Rallye Project

Finally bought some new bits from Baker BM. They’ve tweaked the engine mount design since I bought one of the early ones. Looking forward to getting this fitted, but it needs some work on the car first.

To sort out the front struts, I opted for the fixed spherical bearing top mounts:

I then needed some new 2.25″ coil spring top caps which I drilled out to 12mm.

Consulted the hive mind over at the MIG-Welding forum and found an amazing new-to-me precision engineers in Liverpool and had the Bilstein B8s machined to lower the shoulder and give more threads for the fixing nut.

Fitted it all together, so nearly there on these legs now. May look at getting some helper springs. Also need to modify the steering arms on the legs to take Tommy’s rose jointed arms. Bought some rubber gaiters for the rose joints to keep those running smoother for longer.

Have done a bit more on the shell, but only putting in 30 minutes here and there.

Big hole patch done, will need a little bit of filler before final painting.

Smaller hole in the inner wing (same side of the car)

Cut out and replacement made last weekend and welded in tonight.

Progress is slow at 30 minutes here or there but is moving forward.

An update! So after months of walking past every time I was in the garage looking at this I decided that it was time to give the car some love.

Before I could sort the big hole I needed to make a patch repair:

Bit of CAD

Then transferred to steel and welded in. With that repaired I did a similar job on the big hole and welded in a plate there too. Was up against it time wise so no pics of that yet.

On my summer holiday in the beautiful south west I met Colin Satchell and picked up some bits. Fitting them has been on the cards for a while but time has been needed elsewhere.

Anyway whilst back in car mode, I consulted the oracle of all things 106 Rallye related and this awesome forum delivered the answer once again. Yes, both the top mounts were domed which is why these plates didn’t sit flat.

The solution to this was some precision engineering with a BFH, after which I have this:

Which meant I could try and fit the cross brace. Of course that didn’t fit because the seal lip on the edge of the scuttle stuck out too much. So a bit of trimming and refolding and a lick of paint sorted that:

Got a few bits on the way to progress a few other jobs on this car. I’m not sure it quite has momentum again as a build but if feels good to be sharing some updates again.

With the pedal box back in, time to sort out the steering column, as you’ll know if you’ve stripped the dash these were never painted from factory so the bare metal rusts up over time, more so if the interior has been damp. Mine was a poor state so was taken back to bare metal and primed up and satin blacked.

The original insert fittings were missing so ordered some M8 stainless rivnuts and pressed those in. Stainless rivnuts are a LOT harder to fit than aluminium ones. Might have bent the arms on my tool using box section to get more leverage.

End result is that the car has working steering for the first time since I bought it. Feels like progress!

Also dug the out the modified handbrake I made 3 and a half years ago. It was rattling around in a drawer in one of my tool boxes. I’d shot some primer on it but never finished it so decided to put that right.

Means I can modify the tunnel to fit this (currently wrapped in bubble wrap in a box full of spares I held on to on the basis I might need some day):

Started work on prepping the donor sill, lots of under seal to get off with a knotted wire wheel first!

Rack reassembled over the weekend:

Also finished the PAS pedal box mod to the bulkhead, which was basically cutting and panel beating to the cardboard template above. Needed to do a bit of welding to make sure it could take the different lower mounting points.

Next job is to fit the steering column which will be a bit more light fabrication and adjustment :rolleyes: