Build Diary
June - October 2000		Lots of talking, planning, measuring wrecks, CAD drawings, more measuring, more talking, more planning, reading maillists. Bought the front hubs. Bought the rear Nissan subframe.
October 00	18th	We've Started !!!! The metal arrived today and we've made the first cut. Actually, we had to cut a bit off each length of tube as it was too long to fit in the garage ! The baseboard was all ready and drawn up and the first few pieces for the first chassis (we're building two remember) were cut, clamped and tacked.
.	24th	Bought the ball joints and tie rods for the front suspension. I had a bit of trouble finding the top ball joints until I had a quick chat with a fellow builder. (Thanks Phil T). I also popped into the only remaining Jap engine importer I hadn't previously visited and ended up buying a T50 gearbox and putting a deposit on a front cut currently on its way from Japan! No more speculation on engine choices now! Getting the gearbox and engine now means I can size the chassis and transmission tunnel to the running gear without using other people's measurments and finding I had a different variant to them. Bottom rails on both chassis finished, currently working on the two L assemblies.
November 00	9th	The chassis construction is progressing at what seems, at times, like a snail's pace but I suppose we are building two! Still, we now have two chassis with top and bottom rails, complete with L and K/O assemblies (the tricky bits!). Next stage is to complete the rear section and add triangulation pieces. I went to pick up a front cut from my supplier but had to knock it back as the mileage was too high. It was very difficult watching it being put away again; it was on the trailer and ready to go before we even had a chance to look at the speedo. Apparently some more are coming in soon, and I'm in no hurry. New chassis pics posted.
December 00	7th	We now have added the transmission tunnel and rear section to the chassis and purchased an Escort steering rack. We have also bought the suspension brackets and bushes. We managed to get Fulcrum poly bushes with crush tubes which should be better than just the bushes fitted on a bolt. The Front Cut has arrived and is now sitting in the garage waiting to be attacked. Question? How do two people get half a tonne of front cut up a steep driveway and off a box trailer without hurting themselves or the f/cut? Answer: It wasn't pretty! We have started to make the wooden jig to help locate the brackets onto the chassis and find the location for the FU tubes.Should be fun! We also have bought the metal tube for the suspension arms and need to start on the A arm jigs soon. New pics uploaded to the pictures page.
January 01	23rd	Where did the time go? Anyway,we have built a wooden jig to locate the Fr suspension brackets onto the chassis. This is the ONLY way to go! The jig holds the brackets in the correct relationship to each other so that when you present the jig to the chassis the brackets meet the chassis in the correct position. We also made up the front A-arm jigs and have made the top and bottom suspension arms. The next thing to do is finish the final pieces of the chassis and weld it up. We can then use the bracket jig to position and weld the suspension brackets in place.Voila Front Suspension!! Peter has bought his Toyota front cut and is proceeding to strip it. I have resisted the temptation and have kept mine whole for the moment. I will upload pictures of the brackets soon.
March 01	23rd	Well, two months on and not too much done on the car! It seems life has gotten in the way! So the project has been on a go-slow for a time, while I sort out a few things. But the car will continue....It may take me twice as long...but it will continue. The one step forward is that my chassis has been largely welded up and feels a lot more solid. Peter has kindly taken both chassis's and bits from my garage to his for storage and to continue work albeit with some noise restrictions. Thanks mate.
April 01	30th	The car building is still on a go-slow but Peter and I have made some progress. The front suspension brackets were welded onto my chassis and Peter's will be done soon. Peter took some photos of the brackets being positioned which we'll post when they are scanned. I've lost access to the work digital camera until June, so will post more pics then. I hope to have new accommodation very soon (with a big shed) so the cars (can I call them that yet?) will be back at my place and I'll have more time to spend on them again. Thanks again to Peter for helping me through this time and for helping me move next weekend (oops, didn't I tell you about that yet?) Just topped 1000 hits on the website....Thanks Mum :)
May 01	17th	Nothing much to report this month other than the two chassis and the other bits of priceless junk are now in the new garage/shed and work should begin again this weekend. :) Peter had the rear tube sections bent up so we can finish the rear chassis sections now.
