Jump to content

My 2B Build


Guest Ashman86

Recommended Posts

Guest Ashman86

Hi All,

 

Thought I'd start a build thread in order to keep a track of my progress and get any hints, tips on things I may not be doing quite right (probably most of it, but as they say god loves a trier)

 

It all started in September of last year, having bought my first house the October before and dismantling the old asbestos garage, it was time to fulfil a childhood dream. Buying my first kit car!

After trawling through various forums and eBay I decided I would look for an unfinished Robin Hood 2B.

A couple of weeks later I found a kit in Swansea and the owner could deliver which was a bonus. So after a short trip I went to view the car and here I am.

The car is a stainless chassis with wishbones, the front nose cone and rear arch panels are stainless, the side panels and rear panel are mild steel. (bit of a mish mash)

 

Car when I bought it:

IMG-20140228-WA0000.jpg

 

IMG-20140228-WA0003.jpg

 

and of course the obligatory lets see how it fits photo:

IMG-20140228-WA0001.jpg

 

Problem was, all I had was a hard-stand and no garage. So back to eBay, I parted with my pennies and bought a pop up garage (big mistake). It was okay for the first couple of weeks until a windy day turned it into a twisted parachute.

 

This meant it was time to have a garage built. progress was slow and the garage wasn't completed until January. I had originally set myself a very ambitious 8 month deadline, now being 4 months in there's still a load to do.

 

My first priority was to tackle the wiring loom, the loom in the car was from the donor and it was what can only be described as a mess. After further trawling of the internet and forums to no avail, DanE said he had a zero loom for sale, so after a few messages I parted with my cash and he sent me a lovely neat loom.

 

The interior panels (half mild and half stainless) and ply firewall left a lot to be desired, so out came the angle grinder and they were put in the scrap pile. Looking through Colin Usher's website I found the autocad drawings for the various panels I require. As we deal with sheet metal suppliers in work I have sent the drawings off to see if they can be cut.

 

A new firewall was also created from the engineering drawings as provided on the site:

IMG-20140227-WA0001.jpg

 

This weekend, I decided to investigate the reason as to why the floor pan on the car was so flexible. After a little investigation I found the floor to only be held on with around 8 rather corroded self tapping screws. Out came the drill followed by several hours of laying on a cold hard floor creating what felt like a thousand holes.

Whilst playing with the floor I decided that it could do with a lick of paint to spruce it up a little. Tip ensure doors and windows are open when using metal protect spray!

Quite pleased with the results:

One side done

DSC_0054.jpg

 

Both sides:

DSC_0057.jpg

 

Thats all for now, hoping to get some more done this week, including routing of the loom and fingers crossed some new panels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Ashman86

Cheers for the replies guys, will mainly be focusing on fixing the floor and wiring this weekend so will keep you updated.

Was planning on using 3.2mm rivets for the floor but after some consideration I have opted for 4.8mm rivets, mostly because one of the mechanical engineers had 300 in stainless, ally and steel kicking about in his desk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Ashman86

Not very much progress this weekend, spent most of it looking for a new car for the sister so the 2B probably feels a little unloved.

What I did manage to achieve was putting the 4.8mm stainless rivets in the floor. much sturdier now! Not much fun using a normal rivet gun for that task I must say.

 

Whilst under the car I thought I'd take a better look at the ladder frame seat mount underneath

DSC_0060.jpg

and removed

DSC_0062.jpg

 

Seems very sturdy and the welds are good. Has anyone had any experience of this setup for the IVA? Also any ideas on the internal seatbelt mount would be appreciated.

 

Whilst it was meant to be a day of fixing issues I came across a few others firstly my bottom ball joints are passed it, does anyone have a part number for these?

 

Also i have this issue

DSC_0068.jpg

Any one have any suggestions? The filler has already been moved from the passenger to the driver side and don't particularly fancy yet more movement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest chris brown

If the wishbones are Robin Hood Engineering then the bottom ball joints are Peugeot - someone on here no doubt will know what model but if not take one to your local motor factors and they should be able to identity them - BTW the ball joints require a locking device they were fitted at RHE without locking tab and people have had them wind out in use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Ashman86

Cheers for the replies guys, was debating whether it would be beneficial to remove the spare wheel carrier for this issue and also for a smoother look. Has anyone done this and will it affect the IVA?

