Mike D
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,196
Club RR Member Number: 57
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Feb 15, 2011 12:31:19 GMT
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I don't remember removing any leaves off those springs, the ST had more but the GT was just those i'm pretty sure... The Celeste must be a load lighter! Could you add the bottom leaves off yours?  |
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I had an intentionally quiet week at work last week after what has happened recently so gave myself time to get some small jobs done on the car ready for the larger jobs in coming weeks. First was some painting. After I was severely unimpressed by Hammerite, I ordered some POR15 rust treatment. The spray is a hugely interesting solution to use, as it leaves you with a dusty layer of zinc phosphate on the bare metal; apparently provides a great 'key' for the POR15 rust paint to adhere to. POR'd the inside of the front valance, a gorgeous piece of bodywork, which should hopefully hide a long thin intercooler i've ordered.  MUCH more impressed with this stuff. Paints on like a proper paint unlike hammerite which seems to be a n00bified slosh fest haha! Popped a quick question on the general board to see if it can be sprayed over, AlistairK promptly letting me know that POR make a high build primer which sprays over it nicely. Meant I could add a layer over all the seams, welds, repairs etc on the bodywork confident I can primer it before a colour coat  Still tempted to drop some smooth stonechip on the lower sections of the wings/valance before a colour coat. Troublesome areas of the underside of the bonnet got the same treatment...   This pic actually shows the zinc phosphate finish really well.  I gave most of the engine bay and front end a wire brush to clear some of the tacky halfords rattle can job i had done and replaced it with some smoothly added POR15 too. A spray coat of it as a top coat will follow soon.  You can just see the top inner wing repair that I didn't quite weld the patch in flat. Dad was so impressed with the paint I convinced him to coat the insides of his doors to the Spitfire so he could actually get on and weld the new skins on!  While I did the inside of the doors.  Painting done I turned my attention to the front suspension coilover conversions I did a week or so ago. I needed to make a pair of stops out of the HDPE (?) cylinder that came a couple of days ago. These would fit between the top mount and the spring top cap. The stuff was soooo easy to cut and ended up being really easy to machine to.  Bored it out and then found a rasp which was fantastic to shape the block.   to give...  Popped those into the coilovers and we shall see what the ride is like. I may have to redo this in slightly more elastic polyurethene. Aim this week is to get the engine trial fitted and start ordering some parts to get it all plumbed in. HelpJust a quick question really. I've never fitted a new engine and am excited to start. But what n00b errors might I forget or what order should I start bolting/plumbing things in? You guys will be the first to see the pics tho. Thanks to all, you've been great recently. This car needs to be back on the road for RRG... that's my target! Chris |
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,873
Club RR Member Number: 174
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First time i've read this thread in months, gonna be awesome when done.
Is the engine a bolt in swap?
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Hey bud. In 'theory' it should be a bolt in swap. There's the conundrum of converting either the cable clutch pedal to hydraulic, or the hydraulic clutch fork to accept a cable feed, but other than that we thought it would be as close to a drop in and bolt up as you could get. It's basically an updated engine from the same block as the Galant used. Fingers crossed  |
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,873
Club RR Member Number: 174
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If its bolt in all the angles should be OK anyway. Might be worth checking though. The propshaft should always be at an angle as otherwise you'll wear the UJ's out. You also need to make sure the output flange on the diff is parallel to the output flange on the gearbox (or perpendicular to the output shaft). Because you've used lowering blocks and decambered springs there's a good chance the diff will have rotated slightly. You can usually add wedges to the lowering blocks to correct this. I'd also check how the engine mounts sit with the engine bolted in. For performance use its usually best to have the mounts running at a rearwards angle from chassis to engine. It's also a good idea to have the mounts rotated towards the rear slightly. Hopefully this pic will explain  It might have this geometry built in as standard, but worth adding if not. It basically adds resistance to the engine moving under braking. Matt |
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,873
Club RR Member Number: 174
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Just realised, bottom of left drawing is front, right of other drawing is front.
Matt
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Gotcha! Good to know the geometry of all that. It makes complete sense but I wouldn't have thought about it otherwise. Although I do remember Si telling me about the propshaft Thanks Matt |
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I was up early this morning and nipped out to VRS, my local paint trade counter who are about the most helpful and friend paint suppliers I have EVER used. Talked for ages about the best route to take for the paint I want, how to mask and spray the door shuts, how to go about spraying the black stripe I have running down the length of the car and also some advice and recommendation on 1pk or 2pk. Home with my paint choice (or more importantly my clear coat choice, I already have the paint as some of you may remember from about page 2) Stripped the door off, and started prepping the offside door shut.  First coat of etch was followed by a brief rub down and then a second.   That left what I felt was a smooth enough primer base to let me see the colour on the car for the very first time. As it turns out the finish wasn't QUITE smooth enough but that was with hindsight.   Shame the sun was behind the car, as the paint looks amazing in the sun. I'll grab a photo tomorrow morning before the sun has drift across the car  Moved on to the boot shut then, although only manage to prep and etch primer this before I had to scoot of to coach for the afternoon/evening.  Have another 3-4 hours on this tomorrow. Nearside door shut and the boot shut hopefully will be done. Looking forward to seeing some more colour on the car! It's starting to come together! Engine on thursday  (Ross) |
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BiAS
Club Retro Rides Member
Insert witty comment here
Posts: 2,231
Club RR Member Number: 147
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Nice progress Chris, Hammerite is horrible stuff, the POR15 stuff sounds like a vast improvement. The colour looks bloody lovely on the car |
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(car+wheels)-rideheight=WIN
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Thanks Ian I agree, Hammerite is like an00bified version (gunk it on, slap dash messy and I'm quite cross with myself that all the boot interior is hammerited) but to be honest I'm going off the rust type paint for anything other than undersides and almost use it as a basecoat for tetra shutz or stone chip. For the effort, etch and basecoat is so easy. POR15 is still head and shoulders better tho. |
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Last Edit: Mar 9, 2011 14:35:16 GMT by Diabolu
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Doesn't half annoy you when you get everything ready and then you get a 30second shower  I guess I'll rub down and prep the two doors then and leave the spraying for another time! Oh for a garage! Officially looking for a house with a good garage  ....  OR... a large garage with space for a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom coming along nice chris! ive got a huuuge garage and nothing even in it at the minute what a waste! so does your dad do the all work on it for you!? ;D |
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Delica L300
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Mar 10, 2011 20:29:04 GMT
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Hey! Well, I've had a fantastic day today, a day which started with nipping to a friends house to pick up a special tool I needed  He doesn't need this for a while so I've got it for as long as is needed; which is probably a very good thing as I'm guessing what happened today is going to keep happening for a while until it's all plumbed in. Spun the car around on the drive as it's a a much more agreeable angle of attack for the engine!  This did mean that the freshly painted door shut was right in the sunshine and I couldn't resist this... OMG it's looks faNTAstic      That last picture ALMOST shows up the colour change in the fleck. There's a hint of bronze/gold in there Then these came just as I'd taken that last photo!   Slight improvement on size d'ya think?!?!? Does mean a little fettling to get them to fit to the hub pcd tho. Thinking bolting a plate to the inside of the disc (as it's close to the strut as it is) and then drilling that plate to the correct pcd. That done the main target for the day was started! Eyeing up it's future location!   Bolted flywheel back in but had to make sure the clutch plate was lined up before bolting that back in. Turned myself a little spacer to hold it in square while it was tightened up to the plate.  Basically a replica of the gearbox output shaft so it would hold this plate aligned.   Managed to get the gearbox slid in alright, but left that off as it needs a spruce up and a lick of paint. First time the engine dropped in, the secondary air filter line was fouling a little on the bulkhead and making it tough to drop down enough.  That was taken off (ok, the back end of the turbo was taken off as that nut just wasn't budging)  With that off, and the engine shown up to the engine mounts it was a little easier to slot in. The nearside engine mount was loosely bolted up to stop the engine twisting and then dropped right in.     Pulley is awfully close to the ARB but without seeing how high the gearbox holds the front end of the engine up I won't know for sure how much clearance I have. If there's not much clearance I'm not sure whether to twist the ARB or sort out some kind of spacer for the pulley. The inside pulley is not being used as it's for the power steering pump so maybe I could use that for the alternator and save myself the space one 'V' takes up. As it is, the pulley rests on the ARB. Like I say, I'll see what it's like with the gearbox mounted and bolted up.  Ride height hardly moved! Pleased with my guestimations on the spring rates anyway.   Last shot of the day! Also managed to download a workshop manual for the Starion today so have all the torque settings and more importantly the vacuum pipe details for plumbing it in as there are sh!tloads! May whip the tubby off for a quick polish too as I'm expecting a delivery of 10 more of these bevel brushes soon.  Got to put those to some use! Was thinking about Si (HongKongPhooey) all day doing this, and remembered he always used to say that he had many 'ciggy' moments doing his Celica (as I'm sure many of you can relate to having no doubt had many yourselves) Some involved a quick text/pm but most I heard about much later on. It made me feel very proud to think to myself that this was very much a ciggy moment for me... although not being a smoker, I filled the satisfying but remembrance moment with a cuppa instead! Plan of action now I've cleared space in the garage is to clean up the gearbox a little more, give it a lick of paint and sort out it's gearbox mount. Work out how much of the tunnel I need cutting away as the gearstick I think is about 2" further back. Then it's some brake disc fitting, which hopefully I can either call on my brother-in-laws machining company or Grunty to help make some brackets for. Thanks for reading, it's been great to be able to share my little ciggy moment with everyone here Chris! |
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Last Edit: Mar 10, 2011 20:57:57 GMT by Diabolu
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Mar 10, 2011 21:17:25 GMT
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looking really good there dude Re: arb, make up a spacer block to lower it that way it wont foul the pulley |
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Mar 10, 2011 21:20:06 GMT
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looking really good there dude Re: arb, make up a spacer block to lower it that way it wont foul the pulley Ah... good thinking batman! Thanks. Think I'll need to fab up a sump guard, as it's completely hanging down ready to be smashed driving over a random hump back bridge. I'll look at that much later tho! |
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roofus
Part of things
Posts: 58
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Mar 10, 2011 21:45:02 GMT
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Awesome work matey |
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Mar 10, 2011 22:34:50 GMT
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oooo that was cold beeeeatch ;D |
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Colonelk
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,740
Club RR Member Number: 83
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Mar 10, 2011 23:01:47 GMT
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Somehow missed this thread of late. Its looking good |
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Awesome work matey Thanks! I've been absolutely buzzing all day with this! Somehow missed this thread of late. Its looking good Thank you Done a little more digging and this secondary air pipe isn't really needed so that'll be blocked up and dropped off the engine anyway, along with the egr valve on the intake and most of the emissions stuff. Woot! less to plumb in! |
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Last Edit: Mar 11, 2011 0:22:37 GMT by Diabolu
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Mar 12, 2011 12:16:13 GMT
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good work fella, i got this far when i threw the same engine in my sigma. that was years ago now. i wish i knew then what i know now, i would have it up and running no bother.
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"quote hairnet"
I'm not paying nine pound for a pi$$!
[/quote]
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(Ross)
