SVA Prep Day

This Saturday I did a final days work at MAC#1 ahead of the SVA test on Tuesday the 9th.

I was delighted to see that the car had come on a fair way for the past week or so with Colin having cut a transmission tunnel top and rear boot cover. But there was still a fair bit to be done.

 

The first job of the day was to extend the front indicators. For SVA, the indicators need to only closer to the outside of the vehicle and further apart than the small front indicators I originally fitted. The answer is to fit some extenders to the indicators for the test. I may remove them again at a later date.

Once I had taken off the original indicators, I discovered that I needed to enlarge the holes as the new extended indicators are a little wider.

Once that was done, I cut the original wiring loom and soldered in the new indicators.

The result does not look pretty but it should at least pass the SVA requirement.

While I was doing this, Mark and Colin started work on tuning the engine to pass the strict SVA emission requirements. But before they could run the engine for any period of time, the wanted to move the return fuel pipe.

I had originally routed the return fuel pipe round the passenger side of the engine and at the time it was OK but I did not consider that the exhaust would be directly below it and as the fuel line is rubber, it had to be moved to avoid a potentially very dangerous situation.

 

So as you can see, the fuel return pipe now routes around the front of the engine which is much safer!

While doing this however, Mark had a bit of a bad 5 minutes where he managed to bash his head, hurt his back and really slice his finger open. I was actually worried that we might have to take a trip to casualty but Mark decided to make do with a bit of toilet roll taped in place with ‘sparky’ tape.

The it was on with the business of devising an engine map that would satisfy the SVA tester.

This is the kind of thing that can only be done with the correct equipment and a good deal of experience. Basically, the put a sensor in to the exhaust so they could measure the emissions, Colin then changed the engine map so that the emissions were controlled throughout the rev range.

In a normal fireblade installation, this would not be possible as the ECU controls the air/fuel mix and it does not allow the user to alter it. That is why a DynoJet Power Commander USB is fitted as this sits inline and allows you to manually adjust the air/fuel ratio for different areas of the rev band. This effectively allows you to maximise, tune the engine for car use or (as in this case) minimise emissions. In order to pass the SVA test, the Power Commander is mapped to reduce the emissions which when combined with a catalytic converter, should keep the car on the right side of the emission curve.

It was great to hear the car roar through the whole rev range from idol to screaming red-line. I should have video’d it but I was too busy watching what they were doing.

After the SVA test has been safely pasted, we may revisit this process to squeeze a little more power from the system!

Once all the engine revving excitement was over it was back to more mundane (but equally important) task of preparing the car for SVA, which means adding a fair but of trim to edges in the car to make them nice, round and child face friendly.

I started with the underside of the dashboard.

The ‘U’ trim just pushes on to the bottom of the dash and is self gripping.

Should keep the SVA tester happy.

Next I turned my attention to the front cycle wings which are now fitted to the car.

Once again, ‘U’ trim was used to blunt the edges around the cycle wings.

And that was just about all I had time for on Saturday. When I left, there was still more to do but I will need to leave this to MAC#1 to finish now as the next time I see the car is on the morning of the test.

But to recap, here is the list of things that needed to happen prior to SVA.

• Fix engine
• Build and fit exhaust
• Bleed and test brakes
• Fit handbrake saddle and test handbrake
• Put water in
• Cut and fit transmission tunnel panels
• Fit ‘hockey stick’ trim to transmission tunnel and sides
• Fit mirrors for SVA
• Finalise Digidash configuration
• Fit magnets to prop shaft
• Fit ‘U’ trim around underside of dash
• Adjust steering and wheel geometry
• Fit fuel filler pipe and filler nozzle
• Finish top of rear (above diff and fuel tank) with a panel
• Fit front cycle wings
• Add ‘U’ trim to front cycle wings

As you can see, there is nothing major left to be done.

Next stop, SVA!!!

Work Today At MAC#1 – Tunnel Panels & Nose Grill

In my other post today, I outlined the disappointment this morning when it became clear that we would need to cancel the SVA test on account of having no engine!

I will not dwell on it now but I still had a full day at MAC#1 to get on with some of the other jobs that needed doing prior to SVA but to be honest, progress was slow and my heart was really not in it.

So here is what I did.

Nose Cone Grill

The nose cone grill sits in front of the radiator and is supposed to guard the fan and grill but as the mesh is fairly large gauge, I suspect the effect is largely cosmetic.

