Project Domes shonky autos - Grand Cherokee departs, Kangoo titivation and 911 dug out.

[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. 

[gm]

Lorne Sausage and Brown Sauce crisps ? What a time to be alive  

 

[dome]

Well, in a spectacular* twist of fate I have 4 of the fleet due an MOT in the next month or so. Stay tuned for thrills and excitement as I try and get these heaps through an MOT. Who needs Bake Off?

First contender-

MR2

Not due for a few weeks yet but the handbrake was pish, despite getting new cables last year for its MOT. I removed the rear calipers to wind the pistons back so I could reset the handbrake mechanism.

Sounds easy, right? No pics but it basically has one normal slider pin and one cast into the carrier. So you undo the one slider and try and rotate the caliper up but it doesn't go far enough due to the handbrake cable limiting how far it'll rotate. This means even changing pads is a fucking ballache. Eventually I got the piston wound back, reassembled and with a sequence involving a brake pedal dance and a 10mm spanner all performed whilst facing south and sacrificing a virgin(not an easy task to undertake in Fife) I now have something resembling a handbrake. Oh and I changed a sidelight bulb too. Go me

MOT Status-READY* Due Mid November. 

XJ6

This has sat for a while not being used and the MOT expired last week. All seems well with it (famous last words) so I treated it to a handbrake adjustment-this was an advisory last year.

That, amazingly, went well so buoyed by this I decided to have another crack at greasing the UJs on the rear driveshaft. I had tried before but hadn't been able to get any grease in. This time I removed the nipples to clean them out, reattached and the grease flowed in happily, squeezing the old grease out of the seals. A quick test drive and all else seems well. I remembered how bloody lovely it is to drive though.  We'll not talk about the exhaust condition though...

MOT Status-Booked in for Friday

 

Evoque MODRIN ALERT

Feel free to skip this one, yes its a modern and yes it's a hateful thing but my better half loves it and Land Rover dealers are hilariously bad.  Also, the repair you're about to see is definitely shite worthy.

I'd changed the pads and discs last year but not replaced the wear sensor. This had a tiny split in it so I zip tied it out of the way instead of refitting it. Fast forward to the last month or so and the pad warning light had been coming on intermittently. I checked Euro Car Parts who list two wear sensors, the one I thought needed wasn't in stock at my local one. Time for a proper* fix.

Wheel off and the wear sensor wire disappears in behind the arch liner. Note the excellent condition of the 5 year old "Range Rover"

 

Sensor off I chopped the wires, bared the two sensor wires and twisted them together. Because I'm a professional I then heat shrunk the end of it and plugged it back in, hiding it up behind the arch liner.

Result-warning off

 

MOT Status-Booked in next week

Range Rover-the real one

This is due at the end of November so i thought I'd better start now. 

Known issue-handbrake non existent on the drivers side due to the backing plate being fucked. 

Solution is a new backing plate but like BMWs of this era its a big job to change properly requiring the hub to be removed. Never fail, I had a plan

Take one shiny new backing plate

 

Cut 2 small bits of steel and arrange like so

Drill holes in the steel and the backing plate

Carefully and accurately mark a line down the centre of said plate

Chop the fucker in half and behold!

This should work, hopefully.... I've not swapped it over yet but I have new handbrake hardware to fit at the same time so will hopefully be able to tick that off the list soon.

I also had an issue with it needing 30s or so to warm in the mornings up before it would be drivable. I suspected a vacuum leak or a dirty throttle body so gave it a clean.

 

It wasn't too bad and it seemed to behave better on the next few startups. Annoyingly it's doing the same again now so I'll need to dig further. 

On the subject of the handbrake, when changing the rear discs and pads the retaining spring for the passenger side handbrake shoe was missing. I replaced this with one from the drivers side and though no more of it. Fast forward a month or so and I noticed a light rattle at low speeds. Expecting the worst i started poking around and guess what I found?

 

Yep, the spring and retaining pin must've dislodged themselves and made their way down to rattle around between the disc and the backing plate. Succesfullly removed i can resume wafting in silence.

MOT Status-Due End November-PRAY FOR ME

 

 

[Split_Pin]

Good luck chap, sure it will all be grand!