Well after a long wait, finally got to pick the Kit up Saturday. With a massive bonus of borrowing a van/trailer from the father-in-law which saved on hiring a van and trying to squeeze the chassis and all the panels in one space.







Sadly some of the panels werent up to scratch (no pun intended), so Raw will be sorting these out, but as I wont be needing these for quite a few months no doubt that shouldnt be a problem.

Defo need to clear more space in the single garage, I've still got lots of junk from various nova parts, and my shed that I wanted to store panels safely etc is full of wheels for various cars I either dont own or dont need anymore!

Will keep this thread updated as progress is made.

Good Luck with the Build


Will be watching this one with interest, as i've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Striker

I've hit subscribe, Good luck with the build and keep us updated regularly How quickly do you plan on building it?

Plan is to have it ready for IVA summer next year and a '62 registration.

Looks nice Loggy.

I'll be keeping a close eye too - its nice to see a bare chassis so i can see whats going on underneath mine.

I'll be doing my zetec swap soon, finally got the mounts ordered from raw.

What engine are you using?

quote:

---

Originally posted by Norfolkluegojnr
Looks nice Loggy.

I'll be keeping a close eye too - its nice to see a bare chassis so i can see whats going on underneath mine.

I'll be doing my zetec swap soon, finally got the mounts ordered from raw.

What engine are you using?

---

Latest Update:

Cut all the ally panels weekend before last.
Raw kindly mark up all the shapes which makes like a little easier (however, for the keener eyed, anyone spot the dilberate mistake on both sidepanels and the tunnel sides?)







I did buy some Air Metal Sheers, but I dont think my compressor is up to the task as they didnt seem to cope. I reverted to Jig sawing them, and with these lil ally blades it went thru them like warm butter.







The only trouble with a jigsaw is the loose swarf gets caught and marks the sheets, so I protected them with some MDF.





The course blade left the edges a ltttle rough, but nothing a file wont tidy





After offing up various panels I decided the chassis was in danger of getting scratched so put some paper sheets to use:





and then flipped it on its side to sort the floor panels:





'G' clamps from Lidl coming in handy:






Also noticed some gaps in the powder coating where the chassis musts have been on an A frame. Will get the Electrostatic magic out to cover them over.



Didnt get much done this weekend (Wifes Birthday) and I have an Autosolo at Castle combe this Saturday with Bristol MC, but hope to get cracking at the riveting on Sunday.

Looking good. I got some pipe lagging from b&q to protect mine as you can move it around and when you bang your head it doesn't hurt so much!

Well its been 10 months, and sadly not alot has been done. I got distracted over summer by my love for hot hatches, 2 Clio 172s had too much of my attention - but the Striker is now priorty number 1!

This is where I left it back in march:



But I was jumping ahead with the sidepanels, so I went back to drilling the tunnel panels, however I decided I didnt want the handbrake in the standard location. I think its messy on the side of the tunnel, so a new position was decided:







I'll make up some nice brackets to fix it in the new location nearer the time.

The bracket that the cable wraps round was therfore no longer needed, making a tidier passenger side tunnel panel:







I had a few patches to re-powdercoat so I patched over the bare metal with the electrostatic magic which you can see below, the dull patches. The finish isnt a perfect match and it doesnt blend very well, but as it will all be covered up by panels I'm not concerned

Once that was done I could crack on with securing both floor panels:

Added some Waxoyl internally:



Then it was out with the Sikaflex:



Some videos of the Air Riveter in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAlHIDipTWk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMT10AfZiX0

In review of the cheapo air rivet gun - it did jam a few times when the previous shaft didnt push out properly and 2 got stuck in the exit tube. But once i realoised what was happening, it only took a few seconds to unscrew the nozzle and pull out the stuck shafts.

Once they were riveted in place, it was on to the first side panel. Clamping the edge with some thin timbers and progressively bending the panels with a rubber mallet and some other timbers.







Once the top edge folds were done I needed to do the bottom, which meant lowering and rolling the chassis, not the easisest of 1 man jobs!, but taadaa - Magic floating chassis:





The engine bay area was easy to clamp and fold as I had done one the top edge, but where the floor panels were securred it was impossible to clamp all the way along, and without the timbers bracing the fold would not be a neat and tight crease. So I found a sturdy timber brace that was up to the job:



I then started to drill the bottom edge, and thats were she now stands waiting for the new coutersink drill bit ive ordered so I can fit the coutersunk rivets to the bottom panel, so the covering (which ever I choose) will lay smoothly over the side panel.

Hopefully the next update will be more forthcoming than this!!

[Edited on 22/12/11 by loggyboy]

I hope you don't regret moving the handbrake, isn't your elbow going to hit it?

quote:

---

Originally posted by MikeRJ
I hope you don't regret moving the handbrake, isn't your elbow going to hit it?

