Project Domes Locost Kit car-Now Sold :(

[dome]

Christ, has it been that long since I updated this?

 

Well the engineering company took ages (hint: Never tell an engineering company there's no rush...) but finally I got the head back,. This coincided with a spell of me being busy at weekends so progress was slow. Also a fecking Freelander appeared from somewhere...

 

Half the problem was that it wasn't simply a case of bolting the head back on-there was a few things I wanted to take care of but I needed the head back on to be able to sort things.

 

Shiny head

 

 

Shiny head back on.

 

 

 

New pump, pulleys and belts. The old ones weren't bad but it was a no brainer for me. in this pic I'm trial fitting the new alternator bracket.This is from an MGB so at least one of these brackets is attached to something capable of going fast

 

 

First up-cooling system. Although this performed well now it had a new thermostat in it the routing wasn't correct. With the head back on I set about sorting it out. This tied in nicely with my other underbonnet issue... 

 

The air intake sits right behind the radiator and the radiator fills the nosecone. This means that there was no supply of cold air to the engine. I looked into various vents and intakes but in the end decided to go for a VW Polo radiator. This is a common fitment for these cars and not only was it smaller meaning space for air to flow over the top but also it had both outlets on the same side which made routing the hoses easier. 

 

Quite a lot of fucking about was required to make it fit but I eventually got the radiator mounted, the fan relocated to the front and wired in(still off the dash switch at the moment, although I've a rad switch to wire in.

 

 

Next thing was the wiring. If you've seen the car in the metal/plastic it's now a lot better than it was, if you haven't though it's still a bit of a mess. The logistics of an engine wiring loom designed for a bigger FWD car in a small RWD one means its always going to be a compromise. Hopefully as time goes on I'll be able to do away with more things non essential to the running of it. 

 

 

Once I got the fuel flow and return plumbed in the right way round (cough.) it fired up and sounded healthy.

 

 

The eagle eyed will note the hose reel getting blown around by the exhaust....

 

A brief spin up the road confirmed it went well, although the full throttle misfire is still there. I'll be testing the TPS and cam sensor next, although the ECU isn't giving me any codes at the minute.

 

I tidied up the car a wee bit too-painting the front suspension and grill and applied some carbon wrap to cover the stonechips on the front of the rear wings

 

 

Onto the first long drive. Friends of mine were camping down near Lanark on Saturday night so I decided to visit them.

 

Your intrepid adventurer dressed suitably for a Saturday night in Lanark...

 

 

Now, a 100ish mile round trip on motorways is about as wrong as you can get for this car but I decided to man the fuck up and get some miles on it to see if it would break.

 

And, it did. A wee bit...

 

All was well until the oil pressure light came on on the M80. Luckily I was right at a slip road so pulled in and parked up. On taking the bonnet off  I found my newly fitted, but not wired in, oil pressure sender sitting in the sump guard. The irony has not been lost. Refitting it would cure the leak, however I needed some oil... As it was 11pm and I was in the middle of nowhere the RAC were summoned. Kudos to them, the driver was spot on. I was recovered to the services just south of Kincardine where 4 litres of oil was procured. It took all of it...

 

Restarted and with a quiet engine still (well, apart from the exhaust...) and the journey home was achieved succesfully

 

TL:DR Back together and mostly working, still plenty to do but top of the list: Drive It!

 

 

 

 

 

Edit: Pics being a dick and haven't rotated. Sorry for the sore necks!

 

[dome]

Had a nice wee blast in this last night.

 

It was a lovely night for a walk home too.

 

Should probably fit a fuel gauge.

[cort16]

What's the stereo like?

[CreepingJesus]

  On 26/06/2016 at 08:37, cort16 said:

What's the stereo like?

Loud. Mono (left side only), sounds a lot like engine.

 

Cracking little rocket!

[Tickman]

  On 29/06/2016 at 23:43, CreepingJesus said:

Loud. Mono (left side only), sounds a lot like engine.

 

Cracking little rocket!

Also the aircon blows very cold at 70MPH 50 MPH  

[dome]

Glad you both enjoyed it. It was good to be able to share the mild terror enjoyment I get when I drive it...

[CreepingJesus]

I'm still picking grit out of my eyes and hair. Still want one for my very own.

 

Some day when skintitude isn't reigning supreme...

[320touring]

Amma get dysentry and shit mahsel thin forto get a passenger ride:)

[CreepingJesus]

Get yourself a nice tapeworm. Let it do all the work for you.

