SUCCESS!!!

I hooked up the partially charged battery and the full booster pack - to give it the best chance of starting, and within a few seconds of cranking - it fired straight up!

It idles really nicely too.

I checked the charging circuit - working perfectly!

I then wired up the rev counter, voltmeter and water temp guage and ran it for a good ten minutes to check their operation - all working great. The oil pressure gauge isn't yet working as the thread on the pressure sensor doesn't match the engine, I'll have to make up an adaptor for it.

The exhausts are also blowing on the joints between the manifolds and the front pipe, and the passenger side is blowing beween the manifold and the head. Hopefully this shouldn't be too difficult to sort, and was something I had been anticipating.

So not all good news, but I'm really chuffed to have it running properly. I may have left it till the last day, but it is running in 2010!!! It will be finished in the next few months, at last.

So to all, a very happy and prosperous 2011. Happy new Year!

Good morning people!

Well the booster pack is fully charged, and the car's battery is now on charge. Hopefully, today, I will finally get the engine started, again.

Well I have been enjoying my time off over the Christmas break and have been getting some good time in up the garage, at least 3 hours a day for the last few days.

So this week I've:

made and fitted the front side panels
fully welded the exhausts (including the lamda sensor boss)
sand blasted and painted them before finally fitting them
covered the dashboard in black vinyl
Begun the long slog of wiring everything up

The wiring is taking a long time, I was completely expecting this. My plan of attack is mounting all the components (lights, horn etc) and running the long lengths of wire back to the centre of the car, then connecting each circuit up in turn.

So far I've made the front end loom, including lights, horn, instrument sensors and charging circuit. I had previously made the rear loom, but today I made the connections to the new rear lights. I completed the starting/charging circuit today and had a go at starting the engine up, unfortunately I didn't have enough power in the battery to get it going, but maybe tomorrow!

My goodness - where did November go???

It's been bitterly cold, and I've been absolutely slamming the overtime in at work in preparation for Christmas so yet again, the locost project has suffered delay.

However in the few small sessions i have managed to sneak in up the garage, ive made and fitted the drivers side panel and exhaust system. I next plan to repeat this on the other side, then make the front side panels.

I've also bought and fitted the rear suspension, and replaced the rear lights - the last set fouled the wheels through the wheel arches. the new ones require a slight modification to be able to fit in the same holders but it shouldn't be too difficult.

I have a week or so off over Christmas and i plan to get as much finished as possible during that time.

CKC are agin running a trackday at Llandow in May and my aim is to be there! So really I need the car to be done by April so i can have a test session in it first.

This afternoon I managed to get a couple of hours in the garage.

I fitted the 2 brake light switches I bought at Exeter, and the rear wheel arches. The bodywork is really starting to come together and looking really good. But I still have to make and fit:

Side panels
Bonnet
front wings and stays

I also fitted a return spring to the accelerator pedal as it was a bit floppy underfoot, but I may have made it too tight and It may need some adjustment.

Yesterday I went to Exeter Kit car show, I bought loads of bits and pieces:

2 brake light switches (one for the pedal and the other for the handbrake)
A battery warning light
A proper electrical crimping tool
Rear wheel spacers
exhaust mounting rubber bobbins
Bonnet latches
big ratchet straps for the transporter trailer

I also saw this car, which I have pencilled in as my next build, the MEV Exocet.

Last weekend I made the template for the bonnet:

I also made the dash cowling: And I'm really please with it too.

Last weekend I got some more bodywork done...

I had a feeling that my progress was going to slow and indeed it has. This past week our baby daughter has had a spell in hospital (much better now though) so I haven't had the chance to spend any time at all in the garage this week. Anyway, excuses over, I managed to sneak up there and take a few pictures for the blog:



Here's the side/rear infill panels. I had to add these where my redesigned rear end lengthed the locost chassis.

Here's the rear panel.

This is where the next panel is going, over the top of the scuttle. here you can see hoe it's bolted through the chassis rails, and the ECU and expansion tank mounted on it.

Here's the front suspension, and headlamp. Also note the 14" Ford Focus wheels now fitted.

And finally the nosecone mounted up. I'll fill the gaps and paint it as one of the very last jobs.

Fingers crossed I may get some garage time tomorrow afternoon.

Well I swapped the wheels over, and the front track has now been narrowed to 66", matching the rear, and narrow enough to fit on my car transporter trailer without having to drive over the reinforced whellarches. Well happy with that.

Also John did indeed pop over and helpe me with the brakes. After the first round of bleeding the pedal was still very spongy and I got very little out of the rear calipers. After some investigation, we found that the brake bias valve was set heavily to the front, after releasing it, we re-bled all the brakes and the pedal went nicely hard.

So - onwards and upwards!

Well I'm really chuffed, Ive made some good progress at last.

Front suspension is done and sitting correctly.
Rear panel is made, fitted and looks great - its a huge hurdle I'm glad I got over.
I've also re-installed the rear anti-roll bar.
I've mounted the nosecone.

Tomorrow the plan is to switch the front wheels for a set I got from a ford focus in a scrapyard. The reason for this is they have a much more positive offset than the capri wheels currently installed and should narrow the front track nicely. Also, my friend John is popping over to help me bleed the brakes.

The new springs arrived today and i fitted one. it was much much easier than removing the old - way too long springs. the front end already sits much much better. I'll get the second one done and set the ride height then.

I also bought some decorators lining paper and set about making a template for the rear panel. looks like it should be ok.

I've pencilled in tomorrow morning as garage time, so I'll hopefully get some more work done then.

I have now fabricated, painted and fitted the seat back panel out of the 1mm steel plate i had. Although it's quite heavy when compared to an aluminum one, it adds quite a bit of stiffness to the chassis now it's riveted on.

