TwinTurbos Build Diary....
 

As some of you know, I am trying to resist touching the growing mountain of parts due to other projects that need finishing..

Our MK1 Golf is ready for the road after 29 months, It's not how I wanted it returned to the road but we need a second car as we have been struggling since the Mondeo Failed it's MOT in Jan.

My 1987 Sierra Sapphire, Needs to be ready for FordFair in Early August. I think this will just make it, but will not be finished

My 1989 XR4x4 Turbo Technics. Is on hold till everything else is done...

So I should not be working on the Roadster at all, but it got the better of me on Saturday/Sunday.. Whilst trying to look after the kids I also cleaned, sprayed and bushed up most of the wishbones. Not completed the job yet as I ran out of £Land spray cans. going to do a lot of layers. I did a bit of trial fitting. My Spax shox are going to need some new bushes by the looks as they seem to be 11mm DIA tubes, odd???

We pushed the chassis into the garage too on it's make shift trolly. I have started cleanign up the base rails for painting before fitting the floor, I will do this when the weather outside is no go for working on the other cars.

I am also picking up 3 spare V6's in a couple of weeks, one has just come out as a runner so this will be going in the roadster.




TT

TT,

That’s great, I knew it would get the better of you,:D taking your lead I think I will sack the head light mounts and spray my wishbones also.

Good to see the build, of sorts, is progressing.

Cheers Ginge

No pics uploaded but. I Swung one of the spare engines over the bay. It was never going to fit as it still has the front 4x4 gear. However it looks like it shoudl go in ok. should be enoughlength too.

Trial fited the wishbones and came across an issue with the mounts, these will need easing as they are too narrow.

Chassis is now on it's side and the passenger chassis rails have been cleaned up and sprayed ready for cutting the floorpan ( 2mm Ali tread plate ) which I am going to cut down to length and widthish tonight.

TT

Floors Phase 1.

Passenger floor almost cut, just the front side cut to do. I started with the Jigsaw but got a bit frisky and the blade got clogged with fused ali... So I went onto the trusty old Scorpion Repo Saw which actually did a pretty good job.




Only spent about half an hour as it was almost 9pm and don't want to annoy the neighbours.

TT

Looking good TT - I've just cut my floor out and used a 1mm stainless cutting disc on the angry grinder as a few people suggested. I was amazed at how easy and controllable it was to cut the sheet. I'm actually looking forward to cutting the rest of the panels out :p

Clecos turned up, was going to bring the rivets , seal and drill bits back from work but I got stuck for 4 hrs trying to recover the e-mail of a user who deleted it ( we normaly don't bother ) and by the time I left the office the roadster bits slipped my mind.

But I had 1 4mm drill bit, so I have made a pilot Jig, it's only got two pilot holes at present I will add a few more to save having to move it over and over. And with that I have drilled 3 of the 100 Passenger holes and put in the wonderful Clecos... YAYA!!

TT

Bet it feels good to get started! The chassis looks good from the photos, it's nice to have a head start. glad to see your workshop looks a bit like mine, I was starting to get concerned with all the nice, tidy, empty ones that everybody else seems to have. Nice to know there are still some normal people in this world:D

Sort of feels good, but I feel bad about avoiding finishing the other car first. And this is supposed to involve the 6yr old so I need to set up build sessions to involve him so he does not get board with the boring tasks that I will have to do behind the sceens..


Anyway, Measured the rackmount and it seems it's to the revised design which is good news.

TT

Ok, So we have had a setback or two. One is being rectified for me.

But the big one is that all the suspension brackets are too small, and some of them ( at least two rear ones ) are in the wrong place. So my bargain second hand chassis that required no work is going to need a little fetteling an£26 worth of brackets from Dave at Rouge.


So Whilst I wait for them to turn up, and for me to get the energy to sort them I am cracking on with the floors and tunnel..

This evening I marked out and cut out the passenger tunnel side, and then transferred the cut-out template to make the similar drivers ready for cutting out tomorrow..




:)

TT

Ooooh that's a bummer. Has someone used shock mount brackets by mistake?
I bought a lot of my brackets and wishbone bits from Rogue, they were all spot on and delivered very quickly. I figured it was not worth trying to make the suspension brackets considering how cheap they are to buy.
Enoch.

They Measured up at 42andasmidgen MM . I think Locost ones are 42mm so it may bee that the builder bought the wrong brackets, or measured up wrong.

TT

Looking good there TT - now you've made a start there will be no stopping you
:p

New brackets turned up from Rouge Engineering on Saturday morning and are spot on, slide over the wishbone nicely.

Unfortunately the MK1 golf failed it's MOT so I have to do a few jobs including a tricky weld before I can get back to the roadster.

