217 replies to this topic

[Brams96]

I found the leak! Dodgy passenger footwell 'repair' (term used loosly) by the previous owner. Possibly the front window seal as it needs replacing (ordered today) and check strap seals. At least the carpet is all dry now.

Things done lately are:

- Front HD tie bars with poly (blue) outer & rubber inner bushes installed
- Poly (orange) Bump Stops & rebound buffers installed. Drivers side rebound was split in half
- New Clutch, Brake & Gas pedal installed

I had a problem with the indicators not working but after 3 hours of testing & changing parts I gave up. The wife took the car in for an MOT today & then told me they werer working on the way to her work! I hate it when that happens as I dont actually know what was wrong so cant fix it if it happens again!

On a Plus though I only had advisories on the 2 front tires, emmissions were at 6.9% & a small chip in the drivers line of sight in the wind screen. Not bad.

[Brams96]

So we (mainly my lovely wife) removed all the no-nails that held up the MDF to the roof. It took her 3 hours of scraping! Anyway, now thats off we can clean off all the old spray glue then stick the new sound deadening on before installing the roof lining. The roof lining probably won't be in by L2B but definitely by the Darling Buds Show (5 June) & at least it will be a lot quieter to drive.

[Brams96]

Lots of work over the weekend. I spent most of the weekend on that sis's car getting things done to get it ready for L2B (fingers crossed). After bleeding the clutch & brakes, swapping the battery & earth lead, replacing the boot seal, drilling out the boot lock & sorting the engine.
Initially the engine would turn over but not fire. After checking the spark & changing the dizzy round we got it to go but then discovered the accelerator cable was frayed so wouldn't allow the pedal to return. We pulled it out to find it was rusted inside & knackered all the way down. Lucky a friend (cheers Pinch) came over with a timing light so we got it going with 8deg advance and it ticking over ok. Just need to get it tuned, MOT, Taxed & washed!

Our car is coming along nicely.

I cleaned the whole roof with some really awesome tar remover from the wife's work then installed the proper sound deading (from Loudboy on the TalkAudio forum). I't's made a huge diffenerce in the sound of the roof when you tap it and went on quite easily. I still have 3 sheets (.5m x 1m) left for the firewall but the roof might get a second layer depending on how it sounds after the L2B.

I made up an amp cover for the amp in the passenger bin (pics to follow) with a grill & 2 30mm fans to keep a little bit of air flowing, I also put the new D-class amp in for the sub. The sub will now get about 275Wrms from the Fusion & I've bridged the 4ch JL amp for the front stage so it'll be running about 150Wrms into each speaker! Nice. I now have a post type positive battery terminal & I recrimped a proper gold ring lug on the car battery cable & each amp has 4ga cable going to it. All I need now is to run a set of RCA's to the new amp & it'll all be up & running. Next will be the tweeter mounts to make from fiberglass & mount properly.

I'll post Pics later today.

[Brams96]

As promised here are some pics of the latest install.

First is the amp cover. It's made from 6mm MDF & covered in the same black vynal I did my door cards & parcel shelf. I installed 2 small 30mm 12Vdc fans to move suck in air and force warm air out the open end by the front seat belt mount. It wires directly into the amps ground & remote so turns on when the amp does. I need to make s 3-5mm spacer for between the fan & board as the fan blade is fouling the vynal glued inside the hole. The plastic grille is also there to let any heat out.




Next is the sound deadening on the roof. I'll only post a couple of before & after pics as I will be starting an ICE install thread soon with more detailed pics there.

Before:



After:



It's made a huge difference in the sound of the roof, no more reverberating 'tiiiiinnnggg' sound when you tap it, more of a 'dud'.

Edited by Brams96, 10 May 2011 - 06:57 AM.

[Brams96]

The L2B was a success as usual. Made it all the way to London then to Brighton without a hitch but when it came time to leave Fern wouldn't play the game! The engine was running really badly & sounded like a 296 scatter cam! (it's standard) So a couple of the guys from my club shot back to the trade stands to get a new coil, points & condenser. after changing the coil & condenser it was still the same so the AA man was called. We decided to give it a run back up towards the trade stands area but when ever the accelerator pedal was held still the car was jerking all over the place. Finally someone suggested to remove & plug the vacuum advance pipe from the dizzy, VOILA! Problem solved. So all we needed was a grub screw (to block the pipe) not all the other bits, oh well at least they are all new now.
We made it home alright & the next day I cleaned up an old dizzy & swapped them over, all I need now is to set the gap & timing properly & we're away laughing.

We also made a new purchase while in Crystal Palace, but you'll have to check out my trailer thread for that one.

Here's a couple of my pics anyway.
Before we left




Nice alloy head!



The cue to leave (not that we were going anywhere!)



Putting in the new coil & condenser



Will it work?? (ahhh, that would be a no)



Finally done & able to get on our way 3 hours later than expected. (At least we weren't stuck in traffic)

[M44K TS]

Looking good dude, the amp cover/vent is a very neat addition. What stuff did you use on the roof skin? I want to replace my headlining at some point and will be looking to do the same sort of thing.

