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About this blog

How much money can you plough into a car before the wife complains.

Entries in this blog

November 2018

November 2nd, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Oooh, it's fresh today... November 29th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Realistically, I'm not seeing the weather being nice enough to drive the car to work and back without getting p*ssed on, so I SORNed it today.  I need to get the half-shafts machined so my new wheels fit, and I need to take the petrol tank out to re-fit the pump so it reads on the gauge again.  Plenty to do this winter!   Last month: £  8749.45
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  8749.45

October 2018

October 5th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 What a muppet...  ran out of petrol on the way into work.  Must! Fix! The! Petrol! Gauge!   Last month: £  8749.45
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  8749.45

September 2018

September 1st, 2018 Spend: £4.99 New exhaust bobbin of 4cm high instead of 3cm, to give it a little more clearance.     Last month: £  8744.46
This month: £     4.99
            ----------+
Total:      £  8749.45

August 2018

August 20th, 2018 Spend: £511.02 An early birthday present!  I desperately needed new tyres and as I was also considering going to a smaller wheel size or having the wheels refurbished into a different colour, I weight up the options and costs for each permutation.  New wheels won! They are John Brown Wheels Smoothie's in 5.5J 13" for the front and 7J 13" for the back.  They fitted them with Nankang NS-2R tyres in 185/60R13. I've ordered some low profile black wheel nuts to complement them.  Also need to reduce the spacer on the rear. August 25th, 2018 Spend: £10.49 New wheels do not need spacers at the front, so shortening the wheel studs a bit so they can fit underneath the hub caps as well.  Who knew you couldn't rely on the weather forecast?  August 27th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 With a son who tries to make a career out of photography, who better than him to shoot a new desktop background...  Visit Devoted Media for more information      Last month: £  8222.95
This month: £   521.51
            ----------+
Total:      £  8744.46

July 2018

July 6th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Oops!  Did something stupid and will now pay the price for it.  Ran into the crashbar of a truck (he didn't even notice) and damaged my cycle wing and nose cone in the process. Made some roadside "repair" and got the car home. July 8th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Met up with @richyb and went to the Kimbolton Country Fayre. July 15th, 2018 Spend: £120.00 Lovely new replacement cycle wings from @carbon-nv! July 16th, 2018 Spend: £100.00 With the help of @6carjon and @KenP I also managed to find a replacement nose cone for my Kit bodywork, and in the right colour!  Fitting this is more of a "winter" job though.     Last month: £  8002.95
This month: £   220.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  8222.95

May 2018

May 5th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Cleaning the car for the big day tomorrow. May 6th, 2018 Spend: £30.00 Stoneleigh.  Arranged for breakfast at McDonalds and was happy to see I was not alone.  @richyb and @dombanks had both just arrived so we got ourselves some unhealthy food and coffee and just as we finished up, @lewis arrived in his 'regular' car as he had broken his car the night before.  Doh!  As we set off, about 5 minutes into the journey I noticed that the car would try to stall again whenever I needed to get into 2nd or 1st gear at a roundabout or traffic light.  Thinking that maybe my fuel gauge is lying to me I changed route desperately for a petrol station.  The first one we came across was in Southam, so filled up but this made no difference.  We did manage to make it to the show and once parked up I started to look at what could be the problem.  Start the car, blib the throttle and when the revs drop again, blipping it again would make it stall.  Think @Northampton Motorsport need to have a look at it, as it's nothing like I've ever read about on the forums. Picked up a new 2" fuel filler hose and the electronic fan switch from CBS I ordered earlier this week. May 7th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Came back from shopping with the family and walked into the garage to be greeted by a puddle underneath the car.  Because I had not parked it in the usual place (on the carpet) it was now quite apparent that there is something leaking from the tank.  A quick look revealed a 4cm gash in the bottom of the tank from which the petrol escapes.  Absolutely no idea how that came about, but now I know, I need to empty it quickly.  Not helpful that I brimmed the tank yesterday on the way to Stoneleigh .  One of my sons friends popped round and we filled his tank up with my petrol. May 8th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Working from home today so I can remove the fuel tank from the car in the afternoon.  There was still a surprising amount of fuel left in the tank, which the fuel pump did not manage to pump out.  Once removed and emptied, I hosed it down with copious amounts of water and then left it to dry. May 10th, 2018 Spend: £33.80 Fuel tank dropped off at Precision Welding and it's now fixed again.  After work put it back into the car and fitted the new fuel filler hose.  Just need to wait till a new fuel pump seal arrives before I can fill it up again.  Also temporarily fitted the electronic fan controller so I can reach it from the drivers position and set it up 'on the go'.  When it is working satisfactory I can hide it from view as it's not the prettiest of boxes   May 15th, 2018 Spend: £7.19 The seal finally arrived, but unfortunately it doesn't fit.  Another £7 wasted .  Re-used the cork gasket and struggled a bit to get the arm back on.  I feel another winter project coming on...   Went for a short shakedown and am surprised that the stalling issue seems to have gone.  How? May 19th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Trying to avoid the Royal Wedding by following @GaryD1971's example and cutting a little bit away on the steering column bracket that prevents the clutch pedal from providing enough travel.  Hopefully this takes care of the crunching in 1st/2nd gear.  After a short drive I can report it is better, but not yet resolved.  Looks like there is more travel required, which from studying the pedal box can be created, but is a little more involving. May 23rd, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Took the car to work for National Drive your Westfield to Work Day, and on the way back stopped for petrol.  Then the engine stalling issue appeared again, all the way home.  Parked up and took a video showing the revs dropping to the point of stalling when blipping the throttle May 26th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Had a look at the car again in Easymap 4, but the stalling behaviour was gone again.  Had the engine well into running temperatures, but could not get it to misbehave.  My theory at the moment is that twice it happened when I had briefly driven it (to Sixfields from home & to petrol station from work), then parked up/filled up with fuel, and then continued driving it.  Next time I need to fill up we'll see how that theory holds up.     Last month: £  7931.96
This month: £    70.99
            ----------+
Total:      £  8002.95  

