Good morning everybody.
My name is Thomas, i live in central Germany and i want to share my "project" with you.
Some months ago i bought a Dax Rush in Bulgaria and the time that has passed since this day was used to get the car up and running and legal for german streets.
In its past it was mainly used for track days and small roads around sofia.

When i bought it the condition was quiet rough.... but with potential. So i flew to Sofia, checked the car and gave it a go. Off was the project.... huuuuuge underestimation of the situation

When the car arrived everything was fine (technically....not optically), but some days later the problems started and a lot of time was spend with finding solutions for the bigger problems.

During the first test drives in germany i ended up sitting on the side of the road almost every time....thougt it was an electrical problem. 3 Months later i know it was, but not what i expected.
I decided to strip the loom of horror and to clean up the engine bay, because everything was functional but a real mess.
The hood was not fixed properly , borken in one place and all the rear lights where cracked because they where directly screwd into the wings with sunk wood screws with to much power.
The hand brake didn't work and i found oil under the car..... the seats were cracked and had to be replaced to get the car road legal. The front wings were broken because the were not screwed in properly.....

I dont know if, but i am quiet sure i forgot a lot of things... just lets get it started. Enjoy the pictures....

This is how i bought it





That was the end of every test ride....

Cleaning of the engine bay and plumbing (there pictures are after the cleaning and rearranging and adding a breather tank and a battery support)









Loom of horror or "the electrical octopus"



electrical connection of horror (these are quiet common on my car)

Loom of horror in the beginning

The whole interieur was stripped out
new intatrim seats where ordered and mounted and the dash electrics redone and cleaned up.
New dashs for boost and revs mounted
New steering wheel
New exhaust
New lights all around, street legal mirrors
The openings in the hood and nose cone reworked and meshed, the broken hood fixed.
Oil cooler added, air filter with cold air intake mounted
Audi TT gear lever modified and mounted
Aeroscreen from aerodynamix
New carbon exhaust for leg protection welded on (Yamaha R1).
New, very lightweight wheels because the original ones had no marks on it to get them road legal over here
New harnesses..... Thats the current look of the car. Just minor issues left for the winter....
I have to make a new pedalbox cover from sheet metal because temperature is killing me. Fortunately it is cold outside :-D

One project left is probably a windscreen.
One one on ebay from a westfield. And testfitting was quiet satisfiing.



A Rollcage is planned, i like the mk indy style

A friend of mine had a westfield race car years ago and some parts left. A carbon dash with a race dash 2 pro with lap timer are sitting in the shelf and might be finding a whay into my car.

I also need to modify the fixation of the gear lever gater from the audi, because the ring is sitting to high and making 1st and 2nd gear a bit hard to put in.

great job! looks very good now. enjoy driving and not breaking down :-)

Welcome Thomas

I've always liked the Dax Rush and I nearly bought one myself. Your's looks really good now.

I hope you enjoy it - does the car attract much attention in Germany? I imagine it does

Pictures would be very good without the ad right across the middle...

Damn it, the add was not shown in the preview. That sucks. I might use another uploader....sorry for that.

Thank you JAG and swanny, actually there are some Caterhams and Sevenish style cars in my area. So it is not super rare. But you can see a lot of smiling faces when you apear with it. :-)

The car finally runs really really good. Besides some cold start issues in the first 1 or 2 minutes the car really has a lot of power and runs very smoothly. Power is insane and a bit scary.

Hi Thomas,

Great job! Looks a nice car (now!).

If you weren't already aware, there are some of us Rush owners over on the Dax Sporting Club site.
It's for all Dax owners, but it mostly gets people with Rush's on it.
Take a look if you like: http://forum.daxsportingclub.com/phpBB3/index.php

Cheers.

quote:

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Originally posted by Tommes
...Some months ago i bought a Dax Rush in Bulgaria and the time that has passed since this day was used to get the car up and running and legal for german streets....

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quote:

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Originally posted by Tommes
The front wings were broken because the were not screwed in properly.....

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Thanks for the infos, the rush forum was new to me.
I glued the front wings on with a strong glue made for marine applications.
I forgot to roughen the wings though, so the right wing almost came off. Glued it again and since that day everything seems to be fixed.
I will redo it in the winter because i dont like the alignement...

Congrats,

That unit was my first run in a seven type car (December 2013), when was still not turbo'ed.

Looked tidy and well made from the outside, cannot comment on the inner side.

