MadaboutKitcars

Getting there mate. Light at the end of the tunnel.

Jason had the day off today. Jason went shopping....

Ummm. New Rubber!





I also finished off painting the wingstays, the stay mounting plates, the A pillar mounting plates, the door spacers, some nut plates I made that will be used to mount the rear wings, and the headlight brackets I made earlier in the week.





Its going to be a busy weekend!

Jason,
There is a potential new builder over on the MOC forum that is looking to get up close to a Sportster near Nottinghamshire.
I guessed you might be the closest for him and could give him some first hand experience........

...peter

I'll mosey on over and introduce myself.

I fitted the stays properly today, and the headlights. Good lord, but she's shaping up to be a handsome beast.



Not wired in yet, but at least she has a face now.

(Please excuse the small oil leak - I think I may have nicked one of the o rings on the adapters I put in, and it's weeping when the system is pressurised.)

the face

The Gooster is lookin good-like the idea behind the wing stays.Cool wheels-what size are they ,and what tyre size?

They're original BMW BBS wheels, as fitted to E30's - basket weeves, I believe they call them. I wanted them as they look a little like wire wheels, but at about a fifth of the cost!

I bought 5 of them second hand off eBay, and took them to a place called Lap Tab in Birmingham to have them powdercoated. If you look on my build web site you can see the state they where in before Lap Tab wove their magic.

The colour is called black chrome.

They're 15" rims, 7.5J.

The tyres are Dunlop SP9000's 205/55/15

Here's a thought - I wonder what's she'd look like in the Jag Racing Green that was on their F1 cars?



IIRC, it was slightly metallic, and Jag offered it on their roadcars at the time - so it should be still available.

Or should I go classic dark solid green, as worn by Blower Bentlys, C-Types and the like?

[EDIT] -

Yep - F1 Green:
JAGUAR JAGUAR RACING GREEN PEARL 1957/HGZ 2002 - METALLIC

Classic Racing Green:
JAGUAR JAGUAR RACING GREEN HEN/701 1986 1987 SOLID
JAGUAR JAGUAR RACING GREEN 705/HER 1985 1986 SOLID
JAGUAR BRITISH RACING GREEN 254/HDJ 1976 1978 SOLID

There's also something called Brooklands Green, which I assume is another BRG derivitive:

JAGUAR BROOKLANDS GREEN 753/HFG 1990 - SOLID

Need to get a colour chart!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_racing_green

I decided along time ago to go BRG for my cabrio. (aka BMC BRG used on MG Midgets)
I've green carpets with tan trim. I did consider using Tan leathercloth for the dash but opted for black because I really don't like the idea of having a light coloured reflection in the windscreen.
The seats also have green piping, but I had to get red seat belts.

Updated the site with the latest instalment:

http://www.greatoldone.co.uk/Site/Build_Diary/Entries/2009/7/5_Lights%2C_Camera%2C_Traction.html

I made a start on heat proofing the brake lines tonight - I emptied the system with my new toy (pneumatic brake bleeder - Hooks up to a compressor and sucks the fluid through - it's brill! ) and replaced the weeping low pressure res / feed hoses with some of the blue stuff from CBS. I've sleeved that with some of their temp protect sleeving, and have started on the high pressure hoses to to the brakes.

I've also made some clamps up that go around the master cylinder, on to which an aluminium heat shield will go. No pics yet, as I was told to put my toys away and come in for dinner.

Those wheels look brill, nice choice of finish

pneumatic brake bleeder - do tell more, I hate changing brake fluid

One of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000MQ65H4/ref=ox_ya_oh_product

All you have to do is:

1. Connect the pot to the air hose from your compressor
2. Take the fluid res cap off
3. Connect the fluid hose to the bleed nipple on the caliper
4. Open the nipple
5. Press the trigger - shlurrrrp.

Job done. No mess, no fuss. Emptied all the lines in about 10 mins.

brilliant, I going to get one of those. I need to change the fluid on my daily driver at the weekend.

I used something similar that uses the air pressure in a tyre. Its a Gunson Eezibleed (£16.83 from Amazon). No trigger mechnism though, just starts pressurising the system when you connect it up.

I've used one of those but it never seemed to work very well for me as I found it difficult to control.

It's horses for courses I guess. I used an Eezibleed and I found it was just that. Mind you I was filling the brake system for the first time.

The disadvantage with the Draper one though, IMHO, is that you need a compressor. So - bit of an expensive solution if you don't already have one!

Robin

It did help if the tyre pressure was low!

Hi Jason

So how do you intend to mount the rear wings? Are you going to rivet your nut plates to the tub and then bolt the wings to them? I used rivnuts directly into the tub but it is not a great solution (although better than the large self tappers Marlin supply).

Robin

I also used rivnuts but glassed them to the tub which will stop them spinning or dropping out

Got it in one:



They way i figured it the rivnut would have greater purchase on the metal plate rather than the fiberglass, and would be a less destructive way of fitting them, as the smaller ones I set for my door plates caused the top layers of the glass to bulge outward so it needed sanding flat again.

The rivets will stop the plate from spinning.

I'll see how it goes. Won't be doing anything for a while though, as I have the dreaded pig flu and the Quack has me on Tamiflu. Ah well - no work, and the Ashes is on. Can't be all bad.

So the pig flu is real then and not some rumor started by the Government to take attention away from all the other problems :-(. Hope you feel better soon.

Good plan for the wing fixing. I may do the same when I strip the body to be painted. Are you going to use some of those funny big head rivets with the split ends? They seem to work well when fixing in fiberglass as they dont require so much crushing force.

Robin

When Marlin did my bodywork they fixed the wings on with ordinary bolts; just as well I checked them recently as they weren't fitted with nylocs and were already starting to come loose.

I was planning on using some long countersunk ones, so they sit flush with the surface of the tub... I'm not sure which ones you're on about. Have you got a pic?

No pic but here is a link

http://www.shop4fasteners.co.uk/acatalog/Aluminium_Peeled_Large_Flange_Head_Rivets.asp

Marlin supplied some in my fasteners kit. I don't know what they were supposed to be for but I found them useful the few times I had to fasten something to fibreglass.

I found them very good as they have a large head to spread the load and they don't require lots of force to fit so they don't crush the fiberglass. The heads will be slightly raised above the surface but the won't matter a great deal when fitting the rear wings as the fit between the wings and body isn't great anyway. You have to "fill in the gaps" using wing piping to get a reasonable look.

Robin

Ah - those ones. Yes, I have some of those in my fastener packs. I'll take a look at them once I've got rid of the curly tail and snout.

That looks like a very good and substantial solution

Hope you get better soon