Ownership Verified: We can rebuild it... we have the technology (7 - take two)

I bet he'll take the neccessary precautions, like buying a hemherroid cushion for the seat, so he won't be like James May in the Aston. :p
 
Shall we prepare some ice-packs (no, no pun intended) for when you arrive at the campsite, to soothe some sore spots?

More likely to need it after sleeping in the tent :p

Ok, getting closer to present time, few more posts before I catch up. But this is a big one, this is where I was fitting the exhaust. Here's the problem. The exhaust comes out of the side through the hole in the bodywork. Since there are numerous different exhausts in combination with different engines, the body doesn't have a pre-drilled hole unless you get the whole kit. My re-skinned chassis thus had a smooth side, so I can chose whether to make a small opening for a single exiting pipe exhaust or a larger one for a fancy 4-into-1 collector on the outside, like mine. I couldn't use old alu-skin as a reference, because it was.. well.. fucked. So how do I determine where to drill the hole, with the engine in and no ability to test fit the primaries? Veeery carefully. But honestly - no clue, I found no good method, I just did it one little step at a time and hoped for the best. What I wanted the least was cutting too much of the alu off right away.

I start by masking the area:



Then I make an educated guess:



Hey, not too bad of a guess!



Filing some more and test-fitting often to judge the progress



The working area :)



This is more or less where I ended up at. It's not a final hole, it's just the minimum that allows me to get the exhaust through. After I'm happy with it, I can figure out how to smooth it out so it's aesthetically pleasing.



Looks like it's clean, no rubbing anywhere.



But there is a problem. I think the primaries were a little bent when they got hit by the loose left wheel. They still fit, but the gap between #1 and #4 is larger than it used to be. And it also requires some force to bend them just enough to fit into the 4-1 collector. This is a comparison with one "before" photo.



And then another problem, the middle pair isn't flush with the block.



This is pretty bad, not aided by the fact that xflow has only 2 bolts on either side to hold the middle pair, it's is a typical spot where the exhaust starts to blow. In my case the gap is HUEG.

I also found out that the gaskets I got from Caterham were too small, I have a larger bore exhaust, so I got me different ones. These are also noticeably thicker, which I hoped would help seal the gap.



It did help, but it still blows, in every meaning of the word. What I'm planning to do, is to take the car to an exhaust place as the first job when it's moving, and have them flatten the exhaust plates, I think the problem is mostly there. Maybe clean up the surface on the block as well. Also, if possible, bend the #1 and #4 a bit back into shape. Luckily removing and reinstalling the primaries is a minutes job here, as long as it's cooled down :)

Also, I have to say that this was the single worst job on the car so far, most boring and most stressful at once. And maybe the noisiest. I'd rather do wiring for 5 more cars than fit another exhaust, ugh. And I'm not even done with it yet. I just have the opening made large enough so pipes don't touch the bodywork, but it's still very rough and ugly.
 
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You need to remove the header and grind down the flange on a belt sander and check with a straight edge to see when its straight.
 
Still doesn't make sense for the Ukanians then :p

Logic does not exist in Ukania. We are talking about people whom drink warm beer.
 
You need to remove the header and grind down the flange on a belt sander and check with a straight edge to see when its straight.

That's the plan. Only I'll have someone else do it.

I also thought about wrapping the exhaust primaries. There's at least alternator in very close proximity and some wires. And of course the painted bodywork. I'm afraid I'll mess it up though, is it hard to do such that it looks neat? Any recommendations on which wrap to use? They sell a Cool-It brand here, comes in black and white, claims to handle 1100 C (I don't need THAT much, for sure ;). But maybe much cheaper ebay stuff is ok too..
 
Do they make orange wrap? That could look cool
 
Hahaha. There's copper color at least:

pr30410_1_thermotec-exhaust-wrap-copper.jpg


Will do?

EDIT: ZOMG!

78287d1207510372-new-here-exhaust-wrap.jpg



But I would only wrap it until the collector, so it'd look a bit stupid if colored. Black or white should do.
 
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https://pic.armedcats.net/m/mx/mxm/2011/04/15/exhaust10.jpg

How does this sound familiar? :p

Can you just remove the bent flange and replace it with a new one?
 
Hahaha. There's copper color at least:

pr30410_1_thermotec-exhaust-wrap-copper.jpg


Will do?

EDIT: ZOMG!

78287d1207510372-new-here-exhaust-wrap.jpg



But I would only wrap it until the collector, so it'd look a bit stupid if colored. Black or white should do.
Look into painting it. I remember seeing somewhere some paint that's also a heat insulator can't figure out the name at all. Obviously it won't be as good as wrapping it but might be just enough for your purposes.
 
Glad to see you're getting it back on the road. I felt really bad for you after the accident. It's good to know you're getting your dream car back. :D
 
How does this sound familiar? :p

Can you just remove the bent flange and replace it with a new one?

Maybe, but would require welding and such. Mind you, this photo is a bit exaggerating the problem due to contrast, it doesn't look as bad IRL. But the flange is thick enough to remove 1mm of material or so, that should flatten it.
 
In the middle, sitting on top of the bellhousing is the washer bottle with its little pump, the batter tray I attached above the passenger legs and the coolant expansion tank in front of the passenger footwell.



