Day 12 – 29/1/11 Modified parts continued...

The plans for today were to get the prop shaft out, bonnet off, remove the brake callipers and dismantle the front suspension ready to lower the engine. All of which we didn’t quite manage. 

Kim turned up as I had just started to work on the prop shaft and I put her on removing the brakes.  The temperature wasn’t freezing anymore and had warmed up by a few degrees but it was still cold if you didn’t keep working.  I was flat on my back under the car using make do extensions on 12 and 17mm spanners to release the 5 nuts holding the prop shaft in position (four at the rear diff end and one at the mid shaft support).  It took over half an hour to get the nuts free and frustrating as every time I got the torque on the spanner it would rotate the prop shaft.  I tried locking the rear wheels with some blocks of wood with some success but in the end Kim gave me a hand.

I went on to the brakes and steering with Kim.  The brakes came off easily enough with the right persuasion....a two foot extension on the allen key.  The steering rose joints both had split pins securing the nuts.  They were both rusted solid. Having tried to get the pin out in one piece on the first one and ending up tearing off both ends of the pin I didn’t bother trying and knocked off each end and released the joints with a tap from a hitting stick.

The anti-roll bar next.  The fixings came off easy enough with a combination of spanner and allen key.  Then for a bit of a break it was on to removing the bonnet which we did but not without shearing the bolts off on one side. Break over, and on to the flexible brake pipes and the ABS sensor cable fixings.  I managed to free the abs sensors and one of the flexible brake pipes but the light was against us again and we packed up for the day.  Just before finishing I tried to loosen the nuts on the strut but I think I will need a bigger spanner for those.


Tech Tip: This is a like a P.S. on the post in retrospect to highlight where I basically screw up.  On this occasion my knowledge of prop shafts. An email from Graham this morning indicated that he needs both sections of prop shaft so that the modified shaft can be rebalanced after shortening.  Also how the rotational angle of how the two sections of the shaft come together will also affect the balance.  So if you have to split the shafts to remove them first make a couple of alignment marks  on the shaft and centre support.  This will make it easier for the lads down in exeter and easier for you when you put it together.

Day 12 – 29/1/11 Trestles and Parts to be modified

Freezing this morning so a late start, -4deg C, cold enough to freeze the car cover to the car and create ice in my can of drink.  So I had to wait for the sun to defrost the cover.  To start with I finished constructing the trestles and boxed up some of the more recent parts I had removed from the donor car. The pic below shows my build area with the trestles.

With everything squared away I went to work on getting the pieces that need modifying.  There are four pieces that require modifying.  The rear prop shaft needs to be shortened.  The steering knuckle requires extending as do the Gear box linkages.  Basically the rear axle assembly is moved to shorten the wheelbase and the driving position is moved back.  This is done by sending the parts to MSC who get them modified and send them back to you.  According to Graham the turnaround should be about a week.  I want to get the parts out and sent overnight to Graham and all being well he will have them back to bring up with the Kit on the 8^th Feb.

First the steering knuckle not a problem. First I took the exhaust downpipe off then loosened the lower steering shaft fixing.  I managed to loosen the knuckle but had to remove the fastening bolt before I was able to slip it off shaft.  Next it was on to the gearbox linkages.  I had looked at this last weekend but couldn’t see how to get at the fixings. The ball joint rod is the lower and appears to fasten to the gearbox by a plate with a welded shaft.  I tried to remove the plate from the gearbox but access to the nuts was difficult.  For the first time I found I was frustrated.  From Graham’s email I got the impression it was a simple procedure but at this rate I was going to have to remove the sub-frame holding the gearbox to the body.

I kept looking and the more I looked the more frustrated I became.  I kept going over in my head “this should be easy”.  Then I noticed the nut on the side of the shaft.  I removed the nut and tugged on the shaft and the on the side of the shaft plate fell to the floor. It was that simple. Two more bolts on the other end and the ball joint shaft comes free, finally.

 The gear selector shaft was one nut and bolt away. It took a while to finally get the nut off but eventually it was free.  I came out from under the car. Where’d the day light go? It was half past five -  Time to pack up for the day.

Day 11 and 12 22-23/1/11

Graham called me yesterday he posted a couple of photos on face book of my tub which has arrived at the workshop. Yippee I can't wait to get my hands on it.

