# The Reptile!!!



## pauluspaolo

Well I've done it again & bought yet another slightly dubious example of British low volume car manufacturing prowess. Not content with owning a Midas Bronze for 9 years, & then, some years later, a Chris Hollier Mosquito for a rather briefer period of time, I've gone out & bought myself a Reliant Scimitar SS1. Powered by a Ford 1600cc CVH overhead cam engine (as used in the Escort XR3 & XR3i) it goes pretty well & handles nicely too (even on soggy tyres & bouncy tired shock absorbers :blink: ). For those who don't know these cars have a steel backbone chassis from which is hung a variety of plastic/glassfibre panels (none of which fit particularly well). Unfortunately the sills are a bit dodgy on this one (a common complaint of early examples of the breed & later cars were galvanised to combat this), therefore my short term plans are to get these replaced with a new set (from the Scimitar specialist Graham Walker) & then get the running gear (shock absorbers, bushes, brakes, steering etc) replaced/refurbished as required.

Longer term plans involve replacing the CVH engine (about 90bhp I think) with a 2 litre twin cam 16v Zetec engine (about 130bhp I think). These are normally only found in front wheel drive Fords (Mondeo's, Escorts etc) but they're a popular engine with the kit car crowd & can be converted fairly easily to rear wheel drive. I've already found an engine & I'm planning to use the existing SS1 gearbox which, I'm assured, will bolt straight up to the Zetec - but only after buying a suitable flywheel/clutch assembly first of course. Hopefully I can avoid the expense of having to buy a pair of Weber carbs (+ suitable manifold) by using fuel injection. Due to the lack of space under the bonnet of the SS1 this will have to be made from a combination of parts from other Fords. By using a MK1 Mondeo ECU (anyone have lying around :huh I can bypass the passive security (the ignition key has a chip in it keyed to the ignition barrel) that Ford built into the later ECU's. Anyway I have a long shopping list - of which the engine is the simplest part to find - wish me luck please as I'll need it!!

Anyway here's a picture of "the reptile" (as it's been christened by the mechanics at the garage I use). I suspect that this project will take much of my watch budget so I'll probably not have anything new to show the forum for a while - I'll probably end up trading/selling a few. I'll keep you all up to date (if you want to hear about it!!!) with any progress made.


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## blackandgolduk

Awesome! A guy round the corner from me when I was growing up had one. I could never make up my mind whether I liked it or not but came to the conclusion that it was better looking than the FIAT X19 that another neighbour had. I believe Princess Anne had one in which she was done for speeding!


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## thunderbolt

Haven't seen one of them for a long time. Good luck with the rebuild/mods. :thumbsup:


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## Guest

blackandgolduk said:


> I believe Princess Anne had one in which she was done for speeding!


Nah, she got done in a Scimitar alright, but not a SS1. According to whatever source you read she had between 8 & 10 Scimitar GTE's over the years.

I've never been in a SS1 but I hear that the handling on a properly set up one is exquisite.

That should be a real fire breathing monster when you finish it :thumbsup:


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## DAVID

Hi Paul:

Remember these from my Scimitar days, didn't they also come with the Nissan 1.8 turbo from the Silvia/200Sx ?

Might be easier to find as they are tough engines and most cars will have succumbed to rust by now.

Also seem to remember there was a Mk 2 version that had some styling tweaks?

Have to say the Scimitar club was brilliant, although BITD the SS1 was rather looked down on, doubt thats the case these days.

Has a rare hardtop as well by the look of it.

Best of luck with the rebuild,

D.


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## pauluspaolo

Many thanks for the positives chaps. Yes there was a version powered by the Nissan Sylvia turbo (remember those??) engine - good for 130bhp & about 130mph in the small & light Scimitar. All of the turbo's had a galvanised chassis so there are quite a few out there still, they're a rare sight on the road though ... or at least they are round Leeds! The 200sx twin cam turbo engine was developed from the single cam Sylvia turbo but I've no idea if the twin cam will fit. I know for a fact that the Zetec will fit & mate up to my existing gearbox, plus I don't really want any of the heat/reliability problems that a turbo installation may bring with it.

There were a couple of restyled versions which came after mine (even I'm not that keen on the styling of mine & I've bought one :blink:!!) which looked quite a bit better. I think the last version ended up with Rover K series power & is quite a rare/sought after car. Never mind the styling though the best part of the SS1 is the way it goes (even in 1600cc form it's not particularly slow) & handles. Mine still handles well but should be transformed with new shock absorbers & a set of polyurethane wishbone/anti-roll bar bushes.

I've not joined the club yet but plan to do so next payday - there's a discussion/sales forum on the Scimweb pages which is proving very useful indeed as a source of both parts & advice. Forums are great places really when you think about it


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## Mrcrowley

pauluspaolo said:


> Many thanks for the positives chaps. Yes there was a version powered by the Nissan Sylvia turbo (remember those??) engine - good for 130bhp & about 130mph in the small & light Scimitar. All of the turbo's had a galvanised chassis so there are quite a few out there still, they're a rare sight on the road though ... or at least they are round Leeds! The 200sx twin cam turbo engine was developed from the single cam Sylvia turbo but I've no idea if the twin cam will fit. I know for a fact that the Zetec will fit & mate up to my existing gearbox, plus I don't really want any of the heat/reliability problems that a turbo installation may bring with it.
> 
> There were a couple of restyled versions which came after mine (even I'm not that keen on the styling of mine & I've bought one :blink:!!) which looked quite a bit better. I think the last version ended up with Rover K series power & is quite a rare/sought after car. Never mind the styling though the best part of the SS1 is the way it goes (even in 1600cc form it's not particularly slow) & handles. Mine still handles well but should be transformed with new shock absorbers & a set of polyurethane wishbone/anti-roll bar bushes.
> 
> I've not joined the club yet but plan to do so next payday - there's a discussion/sales forum on the Scimweb pages which is proving very useful indeed as a source of both parts & advice. Forums are great places really when you think about it


Remember Sylvia-nice.

That looks good Paul - better than ones I seen!


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## JonW

Looks like a good buy mate. Gotta love these old motors with simple running gear  keep us posted. we love a good saga


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## Chippychap

catflem said:


> blackandgolduk said:
> 
> 
> 
> I believe Princess Anne had one in which she was done for speeding!
> 
> 
> 
> Nah, she got done in a Scimitar alright, but not a SS1. According to whatever source you read she had between 8 & 10 Scimitar GTE's over the years.
> 
> I've never been in a SS1 but I hear that the handling on a properly set up one is exquisite.
> 
> That should be a real fire breathing monster when you finish it :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

During the Princess Anne malarkey the newspapers made a big fuss of the Scimitars rear windscreen wiper (they mustn't get out much)

saying "the rear windscreen wiper was not of much use, as she was travelling forwards at the time"

I think you've got us hooked Paul, looking forward to following the progress of the Reptile


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## DAVID

Just back from a day at Shelsey Walsh hillclimb.

Scimitar club was invited and a nice pair of SS1 were tackling the hill, and yes , both had Zetec power by the look of it.

Cooling on these engines is critical apparently, shortage of space for ancilliaries is a problem, and to fit a Kenlowe needs some minor radiator surgery.

However they are easily avaliable, reliable and some serious power can be extracted.

I took a few pics, will post them if the quality is up to par.

D.


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## pauluspaolo

I was hoping to go to Harewood House hillclimb yesterday, not only to watch the racing but also to walk through the paddock/pits area. I was hoping to find a few neat Zetec installations to look at, take photo's of & get a few ideas from  I ended up going to the York Designer Outlet  where we stayed indoors on a beautiful day :taz:!!! Still I did do some work on the car when I got back & managed to install the manual window winding gear (which I bought to replace the defunct passengers side electric window). Fitting it was a complete b**ch as there's very little space inside a door for manouvering tools, parts etc! But, with the help of my girlfriend, we managed to get it fitted & I now have two working windows in the SS1  Both manual wind but it keeps things simple - the less electrickery powered items I have to worry about the better!!

I look forward to seeing the pics David even if they aren't up to par! I fitted a PaceT fan to the Chris Hollier Mosquito I used to own - this was a rear engined buggy that used a Mini engine fitted at the back of the car & out of any direct airflow. When I got the car it had serious overheating problems (due to a shagged engine, radiator & fan) but after we'd fitted a new radiator, PaceT fan (and a new engine ) we had no problems with overheating at all. Fitting the fan was a doddle as well (without any surgery needed to the new radiator) so I think that this is the route I'll end up taking. Kenlowe fans are excellent I know but I prefer to stick with what I've tried & tested already - the Reliant has an electric fan fittted already which works ok, but it's a bit noisy & creaky ........ bit like the rest of the car really :lol:


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## pauluspaolo

Right well - an update on progress with the Zetec engine swap project.

I have bought myself an engine - my friend (the owner of the Mondeo the engine came out of) & I spent 3 Sundays in a row removing it & I finally got it home last Saturday. I spent a couple of hours last night stripping all the stuff off it that I won't need ..... like the inlet manifold/injection system (as this won't fit in the SS1's engine bay)! I also removed the exhaust manifold (which I might well end up using) as it's got a damned great hole in it which some of the emission control gubbins was attached to .......... not sure what it did but I do know that I don't want it (I think :blink so I need to find a damned great bolt & block this. The lambda sensor might actually fit in the hole but I don't really know whether I'll need one or not! I'll also need to get an alternator fitting kit from somewhere, as the alternator's currently mounted to some vast great whale of a mounting, & I'll need the alloy sump from a 1.8 Zetec engined Escort. The Mondeo sump isn't suitable for the SS1 but the Escort one fits fine ... or so I am reliably informed. Westfield also make one but they want over Â£200 for it!

Having just pooh poohed Westfield I'd like to end up with an engine similar to those that are often fitted to their kitcars i.e. a 2.0 Zetec on twin 40 Weber carburettors or possibly bike carbs. There are a couple of bike carb sets on eBay at the moment that are jetted for the 2.0 Zetec but they don't have the manifold with them .... which is not a cheap bit of kit. Twin 40 carbs, if bought new, will come to well over Â£600 - which is beyond my budget at the moment! I'll probably end up using the carb & manifold from the 1600 CVH engine that's already in the car. The carb will have to be rejetted for a 2 litre but this is, apparently quite a simple - & reatively cheap - job. The inet manifold from the CVH engine will fit the Zetec by using an adaptor available from Ferriday engineering. This set up should give me 140(ish)bhp which quite a hike from the 90(ish)bhp that the current engine churns out!

Other jobs to do include: uprating the brakes (very neccessary) with Metro turbo vented discs & 4 pot calipers, I've bought these already & will try & fit them this weekend; fitting harder polyurethane suspension bushes (I've ordered these but they haven't arrived yet), after that it'll be new shock absorbers all round (not cheap). Sometime in between all this lot I'll be shunting the car over to the garage where I'm going to be having the new sills fitted. Also, having seen pictures of an accident that someone had in their SS1 where it ended up upside down & sliding along the road  I think a roll bar would be a good investement too! I'd also like to change the rubbish wheels & get some decent tyres too!!

No pics yet as all there is to see is the engine & that's not very exciting too look at - it might be when I've finished cleaning/painting it though!

It should be a busy few months I think!! :blink:


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## Ventura

Can't wait to see it when it's done mate.


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## Guest

Significant progress indeed.

Keep at it and don't let the b*****d beat you................. the winters a tough time for projects though.

Are you working on it indoors or outdoors ?


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## steve309

Looking forward to seeing the piccies of this, keep up the good work.


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## pauluspaolo

catflem said:


> Significant progress indeed.
> 
> Keep at it and don't let the b*****d beat you................. the winters a tough time for projects though.
> 
> Are you working on it indoors or outdoors ?


Indoors - double garage  - plenty of space (I'm sure I'll fill it :blink:!) but no heating so I'll just have to wrap up warm & stay busy.

Many thanks for all the encouragement & I'll keep you posted on any further progress :thumbup:


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## JonW

Brilliant news! Sounds like its gonna be great 

Get a cheap gas heater off the bay, then flog it on after


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## Guest

Who needs heaters, all those spanners slipping on rounded off bolts, the trickles of blood will keep you warm.

It's nice to be out of the rain though, and not having to lie on wet floors. I always make sure I have an old roll of lino and some cardboard boxes to lie on .............. christ, I sound like I'm homeless.


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## pauluspaolo

catflem said:


> Who needs heaters, all those spanners slipping on rounded off bolts, the trickles of blood will keep you warm.
> 
> It's nice to be out of the rain though, and not having to lie on wet floors. I always make sure I have an old roll of lino and some cardboard boxes to lie on .............. christ, I sound like I'm homeless.


I have a big sheet of cardboard under the car already to catch all the oil drips .... of which there are quite a few (in the grand British tradition). To avoid lying on the cold floor & I have a roll of old carpet! Give me a pipe & some slippers & I'll be in the very lap of luxury!! 

I fitted new seals & stainless steel pistons to my Metro turbo brake calipers yesterday! Now I have to pluck up the courage & take the front end of the Scimitar apart in order to fit them  I know they're frowned upon by some (most??) but I've always found Haynes manuals useful & I really wish I had one for guidance (if nothing else). All I have is a slightly dubious exploded diagram of the front suspension to help me out. Ahh well it'll keep me off the streets if nothing else!! Anyone fancy coming to Leeds to help me bleed the brakes?? No doubt the air above Leeds will be blue on Saturday :lol:

Wish me luck please!!


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## pg tips

pauluspaolo said:


> Right well - an update on progress with the Zetec engine swap project.
> 
> The lambda sensor might actually fit in the hole but I don't really know whether I'll need one or not!


Sounds like your having a ball Paul 

regards the lambda (02) sensor, if your ditching the FI and putting carbs on it you won't need the sensor.

Is the hole in the exhaust the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valve fitting? If so you won't need that either, total PIA, I wish the things had never been invented.


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## jasonm

Just seen this thread!

Great stuff Paul,good luck and keep us updated,


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## pauluspaolo

pg tips said:


> pauluspaolo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Right well - an update on progress with the Zetec engine swap project.
> 
> The lambda sensor might actually fit in the hole but I don't really know whether I'll need one or not!
> 
> 
> 
> Sounds like your having a ball Paul
> 
> regards the lambda (02) sensor, if your ditching the FI and putting carbs on it you won't need the sensor.
> 
> Is the hole in the exhaust the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valve fitting? If so you won't need that either, total PIA, I wish the things had never been invented.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that PG - I'll more than likely be ditching the fuel injection & fitting a carb (maybe bike carbs or twin Webers later on ....... who knows :huh. I'm not sure whether I'll need the lambda sensor or not as there's no distributor on the Zetec so I'll some sort of aftermarket ecu to control/distribute the sparks generated in the coilpack. This ecu takes, I believe, information from various sensors fitted to the engine. If I do need it then the Mondeo's lambda sensor is still in the exhaust back at my friends house - maybe I'd better go & get it?? As for the hole in the exhaust manifold I'm pretty sure you're right & that it's for the EGR stuff (which I've now removed) but I still need to get it plugged with something 

Many thanks for all the encouragement - I'll keep you posted :thumbup:


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## Guest

pauluspaolo said:


> pg tips said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> pauluspaolo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Right well - an update on progress with the Zetec engine swap project.
> 
> The lambda sensor might actually fit in the hole but I don't really know whether I'll need one or not!
> 
> 
> 
> Sounds like your having a ball Paul
> 
> regards the lambda (02) sensor, if your ditching the FI and putting carbs on it you won't need the sensor.
> 
> Is the hole in the exhaust the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valve fitting? If so you won't need that either, total PIA, I wish the things had never been invented.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> but I still need to get it plugged with something
Click to expand...

Try a spark plug.


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## JonW

Anything will do to plug it, but it would be more useful with a lambda I would think...

Bleeding brakes its easy with a 35quid kit you can get from bike shops that you use to hand pump a vaccum to pull thru the fluid... easy peasy one person job... and far better than those usual one man kits.


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## pauluspaolo

Another update:

I worked on the car last Saturday but didn't have much joy with it at all ! I was intending to fit my new calipers & vented discs, to fit these I removed the old caliper & hub nut, so that I could remove the drive flange/disc brake/bearing assembly from the stub axle. I got as far as removing both the caliper & hub nut before it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to offer up the new disc to the hub to make sure it'd fit. I very soon found out that there's no way the discs will fit so I had no option but to put everything back together again :taz: The good news though is that the calipers will fit fine 

The upshot of all this is that I've had to order another set of vented discs from Graham Walker (Scimitar specialist) at Â£50 each + vat & delivery !! I got some uprated polyurethane bushes in the post today (they're in the pic I've posted in the Friday thread), these will replace the ancient rubber bushes in the front upper wishbones, but to fit these the front supension will need dismantling completely which will be a long job that I'm not particularly looking forward to. Doing it though means that I can strip the rust from the suspension arms, examine them thoroughly as they have a tendency to rust through (with disastrous consequences!!) & give them a lick of paint while I've got them off the car. When I've got the suspension back together I'll fit the uprated brake calipers & discs. The new bushes should transform the cars handling, while the brakes probably won't feel that different to how they feel now but they'll be much more resistant to heat build up & fade.

After all that I'll start on the back end which shouldn't be as bad/expensive to sort out - the brakes can be left as they are & it's apparently very rare for the rear suspension bushes to need replacing. I'd like to clean/paint the rear suspension arms though so there will be some dismantling involved 

As far as the engine goes well I'm still gathering the bits I need to fit to it so that it'll work in a rear wheel drive car. I've got the neccesary oil pick-up pipe, windage tray (not sure what this does :blink:!), new dipstick tube & dipstick - all I need now is a suitable sump ... which I hope to get soon. Then I'll need to fit a suitable flywheel/clutch assembly (which should also arrive soon) & I'll need to make/buy some new alternator mounts as well. That'll see the engine taken as far as I can until it's been fitted in the car ....... which will be the next big hurdle to overcome. After the engine's in (it all sounds so simple!) I'll need an ecu to control the ignition/sparks side of things, a fuel system (carb(s?), manifold, fuel pump, filter, inertia switch (so that the fuel supply's cut off in the event of an accident), pressure regulator etc) then I'll need a very long arm so that I can light the blue touch paper from a safe distance!!!

No piccies unfortunately but I'll take some next time I'm working on the thing ..... wish me luck


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## JonW

Good luck Paul! 

Shame about the disks... Had the same thing happen to me as well on a few upgrade projects, thems the breaks 

The bushes will make a huge differece imho, but its strange not to do the back as well... are you sure thats right?

The disks will make a difference actually, well more likley if youre fitting braided hoses (which you should) and fully bleading the system it will feel rejuvinated 

A windage tray stops your oil flowing down to the pickup and stop it moving away from the pickup under cornering AFAIK.

The engine project sounds a lot of fun. I added 4 extra injectors to my 16v golf and ran then off a seperate ECU with all the gizmos, well fun 

Looking forward to pics


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## pauluspaolo

Cheers Jon - these things are sent to try us I suppose. I'm sure it won't be the last time I find that parts I've bought for the thing won't fit - hopefully I won't find this out with the new engine - though I'm sure it won't be as easy as everyone says it is with all sorts of problems to overcome!!

I've not done anything on the car today other than take it out for a quick blast round some roundabouts near me  I took my friend out in it (he thinks I'm mad to be spending all this time, effort & money on it) though after he'd been out in it he was beginning to see the appeal of it I think. It's not a serious car at all & so it's huge compared to todays souless ultra efficient modern cars (he still thinks I could have got an MX5 for a similar cost though - he's probably right I suppose).

Due to the state of the sills I've not driven the car much recently but my intention is to drive it much more often once I've got the new ones fitted. In order to work on the car I have to keep jacking it up on the existing sills & they don't exacty inspire confidence  so the sooner they're changed the better. I use axle stands & the trolley jack when I'm working underneath it.

It'll be a while before I get chance to work on it again but I'll keep you all posted on any progress I make


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## pauluspaolo

Well another update & it's a case of one step forward & about three steps back 

I've got the front hub/drive flange off & I've fitted my vented disc  however I now have nothing left to fit it to !.

Whilst the hub/drive flange was off the car it was my intention to have a look at the bearings (which look ok thank goodness ), give the upright a lick of paint to make it look a bit prettier, remove the wishbone, fit my brand new polyurethane bushes & then treat the wishbone with rust preventer (POR15 or some such) & then paint it. I'm working on the drivers side front suspension by the way & will have the passengers side to do after I've got this side sorted out !

The problem(s) I've encountered is that the long bolt that holds the upper wishbone to the chassis is seized solid within the wishbone. I suspect that the bolt's welded itself to the metal inner core of the existing bushes; hence when I try to turn the bolt it tries to turn the bushes which in turn moves the suspension arm up or down depending on which way I'm trying to turn the bolt. I've attached a picture & circled the bolt in question - hopefully it'll make sense to you. The suspension's quite advanced & features inboard shock absorbers & proper upper/lower wishbones with the coil spring sandwiched between them. Also the lower wishbone has two mounting points one of the bolts has come out without a problem but the other again has rusted to the inner sleeve of the bush & when I've turned the bolt this has sheared off inside the bush meaning that the bolt just rotates without coming out.

My only option, I think, is to get the angle grinder onto the offending bolts & try to chop them out in sections. I'll obviously need new bolts but given the state that the existing ones are likely to be in (even if I could get them out), I'd have to replace them anyway. When I reassemble it I'm going to smother everything I can in copperslip (anti-seize compound). It's a mystery to me why people don't use it in the first place as it takes no real time to apply & it's a godsend when dismantling old cars.

This is what happens when a car is left unused - things get rusty, seize & become sods to dismantle :taz: :cry2: Oh well it is a long term project after all


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## Guest

I had the same problem with a Scimitar Trunnion. I ended up having to squeeze a hacksaw blade inboard of the wishbone and spent many a p****d off hour hacksawing away.

Just keep telling yourself that it'll all be worth it in the end.


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## Robert

I wish I had the patience and skills to do this. The closest I came was taking apart and putting back together a 1976 Midget. Sadly I took apart more than put together and ended up giving it away in a dismantled state.

My problem was I wanted to fix it in the winter and use it in the summer but it wasn't much fun in the garage in the winter.

Soaking seized bolts in vinegar overnight always worked well for me, when it was possible to place it in bowl of course.


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## pauluspaolo

Well here we go an update off sorts â€" not much progress made due to Christmas, New Year, & now theatre duty, getting in the way. But I have done some things & Iâ€™m happy to say that I've finally managed to strip out the front suspension from both sides of the car (though the passengers side lower wishbone is still in place as one of the bolts is seized & will have to be hack sawed off). I'm amazed that the car drove as well as it did as the pivot bolt for the drivers side upper wishbone was (bits of it still are) seized solid in the bushes & I had to hacksaw through it in the end. One of the lower wishbone pivot bolts was in the same state & that had to be hacksawed off as well! The delay of having to deal with these seized bolts meant that stripping the drivers side down took the best part of 2 weeks!! While it only took me 3 hours to get the passengers side into a similar state!!

The wishbones seem solid enough to me - lots of surface rust but no seriously thin spots or holes â€" which is nice to know as these have a tendency to rust through & replacements are hard to find (they can be bought on an exchange basis but they're extortionate). Iâ€™ve strengthened, & painted, the drivers side upper wishbone so itâ€™s pretty much ready to go back on







. I'll be using a new pivot bolt (as I destroyed the old one), new balljoint, poly bushes throughout & masses of copperslip when I reassemble it. I've just started cleaning up the lower one but there's a 4/5 day delay on the replacement poly bushes that I've just ordered. Iâ€™m hoping to get the passengers side upper wishbone strengthened tomorrow, then itâ€™ll be ready for painting which shouldnâ€™t take too long & is something I can do in my lunchtime(s) at work!

After that it'll be the brakes. I'll have already fitted the vented discs while putting the front suspension back together, but I still need some new hoses to replace the existing ones - I'd like braided hoses but may have to get standard rubber ones as my budget is rapidly diminishing!

