Finally bought myself a kit after a few years of fancying building one!
Have watched my m8 Steve build three BEC MK Indys and a MEV over the years and enjoyed going out as a passenger in his.
Bought this Mac1 off E-Bay,its been owned by two members off this forum but has only had a few alloy panels riveted on in its life so far.
Chassis is the ZR built for a Zetec,but after my experience in Steves BEC Indys the plan always was to convert the chassis to take a bike engine.
The kit was a bargain for everything that was included B)

So for what seems like ages I've been cleaning/de-rusting/painting old Ford parts!

Brakes stripped ready for blasting:


Shot blasted then soaked in Bilt Hamber Deox-C,then rebuilt with kits from BigRedd:








Hubs/drive flanges have all received the same treatment:





Two coats of Rust Bullet:







Rebuilt with new bearings and two coats of Rust Oleum Satin black:





[Edited on 4/2/14 by CosKev3]

So onto the chassis mods for the engine swap.

Getting some sort of idea for engine position:



Picked up a prop shaft off here that was done by MK for a Busa eng,took a chance on it and I'm glad I can make it fit.

I was planning on making a cradle from scratch,but Danny from MK offered me one at a price that made making one myself seem daft!
Welded in the mounts for cradle and made up a bottom mount once the cradle was in a position I was happy with.
Also took the opportunity to move the factory fitted chassis number plate up onto the top bar I was welding in,and weld it on right around as from the factory it was only welded on with two spots.
Cut off the Zetec engine mounts too.


Description







Prop shaft centre bearing mount and gear cable mount fitted:



I bought a reverse kit off here that was designed for a MK Chassis,hoping it would fit on the Mac1 chassis pretty easily,wrong!
The diff is lower in the Mac1 so the motor would not fit below the diff/propshaft.
So I had to mount it on the top



Downside to moving to the top was the fact it interferes with the handbrake lever,so I had to modify the handbrake front mount point and the bar at the rear that pulls the cable so that it sits in the centre of the tunnel,as the lever will now have to sit slightly towards the drivers side to clear the reverse motor:



[Edited on 4/2/14 by CosKev3]

[Edited on 4/2/14 by CosKev3]

[Edited on 4/2/14 by CosKev3]

Nice one. Just the sort of project I am looking at doing.

Keep posting pics please, I need inspiration ;-)

quote:

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Originally posted by kingster996
Nice one. Just the sort of project I am looking at doing.

Keep posting pics please, I need inspiration ;-)

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Refurbed this rusty old perished thing too!!


Description


Description

Given the same treatment as the hubs/calipers,and new bush kit off E-Bay:


Description


Description

Cleaned up/painted diff and fitted new driveshaft and pinion seals,landed lucky with the diff,has been in storage for years and was removed from a Sierra that only covered 600 miles







Brakes painted and new handbrake springs fitted:

Still plodding on

Driveshafts done:


Steering column:


All welded parts painted with Rust Oleum satin black aerosol,pretty good match to orig Mac1 powdercoat:


Gear cable/lever mounted for trial fit:


I added a bracket to the eng cradle for the gear cable eng end,just need the cradle powdercoating to finish:


Reverse motor fitted and tested:




Modified Handbrake lever as it sits to avoid motor:

Rear hubs/uprights/coilovers/drive shafts fitted.

Nice now bolting on de-rusted/painted parts

Hey I like how this is coming together! Nice work! I am interested in the rear calipers you are useing! Could you link me to a set or tell me what year of car they are off? And also what width size disc they will accept, as I have some discs already but they are 23mm wide I might possibly have to change them to the same discs you have also? If so where did you get them from and are they the orgonal ford discs aswell?
Thanks Matt!

