2.0 Zetec Turbo Roadster Build

[nickharding]

Hi all.

Just a little background on myself.

I am a 19 year old man who lives in a smallish village called Rhoose, this is located just 1 mile from Cardiff International Airport. The skills I have acquired i learnt from my older brother and my father. I have always been pretty good with my hands and have always been involved in Motorsport. Since I was a young kid I was always interested in karting, but now i have grown up a bit I have decided I need something more suitable.

After doing lots of reading I have decided that this is the car I want to build. My future brother in law owns an R1 powered westfield which I have spent a fair amount of time in, but after being realistic with myself I soon realised that this was out of my budget range.

I will be building this car to help advertise my business.

My business is called "The Turbo People" and I disassemble, inspect and diagnose, clean, machine, balance and rebuild turbochargers for Fast Road, Performance and Commercial Automotive applications. I also offer a shot/media blasting service.

The car will have business advertisements displayed on it (not to much) but will also be used for personal use on the weekends and sunny evenings, so will need to be road legal.

Before I started reading this forum, I went and downloaded "the book" online. Soon after downloading this I learnt from AshG that (quoted...) ..

"If you like the book and fancy building a car from it maybe you should think about buying the book like the rest of us. I don't want to come across as mean to a new member/builder but the sales of the book are essentially what pay for this nice forum that brings us all together to share loads of information. Also Chris that wrote the book isn't very well and has no income other than the small royalty check he gets every six months. we all love getting things for free off the internet, its great but if the book dies so does the forum."

As soon as the weekend was over I went and purchased the book from "Halfrauds" and spent the next 3 evenings reading through it and preparing my self for what tools I will need and what skills will be required. After having a good old read I realised that I have all of the tools and skills to complete this task. The first thing I did was ring my father and ask him to bring home lots of 3mm sheet and a couple of bits of 5mm sheet, so I could start making the chassis plates.

The pictures are taken in my fathers garage by my younger brother, there will soon be some of my business garage (where the chassis will be put together) next to the westfield.

Not bad for an afternoons work considering all i used was a hand and bench grinder. Pics..









Gotta start somewhere, will continue these tomorrow.

I did take a picture of the log burner i built for my father, but the limit of 4 photos wont allow me to show it.

All the best,

Nick.

[Jimmyd]

Hi Nick,

Good luck with the build, see you're going about it the hard way i.e. cutting all plates from sheet. Have to say laser cutting makes life much easier, so long as it doesnt put you off the rest of the build!!!!!

J

[Talonmotorsport]

Would have to agree with doing things the hard way then again not every body has access to a £250,000 laser cutter or a guillotine that cuts 3mm sheet.

[Jimmyd]

Originally Posted by Talonmotorsport

Would have to agree with doing things the hard way then again not every body has access to a £250,000 laser cutter or a guillotine that cuts 3mm sheet.

True. But some things are much easier to buy than make. If I ever decided to do this again I wouldn't even build the chassis, I'd let you do it :-)

J

[ayjay]

Second that

[Deanno]

Hi Nick,
It's good to see a fellow builder on here from Wales I'm in Cardigan and i know David Murray is from Cardiff way and there are a few others.

I must say if you need any help the boys on here are fantastic oh and Mrs Vmax

If ever you are up this way call in the kettle is always on.

Regards
Dean

[nickharding]

My fathers work has a laser cutter, but he is a lathe operator and finds it hard to find "free time" to go and use it. So the other option is to cut it out manually. Suppose it gives me a much bigger sense of achievement.

Decided to tackle CP3 & 4 today, but after completing them and sitting down with a beer looking back over my work. I realised that I have done something wrong. Or at least I think I have done something wrong? I made 2 x the diagram. Although once I laid them out on the floor, they didn't line up once side by side. I think I should have mirrored the diagram? Can someone confirm that this is what I have done wrong?

If that is the case at least one of them will be of use and one as a spare.



Cheers.

Thanks for the offer Dean. Will have to take you up on that once its all built and up and running!

[nickharding]

Decided I am just going to cut these nuts off and weld up the holes. Want to weld my roll bar in place.

Cheers.

[Davey]

Hi Nick and welcome to the forum and the wonderful orld of Haynes builders. I only really have one comment for you at the moment and that is buy some safety goggles and gloves for goodness sake . Its too late when you've lost a finger or an eye. Well done with making the chassis plates by hand.

D.

[nickharding]

Hi Davey,

I was wearing goggles when using the grinder as seen in picture 1, and then the bench grinder has a sheild fitted already.

Going to cut those nuts off when i get home later on and just weld the holes up. As i said last night i am going to just weld the roll bar into the car. Much stronger that way.