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Post by ian on Mar 12, 2018 21:48:43 GMT
Well the bond bug but has only recently run out of MOT.!
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Post by trike on Mar 13, 2018 7:20:24 GMT
Still a few bond bugs about , nearly bought one myself many years ago.
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Post by trike on May 14, 2018 19:24:24 GMT
Over the last few weeks got a fair bit done,electrics finished apart from door wiring. Dash,instrument housing,and center console made,but not yet fitted. Alarm ,central locking system and remote boot release all sorted. Seperate immobiliser system installed, (Autowatch).Not cheap but like most modern cars,has a chip in the key fob,so no messing about with dongles,doodahs etc. Picked up a few goodies at Stoneleigh so got virtually everything needed to finish the car,apart from seatbelts & door seals. Whilst at the show,ordered a pair of seats (GT40 in leather)from Intertrim, 6 to 8 weeks for delivery, so hopefully will have interior finished by then. Started work on the doors,although not rusty,the metal hinge tube in the top of the doors was starting to come away,and the grp on top of the doors (inside & outside) has sunk,so need to sort that out. Managed to misplace one of the door hinge pins so decided if I have to make one,I may as well make all four,and if I'm doing that ,I may as well make them in stainless ,so, Never liked the door catches with the spikey bit sticking up,so have reversed them. Pin mounted in the door,and the now electronic catch fitted in the sill.
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Post by trike on May 19, 2018 19:13:59 GMT
Been sorting out the new steering wheel and quick release,couldn't find a short enough boss to fit the column and the adapter needed to fit the mountney steering wheel to the quick release costs around £50, so ended up making them myself.
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Post by trike on May 19, 2018 19:16:57 GMT
Making up a mounting base for the MX5 mirrors
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Post by biggles1 on May 19, 2018 20:33:17 GMT
Really good stuff. It's going be fantastic when finished.
John
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Post by Peter on May 20, 2018 17:47:22 GMT
Coming along really nicely, strange thing is my door hinges are the opposite, a pin in the roof and tubes on the body Still it all works either way but the stainless route was a good idea, wish I had the time and facilities to do the same. Wheel boss looks like a lot of work but fits nice.
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Post by trike on Nov 3, 2018 22:34:31 GMT
Been a while since my last post,busy at work so not much energy left at the end of the day to do much on the car. Haven't fitted the screen or seats yet but passenger side door and mirror is finished and all wired up,just the door card and arm rest to fit. Had some issues with the door hinges,to get the door top level with the roof requires 6mm spacers below the hinge,so will have to remake some with the pin mounted higher on the mounting plate.This will give more clearance to fit domed bolts up from the inside and the nut on top,which will make fitting the headlining easier. Had a bit of a re-think on the head lights. To get them high enough meant mounting them set right back in the wing,main beam was just about ok,but on dip, the beam pattern was terrible, wouldn'nt light up the road at all,no way it would pass an mot! So decided to go back to pop-up's. Not being able to find anything to fit the existing openings and not wanting to hack about the body now it's painted,decided to make my own,and came up with this... The lower opening will have daytime running lights fitted.
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Post by trike on Feb 25, 2019 21:36:13 GMT
Not much progress last couple of months, all the silicone coolant hoses started leaking again!.Had to remove them all and refit with good quality gasket sealant and heavy duty clamps.So far seems ok. Headlights all finished and working,very quick up/down,less than 1 second. Can't post any pics at the moment ,although photobucket seems to be back to normal,keeps asking me to confirm wrong email address,so can't upload,and now vgy.me is broken!
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Post by trike on Mar 19, 2019 21:40:03 GMT
New hinges Headlights Daytime running lights are a bit brighter than expected. Started on the drivers door... Lots of filler to dig out Had a wander around the yard next door and found.. Apparently it's being exported to Cyprus?
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Post by trike on Mar 20, 2019 20:52:21 GMT
Angle grinder made short work of the old filler,ready for glassing in.
