Monday 1 March 2010

Plenty of jobs done

I havent posted for a while but managed to get quite a bit done with the build. I went up to Tiger any picked up the bodywork at well as the fuel tank, steering column, handbrake cables and a few other things. The rear brake shoes and cylinders arrived and these were a doddle to fit. I managed to get a good price on a set of new drums which wernt so easy to fit. The drums wouldnt go over the new shoes. I later found out that you need to set the adjustment spring to minimum in order for the drums to fit. Probably a well known fact but for the younger generations like me, I've never worked on the ancient technology that is drum brakes. A large screwdriver and a bit of force sorted this out.

I started looking for wheels then, and come across a good shop on Ebay. Plenty of good feedback and a total bargain at £300 for wheels and tyres. The tyres are 195/50/15 with the rims measuring 7 inches wide, offset of 38 and not forgetting the ford PCD of 108.

Next job I got round to was fitting the handbrake cables. I picked these up from Tiger and they come with a sheet of instructions on how to modify the cables for the job. It was staright forward to do but I still need a bit of adjustment to get it spot on.

I painted the fuel tank and fitted the mounting brackets to the chassis. Not going to bolt it in just yet as I need plenty of room to mount the pump, filter and fuel pipe. I also got round to fitting the steering column. This was real easy and it actually turned the chassis into a car......well kind of.

Next on the cards will be to adjust the handbrake, fit the fuel pump, filter, pipe etc. Im looking in a new blacktop unit as well. So that could be coming soon. Heres a few photos of the new jobs i've done.




Team dynamics pro race 2's


New drums

Rear brakes complete


Rolling chassis finally!!!


Rear end

Handbrake cables and balance bar (still needs adjustment)
One of the best buys in the build. Works a treat

All of the bofy from Tiger


Fuel tank placed in the back

Thursday 14 January 2010

Front brakes arrive

The wilwood brake kit arrived from rally design late last week so the snow days this week gave me plenty of time to get them sorted. The kit consists of the brake disc with the option of being drilled and grooved, the caliper and all brackets and bolts needed to fit it. I also ordered ally hubs from rally design a while back and new wheel bearings from tiger. This job was one of the more easier jobs on the car. The following link has scans from the cortina haynes manual for the torque values for the bolts and the process of the rebuild.

http://gtslocost.locostsites.co.uk/downloads.htm

I had the bearing races fitted by my local garage to ensure there were in true. They also greased up the hub for me there. I had two packets of grease with the bearing kit so i thought i would use these to add more grease during the rebuild. Like a said a really staright forward job to carry out. I attached the uprights to the wishbones first and placed the hub and disc onto that rather than building the hub & upright then fitting the whole unit to the wishbones.

I have ordered new brake shoes for the rear of the car as well as new wheel cylinders. Fitting these will be the next little job. These were ordered from http://www.brakesint.co.uk/ . Next week is the trip up to tiger for a van load of parts. Other than that I have to decide on what wheels to order and sort the seats out. Heres a few photos of the brakes.



New brake disc

Wilwood 4 pot caliper

Hub with bearing in & greased

Disc bolted to the hub

On and complete

Upright ready for the hub and disc

Unit ready for the grease cap


Finished right hand side

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Few jobs done

I've managed to get a few jobs done over christmas time. Firstly was to remove my adjustable bias valve for the rear brakes. I decided to add a compensator to the circuit as the bias valve would fail the IVA. The compensator was very easy to fit. The new ford ones are very small and do not need to be installed at a certain angle. This one just screws in-line making sure the arrow points to the direction of the rear brakes. You can just about make it out in the photo's below on the right hand side.

I removed the lower rear wishbones and adjusted the rose joints for the geometry to be correct. I then tightened all the nust and bolts up (not fully, this will be done when the car is on its wheels). The drum backing plates had been painted over christmas so i decided to fit them and the driveshafts. This ran into a problem I was not aware of. The backing plates do not sit flush with the Avon's rear hub carriers. A quick call to Tiger and I was informed that an angle grinder was needed to grind away the high spots on the backing plate. An hour later the backing plates were sitting flush and the drive shafts were bolted in. I used 3 x 40mm M10 and 1 x 25mm M10 for each side. The 25mm bolt is needed because one of the holes in the hub carrier is shallow.

The final little job was to bolt the handbrake handle in and cut & fit the top panel of the tunnel. I wanted this top panel to be easy to remove so decided to use M4 rivnuts. This saves drilling out rivets if it needs to be removed. Then it was a matter of marking the cut-out for the handbrake handle and cutting it out.

I am waiting for my willwood brake kit to come for the front so I can finally get that sorted. I am taking a trip up to Tiger at the end of the month for a load of parts. Mainly the bodywork, fuel tank, steering column etc. I have seen the wheels I want and also the seats. These will hopefully be ordered this month. So next job is to finish the front brakes and steering off. Heres a few photo's of it so far.


Rear end (compensator on the right)