phr34kr

Actually it was just the dizzy drive that had to be removed, and i see you have already removed it. Use more force.

Did one of these a while ago. Pulled the rockers and camshaft off, cant remember if that was just to do the valves but it was off before i pulled the head. Maybe a hidden bolt underneath it all?

my mates one absolutely shat the input shaft bearing on his e36, His was louder in gear and quietened down a lot when the clutch was engaged. Sounded like marbles in a can by the time we changed it over.

M42's can be picked up cheap as chips. I managed to get an entire car with electrical issues for $350 and 318i manual conversions can be had for pretty reasonable cost. I'm sticking a set of 45mm gsxr ITB's on an M42 atm, nice little engine.

Surely if you can do some of the fabrication work yourself turbo would be better power for money than a triple carb conversion (if you want to stick with the essex)?

Theres a few forced induction Essex scimitars in the UK, pretty unique and apparently go all right

Looked into this a while back to paint a fiberglass car. From reading on the internet 3.8L wont do a full car thick enough for it to be durable. People were using like 3-4 gallons of the stuff on a car, gets expensive real quick. Theres a crowd called cool kiwi, http://www.coolkiwi.net.nz/  that has rubber paint a bit cheaper than plasti dip. Hides a lot of imperfections though.

I started to look into this a little while ago when the Scimitars condenser gave up and had to get it towed home. This site leads me to believe there are different quality condensers on the market?

http://www.distributordoctor.com/distributor_condensers.htm

No idea about the different values question, although my workshop manual gives me tolerances and a value the condenser should be within.

I have been slowly making up the required mounts for the body tub to properly mount it to the chassis but in the meantime i have had a good think about the direction of this project and what i want out of the car.

Before now I have been gathering a few bits and cleaning up the CA18DET with the idea I would put the engine and nissan gearbox in the car, run a Link ECU and make some serious power in a lightish car. 

The problem with this swap is that although i have most of the bits apart from the ECU to get this running, the added costs of the swap and immediate suspension/ braking/ chassis modifications along with the cert would easily add 8K to the project that i don't really have put aside to finish the car in a timely manner. 

Aswell as the added cost of the turbo swap, it wouldn't exactly give me a car that i would like, it would be far heavier than standard and quite a handful, given the short wheelbase and lack of weight over the rear wheels.

It might make a good track car but thats not really what i want to build this car for, its too hard to find body parts and  if i wrecked the chassis i would have a hard time finding another in useable condition. 

With all of this taken into account i have decided to stick with the 1600 CVH ford and 5spd type 9 gearbox, the engine although never going to match the power of the CA does have tuning potential (especially because i have the desirable "cross hatched" head giving me the option of going to ridiculously large valves in the future. A set of carbs, a nice flowing exhaust and a cam should see some decent gains for a reasonable outlay without having to immediately pay for a Cert. 

With 125HP and the option of lightening the car to closer to 700KG over the standard 800KG should give me a nicely handling car that will handle well and be sporty though not overly fast.

The car could also be put on the road much sooner for less immediate outlay and slowly built up over time. Just sick of it sitting in bits.

Looking at what others run on these engines a set of carbs where high up the priority list if even only for the sound on an otherwise standard engine. Side Drafts were not going to work with the brake booster and bulkhead wrapping around the engine the way they do so i opted to go for downdraft carbs, 40mm IDF webers. PIcked up a set off a Alfa Sud, look in good condition and being off a 1700cc eningine will hopefully be close to the set up the standard cvh will need.

the only problem with the downdrafts is the low bonnet line on the ss1, requiring the inner skin to be cut out at minimum and a possibly small bonnet bulge.

heres an example of a ss1 running downdrafts and a bonnet vent to clear them.

You can buy cast alloy manifolds for IDF's on a CVH from burton power but at $650 delivered  (after customs adds GST) I will be opting for making my own out of steel especially as Uni has just got a new laser cutter that can cut metal I also have a spare bonnet in rough condition that I got for a box of beer so im not concerned about having to modify the bonnet 

The lean of the CVH does lend itself to a lot of room for nice exhaust headers I will be sticking to mild steel though

Thats all for now im getting close to the few final removal/ replacement cycles of the tub with everything almost positioned  before the bracing is added before the chassis goes for sandblasting 

Bit of progress I had the passengers side sill and B pillar tacked on before xmas, not much has happened until today but in the meantime I got some upper wishbones out of england.

One of the original wishbones has a cracked shock mount and has been bent. Rather than try to fix the old one or buy new ones at $400 ea. I luckily stumbled across someone parting out an ss1 on facebook. For $40 each it wasnt worth the effort to fix the old one and these ones are the newer version with a reinforcing brace from factory.

When i went to fit the passengers side A pillar today i thought something didn't look right with the sill . After quite a bit of measuring i found that the front reference point i was working from seems to have been wrong from factory, measuring the front cross supports the passengers side was 8mm longer than the  drivers side meaning the sills were not parallel to each other. this meant i needed to grind off the sill shorten the brace 8mm then re attach the sill.

remeasuring the sills are now parallel and square which should help with door fitment and general body gaps  

Have the  A pillar tacked on and now i can remove the tub and finish the welding, getting close to being able to mock up the engine and gearbox 

Pool chemical suppliers will sell baking soda (sodium bicarb.) in 25KG bags ~$50 its food grade. Im not sure if you could get lesser grades cheaper elsewhere?

Yea springs are sorted. Heat treated etc. I trust the guys who did them know what they were doing (I was also worried that the springs wouldn't be able to be able to be plated) But ATM it doesn't look like ill be using them anyway and going to off the shelf coil-overs .

Update for the day. Sorted out where the a pillar needed to be and aligned it with the dash cross brace and tub so the doors will fit.

welded it on.

The tub fit gives it the illusion of not being correctly positioned but iv measured it and its sweet.

Hopefully tomorrow will see the other side chopped off and ready to be replaced

So I have finally started working on this thing again, Brought a decent welder and a bottle of Argo sheild. Im trying to do a bit every day after work. 

got the drivers sill tacked on as well as the B pillar.

Decided to check the fitment of the tub, so dropped that on and will slide the A pillar into place and tack that on before removing the tub to start the passengers side later this week.

B pillar fits nicely

and a shot with the hard top on.

You can see that the sill is a little long. I decided to leave it long and mark exactly where i wanted it with the tub on to make sure everything looks right.

So this thing got spray bombed matte black a while back, turned out rather well considering existing condition. Paints a little thin but easy enough to patch up if it gets scraped.

Then it broke down on me when i was using it to try tow a car a brought that was not running home. Turned out to be the condenser, easy fix once i narrowed it down, replaced it re-timed it and now its sweet. Took it for a good run out to Piha on Saturday, its a lot of fun in the twisty stuff but real loose with the old tyres on it.

Thinking about widening a pair of std rims for the rear an extra inch of dish should look sweet. But finally sorted a decent welder so want to get stuck into the SS1 over the summer and get the chassis rebuilt for that.

I think the Scimitar might actually make it to this, Still has mysterious electrical issues but headlights, wipers and radiator fan are sorted.

Real grunty electric fans tend to help quite a bit as well. If air flow is sorted and everything else is new the essex shouldn't give you too much hassle. Scimitars use a pressurized overflow tank, doesn't seem to help them much, best cooling increase on a stock system seems to just get the biggest fan that will fit and an appropriate shroud. (wire in an override switch while your at it)

So as of today i have a running, WOF+Reg'd 1975 reliant scimitar SE5a.

Okay so its in primer but that should be sorted soon. It is also an entirely different car. Brought this one as I really don't have the space to work on more than one project and have decided to focus on the SS1 with the CA18DET conversion.

Got this car in the weekend with an expired WOF but still had running rego. All the standard parts are there, Bumpers will be going on after i get it painted, and rear lights will be converted back to factory. Flew though the WOF today so should be able to attend the burgerfuel meets in it.

Paint wise im going to the painting this in Plasti Dip paint, its a ruberised paint that sprays on sets in a matte slightly textured fashion but the best part is that it will seal the primer, flex with the fiberglass (no crazy-cracks Yay) and if at any point i dont like it anymore it will peel off like vinyl.

Gunmetal grey, tested on a spare ss1 panel.

Thinking gunmetal body with matte black bumpers, trim and wheel highlights.

http://oldschool.co....ar/page__st__40

also selling up the first scimitar in parts with the complete rolling drivetrain from the chopped scimitar, second white body.

Keeping the 4spd non overdrive conversion.- gearbox bellhousing pedal box diff clutch cable

everything else is for sale (inc 2nd 3.0ltr essex)

so thats;

1 complete rolling drive train with 4spd overdrive and 3.0 essex wheels etc.

2 bodys

2 sets of upholstery

1 set of glass and rear hatch (negotiable for 2 sets)

1 set of bumpers (again negotiable on a 2nd set)

1 spare essex engine

1 set of instruments dash etc.

1 bare chassis

1 set of front suspension (some assembly required)

2 sets of lights

bits and pieces of exhaust

$2200 for the lot.

PM me to ask questions more than welcome to come and view (central Auckland)

I have a 35 here that i brought off snoozin a while ago, no real plans for it, it owes me $50.

So continuing to get things plated a few more of the bits that have been done.

Trying to figure out how exactly im goign to straighten out the drivers side top wishbone, its severely cracked and twisted ( a common problem on SS1's and impossible to find replacements) then to get it welded and crack tested.

I have borrowed the clubs set of new sills which have already had the cut outs done, as a template for my ones. Should hopefully be able to get one side tacked on in the weekend, then need to find someone to weld them fully.

Hopefully on track to start assembly in late november.

So since all suspension components were freshly bead blasted, and I couldn't be sure that the insides of everything would get an adequate coating of paint I decided to get them all zinc plated, then paint them. Shouldn't ever have any rust problems with them. The springs were done first and the rest should hopefully be done next week.

Sills Manufactured, all suspension components blasted and being painted tomorrow. I got the sills made up at a local sheet metal company and picked those up today.

More photos to come over the weekend.

Also should be getting some spare body panels/ Maybe another complete SS1 ( but 5 scimitars would probably be too many tbh/Acquire them all)

Correct

Its a Carden.

Quick cad of the outer sill

As attractive as the weight of the rover engine is, I just don't think I would be able to convince myself that it would be a good swap. Anyway the engine swap would be a long way down the road and the 2zzge is far more appealing to me.

Anyway a picture-less update as I have misplaced the camera.

The chassis is fully stripped down, engine gearbox, diff front/rear suspension is all off.

Further inspection of the drivers side upper wishbone shows that it has a lot more cracking than previously thought, so I will be getting that welded up and crack tested.

Good news on the sill front, turns out that one of the club members had a ~1M long length of sill bent up as a sample to get the full length pieces made. I have luckily been able to acquire this, so will be getting new sills bent up out of Zinc plated steel. I have decided that cutting the entire sill off and welding in a new one on each side will leave a nicer finish and should be more resilient to new rust.