richyb66

Nagging wife probably told him he needed to try and sell it.

I'm after an offside front lower arm off a Cortina Mark 3/4/5 for a kit I'm helping a mate with if anyone's got one gathering dust in their garage.

Looks like drum brakes on the back so make sure you can access and remove the oval grommet in the back plate to check the wear on the rear brake linings. If you can't do this from under the car with it on it's wheels, you need to pack a small (secured) jack to allow the car to be jacked up to make the inspection. I think on a zero the grommets end up at the front of each wheel, so a jack may well be essential. Service Brake Control / Mechanical Components 09B Required Standard 24 (and note 2) Is your IVA booked yet - maybe a home visit from a couple of members might be of some benefit for a quick once-over? It looks a very nice build though.

The centre piece of vinyl for the roof was fitted next. I firstly cut 5mm off each side piece so that the main joins were 5mm outboard of the rear window opening – this would make the joins easier to cover over. The centre piece then butts up to the side pieces but there are a few gaps here and there which can be seen where the bright aluminium is showing through. I’m not too bothered about these, as they will be covered over later. There are also some small gaps inside the rear window opening where the joins are in the vinyl – again these aren’t a concern. Here’s a close up of the rear window corner. and the opposite side where black PU sealer has been used to seal the joins in the vinyl. There’s a good change water will get in here and collect so I wanted the joints properly sealed. The main roof finisher is also fitted here – a length of 17mm x 3mm black self-adhesive rubber that goes all the way from the front of the roof to the back. Here’s the rear window seal fitted and some chromed plastic edge trim has been used along the bottom edge of the roof to finish it off. The wiring is for the map light and the interior light in the boot area. The roof vent hole had this louvred panel rivetted over it – the front of the roof is at the bottom of the picture. Hopefully this will keep the majority of the rain out. Then the roof scoop goes over the top. Decent progress over the last few weeks and a big push now to finish the roof and make the doors.

Righty ho, I’ve been trying to crack on and get everything finished before the end of April (when my tax is due again – not actually turned a wheel in over 5 months!). On with covering the second side of the roof. I’d sort of got the technique and started with a roughly cut piece of vinyl that was stuck down starting at the front of the roof. The metal weights just hold the loose vinyl in place and stop it slipping off. At the back of the roof the vinyl need stretching in the centre area to remove some of the slack that’s evident in this picture. Clothes pegs are handy to hold the vinyl in place while I see how it looks. The remaining part of fitting is the same as the previous side but with less cursing and less scrap vinyl. With the two tricky sides covered, I fancied something a bit easier so I made a start on the inside. Firstly I covered the sides of the centre roof duct with vinyl - grey this time, so as to make the inside a bit lighter. On the far side of the photo you can just see where I have also covered the inside of the cantrail section above the door opening. The remaining areas of the roof were then covered with charcoal grey carpet. This looks neat and should reduce the noise (marginally). It’s pretty quick and easy to fit with spray adhesive and the only tricky bits were in the curved corners of the roof where I did get a few creases as the carpet doesn’t stretch that well. Here’s most of it covered – you can see the witness of the stiffeners and the joining pieces under the carpet but once it’s overhead, I don’t think it’ll be that noticeable. Here’s the inside finished – the centre roof console piece is also covered in grey vinyl and the map light and air vents are fitted. Closer up.

I used M6 x 12 stainless capheads from Screwfix

Cofton Park, Longbridge, Birmingham More details here: http://www.austinlongbridgefederation.co.uk/ The perfect opportunity to vehicles of all makes that made the British car industry what it is today - virtually non-existant. On a more serious note it's a huge free show and perfect if vinyl roofs and velour trim are your thing.

With the roof ready for covering it was ready to get stuck in with the vinyl and glue. I bought 5 metres of black vinyl material which is around 1.5 metres wide which should be enough to cover the roof and the doors when I finally get round to making them. I was careful to get material that had a degree of stretch to it as I knew that I’d have to form it around the curved rear corners of the roof. The size of the roof means that it will need to be covered in 3 pieces – 2 sides and then a wide band along the centre of the roof. The joins between the pieces will align with the corners of the rear window and then run parallel forwards along the roof. I hope to use some self adhesive rubber strip around 15mm wide to cover the joins. The first side is being covered here. It became immediately apparent that this wasn’t going to be an easy job, the spray adhesive that I was using didn’t give much scope for re-positioning and the vinyl needed considerable stretching to get rid of the creases. Also, I’m blessed with just 2 hands when in fact this particular job needs at least 3. I persevered anyway and although the results were quite good, I wasn’t entirely happy so I just considered this a test piece for some practice and peeled the vinyl back off and removed the adhesive residue with thinners. For my second attempt, I employed an assistant, that way I could apply the glue over smaller areas at a time whilst holding the vinyl well clear of the roof. Then I physically stretched the vinyl where needed while my assistant rubbed it down onto the roof to remove any bubbles and creases. Here’s the front corner of the roof. and the rear quarter (a bit out of focus but it’s basically black vinyl with just a couple of marks in it). The small marks look like this but I can reduce them somewhat by gently warming the vinyl with a hot air gun and working the creases out. The glue over spray on the bare ally will be removed with thinners. Hopefully I’ll get the other side cover later this week and possibly the main panel in the centre of the roof.

