Rants, thoughts and running commentary

This is the place where I will try to gather all my thoughts and comments during the build. Some will be positive, some will explain certain choices or changes to the original specification, but many will also be negative rants on things I will be frustrated with. Sometimes I will use bad language, sometimes I may give some good tips for others trying to do what I have done - you have to respect that I may at times be pissed off when I write, as so far at least, there is a lot of blood, sweat and tears invested in this project. As I write this intro, I'm only 10% to the finish line.

What is written here are my opinions obviously, you may not agree with me and that is fine with me. If you don't like what I say or how I write it, I suggest you Alt-F4 this page.

June '03 - The purchase

The intention was to buy all the "hard bits to fabricate" or that I deemed that scrap-yard parts would not satisfy me in terms of looks, weight or service life. So I bought the starter package, plus front hubs and spindles, the "quick" steering rack, fuel tank and some bolts and small bits.

Pretty much a week after the kit arrived, I went on two weeks of holiday.

July '03 - Sourcing parts

Pretty much as soon as I came back from holiday, I spent half a day on the telephone to different scrapyards. I had decided at an early stage of the project to use the Ford Zetec engine (found in early 90's Escorts and mid 90's Mondeos) and Ford Type 9 trans (from 80's Sierra), but as I called around, the prices of the engine was just a little higher than I thought. This, coupled with that quite a few people were recommending me to use the Opel C20XE engine instead, lead me to look for those instead. Sure enough, they were cheaper, and actually a better piece to start with as it has higher stock output, and there are more and cheaper tuning bits for it. So I bought an Opel Kadett GSI 2L C20XE engine.

At the same time, I called Rally Design and ordered some Wilwood Dynalite II brake calipers for 0.5" discs, pads, two master cylinders, reservoirs and a balance bar setup.

The engine is to be mated to a Ford Type 9 gearbox, but this requires a special bellhousing and clutch parts. Subsequently I called Yuk Hodgson at Yukspeed for the bellhousing and clutch. He also skilfully managed to convince me to buy an oil sump from him - I'm not so sure now two weeks later as I write this, that that was a good idea. Time will tell.

One week later, a motor arrives at work. I have to buy an engine stand so I did that. Two weeks later two boxes arrived, containing the brake parts. Let's just all say together - $$ OUCH. This was a tough week. All these parts are nice, but expensive. Well...you don't get a car for free, eh?

August '03 - Build-up starts

Had to remove the mounting plates for clutch and brake master cylinders that Westfield had mounted. According to Roadster Bil who is the Swedish Westfield representative when I ordered the kit, it was supposed to have been prepared for balance bar setup, which it obviously was not. Oh well, nothing else to do but bring out the grinder and welding equipment. Chalk up another day of work.

Getting the bushings into the control arms was a MAJOR PAIN IN THE ASS, and I suggest you either have Westfield mount these, or you budget a whole day of work and make sure you rent or have access to a hydraulic press. Otherwise it is pretty much impossible. I spent a day and a half, but that's also half a day of learning curve.

Next up for rant-mode-on is aluminium plates. Because at least Swedish regulations dictate that brake pipes cannot run under the car, as on these cars that would almost be the lowest point, they have be run inside the transmission tunnel. This means that transmission tunnel plates cannot be mounted, whichmeans that bottom plates cannot be mounted, but I needed to mount the master cylinders and brake pipes, and when that is done the chassis will be too heavy to flip over. Aha! Catch-22. So I prepared the bottom plates for mounting (drilling and tapping), then did the drivers side footwell plates (front and side), mounted my master cylinders and did the brake lines. Actually, not after having mounted the rear diff are the transmission tunnel plates up for mounting. Anyway, the transmission tunnel plates have to be modified as they were not prepared for wrapping around their front most support bar. Also, the instructions do not mention that there is a corresponding aluminium plate to the glassfibre one, but on the passenger side. Also, be sure that you think and plan where these go and in what order, because they have a tendency to block each other so you cannot properly drill the holes. Don't ask how I figured that out...(grrr).