Congrats and enjoy it!

quote:

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Originally posted by Tommes
Thanks for the infos, the rush forum was new to me.
I glued the front wings on with a strong glue made for marine applications.
I forgot to roughen the wings though, so the right wing almost came off. Glued it again and since that day everything seems to be fixed.
I will redo it in the winter because i dont like the alignement...

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Sooo close - building a Cosworth Turbo Dax Rush myself.

Yours moves so your doing miles better than me!

As said above - owners forum does exist...

quote:

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Originally posted by mcerd1
Like mk1storm says the Dax owners forum is worth looking at - there aren't as many of us over there as on this site, but nearly everyone on it has a Rush or has built one or more Rush's in the past

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First, the Cosworth Engine was my favorite to replace the installed silvertop engine. It does a good job at the moment so i am not in a hurry. Want to enjoy the driving now. It was dynoed wit 155 hp at the wheels on low boost. Already not too bad. I turned up the boost a bit and now things are really different. Dont want the engine to suffer too much, so i will stay below 1 bar of boost.

Plans at the moment are to find a 5 cylinder turbo engine (Ford ST220) for a reasonable price and to overhaul it until the silvertop gets old or boring.

I have a question:
i dont like the way the throttle and the clutch cable are mounted to the original dax rush pedal box.
Maybe you can see it on the pic.



Is there any way to make this connection (especially the clutch cable) a bit better and cleaner and better adjustable?

Otherwise, yesterday evening i installed a new D1 Spec Steering wheel hub. The old one had some play and i didnt feel good. The new one is really sturdy and the car feels totally different after the installation.





Today some new exhaust wrap should arrive. I will install it and clean the car a bit and should be good to go for the TÜV show tomorrow

So the car has been in the workshop in the end of last week and the TÜV engineer has taken all the information he needs. He will prepare the papers over the weekend and hopefully he will not have any issues concerning the legalization in Germany. I will have news during the next week.
Anyhow, i installed the new exhaust wrap before i brought the car to the wrap...

That looks like an early R1 exhaust can, it will be very restrictive if the baffles have not been removed and replaced with some straight through perforated tube and wadding.

It will be taking away many horses and increasing heat.

To remove drill the rivits on the can ends, the on the steel cylinder grind a few mm off the ends, these are folded over to seal then bash the baffles out with a big hammer, they are held with a couple of spot welds.

[Edited on 22/10/17 by mark chandler]

You are right.
The engine runs quiet well, it looks like the exhaust that was mounted before was even more restrictive.
There are plans do to exactly what you said. It will also be shortened a bit.

Looking at the size of that turbo you need a 3" pipe out to the back, I would not look at shortening the can, stick on one a bit longer to manage the noise.

I believe the German TUV is pretty tough, in the UK things are really flexible thankfully.

Depending on what the TÜV guy says i might be forced to install a small catalytic converter to be allowed to enter in certain villages.
As the car is very quiet, obviously due to the turbo, i will not have to any problems with a shorter silencer. TÜV in germany is very restrictive, but they are cool if you make reasonable mods and if the execution of the work is well done.

So,

bad news at the moment.
No TÜV acceptance in the first step.

snap off hub is not acceptable
steering wheel has no emark
some cables in the engine bay are not routed properly (couldnt tell me wich thought)
50mm distance flanges on the rear have no emark
handbrake is not strong enough and apparently only works on 1 side.

So i might have to get back to the garage.... to clean things up a little bit more.

quote:

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Originally posted by Tommes
So,

bad news at the moment.
No TÜV acceptance in the first step.

snap off hub is not acceptable
steering wheel has no emark
some cables in the engine bay are not routed properly (couldnt tell me wich thought)
50mm distance flanges on the rear have no emark
handbrake is not strong enough and apparently only works on 1 side.

So i might have to get back to the garage.... to clean things up a little bit more.

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looking brilliant

Thanks guys.
I did some planning and measuring today, due to family and work i don't have a lot of time to go to the garage these days.
But: i want to sort out the issues for the TÜV asap.

First thing:
couldn't find any loose cable in the engine bay. Have to ask the TÜV guy what he was talking about.

Second thing: there are 50mm flanges on each side of the car.
That makes the car 183cm wide (outside of the tires).
In the front the car is 175cm wide (without any distance flanges)
Actually i would like the car to be less wide in the rear. I wouldn't mind if it had the same width as in the front.
So i would have to go from 50mm to 10mm (even wouldnt mind 0) flanges to get to a width of 175cm (wich would also help me finding a trailer).
The rear arches are 39cm wide and they stick over the tires by 2cms.
Keeping in mind the 40mm i would take away and the 2cms, that could be reduced to 1cm, i would need smaller rear arches with a width of 34cm
I already thought about changing them, as they have had a rough life in bulgaria

Do you guys know a supplier for rear arches? i dont mind if they are shaped a bit differently to the dax rush originals.

Getting back to the exhaust. I also measured the dimensions as i want to give it more internal flow. i will replace the internals of the r1 exhaust with a straight 65mm pipe, as it seems to be restricitve. the downpipe from the turbo to the silencer will be cut and a (racing) catalytic converter will be mounted to at least be able to get a minimum cleaning of the exhaust gasses and be allowed to enter downtonwn. Keeping in mind that this will create some noise cancelling i am going to shorten the R1 damper by 5 to 10 cms.

Any Tips about the uneven brake balance of the handbrake? The lever is under the steering wheel and i have to pull it to the limit to make the car stay in position when parked up- or downhill. The adjustment of the cable is on its limit....

The rear arches wich come closest are these

http://www.kitcardirect.co.uk/mk-indy-rear-wheel-arches-grp-extra-wide-pair-13-5.html

345mm wide... now i have to know if they will fit the dax rush chassis.

The difference between dax rear wings and every other version is that the dax ones are not parallel, as the chassis tapers all the way to the back.

They used to make narrow rear arches, but last I heard no one knew what happened to those moulds
The std wide ones can be cut down though, a few folk have done it.

I'd try getting in touch with M.A.N. Motorsport in Leeds - they bought the rights to the rush along with all the jigs and moulds

OK, i will try to call Nigel. Had him on the phone some months ago for a windscreen assembly, but never got the price liste he wanted to send me unfortunately. Will keep you up to date.
Cutting them down is surely possible, but not my favourite solution as they look quiet fucked up and i am not sure if thats worth it.... at least i could train my cutting skills....:-)

Its also worth saying that the original dax rear wings were never exactly a perfect pair -

http://www.alfadax.com/content/during/12/suspension_arches.htm

I talked to Nigel from M.A.N., he will see if somewhere in his stock there are some narrow wings left.
I also chatted with a guy from my neighborhood who is a painter. And he gave me a hint how to easily narrow the wheel arches by myself.
I only have to get me some material to start working. Will post pictures...

quote:

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Originally posted by Tommes
I talked to Nigel from M.A.N., he will see if somewhere in his stock there are some narrow wings left.
I also chatted with a guy from my neighborhood who is a painter. And he gave me a hint how to easily narrow the wheel arches by myself.
I only have to get me some material to start working. Will post pictures...

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TÜV is pending at the moment due to winter. Dont want to go 40 kms to the TÜV guy without winter tires.
I took the chance to ad some modifications to the car during the bad weather period:

The rear arches where rebuilt (and shortened by 2" on each side) with grp and painted. They are back on the car and look really nice.
the position of the lights was also modified.





I got a bluetooth dongle for the Megasquirt. I installed MSDroid on my Smartphone and now can use it as a dash, read all the infos i want and change the tune while driving. That works really well.

The old bulbs of my dashs where all different and mostly only glowing, not really well working in the dark. I got some LED replacements and that changed the look completely. I am working on a RGB controller for the Speedo to make it change its colors when i get close to the limiter. It gets is infos from the mega. But thats only a small side project with almost zero priority.


Last week, muffler spare parts arrived. I shortened the original can that came with the car by 6" (inxo trackday silencer), it had almost burned all the damping material, so it will be rebuild and a v-band clamp will be welded on so i will be able to change silencers quickly.
The carbon version will also be shortened and gets a new interieur, i ordered a 2.5" meshed tube that will be welded in next week. The goal is to have the same length for both mufflers so the can use the same fixing point. Should be an easy job.





I also made a new gear stick from a M10 INOX screw. Ordered a lot of parts in China some time ago for testing the quality and they arrived. Some nice carbon fibre gear knobs, a lot of anodized aluminum parts and some black silicon hoses. Bargain... and the quality is actually surprisingly good.



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Then i used a CAD software to do some designing. I always liked th 2 color classic sheme

[url=https://picload.org/view/daggorlw/img_20180106_113243.jpg.html]

The color from this one is stunning, should be a BMW M color, i unfortunately cant find the thread anymore. Maybe someone can help me with that.



And last, but not least: i am looking for a Donki or RMN style nose cone to modify and put it on my car. I already started a thread in the for sale section, but cant be wrong to have it here also i think.

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[Edited on 7/2/18 by Tommes]

It's "Dave666" locost

Thank you.

One thing i forgot. Since yesterday, there is a new Sierra Cosworth Diff (3.62 LSD) sitting next to the car and waiting to replace the 4.12 Standard Diff that is still installed. This should make the car more suitable for german roads.

Hi, you can buy a lot of very nice Rush parts in Germany, from Christof Rothe:
http://www.cr-modelltechnik.de/7zuframe.htm

Also a (carbon) nosecone. Prices are actually not too ridiculous, and I was very happy with the carbon cycles wings I bought from him.

What rubber profile do you guys use between the windscreen frame and the scuttle?
I have a Westfield frame with supports wich will be fitted to the Dax. The fitting is quiet good. Only issue is a small gap between the bottom end of the frame and the scuttle wich i would like to fill with this rubber part. Is there anything universal?

quote:

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Originally posted by Tommes
What rubber profile do you guys use between the windscreen frame and the scuttle?
I have a Westfield frame with supports wich will be fitted to the Dax. The fitting is quiet good. Only issue is a small gap between the bottom end of the frame and the scuttle wich i would like to fill with this rubber part. Is there anything universal?

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Description

Actually, it was your picture that made me ask the question.

This is the seal I used https://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/product/1794/rubber-extrusion
I cut the bottom lip off to make a L section to bond on to the screen frame.

Hey guys,

just a quick follow up about the current status.
Weather is becoming better in Germany and i could burn some fuel.
So far the car behaves great so i wanted to go to the TÜV yesterday.
Unfortunately, i found some drips under the car and checked further.
There was a corrupt brake line connection close to the rear left brake caliper.
The fluid had gone down the hole frame and sprayed everywhere, causing the paint on the frame to come off completely.
So, yesterday evening i repaired the connection, flushed the whole system and put new fluid in (thanks to a manual vacuum pump back from my motorcycle days its an easy job) and the brakes feel much better now. No more leaks for the moment, so i will go to the TÜV today.
Only concern: i have to repaint the frame because it has really been stripped down to bare metal. What paint do you use for the frame (it is a glossy black), i think i will just use a brush and some standard black paint as it is not really visible without taking a closer look.....

Hi Tommes, good to see the build progressing. I've just touched up some areas on my Rush chassis in places that I had to modify it to fit the BMW engine and gearbox i'm using. I opted for acid etch primer and then black gloss metal paint both applied with a brush. As you say, it's in places that can't be seen and actually doesn't look too bad next to the powdercoat.

Regards,

Chris

Here in my area, preferred primer is High Solids Zinc rich Primer... Then topcoat to match the rest..

So i failed to pass german TÜV today. Reasons:
- missing emark on the flexible brake lines
- i have to put the frame number to another position. On the Dax chassis it is on the left, german regulations say on the right side.
- some fuel lines have to be rerouted a bit
- the cable connectors on the fuel pumps have to be redone
- i ripped of the hand brake cable during brake testing
- i have to make sure that the solid brake lines are not only copper, but chopper with nickel or steel. Not sure at the moment. He wants steel. They are either copper or chopper nickel. Maybe i have to redo them completely. That would suck. Have never done that.
- last but not least: he measured the exhaust gases. The car runs very rich in idle and he only measures in idle for cars of this age. The level of carbonic oxide gas is too high. Must make adjustments to the map to reduce this or install a catalytic converter. Adjustments should do the job i think. it only has to pass the test and can be reset to a richer value afterwards...

Bad luck but at least you now know what needs to be done. Questioning the composition of the brake lines is harsh. I think copper nickel pipe is called "cunifer" in the UK. I think remaking the lines in steel would be near to impossible for an amateur builder.

My Dax chassis number is stamped on the right, I guess they stamped yours on the left as its a LHD chassis?