[dome]

Well, there's not been a great deal to report of late, which is good.

 

There's a few niggles-the speedo has packed in-I think the sensor was too close to the prop and has been touching it on, er, enthusiastic cornering. I'm determined not to start pulling the thing apart though while it's still "summer" The bigger jobs can wait til the winter.

 

It was cutting out on full throttle, this was traced to the throttle cable adjustment being incorrect, allowing the throttle pot to go past it's stop and going open circuit. This was an easy fix.

 

So, as much as possible, I've been doing this...

 

 

 

 

 

And today it passed its MOT so it's all good. Just need some more nice days...

[Tickman]

  On 10/08/2016 at 21:14, dome said:

....And today it passed its MOT so it's all good. Just need some more nice days...

Brilliant news as this car is ace!

[dome]

Gave this a bit of a fettle yesterday when I was off. It'd always been a tight fit for my 6ft frame even though the seat was on runners it never seemed to go back far enough. 

 

I removed the seat, which of course was a pain in the ass-4 bolts underneath bolting the seat onto the runners which were a pain to access. The bolts on the runners themselves I couldn't get to til the seat was off. I made up some spacers to raise the height by about 20mm which allows it to go further back with the angle of the rear bulkhead.

 

I was also having trouble engaging 1st/2nd gear so pulled the linkage apart to fix this-it was running the original Omega gear lever which was far too tall for the car so I pulled the whole thing apart and shortened it and adjusted the linkage. Gearchange is now super quick so that's a result. I just need a new gear knob. It'd be rude not to do a blue pool ball wouldn't it? If only there was someone around here who could sort me out...

 

After far too long getting the seat back in (it was a collosal arse to get the bolts in with my new spacers and took far longer than it should have) I decided to take it a blast. It feels like a different car with me much more comfortable, slightly higher up so I can see over the aeroscreen better and with a much better gearchange. 

 

No pictures sadly as when I arrived home and got out of the car my phone had transferred itself from my pocket to the floor and was broken which is a surprise as I was driving gently*  

 

The MGB alternator bracket has also not lasted the pace and has broken. New one ordered up. Sigh.

[Split_Pin]

Best way ever of sampling the sounds and delights of a properly sorted XE engine. Lovely stuff!

[chaseracer]

  On 29/06/2016 at 23:43, CreepingJesus said:

Loud. Mono (left side only), sounds a lot like engine.

 

Cracking little rocket!

 

Concur.

 

Could hear it from half a mile back on the M8.  From inside a 205 diesel!

 

[dome]

  On 13/09/2016 at 16:10, chaseracer said:

Concur.

 

Could hear it from half a mile back on the M8.  From inside a 205 diesel!

 

 

 

Yes it is definitely minimalist in almost every way, including silencing.

 

I wouldn't have it any other way...

[Tickman]

It is not that loud at 60 as all you can hear is the wind!

 

Must be better* at 70.....

[dome]

  On 13/09/2016 at 22:30, Tickman said:

It is not that loud at 60 as all you can hear is the wind!

 

Must be better* at 70.....

 

The top end of 5th gear is interesting*

[dome]

Remember this? It had it's first run out of the year last weekend.

 

 

 

It was damp.

 

I scared myself.

 

I love this thing

 

 

Since the last update when the alternator mount sheared  I had to engineer something to make it work properly-a custom alternator adjuster was procured. The problem i then had was a lack of space to allow the alternator to move befor it hit the custom inlet manifold meaning belt length was critical. My local Euro Car Parts earned some Jaffa Cakes after I bought and returned numerous belts until i got the right one. Which I think is off a Volvo 240. You can't get away from the bloody things up here...

 

Not a lot more has happened although the original gearlever (from an Omega, and far too big) was carefully* chopped down and replaced with something closer to the correct size. no pics

 

The fuel tank situation is getting seen to shortly.

 

It has an interesting location method at the minute and many flaws in it's setup. I have a custom alloy tank, a swirl pot and 2 new pumps to fit as well as a filler. When complete I'll even be able to put fuel in it without taking the bodywork off. 

 

Of course, all this should have happened over the winter instead of starting it in the spring. Blame me for deciding to buy a Clio instead of fixing this!

[Split_Pin]

Look forward to seeing this again at a Scotoshite soon.

[dome]

Greetings all.

 

This is still cluttering up my garage and occasionally blatting about the countryside. Not as much as I'd like due to weather/broken Cougar blocking the garage but it still brings a smile to my face.

 

Not much has been done to it but as usual the list required is growing.

