brumster

Provisionally sold...

Unashamedly* * when hot pork is involved

Agreed Stoneleigh would seem the next obvious choice, otherwise Hollowell? edit: Sorry, I should have suggested that the Warwickshire and Midlands meet on the last wednesday of every month has the hog roast.... <cough>

Dan + 2 others, please

I'm with him ^^^ plus it'll never sound right!

You can get these things :- http://www.ebay.co.u...=item1c3903f5c7 http://www.rallydesi...oducts_id=13487 I used one on the Exmo with the Rover conversion, more out of necessity than choice really. They are pretty cheap nasty things, you lose that lovely 'snickness' of a type 9 and I had to file mine quite a bit to get 1st to select properly without interfering with reverse... but they do work. Much as I grumble, it's far better than having a gearstick tucked away under the dashboard (which is rather undriveable).

Oh right, I'm with you, sorry. Hold on, I have an old prop which will have a degree of marking on it.... (runs off to garage....) edit: both my props show 7cm of distinctly cleaner looking shaft tip (ooer), so I think it's safe to say the rear seal was sitting at that point on the prop. Obviously there's quite a bit of movement there, you could have pushed the shaft further in or pulled it out some more and it would still have been engaged on the output shaft either way, so there's a degree of 'play' to be had...

Bolted the diff in place for the final time... Spacers are needed (supplied with kit) to space the top long bolt and the rear mount. You drill the tab on the chassis to line up with the top of the two rear mounting bolts - I only used the one, which I'm assuming is fine. I needed to add a few washers to get the spacing right but it was fairly straightforward. The lower through-bolt needs the diff tilting to get it in above the wishbone mounts, so do this one first. The front bolts have cutouts in the panels but the holes in the chassis tabs were a fraction out and there was no way they would line up. Cue the die grinder (what would I do without it) to elongate them slightly, and we're done. Then I got the rear loom out of the way. I measured a run from the front plug (behind the dash area) to an imaginary rear light cluster, leaving some additional length for error, then drew out a loom of the necessary cable at the necessary length. Only 9 wires needed (two indicators, one fog, one reverse, side lights, brake switch feed, fuel pump, fuel sender and the handbrake switch) but the loom splits at the brake switch to either side of the car. I used a bulkhead fitting at the front to neaten how it comes through the panel (and I can then close the gap left at the front of the panel rather than using it to get wires through).... left the wires loose for now but obviously a plug connector will go on the end eventually. There are also two 4-core shielded cables there that you can see. These run to the back of each wheel and are fot future expansion really - I might play with the Emerald traction control when it becomes available, so I've ran some cable that can be used to hook up to wheel speed sensors and the like. They just terminate in a loop for now, but easier to run them now rather than plumb them in later.... I've zip tied the loom up so that it doesn't touch any edges but to be on the safe side you can see I've put edge trim anywhere where a wire or hose comes near a sharp chassis edge. Just seems common sense really, even if it should never really be a problem. The loom took the best part of 3 hours today, as it's all made up by hand. I tend to put it in the car, measure and tape loosely at the relevant lengths, guiding it around corners and so forth, marking it with a pen wherever a bend or breakout is needed, then take it out of the chassis and wrap it on the bench. You then get all the bends and breakouts in the right place. That'll do for today; my thumbs got a nice blister on it from pulling the wrap tight !!

From memory I think it's 65cm from diff flange to back of gearbox casing (5-speed) edit: Actually, you don't say what car but from your profile I guess you're talking 2B? The above is for a Zero so I guess it might not apply for yourself.

Sorry to hear they didn't work out

Could do, I guess, only reason for these is because I've got them (from the Exmo) and they look fairly inoffensive

Edges definately sharp (ie. <2.5mm rounded), yes. However I guess you're right, Phil, you could just put edge trim on them couldn't you!? Then they'd be fine, I guess? Just on the 'blades' that come out... would edge trim be permanent enough? I guess if it fails IVA on them even with the trim, I could just pop them out, blank them off, and re-test pretty easy enough? edit: Knights - do you mean trim the bit that protrudes? So provided it doesn't protrude from the flat profile of the side they'd be fine? edit 2 : Sorry, I understand now, you don't mean "trim them off" you mean put trim on them, don't you! Doh!

Quick question - I assume these style of vents :- ...will not pass IVA if fitted? Planning ahead, I'm considering marking and cutting the side panels for them now, then blanking them off with some ally. I could then remove them post-IVA and fit the vents. Might look a bit tatty in the interim but it would only be short term, and would be a lot easier to mark and cut the panels now while they're off the car.

