RB PH1 172 Rally Car Progress

[Hazza462]

It's my birthday today and I've been very spoilt. Alex has officially earned the number 1 girlfriend award I think...

New Renaultsport Sparco wheel, show plates and name stickers for our windows!

 

[RuskiWeldFab]

She is a keeper [emoji6]

Are we all invited to the ceremony? He he


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hazza462]

She is a keeper [emoji6]

Are we all invited to the ceremony? He he


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

She certainly is:tearsofjoy: Sure but you'll all have to give us car part gifts :wink: Haha

 

[hostler]

We decided on it due to being able to remove the PAS pump which are known for shitting themselves a lot. Also we liked the idea of being able to adjust assistance level, so could use it high assistance on road driving or maneuvering and turn it off on track for better feel. Can't comment on how it actually is yet as I'm yet to drive the car :blush:

Ahh I see. Interested to hear your thoughts on it when the car is driveable lol

It's my birthday today and I've been very spoilt. Alex has officially earned the number 1 girlfriend award I think...
New Renaultsport Sparco wheel, show plates and name stickers for our windows!
View attachment 1342350

Happy birthday! That wheel looks awesome. I love closed flat wheels. I've had one for a while but the suede got messed up
Do you know where I can find that wheel?

 

[Hazza462]

Ahh I see. Interested to hear your thoughts on it when the car is driveable lol



Happy birthday! That wheel looks awesome. I love closed flat wheels. I've had one for a while but the suede got messed up 😧
Do you know where I can find that wheel?

I'll let you know, I'm interested to see how it turns out tbh!

Thankyou, she got it from RPD - here

 

[BREMBO]

Happy birthday! Nice project

 

[Hazza462]

Happy birthday! Nice project

Thankyou and thankyou:tearsofjoy:

 

[Hazza462]

Sanded down all the rollcage today with some fine grit sandpaper to remove some runs and get the surface even again. We've decided we're going to do the final couple of coats with rattle cans as they're easy to work with and although the brush was working for us, they will allow us to get a perfect smooth finish for the final result.

Once we'd done that we made a start on making some polycarb windows.
I drew around the original glass window onto some hardboard and cut it out roughly to shape. We then fine tuned it until we got the perfect fit. The picture below shows the hardboard a few cuts before it was perfect.

Once I made the template out of the hardboard, I found some 5mm Polycarbonate laying around... (as you do 😂) and then traced 2 of them out for each of the rear windows. Using 5mm as it's the only thickness we've got and it exceeds the MSA regulations and also meets the FIA regulations.
Need to find our Jigsaw to cut the polycarb now, then we can fine tune the fitment and get them ready to be fitted up after the inside has been sprayed. After we've made the two rear windows we can move onto the front ones and creating the sliders, then the boot... which will be fun:neutral:

Forgot to add another one of my birthday presents from Friday as I got it after I'd posted the previous post. Alex's sister and her husband bought me a 430mm wide span parabolic mirror :grin: Need to buy some brackets for it and then we can mount it once everything's done.
Forgot to get a pic but it's the one below.

Gonna buy some rattle cans of our yellow and hopefully finish the cage this week, then maybe get the interior sprayed this Sunday? :grin:

I've also just bought some GAZ Gold coilovers from a friend using some of my birthday money. He's sending them off to be re-built before he sends them out to me and they should be with us in a couple of weeks at the most! Exciting times. Not quite AST's but we definitely will never be able to afford them and they'll be more than adequate for what we're going to be doing in the car, should handle superb if the reviews are anything to go by.

 

[billinjah]

Any idea if they have any more of the fuel rails?

 

[Hazza462]

Any idea if they have any more of the fuel rails?

Think he said he had 1 more but you'd have to ring to make sure.

 

[Hazza462]

Got the fuel tank back from being welded today and it looks really neat! Filler is now on the side as we wanted it and the previous location blanked off with a plate - neatly TIG welded on.

Quick test fit to make sure the filler pipe still fits to the new filler now that the neck has been welded on. It does!

Bought some rattle cans from our local paint shop for a fraction of the price from Halfrauds and gave the cage a good going over with them. Looks almost fluorescent with all the light shining on it 😂 Looks grim on the picture but nothing like the colour irl. At least it's getting to the point where it's block colour now and not really thin.
Couple more coats then it'll be done.

 

[Djw Dave]

Great work mate. Keep it up.

 

[Hazza462]

Great work mate. Keep it up.

Thankyou, thanks for reading! Should finish painting the cage tomorrow and maybe get it laquered. Just ordered some more paint.

 

[Robclio98]

What an awesome project!!!

Keep up the good work.

 

[Hazza462]

What an awesome project!!!

Keep up the good work.

Thanks very much mate - update coming tonight :blush:

 

[Djw John]

Well it's taken me all evening (between family guy and American dad tbf) but that's been quite the read.

Superb project, looks like really good work and some good attention to detail.

My one query is the fuel tank. I get that it's a bit lighter but it's now higher up and behind the axle rather than in between. Won't that affect the handling?

 

[Hazza462]

Well it's taken me all evening (between family guy and American dad tbf) but that's been quite the read.

Superb project, looks like really good work and some good attention to detail.

My one query is the fuel tank. I get that it's a bit lighter but it's now higher up and behind the axle rather than in between. Won't that affect the handling?

Haha thankyou very much. Makes it worth the effort when people say stuff like that 😌

Yeah you're right it's quite a lot lighter than the original as you say but it's also higher and slightly further back too. I guess we just had to make a compromise tbh. We tried putting it in the centre of the car originally but couldn't get the right angles for the filler, which is unfortunate as it would have been better protected also in case of an impact and distributed the weight more evenly like you said. I'm hoping it doesn't affect the handling drastically as realistically it's only ever going to be half full and the tank is baffled anyway so it shouldn't swish around enough to make it noticeable. I suppose there's a possible handling benefit that it's added some weight back to the rear now that everything is stripped for better distribution :tonguewink: Will have to just see how it handles and change the setup if it's bad.

 

[Hazza462]

So we've now finished painting the rollcage at the weekend and it just needs laquering now which I may do tomorrow night after Uni. It looks really good - we chose a good colour imo now it's finished :tongueout:

While the paint was drying Sunday we dug out the jigsaw and cut out x2 rear windows from 5mm polycarbonate after drawing around our template.
Perfect fit :smirk:

After we made those, we cut out the rear windscreen and studied the shape of the boot lid and had a think about how we'd go about making the polycarb replacement.

Our plan is to trim a bit of overhang in places on the boot where the glass sat previously - allowing us to make the polycarb a little flatter; meaning it'll be easier to make and fix down. Might make this tomorrow!

 

[hostler]

If you want the best fitment you should get some from plastics4performance.com as they are thermoformed. Not cheap though...

 

[Hazza462]

If you want the best fitment you should get some from plastics4performance.com as they are thermoformed. Not cheap though...

Haha I've seen those yeah thankyou. But the ones we're making are free so they'll do!😂

 

[scullyg40]

To expensive for me as well. :wink: What's the weight difference between the glass windows and the polycarbonate ones?

 

[Hazza462]

To expensive for me as well. :wink: What's the weight difference between the glass windows and the polycarbonate ones?

Honestly couldn't tell you tbh mate sorry I'll try find some scales down the lockup but don't think there are any to weigh it on. It's definitely a lot lighter though when you hold them one after another:tongueout:

 

[Hazza462]

Started to paint the inside today in Racing Blue. We're painting all the awkward bits with a brush, so under and around seat rails, roof, around the cage, under the front bulkhead and footwells etc... Then once it's got a few good coats on it we can just blitz over it with the spray gun to give a good finish and laquer it.

We're really happy with the colour combo and it's gonna look stunning once it's all done!! The blue obviously isn't shiny as it hasn't been laquered yet but once it has all been painted and laquered it'll be perfection:hearteyes::hearteyes:

I'm hoping we can get the interior sprayed blue this weekend and then let it dry for a week ish.

Once it's all painted we've got the brake lines, fuel lines and wiring all to go at and then the main jobs on the car will be pretty much done dare I say it... Then it's just tinkering like fitting all the parts back on like driveshafts, exhaust, etc etc...

 

[cliocollins]

Looks really good mate! Great contrast between the two colours, the Racing Blue looks a great match too, who/where mixed it up for you?

 

[Hazza462]

Looks really good mate! Great contrast between the two colours, the Racing Blue looks a great match too, who/where mixed it up for you?

Thankyou very much, yeah it's spot on!
We know a guy who runs a paint shop so we get it all at good prices from him..."Colorwerx" in Stoke - as you can see he's good at what he does.

 

[hostler]

Honestly couldn't tell you tbh mate sorry I'll try find some scales down the lockup but don't think there are any to weigh it on. It's definitely a lot lighter though when you hold them one after another:tongueout:

I was always under the impression that you want to keep some weight on the rear axle :/

When I weighed mine it was 1037.5 kg with full front interior, rear interior stripped and rollbar installed.
Front: 66.89%
Rear: 33.11%

With half a tank of fuel.

 

[Hazza462]

I was always under the impression that you want to keep some weight on the rear axle :/

When I weighed mine it was 1037.5 kg with full front interior, rear interior stripped and rollbar installed.
Front: 66.89%
Rear: 33.11%

With half a tank of fuel.

Yeah I think that's where cornerweighting maybe will come in tbh. The fuel tank being right at the back should shift the balance too and we have a lot of rollcage lol. We just wanna get rid of as much weight as we can easily and that includes the windows :tongueclosed:

 

[hostler]

Yeah thinking of poly windows on the front with sliders but don't really want to give up the mcdonalds drivethrough .
Sticking with full glass in the back though as I don't mind having some weight in the back. Not planning on going crazy with the weight saving like @scullyg40 is doing. It's still a "road" car.

What are you doing for the front windows? Make something yourself or order some with sliders?

 

[Hazza462]

Yeah thinking of poly windows on the front with sliders but don't really want to give up the mcdonalds drivethrough :tongueout:.
Sticking with full glass in the back though as I don't mind having some weight in the back. Not planning on going crazy with the weight saving like @scullyg40 is doing. It's still a "road" car.

What are you doing for the front windows? Make something yourself or order some with sliders?

Haha ours is gonna be trailered we've decided now. Yeah we're gonna have a go at making the fronts and have sliders, not sure if we'll buy a slider kit off eBay or make our own but we'll be making the windows I'm pretty sure! We're doing everything we can to strip weight apart from drilling holes everywhere tbf.. don't wanna go that far with it really 😂

 

[Hazza462]

More painting... looks like petrol blue in some places where it's mixed with the yellow overspray 😂 Looking hopeful that we'll spray it Sunday.

Also, I picked up our new coilovers last night all fresh back from being fully serviced/rebuilt with new parts all over.
Will probably get these fitted whilst the paint is drying after spraying the inside, as need to swap the hubs over for some 60mm ones to match the coilovers. Luckily we happen to have a set laying around :tongueclosed:

Gaz Gold - 1 way adjustable damping & height adjustable:

• 450 lb front springs.
• 350 lb rear springs.

Think these spring rates will be a good starting point for us, not too stiff so that we can't use it on the odd rally stage if we want and not too soft for track imo.

 

[Hazza462]

Forgot to update yesterday...So the following was completed yesterday. Didn't do a lot but it was very time consuming what I did do.
I brush painted the entire inside so now everywhere is blue! It needs spraying another coat on top now to obtain the correct shade of blue as this will be the final coat before lacquering.

After painting the inside which took hours to carefully get in every crevice behind the cage and roof - I begun to mask up the roll-cage really tight so it didn't blow around in the air from the spray gun. Until I ran out of masking tape...😂

Need to get this finished tomorrow night so we can crack on with getting the car up and running.

 

[Hazza462]

Haven't managed to do much this past week due to being really busy with uni assignments and also helping Pete a bit to prepare a MK2 Escort that he's been servicing for, which is competing in the MSN Rally Stages championship. Now that the first two rounds are out of the way we can relax a bit as I believe he's missing some of the rounds to prepare for the Heart of England championship which begins in January.

That means we can get a bit more done to our car! :smiley:
Yesterday, we bought an in-line fuel pump and filter so we can start stockpiling bits to get the fuel lines plumbed in. Once these arrive I'll inspect the fittings that come with them and then work out what other fittings we'll need to fix to the fuel tank, rail, pump etc...£££ :confounded: - also need to measure up how much fuel line is needed and order that.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/APS-Exter...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sytec-Rac...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Also today, Alex got her dad to spray us the inside of the car. As previously mentioned we've only sprayed the rear areas and roof of the car because we'll be getting in and out of the car loads when doing the fuel & brake lines and wiring - we'll end up ruining it. So gonna get that all planned out and then spray it after it's sorted so it's perfect. Needs another coat in a couple of places to make it perfect, so it's back off to the paint shop to get some more racing blue lol.

Looks absolutely mint!:hearteyes: Picture makes it look really dark due to the lighting being so dark, but it's a lot lighter in person and will get even glossier when it's lacquered.

Will spray the areas that need doing again and then get lining all the fuel tank up, then the wiring and then get the car started for the first time in god knows how many years!!

 

[20vKarlos]

Looking good... keep it up gents!

Slowly but surely nipping away at it and it'll be finished before you know it

 

[Hazza462]

Looking good... keep it up gents!

Slowly but surely nipping away at it and it'll be finished before you know it

Thanks mate, just need to keep doing little bits when we can like you say and it'll soon come together.

 

[hostler]

Good progress once again.

I love checking this topic every now and then.

 

[Hazza462]

Good progress once again.

I love checking this topic every now and then.

Cheers mate appreciate that, we do do interesting stuff from time to time:tearsofjoy: Gotta do the boring stuff so we can do the fun bits haha

 

[Hazza462]

Struggling to keep this updated as frequently as I'd like atm due to being bogged down with a load of uni assignments - which are obviously taking priority over spending time on the car.

Yesterday, we begun making the rear windscreen out of polycarb. What a job that's turning out to be 😂 It's so awkward as it curves in so many directions but we've cracked it.
The current plan is rivet it down so it takes the shape, then trim the excess edges off. We got a basic shape before starting this by bending the polycarb to the glass we took out and drawing roughly around it. It wont look as neat as some cars but at the end of the day it's a track car and it's serving its purpose.

Aside from that we've been sanding down a few areas of paint that need going over again due to it reacting in some areas. Then once that's all dry I think we can start lining in the fuel lines and the wiring to get the car started!

We also had a delivery - which is one of my Christmas Presents off Alex of some PBS Brake Pads. They were on offer - buy the fronts get the rears free. Thought we'd give them a try as people compare them to the Carbone Lorraine RC5+ so it's worth a go for the money!

Will update this tomorrow night if I get chance after I've been down to the car and done some more bits!

 

[scullyg40]

Did you also use 5 mm for the rear windscreen?

 

[AdamCup]

Some heat on the polycarb would have helped shape it and bend it.

 

[dann2707]

Wow epic progress