Build Diary
of a Roadster (Kit Car)
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29th
& 30th May
2009
Had a length of time away from the build, only for the stay in the tin
tent to end early due to rain! So came home and did a bit more on
the car, and had much better weather to boot! Hard to see any
difference to previous pictures, but have done the passenger foot well
bulkhead, wired the horn, spent money at an electrical wholesalers on
bags of electrical terminals and P Clips so tided the wiring in the
engine bay. Fitted the exhaust rap and finally made a big metal P
clip to hold the brake switch still.
Yes I know a lot larger pictures, but indulge me. I have two 4
point harnesses and the rear wheel arches on order. Next job I
think has to be the front wings, so need to make the stays.
31st May 2009
What a glorious day
for the last one in May. Well I set about working on the wing
stays and it took all day for me. Did not work from the book on
these as I could bend the 19 mm tube in one go, this meant less welding
and distortion and because of less welding should perhaps be a bit
stronger.
The first picture is the offside stay on the garage floor, if it looks
peculiar it is just that I removed the shadows from the picture so it
stood out better.
For now I have just
rested the wings on top of the stays for the next two pictures, still
undecided how I will fasten them on.
7th June 2009
A very slow week, with several one step forward and two back periods as
the jobs have been completed. On a positive note, I am now a lot
happier with the handbrake. I replaced the standard Ford crescent
shaped cable linkage with a straight bar, machine to have two adjusters
one for each cable. It is allows much better setting of
tension in the handbrake which now starts to be applied from 3
clicks.
On one step backward, the wing stays, were removed and a section on
both sides ground out of the way of the front brake callipers.
This after the realisation that as the pads wear, the calliper moves
inward! Now both back on and the wings bolted through.
The second step backward. Made a lighting bar to hold the
headlamps and indicators, goes just behind the top of the front
frame. I dea was to use the indicators to cover the sharp edges
of the headlamp mount. Could only get square ones at the time.
but OK try them and fitted well.
Only to be told they would not pass IVA/SVA because the viewing angle
is not good enough.
So after consulting the manual, I found that each front indicator as
well as meeting set minimum and maximum heights and distances from
sides, must also be viewed 80 degrees outward and 45 degrees inward
from the front. So much for just using the Westfield site as
reference.
The picture below give an idea of what I mean.
This really means the indicators will have to be mounted on the front
nose cone on stalks to the sides, which is something I did not want to
do, or make stalks and bring the indicators forward on the existing
bracket. Ho hum!
11th June 2009
A few days since update, it is amazing how a small setback can
mean you do not feel like working on the car for a couple of days.
I decided to look forward, so stuck some
paper together and set it over the engine to form a bonnet. Once
in place and taped down, I pressed down over the edges leaving an
indent showing the required shape for the bonnet.
I also bought a set of lights for the back end of the car, one of
the
to do jobs soon.
13th June 2009
Picked up a 1.6 CVH rocker cover to replace the standard one, it
gives a bit more clearance under the bonnet line. Now on hold as
I need
to get fasteners to keep the bonnet in place and rubber strip to lift
it about 10mm from the scuttle lip to bring the aluminium level with
the scuttle and nose cone.
The front indicators have been moved forward by fitting modified table
legs! A test run of the engine on idle does not
cause them any vibration so there should be no issues. The
indicators should now be visible
from the required angles.
The last picture is looking down on the engine area, I
could do with some form of graphic on top of that engine cover!
Tomorrows plan is to make the radiator grill, then may consider
fitting the lights to the rear panel, still not sure if it looks better
with lights on there or the rear wings.
16th June 2009
Text only update tonight, very little done over the weekend, called in
at an auto jumble in Garstang and bought some edging trim for the cycle
wings and for the bonnet, some closed cell foam strip, 1/2"
square, again for the bonnet to hold it away from the fibreglass and a
fun rear number plate, nothing fancy just has BOF 3 on it! Made
the front grill out of 8 mm aluminium tube, but not sure if I will use
it.
Tonight I have been cutting down the light pods to hold rear fog
and reversing lights. These are cut at an angle of 9
degrees to keep them vertical when bolted to the rear panel.
Anyone watching me do this on my milling machine,
using bits of wood, my hands and a few wood screws, would have entered
me for the Darwin Awards. Luckily I left the garage with all
fingers attached.
Came to a major decision! I can not fit, the rear wheel arches or
bonnet without the side panels
being fitted. Without the wheel arches the rear light clusters
can not be fitted, with out lights fitted I can not finish
wiring. So must put thought into side panels.
18th June 2009
Made mind up, bought a 2.5 x 1.25 metres by 1.2 mm thick aluminium
panel this evening, had it chopped in two length ways and brought it
home in the car, just! The scuttle has been taken off tonight
ready to offer up the panel, mark it out and cut to shape with over lap
for folds top and bottom. It is covered one side in black plastic
to help prevent scratches. Cost £64 plus VAT which I did
not think was that bad, it will not do the full length of the side, but
will be jointed just behind the front wishbones, allowing for a
removable piece to be fitted in and around the wishbones.
Last picture below is of my home made radiator grill made over the
weekend, I have been given some steel mesh, so will make a comparison
and decide which one to use.
19th June 2009
Ok started by cutting the aluminium
pannel down to 224 cm to get from top of rear wheel arch to just behind
front wishbones, cut a small triangular piece out to get it to fit
around the rear wishbones then clamped to the side of the car.
Pushed in against panel to keep it close to the chassis and used a
permanent marker to draw lines along the chassis edge top and bottom,
ended up as shown below. Next stage was to use 25 mm masking tape
from inside edge of line outwards.
Using the masking tape means I now have approx 25 mm to fold over the
edges. Next use air shears to cut of the excess metal to leave a
side panel!
Tomorrow I will use this to make the other side panel, making sure I do
it the correct way round of course to keep the plastic cover on the
outside.
I hope it works, I know it is not as per book method as it goes all the
way to the top join with the rear panel and folding on the arc may be a
bit of an issue, but I still have an option to trim that edge back.
22nd June 2009
It has been a weekend of hard hork and some more this evening.
The panels are on the car, still in black coat and have put the scuttle
back on the car with wheel and dash. A lot of bashing with rubber
mallets, drilling for rivets, de burring then refit and fasten
up. Tonight put a pear shaped (sort of ) hole in the side panel
for the exhaust to pass through and will refit the exhaust when I
can. I will work on the final pieces of the sides to cover the
front suspension area. The plan is to make one out of cardboard
then duplicate it twice in aluminium and fit. Will need to remove
a damper and spring to allow free movement of a front wheel.
23rd June 2009
A bit further each night is the aim. Spent most of the evening
trying to slice down a length of 8 mm diameter copper pipe to form the
edge protection around the exhaust. There must be a better way
then an air powered disk grinder with a 1 mm thick disk. Anyway
managed to achieve some sort of result, this is another piece to go on
the list that may be improved later. Took the protective plastic
off, probably a bad idea!
Also working on a new front grill, using diamond shape
mesh.
24th June 2009
Just an update now the adhesive on the grill has set. The
side fill panels are also underway.
25th June 2009
Have taken the front suspension off, disconnected the steering arm,
remove the brake pipe, just removed the lot so I could make the small
side panel, this is the nearside undergoing the work, offside still to
be done. Hope to have the side panels all done over the weekend
and get it back together again.
Down side, the wings stays are fowling the steering arms, especially
when the suspension is at the end of its downward travel. This
means
rework to the bottom sections of the stays.
28th June 2009
Re made the bottom ends of the wing stays, so they no longer hit
against the steering arms. I spent a bit of time with the exhaust
clamp, grinding the upturned edges to remove them and end up with a
flatter finish. Re fit the brake pipes and bled the system of
air,
removed all the plastic trim left on the side panels and it looks like
we are getting there!
29th June 2009
Started on the bonnet, placed the paper template on the aluminium
sheet, marked out and cut with air shear. Note the two bending
jigs. This is quite difficult and really could do with being
higher off the ground and a few more hands, but you get the idea.
Now it is just a case of bending the panel over the jigs in the correct
place, doing a test fit, bend it again, another test fit, bend
again, test fit and repeat until you are happy. I will get back
to it tomorrow night! This one will need all the marks polishing
out.
