MadaboutKitcars

I've got a new favourite toy, a rivnut kit!
http://www.rivet-nut.com/Rivnut_Fasteners.asp
Well.... a cheap copy from ebay, but it does the same job.

The reason for buying this is that a lot of bits were/are fixed with self tappers, over time they just slacken up, especially the ones into the fibreglass so they will be replaced with riv-nuts. I have just used them on the drivers door panel and they work a treat!

Dave those rivnut tools are just great, I dont know how people attached things in the old days .......

My hunt for new radiators is drawing near the end (at least for the moment!)

I've been quoted "from" £250, per-radiator for custom made rads, which in this day and age i think is OTT as all the custom allow rads are basically 2 welded boxes with the same thing between them! So i was convinced that i could get something ready made that would be close-enough that would do the job just as well, especially given how much more efficient modern alloy rads are.

I whipped out the old rads which were MK1 Vauxhall Cavalier ones and mounted a bit shallow for my liking and I made up a few card templates to see what the absolute max size i can fit if i want to go perpendicular to the airflow and the max space i've got to play with is 380mmx400mm, or a bit taller if i go narrower.

So after a few weeks doing measurements, reading and googling i'm going to try a pair of modern deep core 'old-skool' Mini-rads!
They measure up at:
Core Size: H270mm×W 258mm×D50mm
With the overall size: H387mm×W282mm×D83mm

So narrower than i wanted, but much deeper
They all seem to be made in china and he's an example from fleabay:


And at the end of the day, if they aren't up to the job i can always sell them on!

It's worth noting that due to the masterco chassis design (which is v_nice!), i have quite restricted space as i have a chassis tube running through the edge of the airbox space and if that wasn't there i could have gone for some larger rads such as Honda Civic (92-00) rads. I'll add the info i found on them for the owners of some of the other brands of other Lambo in case its of use/interest to you guys?

Core: 350 x 350 x50mm
With the overall size: 420 x 360 x 50mm

Hi Dave,

Hope you had a great chrimbo?

Any news on the car?

Mine will be going into the body shop imminently

Any updates Dave?

Body shop for mine his week, eeck another huge bill on its way. Then back in for Leather work accompanied by a huge bill!!

Sadly there is nothing much to feed back yet as I'm _still_ waiting for my radiators to get through customs and until they're in and the car is mobile again I'm at a bit of a bottleneck

That said, I did use the rivnut tool and i removed the self-tappers that were holding the door cards on and i've fitted riv-nuts so that i can now take the cards on and off easily. It's not major, but i've got a few inner-door jobs to do (fix winders, fit new gas ram to passengers door, fit remote controlled central locking) and this will mean that i won't cause any damage as i go.


Did i hear that you've cracked your windscreen? what happened?

I was moving it in the garage and the dog was startled and ran into me. Caught the edge of it and cracked it!! Hey ho, will be off to Kent soon to get a new one made up. Bit of work to do to the roof as its very tight first.

Now that all the work has been done to the doors, it's too heavy for the rams so will be getting new ones for mine and will check out the place you got yours from.

Went to dc the other day as they have some wheels in - 25th ones and qv. The rears on the qv are spot on and have Lamborghini cast in to the wheel rim but the fronts are reworked image ones so don't really match, also the offset on them means all the work done on the wishbones and rack will have to change, so still looking for some

Looking forward to more progress updates when the rads arrive

The radiators are here, whoo hoo! I will get some pics and hopefully start fitting them tonight.

Just out of interest i will do a volume test to see how much liquid they can hold compared to the old ones, but given that these will be upright in the airflow and will eventually be cowled-in, I'm expecting them to be considerably more efficient than what was there previously.

As long as my plumbing bits-n-bobs turn up from CBS on Friday, i may even try and fire her up the weekend. Just in time for the snow!

Note: For those who didn't follow my Sammio Spyder build, every major milestone i came to (VOSA inspection, engine started, on the road, mot) was met with.... weather! So i'm fully expecting blizzards this weekend!

Best get your thermals on if you are venturing out tonight! I've been outside all day and have come in now to thaw out. Good luck with the rads. Don't forget your antifreeze!

I've now fabricated some mounting brackets for the new radiators and while the back end is apart i'm also taking some time to do a bit of tidying-up as i go.

