Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Got the radiator back today, and good news is that it fits with a fair bit more room than we had previously...





And one showing just how much room I have in my garage (!) and a better view of the WRC vents



More at the weekend I hope.

Cheers,

Paul

[david_white]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Very nice, not far off now

[smiffy1972]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Getting there mate


Good to see the old girl home

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Good to see the old girl home

You're not wrong there mate.......I think tomorrow could be the day

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Today was the day!!! Despite needing a couple of emergency trips to the local motor factors, Lee, Cossie Matt and I have managed to breath life into the car again

In fact, pretty much everything went to plan for once! No flat battery, no earth problems, no leaks, no misfire, no (big) issue connecting the laptop to the ECU, no running out of fuel, no problem fitting the new fans - it just behaved beautifully today We didn't even have any complaints from the neighbours - although that's probably because it sounds so sweet

We then spent the rest of the day bolting little bits and pieces to it - like the fire extinguisher hoses, rear tow strap, cut-off decals, wiper arms, grommets etc

Nothing really that different from previous pictures, although we did come across some carbon headlight shrouds that we dismissed for some reason a couple of years ago. Today they seem to make sense, so I think these will get fitted properly next weekend..



Next week it needs a bloody good hoover, headlights fitted once I've bought a new inner shroud, a spanner check, an ally blank to replace the fan switch that we temporarily fitted today, a little cable-tying and the wiring loom run down the inner wings to the front panel. After that lot it should be time to fill it up and use........

More soon,

Paul.

[smiffy1972]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Great progress today boys

Sorry for not being able to get down this weekend to lend a hand

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Great progress today boys

Sorry for not being able to get down this weekend to lend a hand

No worries mate - one good day on it over the long weekend and it should be ready for a quick spruce-up before dragging it down to Lydden Hill on May 5th.

Cheers,

Paul

[Toymex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Well done Paul ,glad you have nearly finished ,I can't wait to see it go ,I might have to come to Lydden to see you and Matt having a play

[filipvdv]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

so you know angelo from andes motorsport by looking at the banner. Very nice guy, i bought a rear panel from him a while ago.

love the work, very high quality

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

so you know angelo from andes motorsport by looking at the banner. Very nice guy, i bought a rear panel from him a while ago.

love the work, very high quality

Yes, I met Angelo and the team at Andes Motorsport last season. They are a REALLY top preparation company , and know how to run cars at events too I can't wait to get back over there and join them on an event again soon.

Cheers,

Paul.

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

More progress this weekend, although the poxy weather on Sunday stopped us doing more

Not much to see in the pics, but we did have both front wings off to drill holes for the wiring loom to pass through. It also made it very easy to make decent earth points and cable tie the loom up under the inner wing before refitting the wings. We then had a bit of a fight with the carbon headlight bulbs, but we won in the end

It looks like the new carbon bumpers could be on 3-4 week delivery, so we've lashed-up some old fibreglass ones temporarily...



We decided we didn't like the number plate on the the bonnet like last time, so it's back where the "Mk1" version had it - which I think sets off the enlarged front vents well.....(they're about twice the height of usual ones).

This next shot is just because I think the engine looks very at home now



Then because I was bored on Sunday I did another £50 on tastynuts.com on ally bolts for the wings, plus titanium ones for the radiator and bonnet hinges.........I must find a cheaper hobby!!!

More soon - it should be drivable next week

Paul.

[4parajon]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Good stuff Paul, let me know wont you if you find a cheaper hobby lol

[david_white]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Looks lovely Paul, and changing the bolts just shows attention to detail

[PaulAlex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

Well guys, after being invited to join a group of "demo" Escort drivers at the BHP Performance Show at Lydden Hill, we pulled our fingers out and got the car pretty much ready in time for the show yesterday.

As always seems to be the case, we were still working on the car at around 9pm the day before - and needed a 3:30am start yesterday - but it was all worthwhile I think. Finally joining an event alongside Matt Downer's lovely machine (only after about 3 years of hoping to do so!), we helped complete a decent selection of road, track and rally Escorts on display. It was also a great excuse to meet some new likeminded people, and other TS forumers that fought their way in through the traffic.......

The track action was never going to be about setting lap times (soft suspension and even softer tyres!), but it was a great opportunity to get the car really hot and make sure that the recent rebuild and developments had gone to plan.

The first couple of sessions were OK, although I didn't feel the engine was puling as strongly as expected. This was quickly diagnosed as being an oversensitive flat-shift system being triggered by resonance/vibration in the gear-lever, and once disconnected the car was transformed The next track session was much more fun with me being able to slide the car around and change the cars attitude much more with my right foot, although the final session that we gate-crashed with another group was a waste of time as they were all braking WAY too early for the corners

So, the car is now back home in need of a decent clean (plus more tyres ), and we have a small list of changes that we now want to do:

Either re-configure / desensitise the Geartronics flat-shift system, or replace with SBD's yet-to-be released flat-shift system run via the MBE engine ECU.
Change gearbox tail-section for the"flange" option - similar to Paul C's car shown elsewhere on TS

And that's about it!

I haven't seen many pics yet, but here are a couple I took myself:

The "finished" article:



Doing out bit for Fostek:



No spanners needed for once! Just a notepad and allen key



Hopefully we'll get some actions shots up soon....

Cheers,

Paul.

[Toymex]

Re: Paul Alex's character building, pain-in-the-ar5e, bufty money pit

I didn't manage to get down but I heard you and Matt were flying ,the most entertaining there by all accounts ,well done on rebuilding it better than ever ,just hope to read some event reports now with what I am sure will be good results