I have also fixed on the scuttle, with 4 M8 bolts right through the chassis rails, it's very strong and won't be coming off again in a hurry!

And, I've welded on ALL the seat belt mounts. All 8 of them! Then pained them and the surrounding chassis to prevent rust.

Yesterday I made a template for the dash cowling from some very thin (0.5mm) aluminium and clamped it on - looks pretty good. the actual panel will be made from 1mm ally.

next couple of jobs on the list are to glass on the titanium mount to the nosecone, fix the now expanded nosecone in place and then make up a template for the bonnet. Also make a template and cut out the ally for the rear panel, then fix that in place. Hope to get all that done this week. Fingers crossed.

As an aside, I bought the front suspension units off ebay last week. When i fitted them, the car sank all the way down their travel - no good. So I have ordered some stiff springs to fit on them, and hopefully all will be well! Fitting them is a doddle.

Yesterday evening I finally got a lttile time to myself up the garage. I'm finding it quite difficult to fit any garage time in between working late, helping around the house and spending time with the wife and our 9 week old baby girl.

Anyway, with the short hour and a half I did get, i finally fitted the passenger side panel on the transmission tunnel. Before i could fit it, I had to fill and bleed the clutch. The pedal is very stiff, I'm hoping it'll loosen up in use, if it doesn't, i'll have to remove and re-design the pedal.

I've also fitted the 2 small panels on the driver and passenger footwell tops. Next job is to fit the drivers side trans tunnel panel, then the scuttle can go back on.

I have unfortunately found that I didn't buy enough aluminium, so to save on buying more, I'm going to have to make the seat back panel from steel. I have plenty of 1mm steel plate haning about to make it from so it's not a problem, but it will have to be painted before fitting.

with the car transporter trailer now finished, i can once again focus my attention on the car build.

I have since last posting, finished the glassfibre work on the nosecone. I have trial fitted it to the car and I can confirm that it now clears the engine. It looks kind of huge on the car but I'm sure it will all get back into perspective as i add bodywork.

I have also started (finally) panelling the interior. I have done the 2 engine bay panels, and the tunnel top that sits behind and under the dashboard. Next is the tunnel side panels, seat back and lastly the tunnel top (once the wiring loom is in)

I have also secured the battery cable with avaiation P-clips.

Today the exhausts arrived and i have begun work on fabricating mounting brackets for them. I want the exhausts close to the sides of the car and just above the floor line, so that in future, i can make GRP side pods to enclose them completely.

had to stop work to take Baby Natalie to the doctors (first round of injections today - and by 'eck did she scream.) so I'll hopefully continue tomorrow, after i have taken the cat to the vets. No, not joking, i really do have to take the bloomin cat to the vets.

Chow for now!

Just another quickie!

I have successfully widened the nosecone by 4", it was actually a little easier than i was expecting and I'm really pleased with it so far. It will take exstensive filling and sanding to re-establish the outside profile, but I have been told that this is normal.

This weekend i will have a go at making it taller.

Just a quick update, yesterday i was given (yes - GIVEN!) all the fibregalssing materials i need to enlarge the "locost" nosecone I have to fit my car.

5L of resin
lots of chopped strand matting
mixing cups
stirrers
fibreglass tape

I already have catalyst, so hopefully by the end of this week I will have at least made a start on enlarging the nosecone, it needs to be 4" wider to fit my wider chassis, and 5.5" taller to fit over my monster engine.

I'll take lots of pics as I attempt it.

Hello people! just a quick post to say i haven't forgotten about my car build!

I bought the aluminium sheeting I needed, then found that i havent got room in the garage to work with it. the garage is plenty big enough, just full of rubbish. This weekend I had a major clear out and threw out loads of stuff I had been hoarding, ford capri parts, rover V8 bits etc, I'm never going to use them, they aren't worth selling so they are gone.

I've also near enogh completed the car trailer I'm building, all it's parts have gone to be galvanised today, so that made a lot more room in the garage and I can once again move the car about.

I've got a very busy week this week but hopefully I'll be able to get some time in the garage on the car, at last.

Since last time I've plumbed up (most of) the cooling system. The only remaining bit is the hole you can see here in the red connector. The temperature sender is going to go in here. Ideally i'd like to fit the fan switch in here but the thread is all wrong, I'd have to drill and tap a new thread in it.
I've also mounted the ECU and expansion tank onto the bulkhead panel.

Since then I've removed the scuttle to allow me to fabricate and fit some of the aluminum panelling that goes underneath it, it will be much easier to fit without it in the way.

I've also made and welded on the headlamp brackets.

Unfortunately all the jobs now require some spending: i need to buy the rest of the exhaust parts, aluminium sheets for body panels etc. so until I can afford it, I've turned my attention to the trailer project - have a look at my other blog!

Here's my latest pics from today:

Here's a fully welded exhaust manifold, just needs painting now.
Here's the radiator mounted up, viewed from above so you can see the fabricated brackets.

And here it is viewed from in front. The eagle eyed amongst you may notice that I have removed the viscous fan from the front of the engine. I had intended to leave it on, but that made it impossible to plumb the cooland hoses, so off it came, and now I have lots of room!

Picture time!!!

Here's the mangle of wires that was the donor BMW fusebox. I'm really glad I got rid of this lot!
This is the yellow plastic template I made up for the bulkhead panel (front of the scuttle)

And here's the resulting steel panel, welded in.

I used the same method to make this, the plywood dashboard panel...

And mounted the gauges and warning lights into it.

Well it's been a productive couple of days. I've now completed all the welding on both exhaust manifolds, they now just need a coat of VHT paint and they are complete.

I went rummaging round a scrapyard this morning looking for rubber coolant hoses to connect to the radiator and expansion tank. I got what I needed for £2. Unfortunately the hose I got for the expansion tank is slightly too small in diameter so I'll have to try again.

In the garage this afternoon, I finished up the manifolds, made brackets up and mounted the radiator. I've ordered a hose joiner with a tap in point for a temperature switch that will operate the electric fan which I have yet to mount up to the rad.

Ok, bulkhead panel, welded in and painted - done.
Dashboard panel, template made, plywood cut out, locating brackets made and welded on, dash drilled and bolted into place. I've also cut out holes for the 4 gauges and all 6 warning lights. All I need to do to finish the dash facia is cover it in thin foam and then vinyl.

I need to make the scuttle outer panel but need to buy aluminium for that.

I've cracked on with the exhust manifold and all but finished the first one. By spending hours with holesaws in the pillar drill, cutting holes in 2" pipe and welding it all toether, I now have a viable manifold, I just need to plug one open end of it, and then the rest of the exhaust can be fitted to the other end, well, it will when I buy it.

Since my last post I have done even MORE work on the wiring, I've removed the wiring for the headlights, front indicators, cooling fan and horns. It makes sense to re-use small parts of the loom as the wiring is all the right size and colour coded. Saves money too.

I've also moved on with other things. I made a template and cut out a 1mm steel plate for the bulkhead panel on the front of the scuttle, and tack welded it in place. I'll remove the scuttle to fully weld it, as that will make it much easier to do.

I've bought lots of new stuff too, a pair of 6" headlights with angel eye rings to use as sidelights. They aren't E marked but it doesn't matter as they don't need to be for track use. I've also bought some really cool instuments. A water temp gauge, rev counter, voltmeter and an oil pressure gauge. When off, the faces are black, but then light up red and white, really trick. I've bought the plywood to make the dashboard and i'll make it the same way as the scuttle panel.

Well at last some progress to report!

Following on from my last update, I did indeed re-look at the wiring loom, and decided to junk it.

It took me about 4 hours of painstakingly tracing the engine harness through the loom to find where each cable terminated and discovering it's function. Out of the 23 wires that joined the engine harness to the rest of the car, only 3 were actually needed, these were the live feed to the fuel pump, a switched live supply from the ignition barrell, and the starter solenoid power cable. All the rest were signal leads for the on board computer, check control system etc. so no longer required.

I carefully cut each wire in turn and checked to see if the engine would still turn over, until i was left with just the three I knew I needed. So the rest of the loom, fusebox etc has been discarded. I'm going to reuse some components from it to save from buying new, (coloured cable/fuses/relays etc) but for the most part it's going to be binned.

I'm feeling a lot more positive about the build now, and feel like i can now start to make some more headway. I've ordered new fuse and relay boxes from CBS and bought my headlights. I think I'm going to try to make a start on the exhaust manifolds and cooling system soon. Now I know what I'm doing with the wiring, i think i can leave it for a while, Anyway, i need to have all the lights mounted on to make a tidy job of wiring them up.

I apologise for the lack of recent pictures, but wiring isn't all that interesting to look at, and the rest of the car hasn't really changed anyway.

Keep reading!

I have finally moved on to the fusebox, I have completely removed the housing, and man, did I ever wish i hadn't. I now have a huge mountain of spaghetti like wiring and no clue what to do with it.

After well over an hour of trying to sift through it, and making no progress at all, I admitted defeat for the day. I've decided to have one more look at it before junking it completely and making a new loom from scratch. Now, that sounds like a huge amount of work, (to be honest, if i had gone down that route originally, it would probably be done by now - galling as that is) but at least i would have the confidence of knowing it all works and is all new.

To achieve this though i would first have to sucessfully remove the engine harness from the rest of the wiring. It's critical that this remains intact. after that i could basically junk the rest of the loom, including the instrument binnacle, and start from scratch, using the wiring diagrams in John Dicken's book as reference.

However, I am going to have one last look at stripping the fusebox down before I take the plunge.

that last post was meant to appear on my trailer blog, don't know how it found it's way here.

Sorry for any confusion.

Yesterday I got some more work done on the trailer.

I Drilled and fitted the last crossmember, then laid on the first deck. I marked up and cut out the recess for it to fit around the wheel, and then marked out and rilled the holes for the existing bolts to go through to secure it down.

After that I measured and cut out the 1" equal angle pieces to go around the rest of the edge. This was easy work with my Evolution Rage3 metal cutting mitre saw.

I'll weld all this on shortly.

Yesterday I continued the long slog of the wiring...

I was able to seperate the ABS controller from the rest of the loom. The only section left to strip down now is probably the most difficult - the fusebox.

The plan is to take out all reduntant crcuits, see what I'm left with and thn build a new fusebox to fit just what I need. Part of the problem is that There is just so much in there, and I don't know what a lot of it is.

Not looking forward to this bit.

Not much progress in the last week I'm afraid. The reason for this (well, my excuse anyway) is that as we have stil been unable to sell our house, we have had to start making lots of small cosmetic improvements, which unfortunately have taken up most of my time. what I have had left has been spent working on the new trailer project, which i must confess seems to be progressing at a good pace. click the link now to have a look!

What i have done in the garage this week is tidy it up a bit. I was getting fed up of stepping over things, and whilst welding up some trailer parts, I accidentally set some plastic bags on fire. I put it our in a couple of minutes, but it was enough to make me stop and think, and get some clearing done. the back half of the garage is now looking much tidier.

I will really really try to find some time to the rest of the wiring soon. With the weather not looking too great at the moment, working on the trailer isn't easy anyway, as it's out on the driveway.