That engine bay is a work of art too, nice and tidy and not over the top.

[Brams96]

Looking good dude, the amp cover/vent is a very neat addition. What stuff did you use on the roof skin? I want to replace my headlining at some point and will be looking to do the same sort of thing.

The guy I got it from is called Loudboy from the Talk Audio forum, I'll PM you his email address.

Edited by Brams96, 21 May 2011 - 05:38 PM.

[Brams96]

The towbar is finally all finished, painted & installed on the car. I just need to wire up the electrics on the car & change the wiring on the trailer to the 12 core cable & euro plug. I will definitely have it done for the SMD '11 so we can load it up with all our camping gear & have something to cook on! I shall get more pics and post them up soon.

Edited by Brams96, 14 July 2011 - 07:05 PM.

[leaky]

Just gone though the whole thread. Nice work. I like your speaker install. Very tidy!

[Brams96]

Thanks Leaky. Good to know I'm not just writing to myself

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Awesome build! so tidy, looks amazing. Not too far from me either.

[Brams96]

I wired up the plug for the trailer towbar over the weekend. I ran the cable through the existing hole below the fuel tank and out of the rear valance, cable tied it to one of the lip holes & then on to the towbar. I have used bullet crimps on the wiring & taped them all up.
The split charge relay is sitting on the drivers side behind one of the boot boards with the 2 x 2.5mm wires going along the back of the boot hinge panel & are all taped up (red). All I need now is 2x 2.5mm inline fuses for the wires & I can connect up the charging for the battery in the trailer.
One thing I did notice was the flash rate of the indicators has changed & the bulbs for the trailer aren't very bright for the tail & stop lights. I am going to buy a 5-way relay board & house it in a plastic box to sit in the trailer where the fuel tank was so it will use the trailer battery to power the lights & only the relay contacts will be powered by the car. I suppose I could fit LED lights in the trailer as well to reduce the load & be brighter.
Anyway with that all done we can use the trailer this weekend for the SMD '11. Keep an eye out, you might see me

[Brams96]

Another fun weekend at the SMD '11. Shame there wasn't as many cars/people as last year but still enjoyable.

I entered Fern in the Sound Off SQ competition to see if I had improved my score from last year after adding a 2nd amp. There was a little hiccup when they started judging as the left & right channel seperation weren't seperate. There was still sound coming from the right when the left track played. After swapping the RCA's over & changing a couple of switches over on the amp they carried on. I ended up getting joint 1st in a 3-way tie, but they gave the prize to the guy with the most SPL. I know I can improve my score with better installation & upgrading the power delivery side of things so come next year I should hopefully win. My imaging & staging are brilliant apparently so I just need to make things all look better.

Towing the trailer was pretty good too. I did notice a bit of smoke coming from the exhaust but the engine has done 60k miles so could do with a rebuild anyway. Also she has now decided to start dripping a bit of oil once I stop after a run but that may be down to the tappet chest cover not sealing properly, still. Apart from that the acceleration is a little slower & braking distance is longer but on a straight you wouldn't even know you've got a trailer on the back.

[leaky]

Another fun weekend at the SMD '11. Shame there wasn't as many cars/people as last year but still enjoyable.

I entered Fern in the Sound Off SQ competition to see if I had improved my score from last year after adding a 2nd amp. There was a little hiccup when they started judging as the left & right channel seperation weren't seperate. There was still sound coming from the right when the left track played. After swapping the RCA's over & changing a couple of switches over on the amp they carried on. I ended up getting joint 1st in a 3-way tie, but they gave the prize to the guy with the most SPL. I know I can improve my score with better installation & upgrading the power delivery side of things so come next year I should hopefully win. My imaging & staging are brilliant apparently so I just need to make things all look better.

Towing the trailer was pretty good too. I did notice a bit of smoke coming from the exhaust but the engine has done 60k miles so could do with a rebuild anyway. Also she has now decided to start dripping a bit of oil once I stop after a run but that may be down to the tappet chest cover not sealing properly, still. Apart from that the acceleration is a little slower & braking distance is longer but on a straight you wouldn't even know you've got a trailer on the back.

I did see your car down at the sound off bit. Looked good. I want to enter mine next year although I'm still in the planning stages of my sound system!

[Brams96]

I finally got round to working on the spare rear subframe I've had in the garage for the last year or so. I had to cold chisel off the nuts with the snapped bolts in them as drilling was to slow, I ordered some new 5/16" zinc covered nuts & just lined up t brackets as a template & reweldid them on. I also had a go at lighting it a bit by drilling a series of 20mm & 25mm holes in it. I've got a couple more smaller holes to drill then I will be painting it waxoyl'ing in all the gaps & reassembling it ready to swap over to Fern when she comes off the road at the end of the month for her overhaul.

Here's the subframe, there are more holes on the back of the closest rail too