I stared with a square sheet of mesh which I cut the corners off and then offered up to the inside of the nose cone.

The edges are then bent over around the hole in the nose cone. The mesh will eventually be bonded on place using the edges bent over the lip of the inside of the nose cone to secure the mesh.

Although not difficult, it is a bit fiddly. Luckily, Richard (BigRich from Locostbuilders.co.uk) was on hand to help out with his experience.

Once it was all correct, I painted it black, applying several coats through the day. I did not get time to bond it to the nose before I came home so I will need to do that next time.

Hockey Trim For Cockpit

The hockey trim fits along the inner edge of each door aperture to provide a nice, safe edge. To fit the trim, you just offer it up, trim a little from the arched end as necessary and then drill holes along trim and through the top chassis rail.

I did not rivet the trim in place at this stage as I want to get it powder coated black. So I drilled all the holes in the trim and chassis and then left the trim with MAC#1 to be sent for powder coating.

The other area where the Hockey trim is used is along the top edge of the central transmission tunnel.

As you can see, at the front end of the cockpit, the trim needs to be bent out to follow the transmission tunnel. We did this by holding it in place and hitting the bit that needed to bend with a rubber mallet. Again, I drilled a couple of holes and then added it to the pile of bits to be powder coated.

Transmission Tunnel Side Panels

This is another big part of the final look of the car that, for some reason, I had been putting off doing. I did not have enough aluminium at home and so was kind of hoping the MAC#1 would do it, but with guidance From Mark, I managed to get the job done.

One of the advantages of doing anything at MAC#1 is there there is always help around. In this case, another customer called Paul was working on his car at the same time and he already had transmission  panels cut so I was able to use his as a template for mine.

Here are Paul’s panels.

I used them to mark out my own panels in plain 0.9mm aluminium.

Next I got to show of my jigsaw skills to everyone in the factory. I don’t think they were that impressed!

Next it was a case of trimming as necessary and then drilling some holes to allow me to screw the panels in place.

When the side panels were combined with the Hockey trim, it looked ok.

As you can see, the top panel on the transmission tunnel is still missing because I did not have time to do it.

So, some progress today but overall, not a great day. As I left, the car was hoisted high on the ramp to allow MAC#1 to get all the cars in a neatly as possible.

Seats And Seat Belts

Not done much to the car this week for two reasons. Firstly, I was away for much of the week on a 900 mile round trip sales trip taking in North Yorkshire, Plymouth and Bristol.

The second reason is that there is just not that much left to do! Have not heard anything from VOSA about my SVA yet so it is just a case of finishing off a few things ahead of the car going to MAC#1 for final prep.

One thing I was able to do this week was to pick up the seats from MAC#1 so that is what I concentrated on this weekend.

Fitting in the seats is a simple enough process but it does involve a fair bit of drilling to make the sub-frame for the seats. Here is how.

MAC#1 seats are fibreglass shells with no padding but they suit the racecar nature of my build.

The seats are supported by a substantial aluminium sub-frame which is supplied in several raw bits as pictured below.

It looks something like this when put together.

But no holes are pre-drilled so you have to drill all the holes yourself and the exact position of these holes can only be determined by trial fitting the actual seats.

One great thing is that as the sun was shining, I was able to do the work on a bench outside (until it started raining 😦 ).

The large flat support goes at the back of the runner with the angled support supporting the front of the seat. I drilled holes for the rear support 6cm and 9.5cm in from the end with the edge of the upright being at 12cm. This allowed me to put it in the same place on all four runners but it may be different on other cars.

Once the rear upright was bolted in place, I positioned the seat next to the runner and marked the position for the angled from support.

   

  

As you can see in the last picture, I make a mistake on the last one and forgot to build it as a mirror image of the opposite. Not a big problem but left a couple of superfluous holes in the runner. No one will ever see them as they are under the seat, but I hope that when I come to sell the car, the potential buyer does not read this blog as I think I have listed all the mistakes I have made!

 

The seat is bolted to the sub-frame using two bolts at the front and one at the rear on each side. Then off to the car to trial fit the seats and mark the final position in the car.

 

The seats are bolted to the floor using M8 bolts and load spreading washers. These are a little hard to get to as the seats are in the way of putting in the rear ones but with a bit of fiddling it all went ok. One top tip from Colin at MAC#1, pull the tip out from a marker pen and you can get in to awkward places to mark the drill holes.

