Build Officially Started!

[Tatey]

I haven't had a chance to do much work to the car over the past week as a few of my mates are back from uni and I've been busy mountain biking, visiting a car show, learning how to row and more importantly, spending time at the pub!

However today I went to my mates house and he gave me a hand sorting out my scuttle as it needs all of the excess fibreglass cutting off with a dremel as well as applying a bit of clear gel coat to a few air bubbles in my carbon aeroscreen. I also decided while I was there that we'd try and make a boot panel and dashboard, so I've now ordered some carbon fibre fabric, some epoxy, a bit of 3mm coremat and finally some mould release wax. The plan is to have the top ply carbon fibre, the next coremat with a couple of plys of fibreglass on top, that way it should look like carbon but bring the cost down as fibreglass is about £5 per square meter compared to £30 of carbon fibre...

The plan is to make them next weekend so I will see how it goes and take some photos of the process. But hopefully I will have a carbon dash and boot panel for £85 with some carbon left over.

[Tatey]

Well it's been a busy summer working at the Olympics and back down at Triumph but I got back on Friday and started uni on Monday but have finally managed to do some work on my car! The fuel tank securing brackets are now finished, they are made out of 3mm x 40mm aluminium with some 3mm x 50mm rubber strip between the tank and the brackets to make Mr IVA man happy, I was surprised at how good they came out, they seem to look the business and the tank is going no where! I just need to make some compression limiters for the top bolts and they will be complete.

I have also moved the position of the fuel line and brake hoses that were running very close to the gearbox (they were touching...), I just need to cut out a recess in the aluminium strip for the reverse switch and they will be complete.

I think my next task will be to run the wiring, secure it in place and then continue making body panels.

I have held off making the carbon fibre as I am currently trying to locate a vacuum pump I can use as my test piece contained a lot of pin holes in the surface which I wasn't too happy about, so I think the wait will be worth it. I think my university has one, so I just need to find someone who will let me use it.

[voucht]

Good to see you back Simon.
I tried to find you in the crowed while I was watching the Olympics, but no chance
The fuel tank brackets look very nice indeed. Like it
I will PM you about the loom you ordered for your Roadster.

[Tatey]

Well I've now ordered my propshaft from Dunning & Fairbanks for a total cost of £138 delivered including delivery, it should be here in a week or two.

I have also started the task of running the loom and its safe to say it is going to require a bit of a learning into car electrics! I don't think it's going to be too difficult but I've never really done any wiring before so it's all new to me. I am first looking into the routing as I have now figured out what each part of the loom does, and then I will get it all in place with p-clips and then start crimping components together once I buy a decent set of crimps.

[spud69]

Good luck with the loom it can be quite daunting at first. Remove as little as possible, the car audio system, electric windows and central locking is easily removed and takes out quite a bit of the loom. But dont forget you've got a lot of room in the scuttle to tie away the excess in the loom and can be done quite neatly.

All the Best........Andrew

[Tatey]

Spud, I took the easy option and ordered one from Premier Looms, £170 well spent if you ask me...it comes with wiring instructions with all of the colour codes on it so should be relatively easy to do, whether it is is another mater .

[alga]

Eeek! My body loom is about 10 wires running along the transmission tunnel to the rear lights, fuel sender and fuel pump, about 10 wires running to the front lights and radiator fan, Sierra's fusebox in the middle, and a reshaped engine loom. Took a while to sort out, but was not complex at all. I don't see how a pre-fabricated loom could justify such a cost, you will still have to splice it with stalks, senders, switches, etc.

[Tatey]

I didn't have a sierra loom to start with Alga and I priced up building my own, bearing in mind I wanted all of my cables to be different colours so it would be possible to fault find at a later date along with a couple of small fuse holders etc with all of the crimps needed along with the trunking, cable ties etc it seemed stupid not to go for the ready made loom.

[Tatey]

I've now finished my right hand side tunnel panel and fitted my OBP passenger footrest, I was going to start the rear tub and other panels this weekend but have decided that I will wait until my 10m of corrugated cardboard arrives (only cost £5 so I think it should be worth it. I've also ordered some rivnuts and some more nuts, so I should be able to start fitting bodywork shortly.

[Tatey]

Quick update, I've been working on the rear panel as of late and it's safe to say I need some more practice at sheet metal work as I'm not that good at the minute, but hopefully by the time I've finished all of the alu work on the car I will be a dab hand...I just need to sikaflex the panel and roll the bottom end and it will be complete.

My new exhaust has arrived as well, it is one from CBS that a member on LB sold to me for £110, it's in really good condition and has only covered about 3,500 miles (he bought a bigger one for his BEC install), it is also repackable and the mounting system can be hidden so it should look a lot better than my original silencer. I am hoping to make up a bracket for it this Saturday.

My propshaft also arrived late last week and has now been installed, which has also allowed me to tighten up the rear hub nuts so my rear wheels no longer wobble about like no ones business, they still need torquing up but I won't be able to do that until I run the handbrake cables.

I will try and get some pictures this weekend as it is starting to look a lot more car like now.