November
November
Friday 24th October
Well, it was scheduled that my kit would be available for me to collect on the 1st of November. I was preparing to send the money to Martin at The Kit Car Workshop, and dropped him a e-mail to confirm final payment details. Within 2 hours he called me back and advised that he was going down to Kent to collect the kit from Fisher Sports Cars on Sunday 26th October and given I live so close to the M1, why doesn't he just drop it in on his was back. Now that's service - my kit a week early and also delivered to my door saving me the cost of van hire. I'm impressed.....that is until I remember I still have the garage to clear and prepare for the arrival of the car. That's what Saturday will be spent doing.
Sunday 26th October
As promised, Martin arrived at about 14:30 in his van and after a quick cup of tea is was down to unloading.
The chassis is a shiny black powder coating and all looks very well finished. The body is tightly wrapped in bubble wrap so I can't really check it over.
Impatient as ever, I decide to start by preparing the aluminium panels for the floor. After long and careful consideration I have decided to prepare and drill these panels and then send them off for powder coating in black. I have found a local company who will do it pretty cheaply.
First job is to turn the chassis over, resting the roll-bar on a thick blanket to avoid scratches. I have opted for the welded in roll-bar specific to my design, which I must say looks very good. I then laid the aluminium panels on the floor, remembering to allow the 30mm overhang for the body to sit on (the panel extends beyond the side of the chassis). The panels were clamped in place and marked with masking tape to show where the chassis frame was underneath. I then marked the rivet holes at 40mm centers (not 50mm as recommended by Fisher) and drilled holes for 4mm rivets rather than the 3mm ones supplied. I have decided to use bigger rivets more closely spaced as the floor is critical and will be stood on/ take the weight of me in the seats!
Once all holes were drilled I used a 14mm drill bit to manually debur the holes in the aluminium panel. I am very pleased that the panels fit and the holes are all lined up. The panel is put to one side and the whole process was repeated for the other side of the floor. Once both sides were done I turned the chassis over and decided to start to fit to mechanicals....the fitting of the panels is not fun and I have decided to do a panel a day!
The next job is to the fit the differential. This is a very fiddly job and requires two people as a minimum. I tried to put the diff in through the back of the chassis but it wouldn't go....I then tried the side and even the front of the chassis but couldn't get it to fit through the chassis frame. After about 45 minutes I conceded that the diff was not going to fit in it's current form and reached for the angle grinder. I relieved the lower diff mount by 10 mm at each side, then retried by lifting it from below.
Thankfully the diff slid straight in and I fitted the front bolts to take the weight. The final technique is to put the diff in nose first down the tunnel. Then lift the back up past the chassis rail and drop the nose down onto its mounting lugs. Then lower the rear down to line up with the mounting hole. I will have to tough up the scratches in the powder coating before I put the body on.
As you can see in the pictures below, the diff is mounted by bolts at the very front, a bar across the top and a bolt at the very rear (at 90 degrees to the others). The lower mounting point I ground down is not used and I wonder whether this should be noted in the instructions that this should be removed to aide fitting. The other point of note is that when the diff is in pace there is quite a gap between the diff and the rear most mounting hole. I packed these out with washers as shown in the pictures to make sure the diff is held tightly.
Anyway, that's the first day of building over and done, with about 4 hours spent to far.
Monday 27th
With the diff in place I permanently fit the bolts using threadlock. I have decided that I am either using nyloc nuts or threadlock on every removable fixing in the car. I anticipate quite a bit of vibration from the hard mounted bike engine, and assume anything not permanently fastened will fall off.
Next is the rear suspension. I start off by fitting the rear wishbones which are easily put in place. Note that the adjustable rod on the lower wishbone faces towards the front of the car. The upper wishbone is also handed and the offset on the top wishbone must also be towards the front of the car. The hubs are also handed and their orientation is specific to whether you are using disk or drum brakes. As I am using the disk brakes then the flat side of the hub must face towards the front.
