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

Wow. This is the first time I've ever looked at this thread, but boy I was missing something...

 

When are you firing it up?

 

I dunno yet - I haven't sorted out the engine loom, there's no electrics installed yet and only the beginnings of a fuel system. I guess some time this Summer, hopefully (My trip to Singapore shouldn't delay it to much).

I'm pretty confident the thing should run. I'm defiantly getting compression - when we where putting the fly wheel on, you could feel the resistance. I'm going to double check the cylinder pressures later on when I've got a battery installed (and some oil in the sump) so I can crank it with the starter and use my compression gauge.

[MichealWinner]Calm Down Dear![/MichealWinner]

Yes, I'm sure I'll get round to posting some video up when she's running.

See above.

 

I managed to get the gear stick in today, so I thought I'd post up my results as I watch Le Mans on TV (GO ASTON!!! )

I decided to renew a lot of the shifter parts, as they where very worn. At the same time, I bought myself a Z4 gearstick:



Everything that pic is new bar the aluminium support beam and the black gear linkage.

I bought the new stick as the old e30 stick is renowned for it's row-boat style action. The good thing about BMW though is that all their shifter seem to be interchangeable - so the Z4 is a drop in part, and makes the shift much more slick:



This is due to the larger distance between the ball joint and the linkage point, and an overall decrease in height of the stick.

Just to point out the sort of wear this was, here's the difference between the old and new shifter t-piece:



Anyway - the first stage of fitting the stick was to mark the centre of the hole that the stick passes through. To do this I put the gearstick support in:



Then a disk of wood the same diameter as the support cup with a hole drilled through the center was put in, and then I pushed a pencil through to mark the center point on the underside of the tunnel:




I then took the support back out, centre punched the marked point and then drilled a small hole from the underside.



then working from the top, I used a home made compass to mark out the hole. All this is is a bit of metal with a pop rivet in one end and a hole drilled for a pencil in the other. The pop rivet goes in the hold in the tunnel and the circle is drawn



Once I'd got the hole marked out (it's the same diameter as the rubber gaiter) I enlarged the hole in the middle with my step bit



That gave me enough room to get my jigsaw out with a metal blade in and cut out the final, correct sized hole:



With the hole cut, I turned my attention to fitting the t-piece to the shifter rod on the back of the box. This is held in place by a small metal dowel pin that you need to drive up through the shifter rod into the other side of the t-piece. This was a real pain, as (by necessity) it's tight - but it's in an awkward place due to the output flange. After a bit of swearing I got it in:



After that, I put the support back in, and put the shift lever in. It sits in a plastic cup that then clips into the support. I lubricated it with some red rubber grease:




The shift linkage went in next:



And then to top it all off, the gaiter went on top:




The cockpit's starting to come together (the gaiter has been taken out here so I could get some paint on the cut edges of the sheet metal).

Looking good, even if I do say myself!

The stick feels good - nice short throw. Much better than the old stick in the Beemer!

 

Good stuff GOO, she's coming along very nicely

 

Looking good there GOO - really starting to take shape, no more work? Even with all the nice weekends and evenings we've had of late? (Not wanting to sound ungrateful for the update here though )

 

No - I've been busy over last couple of weekends, and work has been a little crazy so I've not been that inclined to go out to the garage when I get in.

I'm just planning what's I'm going to do next - I really should get on and sort out the engine loom, but that's going to be a mucky job - stripping off all that old tape and sheathing.

 

Back to the old days of dirt and grime eh GOO? Seems like a long time since you stripped that old beemer down and completely rebuild the engine.

 

I havent looked in on this thread for a good few months, seems to be coming along nicely greatoldone. nice work!

 

I know the feeling, I get home and pass out for 20 minutes before I bother with doing anything.

The wiring wont be a fun part but just turn on some music and go at it, eventually the end will come.

 

The wiring is fun actually... As long as you have the schematics by you. Remember there are many wires that you dont need anymore and as such you will be able to slim it down considerabely. Or get a custom loom done. They wont set you back much and all wires will be brand new. Btw, Beemer wiring is easy compared to Alfa Romeo's, allmost every wire is 20 AWG and has relays for anything to keep them that way.

 

i somehow missed the updates for this!
looks sweet now with the engine in, a much much nicer affair than how you first bought it!

After putting this all together, are you not going to have to take it apart to paint the body? or are you keeping it black?
(i know there are more panels to go on as its very bare atm, was just wondering if you would be matching the body paint to the main chassis of the car or not. is all )

can i come play / help with the build ?