This morning I tided up the garage in preparation of the tub arriving and finish building the trestles.  I then popped to B&Q getting remaining hardware for the trestles (coach bolts etc.) and a couple of grinding disks.  I needed to mount one of my bikes on the wall out of the way to give me more space.  I sorted the various paraphernalia around the garage to create more space for the build then it was on to cutting the wood into the final pieces for the trestles.  I fixed the coach bolts into the initial pieces ready to assemble.  With the garage squared away as best possible I went back to working on the car.

First job is to get the pedals out.  Both the clutch and the Brake pedals are fixed through the bulkhead to the master cylinders. I began by bleeding the clutch fluid by taking the slave cylinder end of the pipe and putting it in a bottle and pumping the pedal.  The scary part was when I touched the pedal and it sprang back to the firewall with a bang.  I thought I'd bust something but it turned out to be the spring assist on the pedal.

There is an arrangement of pipes which I suspect was part of the bleeding system.  I was able to remove the whole assembly in one piece.  Then I removed the flexible brake pipes from each of the brake calipers putting each into an old washing up liquid bottle and pumped the brake system empty of fluid.  After removing the brake and accelerator pedals the master cylinder was free but could not be removed as the turbo heat shield was fouling, but easily sorted. I looked around the cabin of the car to see what else is left besides the fuel tank.  All that I can see was the gearbox gasket.  The last piece to came out with the aid of a screwdriver.

With the cabin now clear I put the remains of the interior back in the car.  It was alot easier to chuck it back in than it was to take out.

I then went under the car to have another look at what was next.  I removed the exhaust heat shield.  I looked over the propshaft, 5 bolts and the rear section should drop free. A dozen more bolts and the guards and mid support bearing will be free too.  And the is where we hit a problem.  These bolts haven’t been touched to 12 years (probably) and my 8 inch 3/8” ratchet is not up to the job of shifting them.  Time to call on the dad’s workshop and my neighbour Carl.  I borrowed a ½ inch extending arm from Carl so I have got some leverage and borrowed my Dad’s ½ inch socket set that I bought him for Christmas some 20 years ago – I knew it would come in use at some point. Right after I pick it up off the floor- I picked the socket set case up by the handle and the lid dropped open spilling everything over the floor.  We still haven't found 3 of the sockets.

Day 10 - 18/1/11

Only a short day today, I was called into work last night on a break down and it was a 2 am finish.  Normally that would warrant a lie in but as the phone started ringing at 7:15am I gave up on any peace and after fixing the guttering on the house I made a start on the trestles.

I was a bit concerned about the height.  Graham had said 600mm and the one thing he pointed out was he’d never built a Murtaya at home before so he wasn’t sure what problems I might encounter from a home build.  Now he tells me.


There are two concerns. Firstly, for this project, despite having assistance from friends, I must take into account hours working on my own.  So the trestles need not only to be strong enough to take the weight but also the fact I will be swinging on my ratchet spanner assembling the transmission as well as drilling etc under the car and whilst it is a lot lighter than an Impreza it is still gonna smart if it falls on me with no one else around.  So I have spent a little extra to make a heavier timber frame fixed with M12 stud bar and plate washers that will be strong enough.  If it works I figure I can have a word with Graham and pass it on to a fellow Murtaya home builder in the future.

I cut the height of the posts at 750mm and made a mock up of what it would look like and figure it would be too high so after some debate with myself I decided as long as I could handle an electric drill or grinder vertically upright and still have reasonable control that would be the right height.  After a bit of experimentation I settled on 650mm.

Day 8 and 9 - 15-16/1/11

Last night I took a chisel to the radiator fan mounts and found the rust was thicker than the metal. So it was out with the rotary wire brush and drill. 2 hours later and there is now a fine layer of rust covering the whole garage, my hair and clothes.  There are two small holes in one of the fan brackets but the rest looks okay.  I’ll finish them with a coat of engine black after a bit of fine sanding next week.

The weekend is all about making progress on the car.  Graham rang me last night asking for a delivery date for the monocoque and first module parts.  We agreed on the Tuesday 8^th February and I will have to get a few extra hands to help, trestles built and garage cleared on the day.  Oh and there’s the little issue of the outstanding payment. 

Graham mentioned about changing the intercooler to a front mount which was something I was intending to do but cash is a little shorter than I would have liked at the moment so I’m thinking about it as this will be another £ 800+ notes on the project.  Having said that it does look very nice.