Cheers

they are sierra xr4x4 rear calipers and discs,4x4 saph cosworths and escort cosworths run a wider vented disc, but I'm not sure if 23mm wide discs would fit in them.
the ones I've got are 253mm iirc solid discs, where as the cosworths have 273mm vented discs.

okay thanks for that might look into seeing if the brake discs would fit over my hubs and change it all
thanks

Will be getting my callipers etc blasted soon (but don't hold your breath!) - what did you do with the pistons (and any other areas that would not want to be abraded) to protect them?

I stripped them down and got new seal kits/dust covers.
cheap enough off Biggred, rear handbrake mech is abit fiddly though.
I wouldn't get them blasted complete, shot would get in somewhere and could cause you big probs on the road if it got between seal and caliper etc.

quote:

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Originally posted by CosKev3
I wouldn't get them blasted complete, shot would get in somewhere and could cause you big probs on the road if it got between seal and caliper etc.

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Made up a new arm for the gearbox end of cable,the orig bike arm was too short and it was hard to find neutral


Steering column fitted:


PVC covered copper fuel pipe fitted

Few more bits done

Handbrake cables and fittings bought from trailertec,welded the threaded bar to the clevis and welded the nut onto the end of the threaded bar:




The braided flexi pipes I got with the kit were specced for Wilwoods,so no good for my Sierra calipers.
So ordered some made to measure from HEL Performance,spot on quality.
Got them made up with banjo bolt ends on the caliper ends,helps with clearance to the wheels on rear and allows better alignment of the hoses .
Made some brackets up and rivetted them to chassis,as I don't want the front pipes passing through the side panels.
Welded a bolt to the chassis for the rear T piece in brake line and used a nylock to hold it on:






Had to do a fair amount of fiddling with the pedals,made up stops for the clutch and throttle so they sit nicely level with the brake pedal,welded some extra bits to the pedals too so I could fit cables to both of them that would line up nicely with the tubes welded into the chassis for the cable routing:


Master cylinder and front brake pipes fitted:

Looking good mate

quote:

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Originally posted by zx12r dug
Looking good mate

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Progressing fairly fast Kev.

When are you expecting it to be done?

quote:

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Originally posted by daveb666
Progressing fairly fast Kev.

When are you expecting it to be done?

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Final fit of the pedals today
They came supplied with plastic bushes for the centre of the tube on pedal,no chance of these fitting in with the powdercoat in the tube,once the powdercoat was removed the bushes were a very slack(crap)fit in the tubes,so once fitted there was lots of play in the pedals.
This felt shonky and with the pedals being pretty close together I wanted to make a better job of them.
So went down to Bearing Man and got bearings to fit in the tube
Cut down the orig plastic bushes and used them to fill the space between the two bearings in the tube.
Very very pleased with the result,no play at all and very smooth moving pedals
Also added stops to the clutch and accelerator pedals due to the limited movement on the bike clutch and throttle.







Also brake lines are now complete

Nice work on the pedals, I remember mine had movement due to the plastic bush.

Another thing that I did because I was concered was make up a sleeve to go over the threaded bar that adjusts the position of the brake pedal. I was worried that during a track day I would bend it with my leg. Un servo brakes, sticky tyres you will put a serious amount of pressure through the pedal. only takes 100kg at a slight angle and you could snap the weld or bend the bar.

Not sure if this worry was justified. It was just a quick and easy fix, as I am a short a$$ the thread was all of the way out.

Very nice!

You might want to consider removing the paint from the face of the hubs. I found the varying thickness was enough to throw the disc out enough it was hitting the calliper!

Cheers, James

Nice work so far

The clutch stop will make a big difference. I've just fabricated one for my Indy Busa, as I'd been struggling with the bike clutch. It's a bit like having stabilisers fitted, but hell, if it helps

quote:

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Originally posted by bi22le
Nice work on the pedals, I remember mine had movement due to the plastic bush.

Another thing that I did because I was concered was make up a sleeve to go over the threaded bar that adjusts the position of the brake pedal. I was worried that during a track day I would bend it with my leg. Un servo brakes, sticky tyres you will put a serious amount of pressure through the pedal. only takes 100kg at a slight angle and you could snap the weld or bend the bar.

