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Previous Build Diaries
October 2003
November 2003
Handy Links
MK Engineering
These guys make high quality chassis and bodys.
Locost Builders
This forum is fantastic for anyone building a kit car, someone,
somewhere has already answered all your questions!
MK Owners Club
One day I hope I will be eligible for membership....
Which Kit Car
Good kit car reading, they even have an MK Build ongoing at the
moment.
NISe7ens
Northern Ireland Sevens car club (Caterhams, Westfields, Locosts etc)
The picture in the logo was taken by Richard Crowe on a wet day at Nutts Corner on the 24th of Febuary 2004.
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27 December 2003
I managed to rouse
myself into doing a little more work on Lucy today. I fitted the
stainless steel kick strip extensions (aliong the curved part of the
bodywork), quite badly as it turns out, I may have to look at getting
them refitted. I also exchanged all the bulbs in the headlight
units from the 24V ones fitted to 12V bulbs, making a huge difference in
the light levels. FInally I used a little black sealent in around
the seams between the side and rear panels. I'll do the seams
between the body and the rear wings in a day or two when this lot dries
first.
I took some more pictures as well :-)
 
 
She looks
pretty nice with the seats and seatbelts fitted. And a bit of mud
splattered about gives her a more 'lived in' look. This is from me
'burning in' the rear brakes, AKA doing handbrake turns up and down the
yard!
25 December 2003
Happy Christmas
everyone. Well since the last time I have fitted the seats, and
the seatbelts, checked the wheel nuts were tightened up correctly,
and I have done about 800 laps of the yard in Lucy. She really is
fantastic to drive, the longest 'straight' is about 35 yards, but she is
so quick and responsive she can still get up to 'scary' very
quickly! I can't wait to see what 2nd feels like! Or even
1st above 3000 revs! I can't stop grinning when I'm driving
her. Magic. Brian is ringing up Nutts Corner early next week
to organise a date for testing. We're going to bring her down to
his house the night before and do some rudimentary toe-in toe-out set-up.
The only bit of bad news is that the tail lights I had bought won't fit
onto th rear wings, they are too thick, and would either sit out or rub
against the back wheels. I'll have to see about a new set from
somewhere. Ah well, I still can't stop smiling!
21 December 2003
Look at this.
 
 
We got the roll bar bolted on, the rear wings and stoneguards fitted,
the nosecone fitted, the headlights wired, fitted a bit of flexible pipe
to the exhaust (still waiting on the proper silencer) and I threw a seat
into her (not bolted in yet). Mind you on Saturday night the
Woolsey was in the way and I was too knackered, so today I got up,
pushed the Woolsey out of the way, then tentatively drove her out of the
garage. I was bricking it, but nothing major happened and I only
stalled her once (I keep selecting second instead of first)! I can
tell you Lucy's a LOT easier to push than the Woolsey. Hopefully
I can get some sleep now! I'm not going to put on the bonnet
until I get a few test miles on the engine, then I'll see about getting
it jetted, so I can run it without the airbox, and thus the bonnet.
There are still plenty of things to do, including bolting in the seats,
clipping in the seatbelts, fitting the real silencer, filling in the
bodywork seams with sealent, fitting the indicators (not yet received)
and the taillights, getting a cover made for the back area and a ton of
checks before the SVA (not yet booked!), but at least I got to drive her
once!
19 December 2003
More progress
today! I got the front wings fitted, the back panel fitted,
the kick strips fitted, refitted the scuttle, and got the headlamps
(fitted in place but not wired), and first fitted the nose bracket.
  
  
And now
Lucy has a 'face'!
Cute, eh?
18 December 2003
Today I finished the
hole in the side for the manifold, set up the camber of the wheels, this
time using a piece of angle iron and some bolts. For the
technically minded of you, the front and rear camber of Lucy is set up
to 'Primera rear'! Basically I set up the bolts in a piece
of L shaped angle iron, and set them to rear wheels of the
Primera, then I used this to set her up. I also popped into The
Moy and ordered some more stainless steel that I'm going to use for kick
strips for finishing the sides, and also some check aluminium plate for
underneath the nosecone. It'll be ready tomorrow.
To get the car going
I have to fit the front wings, fit the main rear glassfibre panel, then
the rear wings, fit the nosecone, the scuttle, then the seats (maybe
seatbelts!) and then vroom vroom........ Well there are a couple
of small things, I need some pipe to deflect the exhaust away from the
glassfibre, I need a new starter switch (I wrung one of the terminals on
the old one - D'Oh), and I have to wire up the fog light switch and
brake fluid indicator light, but I'm approaching driving her for the
first time, and the excitment is building!
17 December 2003
Phew, a long day
today, but I managed to get both the glassfibre sides fitted to Lucy.
 
I still need to cut a little more out in around the exhaust manifold
(to the right and below) - you can sort of see in the picture
above. This was a satisfying job, as the sides are on for good now
(riveted and bonded) , look good, and thankfully I look like I'm making
progress again!
Yesterday I got the troublesome interor finished. Thanks be!
Don't worry about the blue coloured finish - it's just a protective
plastic coating on the aluminium. I also have to get a handbrake
gaiter and fit it. There was no gaiter on the Sierra donor car, so
I might try to make one up from leather. Black leather. Of
course.
15 December 2003
Again, sorry about
the updates, but it's been flat out, alas to little effect!
I've been working on the interior, and to be honest it's hasn't been
satisfactory, but it's slowly coming together.
 
