brumster

Good show - shame I didn't get the full 2 days, I don't feel I really got the full show out of it - didn't even get time to see the 2nd hall of manufacturers and was pretty much rushed around the stalls, and got no chance to amble around the car club stands either . The pressures of a little one just wanting to eat, go on the dodgems and but crap trinkets all day! So some good family time but not much by way of socialising or productive bits hunting . I did manage to get my various bits of trim from Woolies, and some IVA-happy wing mirrors though.... Club stand looked as good as ever - great effort by one and all...

Rover! Alas, not a V8 1600 K-series, DHTB's and booked in with the man, Dave Andrews, for headwork in June and we should be knocking on the door of 180 ponies...

Urban myth!

I'm not savvy with vauxhall engines but it could be that the pressure is getting "bled out" of the main gallery somewhere; either a poor fit of some component around the oil pump, the pressure relief spring in the pump or stuff like that. Or it could be something more detrimental like bleeding oil out of worn main bearings, or some sort of pressure limiter in the feed to the head has popped out, or a cam feed pipe, or something like that - so the pressure it just dropping off. I think if the oil was dumping itself into somewhere it shouldn't be, 6 psi's worth of dropped pressure is enough to spot it pretty quickly (ie. in the water, or you'd be burning black smoke out the exhaust!).... Really needs someone who knows the engine well in terms of design....

Be aware that, I suspect, there are a lot of people using low tyre pressures as a kludge for overly-stiff spring rates in order to improve their ride comfort. Which is fine to a point, I guess, provided you don't expect the sidewalls to do much if you really lean on them (and uniform tyre wear isn't a concern).

As said above, each tyre manufacturer specifies a specific temperature at which that rubber compound works best. This is your target and all you can really do is aim to get your pressures correct so that, once at operational levels, the temperature is in the ballpark. Without a temperature probe for your tyre it'll all be guesswork anyway. I can tell you what works for me on an 860Kg 205 on Dunlop cut slicks, but it won't mean one iota for your car - different weights, different tyre sizes, different rubber compound. As Chris says, work it to what YOU prefer. Measure pressures as soon as you can coming off the track, and relate that to how it 'felt'. Adjust the hot pressures in small increments, go back out, see how it feels. If you find they start off good but go off towards the end, chances are they are getting too hot, which means you're generally asking too much of the tread (ie. your pressures are too high)... bear in mind the minute you stop working them they'll cool down so by the time you get a pressure gauge on them they could have dropped a couple of PSI (depending greatly on the ambient temperature and track temperature of course - rain water cools them bloody quick!)

Yeah, I'm going to get it white to match the nosecone/arches. I'll then probably put some sort of vinyl embellishment on the final product but I'll leave that until it's fully finished (mainly because I've no idea what to do ). Who knows, it might just stay white everyone knows the fastest cars are white

A few minor jobs today - the fuel level sender arrived from Car Builder Solutions, so I fitted that. Managed to tack-weld the rods together rather than use the useless-looking clips that were provided.... Here's maybe a good tip (I've found it useful). Whiteboarded all the jobs as I thought of them, and then mapped them in terms of dependencies so you can easily progress through the jobs without forgetting something, but also remembering what's next. Basically arrows show the direction of working, so you can't really move to the next job until the source job is finished (or that's the idea). It's a bit mind-mappy I guess, but it comes in handy - but you obviously need to sit down and plan it out first. But it does allow you to add new jobs as you think of them, and link them in to your plan. Well, after several hours of picking off laserguard I now have very sore fingernails and a nekkid-looking Zero... Off to the bodyshop tomorrow....!

I think unless you were buying bulk or had a trade source, £2 per bush is about what to expect. If you were buying 40 of the things, I'd suggest you could wangle a discount, but for just 6....

Echo the above - stay away from gasless. It is, quite frankly, *bleep*.

Pick the back end up with my left hand, whizz the nuts off with my fingers using my right hand (assuming it's the rear right that's the problem - reverse if it's the other wheel). I then tend to rip the tyre off the rim with my teeth, fix the puncture (you don't want to know what with), pop the tyre back on with a couple of head-butts then re-seat the bead with a couple of hefty puffs. Honest. <cough>