TT

Tricky weld done this evening... Excelent :) few bobits to sort and send her back to the garage..

So wednesday may recomence Roadsting..

TT

Ok, the chassis went of to Saturn last week to have the brackets redone, and the rear tub bars removed to I can fit a Glass one.

I have done a bit of work tidying the garage.

Cut the second tunnel side pannel last night and trimmed a corner of the one floor I have ( can't do the other without the chassis. )


Changed the flywheel on the engine from the 2.9 to the 2.8 one. And took off the front diff.. Sump off tonight if I get to it :)

Pics to come.


TT

Pics still to come :rolleyes:

Both floors have been cut and all the rivet holes have been drilled with the exception of the seat bearers ( still to position and fit ).

So, tunnel panels to drill , seat back to drill.. And the construction phase 1 to comence with me and the boy.. Hope he apreciates the prep work :p

TT

A few of the recent shots,

The vicious ( hahaha ) viscous fan put up considerably more of a fight than they usualy do.

Both floorpans are now done. it was a bit of a struggle cutting the ally tread plate as the saw kept getting stuck on swarf, WD40 helped a bit. Most of the holes are drilled.

And of course a shot of PAT1 returning my chassis.


Other progress includes both trans tunel pannels being cut and the first pair of seat mounting rails tacked in place. Seats and runners purchased :)



TT

Those fans can be a right pain to remove sometimes, looks like you had to give it a stern talking to :) :D

Pleased to hear that you are finding some time to make progress with your build :cool:

Today saw a little further progress.

We drilled the holes for the passenger tunnel panel, and a few guide holes for the rear seat back.

The holes for the seat mounts on one side were drilled. ( note that in no way was there an error in the location of the rear mount, it was a fully intentional move to take the extra weight :rolleyes: )




We then rotated the chassis to the horizontal and checked to see if my seat mounts were going to fit the seats.


Progress was then slow as the chassis became infested with...




Three hours later, the chassis was back up on it's side, the tunner rails ( PSGR ) cleaned up and after applying gooop that was stickier than sticky stuff in sticky land. The panel was rivited in place..

Unfortunately the battery was flat on the camera by now.

TT

Ooooohh More progress..

Today I set out to fit the PS floorpan, Everything was ready for it so all that was required was to get the stick crap out of the caulking tube. The stuff is so dam sticky that the caulking gun broke. I had bought an air one, that was useless..

So without a gun, and the desire to get the crap out of the tube, I did the sensible thing and just cut the tube open and got the stuff out with and spread ( if you can call it spread ) it with a chissle.. That done, the floorpan was poped into place and guide rivets put in. Me and the boy then loaded the rest of the rivets, a few were tight which was strange as the holes had all been pre-drilled in one go. One or two holes had to be relived. We then popped in all the rivets, our 3yr old lent a hand at one point too...

So that's one side solid.

I have been out this evening and drilled the drivers transmission pannel, and then welded in the front section of the drivers panel. I also drilled the seat bearers for the seats runners.

So everything is set for paneling the drivers side :)

In between bits and bobs I have been making a start on cleaning up the engine. It's dirty slow work, but quite satisfying seeing the engine as it would have been when new.

TT

Nice work TT, your chassis is really starting to "come together" now :cool:


I,m thinking ...........when your Roadster is finished & on the road, you,re gonna have a battle between your "young uns" who gets to go for a spin first :eek: :D

Its great that the boys are so helpful & enjoy mucking in with your build :cool:

look forward to seeing photos when she,s rolling.

cheers
andy

Toby told one of his class mates that we were building a car in the garage, he did not belive him.

So I printed a couple of pics for him to put in his school bag ;)

TT

Nice to see you making progress TT :cool: :)

Even better to hear that you have a couple of willing helpers .... I have to beat Junior with a stick to get a hand :D

Keep the progress going mate :)

Probably more of a hinderance, but hopefully it will get them interested in something more worthwhile than football or gamez conoles.

TT

7:15 PM start fitting driveres side tunnel and floor. Including spreading the evil gunge, loading the rivets ( tapping in the stubborn ones ) and popping them.

Drilled the seat mounts through floor, added extra rivet holes for seat mount rails, and rivited..

9:15 PM glass of wine

:D

Next task is the seat back, but I need another tube of evil gunk for that.

TT

One could say, you have had a riveting evening :D

At least each panel you fit means one less to go, keep at it & it will soon be done :cool:

I am managing to cross off one small job from the list most day's.

Like a butterfly me .... Flitting from one thing to another :o

At least the build is going in the right direction.

Well I was not really looking forward to fitting these bits, I can now move on to more interesting bits :)


TT

Tonight...