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Post by Peter on Mar 21, 2019 15:14:07 GMT
TJG 628H
Ollie's old one from Dorset. EOC register number VWSS8
Tax due: 02 November 2018
Vehicle make: EAGLE SS Date of first registration: January 1970 Year of manufacture: 1970 Cylinder capacity (cc): 1192 cc CO₂Emissions: Not available Fuel type: PETROL Euro Status: Not available Export marker: No Vehicle status: Not taxed Vehicle colour: BLACK Vehicle type approval: Not available Wheelplan: 2-AXLE-RIGID BODY
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Post by trike on Mar 10, 2020 17:10:07 GMT
Can't believe it's been a year since my last post,time for a update! Had the engine running nicely but ,oil leak from sump gasket not sealing around the crank seal housings ,apparently a common problem with steel sumps for RWD zetec conversions. Whilst running the engine to check on the leak,the thermostat (new) decided not to play anymore ,resulting in blown head gasket Removing the head revealed a lot of oil in no2 inlet & exhaust ports (as in dripping out of the carb!),so I figured the overheating had cooked the valve stem seals. Had the head skimmed and pressure tested as it was warped. Removed the valves to fit new seals and ' oh ^*$$#@*% ',valve seats were non existent and stems and guides were totalled. A trip down to Specialised Engines Ltd in Grays,(Ford specialist) to have the seats replaced & phosphor bronze guides fitted & supply new valves. They see this problem a lot on zetecs due to poor quality unleaded and advised using super unleaded & lead additive. The oil leak from the sump was more of a problem,had to cut the crossmember out (welded in as part of chassis) to remove the engine. I will convert it to a 'bolt in' in case it has to be removed in future. Bores were ok but fitted new rings and replaced the main & big end bearings with h/duty race items ,new crankseals etc. Replaced the sump with cast aluminium one,so hopefully no more leaks. i n
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Post by Peter on Mar 11, 2020 13:31:44 GMT
Some serious stuff going on there, looking very good and all progress is good, must do some myself when everything stops getting in the way!
I see Ollie's old SS still doesn't have ab export marker against it, wonder if it's still there?
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Post by terryrob on Mar 11, 2020 21:11:28 GMT
A bit of bad luck there Trike, hope you can make Stoneleigh, I'd like to have a chat about the zetec rwd conversion.
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Post by trike on Jun 19, 2020 19:57:54 GMT
Slowly making progress,head skimmed, valve seats recut,new valvesand guides. Whilst engine was apart fitted new heavy duty big end & main bearings, new piston rings, seals etc. cross member is now bolt on.I was hoping to mount the steering rack lower to clear the slightly deeper sump but couldn't get the geometry right, so no option but to raise the engine 10mm to get sufficient clearance. Now the engine is all back together, decided to make a few 'minor' mods to the fuel system. Carbs replaced with throttle bodies Had to relocate the brake/clutch fluid reservoir, oil breather system and remake & reroute the a/c hoses. Lack of space under the bonnet means I've had to fit the fuel pumps,filters etc in the boot. Just need to fit another lambda sensor in the exhaust for the ecu (already one fitted for the afr gauge),and ready to fire up. Hopefully get it running over the weekend.
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Post by scooby on Jun 20, 2020 8:20:32 GMT
This is great stuff - inspirational! The engine overheat coupled with hellsih access to fix the oil leak would have seen many restorations shoved in the skip :-)
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Post by Peter on Jun 21, 2020 12:13:43 GMT
Very,very nice work. as many Earle's connections as mine, maybe more, looks great when a job is done properly.