One of my main worries was that the suspension mounting points, on the main chassis, would be rotten. Well Iâ€™m happy to say that even though they have surface rust they appear, at first prod with a screwdriver, to be pretty solid & sound ..... phew!! At some point in its life the carâ€™s has been waxoiled & undersealed thoroughly so no doubt this has helped protect it. The sills are definitely ropey though - I've got replacements & someone lined up to fit them - so there's probably going to be more rot elsewhere that I can't see

After the suspension & brakes have been sorted I'll try & get the car through the MOT (due in May I think), enjoy the car over summer & then I'll probably start thinking about the engine transplant. I've got most of what I need to convert the Zetec into a configuration suitable for a rear wheel drive car (sump, oil pick up pipe, spigott bearing etc) & now I just need to fit them. However I can do this once the car's back together & there's more room in the garage. I'll probably end up with a megajolt ecu (though I do have the Mondeo one) & use the manifold/carb (rejetted for a 2 litre) from the existing CVH engine ...... at least initially just to test how reliable the whole kit & caboodle is. I'd like to get bike carbs on it ultimately which should give me about 180bhp! The exhaust will have to be a combination of the Zetec manifold & the existing SS1 system until I can afford a better set up.

Iâ€™ve been busy on the interior too & have modified a Hillman Imp steering wheel boss so that I can fit my chunky Momo wheel which feels, & looks, much better than the manky old Reliant one! Iâ€™ve also fitted an alloy ball gearknob which looks great but is bloody cold to use in winter!! Gillian (my partner) bought me some nice alloys as a combined Christmas/birthday present (see pic). Iâ€™ve only trial fitted them (as I need to get some tyres) but I like them - if the hard top was painted black to match the wheels then the car would look fine I think


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## Guest

pauluspaolo said:


> Well here we go an update off sorts â€" not much progress made due to Christmas, New Year, & now theatre duty, getting in the way. But I have done some things & Iâ€™m happy to say that I've finally managed to strip out the front suspension from both sides of the car (though the passengers side lower wishbone is still in place as one of the bolts is seized & will have to be hack sawed off). I'm amazed that the car drove as well as it did as the pivot bolt for the drivers side upper wishbone was (bits of it still are) seized solid in the bushes & I had to hacksaw through it in the end. One of the lower wishbone pivot bolts was in the same state & that had to be hacksawed off as well! The delay of having to deal with these seized bolts meant that stripping the drivers side down took the best part of 2 weeks!! While it only took me 3 hours to get the passengers side into a similar state!!
> 
> The wishbones seem solid enough to me - lots of surface rust but no seriously thin spots or holes â€" which is nice to know as these have a tendency to rust through & replacements are hard to find (they can be bought on an exchange basis but they're extortionate). Iâ€™ve strengthened, & painted, the drivers side upper wishbone so itâ€™s pretty much ready to go back on . I'll be using a new pivot bolt (as I destroyed the old one), new balljoint, poly bushes throughout & masses of copperslip when I reassemble it. I've just started cleaning up the lower one but there's a 4/5 day delay on the replacement poly bushes that I've just ordered. Iâ€™m hoping to get the passengers side upper wishbone strengthened tomorrow, then itâ€™ll be ready for painting which shouldnâ€™t take too long & is something I can do in my lunchtime(s) at work!
> 
> After that it'll be the brakes. I'll have already fitted the vented discs while putting the front suspension back together, but I still need some new hoses to replace the existing ones - I'd like braided hoses but may have to get standard rubber ones as my budget is rapidly diminishing!
> 
> One of my main worries was that the suspension mounting points, on the main chassis, would be rotten. Well Iâ€™m happy to say that even though they have surface rust they appear, at first prod with a screwdriver, to be pretty solid & sound ..... phew!! At some point in its life the carâ€™s has been waxoiled & undersealed thoroughly so no doubt this has helped protect it. The sills are definitely ropey though - I've got replacements & someone lined up to fit them - so there's probably going to be more rot elsewhere that I can't see
> 
> After the suspension & brakes have been sorted I'll try & get the car through the MOT (due in May I think), enjoy the car over summer & then I'll probably start thinking about the engine transplant. I've got most of what I need to convert the Zetec into a configuration suitable for a rear wheel drive car (sump, oil pick up pipe, spigott bearing etc) & now I just need to fit them. However I can do this once the car's back together & there's more room in the garage. I'll probably end up with a megajolt ecu (though I do have the Mondeo one) & use the manifold/carb (rejetted for a 2 litre) from the existing CVH engine ...... at least initially just to test how reliable the whole kit & caboodle is. I'd like to get bike carbs on it ultimately which should give me about 180bhp! The exhaust will have to be a combination of the Zetec manifold & the existing SS1 system until I can afford a better set up.
> 
> Iâ€™ve been busy on the interior too & have modified a Hillman Imp steering wheel boss so that I can fit my chunky Momo wheel which feels, & looks, much better than the manky old Reliant one! Iâ€™ve also fitted an alloy ball gearknob which looks great but is bloody cold to use in winter!! Gillian (my partner) bought me some nice alloys as a combined Christmas/birthday present (see pic). Iâ€™ve only trial fitted them (as I need to get some tyres) but I like them - if the hard top was painted black to match the wheels then the car would look fine I think


Looking forward to pics mate ,i have a scimmy gte pending for this summer that need a lot of love and a few shackles :lol:


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## pauluspaolo

Hope this works - this is a link to an album of pics on Photobucket showing some of the progress I've made so far. Up to now all I've been doing is dismantling old/seized componenets but, hopefully, I'll be able to start reassembling stuff soon 

http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/paulu.../Reliant%20SS1/

Please let me kow if the link works & opinions are welcome as always


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## pauluspaolo

Oops link needs a password (at least it does for me - obviously I know this password but I'm not about to divulge it to all & sundry ....... sorry!) so by way of compensation here are some of the photo's 










Passengers side front suspension complete before the stripdown started (front of the car is to the left in this pic) - lots of surface rust but everything seems solid. This is good news as the wishbones can rust through &/or crack (note the lack of strengthening bar on the upper wishbone in this photo). Wishbones are available new (or exchange) but they are not cheap!! (edit)


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## pauluspaolo

Passengers side front suspension stripped down & ready to be attacked with the strip n' clean discs & the wire brush. Once that's done I'll apply some rust converter stuff, spray the hard (& not so hard) to reach parts & then apply liberal amounts of hammerite


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## pauluspaolo

Here are both the front uprights stripped down & given a couple of coats of black hammerite (which looks good but chips easily). The front hub bearing/disc assemblies fit on the shiny bits so I didn't want to paint those!


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## pauluspaolo

Here we have both of the upper wishbones - both were suffering from surface rust (see previous pic) but seemed solid. I've had strengthening arms welded to both of them which should allow me to use coilover shock absorbers eventually (when/if funds allow). The wishbone on the right is built up & ready to go back on the car while the one on the left needs another couple of coats of paint & then building up with a new balljoint, poly bushes & pivot bolt.

That's all for now


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## pauluspaolo

Here we have both of the upper wishbones - both were suffering from surface rust (see previous pic) but seemed solid. I've had strengthening arms welded to both of them which should allow me to use coilover shock absorbers eventually (when/if funds allow). The wishbone on the right is built up & ready to go back on the car while the one on the left needs another couple of coats of paint & then building up with a new balljoint, poly bushes & pivot bolt.

That's all for now 

Apologies for the double post - don't know what happened there !!


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## JonW

Superb update Paul!

Looking at those wishbones I can see why youd weld on some new steel, they do look a bit weedy. :huh:

Blimey those cars sure knew how to rust, but as you say a bit of brushing, some rust eater and a some paint and it should last many more years 

Slightly scared but the condition of the rubber parts, and love the paint brush holder come brake disk


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## Guest

Lovin it , great thread and pics .Looking forward to getting scimmie gte and your on going progress mate :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

Many thanks for the positives chaps - it all helps as sometimes it's hard to drag myself out to the garage on a cold dark night! Anyway my plan is to work on the car this coming Saturday (unless the other half has other plans) so I should be able to start cleaning & stripping all the old paint/rust/crud off the passengers side (as long as I remember to take the strip 'n' clean discs home!!) & maybe give the drivers side another coat of hammerite - when that's done I can start reassembling stuff .............................. OHHHH YESSSS 

Timetraveller (is that Shaun?) I'm looking forward to seeing your GTE - did you know that Catflem has a couple of GTE's?

:thumbup:


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## Guest

pauluspaolo said:


> Timetraveller, I'm looking forward to seeing your GTE - did you know that Catflem has a couple of GTE's?


We've exchanged a few PM's on the subject - the good news as far as the GTE's are concerned is that they weren't particularly worried about saving weight, consequently the components are more substantial.

Winter projects are horrible, spring will soon be here and the work should become far more enjoyable................ depending of course on the task in hand


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## pauluspaolo

Another small update.

It was my intention to recondition the lower wishbones today - fit uprated poly bushes (with stainless steel sleeves), new pivot bolts & new balljoints. Each wishbone has one front & one rear bush (2 bushes per wishbone) I removed the two front bushes comparatively easily, but the two rear bushes were a complete nightmare  as you can see from the picture!! I had to hack them out of each wishbone & removing them took me about 4 hours! The new poly bushes come in 3 parts - outer stainless steel sleeve, the actual bush (blue in colour) & the inner stainless steel sleeve. I should also point out that all four of the stainless steel outer sleeves need pressing in - I use my bench vice. The outer sleeves for the two rear bushes pressed in easily, but when I started pressing in one of the front bush outer sleeves the wishbone started to distort, partly due to the design of the wishbone at that point & partly because the sleeves are designed to a bloody tight fit :taz: !! Not wanting to pay Â£300 for a new wishbone I decided to leave it for another day & moved on to the easy job of undercoating the passengers side upper wishbone. This should be dry enough tomorrow for the top coat & once it's dry I can fit the new bushes (these ones are easy to fit), pivot bolt & balljoint & then it'll be ready to go back on the car.


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## jasonm

Blimey Paul, 10 / 10 for persevering 

Especially in this weather 

Keep them coming mate, great reading....


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## Guest

pauluspaolo said:


> Another small update.
> 
> It was my intention to recondition the lower wishbones today - fit uprated poly bushes (with stainless steel sleeves), new pivot bolts & new balljoints. Each wishbone has one front & one rear bush (2 bushes per wishbone) I removed the two front bushes comparatively easily, but the two rear bushes were a complete nightmare  as you can see from the picture!! I had to hack them out of each wishbone & removing them took me about 4 hours! The new poly bushes come in 3 parts - outer stainless steel sleeve, the actual bush (blue in colour) & the inner stainless steel sleeve. I should also point out that all four of the stainless steel outer sleeves need pressing in - I use my bench vice. The outer sleeves for the two rear bushes pressed in easily, but when I started pressing in one of the front bush outer sleeves the wishbone started to distort, partly due to the design of the wishbone at that point & partly because the sleeves are designed to a bloody tight fit  :taz:!! Not wanting to pay Â£300 for a new wishbone I decided to leave it for another day & moved on to the easy job of undercoating the passengers side upper wishbone. This should be dry enough tomorrow for the top coat & once it's dry I can fit the new bushes (these ones are easy to fit), pivot bolt & balljoint & then it'll be ready to go back on the car.


Need any insperation Paul go to the scimmy website forum and have a look at projects :lol:


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## JonW

Eeek... I did the rear swing arms on my TR7V8 years ago and struggled as well. try heating up the arms and cooling the bushes. wortha try as those few thousanths of a mm can help  I also made up a jig of two sockets, a bolt and some washers to pull the bushes and push them in. soap helps for getting em in, but try and find a non salty one for longevity.


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## pauluspaolo

JonW said:


> Eeek... I did the rear swing arms on my TR7V8 years ago and struggled as well. try heating up the arms and cooling the bushes. wortha try as those few thousanths of a mm can help  I also made up a jig of two sockets, a bolt and some washers to pull the bushes and push them in. soap helps for getting em in, but try and find a non salty one for longevity.


Ta for the advice Jon - have managed to fit the bushes with the aid of a large vice that we have here at work  I'm still hoping to start the refit soon but have been delayed somewhat by the snow (it's not really garage weather ) so still have the upper wishbone to finish refurbishing. I then need some pivot bolts for the lower wishbones I had to hacksaw through the original ones!

To add to the delay I got an email yesterday from the company I've ordered my braided brake hoses from saying that they'd been burgled!! Everything, including all outstanding orders waiting to be posted (my brake hoses amongst them) & a variety of customers cars, had been stolen. They've contacted their insurance company & had to reorder everything from their suppliers ..... so it'll probably be weeks before my brake hoses arrive !! If I can get the upper wishbone finished off (& find some bolts) then I should at least be able to start putting the suspension back together & I'll just have to leave the brakes for later ..... means that I probably won't be mobile for a while yet though!!

I've started a thread in the Projects section on the Scimweb forum & do pop in for a look at the other projects every now & then. I like the look of the 360bhp Sabre - to put that into perspective the Sabre weighs in at a ton I think (maybe just over) :blink:!!


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## pauluspaolo

Right then here we have the results of another afternoon spent working in the (very cold) garage. I'm happy to say that the discomfort was worth it as progress has been well & truly made & the drivers side suspension is all back together 

It's not finished yet though & there's still a lot to do: I *MUST NOT* forget to tighten up the wishbone bolts (this can only be done with the weight of the car resting on them i.e. when it's back on all 4 wheels), fit the bearing/hub/disc brake unit, fit the new braided steel brake pipes (no idea how long they'll take to arrive .... if they ever do!), fit the new calipers/bleed the brakes & then fit the new track rod ends that I bought ages ago - the old ones are knackered (as you can see in the pic) but welded on so that I can't even begin to shift them! As soon as the car's back on its wheels & mobile again I'll need to take it to a garage & get them to apply some proper heat (oxy-acetylene) in the hope that that will free them off!

I'll have a go at doing the other side tonight &, with a bit of luck, I'll get to a similar stage. Getting all the above fitted took me about 3 - 4 hours & the worst (read most terrifying!) bit was compressing the spring enough so that it would fit!!

I'm beginning to see a small glimmer of light


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## pauluspaolo

Another pic - note the loose, knackered & rubber bootless track rod end :blink:

Wish I'd thought to take the anti-roll bar off & paint it as it now looks rusty & naff compared to the rest of the shiny suspension - oh well, that'll be a job for next winter


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## pauluspaolo

Last one for now - sorry it's a bit blurry


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## JonW

Looks great!

If you wanted to tighten the wishbones earlier you could raise the car, put bricks under the wheels whilst raised and then lower it down til it takes the weight. Tighten the bolts and then raise, whip wheel off and remove blocks so you can continue under the arch. Its not perfect but works.

I hope you used a proper spring compressor Paul! Those things will take your teeth out if not careful


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## pauluspaolo

JonW said:


> Looks great!
> 
> If you wanted to tighten the wishbones earlier you could raise the car, put bricks under the wheels whilst raised and then lower it down til it takes the weight. Tighten the bolts and then raise, whip wheel off and remove blocks so you can continue under the arch. Its not perfect but works.
> 
> I hope you used a proper spring compressor Paul! Those things will take your teeth out if not careful


Oh yes I used a proper spring compressor - the very thought of all that energy stored in a wound up spring terrifies me & I think it'd take your head off rather than just knock a few teeth out if it ever let go!! I went very carefully & I'm not l really looking forward to doing the other side! I was told that it was just possible to fit the spring without compressing it but I'm not built like one of "the world's strongest man" contestants so decided that it was beyond me!

There's going to be naff all clearance under the car once it's back on its wheels so I think I'm going to put a length of wood under the end of the lower wishbone, jack it up until it takes the weight of the car off the axle stand - so the weight of the car is resting on the suspension - & then torque up the wishbone bolts. There's still bucketloads to do first though!

I was going to work on it last night but I had a busy day at work yesterday so decided to blob instead. Gillian was out so I took the opportunity to watch Death Race with Jason Statham - it's a remake of Death Race 2000 (which I never saw) & really rather good in a mindless sort of way - a perfect way of killing a couple of hours in fact.


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## pauluspaolo

Due to other committments I've not had much time to spend on the SS1 recently but there has been a small amount of progress made. I've received the replacement front wheel hubs I was waiting for - these have decent bearings in them. The bearings on my car are shot, & also seized in the hubs, new bearings cost Â£75 each + delivery + VAT & are beyond my budget at the moment!!!

Also the 6 week wait I've had to endure for the set of HEL braided brake hoses I'd ordered off eBay has finally come to an end. I had to start a dispute with the company I ordered them from, via Paypal, in the end, Paypal found in my favour & I'm getting a full refund  On the strength of that I ordered another set of braided hoses (Goodridge ones this time) at about 4.00pm last Friday & they arrived before 12.00 on Saturday! The Goodridge hoses cost more but I wish I'd done that in the first place now instead of pratting about with some useless company for over a month! Anyway you live & learn! I fitted a set of the hoses last night to the drivers side & they're superb  They don't seem to leak (though I haven't pressed the brake pedal yet!) - the brakes will need bleeding but I'll have to fit the other side before I can do that - & they look great. Amazingly the copper brake pipe unions came apart quite easily - they're well protected by the inner wheel arch though so this has probably helped - this means that I don't have to find new unions & get anymore copper pipes made up - though I may get some made up at a later stage. There's also a lake of brake fluid on the garage floor that I need to clear up  !

Once I've fitted the brake hoses on the passengers side all I'll need to do fit my new vented discs to the new hubs (I'll do that today), fit the hubs to the uprights, fit the caliper & new brake pads, bleed the brakes, check that *ALL* the nuts & bolts that should tight are tight, refit the wheels, lower the car to floor, torque up the hub nuts, jump in the car & drive it ........... at least until it breaks down  The end is in sight matey peeps unk: :clap: I'll take some piccies soon 

Once I've got the car back on all 4 wheels I can start thinking about the engine swap - I was planning to go for bike carbs & a suitable one off manifold by Bogg Brothers in Malton (http://www.boggbros.co.uk/) but I've found someone who's selling a Ginetta G20 inlet manifold (fuel injection) complete with throttle body, coil pack, wiring harness & all 4 injectors for a very reasonable sum so I'm chasing after that instead. It came off a Zetec so should bolt straight onto mine .............. famous last words!!!


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## mattbeef

Sounds like your now getting to the fun stuff.

Good luck with it all, like you said though those could be famous last words about bolting straight on


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## JonW

Wahooo! superb update Paul! Really good to hear its all coming along so well. We need pics now 

IMHO FI is the way forward if you can make it happen... bike carbs are notorious for going out of tune on cars and EFi is great when its all set up and will help you pass MOTs as well 

cant wait for the next update


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## pauluspaolo

Right then, here's a very quick & dirty pic of the drivers side suspension/brake set up as it is now. Appologies for the pic but it was taken in haste this morning just before I left for work, hopefully you'll be able to see the new braided brake hoses (to the left of the pic) leading to the green caliper. It's green because that's the only colour I could find that wasn't black or silver! The black circular brake disc shield, that I made at work, can also be seen. The hub/disc brake assembly isn't fitted yet & I won't have time to fit it until Saturday now .......... then there's the other side to do! 

The good news is that I haven't lost any enthusiasm for the project - if it wasn't for theatre work taking up all my evenings I'd be in there everyday cracking on wih it


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## pauluspaolo

An extremely rough (sorry) picture of the new hub & vented disc assembly. I fitted the disc in my lunchtime at work yesterday & also fitted the longer wheel studs. I had to fit the longer studs because I have some new alloys which aren't the right offset, so I'll need to fit a spacer between the wheel & hub to compensate for this. Not sure what size spacer I'll need yet so I'll have to do some measuring


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## JonW

Superb Paul, those goodrich hoses are great and there is a difference between cheap and expensive hoses imho. Less sure about green as a caliper colour but hey if it works... you do know that you dont actually need heat proof paint for a caliper? theory is that it wont get too hot unless the pistons are sticky, so in good nick it should be fine with normal paint.

Brake disk shield looks great and im loving those vented disks, it will stop on a dime as the yanks say


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## pauluspaolo

This will be the last update for a while unless I can get into the garage on Saturday. I'm not sure I'll feel like doing anything on Saturday as I've got two 14 hour days to work between then & now (including today)!!

Anyway I spent an hour or so in the garage last night & got the drivers side completely back together with the hub/disc fitted (not fully tightened up yet though), the caliper fitted & the pads fitted too. So jobs left to do are fit the brake pad securing kit, reassemble the other side to this level, bleed the brakes on both sides, refit the road wheels, lower the car & tighten up the hub nuts with someone sitting in the car & pressing on the brake pedal, charge the battery .... then take it for a slow steady test drive to check that nothing falls off immediately & that the brakes work!! I also need to get the track rod ends changed asap as they're knackered & seized on the end of the rack!

Another problem I need to sort out is the low brake pad sensor - this is the wire/cable that disappears behind the brake disc shield in the photo. I'll either disconnect it pemanently & tie the wires up out of the way or try & repair the break (I know where it is) & try to get it working again. I'm inclined to do away with it as this seems the simpler option to me & the break in the wire is in an awkward place ........... we'll see.

After the font end's al back together & working properly I need to look at the rear brakes/supension/hubs/driveshafts!! I'd also like to move the battery to the boot. There's plenty of space in the boot for it & moving it there would free up a bit of space under the bonnet (more room for the fuel injection!) & also aid weight distribution. So I need to measure how much cable I'll need ........ a lot! The chaps who I've sorted out to fit the sills should be ready for the car in a couple of months (they're completely restoring an ancient Datsun estate at the moment) so that gives me a time frame, though getting the car moving/stopping/steering safely again would be enough for me right now!


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## Anthony A

Hey Paul just read through this topic seems like your having fun! I used braided lines on my Twin Cam escort a few years back and the difference in pedal feel was huge!

I also fitted a residual line pressure valve on the front & rear brakes and this made the pedal high and hard every time you jumped on the anchors! You need to use a low pressure type

on the front and a little higher on the rears if drum brakes. Good investment nothing like having a consistent brake pedal IMO!


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## pauluspaolo

It Lives Again :thumbup: ............................... sort of!!

I'm on holiday this week & in between working on the garden & ferrying waste to the tip I've managed to get a few hours in on The Reptile. It's now back on 4 wheels & starts/drives but there's still a fair bit to do.

The brakes work but are mushy so they'll need bleeding properly. The hub nuts need tightening up to about 8,000,000 lb ft of torque which, unsurprisingly, is a figure I've not yet managed to reach despite using a 5 foot length of steam pipe as an extension bar! They're as tight as I can get them & there's still play in the front wheel bearings :taz: With hindsight I should have stripped the replacement hubs down, checked the bearings & regreased everything - however I didn't do this so I think I'm going to have to take the hub(s) off again & do it properly!! If the hub nuts can't be tightened up enough to eliminate the play in the bearings then I'll have to bite the bullet & buy some new ones at great expense (Â£150ish plus delivery & VAT!).

Despite several attempts I've been unsuccessful in loosening either of the track rod ends so this will have to be a job for a garage equipped with some oxy-acetylene - my poor little propane burner just wasn't up to the task !

I'm also hoping that the chaps I've sorted out to fit the new sills (that I bought ages ago) will finally be in a position to fit them soon. The MOT runs out at the end of May & it'd be nice to have them fitted by then. If they are fitted by then, then the car will have an outside chance of getting another 12 months ticket, if they're not fitted by then, then I'm not even going to put it in for the MOT (though it might be quite interesting to see what else it fails on).

I'm suposed to be getting some new(er) shocks - made by a company called AVO - which are supposed to be the dogs danglies but the seller has disappeared off the face of the Earth so I'm stuck with using the rusty knackered originals until he resurfaces.

I've driven the car gingerly round the estate today & it feels good despite all the above problems. Here it is outside my garage with one of my new alloys offered up for effect. Gillian & I also removed the hard top & refitted the soft top - first time it's been fitted in the best part of a year - how it's supposed to keep the occupants dry is completely beyond me!!!