.	30th	Uploaded some pics of the chassis bracket jig. Peter has done a bit on the rear of his chassis and is hogging the baseboard :))
June  01	22nd	Progress is back to full speed and taking up all my available time! (except when i'm chasing the girlies!!) Rear ends (boot) are done on both chassis and we have replaced the bottom boot tube for round section to make the aluminium panelling easy later. Front suspension arms have been completed, sand blasted and Peter is having his chromed..I'm waiting to see how his looks! I have made a pair of floor mounted brake/clutch pedals based on some mini pedals - so simple even I could do it! (pics to come later) I have also triangulated the transmission tunnel in an attempt to increase its strength. Lots of thinking now about scuttles, seats and mounts, steering column position and steering rack position/bracket so hopefully this will all be done by the end of next month, so we can then start on the rear dedion setup! That will give us a rolling, steering chassis in less than 12 months !! (not too bad given the five month break)
August 01	17th	Wow, Where did July go? Sorry about no July update if anyone is following this regularly. We hosted a shed warming BBQ in July which was a good afternoon, spent talking cars with about 12 other devotees until we were hoarse! Well, Peter's chromed wishbones look Great! but are too expensive for me, so I'm painting mine. I've used the Black POR15 paint which is very interesting stuff. Still undecided about the final colour scheme so have left the top coat colour until later. The final colour scheme will probably be the most difficult decision of the whole bloody project! Ok, so the wishbones are finished and fitted to the chassis with the correct bushes and 3/8 high tensile bolts and the Escort steering rack is mounted and bump steer adjusted to less than 1/2 degree over the full susp travel..not too bad :) The scuttle tubes have been bent and are now cut to size and fitted on my chassis. (We want to make the scuttle a permanent fixture with a removeable fibreglass top cover) The steering column mounting plate has been extracted from the Toyota front cut and can now be positioned within the scuttle tubes fairly easily (yet to be done). I also want to triangulate the scuttle to help the chassis rigidity if possible and allow mounting points for the windscreen supports etc. I have also bought an ADR compliant fibreglass seat and mountings and have fitted both together and into the car. I am now playing with the seat to make a better and more comfortable fit. (I knew that fibreglassing course would come in handy!) I'm using am idea I saw on the Locost List regarding mouldless fibreglassing, which uses a wire former covered with fibreglass. I finished the wire former last night and will start the glassing this weekend. I'll post some pics when they are developed and scanned.
.	21st	The fibreglassing over the wire former has worked well, so far. I have laid two layers of glass over the former and now need to decide wether to cut the former out and continue with more layers or just lay glass right over the wire. I'll look to see how easy it will be to extract the wire and go ahead on that basis. It looks like we'll use the same method for the scuttle top skin at this stage too. I started mounting the steering column last night and could have used three or four pairs of hands! (see the photos!) It was very frustrating trying to get the exact location but looks OK now. I will probably finish welding it up tonight. Took some digital pics last night and posted them today. ps. I'm itching to get into the deDion construction to get the car up onto four wheels and am designing new jigs at the moment.
.	31st	The Steering column mounting is now welded in and has worked well. I then started working on mounting the diff which has involved quite some fabrication work and some dowels being made up to provide a solid mounting. The rear support has been a little bit troublesome. (I welded a support tube into the frame and now realise I cant drill the appropriate holes in it due to clearance problems...time to cut it out and pre-drill the holes before refitting it...Doh!!)(I also asked an engineering shop to drill a 20.5mm hole which they drilled out to 22.5mm!! ...very frustrating. The dedion jig has started with some pipe flanges being procured to secure the hubs and the new jig design starting to take shape. I have also started cutting the hubs off the semi trailing arms. :) (its very satisfying to see an idea I had 12 months ago start to take shape)(time will tell if it works...and the engineer approves it!!) I found a pair of seats in the local wreckers yard which look like they might fit very nicely with minimal effort, so I'm wondering if I should persevere with the changes to the fibreglass seat (all of which has to be repeated for the passenger seat!!)