The trailer build blog is now fully up and running, click the link on the right...

I'm trying desperately to get some garage time in this week but things just keep getting in the way. eg. yesterday i got up to go to work only to find 3 tyres had been slashed on our cars, 1 on mine and 2 on the wife's. Infuriating and expensive, not to mention a huge waste of time having to get almost brand new tyres changed.

Why do people do these mindless things? The wife is more than 8 months pregnant, what if I had to rush her to hospital but some braindead moron has slashed our tyres? what then???

Forgive me, rant over.

Today I ordered the steel for the trailer build. It will be delievered on Tuesday, so next week i will get on with the trailer build.

Also, i have decided, so as not to dilute the content of this blog, I'll cover the build on a separate blog. I'll post a link to it on the right of the page as soon as it's up and running. Anybody who wants to read about it taking shape and see the pics can do so there.

Another micro update!

I did indeed get a couple of hours in the garage this morning. i spent the time strpping down the front section of the wiring loom and removing reduntant wiring. All that is left now is the front lights side/dip/main/indicators/fogs, the wiring for the radiator cooling fan and it's thermostatic switch.

It's all looking a little untidy at the moment but it's coming on and I'm pleased to say that it was far less work than the rear section of the loom.

The remaining big obstacles to the wiring are the fusebox and the ABS controller. One thing at a time though...

Micro-update!

Today I have cut up the caravan floor (with a chainsaw - awesome fun!) into smaller pices that will fit in my other trailer to be taken to the dump.

My Citroen is booked in to have the towbar electrics fitted on Thursday, at which time I will also go and order the steel for the car trailer.

Hope to get an hour or two working on the race car tomorrow.

Moving on from my Huuuuuge success of starting the engine to be honest i havn'e had a lot of time in the garage since. what time i have spent in there has been further removing obsolete wiring from the donor loom. I have split the fusebox open, and hope to remove most circuits from it, well, all of them in fact and build a new, small fusebox for just the few that i do need.

One of the main reasons i haven't been in the garage is that for the second time I have gone and started a side project. regular readers will remember the old BMW 540i I resurrected which took a lot of car building time away from me. well this project is slightly different in that it is very much related to the race car build. I have bought a caravan chassis from ebay for the princely sum of £61. I collected it from wiltshire on Saturday, and it towed the 85 miles home just fine. The last couple of days have seen me stripping down the remains of caravan (the base, wheelarches and wiring) from the chassis and taking measurements so i can design a car transporter structure to build on it.

The plan is to make the whole thing a bolt together assembly, so it can be dismantled and sent to be galvanised. the caravan chassis itself is galvanised steel and shows no signs of rust at all. The resulting car transporter trailer will be used to carry the race car to the track days I plan to take it on, as it will not be road legal. It will also allow me to move the entire project to a new location if we ever sell our house. I'll post up pics of the trailer build as it progresses. I'm hoping it won't take long.

Today is another one of those big days in a kit car builders world. I got the engine started for the first time since it came out of the donor. Many thanks to the guys on the Haynes Roadster Forum for their advice and encouragement, I was tearing my hair out with this thing last night.

Here's the vid:

I had to retreat from the garage as soon as I stopped it as the smoke was getting thick, as you can see, it's pouring out of the doors.

On cloud 9 right now - WOO HOO!

Some more pics from Stoneleigh:

Here's a nice MEV Rocket. Ford RS200 replica

Royale Sabre - I really like the shape of these. Rumour has it that these will be going back into production soon.

A couple of reaaly gorgeous Marcos cars.

And an Ultima.

Here's some more pics.

This is a one off special called "Enigma". A bit wierd looking, it's running a Ford 2.9L V6 engine.


AGM WLR on the AGM stand. I really like this car, I have even considered building one next. It has a very similar chassis to mine underneath but can accept a huge range of engines. Speaking to the AGM staff, they tell me they have just been commisioned to build one with a Merceded V12!!

Tiger Aviator on the Tiger Stand. I like the wedge shaped bodywork.

An original Lotus Seven

And here is about half of my wiring loom. Now you can see what I'm really up against. The wife wasn't exactly thrilled about me spreading it all out on the living room floor!

Yesterday I finally cracked it - I finally got the starter turning properly. Having charged the big battery and trying it again with no success, I traced the problem to the jump start point. Here, the battery wire bolts to one side and the main power lead to the engine bolts on to the other. When I was trying to start it, I saw sparking across it, So i removed both leads and connected them directly to eachother and eureka, it works, consistently. One problem less to deal with.

I also continued to work on the rear loom, separating out the obsolete wires, and making up a multiplug connector for the rest, this will allow me to separate the rear section of the loom with ease whenever required. I picked up this tip from the John Dickes seminar at Stoneleight last week. The connector is a PC ATX power connector kit from Maplin's - £1.79 including connector block and pins. I must confess that the crimp on pins re really fiddly but so far it's going well.

Yesterday was amix of some failure, with a big success.

First the failure.

Continuing from my last posting, I hooked up the fully charged booster pack and tried turning the engine over - nothing. The starter continued to click as before but no rotation. I managed to get it to turn a few times, slowly, and gave up when i found that the boosters wires were getting hot.

I have now concluded that the booster pack isn't powerful enough to provide the amps I need to crank that big engine. So what i have done is put a bit of a monster battery on charge overnight. It's thebattery of my old BMW 540i (same car as my donor but with a 4L V8 instead of the 3L I'm using here) so it should have more than enough kahunas to crank the engine. I'll find that out this afternoon.

Secondly the success.