Thanks for all your support - it's kept me going - the saga continues :thumbup:


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## JonW

Looking good Paul!

To do up and undo stuff you can also use the weight of the car and a long bar... it works great on axle nuts.  Jack up the car, set the socket on the nut with the end of the bar on the ground and gently lower the jack whilst out of the way.... perfect for hub nuts... but those bearings worry me... usually they do up and compress by hand and then you back them off once seated... hmm....

Avos are good and i expect the guy will be back, and the wheels are kicking!


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## pauluspaolo

Ta for that Jon :thumbup: - good idea about using the weight of the car. Someone suggested the same trick earlier in the thread I think but I never thought to use it in this application  I'm going away for a couple of days so won't have chance to try it out right now. There have been a few threads about wheel bearings on the scimweb forum & the general consensus of opinion is that they're a pain in the neck. Normally I'd agree with you regarding the "tighten then back off" bit but on the SS1 they're just gorilla'd up until there's no play.

I'm looking forward to getting the wheels on but I need to find some wheel spacers before I fit them as the offset is wrong & they hit the brake calipers (the calipers are for vented discs so are wider than the standard units). From my calculations I need 20mm spacers - which seems kinda wide to me! So I may try some thinner ones first. I've fitted longer studs already so there won't be any problems there but some people say that fitting spacers increases the load on the wheel bearings & can cause them to wear out prematurely ........................ which, rather neatly, brings me back to my dodgy wheel bearings again !! Also I'd rather not get universal spacers (which have slotted holes & are designed to fit cars with different wheel stud spacings) but ones that will fit my particular wheel stud pattern (4 x 100mm) - I'm never going to find a set specifically for the SS1 (unless they're a one off set made for a racer/hillclimber) but there are plenty of cars out there with the 4 x 100 stud pattern so I should be able to find something suitable. A lot of the ones I've seen on ebay are hubcentric which means they have a lip machined into them with locates centrally in the hub & the wheel centre bore. Again I don't need a set of these - just a simple spacer with four 12mm holes spaced 100mm apart. I'll start looking seriously when I get back on Friday - though I doubt that I'll be able to afford anything this month. I think the car will look good with the new black wheels fitted & I have vague plans to get the hard top sprayed black to match.

The car looks ok as it is but desperately needs the sills doing - they're distinctly ropey & I jack the car up very carefully. Once they're done I'll put it through the MOT & see what it fails on, though once I've got the brakes & sills sorted I'd be surprised if it failed on anything too serious. All the lights seem to work (except for the front fog lights), the gauges all work (though both the temp & fuel gauges are temperamental), the rest of the chassis (other than the sills) looks ok, the engine sounds fine & was given a clean bill of health fairly recently (& it certainly it wouldn't fail on visible smoke), all the copper brake lines look good & the petrol tank, which can rust through on these cars, looks solid & doesn't seem to leak (though I've never brimmed the tank). It's a pretty simple car so I'd be quite hopeful of a pass 

I'll let you all know how it goes


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## pg tips

Bearings come in 2 distinct forms, taper bearings which you tighten up almost by feel, as you describe backing off a tad when tight.

And rollers/ ball races which you don't and have a specific torque setting, usually 150Nm+ or FT (F****ing Tight)!

If you get it at the right torque and there's still play then something is wrong!

Good luck mate, I admire your patience!


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## JonW

Thanks for the bearing clarification PG, much appreciated. 

Paul the other way you can use the weight of the car is to push the car forward or backward with the bar/socket in place, it works much the same and the tyre is in contact with the ground etc. so the wheel doesnt turn away from the force, also good for axle nuts etc. you do need a solid bar though and maybe a scaffold pole the longer the better... and you can store it in the bedroom later  

Those universal spacers will be ok Id think, they get a bad rap but you only need the distance not anything else. silicone them to the wheels to save hassle fitting them. Also, if youve not done it, make sure you read the offset numbers between the diff sets of wheels and work out what you need, just adding spacers and hoping isnt ideal. Check on lock they dont foul the arches (I fitted 17s to my Mk2 Gti16v and it was a nightmare) and also dont rub on suspension or the brake lines etc. They also cant protrude past the body, but if they do add a strip like the EVO/Scooby/Mini sometimes has along the inside of the arch, simple and legal bizarrely.

oh and yes, wider wheels will kill bearings and steering racks, but who cares they look cool and you dont expect 100k miles out of a set really 

good luck mate, and like PG I admire your patience


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## BondandBigM

JonW said:


> Those universal spacers will be ok Id think, they get a bad rap but you only need the distance not anything else. silicone them to the wheels to save hassle fitting them. Also, if youve not done it, make sure you read the offset numbers between the diff sets of wheels and work out what you need, just adding spacers and hoping isnt ideal. Check on lock they dont foul the arches (I fitted 17s to my Mk2 Gti16v and it was a nightmare) and also dont rub on suspension or the brake lines etc. They also cant protrude past the body, but if they do add a strip like the EVO/Scooby/Mini sometimes has along the inside of the arch, simple and legal bizarrely.


As all before me have said but 

Just a word on the wheel spacers, imho don't buy these cheap crap pressed steel made in Vietnam jobs, might seem like a good deal but three sets later and eventually I binned them and bought a nicely machined aluminium set end of problem no more vibration. It doesn't take much. Maybe you could even try a local machine shop and get some made.

Good luck, looks like you've been doing ok so far 

17" wheels on a MKII GTI :cry2:

I eventually got a nice set of MOMO's that fitted properly but I was a few quid out of pocket by then :lol:


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## JonW

I didnt know you could get steel spacers... get the alloy ones as B says... and the machine shop idea is sound... why not aks if they will run you up a set at college Paul? you only need the width, PCD and the size of the middle and outer edges, evena first year should be able to do that

Yeah the 17s were a laugh on the mk2... I dont advise it... I needed a wide wheel for traction and they came up cheap, i should have looked more really as they hurt the ride.


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## pauluspaolo

pg tips said:


> Bearings come in 2 distinct forms, taper bearings which you tighten up almost by feel, as you describe backing off a tad when tight.
> 
> And rollers/ ball races which you don't and have a specific torque setting, usually 150Nm+ or FT (F****ing Tight)!
> 
> If you get it at the right torque and there's still play then something is wrong!
> 
> Good luck mate, I admire your patience!


Just back from sunny (not particularly) Bruges - beautiful city though despite the weather (which wasn't as bad as the BBC weather website said it would be). Loads to see, & more chocolate shops than you can shake a stick at, but I'm glad to be back it must be said 

Thanks for that PG - I've only ever changed taper roller bearing before so thaey're what I'm used to . The SS1 bearings are roller/ball races so I guess there's something wrong ! They're notorious for being problematical & even using new ones doesn't guarantee that there'll be no play in the system. Shims are available cheaply apparently so I may have a try with those before I really start panicing! An increasing number of SS1 owners are using Chevette uprights for which wheel bearings are available from about Â£10 a set! The upper/lower suspension wishbones are Chevette/Kadett/Manta B based anyway so this would seem to be a logical step - I'd already bought the vented discs so decided to stick with the SS1 upright & use them - I'm not sure if they'll fit the Shovit upright or not???? Another factor in my decision is that uprights for the Shovit are getting increasingly hard to find, though when they do turn up they are often pretty cheap. Using the Chevette upright also allows for an even bigger brake upgrade to be used which makes use of Volvo 240 calipers & Vauxhall Carlton vented discs ......... making the car even more of a bitsa than it already is :blink:!!!

I'd already thought about making my own spacers but the workshop at work (which had a Myford lathe & decent pillar drill in it) is being broken up as the room is needed for other things  The Myford has already gone to a good friend of mine but I've yet to ask him if he can make me any spacers - though I'm sure such a relatively simple task is well within his capabilities. I really wanted the pillar drill but it's being moved within college to the maintenance department (I'm getting their old one though) so I should be able to use it still. I'm hoping to blag most of the other bits & pieces - including a Toyo model makers lathe which, unfortunately, is far too small to turn the spacers I want - though it's great for modifying watch parts !

Hopefully tomorrow might see me back in the garage


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## pauluspaolo

Well I had another go at the bearings today & managed to welly them up even tighter - so much for thinking that I'd got them as tight as I could - maybe I just needed to leave them for a couple of days before having another go :huh:

I'm happy to say that the extra welly I managed to apply has tightened the bearings up nicely & there's no play in them now that I can feel     I'm a much happier bunny as I was decidedly unhappy at the prospect of having to fork out Â£150+ for a set of new bearings.

Hope you've all had/having a good Easter break - I'm off to have a beer & get some chocolate from the fridge :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

Another little update: my chum came over on Saturday & we bled the all brakes (front & back) properly. After that the sun very graciously decided to come out so it seemed daft not to go for a little test drive. I'm happy to say that it drove very nicely indeed - even with duff track rod ends & knackered shock absorbers. Brakes seem to work well but I need to fit some new pads to go with the new discs.

Also the bloke who had the AVO shocks for sale got in touch with me this weekend & his wife dropped a pair of these off this morning. They're fantastic really & should be infinitely superior to the worn out ones currently fitted to the car. I'll fit them & the brake pads tomorrow. I ddn't realise when I agreed to buy the shocks that they were coilovers - I didn't get the springs though (the springs hit the alternator anyway so the shocks won't fit without the suspension arms being modified ..... again!) so I'll fit them along with the standard springs for the moment. They really should transform the car  The only trouble is that the new front end rather shows up the old original/rusty back end so when the car's back from having the new sills fitted I'll start doing up the back end of the car (bushes/bearings/brakes/shocks etc) ..... meaning that it'll be up on axle stands again for weeks/months no doubt!

I also started doing stuff to the Zetec engine - earlier in the week I changed the sump for one that should make it easier to fit the engine in the SS1. Fitting the new sump also meant that I had to fit a new windage tray, oil pump pick-up pipe & dipstick - so I fitted those too. I still need to buy/fit new sump/cam cover gaskets & I'll get a new cambelt fitted soon too (though the one already fitted looks fine so this is more for peace of mind that anything else).

More news as & when it happens


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## Boxbrownie

Sounds like it coming along nicely now......just a word on spacers, I would definately go for hubcentric not just for peace of mind. I am not familiar with the type of wheel nut fixings on that vehicle but if they are flat face nut to wheel then hub centric is an absolute must as all the shear load of road shocks is designed to be taken on the hub shoulder NOT the wheel studs, with tapered wheel bolts/nuts its not so critical as regards wheel centering but the load is still designed to go through the central spigot.......one of the reasons I hate those plastic hub adapters sold for after marker alloys that can fit numerous models, you get all of the shock load being transferred from road wheel to hub through a bit of plastic a few mm wide.....not the perfect engineering material in that application! 

Also be weary of upgrading the front brakes and not the rear also....brake balance is a wonderous thing to have......especially half way around a fast curve upon finding the exit obstructed :lol:


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## pauluspaolo

QUOTE (Boxbrownie @ Apr 20 2009, 09:22 AM)

Sounds like it coming along nicely now......just a word on spacers, I would definately go for hubcentric not just for peace of mind. I am not familiar with the type of wheel nut fixings on that vehicle but if they are flat face nut to wheel then hub centric is an absolute must as all the shear load of road shocks is designed to be taken on the hub shoulder NOT the wheel studs, with tapered wheel bolts/nuts its not so critical as regards wheel centering but the load is still designed to go through the central spigot.......one of the reasons I hate those plastic hub adapters sold for after marker alloys that can fit numerous models, you get all of the shock load being transferred from road wheel to hub through a bit of plastic a few mm wide.....not the perfect engineering material in that application!









Also be weary of upgrading the front brakes and not the rear also....brake balance is a wonderous thing to have......especially half way around a fast curve upon finding the exit obstructed









As I understand it hubcentric spacers have a lip machined into both sides of the spacer - one of the lips fits in the central hole in the hub while the other sits in the central hole in the wheel. These lips centralise the spacer on the hub & the wheel on the spacer, the spacer fits over the wheel studs & is held in place by the wheel nuts (it's sandwhiched between the hub & the wheel). On the SS1 the wheel nuts centre the wheel on the hub, there's no lip on either the hub or the wheel - in effect the face of the hub is flat, as is the face of the wheel that butts up against it. This is the best photo of the hub that I can find & I'm not sure it shows what I'm trying to explain - the central hole in the hub is conical so machining a lip to centralise the spacer on the hub would be difficult (though not impossible). There won't be any hubcentric spacers available off the shelf for the SS1 - there just wouldn't be any demand for them - so I'd have to get a set specially machined, which I think would be too expensive.

I've talked to my friend (Steve) who's a master all things to do with metalwork/machining, & who now owns the Myford lathe that used to be here at work, & he's reluctant to make me a set of spacers out of alloy as he's not sure what grade alloy to use & even if it's available from his metal supplier. He'd be worried about it breaking up at speed with obviously disastrous results! Needless to say I'm not exactly keen for this happen either! He'd be happier about making me a set from steel though & he's going to look at one of my spare hubs & take the measurements from that - what I'm after is a set of 4 spacers 130mm diameter x 20mm wide, with 4 12mm holes drilled in them (pcd of 4 x 100mm) & a central hole of approx 60mm. I don't need them to be hubcentric (though it'd be nice if they were)!

Non-hubcentric spacers are available online from alloy wheel suppliers (& Ebay) but they're not particularly cheap at approx Â£50/pair - this price is for hubcentric ones though so what I need may be cheaper. If Steve can make me a set that I'm happy with then fine - but I'm quite prepared to buy a set if I need to. To be honest though the spacers can wait as I've got a perfectly good (though not exactly great to look at) set of alloys on the car already, getting the sills replaced is much more important


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## pauluspaolo

Boxbrownie said:


> Also be wary of upgrading the front brakes and not the rear also....brake balance is a wonderous thing to have......especially half way around a fast curve upon finding the exit obstructed :lol:


The rear brakes on the SS1 are drums based on various parts from the Ford parts bin (Escort & Sierra). As I say I've not touched the back end yet at all but when I do I'll upgrade the wheel cylinders to a set from a Siera estate (if I can find some - these have a bore of 22mm while the standard bore is 19mm). I'll be sourcing a set of these when I next get paid & will probably fit them when I start on the back end of the car - which will probably start when the sills have been done. I also have a set of braided hoses to fit at the back.

Even though it's taxed & tested I can't really see myself hooning around in the car until the sills are replaced as I'm worried that the car may snap in two if I do start throwing it around too violently!! The sun's shining today so I did consider using the car to get into work (20 mile round trip) but I'm really not very happy about the state of either of the track rod ends, the shock absorbers or the sills!!! Once I've got these changed then I'll have much more confidence in the car & will probably start driving it a bit more enthusiastically. All I've done so far is take it for pretty gentle test drives to test the brakes/suspension etc. I really don't have a death wish & want everything to be sorted before I put the Zetec into it - which should be significantly more powerful (unless it's completely fubar'd - which I don't think it is) than the CVH that's currently installed


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## Boxbrownie

From the look of that piccy it appears the discs already have some "adapter" bolted to them from the factory.......if that is the case it might be better to try and make up a spacer which bolts directly to the disc rather than have what will be a "three piece" rotating assembly. Then again I have never seen one of thos in bits so I might be talking bollox :lol:

Thats good news on the rear drums, plenty of choice to play with sizes to change braking effort without resorting to a balancer.


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## pauluspaolo

Here's the result of last nights labours. Both AVO shocks absorbers fitted working  They were a complete sod to fit (well one of them was anyway) but the effort should be worth it as these should improve the handling no end  I had to take the battery & battery tray out to improve access which gives me an opportunity to start thinking about moving the battery to the boot, partly to improve access under the bonnet & to improve weight distribution, but mainly to make room for the inlet manifold I've gone out & bought (originally fitted to a Ginetta G20).

Old shock:










New shocks:


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## JonW

Looks great Paul!

I agree with David, the disk already has an adaptor for the hub bolted on, maybe make a wider version of that or find out what is the same fitment, ford, Vauxhall, BL etc. and tour tghe scrap yards and find one that works better


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## Boxbrownie

pauluspaolo said:


> New shocks:


Going to look real nice if and when you fit coilovers......and with a prettied up Zetec, a great excuse for a pimped acrylic hood....er...bonnet :lol:


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## pauluspaolo

JonW said:


> Looks great Paul!
> 
> I agree with David, the disk already has an adaptor for the hub bolted on, maybe make a wider version of that or find out what is the same fitment, ford, Vauxhall, BL etc. and tour tghe scrap yards and find one that works better


Thanks for the thumbs up chaps - much appreciated 

However I'm not sure I follow your train of thought regarding the spacer issue :huh: The disc brake rotor is a one piece unit, with a spacer built into it which bolts to the back of the hub. The hub is also a one piece unit designed to hold the wheel studs, the bearings & the brake disc rotor. This bolts to the stub axle. I suppose I could fit a spacer between the hub & the disc rotor but if I did this (& I've never heard of another SS1 owner fitting a spacer in this position) it's possible that the complete hub/disc assembly wouldn't bolt back onto the stub axle - which is obviously not a particularly good thing. I've already fitted extended wheel studs, to allow for a spacer fitted between the hub & wheel, so this is the route I'm going to go down.

I took the passengers seat out yesterday evening as I want to compare it with some nice seats from an Astra that I've seen for sale on another forum. From the measurements the Astra seats sound as if they'll fit but I want to compare it with one from the SS1 just to make sure.

More updates when there's anything to report - I'm off to Bridlington for the weekend though so I won't be doing any work on it until next week


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## JonW

Ahh ok Paul, I see it now... David will gt it too. Its not how it looks in the pic. buy/make a spacer for between the wheel and the hub.


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## tonyrsv

Just spent the better part of half an hour reading your project ...... keep up the good work.

The ss1 has always been a very under-rated car IMO.

cheers


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## pauluspaolo

This is the first opportunity I've had to work on the car since my last update & this time I've been dismantling the back end of the car. I wanted to check all the electrical connections for the rear lights & I also wanted to check the corners of chassis at the rear - I've recently seen some horrendous rot in this area on a non-galvanized SS1 (like mine) & wanted to check the same area on my car. The only way to do this thoroughly is to take the boot liner out, this is effctively a tub (bit like a garden pond!) that bolts to the chassis, between the rear wings & is covered by the boot lid. Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pics until I'd taken it all apart.

Good job I did decide to take it apart as there's a bit of rot in both rear corners - the passengers side is worse than the drivers side but both sides will need further dismantling, the rot cutting out & new metal welding in.

I've been in touch with the garage who are fitting the sills for me & they should be able to take the car in in a couple of weeks or so. They'll be able to deal with the new rot I've found today at the same time as they do my sills.

Pics:

Back end stripped down - boot lid, light/bumper panel & boot liner have allbeen removed in this pic (you can see the boot lid in the car!). You can see the petrol tank & chassis rails, all of which seem sound 










Rust! Just what I was hoping I wouldn't find  It's not too bad but obviously needs sorting out asap. I'll ask the chaps fitting my sills if they can sort this out at the same time. The passengers side is worse but there's a hole on the drivers side that will need patching too.










Thought that while it was all in bits that I may as well paint the chassis rails that weren't rusty - apart from the obvious rot everything appears sound (which is a relief!).


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## Boxbrownie

JonW said:


> Ahh ok Paul, I see it now... David will gt it too. Its not how it looks in the pic. buy/make a spacer for between the wheel and the hub.


Yep, I do.....they don't make it easy do they? :lol:


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## JonW

Good call on the strip down Paul, a simple fix and its safe again. good it all comes apart nice and easy


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## pauluspaolo

Right well it's about time I did something like an update isn't it?

The car's been back at mine for 2/3 weeks now after having spent 2 weeks having lots of work done to it: new galvanised sills fitted, the rot in the lower sections of the A/B posts (where they meet the sills) repaired/welded as neccesary, the rot in the rear of the chassis cut & replaced as neccesary & finally the track rod ends have been replaced - the old ones had to be cut off with an angle grinder. Gary & Richard (who fitted the sills for me) rent a unit off a garage that sells small Reliant & Aixam cars - it's also an MOT testing station so I asked them to put it through the test for me while it was there. It failed on a few things:

1.) Lower wishbone bolts too short - not enough tread showing past the nut.

2.) All sorts of problems with the headlights - drivers side headlight wobbles when in the raised position & both beam patterns were way out.

3.) Carbon monoxide reading too high - they left the car running to see if this cleared up but it didn't unfortunately.

4.) Passengers side rear light inoperative.

5.) Number plate lights inoperative.

None of it exactly drastic I don't think. Unfortunately due to work/theatre committments I could only spend one weekend working on the car so I missed the 2 week free retest deadline  During that weekend I replaced the lower wishbone bolts as this was probably the biggest job on the list - I hoping to get both sides done in a day but sods law dictated that I only got one side done on Saturday so the other side had to wait until Sunday. It's all done & dusted now but stripping the front suspension down again (even though it was much easier to do that it was originally) was a tad depressing.

I've also sorted out the rear light/number plate lights issue. Turns out that the electric for the passengers side rear light passes through the number plate lights before it even reaches the main light unit so if the number plate lights don't work then neither will the passengers side rear light (does that make sense :huh. Both the number plate lights were piles of rust with duff bulbs welded into them so in the bin they went. My friend came round & helped me greatly with all this as I'm fine when I've got a spanner in my hand & a nut to undo but pretty much clueless when it comes to electric string! Anyway we've done a small amount of rewiring & both the rear light & number plate lights work fine now 

I'm working on the headlights - the dodgy beam patterns were caused by having the incorrect halogen bulbs fitted. So I've fitted a pair of 1 candle power tungsten jobbies until I can be bothered ordering some of the correct halogen ones. The wobble is caused by wear in one part of the headlight raising mechanism - this part is bolted to the lift motor. The part isn't available seperately, & I don't want to buy a new headlight lift motor, so I'm (slowly) making a replacement link for it. It's difficult to explain what I'm making without pics/photo's. I've got part of it made already but I've stalled a bit to be honest - I'll try & crack on tonight with it though & will hopefully get somewhere.

As for the high CO reading the chap at the garage reckoned that it just needed a good thrash before being retested ... so once I get the headlight sorted that's what it'll get. I can see a Fawlty Towers moment looming !!

Gary & Richard took loads of photo's of the work they did relacing the sills but I haven't got the cd-r back off them yet so I don't have any new photo's to show you yet. Despite my sporty new Astra I'm still pretty keen to get the car sorted, it's just unfortunate that work on it is progressing slowly. Also I've got a much needed holiday (cruise round the Med) at the end of July/beginning of August so I can't see me getting it back on the road - legally anyway - before then. I don't want to have spent all this time, effort & money on it just to see it end up stuck in the garage! This is a real danger with projects like this - you lose a bit of willpower/impetus or work/life gets in the way & you start losing heart. As there's a good chance that I'll miss most of the summer - either being away or getting the car through the MOT - then I may well go straight for the jugular & start the Zetec swap before winter starts ........... I haven't decided for definite (& I'll have to spend even more money - which I don't have yet - if I do decide to go for it) but watch this space!

Ta for reading & I'll post some pics as soon as I get them


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## jasonm

Excellent Paul!

Thanks for the update, Iwas wondering what was the latest, you need to crack on to enjoy it in what we are supposed to call summer...You have a timescale?


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## pauluspaolo

Hi Jason - I've deliberately not given myself any sort of timescale/deadline. My thinking being that if I tried to get it sorted for a particular date I'd only end up pissed off if/when I missed said deadline by aeons. Therefore it'll be done when it's done


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## JonW

Great update Paul! Have a look at the bronze bushes that the TR7 used for the lights, they might fit, or just get some machined up to fit yours when drilled out etc. should be a nice repair.

Cant wait to see the pics when you get time, keep up the good work mate!


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## pauluspaolo

JonW said:


> Great update Paul! Have a look at the bronze bushes that the TR7 used for the lights, they might fit, or just get some machined up to fit yours when drilled out etc. should be a nice repair.
> 
> Cant wait to see the pics when you get time, keep up the good work mate!