October 01	2nd	Unfortunately my work has been flat-out and I've been doing a lot of travelling so my spare time to work on the car has been very limited. I have modified one hub to fit the deDion tube and started on the other hub last night. Pics have been added to the 'Rear Suspension' section. I am hoping to get the deDion tube this week and have it bent up this weekend if I can organise things. Peter has started working on his car again after a bit of a layoff. The seats I looked at last month were a bit too wide without mods:( The only seats that seem to fit are these fibreglass ones, so I'll persevere with these at this stage. Peter has just bought some MX5 seats and wants to shoehorn them in....time will tell to see if they can be made to fit, even with a wider chassis!
November 01	6th	Work is still very busy and progress has been slow. I've managed to get an engineer to look over my de Dion work and jigs and he's happy, so its full steam ahead. The de Dion tube has been sourced, bent, trial fitted and now welded. We've sourced the rod ends, steel and bushes for the rest of the rear setup so its all action making the trailing arms and panhard rod etc. I managed to get some cheap 15" wheels which will do me until I win the lottery and can afford nicer rims. Peter has taken six weeks off so I'm expecting him to catch up fast. He has now sourced a Nissan rear end and I expect it will take on the shape of a de Dion axle soon.
November 01	27th	OK...lets see...DeDion Mark 1 worked brilliantly until we put the brake calipers on and the hand brake levers hit the frame !!! Onto Mark 2...We're now cutting of all the old metal off the hubs, rotating them so the brake calipers are on the top (they were on the front edge) and making up some 'ears' to fit the hubs to the deDion tubes. Many thanks to Paul H. for all his machining work in making up the ears and hubs. My front hubs are off being modified to match the rear PCD. We aim to have it up on four wheels by Christmas...we'll see !!. We dropped the motor and gearbox in last weekend...at least that fits nicely !
December 01	4th	Engine/Gearbox fitted and mounts are tacked in place. Work on the new deDion is progressing and should be finished in a week or two. Pickup up my front hubs which have been redrilled with new PCD to match the rear. Still working towards the Christmas goal !
January 02	15th	The car sat on four wheels for the first time last weekend!! YeeHaaa! I wasn't able to spend as much time as I'd hoped leading up to Christmas and through the holidays so I didn't quite make the Christmas goal date. But, the deDion is finished, the trailing arms are finished and I'm just finishing up the Panhard rod mounts. I did manage to find a set of seats that fit very nicely and look/ feel quite good. At the moment I'm tidying up a few unfinished jobs and having a floor section bent up with some stiffening hat sections. Seat belts are now purchased so final seat/ seatbelt mountings are one of the other goals for this month. Our new compardrey, Paul H, has been helping with some special components, so our steering is now fully functional. We just need to mount a bush/bearing to the top of the steering shaft and its complete. I'm borrowing the digital camera this weekend (hopefully) so some new pics due soon.
March 02	4th	It seems like Febuary has disapperaed in a puff of smoke and heavy work comitments! The floor section wasn't done correctly, so is being redone. The Panhard rod is done. Peter has been spending time finishing his dedion axle and associated bits. We have both rekitted and painted the front brake calipers and Peter is doing his rear brakes also. We went 'shopping' at a local wreckers the other weekend and picked up some new (better) driveshafts, a radiator, a rear subframe and brake calipers for Paul, some handbrake cables and a few other bits and pieces. After a while it felt like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy...no car was safe! I've also taken the motor out of the frontcut and mounted it in the car. This allowed us to determine the final position of the engine bay triangulation pieces, which will be welding in after I take the engine out again! Some new pics uploaded today.