Once the seats were fitted, I bolted in the seat belts. In the MAC#1, the seat belt mounting points are welded directly to the chassis so it is just a case of bolting it in at the top and at the rear behind the seats. This is a little tricky but with the appropriate ratchet extensions, it is ok.

I finally got to get in to the drivers seat and experience what it will be like to be behind the wheel.      

Rubber SVA Bonnet Catches

The SVA test requires that objects on the outside of the car has to be as safe as possible for pedestrians so the traditional metal bonnet catches used in Lotus Seven style cars are out. The solution is to fit ‘kiddy face’ friendly rubber versions.

I was a little unsure about how to fit these as getting them wrong could wreck both the bonnet and the side panels. The need to be tight enough to hold the bonnet down well but not so tight as to stress the fibreglass.

As I was unsure, I posted a request for help on the Locost Builders forum (www.locostbuilders.co.uk). Big thanks to ‘Hellfire’ for providing the needed dimensions.

It was suggested that I test the catches on a piece of scrap metal or wood, then make a template to allow me to ensure the holes drilled for each catch are the same. The dimensions for the catch are outlined below.

   

First I drilled holes with a 55.5mm gap between the top and bottom holes and the top set separated by 10mm and 17mm on the bottom set.

 

I tested the catch first.

As this test was OK, trimmed the excess metal to create a more practical template.

Then I measured 10cm in from each end of the bonnet, masked it up and marked the drill hole positions using my template.

The I riveted in the bottom catch and bolted in the top hook section.

There also need to be some foam tape on the body which I will pickup next week. But that is another job off the list.

 

Fitting The Body Panels Part 7 – Rear Tub & Mud Guards

 

This is the final large part of the bodywork to be fitted and if you had two people, I am sure it would be a simple job, but on your own it is a bit of a handful.

The rear tub is attached to the chassis by riveting along the rear arc of the chassis. This is done both sides and then also along the rear bottom chassis rail (below the fuel tank).

I had already trimmed the rear tub and trial fitted it with the side panels so it just needed attaching to the chassis.

The difficulty was holding it up securely whist trying to drill the holes and fit the rivets. The first couple were the hardest.

Next up was the rear mud guards.

If I thought the rear tub was tough on my own then nothing could prepare me for how hard these were to fit on my own.

Next time, I will get a friend to hold the mud guard in place while I measure position and mark the drill holes. The mud guard is then just bolted in place.

Doing it on your own is much harder as you need to try and hold it in place, adjust the position and mark the drill holes. I achieved this using a combination of tape and random junk to try and prop the guard in place.

After literally two hours of messing around with the positioning, I managed to get them where I wanted them and drill the holes ready to bolt them to the car.

The final touch was to add some ‘tadpole’ trim along the edge of the wheel arch to create a nice joint between the mud guard and the side panels.

So that largely completes the bodywork. The only remaining bit is to bolt the dash to the scuttle.        

Fitting The Body Panels Part 6 – The Nose Cone

The rest of yesterday afternoon was spent fitting the nose cone which actually took a lot longer than expected.

The nose cone is fitted to the chassis using a couple of M6 bolts and rivnuts. The difficulty I had was that once I offered up the nose cone, it became clear that I had riveted the passenger side panel too far over so that the end of the panel did not meet the nose cone.

This meant that the front of the side panel bent dramatically to line up with the nose cone, which was not acceptable. So I had to drill out the rivets, move the panel further in and then re-rivet it.

This is a bit of a mess and I am not that happy with it but it will be on the underside of the car so no one but me will know it is there.

Once that was sorted, I set about trimming the panels to allow the nose cone to come down and meet the end of the side panels.

This largely involved a lot of trial and error. I would offer up the nose cone, mark a bit to be cut out, cut it and then see if it fitted.

The end results are not perfect and I have seen much better jobs on other peoples build sites but I am happy enough.

The final thing to do was to drill some holes in the nose cone, use them to mark the position for the rivnuts on the chassis and then bolt it all together.

   

Tomorrow I will tackle the rear tub and rear mud guards which should just about complete the fitting of the body work.

Fitting The Body Panels Part 4 – The Scuttle And Roll Cage

Having fitted the side panels last week, I was able to make a start on a few of the other things to make it look more and more like a car.

