Got the final brackets cut out drilled and fitted for the Rover handbrake setup tonight. I've trimmed the tunnel cover back a little more as well and the action is a lot smoother.
I was going to spray the brackets but in the greenhouse outside it said -4 so I'll leave that until it warms up about 10 or so....












Trial fit of the exhaust as well tonight, runs real close to the body, hope its not going to get too hot and mark the body! I'll be able to mark the position of the manifold exiting the body and cut out the bonnet to suit.

Ive ordered a set of triton fibreglass seats this week along with some black 4 point harnesses that I will be grafting in as soon as they arrive. Once the alloy header tank arrives I'll be getting the engine 'wet' for the first time and a prolonged run up.

First bash at the new handbrake setup. Not happy with the Sierra cut and clamp setup I decided to look for an alternative.
With my daily drive being a Rover I looked at the setup in the car and in the manual for the drum set up. The Rover has a twin cable setup that I thought would fit. Off to the scrappy for a Rover 200 lever and the clamp that holds the cables and down to the motor factor for a new cable. £35 a side for Rover 200 cables! Gulp. No way, off to ebay. One rover 200 cable in the post as a taster and the bloody thing was about 7 foot long with 4 huge P type clamps. No good, too long.
Back on ebay to look at the pictures of other cables I thought the Freelander one looked the same (ends) but looked a lot shorter. Ordered one right cable for another trial fit.
The spring on the drum end of the cable was about 2/3 longer than the Sierra one so out with the snips and it was soon the length required. The connection through the back plate is OK but I had to remove the spring clip to ge it in. Cable tension will hold it in place. So success on one side and another cable ordered off the bay I have all the makings of an unmolested (slightly) OEM setup.

Because I had a lot of inner cable slack with cutting the spring down I had to move the cable clamp at the lever end back to compensate. This meant the clamp ended up over the diff, so there is one bolt through the existing chassis bracket and the back bolt goes down just in front of the diff casting. To this I have a small 1" plate with a nut welded on thats sits under the diff casting and pulls the new bracket down onto it.

The Rover 200 handle has a neat over the top mechanism which suits this type of car much better I think. The mountings are shorter than the Sierra ones and also on the wrong side. I need to make a plate to bridge the two bars welded to the chassis and bolt the handle to that.
No dramas so far, the handle comes up through the tunnel cover in the same place and I may enlarge the hole a bit more as the Rover handle has a nice rubber gaiter that rises with the handle filling the gap. I just need to move that fuel pipe thats in the way, re-route the wiring a bit and flatten out the cable angle a bit and jobs a gudden!


Got my new Acewell as well this week and have it temporarily wired up. No dramas so far apart from the brake warning light is on all the time. A session with the multimeter should have that sorted. Its a lot bigger than i thought it would be and does everything I need. Not sure whether to mount it onto the face of the dashboard or mount it on top of the steering column.

Its just I hate drilling holes in the nice shiny virgin fibreglass!

And the hardest bit tonight? Getting the pictures up on here!!!

Quick update... the alternator is now mounted on the engine and working ok. I'm now working on the handbrake system. I have a handle off a 220 Rover and cables off a Freelander. The cables needed a little fettling to fit but provide a OEM system that Mr. SVA will be happy with.
it is time to be getting on with the dash and my new Acewell dashboard. Stay tuned!!!!

I've abandoned the airbox for the minute.I picked up a nice brand new Brise alternator off ebay and with it being quite small I thought it would be ideal.
Well, much head scratching with the alternator bracket I made earlier I nearly threw the thing in the bin! :-(









After searching the net and Locostbuilders I came to the conclusion an under hung bracket would do it.. and, it works perfectly, even with the belt I couldn't get tight enough before.

I've made a bracket out of 30x30x3mm angle from B&Q that pivots the alternator at the bottom. The adjuster arm at the top lets it swing out into plenty of space under the water pump outlet. It bolts onto 3 of the M10 holes in the block, the back being shared with the engine mount. The Mondeo pulley I had lying around fitted on perfectly and with a coat of paint thats one more headache out of the way!

I'm looking at alternative handbrake set ups now as I didn't feel the Sierra cable cut and attached with rope clamps was SVA friendly and it didn't look very good either. I'm looking to use a Rover handle that has a very compact mechanism and the cable attaches with big nipples. One cable per side means no cutting. However the cable I got off a Rover 200 is about 2 yards too long so I'm looking to use a Freelander jobbie that has the same ends but is much shorter.

Whether the other end fits the Sierra drums is another matter. Time will tell!