May 02	13th	As always, time is going too quickly, complicated by heavy work commitments. Its always good to re-read the diary as it shows me how much we've actually achieved. Paul has officially joined our merry little band and we have helped him to cut and tack his complete chassis in a little over four weekends, following all the mods we've incorporated! We now have Peter, Paul and Phil...3 P's, so we're likely to call the cars the P3-7's. Over the last two months Peter and I have finished all the chassis pieces, fitted new floors each, made up two stainless steel rollbars (thanks to Paul's welding skills), made and fitted a removeable engine bay brace and finished off a dozen smaller bits. The culmination of all this effort has been to get the chassis torsion and beam tested. I'm proud to say she passed the test with flying colours, achieving 3380 Nm, well above the 2500Nm required. I was confident in the chassis but it was good to see the deDion axle survived the twisting forces with minimal deflection measured. Now we are all full steam ahead getting the engine going, so its onto fuels systems, cooling systems, wiring, exhaust system etc. etc. I have the radiator and cooling fan fitted last weekend. Torsion testing pics added.
July 02	9th	The aim over the next few months is to start the motor. This last month has been swallowed up designing and building our own exhaust headers. The end result should work well and look good but it has been a lot of work, with many hours spent experimenting and prototyping. We have ended up fabricating them from stainless mandrel bent tube and once they're TIG'd and polished should look great! As the radiator outlets on the block are at the back of the engine we have had to make up some extension tubes, again from stainless tube. Peter and I found some 'scrap' 1.2mm ali sheet which we got for half price just because it had fallen off a truck and dented one corner. Sometimes you get lucky! We've turned into sheet metal workers now and have made up a number of ali pieces including the scuttle firewall, cover for the pedals and nifty air box. Using the plans in the Locost maillist, I made up a small sheet metal bender which, after some strengthening, has been good for small pieces and brackets etc. Paul and Peter have bent up the steel sheet for the petrol tanks and we will MIG and braze them up in the next week or so. We have also made some mods to the starter motors so that we can locate them on the passenger side, which suits the bell housing better. The bellhousings and backing plates also came in for some attention to allow the engine-gearbox brace to fit. I have also bought a pedal set kit from our friends and fellow builders, Julian and Paul,who have spent many hours designing a set of bottom mount pedals. They look great and the engineer has already given his blessing to the prototype. Peter and Paul are waiting, I think, to see how my pedals work out before they take the plunge! I have been looking at the wiring info on the Net for the 4AGE and its slowly starting to make sense....cant wait for the wiring to be started...not. :)
Sept 02	2nd	The wiring was great fun and only took about three weeks to largely complete....mind you we were up until 1-2am most nights! Still, the car has come to life with lights, dash, fans and indicators etc. all working now. The fuel tanks have finally been finished with all the fittings and sender unit in place. Fuels pumps have been found and are soon to be fitted too. My cooling system is complete and ready for some water. Only the exhaust headers to finish welding and we can start the motor! Cant move it yet as I dont have a clutch or brake pedals yet..but who needs brakes anyway! Highly over-rated! Paul has been moving house over the last few weeks so his build has been put on hold for a short while. We'll all pitch in to put some progress back into his car. The race is on at the moment to finish the cars before Christmas as the Oz emission laws change in January, meaning more money has to be spent changing the engine to suit the new ADR standards, if we cant meet the Jan 1st deadline. It will be hard to achieve, but we're going for it at the moment. More pics added of current progress.
.	10th	The Engine Works! It was started last weekend and ran nicely (without the headers). Yee Haa! Only the pedals, brake lines, clutch and Hand brake to go before we can drive it!