I have put masking tape on the edges of the nose cone and scuttle to
help stop scratches from the aluminium sheet.
1st July 2009
IVA/SVA Compliant catches arrived for the bonnet, so fitted them this
evening. It is not a perfect job, but looks good and I will
improve the bonnet when as I fit a few extra braces for the bonnet
edges to hold against. Still have to cut out the hole for the air
filter. Two pictures below:
4th July 2009
Mounted 'U' Channel to the inner edges of the bonnet, put in the hole
for the air filter and fitted a bit of trim. Also finished the
cut down type 9 gear stick and fitted that with it's trim.
12th July 2009
Time for an update. The gear stick now has a home made cover and
trim ring, the speedo drive arrived earlier, so has been fitted,
getting the cir clip to fit was a real pain, had to clean out the slot
before it would lock in place.
Have also been working on the rear boot lid. Cut this out of a
sheet of ply and then covered with leatherette. Have sprayed the
roll bar in black and fitted all together. The normal bolt heads
seen here will be replaced by black cap head screws soon. I
managed to get some Gates, 2 inch (51 mm) internal diameter fuel filler
hose, lots of edging trim and adhesive trim to cover sharp edges. such
as holes for the wishbones, back of seat belt mounts, wing stays etc.
The fog, reversing and numberplate lights are also on the back of the
car ready for the wings.
The small jam jar fuel supply has now gone and the tank piped up
to supply the engine. Fingers crossed, no leaks so
far. Next to do is the lid of the boot, I have wing mirrors on
order and my paperwork has been sent to DVLA to start the process for
VIN number.
26th July 2009
I have not done much but little bits here and there. The boot has
a lid but needs a lock and there is no storage area yet! I have
the date for the DVLA inspection and hopefully all goes well that will
be Tuesday the 28th July 2009. This is just an inspection to
obtain the chassis or VIN number. Hope to do a few more things
with the car when out such as weigh it on front and back axles, get the
steering checked and camber front and back wheels and also if time
permits get the breaks and emissions tested.
I have tried to learn a bit of metal spinning to assist with the IVA
test standard. This is for the exhaust. Below are pictures
of the leading edge of the exhaust system, which certainly would not
pass, so having made a former I spun an aluminium disk over it and
trimmed to size and fitted it. It is not perfect but a lot better
then original and if I can improve on the technique will do one for the
trailing section.
The exhaust bracket has also been redone bringing the silencer out
around 15 mm from the bodywork.
28th July 2009
The inspection by DVLA went OK today, took the car up the VOSA site at
at Kirkham a few minutes later I was ready to leave, this was a check
for donor parts in the build such as engine, gearbox, back axle etc.
and that the engine number matches that of the donor V5. All
seemed to be well and should indicate an age related plate.
Managed a few other things while out. Had the brakes tested and
all OK with rear brakes and handbrake, front brake individually will
ramp up and lock the wheels, but when done together the nearside is
down 32% on the offside. So I read that as the nearside is
lacking braking effect and would tend to make the car pull to the right
under heavy breaking. That is something I will have to look at,
as all parts are new, I will need a bit of head scratching first.
Last to be checked at the garage was the exhaust emissions, and that
was clocked at 1.8% Co, so a smile for that.
Near home I went to a weighbridge, the car is 640 Kg on its own and
740 Kg with me in it, (FB). With me still in it, I asked them to
give
me front and rear axle weights and had 340 Kg front and 380 Kg
rear.
Yes that only adds up to 720 kg. It turns out the weighbridge,
meant for heavy goods wagons has a resolution of 20 Kg. So
estimate the car is around 630 Kg has a balance of around 47% front 53%
rear.
The weather was less then kind, I made it to VOSA dry but as I
left the heavens opened and continued to rain through the brake testing
and weighing, I gave up trying to keep the car covered.
It has been suggested that the VIN number should take around a week to
arrive and
to ring if I have not heard anything by then.
29th July 2009
I used an afternoon in the workshop making jigs to test the camber of
the rear wheels.