 

The exhaust developed a split so replacement was required. As you can imagine Kwit Fit don't stock parts for these things so some ingenuity was required. Jetex universal parts were ordered up and made to fit. It now sounds a bit quieter but nicer than it used to. It's almost civilised!

 

 

End chopped down a bit to make it look a bit better.

 

 

 

Sometimes this thing should be kept behind bars.

 

 

Thie new exhaust of course caused it's own problems. The downpipes had a split in them it turned out which got worse after me redoing the back box. My mate has just bought a welder so between us we managed to bodge it together. We have no welding experience. Don't ask me to see the welds...

 

I also got a new Lambda sensor boss welded on as the old one was fucked.

 

 

 

A few memorable blats have happened this year but not as many as I'd like. I took an Audi R8 owning mate out and he's now seling the R8 to buy a 7 type car-it had such an effect on him!

 

 

The MOT had actually expired due to me being a fud, it went in this week and failed on a couple of things-the wheel bolts I fitted weren't right and allowed some play (which I never noticed ) and the brake hoses were fouling the wishbones on full lock. All sorted and a new MOT on it today!

 

I like to maintain an aura of organistaion so I have a whiteboard up in the garage, after the MOT this is the list as it stands. Plenty of time over the winter, as long as I don't buy another "project"

 

[CreepingJesus]

Perfect winter car. Snow/rain drains out easily, small snow chains are cheaper than big RS4 sized ones. Easy to lift out of a ditch if it lands there. Win.

[Mally]

Those sparks won't do the paintwork any favours.

You want to see my double glazing!

[dome]

  On 01/09/2017 at 13:46, Mally said:

Those sparks won't do the paintwork any favours.

 

 

You don't want to see this picture then...

 

[320touring]

I like this car a lot! It makes me happy to see it keeps you occupied:)

[dome]

Time for a small update. 

 

I managed to cure a few of the niggly issues with this after the MOT pass

 

Got the speedo working again with the addition of a natty GPS receiver that plugs straight in to my dash

Freed off a sticky rear brake

Changed the diff oil-a rumbly diff was mentioned on the MOT. I used my Aldi electric suction pump thingy. It's a bit shit...

 

 

 

Fixed the USB sockets which weren't charging my phone-now working after a rewire

Cleaned out the ISCV and got the idle down to where it should be

Added coolant for the winter

Raised the passenger seat so they can actually see what way it's pointing.

Fitted hubcentric spacers in place of the ones that were on it to try and cure a vibration (it didn't work, next thing is to get the prop balanced)

 

Ticks applied

 

 

A trip to Doune was called for. Took it easy on the way there and it rained on the way back. Still good to be out in it though and Doune Hillclimb is well worth a visit-the fast guys are nuts!

 

 

The alternator started to get a bit noisy so I stripped it down. I struggled to get it back together again though and fucked something up as it wasn't charging,  luckily one appeared on Gumtree near me for £15 which had apparently only done 300 miles. I fitted that today, needing a new longer belt as it was slightly different, ECP came good once I did a bit of Google Fu to work out what car had a 940mm long v belt that I needed. A 1980 Audi 80 1.6, since you asked...

 

A quick blast in between snow showers confirmed...

 

The alternator works fine.

It's bloody cold.

It's bloody slippery

It goes like fuck

The rev limiter works

 

 

It's off to winter storage in my newly acquired lockup soon, I'm keeping it taxed and insured in the hope of getting the odd wee blast in the winter, it'll also let me get back to the house to do some more fettling.

 

It's use will depend more on the roads being dry than anything else, I've got plenty of warm clothes but the medium compound R888s it's on are fucking lethal in the wet...

 

[Split_Pin]

The whiteboard on the wall is a grand idea. It also looks CAULD in those last pictures!

[320touring]

YAAAASSSS!

 

WAAABDA BAAAP TAPPP TAP TA TIIIIING, BADAAAAAA

 

*fishtails like a bastard down the road*

[The Moog]

Will good to go for KH in new year!

[dome]

Had a crack at getting my oil pressure gauge to work. The used gauge cost £3 off ebay and the VDO sender was about £15 for a NOS one. I Had no idea if either worked when I bought them a year ago.

 

I've googled my ass off and tried all permutations of wiring to the sender but no joy-the gauge goes straight to the top of the scale when it gets power and no permutation of sender wiring seems to work. Might be time to give up and buy a new sender/gauge set up. Also, it seems to be leaking oil. Again. Sigh

[cort16]

Don’t forget to top up the washer fluid !