Saturday
I had noticed that, for some reason, the steering column I had got with the donor kit from GBS wasn't straight, or it certainly didn't appear to be to me. I phoned a couple of the breakers near me but they didn't have one on the shelf. I then spoke to a local scrappy and he said there was a Sierra in the yard but he had no idea what was left on it. I decided to go on a visit and have a look. The steering column was all intact including all the column surround so I set about removing it. An hour later, with grazed knuckles and dirty hands, I had the column out. He charged me £20 for the lot. I was more than happy with that as I would have paid more than that just to get my hands on a column surround. Anyway, I got it back to the garage and set about modifying the surround to fit. I think it looks OK.
Sunday
My plan for today was to look at the wiring loom, but I made the mistake of answering the phone to my daughter. "What you doing today? Stuart could really do with your help to clear the side of the house and do a couple of tip runs. Please .... pretty please?". Well what father can resist his daughter and the man a) who took her off your hands and b) who is going to paint your car for you!! I couldn't really say no and that wiped out my day.
Monday
So today I got to dry fit the wiring loom to work out where it all runs. I have opted for a factory produced wiring look with everything in the right place and all properly labelled. Wiring is a bit of a dark art and I wasn't prepared to take any chances. It may have cost a bit, but I think it is worth it. I dry fitted the firewall panel and attached the fuse board and started to try and figure out where it all went. It all seems straight forward but I wanted to check with the factory before I went any further.
Tuesday
Spent another few hours in the garage today but didn't really get much done. I tried to fit the drive shafts but realised I didn't have all the required nuts and bolts to do it. I seemed to spend aged just looking around the car deciding what to do next and didn't actually do anything!!!
Now just a quick point on this issue. There was a recent discussion on the RHOCar forum about how long it takes to build a Zero. Well, I know that the factory takes 3 weeks because Ben told me, and he is one of the guys that does it. So based on 8 hours a day 5 days a week for 3 weeks that is 120 hours. The main difference is that they know what they are doing and have everything to hand to help them. For the average builder at home, 120 hours is not realistic. I haven't counted it all up, but I reckon I have spent probably about 20 hours actual build time and 20 hours just looking at the car deciding what to do next!! I think you can comfortably double the 120 hours and then add a bit more for good measure.
Wednesday
Today I took a trip to the factory. I had a bunch of questions to ask and although I could ring up the technical support line, I am a visual person and I need to see things. I spent a good hour with Ben (the one mentioned above) and he was very patient and answered all my questions, showing me on a couple of chassis where things go etc. He confirmed the correct routing of the wiring loom and fuel pipes and and also confirmed that I had not done the brake pipes right! He explained that they need to run under the steering column support so as not to catch on the steering. Oh well, I will need to re-do those. Whilst there, he confirmed that he is due to start building 3 new cars next week and is going to take photographs of every strep of the process for a new manual. This is the weakest part of the GBS Zero, and GBS are the first to admit it. He may even take some videos of some of the more complex jobs. While there I bought a few more parts.
I also found out that they have moulds to shape the panels and a great big wooden jig they use to fit the side panels. They simply run the adhesive down the chassis rails, add the panels and put the wooden jigs on to apply pressure to the joints, clamp it all up and leave it overnight to cure. Ben says that the joint is so strong that if you need to remove the panels, you need an air chisel to get them off!! He did say that they add a few rivets underneath just to keep the IVA inspector happy, but there really is no need to.
Thursday
Next was to look at the wiring loom and fuel pipes. These need to be secured to the offside upper tunnel rail. The factory chassis have little lugs welded to them to use for this but I had to improvise. I fitted some P clips to a piece of aluminum box and glued that under the top rail. I can then use the P clips to tie cable ties to. This should be secure enough for IVA and for safety reasons.
Next was to fabricate some small V shaped infills to mount the fuel pump and fuel filter to at the back. I cut these from an off cut of aluminium sheet I got from the factory and bonded and riveted this in to place.
I also had to do the same near the drivers bulkhead on the chassis so that I could mount the swirl pot. Both of these are jobs that are need for the Zetec but maybe not be for other engines, hence that are not automatically sorted in the kit in the first place.
So there ends another day. I am not sure what I will do tomorrow yet, probably spend another few hours just looking at the car trying to decide!
Friday
Not a huge amount of progress today. I fitted the high pressure fuel pump using a couple of £1.49 exhaust clamps which seems to have done the job nicely. I also fitted the swirl pot and had my first experience of fitting rivnuts. It took a bit of working out but once I got the hang of it, they were easy to fit.
After that I fitted the wiring loom and fuel pipes to the mounting bar I installed yesterday. I think it worked out pretty well.
I also fitted the other fuel pump at the rear of the car on the mounting plates I fitted yesterday.
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