mattj

It's alive! Video proof to follow shortly if I can figure out how to get it off my phone. I am pretty excited about it as it has been a long time coming!

love the turbos, I have been keeping an eye out for a set for my car for ages. Probably my favorite of the old school mags,,,,

Can anyone tell me how to sort the links in my signature? I have no idea why it just links to the main page....

wow haven't updated this since November, oops, it isn't because things haven't been happening, just that I have been really slack at taking photos. Got this in the mail the other day I had the cage inspected after getting it all finished off and in the car and it was all good, so the car is officially a race car if I want to go that way with it. in reality I did it to make cert a bit easier and so that if I want to turn it into a full cage later on then it is already in the system but still... So that has helped with the motivation a fair bit but over the last few months I have done a lot to it Got the exhaust finished, wrapped the headers because I didn't like looking at the join between the schedule pipe elbows and the exhaust tube. Pretty happy with how it came out and learnt a valuable lesson on why you should wear gloves when putting this stuff on. I didn't and my hands itched for days Then it was on to the wiring, the old motor was running a generator so I ripped out all the wiring for that and wired up the new alternator, coils etc. I was going to leave the wiring in the engine bay (the standard Anglia wiring runs out through the firewall just below the windscreen) but it really looked bad so I rerouted it all through the guards where it is all out of sight. Wasn't too much work and makes the engine bay look heaps cleaner. And the engine bay all wired up Now I just need to deal to the washer bottle...... So what next? well I have been patching up all the little (and not so little) holes, finally go the gearlever all sealed up, ended up making a bit to cover over the hole and to adapt the type 9 boot to the shifter, that was the biggest hole to be filled so it is nice to have that one sorted. I decided to rivet it on just in case things have to move in the future. So that's where it's at, I am really just tidying up all of the little jobs now to get it ready to fire up, the wiring behind the dash is a real mess and needs some attention but that's about the worst of it I think. Hopefully the next update will be to say that it is all running........

Nice one, thanks!

Thanks for the replies everyone, so can I use the old generator light wire? And just run that to the L plug on the alternator?

Hey, I am in the process of wiring up my Anglia with a s5 rx7 alternator, I found this diagram on the net the car previously had a generator in it so I have binned the voltage regulator and got rid of any wires that were no longer required The wiring of the alternator looks pretty straight forward, the only thing is the dash wire that goes to the L terminal, my question is does this need to be connected to anything in order for the alternator to function or is it just to run the dash light? Ideally I would like to have some feedback to the generator light on the dash but this isn't really important. Anyway I figured there was a good chance that someone might have done this before Thanks Matt

More progress from the last couple of weeks, I got the rollcage all welded up It went together pretty well, I haven't made one before so lots of measuring and re-measuring but I got there in the end. So all this effort was pretty much for these little bits which are the bosses that make the upper seatbelt mounts that go into the main hoop here So all done and in place it looks like this I have a couple of things to finish on the mounting plates inside the car and then it is on to the exhaust.

After going back and forth over the filter I decided to go with a shorter one and keep it all under the bonnet so I ordered a 3.5" tall one. The big advantage of this for me at the moment is that I can just put the old bonnet back on without modifying it or having to repair and repaint the one that I have already cut, so I can spend the time finishing up some of the other jobs. New filter fitted and with the bonnet back on Now I figured it was time to get the roll cage fitted, I actually need this to pick up the upper seatbelt mount as the existing mount is too low for the race seats and the original seats don't fit anymore as the tunnel is so much wider (I was thinking of just fitting the old ones once again to try and speed things up and get it on the road) anyway there were some other options to get around the height of the seats but I was going to fit the cage anyway and that solves the problem. first up the main hoop, oh yeah and to complicate things a little more I decided to make the cage removable for later on if I want to do the interior etc. So after lots of measuring and cutting and trimming I got the main hoop in next up is the rear stays which are going to tie into the wheel tubs, these are a little tricky as they are curved and I didn't have a bender that would do 3mm, but I do have a shop press (one of those little ones from supercheap that I got on special) so I made this which goes in the press along with a bit of flat bar like this So now I can bend 3mm plate, it is going to take some time to get the curve to match so that is my job for the week

Ha ha, I decided early on that I wanted to run 15s I think the brakes would fit under 13s but have never tried. The overall diameter of the wheels and tyres is now about the same as the standard Anglia (within about 10mm), just more rim and less tyre. That's an interesting read on the igniters, I bought the dizzy off Trade-Me years ago so have no idea of the actual condition of it (and the igniters) but fingers crossed it will run ok. The first goal is to get it running then I can worry about making it run nice, if that is even possible with a Bridgeport..... I ordered a smaller filter today, but I am going to modify that other bonnet as well, I have an idea on making it look a bit cooler and working with the big filter.