I still have some unknown costs such as the shot blasting, paint job, powder coating etc.  The other thought was to a baffled sump. 

Baffled Sump explanation:

The problem: Your average oil sump is like a big bowl collecting the oil from the engine.  A suction head (receiver) from the oil pump is usually in the middle of the sump (Normally at the lowest point toward the rear of the sump).  During normal driving (no hard cornering or G forces) everything works fine but when the car is driven hard on long corners e.g Castle Coombe and Snetterton circuits.  A typical example would be Turn 12 at Snetterton.

Where there are prolonged G forces in the corners, and the engine is high revving, then the oil slides to the side of the sump which causes the receiver to come clear of oil.  In short bursts in normal driving conditions this can be acceptable but under hard driving on prolonged corners, like doing laps on a circuit, it doesn’t take the engine long to suffer and, worse case, seize.  As one Murtaya owner found out to his cost – one new engine required.

The solution is a baffled sump.  This modifies the sump with a system of plates directing more of the oil directly to the oil suction point and slows/restricts the oil from sliding to the side of the sump.  The end result, in theory, is the oil receiver doesn’t clear the oil at any time.... just like in the golf (as the ad goes).

Note: The one on the right is a specially designed high capacity sump.

So this weekend was to get the wiring out and start dropping the fluids out of the car and clear the engine.  I bought a couple of metres of clear ¾ inch pipe from an aquarium centre to act as a siphon hose. I removed the level and fuel pump plates on the top of the tank.  One quick suck and the fuel started moving to the jerry can. Actually it was the second suck the first time I got a lung full of petrol fumes – not healthy.

From there I was able to disconnect the fuel lines to the engine and remove the fuel filter assembly. Next it was on to the air intake sensors.  A few photos for good measure and then label them up electrically it wasn’t a problem each connector is unique however the pipes need labelling. Next is the intercooler, 2 bolts and 2 jubilee clips, not a problem.  Now I can see and, more importantly, get access to the heater pipes.  Release the two pipe fittings and presto the heater unit pulls free and at last I can get to the wiring harness.

Under the intercooler there are three connectors one to the Knock sensor on the exhaust and two that run back to the gear box somewhere.  Labelled up I am then able to push them through the firewall into the cabin.  Then it is on to the Engine bay fuse and relay unit.  That disconnected the full harness can be removed.  One side of the harness runs from the relay box on the near side around the front of the engine bay and passed the ABS unit and along the offside wing and into the cabin.  The other side of the cable harness leaves the same point, the relay box and back down the near side wing into the cabin.  Another “branch” of the cabling feeds the windscreen wipers, the air intake sensors, and offside injectors.

The last connection through the firewall was the alarm.  The connector is too big to get through the firewall so I decided to chop the cable and deal with the problems later. That’s it all the cabling is released and I carried the whole harness into the garage.

Next job is the steering column.  I jacked the car up on to axle stands and found the steering knuckle and unbolted the shaft and pulled out the steering column.  Next the  Exhaust, 2 bolts, four rubbers, job done. Unfortunately the exhaust had a hole in one of the silencer boxes. Not like they did much of a job.  But it means there is no value parking it on Ebay.   With the back end jacked up I unbolted the brake callipers and had a look at the ABS sensors, breaking my ¼ inch ratchet driver in the process.  I think I need some rust penetrator release fluid. I decided to leave that for another day suspecting I might need so assistance with the brakes.

I removed the belts on the air-con compressor and the Power assisted steering pump and alternator and was about to remove the compressor when rain stopped play for the day. And that was the weekend done unfortunately.

Day 7 - 11/1/11

I took the day off mid week to get some work done on the car.  Kim was supposed to join me but she was delayed until the early afternoon.  I took the car off the axle stands and freed up the rear brakes seized by the handbrake.  I had to attach a tow rope to my other Impreza and pull the car to free the brakes. 

I made a puller for the steering wheel out of a piece of steel I found in the server room at work and 3 M8x50 bolts equally spaced in a line 27.5mm between each hole (measure twice, drill once).  The outside holes line up with threaded holes in the steering wheel while the middle hole lines up on the end of the steering shaft.  I should have tapped the middle hole for an M8 thread but had no tap to cut the thread so I placed a nut in a ring spanner and positioned it on the middle bolt under the metal plate then with another spanner applied pressure.  Simple, the steering then popped of the shaft after barely half a turn - almost too easy.  Removing the rest of the steering switchgear I could now remove the cross support beam that held the column in place.