Thanks Jon - are you still down under or are you in sunny (not even remotely ) blighty? If you're anywhere near Leeds, in the next week or so, you're more than welcome to pop in for a cuppa


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## JonW

Cheers Paul would be cool if I could... Im actually in Bern and off to the hallowed ground of Bienne in a day or two  Back in Blighty on the 2nd... can you organise the sun for us? haha


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## pauluspaolo

JonW said:


> Cheers Paul would be cool if I could... Im actually in Bern and off to the hallowed ground of Bienne in a day or two  Back in Blighty on the 2nd... can you organise the sun for us? haha


Hi Jon - pm sent


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## pauluspaolo

More â€¦â€¦.. lots more!

About a month ago I dropped the car off at the welders so that they could replace both sills & do any other repairs to the chassis as necessary.

Here are a few pics of what they did:










Hereâ€™s the car pre-stripdown â€" doesnâ€™t look too bad does it?










Hereâ€™s a shot of the passengers side sill after the door & both wings have been removed â€" doesnâ€™t look too good does it?










Oh dear oh dear! Close up of the rear of the sill - showing rust in the sill section & also part way up the B post.










Sill partially stripped off the car â€" rusty along its entire length 










Shows the rust in the B post more clearly - reel for the seat belt mounts to this!!










Shot showing the front outrigger & jacking point on the passengerâ€™s side - they've started cutting the rot out in this pic. The two bolts at the top of the pic mount the body tub to the chassis.

I'll continue this in a another post


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## pauluspaolo

& so it continues:










The front outrigger again but this time with new metal welded in & the old jacking point removed.










Here you can see the state the old jacking point was in - I jacked the car up on this many times without any problems. I never used the jack alone though & always added an axle stand under the front outrigger.










Shot showing the rear outrigger/jacking point â€" part has had to be cut away to remove rust.










Rear outrigger rebuilt with new metal - old jacking point still there at this point.










One shiny (well itâ€™s not that shiny actually because itâ€™s galvanised) sill section in place. The old rear jacking point can still be seen just behind it.

There's another one to go yet


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## pauluspaolo

Last one for a while










View from the front - showing the new sill & the new shiny jacking point 










Hereâ€™s the new sill sprayed up & painted â€" looking very good.

Right all thatâ€™s left to do now is the driverâ€™s side & the rear of the chassis! Iâ€™ll post some pictures of that little lot when Iâ€™ve managed to upload them to Photobucket.

Many thanks for looking


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## Boxbrownie

So how much is an entire new chassis Paul? :lol:

Bloody old cars......I got fed up with them years ago I decided. I think now I would buy one only if it was already restored and I saw the resto in detail.......and no, I don't want to buy an SS :lol:


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## BondandBigM

pauluspaolo said:


> Last one for a while
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View from the front - showing the new sill & the new shiny jacking point 


No disrespect but that welding is shocking 

This is on a bit thicker material but I couldn't find a decent picture on thin sheet, even so it should be loads better than the picture above.


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## pauluspaolo

BondandBigM said:


> pauluspaolo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Last one for a while
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View from the front - showing the new sill & the new shiny jacking point 
> 
> 
> 
> No disrespect but that welding is shocking
> 
> This is on a bit thicker material but I couldn't find a decent picture on thin sheet, even so it should be loads better than the picture above.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that much appreciated ................. your picture didn't show up so I can't see what proper welding should look like, but what you probably don't realise is that Gary & Richard (Triple M Restorations) don't have a car lift or anything like that so all the work they did to the car was done with it on axle stands. So whoever did the welding in the above shot would have been lying on his back with the car maybe a foot or so above him. I agree that it isn't the neatest bit of welding that I've ever clapped eyes on but it's much stronger & more solid than it was ....... so I'm a happy bunny. Personally I think they've done a great job considering that they've little more than a lock up to work in & I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone else in the Leeds area.


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## blackandgolduk

Whilst browsing one of my favourite sites the other day I found this link...

AROnline...

...thought you may find it interesting!

EDIT: Can't seem to link directly to the page, so click on Scimitar SS1 on the left hand side...


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## pauluspaolo

Time for an update!

As I'm planning to fit a larger engine into my SS1 it seems sensible to make as much space as possible in the negine bay. The drivers side of said engine bay is very crowded as the battery, brake servo/master cylinder & carb/inlet manifold are all situated on this side. Of the three essential items mentioned above the battery is, by far, the easiest to move. The SS1 boot has a false floor hiding a deep well which presumably is used to carry all the spares/tools you'll need on any sort of journey  - it's also known as the "drug compartment"! It's pretty useful really & is an ideal place for resiting the battery. So I spent all day Saturday moving the battery from under the bonnet to the boot. Not a particularly difficult job more fiddly & time consuming than anything else.

On with the pics:

I used a junction box in the engine bay to connect the original battery positive cable to the new length of cable which will run to the back of the car.










I ran the new cable under the fuse box & through the big bulkhead grommet that the main loom passes through.










Here's the new cable passing through the bulkhead grommet (you'll have to turn the picture through 90 degrees), I've run it down the bulkhead to the right of the pedals & then along the base of the bulkhead under the pedals & then along the base of the transmission tunnel. I've secured it with plastic p-clips along its whole length.










I didn't order enough cable :taz: so I've had to join two lengths together - here's the brass connector prior to the next length of cable being fastened to it - the connector comes with a length of heat shrink which I haven't shown.










This shot hopefully shows the route of the cable through the car - it also shows the p-clips I used to fasten the cable down.










To be continued


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## pauluspaolo

Continued as promised:

The rear bulkhead caused me a problem as it was too thick for any of the grommets I had, so I made a little metal plate (thin enough to take the grommet) to pass the cable through. I then ran the cable down the left hand tank strap, protected it with some heater hose & secured it to the strap with a couple of cable ties.










I secured it to the chassis to the rear of the diff with a p-clip & then passed it through a hole I drilled in the boot liner. Again I didn't have a suitable grommet so used a length of heater hose to protect the cable (I'm not sure how legal this is so I may have to change it later) I've fitted cable ties either side of the boot liner to stop the cable, & hose, pulling through the hole.



















I also made a strengthening plate to fit under the boot liner & bolted it up to the car using the bolts I've used to secure the battery tray inside the boot (it's the original Reliant battery tray - as mounted in the engine bay - but with the legs cut off). Best to ignore all the trial holes I made before realising that measuring twice & cutting once is good advice h34r:










The earth cable was next on the agenda - pretty easy to do & wonder of wonders I found a grommet that I could use - I've bolted it to the drivers side rear chassis member after I'd cleaned all the underseal/rust/crap off.










Here it is all finished â€" I donâ€™t have a picture of it but Iâ€™ve since made a false floor for the boot out of wood which hides the battery.










There's more to come!


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## pauluspaolo

Right then yet another update - I'd been told that the SS1 engine mount brackets would fit the Zetec block but not without some modification. I wanted to see what modifications were needed for myself & I also wanted to get the mounting brackets modified before trying to fit the Zetec engine - so that I wasn't pulling the engine in & out all the time while I modified the brackets that are currently fitted to the CVH engine (they're in a lousy state so replacing them isn't a bad idea anyway).

I bought some mounting brackets through a Scimweb forum member & they arrived in excellent condition - already cleaned & primed for painting!

It looked as if the water pump side mounting would fit the pre-tapped holes on the engine block but that the alternator mount was in the way - so this had to be cut off.

Hereâ€™s the bracket with the alternator mount cut off â€" Iâ€™ll keep this bit but Iâ€™m not sure if Iâ€™ll have a use for it or not.










Hereâ€™s the bracket fitted to the Zetec block â€" no problems at all - the water pump outlet can be seen above it & there looks to be plenty of clearance for the radiator hose â€¦â€¦ which is good!










Hereâ€™s the other bracket fitted â€" 3 out of 4 holes lined up without any problems. The 4th hole isnâ€™t a million miles away though so it should fit after Iâ€™ve drilled/enlarged the hole in the bracket a bit.










Here we can see the clearance (or lack of) between the bracket & the oil filter housing. Iâ€™m hoping to elongate the holes in the bracket so that it can be moved up slightly, or the engine can be dropped down slightly. I donâ€™t need much clearance (only a couple of mm or so) but some clearance would be nice! I was planning to use a remote oil filter anyway.










As for the alternator well a search of the kitcar manufacturers (many of whom fit the Zetec engine in their cars) turned up Tiger Racing & this natty little alternator mount. Iâ€™ll purchase one of these next month â€¦.. after payday!



















Thatâ€™s all for now :cheers:


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## pauluspaolo

Time to resurrect this thread with a long overdue update â€" wooohoooo!!!

This weekend I made a concerted effort to get something done on the Reptile. The Zetec engine has been patiently waiting in the wings for a while now!

New timing belt & tensioners fitted? Check.

Water pump changed for one that rotates in the correct direction? Check.

New sump & gasket fitted? Check.

New flywheel & clutch fitted? Check.

So this weekend, with the help of a borrowed engine hoist & 3 willing helpers, I removed the original smoky old donkey so that I could clean up the engine bay in readiness for the shiny, new (well still quite old actually) 2 litre Zetec lump 

It all went pretty smoothly really. We did think we were going to have problems clearing the front cross-member but we then realised that it was removable (thank you Reliant!) which made the job much easier. Once the cross member was out of the way it was all plain sailing & engine was out in about 15 mins. Biggest job after that was getting rid of the old exhaust. I did want to trial fit the new engine but there really wasnâ€™t any time (or light) left so we called it a day. The engine bay is filthy so I could really do with cleaning & painting it before the new engine goes in. Iâ€™ve bought some Gunk (engine degreaser) so Iâ€™ll have a go with that tomorrow evening (it was too cold last night)!

Here we can see my friend Mohammed (heâ€™s car mad!) bent double over the front of the car spannering away like a good â€˜un!










Another shot of Mohammed still spannering away (on the same bolt no doubt)!










Hereâ€™s a shot of the CVH lump â€" rope for hoisting duties is attached but the hoist isnâ€™t attached yet. No shots of the engine being actually hoisted out Iâ€™m afraid as it took all 4 of us to guide it out of the engine bay! Mohammed at the front again â€" he getâ€™s everywhere!










Engine removed & this is the hole left behind, just begging for to be filled with 2 litres of throbbing Zetec  Engine bay definitely needs cleaning up somewhat â€" after 24 years on the road itâ€™s just a wee bit grimy :bad:


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## pauluspaolo

This rather boring shot shows the threaded hole left by the passengers side engine mount. This mount was easily removed with an oil filter chain wrench â€" unfortunately the driverâ€™s side mount was seized so had to be cut away leaving the backing plate (which has the stud that screws into the threaded hole welded to it) still attached to the chassis.










Hereâ€™s a shot of yours truly (thatâ€™s my arm) applying a bit of brute force & ignorance courtesy of a cold chisel & lump hammer to the aforementioned backing plate. It gave up without too much of a fight so Iâ€™m now left with a totally engineless car which is, at least, easy to push in & out of the garage!










Thatâ€™s all the pics for now â€" apologies for them not being very good but taking good pictures wasn't really high on the list of our priorities! Iâ€™ll take/post some more when Iâ€™ve cleaned the engine bay up â€" which will, I think, be a filthy horrible job 

I was beginning to lose my mojo for the project a bit but Iâ€™m glad that progress has been made & Iâ€™m still keen to get the car back up & running :thumbup:


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## foztex

Nice one Paul,

I don't envy you cleaning up that engine bay, ackk. Great to see the progress, I reckon you are practically on the home straight.

cheers

Andy


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## pauluspaolo

I spent yesterday (New Years Eve) working on the car with a couple of friends (many, many thanks to Matt & Allen), the intention being to get the Zetec installed after Iâ€™d made an unsuccessful attempt (with another friend) earlier in the week. I just thought that itâ€™d be nice to finish the year off with a major part of the project accomplished. This time we were successful but there are still a few problems to sort out. The main one being that due to the front crossmember getting in the way the engine wouldnâ€™t go in with the sump fitted. Once weâ€™d removed the sump it went in without too much drama. The problem then was that I couldnâ€™t refit the sump with the engine in place because it catches on the (bloody) front crossmember!If I had an extra inch or so of clearance itâ€™d fit fine! So Iâ€™ll either have to modify the crossmember, the sump, modify both the crossmember & the sump or buy another sump which does fit â€" the trouble being that I donâ€™t know which sump to buy as I thought I already had the correct one :huh:

The other problem is that the Ginetta fuel injection manifold (that I bought ages ago) wonâ€™t fit with the engine in place either â€" thereâ€™s just not enough room between the engine & inner wing :taz: Not sure what Iâ€™m going to do now but I may try & use the CVH inlet manifold/carb with an adaptor plate or I could try & go down the bike carb route.

I was a bit down after weâ€™d finished working on the car yesterday as I was hoping to get the complete engine in i.e. with sump attached & there being enough space for the inlet manifold! But Iâ€™m feeling more positive about it today as the engine is finally in & neither of the above two problems should be insurmountable. So hereâ€™s to further progress being made in 2010 

Hereâ€™s the engine waiting to go in â€" not too much to say really other than itâ€™s complete at this stage with sump attached:










Hereâ€™s the engine being lowered into position â€" sump off at this stage:










Hereâ€™s the best shot I have of the engine fitted â€" sorry itâ€™s a bit naff but we were all completely frozen by this stage & more than ready to stop & thaw out indoors with a nice cuppa:










Hope everyone has a great 2010 & many thanks for all your support :thumbup:


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## JonW

Great to see the progress Paul, its nice to sit back after a days spanner'ing and feel youve moved the project forwards


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## pauluspaolo

Aye up chaps â€" just when you thought it was safe to go back in your garage here comes Paul with a Reptile update!! 

It was my intention to do less at the theatre this year but Iâ€™ve already crewed for 4 shows this year & itâ€™s only March! I spent most of March (evenings & weekends) crewing for 2 shows (Leeds G&S Society production of the Mikado & Leeds Childrenâ€™s Theatre production of Toad of Toad Hall - these ran back to back so as one finished on Saturday 13th the next started on Sunday 14th! Threfore Iâ€™ve had little/no time to do much on the car so progress has been slow. I did take a couple of days off from work (not the theatre) during March & used these days to try & fit the roll bar that Iâ€™d bought from the proceeds of the sale of my Laco 200m diver.

Late last year Iâ€™d fitted the hard top to the car mainly to free up some space in the garage but having it in place didnâ€™t leave me with a particularly roomy environment in which to work. Itâ€™s too big/heavy for one person to remove so I was stuck with it! I already had the passengerâ€™s seat out of the car so decided to take the drivers seat out as well to give me more room â€" it would have had to come out soon enough anyway as I have some MX5 seats that I want to fit. The bar went in the car no problem & using some pointers I'd printed off the Scimweb forum (a mine of information) I started the job! The first mistake I made was that I didn't mark where the feet of the bar went when the carpet was in place. So once I'd fitted & bolted the bar in place without the carpet in the car I realised that it'd all have to come out again so that I could refit/mark/cut the carpet !! Do I feel a numpty? Yes I do!

I have a non-galvanised car so I wasn't sure whether the captive nuts - as fitted to some (all?) galvanised cars - for the roll bar feet bolts would be there or not. It turns out that they aren't fitted to my car so I had to drill some 10mm holes to accept the bolts that had been sent with the roll bar. Unfortunately these bolts weren't long enough so I had to make a quick trip to Screwfix (there's a branch close to our house) to get some long enough bolts & also some nyloc nuts. This is turning into a longwinded way of saying that the bar fits fine & feels reassuringly solid when it's all bolted up. It feels as if it should increase the strength of the car quite a lot even though it is only bolted in place. I'm told that welding it in position would be better but I'm not sure how I'd do this given that there's a layer of glass fibre between the rollover bar feet & the actual chassis & I'm not taking the car to bits any more than it is already! The bar is also held in place by three M8 bolts at the B-post so itâ€™s held in position by 12 bolts (6 per side) in total. It feels totally solid & should increase the strength/rigidity of the car quite a bit. I have been told that the strength of the actual bar can be increased by welding a diagonal bar across it but Iâ€™m not sure this is really necessary :huh:

Anyway here are a few pictures of the job â€" the last one shows the finished installation.

The first pic shows the roll bar foot & the three M10 bolts that hold it in position. Iâ€™ve used thick washers/spreader plates behind to secure them. Access was a complete pig & I had to remove the rear shock absorbers to give me more room â€" even then the rear suspension arms got in the way & I ended up using just about every extension I had in my socket set to reach the nuts. Thereâ€™s no way Iâ€™m removing the roll bar now & Iâ€™m glad that fitting it is finished!!


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## pauluspaolo

THis pic shows the roll bar in position - all holes drilled & partly bolted in. I then realised that it'd have to come out again so that I could fit/mark/cut the carpet


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## pauluspaolo

This photo shows the clearance between the roll bar & inside of the hard top (it also shows that my hard top needs retrimming ). So clearance for the hard top is fine - it should be ok with the soft top to but I'll just have to wait & see. The soft top's pretty worn out & could really do with replacing so I'll probably end up using the car with the hard top fitted most of the time


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## pauluspaolo

And here we have the finished installation - carpet fitted & cut, roll bar in position & all bolts tightened up. I like the way it looks & it feels proper, & I mean PROPER, solid & I'm chuffed with it. I'm not sure I'd want to do the job again anytime soon though!!

Opinions welcome as always  :thumbup:


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## JonW

Looks a neat job Paul, hard on your own, harder with the hardtop on, eek.

Ok, Its always hard to say how much any bolted in roll over bar will add to the strength of the structure as it depends on what its bolting to as well as what its made of and what the bolts are made of and how the bolts fit thru the flanges etc. But... I think from what youve said that youve made an improvement to the rigidity between the rear suspension turrets if nothing else which should be apparent when you next corner. Would I trust it to keep my head on in a roll over? Well thats debatable, but many older cars like sprites/spitfires etc use a simple bolted windscreen, usually to rusty a pillars, so youre already ahead with this I reckon than those cars, anyway you wouldnt turn it over anyway...


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## pauluspaolo

As you say Jon I don't want to roll it but accidents do happen as the photo below shows. This is the remains of an SS1 that was being driven between 40 - 50mph down a country road, the car hit a patch of gravel, the driver lost the back end which went up a bank hit a tree & flipped the car over. He travelled down the road some distance & the roll bar (& seat harness) undoubtedly saved him from serious injury/death - the car, as you can see, was trashed. The car was tarted up a bit (black bonnet, crossed out numerals on the doors etc) but other than that it was a bog standard 1600 SS1 (certainly not a race car) & it wasn't being driven too fast for the conditions - just one of those things really :blink: So I'm much happier having the roll bar especially as I'll be using a bigger more powerful engine. I see MX5's with the twin chromed individual hoops behind both the driver & passenger & I wonder if they'd do any good in a situation like this :huh:


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## pauluspaolo

Same car but a better shot showing the roll bar behind the bucket seats & how it took the weight of the car (rather than the drivers head!) - the windscreen pillars (A posts) cracked & folded. A friend of mine used to own a Marlin kitcar & that didn't have a roll bar behind the seats but the windscreen frame was part of the chasis so that performed the same job.

It's too much like tempting fate to remove an important structural/safety enhancing part of the car (the roof!) & not replace it with something that will take up much less space but perform a simialar sort of job!


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## Miikae

Nice to see i'm not the only car nut on here, well done Paul as you certainly had your work cut out and you done good by the look of it









Here is a pic of my ex hillclimb car i rebuilt for the road a couple of years ago.


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## pauluspaolo

Miikae said:


> Nice to see i'm not the only car nut on here, well done Paul as you certainly had your work cut out and you done good by the look of it
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Here is a pic of my ex hillclimb car i rebuilt for the road a couple of years ago.


Looks fantastic :thumbup: ..... more details please


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## Impster

Nice thread - good work.

Here's my toy which is slowly getting back to roadworthiness...


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## pauluspaolo

Impster said:


> Nice thread - good work.
> 
> Here's my toy which is slowly getting back to roadworthiness...


Woohoo Clan Crusader (Imp engine at back), not many of those about; or is it a McCoy (Mini engine at front) both looked similar as McCoy was based on the Clan I think 

Cool wheels! I always was a sucker for Minilites ..... again more details please :thumbup:


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## Miikae

Its a 1996 Robin Hood monocoque Sierra S7 2ltr Tuned Pinto , Piper Rally Cam, twin DCOE40 Webbers, 5 speed type 9 gearbox with a 3.36 open diff, inboard Gaz adjustable shocks at the front. A few things have changed now between these pics being taken.


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## pauluspaolo

That looks excellent - I'd love a 7 of some sort. It's a shame but when I was huting for a silly car all the 7's I saw for sale were way over my budget  They hold their value & are a lot of money for what is a very basic car. I decided that there was a chance with the Reliant - albeit a small one - that Gillian (my soon to be wife) would deign to go somewhere in the thing as it has a hard top & wind down windows! She drives a Merc 280SLK daily & hardly ever drives anywhere with the roof down so I doubt if she'd go anywhere in a car that doesn't even have doors or windows - I spy a mini heater in there though & is that a stereo next to it?!

I like it & would think that it's pretty quick or goes round corners like it's on rails!

Anyone for a bit of lift off oversteer? :thumbup:


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## Miikae

Yes a mine heater it is but underneath it is an ambient temp gauge & volt indicator but soon to be replaced with a very small am fm sterio radio that are used on bikes, that gearstick gaitor was only a stop gap as its a fork rubber off on of my bikes and has been changed now.

Oh yes it goes round corners like smelly stuff off a stick but only in the dry i might add and it flies too as my son demonstrated to me last year when i was a passenger in it with him when we went for a rally drive on humpty back roads around here, twas a real hahoo hang onto your hat moment too, if it wasnt for the harness i would have gone fly abouts.

I nearly lost it the other day see below


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## Impster

pauluspaolo said:


> Woohoo Clan Crusader (Imp engine at back), not many of those about; or is it a McCoy (Mini engine at front) both looked similar as McCoy was based on the Clan I think
> 
> Cool wheels! I always was a sucker for Minilites ..... again more details please :thumbup:


Well spotted it's a Clan!

It's been completelly stripped back to a bare shell (not one nut or bolt left on it) for some bodywork and new paint.

Currently has a bog standard 875cc unit installed, and the (beefed up) Imp trailing arms and wishbones put back on.

Going to run it on standard drum brakes until it's all good then will probably do some very subtle mods to make it a bit safer and more reliable (i.e. disc brakes at front, electric cooling fan etc).

Long way to go until then. Not going to set a 'finish date' for it as currently it's nice just to do an hour or so every now and then on it. Rest assured - it will get completed (some day!).


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## pauluspaolo

Impster said:


> pauluspaolo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Woohoo Clan Crusader (Imp engine at back), not many of those about; or is it a McCoy (Mini engine at front) both looked similar as McCoy was based on the Clan I think
> 
> Cool wheels! I always was a sucker for Minilites ..... again more details please :thumbup:
> 
> 
> 
> Long way to go until then. Not going to set a 'finish date' for it as currently it's nice just to do an hour or so every now and then on it. Rest assured - it will get completed (some day!).
Click to expand...

An excellent attitude :thumbup: Best of luck with the rebuild & it'd be great to see a few more updates


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## Impster

pauluspaolo said:


> An excellent attitude :thumbup: Best of luck with the rebuild & it'd be great to see a few more updates


Thanks!