Just drinks normally but if you decide to eat, you won't necessarily get ignored. '

Yes, this Wednesday.

Yes the scoop faces forwards. I'm going to fit a punched louvred panel inside the scoop (louvres open at the back like on a 2B bonnet) and I'm hoping that this, together with the fine mesh on the scoop and the forward rake of the roof surface should be sufficient to keep the majority of the rain out. If it isn't, I'll add an extra filling of open cell foam.

The air scoop for the roof is designed to fit a slightly curved panel whereas my roof is flat to the bottom surface was sanded flat on a big sheet of abrasive paper. Next, 2 lengths of M5 threaded bar were bonded to the back of the scop with body filler. 2 holes were drilled through the roof so the scoop could be positioned. The rectangular hole in the roof skin can be seen inside the scoop. On the inside, the scoop is pulled down onto the roof with some M5 nuts. To keep bugs out of the car, some fine mesh was glued to the scoop opening. The inside and outside was then sprayed with satin black paint. The small groove in the back edge of the scoop will allow some air to bleed out and hopefully drive out any water that finds it’s way inside. Inside the roof, the trim panel is marked out and drilled for a double map reading light (Peugeot 306) and 2 closeable, directable air vents. The aluminium surrounds for the rear window were screwed on with M4 countersunk cap screws and the painted satin black.

I get the poker pop-up now at work, started a couple of days ago but doesn't happen every time I come on the site. We use IE7 and we have (I assume) decent security. However, it's obviously not that good because a few weeks ago I got the 'Disc Anti-virus Professional' pop-up on my machine which took it down completely and it had to be re-built.

I had a quick release boss fitted before but the quality wasn't that good and I wasn't convinced it was robust enough so I removed it but I'm going to look at getting another one which is hopefully more up to the job.

You may know that Mallory Park Circuit is having problems with local residents objecting to noise and that the company that runs it say they cannot continue in business if they are limited to the number of uses a year that the County Council intends to impose on them. If they cannot use Mallory Park as a race circuit then sale for housing is the likely outcome. http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/race/mallory-park-under-threat/ The petition is a long way off the 100K signatures needs to get the Gov to take notice, so please add yours now! http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/46739

I had a sit in the car last night to have a better look at the all round vision and it's actually not that bad. To the right the side vision and slightly over the shoulder is OK, hardly any worse than my daily driver. Over the left shoulder the solid part of the quarter panel does cause some obstruction but it's mostly in the area of the passenger seat and the roll bar so I think it should be OK. I had a look at the interior mirror and I think I can get it where I need it if I mount the stalk part of the mirror horizontally rather that vertically. If that doesn't work I'll shout one up from CBS like Bob suggested. Biggest issue currently is getting in and out. With the seat slid back and no door on, I can get in and out OK but once the door is fitted and I've got the hot exhaust to avoid, I think I'll need to get another removeable steering wheel and work on my technique. I can live with a few issues getting in and out though, just as long as stay dry when I'm in the car.

It won't, depending on how close to the switch you hit, you probably couldn't hit the chassis hard enough to get the ball in the switch to move and trip the switch. A good tap close to the switch or a sharp tap on the switch with a piece of wood should get the switch to trip out. No and no again. You need it mounted solid to the chassis and in the same orientation to it's fitting on the Sierra. With any luck it will never be needed.

Yes, I've put a lot of thought into geting the height of the roof correct so that there's decent head clearance. The size and shape of the doors will give better vision to the side than you'd get with the standard weather gear which has the join between the door and the roof right alongside the driver's head. The standard weathergear does give more visibility to the rear three quarters as it's got the additional windows and although I could add something here at a later date if required, it would be tricky due to the curvature of the panel. I'm also not sure what shape it would need to be to get a balance between something that would offer improved vision but that wouldn't look like it had bee taken out of the side of a 70's custom van. One thing I will be doing is to widen the stalk on the passenger side mirror as I thing this will give better vision through front of the door. Rear vision is about the same as without the roof fitted as the rear window is a similar width to the 2 roll bar support tubes. For IVA I had my mirror at the top of the screen but I sometimes had to move my head to look around it so I moved it to the bottom of the screen and now I can't see much out of it (unless it's very close to the back of the car). I'm going to look at a different mirror that I can mount back on the top of the screen again that will still mount on the glass but sit a bit higher up as I think this will offer a good improvement on the current position. It's difficult to consider everything in advance but I'm trying to cover as many 'in service' issues as I can. I've mocked up the doors but I'm concentrating on the roof at the moment as I'm getting close to finishing it off and when it's done, I can use it without the doors if I want to. I don't anticipate any big problems making the doors other than getting a decent seal around the top edges but I've got a few options here as well so the main thing holding me back at the moment is a lack of time in the garage.

