Day72 - A fellow builder

I received a call on Saturday evening from Stuart a fellow Murtaya builder who was coming up to see his in-laws and was I available to meet and go over the car build for a couple of hours. I said I’d love to, sent him my address and at 1:30 Sunday afternoon Stuart put his head over the fence.

Stuart wasn’t as far in with his build due to his relocation from Ireland to Bristol. But as he was going to face the same problems I’m facing shortly with wiring etc. we both had questions and solutions we could talk through.  One of the things he couldn’t work out was the steering knuckle.  The modified shaft which was supposed to be extended 90mm but Stuart’s appeared to be longer from the photo’s he had taken.  We compared the photo’s against my steering link and the appeared to be about 50 mm difference.  No wonder he was struggling.  A minor problem the guys at MSC will soon correct I’m sure.

The next question was the rear brake pipes.  I went through Grahams suggestion of mounting the pipe on the inner wing behind the shock and spring and then clipping it back to the Diff nose mount. However my preference was to run the pipe along the trailing arm of the suspension from the diff nose bracket to the shock which has a brake pipe mounting point on the back of the shock and then to the brake calliper.  This keeps the pipe away from the wheel and minimises the range of flex movement in the pipe.  Stuart agreed with my idea.  Both options are viable and secure.  In fact looking at the donor car the brake flexes were in a similar configuration to Graham’s suggestion.  But they were removable flexes on to hard pipes.

We went on to discuss the engine bay wiring loom. The problem with the wiring looms that I had discovered.  I had spoken to Ben at MSC about mating the engine bay connections to the rest of the loom (there are 4 multi-pole plugs to connect) It would appear because I had an ABS variety Donor car the wiring loom in the engine bay was different to anything they had worked on in the shop.  So Stuart and I looked into options.  My original thought of routing it to an existing hole which took it above the exhaust down pipe has a problem the connections on the interior loom were on the other side of the steering column. I thought about extending the rear loom but that would mean the internal fuse board would have to be moved above the heater.  I pulled the inner wings out of the garage loft and clamped them in place to see what space was available.

We decided that a hole would be possible.  The exact location will depend on how the loom is worked around the engine sub-frame and how much spare there is to play with.
A second hole that would need cutting was the accelerator cable now because of the location of the wheel arch and the go faster pedal the cable looks like it would have to go through the inner wing.  Stuart had an idea of mounting and angled plate in a hole in the bulkhead to allow the cable an easier path.

I pointed out a number of things which will be extras that I need to buy.  Because the engine bay fuse board is now in the location where the fuel filer used to be on the donor car I couldn’t find a suitable new location for the filter unit as it is a substantial piece.  A quick check of the CBS catalogue revealed a simpler in line replacement would cost about £12 and make a much neater job.  Other items included pipe reducers for the cabin heater, as the existing pipes are larger than the fittings on the heater matrix.  The relays I was going to use for the hazard warning switch. Trimming the front windscreen frame to allow the screen to fit because the top corner radi needed to be shorter.

All in all we had about 3 hours picking up points from each other, swapping stories and discussing options – I thoroughly enjoyed it.  But by the time Stuart left I was freezing cold and with work tomorrow I tided up and put all the toys away.

Day71 - all coming together

I have a few days off and decided to get some progress made on the car.  The last evenings effort with Dan had wound me up and I was keen to make some more progress, so this entry covers a number of days.

First thing that had bugged me was the steering rack track rod ends. The hub fastening nut was a castllated nut with a split pin hole in the shaft.  Even though I had cleared up the thread the nuts were seizing after one or two turns. With the greased up bearing I wasn’t able to get purchase on the thread to wind the nut on with a spanner.  I even knocked the track rod end, which has a tapered fit, into the hub. But it was breaking free when I put the spanner on the nut.  Now the taper fit should have been secure but it kept breaking free.  Further investigation revealed some excess paint from when I had painted the hubs had dripped into the tapered hole.  I cleared the paint away and knocked the rod ends in.   This time they lock fast and with the aid of some copper slip I worked the nuts onto the thread.  This time everything was fast and solid.

I decided to mount the front anti-roll bar I had previously cleaned the brackets and links up and gave them a lick or three of paint and mounted the bar. It didn’t seem to fit quite right and after looking at the original photos, taken during donor disassembly, I realised the links were upside down.  Quickly remedied, I then decided to lower the on to its wheels.

After lowering the car off the axle stands I cleared the area front and back of the car and moved the car back and forth to help clean the brakes up a bit.  The disks are binding on the pads but a decent run would clean them up.  My rolling the car back and forth wouldn’t do the job properly but it did become easier as the pads cleaned up the surface rust.  There’s not much room in the garage but there was enough for one full rotation of the wheels.

I then decided to put some of the pipes and sensors back on the engine.  I plan to start the wiring soon and putting all the sensors in place would make identifying the wiring routes easier. I had a number of the brackets that I need to clean up and paint.  The temperature has dropped and I have now resorted to painting the brackets and parts in the kitchen and the living room because the paint is like treacle.

