MadaboutKitcars

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!)

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?

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

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!

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!

Cheers Paul,

Currently that plate is the same size as the one that was fitted previously, but i sort of agree that even that looked a bit big. So i might shrink this down by a few mm?

Here's the original one in place when i first got the car:




CBS do a budget rivnut kit :
http://www.cbsonline.co.uk/product/Rivnut_Kit_Budget_RIVBG

But i thought i only wanted to do a few and i wasn't convinced at how useful it'd be so i bought a cheaper one from e-bay for £12 just to have a play and it's been great!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PROFESSIONAL-4mm-8mm-THREADED-RIVET-NUT-NUTSERT-RIVNUT-INSERT-SETTING-TOOL-NEW-/360463087894

It's fine for alloy riv-nuts but not so good for steel. But seeing as i only want alloy ones then i'm not too fussed! Also, some of the bigger M6 rivnuts take a good bit of squeezing and swearing

And the new gear selector plate is finished, and i'm not really happy with it as to get the gear pathways working i had to keep taking more and more material away from the reverse leg



So after doing a bit more investigating and reading i found that the gear selector i have fitted is a solid linkage and they've got a reputation for being a bit "woolly".

I did a bit of tinkering and pottering with mine, but there is not getting away from the fact that if i keep it, it won't ever be quite how i want it

So what does any self respecting ex-Sammio type do when presented by a problem that needs major design changes to be made?

Rip it apart!



To say i was nervous removing all of the leather would be an understatement!

It's now all out and stored safely and here you can see the existing linkage that'll be replaced, i'll also tidy the wiring at the same time!



You can get a full cable selector kit from £350 from some of the kit companies, but i know that others have used MR2's changers and seeing as you can get them from e-bay for next to no-money it makes sense to give that option a go first!

So here's a Mk1 and Mk2 MR2 selector that i've picked up to tinker with and from first impressions they should do fine!

I've got 2 lots of MR2 cables, the others aren't shown in those pics, so length "shouldn't" be a problem once i stick them together and do a bit of jiggling.
I have ball joints ready to go on to the plate I've got to put on the gearbox selector arm but I'm not sure what gearbox I've got, how do you tell and does it make a difference?

I do know that I've got one with a single gear selector arm coming out from it. I have seen some pics over on lamboreplica of some gearboxes with 2 arms and TBH that would have been easier. But i should be able to fabricate something that'll work a lot nicer than the rod linkage either way.

Old solid gear change now removed



MR2 cables extended



2nd MR2 gear change chopped up to provide brackets for the rear end



Brackets in position and allowing decent cable travel



I've also fabricated a bracket to link it all to the gearbox It all got put together and worked a treat! Its now all been taken apart for paint and should hopefully all go back together this weekend

All assembled with my entertainingly over engineered bracket that joins it all together!



Unfortunately....... despite noting down how the old change worked, the directions of travel for the new change etc, I somehow managed to get the horizontal cable the wrong was around! DOH!

So after a bit of a sulk, I re-routed the horizontal cable and moved and modified the bracket this time it works as expected!

A few more jobs done over the weekend.

* Reinforced the gear selector.
* Rewired the alternator so that it actually charges the battery. The cable hanging loose under the engine was an unexpected find!
* Tried to dye the grey steering wheel black.... didn't work out too well!


Then now that the car is mobile again and while the interior is apart I can get a few other jobs done that I was going to do... later.

* Fit an interior light.
* Fit the cabin vents that go behind the driver (I've had a pair of these in my attic for years "waiting" )
* Re-plumb in the heater and cure any deadlocks.
* Figure out exactly how the header tank is meant to work as atm it just sits there looking pretty and doing not a lot!
* Try and do a basic tune of the engine, although altering the timing seems to need me to take the engine cover off!
* fit a new throttle cable
* fit a locking choke cable and alter its position to somewhere I don't keep kicking it
* replace the wallnut dash with an alloy one!
* fit a more authentic centre console panel
* replace the random unlabeled switches with some a bit more user friendly!
* paint the underside with chassis black
* seal and then paint the inner rear wheel arches
* panel out the front wheel arches.
* fit a small panel on the bulkhead to seal the engine bay completely where the cables go through

When that lots done I will start preparing for the MOT, hopefully just in time for summer

I know I don't tend to do too good with deadlines..... but it would be nice to make Stoneleigh!

@mike, I thought he'd sold it? Or you talking to the new owner?

Another unexpected niggle sorted!

Ever since i got the car I've been aware that the throttle is stupidly hard to press, to almost a level where it's painful!

But my stiffness problems are now Sorted! (i regret typing this on this forum!)

I've changed the cable run to go down the centre tunnel rather than through the sill and that reduces the length of cable needed by nearly a metre which is turn that means that i am able to replace the existing thick knackered cable with one of the old Toyota MR2 cables that I had leftover!

No1 son helped to set it up (press pedal, off pedal, press pedal <repeat!>) and it now feels completely different

So after a dreadful week, this has cheered me up no end!

Now.... to the kebab shop

Not one to be beaten, i did some reading on t'interweb about leather Dying (be REALLY careful searching for black leather on Google!!! ) and then I tried again to dye the grey steering wheel black as even though i want to replace it with a "proper" period Raid steering wheel in the future (too expensive to do any time soon!) Grey just doesn't look right.

This time it worked! Thanks to the Landrover forums for the background reading and hopefully this will last a year or so until it's replaced!

Original colour



and now



Note: it looks better in real life than it does in that photo!

New Gear selector firmly in place with the assistance of a few new brackets.

Plus the trial fitting of the new gear knob. Original knob from Eurospares £225, black Leather knob from e-bay with a 'Mini' badge on it ~£10.
Remove the Mini badge and job's a good'un



You can also see the routing of the new throttle cable just behind it. It's the black cable with white tape at regular intervals.

The observant amongst you would have noticed the dials hanging loose in the last photo!

The reason is that I've stumbled across an electrical gremlin and if i leave the battery connected it discharges itself

So i've got to do a bit of an investigation of the wiring as the last 'big' job before i can get it ready for the MOT. So after removing a few panels here's what i found.


Under the bonnet:



Under the dash:



behind the dash:



Game on!

Cheers guys.


Another bit of progress... While the dash was apart looking for my electrical Gremlin (still looking!) one thing _had_ to be addressed.

Before:



After:


It's amazing what a lick of paint can do to improve morale!

It's only painted for now, i'll replace it with a proper alloy dash and some nice Allen headed securing bolts at "some point" in the future when i re-do the dash and fit the proper warning lights. But that is WAY in the future

Note: you can also see the current wireless in this last pic. note the use of the word "current"

Only a minor progress as I've not done too much due to the cold weather sapping my morale!

I've now had the engine running constantly for over an hour and a 1/2 and the temperature stayed constant at just over 1/2 It also came as a bit of a surprise exactly how much hot air comes out of the vents on the back of these things, the visible heat haze is quite impressive to see!

I know this test only tells me part of the cooling story, but as i was running it in the garage with no real airflow (door was open, I'm not suicidal!) i am happy that the new rads and fans are going to cope with at least normal driving and traffic. So it's a starting point!

I've also fixed a minor fuel leak on one of the balancing pipes and now i'm busy taking the (mainly brown/green/black ) wiring loom apart and rebuilding it in order to find my electricity leak.