I have been struggling with a mass of wiring in the centre of the car. At the front I have the front lighting loom, engine management loom and dasboard loom, all of which I need. At the rear I have the rear lighting loom and fuel pump/fuel level/speedo sensor wiring loom, again, I need these. In the centre was a secondary fuse box containg some fuses, relays and 2 big control modules. These were for the elecctric windows, heated rear screen etc. - don't need them. Also a large bulb failure module - don't need that either, however, if I removed it, would the lighting still work?

My theory was that this bulb failure system was an optional extra, not fitted to all BMW's, so removing it, and bypassing the wiring may get the rear lights working. I set about tracing all the wiring colours from the rear lights, forward into the loom, then finding the same colours at the front and tracing them backwards, the same for the fuel/speedo wiring. I grouped them together with insulation tape so not to lose them. I carefully cut out all the other wiring, as evetually was able to completely remove a whole armful of wiring that wasn'r required, along with the secondary fuse box. This has made the loom much more manageable, and the task suddenly seems a lot less daunting.

To test my theory, I reconnected 2 cut off ends between the front and rear sections (bearing in mind that there was formerly a bulb failure moduel in between them), only choosing just 2 wires of the same colour, and tried some lights. Hey presto! One of the rear indicators works! So the theory is sound, the rear lights can work without that pesky module. The next task here is to reconnect some more, and hopefully get all the rear lights and the fuel/speedo section working too.

Finally some good news - that starter motor works!!!

After bench tgesting it and seeing it spin normally, I refitted it, then removed, cleaned and refitted the main earth leads, connected my booster battery directly to the engine jump start points and turned the key - and bingo, the engine spun over. Well, it spun over for a few seconds, slowly. The battery booster had died.

It's now on charge overnight, I'll try again tomorrow.

With the engine turning over, I'll be able to test if the spark plugs and fuel injectors are firing, if they are, I only need to get the fuel pump running and I may be able to give the engine a test run.

I'll keep posting!

I spent this past weekend at the national kit car motorshow (aka Stoneleigh) and bought quite a few nice new bits for the car.

Lovely little wing mirrors - £15
Conical Air filter - £10
Fuel hose and clips - £8.50
Fuel Filler cap £17.50
Harnesses - £70
2 second hand Slick Tyres - £20
electrical guide book - £20
Rear light mounts - £15

I think that's about it. also got to meet loads of other car builders and share information, etc. Hope to meet plenty more at a trackday at Llandow in 2 weeks time.

So now it's back on with the build. At the show, i attended a seminar on kit car electrics, how to construct your own loom etc, and now feel a little more confident about completing my own wiring. I have a few ideas left before tearing my hair out completely.

I'm going to remove the starter and bench test it. Hopefully it can be saved as a replacement it about £180. Once that is done I'll have a look at the rear lights as they simply aren't working at all.

The I'll try and get the dash disply working. That i simply havent a clue about, but I really hope I can get it working.

Since my last post, i have made some small progress with the wiring. I hooked up all the earths, and connected a battery.

It's not working.

Well, some good news, it beeps and bongs - telling me there is something wrong, but the dash display is not working so i can't see what it's complaining about.

The other good news is that the starter solenoid clicks on turning the key, but the engine doesn't turn. this could be down to a dead battery, or worst case scenario, a dud starter. It was working fine when i broke the donor, but that was 2 years ago now, and it may well have given up the ghost in this time. other than that is a bit of a mixed bag really...

I have gotten the headlights working, but none of the rear lights.

The cold start valve operates, but not the fuel pump.

The indicator relay clicks, but the lights don't work.

The horns don't work.

The on board computer doesn't work (although i think this is linked with the instruments.)

Apart from this i have tumps and tumps of reduntant wiring that i don't know what to do with.

The plan at the mo is to charge the battery and try the starter again, then at least i can eliminate one thing from the list.

I hate electrics, I really, really do.

Afetr loads of staring at the loom, fumbling around with it and scratching my head, I decided on a new course of action.

I have taken the loom up to the garage and laid it our on the car, in much the same way as it was fitted to the donor. I hope to connect all the earths and battery leads, the donor lights and switches, and switch on the juice. In this conficuration I hope the loom still functions, if it does, I can then start to remove the parts I don't need, and if anything I do need stops working, I simply stop and backtack to a point where it was.

I hope to remove most of the loom in this way. The only other problem i have come across so far is the ECU box is huge, too big to fit in th space i had alotted for it. I may end up fabricating a new one, but that is somewhere in the future, right now, i just need to get the electrics them selves working.

Well here's my 100th post!

I'm really happy with it at the moment, having made some good progress. I finally completed the brake lines (had been putting off buying 2 flexi lines) but I won't fill the system with fluid just yet, as the front lines will have to be disconnected when i fit the front body panels. Once the panels are on and the lines reconnected, I'll fill and bleed the system.

I have completed the fuel system, the copper and rubber lines are all installed, along with a fuel filter. The filter is actually from a peugeot 406 that i had lying around, but it is brand new and should be fine.

I drained the fuel from my 2nd donor BMW - the 540i for those who have been paying attention. And found it actually had a fair bit more fuel in it than I had thought. I only had 2 small 5 litre jerry cans, and it filled those and just kep going, so i had to run to halfords and buy a 20L metal jerry can, and it half filled that too! So i have plenty of fuel ready for when i want to run the engine.

I have also moved on to the next step in the build, and the bit I have been most dreading - the wiring looms. When i stripped the donor car, I removed the looms in their entirety - there are 4 of them, one for the engine bay, one for the engine itself, one for the dashboard and one for everything else (creature comforts and the like). Yesterday i laid it all out on the living room floor, much to the annoyance of my ever patient wife, and spent a good couple of hours scratching my head.

This may take a while....

Picture Time!!!

Fuel tank welded up.