---

Hi Loggyboy

This might sound like a stupid question, but you don't have any tips on measuring and drilling the tunnel side panels do you? I'm struggling for some reason with the shape of it (narrower at the top than the bottom, then widening towards the front).

thanks
Guy

I didn't like the handbrake location in my Phoenix either.

In my case I used a Fiat Coupe handbrake and mounted it vertically. Worked alright for me and it mounted off the




Just another option.

quote:

---

Originally posted by happylemon666
Hi Loggyboy

This might sound like a stupid question, but you don't have any tips on measuring and drilling the tunnel side panels do you? I'm struggling for some reason with the shape of it (narrower at the top than the bottom, then widening towards the front).

thanks
Guy

---

Bought a Rivnut tool (laser) to secure my brake/fuel line Pclips. Could have blind riveted them, but thought it would be could to have future flexibilty and easy maintainence/replacement. Plus I wanted more tools to play with!

Drilled holes and more waxoyl:



All inplace, allthough I have now fitted stainless steel hex bolts in place of the cheap philips heads.



review of the cheap (£22) laser rivnut tool - good but weak - I was using the m3 size which is very thin, and therefore delicate, so on the 5th rivnut I squeezed a little too hard:



However the ebay shop sent me a new m3 mandrel out staight away and I did aload more to day with no problems. Just learnt the m3s only need the slightest of squeeze!

Also bought some new cobalt drill bits for under £2 a pair from toolstation - wow, made drilling the chassis like cutting warm butter. Also pictured my £10 120degree coutersink, which is perfect for the counter sunk rivets.

Finished off the Rear brake lines and made up some angle brackets, had to make them quite long as the premade brake lines that came with the kit were a little on the short side!







and added the stainless nuts to the fronts to finish them off.





Also striped the Engine, Box and Diff out the sierra ready for when the funds allow me to send the G/Box goes off to be recon'd.



I now have a rear Engine'd sierra!

subscribed....................might look into my handbrake postion as well, thanks for the idea

where did you get the steering shaft from? want to make some pedal box mods to my chassis and need to get rid of the lower sierra bit

[Edited on 25/2/12 by clanger]

[Edited on 25/2/12 by clanger]

quote:

---

Originally posted by clanger
where did you get the steering shaft from? want to make some pedal box mods to my chassis and need to get ride of the lower sierra bit

---

cheers, bit of googling looks like a rally design item......

quote:

---

Originally posted by clanger
cheers, bit of googling looks like a rally design item......

---

Well a trial fit of the gearbox the other day (as my other thread showed) led to some head scratching about the fitting the round peg (bellhousing) in the square hole (Tunnel opening).
Raw suggested a trim to the bellhousing which seemed a little drastic to me as I didnt fancy a hole in the bell leading to something getting inside (grit, gravel, water etc), but I assumed once trimmed, I could seal it with a small thin plate welded on the inside.
So a rough mark up and out came the angry grinder.





Low and behold the casting on the bellhousing was so thick, I didnt reach the other side. Seems theres about 1-2mm left so I fluked just the right amount to cut off, as I when I marked it, I just assumed it would go through and I would have to cover it.







Offered it up to the chassis and it seems to have given me a fair amount of clearance, im still about 10mm short of the predrilled holes, but I have enough clearance to be comfortable the box wont clout the chassis or tunnel panels.

nice to see another roll cage like mine.

shouldnt you be trail fitting the gearbox with the engine?

I get very confused and looked at your avatar of your finished car? its not your car how did you do that then

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dopdog
I get very confused and looked at your avatar of your finished car? its not your car how did you do that then

---

are you going to paint the sides?

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dopdog
are you going to paint the sides?

---

Still trying to work out what combination of shafts, hubs and brakes Im going to use. The donor came with 9" drums and push in shafts. I want to do a full refurb on the shafts but its near impossible to get the parts for pushin CVs. Ive picked up a set of bolt on shafts, but still hunting for a decent priced set of disc hubs and carriers to match.
Ive had spacers made up for the drum backplates so they dont catch on the uprights/wishbones, but it seems these make it impossive to fit bolt on shafts as the driveflanges are too wide to fit through the uprights with the spacers in place!
At this rate I will end up going with discs, but im really keen to retain drums.

So in the mean time I pushed on with getting the engine in place, so made up the mounts (could have bought Raw ones for about £60 but fancied doing some fabrication myself!)

So after carefully ensuring clearance for gearbox and bonnet height, these are the mounts:







First time Ive oven baked the the powdercoat (used the heatgun before as items were too big for the oven), gives a much more durable finish when theyve been baked properly!





