Good morning everybody, I thought I should put up a build that I have been working on for the past year and have been posting on another forum.  I am building a combined road and race car, to be IVA'd and then raced in the NI Sevens series in Northern Ireland (similar to the mainland RGB series). Engine is a 929cc Fireblade fuel injected (class limit).
 
In August 2012 I left Londonderry (NI) for a marathon journey to the Westfield factory outside Birmingham, arriving for 8am.  We got a good tour of the factory and saw how they jig the chassis and all the different configurations of the basic Westfield along with some more unusual cars including an XTR2 racing car and their new concept electric car with the equivalent of 300hp!  I was struck by how compact an outfit they are - not much more than 20 employees and a fairly modest factory, but what struck me most was how down to earth and easy to deal with they were.  Anyway, after a couple of hours we had the van packed up (long wheel base T350 transit) and hit the road again.  We called an hour south to a small fibreglass factory to collect some wheel arches for Benzo's Triumph TR8 race car and then headed for Cairnryan.  All in all a marathon trip, 24 hours on the go, but well worth it. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


[Edited on 22/9/13 by Rob55]

The first job was getting the aluminium panelling fixed to the space frame chassis. I opted for black powder coated panels and black head rivets as I thought they looked better than the standard silver.



At first glance I assumed the panels would go on easy and it wouldn't take too long. However on closer inspection I quickly learned that the factory tolerances are a little poor (it is a kit car I guess!) and almost every panel needed trimming to make them fit. Usually it was just down to a weld on the chassis being a bit untidy and causing a poor fit, but the tunnel sides were just a bad fit. 5mm out to be precise!





I got a Bosch metal blade for my jigsaw and carefully trimmed the lower edge where the panels meet the floor as it will never be seen. They then fitted perfectly and I soon cracked on with things. Every panel had to be clamped in position, holes drilled at 2" centres, the panel then taken off and holes deburred, silicon applied to the chassis, panel clamped back in position and finally riveted. Tedious but therapeutic at the same time!

Note the Air Riveter. Epic bit of kit!

The side panels took some modifications to fit over the extra door bars for my roll cage. Nothing the trusty jigsaw couldn't handle!











It then came to my attention that significant advantage could be gained by bonding the panels using a strong adhesive as well as the strength of the rivets themselves, this would help stiffen the chassis and improve overall handling. Thankfully at this stage I had only done the tunnel sides and none of the other panels, so the big floor section, side panels and rear bulk head all got a visit from a friend who works in Autoglass. Another slight advantage was the bonding is also black ops: lol

First he applies primer to both surfaces..



Then when the primer has gone off the bonding itself

I had hoped to get some pics of the floor section with 200+ rivets poking out, but as luck had it I jammed a rivet in the air gun and had to put in over 400 remaining rivets on all panels by hand before the windscreen bonding went off!! So here is the finished product.







Bit of a boring update, but at least it's a start. I manage to unwrap some more goodies though so the next update should be a little more interesting!

It was now around July and the heatwave was upon us, so a few weeks passed without any work in the garage. The next visit I arrived to my HORROR to find my brand new fibreglass tub had fallen over and warped out of shape in the hot air in the rafters of my garage. I ALMOST CRIED!





THANKFULLY with the help of a couple of mates we managed to make it fit the chassis and it took its shape on the car with almost no noticable damage. PHEW!!







Now onto transmission. I built up my drive shafts with new lobro joints and sourced a Sierra 7" 3.62 lsd. I actually picked up a Quaife ATB from eBay however after much research and deliberation I decided it may actually be too tame for racing, especially on wet kerbs where it was said to lose traction, so went with the standard viscous lsd for now. I think the diff is something that needs experience and driving style to really know what to buy so will see how it goes as time goes on.