Brake pipe fitting - this was actually also a major PITA. I didn't use the Westfield supplied steel ones because they are more susceptible to rust from both outside and inside, and because they deformation harden, whichmeans that once you make a bend, you cannot bend them back and make re-adjustments. Modern "copper" (they are not pure copper, but let's for simpilicity say they are) do not rust the same way, and they deformation harden much much less, so you can make readjustments relatively many times before you deform the pipe so bad it has to be scrapped. Because the pipes seem quite soft when you handle them, you don't expect them to be rock hard when doing small adjustments in complex geometries - but let me tell you, they are. So, budget a few days for this and spread the work out as my fingers were quite sore after doing all the pipes in one weekend (do not use any tools to bend, well, maybe a brake pipe bender tool, but if you don't have that or it doesn't fit, then only use your hands to form the bends). I also had to re-do the whole pipe that goes from the front to the rear Tee-piece as I managed to nick it while drilling a support hole and the drill shattered (also burying a hot and sharp part in my now very sore abdomen - take any gory scene from a Hitchcock movie and you get the idea). Also, budget a few reserve drills - I have so far broken three drills in total, one 6mm for the brake pipe supports and two 3.3mm drills for the M4 screws that I use to mount the aluminium plating.

Rear differential - getting the bolts in was quite difficult and time consuming. I used a block of wood and a hammer to gently (ha!) persuade them to go into their holes. Luckily I have the 7" diff so I didn't have to grind the diff casing any as I have seen others have had to do. The original plan was to mount the diff so I could do the rear brake pipes taking its position into account and then remove it while finishing the brake pipe work. Since it took me an hour to get it in, I didn't feel like taking it out and repeating it, so by fiddling and some blood and sweat, I got the brake pipes in there anyway. I guess in hindsight I can't see any better way of doing it either.

Suspension - the instructions never mention anything about the spindles, hubs and any mounting instructions for calipers. What it does say is that Westfield can supply these mounted and finished, except that I don't have that luxury. Those that buy them separate are just meant to be left hanging I guess. I need to guess on the torque settings then for the castellated nut and the rear axle nuts? I will inquire of Westfield how it should be done, but I'm a little PO'd about this actually.

Update 2003-09-18:

Have had to order some "dirt shields" for the CV-joints from Westfield. Local Ford dealer just simply cannot manage to find them in their spare parts catalogs - but obviously they sit out there on thousands of Sierras and Scorpios so they can't be that hard to locate. Grrr. Spent two visits to Ford for this. Also managed to dismantle one of the CV-joints by accidents - that was a real PITA to put together again, I was quite nervous I wouldn't be able to get it back again but after 30mins of fiddling it just clicked into place. Phew. Also had to find some new circlips as the ones supplied with the CV-joints were too thick to fit. Chalk up another afternoon hunting at the local auto-parts stores and buying lots of uneeded stuff to try. At least now I have three "sets" of about 150 clips that I don't need at the moment.

Update 2003-09-29:

Have started putting engine in. For Westfield placement of the engine, I would have needed to drill out a hole on the exhaust side engine mount to 10mm, but don't need to as I will be drilling totally new holes as the engine can afford to move about another inch backwards. The idea being to have the engine as far back as possible for better weight distribution. Every mm counts. Because the chassis rail is so close to the hole (no way would a nut have fit there anyway), I have to make three 20mm spacers for the bolts so the engine mount is spaced out from the engine by that distance - gives more clearance to the chassis rail so a nut will fit in there. I am now getting used to modifying most of the stuff supplied by Westfield.

