The best I can do.

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7 January 2012 – Front Brakes














A New Year with new plans and a lot to get done, well, seeing that the majority of the businesses is close from mid-December to beginning of January, I had some time to work on the cars wiring, especially the engine loom and interior management loom. Up to date I have probably spend in excess of 40 hours with these two looms, hopefully they are correct and no changes needed. With the businesses opening again and resuming normal business, more parts arrived from Rezlo, this time round the box consisted of a K&N Air Filter and two crank case filters, also included was a few AN fittings and a set of MSD Wire Separators. I also managed to get my hands on a set of brand new Nankang 205/60R13 tyres for road use, now just to get the set of Cyclone wheels widened, I think 8J would be perfect.










On my first visit to the car, I was greeted with another present from my father, he managed to make a new alternator bracket that would allow me to use a 6PK820 belt, the reason for this is that the next belt available is a 6PK655 which is to long if you use the VE motor without a aircon pump. Next on the list was to fit the new K&N Air filter, I'm so happy I decided to order one with the correct ID to fit the throttle body directly and seeing that I chose one with a 10degree angle on the flange would make the fit even better.






Seeing that the car is getting to a stage that I can bring it back to Cape Town to work on it, we started getting the car dust proof as I have to tow it on a gravel road for about 15km, we started with the dust cover around the new steering column as I also want to mount the motor permanently to start getting the pipes done etc.
















Next order of business was the front callipers, you may ask why we waited so long to mount one of the most important parts to any racing car well the answer is very easy, we did not need them to get the car moving around in the workshop, well there time has come. Being the first time that neither my father nor I have worked with radial mount callipers it took us some time to come up with the best possible solution to mount them. We considered having a set of aluminium milled etc. The answer at the end of the day was to use a 6mm thick piece of 40mm angle with a few strategic cuts to form the mountings. The beautiful thing about radial mount callipers is the ease of using bigger rotors than that with which the mountings was designed for, a couple of spacers later and you can swing a bigger set of rotors without changing the mountings. After the callipers was mounted we only needed a 1.6mm spacer to get the spacing on the rotor correct. Luckily Datto now has a set of front brakes, coupled with Earl's brake lines. I just couldn't resist the urge to see if the 13" wheels clear them, they are tight with the 256mm rotors, only with the Cyclone wheels will I have to run a 6mm spacer.

14 January 2012






Damn, I knew high pressure pipes is expensive, bad no, it is wallet content thief’s. Had the hydro lines made between oil cooler and remote oil thermostat, with a few added fittings and banjo's. Spend Friday evening fitting the oil cooler permanently and the hydro lines, afterword’s I decided to redone the top hose because the 90 degree fittings is way too bulky to taste, will use banjo's in the future.
















Saturday morning started early bud instead of playing with the car, I had my fun for the day with a chainsaw, soon afterwards I realised it was a very bad idea as I had to take a shower to get rid of all the wood chips and dust. Work started with spraying the previous weekends electro plated parts and then moving onto silver soldering the steel AN6 fittings to the in car fuel lines. We then moved onto the front bumper, not being on the list for the weekend, but a very essential part on the car as it will be used to tow the car with a A-Frame, mount a number plate and act as a mounting point for 2 sets of spot lights for those night events. I must say, just placing the front Apron on the car, makes it look like a complete different vehicle, hopefully on the next visit I can mount the motor finally and fix all this bits permanently.








After spending about an hour under the car, trying to bend the feed lines on the steering rack, I decided to ditch the plan and get some flexible hoses made up for the task, as we expected the time needed to make them from steel would cost us in the region of 4 hours more to get them perfect and not hit the rear part of the upper oil pan. Bye bye wallet contents. Soon after we were dying from the heat and just wanted to do something relaxing, so we started with the handbrake lever. After about 20 times in and out of the car, we had the 25x2mm Stainless pipe in the shape needed and could be tig welded.






Sunday morning was spend mounting the callipers permanently, turning some spacers for the radiator expansion tank to get the spacing spot on. Wiper motor went in permanently and a few un needed holes closed. Later on the day I managed to mount the un finished oil breather tank and also the power-steering reservoir. The rest of the day was used to plan the power-steering piping and opening the ends of the wheel nuts for the longer studs.

