Rookie's Fauxtus 7

[Rookie]

Discussion Thread - //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/38411-rookie-daves-lie-too-us-seven/

 

Anyway, for ages now I have had very little motivation for this car, so I thought putting the build thread up here might help/ give you guys something else to give me shit about.
 
Most of this will just be a port from http://www.lotus7.co.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=136
 
A brief history:

After selling my last project in February I was looking for something to replace it, a quick search of trademe saw me contemplating a 7 replica, I had always liked the lotus 7 replica and it seemed the right time to do it. So after ringing and finding out the state of the car and what parts came with it, an exchange of money was made the chassis and parts were dropped off at the Auckland depot of the transport company I work for. 2 days later it was sitting in the garage. It was all wrapped up so it was kind of like an early/late Christmas present. Unwrapping it led to the discovery of the massive hoard of parts that came with it (from what I can tell so far it is only missing a headlight haha) anyway with uni looming very little was done, but a couple of Saturdays lead to the discovery that the rusty escort lump that was sitting in the engine bay actually turned out to be a brand spanking full race 1760 crossflow, with countless hours spent on the head and nothing being left untouched, SCORE! The next few months progress was slow with it becoming rolling and organizing a few bits and pieces that needed to be done.
 
Update:

The engine built up

My mate Robbie acknowledging the awesomeness that is the Kent

How the car was before we started

OPPS! It fell over haha


More updates tomorrow night when we put the floor on (would have been tonight but some dipstick didn’t buy the right sized rivets DOH!)

Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

Update:

Alright, got the correct rivets so all was go, my girlfriend decided that helping me build the car would be a good way to procrastinate, so I had a helper for the day, a nice change.

Turns out the way to a girls heart is with airtools, who would have thought??


Got the floor on 198 rivets later. Bit of a mission but turned out good in the end.


and Kaspa you were right that Sikaflex is VERY messy stuff!

Me looking like a monkey, Whle making those Broooom Brooom noises kitcar builders around the world have grown accustom to!


Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

Update:

Alright, my Dad came down for the week to help me, so that’s mint. As a result I spent most of the morning shopping for odds and ends that were needed. And I borrowed my mate Drew’s absolute BEHEMOTH of an engine crane (the pictures really don’t do this thing justice, its massive!! Some say that it has picked up the Motosoc’s speedway car) anyway managed to get the motor in and all is sweet. The manifold that I made actually worked mint and didn’t bind on anything, (except for the small modification that was needed to make the throttle wheel clear) and so with the engine being in, tomorrows plan is to make the brakes work and horey  up some make shift wiring and take it for a spin.

The massive engine crane placing the itty bitty Kent in the rather undersized car


Fixing the throttle wheel that didn’t quite fit


The car with the donk sitting where it should


In the wise words of Bill and Ted: “EXCELLENT!”

Dave

[Rookie]

Update:

Ok so first thing we swapped the fan belt and got some wheel nuts (I was missing 10 out of 16), I then fitted the fan belt and put the wheels on properly. I then proceeded to horey up some wiring for the fuel pump and coil. We towed it up and down the road a few times but I think there is something up with the motor, it has so much compression that it locks the wheels when crash starting in 3rd?!?!? Only after Dad sat on the back did the wheels grip and it turned over (its no wonder that poor little starter couldn’t make it go!). So it had fuel for sure, but I’m not sure about the spark because it didn’t fire at all. This left me in a fairly demoralized state and I felt pretty useless, so I started on some of the easy stuff, and put the guards on (makes it look like a 7 instead of a rat rod). Then I got on with the wiring. So a bit more of that should see it pretty close to done.

Hooked up and ready for the tow start


How the car finished up looking after I quit the hard stuff (sorry about the crap quality, it was late and my blood sugar must have been getting low haha)


Does anyone want to help me get it going tomorrow?

Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

update:

The resident ignition specialist (Drew) came round this arvo and we sorted out the points and the plug gaps, we then put the leads on 180 out and it still wouldn't go, he had to leave and as such we left it, then while at home I thought about it and realised, went to text him and read "Yo its 180 out, swap 1 and 4, 2 and 3 and it should go" this confirmed it. Maria walked in the door and got duped into helping me (still needs to be tow started as the starter is at the sparkys) and we got it going. god it's rough, spluttering/running on 3, the tappets are louder than the exhaust and just generally poose, but its a start. Ya  

A pic of it with the guards that aren't shakey


Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

Update on the progress of the car, got it running today, the new plugs definitely made a difference, it sounds like a proper car now!! it still has a little miss but i think it could be carb related so hopefully that will come out when they get tuned. the problem I have now is that the brakes are now locking on, which is a bit of a pain, i will address it tomorrow. anyway here is a quick vid of it idling, enjoy

Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

Update:

Managed to sort out one of the problems with the brakes, they no longer pump up but from watching the videos the brake lights are flashing so I will have to investigate!!! I swapped the front calipers for a pair that were known to be good, and I pulled down mine and discovered the suspected problem. The rust isn't bad, a bit of scotch brite will tidy them up and I will rekit them. thanks to the generous owned of the other calipers, you know who you are! After the brakes were working we took the car for a wee fang here is the vids, enjoy:

of course these were filmed under controlled conditions on a closed road. kids Don't try this at home!

Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

Cheers Guys, yea it is coming along. I thought I should put a pic of it with the nose cone on it. It really is starting to look like a car!!



hopefully after this week it should be going a little better and some of the gremlins will be sorted
 
Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

Update:

I've been pretty slack at updating this as I usually do it when I get home each day, but I will accumulate the last 3 days efforts here.
I have rebuilt all of the brake calipers, they all suffered the same rusty goop, but came up well with a bit of sweet scotchbrite action, so hopefully that was the cause of my problems and now they will be fixed. I haven't put them back on because I'm waiting for the longer wheel studs that I need to fit my shiney new 13x7 superlites.

Shiney new wheels ooh lah lah !!


I have also been educating myself (Thanks for that link Jeremy) on the (now) not-so-black art of carb tuning, it seems that they are reasonably close to what is needed, but a few minor differences may/may not be causing the poor driveablility, I suspect it is the lean main emulsion tubes and the large idle jets, but time will tell.

Ideal starting point:
Chokes                    34
Main Jets                    135
Main Emulsion Tubes        7772.6
Air Corrector            185
Idle Jets                    45
Idle Emulsion Tube        7850.1
Auxiliary Venturi        7848.1

What I have:
Chokes:                    33
Main Jet:                     132
Emulsion tube:                7772.2
Air corrector:             170
Idle Jet:                     55    
Idle emulsion tube:         7850.1
Auxiliary Venturi        7848.1

Tonight I changed the throttle linkages, mainly because they needed to be to fit under the bonnet but they look much tidier now.

How they were


The new and improved version!!


I think that is more than enough typing so I will end on that note!

Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

update:

While playing with the tune the brakes started playing up again, bad buzz. I pulled the master cylinder down and gave that a going over, it seemed to fix the problem but I have said that before! Anyway now that I changed the throttle linkage the bonnet fits on so here is a couple of shots.





Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

I toasted the motor at a track day by running it lean, lesson learnt.

 

Ok, well it lives again. I got sick of it just sitting there while I build engines so I just bought another kent. For the money I paid it was a pretty good deal and the fact that I can drive the car again has made me fall in love with it all over. The car gods smiled upon us on Saturday arvo because it took us 3 hours to put it in and have it running, the carbs need a bit more work but it runs reasonably well at the moment.
One thing that I replaced today was the headlights, boy what a difference that made, I got semi sealed headlights with the standard H4 Halogen globes in it, they are 200% better than the sealed beams,, and I would highly recommend it to anyone!  

Update:

Furiously trying to get everything in place for the trackday on thursday, I got the carbs tuned on friday so they are running really well, and huge increase in drivability, well worth the $300 in jets. After this I decided that it needed a shake down run, so I took it for a drive through Lyttelton and round to Governers bay then up and over Dyres pass Rd, all was well and good until we got to Dyres pass rd, the hill really took its toll with the car getting very hot. Once at the top I discovered that It was running a total loss ignition system, and the lights were very dim and it was back firing like mad. once home we put our heads together and figured out that because the radiator is on an angle and there is a 4" gap above it then the air will be flowing over it rather than through it. We made a shroud and so far it has made a huge improvement, with the car now being able to be driven with haste for extended periods of time with the fan off. so all in all pretty happy, Tomorrow I will get the manifold linished again as it has developed a small water leak and all should be go for thursday!

Cheers Dave

[Rookie]

Well it's been a while. I have finally moved the car home, which is great having it in the garage, but kinda depressing seeings as its the least worked on car at the moment.

It sustained a bit of damage in the move, it appears as though the drivers front guard has fallen off and bounced down the road, so the fibreglass is a bit munted, but it can be repaired. Kinda glad that I still have it. but other than that, it made it in one piece

It had a suspected blown head gasket before it left CHCH, so it felt very down on power (it needs all it can get!), so yesterday after I had finished working on Maria's Golf I chucked a compression tester on it, 170, 175, 110, 180. Thought right I guess. I just happened to have a spare top end gasket set (funny that being a Kent owner) so I set to replacing it. Everything went to plan and a couple of hours later all was done. It fired up easily and idled much smoother than before.... for about 5 seconds. DOH ran out of fuel, oh well, fill it up and put the compression tester back on it, 170, 175, 170, 180. Pretty happy with that, and take it for a couple of quick spins around the neighborhood, and it's found its lost ponies!