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## mel

The garage that made the Clan Crusader is about ten miles from us, but is sadly only a bodywork repair place nowadays, although still called something like "Clan Bodyworks" - next time I'm out that way I'll have a look. :yes:

My sister had an Imp which had been breathed upon by the two guys who later became "Clan Crusader" when they worked at Melvin Motors (Hillman Dealers) and they raced Imps at Ingliston in Edinburgh. The cars were painted Royal Blue with a St. Andrews cross in white on the roof - a la "Ecurie Ecosse" colours and look. Those cars could shift :notworthy:

My sister's Imp was left in the standard yuck green colour, but dropped by an inch or two, fatt-ish tyres and a big bore exhaust being the only outward signs anything was abnormal - until you floored it at lights and gobsmacked the opposition :rofl: - especially since my sister looked like a nice li'l old lady and drove it like a banshee - she could scare me **itless with the thing. :yes:

A somewhat remarkable woman, my sister, one of the few ladies who were Engineers in the 50's (qualified and Chartered) stemming from WW2, and a car freak, plus a yachtswoman and an R and D leader in Safety Equipment for Mines, the Petroleum industry. Hammer and Chisel or on Paper, she could manage it! Worked for a US company as well as Yale Locks. Wish I had her talent and engineering knowledge :notworthy:


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## pauluspaolo

She sounds a very interesting lady Mel. She sort of reminds of my Grandad (my Mums Dad) who used to lived in Grantham. We (as a family) used to visit him regularly when I was a young lad & I was always fascinated with his garage which had 100's 1000's 1000000's of tools in it - none of which I had a clue about (I probably still wouldn't today)! It also contained a 1930's Lancia in bits! I've no idea which model but it'd be worth 1000's today - even as an incomplete project - back then it was just an old car ! I don't know what he did other than that I think he was an engineer of some sort with a passion for cars. Mum says that I remind her of him though I'm not an engineer in any way shape or form. He died some years ago & when we cleared his house out everything in the garage was scrapped (as far as I know). I look back now & wish that some things had been kept but we didn't have space for it & I wouldn't have known what to do with the Lancia so it would probably just have disintegrated - my passion for cars seems to have started fairly late on. I didn't even learn to drive until I was 25 so I suppose it all started then! Shame if it was scrapped as it was a beautiful car despite all the dust & spiders webs! I'll ask my Mum about him when I see her this weekend


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## pauluspaolo

I spent Saturday hack sawing, drilling, tapping, sweating, straining & swearing as I adapted the Reliant seat runners to fit a pair of MX5 seats Iâ€™d bought a few months ago. I'd already fitted the passengers seat once but removed it so that I could copy the adapters I'd made for the seat runners. I made the adapters out of some 10mm iron plate I had in stock â€" my idea being to bolt these plates to MX5 seat bases using the M8 holes already tapped into them, & then bolt the Reliant runners onto the plates into which Iâ€™d tapped another M8 hole. I didn't take any photo's of the adaptors I'm afraid (sorry about that) but they seem to do the job well enough. They were fiddly & time consuming to make though - the worst part being hack sawing through the 10mm plate! Both seats feel very secure & still move forwards & backwards (the drivers side a little reluctantly). The seats themselves are much comfier & more supportive than the originals (which were knackered) but also felt overstuffed, almost as if you were sitting on top of them rather than in them (if that makes any sense?). So I removed the seats & covers & attacked the seat foam with an electric carving knife (as you do :blink to try & reduce the height of the seat cushion. Again it seems to have worked well & both seats (the drivers side especially) feel more buckety whilst still being comfortable. The main problem is that the seats sit a bit higher than the originals. this isnâ€™t really a problem for me & Gillian as weâ€™re both 5â€™7â€ish but it probably will be a problem for anyone much taller than us. I can see me getting the seat rails lowered at some stage in the future which means doing a bit of cutting & welding & then getting the floor re-fibre glassed! Itâ€™s not a huge job (apparently), & plenty of people have already done it, but itâ€™s not really something I want to start right now.

So that's the interior more or less sorted, next on the agenda is to try & get the engine running. I need to pull it out again so that I can fit a new clutch release bearing - I should have fitted one when the engine was out but like a plonker I forgot! The sump is still a bit of a problem but Iâ€™m hoping that itâ€™ll be sorted soon! Then I'm probably going to have to leave the car for a bit until I can get the funds together for a fuel pump, carb(s)/manifold, megajolt ecu, starter motor, alternator mount & alternator, exhaust etc etc etc!

I'm getting married at the end of July , then Iâ€™m off on honeymoon for 2 weeks, so it looks as if life will get in the way of the project for a while.

Anyway here's a couple of not very good pics of the seats installed 

Ta for all your support & I'll update the thread when I've got more to say :thumbup:


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## JonW

Paul, WOW! the seats look great mate. I had a set of nasty aftermarkets in a TR7 V8 softop once and they just didnt work, too high and too hard. the previous owner was about 5ft tall so they worked for him, but my legs got in the way of the steering wheel. He'd chucked the old seat away and it cost me almost 200quid to get another standard set, sigh... Anyway. no such issues with your build, these looks great and I expect will be way more useful than the originals. Good upgrade I reckon, and they look nice too.


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## pauluspaolo

Hi all â€" Iâ€™ve not had much time/money to spend on the car recently but I have done a couple of jobs since fitting the MX5 seats a few months ago.

The thermostat housing on the Zetec engine is situated at the back of the cylinder head â€" this is fine in a front wheel drive layout but not so good in a rear wheel drive layout. It means thereâ€™s a long length of pipe from the thermostat to the radiator & it means that changing the thermostat can be awkward due to the closeness of the bulkhead â€" although thereâ€™s a recess on the SS1 which means that while it isnâ€™t pressed up against the bulkhead it is buried under the base of the windscreen! As Zetec conversions/installations become more popular in things like Mk1/MK2 Escorts, Cortinaâ€™s, Capriâ€™s etc parts are becoming available to make these conversions easier. One of these parts is the Raceline water rail which moves the thermostat housing from the rear of the engine to the side/front. This also reduces the length of pipe needed from the thermostat housing to the radiator - though itâ€™s still quite a long run in the SS1 because the radiator's miles away from the engine & the inlet is on the far side of the radiator.

Anyway the upshot of all this is that to make my life easier (& my bank account much slimmer) Iâ€™ve bought & fitted a Raceline water rail â€" itâ€™s a thing of beauty, looks like it's part of the engine & fits perfectly. Unfortunately it means that my very nice tubular exhaust manifold wonâ€™t fit so thatâ€™s more money to be spent later on & the pile of parts to list on Ebay grows ever larger!

As I say fitting the water rail has simplified the cooling system somewhat & Iâ€™ve started a trial layout of what bit of pipe goes where. Iâ€™m going to use blue silicone hose mated to metal (a combination of steel & alloy) coolant pipes. It should work well I think despite all the joints & jubilee clips (8).

Iâ€™ve also bought various other parts, which I've yet to fit, such as rear trailing arms, an electric fuel pump, twin choke Weber carb & manifold & finally a Megajolt ecu â€" this last item is essential & makes sure the sparks go where theyâ€™re supposed to go, at the time theyâ€™re supposed to go there! The biggest job out of all that lot will be fitting the rear trailing arms (though Iâ€™m not looking forward to wiring up the Megajolt either) & this means that Iâ€™ll finally have to bite the bullet & start stripping the rear of the car down. This is a pretty difficult job by all accounts & itâ€™s not one that Iâ€™ve been looking forward to at all ! Fitting it all should keep me busy for the rest of the year!

The water rail fitted.










Looking forward towards the radiator which shows the run of the pipe (as well as all the joints) â€" Iâ€™ve replaced the black rubber elbow with a blue silicone one since this photo was taken.










Looking down on the pipe run from above â€" the black metal pipe in the middle is part of the original SS1 cooling system & needs cleaning up (or replacing) & painting. You can get stainless steel coolant pipes for the SS1 but they're pretty expensive.










Iâ€™ll add more when Iâ€™ve done more but donâ€™t hold you breath as Iâ€™m getting hitched in 2 weeks & then Iâ€™m off on honeymoon to Kenya â€¦â€¦â€¦ OH YES!!!!

Thanks for reading :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

Another small update - probably the last one before my wedding next week 

I finally managed to get the sump welded up by a local firm (about 5 mins walk from my house in fact!). The chap who did the welding did a good job - the sump fits without fouling the steering rack crossmember but the pick up pipe (that came off the same Escort as this sump) now fouls the sump where it's been cut - so I've had to use another shallower pick-up pipe (that came with another sump) & cut & sleeve that. I'll trial fit it tonight & if it fits I'll try to get it welded/brazed before my wedding & we go away on honeymoon - if it's not one thing it's another


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## pauluspaolo

Another view


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## pauluspaolo

The cut & shut pick-up pipe - with sleeves covering the joints


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## JonW

Good work Paul! Loving the project 

Have a great wedding and a wonderful honeymoon m8!


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## pauluspaolo

JonW said:


> Good work Paul! Loving the project
> 
> Have a great wedding and a wonderful honeymoon m8!


Thanks Jon :thumbup: no photo's unfortunately - as my old digital camera (the one I usually use to take photo's of stuff in the garage) has finally called it quits  - but the sump required a bit more modification & welding before it fitted over the cut & shut pick-up pipe (which was also welded at the same time). It's all done now though & bolted into place - it's great to have this bit finally sorted as having no sump was not a good thing!

That's where I'm at now - I finish work for 3 whole glorious weeks tomorrow, I get married on Saturday & then I'm off to Kenya for 2 weeks so I probably won't be on the forum for a bit .......... unless the hotel has free internet access!!

 :thumbup:


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## JonW

Have a great time mate, and no way do we want you to be on the forum on your 'moon! youve better things to be doing!


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## pauluspaolo

Hi all â€" I had a great time on honeymoon (I'll post some photo's in the Photography section when I find the time to upload them to Photobucket) but now Iâ€™m back in good olâ€™ blighty so was thinking that a small update might be in order.

Before getting married & disappearing off for a couple of weeks I managed to find a (very) local chap called Jamie who was able to weld up my much hacked about & modified sump - I can provide a contact number for him if youâ€™re local to Leeds & need anything TIG welding. I know I've posted these two pictures before but here they are again anyway!

Here's the sump as TIG welded (very nicely) by Jamie. Unfortunately the pick-up pipe didn't fit so I had to hack a bit out of the newly welded angle & then get Jamie to weld a bulge over the resulting hole! I also had to modify the pick-up pipe to reduce the overall length/depth of it. Iâ€™m happy to report that it all fits fine & is now bolted up into position.










This is the cut & shut pick-up pipe prior to welding:










Some time before my wedding I ordered an inlet manifold from Usher Engineering â€" this has been developed for banger racing (where fuel injection isnâ€™t allowed) & is designed to take a single twin choke 32/36 Weber carburettor. I was told that the manifold should arrive before I went on honeymoon but, unfortunately, it didnâ€™t. When I got back there was a note from DHL saying that it had been left with a neighbour, so I trotted off & picked it up from them, whoâ€™d been holding onto it for the best part of two weeks. It wasnâ€™t the cheapest thing in the world but I have to say that itâ€™s beautifully made & fits a treat.

Anyway here are a few pics of the thing in position:




























I have a suitable carb (32/36 DGAV Weber) but havenâ€™t fitted it yet as the engine has to come out so that I can change the bloody clutch release bearing :taz: Also Iâ€™ve no idea of the history of the carb so it could do with a stripdown & clean â€¦â€¦ then Iâ€™ll have to try & make up some sort of throttle linkage. So thereâ€™s still an awful lot left to do on the car.

In one of the above pics you can see the alternator mount just below the inlet manifold â€" this still needs welding up so Iâ€™ll probably try & get that done when the engineâ€™s out of the car. Iâ€™m not sure when any of this will happen though!


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## jasonm

Thanks for the update Paul!

And many congratulations on your wedding, looking forward to the photos......... :good:


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## JonW

I'll second all Jason's comments!


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## pauluspaolo

Mini-update time - not had chance to do as much on the heap as Iâ€™d have liked to but Iâ€™ve got a few jobs done all the same.

Iâ€™ve fitted the remote oil filter housing to the inner wing, plumbed in the oil lines, fitted the engine/alternator mount bracket & secured the top length of coolant pipe with some rubber lined p-clips.

Jobs to do: fit an improved cooling fan - VW Polo fans bolt straight on apparently & are much beefier than the Reliant original, secure the oil lines with some rubber lined p-clips - I might have to re-route one of the oil lines as the alternatorâ€™s quite close to it, make/buy an alternator adjusting strap â€" the one Iâ€™ve got is far too short unfortunately, buy a drive belt of the correct length & fit/wire in the starter motor. These are comparatively small jobs â€" larger jobs on the horizon involve fitting & wiring/plumbing in the fuel pump, fitting the carb & sorting out the throttle cable, wiring up the Megajolt & getting some sort of exhaust botched up â€" I might be in a position to fire it up then 

Pics:














































Opinions welcome as always


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## JonW

Look at all that space! LOL.

I reckon given a few more evenings before it gets too cold you should have a runner mate... and we will need video of the start up!


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## pauluspaolo

Time to dredge this up from the depths of the forum once more!

I've not had much time/energy/enthusiasm for the SS1 recently so not much progress to report at all â€" I still haven't fitted the fuel pump, I still haven't fitted the new rear arms (big job), I still haven't bought a cooling fan, Iâ€™ve had the car 3 years & I still havenâ€™t removed the rear drums to see what state the brakes are in - not really too big a problem seeing as the only time the car moves is when I push it out of the garage ....... & the brakes work well enough for that sort of speed!

Itâ€™s not all doom & gloom though & I have got a couple of niggling jobs out of the way: the starter motor is finally fitted - this is the second I've bought, the first fitted ok but turned out to be seized solid - I took it apart & freed it all off but then couldn't get the thing back together again







Fitting the replacement wasnâ€™t exactly straightforward either & I had to set to with the angle-grinder & shave bits off both the sump (which meant removing the sump for about the 10th time!) & the casing of the new starter motor to get it to fit! It's on now & looks like it should work. I've also managed to get the alternator mount/tensioner working properly - so the drive belt is now fitted & tensioned up properly.

I took the day off today to do some work on the Astra (I fitted new lower arms/balljoints, spark plugs & a polished throttle body which should give it a bit more pep) but I also took the opportunity to have a little play with the SS1 & removed the autochoke mechanism from the twin choke Weber Iâ€™m planning to use. I then trial fitted the carb & spent a good few minutes trying to work out how the throttle cable was going to fit/work - the upshot of all this pondering is that I've no bleeding idea :shrug: That constituted far too much brain activity for one day so I took a few photo's & had a long hot soak in the bath!

More as & when it happens 

View of the tensioned up alternator belt â€" an exciting shot it may not be but this has been a git to sort out â€" Iâ€™m glad itâ€™s finally done!










Just a shot of the engine â€" looks good doesnâ€™t it?










Twin choke Weber (off a 2 litre (pinto) Sierra I think) â€" no idea what state itâ€™s in internally â€" I expect Iâ€™ll find out one day.










The starter motor lurking in the depths of the engine bay â€" the engine was freshly painted & all shiny when I fitted it all those months ago, itâ€™s starting to look a bit shabby again now.










Oops how did this sneak in â€" this is the other wheeled occupant of my garage â€" Scott Elite mtb. Kitted out with road tyres at the mo - itâ€™s a joyous thing to ride except for the seat which is like sitting on a razor blade. Iâ€™ll get a replacement eventually.


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## JonW

Good to see youre still going on this beastie! Always nice to see some progress. A friend of mine once said, do a bit even if its just 5mins, as you will be slowly moving forwards.


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## pauluspaolo

Hi again all â€" I managed to spending a few quiet hours tinkering on the SS1 yesterday & adapted the existing throttle cable to fit the new carb. The cable was attached to the old carb with a ball & socket joint. The cable still had the socket part on the end of it, but the new carb didnâ€™t have the required â€œballâ€ on it â€" I therefore needed to find a way to fit the â€œballâ€ bit onto the new carb! Hunting through the bits box resulted in a bit of 20mm steel box section, two small screws & the old carb was kind enough to donate the required â€œballâ€ bit.

So with a bit of hacking, drilling & tapping I ended with this: the box section is bolted to the carb, the â€œballâ€ bit is bolted to the other end of the box section & the cable then fits to that. It seems to work as it should which is a minor miracle in itself!

Iâ€™m hoping to fit a Weber plenum chamber (designed to fit the DGAV carb) to which Iâ€™ll fit some ducting & a remote conical air filter. This should keep things nice & low under the bonnet. Iâ€™ve checked a bit more closely & it looks like the brake master cylinder is the highest part under the bonnet â€" Iâ€™ve not modified this at all so the bonnet should fit over the new engine

Iâ€™m chuffed that Iâ€™ve got three pedals to play around with again & itâ€™s given me a bit of a lift after yesterdays upset.

The new carb linkage â€" looks naff but it seems to work well - at full pedal travel the butterfly valves are well & truly open & the return spring works fine 










The Weber plenum chamber â€" not bought yet but may treat myself next month.


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## pauluspaolo

Hi all - no progress made for the last couple of months due to theatre commitments (two shows back to back) but that all finished last weekend so I've had chance to do some bits on the SS1 this week

First thing to do was to try & mock up where I was going to run the new fuel pipe - I was intending to run it along the central tunnel but when it came to actually installing it I decided that it ran too close to the prop shaft. Also, without removing the prop, I couldn't get my drill in to drill the holes for the p-clips. Time for Plan B - which meant running it along the outside of the central tunnel & behind the seat rails (hopefully you'll see what I mean from the pic), passing through the speedometer cable hole into the engine bay. Not sure what the MOT tester will make of it but most of it seems to be tucked up out of the way. I've fitted a fuel pressure regulator/filter (filter king) & run the fuel pipe from this along the edge of the cam cover. I've yet to work out a route for the fuel return pipe, but I'm hoping to get this sorted on Saturday, then I can get the car off the axle stands & back onto 4 wheels (which will be nice).

The photo's aren't very good I'm afraid but hopefully you can see the run of the fuel pipe under the car - any observations/comments (positive or negative) gratefully received.










Fuel hose running under the car along central backbone/tunnel & through the gaps behind the seat rails. I've secured it with p-clips along its length, especially at the back of the chassis (not in the photo) where it passes close to the trailing arm as I don't want any moving parts to rub against it!










Here we can see where I've mounted the filter king & the new hose attached to it. I've put a dogleg in the filter king mounting plate to lower it. The old fuel pipes can be seen poking through the chassis at the top of the photo - these are now redundant & I'll remove them later.










New fuel hose attached to the carb - I've run it along the edge of the cam cover (using rubber lined stainless steel p-clips) as it looks neat & keeps everything out of the way. The p-clips are a bit too big for the fuel hose but Iâ€™m going to wrap a bit of rubber self-amalgamating tape round it to increase the diameter of the hose so the p-clip will hold it.

As I say opinions welcome â€" I may well change the route the new hose takes as I'd rather get it right while the car's on stands & the underneath is accessible. Up inside the central tunnel would be best/safest (which is where the original piping runs) but I just can't reach it without removing the propshaft! It's not something I've ever done before so I'm not sure how easy/difficult it is to do - though it looks to be a case of undoing 4 bolts & sliding it out of the gearbox â€" anyone know if the gearbox (type 9) will dump its oil if I do this????


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## Big Bad Boris

You shouldn't lose any oil by removing the propshaft.

Its an easy enough job to do, it literally is as you've already said - unbolt the prop, and then slide it forward off the gearbox splines.

You usually mark the propshaft and diff with chalk or tippex to make sure it goes back in exactly the same position as it was when removed.


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## pauluspaolo

Hi all - time to dredge this up from the depths again  I'm off work for the next 2 weeks, we're going away for the second week but it's my intention to get some work done on the SS1 during the first week. So I've started stripping the back end down as the brakes need looking at - I may need new brake shoes; the back plate is very rusty, so may need replacing, & the inside of the drum itself could do with skimming to get rid of all the crud caused by binding brake shoes! I've also got a nice shiny pair of new(ish) trailing arms to fit. I've only taken the drivers side trailing arm off at the mo but it wasn't as bad to strip down as I thought it was going to be. I'm going to paint every bit of the chassis I can see (with rust preventative paint) as access is a lot easier with the trailing arm out of the way.

I did take some photos but only this one is any good (light was gone) - I'll let you decide which trailing arm is the new one!!


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## jasonm

Glad to see your still going at it Paul :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

Hi all â€" long time no update but Iâ€™ve been working on the SS1 this afternoon. I bought a pair of trailing arms through the Scimweb forum some time ago & have finally got round to fitting them (well one of them anyway!). Iâ€™ve put about 3 layers of paint on them so, hopefully, they'll last better than the rusty original ones. Iâ€™m reconditioning the brakes as well with Goodridge braided hoses, new wheel cylinders (from a Sierra estate so slightly larger bore than the usual ones) & new brake shoes (which Iâ€™ve yet to buy). The drums are a bit ridged but Iâ€™m hoping to get away with skimming them rather than buying new ones. Iâ€™ve attacked the original backing plate with a wire brush, painted it & re-used it. I thought Iâ€™d have to replace the handbrake cable (due to seized adjusters) but Iâ€™ve managed to free them off & get them working again. Unfortunately Iâ€™ve only managed to do all this to the driverâ€™s side, & Iâ€™ll only be able to strip the passengerâ€™s side down once Iâ€™ve got the brakes working again, as I didnâ€™t undo the passenger side hub nut when I had the opportunity â€¦â€¦â€¦ what a plonker I am!!!

Anyway here are the pics:

New wheel cylinder & repainted backing plate.









Overall view of backend showing freshly painted drive shaft, new Spax shock & trailing arm. You can also see the new drop link Iâ€™ve made up for the anti-roll bar (not re-fitted that yet).










Shot showing the new Goodridge braided brake hose.










If youâ€™ve any questions/comments give me a shout


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## jasonm

Thanks for the update Paul.. Looking good :notworthy:


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## pauluspaolo

Hi again - managed to get another day in on the SS1 this weekend. This resulted in 2 things:

1.) me putting my back out (extremely painfully) as I twisted round to pick up a part whilst kneeling &

2.) the rear suspension back on the car

I was in too much pain to take many pics but here's one I took anyway before the soothing benefits of a cuppa & a long hot bath took precedence.

A few days on & my back's still hurting like hell so it looks like it'll be a while before I get anything else done on the car  The bolts on the rear suspension all need tightening up but the car needs to be on its wheels (not on axle stands) for me to do this properly, the anti-roll bar bushes need replacing &, despite me putting the wheels back on, it still needs a new set of rear brake shoes ..... there's nothing in the drums (apart from the new wheel cylinders)!

More updates as & when I'm able


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## pauluspaolo

Hi again â€" I've done a bit more on the SS1:

I finally decided that I really wasnâ€™t happy with the new position of the alternator (Iâ€™d moved it from passengers side of the engine bay to the drivers side) so dug out my old alternator/engine mount, refitted it & decided to try & modify it so that I could use it with the new water pump.

I cut a hole in the mount (lots of drilling & filing) for the water pump outlet but it still didnâ€™t fit, meaning that I had to enlarge the hole considerably until Iâ€™d completely removed one side of the bracket. There were no problems with the bracket fitting over the pump outlet then but, obviously, it was considerably weakened so some/all of this strength had to be put back into it. Not having access to a welder meant that a (hopefully) superior botch was required! Cue one strip of extremely hard steel, some spacers & a couple of M8 bolts. The resulting mount isn't quite finished yet & will have to come off for a final bit of fettling/painting & thereâ€™s the top strap/stabilizer bar to finish off. It looks a bit (ok a lot) naff but seems pretty strong as it is (though I would like to get it welded) & it means that Iâ€™ve finally found a use for the Landrover alternator adjusting strap I bought ages ago which is much longer than the standard SS1 item. Iâ€™ll try & take some better photos of the whole shebang when itâ€™s off the car.

The drive belt fits fine & was originally intended for a 2 litre Lancia Thema, amongst others, & is 1100mm long with 4 ribs.

The pictures also show the exhaust manifold Iâ€™m probably going to use (at least initially) â€" itâ€™s a bog standard Mondeo jobbie so probably wonâ€™t flow that well but itâ€™ll do to get the car up & running with. I suspect that due to the position of the alternator, water rail & starter motor Iâ€™ll either end up lumbered with it or Iâ€™ll have to get a one off manifold built up on the car at a later date.