General rear view

Battery and fuel tank installed

Completed and painted fuel tank

Quick update today, the fuel tank is painted, I fabricated it's mountings, lined them with 3mm thick rubber strips and installed it all on the car.

I also installed the fuel pump and level sender into the tank, all fits lovely.

I have begun fitting the copper fuel lines to the front of the car but I'm finding it quite difficult to route both through the drive tunnel withour contacting anything else.

Must .... keep ... going

Well here we go again, I have now welded up the fuel tank. 3 times.

At the first attempt, I filled the tank with water and it leaked in 14 places. Actually, i wasn't too disappointed as it was my first ever go at making one.

Second attempt, It leaked in 5 places.

Third attempt, it now only leaks in 1 spot - and it's one I previously marked up but missed. Next go I'll have it sorted, I'm confident.

I have also painted the battery tray, and fabricated the fuel tank holding brackets. The last job i did yesterday was to line them with rubber strips, to stop vibration from the chassis when the car is in motion from damaging the fuel tank.

Next on the list once the fuel tank is leak-free is to paint it (I'll have to be expensive and use 2-pack paint for it that is resistant to petrol) and finally fit it to the chassis. Once it's installed I'm going to plumb in the fuel lines.

Well apologies for not posting again sooner, but my home laptop has completely died.

The good news is I have made good progress. The one panel that needed fitting became 3, all done, as is the pedal box bulkhead. It's not my neatest ever work, but will be hidden from view anyway so I'm not too concerned. It's strong and does it's job.

Moving on from the paneling, I have managed to re-fit the engine and gearbox, attaching the propshaft along the way. It's all now tightly bolted into position - fingers crossed I don't need to take it our again! To me it marks a mojor milestone in the project, as the running gear is now completely assembled. It actually completely confused me yesterday, I needed to roll the car a few feet up the garage so i released the handbrake and pushed, it wouldn't go. It felt like I had left a chock by a wheel, but I looked around and no, I hadn't. I pushed again - won't move. ????? Oh yeah, it must be in gear, dopey prat.

Well I was a vey busy bee yesterday as I moved on to the next item on my to-do list and fitted the battery by fabricating a tray, welding it in position in the rear of the car (no room at the front - it's a big battery) and fabricating a clamp to hold it down.

Today I hope to make the fuel tank, indeed already this morning I have cut and folded the steel for it's main structure. I'll weld it up later on, and try to fit the pump/sender assembly.

As always, I'll post pics when i can.

I got some more done yesterday, and hit a problem or 2 as well.

I finished all the welds inside the engine bay that weren't accessible with the engine in place and ran and fixed the reamining front brake pipes. The front half of the braking system is now complete. The rear half just needs 2 more little flexi's.

I was then looking to see if I needed to do anything else bfeore refitting the engine. One thing has become clear, re-fitting the engine will be a 2-person job as the engine mounts, propshaft and gearbox mounts need to be aligned all at the same time, and it has to be done without hitting, snagging or otherwise damaging the lovely new brake pipes.

The other snag is that I need to fabricate and fit one of the panels for the gearbox tunnel, as it needs to be riveted on from the inside, which would not be possible with the engine and box in the way. I made up a template from corrugated plastic sheet - which was rubbish. I need to make another one. The difficulty is that the panel has to fit around the clutch master cylinder and it's pipe, without touching it.

I also need to panel in the end of the pedal box, which is a really complicated shape. I really have gone and made this difficult for myself.

I'll keep you all posted.

I went to a track experience day on Thursday, after being driven round the track by an instructor in a Lotus Elise (mostly sideways) and a thrilling few laps in a Subaru Impreza group N prodrive rally car, driving myself, I had the choice of supercars to take out for a few laps, which would you have chosen? Ferrari 360, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Audi R8, Porsche 911 GT3 or a Lamborghini Gallardo? There was only 1 choice for me, the 500bhp Lambo, it was immense.
Here's some of the front brake lines clipped to the chassis.

The extended steering rack - finished!

And the shortened handbrake cables, re-clamped properly.

Ok update time.... after a week on days i have indeed got quite a bit done.

All the parts and tools I ordered arrived very quickly, so I re-cut the threads on the steering rack and fitted the extension pieces, connected it all up and the steering works! Woo hoo, i can finally put a tick against a thing on my to do list - the steering is finished.

I have also ticked off item 2 - recondition rear axle, as all that is left to do on there is get 2 new flexi hoses and fit them - easy peasy. The ones I was able to remove from the BMW were is such poor condition that it wasn't worth re-using them.

Well no sooner was the steering finished, i had to paritally dismantle it again, as the engine had to come out. I Have removed the engine and box for 3 reasons - I needed to install the clutch, I had to run the copper brake lines around the engine bay for the front brakes, and I need to do a couple of last welds inside the engine bay. All of these would have been very difficult with the engine in place, and removing it isn't much hassle.

So with the engine out i have fabricated and fitted all the front brake pipes, at the moment only partially clipped in place, i need to do the welding before i fully rivet the clips in places as there is a chance i could damage the pipes with the heat from the welder.

I have taken the time to re-fit the clutch with brand new stainless steel bolts of the correct size, and fit the gearbox back up to the engine.

I have also fitted the brake balance valve in position in the brake circuit, in the centre console, within easy reach when driving.

The last thing I have done this week is revomve the alternator from the scrap BMW, it is actually the one off my donor engine, i had to use it on the BMW when I was driving it regularly as it's own packed up.

So the plan for this week is to finish the few welds, brake lines, and get the engine back in with the propshaft fully installed too. At this point, all the major mechanical systems will be in place, and the next phase is to get them all working.

