Project Domes shonky autos - Car that lived by the sea in Scotland in rust shocker*

[CreepingJesus]

Keep the Mazda logos prominent, it'll be okay. The Big Bad was always lobbing a Cosworth YB in there, that would draw some breaths.

I'm actually surprised they're so similar: the side by side pic showed me what I expected, then I realised the Mazda units were on a dolly... 

Agreed about the silly gear lever position though, I always did wonder why they didn't knock up an extension. It's hardly a radical or unusual solution.

[dome]

Small update.

Options for a sump are pretty limited. £500+ for a bespoke one to fit a Duratec into a MK2 Escort which may or may not fit the Manta. Or for a fraction of that you can get a sump for a US market Ford Ranger which had this engine mounted the correct way.

Bet you can guess which one I've gone for? It's winging its way from Rockauto as we speak along with an oil pickup to match. I'll fit that to the engine and see where we are fitment wise. If it's a no-go I'll flog it to the escort boys and go back to the drawing board.

Tonight I cracked on with assembling my rollover jig. Some of the welding isn't pretty, it all survived being hit by a hammer though so I'm calling that a win. 

I've only assembled it loosely just now, I'll strip it back apart, clean up the welds and give it a lick of paint before final assembly. The Manta will only go onto it once I've sussed out where we are engine fitting wise. Then it'll be a case of bolting it up and recreating wheel of fortune with a rusty 80s sports coupe stripping back all the paint and underseal and seeing what's left😬

 

 

[dome]

Did a bit more on this today. I did a bit of stripping down the front end with a view to getting ready to make the body mounts for the jig. 

Headlights, bumper, headlight wipers and indicators removed. 

I'm guessing these aren't the original indicators-they're mint!

I decided to remove the drivers side front wing with a view to removing the valance-as you can see it's pretty rotten and has been repaired* before

Luckily all the bolts for the wing came off ok-it might look fucked (and it is) but I've had very few sheared bolts. So far.

Wing off. Carpet was covering the Duratec whilst I hosed the inner wing down.

Inner wing isn't bad. The washer bottle sits in front of the scuttle, that area will need repaired

I can now get a better view of the a pillar/bulkhead/floor area. Probably the worst part of rust on the car and the one I'm least confident of trying to fix. Where do I even start? The lower part has been patched before.

I might be able to use the bumper supports for the jig, the valance will need to come off anyway though as it's rotten, the 400 front bumper will hide most of what's under there anyway

@sutty2006 any tips on removing the front valance? I'm not sure where to chop it! 

 

[320touring]

That pillar/bulkhead/floor area looks no worse than the Oxford was.

 

We plated the two sides separately, then used a curved reinforcement strip up where the two parts meet. This was L shaped so it formed the corner.

 

@Tickman will probably explain it better!

[sutty2006]

I’ll get some pictures of mine tomorrow, do you mean the lower valance? 
 

edit. This bit? 
 

[dome]

20 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

I’ll get some pictures of mine tomorrow, do you mean the lower valance? 
 

edit. This bit? 
 

Yep, that's the one. I'll get some better pics

 

[sutty2006]

This is how a few have been done over on the Mantaclub website 

front attaches straight into the chassis legs and bolts through the bumper bracket holes

rear through the bumper holes with a strengthening bar on the inside. 
 

[Skizzer]

Loving that rollover jig. I need one for the Rancho but I’ll probably buy rather than build, as I’m a wuss. Might weld myself a new workbench though.

[dome]

All the way from the US of A, here is my new sump. It should fit the engine, the question is will the engine fit in the car with the sump on?

I suspect the answer is yes, but only after removing the brake servo and heater box. Hopefully will get a chance to find out this weekend. Stay tuned!

 

[sutty2006]

Which way round ? If the tall bit is at the front of the engine then I think you might struggle, it’s quite a deep one by the looks of it. If it’s the other way round then it should fit no mither! 

[dome]

Just now, sutty2006 said:

Which way round ? If the tall bit is at the front of the engine then I think you might struggle, it’s quite a deep one by the looks of it. If it’s the other way round then it should fit no mither! 

Yeah, the big bit goes at the back. This sump is basically the same as the posh ones you can buy for £500 to fit a Duratec into an escort, except it was $50 before tax and shipping. 

I may need to pick your brains on heater cores/servos depending on the clearance I have. At least there's no dizzy sticking out of the back like a redtop!

[sutty2006]

Yeah should breeze in! 
 

