Project Track Tart

[RichCup]

EDIT: (AGAIN).. Noticed you got the Grp N mount from somewhere else, although I'm sure there both products of Vibratechnics?

Sorry I meant I bought it second hand, not from a different shop lol.

Love the progress you've made.

Did you just use a big drill piece for the the spot welds or a special spot weld drill bit?

Cheers I used a 10mm drill bit to free the bracket from the spot a little, then pulled the bracket off with some water pump pliers. Then just ground down the rest of the spot with the dremel. I'd recommend getting a decent quality drill bit, even some of the bosch ones I got were blunt after doing about 4 spots!

whos painting it for you?

Giving it a go myself mate

Cant wait to see the end result!

You taking her to FCS?

Cheers hew! Yeh should be at FCS hopefully!

 

[Djw John]

Some amount of work gone into this!

 

[Jason_E]

MINT this car. So nice. Best 172 cup on here.

 

[Keith185]

Great project, real attention to detail

 

[RichCup]

2 more base coats on now, ran out of paint though so I'll pick some up and finish it off in the morning. Hopefully be lacquered up by the end of tomorrow.

First base coat of the day down:

While that was drying I got a few snaps of the flocked dash:

The pics don't do it justice, they look awesome in the flesh and are a proper deep black colour. Can't wait to get it in! Work was done by Banbury Flocking Services, highly recommend them!

Went out to do another coat of paint. I put a bit more thinner in this time as the gun was clogging a little before (it's only got a 1.4mm tip). I did 2 parts base to 1 part thinner before, did more like 2 to 1.25 ish this time. Worked much better!

Finish is pretty good, little rough in places but I'm happy with it. Should be better with a final 2 coats on.

My custom subframes turned up (thanks to DannyR for these) and also my wheel studs which look spot on!

Hopefully will have the painting done by tomorrow!

 

[Tonnentom]

Good project!

 

[Tonnentom]

Set up for max neg camber there (they don't give an awful lot of adjustment though). Got some camber adjustment bolts for when I get the sus set up.!

Where can I get this?
Do you have a link of a webside where I can buy it?

 

[RichCup]

Powerstation in tewkesbury I think is the only place that you can get them from at the mo mate, not sure if Kam Racing have any in at the moment.

 

[maynard]

dash looks ace!

what was the cost/turn around if you don't mind me asking?

 

[RichCup]

Well, been a painstaking day, but got there with it in the end! Missed the early bus into town, so it was 12 before I got started (ran out of paint so had to nip into town on the bus). The gun was playing up all day, the compressor hose snapped at the connector end, it split in 2 other places and also managed to spray my mates garage my mistake too lol. I also ran out of lacquer and thinner, but managed to get down to the spray shop just before it shut lol. Add to that spraying myself in the eye with lacquer and you can see why I got a bit stressed with it!

I'd gone off my seats a little lately (mainly the grey), so decided to change them a bit. Cobra wanted 160 quid ish for new cushions, so I thought I'd give this fabric spray stuff a go:

This is how the seats looked before:

And how they've turned out:

Well chuffed with em!

Also gave the battery cage a coat of hammerite:

So, 3 coats of lacquer on, and here's how it looks:

Considering the problems I've had doing it, I'm pretty pleased with the finish. It's a little 'bitty' in places where s**t has landed on it, but I might be able to do something about that when I polish it tomorrow.

Will leave it tomorrow now then I'll polish it up with some G3 and hopefully start putting some bits back in!

 

[RichCup]

dash looks ace!

what was the cost/turn around if you don't mind me asking?

Aye it does! Full dash is 100 quid, steering column surrounds 20, and it was 10 for the cup racer door handle surrounds. Was done by these guys:

http://www.banburyflockingservices.com/

 

[maynard]

Aye it does! Full dash is 100 quid, steering column surrounds 20, and it was 10 for the cup racer door handle surrounds. Was done by these guys:

http://www.banburyflockingservices.com/

nice one fella, that's quite a reasonable price too!

 

[Jay Payne]

Polish the insides?!?

:S

 

[RichCup]

Just normal practise to polish fresh paint isn't it? I wanna polish it anyway haha

 

[AlexG]

Cant wait to see it being built back up. You have made great progress in such a short amount of time.

 

[RichCup]

Cheers mate, it's been hard to stay motivated at times!

 

[Nick172Cup]

Interior looks gorgeous, exactly how I want mine. Mondial blue gloss finish interior and cage. Car looks lovely also!

 

[Greeny.]

Mine will never look this tidy inside lol Great work though

 

[adam172]

looks so damn nice !!! good job - i will be interested to see how the fabric spray works/lasts mine could do with this ( i would be worried about it making my clothes black lol)

 

[RichCup]

The spray dries quickly and it's washable too I did one seat a few weeks back and have had no problems with stained clothes!

 

[f0xy]

Good work, looks great inside!

 

[adam172]

The spray dries quickly and it's washable too I did one seat a few weeks back and have had no problems with stained clothes!

oooooooow where can i get some from my seats are faded

 

[RichCup]

www.fabricspray.co.uk and it's the upholstery spray. I'd get 2 cans to be on the safe side.

 

[chrispy.clio]

Interiour looks wicked, I am contimplating spraying the interiour myself but might just get it done professionally as i wont be able to get my cage out once its welded in.

how much paint and clear coat did you use?

 

[winkle57]

The seats look great, did you spray the whole seat? If so, how did you keep paint from getting onto the cobra logo or was it just the grey bits you painted?

 

[Chris_786]

awesome read mate, given me a few ideas for direction with my 172...

 

[PYE21]

All that effort on the interior, and you havent welded plates in for the cage. Thats going to be about as much use as cage made from plastic plumbing. Good luck if it rolls, you will need it......

 

[RichCup]

Lol, it's a custom cage, mounts directly to the floor with strengthening plates underneath. Granted it wouldn't be race legal, but I doubt I'll be racing it or rolling it for that matter.

Winkle - just did the cushions which are removeable.

Chrispy - about a litre base and 1.25 litres lacquer. Add to that the primer, thinners and hardener too. I honestly wish i'd paid to have it done professionally, was such a ball ache.

 

[PYE21]

Lol, it's a custom cage, mounts directly to the floor with strengthening plates underneath. Granted it wouldn't be race legal, but I doubt I'll be racing it or rolling it for that matter.

Mounts should be on the inside, they will do nothing in a roll underneath, think of the forces.

Not welding mounts in is the wrong way to do it, whether it doesn't need to be FIA approved or not. I would never get in a car that didn't have proper cage mounts in, and have refused to get into several before now.

I will get a pic of a car that was fitted with a cage, but with no mounts welded in after an accident.

 

[PYE21]

This is a car built by Ford SVT in the US, comes with a bolt-in-cage and is billed as a Track Pack spec.

Before

During/After

See the cage punched through the floor?

So you recon the plates that you have underneath the floor are going to be upto the job?

I see too many people cutting corners in an area that should be the last place to save cash. You have spent a lot of time on the rest of the car, picking the right parts and doing things nicely, then you have just skimped in the one area that can save your life.

Im only telling you this for your own good.

There used to be a member on here that had is cage zip-tied in!!!!

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

Sweet mother of zombie jesus that did not end well :S

 

[chrispy.clio]

My god that is really bad.

Hmmm maybe you should get the cage sorted Rich.

 

[RichCup]

I know what you're saying, and it does concern me a little. Similar thing happened with a drift car too IIRC?

Thing is, even with plates welded inside the car how much difference will that actually make? Surely you're effectively just increasing the surface area of the cage feet and therefore reducing the pressure on a particular area of the shell?

The only thing i could do would be to fit larger plates under the feet I guess, but the cage is a very tight fit as it is so I'm not sure how easy this would be.

Anyways, car is about 95% done now, just waiting on some bits to tidy up the wiring, and also a little panel to mount my battery cutoff switch etc. Keep forgetting to take pics but I'll grab some tonight!

 

[Curtis!]

Is that the reason for gussets? To tie the cage into the shell at more points?

 

[RichCup]

Would of thought it's for rigidity more than anything.

 

[f0xy]

As said, generally for more rigidity... They also stopped all the creaks of the shell moving around my cage

 

[Curtis!]

So in effect, to solve this problem...

Buy a tank.

 

[PYE21]

I know what you're saying, and it does concern me a little. Similar thing happened with a drift car too IIRC?

Thing is, even with plates welded inside the car how much difference will that actually make? Surely you're effectively just increasing the surface area of the cage feet and therefore reducing the pressure on a particular area of the shell?

The only thing i could do would be to fit larger plates under the feet I guess, but the cage is a very tight fit as it is so I'm not sure how easy this would be.

Plates should be made from 3mm steel, the reason is that the steel in the floor of the car is about 1mm think per skin, most of which is single skin. The plate is to distribute the load better in a crash, like diving into a pool as aposed to a belly flop!!

The cage will have been designed with the fitment of feet in mind, if it hasn't then whoever made it are fecking idiots.

Welded in, or don't bother. A cage fitted without proper mounts, is far more dangerous than running without a cage at all IMO.

 

[Charlie.]

Lovely automobile.

 

[RichCup]

Apologies for the lack of updates, keep forgetting to whip my camera out before it gets dark!

So after the spraying, here's the list of what I've been doing (not many pics unfortunately!)

- Removing overspray by claying/wetsanding/polishing (that was fun lol)
- Fitted carbon door cards
- Fitted door handles and cup racer surrounds
- Fitted speakers
- Fitted the cage
- Got the dash back in
- Steering wheel etc etc all back on
- Modded my custom subframes and mounted the seats on
- Fitted new wheel studs
- Fitted the 2118s

Here's a few piccys!

Things to do still are:

- Tidy up the wiring (just waiting on bits to arrive for that)
- Fit carbon fuel pump cover
- Brake ducting & deflectors
- Mount my switches etc in the centre console (waiting on a panel for that)
- A damn good clean and polish!

Got rockingham next monday booked, looking forward to giving it a blast on track!