Making these up gave me a chance to try out a very basic tube notcher idea I had:



Needed some tweaking to stop the hole saw from biting and jumping over the tube:



But result was adequate:

Reloated the handbrake -
After trying to tap bolt hole into the tunnel side, which failed, then an attempt to rivut which also failed, I decided to just weld a but in place!









Just need to sort out some cables now... i sence an ebay trawl!

how far off centre did your engine end up? good thread and some very neat work, like the front brake lines.

Crank pretty much lines up with the near side lower coilover mount. Its as far left as it can go without catching on the bonnet. (about 1cm clearance). Wanted it as far left as I could to bull the bellhousing/selector cover away from the side of the tunnel. Height wise its almost level, slightly sloped forward, again to avoid clashing with bonnet.

The build has been geting a little 'bitty' over past few months with me jumping from one job to another.
I have now sourced a full set of bolt on driveshafts, hubs, and a 3.62 LSD (thanks Chippy), which sadly has not revealed any definitive answer to how I can achieve drums and bolt on shafts! Some 8" drums might be the solution to avoid the need for the spacers. If not I will need to widen the hole in the spacers AND the uprights. (or just go with discs!)

Some more pictures of the engine in place, also trial fitted the throttle bodies.

Getting it in there:







Standard 2 stage sump is still fitted at the moment, I have the CVH one front the Donor so may well modify that rather than hacking around with the alloy 2 stage one.



Its tight for space under the Airfilters, I have rotated one so its stepped slightly to avoid the column.
I might look for a sausage filter instead to give more room as the steering column could do with being angled up slightly from where it is now as its close to touching the pedal pivot bar as it pass through the pedal box.







Far from essential stuff, but its always nice to get distracted sorting out the more interesting things way before they need to be:

Nose cone, bonnet and skuttle loosly fitted.



The mounting template is for an ETB Digidash2, but im unsure if that will be the dash I go for yet. I just wanted to see if it would go in behind the wheel and still be viewable, I dont have a wheel, but pretty sure it should be quite easy unless I go for a tiny diameter wheel.



P-Clips holding the wiring ducting in place

looks really well that mate

just a quick couple of points, nothing serious.

Isnt your wiring going to get in the way of your rad top hose? all of the top hoses ive seen come over the top edge of the chassis

Also with your hand brake being where it is, is there enough room to get a cable between the chassis and the diff and whats it going to pull on and pivit on. Will be interested to see hows this works out for future reference

Engine looks at home in there with the bodies on will sound very nice

Rad hose sits about 30-40mm over the chassis rail.
Handbrake cable is a defo a WIP, my plan is to get an single cable from the handbrake, over the top of the diff, there is roof, then add a bracket and a split behind the diff and loop to each of the calipers. Im going to investigate a few options for different types of handbrake mechanisms.

Sure hope the engine sounds good

Moved on to the sump this afternoon.
Decided to modify the Zetec 2 stage sump, rather than the CVH one.

I decided there was no need to make it any shorter than the front edge of the bellhousing.







Will also need to cut away some of the alloy upper half too.

The line I chose sits about 50mm below the chassis rail, which is about half way up the longest part of the sump.
So by spinning the lower edge off and placing it back on the rear half, I should retain most of the lost volume, and keep the existing drain plug, it will just be on the otherside.
What I forgot to do was measure how much water I could brim the existing sump with to compare, so if anyone has standard lower sump handy, let me know how much it takes and il measure mine.











A simple flat plate cut out to in fill the area left.



and welded in place



Was really pleased with welding around the new plate, and the neatest welds are pretty much leak free.

I filled it with water to test:



Sadly the messier welds on the upper areas and around the drain plug plate are leaking. I will grind them down and reweld tomorrow and do another water test.

Rewelded a few areas and did some more water tests, each time revealing smaller and less severe leaks. After a few more test and rewelds it seems I have a water tight sump. Once powdercoated i would hope it should be a pefect seal.
Still need to find out how much volume the standard sump is!

Moved on to the pedal box cover:



Sealed with some 3mm Neoprene rubber tape. Tapped the bolt holes directly in to the frame as rivnuts seemed a little over kill and only had about 13mm of frame, meaning big holes for rivnuts, or small bolts, so tapping M5s seemed the better route.

Finalised the radiator location and mounts today.





Made up some adjustment brackets to allow for tweeks when the nose is finally mounted.

Powdercoated the sump, the propcatchers, the clutch pedal and the steering knuckles:







Clutch had to be cut and shut from the Raw standard item as it clashed with the bias bar (which wasnt great considering it was all ordered and Raw supplied.

Continued the sump mods, moving on to the alloy part:






That was straightforward, but also had to clear area for the starter, which became more complicated.