Next I unpack the drive shafts that are exchanged for your grubby old ones that I had bought previously. These driveshafts look fantastic, finished in chrome and fitted with brand new Ford tripod joints. They are also one piece and so avoid the need for any cutting and welding of old Ford drive shafts. I must say well done to Fisher for this upgrade...it makes the whole car package look a lot more professional. Oh, and don't forget this will help me get a new registration plate as this is yet another new part.
So here is a picture of the rear suspension loosely fitted. Note also that there are big alloy spacers that fit on the outside of the hubs. I am not 100% sure of why these are required but I assume that they must simply space the wheel out from the car a bit more - probably to fill the large rear wheel arches on the Spider body.
Tuesday 28th
Decided to fit the pedal box and brake master cylinder.
The pedal box is secured to the floor using the 5 bolts supplied, which takes about 3 minutes and looks great. The accelerator pedal is mounted separately from above and will need to be fitted much later (it is just hanging in the picture). This is because it's position can only be decided when I am sitting in the car and pressing the brake. This is essential as bike gearboxes need to have the revs blipped on the way down the gears when braking - so called 'heal & toe'. The throttle will need to be operated by the side of my foot while braking. Sounds Ok in theory but I will have to learn how to do it in practice!!
I then fitted the tandem master cylinder. This requires 2 bolts to attach it to the bulkhead, and the pushrod slips onto the brake pedal. I slipped a small bolt to connect the pushrod to the pedal and all finished. I must say that was almost too easy. I have opted for the Tandem master cylinder as it has the brake bias preset and is easy to set up. As I specified this at the time of ordering I had the bulkhead cut out specifically for the master cylinder. If you don't specify then you can end up with 2 holes cut for the bias bar setup and you have to blank one off - which doesn't look great.
I'm going out tonight so that's it for today.
Wednesday 29th
I then moved on to fitting the front lower wishbones, steering rack and bonnet mounting frame.
The steering rack I have chosen is a quick rack using a new casing, again to ensure I get a new registration plate. This is fitted using the brackets supplied by Fisher using 2 bolts at each side. I then threaded the track rod ends on to the ends of the steering rack temporarily.
The lower wishbones again easily fitted, just ensuring that the straight of the wishbone is at the front of the car and the 45 degree arm is pointing rearward.
The bonnet mounting frame was attached to the mounts using 4 small bolts again supplied. My only comment is that it is supplied in raw steel. This is a shame as I am going to have to get it powder coated myself. I would happily pay a few pounds extra when every other bit of the car is at the powder coaters to get that done at the same time.
Next job is to try the handbrake fitting. I opted for the handbrake inside the tunnel, rather than the outside on most Fury's. I think it is very difficult to make the handbrake look great when it is fitted to the outside. Also, I think I will get an alloy cover for it to match my gear know so it should look good and be easier for handbrake turns!!
I have also trial fitted the radiator, but am unsure of how high to mount it so will leave that until I next speak to Martin at The Kit Car Workshop.
I have also trial fitted the steering column. I have chosen an height/rake adjustable column and it seems to fit, albeit upside down. I will need to be careful with this as most of the ones I have seen use the early fixed position column, but I think I might just get away with it. That would be pretty good to have a fully adjustable column....makes setup that bit easier when it is built.
Well, that's pretty much all of the bits I have at the minute so as you can see, I have now lined up another alloy panel to mark and drill. I think I may leave that until tomorrow!!
Thursday 30th
This is my last evening in the garage until Monday the 3rd November as I am off up North to visit family. I decide to mark up and drill more aluminium panels. I have decided to fit the outside panels to the outside of the chassis rather that the inside. In this way the chassis will look bigger inside, while still looking good as the panels will be black powder coated. I want the rivets to look good as they will always be on display so spend ages marking the edges with masking tape and getting the gaps right. Following some advice from Rich Miles, I bought fine metal blades for my jigsaw. This works really well for trimming the panels, much better than tin snips or a hack saw and I also strongly recommend this as the way to trim the panels.
All in all the panels are a really good fit, and only require trimming around the welds where the chassis tubes join. This can be done in a few seconds with the jigsaw and the finish looks good. I gently file the edges after sawing to make them look neat, but otherwise so far so good.