April 2018

April 1st, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Big day today.  It is dry, almost sunny and now it is time to enjoy it!  Checked oil/coolant levels again before I started the engine and then set off to fill up with petrol 0.7m away.  1st and 2nd gear still not feel right so I returned home and adjusted the clutch cable slightly.  But it was a step too far, so undid the work and then tried to go for a longer run.  Unfortunately, the engine now kept on stalling as soon as I dipped the clutch.  Didn't even make it out of the street before I returned back home.  How to make a grown man  April 2nd, 2018 Spend: £0.00 After putting a message up on Facebook, got a text from Jody (who rebuild the engine) with some questions and a suggestion of checking for an air pocket in the thermostat housing where the coolant sensor sits.  He explained that he had that happen once and the result was that the car kept on feeding duff information to the ECU who countered that with feeding in too much/little fuel.  As the car also smelled like a petrol station, that seemed all too plausible.  Run the engine again, this time squeezing as much as I could the hoses to move air around and out.  It ran much better, but because I'd fiddled again with the TPS and throttle body stop it was high on RPM.  Decided that I'd leave it for another day. April 5th, 2018 Spend: £1.90 Wife complained about the stench of petrol, so went home to check.  Couldn't find any leaks, so must have still been residue from Sunday/Monday's tinkering.  Received a new throttle cable end, so fitted that as the old one is a pain to do up. April 19th, 2018 Spend: £474.00 Big day today.  Car was given into the care of Troy at @Northampton Motorsport to remap it.  Initially couldn't write to the ECU due to a PIN block on it, but after the executive decision was made to erase and rewrite the ECU with a map from another car with the same/similar engine all the options were enabled again.  Troy did his magic and after 3.5 hours was told of the end result; a healthy 177.8bhp @ 6931rpm / 142.2lbft @ 6064rpm.  Suits you Sir! April 20th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Finally the thrill is back.  Car behaved impeccable for the 120 miles I drove today (and work is only 36 miles each way ). April 21st, 2018 Spend: £0.00 I complained on the forums about my gear knob which keeps coming off as the grub screws have to bridge a large gap, and @Ben (bunje) worked his magic and turned a sleeve for my gear knob so the grub screws got something better to grab into.               April 22nd, 2018 Spend: £17.47 Changing the oil after running it in.  Started with 5W30, but was advised that 5W40 would be a better choice for this tune of engine.  Never had to do one with the engine in the car, and I'm already not looking forward to next year's change.  Emptying the sump is straight forward, but access to the oil filter not so.  Removed the alternator and bracket which allowed enough access for my wrench to undo it. Maybe next year I'll be organised enough to install some flared arches, or a remote filter housing...   Last month: £  7438.59
This month: £   493.37
            ----------+
Total:      £  7931.96

March 2018

March 16th, 2018 Spend: £997.40 I picked up my engine from Jody (JA Kit and Customs) today!  Complete checked over, and with most parts replaced she almost looks like she just rolled off the factory floor. March 17th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 With the Beast from the East making a return the conditions outside and in the garage are awful.  But I'm determined to not let it spoil my rekindling with the Westfield!  Ensured the gearbox input shaft and spigot bearing were not interfering and then put the gearbox back into the car with the help of my son. March 18th, 2018 Spend: £28.80 Putting an engine back can take 5 minutes, or 5 hours.  I ended up somewhere in the middle when after yet another minute change in position the engine finally mated with the gearbox and bellhousing. March 24th, 2018 Spend: £32.59 Miserable weather outside so had to do all the work inside the garage.  Not ideal.  Connected everything up and then discovered that I should have bolted the PCV breather pipe that goes just above the bellhousing from one side of the engine to the other should have been one of the 1st things to go back, not the last.  Oh well, I'm not taking it apart again, so managed to lock it in place as well as I could.  Another thing I now discovered is that my water temp gauge sensor wire seems a bit short.  Weird as nothing changed in the location, so I need to fix that as it looks a bit strained at the moment. Could not start the engine due to the weather, but forecast is really good for tomorrow March 25th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 Up early (not helped by the bl**** clocks going forward and a AUS F1 race early in the morning) and got the car out of the garage.  Fluids checked and topped up, plugs removed and hit the starter button so it would start to build up oil pressure.  With the gauge now part of my system the needle rose nicely and after doing this a couple of times decided to fit new plugs and go for it! Asked Mrs Q to film the start, but to my surprise nothing happened.  The engine would just turn over and over and over, but not fire into life.  b*****ks.  Mrs Q asked if the battery was charged, and like last year I'd fallen into the trap of trying to start the engine with a low battery.  Doh!  Half an hour on the charger and then... Had to change the accelerator cable tension slightly to set the RPM to a steady 1000RPM, and still have to adjust the clutch cable. March 30th, 2018 Spend: £0.00 With the threat of p*** poor weather, I sneaked out early and rolled the car out of the garage.  Adjusted the clutch cable so it now seems to work ok for 1st, 2nd and reverse.  Can't test it any further as I'm still on SORN.  Put the nose cone and air filter back on and replaced the batteries in the security gate opener.  Am leaving the bonnet off for now, until I've triple checked everything.  Also taxed the car online starting from the 1st of April...  no joke!   Last month: £  6379.80
This month: £  1058.79
            ----------+
Total:      £  7438.59
 

November 2017

November 12th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 @maurici kindly offered some free stickers on the forums, providing they ended up on a Westfield and a picture was shared on the thread.  Well, here's mine November 18th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Created a nice puzzle on the garage floor.   Last month: £  6379.80
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  6379.80
 

October 2017

Nothing specific to report other than that the crank out of my spare Zetec has been tested for cracks, etc and has been given the  up.  Have been piling up parts and the last of deliveries was today, so the rebuild can finally commence!    Last month: £  6349.80
This month: £    30.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  6379.80
 

August 2017

August 26th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Lost a little interest in the car over the holiday period, but set myself to it today and was pleasantly surprised to discover that removing a crank from an engine is not actually that difficult. This is the crank out of a spare engine, which, once checked, will be making it's way into my engine. August 28th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Fitted the oil pressure gauge that I collected from my engine seller a while back.  It's not from the same VDO series as the rest of my gauges, but beggers can not be choosers I've not been able to test it yet, but it should work as it used to work on this engine and sender... August 31st, 2017 Spend: £185.00 Collected my gearbox again from Martin after Graham checked it over.  Graham could find nothing wrong with the box, so a combination of wrong oil and/or spigot bearing interference must be what has been causing my crunching in 1st/2nd gear.  Have been advised to stick to Fuchs SYN5 oil, so bought 5L from Julian so I've got enough spare for the coming years   Last month: £  6164.80
This month: £   185.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  6349.80
 

July 2017

July 1st, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Paul popped round with his extensive tool kit and we removed the head and inspected it for damages, marks and other clues.  At first the head gasket seemed ok, and so did the pistons and valves except for a clean(ish) section on cylinder 1. Cylinder 1 also appeared to sit a little lower than it's counterpart 4.                         After rotating the crank by hand and pushing/wiggling cylinder 1, it eventually levelled up again.  This seems to indicate a spun big end bearing. July 2nd, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Cleaned up garage so I have a working space for the engine and then tried to remove sump with the engine still in place.  Sump would only drop about 3cm before appearing to be stuck on something on the bellhousing.  Really need a crane again to lift the engine out. July 4th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 After collecting an engine crane and stand from @dombanks last night, I lifted the engine block out and after a lot of puzzling got it mounted to the stand.  With the sump removed you still can't see much, so now need to turn it upside down and then remove windage plate. July 9th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 A quick 10 minutes in the garage before other chores present themselves.  Rotated the engine on the stand and removed the windage plate.  Nothing visible with that off, but as soon as I removed the bottom half of the conrod... Yes, that's a spun bearing all right  July 19th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Neil, a local member, kindly offered me an old spare Silvertop he had been storing inside his garage for the past couple of years.  Plan is to use the crank from that engine, rather than trying to see if mine is still usable.     Last month: £  6164.80
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  6164.80
 