The wide standard 1.8 CVH startmotor is a little to fat to clear without removing part of the mounting face of the sump, which im not prepared to do. General concensus is that there are slimmer replacements for this starter, so I will need to get one of those. Id budgeted for a new starter anyway, I was just hoping to try it out with the free donor one.





Also met a fellow member on Saturday, Mike (Mkeats02) whose also building a Striker. He came by for a good chat, which led me to get very little done, but i didnt care as was a great chance to swap ideas and compare notes! Cheers Mike!

I cant believe its been 9 months since my last update on this. Sadly, not only is it 9 months without an update, its 9 months with very little work done. However, I did make some good progress this weekend.

Started out by picking up a cheap manifold kit from a chap putting a Zetec in an Elan. I think its an pepperperformance ebay job, which are about £110, I managed to get this for £40, and it looks like it came with more pipes than the ebay kits.
Quality is - shall we say - basic? but it will get the car running and on the road at which point I may replace it with something better quality.

I had messed around on sketchup getting ideas for how I could route it, but its never as easy to get it spot on, so as the kit had preformed radiuses, most of it was trial and (fortunately not much) error.















No on the look out for a cheap Bike Can and a lambda boss, lets see if i can do the whole exhaust system for under £80.

[Edited on 19-8-13 by loggyboy]

Also got my shortened shafts back from Raw a few weeks back, they came with a thin coat of paint on them which wasnt gonna last so I stripped them back to bare metal ready for coating.



I also prepared the carriers, hubs & stubs.

Right one is coated with a rust treatment, left has been wire'brushed' (on a drill bit!)





All masked up ready for powdercoat. I used standard masking tape, some brown tape and some freezer bags.
the latter 2 of which I knew had a good chance of melting, but I thought why not try it and clean up the mess after.



Fortunately the plastic bags just hardened and slipped off the ends, the brown tape melted and but any that didnt end up in the oven peeled off fine and just left some residue, as did the masking tape.

Ordered some new bearings (twice as the I ordered the wrong size first time! - see the for sale section for some cheap bearings to suit non-abs disk brake sierras!).

All carefully pressed in using the old shells as protection.



Paper is just there to keep the old shell alligned with the one its pressing on.



Also using the old shell to tap the grease ring home without damaging it.



and all assembled:



and installed



Should be on its wheels in no time!

After getting the car on its wheels for the first time It allowed me to turn it round so I can work on the engine side without having to open the garage, handy as the cars likely to be in this position till Christmas.



Engine back out,



Which meant I could get it on the stand and swap the standard rod bolts for ARPs:







And then on to the sump pick up, which needed to be shortened to suit the slimline sump.
I managed to source a Focus metal pickup to replace the plastic blacktop item.





As the sump is already finished, its hard for me to work out how much needs to be cut off the pickup, so i made up a simple template





It was getting late so I cut the pipe in 2 and marked it up so I can finish it later this week. I was surprised how thick the pipe was, its 19mm diameter and must be 2mm thick wall, so whilst I was thinking of brazing it, it might be quite easy to weld it back together.

Trimmed the pick up and welded it with no issues.
I dont really like the 90degree angle, I would much prefer a curve, but it would be hard to fabricate and I cant see the angle causing any huge concerns.



A word of warning, when welding move flamable objects out of the vicinity! I left the garage to speak to wife shortly after a quick tack weld, came back 2 mins later and that lovely blue towel was alight - its now a chard mess, luckily i noticed before it took the garage down. It did melt the edge of my nice bosch drill, and I also gave myself two nice large blisters on my palm and one on my thumb from trying to move the drill away from the flames,and grabing the towel off the bench to the garden where i soaked it.

After nursing the blisters for 24 hours I was back on to finish the job.







I also added a fairly simple baffle to the sump.
I was going to make a horizontal one, which seems the norm on other sumps (raceline etc), however the windage tray is only 1cm above the line of this sum, so my feeling is that it will do a reasonable job, this one should stop the oil surging to the back of the sump under acceleration as the pick up is towards the front.

I managed to pick up a cheap new alternator so moved on to getting the brackets made up for that.

First design:









This left the alternator quite high and as its upper mount at 180degrees it wasnt going to be easy to get the adjuster routed.

2nd design made it sit a little lower and further out, allowing me to rotate the alternator further.





Then moved on to the adjuster. The weber manifold has a machined face to allow fitting of a bracket, so it just needed it to worm its way out, past the belt cover, miss the TPS and still allow a suitable angle for the adjuster bracket so sit!





Nearly there on that, now, final design to be completed next weekend when I will crack on with another powder coating session.

[Edited on 1-10-13 by loggyboy]