Solving one problem always seems to lead to numerous others & Iâ€™m now not happy with the heater hoses as they run quite close to the manifold - I'll either have to get longer pipes & re-route them or do away with the heater all together; also, due to the new (old?) position of the alternator, I had to move the dipstick tube & this needs securing (probably to one of the thermostat housing bolts) added too which it also runs close to the manifold so may need a bit of heat wrap/protection (though I'm not sure if it matters too much).

Opinions welcome as always


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## Alas

Wow :notworthy: haven't a clue about any of that but you have my admiration as my mechanical ability stops at turning the key. I remember the normal Scimitars but don't remember the Ss1 so just been on wiki and read up about them.

Great stuff :thumbsup:


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## JonW

Great to see youre still going on this one Paul, I dont post much these days as im working on other things and have no time, but am always keen to hear about your progress mate.


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## pauluspaolo

The weather's picked up a bit recently so I took Friday off & spent the weekend working on the SS1. Thought Iâ€™d get the engine bay rear cross-member back in. Normally itâ€™s a pretty weedy looking bit of top hat section of steel which I had to remove it in order to fit the Zetec sump. Iâ€™d left stubs either side of the engine bay thinking that Iâ€™d either refit the original, or make a removable one, at some stage. However it soon became clear that because the sump is so close to it that a removable cross-member would probably make things easier â€" especially if I ever need to drop the sump or remove the engine at a later date.

Iâ€™ve used a length of square section steel (part of an old engine stand I was given) which, with a bit of tickling with the angle-grinder, fitted inside the stubs of the original cross-member. Iâ€™ve cut it to fit between the main chassis members but left overhangs each side. Iâ€™ve drilled through the stubs, & the square section, & put M10 bolts through to secure the square section to the stubs. Since the photos were taken Iâ€™ve drilled up through each of the overhangs, & chassis rails, & put another M10 bolt through. So itâ€™s secured by both horizontal & vertical M0 bolts. Iâ€™m not sure Iâ€™ve described that very well but hopefully you can see what I mean from the photos.

Iâ€™ve no idea if itâ€™s as strong as the original - & some of the drilling isnâ€™t brilliant (space was tight with the underneath of the car just above your nose which made drilling, even with a right angle drill, anything but easy) â€" but I feel happier with it there. Of course it all needs to come out again so that I can paint it!

Any questions or comments more than welcome J


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## Boxbrownie

What kind of clearance have you got between the sump and the crossmember? (in all directions) Depending on the type of engine mounts your have I have seen movement of up to 30mm at sump level on a lot of setups.

If they are fairly solid (not when you wobble them around static but in dynamic modes) then you might get away with 10-15mm or so, but any mount worthy of an NVH medal will have more than that.

But aside from that its good to see the beast gradually taking shape again....the weathers a pain!


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## pauluspaolo

Must admit that the clearance is a concern of mine too - the mounts are new but standard SS1 so while they're not old knackered ones they're not uprated polyurethane ones either. The sump doesn't actually touch the crossmember at any point but it's much closer on the drivers side than it is on the passengers side due to the angle of the sump. I'm very tempted to take the sump off - again - to grind a bit more of the redundant webbing off it to increase the clearance. The crossmember needs to come off anyway for painting so I could have a go at the sump go then


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## Silver Hawk

Keep the updates coming Paul. Will it be driven in 2012? :huh:


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## mel

After 1 2 3 *some* years in Space Dock, the SS1 slowly emerged into normal space under impulse power! (pushed onto the driveway )

Scotty signalled the Bridge and pressed the start button and the mighty engine roared coughed into life. Captain James T Paulo selected Hyperdrive *1* and set course ----

Actually seems to be getting there for real now! Thanks for updates, reviewed just about the whole thread.Great stuff, and great patience also - I'm not sure I could keep going that long.


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## pauluspaolo

Silver Hawk said:


> Keep the updates coming Paul. Will it be driven in 2012? :huh:


Who knows! You'll be among the first to know if it is driven this year  Hows your Ariel(?) rebuild coming along? 



mel said:


> After 1 2 3 *some* years in Space Dock, the SS1 slowly emerged into normal space under impulse power! (pushed onto the driveway )
> 
> Scotty signalled the Bridge and pressed the start button and the mighty engine roared coughed into life. Captain James T Paulo selected Hyperdrive *1* and set course ----
> 
> Actually seems to be getting there for real now! Thanks for updates, reviewed just about the whole thread.Great stuff, and great patience also - I'm not sure I could keep going that long.


Nice one Mel made me smile that did 

I have to say that whilst it's taking somewhat longer than I initially anticipated (huuuuuuge understatement) I'm still enjoying working on the thing & solving the various "little" problems it throws my way. I had a little (read: MAJOR) strop to my wife about the bloody thing on Friday & she said "you can't stop now" & she's right; I really have done too much to it, spent too much money & come too far to turn my back on it now. So many thanks for the support & please keep it coming. I won't be able to make much more progress on it for the next 2/3 weeks at least as I've a show coming up which I'm stage managing. After that I've no theatrical committments at all until June/July so I'm planning to, & should be able to, spend much more time on the car - weather should be a bit warmer to :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

Well work on the heap proceeds at a rate that would make the average glacier appear supersonic in comparison 

No theatre duties until June means that I can finally spend a few consecutive evenings working on the car â€" unfortunately painting a freshly stripped anti-roll bar isnâ€™t very exciting & you can only give it one coat at a time so 3 coats requires 3 evenings â€¦.. & taking photos of paint drying is about as exciting as actually watching it dry in real time!! Anyway said painting was finally completed & I refitted the front anti-roll bar a couple of nights ago with the help of my â€œWestfield in bitsâ€ owning friend Matt (thanks Matt J ). Iâ€™d bought new polyurethane bushes for both the front & rear ARBâ€™s so fitted those at the same time. Didnâ€™t take long in the grand scheme of things & the jobs a good â€˜un J

Front ARB drop links + poly bushes:










Front ARB chassis mount & poly bush:










Last night I attacked the sump with my angle grinder â€¦â€¦ AGAIN â€¦â€¦ & this is the result! The channel will, hopefully, give much more clearance between the sump & the new bolt in cross-member (which Iâ€™ve painted a fetching black) I made a couple of weeks ago. Note all the alloy dust on the bench in the back ground - glad I wore a face mask, goggles & ear defenders now :blink: - which prompted a major clean/tidy up in the garage after all the angle grinding had finished.



















I was thinking about bolting it all back together again tonight but the sumpâ€™s been on & off so many times I now think that the sump gasket (rubber) could do with replacing. I bought a new one when I fitted the engine but the sumps been on & off about 10 times since then! To remove the sump I also need to remove the starter motor & the new cross-member so rather than bolt it all up tonight, only to remove it all again when the new gasket arrives (Iâ€™ve not even ordered it yet) I think I might leave it as it is for the moment. Iâ€™ve bought new brake shoes for the rear drums so Iâ€™ll probably try & fit those tonight instead.

More when thereâ€™s more to report J


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## Phillionaire

Best of luck with it. Sounds like a mammoth undertaking to me, and has been said I don't think I'd have the dedication to see it through.

Just think how good it'll be once it's finished :thumbsup:


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## JonW

Always happy to hear more about this project Paul, keep going mate...


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## pauluspaolo

I fitted a new radiator to the SS1 last week. Itâ€™s actually for a 1 litre Polo (I think) but these radiators are used in Zetec engined kit cars & my friend, whoâ€™s rebuilding a Westfield with a stage 3 tuned crossflow engine, is using one of these radiators. Itâ€™s slightly smaller than the standard SS1 radiator so required a couple of raising blocks, new mounts & a bit of re-routing of the coolant hoses.

Iâ€™m also using a Polo cooling fan which fits directly onto the old Reliant fan mount with no modifications at all â€" bar some washers/spacers - this must make it one of the cheapest/easiest upgrades available for the SS1 & the original fan looks pathetic next to it.

I was going to use a second-hand DGAV carb but whilst renewing the gaskets, needle valves etc last week it turned out to have no fast idle screw â€" my fault entirely I suspect as a few weeks earlier I'd removed the auto-choke mechanism & must have removed the fast idle gubbins by mistake at the same time!! Sod it (or words to that effect!) I thought! I decided to dip into the piggy bank & ordered a new DGV carb (no auto choke) which should arrive next week â€" all a bit annoying but no-ones fault but mine & at least I know that the new carb will be set up properly (itâ€™s being jetted for a 2 litre Pinto). The old black rubber heater hoses have gone & been replaced with blue silicon ones; unfortunately Iâ€™ve ordered the wrong sized hose clips so Iâ€™ll have to re-order & fit these later on.

As well as all the above Iâ€™ve refitted the sump, starter motor & cross-member. Iâ€™ve fitted new rear brake shoes but now the old drums wonâ€™t go back on over the new shoes. They have a definite lip so will need skimming â€¦â€¦ it never ends!

Next step is installing the Megajolt â€" not sure where to start to be honest â€" after that the exhaust manifold/system will be the next big headache as the only manifold Iâ€™ve found that fits is the standard Mondeo cast iron one â€" not exactly free-flowing â€" and thereâ€™s damn all room/clearance for a down pipe So I think itâ€™ll have to be a bodge job until I can afford something better â€" but thatâ€™s a bridge Iâ€™ll cross when I come to it.

Opinions welcome as always


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## Phillionaire

New radiator looks great. Well done.

Would it be cost effective to get some headers welded up as opposed to bodging something together? You could buy all the angles and tack it together, then get a shop to finish it?? Tuned length headers would make a big power difference too. :thumbsup:


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## pauluspaolo

Aye up â€" Iâ€™ve been busy on the SS1 this week.

On Ebay last week I won a CVH free(ish) flow exhaust manifold, which came off another SS1. My idea was to fit this manifold on the Zetec as it follows the same route as the original exhaust; meaning I could refit the whole of the original system. The stud patterns of the Zetec head & CVH manifold are completely different but adaptor plates are available which allow RS Turbo manifolds to be fitted to Zetec engines (so making turbo-charging that bit easier). One of these adaptors was duly purchased (also from Ebay).

So on Monday evening I decided to start getting the engine ready for the adapter & new manifold. This meant removing the coolant pipes/hoses, the alternator, alternator/engine mount & the Mondeo exhaust manifold that Iâ€™d already fitted & was intending to use. The adaptor is fitted to the Zetec head using the original exhaust stud holes â€" so the studs obviously had to come out. The manifold studs on the Zetec handily have a Torx head on them so allowing them to be loosened/tightened with a suitable Torx socket. To cut a long story short I managed to undo 8 of the 9 Zetec studs but the last one refused to loosen & was too close to the water rail to get a stud remover on it & the last thing I wanted was shear it off in the cylinder head! To make room to allow the use of a stud remover the water rail had to come off as well :roll: !

Last night I fitted the adaptor & CVH exhaust manifold and refitted the alternator/engine mount, alternator, coolant pipes etc. All went smoothly but I took the opportunity to tweak a few bits & pieces (alternator support & dipstick tube mounting) so it all took rather longer than I thought it would. As the pictures show the adaptor plate overlaps the exhaust port slightly â€" which Iâ€™m not too happy about â€" but the exhaust manifold itself fits fine & should allow me to use (temporarily) the somewhat knackered exhaust system that the car came with. Iâ€™ll have to see how the car runs with this exhaust manifold but Iâ€™m much happier with this arrangement than I was with the Zetec manifold I was intending to use as I'd have had to build an exhaust system from scratch. At the very least itâ€™ll do to get the car up & running with & I can upgrade the whole exhaust system (including the manifold) later on as & when funds allow.

So there you have it â€" thatâ€™s the engine installation just about finished  I still need to sort out the air filter but I know what I'm going to use so that's not too big a problem. The next major job on the horizon is the wiring (Megajolt ecu/EDIS installation, cooling fan, fuel pump etc). Once all that's all sorted though it'll be "put it all back together & turn the key" time!

Weâ€™re away at the coast this weekend & I intend having a beer (or twelve) to celebrate 

Adaptor plate fitted to head - note overlap on exhaust ports 



















Everything back together - looks good doesn't it? 










Shows manifold outlet under the car - ignore the axle stand 










Opinions welcome as always


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## pauluspaolo

Quick update (no pics/videos unfortunately) but the starter motor's now wired up properly & the engine turns over on the key which means that the starter & flywheel work with each other. I'd been told that they would work with each other but until you actually turn the key & it all works you never really know for sure 

More progress is that my friend from work (Muhammad - he's a wiring whizz!) came over & helped wire up the fuel pump so that also whirs into life when the key's turned. The idea being that the fuel pump fills/primes the carb with petrol & then stops when it senses back pressure (i.e. when the carb's full).

I've still got to tidy/connect up bits of the fuel pump wiring but when I've done that I'll start wiring in the Megajolt. There's still a fair bit to do on the car - bleed brakes, put bodywork back on, check all bolts for tightness, fuel, coolant etc - but, hopefully, firing up may not be too far away


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## jasonm

Thanks for the update Paul...... Looking forward to seeing the finished article .... Not as much as you though I bet! :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

Another 3 hours spent slaving over the car last night resulted in a huge detonation of noise & smoke - after 4 or 5 years of making recalcitrant parts fit where they are not supposed to the bloody thing burst into life & actually ran for about 10 seconds  As in sparks, fuel, valves, pistons, conrods, camshafts & a crank all meshed together in perfect harmony & I actually had a working int(f)ernal combustion engine ...... until I realised that what I didn't have was an exhaust system & that it was 9.30pm (neighbours not best pleased methinks) ...... to say it was loud is an understatement ..... to say that I'm a very happy bunny today is an understatement 

Next step is to tidy the wiring & wire in the Megajolt ecu - at the moment the car runs on the Ford EDIS system which gives a fixed ignition curve of 10 degrees BTDC. I don't pretend to understand how it works but it's used by banger racers as a cheap way of getting their cars running well enough to race. When it's used with a Megajolt it gives you a limp home facility should the main ECU unit fail. It's good practice in Megajolt circles to make sure the EDIS system works (it does ) before going ahead with wiring up the main Megajolt ECU.

HUGE thanks to Muhammad who did all the wiring :thumbup: All I want to do now is work on the bloody thing but I'm not going to have time to do anything else to it until Sunday at the earliest (this is the only fly in the ointment)!

:lol: :yahoo:  :clap: :toot: :jawdrop: :band: :grin: :jump: :fan_1: :cool2: :rockon:


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## Miikae

Its so good to hear that your baby has come to life and what a good feeling it is to.

Keep going

Mike


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## pauluspaolo

Well here's a short video as promised - the voiceover at the beginning belongs to my Westfield owning friend Matt - he's an amateur thespian in case you hadn't guessed










The car took a lot of getting going last night with some fairly spectacliar fireworks/mushroom clouds from the carb! It eventually fired up (sort of) but won't idle at all & I'm not convinced it's firing on all 4 cylinders - it's quite hard to tell without an exhaust (the lack of which will also affect how the car runs). Having read a bit about DGV/DGAV carbs I'm going to check the basic settings when I get home tonight - though the carb was new so I sort of assumed that it had been set to the basics already









Muhammad's seen this video & thinks he may have got a couple of wires crossed in the EDIS loom (it's a wasted spark system so 2 plugs get a spark even though only one of said sparks is used to ignite an air/petrol mixture) so that may be causing the rough running. We'll have a look at all that tonight as well. Not sure if the Megajolt will get wired up tonight or not ......will have to see how we go .... there's possibly more important stuff to check/do first.

http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pau....nt=VID00001.mp4

On a more positive note the clutch seems to work as I reversed the car .... despite there being no drivers seat or brakes & with the engine running as rough as a bear's bum








​


----------



## Who. Me?

pauluspaolo said:


> the voiceover at the beginning belongs to my Westfield owning friend Matt - he's an amateur thespian in case you hadn't guessed


You're not kidding me. That's Ringo Starr!

Well done, it must be a huge weight of your mind, after all that hard work, to know that it will actually run.


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## Ventura

Is that you in the car Paul? You look a lot different then I imagined you to be? I was expecting a bit of a beard and pony tail for some odd reason.


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## BondandBigM

pauluspaolo said:


> .
> 
> http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pau....nt=VID00001.mp4
> ​


At least it's running on a couple of cylinders maybe just not in the right order :lol: :lol:

And I wouldn't get to close with the camera (or your head) when it's popping and banging through the carb like that  I agree with your mate either timing or firing order, which I'm guessing is taken care of by the black box. It won't be the carb they usually run spot on straight out the box.


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## pauluspaolo

Well I've been having more fun & frolics with the SS1.

After all the spitting back through the carb & rough running (see previous video) I decided to check the timing. I'd fitted a new timing belt ages ago but upon checking it was found to be a bit loose. So off with the cam cover, cams locked so they couldn't move (there'a slot in the back of the cams that a bar fits in - so locking them in the correct position), timing belt removed, crank turned over until TDC on no1 piston was reached, timing belt refitted & tensioned. Result a much tighter belt & better - though still not perfect - running. My friend & I also checked the tightness of the carb onto the inlet manifold which meant grinding a couple of spanners down as access was very tight! We also fitted the exhaust so that we weren't deafening ourselves or the neighbours!

It's much better but still popping back a bit & the amount of blue smoke coming out of the engine was incredible - I've never seen a car smoke as badly (think of a dragster burnout & you'd be somewhere close)  We're not convinced that it's running on all 4 cylinders (there is a decent spark for each one) so it may that the timing's still not set properly - though the cams were locked in position with a bar & TDC was found on No1 piston using a dial gauge as Ford, very conveniently, didn't bother putting timing marks on the engine - so I don't see how it can be that far out really! Also the car's running on the EDIS only which Ford fitted as a get you home if the main ECU fails backup so it may be that the engine won't run that well on this system alone?? Banger racers use it on their cars but how well does a banger racer have to run if it's probably going to end up demolished during the race? I've not heard of any cars (on the road) using the EDIS system alone.

We altered the mixture/idle speed settings as all the plugs were very black & sooty, which means the mixture's too rich i.e. there's too much petrol in the air/petrol mixture - which might also go someway towards explaining all the smoke. We started the engine & checked the plugs again: 1 & 3 weren't too bad, while plugs 2 & 4 were still pretty bad with lots of carbon build up. The smoke situation improved too, though it's still not great, & I'm going to check the compression tonight - I probably should have done this before now but I'd forgotten that I even had a compression tester as my friend's had it that long! I'll also check the tightness of the manifold nuts as it may be something as simple as a vacuum leak (here's hoping).

http://s9.photobucke...012EDISonly.mp4

Micro update:

Since the video was taken I've checked the tightness of the inlet manifold - trying to eliminate vacuum/air leaks - & have managed to tighten it up a bit more. This resulted in much better running & no spitting back through the carb. Unfortunately I couldn't check the compression as the adapter on the compression gauge wasn't long enough to reach the plug hole :taz: Having said all that though I don't think it's a million miles away from running ok  I am concerned about the amount of smoke coming out of the exhaust though  Apparently brand new Zetec engines (1800 blacktops) come up for sale occasionally & are Â£500ish - which is probably cheaper than a rebuild - so I may have to raid the piggy bank for one of those!!

Opinions &/or advice welcome as always


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## pauluspaolo

Work continues on The Reptile - since the above video Iâ€™ve bought, & fitted, a complete stainless steel exhaust system (from another SS1), tightened up the inlet manifold (which has stopped the spitting back/mushroom clouds), tweaked the idle/mixture settings on carb & loaded a map onto the Megajolt â€¦.. the carâ€™s now idling/running much better than it was in the previous video. The map loaded is for a standard cross flow, all the Zetec maps I could find were for engines running twin 40/45â€™s. If anyone has an ignition map for a Zetec running a single Weber DGV carb then Iâ€™d very much like to hear from them. Also does anyone know (unlikely I realise but you never know till you ask) what jet sizes to use in a DGV carb thatâ€™s attached to a 2 litre Zetec?? The carb was new & Iâ€™ve not opened it so Iâ€™m not sure what the main jet sizes are but the idle jets are: primary choke â€" 165, secondary choke â€" 160. I asked for it to be jetted for a 2 litre Pinto (Cortina/Capri etc).

As I say the carâ€™s running much better but I thought I may go up/down a couple of idle jet sizes i.e. primary choke up to 170 or down to 160 & secondary choke up to 165 or down to 155. The jets are only a couple of quid each so cheap enough to buy & experiment with but if I change the idle jet sizes will I need to change the emulsion tubes & the main jet sizes as well? Does anyone know (I have asked these questions on car forums to)?

As you can probably tell Iâ€™ve no idea what Iâ€™m doing so any sensible advice (i.e not along the lines of "set fire to it" as someone suggested recently) would be much appreciated!

Anyway hereâ€™s another video of it running much better - taken about a week ago J

http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/Videos%20of%20the%20SS1/?action=view&current=Zetecrun2EDIS.mp4

J


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## BondandBigM

Do you have an air to fuel ratio meter or can you borrow one ??? at least then you'd know where you are at with the mixture and the current jet sizing before you start messing about with stripping the carb and spending money you might not need to. Even a vacum gauge can get you close when you do some minor adjustment with the mixture screws bearing in mind the black box ecu isn't controlling the mixture any more, presumably just the timing ???.

BTW I still think it's ignition or cam timing that will cause the rough running, to lean or to rich on the fuelling shouldn't really give you the sort of issues you're describing as I doubt that out the box the carb will be that far out.


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## pauluspaolo

Well I seem to have been having an eventful time with the car recently! Over the last 2/3 months the projectâ€™s taken a good few steps forward, just about as many steps backwards & finally itâ€™s started to go forwards again!!

I ended up changing the 110,000 2 litre Zetec for a low mileage 1800 Zetec. The â€œoldâ€ 2 litre engine ran ok but belched out clouds, & I mean *CLOUDS*, of blue smoke. Due to this the project sort of stalled while I decided what to do about the presumably knackered engine







I was seriously considering going down the engine rebuild route but my friend Matt (who owns a Westfield) found a newly rebuilt 1800 Zetec being offered on the Westfield Owners forum for a very good price, less than Iâ€™d have to spend rebuilding the 2 litre. Even better was that it was close to where I live & the seller would deliver it free of charge. So the deal was agreed, but delivery was delayed while I went on holiday for 2 weeks. Once the engine had been delivered there were a couple of problems to overcome: the 1800 Zetec oil pump wouldnâ€™t allow the engine bracket to fit, so I had to buy/fit a 2 litre oil pump, & one of the screw in oil gallery plugs was found to be missing â€" fortunately this was found before I tried starting the engine â€" the old 2 litre engine donated one of these.

I then had to wait for the engine hoist to become available (I borrow it for beer money from a chap at work). Once available the old engine came out easily enough & the clutch/flywheel were swapped over onto the new engine. It then took 2 attempts to get the new engine in â€" no idea why except that my friend & I were both tired when we made the first attempt. Once in everything had to be bolted back onto it: coil pack, carb/inlet manifold, exhaust manifold/exhaust system, alternator, all coolant hoses, wiring, coolant, oil etc. Once that was all done it was time to try & start it â€" it took a bit of cranking but soon fired into life â€¦.. & sounded awful (couple of sticky tappets) & clouds of blue smoke again (as bad as the 2 litre) â€¦.. had I bought a diesel I wondered?!

I was gutted to be honest but really didnâ€™t want to pull the engine out again! After pondering what to do for a while I decided to ring Northampton Motorsport. The reason being that Iâ€™d read an article in Retro Cars about a Ford Anglia van, into which the owner had fitted an 1800 Zetec, running Megajolt ignition along with a single 32/36 carb. Heâ€™d got the car running quite well on a standard Ford x-flow map (122bhp) but he had the car rolling-roaded at Northampton Motorsport & theyâ€™d managed to get a reliable 139bhp. The chap I spoke to at NM remembered the car quite well because they were surprised that the car produced such a decent amount of power from a fairly primitive set up â€" a single carb & megajolt isnâ€™t the most sophisticated system around . He asked what the problem with my engine was & said the excessive smoke could only be one of 2 things: a worn engine &/or poor crankcase ventilation. He explained that the crankcase breather, as fitted to a Mondeo/Escort etc is normally connected to the inlet manifold where crankcase fumes/residue is burnt during ignition â€" so improving the engine emissions. The inlet manifold creates a vacuum which opens a valve in the crankcase breather system. As my breather isnâ€™t connected to the inlet manifold this valve isnâ€™t opening so the crankcase pressurises & forces oil past the rings & into the combustion chamber â€¦ so causing excessive amounts of blue smoke. This valve needed the innards taking out of it so that it was effectively open all the time. He also said that I should fit a proper catch tank instead of the small conical filters Iâ€™ve been using.

I must admit to being a bit dubious about this but took the crankcase breather apart, found the valve, gutted it (I basically turned it into a tube), refitted everything, started the engine & was amazed by the result. I wouldnâ€™t say that all the smokeâ€™s gone but itâ€™s massively reduced & the car runs much more smoothly - even the lazy tappets freed themselves







Hopefully the rest of the smoke should disappear as the engine beds in â€" it hadnâ€™t been run for at least a year before I bought it. This does make me wonder if the smoke situation with the 2 litre engine would've improved as drastically had I done the breather valve mod instead of buying a replacement engine. The 2 litre certainly didn't smoke badly in the donor Mondeo ..... but then the crankcase breather would've been working as Ford intended it to so it maybe wouldn't have smoked badly anyway ..... who knows?!?

Since all the above Iâ€™ve removed the rear wheel arch liners & tightened up the rear trailing arm bolts. I removed the liners because I needed the weight of the car on its wheels & couldn't reach the bolts with the wheels fitted. I've also refitted the front crossmember (in readiness for a pair of new shocks) - this was a complete was a pig of a job - & I finally remembered to tighten up the rear shock bolts. I've also used proper rubbers (instead of cable ties) to hang the exhaust.

I'm beginning to think that the car is finally getting there









Jobs left to do in no particular order are:

Buy enough brake fluid to fill & bleed the braking system.

Check the headlights work & flip up as they should.

Buy an air filter.

Refit centre console & switches/heater cables.

Refit driverâ€™s seat.

Refit bodywork - boot liner/boot lid/bonnet/nose cone.

Put proper coolant in the cooling system.

Change the oil & oil filter.

Get the car Crypton tuned so that the mixture/emissions are somewhere near to where they should be.

Wash it.

MOT/tax/insure the thing.

Drive it (hopefully), enjoy it (hopefully) & weep when it breaks (which it will)!


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## JonW

Good to hear its moving forward Paul. I remember some VW engines had the same breather issues and the 'fix' was to stab a screwdriver thru the gauze, simple and very effective. Will be interesting to hear what you think after not having driven one of these for so long and also with all the mods done.


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## webby

nice read :yes:

and i take my hat off to you :hi:

i would have given up a long time ago :lazy2:

well done look forwrd to the next instalment :yes: :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

Hi all I did a few more jobs on the car this weekend.

I finally got round to fitting the new, shorter & firmer front springs that I bought from a chap on the Scimitr Web forum back in 2010 (I think)! Iâ€™d been intending to fit them before now but more pressing jobs kept cropping up so itâ€™s just something I never got round to doing. For anyone tempted to swap/change the springs on an SS1 it's a fairly simple procedure & thereâ€™s no need for spring compressors: the old spring(s) can be removed once the lower balljoint is separated & the lower wishbone moved out of the way (I found it easier to loosen the lower wishbone bolts to make moving the wishbone easier, as well as undoing the anti-roll bar link & releasing the track rod end from the hub). Fitting the new spring was even simpler (as itâ€™s shorter) but make sure you get the lower end of the spring located in the recess in the wishbone cup, I then raised the lower wishbone back up with a trolley jack until the lower balljoint located in itâ€™s hole in the hub & the nut could be screwed on. As can be seen from the photo the new springs are much shorter than the old ones & are also uprated from 160lb/in to 250lb/inJ










To go with the new springs I fitted a couple of AVO shock absorbers. No problems fitting these beyond the fact that I found that 10mm bolts wouldnâ€™t fit & I had to find some 3/8â€ UNF bolts to do the job. The lower mounting bolts are too long (hence all the washers) but Iâ€™ve bought some shorter bolts (2 ½â€ as opposed to 3â€) & Iâ€™ll fit these tonight.



















No photos unfortunately but Iâ€™ve also fitted the passengerâ€™s side wing mirror so that I now have matching wing mirrors. They look great (I think) which makes it all the more annoying that Iâ€™m going to have to change them. Iâ€™d never been entirely happy with the rear view from the drivers side mirror but thought that I could probably get used to it, but now that Iâ€™ve fitted the passengerâ€™s side mirror I realise that I canâ€™t see anything out of it at all (from the drivers seat I can only see half the mirror!) L This must be down to the design of the mirror I think as Iâ€™ve mounted them both in the same place (on their respective doors) & theyâ€™re as high up the door as I can get them! The reason for changing them is that the electric originals didnâ€™t work & couldnâ€™t manually move the mirror into quite the right place â€" plus the replacement mirrors look nicer â€" shame really but itâ€™ll give me an excuse to start sifting through the parts catalogues again J

Once the brakes are sorted I'll be taking it for a little spin round the block just to see how badly it smokes, stops & steers - I'm not sure what I'll think of it after having had comfortable sensible cars for the last 20 odd years! I'll let you know


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## pauluspaolo

So the wing/door mirror saga continues:

Iâ€™d fitted these Porsche style mirrors to both doors but could only see 1/2 of the passengers side mirror (from driverâ€™s seat) so despite them looking good (I think) they were useless really L I knew I had a different pair of mirrors kicking about in the garage somewhere so after a bit of a search I eventually found the black pointy mirrors. To be honest Iâ€™ve no idea when/why I bought these â€" I just pick up stuff on the off chance that Iâ€™ll find a use for it eventually â€" most of this stuff ends up on Ebay!

A couple of views of the Porsche style mirror on the passengerâ€™s door â€" itâ€™s to low down the door & there isnâ€™t much space (an inch maybe?) to raise it up much further L Also if I raise it up then the holes for the original mirrors become visible (hence the alloy plate(s) behind the mirrors):



















The pointy mirror Iâ€™ve since fitted â€" Iâ€™ve not fitted the passengers side one yet. This suits the SS1 styling well I think (itâ€™s pointylike the car), is a bit larger so I'll get a better view of what's going on behind & it sits a bit higher on the door which helps with being able to see it from the drivers eat (as well as the rear view).



















J


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## pauluspaolo

More progress!!

Muhammad came round to give me a hand last night & we bled the brakes. Once bled Muhammad stood on the brake pedal (with the handbrake on as well) & I wellied up the rear hub nuts as much as I could. Even with the brakes on the rear wheel still started slipping round on the garage floor! Anyway theyâ€™re as tight as I can get them so, hopefully, theyâ€™ll be ok.

We also got the rev counter working. This was simple & only needed the rev counter wire in the SS1 loom (white/black) connecting to the wire in the Megajolt loom (canâ€™t remember the colour unfortunately). So I now have a clean fully lit instrument panel with a full complement of working instruments.

Next job before packing it in for the evening was to check the headlights â€" only one flipped up & worked as it should but the fault on the other was soon traced to a loose wire in the relay connecting block. This was easily sorted & both headlights now work as they should. All in all a good evening 

Jobs to do this weekend (if I get chance) are:

Refit the interior - centre console, arm rest, drivers seat etc.

Fit the passengerâ€™s side wing mirror.

Itâ€™d be nice to finally get the boot box back in as well â€" itâ€™ll start looking like a car again soon


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## pauluspaolo

Bled the brakes last night & went for a little drive on the quiet roads round our estate (good job they're quiet as that car has no bonnet, no boot lid, no number plates, not enough air in the tyres etc etc) - it goes (quite well in fact), steers fine (despte the flatttish tyres) & stops :clap: :yahoo:


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## Retronaut

Always a good read about your continuing great efforts - look forward to seeing the end result. Must be getting closer now! :thumbsup:


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## pauluspaolo

I've got a show coming up so I spent my last free weekend for a while putting the car back together .... finally  So in with the boot liner, battery - fitted & connected, then the boot lid went on & all was well  Next up was the front of the car â€" the bonnet, nose cone (in effect it's the bumper) & headlamp panel all needed refitting. The bonnetâ€™s a bit awkward for one person to move so my wife very kindly helped me move it into position (ta love). No real problems but once the bonnet was fitted it wouldnâ€™t shut meaning I had to move the whole lot (bonnet & hinge assembly) forwards as far as it would go. Not a biggie really as it's all secured with six M8 bolts - once these are loosened it can be moved easily either forwards or backwards - the bonnet now opens & shuts fine. It clears the engine too (with a 1/2â€ or so to spare) which is something of a relief.

After that I tackled the headlamp panel & nose cone which proved to be rather more awkward. Theyâ€™re on but Iâ€™m none too happy with the fit. I havenâ€™t managed to get nuts on the two stupidly inaccessible captive bolts at either end of the headlamp panel (they're not called the bugger nuts by other SS1 owners for no reason) so it may all pull together when everythingâ€™s nipped up. Panel fit was notoriously bad on SS1's though - probably more so on an early car like mine - so it's maybe just something I'll have to get used to & put up with.

The upshot of all this is that I have something that looks like a car again & that I can drive in & out of the garage 

Needless to say itâ€™s not actually finished:

* The centre console, column switch surround & instrument cover all need reassembling/refitting.

* The coolant needs changing as itâ€™s just plain water at the moment.

* The engine needs servicing (plugs, oil & filter change) & then setting up â€" mixture, emissions etc.

* The heater fan/blower needs sorting out - the old one was completely sha99ed so an alternative needs to be found.

There are also a few electrical/lighting gremlins to sort out:

* The passengerâ€™s side front indicator doesnâ€™t work from the column switch; it works fine when the hazard warning light switch is pressed though so the bulbâ€™s fine.

* The passengerâ€™s side front side light doesnâ€™t work.

* The driverâ€™s side rear light doesnâ€™t work.

* The front fog-lights need refitting â€" I canâ€™t remember if these ever worked so Iâ€™m unsure if the wiring is present for these or not.

* The rear fog doesnâ€™t work either.

I didnâ€™t have chance to look into any of the above in detail but I donâ€™t think any of it will take much to sort out. I can then think about getting it through the MOT & insuring & taxing it. Itâ€™s all come at entirely the wrong time though as after this coming saturday I won't have chance to do any work on it until after the show's finished on the 21st October! Iâ€™ve also had to pay the insurance on my daily car (Alfa 156 diesel) & Iâ€™ve got to tax it next month - so I won't have much money to spend on it next month - & the following month itâ€™s ruddy Christmas! 

Anyway some photos:





































The 2 pics below show a repair I made to the front mounting panel â€" itâ€™s the first time Iâ€™ve used pop rivets on the car as I wasnâ€™t sure how secure theyâ€™d be, given the thickness of the fibreglass panel, but they seem to work fine.



















Many thanks for looking & for your support - more when there's more to report 

In case anyone's interested the show I'm crewing for is the Cosmopolitan Player's production of Calendar Girls; which is on at The Carriageworks theatre, in Leeds, from Wednesday 17th - Sunday 21st October.

Plug over - many thanks


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## pauluspaolo

Hi all, itâ€™s been a while since Iâ€™ve had time to work on the SS1 but theatre workâ€™s finished for the year so I should have a bit more time to spend on it now. Anyway I had a mobile tuning chap (Hometune) come round to tune the car the other day. Despite the fact the interior's still in bits with only half a centre console & wires/switches hanging everywhere I thought it'd be nice to get the engine tuned so that I knew the car stood a chance of passing the emissions part of the MOT test at least. Initially I thought the (actually very nice) chap was a bit negative about the car â€" why didnâ€™t I stick with the Mondeo/Escort injection/ecu set up or buy an MX5 instead etc etc - but he eventually started warming to the car (though I donâ€™t think he actually liked/approved of it) once he'd found out that itâ€™s not a complete bag of nails/deathtrap & itâ€™s something a bit different & only really going to be used as a bit of fun. Besides which what's it got to do with him what I do with my car?!?!

Anyway heâ€™s managed to get the car running very nicely indeed despite not being able to check/set everything he'd have liked to due to various complications (see below). What he did manage to do is adjust/set the CO (carbon monoxide) to a decent MOT passing level. Needless to say there are some issues, most of which shouldnâ€™t be too difficult to rectify, but one may prove to be rather more problematical.

The 4 easy(ish) problems first:

1.) This one is already cured â€" he discovered whilst trying to adjust the mixture that the idle jets were fitted the wrong way round i.e. the idle jet for the primary choke was in fact the idle jet for the secondary choke & the idle jet for the secondary choke was the idle jet for the primary choke. This resulted in massive over fuelling with a hydrocarbon reading of 11,000 when he was expecting see a reading of 300(ish). Once heâ€™d swapped the jets round the idle improved immediately & adjusting the mixture screw actually had some effect â€" with the jets fitted incorrectly screwing the mixture screw in fully had no effect & the engine continued running when it shouldâ€™ve stalled.

2.) Another problem thatâ€™s hopefully cured - he went to check the colour of the spark plugs after a little drive round the estate but found that the plug holes were full of oil - to the extent that you couldnâ€™t see the spark plugs! Oil conducts electricity & as the plugs are paired in holes on the Zetec engine this could have been leading to a slight misfire the car has. I removed the cam cover after heâ€™d left & found the cam cover gasket had broken, Iâ€™ve replaced it so, as I say, hopefully thatâ€™s the problem cured.

3.) Thereâ€™s a slight leak from the coolant hose under the alternator. Not had chance to look at this in detail but it shouldn't be too difficult to sort & Iâ€™ll try & have a proper look at it tonight/at the weekend.

4.) Whilst tuning the car he had it pointing uphill slightly & found a petrol leak â€" I never noticed/smelt a leak whilst the car was sitting level in the garage so Iâ€™m thinking that it may be leaking past the sender gasket.

Problem number 5 might well be more difficult to solve:

5.) He discovered an air leak on the joint between the inlet manifold & cylinder head. Iâ€™m hoping that the gasketâ€™s given up the ghost for whatever reason (it was new when I fitted it). I suppose that there might have been a bit of old gasket left when I fitted everything but I have my doubts about this as Iâ€™m sure that both the inlet manifold & head were clean. Worst case scenario is that the inlet manifold face isnâ€™t entirely flat so it isnâ€™t sealing properly. If this is the case then Iâ€™m not really sure what can be done about this apart from getting it skimmed flat or using gasket gunk to try & fill/seal the gaps. Can anyone tell me if I should have used gasket sealant when fitting it all together? I always thought that inlet manifold gaskets should/could be fitted without sealant?

To be honest despite the above problems & that he couldnâ€™t fine tune the car as much as heâ€™d have like to I consider it to be money well spent if only for him discovering & rectifying the idle jet problem alone (I'd never have found it). I took some pics of the oil filled spark plug holes but Iâ€™ve left my camera in the garage (numpty that I am) so Iâ€™ll have to post these tonight/tomorrow.

Opinions welcome as always 

Update of an update:

Just in from the garage - started the car & checked for leaks from the cam cover gasket - no leaks. I also tightened up the hose clip on the hose under the alternator - no leaks now. I also checked the tightness of the inlet manifold nuts & managed to get a 1/2 turn or so on each one, I then tried some WD40 on the gasket & the engine didn't try to stall so it might be that I've cured it (hope so!). I've also uploaded the photo I took of the oil filled spark plug holes - as you can see there's no sign of the spark plugs at all & it took a lot of loo paper to soak up all the oil

Oil filled spark plug holes â€" no sign of the spark plugs themselves Iâ€™m amazed the car ran as well as it did to be honest!










No reason for this other than itâ€™s a good view of the SS1 â€" maybe itâ€™s not such a bad looking car after all â€¦. from some angles at least!


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## JonW

Really good progress Paul, not far to have it back on the road now


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## frogspawn

Saw an ss1 on the m20 on Friday , first one I've seen in years.


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## Retronaut

Great to see more progress as ever Paul - more power to you mate! :thumbsup:


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## MarkF

pauluspaolo said:


> Initially I thought the (actually very nice) chap was a bit negative about the car â€" why didnâ€™t I stick with the Mondeo/Escort injection/ecu set up *or buy an MX5 instead* etc etc


Tbh that has often crossed my mind.


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## pauluspaolo

MarkF said:


> pauluspaolo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Initially I thought the (actually very nice) chap was a bit negative about the car â€" why didnâ€™t I stick with the Mondeo/Escort injection/ecu set up *or buy an MX5 instead* etc etc
> 
> 
> 
> Tbh that has often crossed my mind.
Click to expand...

Not as many times as it's crossed my mind  I've still no idea why I ended up with the SS1 but I did want a project & something rarer/more unusual than an MX5. I've enjoyed working on, & modifying, the car - though it's taken a lot longer than I thought it would - all I want to do now is drive the ruddy thing!!


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## pauluspaolo

Could the above post possibly be classed as spam? Time for a banning methinks??


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## pauluspaolo

Not sure this will work - but if it does it's a video (approx 1 min long) I took on Saturday of the car running & sounding quite nice - no massive clouds of blue smoke either :thumbup:

http://s9.photobucket.com/albums/a88/pauluspaolo/Videos%20of%20the%20SS1/?action=view&current=RMOV0709.mp4


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## pauluspaolo

Well for the first time in ages I've managed to get some time in on the car 

Too cold to spend all day in the garage but I've fitted a choke cable (makes starting the car much easier), refited the instrument binnacle surround & adjusted the fit of the bonnet (it's still not quite right - it shuts fine but catches on the headlamp panel when you open it).

I've uploaded a video of it running but Photobucket seems to be a bit arsy at the mo so I can't link to it 

Here we go: 

Anyway just to let you know that I'm still working on the car & hope to get it back on the road this year  Due to other committments (weekends away & me being best man at my friend's wedding) I can't see me being able to spend much time on it in April. May should be quieter though & hopefully the weather will start improving soon :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

Well what to say about this? I'm still working on it & it's still not finished (though it's not far off now). The bodywork's all back together - even the pain in the 4rse headlamp panel, though I have had to butcher it slightly to make fitting (& removal) easier. Iâ€™ve also tweaked the bonnet fit so that it no longer catches (much) on the headlamp panel when itâ€™s opened.

Iâ€™ve made up a new gasket for the thermostat housing & tweaked the fit of the hose so Iâ€™ve hopefully cured a slight, but persistent, coolant leak. Another (rather more serious) leak that I think Iâ€™ve cured is a leak from the fuel pump at the back of the car â€" Iâ€™m not 100% positive about this though so Iâ€™ll have to investigate further as a fuel leak is a definite MOT fail.

I've refitted the heater plenum (the tin snail as us SS1 owners call it) minus the heater fan. I was getting sick of looking at the hole in the bulkhead, & I can't find an SS1 heater fan (one will turn up eventually), so I've decided to do without for the moment. If I canâ€™t find a genuine SS1 fan then Iâ€™ll investigate other options â€" fans are available from the likes of Demon Tweeks to provide demisting to race cars etc & I know of at least one other SS1 owner whoâ€™s fitted a Mondeo fan. This option appeals as itâ€™ll be better (& probably cheaper) than either the genuine SS1 or Demon Tweeks fans. Iâ€™m unsure of the wiring though so it can wait for the mo.

Another job sorted is the driverâ€™s side headlight. This wobbled when in the raised position which is an MOT fail. Iâ€™m not sure if this was due to play in the motor, play in the raising mechanism/linkage or due to a combination of the two. I sourced a replacement motor through the club; after fitting it, & a new bit of linkage, itâ€™s rock solid now 

Iâ€™ve not even driven the car in anger yet & already bits have started breaking  I had to remove the original SS1 exhaust manifold last night as it had developed a crack. Iâ€™m not sure itâ€™s even possible to weld cast iron (?), but I had an XR3i manifold in stock anyway (shown in one of the photoâ€™s earlier in the thread) so Iâ€™ve started fitting that instead. It should make a worthwhile upgrade as itâ€™ll flow better than the original restrictive manifold & may free up another couple of horses. Itâ€™s not a massive job but, while the manifold itself fits fine, the downpipe needs fettling before itâ€™ll mate up to the rest of the exhaust system. Iâ€™m halfway through the job & Iâ€™ll try & get it finished either tonight or over the weekend.

Once thatâ€™s done Iâ€™ll tidy up the wiring, check for leaks/loose bolts etc, put the interior back together(finally), inflate the tyres, take a big deep breath & book it in for the MOT!! Apparently I can drive it without either tax or MOT - as long as it's to a pre-booked test at an MOT testing station - but I canâ€™t drive anywhere, legally, without insurance. Therefore Iâ€™ve consulted Adrian Flux (specialist car insurers who I had my Midas insured through) & theyâ€™ve quoted me Â£195 fully comp, 3,000 miles/year, with commuting included. I have to say that I think this is very reasonable ........ which makes a refreshing change where car insurance is concerned! There may also be a bit more to come off as I forgot to mention that Iâ€™m a member of the club & thereâ€™s usually a bit of club discount available.

So there you have it â€" not a million miles away at all


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## Who. Me?

pauluspaolo said:


> Iâ€™ve made up a new gasket for the thermostat housing & tweaked the fit of the hose so Iâ€™ve hopefully cured a slight, but persistent, coolant leak.


Daft question but have you tried using Radweld (or similar) yet? I believe that it was (possibly still is?) used as a precaution by car manufacturers to reduce the risk of leaks from coolant hose connections from new.


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## pauluspaolo

Who. Me? said:


> pauluspaolo said:
> 
> 
> 
> Iâ€™ve made up a new gasket for the thermostat housing & tweaked the fit of the hose so Iâ€™ve hopefully cured a slight, but persistent, coolant leak.
> 
> 
> 
> Daft question but have you tried using Radweld (or similar) yet? I believe that it was (possibly still is?) used as a precaution by car manufacturers to reduce the risk of leaks from coolant hose connections from new.
Click to expand...

I may have to resort to Radweld but I'm a bit reluctant to bung it into what is, in effect, a brand new cooling system. I've used new hoses, jubilee clips & hose connectors throughout so hopefully it'll be a case of checking that everything's tightened up properly.

There's a small leak from the water pump outlet hose (under the alternator) & when I investigated that I discovered that I'd used a bit of copper tube of "oh that'll do" diameter ...... hence the leak  I'm sure I fitted it as a temporary measure & intended to replace it later on. Obviously I forgot about it & it's now on the job to do list (I've bought the correct size connector, just need to fit it). The only other coolant leak is on the bottom connector to the rad .... something else to check over the weekend - if the clamps don't nip up I may have to do the Radweld thing!


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## pauluspaolo

Last week I made a sort of bet (no money involved unfortunately) with my friend Matt that I'd put the car through the MOT before the end of May. So I spent yesterday finally putting the car back together & took it for the MOT first thing this morning. I have to say that I was somewhat nervous (understatement) & had convinced myself that it'd fail dismally. How wrong I was because the car passed with no advisories.

To say I'm chuffed is an understatement & it makes all the hard work worthwhile - the car's noisy & a bit rattly (in fact there are all sorts of noises that you don't normally hear in a sensible car) but it goes & handles well - I'm a happy bunny


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## pauluspaolo

The car is, to all intents & purposes, finished J

I booked last Thursday & Friday off work. Thursday was spent finally putting the car back together, with the MOT booked first thing on Friday. This would give me the rest of Friday & the long bank holiday weekend to rectify any faults the MOT threw up.

Well Iâ€™m happy to say that the long weekend wasnâ€™t really needed as the car passed first time without any advisories J J So the weekend was actually spent gardening & doing a few minor jobs on the car â€" like refitting the headlight surrounds (one of these still needs painting so isnâ€™t fitted yet) & tidying up the interior.

