Finally managed to track down a Vauxhall Corsa electronic power assisted steering rack for the car. This EPAS is a 'c-type' and I'll be following the example set by James Ball aka Kiwi in getting it setup and installed. The use of the Corsa units has been popularised by the Mk1&2 Escort rally community and... Continue Reading →
After a little more prep work yesterday, the chassis rail top is now welded in place. Took my time carefully clamping it all in place and getting good contact for the plug welds and as a result I'm very happy with how it's turned out. Needed to get the dolly hammers out for one or... Continue Reading →
I'd been thinking that I didn't really want to swiss cheese the repair plate to be able to use clecos to hold it together whilst plug welding so here is the solution. Create some cleco washer plates, then drill the plug weld holes and the clecos can then still be used. Did a bit more... Continue Reading →
Managed another couple of hours tonight. Time was mostly spent getting things lined up with the clecos and fitting together. Need to spend some more time on making things fit properly then it'll be time to drill for plug welds and start putting it all back together.
After some use I have to say that the Tungsten Carbide die cutters are amazing. Even just used in the Dremel I'm not sure how I'd missed out on them this far but they have transformed my metal working. They're also going to save me a fortune in Dremel attachments. Jed was right with his... Continue Reading →
Needed a few bits and pieces to crack on with the car. First up some tungsten carbide die grinder bits to grind down welds in trickier to reach areas. Also picked up some Clecos. These are a product derived from the aerospace industry where they are used to hold sheet metal skins on wings prior... Continue Reading →
Well today was the day I belatedly headed north to near Whitby to do some rally car driving with Chris Birkbecks rally school outfit. Chris has quite strong links with Peugeot - His early success as a team operator came while running the Simmonite sisters, Stephanie and co-driver Rachel for Peugeot. Although the Simmonites real... Continue Reading →
Following on from yesterday, I made the patch panel for the upper part of the bulkhead seam repair panel. Then prepared both faces of the joint with zinc etch primer. Once it was dry, marked the sections for the spotwelds and ground off the primer in the appropriate areas: Cleaned up the surrounding metal work... Continue Reading →
Managed to grind down the welds on the repair patch that I'd fittedm but not finished off on the last bit of work. Then the next tassk was making good the lower bulkhead lip that had been distorted by drilling the spotwelds and removing the rotten sections. Then the next sections to tackle were the... Continue Reading →
Finally managed to get the steering column and rack disconnected last night. Very easy in the end, it was just a job I'd been putting off. The rack unbolted without any drama and pedal box came out simply too. Fair bit of gunk and some algae lurking behind there so spend the rest of the... Continue Reading →
Really unproductive weekend. Probably managed 3 hours on the project... Chopped out some more rotten bits. I'm happy I've got to the bottom of the problem areas now, so started making up repair sections. When it's all put back together this section creates a water trap on top of the chassis rail. There was really... Continue Reading →
Looking ahead to some fabrication work I'm going to need to do, I've picked up this set of hole swagers from Colin Satchell. I labelled them up to make life easier...
Rallye Project 