[img]http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c43/scrob/megablade/06B9BD5F-3425-4354-AE33-85403E47EA11-3155-0000019575593C7D.jpg]

Now, as we all know motorbikes do not have a reverse gear however one is needed for IVA. Reluctantly I picked up a Westfield reverse box for the IVA test, an expensive item which is destined for eBay when the test is complete, as they are useless for racing and quite unreliable. The car should only be around 450kg when finished so reverse really isn't needed and I will be replacing it with a straight through prop shaft when the time comes. However in the mean time, this little unit will be supplying the required reverse drive for the test:



With the brakes, suspension and transmission largely sorted, it was time to move on to the motor itself, which is a 929cc engine from a fuel injected Fireblade. In order to get a new registration on a kit car, only one reconditioned part is allowed on the car, so I had to show that I had a new gearbox installed and that the engine itself was reconditioned to "as new" condition. As it turned out, the simplest way forward here was actually to sell the engine I had and purchase an off the shelf recon unit from AB Performance in England. Andy Bates has a wealth of knowledge in the bike engined car market and I was happy to put my faith in Andy here in sourcing me a good engine and providing an engineers report which would satisfy the registration requirements. I also have peace of mind that the engine itself is in good order. Andy also fitted an oil cooler sandwich plate, billet sump/baffle and propshaft adaptor before shipping it out to me.



To keep things cool I picked up a Radtec alloy radiator and SPAL fan.



And that's really the story as it stands. The car is now away to have an engine cradle fabricated and a few other little bits of welding done, hopefully when I get it back the seats will be mounted and steering column extended for my paddle shift, plus a few other bits and bobs. When we dropped it down onto 4 wheels it started to actually look like a car!





Really looking forward to getting it back within the next couple of weeks

Well bit of an update, car has been away for a few weeks getting some fabrication work sorted out with Graham Thompson in nutts corner. Called up to see it at the end of last week to get measured up for the seat/steering wheel and see progress.

Engine in and Tony Law manifold fitted







Paddle shift fitted - really neat piece of alloy sleave made up in the lathe to allow the wider diameter paddle fit over the narrow Westfield column





Tillett carbon seat trial fit



To get me through IVA, I'm getting a pair of prop shafts made to fit the Westfield reverse box, probably won't be perfectly balanced but they will do the job to get through the test.

Myself and @[USER=950]Benzo[/USER] took delivery of some more lovely carbon fibre from Mickmade - I got a matching pair of side panels plus a dash and he got the same along with a boot panel



Waiting on the postman again too, have a custom fuel tank and Stack dash on their way. Until the next instalment.....

Rob

Fuel tank arrived well chuffed with it, it was custom made by Alloy Racing Fabrications in Nottingham, would highly recommend Jim he is a sound bloke and easy to work with. Basically it's a 6.5Gal tank with VDO dip tube sender, Mocal double rollover valve, foam filled, with internal baffle and integrated sump to help protect against fuel surge. 8mm push and return fittings and a 2.25" filler neck. The tank sits in the standard Westfield position behind the diff, not ideal weight distribution for racing but seeing as this will also be on the road I can't put it in the passenger compartment. One of the biggest compromises I will have to make unfortunately.

Now on to the dash, I had to decide what instruments to go with and the options are endless. The standard bike clocks would be the cheapest and easiest route, but they would have required me to run a few analogue guages and I just wasn't fussed on the look of it all, so decided an all in one unit was what I needed. I looked at all the popular units, the Digidash was superb value and included all sensors but I just couldn't warm to the lack of a proper rev counter. The Race Technology Dash2 is an awesome piece of kit and looked good value at 500 quid, but by the time you add on all the sensors, loom and vat it was approching the £1k figure!

I had always wanted a Stack, but could not justify the price, however I did a bit of research and Montgomery Motorsport in Augher came in with a fantastic price which was almost £200 cheaper than Demon Tweeks so I took the plunge and ordered an ST8130P model. This is the street version so includes a tamper proof odometer (essential for IVA) and all the sensors - RPM, wheel speed, voltage, water temperature, oil temperature, oil pressure, fuel pressure, and can take the reading from my VDO fuel sender in the tank I ordered. I ordered the 0-6-13k rev counter with a white face. There are programmable alarms which can be all set up to trigger at custom levels, which should prove very useful. It can also be extended to include an external shift light and predictive lap timing, should I ever decide to do it in the future. Lastly if I ever decide to change the engine, I can just unhook all sensors and put them into the new power plant, so leave future upgrades perfectly flexible. All in all delighted and can't wait to get it fitted!



