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!

The new air box is coming along quite canny now, although the amount of time its took is staggering! I started what seems like two weeks ago and it's still not finished! I have redesigned it slightly and remade some sections to be fair.

It fits under the bonnet OK and just needs a cover and a means of fastening it to the carbs. The cover will be permanantly attached with 5 fixings through the box. I've purchased some 8mm tube from B&Q and I'm going to extend the mountings through the box and out the top of the cover with some 6mm thread bar to hold it all together. Then I'll be making a scoop to go under the top of the nose cone apparture, again out of said old washing machine and I should have a system that uses the carbs as they were installed on the original motorcycle.

Well, new year and new aspirations! So they say anyway.

I picked up some nice shiny new wheels in the Halfords boxing day sale and am mighty proud of them despite saying I was happy with the Ford ones for now! I have also spent a fair wedge at Car Builder Solutions who provide a cracking service with quick next day delivery. I went through their catalogue and wrote down everything I thought I needed to progress.

I've also swapped the pulleys between the two Ford alternators I've got to get over the slack drive belt problem I was having due to not being able to find the correct length belt. The Mondeo unit had a bigger pulley so that took up the slack on the belt I had.

I've trial fitted the bodywork again and fitted the bonnet catches so I can see how much clearance there is for an airbox without cutting holes in the body. I'm going to build an airbox and supply it with cold air from the front of the nose via a remote filter. There's not to much room in front of the carbs so I'm making a mock up out of cardboard before I start cutting metal.

I now have new found enthusiasm after a visit from the Dangerous Brothers who both have MNR's on the road. I do now intend to have it 'finished' by the end of this month!

Well, I haven't done anything with the car since the last post. I've been too busy with other things :-).

At the moment I've been trying to find a fan belt that fits the alternator but can't get the correct length. I've been trying to fit a roller to take up the slack but with it being so cold in the garage I haven't had a real go at it.

Next step for me now is finding some decent wheels and tyres in the sales and getting some seats. That should get me pretty close to finished and give me the umph I need to get it to the SVA test.

I'm also trying to decide about arch mounted indicators as I really don't fancy drilling holes in the nose cone! Strange but true....

I haven't abandoned it yet, its just I'm thinking about the 32 year trials bike thats in bits on the garage floor and the scooter as afore mentioned! One big push should see me close, I really do want it on the road for the summer.

As its christmas eve, I'd just like to wish everyone a happy xmas and a prosperous new year.

Today I have fitted the hoses for the coolant system, well some of them anyway. I purchased a 90 degree reducing bend to connect to the water pump and used a combination of B&Q aerial pole and some hose I got from the scrappy a while back. I still need some hose for the top connection as none of the bits I have are suitable. It needs to dip down under the light bar then up to the outlet on the thermostat housing.
The water rail has made installation of the top hose very straight forward, and its a very neat factory looking piece of kit.
I also fitted the alternator on the bracket I made last week as you can see in the picture. I need a trip to Halfords to get a belt and some water hose and hope theres no bling wheels on offer to tempt me.....

I have a plastic expansion bottle off a Corsa at the moment but I may splash out on a nice shiny ali head tank! Gulp!

Ive moved the radiator forward slightly to give more room for the bottom hose and it now sits up a bit higher. I just hope the nose cone fits now!

To solve the problem I had with brake fluid leaking I purchased two screw in/push on connectors and got rid of the bits of brake pipe and union setup. Hope it does the trick, there was brake fluid all over as changed them!

I now think thats all the mechanical stuff done and its bodywork and trim next bearing in mind the requirements of SVA. The wiring needs tiding up and I need to think about clocks. I still haven't decided what I want to dash to look like!

Well, thats the whole of October gone and I've done nothing with the car. How time flies...

I am quite amazed at the number of people who have come onto my blog here. Nearly 3,000 at the moment. Thanks very much everybody.
I have not abandoned this blog or the car build, I've just not done anything on the car since my last post. In fact since I came back off holiday in September!

In the last couple of weeks I've picked up a 100cc scooter and I've been fiddling with that. I got it dead cheap off ebay and it just needs some TLC and I'll be on the road with it. 100mpg is the attraction!! and the fact it's a 2 stroke. I love the ring ting ting....

Today I received a second hand water rail for the zetec and I've now got that on making it dead easy to fit the top hose to the radiator. The bottom one is a bit more difficult and I may have to buy a silicon reducing bend to attached to the water pump outlet that's a lot bigger (45mm I think) than the rest of the hoses.

While I was on a roll I have nearly finished the alternator bracket I started ages ago. It just needs taking off and welding up, a trip to Halfords for a belt and I should have it up and running soon.

Twice in the last month I've had to start the car to get it out of the garage and up the drive and I can report it starts first time and drive's quite good, even for the small push up the drive! The only thing that I'm not happy about is a small brake fluid leak from the reservoir connection. It only leaks after I've used the brakes but as its on the non-pressurised side of the system so I'm a bit miffed at that one.

Well, it feels like a long time since I did anything to the car. I've had a week in Spain where it rained for 3 days for the first time since April. Doh!

I've been collecting things from the scrapyard the last couple weeks and have a load of coolant pipes to make up the system and a nearly brand new reservoir from a 07 reg Corsa that was absolutely smashed to bits.

I've also picked up some bits for my daily drive, a Rover 220D. I picked up a tow bar so I can get the MNR around on a trailer when I need too. Then the wiper motor seized and I had to go back for that! I've picked up some other little bits and bobs along the way always keeping an eye out for a 6 cylinder Volvo.... :-)

I got back from holiday on the 15th and did intend going to the Donnington kit car event. However, we were a bit delayed getting back and the drive down to the midlands was just a bridge too far. From the reports I've seen I didn't miss much so I'm not that fussed in in not going this year.

At the moment I'm trying work out how I can use the clocks from an Astra. They are electronic are very thin at 50mm front to back. They have all the clocks and lights I need for SVA so I'm having a bash at making them work for my kit!

Hi, no major progress at the moment as I'm trying to resist an engine change. I'm quite taken with a Volvo engine. Its a 3L 6 cylinder job that is very compact and only 4 inches longer than a 4 pot engine and chucks out over 200bhp with a huge lump of torque. Some of them have single tubos attached and some have twin turbos attached. Heaven!

It looks really good as well.






I've spent the last couple weeks collecting bits and bobs along with a silencer and link pipe from MNR. I'm sorting out were the coolant pipes will run and rather than spend a fortune on silicon pipes I'm going to gather some OE pipes from the scrappy to make all the bends. Then I can get some ali pipe bent to take out some of the joins out before I spend any cash on the shiny bits.

I really need to resist the urge for another engine but I know it will simmer away and if one comes along at the right price soon I'll be a having it!

Engine/Alternator Mount.

The new engine mount and alternator bracket are complete. They are coated in Hammerite and drying off as I write.

I've made a new alternator bracket based on a design that's for a zetec SE. The mounting hole centres were different but the overall design is the same. I made the bracket to fit the Focus alternator I bought at the scrappy. The original one that came with the engine was slightly larger and heavier so the Focus jobbie was used instead. I used two of the M10 threaded holes in the block while sharing the back one with the new engine mount which uses 3 M10 holes in the block, AKA original Ford Crossflow design, I believe!

When I took the original mount off I held the engine at the required position using a jack under the engine. This way I made the two plates, one on the engine and one on the rubber mount on the chassis, joining the two together with a bit of tube. I spent a couple of hours making a wooden mount to get the angles right then transfered the dimensions to the metal bits. The whole lot was then welded together.

Heres the new mount cooling off after welding. I'm surprised how rough the welds look as they look a lot better in the flesh! They are done with my 20 year old stick welder thats a bugger to get going but gives a nice smooth weld once its arced. I would really love a Tig, once I win the lottery!

In order to fit the rubber mount I need a hole in the side so I can tighten the M10 nut. I drilled a couple of 10mm holes before I welded it and I made the hole big enough to accept a socket with a milling bit in the electric drill.






With the hole enlarged so I can get the nut on the thread and a socket in to tighten it up, I trial assembled the bracket and mount. balancing the welding seems to have held any distortion at bay and it all went together perfectly!

With the jack out and every thing resting in place the alternator now has a home with a decent amount of room for adjustment. There is plenty of room above for the coolant pipework as well.









This is the alternator bracket, (sorry for the blurry picture, I really do need a new camera!)
I bought a metre of 30x30x3mm angle in B&Q to make it.
The two mounts for the alternator are perfect for belt alignment and there is a captive M8 thread for the adjuster arm at the front.
I don't have an adjuster arm but a trip to the scrappy should get me one off a Ford Fiasco that should do the job perfectly. While I'm there I'll try and get some wheel nuts as I only have 3 on each wheel. The original owner of the donor must have saved the locking nuts for something else :-)

I took it all off and gave it a nice black coat of smooth Hammerite. I'll give that a couple of days to dry and then I'll be moving on to the cooling side. In the meantime a bit more wiring to get the back lights and horn working.