Assembly Time

It has been a really good weekend, I have not had that much time but it feels like I have got a lot done. Now that the paint underneath and in the engine bay has gone off I have been able to start assembling the car. I have decided to use the original petrol tank for now until I have got a few miles on the car then I will go to the fabricated one for competition. The fuel tank got a coat of paint, it is a strange green colour as I mixed what little paint I had left ( yellow, white and black ). I have now bolted the front sub-frame in position using the Polly bushes I already had but when I get chance I will mount it rigidly with some turned aluminium spacers.

Fuel Tank

The two fuel tanks that I already have have rusted through and although I could patch them up they are too big and without baffle’s the fuel will just slosh from side to side. I only require a small six gallon tank with baffles and a swirl pot so to save money I have designed and made one that will fit in the same position as the original tank. It is only a mild steel one but it is still a small weight gain on the original. Once the tank is back up in position I can fit the axel back on the car and get it to a rolling chassis quickly.

Brakes, Blasting and Painting

The restricted budget is having a huge impact on the build, I keep telling myself it doesn’t matter about the components at this stage as long as the shell is right, all parts can be upgraded later. The brakes will be 4 pot princess calipers and vented disks which can all fit inside 13" wheels and will just bolt straight on. The calipers only require a spacing kit to fit over the vented disks. The engine will not be tuned or rebuilt but as it was running I will try and make it look as tidy as possible, a further tuned engine will be built out of the car and I am looking for a reliable 250bhp.





Princess spacing kit.

Princess brakes and vented disks trial fit.

D.I.Y Bead blasting.

Looking slightly better but could really do with a strip down.

PAINTING PROGRESS

Well the first layer of white paint has been applied underneath and inside. I did expect it to look better but then I always do. Ideally I would have liked more time to smooth the engine bay and other bits in the cockpit but I guess it is a rally car and not a polisher. The second and third coats will go on this weekend and then hopefully the hole car will be painted by Christmas. In-between painting I need to design and make a new fuel tank with straps, work out how to lower the shell back down and restore the princess brakes from my donor car. Apart from that I only have to rebuild the engine, make a new wireing loom, win the lottery and buy the seats, harnesses, wheels and tires, tune a second engine, buy a fire extinguisher and so on.

ADJUSTABLE TOP REAR PARALLEL ARMS

Diff-icult Job L.S.D

Diff-icult job.
It has taken some time and a lot of patience but the Slippy Diff is now shimmed and the Axel is complete. The problems I faced when fitting the slippy diff were as follows.
* the Pinion was too long and clashed with the body of the diff unit.
* the diff carrier bearings need shimming to ensure the crown wheel and pinion mesh correctly, and I only had the two original shims.
The first was simple really I didn’t have any other choice but to machine the pinion down so that it cleared the diff housing. Unfortunately I didn’t take enough off the pinion and I really didn’t want to go through the hole process again so I machined the diff housing down by 1mm which gave me the clearance ( this can be seen in the photograph on the body of the diff) So to solve the shim problem I referred back to the workshop manual and calculating the shims is quite straight forward. Obviously with only the two original shims I dint have enough. I measured and calculated the shims that I needed and laser cut some new ones, I sent them off for surface grinding to achieve the correct sizes as we don’t have a grinding machine. Once the shims came back I found that the back lash was to big so I went O.T.T and made about 20 shims varying in 0.1mm. So as I said a lot of time and patience and the diff is in and the crown wheel and pinion are correctly meshed.

shims

slippy diff with machined body

cleaned and painted 5 speed box a bit of DIY sand blasting

stage 1 of engine cleaning

collecting all the parts as I recondition them.

lightened fly wheel

Busy week.

Its been a busy week this week with some late nights but I have managed to get everything I

planned to do done.

Its not an amazing repair but both sides are solid now. When the rally car is finished and more funds are available I will do the job properly with repair panels.

Rally Livery

It’s been a while since the last blog but the work still goes on. In the last couple of days the car has really come on. Although it probably doesn’t look like much has been done. The body is being prepared for spraying at the moment so its mainly being a case of filling, sanding, seam sealing, priming and Shutzing. I am glad that I have finished fireproofing the rear bulk head as that was job I wasn't looking forward to. My main problem at the moment is deciding what Rally livery would suit the car. Should it be the ( red white and blue) the sparkrite or the chequered flag or my own design.

In the mean time I have somehow acquired another Tr7, this one being the third. I needed a donor car for a bonnet and fuel tank along with various other parts so I bought one on ebay with all the necessary parts. On collection of the vehicle it turned out to be a fairly sound car. When I got the car home I inspected it and everything is solid bar the foot wells. As I don’t want to see something scraped that would make a good car with a bit of elbow grease I have started repairing the foot wells. Last night I measured the job up, cut all the rusty parts away and painted what was left with cure rust and a coat of strong paint. Next I will make some new panels and hopefully mot the car.

sealed and coated boot.
new tr7
damaged floor stripped and cure rust applied.

seam sealing over seam welding.

filling and sanding for rally arches.

interior with one coat of primer

seam sealing the engine bay

a hole in the roof to weld the roll cage on top.

fire proofing the rear bulkhead around the rear strut tops.

modified and painted rear axel for new rear suspension setup.





New insert that i fabricated. both sides needen doing.

damaged sub-frame mounts repaired.

Tubular troubles.

It took a long time to decide between the weld in cage and the bolt in option. After a lot of thought and consideration I decided on the weld in cage. Although the weld in cage would be quite a lot more work the car was at the right stage to install it. I believed that if I bought a professional cage from a reputable company it would fit straight in.

The cage arrived mid week and I was keen to se how it would fit inside the car. The manufacturer supplied eight photographs with eleven points to install the cage. The eleven points were really helpful and included instructions such as ‘fit all the tubes’!!!

When it came to the weekend I started to look at installing the cage. As soon as I unwrapped the tubes it was clear that without even putting the tubes against the car the A-pillar tubes were over bent and too long. It is clear in the picture and it was easy to see as the roof is almost perpendicular to the vertical line drawn thought the base of the A-pillar and the roof . I contacted the supplier and the solution was for me to produce a sketch for them to remake the two tubes. Being a professional company they acknowledged their mistake and had the new parts with me for this weekend.

It took all of Saturday and most of Sunday but the result is a complete cage installed in the shell. I have probably inhaled a full kilo of grinding dust and burnt several spatter marks all down my neck but it feels well worth it. Although I thought that all the hard work had been done due to the high cost of the cage, there was still a lot of cutting and profiling to do.




The tubes in position showing how there are over bent and too long.


The new tubes in position.
The cage installed before it was all removed to paint the shell and the parts of the tubes that would be impossible to reach.