Day 35 -2/5/11 On with the Show

Last day of the bank holiday and I had number of questions for Graham and Ben.  The National Kit car show was on at Stoneleigh Warwickshire.  So I took a day trip down to the show and meet up with the lads on their stand.  I had also arranged for Ben to bring the modified parts to the show so I can pick them up.

The show was brilliant. It is the third time I‘ve been and the more you dig talking to the owners, the more you learn.  This time the sun was out, sky was blue, breeze was up and down.  There was an awesome array of cars coming and going.  I wandered round the “paddocks” as the cobra and seven replicas cruised in along with other replicas Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche.  Some seriously looking “the business” some modern, others classic.  There were Vintage replicas, tri-wheelers, 4x4s, a few American hotrods, oh and a Jaguar XJR15 (for sale - if you are interested?).  Then there are the serious light-weight high-power machines Ultima, Cobra replica, Sevens and replicas, Hawks (the Lancia Stratos replica) all running a variety of engines from bike straight 4’s to large V8 muscle with a smattering of superchargers and turbos.  Each car having been lovingly built and cared for.

Bentley nope this is a Toyota Supra + a few £K in body panels

This would have been my second choice after AMS went bust

This is a Genuine Jaguar XJR15 ....and for sale if you have a few quid

This doesn't really look like a Volvo

Awesome Paint job

Not a Genuine Ferrari in sight

Such a pretty car I thought that when the race series was alive and kicking when Mansell and Piquet were fighting for the lead in F1

I spotted what I thought was the midnight Blue Murtaya I had sat in on the Arden stand a couple of years ago but it turned out to be the Gulf car (light blue and orange) that had been resprayed.  

It was up for sale....If you are interested.

The next area was the vendor stands with every conceivable tool you could wish for.  Not to mention the array of car components from clocks to door handles headlights to fuel tank repair kits and consumables.

I entered the first of the two main exhibition halls where the kit-car manufacturers were laid out in a similar array as the previous year with a few changes.  Eventually I spotted a familiar sight the nose of the red race car I test drove last year.  A new stand to the show, Murtaya Sports Cars.

On the stand were Graham, Ben and the Demo car. I’ve been following the build on facebook in its current state, freshly painted in Lamborghini orange pearl mica (a complex colour looking gold in sunlight).  Graham was already chatting to a potential buyer so I waited till Graham introduced me.  Then I introduced myself to Ben and after checking out the demo cars new doors which are now a full door with a lower sill. They have managed it by a complex arrangement of reinforcing the sill and filling it with two part foam.  The stress capabilities of this solution are “off the chart” apparently.  There are a number of other enhancements my car will not have ergo I am a little envious.

I started with the list of questions I had.  Seatbelts – yes they would have to be replaced.  Graham told me where he got the ones for the last two cars he’d built.  The supplier was actually exhibiting outside the hall so I made a note to have a word with them later. Next was the lack of drawings with the dimensions I would need to mark and cut the steering column holes amongst others.  Graham apologised but they had been busy getting the demo car ready for the show and that they would be on the forum very soon.

I also looked at the pads on the feet of the roll bar and they were relatively thin so definitely no lift in the pad would be required.

I looked over the demo car. The engine has had some serious work done on it by Ollie Clarke.  It was now a long stroke engine with modified crank, pistons and con rods increasing the capacity to about 2.1 litre.  So with a larger turbo, and I’m guessing up-rated fuel pump and injectors, new Simtech engine management unit, fly wheel and a host of other modifications should give that motor somewhere near 500 HP.

I was looking at where I could mount the ABS unit on the car and discussed options.  The reality was i would be making a rod for my own back by using the ABS unit.  If I have to relocate it in the engine bay I would’ve had to strip back the electrical harnessing and possibly extend it.  The alternative was to replace the master cylinder and add a brake balance valve for the rear brakes.  The cost was an estimate £30.  The master cylinder would have to be from a version 3 impreza which was the pre ABS version.

I then brought out the mysterious spring that had been mashed up in the rear differential.  Both Ben and Graham looked at it for a moment they hadn’t realised it was so small from the photos I’d sent. Then Graham had a light bulb moment. It turns out it was the spring from inside the oil seal of the drive shaft.  All I would have to do is replace the seal with a new one - that’s a relief.  I wasn’t looking forward to having the differential stripped and rebuilt. A quick check on line when I got home revealed a replacement oil seal was available for about £8.

