Still going strong!

2024 drawing to a close! The little car looks just as good as ever. There have been a few small issues since my last post 4 years ago. The left front wing weld has broken four or five times. It's now held in place by a bungee cord which is actually a very good damper against vibration. I need to find a solution that consists of a thick rubber washer between the ball joint and the wing bracket, but I believe the ball joint bolt is not long enough. Will have to look into it. But this is how it looks at the moment. 

I could actually find a shorter bungee so it didn't look like a quick fix.

I made the big mistake of not checking the water level in the radiator and had a hose cap fail due to over heating while out driving. I first checked the oil and there were no signs of water so that was a big relief. The outlet pipe which is connected to the water pump feeds water to the heater and the air conditioning system. In the GKD the air conditioning outlet has to be blocked off with a cap. 

Position of the cap. Coilover plate (blue)

Held on with a double jubilee clip

It's happened once before but I only used a rubber cap. This  time I replaced the cap with an aluminium plug and a new cap. Filled up with water, checked oil etc. But the engine ran really rough. Slight panic set in but then I noticed that the coil-over bracket (holds all four spark plug coils and cables in place) was loose at one end! Just to check I took the coil over bracket away and noticed that two spark plugs were covered in water (radiator water that had splashed up during the boil over)

It's a long way down!

Cleaned out the water, cleaned the plugs and put everything back. Thank goodness the issue was solved. 

Out today 29th September for Coffee at Rosenhill - Must have been cold as all the cyclists and bikers were inside and me - outside!

To do list:

Winter Service

1) Oil/Filter change

2) New injectors

3) New plugs

4) Fix wing(?)

5) Brake check.

I need to remember to put the car up on blocks to stop the tyres going flat!

2020 A freshen up last job - New Radiator

At last the radiator arrived from the UK. Really nice looking and hopefully will make a big difference to the overheating problem.

CoolExperts item number 163163207986: Ford Escort MK 2 , Cortina , Kit Car 42MM Aluminium Race Radiator. 38mm in/outlet, fan on welded brackets + 22mm boss and temperature switch.

Outlets are positioned top left bottom right.

Old radiator, not sure it actually cooled at all!

Very under dimensioned and basically poor quality.

I was a little worried that I would have to make up new brackets or at least need to modify the original but as it happened the brackets and bolt holes lined up perfectly. 

Not much to see here but I bolted the radiator in place to make sure the nose cone fitted over it okay and the filler cap was reachable.

The hose is only temporary or at least Until I can find a better replacement.

Parked the car outside and left it running for a while to check that the temperature switch worked and in turn turned on the fan. It did, earlier than the old one which is good. Far less noise than the old one too. I'll go out and do a nice long drive in the next few days to check for leaks etc. but I'm pretty confident.

Well it's been a week or so since I installed the new radiator and it's working really well. It didn't come with a new cap so had to buy a new one but with the more efficient radiator, larger fan and new cap the problem is well and truly solved!

A few photos while the weather was good!

2020 A freshen up Part 1

Welcome to 2020 and thanks for dropping by. This year there are some refresh jobs I've decided to do as it's now been nine years since the build first started. The little car has served me extremely well over the years bringing a great deal of joy, from all the hours spent building and improving her to the more than 50,000 km we have driven together. Not bad really, a scrapped BMW 318IS given a whole new lease of life, completely rebuilt into a new chassis, supercharged engine, upgraded brakes, clutch etc. like a phoenix so to speak.

This year it'll be new springs, dampers, bearings, repaint of all wings and bonnet plus repaint of wheels. Some other small jobs too which I'll mention later.

To do list

First off I had the idea to get the wheels repainted but I was put off by the cost of sandblasting and painting as the price of new wheels is quite reasonable. I tried very hard to find a set that would suite the classic look of the car but everything was too modern. In the end I decided that I much preferred the old wheels so got them sandblasted anyway.

I think the original BMW wheels suite the car beautifully. Thanks Per at Allblästning AB.

Now Danbolack AB in Södertälje have powder coated them a light metallic grey plus clear coated them for protection, thanks Daniel. I then took them straight round to the tyre shop which put back the Yokohama Advan Sport tyres.

They look great but I'm sure will look brilliant once in place.

In the mean time I started stripping the front wishbones, dampers and springs as well as rear dampers and springs.

I destroyed the ball joints using a splitter but bought new ones anyway. I intend to take the wishbones off and paint them. 

Upper and lower wishbone joints.

TOP: QH QD1117RHT – Ford Transit Drag Link End RHT (M18)

BOTTOM: Unipart GSJ696 - Ball Joint Saab

Trackrod end: Ball joints Triumph QR1572S (UNF)
Steering rack extensions: 60mm 1/2" UNF

Rear damper and spring removed, a lot easier than the front.

Dampers and springs ready to be measured for ordering.

Rear wings removed for painting

All measured up and ready to go to Protech Shocks homepage to order.

Underbody paintwork all cleaned up ready to put the new dampers and springs on. 

The Protech dampers and springs arrived. Nice looking aren't they? I measured where the adjuster was on the old and set the same on the new. I'll get them properly adjusted at some point.

Rear nearside in place

...