Idea of how it could look - hopefully I can make mine a bit tidier



Now the car is almost ready to come back from the fabricator, just trying to source a couple of mk2 Escort prop flanges to get my prop made up and then I can bring her home.

Rob

[Edited on 22/9/13 by Rob55]

Car home , looking forward to progress now!

Nice looking beast, excellent attention to detail, shame its destined for the race track, it wont look that shiny for long :-)

First job was pull all the bits off to head to the powder coaters. Engine out time!



Billet alloy sump - nice and level with the floor



AB Performance airbox and alloy bells. Needed some modification to fit by removing approx 1 inch from the base of it, my man did a great job of gel coating it again, very tidy.









Engine cradle for 929cc blade lump



Lower engine mount



Chassis diagonal modified for the Tony Law manifold



All the bits now for coating



Garage tidied and car ready for building! Need to get the brake and fuel systems completely finished next and then crack into the bodywork. Should really start looking like a car soon. Also ordered wheels, should be here in a fortnight.

WOW, this is gonna be one amazing looking car!!!!
Can't wait to see it finished

Daz.

Bits now back powder coated and looking smart. Bought some etch primer and satin black to tidy up the chassis welding, just waiting on my new air die grinder to arrive to clean it up before paint. Once the bare metal is all taken care of, it'll be time to crack into the build.

great build - look forward to seeing it out.. you on the grid in 2014 ?

Benzo - you getting out next year too ?

Yeah both of us should be on the grid for start of 2014... "should" be!!

Little bit more progress, got the car back up on the build stands and cleaned up the chassis modifications with my new favourite tool, an air die grinder. Got a big bag of 3M pads off ebay and didn't take too long to clean off the surface rust and prep for paint with Halfords etch primer and satin black. Turned out so well that I wonder if Westfield used the same to do the whole chassis lol.











Fuel tank trial fitted.



Next jobs are finish the fuel and brake lines up the tunnel and then fire the engine, props, reverse box and drive shafts in for good.

Great updates... Awesome garage and equipment too

Small milestone reached today, solid brake lines now finished. What a P.I.T.A!







Breathers are now welded up, so gave them a quick dust with VHT black to tidy them up.



Solid fuel lines next.

Looking good. I'm quite jealous of the speed that it's going together.

quote:

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Originally posted by TimC
Looking good. I'm quite jealous of the speed that it's going together.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Rob55
Don't get too jealous - I've been at it 14 months lol

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Momentous day today - wheels arrived!









Revolutions new 4 spoke race wheel, nice and light and classic styling. Only prob is they sent me the wrong wheels - totally the wrong offset! Will get them changed on Monday, no rush in needing them yet.

I also managed to get some garage time and stuck the engine back in along with the rest of the powder coated bits, hopefully for the last time



This gave me a chance to check the propshafts I bought off eBay. Front one is perfect:



Back one needs some modification - has the wrong flange and it's about 3" too short. Will have to get my welder to modify it for me, hopefully not too big a deal.





Off to a wedding now all weekend, sans garage, boo!

one of the nicest builds on LCB, keep it up!

Well some progress, trundling along nicely. First little job was to modify my stainless handbrake to take the Sierra connecting rod, easy peasy drill it out, clean it up paint it and fit with a clevis pin.









Next up, modify my fuel tank brackets to suit my chassis - standard on the right, modified on the left. Tank now fits nice and tight.



Main focus now is the fuel system. I will be running a low pressure pump from the tank to feed a 4 way swirl pot, which will then flow through a high pressure pump to feed the fuel rail, the FPR will then bleed off the excess fuel back to the swirl pot which will then overflow back into the fuel tank. I could have opted to use the original bike pump, but this setup leaves me flexible for future injected engine swaps and I can be confident I won't suffer fuel starvation. Fuel pipes were sourced from Gates in the USA for the latest aggressive modern fuels, as many fellow builders have found their pipes perish. It will take a while getting everything installed but here's how it looks to begin with:



First job was to mount the Facet solid state low pressure pump, which is recommended to be mounted at a 45deg upward angle and as close to the level of the fuel tank outlet as possible. After some deliberation about where I would put the swirl pot and high pressure pump etc, I settled on behind the diff for the low pressure pump. Excuse the welding, I'm only learning...!







Next up was fitting the radiator, a simple job I thought, but oh no, the outlet pipe fouled one of the chassis cross members. So after some persuasion with a Donegal screwdriver (!) I had the mounts modified and rad sitting nice and level.



Then @KeithRobinson called around and we tried the bodywork on to make sure it clear the rad. Wow! Looks like a car lol





With the rad mounted I then turned my attention to the oil cooler, so whipped the rad off and dropped it off with North West Propellers who welded on some nice mounts, quite happy with it now.



Keeping on the alloy theme, I needed a swirl pot, header tank and oil catch tank. Some dodgy drawings and a few phone calls later I had them all ordered with Alloy Racing Fabrications in Nottingham, the same guy who made my tank. Once again top marks to Jim who was great to deal with and had plenty of suggestions through experience of building his own MK Indy. So with these on order I turned my attention to the cooling system. Some will think its a bit cheesy (ok, even I do!) but I went for blue silicone hoses, so it will be easy to know what hose is what. I.e. black for fuel and blue for water. Another vote for Auto Silicone Hoses, good prices and good quality. Things are still a W.I.P but so far this is how it looks..









Not totally happy with how the lower pipe clears the steering rack, so some more work to be done there. Currently awaiting more pipes and elbows from ASH...

I also picked up a handy little Brian James Micro trailer this week, single axle so I can tow it behind the Caddy, and a very unique folding draw bar for easy storage. The Westie will be a snug fit to say the least, but it will go on! Quite chuffed, as I have 100 miles each way to tow to the track, and this will be very easy to pull.

Great build this :-)

Ah...Looks all too familiar!
Just a quick note....I used a 13 row oil cooler on a Blade 1000rr engine and it wasn't quite big enough to cool the oil down on really hot days. Changed it out for a 26 row and sorted! Watch that..........Looking good

Been a while since the last instalment, thankfully progress has been fairly good. My consignment of alloy tanks arrived from Alloy Racing Fabrications, again all top quality and made exactly to my spec. I was particularly delighted with the swirl pot, which fits perfectly where I had envisaged it should go.





Oil Catch tank made to suit the angle of the scuttle panel



Header bottle with sight glass and pipework tailored to suit





Anyway back to the work and on to a job I have been putting off, the solid fuel lines. These are 5/16" steel pipes and not the easiest thing in the world to bend, though thankfully my cheapie pipe bender was up to the job and helped me form some decent looking pipework. The main problems were two fold, firstly there are a few tight spaces and obstacles to avoid (namely- diff, reverse box, engine) and secondly because the pipes are already flared at both ends meaning they are a fixed length, so judging where the pipes would start and finish was a challenge. The other thing is that once a bend is made, you can't undo it or it can caused the pipe to fail.

Here's an example of where the pipe needs to come through beside the diff, plus I need room to manoeuvre the diff when fitting and removing.



Anyway lots of trail fitting and careful consideration got me through and overall I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned out. Here's the first pipe (fuel return to swirl pot).



I also made up these little brackets out of box section to support my double pipe clips, and riveted them to the alu floor.














Now that the fuel lines were finished I could start to bolt things on permanently!! So first off was the diff, followed by the drive shafts.





Next up was the flexible fuel lines, filters, pumps and tank. Basically the whole rear end setup. First up a couple of little tips for anyone out there in a similar position, flexible hose can become quite hard when its cold and mine came on a reel which meant it wanted to stay tightly curled up, so a quick soak in hot water soon made it more supple and easy to work with.



Then when it comes to cutting lengths, the skinny disc in your grinder makes a nice clean cut:





High pressure pump and filter mounted above the diff. In this pic you can just see them and behind them the bar bolted in to save the fuel tank from being punctured by the rear suspension arm bolts in the event of an accident:




Better pic of the pump, filter, swirl pot and tank all plumbed in:





And a couple showing the route of the send/return pipes to the engine:









So with the rear end of the car now complete I turned my attention to the sump which I had removed from my engine to have a temperature probe welded in, however I managed to find a drain plug adapter which will take my temp probe so I had no need to take the sump off at all..! Unfortunately the 929 blade engine does not use a paper gasket, so I had to use instant gasket, and seeing as I have a baffle plate this meant 4 surfaces to seal. Hopefully it doesn't leak! Here's a couple of pics of the sump, its a bit of a work of art..









Last job for today was to fit the rear propshaft, which has now been lengthened by around 3" and a top job at that. All bolts loctite'd and torqued to the correct values.









Final pic of this weekends work, tomorrow it'll be time to recommence work up at the front in preparation for bolting the engine in permanently!

Looking great Rob, really nice work, I must get a wee call over to see it some weekend. It won't be long now until you have it finished!!

Ps. If you have any spare black head rivots or any spares in fact give me a wee list and we can swap for monies!

Like you work so far, I just cringe every time I see those inlet trumpets not covered up while you do all that dirty work around them.

Which Tillett seat is that? is it uber light?

I'm after something similar

I've seen these photos somewhere before, they've been sent to me via text message via a Mr.K.Robinson

Beautie of a car - never realised you were on the forum

It's a Tillett B6, lovely quality and very light. Guy on WSCC does them at a good price (still expensive though!), can get you his number if you are interested.

Hi Ollie, yeah Keith was saying he has been sending you pics Been following your own thread as well, good fun this lark...

Bit more progress this weekend. First up was to make an engine cover to save drag. I decided to make it removable, as it would be handy for oil changes and if the sump ever had to come off to save removing the engine. After some deliberation I (rightly or wrongly) decided on rivnuts placed in the cover itself, mainly as it was a slightly thicker grade of alloy than the Westfield panelling so would hold them better. I picked up a pair of air shears which made cutting the sheet effortless (def on my stocking filler list!!). Once cut to shape, I applied some foam tape to absorb vibrations and inserted the rivnuts which were shaved flush with the foam. In the end the whole thing took a lot longer than I thought, but ended up a great job which will allow good access to work at the engine.











Next up I bolted the engine back in and got cracking with the bodywork. With the help of two mates we manoeuvred the tub on and off a couple of times until we got the right fit. Some tools which really come in handy with fibreglass are a Dremel and the die grinder I previously picked up. Also a normal angle grinder with a skinny cutting disc and a good old rasp for tidying up the edges. Before long things looked like this:



While on the theme of bodywork we decided to take the plunge and cut the tub to accept the new carbon flared side panels. Not something to be taken lightly as theres no going back and especially when its a brand new build, but hey ho.. out with the grinder! We decided it was best to leave a 10" overlap so cut the panels off flush with the engine compartment bulkhead. This means when standing beside the car you can still see the orange fibreglass going up inside the flared side panel, while venting the maximum amount of air from the engine. Having cut the sides off, I would say there is a small amount of weight saved as the GRP is much thicker than the carbon, but probably only a kilo or two.









While in the mood for butchering things I decided it was time for another mod to the AB air box. Unfortunately this is far from a straight forward fit to the 929 engine and having already reduced the base to fit over my engine cradle, I now had to removed the leading edge from the rear of the air box to allow it to clear my top coolant pipe. This is no bad thing though as it now means the inside of the box no longer has a big ridge and the air should flow more smoothly into the filter. Still, a pain to say the least. And I do not possess the know how to gel coat, so it will just have to go satin black after a bit more tidying up. Thankfully it will never be seen when bolted to the engine.







Last up before bed, I decided to try my Stack Dash in position (ignore the ugly IVA compliant wheel). As usual nothing is straight forward, and thanks to my paddle shift I have lost valuable dash space so the Stack will be an extremely delicate fit, but I think it will work, just about....







Rob

[Edited on 15/12/13 by Rob55]

you have some patience !!!

on the removable plate for the sump... having been there done that, i'd strongly recommend having the rivnuts in the actual floor... and be able to buzz the bolts off from under the car as access is much easier (always have the car raised up anyway if you are doing anything)

I can;t wait to see this thing in the flesh.. its an awesome build for a road car..... never mind for racing !!

Dammit thats a good idea alright... may have to make some modifications!

aye - worth it now.......... cos when you need access to it - especially if in the paddock between races... the last thing you want to be doing is faffing around from the top trying to get to bolts covered in pipes, line of sight blocked by engine, HOT manifolds etc etc.......

another thing - not sure whether you have thought about how to secure the gearchange cable at the engine end ? my advise is to secure the bracket to the engine (off sump for example) and make sure the bracket from the splines is at 90 deg to the cable... centre it up to get the same throw each way.

keep it up - superb looking build !!

We'll having now seen it in the flesh I can tell you all that the pictures don't do it justice, beautiful build.
I wish I'd been there for the "lets cut the sides off her" balls of steel my good man.
I'm highly motivated again after seeing it.

Mark - gearchange is superb, Big Easy made up a solid mount where the bike frame normally mounts onto the engine and its a really precise change.

Wags - looking forward to seeing your own project taking shape!!

I was just speaking to the IVA Department in DVA Belfast, and have been advised to get my application submitted now even though I plan to present the vehicle mid-Feb. They also informed me that the testing has now permanently moved from Ards to Lisburn, which cuts about 20 miles off the journey. Test fee is still the same though, boo!!!

good stuff.. big easy knows his BECs well.... good man

Tyres now on Think I am going to need black wheel nuts..

With IVA applied for, the pressure is on to get moving with things. The focus has been on bodywork, a job I knew would be a P.I.T.A! And not helped whatsoever by my "mishap" earlier in the thread. All of the body panels are GRP and depend on the fit from each other in order to line up properly. This means you fit everything but don't fix it, and adjust accordingly until the panel gaps are acceptable. I say acceptable, because I believe fibreglass is damn near well impossible to get perfect unless you are very lucky.

The Westfield fitting procedure is as follows: tub, then scuttle panel, then bonnet, then nose cone. The tub is aligned 400mm from the rear chassis bar and then the sides adjusted so that the scuttle, bonnet and nose fit properly.



However on fitting it became immediately apparent that something was wrong, the rear arches were badly off centre with the wheels, despite the top 400mm measurement being millimetre perfect.





After much deliberating I decided to call in the help of @IL for a second opinion. The strategy devised was that rear arch alignment ranked ahead of anything else, so the only option was to move the whole tub forward. I was not happy about this at first, but I later came to realise it had quite a number of additional benefits - the scuttle now sits further from the wheel allowing more room for my paddle shift, and importantly I have gained about 5-6mm in dash height above the steering column to accommodate the Stack dash. Furthermore - the Westfield manual states that with a V8 bonnet it is necessary for the tub to be 5mm longer on the passenger side and conveniently this now happens to be the case which means the bonnet and nose sit much better than before too. So after probably a full day of head scratching and moving the tub around, I now have everything sitting nicely.

With the chassis marked, I now removed the tub one final time for slight trimming and also to strengthen the weak part behind the roll bar mounts. I managed to put a small stress fracture in the gel coat here, so laid up some reinforcement under both sides.







It was also a good time to fit the rear arches, as this needs done off the car. The manual states the use of 12 M6 bolts to hold them on, I opted instead for 6 plastic number plate bolts with a slice cut into every bolt to provide a means of "give" in case of a bump on track. The theory being that hopefully the bolts will break rather than causing damage to the tub itself. The actual fitment of the arches probably took close to an hour of sanding and trial fitting before I could find an acceptable arch gap due to the variances in the gel coat out of the mould. Once again my die grinder proved an invaluable tool and I am pleased with the final result.











With the tub off, I enlisted the help of @KeithRobinson to fit the roll cage. The manufacturing tolerances between the cage mounting points and the Westfield chassis are shocking, with the front mounts bolted in place none of the 8 mounting holes at the rear even came close to lining up.







So it was a case of drilling out the chassis to accommodate the cage. This is not a big deal but it did take quite a bit of time to make sure it was square and was a bit awkward in places due to the vertical bars. Got there in the end though, albeit still disappointed that it didn't just "fit" considering both the chassis and cage came together with my kit.



Back to bodywork - tub scuttle bonnet and nose were set on, aligned, rear wheel arches centred, and everything double checked before finally riveting the tub on for good! #milestone



Next up was drilling out the roll cage mounts and making up little shims to allow the cage bolts pass through the GRP and bolt securely to the chassis. I had expected this to be much more difficult than it really was, and was very pleased with the end result. The huge amount of time and effort spent ensuring the tub and cage were properly aligned made this job quite straight forward. @KeithRobinson discovered his new calling in life was to work with a Dremel, and made a really top job enlarging the holes to just the right size to accept the 16mm OD shims.









Prior to fitting the cage, I took the opportunity of making a template of the rear section to cut out a carbon fibre back panel cover. The template was then transferred onto a light 1mm carbon sheet and cut to suit with a perm grit jigsaw blade and then the edge smoothed using a belt sander. The beauty of the 1mm carbon is that it is very flexible and I should hopefully be able to fit the rear panel in one piece by flexing it around the roll cage stays, as opposed to fitting it in 2 or 3 sections.





Next up was another job I had been dreading, the Naca Duct. This is connected by a 100mm cold air feed direct from the nose cone to the AB air box. Again it was out with the cardboard to template and then out with the jigsaw so butcher my brand new nose cone. I opted to bond the duct from underneath for a nicer finish using Sikaflex. The key here was making an accurate template and I think it really paid off as I am totally chuffed with the finished job.











With the Sikaflex tube loaded I moved on to fixing the nose cone grille and mesh for the various bonnet vents. I was not supplied with spare mesh with my kit so took a trip to Halfords armed with my nose cone grille and found that Ripspeed mesh is almost an exact match, result! So back to fitting the nose cone grille - this was yet again another part which required to be modified to ensure correct fit. Westfield have 2 different nose cones and I believe this grille was designed for the one with the large single intake, not mine with the two smaller ones. So out came the angle grinder and I butchered my brand new grille.. bit of a theme going on today lol









Then it was time to bolt on the cage for good and set on the rest of the panels for some pics.











Finally things are starting to really progress, with a self imposed mid January deadline to have the car ready to head off for wiring. Until the next instalment...

Rob

1 piece back panel just needs a little more tidying but has worked out well

Wow you have been busy! Looking great now.

Loving the smilie on the mirror.

just read from start to finish, awesome quality build!

Outstanding quality Robert, can't wait to see the finished car-don't be afraid to get a run down to Campsie!

Things are now progressing nicely with the car, some updates from the past couple of weeks..
Fluids bought. Only thing I couldn't find locally was the brake fluid, the rest were from Halfords, which means if I get caught short at a weekend or on race day, I don't have to wait on parts coming mail order.



Filled the diff - coat hanger and an old bit of pipe worked perfect.



Fuel jugs and measuring jug bought



Longacre rear view mirror fitted. Will need some attention to pass IVA to hide the sharp edges of the brackets. Great wide angle vision





Chassis plate fitted. Picked up this nicely engraved carbon item from an eBay seller



Finished off the water and fuel pipe plumbing



Plumbed in the oil cooler - after much deliberation on cost vs benefit I took the advice from Think Automotive and used aeroquip rubber hoses with barbed push fittings. Apparently good for 250psi which is a lot more than I will throw at it. Assembly was a doddle, the fittings push easily into the hose but won't pull out again. Though, from reading some other forums I think I will add a jubilee clip onto each fitting as an extra level of security.







