After the sad sight of watching my little Sammio disappear on a trailer to it's new home last week, i am stating this week a little (alright, a LOT) happier as i am now the owner of a Countach replica!
Those regular forum types amongst you will recognise this as the one that Gaz picked up a while back, but due to numerous reasons is now MINE!!!!
The car is on the road and registered, but is in need of some TLC. Which is exactly what i was after!
There are a number of jobs that need doing but i plan getting the car on the road and enjoying it as soon as possible and then making a snag list and addressing them over time, the same as i did with the Sammio.
The car is being delivered tomorrow and i know how much you lot like photos so I'll get some up as soon as it's arrived as i plan to live 'over ere' as well as on lamboreplica.co.uk, as i quite like the friendly feeling of this forum (yes Micha, even you!)
exciting exiting exciting.....
Dave
It's HERE!!!!!!
Delivered by a very nice man.
And after MUCH worrying i can say that IT FITS!
<little jig>
I can even get in the doors and have space to move around it! Result!
Even by Sammio standards i would describe the interior as "compact and bijou"
and in need of a bit of an overhaul... But at least it's all there and all works!
Having just got comfortable with the Triumph straight 6, i think i've got some learning to do!
And for all of you out there with a puerile sense of humour like me, it currently has twin muff-diver silencers fitted! <snigger>
So all in all I'm WELL happy!
Gaz had made me well aware that there are some cosmetic issues with it and there are, but they are nothing too major and after building the Spyder they are nothing that i don't feel comfortable with having a go at rectifying myself
Just from an initial look i can see that while some bits of trim may need addressing, the overall engineering of the car is superb and a credit to the original builder and kit car company (Masterco)!
But that's it for tonight, I've had to come in from the garage as SWMBO has already made noises that I've missed putting the lads to bed, so i think it's time to sit down with a nice glass of "daddys special apple juice" (7.4% abv) and start reading through all of the docs that came with it.
I know what you mean.
The cosmetic things i was always holding out for in _my_ Countach were:
1) Correct roofline!
2) "Those" alloys
3) The correct rear lights with reflectors
4) Electric wing mirrors.
This has all of those plus a really lovely spaceframe chassis!
Tell me about it!
GaryH - they are fully open with about an inch or two to spare above them, so another lucky <cough> i mean well planned</cough> result!
@AcC8braman and L5000s - Guys, along with the car came a few Lambo books that look like they've been used as references. 2 of them i already have, so if you're interested then you're more than welcome to them. They are:
Lamborghini - The Legend -- David Hodges
Lamborghini Countach - The Complete Story - Peter Dron (V.Good!!)
Not a problem, Steve if you can drop me a pm with address etc and I'll get them in the post. All I'd ask is a pint or two when we eventually meet in order to cover postage!
Well I've just started addressing the to-do list.
So far I've:
- Lowered the rear suspension, as it was raised up for transport.
- Fuel leak fixed, after an ititial panic it turned out to just be a loose cable clamp
- Pop up headlights adjusted.
- Throttle cable tightened. that was.... entertaining and I had to remove the drivers seat and steering wheel just to get to the pedals! We're not in Sammio-land anymore Toto!
- Drivers seat moved back a smidge.
- Engine started! Carbs need adjusting, but I knew that
- Finally I tried to reverse it out of the garage for some photos, but it turns out but I have the same problem as l5000s has with his and I currently have 6 forward gears so I think the selector needs adjusting.
Not sure yet, that is one of my next jobs! Although just to make sure it went into gear and was nothing more serious i quickly unscrewed the gear selector plate and with the extra room i was able to put it into reverse and move it about a bit
Although.... The Carbs were newly rebuilt before i had it and need setting up, so it's a bit temperamental atm. I wish i hadn't given my Stromberg manual and adjusting tool away with the Spyder now!
I'm also finding that I've got more room to work around it than i was fearing <phew>
And while I've had a an hr here and there in the daylight I've started stripping inspection panels off to check over the engine and assorted plumbing.
I do miss the Sammio luxury of opening the bonnet and just jumping in
Finally I've re-attached the headlining so i can sit in the car and not touch the roof. Just. But when i had the drivers seat out the other day i think i can get at least a cm or two by removing the slider and hard-fixing the seat. Not that it needs to move with the amount of legroom there is!
You can indeed, and I'm as intrigued as you are to find out what the hell they do!
And that is a superb optical illusion that is making my garage walls look bomb proof
I've been going through the build photos and there does seem to be an awful lot of copper pipe having been used, especially for linking the parallel radiators and i think that Toweds highly tuned powers of deduction are right and that those pipe ends in the engine bay are the ends of the pipes to the heater matrix which is mounted at the front. Top marks that man!
So atm i'm wondering about the suitability of household plumbing in a car where i'm sure the vibrations may cause unforseen issues especially if they've been soldered? I'm wondering if that is why the heater is bypassed?
But no worries... it's not the end of the world and it'll give me a good excuse to take some of the panels of to have a nosey
That aside, i have now taken the door cards off to replace the drivers side gas-ram (just ordered), and while i was at it i found a few more interesting bits and bobs that i'll change while its apart.
Italians really do have a sense of humour
Manual. Passengers side one works fine but the drivers side one will need fettling while I've got the door card off to replace the gas ram.
But the biggie of the weekend is that I've had the engine started and I've begun setting up the carbs. Luckily they're Strombergs and are just bigger versions of what was fitted to the Sammio so i know what goes where and how to tune and balance them. I just need a Rover V8 book!
I've also removed the gear selector plate, stripped off the existing anti-reversal latch (a brass door lock! Towed would have approved, but it just looked odd) and I'm cleaning the plate, filling the extra holes and repainting it. I've also removed the leather surround which didn't look right but i can imagine was there for SVA purposes?
Finally for now, the chrome chav gear-knob is off and a nice period leather replica one is ready to go on (cheers fleabay!). I'll just need to engrave a top plate for it as i can't find a commercial one with the right gear pattern.
Drivers door gas ram now replaced so i no longer knock myself unconscious every time i get in/out! I didn't have these sort of problems with the Spyder!
I've also found a flaw in how the drivers door window winder is fixed, so i'll adjust that while the door card is off as it's nothing world-ending, just fiddly to do.
I've now also had the rear end apart to check plumbing etc. and I've found that the rads are fitted at a very shallow angle that i'm not at all comfortable with, so I've now removed them and I'm looking at alternative options.
i.e. refit them more upright, or replace with alternative rads, or get some custom rads made and completely re-plumb, or, or, or....
The other thing i've found is that the gear change is connected with rods rather than cables (i wish i'd kept the ones from the MR2 now!) and it seems to have acquired a bit of play over the years so that getting into reverse requires more room that the selector plate allows.
I'll give this a once over when I've got the new rads fitted.
I went to these people:
http://www.strutsdirect.co.uk/components/variable-force-gas-struts.php
and i ended up with an SD02-200.
I did try the SD01 first as i wasn't able to take my doors off to weigh them, but it wasn't up to the job. The SD02 when fitted is more than enough for me, so i'm happy!
Good luck with teh paint and trim, i intend of doing all of the paint rectification on mine myself. but i'll leave that until it warms up next year and after i've had change to get it on the road and enjoy it for a bit first!
Personally i don't care if it's got a few cracks or chips for the time being as that's all part of the fun/experience
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!
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
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?
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!