I have had some great news on some wheels and tyres. I asked on the Yahoo bulletin board for bike engined cars whether anyone had any AVON ACB10 tyres for sale, assuming I would stick them on some cheap alloys. I got a response from a chap who had a new set of ACB10's for sale, on a new set of 3 piece all alloy split rim wheels. I checked the price out new and the came to over a grand and he wanted less than half of that. Suffice to say the deal was done and I am calling in to collect the on Sunday evening on my way back from visiting family up north on Sunday. Result!!
Monday 3rd November
I have picked up the wheels and they look fantastic. Very pleased and weigh only about 10kg each all in - they really are very light. There are still a few jobs to get done before I can fit them!!
The next job is to fit the standard Ford Sierra handbrake cable. I bought this from a local spare parts dealer for just over a tenner. This is a little trickier than it looks. The handbrake cable must first be connected to the handbrake itself and fixed with a small (8mm) bolt. Then the cables must be routed towards the rear of the car with the adjustable cable going through the lower chassis guide, and the unadjustable cable through the upper guide. I have the tied the cables out of the way until I get the rear brakes on and can see where the cables actually need to run.
I then move on to fitting the shock absorbers to the car. I have opted for the AVO units that are specially valved for the bike engined Fisher Fury. They are much more suited to the light weight car and look fantastic. They are the same unit as Fisher use on their race cars. The front springs are 130lb and the rear 180lb. The springs are very easily fitted by lowering the ride height adjustment plate to the bottom of the shock and the sliding the spring on. They look fantastic.
Tuesday 4th November
I have decided I must move forward with the paneling. I start off today with the rear bulkhead panel. This requires you to flex the centre of the panel outwards to get the panel under the outside chassis rails and flush with the rear of the chassis. Again, this panel required simple trimming around the welds at each of the 4 outside corners (using the jigsaw of course). I then lined up the lond outside panel and it was an exact fit - no trimming at all. Then it came to the rear quarter panel you can see in the picture below. This panel is assumed to go on the outside of the car and is very long so you can bend it at the bottom and rivet it to the floor. I am, however, putting these panel on the outside of the car and so marked and trimmed 25mm off the bottom of the panel and it looks pretty good.
With this done it is on to the inner panels. Again, the front panel fits very well, requiring trimming around the welds. The back panel however requires you to bend the rear of the panel so you can rivet it to the rear bulkhead. This is because there is no obvious chassis member to rivet this panel to. The only way to mark the bend is to measure with a tape measure the distance from the end of the front panel to the rear bulk head and transpose the measurements on to the panel, marking with masking tape. I then place the panel in the workmate and bent it over. It looks Ok and will be disguised by the seat anyway. This bit is NOT much fun!!
That is all of the panels except the top of the transmission tunnel drilled and cut to shape. I am going to leave that until I have overcome this recent bit of paneling!!!
Wednesday 5th November
Next job is to trial fit my new engine. Before trial fitting you need to fit the engine mounts and exhaust. The exhaust fits easily first time. The engine mounts however are a little too small and require opening out to fit around the engine mounts. I did this with a big hammer, bending the engine mounting lugs outwards to gain a couple of millimeters. Then I had a really thick moment - I was concerned that I didn't have 2 x 22cm long bolts of the correct Yamaha fine thread to attach the engine mount. I need shorter ones than were fitted on the bike. I called every nut and bolt supplier I could find to see if they had an M10 fine bolt of the correct length, but to no avail. Somewhat disheartened I returned to the garage, only to realise that of course any old bolt will do....the bolt has a nut on the end and as long as it is M10 then the thread is irrelevant!!!!!! I felt very stupid having wasted about 3 hours, but happy that this is not a showstopper. I got my wife to call back and order the correct bolts so they didn't recognise my voice!
I also took the opportunity to trail fit the sprocket adaptor, to convert the bikes sprocket to a propshaft drive. This fits very, very close to the engine and at 2 points of rotation hits the engine and cannot rotate. This renders this unusable as I cannot remove metal from the engine casing and I assume the drive flange is balanced and cannot have any high spots ground down. Anyway, for the money it cost I expect it to fit, so I'll speak to Martin at the weekend and see if it needs to be returned.
