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Post by Bilbo on Oct 8, 2022 1:51:23 GMT
Got a few bits sorted out this evening. My wing mirrors, tyres, and wheel cylinders arrived which meant I could get on with a few jobs. Started off with the mirrors. Just some stainless retro style ones off eBay. They actually seem to be alright quality tbh, not bad for £30.  As some of you may know, these originally only came with 1 wing mirror on the driver's side, with a blank plate put in on the passenger side. Bit weird really and I'm not a fan of the idea. The car came with a new driver's mirror, but the mount seemed to be wrong, and the original was seized onto the swivel mount so I gave up immediately and just got these. So we've gone from this:  To this:  Still needs bolting in properly and adjusting to a better angle, but I think they look good. I'm not a massive chrome fan, but there are various bits of it on this car, so I think these will work. I ordered some Toyos from Demon Tweeks. Their site is a bit annoying as they contacted me to say they only had 2. Their site only tells you if things are in stock or out of stock, not how many there are. Bit weird for such a big site really to not have a proper stock checking system in place, but I digress. Called them up and their Tyre department and Customer Service were both super helpful and I got a refund sent to me in 24 hours. Managed to get 4 delivered from Black Circles for just a few quid more. After the nightmare with the old tyres I let my mate fit them for me. We beaded them with fire as they wouldn't go normally, but no issues this time. All done now. I think the 175/70/13 is the perfect size for these wheels on this car.  Got them fitted and they will clear the arches. Good chunky sidewall too. Obviously no engine or box currently and the rear shocks and lowering springs haven't been done yet, hence the awkward height.  Should sit a lot nicer with the engine in and the lowering springs on the rear, but it's good to see them on. The new wheel cylinders were correct, the bolt spacing on them was lined up a couple of mm better than the others, and they sit a little deeper and actually have recesses on the end rods, so they slide into the shoes nicely. Got everything assembled and they're looking much happier now:  Took me a while as I've never done a drum rebuild before, but the other side I got done really quickly once I realised how stupidly simple they are.  Looks much better. No self adjuster on these, just 2 bolts on the rear of the backing plate to adjust the shoes manually. They're wound all the way out and are still a little tight on the drums, hoping they will loosen up a little after the first couple of test drives once the car is going. Handbrake mechanism is all working well. Will start rebuilding the brake lines once I've ordered some new unions and splitters. Pretty happy with progress, will get the rear shocks and springs sorted out tomorrow. |
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Post by dadbif on Oct 8, 2022 12:43:18 GMT
You’ve even got BEIGE furniture…..😜
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Post by Zed. on Oct 8, 2022 15:17:38 GMT
You’ve even got BEIGE furniture…..😜 definately a theme there.... Rich. |
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Post by Bilbo on Oct 9, 2022 1:36:43 GMT
Haha, come on! I draw the line there, it's bright yellow haha.
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Post by Bilbo on Oct 9, 2022 1:38:07 GMT
Got the new springs and shocks on today, and started work on the new brake lines. Getting them out was pretty easy, everything came undone, but the bolts on the anti-roll bar U clamps were a bit of a ballache. The old springs were removed and the new ones are a lot shorter:  Clearly stiffer springs, so I wasn't worried about them sitting way too low. The driver's side was snapped, glad to get that out of the car.  The old rear shocks felt very tired when pushing down on the back of car, they were way past their best. Hadn't actually opened the new ones for about a month since I got them, but luckily they're a perfect fit.  All fitted now, and frankly I wasn't happy with the ride height at all, so I didn't even take a photo haha. Look at the previous one I put up. It's just that again. I'm just going to lop a coil or 2 off with the grinder, the spring ends seat into a recess, they're not flat on the top or bottom, so I have no concerns about doing this. I'll address the panhard rod before it sees the road, as the passenger rear wheel will end up sticking out more and more the lower it is. I also got started on the brake lines. The old ones are, well, old. 42 years old, I don't want to put my life in the hands of corroded old brake lines to be honest, and it's not expensive to sort new ones, just fiddly and takes some time. My mate gave me a load of brand new unions and a couple of line splitters, which was ideal. I've got the left rear line made up and attached to the wheel cylinder now.  One of the original brackets for the lines on the axle has snapped at some point, so I'll tack a new one on, it's just a simple piece of metal you bend over the line, with a rubber sleeve on the line to clamp it into place. Very simple. I have the splitter on the end of this line already, I'll make the line for the other side tomorrow, and then work on the ones going forwards to the engine bay next week. Everything looking a bit better on the rear end now. The diff housing itself is a bit corroded, so I'll probably clean that up and get it painted at some point. Also I pushed the wheels around by hand a bit and the shoes seem to have loosened up just a little now, which is good. |
