Rallye Project

So when I had the white 16v Rallye caged and the same tunnel reinforcement plate removed, the MOT station failed the car because the mounting for the handbrake was then too flimsy afterwards. To remedy that I welded a plate on around the handbrake mounting points which kept the testers happy, but was no good because then to fit the handbrake I needed to fit an extra bit where the tunnel changes profile towards the back of the car. It did the job but looked a bit piece meal.

Based on this experience I thought that I would do something different this time. So cardboard template led to this being cut out of 3mm sheet. Centre line determined and a lesson learned in getting the plate the right way around. This is clearly the wrong way around…

Before that could go in, the original tunnel reinforcement plate was cut up to release this bit, which is what the handbrake gasket mounts into and gives the positions for the mountings. The standard mountings are 6mm rectangular blocks tapped out to M8, but I was missing one so I pressed out the other one and welded on some nuts onto thick washers giving me this:

Bit of fettling for shape and welded in:

Top plate shaped to fit the handbrake mounting points and the other end shaped to the change in profile of the tunnel. Back mounting points for the hydraulic handbrake get crush tubes. Decided to make it a little bit more interesting with a relieved bit under the hydraulic handbrake that matches up with the holes drilled in the base. Lined that cut out to stop crap getting under the plate…

Welded in

Everything fits.

Started on the passenger side… needs some work due to some poor quality previous work. Not long after this started chopping bits out:

Not going to post a lot of pics of the work, because to be fair, most of that is not very exciting. So here’s something a bit different. This is the standard position of the wiper motor:

For throttle bodies to fit in the scuttle the wiper motor needs to be moved to the other side of the scuttle.

I’ve done an AX single wiper motor conversion previously, but this time decided to fit a left hand drive wiper setup. Acquired one a few months ago from one of our Dutch friends:

Drilled out the brackets:

Scuttle looks a bit cleaner, just needs the holes welding up:

Just need to weld them on to the other side

Inside I took out the tunnel plate that the seats mount onto. I need to fab up some reinforcement to put some strength back in for the handbrake mounting and it’ll need plating on the sides.

With this out when I weld the new seat rails in I’ll be able to get a more central driving position

Also half way there on fitting the Satchell rear wishbone mount stiffeners

One thing I hadn’t realised or if I knew it, had forgotten… S1/drum brake cars have a different handbrake setup.

This is the S1 handbrake:

S2/disc handbrake to go back in:

It’s only taken a year since we went down to see Colin Satchell in Cornwall to get around to fitting some of his fine craftsmanship to the car…

Strut tower sides needed a little arc of relief near the tops to get the down tubes in the right place as the photo below shows they don’t line up with out it nor fit in the top plates properly. Only a bit taken out really.

After lots of prep, welded in:

Ground down the welds on the top surface of the plate and primed. There are a few sections on that side of the bay where I need to do a bit more work to get them ready before primer. I’ve been using the 90% Zinc Plastikote stuff which I think is really good. I then ran out and the next stuff (which was Halfords as it was all I could get today) reacted so I am going to save that some something else and order some more of the Plastikote stuff.

Remembered to drill out the spot welds on the window wiper brackets before I welded the top plates in. I’ve not worked those out for the left hand drive wiper setup yet. Have started work on the other side now, but probably need to sort out the scuttle before doing much else.

April. That was when I started work on the drivers side inner wing. For a variety of reasons it’s taken all this time to finish it. There was a lot of rot that was hidden from view, but the good news is it’s all sorted now.

During this time I’ve had chance to think on a few other things. One was that some bits just weren’t worth repairing, specifically the radiator support bar. So I chopped it out:

All of the three under bumper mounting bolts were seized in or had already snapped. It was just crusty with rust.

Although I marked the new bar for all three of the original radiator rubber mounting holes, I only drilled the two for the 16v rad. I’ve also added M6 nuts underneath for the bumper mountings.

Undoing the nuts and bolts for that rad bar once was enough so before I zinc primered it up, I welded some nuts on so now it’s just 4 cap head bolts and a 5mm hex key to remove. Also shaped the end plates up a bit so that they sit within the curves of the original mounting point pressings.

Not updated here in a while as not much progress as I’d like has been made in the last three weekends as they have been write offs with DIY jobs (rebuild the boundary fence, then re-roof the kitchen, finally re-tile the shower), but have made some headway as per below:

Final bits to sort out on this arch – now chopped out ready to start rebuilding.