So with the mounts, exhaust and diff flange (temporarily) fitted, John and myself lift the engine into the chassis. It's only roughly resting in place, but already looks great. We have hit a problem in Fisher supplied 2 engine mounts for an R1 and the front engine mount for a Blade engine. So I have now returned the blade mount and have propped the back of the engine up until the correct mount arrives. Basically, the engine fitting job is now on hold until the new mount arrives.
Just to get a feel for the position of the engine in relation to the diff, I have taken the below picture with the camera on the diff prop flange. You can clearly see the engine diff flange and it looks a clear run between the two points.
Thursday November 6th
Next job is to begin to fit the brake pipes. I start with the rear pipe and run it along the bottom of the transmission tunnel, then bring it up at the diff and round to a T-piece mounted on the chassis rail above the diff. From here the brake pipes go off to both sides of the rear of the car and are clipped in place.
I can't do any more on the rear brakes at the minute, so it's back to the front of the car. I am now in a position to begin to assemble the top rocker arm of the front suspension. The first job is to assemble the top rocker arm. If you take nothing else from this website, please remember this bit. You are required to fit into each top rocker two plastic bushes and then fit a metal bar in the middle. The whole basis of the front suspension is that the metal bar MOVES FREELY within the plastic bushes.
I started by pushing the 2 plastic bushes into the rocker arm, using a vice to gently press them fully in. At this point, I tried to push the metal rod into the bushes but it was a very tight fit. I tried the Fisher route of running a bolt attached to a drill down the hole to remove material from the bush, but it was making a mess and the hole wasn't exactly even. I conceded defeat, and given how important this is, I asked Martin at the Kit Car Workshop to do this task. He uses a proper 3/4" reamer to get the fit exactly right and it is an excellent fit - thanks Martin.
Just before final assembly, pack the space between the bushes with grease and then finally push in the metal tube. The grease is there to repel water, which is very important as if water gets in there the steel tube will rust, causing the joint to seize. Oh, by the way if the metal bar doesn't rotate freely in the bushes then the forces from the front suspension are passed through the chassis rather than a shock absorber and the chassis will snap.
Next job is to trial fit my new front brakes, They are Hi-Spec 4 pot calipers made from aluminum and are designed for lightweight cars. The calipers weigh only 900 grams each, which is remarkably light. These units are a brand new design that have the mounting lugs already as part of the caliper, rather than previously where they have a fitting bracket which was expensive, heavier and doesn't look as good.
The calipers fit well but I don't have my brake disks yet (a non standard 260mm disk), so permanent fitting will have to wait until the disks arrive.
I have also had some ebay wins arrive!! I have a set of R1 2003 clocks, which have all of the indicator/warning lights, rev counter, speedometer and a big shift light at the top....looks absolutely fantastic and I can't wait to see it fitted to my dashboard. I also won a exhaust can from a 2002 model R1, from a bike that has been dropped and scratched. Crucially, it has a catalytic converter within it to allow me to pass SVA and the scratches aren't visible inside my sill.....a cracking bargain at less than a tenner!
Sunday 9th November
I have managed to get pretty much the full day in the garage and have achieved quite a bit. The first job is to replace the normal rear wheel studs with some 1" longer ones. This is because I am adding the thickness of the brake disk and a 10mm wheel spacer to the hub, so the original ones are far too short. Each stud cost 89p from www.raldes.co.uk. They are a simple friction fit so you knock the old ones out with a hammer and replace them by hammering in the new ones.
With this done I move onto fitting the rear brake caliper mounts. They are basically a steel plate that you bolt on to the hubs that have mounting lugs for the sliding caliper bracket. I didn't realize I needed them until speaking to Martin, so as set were ordered and I collected them on Saturday. I can't see any reference to these in the build manual, which had me scratching my head for a few days earlier in the week!!
I can now fit the brake disk and spacer plate for the final time (hopefully).