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Post by Zed. on Oct 9, 2022 8:36:07 GMT
I'm just going to lop a coil or 2 off with the grinder   Rich. |
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Post by boggissimo on Oct 9, 2022 21:19:16 GMT
I'm not sure if it's better or worse, but my 1962 Isetta has two cylinders per wheel...  |
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Post by Bilbo on Oct 9, 2022 21:49:31 GMT
I'm just going to lop a coil or 2 off with the grinder Rich. "Cut 2 coils from rear springs" as a wise man once told me, you may know him  I'm not sure if it's better or worse, but my 1962 Isetta has two cylinders per wheel... This upsets me. I would definitely mess up rebuilding those haha. Drums are simple, but fiddly and I much prefer dealing with a seized caliper than old drums. |
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Post by Bilbo on Oct 9, 2022 21:50:48 GMT
Did a bit more brake line work today. The rear lines after the splitter weren't terrible to be honest, but the unions were all heavily corroded and a nightmare to get undone. So I've now cut the entire rear section off, and I'm building all new lines, working my way forward in the car.  As you can see not horrendous, but one of them was quite heavily blue tinged, and as I said the unions were just awful. So I've binned the lot and remade them. Not quite finished yet, little bit of shaping needed to get it perfect, and the support bracket that I mentioned before that I need to get made, and then I'll remove the entire piece and get that flaky undersealed rear axle cleaned up and re-painted.  I need to make up a new bracket for the splitter, won't be too difficult to sort. The old bracket is really rusty and the bolt snapped off in it when removing, so I'll make something new. As I said before, the rear height was not good with the new springs, and I was unhappy. So I got them sorted out.  That's more like it! Going to look great I think. And yes you can see cut coils on the floor. Yes I did cut them. These are open end springs, with the pigtail slotting into the rubber spring mount. I have cut them exactly as the original was angled, they slot nicely back into the original rubber mount, they seat absolutely fine, they are still plenty long enough to remain captive under any driving conditions, so I have zero concerns at all. This is going to be a daily cruiser, not a track car, so I'm perfectly happy with this setup. They were fairly cheap lowering springs anyway, so this will get me going for now. In the future when I look to disc convert the rear, I will likely upgraded the suspension to something a bit more premium anyway, but these will do for now.  The front is still sitting high obviously, as the engine and box aren't mounted, but when we test fitted it dropped to about the same level as the rear is now, should be nice and level. The wheels should just about clear the arches with zero rolling needed, so that's good. After dropping the rear I checked the wheels on both sides, and weirdly I'm not seeing any noticeable amount of misalignment. I was expecting a couple of cm difference as the panhard rod is designed for the car to sit higher, but I guess it's not slammed so the wheels haven't been pushed over much at all. I'll review that again once everything is in the car, and will make an adjustable one if required. |
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Post by Zed. on Oct 9, 2022 21:51:39 GMT
Rich. "Cut 2 coils from rear springs" as a wise man once told me, you may know him  Rich. |
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Post by Zed. on Oct 9, 2022 21:55:35 GMT
I need to make up a new bracket for the splitter, won't be too difficult to sort. The old bracket is really rusty and the bolt snapped off in it when removing, so I'll make something new. weld an m6 bolt to the axle & secure thr 'tee' piece with that  After dropping the rear I checked the wheels on both sides, and weirdly I'm not seeing any noticeable amount of misalignment. I was expecting a couple of cm difference as the panhard rod is designed for the car to sit higher remember, these cars were built to take a family so theres a chance the axle is offset as unloaded and centralises when in use? Rich. |
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Post by Bilbo on Oct 9, 2022 22:13:03 GMT
I need to make up a new bracket for the splitter, won't be too difficult to sort. The old bracket is really rusty and the bolt snapped off in it when removing, so I'll make something new. weld an m6 bolt to the axle & secure thr 'tee' piece with that After dropping the rear I checked the wheels on both sides, and weirdly I'm not seeing any noticeable amount of misalignment. I was expecting a couple of cm difference as the panhard rod is designed for the car to sit higher remember, these cars were built to take a family so theres a chance the axle is offset as unloaded and centralises when in use? Rich. Good idea on the bolt actually, I may just do that, would be a nice neat solution compared to some abomination of a bracket I would have likely made haha. Good point on the loading too, I'll get some fat mates to sit in the back and see what happens 😂 |
