brumster

I'll be there, should be camping overnight I think, might need to leave early Monday as it's SWMBO's birthday....

I suppose one slightly justifying argument for buying a 'ringer' would be if you were going to strip it of it's identity to turn it into a race car, or some sort of track car where the rules didn't require it to be road legal. That doesn't necessarily negate the arguments about it being built shoddily, or illegally from stolen parts/etc, but is one path that might make sense to someone looking to have a track-day toy that's trailered to events. A rather niche case though, I think. Great write-up.

These have been filed under "B" so a mod can close/delete this thread

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

I think I remember it was 'premiered' at the Exeter kit car show?

I'll keep my thoughts to myself seeing as someone's trying to sell one

Wow, I remember that!

Yup!

Clearing out the loft and stumbled across these "gems"

If anyone wants them, they're yours if you just cover the postage...!

While we're being highly scientific  remember the top mounts on the Exmo are not appropriate as supplied by the factory - the bearings were completely the wrong type and unsuitable for taking any sort of momential or axial load, so if you're adjusting the camber of the wheel by pushing the strut out you're going to be increasing that angle that the strut enters into the top bearing/buttress away from the 'ideal' 90 degrees. So I guess just bear in mind the load and stresses on that will be a little worse - but to be fair the life expectancy of Exmo top mounts was never great anyway

Or swap them for a proper spherical bearing of course  but then you have issues with the platform height probably changing/etc. Gawd nothing is ever easy is it

Good point - swapping a chassis like-for-like is not so much a problem so the chassis would be useful to an existing owner who maybe had a catastrophic failure and needed to fix it, but... the reality, to me, would be wondering if anyone is really that much in love with their Exmo that they'd rebuild it like-for-like rather than just doing what I did and swap it into a newer chassis like the Zero or 2B.

Sparepart's also right, there are a few parts on the Exmo that people will definitely be interested in for maintaining their current model... front dampers/inserts being a common one that's hard to get hold of, screen supports rust, bracketry and suspension mounting plates, etc.

What Sierra is it? Key bits that will shift off it IMHO are :

- Front & Rear hub assemblies (inc brakes)
- Rear diff & shafts
- Steering column, stalks, plastic cowling
- Engine (depending on type)
- Gearbox
 

The rest you can probably weigh in, unless there is some person out there looking for a Sierra to fix their aging Sierra

I'm kind of with Rich on this one, and if you'll excuse me being brutally honest... I only say this as an ex-Exmo owner... but I can't see the Exmo being a very desirable project these days. The Sierra will probably shift easy. I'd put the chassis/kit up on an auction site and just see what it goes for, otherwise just go and weigh it in at the local scrappy. You might get some interest in the Exmo parts as spares on here - wings will probably sell to an existing owner for example.

I'll have that as a spare, chap, please

I've got a few litres in a jerry can so I'm all good, hoping the weather holds out for the last run out of the year in the car before I skip 6 months of road tax and hole it up for the winter . Forecast looks safe but think I'll be wrapping up warm!

mitch, if you want to do a remote desktop style thing where we meet on google hangouts/meet I can show you. PM me if you like.

edit: one thing you'll need to know is where you're applying this change. Which load sites. Did he just adjust fuelling at one cell (unlikely), one or a few speed sites (most likely, did he do 2000-3000 rpm maybe), or everything. Upping fuel 3 clicks is no problem but it's where you want to do it. If it's just for emissions at MOT then I have a good idea

Cool. Damp air shouldn't be a problem in this country  

9 hours ago, Andi said:

Chassis black Por 15 paint. With metal prep. I don't work for them, but if I did I'd be there best salesman.

I did my wishbones and mirrors years ago. Toughest paint there is

Andi

 

Interesting. Does it settle with a brush finish or does it look smooth once dried (assuming it can't be sprayed on?)

Central Wheel in Coleshill do very good, reputable powder coating. I've seen their work and it's very good (it's where I'm going for my suspension arms to be redone this winter)... another option for you, maybe a bit closer. Last time I spoke to them, start of summer, they were busy so it was a bit of a lead time (4 weeks)

https://www.central-wheel.co.uk/services.html

10 hours ago, Martin Kol said:

..does anyone have any thoughts about handing over money and then the walking off without the car, pending a later collection , conundrum?

I mean if, for some reason, you absolutely had to do this over just a deposit, I would at least get a signed receipt with suitable wording explaining what had been paid for, and maybe even use a mobile phone to video the transaction between yourself and the seller, just for safety. But really - why would anyone not take a deposit, just to secure the car and show your intention to buy it was genuine, and then release the car on final payment at a later date?

Echo what sparepart says. I studied Physics to A-Level but had always had an interest in all things electrical, particularly circuitry, right back to a child. About 8 years ago I set about with the daunting idea of creating my own electronics product, watched lots of EVBlog on Youtube, read lots of guides and forum posts from knowledgeable people in their field and managed to design and get fabricated my very own piece of electronics, put it through CE/FCC approval and everything - but it took a good 3 years of my life away from me! So all I'm trying to say is, anything is possible if you have the willing and the commitment to learn, try, make mistakes, learn from them, try again, etc...  thankfully basic car electrics is relatively straightforward, particularly with our cars that don't tend to have much by way of complicated systems (other than maybe the engine management)...

On 8/25/2021 at 3:02 PM, Anthony H said:

I have just completed an engine swap on my sub-k and thought i would get it weighted at the local weight bridge, the car had the spare wheel on the back and half a tank of fuel with no driver and came in at 720KG. How does this compare to other robin hoods?

GBS Zero, fully 'wet' (full tank/etc), windscreen/etc at IVA was 560Kg but that is with a Rover K-Series engine rather than the 'traditional' Zetec...

I'll be there one of the days, not entirely sure which one yet  but we'll be popping in

Yeah. they're not cheap (but where is these days, in all fairness?!).... popping down in the week during the daytime should be easy enough. Worst case, if you go a weekend and can't get in, there's a great café at Wellesbourne airfield which isn't far away and is a good backup plan

C&M can get busy on the weekends particularly if the weather is good. At the moment the process is tickets needed for weekends and monday/wed/fri evening slots but this has changed over the years given COVID/etc so, best thing for me to do is say, check their website :

https://caffeineandmachine.com/yard/

Tickets are for a car, not per person.

You do get some interesting stuff there, for sure.

Have you tried Emerald at Watton? Not sure but suspect they'd do it, even if it's not on their management, they do rolling road tuning.....?

I 3D printed some covers; worked a treat, no issues at IVA