It only occurred to me after it was back running that I should have documented it and made a how to 

I have a new found enthusiasm for it now and I will try and get everything sorted (there really isn't much) soonish so I can get it on the road!

Because updates are gay without pictures, What colour should I paint it?  I seem to keep coming back to traditional BRG and Yellow like this:


But part of me thinks that the ease of Commercial White would be more appropriate to my painting skills, So what do you guys think? I'm open to Ideas.

[Rookie]

Ok, so me being sensible, I have decided that while the engine is out I should tidy up all the things that will need doing for cert. I haven't got the engine back together in yet, I'll time the cam before I go to work and then when I get home it should be all go on the reassembly.

Just so you guys believe that I have actually done something 

[Rookie]

Got the motor back together last night, so hopefully that is the end of the leaks (secretly I know it won't be )


I'm still planning to get this thing together for the Fraser Club trackday so wish me luck!

The things need to do are:
Add conduit to the wiring
P-clip more effectively the brake and fuel lines
Replace radiator fan
Get thermostat
Reinstall engine
Replace front springs

So a doable list, and hopefully I'll get more than 2 laps

[Rookie]

I did a marathon effort over the weekend, got the motor back in the car, and tidied a bunch of stuff up.
So here it is!




Now I'm not going to BS and say it fired straight up, it didn't, but I figured out (tonight, after I threw my toys out of the cot last night ) that when I had tidyed up the wiring that I had unpluged the coil by accident, and because I have a ballast resistor setup it would fire on starting (giving me hope) but then die as soon as you let go of the key, easy fix and after I swapped the plug leads around (was out by 180 thanks to the stupid backwards Kent!) it was purring like a kitten (well with a kitten with loose tappets haha)

Proof!

Moving toward getting everything sorted for the trackday!

[Rookie]

As some of you know I've had my car a few trackdays before, and none of them I would call a success, so with this in mind I was very cautious, and aprehensive about how the car would go.

Fortunately the trackday went pretty well there were only a few issues, none that were unsolvable.

I borrowed possibly the biggest car transport off a mate, and then proceeded to tow it behind one of the Golfs 
Here we are just unloading the car.


I was stationed next to Gil in the pits, very friendly fellow!


I took the car out on the sighting laps as I have never driven around Taupo before, I was watching the temperature gauge like a hawk! but thankfully it stayed just where it was supposed to ~92°C

After I was satisfied that the car was going to behave I lined up for my first outing.


They ran it so you would leave the pits, do a warm up lap, then stop at the grid, you were then waved off in pairs with about 10s between you, do 5 hot laps and then a cool down lap. It worked really well, and I really liked the way it gave everyone a good shot at some free track. I would urge anyone that is involved with trackdays to copy the format.

I chopped old mate with the Kent powered Chevron into turn one and went hell for leather.


Hammer down out of turn two.


Flying down the front straight.


All in all it was an excellent day, and I would urge anyone that didn't go this year to make sure that you sign up for next year. Thanks to everyone I met that made the day what it was.

[Rookie]

Took this thing to the track again over the weekend, it was a pretty good day, but unfortunately the guard mount broke again, and I'm pretty sure the head gasket is gone (we ran it out of fuel 3 times, so I think the lean laps limping back to the pits did it), and I won an award for "Swiftest Trackday Driver" so chuffed with that! Now I've had my fun and realised that it actually has a hope of being reliable on the street I will focus on getting it on the road.  

Here is the list of things that I need to do: (things in red are what's left to do)

    Replace the braided brake lines

    Make mounts for the brake line connections at the front

    Get the suspension arms design approved and crack tested

    Check the steering arm extension for welding (looking through the paint it has been machined so all good)

    Check the clearance of the steering knuckle on the chassis

    Make a drive shaft loop out of 50 x 5 strap

    Put washers under all the rose joint in case of failure

    Padding for the top and bottom of the dash

    High stop light

    Check the drive shaft for balance

    Brace the top seat belt mounts

[Rookie]

Made a driveshaft hoop tonight, I'll post pics when the misses gets back from Fiji, but that is one more thing off the list to do for cert. By the way can anyone recommend a certifier in the central north island? There is a joker in Taupo but I don't think he has the neccessary cert licence thingy to do scratch builts.

[Rookie]

So since then I have started getting it into primer, So hopefully I will get it painted soonish.

 

Discuss:

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/38412-rookies-fauxtus-7-discussion/

[Rookie]

A sign of things to come!