Exeter - 12 months On and Some Small Jobs

I went to the Exeter kit car show today.  It is 12 months ago I visited the same show to start looking at the different options of kit car I could build.  Some of the same manufacturers were there again, some were not and there were a couple of different ones there too.  If I had been looking to start building a kit today, would I have chosen any differently?  No, I don't think I would.  I am still very happy with the choice I made.  I took the opportunity to pick up some parts including the Emerald ECU and also some instrument wiring looms.

Earlier in the week, I took delivery of the ETB gauges I had chosen for the car.  I have gone for the standard 7 type layout of speedo, rev counter, oil pressure, fuel gauge, water temperature and volt meter.  I have chosen a chrome bezel and magnolia faces.

This is a close up of the speedo.

I must just add that ETB were very easy to deal with.  They build the gauges to order and they were delivered when they said they would be and the quality is excellent.  6 gauges, all the required senders and delivery and all for under £400.

The inspiration for these gauges wasn't mine, but from a car I saw on the GBS stand at Stoneleigh, back in May.  With the dark blue dashboard and chrome instrument surround, I thought it looked just right.  Anyway, decision made, too late to go back on it now!!  Well I could, but it would cost me more money either for more dials or for ETB to rebuild the gauges with different faces.  This is the dash of the car in question.

Anyway, I didn't stay that long at the show and was back home mid afternoon.  This meant I could spend a bit of time in the garage.  First job of the day, fit the radiator.   I tried clamping the radiator to the mounting brackets with the mounting points on the rear, only to find that when I tried to fit the nose cone back on, it wouldn't fit.  After a bit of head scratching, I realised that you have to use the mountings at the front and the rear mountings have to be bent out of the way.  In reality, the top ones can be left as they sit higher than the mounting brackets and I think I will bend them back as they were on mine.

Here it is fitted.  It will be removed again when the engine is fitted.

An here it is from the rear, just to show how the rear tabs could be left as they are.  As I said, I think I will bend these back in as they were.

One of my purchases today, was the Emerald K6 ECU and I couldn't resist fitting it in place.

The ECU has a standard 'map' on it that will get the engine running and is perfect for emission for the IVA.  GBS also have a 'performance' map which when running the 2 litre Zetec with the GBS plenum chamber, is capable of in excess of 165bhp.  I think this will be plenty for me!

One other thing I forgot to mention, the car is now insured.  I was looking at my spreadsheet of costs and realised there was rather a lot of money tied up in it.  I got Comprehensive build up cover from Frank Pickles for £124 for the year.  It will cost me about another 25% to add the road risk cover when the time comes, so I was very pleased with that.