All that remains in the cabin now was the air con/heater/blower assembly, pedal box assembly, steering shaft and the wiring harness. Kim turned up and we set about under the bonnet.  To remove the air con meant we would have to disconnect the air con and heater connections in the engine bay.  Kim was in the process of doing her college assignment on air conditioning so I let her at it, after a few pointers she got to work with the spanners.  I left her to it and started work on removing the accelerator cable, labelling wiring and the coolant system.

We removed the blower and air con units.  The heater pipes were underneath the intercooler and I still had some labelling to do on the intake sensors so we emptied the coolant system and removed the radiator.  Time wasn’t in our favour and the light was failing.  So we called it a day.  Looking forward to the weekend to crack on with the power steering, air intake/intercooler, heater and eventually completing the cabling.

Day 6 - 9/1/11

The sun is out and the weather is mild so it is back to the car and crack on with the wiring looms.  I want to get the cabling out of the cabin so I can put the interior back in and get the trestles cut and bolted together.

I have now got the airbag system cabling removed with the exception of the front sensors. I continued the stripping and finally got to release the relays on the bulk head and bulkhead connectors that lead to the engine bay.  Not sure about what each relay does what but if I don’t have to disconnect them they should be right when they go back in the new car.

However I have run into a minor issue I need a steering wheel puller.  In order to remove the cabling harness I need to remove the cross brace bar which the steering column mounts on and remove the heater air con unit to access the cabling harness.  The steering wheel is now getting in the way.  So until I get a puller sorted I moved on to something else - The alarm unit.  I took the ultrasonic sensors out of the roof and then went under the bonnet to remove the sounder and bonnet switch.  In order to get the wiring out I had to remove the air filter.

Eventually after five hours of stripping the cabling I still wasn’t finished so I finished off removing the horns – just so I can say to have made some progress today.

Day 5 - 8/1/11

I spent last night going through the wiring diagrams to pull out any details regarding air conditioning, fuel system and any other wiring I might come across tomorrow.  Everything looked reasonably straight forward. So Saturday came and I continued the wiring labelling and stripping of the cabling harness.  Then I headed off to Halfords for a jerry can and B&Q for the timber to build the trestles.  

Day 4 – 3/1/11

Clear day today and for the first time I can work on dry ground instead of in puddles.  My friend Dan popped round for an hour to see how I was getting on when he took a look inside the car and couldn’t believe the state of it.  To me it looked all logical but to see it compared to the last time he saw it as a working machine.  After Dan left shortly after new father duties taking priority and I set to work on the doors starting with the passenger door.  I was going to need the window lifting assemblies according to the list but I wasn’t sure about the wiring harness so I removed them also.

The passenger door was fairly straight forward and never having done one before took me less than an hour to disassemble with the door ready to be removed whenever I was ready.  The driver side door was a different affair.  This had a number of complexities mostly to do with extra equipment fitted in the door.  First there was the alarm servo for the central locking which was simple enough.  But there were three sets of cabling that disappeared into the bottom of the door.  I removed the glass the same way I had with the passenger door.  Now with the glass and lift assembly I could see what they were attached to.  There were a couple of boxes I managed to unscrew the metal box and looked at the labelling. MOTAROLA STKR0100 GB.  Great- it has to be a tracker but, the current one, or an old one?  And where do the cables run to? 

The second box made of plastic was attached by a short cable to the motorola but it was stuck at the bottom of the door.  With no fixings visible like on the Motorola box I presumed this box being held by a rubber adhesive of some sort.  It took a number of attempts with a chisel but it finally yielded.  It was, as I suspected, a battery.  I disassembled the tracker and disconnected it from the cabling and the battery.  Then I was left with the cabling harness.  Due to the extra cabling though the grommets and the cabling was harder to extract and required the grommets cutting away to get the connectors back through the bulkhead.  Finally the door is stripped just as the failing light stops play.

  Christmas break is now over. It will now be weekends and days off when Kim is available until the nights get lighter.  The Kit will be here by the end of the month and after looking under the car a wire brush is not going to be enough for a lasting paint job. I will try the wire brush heads on a drill/angle grinder.  But I suspect they will need to be shot blasted and then painted.  I’m wondering what the cost will be and how much I will need to get done.