Dec02	24th	T'was the day before Christmas and finally I've got a moment to update the website. Life has been very busy with work, Moving house (and workshop) again! and working feverishly on the cars to beat the end of year deadline. Peter has put in a mammoth effort to get his car up to a driveable stage so that the final brake test can be completed. This has allowed us to submit the paperwork to the Dept of Transport before the end of the year. Over the last few months we finished all the mechanicals on both the cars,stripped them down to the bare chassis, added brackets and cleaned up any rough edges so the chassis could be painted. The sandblasting & painting has been done and the task of putting everything back on for the 'final' time has started. Due to the time deadline we focused on Peter's car and now have it mechanically complete and running, albeit without body and guards. Paul has done a beautiful job on the exhaust system and the polished stainless tube looks magic! The first drive up the driveway was a magic moment and a real community affair as we had a number of people around to help with the final jobs and to witness the moment. We then put the car on a trailer and took it to a closed road for some testing and tuning of the brake bias etc. What a hoot :).... This thing absolutely flys !!!! Needles to say, the tyres are now scrubbed in :) My car is coming along and is largely together, sitting on its suspension for the first time, and with motor and drivetrain fitted. Peter's uncle, John, has been here for the last week helping with the fibreglassing, as the paneling and body panels are now the final major tasks to be done. I haven't been able to borrow the digital camera but have added a few scanned 'real' photos....more to follow next year. Merry Christmas to all.
February03	18th	One advantage of being bored in a hotel room is that it gives me a chance to update the website! Just for a change, the last few months have been very busy working on the cars. The nosecone we bought many months ago under took major changes, being widened and adding new sides, bottom and edges. The nosecone buck is now finally ready for a mold to be taken from it. Many hours were also spent building custom scuttles for both cars. The smell of resin, acetone and fibreglass dust is now familiar in the new garage. Together with the rear guard made by John, the major fibreglass bucks are largely finished. On the mechanical front, my car has come a long way and was finally drivable two weekends ago :)) Paul has done a fantastic job on my exhaust with an added section to provide a rear exit to keep the engineer and the beauocrats happy. The shortening of the sump was easier than some of the horror stories I'd read on the Net and I found the metal to be quite weldable. At this stage of the build the jobs become smaller and more fiddly with the final fitting of seatbelts, dash pannels, brackets etc. After a day or night's work I have to look hard to see any difference to the car. The cars went on an excursion to get a 4 wheel alignment last weekend and surprisingly everything (including the deDion axle) ended up being fairly straight. A few shims between the hubs and the axle will correct the rear toe adjustment on the LHS to bring it into true. This coming weekend is an opportunity to take the cars to a closed track for some shakedown testing, suspension tuning and other fun! The harnesses are fitted, everything's tightened down (I hope!) and the toolbox (and half the garage) is being packed, ready for any 'adjustment'.
.	25th	Of course a 3 yr drought had to get broken on the one day we wanted to go racing! We did luckily get a few hours of no actual downpour and used that opportunity to have the absolute time of our lives! What awesome fun driving the cars that we've spent almost 2 1/2 years making! My car handled like a dog! until I came in multiple times and made numerous suspension adjustments to make it behave itself. Prior to these changes it was inclined to swap ends at every turn of the wheel, quite dramatically sometimes! Afterwards though, it was very well behaved and I was able to circulate quickly and do controlled powerslides and four wheel drifts with ease. It still needs some fine tuning but that will take some steady development time. Needless to say the next downpour came along and set in for the rest of the day, so we made our soggy but happy way home. The next track day is in April, so we hope to be back with body panels attached. Basically all that's left is the bodywork and fibreglassing before we take on the beaurocrats and the paperwork!
July 03	25th	So much for monthly updates! What with work, life and car, the website has slipped. It seems to be typical that websites get ignored near the end of the builds. Needless to say, much has happened....The second trackday was dry and we both had a ball ! I found one reason for my poor handling the previous time was a faulty tire pressure guage which meant that I was actually running about 10psi in my tyres !!! that fixed, it was much easier to tune the second time around with better tyre pressures. Peter and I were both circulating with the best of them on the day and the deDion peformed beautifully. We have spent much of the last few months becoming fibreglassing experts and have created our own moulds and parts for nosecone, two styles of front guards, scuttle and other smaller pieces. Even made a few 'extras'. We've been playing with making some Carbon Fibre parts too and have a nice set of CF front guards! We also covered our dash panels with CF which looks great! We have fitted our nosecones, front guards, headlights and recently had ali bonnets made. The cars are now ready for the permanent panelling and final wiring (lights) before getting them on the road. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel! Still a few months off though.
Sept 03	12th	Back again! I wont winge about work commitments again ...It seems I do it every entry! The car has been progressing quite well. I had to stop for a few months to move house Yet again, but this time I've bought a house so nobody can move me on now! Unfortunately, due to a lack of space in the new place, Peter has taken his car back to his place to finish off. It had to happen sometime, but it was fun sharing the experience with someone. We're obviously still working together, but apart. In terms of progress...The cars now have their rear panel attached (which took a few test goes!), rear undertray fitted, side panels bent up and ready for fitting, and the front side panels made. We are making the front side panels removeable to allow access to the engine bay and to allow the exhaust headers to be removed more easily. I've also started playing around with Vinyl and carpet for the interior and thinking about making the boot well. Peter recently had a shed warming BBQ which was well attended by all the local clubman builders. It really is great to have a group of like minded and talented people in town to share the experiences and motivation with.
Nov 03	24th	The cars went through their final engineering inspection on the weekend and passed !!! whoa hoo!! All thats left now is some red tape and then we can register them. They still need to be painted and the wind deflectors made but they are very driveable and legal. (I suspect they'll always be some improvement in the pipeline!) Needless to say that the last few months have been very busy with a lot of finishing jobs; Fitting lights, indicators, upholstery of the dash and interior and all those little unfinished bits. I posted some pics recently but will post more of the finished (painted) car when its done. I did a quick guesstimate of the time involved in building of my car and came up with approx 3,000 hours over the 3 years!!! Mind you, that includes many hours just sitting and thinking about how piece A will fit into piece B without interfereing with piece C ! Many, many Thanks to all the people who have helped us during the building of these cars. It certainly has been a journey!
Jan 04	27th	And the journey isn't over yet! As usual it takes months to do what should take weeks. In the two months its taken our engineer, so far!, to submit the paperwork to the Dept of Transport we've been busy preparing the body panels ready for painting. That's meant lots of undercoating, sanding, painting, sanding etc! Last weekend we painted the parts (Thanks to a friend, Steve) and I have posted some pics of the panels quickly placed back on the car, just to get an impression of the final result. Looks *#&*^%'ing Brilliant !! Need to finish polishing all that ali, polish the paintwork, fit the body parts and then think about the wind deflector. That should take another six months !!! With the car building slowing down, I had a good Christmas and New Year's break. Is that what people, who dont build cars, do?
Feb 04	27th	Still waiting for the paperwork! Took the cars to a trackday at Queensland raceway. 41 degrees and stinking hot! Still great fun though. I had a problem the day before where the engine was running very roughly and wouldn't drive over 40kmph. After pulling half the car to pieces it ended up being a dud spark plug! A first time for everything! Some new pics added.
March 04	23rd	We're stil not on the road! The engineer has finally done his bit and now we're waiting on the Dept of Transport. They've asked us to fit a cover over the exhaust headers to protect curious fingers in parking lots. We've done this and sent photos into the Dept, so Hopefully this is the last hurdle! To say that the red tape is frustrating is a major understatement! We have not been idle however. Boot trays have been made and fitted and Peter has had a vinyl cover made up for his boot. It looks great and I'll have a similar one made when I can drive the car. we've started making a plug for the wind deflector and are still finalising the shape, position and whether it should be done in perspex or fibreglass. Time will tell. Major update to the website layout and new pages for parts list and next project.
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