hand is still killing me. found it hard going fiting the fuel pump with dave the other day. the biggest problem is that its on the bloomin joint and keeps cracking open and pissing blood everywhere when i move my hand. on the plus side its not swolen any more. glad to hear your mending better than me :D

threaded bar is nice and cheep in screwfix. dont use it for anything other than doing your brackets though as its not high tensile. if you had mentioned it when you were up you could have took some of mine as it was surplus to requirements aftr i had done my sus brackets.

Mate there was so much I should have ‘picked up’ when I was at yours, almost worth popping over again.:D

Nicky keeps plastering on the E45 cream which seems to help.:)

Have you got a job yet?:(

I know the deliver is high but would
this be any good?

She was watching X factor so I have had some internet time on my hands!

8.8 Grade Theaded rod is high tensile and suitable for rear wishbone to upright through bolt use. cheers

30 Nov 09

No more further forward with the car however today was the day I had arranged to go over to Swindon to pick up the £150 Sierra.:D The girl text me this morning to say see left the log book in Staffordshire, that’s OK I thought I can cope with that. Then she says it is a 2l not 1.8 now it is a 93 so I know deep inside it is going to be a DOHC with an MT75 gearbox,:mad: just threders. Anyway Nicky and I made the trip over all the same, my theory being she (the girl not Nicky) has made mistakes already maybe she has got the year wrong and it is a pinto! NO as suspected it was a 2l DOHC, so I walked away.

Now I don’t know whether to keep my current £300 budget in the bank in case a car comes up or spend the money with 3GE to get all the wish bones and take advantage of the free delivery.

I am going to ponder in the garage whilst removing some weld splatter!!

i,d go for getting your wishbones etc, you might end up waiting for ages for the right donor to come along, so gives you time to save up some more pennies ;)
plus once you have your wishbones already to assemble & a donor comes along you,ll be able to get your Roadster on wheels double quick:cool:

andy
:)

It was the same when i was looking could only find 2lt dohc :rolleyes:

Thats why i paid over the odds for mine when i found one (£400:eek: )

But it was a 1.8cvh with only 65k all documented so i just went for it

In any other circumstances i wouldnt dream of spending that on a crusty sierra but when you think of all the parts you get from it, it is worth it especially on a low miler.

Get your wishbones now and just keep on looking, im sure if one pops up after you have spent the money on wishbones you will still find the money to buy it ;) :D

As people always say one will pop up when you least expect it

Are you looking for pinto or cvh or either?! i will keep my eyes peeled

Good luck

Pinto or 1.8l CVH please, tell the world:D

Cheers Ginge

Actually cracked on a little this afternoon, I cut RS11 and 12 from 19 x 19 tube then realised they should be cut from 25 x 25 tube so took a breath and cut them from the correct size tube, and to my amassment they have another compound cut on one end, I am getting quite good at them now. Fully welded the suspension frame to CP1 and 2 as I flipped the chassis over to weld the underside of RS11 and 12.

The garage needs a good tidy up then I can start to construct CP3 and 4 on the weld table. I need to get a stock of nuts and bolts, I was thinking M8, 10 and 12 in full nut, Nylock nut complete with bolts in varying lengths, any top tips would be helpful.

01 Dec 09
Only two hours in the garage today, it is so cold; I think it is the concrete floor so I am going to invest in some of that rubber flooring. There was a bloke selling it at Exeter I should have got a strip.

In two hours today I have managed to fabricate the driver’s side upper suspension and roll bar mount, it was a labour of love but looks the part now and just requires welding to the chassis.

I will get a picture up later.

02 Dec 09
I managed the passenger side upper suspension and roll bar mount today, again only two hours in the garage. The suspension mount is quite a complicated piece of construction, it was quite enjoyable getting it right.

[IMG][/IMG]
03 Dec 09
I got the two suspension and roll bar mounts welded to the chassis today and also cut the ends of an AshG roll bar and got it welded on.
I have made a start on the very rear end using the plans from Dave, Mark(Gus) from the forum and so far it all looks good, thanks men.

[IMG][/IMG]
04 Dec 09
Friday morning and up at 04.30hrs to drive around the M25 to Kent to see Ash, we had a great day and I learnt loads also picked up the steel for the up-rights for the roll bar and the oval section for the head mounts.

05 Dec 09
No really work just spent some time removing weld splatter.

06 Dec 09
Works Christmas do last night so no work today felt like poo all day. I did manage to ‘win’ a Ford Sierra on Ebay. Finally it is a 1.8 CVH, good for a Zetec conversion later. I shot over to pay for it this evening and will pick it up tomorrow. Chuffed to bits to finally have a Sierra and it only cost me £150.

07 Dec 09
What a laugh this morning. Nicky and I drove over to get the Sierra. Firstly it didn’t start but luckily it was parked on a hill so I just dropped the hand break and rolled it to bump it, no pushing required, then it ran out of petrol on the way home, so back home, back to the Sierra, then it wouldn’t start again so out with the jump leads in the pouring rain with Nicky sat in the Renault laughing at me. We did finally get it home, it runs and pulls well. The battery is now charging.
[IMG][/IMG]
I am going to keep an eye on the weather as I will be dismantling the Sierra on the drive and I am not doing it in the rain! Air box of first then loads of pictures and loosen the rear hub nuts!

Some nice progress on your build Ginge :)

Well done on finding your donor :cool:

Just goes to show......There are still a few reasonably priced ones out there ;)

Enjoy your stripping :D

Cheers Ronnie,

I'm really looking forward to stripping:eek:

looking good Ginge, progress is swift :cool:

hey behave !!! £150 for your donor !!!!! you,ll get a reputation like me if your not careful ......... a tight git :o

thats what i paid for my donor too;)

cheers
andy

well done mate that sierra looks ok. must have been one of the last ones on a j plate. like the roll bar :D

Bargain! :D

Chassis's looking really good.

Kind regards

John

Still reckon I win for bargain sierra doner - paid £50 for it, drove it home, then found £15 in change in the glove compartment!

Cheers

Adrian

I have come up with what might be a hair brain scheme, so I thought I would bounce the idea around to gauge opinion.

I want to work on the Sierra at home not at work, you always need the one tool that you didn’t bring with you, obviously once you have removed the front or rear wheel stations the car becomes pretty immovable. My plan, to enable me to be able to move the car in and out of the garage and for the scrappy to be able to drag the thing up my drive, is to weld some large casters on to the sills.

Then I would be able to stick the roadster chassis on the roof of the Sierra and work in the garage on the Sierra.

I have not explained that very well but I am sure you get my drift

I have just had a look at Machine Marts
heavy duty castorsand they are not very ‘heavy duty’ 113kg

Shopping trolley castors are what you need, they have a huge rating, not that i'd condone pinching a shopping trolley mind.........:rolleyes: :D

Kind regards

John

i feel like i was ripped off now :eek: :D

andy

sorry Ginge....good idea about a rolling donor :cool:

Cheers John,

I know where there is a stream that could do with a shopping trolley removing from it. Doing my public service and all that.

Andy,

I think the amount of stuff we got for our £150 is fantastic.:D There are people selling 1.8 CVH engines on the bay for £500!:eek:

Cheers Ginge

My first donor was free + it had 3/4 of a tank of fuel :eek: :)

On the downside...............I only found £1.15p in loose change :( :D

That looks the same as my sierra did, same colour/engine/age

Mine ran sweet as a nut so felt guilty for the first 5mins of ripping it to pieces :D systematically ripped to bits of course ;)

If you are using the loom make a good job of labelling it and storing it for when you need it. I spent a full day carefully removing the whole thing in one piece and very neatly labelling it.

I have just recently stripped the loom down and got it in the roadster at the weekend, the labels really helped make sense of it quickly

Looking good Ginge - don't forgot to cash the tax in if there is any left - got £50 back on mine :D

Hi Ginge, was looking at your roll bar and suspension mount assembly and had a thought. For those nuts there and also for lower harness mounts would be very comfortable to use special weld nuts. They just need a bit larger hole but are self centering and easy to fixate. Here's a linkey with drawing and dimensional table http://www.deepri.com/din_specificat...Weld-Nuts.html. I design conveyors every day and we use them a lot. Don't know how available those are over you, but should be.

good find that is mopple. wish i had those when i did my car.

Weld nuts
 

I used weld nuts on mine .......... Mind you, only because I had them on my shelf ;) :D

They are quite usefull though, less likely to pull when being welded & keep nice n square :)

08 Dec 09

I am not quite sure what I did today but it defiantly wasn’t work on the roadster and the strip light in the garage blew!

