BUILD ~ DECEMBER 2002
Early December
Been a bit of a case of work stops play recently.
15/12/2002
First chance to get to work on the Dax for nearly a month. Finished the stripping and cleaning of the rear callipers, one was in good condition the other had half a field in it due to a perished seal on the handbrake mechanism.
It then came to heating up the garage and painting the callipers. I have elected for blue on the calliper with a silver paint on bolts and handbrake mechanism.
16 to 20/12/2002
No physical progress but I have got the new brake discs on order. They should arrive early in the new year. Dad has got me new seals for the callipers from Lucas and I have bought a large ali sheet as I may panel the outside of the cockpit sides.
I have also spoken to Peter Walker at Dax about;
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Fitting of high back seats |
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Some registration and engine age questions. Basically SVA only want proof of age, best achieved by Heritage centre certificate. VRO want a proof of ownership, i.e. receipt for donor engine, so I should get away with the donor engine just providing the engine number. Peter is also strongly against Q plates and recommends me registering the V8 into a sierra to ensure I achieve sufficient points and provide proof of ownership all in one go. |
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Steering wheel, they recommend is the Momo Power 300mm, SVA are concerned with e mark, radius's, collapsable boss, no holes or slits, rim nearer driver than boss. He also suggests adding the removeable boss after SVA. |
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If I need wheel spacers he recommends not to use more than 1" and that they must be the "spigot locator" type. Also use long studs not stud extensions. |
21 &
22/12/2002
First job on Saturday was to try and re-assemble a calliper. This took quite a while for the first one. To deal with the handbrake gubbins you need to compress a powerful spring and insert a circlip. Sounds easy but it isn't, without the special Ford tool. If anybody else is trying to recondition their own, email me and I will write out the method I used. When it was nearly finished had a lot of trouble screwing the piston down and in the end retired hurt for the evening.
The next day I started on the other calliper, much easier when you know how and it went together much quicker. We then returned to the other calliper and by one of us pushing inward and the other turning we got the pistons home.
Currently musing whether to try and fit the handbrake lever in/on the tunnel, due to the brackets being missing under the scuttle and also I will not be able to reach the handbrake with the harnesses on. I believe it will work but to be sure I need to do some accurate measurements and diagrams to ensure all fits around propshaft, tunnel, seats etc. Also will need a special handbrake cable. Will think more about this over Christmas.
Had to clear the
seats out of the spare room as my sister and family are coming for Christmas, so
put them in the car, couldn't resist a quick picture and purely for the sake of
interest we loosely assembled the steering column and wheel just to see how it
all feels. I hope to sort out the seat mountings over Christmas.
Having been looking
at the progress of Chris's V8 Rush
I now have a nagging doubt to whether
the plate to which the gearbox mount fits is in the right place. His
quickrack also has different labels to mine, so I tested mine and instead of 2½
turns lock to lock it is 3. So looks like another mistake, the list is
certainly growing.
Chris kindly replied and he is using a LT77 so mine is not necessarily wrong. However, his quickrack is definitely 2.5 turns so looks like yet another part to be replaced by Dax......
Made out into the garage on Boxing Day. Seeing as the seats are out there started fixing these. Peter Walker states to drill a 10mm hole in the rear seat rail for the seat tang to go through. Then place the front rail on a small riser and bolt through the front rail and the floor. The risers will make the seat much more comfy (as per the scientific test of sitting in a seat watching tv). Nigel kindly cut me some ali blocks to use as risers, these I had planned to tap threads into and use to bolt to the cross rail rather than through floor. However, like all the best laid plans this went out the window. When the angle and the tangs in the holes the seat will not go far enough back to sit in the front cross rail (it touches rear bulkhead). So new method is a piece of angle bolted to the front of the cross rail and to the front seat rail. This leaves the seat in a very comfy position with enough support under the legs, but takes away 1" of leg room, good job the pedals have not been fixed yet. Pictures paint a thousand words so here's another attempt at a diagram.
During the day the twins discovered that I was hiding in the garage and they and my brother in law tried the seat which by this time was in position although not bolted home.
Now the seat fixings are worked out I will be able to add extra rivets to the cross rails, rather than just relying on the Wurth.
Friday was more of the same getting fixings ready for the passenger seat, adding the extra floor rivets. I hope to check it all tomorrow and then paint the brackets.
Saturday completed
the brackets and a test showed it all worked fine and felt firm, could not
resist sitting in. Then took it all apart again and Dad painted the
brackets for me. We then got a fibreglass side panel out of the roof and
offered this up. With a few calculations I decided it was possible to fit
an additional ali side panel, I believe this will make the cockpit much more
waterproof. So set to with the tin snips to cut these two panels, although
I cannot fit them yet as I want to use countersunk head rivets.
We also spent a fair amount of time devising an alternative handbrake arrangement. I have never liked the idea of it being under the scuttle and don't see it as reachable if wearing harnesses, this coupled with Dax missing the brackets off may lead me to try something different. So we spent time working out clearances, the special cables that would need to be made, etc. Before I can start I will have to draw it all very carefully to ensure it fits and hangs together.
Sunday was back to
the messy job of reconditioning, this time the front hubs and callipers.
Not that much to show for all that work, but trying to get a good surface before
painting as the front hubs are visible on a Rush. Meanwhile Dad has been
making a natty little bracket for the pre-pump fuel filter.
Tip ~ To remove pistons when hydraulics no longer connected to donor car, connect a foot pump to the cut off bit of flexible brake hose and press.
Monday, broke off
after a couple of hours cleaning the hubs to go and get some more paint.
Also ordered new seals for the front callipers, it transpires that seal kits
will soon be unavailable, the only way will be to buy exchange callipers.
New Years Eve, I then managed to finish preparing the front hubs and in between
eating drinking etc. with our guests I would slip out to the garage to add
successive coats. Sorry for the lack of pictures, a bit short of
interesting progression at the moment.
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Last Updated 05/01/2003
