Caliper work

Yesterday and today at lunch then this evening I set about trying to get the old pistons out of the caliper. I tried levering, soaking in WD40, the airline and nothing seemed to work! Fortunately this evening I was able to remove them by making the airline a bit more air tight and hitting the pistons with a hammer. Boy does it make a bang when they pop out! I'd put some bubble wrap in between them to avoid flying pistons and it seemed to work well. For the second piston I place a new piston in the first cylinder and held it in with gaffer tape so I could get the other old one out. The bores looked good so all happy. Painted one side of the caliper silver so thought I'd put some pics up while I wait for it to dry.

Before paint:



After first coat:



Old vs New piston:

Wheels

I think my wheels are too big, so might go for 15 inch ones. Also tried the fuel tank out which fits nicely. :)
A bit tired this evening so didn't get much done.

Back from holiday/weddings

Not been much action as I was away in Cyprus for a mates wedding, then came back for another mates wedding. I've received the fuel tank, bought some front wheel bearings (£26 for the pair) and the top and bottom balljoints from Aries. I've painted the hub and upright and installed the brake disc and this lunchtime I put the hub on and also a wheel to have a look. Will tighten things up when I get home. Unfortunately I am having trouble getting the piston out of the caliper so I'll need to work out how to do that.
Old vs new:

Hub fitted:

New fuel tank:

Front hubs, brakes and uprights

I dismantled one of the Cortina hubs this evening, it was a bit of a pain with bolts that look like they haven't been moved for about 15 years! I had to get the angle grinder out to the bottom one and cut the nut off but it came off in the end. I dropped the caliper, upright and hub into some of the Bilthammer rust removal solution I bought and it really worked well! In the pic below you can see the difference between the treated caliper and hub compared to the one I haven't done yet. I've not even cleaned them after the bath yet and they already look 100 times better!

Suspension, steering and uprights

Tightened up most of the suspension this evening and fitted the rear uprights. I painted a few bits black like the upper rear wishbones and the steering column brackets. Found a guy on ebay who breaks Sierras so sent him a question asking about price for rear hubs/brakes, steering coupling and gearbox. Still need to drill some holes in the rear firewall for the bottom wishbone bolt to go through then the rear suspension will be pretty much done. I just need to recondition my cortina front hubs and fit those for the front to be ready. Think I'll tackle the brakes after that.

Some work done tonight.

This evening (so far) I've cut the other side of the bodywork, slightly more this time to allow room for the lower wishbone. Also put the steering rack in and the bodywork to see if the hole cut looks ok, which I think it does. I also started to disassemble one of the cortina hubs I have but some of the bolts are proving to be a bit of a pian!



I'll take the steering rack out and give it a lick of paint I think, as it has a few chips on it and it seems a shame what with it being brand new!



Hmmm for some reason the camera's memory card isn't showing the pics I took tonight, so I'll take some more after dinner.

Rough front suspension fit

I definitely think I need to trim a bit more off the bodywork for the lower wishbone, not least to keep the SVA people happy. At least the coilover can be fitted now though.

Let cutting commence!

*gulp* Well I cut the offside front bodywork today and the suspension can be fitted. I had a look at another car and got a pretty good idea of where to cut. I think I need to trim a bit more off at the bottom for the lower wishbone travel, but that's better than cutting too much off. ;-)

Colour Scheme

Though I'd better add a pic of the type of colour scheme I want to go for. Silver should hide a lot of sins and I think this looks great:

Front Suspension/bodywork pondering

I fitted the upper wishbone today on one side but I'm not happy with the holes that were previously cut in the bodywork. They are not at all neat and they prevent you from putting the bolts in!

Looking at other Stuart Taylor cars, including the green one on their gallery they seem to cut the whole panel short rather than cut individual holes so I think I'm going to go for this method. It is neater and a hell of a lot easier!

Test Fit of rear bodywork

The rear panel of the car needs a slight repair so I fitted it while the repair epoxy was curing. I'm glad the car isn't going to be yellow. ;-)

Rear Suspension Work!

I've not had a great deal of time lately but I plan to start working a bit more on the kit car again now. The rear shocks arrived and I've half fitted them, I need to cut out some aluminium bodywork to get some bolts in though.

New Shocks:

Picked up Engine!

I picked up the engine last night (14th April 2008), a bit of a bargain hopefully. It cost £80 on ebay, a 60k 1.8 Ford Zetec from an Escort GTi and it even came with all the ancillaries! Someone just came this morning and picked up my Ford Escort so hopefully I can now start tidying up the garage. I think I'll start later by painting the garage floor as it's starting to look a bit tatty so a trip to B&Q is in order I think.

Small amounts of work done

Even though I was going to wait until the Escort was gone I've still done a few bits to the car. I've cleaned up the diff and started to paint it, plus started to mark which wires in the rear do what.

Starting my kit car blog!

I don't really know what to say yet, but I've bought a Stuart Taylor kit car, similar to a Caterham so this blog will be following the progress as I do it up. I initially intended to start earlier but had to sell my mk1 Ford Escort first. Thankfully someone picked it up today though!

Anyway down to business, here is the kitcar as it stood when I got it. A bit dusty and chipped here and there but nothing that can't be easily fixed. The car was picked up on March 26th.