June 2017

June 1st, 2017 Spend: £25.00 When I notified the DVLA about the engine change, I got a letter back saying that they could only accept an inspection of a garage on headed paper.  Visited a few garages today and found  V-A-G Tune Services just around the corner from work who was happy to oblige to that request.  Paperwork now off to the DVLA again, so fingers crossed! June 11th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Free tickets to see the GT3/4 racing at Silverstone today, courtesy of Pistonheads.  We stopped at McDonalds for breakfast and then when we tried to leave, the car would not turn over, as if the battery was flat.  A helpful passer by pushed started the car and off we went again.  Turned off the exit road at Silverstone and the car started to struggle a bit, and a loud knocking noise came from the engine.  Pulled over into a layby straight away, and called AutoAid recovery. After all my hard work and great expense to get a faster car, I now seem to have just a very expensive door stop with suspected spun big end bearings.  1,000 miles is all it lasted... June 15th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Tinker day.  Put coolant reservoir on it's own mount, along with the oil catch tank so the scuttle can now be removed without tools. June 18th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Paul popped round with a compression test kit and it doesn't look good.  Cylinder 1: 100psi, 2: 50psi , 3: 40psi , 4: 70psi .  We took the cam cover off and went through the required bits that need to be taken off before the head can come off.  It's +30C in the shade in the garage, so I will start on it another day...  Bye bye summer. June 24th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Unbolted all the ancillaries off the engine so the head can be removed.   Last month: £  6139.80
This month: £    25.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  6164.80
 

May 2017

May 7th, 2017 Spend: £16.95 After speaking to Graham about my 2nd gear selection issue one of the things I learned was that the Fuchs Titan Race Gear 90 LS differential oil I had put in my live axle with plated diff is the wrong one and that I should have used Castol B373.  Got 2L from Opie and replaced it today. May 12th, 2017 Spend: £112.11 My new TPS (a Penny&Giles one) arrived from Spoox Motorsport yesterday and as I was "working from home" today I nipped into the garage and fitted it.  Set the start voltage to 0.35V and on full throttle that came to 4.14V.  Pretty much the same as my old one.  Woooohoooo!  Like the proverbial stuff of a shovel, the car now runs as I experienced it all those months ago in Andrew's car. Shame the weather is p poor, so could only do about 20 miles before it started to rain again.  Just want to drive it now  May 13th, 2017 Spend: £2.70 Re-crimped the front lights with new connectors as the ones I used initially were pants.  Also played around with the clutch pedal to see if 2nd gear could be engaged better when slowing down from 3rd.  Made no difference to the baulking.  Will try Graham's suggestion of EP80 oil next, but I'm thinking it needs a look in, and that is just not going to happen this side of summer... May 21st, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Got up early and met up with @richyb at McDonalds Sixfields and took the long way round to Silverstone to attend the 1st Cars & Coffee event organised there. May 24th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 National Drive your Westfield to Work Day...   Last month: £  6008.04
This month: £   131.76
            ----------+
Total:      £  6139.80
 