Next up I got a sump plug adapter machined by a local engineering company to accept my Stack temperature sender



Unfortunately, when I added half a litre of oil to test, it leaked And worse still, it broke off in the sump when I went to undo it. So today I will have to remove the sump and have the engineering firm weld the adapter on. Thankfully I managed to recover all of the oil (££), you can just see the broken adapter on the ground with the temp probe in it.



Then it was onto electrics. I picked up some nice multi function single rear lamps off Bolt On Bits, with universal lamp pods.











Unfortunately the lamp pods don't fit the standard Westfield location, so required some modification to suit the angle of the rear arch. This looks worse than it actually is - I used a belt sander to remove an even portion of material and keep it square. The end result is absolutely spot on perfect.







Then it was onto the dash. All in the name of the "finer detail" I sourced some black button boots to replace the standard silver Stack items, to tie in better with the dash. Switches are made by APEM, boots available from RS Components for anyone interested..



Carbon dash blank by Mickmade was measured and cut to size, then trimmed with the belt sander, great handy tool for this job



And then marked and cut for the steering column and Stack







And then marked out and bored for the various switches, which incidentally are direct from Caterham from the R500.





The finished product







[Edited on 20/1/14 by Rob55]

Excellent write up/pics/workmanship

Blimey its like having deja vu looking at your build

Even the colour is the same! Good job

I always thought that WF could take a good lesson from Caged on powder coating quality though

that is awesome,..

Bloody hell you continue to amaze me, really nice work Rob!

Lovely pics!

quote:

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Originally posted by SJLI always thought that WF could take a good lesson from Caged on powder coating quality though

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FINALLY, it's back! Two duff ECU's and 10 weeks later, it's now wired up and alive.

can I ask where u got the dash blank from please also the switches aswell

quote:

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Originally posted by brookie
can I ask where u got the dash blank from please also the switches aswell

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loved the build diary so far having only just found and read it. The attention to detail is outstanding and I have to admit it has given me a few ideas for mine

Could do with a update on this please!

IIRC from Westfield forum its failed Iva twice on noise

Yes failed three times now, noise and emissions.. I'm now on my last attempt before my 6 months runs out. If it fails this time I'm going to burn it.

So it will be a full test again after 6 months?

Yes Kev but if it fails this time I'm going to have to re assess my options. I've already paid £450 and 3x £90 so I won't be giving any more to DVA.. in saying that I'm in the process of making as many changes as I can think of to lower the emissions. I've fitted a new cat, Power Commander V with autotune/lambda sensor, and I'm going to get the engine terracleaned.

Nightmare.
Fingers crossed its ok.
Have you got access to emissions test equioment before taking it to the test?
How far off are the emissions?

WOOOOHOOO!!!



Only took 4 bloody attempts. Now the transformation into a race car can properly commence, with the first event at the end of March! Should have some better updates coming soon to get the thread back on track. For the mean time though she's tucked up for the night.

That garage is ridiculous. Thats all I have to say

Well done on the pass! That garage makes me hate you a little bit though

Where did you get your flared sidepanels?

Nice one, looks great!

Did that AB Performance airbox fit under the bonnet straight off, or did it need fiddling with? I'm considering options for my 954 blade at the moment, to try and reduce induction noise a bit. Was the airbox horrifically expensive, if you don't mind me asking!

Flared panels came from mickmade who I think is a member on here

AB fits under bonnet no problem (raised bonnet with the bulge, don't know about standard bonnet) but yes it was hideously expensive

2015 reg now sorted, thanks DVLA! Picked up a new covered trailer, and gave the car a damn good clean. Now off for a full Geo setup and then back to the garage for some more final mods pre season. Finally everything is coming together

Not bad turn around for the registration! Here's hoping I can get mine done in time for stoneleigh.

Plate now on