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Over the weekend I tidied up a few little bits and pieces. First I remade the top brake pedal mounts to move the pivot point closer to the driver for better geometry. I also made them from thicker steel and one side is longer to tie into the steering mount for extra strength.



Then I modified the throttle cable mount to work with the shorter cable.



All that's needed is to make and attach the barrel at the engine end and the throttle cable is all sorted.

Finally, I worked out that with the new master cylinder/booster/pedal arrangement I can take ~50mm off this bulkhead piece.



This will give more room for the brake lines and a little more for engine maintenance purposes - all good things!

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549

My wife has been working in NZ this week (she does 1 week in every 4) so after putting our little girl to bed I've been heading out to the garage to tidy up some bits and pieces.

First up I made the new brake booster mounting plate







The end of the master cylinder has ended up fairly close to the intake pipe, but luckily that's just a blanked off port and I can shorten the silicone coupler to give a little more clearance. It's not quite as bad as this photo, there's about 20mm room.



Next, since I had the timing pulley jig still in the lathe, I removed the harmonic balancer and timing pulley from the engine to perform the same 36-1 mod to that one as well (the previous one was from my spare engine).



I did remember to mark the location of the sensor at TDC



With the lathe free I then made up a bronze bush for the brake pedal to replace the OEM plastic ones, which have long since been lost.







Next up - finishing the throttle cable! First a piece of brass roughly the right diameter to make up a new end barrel. Here it is next to the cut off original one.



Lathed to 7mm diameter and cut off



The throttle cable measures at 2mm diameter so I drilled a 2.5mm hole through the barrel, then a 4.5mm one half way through to attach the cable with solder.



Once the cable is cut to length and pushed through (wrap in electrical tape to prevent fraying then cut with angle grinder), the end is splayed out. It's important to make sure the larger hole on the barrel faces the end of the cable.



The cable is then pulled back so it's flush with the barrel, the tangled mess mostly contained in the larger diameter hole on the barrel. Add a little flux, heat from a torch and fill the bowl with solder.

=

A little excess doesn't matter, since it files away much more easily than the brass.



And done!

I have a full running list on my phone of everything left to do before the car is finished, and aside from a million quick-to-do jobs (like brake lines, lights, etc. ), the main BIG time sink things I've identified left to-do are:
- Fuel tank/pump/plumbing/filler
- Exhaust/turbo manifolds
- Windscreen
- Roll bar/cage
- Lights and mirrors
- Wiring (engine and body)
- Final attachment/fettling of panels
- Disassemble for full welding of chassis/body frame
- De-rust/paint/reassemble

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549

Throttle pedal stop tacked in over the weekend



And then: two steps forwards, one step back with sealing up the steering shaft to the firewall.

My plan is to weld a tube to the firewall, put a bearing on the steering column, and then use a silicon coupler to bridge the gap between the firewall tube and the steering shaft bearing to seal up the firewall. I have a 60mm coupler and some 60mm steel tube (which used to be the donor car driveshaft).



Unfortunately I tacked it in slightly too high, and the 60mm tube doesn't really provide enough clearance for the steering joint.



My plan now is to replace this with some 100mm pipe for much more clearance around the steering joint, and then neck it down to 60mm to use the coupler/bearing setup I have.

_________________
Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549

Nice job. So many little jobs along the way that nobody thinks about.

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Thanks mate, I know what you mean. The little details are also hard for motivation, because the car basically doesn't look any different after all that effort. All I have to keep reminding myself is that the car is now "x hours" closer to completion than it was before the work.

I have some 89mm Chromoly tube left over from making a driveshaft for my previous project car (LS1 swapped S13 Silvia), so I decided to use a short section of that for the steering column surround piece.



First I marked where to cut on the firewall, then after cutting I put the tube in position and marked around it to end up with this funky shape.



It will be welded in like this, then a surround piece added to seal against the firewall panel.



Finally I'll cut an 89mm-60mm washer and attach the 60mm tube, lathe up a bush to go from the 16.5mm steering column to 25mm bearing ID, and another to go from 47mm bearing OD to 60mm coupler diameter... and that should be the end of sealing up the firewall!

_________________
Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549

Moving onto another item on the to-do list: brake lines! The first line I chose to do is from the master cylinder to the front T-piece, right near the drivers side wheel.