Here's the drivers side one balanced in place and it fills the space very nicely! It actually looks like I've got more space than i have on this photo as it also sits well up into the airbox, so it should "catch the flow" as well



I am also quite impressed at how deep these rads are at 50MM with twin cores. So once these are plumbed in i'll also start to fabricate some shrouds to channel the air into and out-of the right orifices (oh matron!)

Nice one Dave.

Looking very nice Dave, good choice

On mine, I have the channeling too, Dave at DC hadn't seen it before on one so looks like the prev owner put them in.

What do you have surrounding your Windscreen?

Cheers

Steve

Top edge and sides has trim but the bottom edge doesn't, possibly as the wipers aren't quite set right and edge onto it atm.
That is a job I've got on the list for when its on the road.

I can get a pic if it'll be of use?

Is it trim, looks like rubber to me?

TBH i'm not sure! i'll have a better look when i get to tightening up the wipers over the next few weeks.


Well..... after a few late and very cold nights i now have the new rads plumbed in and new fans fitted!

Obviously as they're not custom designed i had to be creative in fitting them and while the plumbing routing is not 'ideal' it does work, is secure and doesn't foul anything!

Passengers side:



Drivers side:



I did one test last night and another during lunch today and it seems to all be watertight and the fans kick in and did their job in keeping the temperature at normal levels! WHOO HOO!

Now over the next few weeks i'll start doing some lengthy idling tests just to be confident while i also sort out the engine tuning

nice job your doing Dave, those rads look like they are well built.

Keep the engine nice and cool

For the first time since I've owned the car I've had it out of the garage this weekend, which meant big smiles all around!

This was my first taste of driving it and i do have to say that i was VERY, VERY nervous reversing it out of the garage and even more nervous taking it back in!!
It also confirmed that I'm going to remove the seat runners and bolt the seats directly to the floor (as i did in the Spyder) in order to get an extra inch of headroom.



With all of the many pop-up bits n bobs shut, i could see the new rads in place properly for the first time, and it still amazes me that they do fit when the air-boxes are back on.
I could also see how the lowered rear-end has turned out and i can see I've got to lower the front some more yet even though it looked good in the garage. Which is funnily something i also encountered on my Spyder build and must be due to viewing angles in a confined space? Or the fumes in the garage



And finally one from the back demonstrating once again how little rearwards visibility i have until i can get the camera replaced




So now a bit more leak spotting to sort out on the plumbing as i go around all of the old jubilee clips and then i'll put the air boxes back on again and start snagging ready for an MOT!

Even though it's not my car, seeing your motor out of the garage has put a smile on my face, you must have been beaming :-)

It must be very exciting to drive.

Dave nice work mate , looking sweet

What a productive weekend!

First job was to figure out how i can quickly get to the new radiators without having to use tools, as based on experience i know that if something does go wrong it'll be in the wrong place at the wrong time and i'll need immediate access!

I could see that the air boxes had removable grills that i can just pull out if needed, so rather than bolting the boxes back in place i fitted captive bolts to the back so that they just slot into place. I then fitted riv-nuts to the shell where the front mounts and then I fabricated some hand-removable nuts to hold it all together!

So starting with this:



Then go mad with the welder and some black paint to get this (times 4):



And they work a treat!



Quite how i managed to build my Sammio without riv-nuts ill never know!

2nd job was to sort out the gear selector so that i could get it into reverse without having to replace all of the linkages.

So I modified the existing steel selector plate to get all of the pathways working and i quite like the angled dog-leg to reverse. I'm sure I've seen it on other old cars, now i know why!



Obviously the final one won't just have a big triangular hole for reverse and rather than try and weld a bit back into this, i happened to find a plate of 8mm aluminium in the odds-n-sods pile, so i thought "why not make a new one, how hard can it be!" VERY, as it turns out!

So starting with this:



trace the outline onto it, roughly cut it out and drill holes at all of the extremities to get this:



Then attack it with an angle grinder, dremel and a frankly absurd amount of filing to get it this far:



It's not finished yet, but i'm shattered now and the blister that all of the filing caused has just burst, so that's it for today!

Lazy sod!

thats why they have invented machine shops for Dave, but well done for the effort

quick question Dave, the rad covers are now removeable ,are they like that on the original countach ?