New Engine In...

So I've had the car off the road for a month, why to change the engine.

I've gone for the same basic 2litre turbo engine, but its a later revision of the engine with various sensors changing mainly from a MAF sensor to MAP and some other bits, what this also means is it required a new ECU and a repinning of existing wiring. However the main reason for the engine swap was this was a forged engine, it was built for someone else and had covered a few thousand miles which i preferred as I have the worst luck with newly built engines. The engine should be good for 550bhp with the right turbo, fuelling etc...



First I removed the old engine (quite a few bits off the engine) no engine crane at this point so I jacked the chassis up and slide it under and out.

With the engine out, I used this time to really clean the rear chassis again and touch up the paint work on it as the 3 years / 5500miles of driving had left some grim.

Gave the driveshafts a quick sand and bit of paint as well just to tidy them up as well

So next was to start the work of putting the new engine in, I had already prepped the engine. If anyone else ever build ones of these, bring the engine end into the chassis from underneath if you can as going in from above was much harder, although that may be because I was doing it all by myself so struggled to move the engine about and lower it in.

I filled the engine with oil and gave it that all important first turn over and it came straight to life! Perfect. I'm now in the middle of refitting the driveshafts and tightening all the suspension before the first test drive.

Dashbaord in and Car out

So I've managed to fit the dashboard now and I'm happy with how its turned out. For my first attempt at flocking its turned out well. I now have to remake all the panels that go on the dashboard as they dont fit perfectly because previously the dashboard was covered in material.

The dashboard now suits the look of the outside of the car as well. I also fitted one of the door cards that I have done to match the dashboard.

As well as this I took the car out for its first drive of the year, Its been 6 months since it was driven so the brakes needed a good few miles to become normal again and get rid of the surface rust! However there was no running issues and the car loved the cold crisp evening air.

Dashboard work continues

So I've filled the old holes for the old demisters and cut out some new ones, smoothed off as much as I can. It was now time for D-Day, time to flock it.

So I prepped as much as possible, I used a whole litre of wood glue, plus some water and dye to cover the whole dashboard, just! Then Flocked it.

First thing is i did this by myself if two of you were painting on the glue it would help and speed things up and give you more time to work with. However so far I'm happy with the results. So Messy though! going to have to spend a fair while cleaning the spare room.

I've now left it to dry and see how much of the flock holds. This will be the biggest object I've done and it was hard work to get right and done before the glue starts to go off to much. 

A couple of things to note, once my batteries came loose and that might mean I have a flatter area although i hope not! A good thing though is the glue hides scratches that are quite deep so you don't need to sand to a totally flat surface

And finally always switch it off when reloading and zapped myself twice, quite a hit for batteries! but at least I know it was working!

Dashboard work...again

So the dashboard is coming on well. I'm very happy with the shape, it has a more natural feel to it.

I've sprayed parts black to help me find holes and high / low points. Below is how it currently looks

The next two bits to do are;

* Make a dial surround that also fits over the key hole.
* Fix new demist vents on top of dashboard.

I'm taking a new approach to the demister to lower the amount of piping. I will bond the below under the dashboard where the  the vent holes are.

I will then get both outlets to join under the dashboard and then go into this channel which will then feed out of two vents. The piece about is 660mm long so will fit fully across the dashboard.

After the above 2 pieces are done. I will look into starting the flocking.

Dashboard work continues

So I've completed the two door cards now and it was a good way to practice my flocking ready for the dashboard. Working with hardboard was good. Its thin and forgiving, but more importantly can be sanded easily. With blocking you dont want a 90 degree angle so sanding the edges down and the bit where the door handle sits has given them a good finish to the edge.

So the next stage was to put the dashboard back in to see how it was looking and the fit. I also wanted to remove the dial surround, It didn't have a smooth enough curve and look that I was after. So before test fitting I chopped out a section.

So I went to the scrap yard and found a nice dial surround that I could get off the dashboard and use.
I actually had to cut and rip this one off, it was held together via melted plastic so was quite tough to separate but had a good shape.

Following that I lined it all up and put the dials under the surround as well so I was totally happy with the position. I then used blobs of Araldite on contact areas between the surround and the dashboard to hold it in position before doing a more permanent bond.

Next it to filler and smooth all areas so when its flocked the flock looks really good. So far I think the shapes are going to really suit the dashboard and look good when all done.

Door Cards and finishing the doors

So with the dashboard going through such a change. I felt the door cards should finally be finished properly as well too match. So Iooked into flocking the door cards as well. To be honest they have turned out really really well! I'm very impressed, I can only imagine a professional finish is perfect because mine are very very close.

Instead of pictures this time I've done a youtube video of the process and will get some photos of it all fitted once done.

Dashboard Design V3, Door touch up

So I used the new dashboard layout over this summer and it worked well, feeling much more like a normal car. So I'm happy to keep the design, just a few more tweaks to be done to complete it and finish it properly.

1st was to strip off the fabric that was fitted before the summer to the new dashboard, although it looked great it was always going to have to come off. It came off surprisingly easy, luckily I guess the glue was poor!

Following this I then had to start thinking about fitting some dashboard vents and a small cubby hole to hold some bits. My first thoughts were square vents look a bit dated nowadays so I didn't want to go that route. So I decided the easiest was to cut some vents and holes out of a production dashboard, giving perfect circles.

So I went to a scrap yard and got some with vents and also some nice round dial surrounds. all for £20. Next was to cut some holes into the dashboard to get ready to fit them.

Slowly I made the holes bigger and got both sets of vents into position. Making sure it was clear behind to fit the vent and to feed the tube to them. I then filled around them and slowly smoothed them off.

Still more work to do on smoothing it off but getting there in that area. Next I want to remove the top of the dashboard around the dials and replace it with a thinner  piece of plastic which will be a perfect curve.

Off the back of that I can make the dial surround piece.

Whilst doing all this I will also be redoing the door cards and also vanity panels to cover the holes at the top of the door. Now the paint on these doors is just a black satin paint, so nice and easy to touch up. I started by sanding all the high points and rough areas so they were flat and smooth. The doors weren't too bad but I wanted to make them nicer.

Also where id stuck some foam over bits for the IVA, the spray garage didn't remove this and sprayed over the top so I felt it looked messy so I started to strip that off as well.

The door looks a million times better already and is nice and smooth to the touch as well. In the photo below its not quite dry hence the shiny wet bits.