Day 3 – 2/1/11

Spent last night browsing through the Impreza workshop manual I downloaded from the internet.  There were a number of connections on the wiring harness I wasn’t sure about on the fuel tank so I wanted to be sure about the connections.  The manual indicates there are actually 2 pumps one on each side of the tank and 2 combined senders for the level sensor but the cabling doesn’t make sense.  I suspect the tank flanges will have to come off before I can confirm.

Moved on to the Dashboard this morning and managed to get the passenger airbag out and took the centre console out taking the temperature controls, radio, ashtray, demist switch, hazard switch and of course the obligatory cup holder.

I was a bit concerned with the CKC build document when they used a flexible screwdriver to remove the windscreen edge fixings but I managed it just with a ¼ socket driver, 10mm socket and extension.  I removed the clocks and with some jiggery pokery (easier with 2 people) managed to remove the dash board.

With the dash board removed I was able to see the remainder of the job for the cabin cable harness and promptly decided to move on to something else.


Removing the wing mirrors and see what the doors are going to be like by removing the card on the driver’s door.  I would advise you pull out the window switch console and disconnect it then 2 screws and pop the card out. What’s that noise? Oh dear Hailstones stop play for today.

Day 2 – 31/12/10

Now full of cold and throat feels like I swallowed a razor.  Had yesterday off but found the iron work for the trestle design and the posts I will need are £15 a piece and I reckon another £30 or so for the remaining timber.

Took some photos of the car after the first days work.  The wheels are still tight on the hubs so I will lower the car back on the wheels before slackening off the nuts and finishing off stripping the interior and wiring. Not wanting to swing on a tyre iron with the whole car in the air.  The poor weather has caused the brake disks to corrode a lot more than I had expected as well as other parts of the car which puts pressure on me to strip the car as soon as possible.

So I removed the carpeting and continued the process of labelling each connector on the cable harness carefully cutting it free and pulling it back towards the driver’s foot well.  The after-market wiring has started to get in the way, the Tracker unit, the alarm unit, automatic window closers and clearly there has been a number of other modifications which have had been installed and removed either before import or after by one of the previous owners.  It was fast becoming a big can of worms.

The First day – 31/12/10 - at last

Here I introduce Kim.  Kim is at college in her third year studying Car and Motorcycle maintenance. I have known Kim for a number of years and when I mentioned that I wanted to build a car she was keen to offer her assistance and access to her contacts.  Being a first time builder it is important to develop contacts and bodies to physically assist with some of the heavy work.  Now the Murtaya is not a popular car in fact there are only 42 cars in existence and not all are completed yet so although MSC offer a phone support service. I wanted some local knowledge to help out and bounce ideas off. Kim was eager to help out and she turned up this morning dressed to work in coat, gloves, boiler suit and woolly hat and half a dozen layers underneath.

The weather was thick fog and damp but at last the snow has melted and I actually have running water now.  I had removed the battery to charge it overnight and with the washer bottle still frozen it seemed easier to disconnect it and melt it out in the sink then clean out 12 years of built up crud.  I also had found some blue liquid on top of the water coolant reservoir.  Clearly the Coolant had frozen during the last few weeks and expanded out through the pressure relief cap so I decided to run the engine to test for coolant leaks or any damage the freezing temperatures (down to -14C) may have caused.

So the two of use suitably kitted up we made a start.  We removed the Front Bumper and jacked the car up onto axle stands.  It was then I realized the car has been in an accident at some point.  The inside front wings were primed but no top coat.  Closer inspection and a number of the bumper fixings were either missing, mismatched or glued in place.  Annoying, but only because I could have talked the previous owner down on the price.

Front bumper now removed we could see how high we would need to get the car so that we could lower the engine and gear box to the ground and slide it out under the frame of the car.  The problem now was lifting the car over 600mm.  Currently we are 200mm short.  The axle stands will go higher than they are currently set but the trolley jack wouldn’t.   We decided to leave the car on the axle stands and whilst Kim made a start on the interior whilst I put the battery, now fully charged, back in the car and started up the engine.  The car started up second time and I let it run up to normal temperature.   Only problem was my neighbour, Carl, who lives three doors down was working nights and the car is anything but quiet.  He even stuck his head out the window and shout me to knock the racket off.  Unfortunately the car was loud enough we didn’t hear him so he gave up.  It’s gonna be a bugger when I ask him if I can borrow some of his tools.

