engine choice (lucky you,  hey?).

Not which engine but where to get it from. You can buy any number of knackered old Zetec's with 100k+ miles on them for £150 or so. But my engineering skills are not up to engine stripping to make sure bores are smooth and big ends aren't on the way out,  so a 'new' Zetec is what I want.

I say 'new' but it's actually about 10 years old - Ford built too many and they have a warehouse of them sitting there,  to which several companies have access. So they're not exactly new but they haven't been used,  so it's close enough.

I've spent ages searching for someone selling these a bit cheaper than GBS but it's like a cartel - they all seem to have agreed the same price. GBS are currently offering free delivery on their engine,  so I will have to just pay the money and move on. There is a seller on eBay at the moment offering a new one that he bought but never got round to using. It's on for £100 less than GBS but the guy inconsiderately lives in deepest Cornwall - it will cost me £100 in petrol to go get it. Maybe a sneaky low offer might work?

There are several other major bits needed for the engine - I'm hoping GBS will deliver them for free with the engine...

The gearbox is another major item - I think I'll be getting that from a company called FirstMotion,  as they were recommended by another builder and I recall their MT75 being  good deal cheaper than GBS. I'll call them on Monday.

Finally today is the raised sump. GBS only offer the Raceline sump at £500 or so. There are a couple of other companies who do them a bit less than that but best of all is Tiger racing. They offer a sump for £275 which is a tasty saving. They do advise that it is not recommended for regular track use but that's fine for me - I hope to do the odd track day but that's all.  So I've ordered that today...

Once I buy the engine,  I'll have broken the £10k barrier on my build so far. My spreadsheet is currently forecasting a £14k total spend but there are still a few bits not on there yet - hopefully no more than £15k by the time I'm done.

Shrouded in mystery

Time to gunk the tadpole trim onto the rear shroud. It's called this because in profile,  it has a round head and long tail,  like a tadpole. It occurred to me it could have an alternative name but I'll leave that to your imagination...

This was a horribly difficult and messy job and I'm afraid I haven't done a great job of it - gunk overspill and I've not made a good job of the corners. Hopefully,  I can improve it once it's riveted on - this is it clamped and drying:

I can't fit it until the small trim for the other edge arrives and I put that on - hope that's easier to do.

I also drilled the holes for the interior side panels:

You may notice that I'm not doing much and the fact is that I've got to the point where I need Milestone no. 2 -  the engine!

I tried to trial-fit a side panel but I can't because the trestles holding the chassis up are in the way. So I need to go down to axle stands or wheels,  which means I might as well do the engine.  I say,  'do the engine' like it's a 1 hour job - I haven't even bought it yet! Or the gearbox.

So,  the shopping starts here....

Milestone no. 1

It occurred to me that there was no reason not to rivet the rear panel on - the shroud can be done afterwards,  as can the fuel filler cap. All the wiring around the diff is now done... so crack on,  a little devil on my shoulder said.

Did a few trial runs because it's a bit fiddly to get the wires for the fog and reversing lights through the panel while trying to balance it on a raised knee at the same time (I tried to get my son involved but no joy). Lucky I did as the hole wasn't quite big enough to get the spade terminals through - I widened them with a larger drill bit.

Next was the gunk -  amazingly,  the tube I last used for the tunnel panels was still flowing.  From experience,  it's very difficult to put gunk on the bottom edge of chassis rails so I decided to put it on the inside of the panel - almost arty:

Then on the other rails and off I went. Lots of swearing as I tried to balance the panel and get the wiring through the holes,  without smearing off too much of the gunk. But eventually,  it was done and then just lots of riveting... I do like rivets - the panel feels so solid and a line of rivets looks great,  I think. 

A major milestone (and frees up loads of space in my garage) and a great feeling of achievement.