 

The first thing to go on was the roll cage. This had been kicking around at work since day 1 and to be honest, I think it was getting in the way so I decided that I would fit it to the car to give it somewhere to live. As you can see, I opted for a road cage which offers more protection than a roll bar but is not full race spec. The reason is that it is difficult to get in and out of a car with a full cage but this provides the best of both worlds (as long as you don’t want to race). The cage is bolted to the chassis at the rear and just above the rear wheel arches and through the side panels in front of the cockpit. All told, the roll cage took less than 5 minutes to fit.

I then turned my attention to the scuttle which is the panel that goes in front of the passengers that the dash board attaches to.

In order to fit this, you have to cut away some of the fibreglass on a driver side as the frame that holds the steering column is in the way.

Once I was happy with the position, I clamped it in place and then set about trial fitting the dash. The scuttle will eventually be fixed down using rivnuts and bolts.

Before the dash can be offered up, a hole must be cut to allow the steering column to pass through. To do this, I reused the cardboard template I used earlier in the build (to get the indicator position etc). I marked where I thought the hole needed to be and then transferred this to the dash so that I could use the hole cutter.

The end results were not great. The hole really needed to be a little lower so that the steering column was central to the hole but I can live with that.

So this is what it looks like with the dash in place.

And the view from the drivers seat (well floor as no seat fitted yet!)

As a final job, I re-fitted the driver side front suspension and even hung the wheel on just to see what it would like like.

Although this will need to come off again as there is still some more work to do.

All in all, a good nights work and I am really pleased with the way the car is shaping up (except the engine but see next post about that).

I have now ordered all remaining parts yo complete from MAC#1 and have booked a week of work in a couple of weeks time. I fully intend to have the car as finished as I can by the end of that week so that I can get the SVA booked and hopefully be on the road for some time in August. That is my goal!       

Fitting The Body Panels Part 3 – Fitting And Bonding Of Side Panels

Well I am back from a bad trip to Kenya which involved of the trip being spent ill in bed. Not fun!

This did mean that I was off work recovering on Monday and felt well enough in the afternoon to go in to the garage for a couple of hours and continue where I left off a week or so ago.

The first thing to do was to strip down the panels I taped in place prior to leaving. They looked cool and I was glad I did it but they needed to come off before work could begin.

Once all the panels were safely off the car, I started to trim and sand the passenger side panel to match the driver side I did last week.

This meant timing the rear end to fit around the roll bar turret. I also had to cut some off of the end so that it did not overhang the chassis rail by the rear suspension.

Once that was done, I offered up the panel, clamped it in place and then offered rear tub to allow me to mark what needed to be trimmed from the top of the tub in order to allow the side panel and the rear tub panel to meet with the neatest, closest ‘shut line’ possible.

Top Tip: When cutting GRP (fibreglass) with a jigsaw, I used a special fibreglass blade but even with masking tape in place, I found the gelcoat splintered along the edge. Not too much but enough. Too late, I discovered if you put tape on both sides but cut from the inside of the fibreglass the the cut is much cleaner. I will know next time!

Almost at the last minute, I remembered that I needed to drill out a couple of holes in the aluminium to allow the roll cage to be fitted.

The same hole will need to be drilled in the outer side panels once fitted.

And then it was time for the big one, bonding the side panels to the chassis!

I was very nervous about doing this as if I screwed it up then it would either mean I would have to live with a very visible mistake or bad job, or order new panels from MAC#1.

First thing I did was wipe down the aluminium and chassis rails with white spirit to degrease them. Once this was dry it was time to get busy with the glue.

The bonding agent is called Wurth and it is this horrible, sticky black goo that dries like hard rubber. I applied a bead along each of the edges and along the top and bottom of the chassis rails. Then I added beads of bond along the length of the panel in ‘zig zags’.

I also put it up the rear chassis rail (up the back wall) but this was not necessary as the panel does not contact the chassis here. Never mind.

 

The bead of bond extended all the way to the front of the car on the top but I did not use any bond on the bottom chassis rail beyond where the aluminium panels as the exact position of the bottom of the side panel will need to be adjusted to keep it straight so I will fix this with rivets a later.

I fitted the side panel using the tape marks on both the chassis and side panel to make sure it was in the right position. Once I was happy I used a combination of ratchet straps and clamps to clamp it in place.

Then I repeated the process on the other side, then left them to set fully which should take at least 24 hours. 

Fitting The Body Part 1 – Side Panels

Things have been really slow on the car front for the past week or so since I picked up the bodywork from MAC#1. In fact, other than trial fitting and testing the headlights, I have not touched the car all week.