They are basically just T pieces with a stand for vertical laser lines
made as accurate as my digital calliper would allow. They fit on
to the rim of the 15 inch wheels and allow me to project a line and
compare it to a vertical plum line. The rear camber is set as
close as I could get it to 1 degree negative on both sides and I will
do the front wheels when I can. Then the amount of toe in can be
set and the front sections covered up ready for IVA.
30th July 2009
Letter from DVLA in the post this morning with the VIN number, starts
off with SABTVR then numbers. I cut the number into a flat length
of
steel and welded this to the chassis on the right hand side as
requested. Still have to get a VIN plate made up for under the
bonnet. 
This was then sealed all around with Sikaflex and finally sprayed black
Did the front wheel camber as well this evening here are a couple of
pictures showing the basic set-up:
The stick is there keeping the indicator pressed tight against the
wheel allowing me to go
to the garage door and take measurements. For general interest,
over a
height of 1145 mm, 20 mm offset is very close to 1 degree.
So the next thing will
be to set up the amount of Toe-in on the steering, lock it all up and
cover the required parts.
5th August 2009
Did the front wheel Toe-in today and have covered the parts with bright
yellow heat
shrink, Ugh! There is self centring on the steering so that is
good. I have replaced the front disk pads in an effort to sort
out the imbalance on the brakes but will not know if cured until back
on rollers.
Have added side repeaters, a lock to the boot lid. Still no boot
though! Last few things to do awaiting the wings are:
Get some mirrors on it, simple covers for the adjustable spring rings
and the mushroom second securing.
6th August 2009
Did the second fixing on the mushrooms today, something I had been
putting off for some time.
As the mushrooms are only held in by pinch force, it is considered
normal to have a second method of securing them. Many will
drill a hole through the steel casting and tap the mushroom for a
M6 bolt. I did not like this idea, to me, it puts a hole in a
highly stressed part and may lead to fractures in the future. So
I came up with an alternative clamp arrangement that I hope meets
approval.
In the front hub there is a squarish void, as seen in this
picture. 
This gave me an idea of making a hook style clamp arrangement, that
would lock into here and bolt into the mushroom, the next picture gives
a
better explanation of what I mean. 
The small hole will let any water drip out (was really there from the
lathe work), the larger hole is clearance for an M8 bolt.
This view shows the bottom clamp, turned to fit inside
the mushroom!
These are handed so two made up and more welding to beef-up the
clamp. The top of the mushroom has two holes, both off
centre. One is tapered to match the Transit drop link, the other
threaded m8.
The m8 bolt pulls the mushroom and clamp together against the upright
collar and stops the mushroom from coming out of the upright should the
pinch bolt come loose.
Of course, the idea is it never comes loose, so use of split washers
and thread lock on the m8 and m12 bolts certainly helps.
4th September 2009
The rear arches arrived this week, but up to now due to the weather I
have not had chance to fit them. But at least I tried a mock up
with some 3 inch spacers on top of the tyres.
During the wait, and still to complete, is a car trailer to tow the
roadster behind the normal family car, it is getting there slowly.
6th September 2009
A break in the rain has given me a chance to do a bit more. The
trailer now has the sections complete in between the wheels and
mudguards
are fitted, just a bit of paint to finish the car deck, service the
breaks,
new tyres and then it will be ready for use.
The rear arches have been fastened on, six bolts on each side should
hold them both in place. I need to purchase some 'P' trim to
finish
the edge between the arch and bodywork, but it's looking OK to me.
Rear light clusters and reflectors are next.
13th September 2009
The rear lights are on and finally wired, will eventually get some form
of wedge shaped spacer to align them vertically. The mirrors are
on and I truly think that the build is now coming to an end. I
will fit the decal for the brake master cylinder, edge trim the bottom
of the front suspension springs and locking rings and ask a few friends
to have a look over the car for their advice prior to IVA.
14th September 2009
'Pushed' the car out of the garage swept up, and I took a few
pictures. The forms will now be sent to apply for the IVA
test. I am not saying the car is finished, will it ever be
finished? But at is at a stage of close to it! The lights
all work, the horn bip's, I am generally happy with it.
If you wish to contact me,
please E-mail by clicking on the
following link and then remove the "spamtrap" Email
© A Hodgson