 

In the first part of the kit there are a number of metal components such as nut plates, mounting points and brackets.  I had managed to work out where most of the metal work went, but there were 3 pieces I couldn’t for the life of me work out where they were suppose to go.  I drew them out on my show program.  One was the exhaust hanger to mount the tailpipes to.  The other two were a matched pair and looked like they mounted on either side of something.  Graham showed me where they went on the red race car.  They actually made up part of the clamshell bonnet hinge where the front end frame meets the bonnets front lip.  As the bonnet and exhaust don’t come with the first part of the kit I’ll store them away for later.

I spent a bit more time with Ben finding out where he came from and his engineering background which was building military vehicles.  We chatted with Graham about the prototype they had in mind. A larger car with a fixed roof based on the Murtaya with a three litre flat 6 engine from a Subaru legacy reworked and boosted with a supercharger.  They want to make it a full production car and at the moment they aren’t sure if they will make a kit option of it.

 

I left the lads on the stand so I could do some shopping round the stands looking at the massive array of tools and parts available.  There were some things I knew I needed.  A set of Holesaws, A heal bar (for aligning holes), a step cutter and a set of fine brushes for detail work.  After I took another turn around the paddock as more cars had arrived.

 

Once I’d saturated myself with all the cars and the infinite variety of colours and styles and had a chatted with a couple of owners I headed back to the Murtaya stand and picked up my shortened prop-shaft from the lads and said my goodbyes.

The Kit car show isn’t like other car shows.  With most car shows the visitors walk away with bags full of brochures and other trinkets.  This show the visitors walk out with rolls of carpet, steering racks, tools, workshop equipment and I was no different with a bag full of tools and a 5ft prop-shaft hung over my shoulder.  One of the car owners I had chatted with earlier walked passed me saying “Now that’s what I call a project!”

Back home I found the oil seal on line, got my seatbelts on order, and at work I finished pressing all the bushes on the trailing arms and the rear sub-frame –That’s the job done.  The suspension arm bolt that still had the inner steelwork of the old bush completely rusted in place got the treatment from an oxy-acetylene torch and some pipe grips.  Easy when you know all the tricks.

Day 34 – 29/4/11 – 1/5/11 Another bank holiday? Really?

Bank holiday weekend and time to get a move on with the car build. I had spoken to Ben earlier in the week who told me that I should be able to hang the front frame on two of the top bolts and then fit the underside bolts.

First of all I need to get the nut plate to fit flush with the bulkhead.  So I am now the proud owner of a Dremel multi-tool with a flexible attachment.  Now the area to cut away is hard to reach with any tool and there is no way I can actually see what I am doing.  So I’m laid flat on my back in the tub with the dremel flex tool fed in the side access hole up to the nut plate area. My hand fills the fixing plate access hole and doing my best impression of a blind dentist.  I’m having feel my way, without slicing my fingers on the cutting bit, and work out in my mind’s eye just what I’m actually cutting.  It took three attempts before the plate would actually fit in line with the holes.

To hold the nut plate in place I put a couple of bolts through the back of the nut plate and put the plate in place putting the bolts through the bulk head and through the front end plate.  Once I had a couple of bolts through the correct way I was able to remove the backward bolts.

With the nut plate now fitting as it was supposed to I decided to have an attempt at fixing the last two front frame bolts on the underside of the tub.  I removed all but two of the bulkhead bolts and slackened them off as much as I dared. Set the bolts in the tub to drop as the holes became aligned (I balanced a lump hammer on the bolt so that it would fall through).  Then with much sweat and applying pressure I finally managed to get the bolts to drop. But when it came to tightening the bulk head nuts I couldn’t get it to line up.  I tried again with more than two bolts but couldn’t get them to line up enough to screw in the nut plates.


It was then it hit me. When the engine is mounted there will be a couple of hundred kilos of weight on the frame.  That should be enough to bring the holes into alignment hopefully.  That in mind I fitted the nyloc nuts to the back of the four nut plates leaving them loose for now.

So back to the roll cage following Ben’s advice I took the seat belts out of storage and presented them to the roll cage.  Now there is a concern regarding the seatbelts.  Regulations state that the belts need to have and “E” rating on the label.  My seat belts are 12 years old so I might have to replace them.  It looked like a tight fit so I figured I will need some assistance.

 

I still had the bushes to fit on the suspension arms and trailing arms.  I popped up to my parents to use the vice in my dad’s workshop.  Six of the bushes were easy and with a bit of soapy water my dad and I were able to press them in with no problems.  I moved on to the rear hub training arm bushes which after a couple of attempts I found was easy enough to use a piece to stub bar, a metal plate, a few spread washers and nuts to “pull” the bushes into place.