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Post by Bilbo on Oct 16, 2022 1:31:01 GMT
Got a few bits sorted out the last few days. Carried on with the brake lines and made a new mount for my new splitter on the rear brakes. It's just an M6 bolt welded onto the axle, it slots through the mounting hole on the splitter, and has a nyloc nut holding it on. It's nice and secure now.  I've also made the front facing line up, you can just about see it in the above photo. After this there a rubber line that is hard mounted to the torque tube on one side and the chassis on the other. The existing one was in pretty bad shape, I found a new old stock Ascona version on eBay, it is the exact same part of course, so that's getting replaced tomorrow. Vital part of the rear brakes as it has flexibility so as the rear axle moves up and down when driving, it can move freely, and there is no strain on the hard lines. Annoyingly with the additional bends to get around the anti-roll bar, the line I have made that connects the rubber hose to the splitter may be about an inch too short, so I'll likely get a new one made up. Making progress on the fuel system as well. Got a very simple mounting solution made up for the fuel filter, just a big jubilee that loops in and out of 2 holes I made in a raised section of the boot floor (not exposed underneath). I added some rubber padding between the filter and the jubilee, just to prevent it vibrating loose. The rubber lines have been mocked up, T-piece will work nicely, and the rubber fuel line is all brand new.  This is utilising the returnless fuel system that the VVT MX-5 engine has from factory. Essentially it goes tank > pump > fuel filter > T-piece > one T goes to fuel rail, the other goes back to the tank and through the in-tank FPR. This regulates the pressure in the line that goes to the rail. My setup is the same as it was in the MX-5, just placed differently to suit the Cavalier. I need to buy some kunifer 5/16 hard line to make up new fuel line under the car. I have the old rubber hose out and the new one poked through the bunged hole (insert Beavis and Butthead joke here) in the boot floor. Also started getting the tank mounts sorted today. 2 holes drilled on the front side. These go directly through the floor, above the axle:  Both lined up nicely, despite it being such an awkward place to drill. I will be using M10 bolts for these holes, and the bolts will slot through the gold coloured hole in the photo above. These are the standard mount points on the MX-5 fuel tank, one in each corner. I will be attaching these front holes with a big washer/spreader on the nut side, and a large washer on the bolt head side. The tank in this position sits perfectly flat on the floor, so it will bolt in nice and tight. The rear side I will be welding in some reinforced posts with a 5mm plate on top, which I will tap and wind an M10 bolt directly into. As the floor drops away at the rear because the front is directly over the axle, the raised posts will be necessary to keep the tank nice and flat. I think this will be a nice and secure mounting solution for this tank. I'll work on the filler neck once it is all bolted in. I mentioned before that these only came with a driver's wing mirror. I didn't like that idea at all, and I bought some chrome retro mirrors that I posted before when I fitted the driver's one. Today I got the passenger one mounted. There was a simple 2 piece blank where the passenger mirror would have been, these are made of metal so it made drilling them out much nicer than plastic, and they are nice and thick, so the mirror feels very secure. I bored the hole inside the car out wider so that the nut could be tightened on the mirror threads, and it all went quite well.   The mirror looks a bit wonky here, I have now re-positioned it to be in a better position. They're not to everyone's taste I'm sure, but nice and cheap and should do the job for the time being. Lots of bits coming together now. Had a few scheduling conflicts with my mate, but we discussed engine mount stuff today and hopefully the subframe reinforcement and engine mounts will be sorted next weekend. Once that's done it's wiring time, which I am not massively looking forward to in all honesty haha, but it will be great to get the loom in the car and bits wired in! |
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Post by Bilbo on Oct 17, 2022 0:04:53 GMT
More brake lines today. Got the new flexi line in on the rear axle, and re-made the line that connects it to the splitter. It was still too short. Was very annoyed, made a 3rd version and finally it was long enough and all of the rearmost lines were done.  Then it was on to the line that runs to the bay. Very long of course, and I wanted to follow the OE routing as I could re-use all of the existing chassis mount points. I got the old line removed, and noticed it had a joiner about half way, so I made the new lines exactly the same. It runs down one side, around the transmission tunnel, and then alongside the chassis rail on the other side. It was a bit fiddly, but I've got it all on, with rubber sleeves over the lines on the mount points to dampen any vibration. It fits nice and tightly, quite happy with it.  I have run it all the way into the bay, and left it a bit too long, so I have some extra pipe to get it bent around the engine when it is in. It's just roughly in place for now to check it would reach.  Some of the rubber firewall padding got torn as you can see, so I removed a big chunk of it. Might try and re-attach it when everything is done, it seems to have done a pretty good job of preventing any corrosion to be honest. I'm really glad I bothered to change these lines, the old ones really were pretty awful, getting them all out in the light it was clear they were massively past their best, despite someone's attempt to just underseal over them all at some point in its life.  |