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Post by trike on May 7, 2021 22:15:35 GMT
Long overdue for an update. Been very busy at work ,7 days a week, not enough time or energy left at the end of the day to do much,so progress has been painfully slow. However,electrics and mechanical side is finished,all up and running again. Fun getting the rev counter and speedo working correctly, set up correctly for 4 cylinder wasted spark running off the ecu ,rev counter was reading way too low.Had to set it as V8 to get the correct reading . Speedo was completely dead,no signal from sensor on rear wheel hub.Sensor came with no wiring diagram but only 3 wires so how hard can it be? red=positive supply , black=earth , blue=signal ,obviously, err no! turned out black= positive ,blue=earth , red=signal. Now working ,just need to calibrate it. Still had some heating issues,seems the cheapo ( ebay ) ally radiator ,twin fans and waterless coolant wasn't up to the job. Now replaced with twin branded radiators, (focus RS & golf VR6 ), large single shrouded fan and normal coolant ,problem solved. Boot area all finished,had some issues with the gas struts , with the boot closed the struts were pushing the lid rearwards causing the locking catch to jam,simply fixed by relocating the struts so they push the lid forwards when closed. Battery relocated to the rear behind left side panel to make room for the twin rads. Black tank bottom right is the now needed expansion tank for the redesigned cooling system Apart from a few pieces of trim needing regluing,the interior is nearly finished,need to make some stainless or ally plates (cill covers?) to tidy up the holes for the reversed door lock holes. GT40 seats , the narrowest i could get ,are still a tight fit but fitted on runners ,so some adjustment forwards/backwards. Major problems with the doors Definitely twisted out of shape, when closed ,top of door is flush with roof,lines up with the A post and top of front wing but sticks out 1" at bottom of door and 2" gap at rear bottom of door.3" when gas strut fitted! Not good. Side windows seat nicely against seals at front edge when closed but about 5mm gap at top rear. Twisting the door to match the body shape closes up the window gap nicely. Spent last few months ! figuring out how to solve this without totally dismantling and rebuilding the doors. Best solution I can think of is to cut away part of the inner door skin at the top rear where it curves down front the roof line and at the front where it meets the wing, then heat gun on the outer skin end careful bending to get it in to shape. However the glassfibre outer skin is quite thick,not sure if heat gun will do the trick. Once back in shape make up some stainless? reinforcing plates to glassfibre in on the inside then replace the inner skin. Will replace the struts with electric actuators if I can get them to fit, the roll bar is in the way of the ideal position. From previous experience, most of the actuators (cheap) on the interweb seem to be , 'A'too slow,even the ones advertised as high speed only manage around 14mm /sec. 'B' too noisy,especially inside the car, given the motor is going to be inches from my ear. 'C' too unreliable,either fall apart or motors burn out after short time. Quality ones,capable of around 50mm /sec or faster and quite(ish) run in at around £300+ each,so have to think on that one, or have an umbrella, flask of tea,sandwiches etc. for when standing in the rain waiting for doors to open Also, as door catches are required,(by law in uk),need to make sure they unlatch fully before the actuators operate. At the moment I have the most powerful central locking motors to unlock the doors,but they are bearely adequate ,sometimes need to operate twice before unlocking. So if I decide to go ahead, I will replace these with proper, small more powerful actuators. These will be operated by the remote, then suitable microswitches fitted to the lock mechanism will operate the door actuators when in the fully unlocked position.
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Post by Peter on May 8, 2021 11:30:56 GMT
Had all those problems too.
ALL SS doors stick out at the rear, due to the gas struts pushing them out. In the end I put a block of wood between the bottom at the front and used a ratchet strap to pull the rear bottom in and then heat. left it overnight and it stayed 75% reshaped, it did spring back 25%. I tried many ways to fix it but ended up with actuators, not what I wanted as the 'in roof' system I designed for TEAC For the TEAC SSR using twin Linak struts each side was expensive. I toyed with the idea of hydraulic rams but with an accumulator and valve controlled rams which would be fast and silent with the pump only recharging the accumulator not powering the rams. But cost and time ruled that out.
I didn't have any door catches (at the moment) as I don't need them as the actuators hold the door firmly shut but I did have them, (VW Golf II) and triggered open by 'up' signal of actuators. Might just 'dummy up' some if regs' demand it.
My actuators are noisy in the workshop but not so bad in the open, 8" takes 7 seconds.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIT4AoMtvis,
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