LET the rebuild begin

[splinter]

Come on man.. i know your doing more then me but Mine is sort of run in now..

[Dan Willis]

I'd forgotten about your thread - very nice indeed!

[bodgetastic]

Made some good progress over the last week or so. New back bumper now back from the sprayshop and looking good. For those that can remember (or nearly drove into it) I left mine on the A43 on the way back from Billing as it was just too dam low.

Done quite a bit of work on the front bumper to get it to fit but now looks much better and will be going down to get sprayed this weekend.

Brakes now on, no thanks to Autovaux for sending me out three calipers before they got the right ones



Sorted out the brackets for the FMIC so I can move everything back a tad, hopefully the exhaust manifold is going to fit between the rad or its gonna be a lot of moving things around.



And a good flush out of the FMIC ready to go on, nothing too yucky came out though



Finally have some front indicators too, rather than just the lens in position to make it look like I had some

[splinter]

Nice one will it be ready for combe ???

[Mark1]

Nice one will it be ready for combe ???

More like Billing............................................2010

[bodgetastic]

Thanks Mark.

It WILL be at PVS






maybe

[richymotor]

will it not be ready for the action day at castle coombe?

you've still got 21 hours to get it sorted

[bodgetastic]

Some more good progress today. First job was the final fit of the rad to check some of the clearences



This is it from the top, im thinking im going to have to mount it quite a bit more forward for everything to fit



Next up I fitted the rear wheels as I wanted to lift the car 'slightly', hoping the handbrake would be up to the job. Engine crane in position, shame the rad had to come out but I didnt want to damage it.



Just high enough for the engine to wheel in



And nicely in....



Belt and engine mount left to fit and I can lift it into position

[bodgetastic]

two steps forward and step back tonight. First off was to bolt the engine and subframe into position which should of been a big milestone on the project.....



Next was to try the exhaust manifold and I'd forgotten how big it actually is. I was pretty sure it wouldnt fit with the rad in postion but it only just fits without it. Now the catch 22 is I cant fit the manifold with the rad in position and cant fit the rad with the manifold in position. Looks like its gonna be subframe back off, tilt the engine back, mount the rad in as far forward as possible, fit the manifold and swing it into position. Not going to be fun if I have to take any of it out

This is how it looks

[splinter]

Yep does look tight !!!!

But your find a way mate just like i had too.

[Stupink]

un-boltable slap panel??

[bodgetastic]

un-boltable slam panel??

Yea I was thinking that, would defiantely make things easier.

[Stupink]

Better off spending the time now and making maintainence work easy, than having to rush it later.. it only takes the engine to rock a little too much and you've got a big hole in your rad.

[bodgetastic]

Thought I would give the turbo a bit of a trial fit before taking an angle grinder to the front of the car. Was a bit worried about the space between the turbo inlet and PAS pump. Its tight but their is just enough room for a hose after a bit of trimming.





Picked up a new slam panel from vauxhall but am a bit concerned about loosing the rigidity of the front end by having it removeable. Will see how far forward I can mount the rad before cutting it off.

[Stupink]

Shouldnt loose any rigidity really if you do it well, reinforce either end where you chop it so the bolts holding it together pull along the full area not just a small bit of the std thickness where it may rip through. Terrible use of english and explanation there, but im guessing you knwo what i mean, its bedtime now so word use limited lol.