.. and adjusted

Mats the painter finished the rear wings, bonnet and scoop. He did a great job removing a few scratches and repainting everything.

First wing in place ready for the rear lights and repeaters. Between the wing and the body is a strip of rubber which seals the joint and makes it look better too.

Second in place.

First rear light cluster in place.

Bonnet painted over and under. Here adding gloss black U-channel edging for the front and rear edges.

Small job included bolting the air scoop back on.

Continued in part 2 ..

2020 A freshen up Part 2

Hi, the first part was getting a bit long so here is the second part. Basically continuing with replacing suspension, body parts and general cleanup.

Another small job was fixing the stop lights as they were flashing once and then staying off. I believe the problem is the hydraulic stop light switch which is located on the lower frame behind the radiator. It's of course activated by the pressure of the brake fluid when the brake pedal is pushed. The thread size is 3/8" UNF. I've ordered one (plus spare) from CBS - UPDATE Received and installed the new switch and it works fine now.

While I'm waiting for a few parts I'm cleaning up the engine bay, cleaning the scuttle, replacing the rubber strips to support the bonnet etc. 

A good way to remove old rubber strips that have been glued is to use silicon remover. In Sweden one can buy it from Biltema.

I buffed up the scuttle with fine wire wool, filled some unused holes with rubber stops, cleaned up the cabling around the air intake and replaced the air-filter.

Only the accelerator cable is too long as it's the standard BMW, but I don't have the right tools to shorten it.  

I've ordered a new aluminium radiator and fan as the current one is not very efficient at keeping the super charged engine cool.

Any slightly warm day leads to overheating.

Need something around the same dimensions.

Added the new damper and spring and the lower wishbone ball joint. I'm buying a couple of M18 nuts to lock the upper ball joint once it's adjusted correctly. Also the tie rod ball joints need new extensions which are on there way from UK. 

Today I picked up the stainless steel wing guards, had them polished like new again! Now bolted back in place and one of the freshly repainted wheels in place. The rear of the car is almost complete.

Another angle showing wheel.

The track rod extensions arrived from the UK so put the new dampers and springs on, changed the gaiters around the steering rack and screwed on the new tie rod bearings. Then tightened everything up. Then it was simply to put back the brake disks, calipers and try out everything before the wings went on.

Everything connected up and adjusted.

First trip out before the wings and nose coming back tomorrow.

Another improvement I've been thinking about for a year or so is to hide the bolts holding the two front wings to the brackets as well as the two holding the mud flaps.

A little unsightly as well as the bolts were starting to split the fibreglass. 

I think hidden bolts will make the wings cleaner and hopefully a little less home built looking.

Went through a few ideas how to solve it but in the end decided on metal brackets with bolts welded to them, fibre glassed to the underside of the wings.

My favourite Plåt Precision in Huddinge made up two sets of three brackets. Top and bottom of wing and one for the mud flap.

Here they are stuck in place with a small amount of resin just in case the positions need adjusting.

Started with a small amount of fibreglass which I will add to over the next couple of days. I'm not at all good at it so it's lucky they will be hidden under the wing!

Part of the onboard espresso machine... just joking! My Philips Saeco Minuto packed up so I'm in the process of changing the water pump. Can't work efficiently without a good coffee!

Prepared a few pieces of fibreglass weave so I'd be ready before the resin hardened

Hopefully this will be enough fibreglass to keep the wing and mudflaps from flying off! I'll give the wings to Mats tomorrow for painting.

Today picked up the wings  from Mat, he did a fantastic job in only 4 days! They look exactly as I was hoping they would. Fit really well onto the brackets and all the holes have gone - brilliant!

Before

Before

After

After

Another job is to fix the gear-stick gaiter. It's never really fitted correctly as it was from the original BMW. I found one at CBS while I was in the neighbourhood in March which had the "leather" gaiter part falling off the chrome surround, so I got it cheap. 

Trouble is the holes in the chrome surround are slightly smaller than the metal drive shaft cover under the carpet so it can't be bolted to it. Solution is to have a plate in between. Using 2mm sheet aluminium marked out an approximate shape. The 2mm plate will be bolted at each end as the fuel line runs along one edge.

Cutting out rough shape.

Next stage done!

Not sure where this is going but I'll continue for a little while longer. Not sure if this is the correct solution.

The final solution! I only had to use one of the plates I made up to bolt the chrome surround to. I used the gaiter that Anette made a couple of years ago as it fitted perfectly and looks much more in harmony with the rest of the car. I may look for a chrome surround for the handbrake too.

Everything in its place. Apart from the garage needs a good clean!

I added the nose cone that Mats also polished, put back the indicators, screwed the grill in place and just for fun I added a red "S" badge from a Mini Cooper S as the Super Charger is an Eaton 45. 

Didn't fit very easily so as a temporary measure added a large washer behind the grill.

Replaced the large but discreet black with black lettering Super Charger badges (Landrover Discovery) I had before with these smaller ones also Discovery.

Took her for a spin Saturday afternoon to Rosenhill and wow what a feeling - again! Weather had been great for around two weeks but typically the day the car was ready it wasn't so good but at least it didn't rain.

New radiator coming soon ...