During the week

During the weeks between visits I'm quite busy designing parts, searching for parts or doing something from home that I can manage. Currently I'm busy assembling the doors, the rear doors are 90% done, just the weather-strips must be installed. Currently working on the front left door, hopefully on the next visit I can take the completed door back and bring the last one for assembly, at least the doors will cover a few big holes.
























It is always good to give back, last year the team took my Alu welder and his daughter for a few rounds around a Gymkhana track, this paid off immensely with him agreeing to weld my stuffs before he officially start for the year, well I made good on this and kept him busy for about 2 and a half hours, center console was completed with added plates to stop small items from falling thru the handbrake holes and ending under the unit. The ends of the dash was welded which replaced the temporary rivets, coil bracket strengthened, fuel cell finished with the last AN6 fitting for the breather pipe and the oil breather tank completed. We also managed to weld the sockets on the water outlet for the expansion tank breather and to mount a second water temprature sensor for the hot side.




In the meantime, if the time is generous, I would like to spend some with the pedal box designing a bracket or two to mount the brake light switch and the clutch position switch.

25 December 2011 – Steering Column Switches & Dash Display




















Christmas day his year was very strange to me, never ever before did I drive around on this particular day, but due to circumstances I travelled from the nice and chilled beaches of Pearly Beach to Bellville and then later on to my car, I just decided that I'll rather go and work on the car than sit in Cape Town on the two public holidays.

Just after arrival, I was greeted with the following present from my father, the week before he had some time and decided to mount the DASH display and Steering column switches, I could not have asked for a better present than the work he carried out, it took him 3 full days to mount these units.






Just an idea how it looks when the DASH detects a high or low value and throws a alarm.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, for those away from home, please be safe on the roads.

mcgee, please consider shipping some of these items to the South Africa crowd, I would like a bobtail.

Looking good, yip restoring a car is no joke, but the end result will be better than pulling a brand new car gfrom the showroom floor, there is just something to a part/project that you did yourself.

Hmm, clean engine parts, I like.

Yes, the cam operation is very basic, but I'm going to make it more complicated in order to make it more driveable for gymkhana, for instance, activate cams at set rpm only if throttle is open at +60%.

I don't think I could have chosen a better Nissan motor for the car.

11 December 2011 - Assembly V & Interior



Seeing that there is a slight light in the tunnel when it comes to getting the car finished, I decided not to take the normal leave between Christmas and New Years this year, but rather take a week before the big days to work on the car, atleast If I need something in the period, some of the shops will still be open and able to help me.

I decided to get all or atleast the mayority of mechanical work done on the car, with doing it this way, atleast I can bring the car back home to work on the wires etc, this meant the radiator fan, wiper motor, throttle cable etc had to find there permanent home. It turns out that the throttle body was mounted in such a way that the cable could be made nice and short but still be out of the way.







During the weeks i was busy designing a few Aluminium parts like the coil mounting bracket, new Fuel Surge Tank, Oil Breather Tank, Dash and Center console, to house the switshes and hide the wires etc. My second last order of parts for the year also arrived which included some brake fluid, ARP wheel studs, Earls brake lines and fittings.

Shortly after arriving at the car, I started test fitting the new parts and was quite happy. Then the work commenced with getting the center console in place, for that I had to machine some spacers from aluminium to raise the gearbox tunnel effectivly 25 mm, this allowed enough space to mount switches and hide wiring.

Brake Piping













It was quite a time consuming job to manufacture little brackets to hold the Hard line to soft line brackets which bolts to the upper control arm brackets, once this was in place I started the final fitment of the rear hard lines and then proceeded to get the Earls line's in place. Luckily the set of coil overs came with some nice brackets with a grommet to help route brake lines and keep them away from the wheels, these and a few cable ties and all was sorted, the same was done with the fronts, but a few bugs crept in and had to be extermenated in town, once all this was done, I could finally add some sleeving and grommets.

Fuel System









Still trying to finalize the installation, I tackled the fuel system in the boot as all the parts was done, besides the pipes which will be done next year. It was quite a struggle to get the remote filler in place as the manufacturers abviously had no idea about pride in their work, fitted the Fuel sending unit and bolted it in place., the same was done to the pumps and filters, the filters is just missing some fittings as I made a mistake when I ordered the fittings. The fuel pipes which consist of bungy tubing in sizes 8mm feed and 6mm return line. The pipes was bend previously from the rear to just infront of the firewall. The pieces to complete the lines to the engine bay took a lot longer than the ones from the rear to the front. Having forgot to pick the last batch of electro plating, i couldn't finish the pipes as the AN3 steel fitting that I want to silver solder to the ends was missing, will finish that on the next visit, atleast another item I can remove from the list.

