GavinR's Mk2 Rally Car - FLY

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

After a busy week I had a quick trip to HT this morning (320 mile round trip in 5 hours) and collected the Pinto from Ron

All nice and shiny, not much to mention but she's got new pistons along with the usual bearings, gaskets, seals, etc and the flywheel's been skimmed so the clutch should last longer


I've got the front struts on now, new discs and back to the Princess 4 pots to make wheel fitting easier, new adjustable TCA's and polybushes from Rally Design, and refitted the RBTM's instead of the ally one's I'd been using, and bolted on the mounts for the strut brace, hope it fits with the single 45. The wiring is all put back to Pinto spec now and I've put in a couple of extra earths for the headlights


Plan for tomorrow is to put the wiring back where it should be then drop the engine in

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Got quite a lot done today

Routed the wiring round the engine bay

Engine in, carbs a bit tight against the inner wing but not touching


Followed by the gearbox, rad, coils and even the front wings

[alladdin]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

good progress

[azz259]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

hi gavin, i thought i reconised the number plate FLY, i just had a look at my video of the classic tracks rally 2005 and sure enough it was this car, are you out on the bro caron rally in a couple weeks time, cheers Arwyn

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Yes I did the Classic Tracks a couple of times when I lived near Lampeter and Fly's being rebuilt this time for the Bro Caron

After a few more late nights this week, the plan for today was to get the engine running

It didn't go well when the water pump sprung a leak followed by a heater hose leaking, but I fixed them, took the dizzy out and turned the oil pump with a 1/4" ratchet to get oil pressure, put it back in in the same place, went to start her up but there were no signs of life - turning over quickly but not firing at all

Checked for fuel, checked for spark, all ok, swung the dizzy a bit both ways but still nothing apart from popping back through the carb

So went back to basics, set the engine to TDC, checked the rotor arm and found it was pointing to no 3 not no 1. Swung the dizzy by 90 degrees and she started first time

I think when HT had rebuilt the engine they had put the plug leads on different plugs to what I expected, then when I collected the engine we took all the leads off to lie the engine down in the boot. And I put the leads back on differently

I've got an MOT booked for Monday afternoon, she just needs a bonnet, an exhaust and check all the lights work - shame I'm at work now until the afternoon, looks like I'll be busy Monday morning

For the rally, there's still a few jobs to do and I've got a Rolling Road session on Friday, it'll be interesting to see how much the single carb gives

Front end finished


Boot finished except for spare wheel post and toolbox


Interior needs a bit of tidying up and finishing off

[azz259]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

nice one, i hope things goes to plan with you this week, i wish i wasnt working this week either as i still got to put anti tramp bars on , steering rack and change some bushes, it will be a busy week, anyway ill probably see you at the start, lets hope it wont snow

[Retromotorsport]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Good luck for the MOT.. sure you'll soon be barking down the lanes

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

MOT

[azz259]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

where about, near lampeter did you live, i asked some boys tonight if they knew you, they remembered FLY
glad you got MOT, is your car ready now

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

where about, near lampeter did you live, i asked some boys tonight if they knew you, they remembered FLY
glad you got MOT, is your car ready now

We used to live on the hill above Talsarn, from end of 2000 to end of 2006, then a couple of years in Bethania

Fly's not quite ready yet but I got the wiring finished tonight

[76PINTO]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

engine is looking good gavin, im out on bro caron too (car 17) mite catch you down west!!

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Bugger, bugger, bugger and double bugger

After a week of late nights and some early mornings, Fly was all ready by 4pm Saturday, set off for Lampeter, dropped the Scorpio and trailer at a friend's house, got through noise and scrutineering without any problems and we were ready to go

Snow was forecast for 1am so I'd gone with forest tyres on the front and serious knobblies on the back

The first section was cancelled before the start so we started section 2 at 1am. Got to the first TC about 2 minutes late, Fly not running well (think a plug lead had come loose - she was fine through scrutineering), next section was up on the hills above Ffarmers, heavy snow started falling, coming down so fast we couldn't see the tyre tracks of the car a minute ahead

Past the first speccie point, about a mile later, gently downhill into a not as map 60 left, debris everywhere and gouges out of the bank, tried to slow down but we were just passengers, snow on top of sheet ice just doesn't work, bounced off the bank followed by squealing from the front tyre, carried on to a farm entrance and got out to assess the damage, along with 2 other bent cars

Wing bent, front wheel pushed back into the arch and rubbing, anti-roll bar bracket bent, even in a straight line the tyre was rubbing so we wouldn't have got much further

Looked at the map, we were 1/2 mile from the trailer so headed there and loaded up, in total we had done 8 miles from leaving the start venue to the trailer, waited for Guy to finish marshalling and then headed home, nearly jack-knifed the trailer twice on the way back, once on a straight, some places didn't have any snow, others had about 3 inches

Looking good from this angle


Bugger


Bugger


Suspicious underseal missing from inner wing


Double bugger


I'll have a good look later in the week, not sure yet whether to try to straighten and patch the chassis leg or go for compression struts

As for the rally, results were declared at petrol. Shame we didn't get further as the first half had all the usual roads round Lampeter which I know pretty well

[GT4]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

Hi Gavin,
I was down marshalling for another competitor, I was looking out for you to say hello, but managed to miss you. I hope the damage to FLY looks worse than the reality. We were watching at a fast approach on a B road to a slot right near Talsarn, the front runners were really on it!!

It was a bad night for lots of crews, we nearly bumped the Discovery a few times trying to get to our control , only to find it was cancelled.

We ended the night picking the car up with a broken driveshaft about 5 miles before petrol. It was quite some trip home, following the snow plough over the hills.
Cheers
Paul

[azz259]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

hi gav, didnt go to good then.i was parked next to you in the car park, when i realised it was you , you had started plotting so i left you to it. i managed to hit the hedge up ffarmers somewhere, wing bent in and my driver side lamp was pushed back in to the wing, ill put a pic up, it looks much worse than yours but luckily mine was kind of drivable,lol after seeing a 4 car pile up in cilcennin we decided to stop there just incase i would total the mk2,whens your next event,

[GavinR]

Re: GavinRs Mk2 Rally Car FLY

I didn't realise that was you either

My next event is a Gymkhana (sort of a large scale autotest) this Sunday. Even though it's not a big event I want to do a few more miles in Fly so I'm keen to get there

So I started stripping Fly tonight, removed wheels, bumper, grill, sumpguard to have a good look at exactly what was bent

The steering rack's ok and the column hasn't twisted - the only extra bent bit is the rosejoint where the TCA joins the WCXM, but the TCA itself and the adjuster is dead straight

I had a look through my spares and found enough bits to make a complete set of compression struts, but unfortunately not enough rosejoints but I should be able to get one in the morning

Tomorrow night I hope to have the brackets welded on and most of her back together

And I've fitted a new set of plug leads just to be sure