Motors I'm building my own car... UPDATE - Stoneliegh 2013

Beautiful work, Goo!
[geekmode]Love the beautiful finish on those unused breaks! [/geekmode]
To bad it won't last longer than the first trip
But seriously....i envy you!

//ottzen

 

Looking good!

 

You don't go on bit-tech for a day, and nearly miss an update to one of the best threads :roll:

Looking good GOO, keep it up. Nice to see the calipers in situ compared to the last time we saw them

 

Simply Awesome.
This is the best thread on bit. End of.

 

Looks like the front hubs have place for abs sensors. Are you going to use abs on this car or keep it purely old school, seat of the pants kinda car?

 

You're right - the donor 325i had ABS on it - but the Sportster won't. It just adds complexity to the car, and I've always been told that chopping and buggering about with ABS looms is pretty dangerous, as it can change the resistance on sensors cables and so futz the ABS control and hence the braking.

So yeah - old school.

 

You dont need abs on it if you have good enough tires and dont drive it in poor weather anyway, you WONT drive it in poor weather I hope.

Nice lookin car so far, now work faster.

 

Sounds good to me. Westfield should be old school. I hope you get some nice gages that reflect the old school style. They have modern gauges that look old school but work perfectly with the new stuff. Expensive but awesome looking. Something like these -->
http://www.egauges.com/vdo_grou.asp?Series=Cockpit_Royale

One thing though, I see allot of anxious people on this thread wanting more and more. I wanted to say that you should take your time and feel pressed to complete it. AFterall you have to be happy with the work you have done as well as feel safe and confident that you were not rushed through it.

my .02c

BTW I may be building an old timer with an opel diesel v6 in a year or two. 1940's chevy is what im looking for. Not shooting for hotrod but pure reliability and possibly a daily driver.

 

Those gauges are OK, probably a bit too retro for me... And I don't think the speedo would pass SVA here, as we have to have both MPH and KPH on them. Thanks anyway.

Quick update - I had a rejig of the way the brake lines ran from the rear calipers. The way I had them before didn't give me enough slack at the back to reach the bulkhead and the three-way connector.



The pipe now misses out the eyes on the brake shield and trailing arm that used to be the tranistion points from the old BMW hard pipes to the rubber pipes. I've clipped it to the arm with a p-clip bolted into the old ABS sensor bolt hole.

With the re-route I had plenty to reach the place where the three way connector needed to go. This was mounted via a rivnut I set into the sheet metal near the transmission tunnel.



The third line runs down the tunnel to the engine bay and the master cylinder. This was clipped to the tunnel with p-clips and pop rivets



All the rear pipes have been tightened up and given a dab of pipe-seal.

The next job is to do the front lines around the engine bay.

 

Its all been a bit quite out in the garage, as GOO has been poorly sick and bad with the ******* son of H5N1 and the Plague, (or at least that's what it felt like!) But as I've been feeling better over the last couple of days I got some work done.

One of the issues I've had with the braking system is the new master cylinder as supplied by Marlin. It fits the servo fine, but it had a big notch cut into it:



This was obviously going to cause issues, as it wouldn't seal properly and there'd be a massive vacuum leak. Marlin's answer to this was to use silicon sealant. Some of the other guys building sportsters have tried this, and it's not a very good solution (mainly as the silicon doesn't last very long). So I've filled the hole with some JB Weld, and then shaped the resultant rock hard blob with a dremel to match the profile of the cylinder:



This seems to have worked very well. There's now a solid plug of material, and the supplied O-Ring now squishes down on a solid base all around the cylinder. A quick test mounting on the servo and some compressed air rather than vacuum didn't show up any leaks, so it looks as if it's going to work.

With that sorted out, I moved on to running brake lines around the front of the car. Holes where drilled through the chassis to mount the end of the 90 degree connectors on the end of the lines. These where secured using some lock nuts:




As you can see, the short lines from the front calipers then screw on to the protruding 'nipple' (Ooo-er.... ) that the connector and lock nut form through the sheet metal.

The left hand front line was then run around the front of the engine bay, across the front member below the cut out for the steering column:




The line is secured to the chassis with some pclips bolted to the box sections via some rivnuts.

Once I got that far, I thought I'd better install the servo and cylinder to give some indication of where the lines ought to run to and what path to take. This entailed mounting the pedal box.



I did this with some bigger rivnuts that I set into holes I drilled into then front and top of the box itself:




You can see from the pics how a rivnut works - It's a threaded collar that gets inserted into a hole. When it's set (using this tool), the back end of the nut is pulled forward, squishing the front non threaded portion outwards and back on itself. This locks it in place, and then provides a thread in piece of metal that would have been too thin to tap. The pedal box is held in place with 6 M8 rivnuts and bolts that pass through corresponding holes in the top of the chassis and the firewall.

Once that was bolted in, I then attached the servo.



And then on top of that went the master cylinder:



I then connected up the lines to see where I needed to go:




As you can see, I need to clip the lines in place and get them tidy - I can't leave them like that!

The servo and cylinder aren't bolted in tight - they're going to have to come out again anyway (as is the box) as I need to connect up the brake pedal to the servo push rod, and I need to install the clutch master cylinder (It sits on the side of the box). Besides, I need to rotate the servo 180 degrees anyway, so the vacuum inlet port is inboard and easier to route the pipe to later on.

That should keep me off the streets a while longer, eh?