Interior

















This is propably the department that was neglected the most, besides the mechanical parts like the hydro handbrake, pedals etc. I bought a sheet of 2mm Aluminium plate and had it cut and bend into a few peices like rear firewall, kick plates, dash, center console etc. Work started on the dash which had to be fitted between the roll cage and follow the contour of the windshield. Once tjis was in place the master cylinder reservoirs could be mounted followed by the only guage on the car, a Air/Fuel unit, the reason the car only has the one guage is becuase the dash will feature a DASH2 from madevnology, afterwards the ignition switch was mounted. Once these pieces was in place I could move onto the making a mounting plate for the 2 dual channel igniters and mangement unit. The map sensor was mounted and the wires routed to determine the correct length needed, in order to solder the pins to them and get them in the firewall connectors. Now I'm just waiting for my Alu welder to start in the new year to get the pieces finished, atleast I can work on the wires. The battery disconnect switch was mounted in the most rear portion of the center console, reason for this is that I will be running two disconnect cables to the switch.





Seeing that I needed some space in the engine bay for the radiator reservoir/bleeder tank, it was decided that we will relocate the wiper motor to the inside of the car, never did I realise this job could take 5 hours to complete, but atleast it is done and I have more space in the engine bay.

Now that the interior pieces is halfway done, I can really start focusing on the wiring, atleast the mangement wiring, I'm dying to try and start the motor.

Just go to your local auto parts store and ask for a Nissan 1400 mechanical fuel pump.

26 November 2011 – Assembly III & Wiring II

The last 2 weekends was more or less the same thing, wiring and assembly. On the assembly side things wasn't that busy as I'm in the process of changing some parts and adding a few new brackets etc., but it has to be done, just a pity allot of these take a lot of time. Anybody telling me that wiring is a quick job is making a big mistake, maybe it could be quick if you have no pride and joy for your work, but someone like me that is quite anal about wiring, it is a completely different story, then the fact that I'm no auto electrician makes thing more challenging as I constantly need to run to Google to find a wiring diagram to help out.

Assembly:












Some of my parts came back from electro plating and sandblasting, these was sprayed and are now ready for fitment. The bracket I had to make for relocating the thermostat housing was send for media blasting and electro polishing, the effect you get after the whole process is magnificent, almost a dull shine. The intake manifold was welded and then sandblasted to get it one colour again, the same for the water outlet on the motor which houses the sensors as this unit was also modified for the thermostat housing. The parts for the fuel cell is also done, just waiting on some AN6 or as I recently learned -6 fittings, this will replace the massive AN10 units currently on the cell. The rear upper controls arms also see some changes as we made a 6mm error when we designed them.










The rear callipers was installed and brackets made for the brake lines. The intake was mounted and plans was made for an air filter and the throttle cable. I'm glad to say I'm all done with my brake pipes, just need to fasten some of them, this also include the clutch line. The fuel pipes is about 80% done as I'm waiting for some steel fittings to attach to them to make installing soft lines a breeze.




I also managed to get my hands on a new set of Toyota Hi Ace steering column switches as I wanted to minimise the amount of switches between the two seats, but sortly after purchase I realised due to the fast amount of changes made to my steering column, I will also have to make a few changes to the unit to get it to fit around my steering adaptor, nothing the correct size hole saw cannot fix.

Wiring:
























The majority of my time was spend with wiring, either the chassis wiring which include components like lights, pumps, accessories and a fan, then also with the management wiring. The wiring at the back is almost done, the pumps is completed, just need to make the extension between the left and right side rear lights. The front is also almost completed, with all the wires in place and some already found their way to a connector or two. I decided to leave the chassis wiring as ease for the moment to continue with the management side as I do not need lights etc. currently, I'll work on them between the management wiring and assembly, due to the holidays coming up and searching for parts being chaotic.


