I've had a little potter about with the car this week, I've made up the last of the copper brake lines for the rear axle and installed it, I just need to recover a couple more flexi lines from the scrap BMW to connect it all up. I've also refitted (properly this time) the handbrake cable calmps that i used to shorten them, as they were previously slipping quite badly. The handbrake now seems to work fairly well.

This past week I have also sold my spare alloy wheels on ebay for 155 quid, which will go towards my suspension. I intend to order that when i get paid. The wheels will be collected this week.

Parts-wise I have oredered some brake pipe clips (the P-clips I have are too large), a large Die holder to finish cutting the threads on the steering rack, and a brake proportioning valve, to control the pressure to the rear brakes, to stop them locking up.

I'm back on dayshift from next week so i hope I may be able to get back on with it at the pace i previously had been going at.

Last weekend I did indeed get the rear calipers refitted, and to be honest that's about all that's happened since last weeks' post. Being on night shift, I've had quite a tired week this week and haven't been able to find the energy or willpower to drag myself up into that cold garage and get on with it.

Enough excuses, I'll get the rear axle finished this week and hopefully the steering too. Refitting the clucth shouldn't be too much trouble, the prop will be done at the same time (that reminds me, I need to paint the welded joint) although the clutch might require a run to Cowbridge to get some bolts to hold the pressure plate on as i had to cut them off to remove it.

Hmm... keep reading!

Just another quick update this morning.

I've finally recieved the M14x1.25 die from china that i ordered. Problem is that as it was chinese made it's not very good and the threads it cuts are too small. I ran it up the ends of the steering rack, leaving about 30mm of thread untouched, and then threaded the extensions on. Where I had used the die, they wound on but are clearly loose, and where I haven't used the die they are way too tight and don't wind on at all. Grrrrr!

Also I have cleaned and painted the rear calipers which i hope to re-fit today. This afternoon I hope to get the rear axle all finished. I can then fit the spare set of rear wheels and put it back on the floor.

After marking the propshaft to length (I sprayed the join with primer, and the shadow pn the inner shaft marks the position) I removed it from the car and tack welded it.

And here's the joing after it was fully TIG welded. Looks neat and hopefully will be nice and strong.

Here at last are some more pics. This shows the trial fitment of the propshaft


Here's the front coupling, as you can see there is a slight offset in the shaft but hopefully the flexible coupling at the front and the CV joint at the back will take this easily.



And here's the completed steering shaft extension. You can see the silver coloured centre UJ, this is the part I bought from CBS and welded in.

After spending my afternoon yesterday helping my sister finish off her horse-box project, I had a bit of time free this evening before work to carry on with some things in the garage.

I painted the completed steering extension shaft to stop it rusting, and I'll fit it tomorrow hopefully.

I then completed the trial fitment of the propshaft. With the thinner piece free to slide inside the larger front end, I bolted both ends to their drive flanges. I then sprayed grey primer all over the join where they met. This gives me an accurate alignment mark to put it back to, as I had to separate the halves again to remove them from the car.

With the to halves of propshaft removed, i wire brushed the end of the larger piece to remove all the paint for about half an inch up it's length, this is to allow it to be wleded to the inner piece. I also wire brushed 2 very small sections on the inner piece (brushing it all would have removed my previously painted on alignment mark) and slid them back together up to the alignment paint. I made sure the 2 ends were square and tack welded them together at the two cleaned up points. I Rotated it to make sure they were both running true, and then fully wire brushed the whole joint. I'll have that professionally TIG welded very shortly (and FOC!) but it will have to wait till I take the engine out to replace the clutch to be re-fitted.

I took some pics and will post them tomorrow - if I get time.

Well I managed to steal another hour in the garage today. Actually the first hour was spent out on the driveway, i began to remove the brake flexi lines from the rear ofthe beemer, and they look to be in a good serviceable condition so will be re-used on the locost.

I was however unable to remove the calipers as the bolts are stuck fast, and I need my electric impact gun to get them off - which is still away with Machine Mart getting fixed. I may just buy some more sockets to replace the ones i broke removing the wheels which may allow me to remove them manually but money is a little tight at the mo so we'll see.

When it began to rain I moved inside into the garage and had a go at finishing the steering shaft. I modified the new extension shaft I had recieved from CBS and cut my old shaft down to suit it. They fit together nicely, but my welder is all out of wire, and as these are critical welds, i will wait till I have plenty wire to finish this - probably on the weekend.

With some time left over I decided to make use of it by starting the next item on the list and plan out the routing of the solid and flexi brake lines. I think i have it all mapped out but I need to compete the removal of the flexi lines from the beemer, and install the front calipers to actually start it.

So I moved on to the next item (that's item 4 for those keeping score) and started to modify the propshaft. I cut out the centre universal joint - there is another one at the diff end, and lined up the 2 ends together. The rear end is small the than the front but may slide within it before it's welded up. With that I ran out of time before giving up for the day and coming to work.

So as a recap here's where i am right now:

1. Finish steering - wed up steering shaft, rack mounts. Re-cut threads on track control arms when die finally arrives from china. Assemble and test.

2. Recondition rear axle assembly - remove calipers and remaining flexi lines from BMW and install, along with connecting solid brake lines.

3. Install front brakes and plumb brakes - basic routing planned but mostly still to do. Front lines will be installed when engine is removed for step 4.

4. Modify propshaft and replace clutch - prop started, clutch just a normal service item, though new bolts will have to be sourced.

Once all these items have been achieved, I will have completed all the major mechaincal systems and the car will have full running gear, steering and brakes. Then i can get on with More interesting things!

Just a very quick update today. I have finally been able to remove the wheels from my BMW, so they will go up for sale on ebay shortly, hopefully raising some money towards buying the suspension. Removing them has also given me access to remove the rear claipers and flexi brake lines (if they are in good enough condition) which i will do on the next afternoon with good weather (snow forecast for tomorrow).

