Tools
Unsurprisingly
you will need a selection of tools. The list below is based on my
experience, and is very much Robin Hood oriented (i.e. dealing
with sheet stainless steel). For a more general list see Peter
Rebecchi's page.
Electric drill - if you don't want to spend a fortune on drill
bits, get one capable of a low speed (100rpm ish). I found that
mains powered ones with fully variable speeds were very big, and
went for a battery powered drill I could get into smaller spaces.
Flexible drive - even a small drill is too big for some places.
Drill Bits - 3mm and 6 mm bits are included in the kit for some
reason. You will also need 5,8,10, and 12 mm bits (and for some
models like mine rather bizarrely a 5/8 inch). Stainless steel is
very hard on drill bits even if you use a low speed - it is well
worth spending the money on special bits designed for the
purpose, e.g. cobalt drills. Avoid the packs of drills lots of
shops are selling guaranteed to drill through anything with a
magic tip, they are expensive and totally useless.
Automatic centre punch - you will be drilling lots of
holes so it helps if they go where you intended.
Hole cutter suitable for steel
Selection of grindstones
Angle grinder with cutting and grinding discs. Don't throw away
the cutting discs when they have worn down - there are some
places that a small disc will be really useful.
Pliers - normal, thin nose, angle nose, circlip.
Hammers
Good metal cutting shears - not worth wasting money on anything
other than Gilbows
Spanners - open ended, ring combination and sockets in Metric
sizes.
Pick up tool - to cope with the mystical ability of dropped nuts
and bolts to find inaccessible places.
Pop riveter
Vernier calipers
Bits and pieces
Scrapyard
Sidelight holders
from a mini - these form part of the sealed beam connector which
you use to replace the ones supplied. Alternative is gluing a
bulb to the sealed beam unit which is not a wonderful solution.
Rover SD1 gearbox mounting bobbins to mount the silencer.
Alternatively you could spend £ 2 at Halfords for suitable new
exhaust mountings - I used Saab 900 ones
Flexible brake pipe lock nuts - alternatively make your own by
cutting off the union nuts from your old brake pipes.
Mini wiper motor - it is possible to use the Sierra one, but
requires a lot of painful cutting and bolting and trial fitting
and cutting and…….
Windscreen washer reservoir - the Sierra one can be used, but is
shaped to the Sierra inner wing and will perch uncomfortably in
the Robin Hood. The Mk2 Escort has a rectangular bottle that fits
nicely.
Surface bolting engine mountings and matching arms if your donor
has the through mounting type - there is a way illustrated in the
video to make the other type fit but a) it is a lot of work, and
b) it omits to mention that the arms are not the same and will
make it hard (impossible?) to line up the engine.
Nuts and bolts
2 M12x100 nuts and
bolts. In theory you can use the ones from the donor, in practice
mine weren't threaded far enough down.
6 M8 x 25 for the servo mounting, brake T piece etc.
Some large mudguard washers.
Some small (2BA ish) nuts and bolts for instrument mountings
Other
Crimp on bullet
connectors.
Selection of grommets - Some of the donor ones will be reused,
but there are a lot of places that there isn't a suitable one
for.
Clips for brake pipes - except in the unlikely event that you get
all the donor ones off undamaged.
Windscreen washer jets
Mirrors