Yeah, I run the same heater in the competition car and it's not intrusive at all - and shifts a surprising amount of air for such a small unit, doesn't it!? I noticed on your blog you'd used the same one But yes, I'm with you on your idea, I figured I could use some chassis foam to get an acceptable seal against the bonnet, and then some sort of lip/scoop (but very small) just to stop rain draining straight down into it - it might work. Be a lot easier that routing some sort of 'trunking' over to the passenger side across the firewall and drawing in from the side... will have a fiddle in due course and figure out what I'm going to do, not sure myself yet! Winging it or what

Oooo pork loins!

(picture limit in one post hit, so...) Now my idea with the heater, if I can make it work, is to split the assembly in half and mount it either side of the panel. The water matrix can go in the engine bay, so the water piping is all neat without a need to get pipes through the bulkhead, but the fan and enclosure side of the assembly can sit on the other side of the panel and vent the air accordingly... So essentially cut this bit away and through-bolt the whole unit... I then eventually want to make an ally channel on the engine-bay side that will draw air from either the side bonnetline, or the top, as I do not fancy drawing in air straight from the engine bay - there is the potential here to draw fumes or even fuel vapour or fire straight through the matrix into the passenger compartment, which is a big no-no. So the channel will seal the input to the matrix from the engine bay, instead sucking air from a small opening in the bonnet, either at the side or top. Top would be short and easy but might fall foul of water ingress; side a bit more hassle to do but probably better in terms of withstanding the elements. The heater is then central in the passenger compartment, with 2 outlets each side - one for the footwell and one for the windscreen demisters. So next is to plan out the battery - which, being a gel battery, can be mounted flat on it's side on the battery tray - then sort out the Wurth TRM (traffic regulation module - or fuseboard to you and I) and ECU locations on the inside, while remember to leave some space for the wiper motor at a later date. Need to keep some space free in the central area of the battery tray for a header tank and the coil pack.

So last few days I've chipped away a few hours a day getting various little tasks done. At the moment it's quite nice because if you get fed up of one thing you can flit onto something else for a while. I got the chassis number welded on (but surprise surprise I won't stick any photos up of that ), nothing special, just the usual place on that cross-support at the front of the car, on the right hand side. Numbers/letters are 5mm high, stamped into a length of 3mm thick steel, then I welded that *fully* (ie. all the way around) onto the chassis. This is important for IVA as it needs to be considered a 'permanent' part of the chassis, although quite how anything is ever permanent I don't know (it wouldn't exactly be hard to chop that support leg out and re-weld in another piece of square section tube but hey-ho). I then finalised the whole pedal box and master cylinder arrangement, fitting my fabricated spacer (now welded up and sprayed black, you can see it sandwiched between m/c and the chassis bracket) and bolting it all up right and checking actuation. It's important to spacer the pedals so that they don't move around too much on the spindle, but more importantly that nothing binds, so I played around with various thicknesses of washers before it was just right. Because I've pushed the clutch pedal over to the left a bit more (if you look carefully in the left picture you will see an additional cut-down vinyl bush to move it over a little) I had to get an additional length of insert to space it out appropriately; the standard metal tube isn't quite long enough for my adjustment. The copper brake lines are also now finished, with short runs for the front to the lower bulkhead panel behind the pedals, then bulkhead fittings through those, and separate runs in the engine bay. Yes, they do clear all the pedals!! From there I had the quandry of where to run them down to the front wheels - obviously on the top chassis tube, but on the engine bay side or underneath? I went for underneath - they will be protected a bit more from bashing during construction, and hidden away a bit more. Maybe not so easy to inspect for IVA but realistically the inspector will be able to feel the mountings perfectly adequately for spacing, and if you really need to see them it's nothing a mirror or borescope wouldn't make nice and easy. Mental note to myself to be careful when fitting bonnet fasteners too. The spacing is overkill but let's play it safe, it's only pennies for p-clips and rivets! The last p-clip right up near the top suspension mount was too difficult to get a rivet gun into, so it's a large self-tapper holding the p-clip in there. Next job was the get the firewall temporarily in place to figure out where things are going to go... I deliberated at length about the whole battery tray/side panel/firewall/scuttle assembly and read various other posts about them. I plumped for this in the end... First, the battery tray goes in. I trimmed this along the left-hand edge to allow the exterior side panel to butt tight up to it rather than overlap (Sikaflex can seal this when both panels are finally in place). The rear of the panel I rivetted down with countersunk rivets so that the firewall panel can sit flush over the top. However I cut away clearances in the battery tray for 6mm rivnuts, and so the firewall is bolted down rather than rivetted, and hence removal/adjustable to a certain degree if need be. I was concerned about lots of alumnium panels overlapping each other, particularly the side panels, as I didn't want to necessitate fitting them yet if at all necessary... but this way I can loosen the firewall and slot them underneath it without too much issue. I also made sure that no rivets or bolts interfere with the pedal box cover panel, which isn't fitted yet but will go on later, so you can see lots of drawings/lines where bits fit. All I can say is the old rule of measure twice, cut once applies or maybe measure four times, even better.

Our stove needed commissioning just like a boiler (although a different "qualification" or certification authority, or whatever you call it) so I guess you'd still need to get that done, even more so if it was in a living space! That was nearly 10 years ago now though, things may have changed (for the better or the worse)...

Being IP65 rated, it should be fine provided it doesn't have high pressure water directed straight onto it - which is highly unlikely given where you're looking to site it. So as good as anywhere if you ask me (other than under the dash, obviously!).

Sorted out the pedal box with a combination of actions really. Firstly, chopped a short piece off the actual master cylinder piston (it was much longer than necessary). Obviously pretty irriversible this, so if you do go this route be careful not to take so much off that you're not left with anything to locate the threaded bar, AND that you don't chop off too much and create a 'ridge' that might bind when it is fully pushed into the master cylinder at full pedal travel. In conjunction with the above, I then took two 3mm metal plate (cut to the m/c pattern) and temporarily padded them apart with washers to get the right distance between the m/c and the clevis arrangement on the top of the pedal. Obviously there's some adjustment in the threaded rod (here missing a locknut - I don't have a fine pitch nut yet so will need to find one to lock it off!) but I basically want the pedal to rest at the appropriate position, and ensure that I get the full travel of the pedal at the m/c end. It's really all about getting the resting position right - with room for fine tuning on the threaded bar, if necessary. I also made the pedal stop arrangement that the later cars have. In my case, it's impossible for the threaded bar to fully pull out of the master cylinder, BUT if the pedal is lifted the threaded bar does disengage from the machined recess in the end of the master cylinder, and lodges onto the lip, effectively locking the pedal much higher than is useable - so it needed to be done all the same, even if the rod didn't fall out. The bolt will just provide a level of adjustment, again, with locknuts to be added (and the bolt cut down somewhat so it fits in the pedalbox enclosure!). The pedal now enjoys full travel, rests where I want it and is prevented from any dangers when lifted up. On top of all that, my letter came from the DVLA advising me of my chassis number, so todays job is to stamp that into a plate and weld it fully onto the front engine bay crossmember like everyone else seems to. I considered stamping the number straight into the chassis tube but I am worried the clobbering might deform the tube, so prefer to put it onto a plate separately and weld it fully onto the tube instead. I presume this is why most I've seen have gone this route - also easier to fix if you bugger it up! Job for today is the chassis number and weld up the m/c spacer permanently, then I can finish off the front brake lines and consider putting the side panels on (they are taking up space and fitting them will allow me to locate the brake lines at the front end). I can't think of anything now that will get in the way - I will pre-drill the engine bay for the wiring loom and hoses, so I think they can go on.... but I might end up changing my mind I guess, particularly when someone on here reminds me what I'll cover up with them that I'll need to get to

I would say these are all urban myths. Police secured a conviction using our CCTV footage, and no signs are present. The cameras cover private land only, though. At the end of the day, if you've got some timestamped quality footage showing a clearly distinguishable face, the police will use it (or they certainly will round here).

If it's just for show then make it out of what you like, but if you intend it to do some good then I wouldn't make it out of stainless. If you're after a level of certification then I could sit and quote the MSA guidelines to you but they're pretty in-depth, would be easier if you just headed over to section K on the following :- http://www.msauk.org/site/cms/contentviewarticle.asp?article=1176 Even if you don't build it to MSA/FIA spec, you can use the regulations above to guide you on what is clearly considered the right way to do things. For example, minimum 3mm steel chassis plates, CDS tube of at least 350N/mm^2 yield, and various diameters and wall thicknesses from 45x2.5mm to 50x2.0mm for the main structure, to 38x2.5 or 40x2.0 for the additional tubes/supports.

That's the idea, yes, will offer it up over the coming days and check it.

If I was generalising I'd say go for something around the 270-280 degree duration but not much more than that; what most salesman would call a "rally cam".