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Good morning everyone, hope you all survived storm Arwen unscathed. This post doesn't directly relate to my kit car but it may relevant to those of you that have more expensive vehicles. Being of an age where I am thinking about retirement I have treated myself to an ex-army Land Rover to use for fishing and general use when other vehicles are not available. It is not new, 1993 but it was completely rebuilt with new chassis, engine and gearbox amongst other bits in 2005 and apart from a quick bit of service at the 2013 G8 summit in Norther Ireland it has mostly been in storage since. Hence it has currently less than 10,000 K on the clock. Therefore it is worth a fair chunk of money and worth protecting properly. My plan is to have a visible deterrent such as a pedal lock, probably some sort of battery isolation switches (it has four batteries) and a hidden tracker. I have sort of settled on a tracker but thought I would ask here to see if anyone can recommend one or tell me of any to avoid. I need one that is hard wired but with battery back up, that will tell me if the vehicle is being tampered with or moved when I am not there. The one I am looking at would be fitted, 24/7 monitored and have a lifetime monitoring service for around 600 quid. Most of the time the vehicle would be sitting in my garden behind gates with one or two cars blocking it in but I want to be sure that it is still there when we go on holiday. Looking forward to hearing your comments.

I beg to differ. I use the shock bracket with lower rare springs, I do not remember the rate. Adjustable dampers can be set to what you like. But the hole needs drilling out to 0.5inch if i recall correctly. It has worked fine for me for over 20 years.

Result!!!!

Dont use the U shaped bracket at the back of the swinging arm. 2 reasons. 1 it was only designed to take the load from a shocker being compressed, not the weight of the rear of the car. 2. the coilovers are designed to be used in the same location as the spring, ie in the circular recess in the swinging arm. Otherwise there is more leverage from the shocker bracket meaning spring rates and shocker settings will be wrong. You just need a U shaped bracket bolted in the centre of the recess. HTH.

Yes definitely the best person to go to

Thanks Ian, pictures are worth a thousand words. One is left wondering why RHE blew the hole so low ?, just add that question to many vast imponderables regarding the build of their cars.

I have just viewed the sales brochure ...... Oh dear, really?!

I used Damertech and Dave is a good guy full. Of knowledge.

Give Dave at Dampertech a call. http://dampertech.co.uk/

Im looking to replace the std sierra coil springs and dampers with coilovers fitted between the damper bolt on the radius arm and I will fabricate a bracket for the rear inner wheel arch, what make of coilovers, size (open and closed) and spring weighting have people used and where is best place to buy them from? any info on fitting also is much appreciated Regards Harry

The punt is going even better. Took the back panel of and the frame is not touched. The tin work on the panel just needs pushing out. I now think the back took the hit straight on the rear wheel and wheel arch and they absorb the back impact.

Darrell if it is your box that has split I can lend you one of mine to get you through next week run out. Steve

must be something in the air!!!!!! My car has split its exhaust and needs welding! pipe's on order, welder on stand by fingers crossed all will be sorted ready for the 4th

Looks like a easy fix.

OK Andi, might need a good reason for some food and quick spin out.

In short I drilled a new hole and used the pedal unmodified.

The rebuild has reached the pedal box. The brake and clutch mechanism has cleaned up and is in good shape and fits well. However I was in a rush on the original build, and just "shoe horned" the throttle pedal in. The pedal and pivot mount are unmodified Sierra and bolt to a vertical flap that is cut and bent up from the base of the bulkhead. It's simple to fit so I concentrated on getting a good pedal position. Things were going swimmingly until I fitted the thick steel plate that the servo and pedal box bolts to. RHE had kindly precut a hole of sorts, with a plasma cutter, for the throttle cable to pass through and large enough to fit the nice rubber grommit that is already on the Sierra cable. The problem was/is that the position of this hole is well below top of the throttle pedal, where the cable attaches. Dropping the pedal until the cable is level with the hole means the bottom of the pedal almost touches the floor. At the time I returned the pedal to a comfortable position, and had the cable clamped at a steep downward angle (like 45 deg) as it passed through the hole in the thick plate, the grommit looked pretty distorted and I had to keep it in by clamping the inner part with a jubilee clip. All this mash up is/was invisible when the pedal box cover is bolted on, however the bend in the cable and the angle at which the inner cable gets pulled is/was far from ideal. It worked, but for how long?... every time I pushed on the throttle an image of what was going on under the cover flashed into my mind. Now I have the time to fix this. I assume that every Exmo and S7 build must have faced a similar issue?, so what did people do?. I could drill another hole in the steel plate, higher up. I could alter the length of the pedal, but that will change the "sensitivity" of the throttle response, or make my own pedal. I am just wondering what others have done. I couldn't find anything relevent in the archives, and I think the build video is suitably vague in this area.

Sometimes a punt really does pay off. Well done.

I have just bought new top and bottom wish bones from GBS, got some new coilover in my bits store. Tonight I have pulled the back panel off the frame to flatten the dink on the offside. The frame is straight put lasers on it. It was a cheap buy. The guy who sold it to me had new underwear on when I met him it was his first track day second lap. Bad for him great for me.

That looks like a GAZ shocker. They rebuild worn shockers, they may be able to replace the rod & check it over for less than a new replacement.

Might not be as bad as that - track day damage, I'm thinking (from the pictures) it's probably spun and slid sideways into something, possibly the suspension arms have been a sideways 'crumple zone' and taken all the brunt? Fingers crossed

Yup, definitely mad The biggest worry is probably how straight the chassis is? Looks to have had a decent whack...

Don't hold back!! My view is they made a kit car that was even less desirable than the donor vehicle.

I must be mad, I picked up a while ago a track day damaged Zero. Minor structural, loads of fibreglass damage and some panel dents. I kept looking at it and finally took it down off the wall (new form of workshop wall art) I said I was not going to build another kit but you know when you start messing taking the damaged bits off it, dam I am getting hooked on doing. Watch this space.

I'll have Chestnut & Parsnip Soup, Baked Butternut Squash & Spinach Gratin, Sweet & Sticky Nut Slice with Vegan Ice Cream Mary will have Beetroot & Red Onion Tarte Tatin, Sea Bass, Cheese slate, please