Today I dug out the gauges I picked up on eBay before Christmas

DSC_0071.jpg

there is also a voltmeter to match so 4 gauges and the speedo/tacho.

I have a slight issue the Spa Speedo/Tacho did not come with the sender for the speedo. I have seen an electronic sender for the type 9 box on ebay, does anyone know if this will work with my gauge?

 

If anyone is bored and wants to design me a dash with the 5 gauges and a start / battery cut off panel I would appreciate it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Ashman86

Good News, our sheet metal supplier came up trumps with the new panels. On Friday I was greeted by a pallet with 9 shiny new panels on. They were the 4 gearbox tunnel panels, seat back panel, footwell panels and the firewall panels, all laser cut from 0.9mm mild steel. Even came with a galvanized coating which I thought was a nice touch.

 

DSC_0075.jpg

 

Anyway Friday afternoon i set to bending and drilling:

DSC_0077.jpg

DSC_0079.jpg

DSC_0077.jpg

 

And eventually after a little gentle persuasion we managed to beat the seat panel into submission

DSC_0084.jpg

 

Coming along slowly, just need to give the panels a coat of paint before final fitment.

Really impressed with the fitment of the panels, very minor work needed to fit, if anyone is looking for new panels for a 2B i suggest using the templates from Colin Usher.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Ashman86

After the Mrs whinging I wasn't spending enough time with her I was banned from the garage all last week. Finally her reign of terror ended on Sunday so I escaped back to the car.

All panels exposed to the elements were given a coat of metal protect spray paint before being fitted.

DSC_0097.jpg

Not bad finish considering it was from a rattle can.

This weekend saw the fitment of the front footwell panels, gearbox sides and the pedals were finally refitted.

All riveted and sealed

DSC_0098.jpg

DSC_0099.jpg

Next step is to get the seats refitted and sort out the inner seatbelt mounts which will hopefully be achieved this weekend.

 

After a few months of feeling like nothing was getting done I seem to be making some progress!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Ashman86

Well a week has passed and still no inner seat belt mount, really need to pull my finger out and find someone to weld it up for me. I have bought a pair of FIA approved harness mount plates so hoping that should do it.

Anyway not all bad news after finding the build videos ivorbigun posted on youtube I found the dimensions for the firewall bends and set about getting that fitted.

DSC_0106.jpg

Then I decided to replace the gearbox top after a little bit of true blue peter fashion i knocked one up and trial fitted it. looks pretty good, only piece of stainless on the car now.

DSC_0108.jpg

Also managed to fabricate a battery tray

DSC_0110.jpg

 

None of the panels have been bonded or riveted so that will be my next task followed by mounting of the fuse and relay boxes. Then i can concentrate on the dreaded wiring

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
Guest Ashman86

OK so its been a while since my last update, the Mrs and I are expecting our first child due in October so couldn't be happier!

Anyway back to the car, after struggling with my hand riveter i wisely purchased an air riveter from Ebay bargain price of £12.50 brand new!!DSC_0146.jpg

So this weekend I decided to put it to good use and crack on with my side panels.

DSC_0148.jpg

DSC_0147.jpg

I then treated it to a coat of primer after a ridiculous amount of sanding, 10 years of surface rust to get rid of.

 

Not sure if I have done this correctly could someone please tell me, my question is should I have a gap here?

DSC_0152.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Guest Ashman86

No I haven't given up on the car in case anyone was wondering :pardon:

Well after nearly a month I finally have more to report. After getting the house ready for the baby I managed to squeeze a bit of time in down the garage this weekend.

Finally managed to find a welder who could make me up a seat frame and inner seat belt mounts. Thanks to Ferrino for the inspiration. Frame was made from 50x25x2mm box section with the inner seatbelt mount welded into the box.

DSC_0206.jpg

This was then tapered in at the top in order to weld it to the chassis rail.

IMG-20140614-WA0001.jpg

and finally the seat frame.

DSC_0208.jpg

 

Also got round to getting some filler onto the rear panel to get rid of the mess left by the previous owner when he moved the filler

DSC_0215_1.jpg

 

Then I set about fitting some interior panels so I could get on with securing the fuel and brake lines as well as the wiring loom.

DSC_0227.jpg

Finally made what must be the worlds most time consuming hole cover for the rear panel

DSC_0228.jpg

 

That's about it for now, hopefully will have more updates in the near future

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...