There is a reasonable amount of clearance from the intake pipe, which is nice.



Then it runs back to the firewall.



Under the brake booster plate, avoiding the steering column cutout.



Down the body frame and forward along the top of the frame rail.



Finally ending up at a T-piece right near where the front drivers side hose end is. I'll need to make a short u-shaped line to go from the T-piece to the hose, then another line which runs across under the radiator and the front brake lines are done.

This is quite a relaxing, easy job to do on the car, and it's nice that it doesn't make any noise so I can work on it after dark.

_________________
Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549

After work I finished the short little u-bend line and got the front left line 90% finished.





I forgot to mention I tried something I found online for straightening brake line tubing and it works pretty well.



I just drilled a hole through a block of wood and pull the line through it. Probably not as good as a properly built straightener with multiple rollers, but it's 90% as good for $0 and that's good enough for me!

_________________
Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549

Unfortunately on Saturday my wife managed to break her elbow, so I've only been able to make my way into the garage during my daughters naps. Luckily making brake lines actually doesn't take all that long!





Down to the under floor bias adjuster, which is attached via 2 rivnuts in that vertical piece of RHS



Back along the center crossmember where it briefly dips under, though still way above the bottom of the rear subframe so I'm not sure if I'll have to install a guard as per NSRG V2. No big deal if I have to.



Then back to a T piece near the rear shock





The line is above the shock bolt so it won't interfere with removal



Across the back and then around the shock to the brake line bracket.



I suspect I'll need to adjust the angle of the very end of this line, it doesn't look square to the bracket, but at least the majority of the lines are done. Only one short one left to go from the rear T-piece to the brake hose on the drivers side.

_________________
Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549

Oh no
How does one break an elbow?
Was she able to get a cast put on?
Wishing your wifey a speedy recovery.

As a side note brake line plumbing is very relaxing work in my opinion.

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Perry

'If man built it, man can fix it'
"No one ever told me I couldn't do it."
"If you can't build it safe, don't build it."

Perry's Locost Super Che7enette Build
Perry's TBird Based 5.0L Super 7 L.S.O
Perry's S10 Super 7 The 3rd
Perry's 4th Build The Topolino 500 (Little Mouse) Altered
Perry's 5th Build the Super Slant 6 Super 7
Perry's Final Build the 1929 Mercedes Gazelle

Thanks mate, she was playing Netball and fell down in the first couple of minutes of the final And I agree about the brake line plumbing! It's almost therapeutic compared to all the grinding and welding that usually makes up car building. Nice and clean as well.

So I've decided to make heaps more work for myself and swap in a manual gearbox



To that end I picked up this Aisin MA5 5-speed after work yesterday.



The MA5 is found here in Australia in RWD 3.6L Alloytec powered Colorado's and Rodeo's, so they're pretty common, and the beauty of this particular gearbox is that it's essentially an upgraded R154 gearbox as used in the Toyota Supra Turbo, Soarer Turbo, Cresta, Mark II, etc. Basically any high powered RWD manual Toyota from ~1990 to mid 2000's. Sure, the ratio's are not as good as a proper R154, but R154's here fetch $1500+ 2nd hand, where this was $350. It also has a standard GM 1 1/8" 26 spline input shaft, standard GM 27 spline output shaft, and CAD files for a 1UZ-R154 adapter plate are available free online. The best part is the MA5 box (and the almost identical AR5) are often used in 600whp+ applications without issue.

The thought process behind the decision centers on the fact that an automatic project car really isn't what I want. I'd always planned to swap it to manual after it was registered, however this would mean that I'd need to take it to the engineer again, I'd be paying for rego that I couldn't use during the swap, and all the work to make the automatic work properly without an ECU would be a complete waste of effort.

So, I now have a heap more tasks to do on the car (though most of them seem like fun challenges):
- CNC an adapter plate once my CNC is up and running
- Make a flywheel on the lathe to take a standard GM 10.5 clutch/pressure plate (if it fits in the bellhousing, fingers crossed)
- Clutch pedal/master
- Cut down the brake pedal to be manual sized
- Clutch lines and bleeder
- Remote shifter, as the MA5 shifter is going to be way too far forward
- Driveshaft (I also bought the Rodeo propshaft so I'll just swap the yoke onto the existing one

_________________
Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549