April 2017

April 1st, 2017 Spend: £9.00 Paul (@black st) offered to come round to see if the car was running on all cylinders and if it did, use his synchrometer to balance the throttle bodies.  After unplugging lead no 2, it was quite clear that the problem lied there.  A quick trip to Halfords to pick up a set of spark plugs was made, but they made no difference.  New coil pack ordered, but it may well be the leads.  Also had a listen at a rattle when the engine was running and this was attributed to the starter pinion gear not disengaging. April 2nd, 2017 Spend: £48.01 Coil pack arrived from Amazon, so quickly swapped the old one out, but it made no difference.  New (old stock) Motorcraft leads ordered.  Tidied up the electrics and cleaned the cabin so I can put the seats back in. April 5th, 2017 Spend: £5.00 Had a spare few minutes before dinner and installed the shift lights into a permanent position April 6th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Seats back into the car and torqued up the rear wheels.  Just need to fit the rear tonneau cover again and then the rear is completed.  If only I could say the same of the front   April 8th, 2017 Spend: £156.10 A beautiful sunny day and here I am again, on the drive, dismantling the car  The HT leads arrived last night, but the seller had send the wrong type.  No point in post-poning the inevitable so drained the car of coolant (and managed to catch most of it as well!) and petrol and got the engine out in a fairly straightforward matter.  Getting the old flywheel off was a different kettle of fish.  What a pain.  But eventually managed it and installed the new Retro-Ford flywheel. Now just waiting for the clutch to arrive and then we can put it all back together again! April 14th, 2017 Spend: £139.89 The new leads and clutch arrived earlier this week, and with it being Good Friday, Paul and I picked today to get cracking and get that darn engine back in.  And back in we got it.  It is so much easier having someone around who's a crack at mechanics.  After everything was connected back up, we refilled it with coolant and switched the ignition on.  Pressed the starter and ... After lunch spend the afternoon getting scuttle and nose cone on.  Need to cut filter hole in the bonnet and then get it a MOT! April 15th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Tightened up the headlights, fitted the tonneau and did a quick run down the road.  Oh boy, does she fly!  Googled for a local MOT place open today and ended up at Nene Auto Repairs who was able to fit me in on such short notice.  After a nerve wrecking 40 minutes the tester handed me the piece of paper signing it off for another year... April 17th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Dash off again to rotate the shift light as it was showing from right to left, instead of the more natural left to right.  Also programmed it to the new max revs (7500).  Then had a look at the speedometer and added a bridge between terminal 8 and 6.  A test drive later shows it is still not working.  Will need more tinkering. Finally I made a template for cutting a hole in the bonnet where the filter can protrude.  Lots of yellow dust later I got it nice enough for now.  Need new edging as the one I have is for thinner panels. April 19th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 More fettling to the speed sensor and all of a sudden it works!  Finally able to see what speed it's going at.  Now just left with the fuel sender not doing much and the "misfire/hesitation when lifting off" issue.  The latter may not be so easily resolved   April 22nd, 2017 Spend: £2.89 New edges arrived and I widened up the hole a little more so the filter fits better through it Spend the afternoon at @black st who was fitting his new diffuser.  Pwooah, nice! April 23rd, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Butchered my old fuel level sender and put it in the place of the (incorrect) level sender on my new pump.  Now I can at least see when the tank is empty! April 29th, 2017 Spend: £6.70 The day before the big day!  Cleaned the car (first time since it was parked up last year) and tidied up the interior by re-fitting the tunnel top and carpet.  Also tested a little bit more with the idle screw using @Trevturtle's magic box plugged into the MBE 956E ECU.  Seems to be mainly to hesitate around the 2800-2900 RPM range, but not if you sort of accelerate past that.  But cruise into that range and you will suffer.  Fingers crossed we can get rid of this at Stoneleigh tomorrow... April 30th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Sun, lobster, knackered.  Just some of the words I would associate with this years Stoneleigh.  Not seen it so busy as this year.  Bring on the next!   Last month: £  5640.45
This month: £   367.59
            ----------+
Total:      £  6008.04
 