The outstanding bushes for the sub-frame car mount have finally arrived.  The bushes weren’t unreasonable but the cost of shipping them over was extortionate and I was still charged even more by the courier for import tax.  But at least I’m not held up anymore.  I will need to press then into place with the press at work though.

 

My brother Drew was up from London and popped in to give me a hand.  He’d given me a set of ratchet ring spanners for my birthday so I put him to work with them tightening the nylocs on the nut plates I had left loose.  Then we went on to the roll cage fastening the seatbelts on to the bar and we realised unless I raise the pads by an inch there was no way these were going to fit.

For the next hour we tried to get the circlip out of the rear differential unit with pliers, screwdrivers failing badly.  We still found a couple more pieces of the mystery spring that came out with the drive shaft.

Day 33 – 23/4/11 I’m building a car... at last

Finally I have finished painting. Now I’m left with nothing to do but start putting the car together.  I sorted the garage out a bit and gave my mate Dan a call to ask for his assistance.  The first jobs are to mount the front end metalwork to the tub and mount the roll bar before the fuel tank goes on.

I went back to the facebook photos of the demo car currently being built and saw that an area of the bulkhead and drive tunnel was covered by heat reflective tape.  Dan and I fitted the tape.  The tape supplied wasn’t enough to cover the area shown in the demo photos being just over a metre short.  Fortunately I had a spare roll I had been advised to use on the roll bar feet. Taping done, we presented the front frame to the bulkhead and the nut plates to the back side of the bulkhead.  Problem no.1 one of the nut plates will not fit flush to the bulkhead.  The fibreglass resin was fouling so it was impossible to align the pre-drilled holes to the nut plate.

Drivers side mis-shape

passenger side - and what the drivers side should look like

The fouling resin is going to be very difficult to get at, if at all.  I could barely get my phone in to take a picture of the problem which is obscurted by the internal webbing.  Alternatively I could cut the nut plate back as much as possible. I suspect I will have to do both and cut part of the webbing to get access to the fouling piece.

Problem no.2 is a bit more fundamental.  There are 18 fixings holding the front frame on. Nine bolts on each side, five at the top, three in the middle and one underneath, which is also one of the gearbox sub-frame mounting points. When we aligned the top five the bottom fixing point wouldn’t fit under the bulkhead.  And if we put the bottom fixing under the bulkhead the top fixings were out by about 6mm.  Dan and I struggled for about an hour before he had to head off (he’s new to being a dad and time is no longer his own).  I gave it some thought and came to the conclusion the underside fixings are the most important as they relate to the drive chain and engine mounting.  Left to my own devices, which involved sitting the front of the metalwork on the workmate and laid on my back, after much straining and cursing, I managed to put the underside bolts in place temporarily.  Once tightened I could see that all the other pre-drilled holes were about 3-6mm too high.  The alignment side to side was fine but they were still too high.  I think I need a word with Ben to see if I can slot the holes a little.

In the meantime I moved on to the roll cage. After my last discussion with Ben I took his advice and got hold of some glass fibre based bonding compound.  Ben Recommended U-Pol SMC but I was only able to get hold of the Isopon Equivalent P.40 which, I was told, is an equivalent product.

With a damp sponge I cleaned the interior in order to mark the fixing points for the roll bar.  I squared up the roll bar as best I could but with the interior of the car being glass fibre and resin and I struggled to find datum point on each side to measure from and ensure the bar was square on to the car.  I thought I had it about right, within a millimetre or two, based on the roof fixing points on the windscreen frame the top of the bar and marked it up ready to use the bonding compound to create pads for the roll bar to sit on.

 It was after lunch I went back to it and noticed from the side that it wasn’t as square on as I had thought.  I suspected it had shifted but the feet were still square in the marked areas.  I found a straight edge (some square bar about 6ft long) and put it on the tops of the door edges figuring the door frames must be equal and square because the doors have to fit with a relatively close tolerance.  I was out by more than I would have liked.  Now the simple answer is to bring the roll bar forward to the straight edge but that would put roll bar’s rear feet off the back of the car.  I went back to the Facebook Photos of IBIS White and it does look like the roll bar is set back from the door line (where I lay the metal edge) if only by 25-30mm.  But photos can be deceptive - another problem to speak with Ben about.

So I spent the rest of the day putting other bits and pieces together cleaning nut and bolt threads and applying copper grease.  I took a closer look at the steering rack and the bushes.  A bit of cleaning revealed that one of the bushes was perished. So that’s another set to order.