To all those sceptics that wouldn't think the stock Opel/Vauxhall intake would fit - here's to you! It DOES fit, with lots of extra room to spare. So ha! I knew it would fit

Update 2003-12-09:

Have been working a lot during november, so haven't got much done. In the time that has been available, I did manage to make a propshaft that I had to scrap because I managed to forget that the gearbox doesn't sit in the middle of the transmission tunnel. So I had to re-do it without a rubber donut there at the front of the propshaft. Why oh why can't Westfield give that kind of information in the first place, it doesn't cost them any...Now it's welded and in the car so made a first attempt at a driveshaft loop - got laughed at, and will make another version soon. Also managed to score some secondhand wheels from a Caterham owner (they're Superlight R500 wheels) with some quite worn ACB10's on. They're really really light and I hope this will tell in terms of roadholding, tossability and acceleration. Am generally excited because next week will be the first inspection and after that I can start putting all the aluminium panels on and soon after that the body. I hope to get most of that done during the x-mas holidays and after that? Well...it's electronics left, some minor stuff like headlights and mirrors and get the seat done - then it's pretty much ready for the road. I definitely feel that many of the "difficult" tasks have been passed and now it's more of a gentle downhill towards getting it done. At least most of the large purchases have been done at this stage.

Update 2003-12-29

Have now welded on another set of propshaft loops as the first one I did was pure crap. Had to borrow a huge welding machine also that weighed a ton in order to get it done properly. Lucky me I had to lift it out of the rear of the car myself (yay!). Also made the first version of a fuel catch tank as the Westfield supplied tank is not baffled enough so fuel surge problems are a real risk, we don't want that, so I have to make a catch-tank and use two stages of fuel pumps. Oh well, at least it will be done properly the first time. Am now at the stage where I will start to make that car look like a car actually. Next step is to bolt on some aluminium panelling actually. Oh no, no, I have to tighten up the brake system first and check it for leaks. Bugger. Oh well. That's only half an hour's work (have you ever heard that one before, eh?).

Update 2004-01-12

Tightened up the brake system to find that it leaked a little at one of the master cylinders. Seems to have solved itself with just tightening some more and hoping I don't strip the threads.

Attached two aluminium panels along the transmission tunnel, no big problems really, except I couldn't get at the screws right next to the differential, inside of the transmission tunnel at the rear. I just sticked it in place with the silicone and it seems to be very stuck indeed as I pressed a little and it didn't let go so I guess I'll just leave it this way. If it pops loose I'll have to figure out a way of getting them in there then.

Also started putting on the aluminium panel at the back of the drivers/passenger area and I just can't for the life of me figure out how Westfield think you can drill holes when you have another chassis bar blocking the way. I have never seen a drill that is in total 4cm long, have you? I just skipped them and hope the silicone will bind it well enough.

Am also interested to know some panelling that I can't figure out where it goes and what the two giant blocks of steel at the top of the rear bulkhead are supposed to be for. I'll ask around on the forums and see if anyone recognises it.

Update 2004-01-18

The aluminium panel I didn't know what it was for is supposed to go somewhere under the front of the rear arches. Okay. We'll see what that looks like when I get that far. The "giant blocks of steel" are mounts for the seatbelts. It says so in the manual, maybe I should have looked closer before I asked that. Oh well.

Had huge help this weekend from a friend who modified the stock Kadett GSi 4-2-1 exhaust manifold to point the other direction. He's also a master welded, so he got to put it together also. I certainly could not have done it as nice myself, no way. So now I have an exhaust manifold at 0 cost. Wow.

Put the last finishing touches on stuff I believe will be hard to make once I put the body on, like back beneath the boot box around the diff where all the fuel stuff goes and the battery mount. Put the body on, aligned it and started doing the rear arches when I ran out of washers so I had to stop.

Really got a lot of things done this weekend. Should be pretty clear sailing from this point onwards as all the tough bits have been done. Once the body has been fixed in place, I will bubble-wrap it before starting with the electrics, which shouldn't be more than a couple of days worth of work, then it's the radiator and oil cooler and then only small stuff is left. Feels pretty good.

Update 2004-02-29

Yeah right all the hard bits were done. During end of January and February I've been working as often as I could, which have meant about 2-3 weeknights and two full working days during the weekend (which is about 6hrs for me - I have to sleep, eat and spend at least some time with the other person I live with). Anyway, have gotten a lot of the fiddly bits done. Started by position all the body pieces and scraping the nose cone quite badly (GRRRR). Did the whole electrics and wiring of the car during one week + weekend. On spare moments I fiddled with the exhaust and had a friend who has a friend weld it up for me. Did mount of oil filter relocation head twice as I was stupid and put it in the wrong place (duh) and then have spent a whole day doing up the suspension bolts, lobro-joint bolts and prop shaft bolts.