Upper hose if for the overflow, goes directly to ground, the lower one along the frame to the thermostat tower. Note the heat-sock over the hose :) It wasn't really needed, there are at least a few cm to the exhaust, but I had an extra piece, so why not..



This hose would be connected to the top of the thermostat tower (where the large radiator hose is connected). These days in Caterhams the expansion tank sits in the middle of those crossed tubes in the front of the chassis; Caterham uses a flat, round expansion tank. But a) I already had mine, b) I thought it's not the worst idea to have it in a visible place, as whole front is covered by the nose cone, which requires a little effort to remove.



The radiator hoses were crap. After filling the system and pumping the hoses a bit, I noticed they're leaking. Close inspection revealed a lot of cracks, and re-applying the clamps one last time made some of them leak.



I was about to order new ones from Caterham, when I noticed they had silicone hoses too! Those are much more flexible and don't crack, should last better. The problem was - they come in blue... and red. Colored hosed are eeek, in my opinion. Not judging anyone who uses them, but I just don't think they belong here :) Maybe if the car was red, I would consider red hoses. Blue ones I just dislike in general. But then, I found a guy on ebay making custom silicone hoses for Caterham x-flows (and countless other cars) and.. he can make them black! Bingo! A set of nice, black silicone hoses purchased. They came with their own, rounded-edged clamps, as regular clamps can cut the silicone.



Overview of the whole thing connected up:



The 2 wires coming out of the left side of the thermostat tower are from the temperature switch for the cooling fan. The temperature sensor is on the other side and a little lower, under the thermostat.
 
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Wow, neat work, good to see it taking shape again!
 
Anyway, that's about where I got it last year. When the cooling system was in, I thought I'll try running the engine. But I made a mistake of not writing down the firing order when taking the car apart, and now I didn't know where the leads go. I first found the cyl1 mark on the distributor, and connected the leads according to the firing order of 1-3-4-2. Cranking, making a lot of bangs, but they come from the filters side, and the filters smoke a bit. After a while I gave up and went googling for more info.

Well, apparently Ford Kent is 1-2-4-3, unlike most 4-bangers. So, reattached the leads and...

You forgot the video of you firing it up for the first time again btw :D


Happy MXM is happy :p

SUCCESS!

It's alive! Sounds a bit rough, but then it would after a year without starting up, without oil etc. It has smoothed up by now. I even think that I wont need to adjust carbs that much, seeing as the engine was removed and now reinstalled without touching them.

But that's where all progress stopped, due to work + low temperatures.

I have only started doing something again last week, with filling the brake system. As I'm doing everything alone now, bleeding the brakes can be a bit tedious. I tried using the one-way valves some stores sell, I tried sucking the fluid out of the caliper (very long and clear tube needed :p), I tried gravity bleeding and everything. It took me a few days and a lot of wasted Motul RBF600, but the pedal is finally firming up. It's still not perfect, and I will do the final bleeding by employing someone to pump the pedal (should've done it right away), but it stops the car already.

So with brakes more or less sorted, I'm happy to say that I have even driven the car a bit. Just 50m or so in the parking garage, but it was quite exciting :) Actually, that was my second attempt, at first I forgot the steering wheel at home, so I just drove 2m back and forward to see that transmission works. I don't have a seat there, so I was just sitting on the floor, but that's not too different from my buckets.

Also I finally cleaned up the car from all the tool and leftover crap, so I went to sit on the passenger side to test my footwell extension, and well... the passenger now can stretch one leg :p



As well, after the test drive I notice a couple of things, one was that the steering wheel was about 100 degrees off when wheels are centered and the other was that the handbrake cable touches the bolts of the propshaft-diff coupling, as it rotates. These 2 things I sorted this week, will post a few pics if I find good ones.

But anyway, this brings the thread to real time, future updates will come with the actual progress.
 
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I have only started doing something again last week, with filling the brake system. As I'm doing everything alone now, bleeding the brakes can be a bit tedious. I tried using the one-way valves some stores sell, I tried sucking the fluid out of the caliper (very long and clear tube needed :p), I tried gravity bleeding and everything. It took me a few days and a lot of wasted Motul RBF600, but the pedal is finally firming up. It's still not perfect, and I will do the final bleeding by employing someone to pump the pedal (should've done it right away), but it stops the car already.

Have you thought about using a vacuum pump brake bleeder? Something like this. They're not terribly expensive, I paid ~30? for mine and it works perfectly well.
 
Have you thought about using a vacuum pump brake bleeder? Something like this. They're not terribly expensive, I paid ~30? for mine and it works perfectly well.

The only one I found required compressed air, which would be too much hassle. If there were a manual one I'd get it.

But also, my problem, I think, was that bleeding nipple was letting air through the threading when opened even just a bit, that would make the vacuum method not very effective.
 
I had the same problem when I used the vacuum pump to bleed my newly installed braided steel lines (drawing in air through the thread), but as it turned out it's apparently not much of a problem at all. I still got the air out of the system and the brake nice and firm. :)

But yeah, having a quick look on ebay.fi it really looks like you'd have to order one from out of country if you wanted it. Which of course makes the whole thing much less appealing already.
 
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