[trackday_prep] My 205 Xt Trackcar Project

[swordfish210 20]

Thanks anyway guys but Sandy is providing me with a set which should sort me out. Yeah they changed to M6 and Piper sent me these rochers rather than the M9 ones. I was concerned that the lack of contact area on the valve stem would cause problems but on closer inspection of the studs they have a large base (about 9mm) so it shouldnt be a problem. I suppose they'll be a bit lighter than the old rockers as well

[swordfish210 20]

I had a brainwave the other week that the car is going to be a sprint car mostly so there is no need for it to have large mirrors. So i removed the old ones (bloody heavy by the way) and bought some of these bad boys :

 

 

To mount them i decided to make some Carbon Fibre plates that same sort of shape as the old plastic plates:

 

 

To make them i started with a piece of wood and marked out the template on it and then drew around the template about 1/2 an inch wider.:

 

 

I cut them out with a band saw and then hollowed them out:

 

 

Once i had smoothed out the cuts on the inside i smoothed it out further by taping it up with aluminum foil tape:

 

 

I then glued them to another plank with a glue gun and softened up some plastacine so use on the inside edge so it would make a chamfer on the final mound:

 

 

Once that was done i gave them a few coats of the wax release formula:

 

 

and then layered in some black gel coat:

 

 

Thats all for now, should do a bit more work on them come Friday. I still haven't finished my engine yet (royal mail are screwing me :x ) but i'll hopefully have it done soon.

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Well its nice to see this still moving ahead since your recent problems. That isnt by any chance steve's amazing cave/workshop?

[swordfish210 20]

Well its nice to see this still moving ahead since your recent problems. That isnt by any chance steve's amazing cave/workshop?

 

Yeah it's steves place. I was going mad not doing anything on it so i decided to get on with this because i allready had the mirrors.

[swordfish210 20]

I did a bit more work on my mirror plates today. Unfourtanatly i can't take credit for most of the work done on them today as our composites workshop tech Steve sort of grabbed them and before i had time to ask if i could do it he was finished .

 

First off we cut out some sheets of carbon and he mixed up some resin:

 

 

Heres a quick sketch of how the sheets were layered:

 

 

Steve then began layering in the carbon sheet and some resin while i cut some sheets of glass fibre:

 

 

Once the glass was layered in steve rolled it in to the corners and finished it off with an approprate amount of resin:

 

 

I'll pull them out tomorrow and finish them off i.e. trimming them to fit and drilling the holes for the mirrors.

 

I then did a bit of work on my engine because i was bored. I got the inlet gaskets out and bolted the inlet manifold on, i then got the carbs out and gave them a quick going over:

 

 

I first took the float bowls off and checked the jets for tightness, checked the floats had a nice bit of movment in them and then i cleaned them up and bolted the bowls back on:

 

 

Once i had done that with all of them i took the top of the carbs off and checked the needles and the springs etc:

 

 

 

 

I then put them back togeather after cleaning the sliders. I then stripped down the air filter backing plate and gave it a good clean:

 

 

Should have another update tomorrow.

[Sandy 191]

I sent the studs yesterday btw, finally.

[swordfish210 20]

Yeah i got them this morning mate. Thanks

[swordfish210 20]

I borrowed a mates dremel today so i was able to finish the mirror plates off. Firts i trimmed down all the excess and made the appropriate cut-outs:

 

 

Once that was done i gave them a quick wipe over and then started lining them up on the car to see where the mirror could go. I then drilled the holes and mounted the mirror to the plate:

 

 

I had to trim the bolts down to get them to fit properly:

 

 

Once that was done i drilled some holes in the door and rivveted them on:

 

 

 

Predictably though once i had done one my battery in my drill died and i had to wait for ages to get it going again (i killed time by watching Duel on ITV4 ) and by the time i fitted the other one it was dark out so no pics but i'll pull the car out of the garage tomorrow and get some more.

 

I'm pretty pleased with the result though, I think they look really good and the setup is a damn site lighter than the old mirrors.

[Rich_p 23]

Impressive work on the mirror plates, I'd have been lazy and screwed them to the door

 

Can I ask what make & model they are please?

[pablo 0]

look like SPA ones. Had a lovely carbon pair on my kitcar.

[swordfish210 20]

Yeah they are SPA ones, a bit better quality than the Racetech ones (as are most things) I did think about mounting them to the door but then i fancied doing something different and since i had the equipment available to make composite components i thought why not

 

BTW i'll be going to Uni tomorrow to finish my engine and if i can find some helpers i should have it in the car by tomorrow evening

[Cloverleaf 1]

Good work, car is coming together nicely.

[swordfish210 20]

I went in to Uni today armed with the rocker studs that Sandy sent me and a new set of head bolts to finish the engine off. I started by laying the new headgasket and then fitting the new rocker studs:

 

 

I then fitted the head and the new rocker gear with plenty of cam lube and torqued down the head:

 

 

Once that was done i fitted the cam belt and tensioned it up and then set the tappet clearances to what piper quoted. I then bolted what ancillaries i could to the engine:

 

 

Then i loaded it up in the car and brought it home. When i got home i wheeled the car out of the garage and got it on a pair of axle stands and my mate from uni Jack came over to give me a hand fitting it. I didnt have an engine crane so we had to do it by hand (not easy when you're suffering from a whiplashed neck) but the engine is fairly light and we got it in without damaging anything:

 

 

We then spent the rest of the afternoon (well 3 hours and a few cups of tea) putting the gearbox, driveshafts etc back in and got the car back on it's wheels:

 

 

 

 

When we lowered the car back on to it's wheels we discovered a problem though. The engine is so light and the front shocks are so stiff the ride height only went down by about half an inch:

 

 

Bloody thing, i'll get on the blower to Skip Brown to see if i can get some shorter ones. Next on the ajenda is getting the loom for the DTA sorted so i can run the thing. Heres some more pics for you though:

 

 

[pablo 0]

can you take a couple of coils out of the springs?

[swordfish210 20]

can you take a couple of coils out of the springs?

 

Theres no real way of clamping them then, they'd just fall out. Plus i'm trying to be as less of a pikie as possible with this car.

[pablo 0]

aye no point being a pikey over it.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I have some gaz shocks to go on my rallye with 30mm lowering on them, I assume designed for a gti, so will I have this problem as well? Also don't cut the springs, that is very pikey!

 

Ali

[swordfish210 20]

The springs won't be 225lb as mine are so they should compress a bit further, plus i belive your car has an iron blocked engine which will pull it down a bit further. Try them and see

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Looking good, I like your mirror plates they are nicely done. I have to say I think that front no plate spoils it a bit though, IMO it would look better either in the standard posn, or maybe a stick on one, on the bonnet.

[swordfish210 20]

Looking good, I like your mirror plates they are nicely done. I have to say I think that front no plate spoils it a bit though, IMO it would look better either in the standard posn, or maybe a stick on one, on the bonnet.

 

Thanks Tom, i reckon i culd make some more of those plates if there was enough interest (10 pairs or so) but it would have to be that many as i would want to make a better mould, or moulds so i could make a few pairs at a time.

 

With regards to the number plate i moved it to gain some air flow through the rad, it's not a style thing. I used to have a stick on plate but i got busted by the law for it so i abandoned that idea and stuck it on the side. Function over form and all that

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Not sure on the LB rating off my springs! I have a day off tomorrow so will stick them on and see. I have changed the engine for a low milage SPI engine (only decent TU3 engine about at the time!) with the carb, so still iron block (bullet proof )

 

Really enjoy reading this and keep us updated! Would love to pop over and have a look when your done.

 

Cheers, Ali

[swordfish210 20]

More than welcome to mate, maybe when it's a bit more finished though

[swordfish210 20]

Time for an overdue update I've been doing bits on the car over the past couple of weeks but they've just been small jobs so i thought i'd compile them in to one update. The first job i had to tackle was the ride height. The car was sitting like this:

 

 

With the 9" springs on so i removed them and fitted some 8" 300lb springs that came with the dampers when i bought them. As well as fitting them i also moved the top mounts on to the top of the shell for a bit more of a reduction in ride height. I got some big washers from uni:

 

 

to spread the load a bit and then bolted it all on:

 

 

It's sitting like this now:

 

 

Better but it could still do with coming down a bit, I then started bolting things back on like the fuel swirl pot:

 

 

Brake vent pipe:

 

 

 

Oil cooler pipes and sandwedge plate:

 

 

[swordfish210 20]

I've decided for now (due to lack of funds and the desire to drive it again) i'm going to get the engine running on the dizzy set-up then when i have some funds i'm going to convert it to run on the DTA ignition.

 

 

 

I then had a bit of a nerd moment when it came to making a catch tank:

 

 

 

Thats it for now. I'm getting some pipe from Colin Satchell to join the carbs to the manifold then i need to build the coolant system from some samco hose and it should be ready to rock and roll Thanks for reading.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Get it done! I would love to come over again and here it run on the carbs. Its looking great by the way.

 

Ali