March 2017

March 3rd, 2017 Spend: £47.04 My boss told me to take days off or loose them at the end of the month (we can only carry 10 days over, and I've got 15 left), so today was a day off and spend in the garage.  Fitted some more Mikalor clamps and other minor bits that arrived during the week.  And then started on the big job ahead...  the electrics.  Managed to finish the exhaust side, although I am still some connectors short, but the wires are all in. March 4th, 2017 Spend: £99.28 Put the inlet side wiring in and fitted the new Powervamp Clubsport NP battery and tray.  Also changed the oil filter (Mann W77) and filled the engine up with oil (Ford Castrol Magnatec Professional 5W30).  Getting closer now... March 5th, 2017 Spend: £6.99 Started on the scuttle cleanup.  Wanted to install a FIA battery cut-off switch instead of the battery cut-off switch I had previously (operating the battery ground), but decided that the current 'switch panel' was already crowded, so decided to create a new one.  Took longer than planned due to making a stupid mistake with the cut out required for the FIA switch.  Ordered all the battery cables I need, so I can continue that next week. March 11th, 2017 Spend: £220.04 Received a voicemail yesterday to say that my fuel tank was finished, so after walking the dog, off I went to Armour Fabrications again and collected it, along with a modified exhaust link pipe and a straight filler cap.  Upon my return it became quite quickly clear that the link pipe needs a bigger bent, but I did manage to fit the exhaust.  Also, the fuel tank filler was put on the position on the rear (above where the old one was), but for my top filler it is too far back.  He'd already said to pop round if any tweaks were required, so I'll give him a call Monday to see what can be arranged for Thursday when I've got another day off. Spend the rest of the day making up new straps from some scrap strips that the fabricator cut for me. March 12th, 2017 Spend: £17.95 Started on the wiring in the scuttle.  Am already so much happier with the result than I ever was last year when I did it. March 14th, 2017 Spend: £39.52 Last couple of Mikalor clamps arrived in the post today, so finished off the cooling system.  Just need to fill it up and check for leaks. March 15th, 2017 Spend: £18.33 Some minor tidy up jobs around the cooling system whilst Mrs Q prepares dinner. March 16th, 2017 Spend: £37.54 Up early to visit Armour Fabrication again to have the filler spout moved and my exhaust link pipe amended.  Popped round @black st without any notice for a cuppa whilst waiting which just shows that this club has the best members.  Arrived home and fitted the exhaust and started to work on the fine tuning of the fuel tank straps.  What a nightmare.  It only has two straps, one over the short side, one over the long side.  Finally managed to get the short side screwed down, but I've re-used the screws that were on the other strap, so need to do some shopping tomorrow first and pick up some self tappers that fit.  The spout however sits nicely underneath the cap, so once strapped in, I can finally complete the fuel side of the conversion and get some petrol in! March 17th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Continued with electrics.  Mounted ECU. March 18th, 2017 Spend: £3.39 Continued again with electrics.  Other than indicator/hazards all circuits completed.  March 19th, 2017 Spend: £9.58 Connected up passenger side front lights.  Made some brackets for the top coolant pipe.  Fitted long strap over the fuel tank and completed the fuel filler and fuel pump hoses. March 25th, 2017 Spend: £27.87 Revisited the speed sensor as it could not sense the bolt head and be secure at the same time.  Created a Z bracket and now it can.  Completed driver side front lights and the hazard/indicator wiring.  Filled the car with about 8L mixture of 50/50 Comma SCA5L and Triple QX De-Ionised Water.  Ran out of time (and solder!) to finish off the scuttle wiring. March 30th, 2017 Spend: £66.38 Re-did the dash wiring and finished off scuttle wiring.  Time to test!  Mixed result.  Hazards, indicators and lights all seemed to work, but horn and fan didn't.  Re-visited the wiring and got the fan working, but even testing the horn in isolation didn't make any noises.  Contacted seller who advised to turn the adjuster screw on it.  Will try that tomorrow. The ECU however appears to be dead.  Spend ages measuring and tracing, but none-the-wiser why it doesn't seem to power up.  More fun (ahum) tomorrow. March 31st, 2017 Spend: £20.00 Had some great help from the forums, and most notably a diagram from Mika, aka @Kit Car Electronics, helped me visualise the flow of current and after a good nights sleep I rolled the car out of the garage and paid attention to the ECU connector and ECU relays and I could only come to one conclusion: the green wire is not the ignition live, the white wire is.  So I swapped them around and sure enough, switching on the ignition powered up the fuel pump.  Pressed the starter button and ... It runs!  The smoke is from the exhaust wrap.  It drinks a lot of petrol though, and @black st seems to think it is not running on all cylinders, so more tinkering tomorrow.   Last month: £  5026.54
This month: £   613.91
            ----------+
Total:      £  5640.45
 

February 2017

February 4th, 2017 Spend: £66.98 Completed engine mount alteration and now it looks like the bonnet fits, as well as having enough clearance with the alternator on the chassis. Started on fuel lines and relocated fuel pressure regulator to the rear of the engine next to the coils by altering an IKEA fastener slightly. Fastened the clutch and accelerator cables.  Measured up all the cooling pipe sizes so I can start ordering these up.  Also won a starter motor on Ebay, bit of a gamble with regards to the right size.  Will know next week! February 5th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Fuel lines in and secured.  Ordered more parts, but will have to start a serious measure with regards to the cooling pipes.  Looks like I can't use much (if at all) of the stuff I received with the engine. February 11th, 2017 Spend: £24.80 Installed fuel filter on another IKEA bracket.  Starter from Ebay didn't fit after all.  The three mounting points are unfortunately in a different position. February 18th, 2017 Spend: £14.85 Busy week leading up to today.  Was handed goody bag from @dombanks with hoses at our monthly meet, picked up a Polo rad from @Neil Boyd and visited @black st who hooked me up to a local guy that is a wiz with a welder.  Fuel tank dropped off for adding more capacity and converting so I can use the Landrover pump and complete the fuel system.  Also got another bag of hoses from Paul. At home I installed the starter that I got from a guy from the Locostbuilder forums who kindly agreed to let me try it before I buy it.  Needed 5mm of spacers to make it fit, but can't test engagement until I've got the rest of the car up and running. As the postman failed miserably this week to deliver some cooling pipes, I created a cover plate for the exhaust gap instead. February 19th, 2017 Spend: £70.13 Dug out the exhaust wrap I bought 2 years ago and finally applied it to the exhaust header.  Had to enlarge the cover plate hole slightly.  Then fitted the rear lights which I had exchanged last year. Also fitted the new wheel speed sensor.  The sensor needs to be in almost beyond the point of where the nut can hold it.  Not sure the gap is correct, so may need to be re-visited again at a later stage. February 25th, 2017 Spend: £9.16 Had two aluminium spacer plates delivered which raise the nose cone 6mm.  Trial fitted it and now the bonnet clears the belts at the front of the engine.  Success! Combined bits from various old cooling hose shapes and managed to get a route around that would work well enough.  Still not received a T piece so unable to complete one section, and the 'hockey stick' I ordered from Westfield does not have a collar for a fan switch, but for a temperature gauge.  Have therefore decided to sell that on, and use the older 'hockey stick' that I got with the engine.  I will put wires in place for a fan switch, but not actually use one.  I'll use the manual override instead for now. Then put my focus on the wiring.  Cable tied the engine harness and put convoluted wrap around the wiring that is exposed. February 26th, 2017 Spend: £8.76 An easy relaxed day.  Made a plan for the wiring and noted down all the lengths and colours required.  Met up with @nyvlem who is still building a Blacktop SDW Westfield.   Last month: £  4831.86
This month: £   194.68
            ----------+
Total:      £  5026.54
 