I now want to start looking at the exhaust can I won on ebay. It is from the fuel injected R1 and as such has a catalytic converter in the can - as needed for SVA. I start by marking with tape the cut line and clamping the exhaust in a vice. I then used the angle grinder to cut the bent exhaust pipe off the end. Once cut I have taken a picture of inside the can - I assume that the honeycomb looking thing is the cat. I have slid the can onto the manifold for the picture, but will need to get a reducer made to take the 2.5" exhaust can inlet down to the 2" manifold outlet - surely these should be the same size as this can is from an R1 and the 2.5" tube diameter is that decided by Yamaha!
Next job is to fit the boot floor. This is basically a fiberglass support for the back of the main body shell as I don't actually have a boot. The problem here is that as I have a welded in roll bar, the boot floor will need to be cut before finally locating. This cutting is not possible with the boot the correct way up due to the shape of the moulding.
So I had to turn the boot floor upside down to mark it. With it upside down it was easy to mark the exact cuts I will need to make to fit the floor.
I marked up the floor using masking tape and a tape measure and drilled a pilot hole through from the bottom to the top of the boot. This is so I could cut the main hole from the top (gel coat side) downwards. If you do it the other way all of the gel coat will splinter and make a right mess. Once I cut the roll bar holes with a hole cutter, I marked and cut the panel to with an jigsaw using a metal cutting blade. The trail fit looks spot on, so it just needs finishing with a hand file to tidy the edges up. This fiberglass will not be seen in the finished car, but should look neat nevertheless. I must say that this panel is the worst piece of fiberglass I have ever seen...ever. It is rippled, lumpy and as many shades of black as I have ever seen. It's a good job I intended to cover it anyway as it will be visible in the cockpit and looks appalling.
Then to finish off I wanted to fit the brake light switch. There is huge debate over which way up they should go, but I suspect upside down will ensure any trapped air will rise up into the main brake pipe and be bled from the system. I'll try it and see.
Monday 10th November
Only half an hour in the garage today as I'm getting a bit of hassle off the wife. John, my co-builder, is coming around tomorrow night so need a few brownie points in the bag so to speak. I spend the time taking a bit of a look around the car and prepare my thoughts for tomorrow night.
My first idea was to fit the radiator in the engine bay. There is plenty of room and it keeps the pipe runs short, with the added benefit of the weight being more central to the car.
The plans were progressing well until I noticed that the steering column would need to pass through the middle of the radiator...arhh! So I'll scrap that plan and move it back to the front of the car.
Next I decided having fitted the boot floor yesterday I would rest the body tub onto the chassis just to see how it looks. All in all it's not a bad fit, but clearly the boot floor will require some trimming to lower the body as the gap to the wheels makes it look like a dune buggy!! Incidentally, the 10mm spacers I placed on the back have spaced the wheels perfectly to fill the arches.
One final job before going in is to mark with white paint the position of nuts and bolts I have fitted. This is so when I inspect the car in use I can see easily whether anything has moved or loosened. I'll leave the paint to dry before spending tomorrow evening in the garage.
Wednesday 12th November
First job today was just to rest the bonnet on the car and get a bit of a feel for the finished shape. I obviously don't have the lower sills on and all of the panels are all over the place, but you get a bit of a feeling for the finished article - looking good.
Before it all fell apart and damaged the body I lifted it all of, and feeling a little more motivated we moved on to drilling the rivet holes for the boot floor I fitted at the weekend. The first job, like the panels, is to mark the drill lines with masking tape and then mark 40mm centres for drilling. Again I am using 40mm centers here as I want it to be a good solid job, as the whole rear of the tub rests on them. Equally, people will lean or even sit on it if I'm not watching and will need to be solid. I have decided not to mark and drill the front edge that is in the cockpit as I have plans for that when I do the interior so will leave that until then.
The seatbelt mounting holes also need to be cut out of the boot floor so I used a hole cutter and removed 4 holes to allow seatbelts to be fitted. The final picture is showing the chassis after drilling, with nice neat drill holes. The boot floor is then back into storage until it is ready to fit. The dependency here is a fuel tank, as it fits under the boot floor and should be fitted before the boot floor is fitted. If nothing else it keeps access easy until I am fully satisfied that everything is fitted and working.