 

WOW . this start be the best car I saw . better than bmw lol

hey dont forget the computer and sound system , pmp your ride

 

Looking good as always GOO.
The brakes were a bit of a problem on the westfield build, as the brake lines were solid and needed bending, which was a pain.
It's great to see other people building a kit as thoroughly as we did (if not more!). So many people just throw it together as fast as they can, and end up with a shoddy product. So sad

 

God damn this guy cracks me up...


Nice work again GOO, good job you updated, saw you post in FS this morning and thought "No update... Humph."

 

Looking good as always I agree with ozstrike, it's nice to see a job done well.

 

Excellent work GOO, it's taking shape nicely now. Keep up the good work.

One question: Why does the master cylinder have a notch cut in it in the first place if it stops it from working? I can't get my head round that.

 

Neither can I... I can only assume it's a part from another car that has a similar shaped hole in the servo, and Marlin supply it because it gives the correct balance of breaking for the car. I do know that the servo is from a Metro, and is used bacuase a standard BMW one wouldn't fit (and would probably be too powerful for the car)

 

I guess that makes sense but still seems a bit daft. You expect that some parts are going to need a little persuasion to fit but thats just an unsuitable part.

I never understood why it took people so long to build kit cars until I started reading this thread. Now I understand.

 

More progress on the car

I've tidied up the rest of the brake pipes round the front of the engine bay. I turned the servo and master cylinder, and routed the lines up to the cylinder. I let the lines fall naturally here so they wouldn't get too tight a radius on them up to the cylinder:




The second picture show the pipes clipped using some 'double' pipe clamps that I made up using some old BMW parts. They started out as spring / washers that where part of the transition between the old hard brake pipes to the old flexible pipes. They're now doing a great job of keeping the new pipes neat:



They just need some rubber padding between the metal of the clamp and the braid of the pipe.

I've also cleaned up the universal joint that will join the steering column to the lower steering rod (it takes the steering input down to the column)



As you could tell from the previous pics, I've removed the brake master cylinder / servo / pedal box sub assembly. This was because I needed to mount the clutch master cylinder - and get some room to mark out and then cut the holes for the steering column in the firewall.

When I came to look at the clutch cylinder, it was obvious it wasn't going to fit on the pedal box as is - the holes provided where for a BMW OEM cylinder, and the new one from Marlin is a Wilwood one...

Anyhow - it was easily sorted by fabricating a bracket out of some box section, along with some stand-offs to mount it on:



The bracket is attached via a couple of rivnuts



It gets bolted onto the pedal box, and then the cylinder is bolted through, and the piston arm is attached to the pedal by a clip pin.




With that done I turned my attention to mounting the steering column. This entailed modifying the collar that the end of the column passes through. I had to cut small piece from the bottom of the collar so it sits correctly against a seam on the firewall / bulkhead, and three bolt holes where drilled.



I also cut slots in the stem of the collar so the column could be clamped using the old BMW column clamp and column bushing.



The collar was then used as a template to determine where the holes needed cutting in the firewall. After being cut / drilled, the collar was bolted in:



The column was then slipped into the collar, and then bolted up to the upper mount using some spacer tubes and long bolts.



This will be fine tuned at a later stage to get the column level and true. It's not far off it now, TBH.

I've also attached the lower steering rod to the column:



The overlong bolts will, of course, be cut to size.

Other jobs I've done is sealing the seams down the transmission tunnel and where panels have been folded and stitch welded. I also modified the steering column so when it's bolted up the ignition switch is on the correct side when it's bolted up (the method of mounting used would have put it on the wrong side).

I'll be running the fuel lines down the tunnel next - and after that the engine will go in.

 

nice work goo...


good to see this still going along

 

Well another Easter Bank Holiday has passed, and like last time, I spent it working on the car.

I've remounted the pedal box, servo & brake master cylinder in what will be their final positions. I also hooked up the brake lines again, just to get them out of the way and keep any dirt out of the pipes and ports:



I pressed two plastic inlet adaptors into the cylinder (boy where they tough to get in - very tight!) - these are used if you're using a remote brake flulid reservoir, and gives some plastic barbs to slip the feed pipes onto.



I then mounted said reservoir. It's a dual purpose, as it not only feeds the brakes, but also the clutch. Hence the three outputs.



This allowed me to cut some flexi fluid pipe to size for the feeds. I haven't installed it yet, as I'll more than likely be taking the pedals and all the braking kit back out when I drop the engine in. I also need to cut a hole in the bulkhead under the third outlet on the reservoir, to feed the clutch master cylinder.

After I done that lot, I moved on to the major project for the weekend - running fuel lines.

I went for 8mm copper hard pipes to do the major runs down the length of the car. This came on a roll and had to be straightened out. I did this by drilling a hole the same outside diameter as the pipe in a block of wood, and then passing the pipe through this hole. This straightened it out, and got a lot of the kinks out of it. Once it was straight, I cut the length in two - one for the feed, and one for the return to the tank. The two lengths where then bent and shaped to the sides of the tunnel, and p-clipped in place.



The lines pass through the bulkhead at the rear of the chassis, and the holes where this occurs are protected with some grommets. The grommets have 8mm apertures, so they pipes don't rattle around in them. Keeps them secure as well.



The pipes are then routed up toward where the floor of the boot will be when the car is finished. The pipes are finished off with some brass barbs that I soldered on. This will stop the flexible fuel lines that will be slipped on either end of the copper pipes from slipping off (the pipe will be secured with a jubilee clip)



I put some yellow caps on the pipes to keep dirt out of them until the rubber flexible pipes on.

I'll be sorting out a the clutch pipes and the holes that they pass through next - and once that's done the engine will go in. I'm hoping that I can get that done by the end of the month.