January 2017

January 3rd, 2017 Spend: £10.00 Visited local welding place Bucks Welding & Fabrication who welded a larger metal plate on the bottom of the mount so there is a better surface cover. January 7th, 2017 Spend: £6.98 Back to the engine mount.  This time armed with some additional aluminium spacers I fixed the pedestal into its final location.  The engine is mounted! Now concentrating on the exhaust.  Started with another hole in the body in front of the old Crossflow exhaust position. January 8th, 2017 Spend: £0.00 What a pain getting the exhaust manifold in.  Ended up with enlarging the hole so that it meets the old hole.  Will have to get some kind of cover for it in the future.  For now I just want it to work.  Will need a small section of exhaust as the manifold sits further forward.  Thankfully it clears the wheel when turning.                 Then took everything out of the car again and put the gearbox and engine together on the floor along with the clutch and coverplate.  Don't seem to have 5mm play between release bearing and finger plate like @Marto303 said I would need, but have yet to find out if it matters. January 14th, 2017 Spend: £4.49 Fitted propshaft back into car and tightened all bolts up for the axle.  Also looked more closely at release bearing which seems to be too tall for my set up.  No alternative found yet.  Handbrake on offside does not seem to want to engage/dis-engage like the nearside does.  Getting a bit fcked off January 21st, 2017 Spend: £13.39 Replaced clutch release bearing and created spring on fork.  Still no free play on fork.  Giving up.  Handbrake continues to stick, but re-reading an old post it seems to have happened before.  May need to disassemble the brake to resolve.  Will leave for now.  Put brake pipes back on rear and re-filled DOT4. January 22nd, 2017 Spend: £0.00 Continued with assembly at rear.  Car back on wheels and out of the garage for more clutch figuring out.  Hooked up to clutch pedal it looks like the clutch action is correct and there is just no free play for the fork.  Adding 3mm spacers still did not add free play. January 28th, 2017 Spend: £13.81 After visiting @Marto303 during the week who kindly arranged for a flywheel/clutch measuring session it was pointed out to me that the best thing to do was to mark the location of the fingers in relation to the shaft and then see where the release bearing would sit in relation to the mark. You can see that it is right on the mark! Obviously it is not ideal, but with no money available for a new flywheel, clutch and coverplate, it will do. Then rearranged the garage in preparation for the gearbox/engine fitting tomorrow! January 29th, 2017 Earned: £3.35 I'm just going to leave this here Used some old IKEA metal brackets to create some spacers to put just a little more distance between clutch and release bearing and then put it all back in the car.  Filled the gearbox and diff with fresh oil.  Engine is back on the mounts, but not happy with the final fit of the driver/intake side mount.  Ideally I'd like it a bit higher, but there is no more thread on the rubber engine mount. Also managed to sell my old Spax shocks today to a Locost builder from Kettering. January 31st, 2017 Spend: £10.00 Went back to Bucks Welding & Fabrication who butchered a small pedestal together using my old Crossflow mount.  Can't beat that service!   Last month: £  4776.54
This month: £    55.32
            ----------+
Total:      £  4831.86
 