Chris

Dax used to sell brake lines from Automec with the kits: https://www.automec.co.uk/

I thats what was used on your one then it would have had the specification printed on it along the length of the pipe (maybe some of that writing survived / isn't too badly corroded)

otherwise you've not got much to go on except the colour of the pipe (once you clean off any corrosion) - Cupro Nickel looks more like gun metal than pure copper: https://www.automec.co.uk/collections/brake-pipe-coils

Cupro Nickel is better, but slightly harder to work with

I'll check the part numbers on the handbrake cable - I think at least part of it is a standard ford part

[Edited on 11/4/2018 by mcerd1]

Hey,

thank you. Dont bother with the hand brake cable, i think i didn't fit it good enough on the hand brake lever and it didn't brake, the connection has just gone loose.
For the brake lines: it is really hard to tell follwoing the colours. I know that the pipes in my car where not supplied by Dax but bought seperately. The previous owner is checking, but i will also look for any printing on them.
Do you know more about the flexible brake lines that i have to order? Brake calipers front and rear are Ford, so i guess it is M10x1, the other side is something different.

But if i check the colors, it looks way more like copper than cupro.....

quote:

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Originally posted by Tommes
Do you know more about the flexible brake lines that i have to order? Brake calipers front and rear are Ford, so i guess it is M10x1, the other side is something different.

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Hey guys,

long time no news. Things were paused a little due to family an da lot of work.
But the project goes on. The preparations for the next TÜV session are going on and the new brake lines from steel will be put in the car in 2 weeks.
The Dax is torn in pieces at the moment to free some space to be able to reach the old brake lines.

As i am unmounting all the parts, i am clearing all the points from the TÜV failing list and thinking about stuff that i wanted to do anyways.
So one question:
Did anyone ever install additional Headlights, like rally front lights to their seven?
I have a pair of yellow Hella Comet 500 to do the job. I have a switch in the dash that i could use and enough space to fit the wires, Light is always an issue with these car, even if i am allready running semi legal bulbs in this one.

What do you think?




https://picload.org/thumbnail/dlriddlr/img_20170920_172824.jpg

Anyhow, i am going to mount these and let you guys know ...

Cooling in a 7 is marginal at the best of times, I wouldn’t put anything else in front of the nose.

quote:

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Originally posted by Tommes
Did anyone ever install additional Headlights, like rally front lights to their seven?
I have a pair of yellow Hella Comet 500 to do the job. I have a switch in the dash that i could use and enough space to fit the wires, Light is always an issue with these car, even if i am allready running semi legal bulbs in this one.

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Cooling is also my biggest issue. I think the lights would sit lower and not take away to much of the cooling surface. I will see if I can find a good position and my plan was also to make them detachable.

Do you have any ducting in the nose cone ?

Done right makes a massive difference to the efficiency of your radiator

I've got small led spotlamps installed where the indicators were originally on a striker.
I don't know if you may have space to do similar as it won't affect the airflow into the nosecone.


Description

With the led headlamps and spotlamps, the night visibilty is good and the current draw is less than halogen lamps were.


Dave

Talking about lights:

i found a crack in one of my head lamps (wich will make problems for TÜV) and the adjuster of the other light will not keep its position, so the light will change its adjustment all the time.
So i am in need for new head lights. Do you guys know a good source for LHD lights? 7" or 5 3/4 ", clear glass, black housing would be good.
I thought about motorcycle lights, but i dont know if they are legal on cars, as there is no left and right.

.... i got the TÜV permit yesterday.
The car has german papers now and is fully legal.
I still have an issue with the Dax Handbrake Position under the Dash, but the engineer was fine with the not perfectly operating handbrake.
Next step is going to the registration this afternoon and getting some license plates.
I am a happy man today...

Great news - well done!

Well done for persevering with it. I know it'll be worth it when you start driving it on your roads!

Congrats!

...and another big day:

i went to a TÜV station in my home town to get an expertise about the value of the car (need it for my insurance).
The guy asked me why i had no historical license plates on the car....i was like: well you know, i couldnt prove to the other tüv guy that the parts are original, blablabla.....
He was like: dude, its an old car, that is obvious, nobody can prove the origins of kit cars and how they should be done.... 30 mins later: historical license plates proved!!!
For those who dont know: in germany you pay taxes following the engine size and the pollution classes. my car is a 2.0 litre without catalystic converter.... that means around 510€ per year, only for taxes.....
with historical license plates its 180€ per year.... wich is nice.... and i can enter every damn "Umweltzone" without beeing fined. The block all the inner cities for older diesel engines and pollutive cars.... but not oldtimers

Dude, i am bleeping happy.