TECH TIP: The CKC build recommends that the front windows are wound down whilst the battery was still connected.  It makes them easier to remove. I bought a car cover to put over the car so the weather doesn't get in the open windows. 

We took the seats out and started work on the dash board and centre console.  Beside the handbrake was a square black box.  I asked Kim what she thought it was but she had no idea. But a flash of inspiration came to me it was the crash sensor for the Air bags.  I disconnected it and started to remove the steering column cowling and the steering wheel so far it had all been 10mm spanner or socket, crosshead screw or press-fit fittings.  However the steering wheel hub unit (incl. Air bag was fixed with Torx screws the drivers for which I did not have but would borrow them from work the next day.  With the light failing we tidied up and put a cover over the car and called it a day.

Christmas and Tony

Christmas is just around the corner and the recent cold spell is really beginning to wind me up.  I really want to make a start on the donor car but with the snow melt turning to ice and the temperature not rising above minus 1C for the last 2 weeks makes working outside next to impossible.  Again I woke up to frozen water pipes and no water.  The snow has finally hit Exeter and I’m a little envious of Graham driving round in the red race car.

The Murtaya doesn't mind the snow.  In fact it might be said it revels in the snow as these clips from face book and you tube show.  Further evidence of the control and handling of the Murtaya.... and some good drivers.

 Click here for a Facebook link to video of Murtaya in the snow

Christmas now past I haven’t been able to do any work on the donor car.  The house pipes have been frozen for over a fortnight now and frustration is driving me nuts.  I haven’t been able to put the car on axle stands.  The only highlight recently was at my parent’s Boxing Day party I met Tony, part of the Dillon family.  Tony served his time with Lister Jaguar and has built a Cobra which is his pride and joy.  It had taken him 2 years to build.  He did a fully documented build with a ford 3 litre v6 which was picked up and published by the Cobra Owners Club.

I chatted with Tony for a while hearing some of his stories about the build, later upgrades and repairs after a BMW 5 series crashed into the back of the cobra.  Ironically in the event of an accident, even though you have built the car yourself, you are not allowed to repair it yourself.  It has to be done by a professionally registered repairer.

I got talking to Tony about the trestles Graham has mentioned and he was in agreement with me about lowering the car once it was a rolling chassis.  If I have the facilities to lift the complete car then the trestles will be fine but if I only have the ability to remove one trestle at a time there are some major issues to consider.

    

I had an idea where I thought I could chop a couple of 100mm thick fence posts braced on a couple of planks and bolting the bracing and cross ties with 12mm stud, plate washers and nuts.  This way I can lift the rear and remove the rear posts and lower the back of the car.  Then I can Lift the front of the car and remove the rest of the trestles car.  Tony agreed with my thinking and only added that I use two trolley jacks when taking the car off the trestles for more stability.

Next job? the trestle design

Looking at the CKC build document two trestles are required to mount the tub on until the rolling chassis is built up, the rear one to be 200mm taller than the front.  This gives ease of access to the underside of the tub and reduces the amount of time you spend sat on a cold concrete floor whilst I install the fuel, braking systems, suspension, drive system etc.

source:CKC Murtaya Build CD

I plan to use 75mm x 50mm timber and coach bolts to construct the trestles. They have to be substantial enough to hold the tub up to the point where the car is effectively a rolling chassis with engine, transmission, suspension, brakes and wheels.  I was going to follow the photos shown in the CKC build document.  I’ll take a measurement of the width of the car behind the front wheel in line with the bulkhead.  Height wise there has to be enough clearance to slide the engine under the sub frame.  When removing the engine from the donor car 600mm was required to slide the engine from under the car and the front sub frame follows the base of the tub.  So I estimate the front trestle needs to be approximately 700mm and the rear trestle 900mm.

However, I was chatting to Graham from MSC online who pointed out that instead of trestles supporting across the car "axel wise" if the trestles run lengthways between the arches mounting the drive train and pipes should be a lot easier to install.  A removable tie or two between the two trestles will help with stability.  This may make lowering the car when the rolling chassis is complete a bit interesting.  But one step at a time.

What else will I need to complete the car?