Cheers Pete, yeah i am headed that way I think

Fuel line done, brake line done, battery cable almost done. Figured the thing to do next was to get it out of the garage and get some pics to help with my motivation and this is how the bonnet sits if I leave the current filter on, it actually sits a bit lower as it wasn't pushed down all the way. The back of the filter just sticks out above the bonnet when it is down. I am still undecided if I will go this way or put a shorter filter on and have it sit under the bonnet

Cheers for the comments guys!!

Cheers, yeah the filter is one of those things I am undecided on, the one I have is going to stick out but I could get a shorter one to keep it all under the bonnet but I think I would have to go for the shortest one that K&N do (or go for another brand) I am not that keen on how the short ones look but want the car to remain fairly standard looking, so yeah I don't know......

managed a couple more hours in the garage today so got some more things done First up was the coils, I made this bracket a while back when I was going to mount the coils on the side of the motor but when I put the oil cooler thermostat in they wouldn't fit any more, however the bracket was about perfect for mounting the coils to the inner wing so I went with that. Coil bracket and coils fitted A while back I bought a fan controller as I wanted to have the fans turn on automatically, I bought one of these from Summit Racing thing is it is such an ugly switch and the wire to the temperature probe isn't long enough to fit under the dash so after a bit of head scratching I decided to mount it up the front behind the radiator support panel. And as I was uploading this photo I noticed the rust hole to the right of the control knob, I am a bit gutted about that, can't believe I missed it..... Anyway the last thing for today was to get the wheels back on, I am hoping that tomorrow if I get the brake and fuel lines finished then I can drop it off the stands and roll it out for some decent pictures, but for now this will have to do I still prefer the old wheels

more progress from the last few weeks, I finally got the radiator in, turned into a bigger job than I had expected but it is all mounted all that is missing is the hose clamps for the radiator hoses that I know I have put somewhere in my stupidly small garage, you would think a small garage would make it easier to find things..... The engine bay is looking pretty full now, which will be the next problem, finding some space for the coils. The other thing I did was sort out an accelerator cable, I got one from a Toyota something that matched the pedal I had then cut it down and got a new end put on it, then tidied up the way it comes out into the engine bay using a rubber grommet thing that I got from Basis, can't remember what it is off or anything, just saw a picture and figured that it might work. the bracket on the carb was from Weber Specialties, it is a pretty cool setup, I put a double return spring setup on but I think the outer spring is a bit heavy, makes the pedal a bit heavy and I imagine will make low speeds a bit tricky. I have also been working on the back part of the exhaust and the fuel and brake lines, the ones I made when the crossflow was in don't fit quite right as now the tunnel is so much bigger so I have had to tweak them a bit, I am going to try and get that finished this weekend though, it would be nice to have it back on it's wheels.

Got a bit more done over the weekend, first up I reinforced the chassis rails where the engine crossmember mounts up, I folded up some plates and made up some crush tubes then welded it all into place A bit of paint and it can go back together Then I put the front suspension back together, ne steering arms in New hubs fitted up And all the brake lines etc connected You can see how much I have had to offset the strut tops in that photo to get the camber right, that just gets it back to zero (or thereabouts) so no massive negative camber for me..... I aligned the wheels as well and checked the amount of bump steer I was getting as well to make sure nothing had gone amiss between my prototype steering arms and the finished ones and it is all looking pretty good, hopefully the cert man will agree. And the last job was to put the radiator back in, I made up some mounts a while back to attach the 2 x 10" fans that I hope will keep it cool but I hadn't painted them or anything so I welded some nuts to them to make my life easier if I ever have to take them off and gave them a quick paint. I had hoped to get the radiator back in but sometime between taking the radiator out of the other shell and putting it into this one I have managed to lose all the bolts so I will get some more tomorrow and get it all mounted up. Oh yeah and one last thing, this photo shows a water pipe that sits at the back of the motor, it is the take off for the turbo I think and when the motor was stripped I didn't block it off, problem is now I want to so if anyone has any suggestions for a neater solution than a bit of hose with a bolt in the end I would be keen to hear it. Cheers