I've read the manual for my management about 4 times from start to finish, but one thing I realised that even that amount is not enough, I you start with a section of wiring around the motor, open the manual to that section, quickly read it again and then start adding wires and connectors. You quickly realised that the management 9 out of 10 times always outputs negative and you will need a separate +12V Ignition wire for each wire coming out of the management. Currently I have about 60 wires that has something to do with management. I started with measuring the amount of wire needed from the ECU to the firewall connector, In my case I'm using Deutsch HD connectors for the task, cut all the wires needed for the engine and leave the rest in their original layout for future use or internal use. I the proceeded to solder all the original connectors to the rest of the wires, the tedious task started to route them from their location to the firewall connectors, I'm pretty sure I went thru about 40 small cable ties just to get this as I wanted. This coming week I'll add the insolation and braiding on the loom. I must say, spending the time to create a decent I/O table with wiring colour etc. really aids when wiring the management as a lot of the items can only be used on certain inputs or outputs, again RTFM (Read the F*&king Manual)

Odds and Ends:

Last week I spend a lot of time in front of the computer to design a few new parts, like redesigning the Oil breather bottle and Fuel Surge Tank. Then I also designed a bracket for mounting the coils next to the motor to keep the wires as sort as possible and out of my way, as I hate seeing wires, with this I also designed a nice heat shield that will be covered in some yellow heat barrier that will bolt to the bottom of the bracket to keep the exhaust heat away. Since the hydraulic handbrake found its final destination, i was also able to find a mounting place for the brake bios adjuster and designed a mounting bracket for it to hide all the stuff I do not want to see.

5 November 2011 – Assembly II & Wiring







The last 2 weekends was used to assemble, de assemble assembled parts, making a few new ones in the engine bay and started with the wiring and brake pipes. These above mentioned weekends must also be ones that I probably worked the most hours on the car, on average going to bed at 12:30 in the mornings only to be and going at it again at 7 o'clock in the mornings again, it must have something to do with the fact that at least I can see some good progress on the car and just want to spend more time getting it done, then also it could be due to the fact that wiring is just one of that things in live that can get my blood boiling very quickly if it is in my way and not neat, so I'm spending a lot of time doing it my way. These wires is basically assembled in the following way, measure, gather, route, crimp, solder, isolate, isolate, isolate again, route, fasten with bloody clips costing R10 a pop, but at least it is neat and done my way.

Wiring












I'm quite fortunate to have a friend in the Auto electrical business, which is my sole supplier for all the needed goodies when it comes to the wires, etc. The wiring is going to cost me a arm and a leg due to the way I'm doing it, but rather safe than it going out in a fire ball. I visited Henk and the 2 of us but together a bunch of parts to get the job going, from wires, insulation material, crimps, battery cut-off, etc. I started with the battery cables, seeing that these thick wires is a real pain in the arse to work with and wanted to get them done, in the process I also added a power socket to jump the car if the small battery runs out of juice, this was mounted away from the seats as I would hate myself if battery acid from jump cables destroyed my seats. Then the real work started with the rear light wiring, seeing as this would be the easiest and best way to get all the wires routed to the back and the neatest, the plan was to use a 7 core cable to the rear fastened along the curves of the shell to the rear and then strap another loom for the pumps etc. to the 7 core cable. With the 7 core cable in place, I had a very good idea of the length of wires needed, decided on the exact routing for the wires to the different components in the rear and started to cut the desired lengths from the reals of wire provided. Once all this was in place, I isolated them to make a loom with wire cloth tape and then covered that with some nylon braided insolation with pieces of heat shrink at the ends, this provides more than adequate insolation for the looms and looks neat. With the second loom fastened temporarily in place, I started adding connectors to the loom and for each fuel pump, which in future would make replacing or removing easer. The wiring on the gearbox was also done, who could ever think that wiring up a reverse light switch, neutral switch, speed sensor and oil temp sensor and then add 4 connectors could take 2 hours, due to the nature of me being very anal when it comes to wires, this is a reality.