The only outstanding items left to buy are a standard exhaust downpipe, cat and a pair of seats.

The cat and down pipe can wait partly because I need the cash and they are one of the last things to fit before the engine is back running again so there is plenty of time for that.  I suppose I could wait for the seats too but I found a couple of pairs of leather Honda S2000 seats online which I know fit as they were the same model used on the burnt orange car on the cover of CKC.

The one thin g I have noticed is that there are few enough cars to be known by the color or paint job. The CKC car is known as burnt orange. The Gulf car is a Murtaya with the Gulf Ford GT40 paint job. The Racer car I test drove was known as the red one.  There is a kind of uniqueness about this I really like.  I'm building an original car completely unique.

As I plan to use the car as a top down roadster I chose leather over fabric due to the inclement weather of our fair isle.  There are some colour options on the seats all Black, all red, or black sides with red centre panels.  The black seats looked a little worn for £350, the red are £440 with 4 point harness and the black and red look immaculate but they want £575 so I’ll see if I can talk them down a bit.  This poses the question of paint.  Black leather would be the first choice if they are in good enough condition because it will go well with any colour.  As far as exterior paintjob I still haven’t worked out a colour.

The trip over to Dewsbury led me to a scrap yard and into a weird warehouse that used to be apartments and offices with no lighting.  There were numerous sets of sports seats some leather, some fabric, some in pairs, some single.  I checked out the red seats and the red/black seats and realised I preferred the black seats.  I didn’t like the red and the others were just too expensive.  I worked my hands over the black pair checking the bolsters feeling for tears and wear marks in the poor light.  I checked to make sure the backs weren’t twisted from any accident.  Apart from wear on the right hand bolster which happens to all drivers seats and some marks where something had been resting on the leather the seats looked good and I agreed to take them for £350 cash.  When I got them out into day light I looked at my hands which were filthy from the seats.  They were going to need a good wash and some TLC.   

What to do about a donor car?

This had crossed my mind repeatedly even before I went down to meet Graham.  During the test drive Graham’s advice was find a 98/99 STI for about £3-4.5K would make for the most straight forward build.  There are a couple of problems that you can minimise with a good donor car.  The first is the SVA test - The car builder’s nightmare.  Subaru Impreza’s are all too frequently modified such that the engine will never pass the SVA test on emissions.  Many potential donors have already had the cat removed with “drainpipe” exhausts.  To explain further on a normal MOT test the engine is allowed to come up to working temperature as is the catalytic converter.  On the SVA test they put a temperature probe in the oil dip and take the emissions from when the oil temperature reached 60 degrees C. So there is no guarantee the catalytic converter is up to normal working temperature. 

Another potential issue is if the donor car has non standard wheels. If the donor car has original 16” wheels it should pass the SVA test because the rules state that standard geometry measurements taken follow the manufacturer’s dimensions.  However if the donor car has 17+” wheels the rules state the measurements have to be taken from a different position requiring a wheel arch extension in front of rear wheel arch in order to pass the test.

Some advice I received from talking with Arden engineering was to build the car to pass the SVA test without getting it painted and without final finishing touches (stereo, final leather/fabric trim etc.). Then once it has passed the SVA strip it back, paint it and do a final assembly.  That way you don’t go through a massive amount of fiddly finishing jobs only to find you have failed the SVA test and wasted £200 pounds on a test, only to strip it all back to rectify any failure issue and put it back through a re-test.  This may sound extreme but could reap dividends.  When you finish the car you can also put any upgrades on the car such as larger wheels and it will already have passed the SVA test.

The best advice is to find the most unmodified car that you can.  So it was on to the internet and searching for a well maintained car. After working through literally hundreds of cars, so many modified to varying degrees, I found a suitable candidate In Newcastle.  It was a 98 import 65000 miles good condition a little tired on the body work and with the usual jap import 3” stainless exhaust and no cat. I took a trip up to the Tyne for a test drive.  Owner requested insurance which was a struggle for this type of car. However www.Ecar.com do a road test insurance for a day. On an STI the cost was £23. I took a trolley jack with me so I could see under the car properly.

The car looked as expected a little worn in places but the engine pulled well and it was looking quite positive. The owner lived on a hill so we took it to the local garage where I was able to jack the car up and see underneath. That’s when things went south. The tyres were different on the left side compared to the right side (I was always told the same tyres should always be on the same axle to balance the differential properly. The rear diff did not look good and the owner had mentioned that it did make a noise every once in a while).  The rear suspension anti roll bar was pink. Yes pink. An after market mod?  But the two clinchers were when I got a look at the sub frame and when I tried to jack the other side of the car up.

The sub frame looked too corroded such that I suspected simple restoration and painting might not be enough.  The first side I tried to jack up was fine but on the other side the trolley jack wouldn’t fit under the car by a quarter of an inch.  So I had to Pass.... Next! I had another car to look at in Keighley but it was already sold.  The guy had another, but it was tricked up to the nines, nicely maintained, but full of gauges and dials beyond my understanding.

Back home for a beer and some more searching. Then found another candidate, again up in Newcastle, This one looked a better looked after and after another trip up the A1, ironically less than a mile from the previous candidate. I took it for a drive there were a couple of things I didn’t like.  It had a sunroof – busted, blowing fuses (this will affect the shell resale value as shells are often used for racing), rear door window was also blowing fuses and no catalytic convertor.  But none of these would affect the car for my use. The clocks had been modified from Kmh to MPH but the dash still said KMH (again an SVA fail) and the tacho needle was on the wrong side of the zero needle rest.  I suspect the mod had been done by a previous owner.

But the current owner seemed honest, the brakes had been overhauled and were still bedding in and the rear diff had been overhauled.

This is what he put in the ad on Pistonheads:

Subaru Impreza STI v5 silver (the darker silver later models) unmolested unspoilt mint example have had car mot'd today 18/10/10 so 12 months mot car was imported new in dec 98 (99model) so has pretty much full UK service history with piles of paperwork old mots etc and can obviously tell from paperwork no expense has been spared I have had any work needed done to prepare for sale rear diff 4x new tyres knock sensor oil leak full service timing belt etc so car is faultless mileage on car is approx 90000km although clocks were changed last year so now clocking up in miles new clocks show 72000 miles
car is unmodified as it should be apart from exhaust last dyno showed 283bhp on 97 ron petrol I have started using tesco 99 as i feel it runs even smoother
bodywork is exeptional for age very small blemish above rear arch 5p piece size (not rusted) and small parking scuff on rear bumper
interior is good but bolster on drivers seat split and repaired could probably do with better repair.  Car drives as it should no knocks bangs creaks turbo pulls as it should no smoke noise etc car just serviced and motd 4 new tyres and timing belt so worry free
these are becoming increasingly hard to find in this condition i believe i have priced this realistically will consider a ery cheap pex £500 or so
any questions please phone mark 

I took the jack again and checked underneath in the pouring rain – advice: take a piece of carpet to kneel\lie on else it is a damp ride home.  No surprises this time a little surface corrosion and some flaking paint on the struts but all in all nothing that the restoration work wouldn’t clear up.

I left and later called Graham with a query regarding the clocks. I went back to the owner and with a little negotiation we agreed a price.

I prepared to get the car down from Newcastle.  Finding short term insurance was a nightmare.  Initially I only wanted a month to fully sound the car out and bed the brakes in properly, but ended up with quotes of £738 for 28 days insurance so I settled for 2 days.  I agreed to pick the car up on the Sunday.  That was the weekend Newcastle was virtually closed due to snow.  The owner rang up on Saturday and said he couldn’t get the car out of his yard and on to the street because of the snow.  It was four hours later when he rang back and said he had managed it on to the street.

When I got there I understood his issue there was ten inches of snow on the roof of the car the slush from the road splashed up by passing traffic had completely covered the wheels and filled the wheel arches.  We did the business and I drove off pulling in at the first services on the A1 to fill up with fuel and washer water.  The weather was great cold but sunny right up to 20 miles from home and I was able to evaluate my purchase properly.  Then the snow began to fall carpeting the motorway in minutes. The four wheel drive worked a treat.  Monday I took the day off and drove the car around to friends who had offered to assist with the build to show them what they would be working with.  The snow was deep but the major roads were clear. 

By the end of the day the brakes felt a lot firmer and the performance was great.

That night the snow really kicked in and buried the Subaru in my back yard.  Now I can’t strip the car down until the snow melts.  I contacted Graham Codling, who remarked that the first tool I would need was a snow shovel, sent me a purchase agreement which I signed and handed over the deposit with an anticipated delivery in January.