One of my biggest worries about this project is putting all the sensors back together correctly.  A colleague at work had an STI and blew the turbo then after laying out a grand to have a new turbo fitted which after 100miles running in the turbo blew because it had been incorrectly plumbed in.  I remember as I took them off that each on made sense and I labelled it as best I could. But as I was taking the Inlet manifold off I had one sensor that was totally free of any connection electrical or pipe. I now had absolutely no idea where this sensor connected. I had realised this when the engine went in that this sensor was lose and it had always been a worry at the back of my mind.  Now the sensor can go back in place and I piped up one side to the inlet manifold but I couldn’t for the life of me find where the other side of the sensor pipes to.  I looked everywhere including trying to mount the intercooler.  The pipe isn’t that long so it has to be somewhere in that area.

It took me a while, but eventually, I found it there was a small pipe underneath the inlet manifold which is part of the fuel vent system.

 I continued adding the sensors and equipment that had been mounted on the inner wings of the car.  The bracketry would need to be cleaned and painted.

Now with all the pipes now connected bar one, the vacuum pipe for the brake servo unit.  The end on the brake servo was not a problem and fitted straight on but the other end was short by an inch -1 bleeding inch! The metal pipe that runs across the bulkhead from the servo to the other side of the engine has 2 mountings and I guess the bulkhead on the doner car was designed not to be flat across.  Mounting the pipe off the bulkhead would not look good so for the sake of 1 inch I need a metre of vacuum pipe.

With the exception of the intercooler and its piping, which will be one of the lasts things to go on, I can move on to the wiring.  But first I fitted the pitch stop the bracket had a 8 mm hole but the kit has a 10mm bolt.  So out with the step cutter to widen the hole.  Then there was another problem the bracket was about 1 mm narrower than the actual pitch stop.  A flat file soon trimmed the proud bush face on each side and it slipped in no problem.

 I opened the red trunk I had stored the wiring harnesses in and heaved out the mass of wires and plugs.  I went through each wiring loom identifying the sockets I would be reusing and taping up the bits of harness and plugs that wouldn’t be used e.g rear door switches and harnesses.

The biggest problem at the moment is actually the modifications/additions that have been made to the car. In my case the Speedo (Kmh to Mph)conversion, Auto Window closers and the Alarm/immobiliser system.  The problem being that the installers chose the easiest points to make the connections. And why not – I can’t blame them. I managed to disconnect the window closers.  I might still use them.  Regarding the speedo conversion I need to think about the dial still reads KM/H for the IVA I need it to say MPH. The cheap answer would be to stick a dymo “MPH” label over the KM/H. Intermediate answer would be to find an MPH dial card and replace the old card (this should have been done when the convertor was installed but I figure it was a home job and the previous owner chickened out taking the dials to pieces. The full price job would be to replace the clocks with a UK set but this has its issues as apparently there are numerous clocks available and the wiring looms vary which could turn into a major headache.  I might also think about swapping the indicator/wiper stalk unit for one that has the UK standard indicators on left wipers on right.  This might have similar wiring issues.  But these are issues for further down the line.

Once I was reasonably happy with the wiring I put the loom for the engine bay around the engine and immediately think I’ve got a problem.  The bulkhead has three holes pre cut for the wiring looms to pass through I found myself thinking I would need a fourth – and not a small one.

So, where to start.  From the photos of the orange demo car I took at the Shropshire show I saw that the fuse has been moved back a few inches on to the subframe.  This looks as if it will work but I was a bracket short and the existing bracket needed cleaning and painting.  I plugged the engine bay loom into the fuse board and laid it loosely round the engine bay to see how much cabling I had to play with.  It looked like I could get the end with 4 connectors through one of the existing holes but it would mean going close to and above the turbo and exhaust down pipe which I felt was undesirable. But I continued to fit the other looms in the car. My first struggle was getting the main loom over the steering column until I realised that 5 bolts would remove the steering column from the equation and make life a lot easier.

Now it may sound strange but as I worked the looms through the holes into the engine bay and round to the back of the car it started feeling strangely familiar and everything was falling into place and making sense.

I had noted that the hazard warning lights switch was something a little peculiar in that it had 8 cables connected to it.  I knew I needed a couple of relays for the heated windscreen so I popped down to a local auto electric shop and asked them.  There was much sucking teeth and “well its not that straight forward”.  Hmm to be fair they gave me an auto electric catalogue which will come in useful. I came back home and opened my Data file with all the wiring diagrams in and found the wiring for the hazard switch. There were basically three circuits into the switch unit, two triggered simultaneously on pressing the switch and the third was the back light illumination on the switch.

The first of the two circuits was a supply switchover and a left/right circuit short.  The hazard circuit is fused separately to the normal indicator circuit (which is on the ignition circuit) so a standard changeover relay is required there (Durite part no. 0-728-12).  The second switch circuit links the left and right indicator circuits together with the flasher circuit so both sides flash in unison. I thought about using two relays for this job. But going through the catalogue found a double make and break relay (Durite part no. 0-727-22) which according to the diagram was exactly what I was looking for.  I rang the suppliers back and added the relays to my order. I can then use a fuse on the ancillary fuse board to trigger the relays from the new hazard pushbutton.  This solution looks simpler than the description of a solution Ben described over the phone which if I’m honest he lost me when talking it through. But it seemed to involve running cables to each indicator.