Also mounted new sump which is deeper than I had hoped for and sticks down quite a lot under the car. Also managed to snap one of the oil sump bolts when I did it up but luckily I could remedy that by drilling right through that place and putting a nut on the other side (phew!).

Have not really had any big gripes this period aside from the fact that the radiator I have is too big - I should have gotten the one from a 1.0l Polo which is just slightly narrower than the one I have, which is just a teeny weeny little bit too wide. Oh well, you live and learn. So take this warning - get the smaller radiator.

Right now, as it stands, the car needs about four hours work before I can lower it, fill it up with fuel and make a first attempt at firing the engine. Perhaps I can get that done tomorrow and then start it up and see if the engine is healthy or not...

Update 2004-03-14

Got the engine started first time last week. Actual date was ten days ago, March 4th 2004. First time I turned the key (ecu disconnected) to turn it over and prime the oil system, nothing clicked, nothing happened, just plain old silence. Turned out I "forgot" to hook up the starter motor. Fixed that by using four double jointed arms (well, it felt like it anyway). After that, I think I cranked the engine three sets of 10s blasts and on the third try, I unscrewed the oil filter just to see if there was any oil and yes, there was lots of oil which conveniently spilled all over. Fixed that. I proceeded to connect ecu and fuel pump relays to start it. Turned the key and realised fuel pumps weren't on. They are supposed to go on approx 3s on first startup. Checked some leads, scratched my head and called it a night. Next day: bypassed the fuel pump relay to run the pumps "manually" to prime the fuel system. Went fine, no leaks. Connect fuel pump relay and twisted the key just to see what would happen. Well...IT STARTED on the first revolution. I was so shocked I almost immediately turned it off. With shaking hands I started it again and blipped the throttle. Yep, it worked. Settled to a fast but steady idle. Turned it off after about 10s as there is no coolant in the engine. Couldn't figure out why it didn't "drink up" the coolant. Turned out I had it connected wrong. At least it runs and all the electrical bits work!!

So, now have fixed the coolant routing (managed to find a leak at the same time) and have now started on making the intake snorkel. One last bend and it will be finished, only two days of work on that so far. Have also made progress on carbon fibre instrument panel. Helps to have friends who have friends that just happen to be experts. The part I was alone in making (waxing the mould) obviously failed meaning almost total disaster but in the end (after two hours of sanding) it was ok...

Also, aero-screen and exhaust wrap has arrived whichmeans I can mount mirrors also and side indicators and trim the exhaust exit throug the bodywork. That means, I now have all the stuff I need to finish the car except two things: still waiting for my instrumentation to arrive and waiting for front indicator mounts.

If all this is summed up, we have just over 40 hours of work to go. I hope to be done in a months time.

Update 2004-04-14

Well...a month really has passed and I'm maybe halfway to being at least ready for registration-inspections. I've booked the second last of the inspections to the 16th of May and 'til then I should be done. No worries. Uhm, yeah.

Let's see, which points can I tick off. 1 is done, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 is done. What remains is no 2, 4 and 12. I still haven't received the instrumentation (darn Italians) so naturally I haven't been able to do that. I've still got one seat to do, but it's not a hurry because I can't use that when I do the registration anyway. The seat I will be using then will weigh about 80-100kgs hopefully. I need to increase the weight of the car as there is a weight/hp ratio I have to come at least near. The whole car including a driver needs to weigh about 730kgs to pass. Since I expect it to weigh about 550kgs, I need to add about 75kgs I have calculated (in addition to the other stuff I'm "allowed" to have in the car: spare wheel, jack, a small extra tank of gas, fire extinguisher and a mean 75kg driver - all this is about 105kg...thus 75 extra should cover the difference quite successfully). Luckily we have lead weights at my workplace that I can borrow for awhile.