This may be due to visiting the Stoneleigh kit car show this weekend or maybe it is because I am off to Africa (again) next week but I think the real reason was that I was reluctant to start the bodywork!

I have been waiting for it for so long, now that it is finally here, I felt a little daunted by fitting it. There are still only two areas of the car that I have done so far that will be visible on the final build (rear panel and dashboard) and I made a bit of a hash of both so I guess I was a little worried about doing something so visible on the car. But last night, I decided to take the bull by the horns and get started on fitting the first part of the body, the side panels.

The side panel come as a overlong section that will eventually nee trimming both ends. The side panel will be bonded to the car using glue and then riveted along the bottom and along the top along the door apertures only (not that there is a door). You also need to cut away a section at the front end of the panel to allow the upper coil-over and wishbone to pass through it. You also need to cut four large holes to allow the rest of the wishbones and the steering rack to pass through.

The fist thing I did was offer up the panel and move it in to the final position.

The arch of the back wants to be slightly forward of the raise in the chassis in the rear and the crease in the panel wants to line up roughly with the crease in the chassis but it does not need to be mm accurate (I hope).

Once I was happy, I clamped it in place and then put a bit of insulation tape over both the panel and chassis (in a couple of places) and then used a knife to cut the tape so that some was left on the chassis and some on the panel. That way, when I take the panel off and put it back on again, I line up the tape and it is in the same place. When I come to do the opposite panel, I will measure the position of the tape on the first and set it up the same.

With the panel in place on the car, I offered up the template that MAC#1 gave me to mark where I needed to cut the end of the panel and drill out the big holes.

Unfortunately, I think the template must of been for another car because it did not match up in the slightest. Good job I checked! But this did mean that I would need to make my own template.

This is hard because the panel can not be positioned in to the right place until the top of the end is trimmed as the light bracket is in the way. But you don’t know where to cut without a template, so I had to use a certain a combination of measuring and judgement.

It turned out that the back of the template supplied by MAC#1 had a good picture on it.

After carefully making my new template, I offered it up, and it was also completely wrong!

So I had to start on the third template of the night.

This one appeared to be a lot better so I decided it would be good enough and started to mark it out on the actual side panel.

First I put masking tape on the panel, then taped the template in place.

Once it was marked out, it was time for the really scary bit. Take a jigsaw and drill to my nice side panels.

I used a jigsaw fitted with a fibreglass cutting blade to cut the straight edges but the cut was not that clean and will need some attention later but I discovered that the band sander attachment on the Dremel did a great job of tidying the edge and making it look good.

Next I used a 74m hole cutter bit for my drill to cut out the actual holes in for the wishbones.

The end result was OK. I have not sanded it all at this stage but overall it did not look too bad.

Once tip I would pass on it use several layers of masking so that the jigsaw does not scratch the panel as you push it along.

So the final this to do was to offer it up to the chassis and see if the holes are in the right place.

The good news is that they largely were perfect except for one. The left upper wishbone hole will need slight enlarging but the rest were just about dead centre, so I can live with that. When I do the other side, I just need to move that hole over by 5mm but I am sure that the needed enlargement on this side will not be noticeable and I will use the Dremel to do it so it should be fairly smooth.         

So the first stage of fitting the first panel is complete. I am really happy with the way it looks and now have the confidence to push forward and fit the other panels.

One final thing I noticed while doing all this. I have been using pictures from a car build by a guy called Richard for reference throughout my build. Typically, I will look at his car in a picture and hopefully be able to get some idea as to what I need to do.

I know that Richard’s car has a special modified set of coil-overs that are fitted upside down (for technical reasons I don’t really understand).

Now I fitted my rear suspension way back before Xmas and the coil-overs have been on the car ever since. But in all that time, I have never noticed that I fitted them upside down (following pictures on Rich’s car). You would think the writing being upside down would have made me think about it!

So these will need re-fitting correctly some time in the near future.

Next time I need to tackle the rear end of the panel.

Bodywork Has Arrived

This is the post I have been waiting to upload for more than 6 months.

The bodywork has arrived and it looks really great.

I picked it up from MAC#1 last night (along with some headlights) and it is now safely deposited in the garage (and pool pump shed, and spare bedroom and our bedroom and the study – it is a little big!).

Did not attempt to fit anything last night (although I was tempted) but I did take a few pictures. Sorry about the quality, I did them with my phone, not my camera.

Well here they are: