Well bits have started arriving now. On monday my harnesses and fuel filler cap arrived, on friday I picked up my seats, roll bar, fuel tank and alloys, here are the pictures of them on my car:

I've ordered a set of Toyo TR1 tyres to go on my alloys and they should hopefully be here this week.

My next job is to drill holes in the roll bar plates, as I made the mistake of trying to sit in the car and put the harness on and tighten the straps, which resulted in the roll bar toppling over and smacking me on the head...

The roll bar is 125mm taller than the book spec. It does look tall, but my head sticks a couple of inches above the seat tops and then if you add the extra height of a helmet then it makes sense to have it that height, it is a similar height to spuds.

You may already know but your front upper wishbones are upside down!

I didn't! Thanks very much Mark.

Well my 3M Di-noc carbon film arrived so I can improve the look of my centre caps. I'm not entirely sure I like the look yet, but for £4 for the sheet I can't complain, as new centre caps are £13 each! Please let me know what you think.







My Toyo TR1 tyres arrived earlier on and these will be getting fitted on Thursday, meaning that I will be able to get my car back on wheels after a very long wait.

Well my tyres are now fitted and I have to say I much prefer the look of them now.

Well I got sick of tripping over everything in the garage so chucked out 2.5 years of crap that I've accumulated, this included a lot of wood from old beds that I thought 'may come in handy...'. And while it was nice and tidy I thought I might as well put the wheels on and get it out in the open! So here are the pictures:

Looking good mate... have you trial fit the engine and gearbox yet?

Engine and gearbox have been in installed before, but I took them out to finish welding a few more brackets on and to primer the chassis. They will be going back in once the seat mounts have been made and the roll bar rear stays are in, as well as the welding of a few other bits then the chassis can be primed again and then painted and then the floor can be put in.

I ordered the aluminium yesterday and it came to a grand total of £202 inc VAT and delivery. however that was for 1 sheet of 2500x1250 5251 2mm and 2 sheets of 2500x1250 1.2mm 1050. I was shocked at the price as I got a quote before christmas of £176, for 3 sheets of 1050 and 1 of 5251 inc vat but this didnt include delivery.

Quick update from me, I've put the engine and gearbox back in the car for the time being as I got annoyed at tripping over the engine. My aluminium inlet manifold arrived from FastDan over at locostbuilders, my ZX6R carbs are also here so they have been bolted up to the head, I ordered some starrett hole saws last week which arrived early this week so I can cut out the hole for the sausage airfilter backing plate.

I've been making good progress on the pedal box which is nearly finished now, just need to finish the pedals and drill the holes for the master cylinder then fully weld.

I've also completed my roll bar which was quite a satisfying job to do.

I've recently been ordering a lot of parts ready for finishing exams at the end of May so I can get a good 6 weeks worth of work done on the car, brake pads arrived yesterday, which upon fitting I found out one of my calipers is seized, quick phone to my local motorfactors revealed they have a reconditioned pair in stock that they wanting rid of so are happy to sell them to me for £25 each, which seems like a good deal as they are £40 on ebay (£15 if you return your current set and then postage on top of that).

My clutch cable arrived today and I think my headlights (from SVC) and front indicators were attempted to be delivered earlier so I should get them tomorrow, my handbrake cable should hopefully arrive tomorrow as well.

Finally I've ordered a loom from Premier Looms for £160, which will be arriving in 2-3 weeks, I was originally planning on making my own loom, but thought life is too short and I don't really enjoy electrics so thought I should make my life a bit simpler and buy one off the shelf and hopefully get my car on the road sooner.

Next on the list is some more steel so I can make mounts for the passenger seat and some aluminium strip to secure the fuel tank + run some strip down to transmission tunnel for the loom, brake lines and fuel lines.

Then I'll be measuring up and ordering the propshaft, and brake and fuel lines. and putting then painting the chassis + putting the floor in.

Hi Simon, Waoh, I'm very impressed by all the work you've done since our last contact: congrats!

So I expect to hear from you soon? :rolleyes:
Keep up the good work!
Regards.
Sylvain

Sylvain, you'll definitely be hearing from me shortly, I think around the start of June you'll have an order coming your way.

There's a company in Brampton called DR Prop that may be worth speaking to for your prop.

TT

Looks ace mate!, I absolutley lüüüüürve them carbon centre caps very nice work :)

Well I've made quite a bit of progress since the 10th. The pedal box is now finished (just needs fully welding). I have measured up my brake line and fuel lines and the order of that has gone in with Sylvian on the forum, I'll be paying for them on Monday so hopefully I'll have them to fit shortly. I decided to get the brake lines done in red to suit the car so hopefully they will look good, if not it's a lot of money to spend on something I may not like :eek:.

My brake reservoir has arrived along with the clevis pin for my brake pedal and I picked up a load of fasteners from my local bolt supplier (last time I'll be using them as I gave him a list of things I wanted and I got a load of compromises back so have ended up re-ordering a few fasteners online so I know what I'm getting.

I've now moved the chassis rail back to allow the standard thermostat housing to fit in, I've braced it quite a lot so hopefully I won't have lost much strength there, but even with the extra 25mm of clearance it inst actually possible to take the bottom thermostat housing bolt out unless you pull the engine forward, annoying, but it'll have to do and I doubt it'll be coming out anyway. I did contemplate getting an after market water rail but they cost around £200 and it really didn't seem worth it.

After having a play in the garage earlier on today it because apparent that the type 9 rubber gearbox mount is way to soft, and when using the standard coil pack bracket it is possible for the bracket to contact the chassis rail if you put some force into the gear box, the mount looks like it's on its last legs anyway so I've decided to buy one of the much stiffer Caterham gearbox mounts (£15 inc VAT), which should arrive next week. It does mean re-doing my gearbox mounts but it shouldn't take too long.

http://www.caterhamparts.co.uk/produ...?id_product=85

The picture shows the underside of the mount and the v slot is on the other side, I will also be using a standard M12 bolt to fix the mount to the gearbox to increase the ground clearance when compared to the standard Ford part.

I also paid a visit to gaz05 from the forum today and he very kindly gave me a new metal inlet gasket for my 1.8 zetec and a throttle position sensor that I need for my megajolt setup.

So the next things on the list for my build are to get hold of more steel for the passenger seat mounts, order a megajolt system and fit the new gearbox mount and then order the propshaft. The new gearbox mounts and the passenger seat mounts are the only brackets left to go onto the chassis, once they have been done I can flip the chassis and fully weld it all, finish priming it and then paint it ready for the floor to go on.

My mates seem keen to give me a hand on the car and after starting the car nearly 3 years ago I think it's time I let them!

If anyone would like any pictures of anything then please feel free to give me a shout, I think I will also take a video of the current standard gearbox mount movement and then another one when I get the caterham mount.

While out in the garage videoing the gearbox movement thought I might as well take a picture:



And here is a video showing the severity of the gearbox movement, I'm looking forward to seeing how much better the Caterham mount is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dexfmtMJ974&hd=1

Tr5
 

Hi Tatey, thats a really nice looking build you got there, I have a question, TR5 isnt there, are you leaving that out permanently? Apart from that is the chassis book spec?

Apologies if you've covered it in the blog, I just went through it all but didnt see it.

Bruce

Simon,if you speak to Ginetta in Leeds and ask for the stat housing they use in the G20 they are about £40 and very short and low profile.
You may be able to see it on the Teamtrain pics on NTS website.

Have you got the large cup washer on the gearbox bolt.

Rally Design mount is the dogs bits and is what was fitted to the Teamtrain car I built.

TR5 is the engine bay diagonal cross member I think? I was originally going for a CVH engine install and it was recommended that this wasnt put in as the engine wouldnt fit with it in and when I stripped it down it was proved to be a dud so I ended up going for a zetec engine instead, I've been waiting to finish my inlet system so I can see if I can put this back in, which I think in the next few days I'll have a look and see if it can.

But other than that it is a book spec chassis, other than the roll bar which has been extended due to my height (6'5"), its been increased in height by 125mm.

I did consider the Rally Design mount but at £45 + VAT and delivery it didn't really seem worth it.

If only I knew about the Ginetta stat housing a few weeks ago! Ah well, the new stat is in so I'll leave it at that for the moment, it should mean I don't have any cooling issues since it is stock.

Thanks for that, I'm trying to get my head around if I can use a standard chassis around a V8 (I'm hoping so) and TR5 looks like it would probably be in the way for me too. I feel better now about the possibility that it can be removed, was it recommended to add shorter bracing on either side?

I have to say I don't know many people with TR5 in and they haven't put in any shorter bracing in. I know some people have shoe horned the Sierra V6 engine in there so I'm sure a V8 will be more than possible as there is plenty of room lengthways. I think if I can't add TR5 back in then I will add some shorted braces between the outer rail and the transmission tunnel rails, but put them on both sides so long as they don't get in the way of anything.

thank you, thats a big help :)

Well the brake line/fuel line/brake reservoir hose + p-clips and hose joiner order is in! £260 spent and countless days and emails spent with Sylvain (Voucht) making sure everything was correct.

I've ordered a full set of stainless braided brake lines with separate bulk head connection down the transmission tunnel, meaning that I've got a total of 9 brake lines coming (4 corner lines, M/C to N/S + O/S (which is in 2 parts for hydraulic brake switch), M/C down to handbrake bracket, handbrake bracket to O/S rear brake bracket T-piece and then N/S rear brake bracket.) all brake hoses are coloured red with a PVC coating which means they wont rub on anything so my IVA should be happy.

Next I've ordered 4m of stainless braided nitrile fuel hose with aluminium hose covers/clamp which look like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AN4-4-12MM...#ht_1739wt_929

As well as some braided brake fluid reservoir filler hose as I have a remote reservoir, with some more of the above hose covers/clamps.

Then finally a rear t-piece, P-clips for both the brake lines and fuel lines and finally shipping to the UK.

All in £260 for all of my brake lines and fuel lines seems like a good deal to me especially the quality that they will be and I think they will really make the car. I will post a picture when they arrive later this week.

Well my parts from Caterham arrived today including the new gearbox mount, I've taken the old one off and fitted the new one to the gearbox, but will have to make new mounts for it later this week, however it is resting on top of the old mounts at the minute and its safe to say it has made a massive difference!

Where before I could move the box up and down with my hand on top of the gear stick or my foot on the end of the box, i now have to fully stand on top of the box and jump up and down to get any movement!

I will try and get a comparison video when I have the new mounts in.

Also on a side note....why does it seem that fastener suppliers can't get orders right?! The new fasteners I ordered for my air filter backing plate also arrived today, they came in a pack of 12 for some M5x25mm cap head stainless fasteners, however 3 of the fasteners were actually M5x15....luckily I only needed 8 for my backing plate, but still...is it honestly that hard?

I have to say the only positive fastener supplier I've had so far is Orbital Fasteners, it's just a shame their postage is so much.

Well I finished my last exam of 3rd year for my degree today and I got back to find my brake and fuel lines had arrived! Impressed doesnt get near to my opinion of them. They are very high quality and I think they will definitely look the business on my car. I haven't had a chance to get them fitted but I will try and do it tomorrow and take some pictures. Here are the pictures of what I got:









I've now painted my gearbox satin black, it was far too hot in the garage over the weekend so decided to take the engine and box out to give it a lick of paint, it looks a lot better now and I'll get some pictures up tomorrow. Still need to make the new gearbox mount, just need to find where I put my left over 5mm plate...

My rear light clusters, number plate light and aluminium passenger foot rest have been ordered from SVC so they should arrive at some point this week.

I ordered a new oil filter for my engine as I managed to dint my one, however the one that has arrived is the longer style which I don't think will fit as it will hit the steering column so I may have to order a new one. It only cost £4 so its that much of a problem.

I should start making a lot more progress on the car now that my dissertation and exams are out of the way.

Shiny bits :)

I like shiny bits as well. That overbraid stuff just adds a nice touch to an engine bay:) http://www.minispares-online.co.uk/?...4&prod_id=2299

Bob

I like these shiney bits too I believe my brake and fuel lines will be coming from sweden when the time comes

Quick update before I go on holiday for 10 days.

My mate came round to help me the other day and we managed to get quite a lot done, the new gearbox mount is in now and it is safe to say the new mount is 100% better than the old one, the gearbox moves a couple of mm, compared to the mass amounts of movement in the old one.

I've put another bulkhead bracket underneath the handbrake bracket for my brake lines, I decided on this as I felt it was a neater solution.

Welds were ground down to allow for bodywork/aluminium panels to be fitted.

I finally got round to buying some more steel and I have nearly finished mounting my passenger seat. I just need to profile some spaces so that the runners sit flat against the seats then weld in the mounts. Once this is done then I just need to weld in a few tube ends and then flip the chassis, and fully weld the brackets that have been put on recently.

The chassis can then be primed and painted satin black ready for the floor to be fitted.

I also popped round to NTS yesterday and managed to pick up all of the bodywork for my car for £205 (Nose cone, scuttle, front cycle wings, rear arches, bonnet and a carbon aeroscreen), they are all seconds and require a small amount of work but should look good. As they are all different colours I will be wrapping them in vinyl and have ordered this in tomato red (£65 for 6x1.5m of cast automotive vinyl inc VAT and delivery, which is enough vinyl to do the entire car) as well as some wing stays from ebay (I'm starting to get sick of fabrication and at £43 they were a bargain in my eyes), and finally I've ordered some body filler to fill in a few chips/cracks on the bodywork. The carbon aeroscreen has a few problems like a large air bubble in the top left hand corner and the carbon weave hasnt gotten into the front edge of the mold so there is a large amount of resin there, so I will be cutting the air bubble out and profiling the side to match, and then surround it all in edge trim and then give it all a polish and hopefully it should look quite good.

Another mate of mine has had experience with carbon fibre/fibre glass so he is going to give me a hand with the bodywork and I will post lots of pictures of the wrapping process in case anyone is interested in doing it.

Finally I've ordered of custom Roadster grills from this thread which I think will make the car look really nice:

http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8105

Any questions just give me a shout.

Tatey where did you order your vinyl wrap from?

Terry

It's been ordered from here:

http://www.mdpsupplies.co.uk/vehiclewrapping.asp

Someone on Locost Builders recommend it as he wrapped his motorbike in it and said it was fine to use so should be perfect for the roadster. I was originally going to go for 3M stuff but at around £200 vs £65 it didn't seem worth it.

Thanks :)

Terry

Hi Simon,
Could you post a picture of the bracket you welded under CP14 for the bulkhead fitting of the rear central brake line please? I'm very curious about it :-)
Thanks.
Sylvain

Sylvain, I will take a couple of pictures of the bracket later on today and post them up.

A quick update on my build, I've been away for the past 2 weeks travelling around Europe covering 2,500 miles, so not that much progress has been made.

However I managed to mount the passenger seat yesterday which was a lot easier than the driver seat since I knew what I was doing, I have welded the end caps to the open chassis tube on the front roll bar mounts. This now just leads me into stripping everything from the chassis, priming it and painting it.

I have got my tomato red vinyl that I will be using to cover the car, it has a very slight pinkish tinge to it, but I guess I'll see how it looks and I can always change it at a later date, being £60 and all it won't be too much of an issue. The body filler also arrived so when I am waiting for the chassis to dry I will be working on the bodywork.

My loom also arrived from Premier looms and it looks very good, I can see now it would have taken a lot of work to get a loom of the quality they have provided.

So at the minute there isn't much I need to buy to make a lot of progress on the car, I've got the next 3 weeks free and then the army is paying me to get my C+E licence (£2500s worth...) so that should be good, then I head off to the Olympics for 4 weeks with the army to provide security, then the weekend after getting back I then go to work for Triumph Motorcycle for 5 weeks then the weekend after I get back I go back to uni, so the next 3 weeks are the only real time I'll have to work on my car so I am seeing that I may ever day count! I've also got a couple of friends who are keen to give me a hand, so that should speed things up somewhat.

Well I've managed to make a fair bit of progress over the past few days, I have finished welding my chassis, primed it, and painted it satin black, I have cut out the floor and started drilling the holes for it and temporarily securing it using cleco fasteners, I still need to drill quite a few holes and then primed and repaint some chassis members where I have been modifying the floor to fit perfectly against the chassis.

Here is a picture of the mess my garage is in at the minute, the pile of parts that I've been building over the past few months can be seen at the back, all of the bodywork, seats and roll bar have had to be moved into the green house so I could paint and fit the floor to the chassis:



I have been working on my bodywork as well and have sorted out one of the rear wings by filling in chips and removing scratches, I attempted to wrap it however I am still learning how to use it and I think I have it cracked now but I managed to over stretch the vinyl and put 2 holes in it so it will need to come off and I will start again, but here is a picture of it half way through:

Well the floor is now in place and the engine is back in, here are a couple of pictures of it, it seems very study with minimal flex, I used 2mm 5251 grade ali for the floor with rivets placed every 50mm, I was surprised at how quickly I managed to rivet it in place, it took about 45 minutes from putting the sikaflex on to putting in the last rivet.





Also my mate came round and gave me a hand re-wrapping the rear wheel arch, it was so much easier with 2 people, one to hold the vinyl/use the heat gun and the other to smooth it down, it did take an hour and a half to do though, but I am happy with the results. I think I will be putting some edge trim around the edge of the wheel arch just to finish it off and prevent the vinyl from moving.



The next job on the list is to do the interior panels and run brake, fuel and electrical lines, I am ordering some aluminium strip from Aalco at the minute so I can do lines over the weekend.

I've managed to put my first brake line in this morning, it is safe to say I need to buy another riveter as my Stanley riveter isn't up to the job of dealing with 4.8mm aluminium (steel mandrel) rivets as it required way too much strength to put those three rivets in, and I injured myself every time it did put them in as one of my hands would smack off a piece of chassis. So the plan is to get one of the lazy tongue riveters later on. I do however need to buy a rivnut to secure the T-piece for the hydraulic brake switch.

But I have to say I am very impressed with the brake lines from Sylvain!



Let me know what you think.

Wow :eek: very nice indeed :cool:

Your garage looks ..errmmm FULL :D ...be nice when all those parts get fitted :cool:

Nice work Tatey

cheers
andy