Ha ha yeah but it wouldn't be a fast turnaround on cars, this one has already taken way too long! I am also pretty keen on a 100e, problem is I also want a Datsun 1200, sr coupe, rx7, mk2 escort, gen1 civic, HQ ute, etc, etc. Guess until I win lotto I will just have to stick to Anglia's

Yeah I would be very careful with the Milton arms, if you are going by the book then they are too thin (12mm as opposed to 16mm which is the requirement) and they have been MIG welded where they should be TIG welded and although the 105speed crowd bleat on about how the bolts hold it all together when you look at them the bottom piece where the arm attaches to the TCA is welded and if that weld fails (that was where the welds were cracked on my ones) then they could separate from the TCA. I will get a price for the arms from the machinist who did mine and let you know, there may be some others interested which could help get the price down. I will let you know anyway.

Did Don Hoff actually see your steering arms and OK them? I had one of the Milton ones sent away to LVVTA by the certifier here in Nelson and they were rejected so something to keep in mind......

Hey Kelvin, yeah no problem getting more made the only thing that I would say is let me get the car through cert and specifically though the bump steer test just to make sure that I haven't missed anything and we can go from there. How urgently do you need them?

Thanks Pete, yeah it feels like I am finally getting there. It would be good to take a few more days off and nail all the little jobs but I have no leave left so any time off would have to be unpaid which isn't so cool.

Progress has been a little slow over the last couple of weeks but things are still happening, most importantly I got these My new steering arms, all CNC machined and up to LVVTA spec so that is pretty exciting, I will slap some paint on them then get them in the car as soon as possible, this also means that I can finish off the other small jobs and finally get the car down off the axle stands. I also got a new speedo cable made up (no pictures of that though) by Parrotts in Chch , it is kind of long as the rx7 gearbox has the speedo drive on the passenger side so I have had to run the cable around the front of the motor and back down to meet it but once the radiator is in you won't see it anyway. And I also finished the hoses for the oil cooler and got it all bolted in for the last time, I have run the hoses through a hole next to the radiator and down through the front end sheetmetal, keeps it all hidden away nicely, the only thing I might add is some hose separator clamps to keep the hoses in position although they can't really go anywhere so maybe not necessary. And finally I was able to put the grill and bumper back on, I am pretty happy with how this has turned out, you can't really even notice the oil cooler behind the grill. So the next job is to reinforce the chassis rail where I have attached the motor mount crossmember, I have made up some crush tubes and an additional plate to go on the top of the chassis rail, just need to get it all welded into place now.

Some more progress from the weekend, I needed to do some tests on the plastic steering arms to make sure they are right before I get them machined. First up I bolted the arms in place Then I made these I bought some cheap laser pointers and mounted them to a bit of SHS, it is hard to see in the photo but one of the clamp plates holding the laser is bolted so I can adjust it and get the laser pointing parallel to the mounting face. I only made 2 of them so I have to do each side of the car separately, so one gets bolted to the rear hub and the other to the front, then I put a board out the front of the car to shine the lasers onto then I can just measure the distance between them, well that's the theory anyway. So first I set the alignment by making sure the distance between the dots was the same at the front hub and on the board which was about 3m in front of the car. Next I pulled the springs out of the front suspension and measured the distance between the dots at ride height, max compression, and max droop. Then with a bit of trigonometry I can work out what the angle change is, seems to work ok, in that last photo you can see the marks I made at the 3 measured suspension heights. the arms are pretty good but I am getting toe out as the suspension changes and I think it would be better if it was going to be going the other way (toe in) so I have some fine tuning to do. I ran out of time yesterday to get it finished so will hit it again after work today. I also had this turn up last week After leaving my $20 cage in the car for the last month or so I decided that I would put one in but seeing as it is a bit of work to do figured that I should start with one that was up to spec. Anyway it is a fair way down the priority list at the moment but I will get to it eventually.

Interesting, I had other issues with mine with the holes being too close to the edge. But he didn't like the locator that was welded to the axle. I guess I shouldn't complain not having them has saved me some work....