09 Dec 09

I finished of the modified rear end and shaped the bar that the upper seat belt inserts go into, which is what the following picture is showing, also it shows my thoughts for the roll bar stays.

[IMG][/IMG]

I am thinking of running them from roll bar right down to the bottom of the rear end. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

My 6 year old James took the picture and it doesn’t look to bad, I might employ him when it comes to documenting the Sierra strip, as my wife has already said she is not spending a day in the cold garage!

Looking good ginge.

I did something very similar with my rollbar, except the rear stays were a bit more inboard than where you are holding them.

Have a look at the pic I put up in a previous post.
http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/attac...4&d=1258721348

Cheers

Gus

The top of my stays are more or less in the same place



I have placed the bottom of the stay on the top of the rear panel hoop & will fabricate a brace to go from the bottom of the stays to tie into the rear diff mounting frame :)

That’s still looking really RED Ronnie, thanks,

Gus, I see what you are saying, I have just realised I haven’t attached D12 and D13 yet. I think I will get them done tomorrow then decide if I am going to go to the outside edge of the rear end or butted up to D13 like yours.

Great isn’t it designing as we go, just fantastic.

Cheers Ginge

Ginge,
the bottom of your back stays will be the same as mine but the top i am putting "in" the corner of the bend of the roll bar, don,t know why, just feels right.

chassis looking smart :cool:

got a good camera man there ;)

andy:)

16 Dec 09

Well it has been awhile since my last update. I have been in the garage almost every day, bar weekends, which is ‘family time apparently!’ I only manage an hour or two some days and then others I get six.

I stopped messing around with the roll bar and completed the rear end welding on D12 and CP7 was OK but as I have gone for constructing the rear end to accommodate the fibre glass rear tub D13 was at a different angle and length. I used CP9 for the bottom of the roll bar stays only in a different location.

[IMG][/IMG]

The roll bar cross member required the ends re-profiling as they were not in line with each other, then I had to drill the holes for the upper seat belt mounts, as purchased from 3GE. Now I should have really used a pillar drill but as I don’t have one or have access to one I set to by hand. First a small pilot hole right through the cross member so I could see how far of I was then opened up with an angry big drill then opened up a little more with a stepped drill then finally a grinding wheel on my dremmal. The final hole was almost an interference fit which made it easier to weld up.



I then welded the cross member to the roll bar. I tightened the roll bar to the suspension mounts and held the cross member with to ratchet straps, when I took the bolts out to remove the roll bar the hole do not line up any more. They are out by about 3mm, I can pull everything back in line for re-fitting but it is just a little annoying having ensured that the roll bar was tightened down to avoid this exact problem. Ho Hum.

Steering column support, steering rack mount and all the suspension mounts to go then the Sierra is coming into the garage, from work, for its strip down.

Cheers Ginge

Some good progress there Ginge :cool:

I am amazed at just how clean & bright your chassis still looks, You must be working in a dry enviroment . :)

Don't beat yourself up about the roll bar pulling a little when you welded it.

Unfortunately a weld of this type is going to pull ........... I would be more concerned if it didn't

If the mounting plates have pulled inwards by only a few mm it's nothing a small trolley jack & sturdy bit of timber wouldn't sort out.
Give it a gentle tweak, it'll not stress the weld too much.

If they have pulled outwards a sturdy ratchet strap will do the job.

Looking good mate :)

That's how I've done my rollbar too ginge. When the chassis and suspension get back from the powdercoaters on monday (now that's what you call a good chrissie present from my wife!), I'll post some piccies. It's the same powdercoaters that Caterham use, so they know what they're up to.

Cheers

Adrian

very smart Ginge :cool:
you,ll be finished in no time at all at this rate.

andy

Adrian,

May I ask how much the powder coating was or is it a secret as it is a prezy

Cheers Ginge

Ginge

Foe chassis, rollbar, wishbones, uprights, pedal box and pedals, engine mounts, engine pullies, all the little brackets from the engine, calliper brackets for all four corners and the cam cover - £200

Bargain!

Cheers

Adrian

ginge rather than putting a jack on the roll bar plates just drill the holes out 1mm bigger. it will give you just enough room to get all the bolts in