The final job for tonight is to start to panel the tunnel top. Basically you get from Fisher a long piece of aluminium that needs to be cut down both length ways and width ways, followed by trimming to fit around the chassis tubes. Did I mention I now HATE paneling. I only have 3 more panels to do on the whole car so must persevere, but it is so difficult to make the panels look good. Also they are not supplied from Fisher with any form of protective coating, so get scratched and marked very easily. I will be getting mine powder coated, but they will still need a lot of work to prepare the surface to hide the marks and scratches.
After doing this panel I have had enough and call it a day.
Thursday 13th November
Today I start by clipping up the front brake pipes in readiness to try and get the brakes finished and bled at the weekend. I run the two pipes to the front and follow the chassis at to ensure I can clip the pipe at regular intervals. Once the pipe is roughly in place I start at the master cylinder end and drill and rivet the clips in place. It is then simply a case of tweaking the brake pipes as I go along and add a p-clip about every 100mm.
With the front brake pipes in and the flexi pipes connected, I turn my attention to the rear brake calipers. These are a little unusual in that you mount the calipers upside down, which puts the bleed nipple and inlet at the bottom of the caliper. Therefore it is essential that the calipers are turned the correct way up to bleed the brake fluid, otherwise the caliper will remain full of air. Another thing to note is that because the calipers are upside down, the bleed nipple and flexi inlet need to be swapped around. In the pictures below you can see the bleed nipple is at the front of the caliper (with the red tag) and the main inlet is at the rear.
You basically take that out the bleed nipple and move to the rear inlet hole, then attach the flexi to the front hole. As you can see, this positions the flexi nicely out of the way of the wheel. Note, this is very different to the method described in the build manual, which shows this car as needed a further solid brake pipes to connect the flexi - I couldn't work their way out and this looks much easier.
Friday 14th November
Tonight John and myself wanted to reposition all of the panels we had trial fitted over the last 2 weeks on the car and then try to fit the tunnel top. We haven't riveted any panels in place as I want to get them powder coated black once they are drilled and finished. Also, it is unclear to me why you should fit the panes at such an early stage. It strikes me that they are essentially a finishing task as they are visible as the finished item. As such, I am going to final fit them once the car is running and all of the mechanicals and wiring is done.
That said, we still have the top panel to mark and drill. This is a tricky task, and I am intending to keep the middle and rear section as one piece. I also have some odd cut outs to make as I specified the tunnel to be 1.5" narrower at the drivers side, which basically means the tunnel top needs a lot of trimming!! Also, I have decided that I am not going to have a gear lever but instead will have a paddle shift behind the steering wheel. So the only thing poking through the tunnel top is the handbrake lever. This was marked and cut a slot in the top of the panel with an angle grinder. This was then tidied up with a hand-file and trial fitted. The pictures have a pair of tin snips on the top of the tunnel and this is to show where the bend would normally be, but I an not going to bend the sheet so hopefully it will follow a more flowing, less angular line.
It's getting late so we decided to come back to do the trimming and trial fitting on Sunday.
Saturday 15th November
Just a quick update on a couple of deliveries I received today. Firstly I received the front part of the R1 wiring loom. When I had bought the engine I got the main loom only. However, as I have now bought the R1 clocks I decided to buy the rest of the loom as it has the correct connectors. It also has relays for lights and indicators and I am hoping I can just extend the wiring to fit the car. I also got the gear change lever which I also had not got with the engine although can't remember why! Just over 20 quid for both delivered next day, which isn't bad compared to the hassle I would have without either of these (www.pdmracing.co.uk).
The much more interesting delivery was my new brake disks - which I am absolutely delighted with.
Basically they are designed specifically for light weight cars like the R1 Fury. They are a bigger disk than standard at 260mm (rather than 248mm standard), and are machined down to about 7mm thick. They also have the central mount area machined out to save weight and then have the grooves added. Out of interest, you can have what ever 'finish' you like on the disks, be it cross-drilled, grooved or plain. The disks weigh just over 2kg each and I can't take good enough pictures to show just how impressive they are. And then the price....well 42 quid (+vat and del) each which isn't bad really. I'd had quotes for standard disks for not much less than that. The even better news is that Martin at The Kit Car Workshop is the Midlands Agent for this company. I intend to fit these tomorrow when John, my co-builder, is next over.