Day 60 - A frustrating evening

Dan can round one evening to assist me mounting the bonnet in place on the car and mount the aero locks to the bonnet.  The first problem was deciding which locks we had the Aeros were either model 120 or 125 but it didn’t state which they were and the instructions for each were on opposite sides of the page and the cutout had different radi and where the difference was noted a 0.4mm the reality was there was a 4mm difference.  So it was out with the callipers to check and double check.  Once we had decided which profile we were cutting to we taped templates to the sides of the bonnet based on a centre line drawn parallel to the lower edge of the bonnet.  Things didn’t look right we checked and measured again the measurements seem right but the angle of the template looked wrong on the bonnet.  I decided this wasn’t happening and reckoned we would stand a better chance once the bonnet was mounted on the car.  If, as with a number of occasions with this car, there were no fast rules or measuring points as to where things need to be exactly it would be a case of where ever looks right.

So to mounting the bonnet we lay the bonnet on the car and clamped the brackets to the bonnet.  I had a good look round to find the bonnet was actually resting on the power steering reservoir and the oil filler. So we lifted the height on the bracket adjustments and tried again.  This time is was clear of the engine but the back edge was fouling on the “A” pillar on the passenger side.  I was not about to start cutting the back of the bonnet at this time of night so we finished some what frustrated at the lack of progress.

Day59 - An all round Star

The “Powerfile” took longer to arrive and when it did it was missing two components.  So back it went and it took a couple of weeks freepost to return.  I did some searching online and it would appear that although the details state there were two accessories they do not include them and you can’t get them online.  Luckily they refunded my cash. So I was looking for a tool that I could use to finish off the intakes once the saw had done its job.  Then I saw the all rounder from Bosch.  A few videos online showed it cutting metal and wood flush to a surface.  I made my mind up to give it a try and wow I’ll be flogging the reciprocating saw.

This little tool cut straight lines through the GRP like it was butter.  It worked a treat.  Louis, Nicola, Mark, Jenny and James turned up to show Louis and James the car and have a bit of a catch up. I haven’t seen Louis in a couple of years but he has been following my progress on here. This was the first time he’d actually seen the car.  It was James’ first time to see it as well but seeing as he is two years old it might be a while before he truly appreciates it.  Although to his credit he did ask a few questions.

I didn’t get much done for the afternoon a local Neighbourhood watch meeting with the local police community support officers took an hour and there were issues that needed addressing. Once done I cracked on with the cutting. With the noise of the all rounder, drill and Dremel I didn’t hear any of the fireworks going off nearby.  When Louis texted me asking if I was joining them at the local fireworks I suddenly realised the time.  Sorry Satch! It would take me over an hour to tidy up and washed and out so I sent my apologies and cracked on with the bonnet.

Sunday morning, suns out and time to finish the vents on the bonnet.  The all rounder has been brilliant and I’ve made some progress yesterday and now it is time to finish it off. When I cut the 4 top bonnet vents I was wondering what to do about the top cut.  I had already done the bottom cuts no problem. But I need to make a parallel cut.  I looked around the garage and found a piece of Kitchen worktop splash back which I cut to the desired shape to fit in the “duct”. This, in principle, was fine however the duct has a curvature in it causing the piece of splashback to rock a bit.  I took a chance and made the cut placing the all rounder on the piece of splashback ensuring the wood under the blade was always flat against the bonnet. Then I realised I had made a basic error I should have drilled out the two ends first But I was so concerned about getting the straight edges right I forgot about the ends.  I managed to rectify the issue by cutting diagonally through the waste between the two cuts and finishing off with a file. Job done. I moved on to the rear side vents which after looking at various photos of murtaya on line these are a multitude of shapes and in some cases they haven’t been cut at all.  But I did remember Graham telling me that whilst they are largely aesthetic they are not entirely without use as they act as handles when lifting the bonnet.  I decided to put them in as the last thing I want is to lose control of the bonnet as it is being lifted.  After which I called it a day and noticed that every cobweb in the garage was now “snowcovered”.

Day 58 - Finish off and start the next job

Today I mounted the Front brake callipers, finished off the hand brake cables mounting the donor car P clips on the Diff nose bracket and the diff nose bracket...bracket if you get my drift. The photo will explain better.

  The prop shaft centre mount was next I drilled out the pilot hole on the passenger side and fitted the bolt replacing the 60mm M10’s with 40mm.  I tried to drill the driver’s side at an angle but in the end I trimmed the spreader washer and ground a small groove in the tunnel so the bolt fitted square - Job done.

I took the bonnet off its resting place on the car and put it on the floor and broke out the reciprocating saw.  I covered the car and a few other areas with dust cloths and marked I line around the cut out area on the three grille areas.  This line was about 5mm inside the final edge to give me something to play with when finishing the edge. I used the dremel to cut slots in the waste area and then used the saw to join the slots.  The plan is to use a power file, dremel and hand files to finish the edge off.