This afternoon I stripped down the auxiliary cooling fan from the beemer, soaked it in WD-40 and got it moving quite freely. By connecting the wiring directly to a spare battery (actually my booster pack) I was able to test it, and it spins fast and blows hard. So for now it's gone on the shelf with the other salvaged parts to await fitment.

Right, since my last post I've got a fair bit more done.

The metric fine taps arrived and I've now cut the correct threads into the rack extensions. They do start to wind onto the rack but the threads on the trackrods are quite badly rust damaged. I've ordered a die to recut them, but it's taking it's time getting to me as it's coming from China.

In the meantime I ordered some more bits from car builder solutions, brake unions and T-pieces, and a steering shaft with a universal joint in it. I'll use the new shaft to midofy my existing shaft so it fits properly and works without making contact with any other parts. (at the moment it fouls the chassis.)

I also re-assembled the rear axle, the diff and driveshafts are now back where they belong. My cable clamps arrived so I shortened the handbrake cables, and the handbrake now works!

As the bad weather finally broke, I started to dismantle the BMW 540 I have sitting on the driveway. Unfortunately the wheel bolts are stuck in fast, I only managed to get 1 wheel off it before my impact gun lunched 3 impact sockets then exploted in a cloud of smoke. It's been returned to machine mart under warrantee, hopefully I'll get it back soon. However I turned my attention to the engine bay and removed lots of useful parts, one of which was the auxiliary cooling fan. It was jammed solid but I've partially freed it but ran out of time. Hopefully I'll get it working again as it will save me about 100 quid ove rhaving to buy an kenlowe or pacet fan big enough to cool that brute of an engine.

Lucky me I've been put back on nightshift, hopefully I'll get some garage time in the afternoons, but not as much as i'd like, probably.

I picked up the steering rack extensions today, but unfortunately the guys didn't have a suitable tap to cut the metric fine thread on the rack end. I've ordered some taps, along with a die to clean up the threads on the rack. I'll get that finished just as soon as the tools arrive.


While I wait for the tools to arrive, I've gotten on with item 2 on the to do list, the rear axle. Today I removed all the studs I had to cut off to remove the driveshafts, cleaned up the diff casing with a rotory wire brush and gave it a coat of plasti-kote paint. The colour really isn't for show, it's just a protective coating that requires less prep than paint, and the red is what I had lying around.

I had removed the diff mounts, which I'll grit blast and paint tomorrow. I didn't grit blast the diff itself as getting grit into the diff mechanism would destroy it in use, not worth the risk.

Here's a couple of pics I should have posted earlier. Here's the wonderful moment I discovered that the instrument binnacle fitted perfectly.
And here's the view from the drivers seat (well, where the drivers seat will be?)

Here's what I've been up to today: item 2 on the to do list is to re-con the rear axle. So as it snowed heavily last night, I took the day off work and got on with it. I stripped down and rebuilt the handbrake drum brakes, installed the new cables and then fitted the handbrake handle itself.

In this picture you can clearly see the handbrake cables passing through the handle way too far, they need to be shortened. You can also see the reatainer brackets I welded onto the rear axle carrier to hold the ends of the cable conduits. Without these the cables really wouldn't work.

And here's the to-do list up on the wall of the garage, I'm waiting for some parts for the steering so I've moved on to the rear axle for he time being. However I now need a nice day or 2 so I can remove the rear calipers from the BMW outside.

Ok after spending a couple of hours nearly every day over my Christmas break in the garage and not really achieving much, i decided to get organised. The problem was that the entire project had no real planning or structure to it. What i needed was a "to do" list. So I spent an hour sitting on my little stool (right in front of both heaters) and planned and wrote it all out on a piece of scrap ally chequerplate left over from the floor.

I can't remember the whole thing off the top of my head, but I've split it into 13 mini projects and it looks whole lot more manageble now, in my head, at least. The first few things on the list are to get the running gear finished. So I'll finish the steering, finish recondiontioning the rear axle and then get the propshaft made. I'll post the full list up soon, along with the pictures i keep promising.

So, item 1 on the to-do list - finish steering. I had a go at extending the steering shaft from the wheel to the rack, and found that it fouls the chassis, great - plan B is TBA. However I did finally get round to removing the steering rack and cutting off the other BMW trackrod end. I've made some measurements and designed extension pieces. I went to the lathes shop at work to ask some advice from the proper machinists, and they offered to get an apprentice to knock them up for me as a training excercise - result! Item 1 on the list coming on well then.

Well not too much done today, I finally got my hands on my new rivnut tool and had a go. I marked up and drilled the holes in the chassis to bolt on the dash/scuttle assembly. Unfortunately, after applying the rivnuts, I found that they stood proud of the surface which pushed all the mounting brackets out of alignment. I sorted this by enlarging the holes in the brackets. Not ideal but it worked.

After this I had another go at the handbrakes, I eventually worked out that there was an piece of the old conduit stuck in the trailing arm. When I knocked this out, it was a relatively simple job to re-assemble the first drum brake, with a new cable. The cables themselves are about twice as long as they need to be, as the locost is only half the size of the original BMW. I'm not sure about the best method to shorten them yet, but I have asked the question on the haynes roadster forum and i'm sure somebody will come up with the answer very soon.

Yesterday I got another couple of hours in. I fabricated the other hoop for the dashboard/scuttle and also welded in a retainer for the instrument binnacle.

I also got the correct handbrake cables from the motor factors and found they are going to be quite a pain to change, and they are about twice as long as I need them to be. They are going to take some thinking about.