I know folk use a polo heater box, but I’ve not used one myself. The XE I fitted to my red hatch the clearance is minimal, and it’s very tight round the servo and heater box.

id be looking at mounting the engine a bit further forward maybe? To get the clearance you need. That is, if it’s a light engine to start with. I’ve seen the cast iron 6 cylinder engines mounted further back for better weight distribution 

[dome]

30 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Yeah should breeze in! 
 

I know folk use a polo heater box, but I’ve not used one myself. The XE I fitted to my red hatch the clearance is minimal, and it’s very tight round the servo and heater box.

id be looking at mounting the engine a bit further forward maybe? To get the clearance you need. That is, if it’s a light engine to start with. I’ve seen the cast iron 6 cylinder engines mounted further back for better weight distribution 

This engine is all alloy so much lighter than the cih. It'll go as far forward as it can, depending on getting the shifter in the right place 

[Barry Cade]

Just found a real pic of one of my old Mantas.. I'll just leave it here.

Sigh.

[sutty2006]

5 spoke revolutions…… my favourite, bucket list alloy for the manta. 

[Barry Cade]

😩

[sutty2006]

42k for a replica. Nice though! 

[dome]

Thanks for the prod! Cracking looking thing @Barry Cade, well worth the £500 you probably paid for it 😉

Not much to report. As expected the sump doesn't quite clear the crossmember so the next plan is to mock up some engine mounts and for the crossmember to the engine first, then I can start removing the heater box and anything else that gets in the way. 

[sutty2006]

If you’re good with the welder, depending on how much clearance you need, you could cut the subframe and channel it with some L shape section…… seen that done somewhere…. 

[dome]

32 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

If you’re good with the welder, depending on how much clearance you need, you could cut the subframe and channel it with some L shape section…… seen that done somewhere…. 

That had crossed my mind. I'm not good enough with a welder to do that, yet! 

[Barry Cade]

1 hour ago, dome said:

Thanks for the prod! Cracking looking thing @Barry Cade, well worth the £500 you probably paid for it 😉

 

 

I swopped it for a Polo coupe IIRC.. and not even an S...😬

Aren't there a few Caterham parts for a Duratec that may help you?  I seem to remember remote oil filters and stuff..

Or a dry sump for the Knockhill hairpin😄

[dome]

Time for an update.

Jag

This has been getting used whenever the chance for a decent drive not requiring me to carry bikes/ a small dog crops up. Most recently a trip to Glasgow.

With the Andy bracket fitted(this advances the ignition timing) it's got noticeably more shove above 3k rpm and it actually seems more economical driving it at 80(ish) mph where the engine is turning at around 3k than below that. That'll be my excuse when i get stopped in it anyway.

And I gave it a wash, it's still a 10 footer but that's fine by me

 

Range Rover

Not much to report here. With Scotland actually being warm for once I decided to see if I could get the non functioning air con to work. A borrowed vacuum pump and set of gauges were employed to try to get to the bottom of the leak-I knew from a quick dab of the valves that the system was empty. 

First things first, a foolhardy L322 owner voluntarily plugs in a code reader.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL SHOCK YOU

After I picked myself up from the floor I prodded a bit further.

The pressure sensor agreed that there was no pressure so I moved onto connecting things up

 Gauges connected to the high and low pressure sides of the system and to the vacuum pump.

After the pump had ran for half an hour or so vacuum was achieved. 

Leaving it for a couple of hours the blue gauge (low pressure I think) pressure had decreased showing signs of a leak.

I had been supplied with an adaptor to allow me to connect a spare tyre in place of the vacuum pump and pressurize the system with air.  I did this and went around every joint on the system I could see and also as much of the condenser as I could access armed with a spray bottle soapy water in the hope that some bubbles would show my leak. Sadly, nothing.

Although I did spot what looks like a coolant weep from the radiator, so I've got that going for me...

I'm not sure what to do next. Until I find the leak it would be a case of firing the parts cannon at it which I'm not overly keen on. I may pull the condenser out and see if there's any sign of a leak on it but other than that I'll live with no air con for the time being. 

[cort16]

My BMW had a slow aircon leak. It would hold a vacuum but after 2 weeks all the gas escaped. They put that UV dye in it and it still didn't show up so the put more in and eventually it could be seen in the bottom corner of the condenser. 

It usually is the condenser. Not sure what it's like on the RR but on my BMW it's front and centre to get smacked in the face with every rock that comes up off the road.

 

[dome]

Manta

I've been picking away at this, still stripping it down to get it to a bare shell. Partly to find all the rust, partly to make space in the engine bay to fit the Duratec. 

Inside the car I carried on getting the loom and dash out of it.

Working in the engine bay I removed everything from the bulkhead-matrix, interior fan and brake master/servo all came off.

Which meant I could pull the rest of the loom out complete.

Here is the entire loom from the car, it's tiny!

Engine bay as of now-still got the wiper motor to remove. 

 

 

The battery tray was pleasingly solid

the opposite side, where the screenwash bottle was, less so

A bit more prodding revealed this

No big surprise, that side looked crusty with more to come no doubt.

I pulled the LH wing off and it was a similar story to the other side. 

Yep, not pretty.

To make myself feel a bit better I've ordered all the parts to rebuild the front suspension-a full set of balljoints, polybushes and a new pair of uprated front springs.  I've also got a set of strengthening plates to add to the wishbones to stiffen things up a bit. That bit I can do. 

I'm on the hunt for a 4ha axle for it, possibly one from a Mk2 Jag as it seems like it will fit and is easier to find than a Scimitar axle. Plan is to 4 link the rear end and fit a Jag POWR-LOK LSD. 

[dome]

A little bit of progress with the Manta-I'm carrying on stripping it back to find the rust in preparation for repairing it. 

On the inside this means stripping back the original sound deadening to find out what lies beneath. This is great fun and tends to involve a hammer and chisel to chip away at it. 

To get a break from this I started stripping back one of the arches to see what I could find. This doesn't look too bad. There's lots of seams and lots of seam sealer. I didn't have to go too far from the rotten parts to find solid (ish) metal. It'll likely end up getting cut out anyway when new panels are made.

 

At the front I've removed the lower front panel-it was pretty rotten and the 400 bumper renders it useless anyway

The engine bay is stripped back and ready for repairs. 

And the headlining has been removed. It was knackered so a bit of brutality had it out. 

[dome]

Small update

Range Rover

I finally got round to changing the rear discs and pads on this. Unfortunately, stupidity happened. The first disc I went to take off was stuck to the hub, or so I thought. Gentle* persuasion with the hammer got it off, but the handbrake shoe material came off with it. And the backing plate is damaged now too. Bollocks. 

Here's what's left of the drivers side, I've reassembled it minus the shoes just now while i order up some new ones.

The other side came off OK (once I undid the adjuster for the handbrake) but was missing one of the shoe retaining clips completely, amazingly the handbrake seemed to work though. I reassembled it using one from the drivers side. Hopeful I can rig up something to get the handbrake working without resorting to trying to change the backing plate, that looks like an arse of a job.

The old discs were pretty bad though so it needed doing.

Kangoo

Carting the MX5 engine in this had the rear wheel rubbing on the arch, but only on one side. Some investigation seemed to show that the drivers side arch had been fettled to allow clearance since it was lowered but not the passenger side. Some delicate* work with a hammer should give me some more clearance, I need to test drive it with a load to see how it is but it feels better.

Manta

I finished off the jig yesterday I had the brackets to fit it onto the car still to assemble. It's now done and I've got the rear section attached, thankfully it hadn't fell off when i left for work this morning. Next up is mount the front too and then leave it for a bit to make sure it's solid, then I can try actually rotating it on the spit 😵

Jack is now removed, axle stands are still there ready though just in case...

Oh, and in the spirit of doing things in the wrong order, I've bought some seats for it. 

    

 

Out of a Corsa VXR, they fit perfectly in with the feel of how I want the car to be when finished. Or at least they will, once I get the centres retrimmed with a reproduction of the Opel Blitz fabric found on the original 400s

A long way off I know but they came up at the right price locally so they can go into storage for a while.

[dome]

Oh and I almost forgot, the MR2 had another track night last week. 

The car was fine, the biggest problem I have is occasionally getting motion sickness during these, even while driving. It seems to be not that unusual and definitely something I need to work on to get my times a bit better 😔

[dome]

Not much has been happening of late as mojo has been low and the fleet has mostly been behaving itself. 

Today, A Good Thing happened. The Manta 400 kit arrived😁

The guys who made it are rallying in Arbroath this weekend so offered to drop it off. A small gift was supplied by me to say thanks. Scottishy goodness

As delivered

Trial fit

Laid out. Hopefully it won't get this close to a tree when it's fitted to the car

[tom13]

More importantly a tub a tunnocks caramels. You lucky people. 

[JMotor]

Teacakes! 

Suppose the rest is alright eh? 

😂 

Seriously doe. I'm looking forward to see the end result.