Not sure if this worry was justified. It was just a quick and easy fix, as I am a short a$$ the thread was all of the way out.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by James
Very nice!

You might want to consider removing the paint from the face of the hubs. I found the varying thickness was enough to throw the disc out enough it was hitting the calliper!

Cheers, James

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quote:

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Originally posted by Magic Beans
Nice work so far

The clutch stop will make a big difference. I've just fabricated one for my Indy Busa, as I'd been struggling with the bike clutch. It's a bit like having stabilisers fitted, but hell, if it helps

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Picked up a manifold off 'macboycie' off here for a good price,cheers
Due to me mounting the engine where I thought best I was thinking I would need to modify the manifold quite a lot,but was well pleased when tried it on the car to find just the outlet angle needed modifying
Clears the small angled chassis brace which was a bonus too as I feared it would get in the way,as this chassis was for a Zetec.



Picked up a Westfield silencer at Stoneleigh for a real bargain price of £25 off 'CRAIGR' on here,thanks
Had to shorten the inlet pipe,and cut the down the removable tailpipe that these have as standard and welded it on instead.
Pretty pleased with it,fingers crossed it sounds ok too
Welded two mounting points on,bolted up through the outer chassis rail,using a nut welded onto the top of the chassis.





When I went to fit the tank I was disappointed to find one of the mounting brackets was welded 10mm to far inwards,so got my m8 to weld on a piece of 10mm alloy to save using washers or the like to space it out:

Good to see a proper build thread rather than just sticking carbon sheet all over things , nice work so far keep it up!.

quote:

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Originally posted by sam919
Good to see a proper build thread rather than just sticking carbon sheet all over things , nice work so far keep it up!.

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Done some more
I wasn't happy with the amount of bump steer I could see when pressing the front of chassis down,you could see the front wheels moving to toe out quite alot.
After a bit of reading on here rack height seemed to be a problem,so decided to chop the rack mounts and lower my rack to get the track rods running straighter with wishbones,as they were sloping down from mounting points to hubs.
Also the amount of twist on the lower column connection looked wrong imo,so altered the angle of rack while mounts were off.
Before:

After:


Doesn't look much different in pics,but rack has been lowered circa 25mm.Much happier now

Angle on the coupling before:


After:


Another problem I found was with the column support,the Mac1 fitted piece of tube is crap imo,due to the run out on the column the bush was getting tight in certain places.
Also I wanted to use an adjustable column,this would not work with the Mac1 piece of tube idea as it does not allow movement up or down of the column.The MK design is much better,as it uses the full Sierra bush/housing which allows the movement of column in run out and the up and down of an adjustable column.
After research on here I decided to replace it with a bearing set-up

So out with the grinder and chopped off this:


Replaced with this:


Took a bit of fettling,had to cut the brackets,re-angle and weld up to get the correct angle for column.
But well worth the effort!
Can now spin the steering wheel with the column fully raised or lowered and it justs spins freely and keeps spinning around when you loose go of it

Picked up some bargains off the Westfield forum,pair of padded race seats with runners,and a Aero screen,wrong colour I know but for £100+postage I can't moan!

Rolled it out to do some sunbathing today

Looking good!

looks great

The car is looks really good, nice work with the steering rack

Did you buy the flared side panels, or did you chop up some non-flared ones?

quote:

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Originally posted by OliilO
Did you buy the flared side panels, or did you chop up some non-flared ones?

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Spotted some of your gallery pics mate - it's looking sweeeeet!

You got it on the road yet?

Mine should be soon i hope - I have my IVA booked in for 20th May and still finishing some bits off!

[Edited on 29/4/15 by kingster996]

Cheers Chris,well pleased with the finish of wrap and the exhaust

Yours is looking very nice B)

Good luck Chris, lets know how you get on.