Next on the list was to get the cable in place which will run from the battery cut off switch to the starter, a hole and a grommet further it was in place, but due to the location of the cut-off switch not 100% decided on the final product will have to wait until the seats is in place and further planning can be done. The same method for routing the wires to the front was used as in the back, 7 core cable fasten to shell via the damn R10 a pop clamps, why must all the good stuff in life cost so much money, R10 may not sound like a lot of money to some, but if you will need more than 30 of these mentioned clamps to keep wires, fuel lines and brake lines from vibrating themselves to pieces it adds up, ok enough of this rant. This cable will be used for the front park and indicator lights, then it was decided to run a separate loom with wires for the H4 Headlights, 2 sets of spot lights, hooter, fan and fan switch. All of this was isolated in the same way as the rear looms, but it is routed via a grommet to seal all the badness from interring the cabin, getting these looms thru the grommet was no easy feat. The fuse/relay box will be located on the passenger side, which means that currently all wiring is routed there, I'll be using modular fuse and relay blocks, what makes these units so special is that you can add different blocks together to make your own box, very nifty stuff to work with. Next will be to get all the connectors in place and then start with the management wiring, what a job is waiting for me, especially if you are like me and likes making everything in life difficult. Very early during the project when I had to remove a A14 motor and reinstall it in another vehicle that there must be an easier way to manage wires on a motor, after a long search and stealing a few ideas from the top rally teams, it was decided to use Deutsch HD connectors on the firewall, this will enable me to loosen 1 or 2 connectors that houses all wiring going to the engine and gearbox.

Assembly
When the wiring did not receive my concentration the new parts in the engine bay did, you may think why in the hell is this oke jumping around from one area to the next, well the answer is easy, after a few hours crawling around between a roll cage routing and installing wiring your back really start to give in on you, the reason why I prefer to take a break between wires and other work.







The thermostat housing was the first part that got some attention, firstly we wanted to mount it to the motor, with the plan made 100% on paper, we quickly installed the motor just to make sure it would work in real life, well as can be expected a better plan than the one on paper was discovered. One bracket later the housing was installed on the chassis just before the radiator, we had to make a new adaptor plate to get the pipes routed the way we wanted and enable us to keep bypass outlet in the system as the manufacturers intended.







Seeing that the motor was in place, it was a good idea to figure a way out to reuse the original front wheel drive intake as a temporary solution until the ITB's find their way to the side of the head. A few pencil marks further and the throttle body flange was off and a new blank off plate made, it took as a few cuts to get the new front open big enough to not distract air flow and the correct angle to fit a filter to it. A few aluminium welds will sort it out and a blast with a few sand grains will have it looking new again.









Next on the list was the oil filter, at this point you may ask yourself, why do you need to spend time on an oil filter well, remember I like making life difficult for myself, but in the bigger picture it was decided to use an oil thermostat, due to the short idling periods before a gymkhana run. The unit in question is a "Greddy Grex Oil Filter Mount with Thermostat", now that we have that out of the way, I just call it the filter bracket. This thing must have been designed for some other application had a few challenges in regards with the in and out oil pipes, well after playing around with different location etc. it was mounted to the driver’s side shock turret. At least it is now mounted in such a way that oil running out of it when the filter is replaced could be caught in a small bucket. I must say, besides the long name and weird layout of the in and out pipe fittings, this is quite a nifty piece of kit.



Then between some more wiring we started with the fuel cell remote filler, I decided to add another bit of weight just because I hate it to refill a car and half a litre of fuel run out of the nozzle or can when tilting it. I had a nice bracket laser cut for the Jazz Remote filler which just needed a few bends and then some side plates welded to it to form a bucket to catch any fuel spillage. This also meant that the original filler on the tank will be removed to catch some of the dust floating in the garage with a new flange.



Since my brake parts arrived from the States, on this subject I just want to add, I am tired of companies in South Africa that still need to look up the words customer service in the dictionary and then to make things worse, promise parts in 5 business days to only find that it would take 3 months to source it internally, yes I'm talking about you okes at Imperial Nissan located in Voortrekker Road Parow. One email further and a private individual running a business has these parts in stock in his store room, come on Nissan SA, if private people is better supplying Genuine Nissan parts than Nissan themselves, I don't know what happened to your society. The same with the brake parts, companies like advertising there great products, but when it comes to provide more information on the said products, the amount of words leaves me speechless and rather hitting Google to import it myself. 9 out of 10 times it is either cheaper, the same price to get better quality parts from the other side of the water than struggling with South African businesses. Hit Google my friends there are a lot more out there than the local okes wants us to believe. Ok back to the brakes, seeing that my parts arrived I made a few brackets for the chassis fittings and bend the front and rear brake lines after the T. When the gearbox is in place and I have figured out the location for the hydraulic handbrake the lines to the rear and new clutch slave cylinder can be done.



I also started mounting the switches to the steering wheel, to command the DASH2 Lcd screen and LINK ECU.