I decided to hold the transmission tunnel panels in place using rivnuts
and dome headed allen key bolts, to allow access to the prop tunnel in
case any work needs to be done there in the future. It's been very
difficult getting everything lined up, trimmed, and getting the
bolt started onto the rivnut. It would have been a lot easier to
rivet everything in and damn the future!
Ah ho,
I also drilled a couple of holes so I can get to the carrier bearing
bolts if need be in the future. I have to edge the holes with some
cut rubber tubing to pass the SVA (sharp edges and all that).
Finally a picture of
the finished fuel tank. Looks pretty sad, but it works a treat -
anyhow I'll put a bigger tank in at some point in the future.
10 December 2003
Sorry for the lack of
updates, but I was waiting on my propshaft...
 
And that's what a
£200, 7 days late propshaft looks like! I'm a bit ticked
off, since Dave of Gregory's Propshafts told me it should cost about
£120-£140 and should be done 'in a couple of days'. It
took 11 days altogether, and cost 3 times what an MK Engineering
propshaft would cost. Mind you it does have a rubber insert
section which is used to cushion the drive a little, and makes the car a
little easier on the Fireblade transmission. Mind you £130
buys a lot of clutches!
Ah well, no-one said it was going to be easy! I got the propshaft
fitted OK today (I must admit it is a good job), and also the gearshift
linkage (had to wait for the propshaft to do this) but was disapointed
to find out the fuel pump and the brake light pressure switch will both
have to be moved.
I also covered the underside of the front and rear wings in Hammerite
Shutz, a stonechip protector.
This should help protect the wings from damage from stones hitting the
underside of the fibreglass. Hopefully. I managed to get the
wing stays back from Nichrome looking very nice. I'll try to get
them, and the front wings, fitted as soon as the stonechip dries.
Finally I'm trying to figure out how to install a radio controlled
relay to act as an immobiliser that will prevent the car from being
started.
The upside of all this is that I pretty much have all the bits needed
to get the car moving (and more importantly stopping), the downside is
that I do have a mountain of work to go to achieve this, but at least
it's all in my own hands!
5 December 2003
I got the fuel
tank (a Jerry can) fitted - including having the neck of 23.6mm or less,
to comply with the SVA (so you have to use an unleaded nozzle).
Still no sign of the propshaft, the guy has told me that he hasn't
received the rubber insert, and that will now take until Monday
afternoon. That's left me at a bit of a loose end, because of this
I re-recorded the engine using a decent microphone and my
4-track. You can download the new version here. No recording can do justice
to the staggering volume of the engine without the silencer.
Ahhhh. Lovely.
3 December 2003
I've decided on a
name. Lucy. This was suggested by Brian McGoldrick.
Apparently it's likely she'll be a bit 'loosey' at the back!
Anyhow a few pics to keep you entertained.
The grill that I
promised earlier.
 
These 2 show the spot where the Jerry can fuel tank
is going to go (the cement block is holding the rubber cover on til the
adhesive dries) and a
rubber lined strap to hold the tank in place (1 of 2).
I had my first spot of engine trouble today. Well nothing too
dramatic, but after running her for 20 minutes odd yesterday - mainly
ticking over - she wouldn't start today. I remember Brian
mentioning that the sparkplugs can soot up when ticking over a lot, so I
decided to fit the new plugs I had and see if that improved
things. The difference was amazing, she started straight off and
sounded better than ever. I never tire of showing folks what she
sounds like.
1 December 2003
Well
a bit of a set back for the last couple of days, but I did eventually
make a little progress! I went to try the lights after setting the
scuttle on on Monday morning, and the main 30A fuse promptly
blew. I took out the multimeter and checked, and found 2 Ohms to
ground from the 12V ignition line. There were a couple of brake fluid level
light wires
hanging in the passenger area that I thought might have caused it, but
once they were insulated the short to ground remained.
about 6 hours of trawling, ripping insulating tape off, and generally
undoing the wire tidying effort from before, I got it down to the fuel
pump. Bit of a shame really that fuel pumps do actually show about
2 ohms across them to ground normally. The upshot of the whole
thing is I was chasing my tail, and the real problem (the blowing fuses)
went away - I strongly suspect it was the wires for the brake fluid
level light were the culprits all along.
Arrrggghhhhh.
Anyhow I almost have the wires tidied up again, and I also got the dash
riveted in using some nice black wide flange rivets. I think the
clocks look well.
I also got the steel mesh fitted into my nose cone. It looks good
with the mesh fitted (photo tomorrow).
Again you may have noticed this page has shrunk, don't worry all the
past stuff is in my November Build Diary.
I've heard from Gregory Propshafts my propshaft should be ready on
Thursday, in the mean time I have to extend the choke cable and fit it
somewhere under the steering wheel, continue re-tidying the wires and
try to get an SVA compliant neck for the petrol tank. The rules
state that because I run on unleaded the tank can only accept an
unleaded nozzle, ie must be less than 23.6mm minimum internal
diameter. Presumably they are worried in case I try to run
her on red diesel!
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