Off to the spray shop on Monday, so still got the weekend to do a few more jobs

More progress today. Got the nosecone on, which was a pretty simple affair really, the edges aren't trimmed but it's really only to support the bonnet in order to get the catches fitted and then get the car off to be sprayed. So nosecone-wise, pretty simple, some chassis foam along the bottom run and then M6 rivnuts into the chassis - three did the job, with some large washers to spready the load a bit on the GRP. Stainless cap-heads - stainless because obviously these are going to get some right grot on them over the years. Cap heads are also a bit more resilient against any knocks or scrapes so you have a good chance of undoing them in the future if you've unfortunately scuffed the underside; probably academic really but habits and all that. For the top, another M6 rivnut but with a countersunk stainless bolt in it. This needs some chassis foam too but it'll all be coming back off after the sprayshop so I'll do it then, when I fit the radiator and what-not. Bonnet-wise I had to do a very, very little bit of trimming on the flat edge to clear the front bracket but otherwise it was pretty good. The front is far looser than the back but then I'm missing some edge trim so it is to be expected at this stage. The catches then went on - those typical over-centre rubberised things that are IVA-friendly. I used some good sized closed end rivets in an attempt to spare the chassis of any water ingress. To be honest it's not like I've used them everywhere so this is probably closing the door after the horse has bolted but it's something to consider on any parts that are very obviously externally-exposed. Obviously pay attention to where you're putting them, I've kept them up on the top edge so they're going into the meat of the chassis tube behind them, but use sensibly-lengthed rivets that will scrunch up with plenty of material behind them - remember you're going through the chassis tube and the exterior panel so there's some thickness there. I think this front one is about 80 or 90mm from the suspension support. The back ones I did 50mm forward of the scuttle edge. When you come to put the top halves of the catches in, pay CLOSE ATTENTION to the instructions - there is a 5mm or so range within which you can space the bolt holes (the bottom hole of the top bracket, to the top hole of the bottom bracket), I settled for 30mm. The catch obviously stretches and holds in tension, so whatever you do don't just measure the clip in un-stretched position on the car, mark and drill - it will be loose! The catch design is very forgiving so you don't need a whole lot of accuracy, to be honest. Scrunched up on top of the scuttle, the bonnet takes shape better... you can see there's still some gaps here but remember there's no edge trim on here yet (Stoneleigh here I come), so a little bit of slack can be taken up later with edge trim and/or foam as needed. Will get it booked in to my mate for spraying ASAP now, just some tidying to do before he gets it - and rip off all the bloody laserguard (I swear my nightmares are a toss-up between rivets and picking the edges of the fecking stuff)... if I never see another rivet or piece of LG film again in my life, I'll be a happy man

I met you too late Steve.... damn it

Well, the handbrake cable finally came into stock at GBS so that saved me having to faff around making one - and meant I can push on with the back end. The handbrake cable installation is very straightforward, insert from the "boot" area, the adjuster sits in the chassis bracket. I've kept the two P-clips to attach the cable to the boot floor once it's in, as this seems to be where the cable wants to bend and shorten itself the most. As the cable comes down to the caliper it's a little loose, so in the interests of keeping it steady I put a zip tie base into the upright and put a cable tie round it. Keeps it a little neater, I'm not sure if it would move and interfere with the inside edge of the wheel on full bump, so will play it safe. I also put some helicopter tape on the wishbones, again just in case. This is great stuff, I've bought a good sized sheet of it off eBay for all over the car, if you're not aware of it you should be it's a very thick heavy duty adhesive plastic that resists rubbing and prevents scratching or damage of the underlying surface. I'm not sure the cable will ever come into contact with them, but put some on just in case. I then moved on to finishing the scuttle and firewall. My Dremel paid for itself today, making light work of trimming off the tabs and cutting down the back of the rivets. I marked up and drilled three M6 rivnuts into the chassis top-rail on each side, to fasten it onto the car.... although I'm going to leave it loose for now. As many others have done, this makes the scuttle removeable should it ever need it. I'm also conscious that I'll need to put the wing mirrors on and I suspect they will need some re-enforcing on the inside to stop them flapping about, but I'm working towards getting the car ready for spraying so need to move along with the panelling. I trialed the dashboard panel which fitted perfectly apart from around the steering column - it needed a little cutting out to clear the actual metal part of the column. Again, the Dremel is great for chopping out the GRP and finishing it. It is evident it will need a LOT more cutting out of it to clear the plastic steering column shroud, but that can wait until another day. I set about thinking of fixing the rear panel in permanently. I got it in place, trimmed it around the rollover hoop base, and clamped it up on the front crescents with the rear lower folded edge up against the fuel tank support - and the top isn't coming all that much in underneath the rear rollover hoop stays..... There's enough there to bolt through, and they're even on both sides, but not sure what I can really do here. The whole boot panel won't move forward (equally at top and bottom) because the rear face is butted right up against the lower tank support of the chassis now, so the only way you'd get the top forward is to effectively "tilt" the whole panel assembly, pitching the front of it downwards - and the crescents won't allow that. I've tried gently putting some tension on the support stays to pull them back, but when I felt the welds 'ticking' I promptly stopped that idea So I think it's live with it and maybe put a length of flat steel underneath the rear edge between the supports if I feel it needs it. Otherwise a good day, going to push on with the nosecone next so that I can get the bonnet on, and then the whole thing can go off to be sprayed. While the car is away being sprayed I can work on the main wiring loom, which is a behind-dash piece that will link the spurs to the back, front and dashboard (and the fusebox)... so gives me something to work on while it's away. I also need to pop over to Racing Lines in Nuneaton and get some braided rear flexis to finish off the braking system... (writes it on the whiteboard)...

You can stand down; cable is in at GBS

Ah ok, thanks for the tip. I noticed on MarkB's build he re-aligned them afterwards. No plans for a diffuser, no. There were no lining-up holes or anything like that, but I could see it acting like a bit of an "air scoop" I suppose I'll wait until it's fitted into place and if need be, raise it up to be flush. It's not like the panel is visible so if I need to drill them out, no big deal.

