Build Diary
September 2007
Bodywork! I have been looking on e-bay and all the other relevant sites for bodywork.
New you are looking at £1100 from www.Cyanacars.com, or
£1034 from Stuart Taylor. The plus of the Cyanacars is that
it is partially filled, so the "worst of the moulds" are fixed.
Basically the bodywork moulds are not the best, and so even if
you buy new bodywork it requires filling and such. I was also
told that the cyanacars bodywork is of an older design (square back,
not round back) personally I prefer a more rounded rear ;-).
So, I had decided that if new is not much good, then why not save the cash.
Some bodywork came up about 9months ago and kept reappearing, but
£600 was too much. Eventually I got some ex RGB racer
bodywork, replaced as he got some newer lighter stuff. Supposedly
1 year old.
So, the car is going to be orange (International Orange is the official
British Standard paint name). I had been thinking about colour.
Couldn't decide on what to go for. Then I started reaeding
about people getting bashed into in these small cars on the queens highway, so my earlier
ideas of BRG or dark blue went out of the window. Orange should
do it!
After collecting the bodywork from Neil (number 65 to you RGBer's) a
very nice man, it fits perfectly into a SWB nissan style transit
(although if the paint had been better I would have been tempted to
bubble wrap it first, as I did pick up a few scratches.
A full weekend of cleaning off stickers, hot air gun and hope to peel
off as much glue as possible (especially for the big round circles).
The other RGB paraphanelia were a pain, the glue from the
Yokohama, and MDS battery stickers needs whote spiriti and lots of
rubbing (update; Gunk engine cleaner works best). Also drilled out the remains of all the rivets.
Finally I made a start on T-cutting the paint. Finished the
sills which look pretty good. A bit of heat damage to the one by
the manifold as there was no heat shield.
Problems:
1) 5 big holes on each side of bonnet (cooling). Need to find a
solution for SVA, possible smooth the edges and paint, maybe do
something more complicated with childrens stacking cups (as their edge
is nice and rounded).
2) colling holes on rear edge of bonnet (easily fixed with rubber grommets I think).
3) small bonnet splits, where the bonnet meets the bulkhead, but I have some fibreglass to fix that.
4) lots of star cracking on top of bonnet above wheels, from stones being thrown up
5) fuel cap hole. This is massive (96mm) with two smaller DZUS
fittings either side as the RGB rules require no filler to be on the
bodywork, so it was a flap type arrangement. Either I need to
change to a bigger cap, or fill the hole and use the cap that I have.
I think I will go with the second option, as I can alwasy fall
back to a bigger cap.
6) Big bonnet hole, this was for an air scoop type of arrangement.
Neil generously supplied a "power buldge" that I can fix in here,
but I might just go over it with flat GRP.
Generally it is pretty nice. I need to spend this weekend sorting
out the tub and bonnet paint (white spirit and T-cut) and then need to
think about fixing up the small splits and such. I plan to spray
at least some sections (there are a couple of areas where the paint has
come off with the stickers, not by me actually)., also there is an air
vent on the bonnet and a fwe spare holes on the bonnet that need
sorting out.
GAUGES
In terms of other progress I am struggling to build my own
"yellow box" for converting the rate of pulses between propshaft sensor
and speedo. Not sure what to do about that, I have a circuit
diagram and the components (2x TC9400, and AN795 which describes a
freq-freq converter), but at the moment it doesn't fly. Ractech
electronic speedo is looking appealing (as I think it has the right
white needle, and black background), but I have already spent a few
quid on other speedo options, and I don't like wasting bits.
STEERING COLUMN EXTENSION
Cut up my Sierra down link (lower shaft). I have also got some
thick walled tubing. This is of around 21.34mm od and is about
4mm thick. I will drill down the centre 17mm diamtere and trim
down the cut ends of the downlink to fit in (with a bit of heat and a
mallet). I need to get the lengths measured carefully, and cut
the end of the tube at 45degrees, this gives a large area for the weld,
which can only be a good thing. I see a trip down to Faringdon
and a large beer debt in my future. I will try to sort out one
end this weekend, and plan to get it all measured up for the other some
time when I can get down to my dads.
MEASUREMENTS TO MAKE
Prop-shaft lengths (I want to get this ordered), I measured it before, but that went through the washing machine!
Steering column length
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