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Post by Bilbo on Oct 23, 2022 1:19:04 GMT
Had a few days off the car this week ill, but had a long day back on it. Got the fuel tank mounted. The front bolts are both in the holes I drilled, big washers and nuts underneath with Loctite on. Got a mate to hold the bolt still as my arms weren't quite long enough to do both at the same time haha.  The rear posts are also in:  Not quite done yet, they're a little rudimentary right now. I used some nice thick box section, and welded a square 5mm plate on top of each. Drilled a hole in the top plate, slotted an M10 bolt through facing up, and welded the bolt on so I can use them as captive/locating studs for the tank. Works quite well, and with all 4 bolts torqued up you can pull up on the tank and start to lift the rear of the car up a little, so it has good basic strength. But obviously the floor these posts are welded to is pretty thin metal, so I'll be adding some strengthening plates probably at a 45 degree angle to give them a bit more strength, especially as the tank will be a fair bit heavier with up to 45 litres of fuel in. I might also add a long plate connecting the 2 posts, though I'm not sure if that will add much strength, or just look like it does haha. As for them being at at an angle, this is due to the holes in the tank being quite close to a more dropped section of the tank, so the box section had to be angled this way to sit flush up to the mounting holes. All this will be hidden when I modify the original tank cover and boot carpet to hide it all, so I don't care what it looks like, as long as it is strong and safe. Now it's not totally finished, but the big update today is this:   It's in! It fits! My mate was pretty ill today, but he said he'd come and get these sorted today, and he put in a right shift getting the mounts made up. Quite basic plates for now, he'll be adding some strengthening plates and triangulated points to them this week to make sure they are really strong. We have utilised standard MX-5 rubber engine mounts and the metal engine mount covers, which nicely slot sideways into the standard Vauxhall mounting points on the subframe. We have also used the original Mazda plates that bolt to the engine, and he has used some very thick plate and some box section to make the mounts up to connect them to the rubber mounts. A load of room in front of the engine for radiator/fans/intake piping, and also a decent amount behind the engine for the brake lines and fuel line to route past. Should also make servicing and generally working on the engine and bay nice and simple. I also have over 9" of clearance between the back of the engine and the heater matrix hole in the firewall, so the compact heater I have been considering from Car Builder Solutions will fit, which is ideal. A clutch master cylinder will fit, which is great news, but unfortunately the standard MX-5 one won't as the hole for the clutch line juts out to the passenger side of the master cylinder, which will contact the engine. I will find a suitable and similar sized replacement that has the line in a more convenient position, and then I should have no issue getting a clutch master back there. One mildly annoying issue is that the brake master cylinder and the brake booster will fit fine, however the booster can't quite be fitted into place with the engine bolted in. Not 100% ideal but not the end of the world, it'll still work fine, just hope I don't have to replace it any time soon haha. Engine will be coming back out for final mount welding, and so we can get the subframe reinforced. Once done I'll get the whole subframe and other areas painted and protected. Sump clearance is acceptable with the current cut I previously posted on here. The box is just supported on a jack in these photos, so the engine is tipping back and leaning just a tiny bit more than it will be when finalised, as the box will be just a touch higher when it is mounted, so the engine will sit nice and straight with just a few degrees of backward lean. More good news is that with the engine and box in the front height basically matches the rear almost perfectly:  I think this is a good height. Nice and useable. Obviously it's up on wheels right now. Some idiot fitted lowering springs before the engine and box were fitted, and made getting a jack under the gearbox difficult without hitting the chassis rail. We have loads of room under the car now to work. The bonnet doesn't actually click shut as it isn't bolted in, but we have confirmed that the bonnet will close properly. The top of the engine sits quite high, mainly the VVT bits, but luckily the mild centre bulge on the bonnet has made clearance a non-issue and no bonnet modification will be needed:  Feels great having the engine in! Will get on with fuel lines, brake lines, and wiring in the coming week. |
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le sigh