 

All you'll see of the chassis once the car is finished is the roll over hoop and the rails down the side. I intend to keep those matt the black of the powder coat as most builders do - check this one out:



The body panels on mine won't be ASBO orange though - they'll be a gloss / metalic black.

So no, I won't have to pull the engine out again (fingers crossed).

 

Ahh ok, that makes sense now and a good colour pairing.
Gloss black with matt chassis....sounds sweet to me

(for some reason i thought you were gonna be painting it a nice deep purple:S hell knows where that came from! )

 

woooooooooooot

man that driving wheel is Sux rofl

okay I want to see update! do you want update too guys ?

Good luck brother keeep your Kickass work up

 

I haven't ever checked out threads like this. As far as I can recall you're the only one on BT ever doing this as well. You've got my attention now, however I'm dropping in a bit late
My wife's uncle has a Marlin as well, he bought it as is though, so he's a n00b

Seriously, keep up the good work! I love it! *subscribed*

 

A long time since the last update... Sorry Guys. Things got in the way. But I'll clue you up to what I've managed to get done in the last couple of weeks since I got back off holiday. Pics will have to wait until tonight, as MrsGoo was hogging the compact camera for eBay pic duties last night, and the D80 will never be used with mucky paws!

Anyway, I've got the radiator in. This entailed cutting some metal 'fins' that where used for mounting the fan shroud on the donor car off, as they mad it too wide to go in the space between the front engine bay uprights. Tin snips Cheesecake, and for high velocity metal shrapnel wizzing off and ricocheting around the garage once you've done the final cut!

Whilst the radiator was brand new, the paint need doing as some of it had cracked and flaked where the cuts had been done, and I could see some areas where the copper fins on the core where showing through. so I sprayed the rad with some special rad paint I had (I bought it when I thought I was going to refurb the old rad, before it became clear that it was shot).

The radiator itself is only held in by some rubber bung 'pegs' that it sits on and a rubber bobbin on the top. You'll see in the pics later. I was dubious about it being secure enough, but once it's sat on the mounts and the bolts have been done up, it's not going anywhere. There's just a slight play of the rubber, which I guess is there to soak up vibration.

As well as doing that, I finaly got round to cleaning up and recovering the engine loom. What a shitty job that was! I cleaned the old sheathing with some gunk to get rid of most of the muck. Once the dirt was gone, it was pretty obvious that the old sheathing was done for. It had gone stiff with age, and quite brittle in places.

So I spent an entire night stripping the stuff off and cable tying the bundles together as I went to ensure the loom diidn't loose it's shape. Hard work on the fingers, I can tell you!

Once that had been done, I turned my attention to some odd connectors that where near the big plug on the end of the loom that connects to the ECU. After asking around, it was clear that they where of no use on the sportster, and the engine would run with out them (they turned out to be for the On Board Computer - OBC) so I snipped them off and terminated the loose ends. I also did the same at the other end of the loom, where the cables for the oil level sensor came out - the ECU doesn't use the input, and there's no level sensor in the engine now anyway.

I also took off the dashboard water temp sender / sensor plug, as the BMW one will be replaced with the sender that comes with the gauge I eventually buy. I'm reusing the cable in the loom though - it'll just have whatever connector is required crimped onto the end of it.

Similarly, the oil pressure sender cable has had it's sensor plug chopped. Again, the ECU has no use for it, and the Oil pressure gauage will have it's own - so that cable will be used.

To finish it off, the whole thing was rebound in loom tape. If you've never used this stuff before, it's great - it only sticks to itself, without the aid of adhesive. So there's no chance of it getting into a big sticky cacky mess over time. It's also repositional, so you can unwind it if you go wrong, move it and wind it back on and it sticks again. Great!

Where ever the loom tape ended or transitioned into or out of the main loom, I reinforced the junction with some self-almagamating tape. This is also good stuff, if a little wierd. You stretch it out, wrap it round itself and the tape fuses with itself, becomeing one piece - that's waterproof as well. You'll see the junctions in the pics.

Next jobs? Fitting the loom back onto the engine for one. I then need to finish off the cooling system, and then the fuel system. It's slowly (but surely) getting closer to "fire it up" time....

 

OMG! An Update!

Sounds good GOO - can't wait for fire-it-up day, that'll be a big moment.

Will you need to do an SVA test once it's finished? I can't remember if you modified the chassis or not (isn't that the criteria?)

 

Yep, it'll need an SVA test, an inspection by the local DVLA office & an MOT before it's road legal

 

Ooo, could be tricky then, although I suppose it's not that far from a typical car, not like a hand-built piece of sillyness that someone dreampt up in their garage.