Day 32 – 16/4/11 Paint and bushes ....again

The gaskets have arrived so now I can restore the engine back to “operational”. But not until I have finished brushing, chipping and scrapping the rest of the hubs.  I also found some more minor pieces that also require cleaning and treating with the marine clean and metal prep.  The time it took to get in to all the nooks and crannies of the hubs I realised I spent most of the day doing it.  I finally managed to get the first coat of paint on by the rear hubs and end of the day.

 

The next problem is the rear sub frame bushes.  Getting the rear sub frame blasted and powder coated could have been a mistake.  The blasters pressed out all the bushes, not just the rear differential mounting bushes but also the bushes that mount the frame to the car body.  I did some searching online and managed to find the diff bushes no problem cost about £40 for the pair.  The real problem is the four sub-frame mounting bushes.  I couldn’t find them anywhere.  In the end I called Graham to see what he thought.  Graham was not in the office but Ben was.  I explained my dilemma about these bushes and he said he would look into it for me.  I sent a few photos of the subframe by email.  It turns out on the later sub frames V6 onwards the bushes are not required and it is a solid fixing.  Ben emailed me a day later with the actual Subaru part reference: BushRrear Cross Member, part number 20174AA020.

Back to the net and after a couple of hours of searching and numerous enquiries to jap car part importers resulted in very little.  Two possible solutions:

I have found a place in the USA that had them on their website but did they have then on stock. Carriage also made them expensive.

The alternative I found on a Scooby forum was a guy who did the same powder coating the sub-frame.  He was having the same problems sourcing the bushes too.  His alternative solution was a guy in Sweden who had agreed to machine some Aluminium pieces to press into place.  This may be a viable alternative if I can’t get the original parts.  I could get a local firm to make them for me.

I have decided to buy the parts from the USA.  Delivery is 2-3 weeks.

Meanwhile the painting continues....on and on, day after day, coat after coat.

Day 31 – 10/5/11 Best laid plans of mice and amateur mechanics

I have managed to pick up the dry powder coated parts from MCS and they look great.  The Inlet manifold looks the picture but when I ran a finger on the inside it was still fill of residual shot blast grit, I gave it a good flushing out with the hose pipe.  But I still wasn’t happy so I got a bottle brush and with the hosepipe flushed and scrubbed any residual grit out.  I let it dry in the sun whilst I carefully degreased the injector assembly and the air intake and breather pipes that balance the air pressure throughout the engine.  But both these are parts are mounted under the inlet manifold.  Whilst they dried off in the sun I made a start on cleaning other pieces.

before treatment

a

After treatment

I started cleaning a few parts to be used in the engine bay, such as the radiator top brackets.  Then it was on to the big job de-rusting the hubs.  So far I haven’t needed to remove the hubs from the drive shafts because I haven’t been able to get the fastening nuts off.  Graham’s recommendation from MSC was to take a wire brush to them and paint.  So I’m fully expecting it will be a long job.  I started chipping the rust away and then took the wire brush to the front hubs.  After I had made sure I had got every face of the front hubs I went on to the rear hubs.  I lifted the diff with the hubs out into the sunshine and went to work on one of the hubs turning it over and over, back and fourth until it was getting near ready for a wash down and paint when I looked up and saw the shaft had come out of the diff altogether.  Now that in itself wasn’t the problem the problem was the two pieces of broken spring that were on the end of the shaft.  Oh bugger!

I looked inside the diff and found a few more pieces.  I managed to pull out a couple of pieces but lost one behind the oil seal. Double bugger! I had enough for the day.  Kim had called she has been bed ridden with back problems and, literally, had not been out of the house for nearly two weeks.  I went round for a chat and to help her sort some stuff out. On the way home I popped in to Halfords on the way home and picked up a tube of gasket seal.  I took the back of the Diff off the unit.  I turned it on end to let the last of the oil to drain out.  I inspected the oil there was nothing in it so I reached in and found a tiny piece of metal but nothing like the size of the piece that fell earlier. I got a magnet on an extending arm and used it to try and pick up any debris toward the nose of the diff, but didn’t find anything. So I used the magnet in the oil seal and found another big piece of spring. Further digging revealed another couple of pieces.

So where did the spring come from? The differential was overhauled last year.  I went back to the books - the service manual in particular.  After an hour or so of searching and reading I have come to the conclusion that the spring is part of the circlip which holds the drive shaft in the differential.  It looks like you compress the circlip when you insert the spline shaft into the diff and it spring into place once the shaft is in the right position.  It recommends replacing the circlip with a new one when inserting.  I’m guessing the guys up in Newcastle didn’t do a proper job on the rebuild. I’ll have to search for a clip online this week.