Since I'm on the rant page, I should also let the public know of my problems with the aero-screen. I was prepared for it to be difficult to get the holes in the scuttle right, and it turned out to be quite difficult. That's alright though. What I did then was maybe not so smart. I put the top of the screen on (the clear plastic). Since it wasn't completely flush against the glassfibre,I decided to fill the gap with silicone sealant, which I did. I didn't however, expect the clear plastic to react with the silicone the way it did. Apparently, the solvent in the silicone made the plastic brittle, and as I used extra solvent to clear off the excess silicone, I saw the plastic crack and within minutes the whole thing was ruined...GRRRR...ordered a new one, this one I decided to get "smoked" instead so I wouldn't bother with the gap which won't be visible then, which was clearly visible and disturbing with the clear screen I initially had. Well...€150 later we've learnt a lesson. An expensive one!!

Also found out that the steering rack that was delivered was 2.7 turns lock-lock, and I ordered 2.2. I always thought it was a bit more than 2.2, but not until I visited some others who're also building Westfields, did I notice that their racks truly are 2.2 turns, and mine wasn't. So...I will get a new one. That was about three weeks ago and I still don't have the new one, but apparently, it's being delivered tomorrow so I'm "ok" to wait another day I guess.

Update 2004-05-16

Well...the steering rack arrived and mounted. I took it for first test drive and everything went great. From there it's been steady work until now, when one of the last milestones has been passed. The last pre-registration test was carried out by an appointed tester and he was happy with build, roadholding and meeting regulations except a few minor points, like mounts of the headlights (easy peasy fix). Since last update, I've fiddled with many things, I've made an intake sound deadening box, fabricated a roll bar, mounted the seat eighteen hundred times and made a temporary passenger seat. The LCD instrumentation has arrived and been mounted and partly installed. As of now, it reads RPM and speed, but not any of the temperature or pressure. I've mounted the hood and spare wheel carrier. I think I've tested it on the road three times. First time was very nerve-wracking. It popped, banged and ran very rough and died just as I got it back on the drive way. Very nervously I went about finding out what happened....turned out I just ran out of gasoline (duh).

Now, until registration, I have to lower the exhaust noise and reposition the headlights and find two tyres in 195/60/14 size as that's the size I will use for registration. Once that's done, I can do the noise tests (also appointed tester) and then it's time for registration. Registraiton is booked for 15 june, so hopefully everything will be ready by then. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

Update 2004-06-18

It has just three days ago passed registration, and I'm now cradling the registration plates (which arrive a few days afterwards). It is an enormous feeling. It shall be really great to finish the last few details and then actually take a long sought after drive. Only things remaining now are fixing the new seats and removing all the "registration specials" (half of which are done already). So now, only one day of work and then I can probably start to fully enjoy the fruits of my labours. It's been a rocky road up to this point but with only a few detours and potholes we've finally got the finishline in clear view.

I have decided to also restructure the website, making a section into "the build" and other sections like "modifications". I already see a need for certain things to be altered but I'm not in a hurry and will take my time.

Update 2004-06-20

YES! first legal drive on the street. Took ma and pa for their inaugural trips also. Am hugely relieved, everything seems to be working perfectly fine and seats are actually turning out to be very comfortable for longer periods of time. Engine is strong and sounds great. Cruising noise is not too bad. Car responds well to inputs and is nice and balanced. I believe there's a little too much toe-in as it's a little slow on turn in (relative to a properly set up Seven of course, compared to everything else on the road, turn-in is fantastic...). Am going to polish some on driving skills as I managed to do a 180* by mistake on the road (oops). Gotta be careful, it bites those who are too heavy with the right foot apparently. I've never driven anything with this kind of power/weight ratio, so I'm treading lightly. Need to get some track time soon to try to get used to its handling.

There's a few things left doing still on the build. One is to get the instrument to function properly and read the RPM steadily, which it doesn't do at the moment. The other is to do the boot box. After that, I declare it is "finished" and a the time for modifications are due.

this page last updated on 20-June-2004