I tried taxing the car straight after the MOT but the lady at the PO wouldnâ€™t accept my insurance certificate so I went home & did it online meaning that I canâ€™t drive the car until the tax disc arrives. The tax disc in the car now ran out in 2009 so I donâ€™t want to risk driving the car until the new oneâ€™s arrived. All a bit frustrating really but itâ€™s taken me 4 years to get this far so waiting another week or so isnâ€™t a biggie really.

Here are some photos â€" in no particular order:













J


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## pauluspaolo

More photos 











Th ... th.... th .... that's all folks!!


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## Miikae

Congratulations Paul you have done a great job,

So nows the time to drive it with the biggest of smiles this summer, if we have one that is.

Have lots of fun,

keep the black stuff down and the blue stuff uppermost..

Mike

P.S. Must get my Duey taxed when the temp rises.


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## pauluspaolo

Here's a quick running update: the first time I drove the car to work it felt awful - slow (wouldn't go above 50mph), noisy, stalling at junctions etc & I started to wonder what I'd let myself in for  After only just making it home in the car I left it for a couple of days before having a good look over it to make sure there was nothing obviously wrong with it & that nothing was coming loose or dropping off! It was during this inspection that I found the choke flaps were partly closed when the choke was pushed all the way in i.e. the choke was still on when it should have been off. This must have been caused when my friend & I removed the choke cable, so that we could remove the dash, so that we could refit the windscreen washers which I'd removed to unblock for the MOT! I reset the choke & have used the car a few times since then to travel to work & to go & see my Mum & Dad - none of which are very long journeys.

I'm very happy to say that the car's much quicker & more responsive but it's still not quite "there", so I've booked it in for a rolling road session on 1st July. I was going to use Ian Kellet's rolling road at Holmfirth but he's just moved premises & hasn't got it up & running yet. He recommended I use a chap over towards Brigg/Hull (about 60 miles away) called Dennis Vessey. Having spoken with him on the phone he seems a very nice chap & didn't seem phased by the spec of the car at all .... so here's hoping it'll be money well spent.

With a trip of reasonable length looming - most of it on the motorway - I thought it best to try & get the car up to a reasonable sort of speed to see how it behaved. There's a bit of 60mph dual carriageway near me that also happens to be an alternative route into work. So I went that way this morning & I'm happy to say that the car felt fine - bit noisy perhaps but not unbearable, nothing fell off that I know about, it didn't overheat (though I did switch the fan on a few times times out of caution rather than neccessity), the car felt stable & there was no wheel wobble, which I found quite surprising as I've never had the wheels balanced. The car went well too - none of the previous 50mph max nonsense - & kept up with the quite heavy rush hour traffic without any problems. I have to say that I'm starting to love it & it makes me realise how dull modern cars are. It reminds me very much of my friend's Westfield in the way it drives - light & flickable with great steering & a surprisingly comfortable ride - but with the added refinement of doors, windows & a roof!

I got into work with a big grin on my face ..... which just doesn't happen when I drive my Alfa 156 (good though that car undoubtedly is). Compared to the SS1 the Alfa feels big, sterile, uninvolving & slow - though in reality it's probably faster than the Scimitar. Every drive's an adventure in the SS1 & it's filled with smells, sounds, sensations that you just don't get with a modern car - if there's one word which sums it up it's FUN 

I'm a happy bunny &, hopefully, I'll be even happier after July 1st


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## Boxbrownie

Looking good there, I have not been here for quite a while and its a pleasent surprise to see Reptilicus now on the road and running, now all you need is some regular sunny days to come along for your trip. One thing I'll mention, it might be a good idea to get the bar across the battery sleeved with plastic, a bit of large heat shrink would be neat, and it would negate any instance of the battery coming loose and shorting on the +ve terminal. How long has it been now? :yahoo:


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## pauluspaolo

Boxbrownie said:


> Looking good there, I have not been here for quite a while and its a pleasent surprise to see Reptilicus now on the road and running, now all you need is some regular sunny days to come along for your trip. One thing I'll mention, it might be a good idea to get the bar across the battery sleeved with plastic, a bit of large heat shrink would be neat, and it would negate any instance of the battery coming loose and shorting on the +ve terminal. How long has it been now? :yahoo:


Good advice & it's one of those things on the "to do" list - I thought a length of inner tube might do the trick as I don't think I've got any heat shrink big enough to go over the bar 

I've just looked back at the first post in this thread which is dated September 2008 so it's taken roughly 4 1/2 years! I dare say I could have done it quicker than that but I deliberately didn't set a time limit as I wanted to take my time &, hopefully, do the job well. I must admit that it's a great feeling knowing that all the hard work has paid off & that I've made/modified a car (much of it by myself), with little or no prior experience, that actually works & works quite well :thumbup:


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## Boxbrownie

If I had known I could have picked some up from my old work place yesterday (I retired at Christmas but pop in for coffee and a haircut every month or so), next time I am there I'll see if theres still my "stash" in the camera cupboard!


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## pauluspaolo

Well I had quite an interesting day on Monday. My friend Matt & I took the SS1 to be tuned on Dennis Vesseyâ€™s rolling road over in Barnetby, near Brigg, on the east coast towards Hull (about 60/70 miles away from where I live in Leeds). It was a pretty boring trip down on the motorway & I took it quite gently as I wasnâ€™t sure how the car/engine would behave at speed. The fun started after weâ€™d pulled off the motorway & missed the turn we should have taken. We soon realised our mistake, stopped to check where we were & I turned the engine off while we checked the road map/fired up the sat nav. When I tried to restart the car we were greeted with nothing but a click. Oh B*99*R!! The starter motorâ€™s jammed against the flywheel (again) & no amount of tapping it with a hammer or rocking the car whilst in gear would free it off! I rang Dennis & he said heâ€™d send one of his mechanics out as we were only a couple of minutes up the road. After a seemingly massive wait - probably no more than 30 mins - said mechanic turned up & he couldn't freee up the starter motor either. He ended up towing us to the garage which was terrifying as the tow rope was far too short & he was doing 35/40mph - I'd have had no chance of stopping in time if he'd had to brake suddenly! Anyway we got there in one piece but he had to finish the job he was doing on a Lotus Elite before he could start on my car. All of which meant that the rolling road session was somewhat delayed. Apparently I need to fit some spacers between the starter motor & the engine to reduce the throw of the starter pinion.

Anyway the SS1 was eventually repaired - as soon as he'd removed the bolts & started taking the motor off you heard the pinion snap back into position - & the car was reversed onto the rollers. The ignition map I'd installed (for a 1600 cross flow - the only map I could find for a single carb'd car) was junked & a new 3d map written over it. It all seemed very simple but even so I didn't understand half of what I was being told! Having said that pressing computer keys is pretty simple & itâ€™s obviously the knowledge/experience/expertise of the operator (programmer?) behind the key pressing that makes all the difference. Dennis pronounced the engine fit & healthy (phew) &, despite the rubbish map I'd used to get there, not far off from where it needed to be; though he did fit a different main jet & emulsion tube. I've no idea what sizes/part numbers Iâ€™m afraid, though I could always open up the carb & have a look I suppose. He thought the single Weber suited the car & said that it made a nice change to see a Zetec without twin 40/45â€™s or a set of bike carbs on it. Once he'd fitted the different jet & emulsion tube, he set it all up on the engine analyzer/rollers before asking me if I wanted him to do a power run. They actually call them no-power runs as the results seldom match the expectations of the owner! To be honest I was more concerned with getting the car running right than knowing what the power was but I said yes all the same! The max he got after a couple of runs was 108bhp (87bhp at the wheels) with a nice flat torque curve. Obviously this is nowhere near the 130(ish)bhp Iâ€™d been told to expect from this engine but Dennis said that was about as good as he could get it with the carb & exhaust I was currently using. He said a better exhaust manifold might free up a bit more power but for what I wanted the car for (road use) it was about there.

The upshot of all this is a much snappier, free revving engine & a much faster, more responsive car - it just feels so much more together now & is much, much nicer to drive. On the way there 70mph had seemed more than fast enough but on the way back I was often overtaking stuff & 70mph felt far too slow. The maximum I saw was 95(ish) but sanity, & the wish to keep my licence, prevailed & I backed off to a more sensible 70/80 â€" at these speeds the car felt absolutely fine with plenty in reserve but it had also felt like this at 95 

I like the car very much & it reminds me greatly of Mattâ€™s Westfield â€" he drove the SS1 yesterday & said the same except that it felt a bit heavier (it is) & the suspension was more compliant than it is on his Westie (it probably is). The SS1 also has a boot, roof & doors so in that respect it beats the Westfield hands down. If thereâ€™s a downside to the SS1 itâ€™s the noise (especially at speed) & the heat build up in the cabin. Having said that we did nigh on 200 miles in the car yesterday (including the rolling road mileage) & got out at the end feeling fine &, apart from the starter motor incident, it didn't miss a beat.

So would I reccommend Dennis Vessey? The answer is an unreserved YES! He's not exactly a people person (maybe he was having a bad day) but he did a great job, was interested in the car (though nobody seemed very impressed with the megajolt ignition system) & obviously has vast knowledge about how to get the best out of a car. All the mechanics I saw/met were friendly, helpful & genuinely interested in the car (especially the inlet manifold - they all asked me about that) & just cars in general. They also seemed to love old motors & there was all sorts of interesting suff being worked on - Lotus Elite, Triumph TR4 (I think), Triumph Vitesse (sounded fantastic), Ginetta G27 (built & owned by the mechanic who rescued me & powered by a Triumph straight 6) & when we left a Rolls Royce was just being put on the rolling road for a tweak/tune up. Outside were a couple of rally cars (Focus & Nova I think) as well as a Mazda RX8. It wasn't a particularly cheap day but I do consider it money well spent & part of what I had to pay was due to the recovery & repair of my car; if you can get there without having to be rescued it should turn out to be a fair bit cheaper!


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## pauluspaolo

Just thought that some of you may be interested to hear how the car's been behaving now that it's back on the road & being used (mainly for commuting) semi-regularly. It's been back on the road since the end of May/beginning of June; I'm not sure but I've probably done around 1000 miles in it so far (I'm not really keeping track despite being on a limited mileage policy).

First of all it is surprisingly comfy, having said that it's not neccessarily the sort of car you want to jump into after a nightmarishly stressful day at work - a relaxing drive it is not. You feel just about every ripple in the road, the steering wheel twitches in your hand & the steering itself is very direct - there's no power steering & it reacts instantly! It never threatens to get of control though & I think it must be what it's like when they say "the car feels alive". I remember my Midas - no power steering - & Lancia Delta HF Turbo - which had power steering - both having a similar feel to them. The car goes round corners like it's on rails but there's not been much opportunity, on the trip to work, to try any tail out antics yet - having said that I'm not particularly keen to experience such things anyway - the car feels planted despite some enthusiastic(ish) driving. It has quite heavy steering at parking speeds which lightens up as soon as you get moving. The car's definitely put the fun back into my motoring









So far it's proved to be reasonably reliable & nothing, to my knowledge, has dropped off or broken. It's developed a couple of oil leaks, the temperature gauge only works when it feels like it & the rev counter has its moments too but a sharp tap on the instrument pack is usually enough to get it working again - the temperature gauge remains dead unless it decides to work! Hopefully I've cured the starter motor problem that last reared its ugly head on the way to the rolling road session (see above). I wasn't expecting the car to be a paragon of reliablity & having these problems/challenges to overcome is, I think, all part of the fun of owning an old modified car. Every drive's an adventure but whether you want to have an adventure every time you drive it is another thing all together!.

The engine's running very well on the single Weber - the spark plugs are Haynes manual perfect - & it doesn't seem to be using any significant amounts of oil or coolant despite the leaks. The car's not outrageously fast but it's definitely not slow either & it'll keep up with modern traffic without any problems at all. Accelleration is good & I've surprised quite a few people, (myself included) when pulling away from lights/junctions etc, at how fast I end up going in a relatively short amount of road. I've already picked up 3 points in the car (I was being stupid & have only myself to blame) so I really have to watch it now! First gear is pretty much redundant & the car will pull away happily (on most gradients) in second gear - the gearchange isn't the slickest (it gets better the faster I go officer!) but I haven't found the time to check/change the gearbox oil yet so when I do eventually get round to doing it there may well be an improvement. The wipers work fine but don't cover a vast ammount of the screen so I'm glad that I haven't been caught in any serious rain yet - when I have been caught in the rain the wipers have done their job & the car's remained dry which is a minor miracle in itself! I'm not really keeping track of the economy but I'd say it's probably doing around 25mpg & I'd expect this to improve on a steady run.

I've been trying to use the car as often as I can - 2 or 3 times a week if circumstances allow - mainly on the commute to work. I've not done any longer trips it it other than the trip to Dennis Vessey's rolling road over towards Brigg, my friend & I probably 200ish miles in total that day & we got out at the end feeling fine. My wife & I have a house on the east coast (just outside Filey) & I'd love to take it there as there are some fun roads on the route we go but I'm not sure my wife would tolerate a 1 1/2 - 2 hour trip in it







Though she's happy enough being driven to work in it (occasionally) so I may be able to persuade her yet!

The tax runs out at the end of Nov so I'll probably sorn it after that & try & get a few of the outstanding jobs done - a heater fan would be nice, as would a stereo (though I'll probably struggle to hear it) & I've a very nice pair of fixed back seats that I'd like to try & fit into it ....... & then there are the alloys I've had for years ...... & the exhaust manifold is cracked so could do with changing ....... & then there's the .......... & the ...... & .... & ... & .. & . &


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## JonW

Fantastic to hear youre still on this Paul, congrats on being able to use it after all the hard work.


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## pauluspaolo

I decided to wake the SS1 from its winter slumber earlier this month. To do this I had to fit a new starter motor, the old one decided that it didn't want to engage with the flywheel for some reason so I hadn't started the car for a 2/3 months. Anyway the new starter fits fine & seems to work well so the beast lives once more 

Once the car had passed its MOT last year I was eager to use it so I ended up fitting a basic pancake filter straight onto the carb. This was fitted when I got the car tuned on the rolling road. One of the limiting factors noted during the rolling road session was that the exhaust & air intake were both quite restrictive & that improving these would make the car perform much better. So I've decided to use the Weber plenum chamber that I bought a couple of years ago; it's fitted in the above photos but doesn't have any sort of air filter attached to it. There's just space behind the headlamp to fit a conical air filter, there's also a good feed of cold air here as the radiator is masked off. So I refitted the plenum & bought a filter & some ducting off Ebay. This is the result which I hated - it worked well but looked rubbish:





I used the car like this for a week or so before deciding that I could do a better job with some silicone hose (one 45 degree reducer (76 - 68mm) & two 45 degree silicone hose angles), some aluminium tubing (3"/76mm diameter) & some chunky jubille clips to hold it all together. This is the result - much nicer to look at (I think) & which seems to work just as well as the naff black ducting 





The car goes well & still gives me a buzz every time I drive it - it still needs things doing to it (heater fan, better exhaust manifold/exhaust system) but it doesn't seem to use any significant amounts of oil or coolant & hasn't broken down on me (yet). It's not the most relaxing thing but it'll happily tonk along at 70+ (I need to get the wheels balanced) & I'm hoping to take it to Stoneleigh kit car show this coming bank holiday weekend. I appreciate that it's not a kitcar but it'd be good to take it out for a decent run & I can be the (slightly more practical) support vehicle for my friend Matt who's hoping to go to the show in his utterly impractical Westfield. Wish us both luck :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

It's been lovely weather the last few days here in Leeds (think it has for the rest of the country too) so I decided to use the SS1 to commute last Friday - here's a quick vid I made of the trip. You'll have to excuse all the rattles & clunks from the car, it doesn't sound (quite) as bad as this in real life as the camera seems to amplify certain sounds. Also the drivers side window was wound down all the way as the car gets quite warm with the hard top fitted, I should've removed the sunroof before I set off, if I open it whilst driving it ends up rattling which just adds to the overal cacophany 

Clicking on the pic will take you to Photobucket where the video should play, apologies for the quality but I've edited the video a bit & it seems to have lost a bit of quality in the process. The camera I used is an Oregon Scientific ATC Mini (720HD) which is attached to the roll bar - hope you enjoy the video


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## bridgeman

Enjoyed the whole story........so far! well done indeed..

Love the ten to two driving position!!!!!!


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## pauluspaolo

MOT passed on Friday so another summers driving to look forward to :thumbup: :thumbup:


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## pauluspaolo

For thise interested I SORNed the Reliant last month & the annoying thing is we've had great weather since then :taz: I'm considering taxing it for the next couple of months but as soon as I do that the weather will turn rubbish. I'm not too bothered by the cold, as the car gets toasty warm, but the wipers aren't the best & there's zero demisting (no heater fan) so driving it first thing on a frosty morning could be fun, I'm not sure my wife would enjoy it quite so much though (we work close to each other so car share).

It still need things doing to it & I do wonder if I'll ever get round to them - I should do really as it'll be a much more sorted car if I do. I'd like to change the gearbox oil but there's no easy way of doing this with the type 9 short of dropping the gearbox (not going to happen!) or sucking the old oil out with a pump via a bit of tubing shoved down the filler hole. I'm not sure this will be possible as access is tight due to the chassis design. On the spare type 9 gearbox I have in the garage I've drilled/tapped a hole & fitted a drain plug. I think I may have to do this mod to the gearbox in the car - drill a hole in, hopefully, the right place in the gearbox casing (without getting any metal swarf in the g/box), let the oil drain out overnight, tap the hole & refill the g/box with fresh oil - easy to do with a gearbox that's out of the car not sure what it'll be like with the box still in position. I also need to look at the diff as this leaks & will need new seals, at a minimum, I'd guess. I still haven't got a working heater fan so have no demisting ability beyond a handy cloth. I've shoe horned a Mondeo fan into the SS1 fan housing (us SS1 owners call it the tin snail) but I'm not sure how to secure it in the housing so this is a work in progress. I've still not got a working stereo, I've fitted one I just need to wire it up, but I enjoy the car without one so I'm not sure if there's any point? It'd probably make long journeys a bit more bearable but you'd struggle to hear it at speed so I'm undecided if the effort involved will be worth it. The crack in the exhaust manifold is getting worse. It's a cast manifold so can be welded but it's a pretty naff design (standard Ford 1600CVH manifold as far as I'm aware) so won't do much for performance. I've modified a 4 branch stainless steel manifold but this needs welding up & probably won't fit the current exhaust system so this would also need changing. I've been quoted Â£300ish for a decent stainless steel custom built big(ish) bore system, but this would need fitting with the new manifold in place. The exhaust fitters aren't far away so I'd prefer to drive the car there but to do this with the new manifold fitted I'd need to bodge the current exhaust system in place - all of which takes time I don't really have at the moment. I'm friends with a chap who knows a chap who can weld stainless steel, trouble is whenever I see him I never have the manifold with me so this is another job that's in limbo 

Having said all that I tried to drive the car as much as possible over the summer & didn't have any reliability problems - in fact it was more reliable than my 2005 Alfa diesel - it's a hoot to drive & handles superbly. My friend took it out (one of the last drives before I SORNed it) & was impressed with the way it went & handled 

Oh yes the other thing to report is that I've bought these wheels for the car - they were too cheap to say no to really (Â£45 including delivery for 4 wheels) - & were previously fitted to an SS1, as shown in the pic, so they should fit mine without too many problems. They need reconditioning/respraying & I'll need to get some new tyres but there's no rush & I'm quite happy with them


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## pauluspaolo

It's true when they say that a car project is never actually finished!

I've been tinkering away on the SS1 again - I was never really happy with the manky rusty cast iron exhaust manifold (from the original 1600 CVH engine) so I've been working on a stainless steel one I bought a while ago. Originally designed for a FWD Focus ST170 I've greatly modified it to fit the RWD SS1. I fitted the CVH manifold to the Zetec with an adaptor plate, it got the car up & running but, as I say, I was never very happy with it, added to which it developed a crack some time ago so, while the car's off the road for winter, it seemed like a good opportunity to try & get the stanless steel one modified so it fitted. I've had to cut a chunk out of it to make it shorter so that it didn't foul the nearside chassis rail. I then got the collector box & downpipe flange welded back onto it (which cost a lot  ), upon trial fitting I found that the point of the triangular bottom flange now fouled the chassis rail







!! It would have been simpler to cut the bottom flange off & get it welded back on in a different position but the primary pipes ran pretty close to the alternator, & there was no room for the dipstick, so I decided to cut the cylinder head mounting flange off, remove an inch or so out of the primaries & get the cylinder head flange welded back on. This was an absolute pain to do - especially refitting the flange onto the shortened primaries which took ruddy ages. The same chap who did the previous welding welded it back on but only charged me a pittance compared to last time. Hopefully it'll improve the breathing of the engine a bit & I think it looks a heck of a lot better than the tatty old one did.

I now need to make a downpipe (I'm going to try & use some flexible exhust pipe) & make a flange to connect it to the manifold & then make it fit the rest of the exhaust system - I'm sure it'll be easy!! Once the manifold/downpipe etc are sorted I may treat the car to a bigger bore stainless steel exhaust from Tony Law, he's local to me & wants Â£300ish for a bigger bore stainless steel system (my choice of 1 or 2 silencers). I was pretty close to buying an full system last year but didn't want to use the naff old manifold with the shiny new exhaust system. Despite being in the business of building bespoke exhaust systems/manifolds Tony Law weren't interested in making me a manifold - hence all the above mucking about!

Looking forward to hearing what you think of it









Before:

[IMG alt="R0016916_zps0aa8e3b2.jpg"...88/pauluspaolo/R0016916_zps0aa8e3b2.jpg[/IMG]

After:

[IMG alt="IMG_2980_zpsymsfktyy.jpg"...88/pauluspaolo/IMG_2980_zpsymsfktyy.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG alt="R0017688_zpssuznitsg.jpg"...88/pauluspaolo/R0017688_zpssuznitsg.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG alt="R0017689_zps9urpfe9y.jpg"...88/pauluspaolo/R0017689_zps9urpfe9y.jpg[/IMG]


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## pauluspaolo

So ...... over a year on from the above post & I still haven't fitted the shiny exhaust manifold  I'm still enjoying the car too much to take it off the road in order to butcher sorry "modify" the current exhaust system to make it fit. It'll get done eventually .......or so I keep telling myself! Also the 3 spoke alloys aren't fitted yet either, I quite like the slightly shabby look of the originals so haven't really felt the need to fit them yet.

I took the car for its MOT a month or so ago & it passed with no advisories - not bad for a 31 year old motor  I don't use it very often & the chance to use it has been further reduced by the recent rubbish weather & by my Dad being taken ill (septicaemia) & being stuck in hospital for the last 3 or 4 weeks  My Dad is my Mum's carer - who has Alzheimer's - so Dad being in hospital has meant that she's had to go into a care home   Both my sister & I had serious misgivings about this but we were strugging to look after her & she does, fortunately seem to have settled in OK.

I was vaguely intending to use it to commute today but there's a chance that Dad will be sent home today so picking him up in the Reliant probably wouldn't be a great idea. He's a tender 86 & might be able to get into the thing but I doubt he'd ever be able to get out of it! The car itself is proving to be pretty uneconomical (25mpg seems to be about as good as it gets) but it's such a complete hoot to drive so I can forgive it that. Touch wood it's proved to be reliable with nothing breaking or falling off yet (to my knowledge). I've fitted a modern, but vintage styled, stereo which takes an SD card/USB stick but it's virtually inaudible at anything over 40mph (a better pair of speakers may help) so I rarely if ever listen to it - it's more to fill the stereo shaped hole in the dashboard than anything else. I've also fitted a demister/heater fan but I've not driven it enough to see if this works effectively or not. The interior of the car gets hot anyway so I usually drive with the window(s) open. I have toyed with the idea of selling it but SS1's don't seem to go for very much at the best of times so I doubt if it's worth that much (even with all the mods) & having put so much into it I'd regret it if I ever did sell it. The day will come when I do have to sell it but not just yet.

Ta for reading


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