Actually if you break it down, it's just a few simple things but repeated many times. Anyone who's built a car could make one, you just need to really want one and then have the time and determination to get on and do it.

At the back of the roof, above the rear window opening, I’ve fitted a 4 led lamp on an aluminium bracket. I’ll use a microswitch operated by the window hinge to turn the lamp on when the window is opened. This picture still has the roof inverted. 30mm wide slots were cut right through the main cross tube of the roof that sits on top of the car’s roll bar. These will be used to hold the roof down onto the car (although the weight of the roof will also help). Here’s the roof fitted to the car. A 25mm strap is passed through the slots in the roof cross tube and wrapped around the roll bar as shown. On the completed roof, the underside of the cross tube will have a strip of foam rubber on it to provide some compliance and prevent rattling.

The upper frame around the rear window is drilled for the hinge fixing screws and the window is sandwiched between the hinge and the surround. This should hopefully reduce the risk of cracking. The main skin of the hard top is ready to be tidied up. First job is to go over the roof with a soft disc on the angle grinder to roughen up the surface and highlight any low spots that need filling. A skim of filler goes onto the roof an also on each of the rivets that had also been ground down. The filler is then rubbed down with a block to smooth it off. I’m not after a paint quality finish, just to get the surface smooth and even enough to be covered with vinyl later. With the outside of the roof complete, it can be turned over so that more can be done on the inside. The basic structure looks like this. At the front is the rectangular cut-out that will be covered by an air scoop on the top of the roof. This will duct outside air into the car. A duct will be formed along the centre of the roof by screwing a cover onto the fixings shown here. The cover will have closeable vents fitted in it to allow the outside air to be directed inside the car. Here’s the cover screwed in place, it’s made from white hardboard and will be varnished on the opposite side to resist moisture and the covered on the visible side with vinyl.

Get your fiancee to tell you what to to. The practice will stand you in good stead for the future.

I was on here at lunchtime last week at work and I got this disk anti-virus professional pop up. I knew it was a virus but it had got through at work so I got IT to look at it. hey couldn't remove it with the usual tools and have ended up replacing my machne and taking the old one away to have it rebuilt. Probably not what you want to hear. Even if your anti-virus says the machine is clean, it probably isn't. Have a read of this: http://deletemalware.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/how-to-remove-disk-antivirus-professional.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+MalwareRemovalTips+(Malware+removal+tips)

The stiffening around the window is made from 2mm x 25mm aluminium strip. I’ve mitred the corners so that they join neatly and here they’re clamped to the window. The strips are drilled to suit M4 countersunk screws and the window was drilled and tapped M4 so the screws fix directly into it. For now I’ve use slotted screws but these will be replaced with stainless allen screws on final assembly. On the back face, the screws don’t protrude so the rear surface of the window is nice and flat for the seal. Once the window is refitted, I can check it opens an closes smoothly, fit a stay to hold it open and then it can be dismantled, the ally strips can be painted black and I can add the blackout to the window.

I need to get the opening back window made next. The window shape will be rectangular, but the opening behind it will have rounded corners so the seal can run around smoothly. It will make access a bit more difficult but it’s not like I’m going to be putting suitcases in there. 4mm Polycarbonate (Lexan) sheet will be used for the window as it’s tougher and more scratch resistant than Acrylic sheet (Perspex). Firstly a rectangle was cut that just fitted inside the aperture and rested against the seal. At the bottom it was balanced on a couple of 3mm diameter screws (to set the gap). I could then mark off a similar gap around the other 3 sides. The picture is a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea. On the inside, I marked around the inside of the seal path, the footprint of the 2 hinges and also marked out and cut the hole for the lock. The seal will be visible through the window so the plan is to have a blackout area around the outside of the window so the seal etc. is hidden from view. Here’s the window in place, screwed to the hinges. This proved something I had expected to see – 4mm polycarb is a bit too bendy, particularly across the top between the hinges and it needs additional reinforcement. It does open nice and wide thought, I had a slightly bigger shut gap along the top edge because the window passes very close to the roof when it’s opened. (The prop is just temporary but you can see the sagging along the bottom edge of the window). Again, not the clearest picture, but the edge of the window is open here to within about 2mm of the roof surface which is the widest I want it to open. A small key lock will engage behind the seal carrier. Not exactly high security but more than adequate.