26th April Update

No progress as such to report on the car but I did take a trip to the factory today to get some more parts.  I wanted to get front brakes, track rod ends and wheels so I can get the car to the rolling chassis stage next.  However, I ended up getting a little bit more than I had planned.

Yes, sat behind boxes and between tyres is the engine.  A brand spanking new 2.0 litre Ford Zetec engine.  It took 3 people and an engine hoist to get it in the car and there is just little old me to get it out!!  It should be fun .... not!!

Anyway, I also took the scuttle I had built up to be checked out as it didn't look quite right to me, but it is OK.  It just needs some counter sunk rivets putting in to give it some strength and then the inside painting black and some vinyl adding to the edges to finish things off.

All in all it was a good day and I am looking forward to getting more done on the car in the next couple of days.

Fuel Tank

Not a lot of progress over the last couple of weeks due to other commitments.  However, today I bonded the fuel tank in place.  Once that is set I will add some tank straps to make sure it all stays put.  I am told I don't really need to do this, but it is just a bit of extra security.

Before I did this though, I had to fit the fuel filter and the fuel pump.  The first thing to do was to make a couple of triangular mounting plates to fit the filter and pump to.  These were cut from some surplus aluminium I got from the factory and then bonded and riveted in place.  The filter is held in place with an exhaust clamp.  The pump has its own fittings.

This is the filter and pump in place.

15/11/2012 - When fitting the brass fuel line fittings to the pump, please remember to use some PTFE tape around the thread as this will prevent petrol from dripping out of the joints.  I forgot to do this first time round and spent a lot of time wondering why the garage always smelled of petrol.  Also the petrol drips out on to the rubber mounting bobbins and they end up coming apart, meaning the fuel pump is no longer attached to the car properly!

The second high pressure pump, for the injection system, is mounted to the off side footwell panel and is again held in with exhaust clamps.

Once all this was in place, I moved on to clean out the captive nuts for the seat belts.  I used the required sized die to tap out the captive nuts as they were full of the powder coating that is applied to the chassis and they need cleaning out before any more of the interior is fitted in place.  I should have really done them before the side panels were fitted, but I forgot.

I have also been looking at wheels to see what I can get in the required size.  Although they are a standard 108 PCD for Ford, the off-set, or ET, is only 15, which is for a Peugeot, the Ford Sierra is usually ET38.  I know I can get the correct fitment from the factory, but I want to see if I can get any other designs.

Next thing will be a trip to the factory for more parts.  I need the front brakes so that, along with the wheels, when I get them, I can get to rolling chassis stage.

Front Near Side Suspension and Dashboard

I finally got the last 2 bolts I needed to put together the front near side suspension.  The method to put it together was described when I fitted the off side, so I won't go in to any details here.  Suffice to say, the car looks more balanced, with all four corners now having hubs ready to take wheels.  Here is a picture from the front of the car.

  
I can't go any further with this at the moment as I need to get steering rod ends and brakes before the front can be considered finished.  I also have to make a decision on what wheels to fit and this all depends on the final look I am going for.  I do need to decide this fairly soon and I am hoping that a trip to the National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh at the beginning of May will give me lots of ideas.

Next I thought I would have a look at fitting the dashboard to the scuttle.  First job was to take the scuttle back off the car, then trial fit the dashboard to the dashboard mounting plate.  This is when you realise that you haven't fitted the mounting plate quite as 'sqaure' as you thought you had!!  Oh well, I am sure it will all "pull into place' as things are tightened up!!  From the back, I marked through where the allen bolts would fit and drilled pilot holes.  These were then re-drilled with a 6mm drill to take the bolts.

You can't just fit the dash, you have to cut some of the fibreglass moulding away to make room from the steering column casing.  This will have to be cut away in small steps as i don't want to cut away too much.  Below you will see the dashboard in place, with markings where the instruments will roughly go and also where I have started to cut away the space for the steering column casing.

I tried to fit it back on the car, but it needs more to be cut away.  At this point the 'Sharpie' pen I was using to mark the cut lines dissappeared, and even though I looked high and low, I couldn't find it.  I took this as a sign to stop for the day and not to try and do too much.  I might come back to it during the week, but it is most likely going to be a job for next weekend.  

    

The Scuttle

This was not a task I had been looking forward to, but one that I knew that I would have to tackle at some point.  I spent some time looking at other blogs and photo accounts to get some ideas on how to do this and there are several ways to do it.  A quick phone call to Richard at the factory and he gave me some ideas, I also put a post on the RHOCar forum and got some more.  Finally, I decided to put the kettle on and think about it even further!  Now this step in the build process cannot be over looked.  It stops you from rushing in and making a pigs ear of the job.

Once the tea was consumed, I got started.  First thing to tackle is the 90 degree bends at the end of the scuttle that sits flat on the top of the chassis rail.  My problem is that I don't have a sheet metal bender and I wasn't going to go and buy one just for this job so I had to rely on a clean 90 degree edge, some clamps and a hammer.  Definitely not the neatest of jobs but it will be hidden in the final build, so it is only something that I know about, and anyone who happens to be reading this blog!!  Oh well, ces't la vie!!

The next stage is to line up the tabs on the scuttle panel with the tabs on the firewall.  Now I am lucky that these panels have been refined a bit and the tabs now seem to line up correctly, which I think on some of the earlier Zeros, they didn't.  At this stage is it also a good idea to form the rough shape of the scuttle by gently bending the panel as this stops the panel springing back to its original flat state.  Once the tabs are lined up, they can be screwed together with self tappers, making sure you keep things aligned.

Now this is where I decided to be different.  I am also fitting the inner dashboard former as I am going to use a fibreglass dash.  This panel helps add shape and rigidity to the scuttle.  I decided that I would tackle the job in a couple of stages.  The first would be to bond and clamp the tabs that run across the front and back of the scuttle but on the top, almost flat part, leaving the bends until later.  I marked out where the tabs would be fixed and applied the Sikaflax.  I used self tappers and clamps on the front edge and an array of clamps on the back edge.  The next couple of photos show the process.

Front edge.

Back edge. You can also see a bead of Sikaflex along the joint.

This then all had to be left to cure and go off over night.  The following day I was able to repeat the process but for the curved sections of the scuttle, applying the Sikaflex and clamps, but this time I also fitted the scuttle to the chassis to maintain the correct fitment and shape.

Another view of the scuttle in place waiting for the Sikaflex to go off.

The following day I was able to remove all the clamps and I had a nearly finished scuttle.  All that remains is to cut off the excess tabs and think about whether to apply some rivets to the joints as a belt and braces measure.  I am not sure they are required to be honest. 

I am pretty happy with the finished result and although I have not built it the same as others have, I think it is a viable build solution. 

Rear Crescent Infils

The next job I decided to tackle was the rear crescent infill panels.  The first part of the process was to de-burr the edges of the aluminium where the laser cutting process had left lots of rough edges.  A good sanding block and a set of various files are needed to do this and it is always handy to have a pack of plasters!! Yes, I managed to cut myself ... again!!

Anyway, once I was bandaged up, I was ready to move on to the next step, bending the tabs over.  This is a simple process but should not be rushed.  I took each tab in turn and clamped a right angle off-cut of aluminium to bend against, and clamped it together.  It was then a simple case of using 2 thumbs to bend the tab so you bend it square to the infill panel.

The whole job takes about 15 to 20 minutes and the end result looks like this.

The next stage is to line up the panel.  This is where a bit of lateral thinking is required.  Where should the panel sit?  Well I looked at the where the rear panel would sit and this runs over the flat part of the chassis rail where the roll bar sits so I took a flat edge and clamped that and that then gave me a guide as to where the curve of the crescent should be. 

Once that is lined up, it is a simple case of clamping it in place as best you can and then following the same process as fitting the other panels.  Mark the panel where the rails are, remove the panel, draw a centre line, mark off 50mm points (2 inches), centre punch, drill the holes, de-burr, offer up the panel, drill a couple of guide holes into the chassis rail, fix with self tapping screws to hold in position, drill the rest of the holes, remove panel and clean debris, rough up the contact points to get a good bonding surface and apply a bead of Sikaflax or similar.

Finally put the panel back in place and add all your rivets, in this case I used 33 per side.

And the end result is a very neat inner panel that is very securly fixed.

Finally, repeat the process for the other side.

Rear Brakes

Following on from the front suspension I decided to move to the back of the car and fit the rear brakes.  When I picked up my donor pack, the drum brakes looked pretty nasty so I have opted to fit disc brakes on the rear of the car.  This way I know all the parts are new.

The whole process was pretty straight forward once I had worked out how the brake pads were fitted!!  The only thing to remember to do was to apply some Loctite to the bolts that hold the calipers to the bracket.  Once both calipers and discs were fitted, it was a simple task of fitting the hand brake cable and the flexible brake pipe.  It is all ready now to have the fluid added and for the brakes to be bled, but I can't do that until the front brakes are fitted.  I am waiting on the factory to get a new supply of front brake discs and calipers before I can do that.

Front Off Side Suspension

So, I have taken another week off work to do some more work on the car and the first thing on the agenda is to fit the front suspension.  This is a fairly straight forward task.  The first thing to do is to clean out all the mounting points where the bolts go through as these will be slightly reduced by the powder coating.  You have 4 options for doing this, a 10mm reamer, a round file, a Dremel type drill with appropriate sanding bit or a 10mm drill bit.  As I don't have a 10mm reamer, I used a combination of the other 3.  Took a while but it has to be done.

First job was to fix the lower ball joint to the lower wishbone.  For some reason this mounts underneath the wishbone and not on top, I suspect it is to do with the steering geometry in some way shape or form, but I don't know what it is!!  Next, the lower wishbone can be fitted.  The mounting points will need packing out with washers so the wishbone is nice and snug.

Edit - April 2012: Following the IVA check at the factory, I discovered that I used the wrong sized washers for packing the suspension.  In the image below (of the upper shock mounting) you can see that the washers are a smaller diameter than the neoprene bush.  They must be the same size or bigger to prevent the bushes from wearing out prematurely.  I have got to re-build my suspension at some point soon to rectify this.

The upper wishbone is next, making sure you get the orientation right.  This is also the time to fit the upper ball joint and this has to be wound in so the distance between the end of the wishbone arm and the centre of the top of the ball joint is 43mm (well I am pretty sure that is what I was told by the factory).  Before you fit this, make sure you add some IVA cover so you don't have to take it off again later.

Next is the wheel hub.  This simply sits over the lower ball joint on the bottom, but the top is a different affair.  Here you need to add the front mudguard mounting bracket which is attached to a mushroom piece that fits in to the top of the wheel hub.  The upper steering ball joint fits into that  mushroom piece and it all bolts together.  

Finally, the shock absorber/damper, whatever you want to call it, can be fitted.  Like the wishbones, this will need packing with washers to line it up right.  You can see this in the picture.

The whole process takes a few hours of fiddling about and is not that easy to describe but the picture below, showing the nearly finished set up, should explain it a little better.  I still need to add the steering rack and a pinch bolt but it is not far off.

  

I wanted to move on and do the near side but I was missing 2 longer suspension bolts from the original pack I was given.  I have asked the factory to send me 2 more, but I am still waiting on them.