Armed myself with clamps and rivets galore, and got the rear panel out of the way this weekend I think I was guilty as many of worrying far more than was necessary for this bit. Take your time, clamp constantly, measure and drill carefully and it's pretty straightforward if you follow the below process. Do the bottom edges first. Clamp them up, drill from inside out so you can get the holes into the middle (meat) of the tabs, but obviously rivet from the outside. I noticed looking around on blogs that some have subsequently had to move them up, mine seem ok after subsequent trial fitting but I guess time will tell. Once the bottom ones are done, I loosely taped the finishing (beaded) trim along the top - you'll need to cut it where it rounds the two rear corners to get it to follow the profile. You want to keep an eye on that bead and make sure it's a nice, smooth curve around the rear panel, not a series of jaggy straights. Then it's just a case of marking up the top panel (the flange that sits around the top edge) - I made 2" spacings on the rivets, started in the rear middle, and worked systematically out along the panel - clamping as we go, making sure that bead stays neat and tidy and butted up to the panels. A spare pair of hands will be useful as you get to the corners, and this is the bit that requires a little bit of eye judgement and care as you bend the vertical panel so that it follows the curvature nicely. The tabs on the corner here are, of course, rather small - so getting enough rivets through both panels is difficult. I doubled up the number of rivets just around this corner as it was difficult to get rivets into the right spacing so that they looked consistent - at least one on each side isn't grabbing through anything underneath, but it looked better having equally-spaced rivets, even if some of them aren't really doing anything. Once you're on the side edges it's plain sailing again. Don't forget to pull that laser film off first Just offered it up to check; some trimming needed around the rollover hoop but otherwise it's all good...

I believe the little'un and I are camping over, but her opinions change week on week I'll be in a tin-top so can bring along various things if the club needs them...? Generator? Marquee? Water butt? Rope, stakes, safety tape, rubber mallet, etc. Extension reel, halogen work lights (not all that energy efficient really but great for working on cars!)

Sorry, forgot to answer this one...! It's definately sourcing from outside the cockpit now, I've committed to that by mounting it and cutting the bulkhead, but whether it takes from the top or the side I don't know yet. The top would be easiest and would be my preference (less boxing to do; keeps more of the bulkhead clear on the engine bay side) but water ingress would be my only concern... but I'm sure that can be addressed. I really need to get the nosecone on, so I can figure out the bonnet mounting and where I've got to cut a slot or whatever... Main priority at the moment is to get this (blasted) handbrake cable sorted and get the back end all made up and attached, and close up all the internal panels.

Cool, ok, that was my understanding also. I have put the notches on the drivers side too, so all good there, but the front wing bracket isn't at the moment. I'll swap it... but I can't for the life of me understand in what measurement it is "sided"; if there is any implied castor in the way the top mount is welded into it, it looks indiscernable to me. Any camber setting in it would be mirrored fine whichever side it goes.... I'll swap it over naturally - I'm just curious...

Trying to find an air leak on an inlet manifold or part of the unduction system? WIth the engine running, get some carb cleaner or WD40, preferably sprayed in a diffused pattern, and spray it around areas of suspicion and listen for a change in engine note. Trying to find where a bolt or stud aligns on a panel so you can drill a hole for it, but when in position the bolt is not visible or accessible in any way? Cover the tip of the bolt in tippex, paint, ink, etc., put it into position so it touches the panel, remove it and you've got a mark left on where to drill...

The amount of ANPR cameras out there, there must be a good chance unless they swapped the plates pronto. A mate of mine had his plates stolen off his car, over the next few days he was pulled constantly by unmarked cars, one of them showed him where it had "pinged" - he said it was incredible the detail, loads of points along routes he'd travelled, you could follow his travel pretty easily. Knowing this, maybe the little bastidges swapped the plates rather quickly, otherwise it would seem you're going to get found/tracked pretty easily.

My mate and I had Imprezas back in the late 90's. He used to keep his on the drive. Was woken up several times over the course of ownership to men blatantly attempt to steal it and, when challenged, they simply told him to "stay the *bleep* where you are and you won't get hurt" while they took it away. Eventually it got nicked from his gym, involved in a high-speed police chase and written off (sorry Stu, that's not making you feel any better is it!). I think my point is, and I know this isn't helping right now but maybe for when you get it back, when I had mine it went straight in the garage when I got home. I never left it out on display. I used to watch my tail about 2 miles before getting home and if I thought I was being followed, I'd do a little "long" route to see if they were still there and if so, at least I had the ability to lose them . It was naturally alarmed and tracker'd. It was a total ballache; I waited 9 months for it and got shot of it 8 months after collection... but thankfully never had any issues myself. Sorry Stu, not trying to get you down (honest!), just telling you my experiences of Subaru ownership! Fingers crossed you'll get it back unmutilated... or not at all (which sounds harsh but sometimes I feel it's for the best both financially/insurance-wise but also personally)... not meant in a harsh way Stu, I know you know me, you know what I mean

Oh FFS X-( so sorry to hear this.