Author Topic: euro dave - mk2 track car project (Read 13027 times)

euro dave · « **Reply #10 on:** 08 May 2009, 23:13 »

So, on to some more interior bits! I got a couple of cheap ASDA mats for a quid each and slapped these in the footwells, they give good grip and eliminate some of the undulations in the footwell. Joe and I then tackled the gauge mounting and dash mounting. This involved using a bit of shelving we got from the scrapyard and attacking it with an angle grinder and hole cutters!

I painted it and installed the finished article tonight. Just need to wire up the interior light and there's a 4 port cigarette adaptor round the back of it. Then tidy up the rest of the wiring so it's out of the way.

euro dave · « **Reply #11 on:** 09 May 2009, 12:08 »

For some reason I forgot to mention the door cards we made. We picked up some alloy sheet (2m x 1m) from the local scrapyard for £10. It was pretty beaten up but once cut out and screwed in place it doesn't look too bad. It destroyed my jigsaw blades so we switched to the good old angle grinder in the end. We just used some rope for the grab handles!

And the car as it now stands:

DarnPB · « **Reply #12 on:** 09 May 2009, 12:38 »

Sorry to hi-jack. Be carefull using angle grinders on aluminium as it could potentially be very dangerous. Small particles of aluminium will get stuck into the griding wheel, expand with heat whilst being in use and can cause the wheel to fail. And at speed, can cause damage and/or injuries. Same goes for bench grinding wheels with any alloy.
Nice project though.

That aluminium sheet looks like aircraft grade alclad and is called duralumin.

euro dave · « **Reply #13 on:** 04 July 2009, 22:45 »

We managed to enter the Practical Performance Car 999 challenge at the end of May at Mallory Park.

What a shambles!

Joe and I trekked up on the Friday fully kitted out with tools, beer and tents. It was supposed to be a 3 part event - Autotest, Sprint and Handling, with 3 runs at each. I took part in the Autotest, finishing 9th out of 40:

This was a great laugh, but only 1st gear, reverse and the handbrake were used. A good bit of fun but not what we wanted to use the car for!

So next up it was Joe in the Sprint. A sprint that also turned out to be the handling course, and then ultimately turned out to be a single run instead of 6..... Basically PPC magazine didn't forward plan enough to work out that there just wasn't enough equipment and time to do the logging and runs properly. Most of the entrants were absolutely fuming. Here's Joe on his run:

It's now reorganised but we can't make it. And to top it all off the crap that is the wiring on the car gave up on the way home. The "external/makeshift" fuel pump relay has given up. Shame we didn't work that out at the time. Ended up being delivered home by the RAC. Pah.

euro dave · « **Reply #14 on:** 04 July 2009, 22:51 »

So on to fix the loom. It was a real mess - two looms in one car, a MK3 loom poking through the passenger bulkhead and the MK2 in the normal place. The MK3 loom was then spliced (twisted and taped) into the MK2 loom but in amongst this Heath Robinson creation was a makeshift fuel pump relay. Since that relay had given up I thought it was best to unravel the puzzle and start again.

Thanks to Rubjonny and DannyP for the advice / help / diagrams. I rewired the twisted joins with solder rather than insulating tape, removed the PITA CAT1 immobiliser and then set out to get a fuel pump loom from a scrappy and also a few relays at the same time. Fixed the fuel pump part of the loom last weekend and all is now well.

All neat and tidy in this pic:

euro dave · « **Reply #15 on:** 04 July 2009, 22:56 »

The eagle eyed will notice a half cage in the last pic. Joe and I purchased this and got it delivered in June. It's an OMP half cage with diagonal, nice beefy diameter metal and weighs in at 18kg. We don't want a full cage as they are more dangerous on the road unless you wear a helmet. This half cage sits just behind the B-Pillar so offers lots of head protection anyway, amongst other chassis advantages.

First stage was to prep the metal, it was badly painted before, done with a flexi-sanding disc and angle grinder:

Next up was a blast with zinc primer:

And finally a thin top coat of white:

euro dave · « **Reply #16 on:** 04 July 2009, 23:02 »

So to continue the roll cage fitting story.....

I enlisted the help of Dad, who's an expert welder and looked bored one day.....

I cut the sunroof lining out this morning, right back to the reinforcement by the B pillar. There was no way this cage was going in without the metal cut out. So with this out we could line up the cage and go from there. The idea was to reinforce the cage mounts with 3mm steel around the feet, and then bolt the cage to the body with a couple of edges of the feet welded as well to pick up the forces instantly and produce a stiffer result than just bolts alone.

Joe, Dad and I offered up the cage and decided to bridge the gap between the foot of the cage and the floorpan with thick box section: