106 Rallye Prep and Restoration

[Cris B]

I thought it only fair to back date this post in case anyone else was interested in the work done. All the following coped from another forum:

After load of measurements, I fabricated up these supports for the fuel cell container.

Capped off the ends to give a nicer finish - you'll never see it, but it's all about satisfaction about knowing it's been nicely done.

Welded in the supports. Needs a bit of cleaning, but they're solidly mounted now.

A little bit of tidying up to make things symmetrical. The section chopped out to make way for the fuel cell was cannabalised to provide the patch piece. Most difficult thing was getting the measurements right!

Decided the fuel cell needed a better mounting solution so decided to frame the hole in the shell. Very snug fit now with about a 1mm gap around it - Need to fabricate a pair of retaining straps and mount fixings for these at some point.

This is partly to make the mounting more secure under lateral loads and to offer better fitment for the cell container and also to stiffen up the flimsy SWG20 panels. The advice I had received from some one who works building race cars was that the alloy container could be drilled and bolted to the chassis.

This contradicts the fitment guidance specified on the ATL documentation which states you should not do this as the bolts inside the container could chafe the cell and lead to damage, possibly puncturing it. It also strikes me that there is something perverse about drilling holes in what will be a sealed alloy box.

Decided to plate and fill some more holes - there are a good number to fill in the floor plan and on the bulkhead behind the seats too.

Saved some more weight removing unnecessary and rotting bits of metal

 

[Cris B]

Moving further back under the car I didn't like the look of this:

So chopped it out...

Then decided that the bottom of the box section also needed to be repaired, so chopped that and welded in a repair section.

Fabricated up some mounting points for the retaining straps that are going to hold the fuel cell in. These are going to be strong. Welded M8 nuts onto some 3mm plate and then welded that to some SWG16 sheet which I then folded and welded up. Might have played with the swager set in the process...

These will be welded in behind the fuel cell in the hollow where the rear seats used to be and will sit flush at the same level as the boot floor. Then just need to mount the other two plates onto the bulkhead and form up a template for the retaining strap out of some steel and then I'll get some made up out of 5mm alloy.

Rally Weld gratuitous sump guard

Modified the mounting that came with the Wilwood hydraulic handbrake kit, have started to have a think about how to mount this. Need to work out the leverage on the piston from the handbrake to know where to weld on a mounting tab on the lever.

EPAS unit back together, just need to finish assembling it with the support bearing and tube that fits near to the boss. What a mission this turned out to be...

 

[Cris B]

Decided I had just enough to finish up the EPAS work. Oh, how wrong could I be. I needed to press fit the inner bearing race onto the machined top hat. This was simple enough, just a case of getting the parts lined up and into the vice.

Once that was done it was just a case of fitting them onto the column. However whereas the top hat spacer had previously slid on and off the column with only a little assistance it was now tight getting it on... So out with the torch to heat it up and expand it. Sure enough, it slipped on fine… until I got about half way to getting it into position then realised that it was back to front. Oh and then I also realised that it had just transfered it's heat into the column and cooled and was now stuck fast.

It was not coming off. Drifts wouldn’t touch it. Trying to heat it up again wasn’t working because both the top hat and the column shaft were both expanding. At this point the language became quite colourful as I worked out how to get it off again. I tried wrapping exhaust wrap around the column shaft and all sorts of other things. Then I ran out of time.

So after sleeping on it, I decided the only thing to do was to make a press. As I don’t have one I had to improvise. To start with the vice had to come off the bench and be mounted to a structural vertical steel I beam. This meant I could retain the top hat and then use a trolley jack and the application of heat to it to pop the column back out. After a bit of fine tuning with the Dremel I finally managed to get it all together late last night. What a mission – just needs painting now.

Yesterday I took PNK’y for a spin down to Northampton to remember what driving one of these cars is like...

The Streamline Carbon team had made me a full carbon tailgate which tips the scales at just under 5kg but is structurally stiffer than the original panel.

It’s internally reinforced for the aerocatch mountings and the pillars for mounting an AC-Sport kit car spoiler. The exterior is in primer as it’s going to be painted up and the inside surface is raw carbon. I’ve not decided what to do with that. Maybe just leave it as it is.

They’ve also made me a instrument binnacle and I have been working with them to develop a motorsport matte finish. No glossy lacquer here.

Made a mounting bracket to fit the Dash2 in the instrument binnacle. Following several rough cardboard versions, I made one prototype in alloy before the final one was made:

Fitted together as per the photos, there's an access hole in the back of the binnacle for the two parts of the loom to connect. I'll put some edging around it so that the carbon doesn't chafe the wiring.

After a lot of planning and an initial failed attempt, finalised the steering wheel wiring. I ditched the earlier cable which seemed to be a coiled keyboard lead that had been purchased (although it came from a reputable motorsport electronics specialist) - the signal wires were just too flimsy and I could see no way it would last in a rally car build. The new one was sourced from a specialist in the Netherlands. It's securely anchored to the wheel giving the wiring plenty of strain relief. Fitted with Cannon ITT Neptune connectors wired in and ready to plug and play

A while back some one PM'd me to ask if you could fit a Corsa C EPAS without having to cut the dash. I think I said yes. What I should have said was no, but you don't need to cut too much out to get it to fit.

As you can see form the photo unfortunately the flocking that Raj did is flaking off in big patches. This was one of his early ones, I don't think he'd perfected the plastic priming process then. Hopefully it won't be too much of a job to get it redone. With the dash in, it was time to check out the new drivers view...

Finished off the day chopping loads out of the back of the dash. No heater in the car and heated screen going in so there's no need for any of the built in ducting. I had already cut a kilo out of it reckon that there's quite a bit more that come out of it. Managed to reduce the weight by chopping out unnecessary bits, removing double skinned sections and hole sawing here and there. No where as near as Dean's attempts, but I do want it to look standard from the outside. Currently down to 4.1kg, so saved a bit from the original 7.1kg. This is now stage 2 as when it came back from flocking last time I chopped 1kg out as stage 1 weight reduction.

 

[Cris B]

Managed a bit of progress towards getting the handbrake sorted. It uses the existing handbrake to drive the piston in the cylinder. First a bit of fabrication to create the pivot point from a bit of 1.6mm zintec sheet. Two halves welded together.

Drilled for the pivot and then welded on:

I've converted the handbrake to fly-off with a stainless steel pin made out of a bicycle wheel spoke. It has a L-shaped bend in the end that tucks in under the rubber to stop it falling out.

Test fitted. I need to fabricate up a support for the rear mounting next.

The initial location for the brake bias valve which was to suit the braided lines I inherited once I had the seats in - it was touching so a few months ago it was chopped out and I has to start thinking about where it was going to go instead.

Then when the decision to put the hydraulic handbrake in came along it was time to think about a location with that in mind. This is what I came up with:

It's done apart from painting and plumbing. I am going to keep the lines tight and use some 180 degree bends. The mounting is drilled so the lines enter it from the front and run under the master cylinder into the bias valve inlet port. I'll attached a p-clip to one of the mounting bolts to tidy the exit route to the rear calipers later on.

Which ended up as:

 

[Cris B]

Over last summer I decided to sell the project car as an opportunity to buy something even more special came along and was just too good to pass up. So I started selling parts and getting this car ready to sell. Previously when I modified the scuttle for the AX wiper setup it was pointed out that this might create a drainage issue as it would just leave the wiper motor sitting in water. Of course first time I washed the car this point was proven...

So modified this so that it now has drainage positioned so that it clears the brake master cylinder mounting bracket.

One of the things that I had on the to do list was chopping out the standard rear towing eye and repairing the rear member is is attached to. In my first rounds of work on the car it was evident that the panel was rotten, but I didn't have the expertise to tackle it. A few years later...

The rear section under the floor was pretty far gone. Chopped it out and fabricated a repair section and fitted it to make good the standard parts, then fabricated this...

So that this would fit. Matching front and rear now

As part of finishing up this thread from my perspective, here are some pics of the Corsa C EPAS conversion for future reference.

End of an era at the end of August as this car finally left my ownership after many years and has gone to an owner in North Wales. A few departure photos:

 

[Cris B]

I have replaced it with this car which is well known in French Car circles....

It is now wearing a full pre-preg carbon body kit...

 

[clen666]

Wow, just read this thread from start to finish as I wasn't aware of it until you updated it.

Some great work done and fabrication skills on display, its given me inspiration to get cracking on my project.

Shame to see that it ended with you selling it, although its replacement is rather special. I saw it up for sale a while ago, has someone else owned it since bic? Does it have the engine too?

 

[Cris B]

I bought the maxi from Bic directly. I have reworked the engine bay so I can put a 1600 Tu5 engine back in. The gearbox and engine were sold separate, but I did get everything else...

 

[clen666]

Cool, looking forward to seeing your progress with this one

 

[Chrisjp4]

Hi Cris,

Just spotted this & thought I'd update here since the RR is no more unfortunately! 106 is very close now, didn't touch it for like 5 years so had to do more welding, but engine is in, all running just waiting on some Satchell hubs as I'm getting some binding issues & don't want to destroy a 1k clutch/flywheel!

Some pictures for now anyway just put new Rallye graphics on her, will start a little thread on here so people can see the pain of actually getting it to this stage, a lot had to be re-done! High compression engine on mechanical lifters etc mapped on the engine dyno by Steven, BE conversion, TTV clutch & flywheel, leda & gaz suspension, heated screen in, fuel system total nightmare but finished, ended up putting a Nuke performance CFC unit in the fuel cell, safer & much quieter, plus less clutter without the external pumps! All custom loom, now fully working just need to sort a speed sensor. Obviously these are just rough pic's during work, wires etc need to be hidden better & everything tidying but looking good, was tempted to rip it apart & put a chro-moly cage in, maybe in a coupe of years i need to enjoy it first it's been forever!! EPAS working good, well hopefully not been used in proper anger yet!!

Hopefully be MOT'd next month or so, running & spitting flames has come a long way!!

Did you keep K16 pug?? Hope your well.

Chris.

 

[Cris B]

Aha! Good to see LHP again, it’s been a long time. Hope you and the family are well!

As it happens K16 PUG has been getting some attention recently as now is not a good time to be starting the sill replacement on the S1 Rallye.

Since I bought it not a huge amount of progress. Bought a house that needed renovation - slow burn lots needed sorting in a logical order but builders in now for the significant work we have been building up to. Changed jobs twice and work away from home a bit. Plenty of excuses…

Look forward to seeing your progress!