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.

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.

21 January 2012 – Rear Firewall & Assembly VI






It has been a very frantic week running around for parts and work to be done, but I managed to get to the most of it. Part of this driving around like a mad chicken was picking up my Cyclone wheels, these have been widened to 8J to fit the 205/60 R13 rubber better and fill the arches, seeing that the racing rims is 8J wide. Also in the post was a set of harnesses. Hopefully the coming week I can receive the first batch of lazer-cutting for the year.




On arrival Friday, I started final assembly of the fluid containers in the engine bay, hopefully this will be the last time they are removed as I'm quite done with all sorts of parts hanging around and not fastened to the car. Afterwards, I spend some time with Ignition parts for my brothers Datsun 1200 which kept me busy for quite some time. Just before the morning hours dawned on me, I just had to at least look at the mounting points for the harnesses.

Saturday morning started early with the rear firewall, I have never before walked back and forth between car and workbench like this before, remove 1mm here fit, just to walk back and remove 1 on the other side, this kept us busy for quite some time. Then it was time to fit the supports to the firewall which comprised of 25x2mm Aluminium angle, these also acted as the mounting point for 2 other plates to cover the majority of the whole in the rear.








The rest of the evening was used to manufacture a feed line between power-steering pump and reservoir.











Sunday was all about adding the finishing touches to the aluminium parts and to mount as much as possible. First in line was sanding the alu parts with 150 grit paper attached to the orbital sander to add a brush finish, I must admit, it looks great, but will be a bugger to keep clean, then again, I can just slide the sander over the parts again and it would be clean, let's see how it goes in the years to come.










After drives in a A6 and N rally car last year, I fell in love with harnesses made by a company called Schroth, being the most comfortable and easily adjustable harnesses I've ever used, partly due to the fact that they are some of the only FIA approved 3" shoulder and 2" lap&crotch variants out there, I just had to find a place that sells them, that didn't take long and a set of Profi-II 6 point units were in the post.






After spending some time under the power-steering rack, kicking and swearing at it endlessly, it was decided that the coming weekend will be used to redesign the brackets as the current ones work great, but aint that great when it comes to removing it. The power-steering cooler was designed, hopefully they can bend the 10-mm Bundi tubing this week as my handheld bender isn't strong enough to bend the tubing. Afterwards the sealer was whipped out and the assembly started again, first the spacers for the centre console, then the rear firewall and fuel cell spacers and finally the steering column dust cover.

Nice progress.

About the Cressida rack & pinion, how did you narrow it to the required width? Or is your custom suspension using wider LCA pivot points?

Basically just cut the rack ends and threaded it further to the rack side. Keep in mind, the track on the car is considerable wider than standard, talking about +-1510mm hub outer face to outer face.

Madness all the way through :)

The cyclone wheels all steel? weight?

Love to have a steering rack, world away from stock.

I had to wipe the drool off my face after looking over the fabrication work and build notes.

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The Cyclone wheels are all steel and crap heavy, luckily they will only be used on the street.

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The last couple of weekends I were wiping away the sweat around me eyes as a heat wave was trying to kill us.

4 February 2012 – Assembly VII














It's been a busy week or two with organizing and gathering parts, it seems that always to the end of a phase there is all this little bits and pieces missing that was either never thought of or was to minor to be on any list or radar, but well, I'm at that point now. Since the last update I've managed to do the wiring on the centre console, clean the throttle body and thermostat housing, the rear lights have also been stripped completely, plated all metal parts, polished the outer chrome surrounds and replaced all the old sealing rubber. Enough Redline MT-90 arrived to keep any SR20DET(FS5W71C) happy for many years to come with the power levels intended for it. Also managed to get another hi pressure pipe made up and sourced some fittings and banjo bolts, just a heads up, M12x1 Banjo bolts is scary expensive, be warned. I nearly had a heart attack when they mailed the invoice. I also found a upholsterer that I'm happy with and tasked him to make me a set of dust covers for the rear shocks, they turned out exactly as expected, but then again how difficult is it if the customer provide you with a complete template.






Just after arrival at the car on Friday, I immediately started disassemble on the nose, as I forgot a very important piece of the puzzle was missing, thus also provided me the opportunity the make an anti-vibration plate for the hi pressure line from the power steering pump. The rest of the evening was used to install a new oil line and install the newly cleaned thermostat housing, radiator and all relevant water pipes. Guess what I will fill on my next visit.








Saturday morning I was tasked to wet sand one of the widened road wheels for a final coat, this kept me busy for far too long. I also decided to add a coat or 3 of clear lacquer over the centre console as it will be exposed to a lot of touching with dirty hands. After this was done, work started on installing the steering rack with the new brackets, all flex lines routed and fastened and hopefully I'll not have to remove it quickly again, I'll do it with a smile if the time comes for the shiny pistons and rods. Next in line was the belly plate/sump guard, due to the kind of events this car will be used primarily, decided to install a decent guard as pavements is a part of 80% of the venues, the item was made from 3mm hot rolled plate bend to the exact angles needed to clear the sump, it also have some reinforcements to the side in the event it takes a serious beating with a hard object. I also decided to make a few holes in the front of it, this will enable cold air to enter the bottom of the engine bay and cool the aluminium sump also, see it as another oil cooler.

Our Gymkhana organizer (I hope he reads this) always have the saying during drivers briefing; If you have to decide between a 0.5sec faster round or a safe round, choose the safe option. We’ll let me just say, with this guard, I'll pick the faster round and if something not that safe happens, at least my engine will be safe.








The rest of the evening was used to install the power steering fluid cooler and fan.












Sunday morning started with the installation of the front apron and making sure the cooler does not interfere and more of the pipe work completed. Next on the list was to finish the brake lines, these was routed and fastened to stay out of the wheels, then just to make 100% sure they will last longer, some extra insulation was added in the form of spiral bind.






The afternoon was used install the rear shock dust covers, a few templates further and I had a set fastening plates cut from 2mm Aluminium plate to the exact profile of the openings, then the job started to get them and the covers in place with some sealer, never again will I attempt this again in summer, it turned out to be a nightmare due to the heat waves that we are experiencing in the Western Cape. I'm very happy with the final outcome of them.










The final little bit of time was used to remove the tappet cover for some TLC, this will include closing the whole for the PCV valve which will not be used and to replace the outlet pipe with a AN10 socket. Afterwards it will be prepped for dome VHT Wrinkle Plus Black paint.

Seeing that the majority of mechanical work is done, the coming weekend will be used to fit the doors and windows, I know some spacers on the door hinges will be needed. Hopefully in the coming weekends I will be able to bring the car back home.

Awesome. Love this build. Do you have dimensions or template of bash plate? I need to make one too, want it to the bottom of x member.

Toyed around with flat floor idea as a skid plate almost too lol.