December 2016

December 5th, 2016 Spend: £17.26 Refitted the high level brake light and roll bar back onto the car.  Also connected up the high level brake light to wiring loom and tested it to make sure it has never have to come off again  December 9th, 2016 Spend: £923.00 Got a message from @windy at the beginning of the week telling my that my gearbox and diff were ready and were being dropped off at @Marto303's on Thursday.  So quickly arranged with Martin to collect the rest today.  Graham informed me that it's been a miracle that my gearbox and diff survived the "bodge" job that a previous builder had performed.  It did mean that it had now needed more money spend on it to rectify it but that should be money well invested. December 10th, 2016 Spend: £248.70 Started off with replacing the roll bar set screws with new 10.9 M10x30s and nylocs as the originals were a little too short to my liking.  Then onto the axle along with the newly bushed trailing arms and the new Protech rear shocks supplied by Luke from @Plays-Kool.  Small issue with the new shocks which have a wider bush fitted than the old Spax, but after advice on the forums and some common sense thinking I fitted those without inner washers inside the bracket.  Got further stuck with the offside top trailing arm when I tried to mate it with the shock using a lengthy 7/16 UNF bolt. The bolt would not go through the bush, and when I tried to force it through without the shock, it got so stuck the only option seemed to be to take the axle out again and cut the bolt.  Cue, lots of swearing.  After Q jr arrived back home from work we removed the axle again from the car and left it for the next day. December 11th, 2016 Spend: £0.00 A good nights sleep does wonders. With a little levering against the brake drum and using a spanner to rotate the bolt, it finally came out again.  Pfew!  Compared the bolt to the one for the other side and it seemed to be identical, yet the other bolt went through the bush just fine.  Weird or what?!?  I then checked all trailing arms, and only one of them had no problem with this bolt.  So marked them up and asked Mrs Q to help lift the axle to slide it back into the car again.  With the assistance of the engine crane I managed to get all trailing arms bolted back up, and also the panhard rod was fitted back in.  Took a step back to admire my work and then thought that something was not quite right.  Looked through my pictures from the "before" moment, and sure enough, the brake drums were upside down!  The OSR and NSR drums need to be reversed and rotated.  Cue, more swearing.  Quick message to Martin and he's kindly offered to come round on Tuesday evening to swap them over. December 13th, 2016 Spend: £0.00 In exchange for two cups of coffee Martin and his colleague made short work of swapping the half shafts around  December 17th, 2016 Spend: £20.00 Spend all day getting gearbox and engine in.  It's not easy on your own to keep the engine at a certain level without help, and by the time Q jr arrived home from work I was short on time and light and then had to remove engine again.  Left the gearbox in the car on a new mount as the old one was cracked. December 26th, 2016 Spend: £70.23 Put the car the other way around in the garage and on stands.  With the assistance of a borrowed engine leveller from @Marto303 the engine was put back in in a jiffy.  The inlet side engine mount seems to fit straight onto the position of the old Crossflow mount, but for the exhaust side it is a little more involved. For the exhaust side I had bought a new mounting plate, after advice from the club I, and am re-using the old Crossflow mount.  Little by little taking a bit off the old mount until it starts to fall into place. December 27th, 2016 Spend: £0.00 Continued to work on engine mount only to discover it would fall foul off the exhaust manifold on the drop.  Plan B starts here:  Will have to use the mount at the front of the engine instead. The only issue with this is that the pedestal sits further forward on the welded ground plate so it will need a larger plate to make it more secure. The exhaust manifold will exit in front of current exit point, so need to check it does not interfere with steering extremities.  Shame about the existing hole, but I suppose some flared panels in the future will take care of that. Also re-fitted the alternator and although it fits, it has minimal space with the chassis bracing.  May need to replace this once the engine is on mounts with a smaller alternator. Finally, I also tried to fit my old Crossflow starter, but it cant be put into position as it fouls on the sump.  Guess a new LRS707 is required.   Last month: £  3497.35
This month: £  1279.19
            ----------+
Total:      £  4776.54
 

November 2016

November 5th, 2016 Spend: £0.00 Got the roll bar off using some heat to soften the glue and a putty knife to wedge in between bar plate and body work. Then started to work on the new carbon boot sides. Once I got the holes right, the rest was just fine tuning. Now just the filler itself to do, but I will wait until I've been to the welder to see what is possible November 6th, 2016 Spend: £28.98 Fixed the brake line in the tunnel back using rubber lined P-clips, and replaced one or two broken saddle clips with new ones. Fitted the conduit and pulled wiring from the scuttle to the rear. November 12th, 2016 Spend: £17.67 Continued with wiring at the rear. November 13th, 2016 Spend: £5.58 Finished most of the wiring at the rear. November 20th, 2016 Spend: £13.50 Further completed the boot side panels and reduced width of handbrake load spreader as it was rubbing against the wiring loom. November 25th, 2016 Spend: £50.00 At first I was not going to touch the roll bar, then I briefly considered painting it myself, until I had a quote from a local powder coating company to have it properly done.  Collected it today and it looks like new  The only snag is that I didn't remove the rose joints and the rubbers on them cooked in the oven.  Another thing to replace!   Last month: £  3381.62
This month: £   115.73
            ----------+
Total:      £  3497.35
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