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Fitting the bonnet.
Turned into a nightmare! In common with most of the induction systems available for the 8 Port the AMT Kit stuck forward a long way ahead of the bonnet line. To get clearance on the fuel rail and pipes I ended up cutting more and more of the bonnet away. Before long it looked like this..
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At this point Chris had more or less made up his mind, to cover the bodies and get any sort of decent air filter on was going to mean having a huge bulge on the front, and he didn't want it to be so obvious what was going on under the bonnet. He made the decision that the only way to hide it would be under a clubman front. As he didn't want to change the sprite it was decided that the 8 Port Head and all the fuel injection setup would be taken off and put aside for later use on the Racer. This meant changing everything back to a 'normal' 5 Port arrangement.
Back again..
The engine was taken out and all the 8 Port parts removed, the 286 cam was refitted and the Swiftune cylinder head too. At the same time the Clutch and flywheel were changed from the Verto style back to the older type. A Minispares Ultralight flywheel was fitted with a pre-engaged (Verto) ring gear, this meant I didn't have to change the starter motor / solenoid and associated wiring. At the same time Chris wanted to fit a Weber 45 sidedraught carb, I was all for refitting the IDA but it's not my car! A Weber bulkhead box was bought and a new carb. Fitting the box was a real pain, due to the later style of bulkhead there was a support for some relays which defined where the box had to go. This means the carb isn't central in the box and there was nowhere for the fuse box to go. In the end I made a bracket for it hanging off the brake master cylinder / servo supports. At this moment in time (Jan 2002) that's how things stand. The Weber just needs setting up on a rolling road and the interior just needs refitting and it's ready for the road (and track)
New Bodywork
Before it 'hit the road' again Chris came to the realisation that the bodywork was getting increasingly poor and needed a fair bit of work if it was to last much longer. All the paint and panelwork was original and to be fair the poor thing had led a tough life, especially so after Chris bought it!
All the work was entrusted to Minimaster at Penrith, and comprised of new wings, front panel, scuttle panel, sills plus patches to the small holes in the boot. The full Safety Devices cage was resprayed body colour and the fixings were neatly welded in, the whole car was then resprayed. Below are some pictures.
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Once back from the bodyshop the car was refitted and tuned up on the newly fitted rolling road. Despite many problems caused by the Weber carb, which although new had been taken to pieces at some point and put back together wrongly! and more importantly the cam timing (which slipped while on the rollers!) the car had its maiden run on the 1st June on the Thistle Run. Despite not being 100% set up we had no problems apart from a small oil leak caused by the rocker cover not being tight. It was good to back on the road again!
 The barrel had been removed and refitted...... the wrong way
round, and the retaining screw and retainer were loose, and this was a (bought
as) new carb! Moral is check your 'new' parts before fitting. |