Drivers bulkhead lined up and a few welds put in, need to clean up a bit more before finishing the welds. Will try and get that done tomorrow.

I checked that the pedal box had a chance of fitting and it was spot on :) just need to drill the hole for the master cylinder. and the mounting holes.

Last on tonight's list was getting the rear tub panel into place, it had previously been trial fitted, but now with the ally tunnel and Deamon Gunge it would not fit, so a little metal was removed to get it to slide in.

TT

Sounds like you are coming on nicely TT :)

Glad you have made that post about you evening's work as it has reminded me of a couple of small jobs that I can get done whilst waiting to paint to harden :) :)

Got some packs of fitting on order and a Rivnut Gun.

Tonight I made the hole for the master cylinder, and yesterday not a lot..

Little steps, chipping away..

TT

Every job, no matter how small is one less to do :cool: :)

Been paying dividends for me recently,try to do at least one thing every day ;)

Yeah, just an hours pottering is progress.. Then when I have a big window I can get a big job done :)

Hope to have it the right way up soon.

TT

Had a productive two hours..

I cleand up round the drivers upper firewall and finished of welding round it. That went nice and quickly with the welder behaving itself. I then drilled all the remaining holes in the seat back pannel I am getting a bit sick of 4mm holes now.

Anyway, that done I cut out the passenger firewall pannel and trimmed it to fit. spurred on by my progress I cut down the tunnel top to size, and with it clamped to the front TR chassis rail I tapped over the two edges which turned out quite well so far. Just needs a bit of trueing when I find my flat pannel hammer..

Quiet Chuffed, soon be onto something other than pannel work :)

TT

Well done Rob :)

Drilling holes is a pet hate of mine.

I bet you will be pleased when all of that lot is done, pitty your little uns are too small to swing a drill :D

Expect like me, you are dagging to do some of the intersting jobs like setting the engine up :)

Keep resisting the urge to drag the wiring loom out for a play :D

I got a different supply of evil gunge, and suffice to say that I was having trouble stoping it commign out :rolleyes: .

So...

The drivers bulkhead welding was finished, the seat back was fitted with rivits and not so evil gunge. The passenger bulkhead was fitted.

The Trans tunnel main top and forward top have been put in using rivnuts ( how awesome are they!! )

I have started preping the headlamp mounts and have bolted in the pedal box for it's trial fit..

Even now planning the purchase of the bodywork before christmas.


No photo's , will get one after the next bit of progress.





brum brum brum...

TT

Nice one Rob :)

Using a different brand of evil stuff can work wonders, I bet your arms are glad of the rest mate :D

Looking forward to some pictures ;)

Rivnuts are great & even more awesome if you have an air opperated, Avdel gun to put them in with :D

Headlamp mounts are now fabricated and in place :)

I think tomorrow I better spend a little time tidying up as there is crap everywhere. Then I can take a pic for you all :)

TT

little slack on the reports...

I have swung in the engine, the gearbox despite being a Type 9 sits very close to the drivers tunnel. I think the V6 one may be a little wider. So I am trying to get the box as far over as possible. the standard box mounts are not much use in the stock placing.

The clearance of the engine to the bonnet looks close, but looks like it will work.
I am having some plates made up to bolt to the block for the engine mountsand once that is done I can get the engine properly level, then see how far forward I can get it to give more clearance for the clutch arm.

So soon I will have to order some bodywork.

The exhaust manifolds are also an issue so I have ordered flanges to make new manifolds.

Test fitted a Headlamp as well on Thursday, need to sort a couple of little things but i think they should fit up well.

So just chipping away at little bits,

Did I say I have bolted in the pedal box for first fit? that's in OK. and made a start on the fuel and brake lines. Tunnel tops are finished too.

TT

Have had a couple of minor issues that I need to resolve.

My shock bodies touch the mounts, I think I will be swapping shocks.

I have two identical diff plates, but the supplier is happy to resolve that when I pop in for some other bits and bobs.

My headlamp tubes are narrower than the two plates on the headlamp's so I need to trim them & probably weld them together so they look ok. I am making a special tool to do up the retaining nut while the wires are in situe as an open ring spanner will not fit my design as it stands.

TT

Have had a couple of minor issues that I need to resolve.

My shock bodies touch the mounts, I think I will be swapping shocks.

I have two identical diff plates, but the supplier is happy to resolve that when I pop in for some other bits and bobs.

My headlamp tubes are narrower than the two plates on the headlamp's so I need to trim them & probably weld them together so they look ok. I am making a special tool to do up the retaining nut while the wires are in situe as an open ring spanner will not fit my design as it stands.

TT